Alan Watts: In the Way, needs your support!

Hello Folks,
Been away for a while, just wanted to post a trailer for the proposed Alan Watts Film: In the Way, production is dependent on raising funding ($50,000) on kick starter(https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chrisbritt/in-the-way-with-alan-watts)
If the whole amount isn't raised you get your donation back. If the film does go into production, there are some fantastic rewards offered for donating. This film should have been made years ago, and is needed now more than ever. It has a fantasitic team to produce the film and no doubt they will do Alan Justice



Again the link to donate is: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chrisbritt/in-the-way-with-alan-watts
Be back for more soon,
sincerly but never seriously,
Wooski.

Interesting words from Mr McKenna:

Inspiration from Bill Hicks

We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution. Bill Hicks:
Enjoy,

Food for thought, E-prime: english without "to be", "is", "am", "are", "was", "were" etc

Merry Chritmas and a happy new year,

It has been a little while since my last post but I have been ruminating on things. Recently I have been attempting to incorporate the use of E-prime language in my speech.

Why? Well, to me it seems to portray a more honest and accurate way of making statements.
On a basic level E-prime avoids such words such as “to be", "is", "am", "are", "was", "were” which signify an abstraction certainty in a statement. E-prime goes further to improve clarity of the statement when supported by other method in general semantics, by including in a phrase where the perception comes from.

English where description includes reference to itself without presuming dogmatic certainty seems to me a good way to describe E-prime.

For instance a statement such as:
"Spiderman 3 was/is rubbish"
Using E prime sounds something like
"I thought Spiderman 3 seemed rubbish" or "Spiderman 3 seemed rubbish to me"

One benefit of using E-prime for me, I don't seem to get caught up by my own beliefs when I stop making statements that assume perceptional experiences for everyone. The same seems to occur to me when negative feelings arise; using E-prime I tend to realise that a negative state is only relative to how I may feel at that moment.

E-prime seems useful in demonstrating a communication method that expresses individual experience more clearly.

However, using E-Prime on a regular basis seems difficult if not impossible as we are trapped in linguistical constructs and if used to extreme E-prime seems paradoxical as all expression requires some assumptions. As a result I have found that E-prime tends to collapse on itself, as complete expression of experience is impossible and a balance in description usually made instead.

Perhaps the point of E-prime is in realising that all observation is a gamble, we make assumptions constantly. Basically E-prime is a tool in realising the expression signifies concepts only. This may be the case as David Bourland, who came up with the idea of E-Prime, studied under the founder of general semantics Alfred Korzybski who coined the statement:

“The map IS not the territory”

A fascinating statement which, I think, should be seen as a pointer

Using the method of E-prime does seems like a useful tool if you ever find yourself becoming irritated or caught by, your own or others, dogmatic perceptions. But don’t take it too seriously or it may send you nuts!

"There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking." Alfred Kozybski







 To Be or Not: An E-Prime Anthology

Book Review: Cloud Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown. By Alan Watts

For the first book review I thought we'd start with a gem:  Cloud Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown. By Alan Watts.

This is a fantastic collection of Watts later work, consisting of a selection of short essays and some of his public talks.

 He presents the same message over and over (The menu is not the meal) and attempts to show that the organism and the environment are not separate and in fact are completely dependent on one and other.

 Watts argues that if this point of view can be achieved there is no fundamental problem because dualism disappears. But in trying to obtain this point of you get further from it, because you’re still looking from the point of view of a separate self trying to get one up on nature. So there's nothing left to do but chuckle ha-ha.

My favourite essay was entitled: "What on Earth are We Doing?” This is where watts challenges the human system and assumptions inherent in your current culture. Watts argues that human beings, using Euclidean intellect of categorising everything, instead of using our organic brain, is progressively wrecking the earth.

Watts is also suggesting that we have priorities mixed up. We have created so many words which we use as goals, "but we have more words than experience for what we mean".  


Most of the people from the west, whether knowingly or not seem to get most of their "goals" from a Judeo-Christian upbringing, which Watts suggest leads people to  strive for a future goal of heaven, whilst feeling guilty until they get there. This is nicely summed up in a animation vid of a Watts Lecture I recently found on you tube:




I would highly recommend this book as an introduction to the legend Alan Watts, it covers a huge range of issues that, although written nearly 40 years ago, still hold relevance probably even more so today.

Chat to anyone who's listening soon,
Off for a Nap,
Hugs and Licks,
Wooski.

Hello Folks,

Hello Folks,
They call me Wooski,
I am, for want of better words, the worlds first truley enlightened dog. As such, there is a duty for me to help anybody who feels they need it to awaken from suffering, feel happier or just have a bit of a giggle.
On the way to awakening I was guided by lots of things which, along with my wisdom may help you too.
So, whilst my lovely lookerafterers are out playing for bits of paper in exchange for lovely jubbley food I intend to reveal to you snippets of my wisdom, along with reviews of any sources that have helped me along the way.

Love, licks and tricks,
Wooski.