Reality Testing is Politically Incorrect! © 2006, 2010 by Jonathan Zap I think I just realized why I get into trouble with so many people----somehow I never realized what now seems obvious----reality testing is politically incorrect!  Whether you are a religious fundamentalist or a New Age fundamentalist, on the right or on the left, if it feels emotionally satisfying, then it’s true. What really drives me crazy about this  is that people on the left and New Agers, who would be the first to criticize Christian fundamentalists for rigid, irrational beliefs, often have no self-criticism about their own irrational beliefs.  For example, twice this week people have forwarded me the following emailed announcement. Here it is in its entirety: A cosmic trigger event is occurring on the 17th of October 2006. This is the beginning, one of many trigger events to come between now and  2013. An ultraviolet (UV) pulse ...

Hungry Ghosts Amongst Us? © 2006  Jonathan Zap I just had an all night experience in the dream time that seems highly related to the mind parasite subject. Usually we cycle in and out of REM sleep, with larger portions of REM clustering near the end of the sleep cycle.  Last night’s dream was unusual, even neurologically,  in that it seemed  to be continuous throughout most of the night. Dreams, by the way, usually last about as long as they seem to last, the notion of instantaneous dreams----which dates back to an anecdotal account of a Frenchman’s dream in the 19th Century---has been disproved by modern sleep research. When the dream begins I am hanging out in some sort ...

Mechanical Resistance Matrix © 2006,  2008 Jonathan Zap Edited by Austin Iredale “Mechanical resistance” is one of the great defining aspects of the matrix in which we are presently incarnated.  It is a force in our lives as powerful as gravity or mortality, and it overlaps and influences almost any area or parameter of our incarnation we can possibly think of---corporeality, illness, aging, money, sexuality, time, objects, consumerism, computers, technology, art, travel, etc.  I’m trying right now to think of an area of my life that does not involve mechanical resistance, and I can’t think of a single one.  If instead I try to think of areas of my life where there is mechanical resistance and where I wish there was less, the list ...

Green Energy Vortex---- Money as a Magical Far from Equilibrium Dissipative Structure and the Secret of Turning the Green Energy Blues into a Mountain of Gold Doubloons copyright 2007 by Jonathan Zap One of the most obnoxiously persistent themes in so many people lives is money.  For most people the issue is scarcity and right livelihood, but even people with an abundance of money have issues.  A constellation of synchronicities this morning suggested this theme, and some of its inner meanings. What is money?  Hard to write about something without some working definition of what it is.  Money is essentially a magical artifact, a power object in this World of Warcraft and Consumerism ® in which we live, what I sometimes call ...

Other Intentions -----What are my/your intentions toward the other? photos and text © 2007, Jonathan Zap Edited by Austin Iredale Someone recently asked me to state what my intentions were in relating to them.  What a great question, if only it were asked and answered more often and more honestly!  Sometimes we question the intentions of others, but forget to question our own mixed intentions, which are even more important for us ...

You're Only as Old as You Are: The Six Noble Truths of the Zap Philosophy of Aging © 2007, Jonathan Zap, age 49     Revised 2008   Edited by Austin Iredale “You’re only as old as you feel!” The problem is that expression got old by the twentieth time I heard it, back in 1973.  And now, after hearing it an additional twenty times a week in the ensuing thirty-five years, I have come to find this particular cliché to be very, very old.  In fact, if this cliché were as old as my feelings about it, it would probably be able to remember a time when the Big Bang was a mere twinkle in God’s eye.  And that’s just another way of saying ...

Thousand Word  Photography TM -----Pictures that are worth a thousand words photos copyright 2007,  Jonathan Zap A few sample images from photo shoots at two Santa Fe bed and breakfasts Adrian, digital darkroom specialist Customers purchase products or services based on the emotional experience they expect the product or service to deliver. Thousand Word Digital Photography does more than merely catalog the physical resources of a business--we deliver the images that tell a thousand words about the feelings customers want from your product or service.           Images and text copyright 2007 Jonathan Zap Thousand Word Photography TM -----Pictures that are worth a thousand ...

Path-Finding and Day-Mapping text and photo © Jonathan Zap 341 Jonathan path finding in Escalante Canyon, Utah This image relates to a very practical and grounded way to navigate your pathway through a chaotic world. I have a very poor natural sense of direction, and yet I was able to use ordinary map and compass skills to navigate myself, and a small group, through a maze of canyons with no marked paths (Escalante Canyon, Utah). The method is fairly simple, but profound in its proven effectiveness. You have a topographical map which you can orient to the visible landscape. You know that the map is not the territory, some features have changed, and some things may have been mapped wrong, but most things will correspond. You know the overall direction you want to go, and you use your compass to locate ...

Imagine Getting More (Zap Oracle Card # 332)   copyright 2007, Jonathan Zap One of the most potent of spells or enchantments that can bind you into the matrix is to live under the compulsion of always having to imagine getting more in the future.  Under this spell you become a donkey forever hypnotized by an imaginary carrot just up ahead. The carrot, the “more”, that ever glitters in your mind’s eye like a ring of power, could be many things-----sex, money, power, fame, looks----often the imagined more is a vision of that more perfected life just up ahead, the one in which you have realized your ideal weight, made your first hundred million, and have an ...