Tatsu

It is long-winded but I doubt there is another way to meet real friends or even a gf than doing something like that. Maybe it's different for you but I very rarely met (and I still don't meet) people in school or at work who were like-minded. I can get along with nearly anybody but I met most of my friends during doing something out of the ordinary (as I said, helping organising cultural events and parties). Sure it's long-winded but the thing is you do something you really care for and the people you meet there care for the same stuff. So it's easier to bond with them than with co-workers. But obviously there has to be a thing you like enough to invest time in doing it (and I mean a thing that actually leads to meeting people). Just doing something you don't really care for to hit on girls or to make friends might work too but I wouldn't want to spend time with doing uninteresting stuff and I also fail to see how I should meet the right people doing that. Besides that, meeting a girl you fancy is one thing but if you want to score she also has to be interested in you. Having some stuff in common helps but it also might make you interesting or even attractive if you are passionate about something (maybe passionate alone isn't the right description since it has to be passionate in an active way, not only passively consuming, if you konw what I mean). Yes, I think it is possible with freelance work. But if you want to make a living (and I mean make a living in the sense of living independent from your parents) you will most likely also have to work 8 hours a day. Of course it depends on your costs of living, if you manage to find a cheap appartment and if you don't care for a high living-standard you might get along with working less. I don't know how it is in Germany but if you are not employed but work freelance at least in Switzerland you have more administration effort: you have to pay your own social security fees, get registered as self-employed, do your own book-keeping for the taxes and what not. So you have to spend some extra time on that. Imho you can benefit from any job in other ways than just getting money. But it really depends on what you are after: you will sure meet new people if you get a regular job. If you will like them is another thing tho. But having to deal with different people and their different roles (customer, boss, co-worker) sure helps you evolve your personality and your social skills. Depending on your job it might also expand your knowledge since you might be forced to learn new stuff. Your income is also more stable than when you work on your own.

I personally don't want to meet new people at my job. Mainly because the chance if finding like-minded people in a working surrounding are rather small (depends on your character of course, maybe for you it would be different). As far as I can tell if you want to meet new people, especially girls, it would be good to do so during doing something you like. So you know you have something as a commmon ground. Now that you make some money you could easily spend some of it for a new hobby. I can't really tell where you should go. All I can say is that I met most of my close friends during going out and through doing voluntary work for cultural events. There are other options tho, like taking classes for stuff that interest you (like learning a new language or stuff like cooking or whatever). You could also try to meet up with people that are interested in goa/psytrance. I don't know if there is a German forum with people who actually live somewhat near you.

I think I would have to check my flyers at home but from the top of my head I remember the following: GNOTR in London 2006 with a retroset Hallucinogen also 2006 Space Cat (must have been around 2002) Asia 2001 (also arround 2002) Crossing Mind (two years ago, was amazing!) Cosmosis (at the same party, he played newer stuff but was still ace) Pleiadians/Etnica in 2010, but that was no retro set so I doubt it counts

Well, the only time I dreamt about music and was able to remember it the music was not goa. Once I dreamt about a song by Rod Stewart from an album I had. The second time was about a heavy metal band of mine who played a cover of Highway To Hell from AC/CD. The cover was way better (since it was faster) than the original. I can't remember dreaming about any goa music, means even if I did dream about it it didn't leave much of an impression.

Sounds like I will not give Ken Follet's book a try then. But I found another very interesting author: Edward Rutherfurd. I started reading New York yesterday and I have to say it's awesome. It tells the story of the city through the history of different families, beginning in the mid 1600. It's highly entertaining and I like his writing style. The book is huge so it will last a while. Or maybe not since I was not able to let it go for four hours... There are more books by Rutherfourd and as soon as I'm done with New York I want to read London.

When I used to go to psyparties nearly every weekend we mostly used the train to get there and also to go home. After one or two days full of psy music the sounds of the rolling train sounded a lot like music. I have to add that we have different trains now, they are way more quiet so I doubt it would work nowaeays...

I like travelling by train a lot. You can either look outside and enjoy the landscapes, street art of seeing different villages/cities or you can read whitout getting sick (at least I can). Travelling by bus is ok but it's not as much fun as taking the train. Mainly because depending on the bus I get sick if I read, the seats are also less comfortable and it also takes more time. I especially enjoy using the underground. I haven't been to Paris in ages but in London the cool thing is you are actually not only under the ground but also outside. Like that you get a lot to see of the city.

I was born in 1978, it's actually scary to see how I old I am now. When I was in my teens I could not even imagine turning 30, I thought I'd die before. Mainly because it felt so unreal. Anyway, here's what I'm missing: - Having so much time to do stuff. Doesn't matter if it's playing with friends, videogames, reading or just being outside. - Getting excited about birthday and x-mas - Having no real responsabilities besides doing homework. - Living with my mom and dad and having also grandma's appartment in the same house; seeing all of them daily (not that I would want to live with them, that would drive me crazy actually, but it felt like a real home...) - Having long holidays in the summer and having much more holidays in general - Actually enjoying school - Being excited about x-mas tv specials and other tv programms (when i was a kid we only had about 4 TV channels, they also didn't broadcast all night) - The few tv shows for children were actually entertaining and funny - I miss how people were generally (at least that's how I perceived it) more interested in politics. I remember lots of demonstrations (and also fights with the police) regarding alternative culture centers, the chernobyl incident and what not. Nowadays the few demos that take place are way smaller and "regular" people rarely attend (unless it's about gay rights or similar stuff, which is of course also a good thing but still...). - I also miss lots of the small shops that were common in all the neighbourhoods: butchers, bakerys... Nowadays you only have very few of them and big supermarkets instead (they also bring benefits, like a bigger variety of goods, so I'm not really complaining that loud)

It depends on where I am and why I'm listening to music. If I go out dancing there's a big chance I will drop some MDMA and/or acid. If I'm at home I don't take any chemicals when I'm listening ot music. I do smoke weed on a daily basis but this is not something that is related to the music I like. Then there are a few occasions a year when I want to spend a day tripping, for that I prepare a lot of music since music sounds very different while on acid.

Those pics are awesome too Anoebis!

Thanks, I will check it out then!

Those pictures are awesome!! You have a good eye for interesting shots if you ask me. I have to say I like cemeteries, they have something majestic and most of them are good places to stroll around. Imho they are also great for tripping since there are not that many people and the ones there are rather quiet and leave you alone. At least if you go to a regular cemetery, I don't know if it's a little different if you visit a big one like the one Paris. Pixiejanet, did you also visit some of the London cemeteries? Which would you recommend to visit? Regarding the information and cheking the pics I found online I think Highgate Cemetery looks very interesting.

Same here! It's not available where I live (and actually I'm quite happy about that ). But whenever I visit a country where they have KFC I stuff myself with it.

Well, there are NGOs that are not linked to any religious institution and they als have people who volunteer to go to war zones or to help people who have disease that are contagious. How do you know that people who are not religous would not give their life away? Your point about heaven doesn't make sense to me. If you don't believe in heaven you also don't believe in hell, so you can die without the fear of getting punished for your sins. I also think it would be a little sad if San Damiano (I tried to google him since I assume he is something like a saint but I just found a church house named like that) just helps people because he wants to go to heaven and not because of the sake of the people (obviously I shouldn't critisize people who help since it doesn't really matter why they do it). How many people (I'm talking about civilans, not soldiers) die in war zones trying to protect the ones they love or even unknown people in need, they are all religious? How do you know that? And how do you know about their motives? Just because you are babtized doesn't make you religious you know... Btw. you say that the people of the world never have been without religion. That's true, but maybe that's exactly why the world is how it is nowadays? With people blindly following greedy capitalistic rules, cropping all the ressources without thinking about the future, missusing nature but also missusing other people(s) and what not. I mean you could also say that the world has never been witout war/violence (at least not after the world's population has reached a certain number) and there are some benefits of that to some people, does that still justify wars in general? I mean in the past but also now lots of wars are/were justified with religious points(even when I suppose that this just was and is the bait for the people while the real point were ressourfces of any kind and power). I mean it's quite nice that religious people spend more on charity than non-religious people (is there a statistic for that btw? and what is religious, people who actually believe or people who just didn't care to leave the church and are therefor still regarded as christians) but if the religious people who are obviously a majority would really care wouldn't they rather be interested in correcting the factors that lead to poverty than donate money? Like start to buy products that don't give huge profits to western companys while yielding workers in the third world? Would be more effectife than donating money? And yes, also non-religious people should do that. But you know what, I actually know some who at least try.

How I see it (which is obviously very subjective) Religion itself wasn't invented to controll the masses but because people needed/wanted a tool to explain stuff they didn't understand, to have something to hold on to and similar stuff. But organised Religion imho definitely is a tool to controle people. Imho religious or spiritual beliefs should come from the inside of each individual, be it because of the way you understand life, feelings you perceive that makes you feel there is a deity (or more deities) or whatever. Imho organised religion is far from that. Since birth you get the belives of your culture pushed into you throat. Doesn't matter if it's about Jesus, Allah, hindu gods or whatever. But not only that, you also get a set of rules about lots of stuff to do or don't. Some stuff like you shouldn't kill, you shouldn't lie and similar things are obviously a good thing but lots of other stuff is simply stupid: the whole demonisation of sexuality (gay is bad, no sex before marriage...) for example. Then there is the threath either you follow us or you will suffer after death. Yeah, great marketing strategy, you can't proof anything but if you push people long enough they believe it if they get the comfort of god in return. Besides that those rules have changed over the times and also depend on the interpretors of the Bible (or other holy books, I'm simply talking about Christianity since it's the religion of my culture but its similar for organised reglions). Not even in one religion like Christianity the diverse sub-believes are one when it comes to the interpretations of god's words and texts. Still every sub-believe thinks its version is right. And not only for their followers but for everybody. I for myself can't take that serious at all. Even if I don't believe in God I can somewhat understand people do. What I can't understand is why lots of people letting something so personal like their believes get instrumentalised. I wonder how many followers of any religion who were born into it, raised with it and even get married in the church and what really, truly believe in the whole concept of their believe. How I perceive the people arouond me they just follow and don't think too deep about that stuff (I'm talking mainly about co-worker and similar people since my friends to ask themselves questions like that, with different outcomes). It's way easier to believe in a specific church because your family, friends, culture does and then feel comfortable about it (I'm not talking about the people who participate in this thread since it is very obvious that all of you do think about the item).

If you like that sound I would recommeond to check out my mixes: www.soundcloud.com/djnaudiophil It's a mixture between techno, tech-house and progressive. I also posted the tracklists to some you can check out the artists if you like them. And now enough with the shamless self-promotion. Ok, I can imagine what kind of minimal you mean. Not my cup of tea either. I mean the effects itself could be nice if you use them in a regular techno track but just a beat and those beeps and clicks don't do the trick to me.

The melodic kind. But sometimes the genres are not easy to tell appart to be honest. Is it progressive house, tech house, Techno?! Stuff like that for example: Vincent Leijen - Rosette (Original Mix); Ramon Zenker - Xylopia; Gabriel Ananda - Let It In And Let It Out; Boss Axis - Even Temper. Can you name a typical minimal track so I can check it out. I'm not sure if the stuff that is called here is the same stuff you are talking about (but I can allready imagine how it sounds and I kinda guess it is the same).

I can't name a label anymore that has more quality than bad releases. Not only because of the dubstep and minimal influences but also because lots of regular prog releases sound way to similar to actually move me. Spintwist still has some good stuff released (for my taste that is) but that's about it when it comes to prog. I hardy buy psy albums anymore and turned to progressive house and techno instead. As sad as it is...

Merry x-mas! I had my Family gathering yesterday and know I have two full days without work or any responsibilities.

Captain Hook is the perfect example of the dubstep influences I absolutely dislike. Your descprition fits perfectly so I don't need to add anything to it. What really bothers me is that crap like that gets released on one of my former favourites Label. Iboga used to have awesome releases with really psychedelic music. How I feel also back in the days Iboga implented artists with influences from outside the psy Scene. They also released some prog house for example, but stuff that rocked. While their Music nowadays sounds like generic crap with commercial influences. I can accept that there are strains in psy that are just not my cup of tea. But I have to say I have a hard time accepting if those strains are so far away from being psychedelic.

Well, imho it is a bit speculative to say that we wouldn't have the educational system we have now without christianity. Not because the Points you made were wrong but because we can't know what would have happened if something else took the place of a religion. I mean the whole educational system was not done by the church (I'm speaking about the institiution itself, not about the people on the front doing the teaching and similar stuff) only because of the love for god or to push the general public with knowledge but also for, let's call it PR reasons. The church wanted to have followers since they brought them money and also power (the power of having rulers who they schooled so they had christian advisors and like that the church was able to influence politics, but also the power of numbers since having more followers gives you more force). You might say that of course there is always a price to pay and compared to lesser liberal believes we are and were lucky (like with the gay issue). Which is imho true. But imagine a society without the pressure from a church and its idea of god guiding, controlling and punishing people. I mean also now there are Schools still financed from religious institutions. Some really want to help their members knowledge but there are enough who rather want to push their ideas (who are very clearly wrong like the creatonists for example) into the people. You said yourself that an important part was to bring the bible and its believes to the people. What I heard in history classes or read in books myself the church was not that hot about critics and other cultural or schoolaric influences (but you might see that different since your knowledge goes way deeper than mine). Not even from within otherwise the big split up between catholics and protstants weren't necessary. Maybe if the educational system would not have be based on the pr reasons but the true wanting for the people to get educated we might even have a better system or a better world right now? This is also highly speculative of course and as you pointd out with several examples the christian influences had and have their good sides. It's also asked too much from an institution or maybe I should say from people in general to set up something big like an educational system only for unselfish reasons. That's also not what's happening now, even when we are all so educated and rather rich compared to 500 years ago. Which leads to another christian influence I don't like it at all. There is the part in the bible, in the Genesis I think, about making the earth you tributary which is imho directly reflected in the economical systems we have (I have capitalism in my mind but communism in the end was done in the same way). There is talk about it being misstranslated from the original Bible texts and I honestly can't judge that (I bet you can tho ). But either way it reflects human behaviour so much (the want for having power, the idea of taking whatever you want on the cost of others, the idea of being the cream of the crop) that it can't come from a higher diety (imho of course). Sure it is said men were made as god's Counterpart but to me it rather seems god (as in the god promoted by the major religions) was made as men's Counterpart, a.k.a. invented... As you mentioned we are rather well off now with the liberal believes that are common in our part of the world. I am thankfull for that. I still feel like we just have to take the lesser evil. How would Society and we humans be if the base of our world was something based on the respect and love for nature for example. How much knowledge would we've been able to have gained if our focus was different? Again, highly speculative of course and maybe not realistic either. I also like to add that I appreciate your input in the topic. Your combined knowledge about history and religon goes deep and helps me think and rethink my own believes (or non-belives in that case). I hope you take it that just because I have another understanding of religion I still value your point of view.

As far as I can tell not in the way you see that happening. For me it is very clear that our actions lead to consequences. You get reactions from the people around you because of the way you behave for example. You get what you sow so to say. But not all bad deeds get punished and not all people who behave righteous are having a happy life. Becsause of that (but not only because of that) I clearly don't feel that a higher diety is guiding my path and sending me whatever responses to my actions.

As far as I know those dictators you mentioned killed themselves when their plans weren't working anymore and they didn't want to get punished for what they have done. I can't find much remorse in that. I didn't write anything about the people in poorer countires being innocent in general. But it is very clear that we westerners have the economical power and the military force to tell third world-countries what to do and what not. And instead of using that power to give benefits to the poor we gladly support Forces in those countries who cooperate with us, no matter if they are doing good for their own people. Several of the african dictators or also former leaders in arabic or south american countries were pushed into their place with the help of western governemens since it was regarded as better to have a anti-communistic dictator than a regular ruler who might not play in a way "we" wouldn't like it.

Thanks for all the Input! You really remind me I should read more about history in general, lately most books I read were about the time around the two world wars. Your desription of the educational system is of course way more accurate than what I wrote. But it still kinda proofes my Point: now wonder that lots of inventions and scientifical breakthroughs were made by church People if the only way to get an education was getting it from them. Of course it was generous from the monasteries to offer that education, that's for sure. And it sure is a point why we were doing good (on the other Hand China was also wealthy and not a Christian country). Still, it's not like you had an alternative since you had to be a Christian back in those times so obviously every Invention was done by a christian. Oviously there are many reasons why "we" are and were doing good. But I'm not convinced about the colonies not being a huge factor (but I will read up about that some more ). The US used to be a colony and the people being in charge after they freed themselves were from europe originaly. The american natives were driven away, there culture being regarded as not worthy and what not. So we basically took their place and just installed our ways there. Sure you can say Africa was also freed but the difference is that this was not that long ago and even when the african countries are not colonys anymore they are still under pressure from our needs. About the gay issue: it really depends on the church we are talking about since there are different Christian religions. You do find open-minded people there in all the different strains and also openly gay People. Still, you get lots of official statements from the higher circles that make it clear being gay is wrong. And also christian parties, who as you mentioned are way more liberal than other parties directly linked to a Religion, are the ones pushing the issue of gay marriage (or similar constructs like mariage) being wrong. How I see it this liberalism comes from the fact that we have a rather high level of education so some People simpy don't buy it anymore if religious believes want to tell them what do to and what not. So they had to adjust to the People otherwise they would lose their followers. Still you have lots of people thinking god wants only a man and a women to form a couple and what not.

Feel free to correct me but as far as I know nearly only or maybe even only noblemen and people who made it as pupils into an abby (or a similar church project) were even able to go to school and get an education. And also the noblemen were schooled by monks or similar people. Like that it's not exactly a surprise most inventions came from people from the religious circle. But copernicus and also other people like da vinci imho show hat they coped with the church and tried to not get the officials angry because they had to but actually were not too happy with some of the church's believes. Maybe I just don't know enough about that stuff so feel free to update me (and I'm not being ironic here). The top countries today are mainly western countries (not only), as you say they are christian countries mainly. But well, the richness in these countries imho comes from the fact that especially Europe colonized and therefore imho also exploited other countries. Doesn't matter if we talk about slaves or other ressources that they claimed in the past but still do now. Nowadays it is a little different with not having colonies but just using cheap labor in third- ord second-world countriers to make cheap goods that can be sold with a big margin. No wonder you can push it far in science if you are able to get money on the costs of others.