posted June 07, 2009 05:11 PM         

Dominator culture is a term coined by futurist and writer Riane Eisler. This term first appears in her book 'The Chalice and the Blade' (Harper Collins San Francisco, 1987). This book outlines in detail her theory of hierarchical dominator cultures vs. egalitarian "Partnership" cultures.

Terence McKenna, a friend of Eisler, consciously borrowed and credited Eisler's ideas in his notes and the bibliographies of his books. He used the idea of dominator culture in part to illuminate what happened to cultures native to the Americas, and in part to describe the contrasting, antithetical character of what he sees as Western patriarchal culture—indicating, for example, his claims that it perennially lacks of social conscience and lacks of concern for the environment. Furthermore he argues that, "The entire structure of the dominator culture ... is based upon 'our alienation from nature, from ourselves and from each other'".

See also:
Androcracy
Cultural imperialism
Gaia philosophy
Ecofeminism
Egalitarianism

External links:
Center for Partnership Studies
http://www.partnershipway.org/

Riane Eisler
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riane_Eisler

Partnership & Domination Models

Eisler proposes that we need new social categories that go beyond conventional ones such as religious vs. secular, right vs. left, capitalist vs. communist, Eastern vs. Western, and industrial vs. pre or post industrial, which she notes do not describe the whole of a society's beliefs and institutions. She coined the term domination culture to describe a system of top-down rankings ultimately backed up by fear or force, noting that one of the core components of this system of authoritarian rule in both the family and the state is the subordination of women--be it in Nazi Germany and Khomeini's Iran today or in earlier cultures where chronic violence and despotic rule were the norm. She analyzes the androcracy (governance of social organization dominated by males) of Indo-European and other societies, versus what she proposes was a partnership model (as distinct from matriarchy) for the social organization of Neolithic Europe and the later Minoan civilization that flourished in prehistoric Neolithic Crete. To support the idea that neither men nor women dominated one another, Eisler cites archeological evidence from southeast Europe, especially Crete, drawing much from the research of Marija Gimbutas, James Mellaart, Nicolas Platon, and Vere Gordon Childe. Her hypothesis about prehistory also relies strongly on sources such as the Gnostic Gospels and on the history portrayed by the Ancient Greek poet Hesiod. To support her thesis for contemporary societies, she draws heavily from cross-cultural studies. She and others using her partnership/domination conceptual framework have applied her analysis to fields ranging from politics and economics to religion, business, and education.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riane_Eisler#Partnership_.26_domination_models

The Archaic Revival

"History is ending, because the dominator culture has led the human species into a blind alley. And as the inevitable chaostrophe approaches, people look for metaphors and answers. Every time a culture gets into trouble, it casts itself back into the past looking for the last sane moment it ever knew. And the last sane moment we ever knew was on the plains of Africa, 15,000 years ago, rocked in the cradle of the great horned mushroom goddess before history. Before standing armies, before slavery and property, before warfare and phonetic alphabets and monotheism. Before, before, before. And this is where the future is taking us. Because the secret faith of the 20th century is not modernism. The secret faith of the 20th century is nostalgia for the archaic, nostalgia for the Paleolithic, and that gives us body piercing, abstract expressionism, surrealism, jazz, rock and roll, and Catastrophe Theory. The 20th century mind is nostalgic for the paradise that once existed on the mushroom-dotted plains of Africa, where the plant-human symbiosis occurred that pulled us out of the animal body and into the tool-using, culture-making, imagination-exploring creature that we are... What we need is a new true story that tells us where we're going in the universe. And that true story is that the ego is a product of pathology and that when psilocybin is regularly part of the human experience, the ego is suppressed. And the suppression of the ego means the defeat of the dominators, the materialists, the product peddlers. Psychedelics return us to the inner worth of the self, to the importance of feeling immediate experience. And nobody can sell that to you and nobody can buy it from you, so the dominator culture is not interested in the felt presence of immediate experience. But that's what holds the community together. And as we break out of the silly myths of science and the infantile obsessions of the marketplace, what we discover through the psychedelic experience is that in the body-- in the body-- there are Niagaras of beauty, alien beauty, alien dimensions that are part of the self, the richest part of life. I think of going to the grave without having a psychedelic experience, like going to the grave without having sex. It means that you never figured out what it was all about. The mystery is in the body, and the way the body works itself into nature. What the archaic revival means is shamanism, ecstasy, orgiastic sexuality, and the defeat of the three enemies of the people, and the three enemies of the people are monotheism, monogamy, and monotony. And if you get them on the run, you have the dominators sweating, folks. Because that means that you're getting it all reconnected, and getting it all reconnected means putting aside the idea of separateness and self-definition through thing-fetish. Getting it all connected means tapping into the Gaian mind... We can make the millennium an occasion for establishing an authentic human civilization, overcoming the dominator paradigm, dissolving boundaries through psychedelics, recreating a sexuality not based on monotheism, monogamy, and monotony. All these things are possible. If we can understand the overarching metaphor which holds it all together, which is the celebration of mind as play, and the celebration of love as a genuine social value in the community. This is what they have suppressed so long. This is why they are so afraid of the psychedelics, because they understand that once you touch the inner core of your own and someone else's being, you can't be led into thing fetishism and consumerism. The message of psychedelics is that culture can be re-engineered as a set of emotional values, rather than products. This is terrifying news."

posted June 07, 2009 06:51 PM         

as basketball is possible
without sneakers

or

bird-watching is possible
without binoculars

or

climax is possible
without a lover

or

daytime is possible
in a dark cellar.

You can do it that way,
but its the hard way,
and its not the same.

posted June 10, 2009 12:48 AM         

And I was able to tell that The Invisibles was the product of psychedelic experiences before I found confirmation of it.

'Course The Illuminatus! Trilogy was so obvious that I'd think someone who never had such an experience could tell.

I've only experimented over the years, and don't regret it though I don't plan to ever have another one. I've got all kinds of interesting tales to share over it, including a few that are mystical, paranormal, and even just mind boggling. But I made my choice to not make a habit of doing so for multiple reasons. So I'm glad for my experience, but not likely to repeat it.

Granny had some stories, good & bad, of communes and like in the 60s & 70s that made a lifestyle out of psychedelic experiences. I think in a shamanic (*) sense they can be valuable, but without some direction & self-discipline, they can easily be self-defeating.

posted June 10, 2009 11:49 PM         

Logically, I'd say that the fasting also helped liberate trace elements of psychedelics still stored in my fat, but plenty others there were also in an altered state somewhat similar to mine. I still vividly remember one woman who touched something worn by the priest as he passed with such awe & reverence that does remind me a lot of something psychedelics can do.

Still, it's not like I converted (but many others, having similar experiences as I did, have).
.

You know, using an analogy, I suppose it's like how I first "learned" to swim. A life preserver was put on me when I was 4 and I was just slung out into a lake. I still recall crying in total terror before I calmed down enough and began figuring out how to swim. It was much faster than traditional swimming lessons, but also a lot more scary & dangerous (I was lucky).
.

As for Granny...she was 15 when she left with some Beatniks to California. I don't recall the year, but I think it was early 60s. She moved from scene to scene, including "nature children" and the like. She got into communes years later in part because the cops were cracking down and many bad elements were preying on or entering the scene (and she wanted to get away from that) and also because she had children by then (my mom can still recall some of that).

Still, she found communal life very disillusioning, even infuriating, and finally went back to her family in Texas. Hearing her side of the story only, I can't say I blame her. I wouldn't have put up with that myself. (It also helped explain to me why feminist writings from the 70s was often so bitter toward hippies.) Seems that all that LSD didn't get rid of ALL ego...

All in all, I think LSD and the like can be a very valuable tool for personal & social transformation IF used wisely...but from what my granny described (which sounds typical), I'm not surprised that nearly every hippie commune ultimately failed & fell apart within a few years.

.

I'm not familiar with Stuart Wilde's stuff, but he looks interesting. I'm a big fan of Robert Anton Wilson's stuff, though.

posted June 11, 2009 11:23 PM         

Oddest part that haunts me was when I was deep into the trip, I felt a very bad, painful tingling in my arm. At one point I shook it (like trying to wake up a sleeping limb) and all these golden angry "sparks" jumped out of my hand and fell to the floor. All but one vanished as they hit the floor, but one went through my shoe and BURNED. The next day I still had a burn mark there on my foot (though my sock & tennie was unharmed, as if it only affected tissue with a living aura). Over the years I've tried repeating that (because that could be potentially useful for self-defense...) but never could.

But the main part I wanted to bring up was either right before or after (I think after) I had this huge spiritual vision, I was reading everyone's minds. This isn't just my belief, but others were telling me I was including one guy who was completely sober and he left really fast, later saying I had a demon inside of me (I recall sensing just before he left that he was terrified I'd learn something about him or that he did). Others who were tripping also remember it, saying later that they found it damn annoying that I was responding to what they were thinking as if they'd said them out loud.

About a year later, someone zapped a jay he gave me with something (I'd guess PCP, but I don't really know for sure, and he was apparently intent on raping me, but friends got me away from him before he could lead me too far away). As it really started to hit me, one guy was leaning over me asking if I was ok (which I found out later), but I couldn't understand. I REMEMBER there being this huge din of noise that I couldn't hear what he was saying, and he later told me that I'd said, "I can't hear you over your thoughts."

That said, most people didn't have these effects. One was angry because he'd been TRYING to for years and never could, but here I was just trying shrooms out of curiosity and doing what he'd been hoping to do. Another guy also collapsed, later saying he actually felt his heart stopped. Another who did shrooms before said, "Feels like forever, doesn't it?" So careful with those shrooms.

Btw, I only tried LSD once, and it was actually a mix of LSD and E. I didn't experience any dream like effects, other than hyper senses (everything I saw and touched was so INTENSE), which seemed to overload them as the next day I just wanted to keep my eyes shut and staying still as much as possible.
.

Though there is an incident that haunts me to this day that happened while I was completely sober.

I saw a U-Haul when I was walking home once in the parking lot of a closed down gas station and I INSTANTLY had a very bad feeling. I took to making a circle around it instead of by it when the window rolled down and a guy called me over. I refused to go and asked what he wanted. He asked for directions to a place just a block over (and real easy to find) and I gave them while keeping the distance between us.

Then he asked if I wanted to make some money, and I must've made an expression because he said, "No, not like that! I need to unload my stuff and I could really use some help." I told him not interested and walked away with him calling after me, pleading with me to help him, offering me more and more money (which just made me even more distrusting). And if he really needed help, he'd have ALREADY had it, and had they ditched him, he'd want GUYS to help him move, not me.

Anyway, the really creepy part was I dreamed that night that I got into the U-Haul with him. While nothing bad happened in the dream, I actually woke up screaming as soon as I shut my door putting me right beside him. I have no idea why I woke up screaming, but it adds to my view that I made the right choice to not trust him, though it's very intuitive and not logical.

Thing was, the moment I saw the U-Haul from across the street, I instantly KNEW with utter certainty that it was bad news, and when a guy revealed himself in it and tried talking to me, I knew not to trust him, no matter how casual he seemed. Which makes me think that even though there had been enough danger signs, that maybe I had "gleaned" his thoughts, spirit, or heart somehow, too.

posted June 12, 2009 01:12 PM         

as i said one of if not THE clearest vision i ever had was when i was 10 and had not had so much as a sip of alcohol in my life thus far and certainly no psychedelics. also, i have had weed that produced effects as powerful as mushrooms or acid...and the acid i took was pre-street adulteration for the most part.

posted June 13, 2009 02:49 PM         

first i'd have to hear
what you have to say.

kat,

posted June 13, 2009 05:43 PM         

I d love to share with u but words are useless.

posted June 13, 2009 10:18 PM         

[Shadowy villain hidden away] "This isn't slowing 'em down. These people are hardcore...hit them with some vocabulary."

[Another shadowy villain to the Invisibles] "We're able to do these things to your mind because we have the keys to a wider world which you have not been educated to comprehend. We've been taught the full 64 letters of the alphabet. We have words for things you aren't even able to imagine in the rudimentary vocabulary of your slave language."

[King Mob, holding a smoking gun in front of him] "****! How do we fight WORDS?"

And then we see some of the unseen letters of the alphabet. And then, the shadowy villain continues, "There are...THINGS all around. You never see because you don't have the words, you don't have the names, you only learned the 26-letter alphabet. Here are some names for things..."

More letters...and WHAT THEY ARE. That was awesome. As one of the Invisibles said, "This is what my alien abduction felt like."

posted June 19, 2009 06:17 PM         

There is NO WAY anyone could ever hope to know the full intricacies of the TRUTH about any sort of culture, even in THIS day and age, LET ALONE the Stone Age! Who are these people trying to kid! People don't even know the significance of Stonehenge - it's a testament to our vanity about *human culture* that we even try to reconstruct the past at all. Why not just let a mystery REMAIN a mystery, hey?

Let me guess...these people are affiliated to some UNIVERSITY or whatnot - oh yes - CENTRES of "HIGHER LEARNING" - haha - centres of overactive imagination more like, where they get funding of 60,000 GBP per project, no less - to produce fabrications such as this one. Don't make me laugh!