Dr. Bruce Damer's Levity Zone

Latest Episodes:

S2E13 - Eleusis on the Playa Nov 14, 2014

Show notes

The Eleusinian mysteries of ancient Greece initiated an awakening into civilization, science and art but were lost when fanatical Christians and savage tribes smashed the temple as the Roman empire fell. Are we living in an inferior culture driven by non-initiates subjecting our world to the worst juvenile destructive tendancies? Dr. Bruce explores the return of Eleusisinian initiation through rites in circles held around the world in this talk from Burning Man 2014, Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer, Jacob Aman (cover art), Kyle Espenshade (music). [released 14 Nov 2014]

S2E12 - The Shulgin Chip Sep 27, 2014

Show notes

In honor of the passing of Dr. Alexander 'Sasha' Shulgin a special group journeyed to a lush green spring-fed valley in dry far Northern California back in June of 2014. Dr. Bruce spins a tale of how we came to vision, the coevolution of technology and then on into how we may open to a group overmind driven and connected through the 'Shulgin Chip' and reach a place where we resonate with a cosmic destiny.Thanks to author Ramez Naam for his novel Nexus which was the inspiration for this talk. Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer, Jacob Aman (cover art), Erothyme (music). [released 27 Sept 2014]

S2E11 - Prague Gnosis Jul 28, 2014

Show notes

Rolling the clock way back to 1994 we find Dr. Bruce living and working in Prague, the beautiful medieval capital of the Czech lands. As well as leading a team of top class Bohemian engineers at Elixir, Dr. Bruce presents his very own Prague Gnosis in three interviews edited for you here in the Zone: Jan and Krystyna Kaplan's video documentary Good Morning Prague, Molly's interview on Radio Metropolis, and Wendy Haller's D-Salon arts piece on Radio Prague. Hear a very early Dr. Bruce wax poetically about the magic of Prague and the new alchemy of computers, give a futuristic view of the tech-nomadic life coming in the 21st Century, and the value of patronage of the arts in the post-communist world. Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer (interviewee), Jan Kaplan, Molly, Wendy Haller (now Drapac) (interviewers), Jacob Aman (cover art). [released 28 July 2014]

S2E10 - Esalen Visions Jun 20, 2014

Show notes

Back in June of 2012 Lorenzo Hagerty and yours truly, Dr. Bruce, presented a program on the life of Terence McKenna at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. Join us in the Big Yurt perched over the Pacific in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. I fulfilled a promise Terence and I made to 'do my own thing' and return to Esalen in his name to present my particular raps.Join me as I weave some new myths, flow out Esalen visions and inspire a hopeful view of our coming to consciousness. Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer (presentation), Lorenzo Hagerty (introduction,editing, photography), Tom Riedel (recording), Fabio Scalabroni (music),Jacob Aman (cover art). [released 20 June 2014]

S2E9 - Studio Sessions #1 Part 2 - The Bubble Culture May 09, 2014

Show notes

In part two of the Bubble Culture Dhiren Dasu and Dr. Bruce continue to tackle the trends, economics, and purported transformational community of the festival scene. This August 2013 studio session unravels the 'entitlement generation' and recalls the features of real community versus the ephemeral and unsustainable nature of the festivals. While peak experiences have value, Dr. Bruce asks the question: does the festival scene feed the machine? Still there is a chance for the opening of lives through transformational experience but we have the happenings from the fabled but failed 1960s Haight Ashbury to serve as our warning about the cost of casualties. Credits: Dhiren Dasu and Dr. Bruce Damer (discussants, recording, editing), Dubr8r (music), Penny Slinger (photography) and Jacob Aman (layout). [released 9 May 2014]

S2E8 - Studio Sessions #1 Part 1 - The Bubble Culture Apr 15, 2014

Show notes

Recorded at the Blue Lotus Temple of Sound and Light, this is the first of the "studio sessions" to be brought out into the Levity Zone. Featuring musician, artist and neighbor Dhiren Dasu in conversation with Dr. Bruce we tackle a topic not often taken on: the viability of the festival scene and the image and the reality of the "counter' or 'bubble' culture lifestyle prevalent on the West Coast of the US and elsewhere. As the philosopher Alan Watts counseled fifty years before, Dr. Bruce offers loving but concerted advice to young people that while you pursue peak experiences you must also develop skills and a grounding in this life. Credits: Dhiren Dasu and Dr. Bruce Damer (discussants, recording, editing), Dhiren Dasu-Dubr8r (music), Penny Slinger and Jacob Aman (photography and art). [released 15 April 2014]

S2E7 - Levity Zone Salon #1 Part 2 - Chemical Consciousness Mar 28, 2014

Show notes

Part two of the first Levity Zone Salon held in December of 2013 at Ancient Oaks Farm covers Dr. Bruce's personal integration guided by the teachings of Eckart Tolle and J. Krishnamurti. Travis then shared his heartbreak and frustration with powerful prescription drugs given to kids at his school putting them into a manic monkey mind state. The medicating of generations of youth by society may be altering the future of human consciousness and the very world in which we will all live. Mikey casts a more positive light on all this suggesting we may be actually moving toward balance and freedom rather than dysfunction. Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer (hosting, editing), William Sol Family (music), Jacob Aman (art). [released 28 March 2014]

S2E6 - Levity Zone Salon #1 - Integrating Experience Feb 22, 2014

Show notes

In this special edition of the Levity Zone we embark on a new leg of our journey with the start of Levity Zone Salons. The first one was held at Ancient Oaks Farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains on December 7th 2013 and featured: Dr. Bruce, Jacob Aman, Mark Boolootian, Mikey Siegel, and Travis Rios. The theme was: how do you integrate deeply powerful spiritual experiences into your everyday life? Those precious elevated states doled out from some ineffable source are rare in the human experience and successful practices to integrate them not only honor their source but could help to create a new Earth. Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer (hosting, editing), William Sol Family (music), Jacob Aman (art). [released 22 February 2014]

S2E5 - Leave the Machine @ Burning Man 2012 - Fractal Nation Jan 30, 2014

Show notes

This lost talk from Fractal Nation at Burning Man 2012 was resurrected by Andrew O'Keefe! Introduced by the artist Android Jones, Dr. Bruce goes on to unbolt the gears and camshafts of the machine that drives society, from the Mad Men who created the advertising that is supposed to define who we are, to how the machine may rattle itself apart like the long lost Soviet Union. How do we prepare for when the wheels come off? Listen in and find your way to slowly, but surely leave that machine and live an independent and powerful inner and then outer life. Dr. Bruce concludes by bringing us wise words from Dr. R. P. Kaushik from his Levity Zone #005 appearance which shows how new communities we might build to replace the machine must be based on shared experience of spirit, not on ideas. Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer (presenting, editing), Dr. R. P. Kaushik (excerpts), Andrew OKeefe (audio restoration), Dr. Magnus (music), Jacob Aman (art). [released 30 January 2014]

S2E4 - Mitochondrial Eve @ Burning Man 2013 Jan 15, 2014

Show notes

JThe Levity Zone features the third and final 2013 Burning Man talk held at the Palenque Norte tent in Camp Soft Landing, Dr. Bruce takes up the vitally important theme of the re-balancing of the feminine in the world as a force to re-center the course of our crazily careening civilization. Dive into this fanciful yet provokative story, based partly on profound new scientific discoveries yes mostly drawn out of the imagination, Follow the life of one of the most important figures in our deep human prehistory: a woman known as: Mitochondrial Eve, the true mother of us all. Is she now on her return? Dr. Bruce supplements his own creative license with well founded excerpts from scholar William Irwin Thompson. Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer (presenting, editing), William Irwin Thompson (excerpts), hiddenpath (music), Jacob Aman (art). [released 15 January 2014]

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