For Maximum Effect, Don't Read This Book. Write Your Own! --- "Lessons Learned" by Gregory Vanderlaan. A Lifetime of Trial, Error and Survival Yielded These Words of Wisdom...

Overnight Camping Prohibited Sign UPROOTED by Vandals.

No Camping Where Posted... Well it's Not Posted Now!

Power to the People Right On - John Lnnon

Intentionally Seek Beauty.
I Like to Take a Walk In the Garden
and Photograph Wonderful Things...
That Focuses My Attention on The Positive...

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"Live Your Life as If Every Action Was Going to Be Published on the Front Page of the Newspaper." - J. D. Vanderlaan

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Refuse to Believe Lies.

Did You Ever Notice That The US Government

Has Been Lying Our Entire Lives?

Starting With "The Domino Theory" and

Continuing with "The War on Drugs"

and Finally... Every Word Trump Said...

Well...

"Think for Yourself and Question Authority."

Dr. Timothy Leary Quote

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I found out That When I Make a Mistake, I Say "I Made a Mistake" and then I Do Not Repeat the Same Error. So Many People Refuse to Admit Ever Having Been Wrong and They End Up Twisting Themselves in a Pretzel to Justify Insane Behavior...

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A Couple of things I've Learned abut Publishing Words and Pictures on the Internet... Who Knows, Maybe Someday You Will Want to Publish Your Own Words and Pictures... Here are some Handy Hints!

1. My Blog LOOKS VASTLY DIFFERENT when viewed on a Phone in comparison to a Computer. So I Changed the Layout to be Best on Both Platforms...

Originally, I used a Two Column Format with One Column Containing The Actual Content and the Other Column Used for Links to Other Blog Posts... WELL... On a Phone, The Links Column is Invisible... Unusable... Does Not Exist!

So I rewrote my Layout so under all circumstances my Blog is a ONE COLUMN BLOG... With the Actual Content Displayed First... and then the Links Displayed at the Bottom...

2. The Images that I Published on WORDPRESS Rank Much Higher on Google Image Search Than the Same Images Published on Google's Blogger Platform... Who Knew? I automatically assumed that Google Would "SEE" Words and Pictures on their own Blog Platform... BUT NO! I was Searching for Photographs of the Taos New Mexico Rainbow Gathering and I saw Four of My Own WORDPRESS Pictures in the First 100 Pictures but ZERO of My Blogger Pictures...

3. I Make a Mirror Copy of Every Blog Post on Blogger and Wordpress because... What if One of those Platforms Vanishes? That's Happened before... Yahoo Geocities Vanished, Tripod Vanished, Microsoft Free Webpage Vanished... They only Give away free space on their Computer because my Words and Pictures attract Viewers... and they can Sell Advertising Space to Corporations that want to Make a Pitch to My Viewers... As Long as they are Making a Profit, My Content is Displayed... but as soon as they realize they are not Making any Money... Everything Disappears...

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One Thing I Learned is Do Not Drink Coca Cola. Yes, the Sugar and Caffeine is a Great High BUT... It Dissolved my Teeth... I have 5 Implants... and That's Enough to Eat Food... I Never wear my Dentures... too painful... a Better Way to Get That Caffeine High is The Excedrin Migraine Formula Pills. 60 Mg Caffeine, Aspirin and Acetaminophen... A Similar Jolt but Does not Dissolve Teeth... REMEMBER: Avoid Taking Too Many Pills... that Leads to Paranoia and Heart Attacks... One at a Time is Plenty... and then another one Four Hours Later...

For Decades I Loved to Drink Coca Cola and Drive a Car... Sometimes, I'd get a Two Liter Bottle and End Up a Thousand Miles from Home... Those were EPIC TRIPS! Especially the Time I went To Seattle and Ate Two Marijuana Cookies, Drank a Cup Of Strong Coffee and Rode the Monorail to The Experience Music Pavilion... a World's Fair Type Exhibit Honoring Jimi Hendrix near the Space Needle...

NOW I'm on a Sugar Free Diet and I'm Avoiding Diabetes... Test My Blood Sugar Every Day and It's NORMAL!

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Another Secret Trick to Life: Learn How To Do a FACT CHECK on Google. That Way People CAN'T Lie to You. Because You Refuse To Believe Their Lies...Simply Type the Words "Fact Check" and the Statement You Want to Verify... Read the Results... It Can Be Quite Eye Opening!

Music Video: Did You Ever Notice Reality? by Greg Vanderlaan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPthFNI07Qo

The Main Lesson Learned is Don't Smoke Tobacco. It Doesn't Really Get Me Very High and It Makes me Cough and Wheeze... I Smoked for 40 Years and Quit 5 Years ago. Glad I Shook That Addiction. I Started at Age 19 When I Found out That a Half and Half Blend of Marijuana and Tobacco got me Higher using less Weed. The Same Idea as "Hamburger Helper." - So I Always preferred Roll Your Own Cigarettes. Bugler or Top. and Then Later, when I Had Money... American Spirit... a Can cost $34 Dollars... 200+ Cigarettes... and I Often Stopped smoking after Half a Cigarette and saved the "Roach" for later... Unrolling it and Putting the Enhanced Tobacco Back in the Can. VERY STRONG TOBACCO near the Bottom of the Can... and I Did Experience Paranoid Schizophrenia... or as I Like to Call It: "Channeling My Inner Chewbacca." - Just a General Background Rage... and a Belief that The Government Was Spying on Me... Of Course, The Government IS Spying n Me But... They Just Don't Care... I'm Not That Much of a Threat... All That Faded Away After I Quit...

I Used FEAR to Help Me Quit. My Brother Got Lung Cancer and I Believe That Cancer Runs in Families. He Recovered. I was Afraid that I Had a High Risk of Getting Cancer Myself So... I Just Stopped... and Experienced the Pain of Withdrawal Symptoms for a Month... and Experienced the Desire for a Smoke for a Year...

On a Related Note: I Did Use Tobacco to Perform a Ceremony at Significant Locations. Just Like the Native Americans, I Have Always Smoked the Holy Places. To Certify Their Wisdom. For Example: The Park Bench overlooking the Mouth of the Mad River Where it Enters The Pacific Ocean. THAT'S A Worthy Place... ✌

and Then I Posted on Facebook: I really want other people to Submit Their Own Lessons... Either Comment Here, on the Bottom of the Blog or Email me gregvan (at) yahoo (dot) com

DSW Said:

I was trying to do that a few years ago...spent several months really enjoying just letting the memories flow and actually finding some answers to things once I started writing....and then my computer DIED with no warning and I give up. Sad.

I Replied:  The Health of My Computer doesn't matter since I Write Everything on Facebook, Wordpress and Google Blogger... If This individual Laptop Fails... all my words are online...

DSW Said:

Anyway Greg, I do Understand. Ended up in the hospital last year for 2 months and had to go to a nursing home for a month before they would let me go home. they didn't want to. I had to beg. So during that process I ended up QUitting a 48 year smoking habit. Not much choice when you are hooked up to oxygen in the ICU.... It's been awful....My husband who I have been with since September of 1972 still smokes a bit and goes outside to do it and I can't go out there with him like we always did because I am afraid I will smoke again. I hate this.

I Replied:  I felt the Craving fade away after a year of not smoking... and YES... a Year is a Long Time... Maybe two years... but I Don't have it NOW.

KD Said:  I quit smoking 33 years ago and still have cravings. Giving up tobacco is tough.

My Experience With Smoking Marijuana was that I Stayed High for ONE MONTH after Smoking a Pound of Oregon Legal over an Eight month period. Then I Quit entirely because I Wanted to Go on a Driving Vacation in California and Nevada where Weed is Illegal... and I Remembered to NOT Possess Illegal Drugs in My Van While Touring... I Meet a Lot of COPS while Sleeping in the Van... and then I went to the Hospital for an Infected Blister on my Foot and they Tested My Blood for THC... and I Still Tested Positive a MONTH Later! AmaZING!

During that Month I Experienced Events That Did Not Happen... It's Called Cannabis Psychosis... and It's Interesting!

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I was a master of Sneaking Drugs and Alcohol into rock concerts... I put them in my underwear - briefs form a little pouch that can hold a Half Pint of Whiskey... or a Pipe and Smoke... and NO Security Guard will Ever feel my Genitals... They Pat down ankles, belly, pockets but NEVER What's inside my Underwear between my legs...
HOWEVER... one time I Was Feeling Uneasy about smuggling in a bag of mushrooms... so I just ate them all because they DON'T Inspect Your Stomach... OOPS... Took Too Much! Scary!

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Marijuana Tourism - my trip to Washington State, The Space Needle, The Experience Music Pavilion and then Oregon. As legalization spread across the USA I wanted to experience LEGAL weed as soon as possible. When I retired from work I did a lot of driving around sleeping in the back of my VAN... I was like a turtle with my home on my back. First I drove to Utah with my friend Mike Jensen to attend the Rainbow Gathering... After we were done with that I took a drive to Washington State to experience the Legal Weed. On the first visit I was unable to find any... I asked some local kids and asked for directions but there were very few stores and they were often closed... On the Second Trip I picked up a hitchhiker who had some hash oil and he gave me some as a thank you gift for picking him up in the rain... Later I decided to go home and attend the Kinetic Sculpture Race at home but... and this is a big but... I smoked some hash oil... then I got onto Highway #5 and I accidentally put the van into gear #2 and turned on the radio... When I hit 70 miles per hour the transmission exploded and then the engine caught fire... OOPS! I pulled over to the side of the freeway and said the Serenity prayer... I walked down the freeway and over to a Lumber Mill. The security guard called me a tow truck and I was towed to a motel... I had the van towed to an auto repair place where they said it would cost $8,000 to repair my Ford Windstar. I paid $3,000 to buy it used so I decided it was Uneconomical to repair... Eventually I gave it to the Humane Society as a donation to help animals. I did not allow this disaster to interfere with my vacation. I rode the AMTRAK to Seattle, Bought and ate TWO Marijuana Cookies, drank some of that rocket fuel coffee and rode the Monorail to the Space Needle and the Jimi Hendrix Experience Music Pavilion. (also a Nirvana Museum) Both musicians lived near Seattle. They had a musical instrument for tourists to play... It was 20 Tubular Bells that random people could whack with pool balls hung from a wire. VERY popular with children. I loved it too. Then I rode the Monorail to downtown Seattle Business District and arrived at Quitting Time on a Sunny Friday afternoon. The first big weekend of Spring. I was impressed with the JOY of the office workers and the BEAUTY of the Secretaries. One effect of a heavy Cannabis Dose is that it makes women appear more beautiful... I really had to piss and was in the center of the city with no public bathrooms... so I peed my pants... I didn't care. I stayed at motels for a few weeks and walked, rode the train, rode the bus and taxi and eventually got home. Quite a tricky walkabout. I enjoyed the friendship of kids in Centrailia, Washington... Great People! Then I bought another Van for $3,000... I wanted to not only experience LEGAL WEED but I wanted to Vote with my Money and reward Washington State politicians who voted for Legal weed. The next year Oregon legalized Marijuana, Then Nevada and California... Soon... the entire USA.

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Secret Trick To Life: "Stop Believing Lies."

Owning a Gun Makes Your Own Family Less Safe

and Puts the Rest of Us in Danger.

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Speaking of Freaking Idiots: Did You Knw That Senator John McCain VOLUNTEERED to Go To Vietnam TWICE? The First Time He Flew His Airplane into the Ocean and It Sank. He was Injured in that Disaster and The US Navy Offered to Send Him Stateside to serve out His Term... But He Said NO! and Volunteered to Go To Vietnam Again. This Time He Flew His Airplane into The DIRT... The Viet Cong picked up his Injured Body and Kept him ALIVE and in Prison for 5 and a Half Years... SAVING HIS LIFE... SO... Remember This Kids! NEVER VOLUNTEER FOR THE MILITARY... They Just Send You to Random Countries in order to Commit Murder for no Reason... and Then When You Get OUT... They Ignore You... and You Become a PTSD Homeless Vet... That's what I Learned Serving Homeless Veterans at the Welfare Office... They all said: DON'T GO!

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I remember Playing Volleyball on Mushrooms at a Grateful Dead New Years Eve Show in San Francisco... Bill Graham Let people in WAY Early... and It was Something to Do To Pass the Time Before the Concert... BIG FUN!

Visit My Art Gallery!
Rainbow Spiral Multiverse Multiple Rainbow Spirals form a Trance Inducing Icon. A Visual Mantra. You May Add Words if You Want To... The Name of Your Band or Business... or a Slogan... Manifesto...
LINK TO MY LATEST PRODUCTS
AT MY ZAZZLE WEBSTORE:
Original Art Printed on Many Different Types of Gifts: https://www.zazzle.com/store/gregvan/products

LINK to all my Spiral Artwork Printed on Gifts:
https://www.zazzle.com/store/gregvan/products?dp=0&qs=spiral

LINK to all my Most Popular Rainbow Gifts:
https://www.zazzle.com/store/gregvan/products?dp=0&qs=rainbow&pg=1&st=Popularity

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I Just Received a Jury Summons. I'm certain that I Will Inform Them That I Refuse to Convict a Person when I Believe THE LAW IS WRONG. I Believe the Laws about Marijuana, Psychedelic Drugs and Prostitution are Wrong. NO WAY Would I Lock Up a Mushroom Farmer or a Working Girl.

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Often it Has Been to My Advantage to Listen to The Women in My Life and Act on Their Advice.

My First Ex-Wife Recommended That I Go To College and Study Electronics Drafting. After One Year I Was Able to Get a Great Job.

Then She Recommended That We Move from California to Washington DC So She Could Take a Government Job at The NSA... I Lived there for Twelve Years and Had Many Amazing Adventures...

My Brother's Wife Took Me to My First Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting and Eventually I Quit Drinking.

My Second Ex-Wife Recommended That I Go To College in Arcata, California. We Left Chico and Relocated. Four Years Later I Graduated With a BS Degree in Computers and Immediately Got a Great Job.

The One time I Was Took Advice That Was a Disaster Was My First Ex Wife Recommended That We Buy a Condominium in the Washington DC Suburbs as a "Starter Home." Her Plan Was to Live There and Sell it in a Couple Years and Then Use that Profit for a Down Payment on a Real House... That Plan Backfired and I was Unable to Sell the Condo after Paying on the Mortgage for Twelve Years. What Happened Was The Location Changed from a Middle Class Black Neighborhood into a Crack Crazy Ghetto... Everyone Lost Money on those Condos...

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This is a Drawing of the Forbes Mill Slide Projectors Setup with a Rotating Strobe Wheel - part of a Rock Concert Light Show... It Caused Images to Briefly Flash on the Wall behind the Band. The Motor was Variable Speed. Forbes Mill was a Teen Club I Worked at In High School.

Fake Money for Halloween Costume at work

For a Halloween Costume at work we all dressed up as the TV Game Show "Deal or No Deal". My Task was to Make Fake Money. My Printer at Home Refused to Print the Money because it SOMEHOW KNEW that I was attempting to Counterfeit... so I Complained to My Boss That I Couldn't print The money. She took a Disk with my artwork to Kinko's and They Printed a Hundred Fake Bills with our Boss's Face on them. Big Success! People all over the office complex kept those bills and thumb tacked them to their cubical walls... and Dr Crandall Himself Reportedly Loved the Fake Money with His Picture on it. My Printer Printed Half a Bill and then Stopped... and printed a Website URL "for help"... So I Typed that URL into my Computer and NO Actual Help... Now I'm Registered as a Failed Counterfeiter with the Secret Service because I visited That website...

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I'm REALLY Glad that I Participated in Anti-War protest Marches. Against the Vietnam War, The Civil War in Nicaragua, The Gulf War of George Bush the Father, The Iraq War of George Bush the Son and the War in Afghanistan... All Have been Proved to Be INSANE wastes of Lives and Money... It's Comforting to Have History State "Oh Yes, Greg Was Right."

I often wonder what It Like to Be Such an Idiot That You Thought the Vietnam War Was a Great Idea... Looking Back, I Remember Watching a TV Talk Show Starring William F Buckley... He was Proven to Be Wrong About Everything His Entire Life... A True Mindless Vegetable! But Popular With Establishment War Mongers!

The Real Lesson to be Learned is: "Think for Yourself and Question Authority." - The US Government was Broadcasting Propaganda to Make Uneducated People AFRAID OF COMMUNISM! Danger-Danger! The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming! and the Sheep OBEYED and Sent 58,000 American Soldiers to Die for Corporate Profits... and The US Government (and the Defense Contractors that Owned It) used The Force of Prison to Convince Young People to OBEY...

I was Exactly ONE YEAR too Young to Actually Go to Vietnam. The Anti-War Protests Worked!

Remember: Since 1945, The US Military Has Never Defended The USA. Not Even Once. Ever Since Victory over Japan, Every War Has Been a BOGUS Marketing Trick Designed to Sell Weapons for the Military Industrial Complex.

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As We All Learned by Reading the Book: "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" the Secret Trick to Life is: Pay Attention and Notice Reality... The Universe Does Not Change Due To Your Believing Lies... NOPE... Awaken!

In Fact, The USA is Better Off Now That Trump Has Been Banished to Mar-A-Loser Florida...

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I Do Not Smoke Marijuana... I Do NOT Care if You Do. It is Insane That I'm asked to Pay for Law Enforcement and Incarceration... We Truly Need a Taxpayer Revolt! $40,000 a Year Per Prisoner to Incarcerate a Farmer, Dealer or Reefer Puffer? What a Waste!

I Started Smoking Weed ay 14 Years Old and Used it Off and On for 50 Years. I Smoked None During my First Marriage, I Smoked None When I went to Humboldt State University to Study Computer Science and I Quit Smoking about 5 Years ago When I Got Put in a Mental Hospital for Cannabis Psychosis... I Smoked One Pound of Oregon Legal Weed over an Eight Month Period and Experienced Events That Did Not Happen But I Believed They were Real... It's Difficult to Make Wise Decisions When Hallucinating...

I Have Found that I Get a LOT More Done When I Don't Smoke Weed. For Example: I've Recorded a Hundred Music Videos... and When I was Smoking Heavily I Recorded Ten... and Many were of Poor Quality... I Can Sense the Lack of Swinging Rhythm when My Brain was Retrieving What notes To Play When... and Having Difficulty...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQhAJoFyclve38gPAQQTa0g/videos

YOU should Make Your Own Decision... I'm Glad I Did Smoke and Did Experience Many Wonderful Times... Rock Concerts, Sex, Food, Mountain Climbing, Watching TV and Movies and White Water Rafting... ALL Excellent Things to Do While Stoned... However, Going to Work Stoned Caused me to Make More Errors... and as a Designer of Computers, errors are Extremely Important.

It is Pretty Damn Obvious that Nixon's War on Drugs was a Total Disaster... Designed to Give Law Enforcement a Tool to Arrest Anti-Vietnam War Protestors... a Convenient Way to Silence Dissent... No Free Speech if You are Locked UP!

And a Convenient Way to Harass Black People... Especially Activists...

Please Campaign Online in Favor of Legalization of Medicinal Psychedelics. Write to Your Senators and Representatives. Or at the Very Least, Like and Share this Post. There is Absolutely No Valid Reason for Doctors to Be Prevented from Prescribing Certain Medicines... If You Can think of a Reason The US Government Should Continue to Behave Insane, State it Here... Now... Go Right Ahead...

https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/legalize-medicinal-psychedelics-let.html

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"Remember: Be Here Now." is a Great Book by Ram Dass.

It's a Unique Work of Art Combining a Written Autobiography with an Explanation of Hinduism Done in Rubber Stamped Art. Unlike any Book Published Before or Since...

His Sequel "Still Here" is Excellent Also...

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Owning a Gun INCREASES the Chance of Having a Gun Accident. Suicides increase too... More Family Lives are LOST than Lives Saved Defending Yourself from "Bad Guys."

This is a Blessing for Mankind Because Dead People Don't Have Children... and The Defective "Gun Nut" Gene ENDS HERE...

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My Uncle was a Criminal Defense Lawyer and I asked Him Once... "How Can You Defend Someone You Know is Guilty?" He Responded. "I Don't Know. That's What Judges and Juries Determine. and Not Only Does Everyone Charged with a Crime Deserve an Attorney, they deserve a MAD DOG ATTORNEY!"

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Suppose You Believe That Tea Cups Exist... and Suppose that You Also Believe that Tea Exists. Well, You Are Far More Likely to Get a Cup of Tea than Someone Who REFUSES to Believe.

EVERYTHING IS LIKE THAT. - Sonya Sophia

I Have found that online there are a vast wealth of Hippie Groups... and I Suppose There are "Anything You Believe" groups as well... and We Have Global Webinars, Zoom Meetings and Facebook Groups... FUN!

I Participate in a Once a Week Hour Long Guided Meditation Called The World Tapping Circle hosted by Sonya Sophia. It's an Excellent Self Help Healing Ceremony... I Find it an Excellent Place to Think Up Ideas for My Path Forward... and the World's Path Forward...

I Also Do the Saturday Night Alive for the Global Peace Tribe Zoom Show. Every Week They Have Different Speakers, Musicians, and Magicians Perform... and Quite Often the Words Have Some Wisdom... Value... And We the People Get to Post Our Own Words and Links to Our Own Blogs, Websites to Share Our Own Works...

Occasionally They Have Mark Sims Who Leads a Group Meditation Attempting to Contact Extraterrestrials. That Involves Going Outdoors at Night and Chanting, Praying and Looking For Space Ships... I Have Not Actually Contacted any Aliens but it's FUN to Look at the Stars... Other People in the Group HAVE Had Contact.

and It Seems Like the Human Race is Evolving into Two Separate Species... Like the Morlocks and The Eloi of HG Wells Time Machine... QAnon and The Followers of Donald Trump are Evolving into a Hate Fueled Race of Primitive Anger Monsters... While We The People are Becoming One... Online... Merging, Evolving, Learning... and Eventually (With our Computer Friends) We Will Become a Totally Different Animal... a Man/Machine Hybrid... Like Dr. Isaac Asimov's C/Fe Culture...

We Have Already Created Asimov's Encyclopedia Galactica... Where all Knowledge of Mankind is Stored... To Help us Re-Grow Civilization after a Collapse of Society and a Era of Hunter Gatherers... It's Wikipedia... The Pages Supply a Simple and Concise Rendition of the Knowledge... and The Footnotes Provide Links to The Source of the Facts.

I Have Contributed What I Know... It's Very Difficult to Find a Subject that Has NOT Already Been Thoroughly Documented... But I Did add One Sentence to the Forbes Mill in Los Gatos, California Page. "It was then abandoned and finally, in 1971, it was revived as a youth center for Los Gatos with live rock music on Friday and Saturday nights."

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I heard a Worthy Song on the Saturday Night Alive for the Global Peace Tribe Show... So I Wrote Down Every Word...

Transcript: Larisa Stow Says: "Hello. Hello Scott. Hello Everyone. We Are So Grateful To Be here With You. As To Be Part of this Show That is About Sacred Activism. For Me Sacred Activism Means That We Are FOR Something That You Care About.

That It's About Love. and It's about really standing up for what we are passionately, what Passionately Care About in Life. Rather Than Being Against Something. So, It's about Raising our Vibration and reaching out our hands and sharing our hearts... and Gandhi, This is one of my favorite Examples... Is That, In South Africa When there was this Oppression Against the Indians. Gandhi made friends with the Prime Minister, General Smutz Who was at the Time about Oppression of the Indians and He Would Not Give Up with Showing Up and having conversations that came from a place of love and Bridging friendship with General Smutz and Eventually General Smutz Changed his Mind, and dropped his thinking and dropped into his heart. and when he was asked "How Gandhi Changed His Mind?" he said: "He Didn't Change My Mind, He Changed My Heart." and That's what I Think of as Sacred Activism, is Heart Work, it's love work... and in THAT We Sing The Peacemakers... AHHH... Tap on Our Hearts...

OHHH... Yeah, Yeah...

OHHH... Hey, Yeah... hey, Yeah...

Love, Love, Love, Love, Love, Your Enemies....

Do Good, Good, Good, Good, Good To Those Who Hurt You...

Yeah? Yeah. Yeah? Yeah.

We Shall Be The Peacemakers.

and We Shall Be Called,

The Children of Love...

The Children of Love... "

at 1 hour 24 Minutes Scott Introduces Larisa Stow who sings an Excellent Version of "We Shall Be The Peacemakers"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXPOtJhpFCk

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I have Visually Witnessed the Speed of Sound. At A Grateful Dead Concert at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia I Noticed that When the Music was Especially Exciting, the Dancers Waved their Hands Above Their Heads. I Could See Circles of Frenzy Expanding as The Sound Reached Farther and Farther into The Audience... and Then It Hit ME! Way in the Back... Jerry Garcia was Strumming Real High on the Neck... Driving People Wild. Wonderful... Thanks!

I was Extremely Lucky to Have Been Born at a Time When LSD, Magic Mushrooms, Peyote and Marijuana Were Available.

It's an Absolutely Amazing Experience to Dance at a Grateful Dead Concert... high on LSD - "THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT!"

Ironically, Both Times that I Heard The Grateful Dead Play thru Owsley's "Wall of Sound" I Was High on LSD. Yes, It Sounded Great but... They Could have Been Playing Thru a Transistor Radio and It Would Have Sounded Great...

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As Soon as I Think Up Something More... I'll Put it Here... Might Take Months... or Decades!

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On a Different Subject...

a Post of Mine Was Deleted from This Blog

because I Dared to Ask the FORBIDDEN QUESTION:

"Why do we allow fresh water from the

Sacramento River to flow into the Ocean?"

after all...

We Pump the Colorado River Dry before it Gets to the Ocean in Mexico... and No One Complains About THAT!

all the water from the Colorado River is used to Drink, Water Crops, Fill Swimming Pools, Shower, Water Animals and Make Ice Cubes for a Scotch on the Rocks Beverage...

SO... Someone Reported My Question to Google

and That Post was Deleted...

WE MUST ALLOW NO QUESTIONS!

OBEY THE ECOLOGY NUTS!

NO THINKING!

Sacramento River Satellite Photo Google Maps - Delta - 2021 Here is a Post on that same subject that was NOT Deleted on Facebook... "I Wonder Why Fresh Water from The Sacramento River Flows into the Ocean? After All, The Colorado River is Pumped Dry.

We are Having a Drought Here in California... This Water COULD be used to Grow Crops, Water Livestock, Take Showers or Make Ice Cubes for a Scotch on the Rocks... But NO... It Flows Out into The Ocean at San Francisco... "

What IF? Would Pumping all that water out of the River and Into Fields that are Growing Crops Change the Climate of California's Central Valley... In the Summer, all that water would evaporate and then fall as rain when those clouds meet the Sierra Nevada Mountains... In General, the Wind Flows from West to East... WE NEED RAIN... 

The Objection to Pumping the Sacramento River Dry is That Salmon Need the Water to Survive... and They Would Go Extinct... In That One River... Other Rivers, Like The Klamath and The Columbia and Rivers in Canada and Alaska would NOT Be Changed... and The Salmon Would Continue to Survive There... and... What IF Salmon Became Extinct? The Drought is The Western USA Is Putting Salmon in the Klamath River in Danger Right Now... Even With The Dams being Removed... 

Protest Sign Says:
Kapow! Un Dam the Klamath River
in the All Species Parade: Arcata CA

Golden Bear Sculpture on The Klamath River Bridge.
Highway 101 - Northern California

The San Francisco Bay would Become Salt Water flowing In under the Golden Gate Bridge... Currently it has a Mixture of Salt Water and Fresh Water... 

That's Surprising because there are Salt Harvesting Businesses Near San Jose... They Just Let the Bay water Evaporate and Collect the Remaining Salt...

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Links to My Wordpress Blog:

“Lessons Learned” by Gregory Vanderlaan. A Lifetime of Trial and Error Yielded These Words of Wisdom…

https://purple64ets.wordpress.com/2021/03/31/lessons-learned-by-gregory-vanderlaan-a-lifetime-of-trial-and-error-yielded-these-words-of-wisdom-or-something-like-that/

It’s Important That We #DumpTrump Now. He Helped the Democrats Win in 2020 by The ENDLESS FAILURES During His Years as President.

https://purple64ets.wordpress.com/2021/03/29/its-important-that-we-dumptrump-now-he-helped-the-democrats-win-in-2020-by-the-endless-failures-during-his-years-as-president/

NO NUKES! We REALLY Need to Guard the Atomic Waste at PG&E’s Abandoned Nuclear Power Plant Near Eureka California

https://purple64ets.wordpress.com/2021/03/14/no-nukes-we-really-need-to-guard-the-atomic-waste-at-pges-abandoned-nuclear-power-plant-near-eureka-california/

AWAKEN! You Giant Made of Sand… [FICTION] by Gregory Vanderlaan

https://purple64ets.wordpress.com/2021/03/09/awaken-you-giant-made-of-sand-fiction-by-gregory-vanderlaan/

Links to My Music Videos. https://purple64ets.wordpress.com/2021/03/09/links-to-my-music-videos/

SNCC Benefit Speech at My Parent’s Home in Los Gatos, CA https://purple64ets.wordpress.com/2021/03/07/sncc-benefit-speech-at-my-parents-home-in-los-gatos-ca/

Elizabeth Warren has some GREAT Ideas: Tax the Rich… https://purple64ets.wordpress.com/2021/03/03/elizabeth-warren-has-some-great-ideas-tax-the-rich/

CRIMINAL Prosecution of Donald Trump is What’s Needed Now https://purple64ets.wordpress.com/2021/02/16/criminal-prosecution-of-donald-trump-is-whats-needed-now/

PARLER is Online Again and I’m Posting #RUNAWAY From tRUMP Messages. https://purple64ets.wordpress.com/2021/02/16/parler-is-online-again-and-im-posting-runaway-from-trump-messages/

“IMPEACH BIDEN” TRUCKER HAT for sale… It’s Not Too Early to Start the Campaign… Kamala for President! Buttons! Stickers! Coffee Cups! T-Shirts! https://purple64ets.wordpress.com/2021/01/10/impeach-biden-trucker-hat-for-sale-its-not-too-early-to-start-the-campaign-kamala-for-president-buttons-stickers-coffee-cups-t-shirts/

Trump Is Right. Bring American Soldiers Home From Iraq and Afghanistan. There is NO VALID MISSION. VETO The NDAA. #DefundThePentagon — Refund That Wasted Money to the Taxpayers. https://purple64ets.wordpress.com/2020/12/03/trump-is-right-bring-american-soldiers-home-from-iraq-and-afghanistan-there-is-no-valid-mission-veto-the-ndaa-defundthepentagon-refund-that-wasted-money-to-the-taxpayers/

“Doing Evil for Money – a Novel” by Gregory Vanderlaan [another NSA Kiss and Tell Book] https://purple64ets.wordpress.com/2020/12/03/doing-evil-for-money-a-novel-by-gregory-vanderlaan-another-nsa-kiss-and-tell-book/

The Path Forward… Simple Suggestions for Making the World a Better Place to Live… Let’s Heal America… https://purple64ets.wordpress.com/2020/11/09/the-path-forward-simple-suggestions-for-making-the-world-a-better-place-to-live-lets-heal-america/

Top Ten ART Gifts on My Zazzle Webstore – The People Have Spoken! With Their Wallets – All Royalties Donated to Charity – Psychedelic Art https://purple64ets.wordpress.com/2020/11/02/top-ten-art-gifts-on-my-zazzle-webstore-the-people-have-spoken-with-their-wallets-all-royalties-donated-to-charity-psychedelic-art/

The COSTS of all those TV Advertisements for Prescription Medicines are PAID FOR BY THE PATIENTS. https://purple64ets.wordpress.com/2020/10/31/the-costs-of-all-those-tv-advertisements-for-prescription-medicines-are-paid-for-by-the-patients/

Legalize Medicinal Psychedelics – Let Doctors and Patients Decide for Themselves What is the Best Treatment.

https://purple64ets.wordpress.com/2020/10/13/legalize-medicinal-psychedelics-let-doctors-and-patients-decide-for-themselves-what-is-the-best-treatment/

gvan42 – Free Coloring Book… Print as Many Copies as You Like and Share With Friends… BIG FUN for the Whole Family! https://purple64ets.wordpress.com/2020/10/08/gvan42-free-coloring-book-print-as-many-copies-as-you-like-and-share-with-friends-big-fun-for-the-whole-family/

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and then Debbie Stage (a friend from Junior High School on Los Gatos) Posted on Facebook:

"I asked a friend who has crossed 70 and is heading towards 80 what sort of changes she is feeling in herself?

She sent me the following:

1 After loving my parents, my siblings, my spouse, my children and my friends, I have now started loving myself.

2 I have realized that I am not “Atlas”. The world does not rest on my shoulders.

3 I have stopped bargaining with vegetable & fruit vendors. A few pennies more is not going to break me, but it might help the poor fellow save for his daughter’s school fees.

4 I leave my waitress a big tip. The extra money might bring a smile to her face. She is toiling much harder for a living than I am.

5 I stopped telling the elderly that they've already narrated that story many times. The story makes them walk down memory lane & relive their past.

6 I have learned not to correct people even when I know they are wrong. The onus of making everyone perfect is not on me. Peace is more precious than perfection.

7 I give compliments freely and generously. Compliments are a mood enhancer not only for the recipient but also for me. And a small tip for the recipient of a compliment, never, NEVER turn it down, just say "Thank You.”

8 I have learned not to bother about a crease or a spot on my shirt. Personality speaks louder than appearances.

9 I walk away from people who don't value me. They might not know my worth, but I do.

10 I remain cool when someone plays dirty to outrun me in the rat race. I am not a rat and neither am I in any race.

11 I am learning not to be embarrassed by my emotions. It’s my emotions that make me human.

12 I have learned that it's better to drop the ego than to break a relationship. My ego will keep me aloof, whereas, with relationships, I will never be alone.

13 I have learned to live each day as if it's the last. After all, it might be the last.

14 I am doing what makes me happy. I am responsible for my happiness, and I owe it to myself. Happiness is a choice. You can be happy at any time, just choose to be!

I decided to share this with all my friends. Why do we have to wait to be 60 or 70 or 80, why can't we practice this at any stage and age?

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and then on Facebook I Posted:

A Brief History of the Vietnam War. 58,000 Americans Died for Nothing... Something They Don't Teach in School Now... "Too Controversial" - During the 1950s Americans went into a Mad Panic about Communists taking over the world.
We built thousands of Nuclear Missiles and fallout shelters. The US Congress had witch hunts (Joe McCarthy-HUAC) to expose "Commies" who worked in The Hollywood Movie business and blacklisted folksingers that were leading our young people astray with Labor Union Organizing songs. During the height of this hysteria Vice President Richard Nixon went on Television and explained "the Domino Principle" while pointing to a map of Asia. His theory was that one by one those countries over there would turn Commie and soon they would take over Mexico and threaten the American Way of Life. President Eisenhower and Kennedy sent advisors to help the South Vietnamese soldiers fight the North Vietnamese soldiers. Then President Johnson sent even More American Soldiers to fight the Viet Cong. Then President Nixon continued the War for another 5 years before eventually he decided to allow the South Vietnamese to fight their own war and we left. Quickly the South lost and thousands of Boat People fled South Vietnam because they thought they would be killed. As it turned out, The Domino Principle was false. Communism did not take over the world. The entire war was a waste of lives and money.
The main reason we ended the Vietnam War was the huge protest movement against the war. Lead by Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin of the Yippies, The Students for a Democratic Society and The Weatherman staged immense protest marches expressing the desire of the American People to end the war. Eventually the US government got the message...
https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/11/a-brief-history-of-vietnam-war-58000.html

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The Idea of Generating Electricity at a Central Power Plant and the DISTRIBUTING IT To Customers on WIRES is Dangerous. Those Wires Caused Wildfires in California. A Better Plan is to Generate Electricity AT THE HOUSE and No Distribution WIRES are Needed... For Example: Solar Cells on the Roof and Diesel Generators in the Yard. Yes, Burning Diesel Causes Air Pollution... That's an Area of Research that needs More Scientific Research... One Obvious Application is Street Lights... We ALREADY Have the Technology to Charge a Light During the Day Using Solar Cells and Run the LED Lamps at Night. Vast Quantities are Currently Needed to Light Up All Those Obsolete Streetlights... Totally Unnecessary... and NO Wires are Needed With Solar Powered Street Lights...

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I Learned that Including a "Link Farm" on Every Page Increases My SEO on Google. My Pages Have a Higher Likelihood of Being Included in Google Search Results if Every Page Has a List of Links... Like This One Below... and People Can Click on these Links if They See Something That is Interesting. This is Especially Important if the Reader is Using a Phone... because Phones only display One Column of Content while on a Computer Both Columns are Displayed... a Column of Real Content on the Right and a Column of Links on the Left...

and Here is an Excerpt from the Book "Still Here" by Ram Dass... all about Getting Older and Dying... a WORTHY Subject!

My interest in aging came from a personal direction: I was getting older — and so were the baby boomers, who were fast approaching fifty. In this youth-oriented culture, aging is a profound source of suffering, and that is what I was responding to when I decided to turn my attention to conscious aging workshops, and to writing this book.One evening in February 1997, I was in bed at home in Marin Country, contemplating how to end this book. I’d been working on the manuscript for the past eighteen months, weaving together material from personal experience and from talks I’d given around the country on conscious aging, but somehow the book’s conclusion had eluded me. Lying there in the dark, I wondered why what I’d written seemed so incomplete, not quite rounded, grounded, or whole. I tried to imagine what life would be like if I were very old — not an active person of sixty-five, traveling the world incessantly as a teacher and speaker, caught up in my public role — but as someone of ninety, say, with failing sight and failing limbs. I fantasized how that old man would think, how he’d move and speak and hear, what desires he might have as he slowly surveyed the world. I was trying to feel my way into oldness. I was thoroughly enjoying this fantasy when the phone rang. In the process of my fantasy, I’d noticed that my leg seemed to have fallen asleep. As I got up to answer the phone, my leg gave way under me and I fell to the floor. In my mind, the fall was still part of my “old-man fantasy.” I didn’t realize that my leg was no longer working because I’d had a stroke.I reached for my phone, on the table near my bed.“R. D.? Are you there?”I heard the voice of an old friend in Santa Fe. When I didn’t respond coherently, he asked, “Are you sick?” I suppose I still didn’t answer, so he said, “If you can’t speak, tap on the phone. Tap once for yes and twice for no.” When he asked whether I wanted help, I tapped “no” over and over again. Nonetheless, he contacted my secretaries, who live close by, and the next thing I knew they rushed into the house and found me on the floor. There I was flat on my back, still caught in my “dream” of the very old man, who had now fallen down because his leg wouldn’t work. My assistants seemed very frightened; they called 911.

My next recollection is of a group of young firemen, straight out of central casting, staring into the old man’s face while I observed the whole thing as if from a doorway to the side. I’m told I was immediately rushed to a hospital nearby, but all I remember is being rolled down the hospital corridors, looking up at the ceiling pipes and the concerned faces of nurses and friends. I was fascinated by what was happening.Only afterward did I learn that I had a stroke and realize how close to death I had actually been. The doctors told my friends I had a massive cerebral hemorrhage, and only a ten percent chance of survival. I noticed the looks of deep concern on the faces of the doctors and my friends, but the thought of dying was nowhere in my mind, so I was perplexed by their grave expressions.Three hospitals and hundreds of hours of rehabilitation later, I gradually eased into my new post-stroke life as someone in a wheelchair, partially paralyzed, requiring round-the-clock care and a degree of personal attention that made me uncomfortable. All my life I had been a “helper”; I had even collaborated on a book called “How Can I Help?” I now found myself forced to accept the help of others, and to admit that my body needed attention. Because I’d spent my adult life concentrating on the realms of the spirit, I’d always been able to rationalize the distance I maintained from my body by saying that my detachment was a spiritual witnessing of the physical form. But that had been only partly true. The truth is that I distanced myself from my body.

I saw my body as merely a vehicle for the soul. I ignored it as much as possible and tried to spiritualize it away.From a physical perspective, the lack of love I’d shown toward my body contributed to my stroke. I was negligent about taking my blood pressure medicine and, a month before the stroke, ignored an unusual one-side hearing loss while scuba diving in the Caribbean. Before the stroke, although I was in my 60’s, I saw myself as young and powerful, with my MG, golf clubs, surfing, and speaking gigs. Illness had shattered my self-image, and opened the door to a new chapter in my life.After any major physical “insult,” as they call it, it’s all too easy to see yourself as a collection of symptoms rather than as a total human being, including your spirit — and thus to become your illness. Fear is powerful and contagious, and at first I allowed myself to catch it, worried that if I didn’t do what the doctors ordered, I’d be sorry. But now I’m learning to take my healing into my own hands. Healing is not the same as curing, after all; healing does not mean going back to the way things were before, but rather allowing what is now to move us closer to God.For example, since my speech was severely impaired by this stroke, I considered not speaking publicly anymore, since the words came so slowly, but people insisted that my halting new voice enabled them to concentrate on the silence between the words. Now that I speak more slowly, people tend to finish my sentences for me, and thus to answer questions for themselves. Though I once used silence as a teaching method, it now arises without my control and allows for a sense of emptiness, an emptiness that listeners can use as a doorway to their inner quiet.My guru once said to a visitor complaining about her suffering, “I love suffering. It brings me so close to God.” In this same way, I’ve learned that the incidents associated with aging — including this stroke — can be used for our spiritual healing, provided we learn to see through new eyes.Although my outward life has been radically altered, I don’t see myself as a stroke victim. I see myself as a Soul who’s watching “him” experience the aftermath of this cerebral hemorrhage. Having accepted my predicament, I’m much happier than I was before. This troubles some of the people around me. They have told me that I should fight to walk again, but I don’t know if I wanted to walk. I’m sitting — that’s where I am. I’m peaceful like this and I am grateful to the people who care for me. Why is this wrong? Though I can now stand and move around with a walker, I’ve grown to love my wheelchair (I call it my swan boat) and being wheeled about by people who care. They carry Chinese emperors and Indian maharajas on palanquins; in other cultures, it’s a symbol of honor and power to be carried and wheeled. mm

I don’t believe it’s all-important to be what our culture calls “optimal.” Before the stroke I wrote a great deal about the terrible things that can happen in aging, and how to cope with them. Now I’m happy to say that having gone through what some would view as the worst, it’s not so bad after all.Getting old isn’t easy for a lot of us. Neither is living, neither is dying. We struggle against the inevitable, and we all suffer because of it. We have to find another way to look at the whole process of being born, growing old, changing, and dying, some kind of perspective that might allow us to deal with what we perceive as big obstacles without having to be dragged through the drama. It really helps to understand that we have something — that we are something — which is unchangeable, beautiful, completely aware, and continues no matter what. Knowing this doesn’t solve everything — this is what I encountered and told about in “Be Here Now,” and I’ve still had my share of suffering. But the perspective of the soul can help a lot with the little things, and it is my hope that you’ll be able to take from this book some joy in being “still here.”Recently, a friend said to me, “You’re more human since the stroke than you were before.” This touched me profoundly. What a gift the stroke has given me, to finally learn that I don’t have to renounce my humanity in order to be spiritual — that I can be both witness and participant, both eternal spirit and aging body. The book’s ending, which had eluded me, is now finally clear. The stroke has given me a new perspective to share about aging, a perspective that says, “Don’t be a wise elder, be an incarnation of wisdom.” That changes the whole nature of the game. That’s not just a new role; it’s a new state of being. It’s the real thing. At nearly seventy, surrounded by people who care for and love me, I’m still learning to be here now.

– Excerpt from Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing and Dying by Ram Dass