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Post by Marc on Oct 7, 2013 1:06:48 GMT
I'm wondering if anyone cares to share experiences or insights in working with LAM. I am aware of two methods as indicated by M. Staley in issues of Starfire (being the articles "The Lam-Serpent Sadhana" and "The Mysteries of Lam". I have not yet tried these methods but am very interested in feedback or elaboration on those who have.
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Post by Nalyd Khezr Bey on Oct 7, 2013 1:58:06 GMT
Lam has been a long time interest of mine but I have usually kept it to myself. My first magical evocation back in the late 1990's was of the archetypal "grey alien" which has been associated with Lam over the years. I had no idea then about how to do evocations in the traditional sense so there were no preparations, banishings, formal ritual, etc. I took the idea of my first experiment from a book by Gregory Little called Grand Illusions. In a section about the experiments of Dr. Raymond Moody using a mirror chamber called a “psychomanteum“, Little casually mentions that one could conjure an alien with a mirror and a candle but he advised against it because this particular “alien” form tends to attract negative intelligences. Here is the passage: I first read Little’s book in 1994 but most of his ideas seemed to slip past me at that time. It wasn’t until I had a series of odd spontaneous experiences as a result of illness and meditation at the end of that year and into 1995 that his ideas began to really click. I read the book again in 1997 and that is when that passage jumped out at me. It was all I needed so I tried it.
It took me about 20 minutes of staring at a candlelit dark mirror, tilted so that no image is seen, and concentrating on the idea of the alien and imagining what it looks like when three of them visually appeared for a few minutes staring at me then faded. Upon fading I sensed an uneasy presence behind me and couldn't manage to turn around. The feeling was identical to when you wake up from a nightmare and can't quite bring yourself to move for a while. That is when I forced my arm over to a lamp next to me and turned it on. The presence and feeling immediately went away. In all honesty I was actually quite shocked by the success of this experiment. This was my first shot fired and had a powerful impact on my shifting views over the years regarding phenomena considered paranormal and/or magical. To this day it still gives me a strange paranoid type of feeling when thinking of it. Why there were three of them in the mirror I don’t know. I was not visualizing it that way. I have never actually done this same working and doubt that I’d even be able to have any success with it in that way.
Now whether or not that first experiment was truly related to Lam I can't really say. I also don't think that what I evoked were actual "aliens" in the usual sense. I even knew this then, at least in theory.
I was aware of Lam at the time as I had already been reading a few of Kenneth Grant's books but I didn't consciously connect this with it. Over the years though my fascination with Lam increased but I never did anything formally or directly with it until more recently.
Through the months of July and August, 2010 I prepared and performed a rather ambitious semi-oneiric invocation I came to call SOMNIA: An Oneiric Noesis - Seduction of the Oneiroi which turned out to be some pretty strong stuff. This particular working marked the end of a long series of oneiric workings I had been doing since 2005. Its current stirred a tangent in me I couldn't shake until I followed my intuition back to Lam. I have had a painted rendition of Crowley’s sketch of Lam (see my avatar picture) on my wall for a few of years now so there have probably been some subtle energies floating around regarding this entity. Using that painting as a scrying medium I performed a version of the Lam-gazing rite that Grant prescribes in “The Lam Statement“.
Grant encouraged experimenting with his basic scheme and evolving one’s own methods along those lines. I stuck fairly close to it except for #6 where I used the Ma‘atian Space-Marks Banishing before and after each scrying session in place of the Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram of Earth that Grant suggests. I also added a candle to light the portrait and burned an incense called Kasturi Chandan, musk with sandal perfume, that has a particular nightside charge to it for me personally.
I did two scrying sessions on September 27, 2010 and October 6, 2010 both at 11:30pm and roughly between 1-2 hours long each. I opened each session with the following invocation: Then I simply stared into the eyes of the portrait. After maybe an hour into these sessions an optical effect happens with the eyes and mouth of the entity that makes them appear to open into black holes. This is the moment when the gateway is open and I would push through and merge my consciousness with the portrait. Then close my eyes for a moment to allow a kind of absorption. The result of all this for me is not what Kenneth Grant describes as looking out through the entity’s eyes and seeing an alien world. The visionary aspect of it was fairly mundane except for the change of mood. I opened my eyes and I was where I was the whole time except for a feeling of a presence behind me. I took a pen and prepared myself to write down anything I experienced. I then felt and heard a low metallic sounding voice that came from the lower back of my head as if someone was whispering to me right up close to the top of my neck. It’s first words were “to lost soul, now entering the twin summit of fire and imagination”, or so I thought in the moment. Then followed a dictated monologue. This entity would not allow me to ask questions and would become forceful if I asked it to slow down or go back to something. Towards the end of the second session I was instructed to correct the spelling of the first three words to “Tu Los-Sol” and given the number 207 with no further elaboration.
After sifting through what I had written down I cleaned it up and the final result of both sessions was a 93 verse communication I called CCVII: Tu Los-Sol - Entering the Twin Summit of Fire and Imagination complete with some sort of ritual I have never heard of nor have I figured out how to actually perform. I never numbered the line by line verses in my writings until this one. It was only after typing it up on MSWord that I felt an intuitive urge to number them which revealed that 93. I've been numbering all of the writings that have followed since just in case there is a significance.
I did further workings along these lines again in January through March of 2012 which resulted in something much different. There was a more forceful feel to it probably because I began to ask questions and I was actually banished from the realm. The result was another received text titled ODN: Communication with the Architects via the LAM Gateway which total 124 verses.
In my experience with Lam I have come to suspect that it is not necessarily one specific entity but a conduit to interface with several intelligences/entities that resonate with that current. I have no idea what they are but I called them "architects" as a result of that last session.
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Post by Marc on Oct 7, 2013 18:11:32 GMT
Wow, your post is quite amazing and thank you for providing accounts of your experimentation. I have not yet experimented with either of the techniques and am going to be proceeding with my first evocation based loosely on KG's material in "Statement" as well as Michael Staley's insight and elaborations in Starfire articles. It's interesting that you have used the Ma'atian Space-Marks banishing (which I regret I am not too familiar with) rather than the traditional Lesser Banishing Pentagram Ritual. I have been debating whether or not to use the traditional LBRP or Star Ruby in this case. As from my other ritual workings, I know for a fact that my visualization capabilities are already quite strong and it doesn't take me much to feel the full effects of any working. Perhaps I am sensitive naturally to my imagination/emotion/intent. I have always had a strange connection/feeling even simply looking at the image of LAM. I don't know why and it has not been the case with any other picture, sigil, tatva, or mandala of any kind. There just seems to be a strong presence with this picture. I'm glad to meet people who are or have actively worked with LAM. As with your view on LAM not being one entity but a conduit or interface, I absolutely agree with you. Do you ever feel when you are looking at the picture that you are looking into a mirror of some kind and possibly looking at "another one of yourselves"? or a reflex of yourself in a way? LAM being the glyph of the Voice of Silence and the Dwarf god here is fitting for me also since I have done quite a bit of research into sensory deprivation and the effects of cutting off the signals coming into our five basic senses. This done long enough will project you into an altered state almost immediately. I'm wondering if working with LAM is not a door of some sort doing somewhat the same thing and projecting you into a realm within yourself where you establish contact and can traffic with the entities there, which in a strange sense could be other reflections of yourself since there is nothing beyond consciousness and we are all fragments of the whole.
This is very interesting. I am hoping we can really delve deep into the mysteries of LAM because I also kept it to myself as many people either don't know much about it or simply dismiss it.
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Post by Nalyd Khezr Bey on Oct 15, 2013 13:41:06 GMT
I apologize for letting this sit for this long but I have been busy this past couple of weeks and couldn't really get into any kind of discussion with much depth. I'm surprised at the lack of response this thread has had so far but maybe I'm just a little biased about what I personally find interesting in the "Typhonian" current. I'll see if I can say a few things to some of your remarks/questions. It's interesting that you have used the Ma'atian Space-Marks banishing (which I regret I am not too familiar with) rather than the traditional Lesser Banishing Pentagram Ritual. I have been debating whether or not to use the traditional LBRP or Star Ruby in this case. You can find the simplicity of the Space-Marks Banishing HERE if you're interested. I don't really think of it as a banishing nor do I even think "banishing" is necessary or even preferable in this case. The Space-Marks is more of an establishment and alignment of coordinates to, as it states at the link, "permit clarity of transmission". There are a couple of different variations of the Space-Marks Banishing in Nema's Maat Magick. In the book they are called the Eightfold Banishment but are the same thing with a little more of an explanation of what one is doing. I am not one to advise anyone on what is best to do. You just have to go with what you are comfortable with here. I've even developed my own alignment ritual that I call AONOA but that may be another discussion. As with your view on LAM not being one entity but a conduit or interface, I absolutely agree with you. Do you ever feel when you are looking at the picture that you are looking into a mirror of some kind and possibly looking at "another one of yourselves"? or a reflex of yourself in a way? I don't know that I feel like that. LAM feels more like a mask or shell to me; there is nothing there behind that curtain until one enters and becomes the wizard. Think of the Qliphoth. Commonly what resides in the Qliphothic realm (in the broader sense of the term) are used as forms which various entities can sympathetically inhabit to interface in our world from our perspective. LAM may be a vehicle or shell, a "dead soul", that we can utilize to interface in their world. LAM being the glyph of the Voice of Silence and the Dwarf god here is fitting for me also since I have done quite a bit of research into sensory deprivation and the effects of cutting off the signals coming into our five basic senses. This done long enough will project you into an altered state almost immediately. I'm wondering if working with LAM is not a door of some sort doing somewhat the same thing and projecting you into a realm within yourself where you establish contact and can traffic with the entities there, which in a strange sense could be other reflections of yourself since there is nothing beyond consciousness and we are all fragments of the whole. Here you are saying something similar to what I just said. As for them being other reflections of yourself, I would say yes and no. I used to be one that thought that all of the experiences resulting from various practices that fall under the banner of Magick and Mysticism as well as any so-called "anomalous experiences" were "all in the mind" or all just aspects of our own (sub)consciousness but in more recent years I can no longer subscribe to that in full. I find this to be a slightly different discussion so I won't elaborate to much on my own theories about it here. That discussion is much broader than simply working with LAM. All I'll say for now is, to put myself out on a limb for scrutiny, I suspect that the entities we interface with are separate, independent intelligences that inhabit their own world(s) but from our perspective have to come to us in many guises depending on and relative to who they are interacting and/or communicating with. The forms they take are always clues as to their function even if not so obvious. They can only use forms in sympathy in some way with their own consciousness even if this sympathy is strictly from one of our personal links. This is why it is a good idea to "know thyself" before embarking on further magical explorations. One has to clean out all of the rubbish in one's consciousness to clear the lines for communication. Now LAM being kind of a reverse process of this you may notice that the image seems to draw certain types of individuals to it. You always hear others mention how they feel almost an affinity for the image. That is our sympathy for the LAM current and only those who have this can use it as a form/interface.
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Post by Frater Shaddad on Oct 15, 2013 19:18:14 GMT
NKB, Would you care to share your received texts; CCVII: Tu Los-Sol - Entering the Twin Summit of Fire and Imagination and ODN: Communication with the Architects via the LAM Gatewaywith us here at the Typhonian Forums? I'm sure many of us here would be quite keen to read them! If not, I completely understand
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Post by Nalyd Khezr Bey on Oct 15, 2013 21:37:55 GMT
I wouldn't mind sharing both here because I feel I'm with peers who may get them as opposed to random would-be occultists who..., well you probably know what I mean. I had attempted to share the first one in the past but something didn't feel right about doing so then, perhaps it was just premature, so I deleted it. I think I may have even posted it on the old Spectral Light forums and left it there because there was simply not much traffic for it to matter by that time. I've been pretty guarded about them otherwise and only shared the first one privately. I think it may be better to post them as a separate thread though, maybe in the "Typhonian Tradition" forum or perhaps down in the "legacy" section. When I have more time later I'll get them up and stick a re-direct link to them in this thread as a kind of "here's an example of what I've done with LAM".
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Post by Nalyd Khezr Bey on Oct 16, 2013 5:04:46 GMT
Tu Los-Sol can be found HERE for your inspection.
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Post by Vadge Moore on Oct 16, 2013 20:29:51 GMT
Nalyd- Do you feel that Whitely Strieber's work has merit? When I read his works years ago, I was also severely into the work of Mr. Grant and found a deep affinity between the two. Interestingly, before Strieber had these visitor experiences, he was obsessed with and writing books on werewolves and vampires. Obviously, in the Typhonian tradition the vampire and the lycanthrope (particularly the latter in Bertiaux's work)are very important. At the time I felt that Strieber's earlier archetypal experience, through his horror literature, was preparing him for his experiences with the Greys, Aliens, ET's Lam-like entities. Your thoughts?
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Post by Marc on Oct 16, 2013 21:40:09 GMT
Hi Nalyd. Thanks for your elaborations. I can only speak for myself with having almost an affinity for the image, because I am drawn to it, but you mentioned something interesting, which is that it may not be the case for everyone and work only with those few that feel this way(which makes complete sense as it would be subjective anyways). Vadge, I've always been curious about Whitely Strieber's work and never really knew what to think of it. There is so much work out nowadays on ET's and such that it is becoming more and more difficult to weed out the value material. Have you read any of Allen Greenfield's books? He wrote the book Secret Cipher of the UFOnauts. Of course Jacques Vallee's work is interesting also. I found myself devouring anything I could find to try and make all of these connections with LAM a while back. Glad to see there are others interested as well
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Post by Vadge Moore on Oct 16, 2013 21:48:09 GMT
Marc- A little of Greenfield, a little of Vallee. But, Strieber really seemed to be tapped into the same things Typhonians are.
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Post by Marc on Oct 16, 2013 22:29:50 GMT
Wow, I will acquire his books. I've always felt the urge to buy them and for some reason hesitated. Now that I have a context or background to place them into, it will be good to finally read them for the first time.
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Post by Nalyd Khezr Bey on Oct 17, 2013 19:56:56 GMT
Vadge, I began my magical practices with evoking "aliens" as you can see I mentioned in my first post here so yes I think Strieber's work has some merit here. It's a little synchronous that you mention him though because I only recently took a very serious interest in his works. Up until this year I had only partially read Communion years ago and only gained bits of info on his experiences from secondhand sources even though I have had an interest in UFO's and the "abduction" phenomenon for as long as I've been into the occult in general and even since I was a kid. Off and on for several years now I have been following the evolving ideas and works of Aeolus Kephas/Jason Horsley and earlier this year he was posting an extended psychohistory of Whitley Strieber which piqued my interest more directly*. I bought all of Strieber's "visitor" series of books plus a few extras for just pennies (most of them first edition hardcovers which I was happy to have) and have been very slowly reading through them for the past several months just to see for myself in light of Horsley's psychohistory as well as my own magical experiences. I do find a lot of what I've read so far fascinating and can relate to a lot of it. I actually read through quite a bit of Solving the Communion Enigma (the latest of the series) first for some reason. Perhaps to get an idea of where his experiences have put him more currently. What I find a little strange though is that Strieber never seemed to have really engaged these experiences, i.e. he never turns the table on his "visitors" (or puts them on the operating table for examination so-to-speak) and approaches them as a magician would do. I had heard years ago that during the writing of his earlier horror novels he actually had done some experimenting with evocation, possibly utilizing the Goetia**, for research/inspiration purposes. I hadn't heard this again nor have I seen any reference so far along these lines in his books that I have. If that is the case then it makes perfect sense from an occult perspective what he experiences he may have opened himself up to. *See Auticulture for his updates and comments/discussion as well as ongoing related material and Crucial Fictions for the Strieber study, Prisoner of Infinity, which is broken up into several parts in pdf. I also highly recommend his various books. In particular those under his alias Aeolus Kephas. Very relevant to the Typhonian streams. ** I don't know the source of this anymore and I could be wrong in my recollection. If I had to say it seems that I may have read this in a review of his book Breakthrough in the Excluded Middle magazine but I'm not sure. Breakthrough was the latest at the time so this was quite a few years ago.
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Post by Vadge Moore on Oct 17, 2013 21:43:11 GMT
Nalyd- Strieber...even through his Communion experiences was an active member of a Gurdjief group. They are good at killing the "robot", deconstructing the ego, but they are not "magicians" in the same sense that we are. This may account for his "victimization." This may also simply be his true nature; a little masochistic. There's nothing wrong with that as long as you are learning something from your experiences. That's not the route that I would take, but to each his own.
I'll seek out those works you mentioned by Aeolus Kephas/Jason Horsley...I've been looking for another ET author that carries the same weight and has something in common with the Typhonian Current as Strieber does.
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Post by Marc on Oct 17, 2013 21:57:15 GMT
Vadge, let me know what you come up with as far as other ET authors. I'm always looking for material to add to my collection
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Post by Vadge Moore on Oct 17, 2013 22:16:57 GMT
Will do.
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Post by Nalyd Khezr Bey on Oct 18, 2013 1:54:55 GMT
Vadge, let me know what you come up with as far as other ET authors. I'm always looking for material to add to my collection I can recommend a few right now if you're interested. Here are a few authors and specific works that I feel may be relevant from an occultist's perspective and, in particular, in connection with working with LAM and other related "entities". I've read quite a lot of this stuff but these are some of my favorites. Once you get into some of these it shouldn't be hard to weed out the nonsense and there is a lot of it out there. Jacques Vallee (anything by Vallee) and Tau Allen Greenfield have already been mentioned. Both are excellent. You may also like Greenfield's Secret Rituals of the Men in Black if you're not already aware of it. It is a continuation of the theme of his Secret Cipher. Also, as I mentioned, Aeolus Kephas' The Lucid View and Homo-Serpiens are both excellent and put ET's into a larger context, a "mythic-narrative", that is very much in line with various themes found in Grant's work. He corresponded with Grant and utilizes his ideas quite a bit throughout both of these books. All of John Keel's works are very good and present a particular theory or perspective that resonates through most of the good quality literature on the subject. Try his Operation Trojan Horse (here is where you will find his theory), The Mothman Prophecies and Our Haunted Planet. I think Keel coined the term "ultra-terrestrials" which is a term I also prefer over others. Gregory Little's People of the Web and Grand Illusions are also along similar lines as Keel's works as well as Jung's. It was in Little's Grand Illusions that I got the incentive to evoke those "aliens" in a mirror years ago. His books helped shape some of my own lines of thinking early on. And speaking of Jung, his Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in Disguise... sorry, scratch that, was a slip that revealed too much... the Skies is a precursor to what I consider an approach more in line with understanding these phenomena. This same or similar approach resonates through all of the authors I'm listing here. Partick Harpur's Daimonic Reality: A Field Guide to the Otherworld presents a theme that is similar to Keel, Little, Vallee and Jung. John E. Mack's Abduction and Passport to the Cosmos are both high quality. Thomas E. Bullard's The Myth and Mystery of UFOs is an academic treatment that examines the mythic-narrative of UFOs and the abduction phenomenon. UFOs and Abductions: Challenging the Borders of Knowledge edited by David M. Jacobs is a collection of academic perspectives on various aspects of the subject. I also enjoyed Graham Hancock's Supernatural. I think you had brought up a connection to DMT in another discussion and this book ties those ideas into the mix. In connection with that you may also look into Jeremy Narby's The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge, Rick Strassman's DMT: The Spirit Molecule and Inner Paths to Outer Space: Journeys to Alien Worlds Through Psychedelics and Other Spiritual Technologies (the latter is not totally Strassman but he is a key editor and I don't feel like listing all the editors). If you read works like this with LAM in mind I'm sure you won't miss my point (if I have one). There are also some very good articles throughout the Dark Lore series of books that connect with various of these strands of thought. Anytime you need a book list just let me know. And Vadge, not to leave you out... I'm glad you mentioned Strieber's connection with the Gurdjieff group. I had heard that before, even more recently, and just forgotten about it. But you're right and it is an interesting connection. Horsley also connects a lot of dots like that in his psychohistory. Strieber is also a writer and the act of writing these things is part of his process; in fact the act of writing is, in a sense, like a lot of true art, an act of evocation. I don't feel this aspect would escape those of the Typhonian ilk with all of our own "grammars of the arte" floating around. This act of writing one's mythic narrative is another theme that Horsley, also a writer, goes into much depth about and is an underlying theme throughout all of his works.
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Post by Marc on Oct 18, 2013 2:43:37 GMT
Wow. Your list is amazing. I was aware of Greenfield's other works and Vallee's and Graham Hancock but I've not read any of the other books you've mentioned. This is amazing. My shopping list is getting longer and longer with these threads (this is a good thing! Nalyd, since you have directly worked with LAM, can you provide me some pointers as far as the arrangement or set-up of the picture itself and which version you use. I know there are two versions of the actual drawing. I was thinking a plain black frame with a couple of grey candles for light...somewhat like dark mirror evocation work. I've also never seen or read about any particular incenses or colors or herbs attributed to LAM. Perhaps I've missed things as I check my 777 and other references. Any thoughts? I realize working with LAM can be a subjective exploratory work but it's my nature to try and find out as much as I can so that I have the maximum amount of tools at my disposal (I guess this still emanates from my Golden Dawn days Both you and Vadge have provided me with amazing insights so far. I'm grateful for the willingness to share your personal experiences and ideas.
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Post by Vadge Moore on Oct 18, 2013 12:44:33 GMT
Nalyd- I really have resonated to the name Aeolus Kephas, and after going to his site...I know why. I've read the letters that Kenneth Grant sent to him...recent letters. 2001-2002. Absolutely fascinating. I will definitely get his books and I'm going to write him and ask him to post more of Grant's letters to his site...as he asked readers to do, if interested...and I am.
Marc- don't mention it. That's what this site is for. I'm learning and being inspired as much as you. Thanks Mr. Staley!
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Post by Marc on Oct 18, 2013 14:08:47 GMT
Vadge, where did you find the letters Kenneth Grant sent to Aeolus Kephas? Are they on his site?
On another note, I've read Homo Serpiens...a good read for sure.
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Post by Vadge Moore on Oct 18, 2013 14:12:48 GMT
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Post by Marc on Oct 18, 2013 14:16:52 GMT
Thank!
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Post by Marc on Oct 20, 2013 0:48:59 GMT
I just bought Aeolus Kephas' book Lucid View, which is full of Kenneth Grant quotes and references to the trilogies. Kenneth actually wrote a brief comment on the back of the book. I'm only on the second chapter but so far it is amazing.
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Post by Vadge Moore on Oct 20, 2013 1:15:22 GMT
Lucid View...I'll have to order that.
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Post by Marc on Oct 20, 2013 1:41:14 GMT
He has another book called Homo Serpiens which I've read (like all in one sitting...at the bookstore!)The good thing about the publisher of these books is that they are not expensive. I paid 17 canadian so if you're in the US, it will be even cheaper.
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Post by Nalyd Khezr Bey on Oct 22, 2013 0:55:17 GMT
I had a feeling you guys would dig Jake's work. Usually when I recommend his books it seems to fall on deaf ears. Besides one other person you two are the first I've seen take notice. Back when I first read his Lucid View I was so impressed that I went out and bought several copies and gave them as gifts to various "friends" of mine at the time. I never heard from any of them again, haha! And I'm not kidding but it is funny.
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