A simple search for the word “binaural” on PornHub, for example, reveals that there are numerous flavors of binaural beat-enhanced porn available. Some are combined with the concept of hands-free orgasm, others combine sacred geometry. This could be fun to combine with certain psychedelics. And then there are those that combine all of it. Hands-free orgasm, hypnosis with binaural. Here’s a wonderful example. https://www.pornhub.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ph5ee60c75b2d6d

I happened upon The Purple and Scarlet Woman and Her Relatives by Rev. A.B. King, 1900. I wasn’t looking for it specifically, it just popped up in my keyword searching and my curiosity was piqued. So first, I tried searching for the author. Very few references came up for Albert Barnes King other than he was born in NJ and died in Brooklyn. Searches are quickly overshadowed by the more well-known Albert Barnes. So I started reading for my own context and understanding, and based on other reading, it was pretty easy to gauge his wind direction early on. He opens by throwing shade at the Catholics: The actual book begins, and immediately states that clearly Rome is the harlot described iin Revelations. Which I suppose makes sense in the context of John being the author of Revelations and John being maybe boiled in oil and then sent to work the mines in Patmos by the Emperor. I may or may not continue down this rabbit hole. I like the old style of writing when they come right out and say what they want to say, then maybe spend the rest of the book justifying it, instead of the general teasing approach used so often nowadays. I’d love to have a bit more context on Rev. A.B. King, though. How does someone fade into obscurity after that? Further, he’d be turning in his grave if he saw the state of religion today. Here’s the problem. When you create a power structure, a chain of command, if you will, people who lust for power are drawn to it.

I have a friend who is a Certified Zentangle Teacher. She offers classes. I remember that when I first heard this, I felt some inner confusion. On the surface, Zentangle, to me, just seemed like doodling. Are there people out there taking classes to learn to doodle? The answer is yes. Yes, there are. Not only that, but people are taking classes to learn how to TEACH the Zentangle structured doodling method. And at the time of this writing, the teacher class is in the neighborhood of $2,000 in USD, and is a four-day class. I can’t report on the teacher class, or hell, even the regular class for students, because I haven’t taken either one. But I did come across one of the dozen-or-so Zentangle-related books that are out there, and gave it a whirl. I learned a few things on the experiential level. Yes. Drawing repeating patterns and filling a space with them is relaxing and therapeutic. It provided a target for my focus, and the end result is pleasing to the eye. I also noticed that since I hadn’t done anything like this in a while, my hand tended to tense up while drawing, and it was probably a helpful exercise to stay mindful of that and deliberately relax my hand while drawing. I also learned that the pen I used, a Micro-Line 05, was maybe a bit insufficient. Maybe it had just dried out a bit. The book recommended the Micron Pigma pens, maybe the 08, which is a similar size to what I was using. Blowing it up to upload here clearly shows the area where better ink flow might have made the image more visually appealing. But you get the point, I’m sure. After working through a few of their suggested (copyrighted? trademarked?) patterns, I branched off a little bit and improvised. It was fun. Then I started exploring my Zentangle curiosity from the other angle — how did it come about? How did it become an international business, with some 3000 certified teachers out there? What I found was interesting, and stimulated my innate tendency to look for the dark side of any given thing. Apparently, some people believe that the purveyors of the Zentangle business model didn’t really come up with anything on their own; rather, they applied capitalism, circa 2003-4, to an art style expressed by Nadia Russ, who called it NeoPopRealism. Apparently the initial theft occurred in Rhode Island, where the “founders” and master instructors of Zentangle run their operations. Of all places, I found these allegations on ripoffreport.com. https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/zentangle/internet/zentangle-rick-roberts-maria-thomas-design-originals-suzanne-mcneill-sandy-steen-bar-814191 Of course, there are many facets to every story. The hard truth is that in a capitalist society, the party with the capital tends to come out on top.