ROLAND GRIFITHS. 1946-2023 the New York Times Oct. 17, 2023
A HALLMARK FEATURE of these Psilocybin experiences is that we’re all in this together. it opens people up to this sense that we have a commonality and that we need to take care of each other.
“NOTABLY Dr. Griffiths laboratory’s first therapeutic study with psilocybin was with cancer patients, but Dr. Griffiths said he waited a bit before using a psychedelic to investigate his own condition. When he did — he took LSD — he approached the session like a reporter, and queried his cancer: what are you doing here? Is this going to kill me?
“The answer was, Yes, you will die, but everything is absolutely perfect; there’s meaning and purpose to this that goes beyond your understanding, but how you’re managing that is exactly how you should manage it.
“Long before his cancer diagnosis, Dr, Griffiths told Michael Pollan that he hoped his own death would not be sudden, that he would have time to savor it. ‘Western materialism says the switch gets turned off and that’s it. but there are so many other descriptions. It could be a beginning! Wouldn’t that be amazing.”
THERE’S NOBODY THAT PLAYS LIKE ME — why would they? So if I’ve had an influence, maybe it would be if they’d decided to play like themselves. In other words, the whole idea of not playing like anybody is a way of playing. CARLA BLEY. 1936-2023
I’VE SPENT MANY YEARS learning how to play as slow as possible and then many more years learning how to play as fast as possible. I’ve spent many years trying how to play as good as possible. At the present I’m trying to spend as many years learning how to play as bad as possible.
MY SOLO PIANO PLAYING is a question in itself. the question is ‘why?,’ and after ‘why?’ comes ‘what?,’ and after ‘what?’ comes ‘when?’. PAUL BLEY 1932-2016
I DO THINK that we have inclinations, little voices in us that tell us where we’re supposed tp go. I have this desire to understand the world around me.
THERE ARE NO MORE COLORED GIRLS; THE LADY IS BLACK. ALICE TRAVIS
CHARLES R, SWINDOLL 1934-“FLYING CLOSER TO THE FLAME”.
WE are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.
WE HAVE A CHOICE EVERY DAY regarding the attitude we will embrace for the day. Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it. OUR ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING.
GOD IS A SPECIALIST at making something useful and beautiful out of something broken and confused.
DON’T GET OLDER; get better: Live realistically. Give generously. Adapt willingly. Trust fearlessly. Rejoice daily.
TODAY IS UNIQUE! IT has never occurred and it will never be repeated.
ONE of the marks of maturity is the ability to disagree without becoming disagreeable.
CHOOSE TO VIEW LIFE THROUGH GOD’S EYES. ASK HIM TO GIVE YOU AN ETERNAL, DIVINE PERSPECTIVE.
DON’T SEEK MORE DAYS IN YOUR LIFE BUT MORE LIFE IN YOUR DAYS.
ANYTHING UNDER GOD’S CONTROL IS NEVER OUT OF CONTROL.
HENRI BERGSON 1859-1941 Philosopher. “Matter and Memory”.
THERE IS NO GREATER JOY than that of feeling oneself a creator. The triumph of life is expressed by creation.
I WOULD SAY act like a man of thought and think like a man of action.
TO EXIST is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.
FORTUNATELY, some are born with spiritual immune systems that sooner or later give rejection to the illusory worldview grafted upon them from birth through social conditioning. They begin sensing that something is amiss and start looking for answers. Inner knowledge and anomalous outer experiences show them a side of reality others are oblivious to and so begins the journey of awakening. Each step of the journey is made by following the heart instead of the crowd and by choosing knowledge over veils of ignorance.
THE IDEA OF THE FUTURE, pregnant with an infinity of possibilities, is this more fruitful than the future itself, and this is why we find more charm in hope than in possession, in dreams than in reality.
SOME OTHER FACULTY than the intellect is necessary for the apprehension of reality.
HOMO SAPIENS, the only creature endowed with reason, is also the only creature to pin its existence on things unreasonable.
IT IS EMOTION THAT DRIVES THE INTELLIGENCE FORWARD IN SPITE OF OBSTACLES.
INTUITION is a method of feeling one’s way intellectually into the inner heart of a thing to locate what is unique & inexpressible in it.
TO DRIVE OUT THE DARKNESS, BRING IN THE LIGHT.
THE PRESENT contains nothing more than the past, and what is found in effect was already in the cause.
INTELLIGENCE is characterized by a natural incomprehension of life.
WE ARE FREE when our actions emanate from our total personality, when they express it, when they resemble it in the indefinable way a work of art sometimes does the artist.
IF REALITY impacted directly on our senses and our consciousness, if we could have direct communication between the material world and ourselves, art would be unnecessary.