Interview for Californian High school newspaper

Chris baldyga -
could you give me a short bio of yourself that is birth place and
when you were born. Are there any large events that have impacted you
in your youth?

Rog-
My name is Roger Anthony Essig, my online name RogDog, I was born
Near Sydney Australia in 1978, so that means i've been around the sun
24 times. I live currently in Adelaide, South Australia.
The greatest impacts in my youth have all to do with personal non-
ordinary reality experiences, I'm sure many of you reading this may
have memories locked away from when you were younger, of certain
dreams that defy explanation. It is these reoccurring dreams that I
refer to as episodes of ultimate realness, that have been the driving
force behind all I seek to find out it seems, it all comes back to
those dreams. Around the ages of 6 and 7 I had them , only a few
times, but always terrifyingly real, with the absolute certainty of
being stuck in a section of eternity, I recall the helplessness and
immense pressure of it all, I had no body in this space, which was
very fractal like, constantly zooming in yet never getting any closer.
I had many vivid conscious dreams as a young kid, but it was not
until I was around 17 that I seriously questioned this dream state,
after one amazingly real dream, I had to research it, it blew my mind
at the detail and sensation of realness, of actually being there.

Chris baldyga -
how long have you been an artist?

Rog-

I'd consider my first attempt at an artwork worth any merit to be a pencil drawing I did this in 1995 at age 16. Its interesting looking back at that now, I fully understand what it means to me, when i had no idea what it meant to me back then. Art is great like that, it can be a message from your past self to your future self.

Chris baldyga -
how long after your first psychedelic experience did you begin to
apply this to your art?

Rog-

That would have to be this one that I did around 1997, which would of been a few months after my first experiences. It was my first artwork I did that related in some way to a psychedelic experience. Its kind of abstract and surreal, but the message I was trying to convey at the time was that these experiences can be experienced naturally, that is, from psychedelics found in nature.

Chris baldyga -
How would you best explain your art expression?

Rog-
When people ask what sort of artwork I do, I say "Psychedelic
Visionary' as some of my more powerful works are based on direct
closed eyed visions seen while on a meditative psychedelic
experience. Although really I feel my art expression can be best
explained by following that inner drive, when that part of my body
takes over and I have no choice but to appease the creative urge by
doing whatever feels right. Sometimes i'll get a humorous urge and
make myself laugh so I put the thought into practice, for instance,
my latest artwork/performance was going to the airport and on a plane
carrying a box that I had my Darabuka drum inside. I had wrote on the
side of the box, NOT - A - BOMB.

For me psychedelic art is not abstract, like some have suggested, but instead like snapshots of memories and events that actually are experienced and do happen, how for me a big part of my art mission is to capture the realness of spiritual truth that occurs when on an entheogenic journey and convey how it relates to what has been discussed in many old world spiritual
and belief systems.

Chris baldyga -
Is there a clear connection to your art and the occult?

Rog-
For me the occult is all about training and developing your mind and
surrounding energies to enhance personal power that is essential for
exploration into non-ordinary and also very much, ordinary mundane
reality. When you start to explore yourself and the mystery that is
the world around you, you see things, sometimes utterly beautiful,
sometimes absolutely repulsive. I feel my art touches on that. People
that are involved with occult practices are attracted to my works
probably because of this. I feel a vast majority of religions and
spiritual practices start off with individual experiences of non-
ordinary reality. direct experience.

Chris baldyga -
what are your spiritual systems?

Rog-
I'm very keen on, and have started delving into Dzogchen, but up
until now, I draw on personal intuition and direct experiences, I
really enjoy studying about shamanism and sorcery, these are very
broad terms, but in essence, and at my current understanding, it all
relates back to maintaining specific awareness in dreams and on
Psychedelic experiences and in ordinary reality.

Chris baldyga -
If you follow the occult movement, do you feel occult plays a large
role in the development and evolution of societies?

Rog-
I feel there is occult elements in many religions and spiritual
practices, some only practiced by a few, away from the masses. It is
interesting to note how many world leaders now and in history,
especially American based ones, how they have many connections to
societies and memberships that have occult practices. I'm sure in
freemasonry there is hidden and secret practices that go on for
personal power. In established groups that are in political power,
this may do vast amount of social changes. I would say in such cases,
this could lead to the benefit of a community and society, or be
detrimental.

Chris baldyga -
Who are some people to influence you?

Rog-
People that go against the grain usually, but not always. The
psychedelic sub-culture of Adelaide, which is surprisingly small and
close-knit, is a beautiful community of really great people. There is
inspiration everywhere, seeing people put in effort without any
negative hidden agendas is always a great influence, people that do
things for the simple passion of it, or their personal mission. Also
people that have contacted me from seeing my artwork is always a great
influence, they make me want to follow my art-path to the very end.

Chris baldyga -
If you can relay a message to the world, what would your message be?

Rog-
It would be that on either side of this direct moment is pure
creation and complete annihilation, we are riding a very amazing wave
of now-ness, and enlightenment and oblivion are on either side. The
veil around us is only held together by the flimsiest of illusions.
There is more.

Chris baldyga -
Can this message relate to those of the"norm"?

Rog-
everyone has experienced glimpses of the non-norm

Chris baldyga -
Do you consider artists like Alex Grey and musicians like Tool as
your contemporaries?

Rog-
They have both definitely inspired me, and set a very high standard
to aim for. Alex Grey and I both did our versions of DMT related
encounters at around the same time, there has been some great
synchronicity with similarities in our works, even within Tools
video clips, which is very reassuring, knowing there is an underlying
archetypal vision amongst all of us, across cultures, across races.

Chris baldyga -
who have you done collaborative work with?

Rog-
I recently did two animations for my final Year of University, I had
great help from Daron Dunn, who developed several characters and
helped out greatly with the treatment for the animation. In my other
animation, my friend Jan composed music for me which worked very well.

Chris baldyga -
have you done any album art,if not would you consider it?

Rog-
I have once, but it never went ahead in the end, it still might in
the future I'm not sure, I have someone else that wants me to design
art for their album. So far no well known names.

Chris baldyga -
if you would like can you give me detail on the movement of
psychedelic art(history).

Rog-
look way back into all the ancient cultures, their gods and
goddesses, amazing artworks from Tibetan Buddhist cultures, shamanic
dress and masks from south america, amazing aboriginal artworks from
australia, cave paintings of half human half animal beings, this art
is some of the oldest kind around. END.

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Interview with Matthew Thistle

Roger - Have your bad psychedelic experiences been as beneficial as your good experiences?

Matthew - Bad Experiences have been as beneficial as my good ones, although at the time it is really hard to accept that, and only in retrospect and looking back in significant's and seeing it in a true light and its meaning. I've had some terrible experiences, only after the good ones and for me they are real encounters ah, spirit battles with malevolent forces that you've got to fight, that can change your thought forms, turn yourself against yourself distort what your thinking, present horrible images to you. Whether they are aspects of the self or real entities, it doesn't really matter, for me they are real either which way. For me they are real. I believe them to be real and I see them as a test and felt lucky to come through once and have felt lucky to be alive to be frank with you. But as such I learnt a lot and not going back that deep to that deep to that particular space with that combination of entheogens. Its battle it really is a battle sometimes, but it shouldn't always have to be like that its just happens to be the case with me and my set and setting.

Roger- Do you feel there is a difference with the experience of natural and synthetic entheogenic substances?

Matthew - There's an excellent metaphor I've read by Terence McKenna who talks about Ketamine, which is an excellent example of a synthetic, and he said it was like a beautiful white wall architecturally designed building and it was very clean and efficient, but then compared to what the gaian mind produces you then step into a massive rainforest imbued with colour and mood, it was such utter complexity and it blows anything away, it resonates with the inner core of your being so deeply in a way that a synthetic cant actually get. For example for me LSD was always a head experience it was always about mans intellect and brain even though it was spiritual and you feel that ultimate connectiveness with all living beings it was more in a kind of intellectual way. With the mushroom it comes from your root charka and it streams out inward and flowering and much more profound in a way that's much more deeper and I guess with people that are not familiar with the experience, a lot more terrifying. And he who tastes knows. He who tastes not knows not. But I haven't experienced DMT made from within a laboratory as opposed to, I have only tasted DMT from a plant source and what is within the body, I've only experienced it from plant matter, from the acacia tree, I've heard some people have outer space really technological types of voyages on synthetic DMT but I've had them just as intensely just on the natural stuff, I shouldn't think it makes too much difference the molecule itself is just a key, it fits your synapse, it's a resonating key that opens a doorway, opens your perception to that frequency of existence that is usually hidden from us, closest we get is within the dream state when your asleep deeply at your most unconscious.

Roger - Hence McKenna's wording of 'Dream Matrix Telemetry'.

Matthew - Telemetry being a biofeedback system as to how your going in the environment which your in, which I'm assuming that's the dream matrix world. I've experienced the matrix and that was on the fly agaric, Amanita mascara mushroom that is in symbiosis with elm trees, pine trees. And it is that matrix cog orientated syncopated moment point by point conscious moment in times it slowed down and I entered into it and you got to see how thoughts or all thoughts and all consciousness from moment to moment is actually based on some kind of rhythm that actually is going so fast. And on top of that we are housed, our consciousness is housed, this is how I perceived it at the time. And you can see your thought forms trail on the cogs as they leave your space that your conscious of, these are hyper dimensional cogs that are not any normal ones you can think of but it's the best way I can describe to you in an analogy. With your thought forms, connected on these cogs and leaving a trail and you can almost remember the thoughts you had 10 minutes ago in this experience and then it will appear again in front of you joined by another cog with its newer cognitive association that you've brought to recurrence of the memory then it goes off in another direction as if consciousness is complexifying and ramifying and leaving a trail perhaps in the archaic records, it was a very technical exploration of how consciousness seems to be operating , it's scientific validity cannot be validated by current instruments at the moment so it might as well be used by the ravings of a lunatic as far as scientists are concerned, but then again, he who tastes knows..

Roger- How do you rationalise the effects of entheogens

Matt- For me and how I experienced it, it really is this resonant syncopation just as you pluck a string the nearest one will vibrate, just as you resonate yourself or you have a resonating key, or a entheogenic molecule or chemical that resonates your own synaptic underlying quantum harmonic currents which is still a contemptible theory in consciousness theory but there is no doubt that there is a quantum relationship to consciousness. You can simultaneously perceive multiple octaves of reality and they are happening both and once at the same time and it is the best explanation of why it is that you see rolling waves on entheogens, pulsating rhythms that overlay your visual acute at the time and when you shut your eyes and stop looking at 4 dimensional space time you get the pure high dimensional end dimensional space that's presented to you its when they are together and you look onto the world its when you get an interference pattern just like two beats that are slightly out of sync and you can see it visually , that's the best explanation that I have there is no doubt that it has to do with octaves and resonance and that's hardwired into the very nature of mathematics and all things, all living things and all non living things Pythagoras worked it out over a thousand years ago, even more. As I said it cannot be validated by scientific instrumentation although I hope instruments will become more sensitive enough in the next 5 to 20 years using those nuclear magnetic resonance machines that with bersenstien conduits that can measure quantum fluctuations inside the neural skull at the point source level and can actually compare it to a mathematical model. We may get some serious dialog between physicists and consciousness researchers working together, there is a Nobel prize in it for somebody. But you can experience it anytime. God has provided all these keys out in nature for a purpose.

You mentioned before about if I would advise somebody to take an entheogenic journey , whether its right and good for all people, once upon a time I did , I don't necessarily think that is the case now but for those who seek should certainly be allowed to have this experience. You have the fundamental right over your cognitive liberty to actualize yourself and recondition yourself from the dominated paradigm in which we have lived our entire lives. One of the great things about this dance trance electronic music techno shamanism is this experience of connectiveness with everybody and every living thing that you've never experienced before suddenly its an environment with your brothers and sisters and this amazing sounding music, novel music and its hooking you back up to something that has been here from the beginning and always will be and always was and you know it, and all those people in blue uniforms and dogs and pistols around their wastes telling you what to do and not to ride your bike on the sidewalk and go to buy a nice house , nice car and nice clothes making us consumerist's fed by advertising by the media in cahoots with the government, the secularized government in which money has replaced God is it any wonder that certain people on this planet would want to send planes into the heart of western ideals of greed is some kind of value. I mean it was a horrible act and most people could feel something coming the shit was going to hit the fan sooner or later, thank God it wasn't a nuke, anyway we got off topic there.

Anyway it's all connected, it's all connected what is happening now in dance culture in electronic music is your seeing things for what they truly are without ego interference, attachment to delusions of fame or money with having a new found ecological sensibility that maybe your parents didn't have it, all the trees and life put side is speaking to you, guess what its alive this is fabulous news as an experience if you've been going to school getting yourself a job then getting up the corporate ladder and getting yourself a suit it will blow apart that paradigm for sure. And they don't want it to happen no, the people in control don't want de conditioned people actualizing themselves, what happens? They get out on the streets and start protesting about peoples rights, poor peoples rights, women's rights, ecological rights, rights over your cognitive liberty to experience states of consciousness to what your meant to be experiencing as your destiny as a human being, not for the government to decide what it can determine for you, what arrogance.

The wonderful thing I guess about entheogens is the connectiveness that you just can't get in a pub I mean alcohol is in symbiosis with the western industrialized economy for the workers to forget the misery that the workers lives are, alcohol is a consciousness suppressant, a pain reliever, psychedelics are consciousness cognitive enhancement, these ideas that Terence McKenna of psilosybin being a catalyst for language way back on the plains of Africa 40000 years ago, seeing frescos of north American of shamans with bee bonnets with mushrooms stuffed in their hands from this culture to this day we know really nothing about we don't understand where they came from they were like prototypes of us where we began to speak and put language down , we could hunt better see better, hear things 50 meters away you normally don't hear, see different colours you can make associations , cognitive associations about your environment and feelings you have about your tribal community in a way that you do not have in normal waking consciousness, these things change your life.

Roger - In 2001 a Space Odyssey, do you think the black monolith could be comparable to a psychedelic experience?

Matt- That's an interesting association, I've never thought about that before but I guess the experience of these early hominoids seeing a black monolith is like a psychedelic experience I mean you just have to stop, you cannot rationally work it out, you are just perceiving and experiencing this thing that you have never seen before and you can see that there is some kind of aura and symmetry to this, I would say yes, it would make you think, there are parallels to in effect of the mushroom, although that has its own peculiarities and inherent voyages and that is a mystery that no one talks about in culture and here we are talking about it now, I hope we can spark some more public discussion, more sensible laws regarding their use. The potentially for entheogenic use in a technoshamanistic environment.

Roger - What are the dangers of people experiencing entheogens in our society here?

I mean I've know quite a few people in this scene and cultural phenomena that is illegal and will happen regardless because it must happen it's evolved with the planetary destiny in some way, sure there are casualties, there are hedonistic .. , this is really a problem of the secularized west. In having lost our sacredness to hedonism we go to go out to forget ourselves and we discover that things aren't what they seem and it can be too much, but having sense in context this process, there is a destruction of the ego and of course destruction of the old self and this can be deeply distressing for families and individuals at the time particularly if they react with fear towards it hand have their own conditioning which they are projecting upon it because what is happening is transformation and a new self arising out of the ashes of the old. And in the end most people I know yeah, there is a period of dropping out and it happened in the 60's and it always happens to people that are on the path and that's the path of truth that you've experienced and you know its real if you've tasted it, hallucinogens its such a bad word these things are real experience, These people, when you have to put yourself back together in a new way and it's the destiny or your fate you need to be in contact with your creative self you need to be in contact with your spiritual self , these need to be working in harmony and with a oneness of being in harmony with the environment surrounding us that's how people in design and art communicate the nature of how to live like this, sorry these people are not in control of the media , they never will be people like Murdock dominated what I can only think of as greed and power, there are the very things that these decondition you from , so the states not going to propagate this or this experience so it is left up to primarily the artist now, as yourself Roger, creator of these images , images of states of being that you've been that arrest the mind of the non-experience it makes them think , makes them resonate with a universal , mythical archetype of some universal state which they are currently inherently recognized I think. And people can see it through art then maybe it opens their mind, effects them permanently, spiritual change in their own lives, I'm so different now than what I used to be, with yoga, meditation, I look around and its beautiful out there, God had created and man has created madness. We are on some kind of catastrophe I mean its happening as we speak in Afghanistan, I do not think anyone, the west realize what they are getting themselves into and what the true reasons of this conflict actually are, it's a tragedy but it had to happen in someway I felt. Anyway god have mercy on those that are dying…sighs.

Ok Non Ordinary Reality is the title of this documentary by Roger and I wanted to point this image out because it remains singularly proof that where I have been in hyper space or that dimensions that surround us and in us, is real cause this place is real I have seen it and it is unbelievably beautiful and its on the back of this magazine and I don't know where it is, there is probably a name for it, I call it Godhead central cause that white light spoke to you, it was an intelligent light and its connected at the bottom to all the colours that make up white light , it's a very bad rendition, but least it's a rendition, I've got a picture of it there.

...it was some modulating at some kind if frequency that went down through the crystal of this column of light it spread out into billions, and billions and billions of colours and the colours a frequencies of consciousness that make up everything in the universe , or words to that effect , or something like that, 'lumnsmignablahna' (conveying words can't do it justice)…right!? pauses... Meanfully it's there, it's real its there folks, you can go out and find it anytime, you just have to seek true with your heart.

what I saw was a giant globe of white light , sitting upon a column of white light and a crystal a flaming crystal that went down at the junction of the sphere and the column was like a Islam oriental ziggurat squashed flat into two dimensions that reacted to some kind of gasket that was transforming, as I spoke, into mystical geometric patterns like an alive..            TOP