TURN ON, TUNE OUT, DROP IN

It's Become Harder To Slip The Reins Of Our Conditioned Minds, And
More Expensive Too

In order for us to think differently and create a new culture devoid
of commercialism, we need to escape our conditioned minds. Moshe
Feldenkris, in his book The Potent Self, describes the process as
"slipping the reins of our conditioned minds."

Feldenkris discusses experiments with pigeons which had been
conditioned to peck a disk to receive a food reward. If the pigeons
are given drugs or alcohol the conditioning is lost--the pigeons no
longer remember to peck the disk to receive food. When the effects of
the drugs or alcohol wear off, the conditioning reappears--the
pigeons again peck the disk to receive food.

In this experiment, we see that the conditioning of the mind is a
function that resides in the cortex or "thinking" part of the brain.
When drugs or alcohol are ingested, the connection between the cortex
and the more primitive areas of the brain are temporarily severed. We
talk of people loosing their inhibitions when alcohol is ingested.
This means loosing our reins of social control that have been
instilled in us through the conditioning mechanisms of family, school
and religious doctrine. It means slipping the reins of our conditioned minds.

Interestingly, all major religions and schools as well as many
parents are vehement supporters of the non-ingestion of drugs and
alcohol --mustn't let young people discover an unconditioned mind!

The Buddhist practice of meditation is to regain our unconditioned
mind. This would be a non-drug or alcohol approach to turn on, tune
in and drop out, and has the same effect--a state of unconditioned
mind. Buddhists who enter the meditative state frequently and for
prolonged periods, and people who use drugs and alcohol regularly,
have different views and values from the dominant culture of
consumption and attachment to objects in the material world.

Artists and musicians who have received commercial success will not
lead us to a new and better world. They are products of our present
conditioning. If I want to hear or see commercially successful
artists and musicians I need to have and commit the resources to buy
a ticket, CD, painting etc. Therefore, possessing the necessary
resources limits or stratifies the audience according to resources
held. In order to enter a new world of less commercialism, we need to
unplug the TV, the radio, and newspapers and gather around local
musicians, artists and philosophers in our own community and in our
homes and the homes of our neighbours, thereby turning our backs on
the commercialism of our culture. Our present commercial culture in
such a milieu will die because there will no longer be any patrons.

The best example I can give is a personal one. In 1969 I was in
Amsterdam and went to the Paradisio. It is an old church that had
been turned over to the youth at the time. This was back when Dam
Square was packed with American hippies protesting the Vietnam war.
Each day the hippies would sit in at the square and the tolerant
Dutch police would remove the non-resisting protesters to busses. The
protesters were driven to the city limits and let off the busses.
Then they would walk back to Amsterdam to protest the next day and
the scene would repeat itself.

In the evening at the Paradisio the scene was cool. The main part of
the church was open, there was recorded music or sometimes musicians
would be there to play. There was a kind of plug-in boy scout fire in
the middle. We danced and sometimes there was a Pink Floyd light show
making its way around the walls. Everything was cheap including beers
and food. In the passageway on the second floor between the two
entrance towers we sat body to body passing joints, chillums, pipes
etc. It didn't cost anything to get high, people shared what they
had. This was all tolerated back in 1969.

I was back in Amsterdam very recently and had heard that the
Paradisio was not only still going but was a top club. I went hoping
to recreate the '69 scene. Oops, this is 2005--36 years later. The
entrance fee was twelve Euros, about $17 Canadian; there was no
special act that night, though Jerry Lee Louis made it there the
following evening.

Instead of entertaining ourselves with dancing together we were all
facing the stage being entertained by an air band contest. We did get
to all jump rhythmically to the beat of the air band contestant and
either cheer or boo depending on who we came to support. But it was
pretty apparent that the event at the Paradisio was put on for us. We
were participants of someone else's agenda.

And the second floor connecting hall?--removed. You bought your dope
at a government-licensed coffee shop and smoked or ingested it there.
Now the drugs to slip the reins of our conditioned minds are much
more plentiful, available most anywhere, but it is more expensive and
certainly not freely shared. To be part of the scene requires much
greater resources. Whereas we lived on very little and entertained
ourselves, today's commercial culture dictates that to be a part of
the scene you need considerable resources--probably a job for
starters! When you are in a conditioned state of mind you are
entertained, directed, no longer free, or self-directed. People now
drop in at the Paradiso to a commercial culture with a conditioned mind.

In the US in the 1860s there was a fear that with the freeing of the
slaves, who greatly out numbered their white masters in the south,
that there would be great retaliation--the slaves would seek revenge.
The discussion was centered on how to control the actions of the
freed slaves. The response was that it was not necessary to control
the actions of the freed slaves. If you control a person's thinking
you will control their actions.

My personal belief is that the segregated Christian church was used
to control the thinking of the freed slaves. This has led me to adopt
as my personal political philosophy: Why do you think the way you do?
and Who benefits when you think that way?

How did "turn on, tune in, drop out" become "turn on, tune out, drop
in?" An article by Tom Haydon in Common Ground magazine last spring
may give some guidance. Haydon discusses how the free-thinking
rebellious youth of the 60s were co-opted. Haydon states that a
three-step process was developed to turn an individual's thinking 180
degrees. This process was successfully adopted by the people who are
in control of the mass media. In America that is pretty much five CEO's.

So how do we achieve simpler less consumptive lives? I'm presently
peddling my ass around Europe and would not voluntarily give up my
high-tech active sports wear for cold clammy cotton and denim. But I
met a guy from Poland while working on a reconstruction project in
Thailand earlier this spring. He said the Poles are rushing to adopt
the American consumer culture. He said it was hard to resist
considering the scarcity and control the Poles experienced under
communism. He talked about his wife who was from Sweden and how she
knew how much was enough. He said it was a cultural thing with the
Swedes. They didn't seem to think that if a little is good, a lot
must be better. They were happy and content with just enough.