BEAM 1.3/REVIEWS-Synesthesia

BOOKS

THE ROAD TO ELEUSIS
Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries

Authors: R. Gordon Wasson, Albert Hoffman and Carl. A.P. Ruck
Preface by Huston Smith
Publisher: Hermes Press/William Dailey Rare Books, 1998
$50 special edition hardcover
Probing the Psychedelic Gene of the Western Religious Mind

Originally published in 1978, this new edition of The Road to Eleusis is well-timed, as the public's sensibilities have shifted towards a more open and realistic assessment of the role that naturally occurring psychotropic compounds may have had on the long and winding road of human evolution. Authored by three experts: R. Gordon Wasson, the leading authority on ethnomycology (the role of mushrooms in the past of the human race); Albert

Hoffman, the trail-blazing chemist and discoverer of L.S.D.; and Carl Ruck, a classical scholar specializing in the ethnobotany of ancient Greece. A work of exhaustive research and scholarly presentation, the book is a historical tour-de-force as well as a compelling presentation of the findings of the authors with regard to the Greek "Mystery Schools" at

Eleusis - an institution that endured for centuries and the prime source of religious inspiration for citizens of ancient Greece. The secret of the sacred ritual ceremonies is a special potion called the "kykeon" that is carefully prepared by the attendant priestesses, with a formulaic correspondence with the Vedic "Soma." The primary point of the book, which resulted in its being nearly banned on its initial publication in 1979, is that the key element of the most influential religious institution of our cultural and psychological forebearers is an hallucinogenic experience: "The ancient testimony about Eleusis is unanimous and unambiguous. Eleusis was the supreme experience in an initiate's life. It was both physical and mystical: trembling, vertigo, cold sweat, and then a sight that made all

previous seeing seem like blindness, a sense of awe and wonder at a brilliance that caused a profound silence since what had just been seen and felt could never be communicated: words are unequal to the task. Those symptoms are unmistakably the experience induced by an hallucinogen." - from the The Road to Eleusis Michael Gosney

IN A SPIRITUAL STYLE

Author: Laura Cerwinske
Photographer: Matthew Fuller
Publisher: Thames and Hudson
111 pages $24.95

Okay, so I’m a perfectionist when it comes to altars and sacred spaces. While I believe they are to be found in every fragment of existence (from a delicate flower arrangement to a creative pile of junk), some are obviously more impressive, devotional, and inspiring than others.

In Laura Cerwinske’s new book, "In A Spiritual Style," she obviously went to a collection of acquaintances’ homes around the world (primarily Jerusalem, New York, Florida, and New Mexico, with a touch of India and Ireland thrown in) in search of shelves, gardens, kitchen sinks and just about anywhere in the home where a collection of treasures created a sacred environment. As the author explained in the introduction: "A room designed in a Spiritual Style primarily expresses its owner’s relationship with divinity."

The divinities invoked in this full-color coffee table book are global, with emphasis on Christian, Jewish, Eastern European Orthodox, tribal, and homemade deities. Several of the art pieces are actually created by the author, which gives the book a sense of self-aggrandizement. There’s Laura’s kitchen stove surrounded by her framed collages, there’s her bleeding goddess mixed-media icon on another page, and we even have a full page spread of two sculptural panels by artist Judith Hoch which "transform my subtropical retreat in Miami into an exotic narration of goddess mythology." Obviously, Laura Cerwinske has the bucks to buy bigtime Spiritual Style.

While much of this book reminds me of a Martha Stewart attempt at spirituality, there are parts that are enthralling. I especially liked the chapter on Santeria Altars, a 4,000 year old religion based on nature worship originally from western Nigeria which was brought by

slaves from Africa to Cuba in the 18th Century. The collection of colorful and evocative altars shown, designed by priestess Carmen Pla, are dedicated to several of the various Orishas (children of the creator deity Oludumare) and reflect the essence of this tribal religion. The author describes Santeria as, "it incorporates ethical and theological principles along with millennia-long traditions of herbal medicine, prayer, protective charms, chants, magic, marriage and death rites, as well as food and animal offerings and dietary taboos."

You may also be entranced by the simple clusters of sacred objects found on piano in Manhattan apartments, counter tops in Albuquerque and a Sabbath table set for Friday night supper in Israel. What this book inspires is the realization that we are all in fact surrounded by altars and sacred spaces. Just look around you, and no doubt a part of your home could have made its way into this book.

Laura Cerwinske has done her footwork finding the correct combination of beautiful, serene settings to create this relaxing book. Yet, some research mistakes are glaring. For example, the stunning photo of a collection of Buddhas recessed in a lighted area in the "Rooms and

Shrines" chapter carries the caption: "In Hindu households, the doors of the shrines are opened for family worship so the devotees can see the figure of god inside and the gods can see the worshippers." If it’s a Hindu household, why the Buddha collection? And another Hindu mistake, coming from a woman who acknowledges Maharaji as being her source of wisdom, is a photo of two lovely stone statues which obviously represent the gods Krishna and Radha, yet she refers to them as, "Hindu Shiva and Shakti figures." Nikki Lastreto

FIST OF THE NORTH STAR

Courtesy of Manga Entertainment http://www.manga.com
Executive Director : Yoshi Takami
Original Creator : Bronson/Tetsuo Hara
Chief Director : Toyoo Ashida
Producer : Yoshiro Sugawara
Produced by TOEI Animantion Co, Ltd, Japan
VHS Color/Stereo Hi-Fi
12 Volume Series : 36 Episodes
Dubbed: $19.95
Subtitle: $24.95

Based on the popular Japanese comic books, Fist of the North Star gained a huge audience on Japanese television long before the featrue films and action toys brought the excitement to the world. Enter Planet Earth some time in the future where nuclear has devastated the cities and the once fertile land is now a beatly lanscape where humans fight to stay alive. Super-powered beasts and biker gangs terrorize the streets while one chosen man realizes his power to save civilization --Kenshiro is the master of the "Hokuto Shinken" fighting technique, a martial art so awesomely brutal that only a single being can be entrusted with its full power. Kenshiro is the Fist of the North Star. Sometimes silly and extremely gory, Manga’s re-release of the classic Fist of the North Star toons are brought to life by the moody urban soundscape of the UK’s expreimental breakbeat/drum & bass label Reinforced Records. Ms.E

STOP MAKING SENSE

Courtesy of Palm Pictures
DVD with Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Director : Jonathan Demme
Cinematographer : Jordan Cronenweth

"Is it against Radio-V’s editorial bible to review a rock film?" I ask.

"Not that rock film!" shouts the office...

Chris Blackwell, founder of Palm Pictures, originally released Stop Making Sense in 1984 on Island Alive. The digitally re-mixed and re-mastered Talking Heads concert film chronicles the climax of their 1983 tour. Performances of of Psycho Killer, Heaven, Thank You For Sending Me An Angel, Found A Job, Slippery People, Burning Down the House, Once in a Lifetime and Genius of Love are elaborate frenzy’s of light, sound and motion.

The DVD features a storyboard-to-scene comparison, the original theatrical film trailer and Palm Pictures Hyperactive features - photos, bios, discography and web links. An amazing collectors piece to remind you that the 80s weren’t so bad after all! Especially when the era can be remixed using 90s technology. Ms.E

ZARDOZ REVISITED

The Ups and Downs of Eternal Life
by Mark Katzman

A fake God descends from clouds and mist into the Outlands. Zardoz.

It's time for another little pep talk to his devotees, the Exterminators. One of them is Zed (Sean Connery), the hero of this sci-fi epic, and he's got something up his sleeve. Zed is going to stow away inside Zardoz on his quest to infiltrate the Vortex.

Are you ready for this?

Zardoz, speak.

One monumentally pissed-off hunk of stone, eh? We're heading into some strange terrain, that's for sure. Welcome to the year 2293.

Zardoz (1974) was written, produced and directed by John Boorman. It was shot in Ireland near Boorman's country home in County Wicklow and at Ardmore Studios nearby. In Sight & Sound (Spring 1974) Boorman called Zardoz an "expressionist" film, full of "ideas" as opposed to "just surfaces."

Here's the deal: The world has plunged into a Dark Age. A self-sustaining biosphere, the Vortex, has been created by a technological elite for "the rich, the powerful, the clever." The Vortex encloses a beautiful valley with gobs of lush green foliage. It's an oasis from a poisoned, scorched earth. The Vortex was conceived to survive a ruined world and "guard the knowledge and treasure of civilization...for an unknown future."

The power of the Vortex emanates from a mighty crystal, the Tabernacle, "an infinite storage space for refracted light patterns" possessing super-awesome regenerative powers. Boorman sends us a chilling, premonitory vision: the ability to recycle life, endlessly, bypassing natural evolution. You might say the Tabernacle is the ultimate computer. If it has a RAM count, it's off the known map. And it seems to upgrade itself. How's that for a concept?

The village inside the Vortex has a medieval feel. That's where the Eternals live, at the "Second Level." There is no death for them, no sex. Eternals have remarkable psychic powers. All of them are young and attractive, especially the icy Consuella (Charlotte Rampling). In fact, women are the dominant force in this communal society. Men are sissies, and impotent to boot. The Eternals wear far out unisex togs, and most of them are having an eternally bad hair day.

Eternals hold lavish, animated dinner parties. They're just wild about their sacramental bread filled with a green substance resembling creamcheese. Ah, I see that the Eternals are seated. Let's take a peek.

The Vortex is protected by a Perimeter Shield (an invisible, impenetrable force-field) from the world of suffering, the Outlands, where Brutals and Exterminators (Brutals who are under the spell of Zardoz) live, eking out a hellish existence upon a wasted planet.

Brutals are beginning to multiply, which troubles the Eternals to no end. Eternals don't want mankind huffing and puffing its way through evolution again. All that birth and death and messy sex, who needs it?

Actually, birth exists within the Vortex, but it's not the usual, trauma-ridden, human kind. The Tabernacle simply regenerates you inside its liquid-crystal womb. Trouble is, you don't come out quite the same as you were before.

Eternals can get old, but they can never "die" in the sense that we know it. Suicide, no problem. Off to the Tabernacle. If they've committed a sin or misdemeanor, they might be given a sentence of aging by a few months or years. One of their major no-no's is to "transmit a negative aura." Very uncool. You'll get a few years for that. When an Eternal does attain old age, they become a Renegade and join the others dressed in tattered tuxedoes and fraying ball gowns, partying forever in a dilapidated ballroom. The thing is, Renegades would like nothing better than to die. Their endlessness is driving them nuts. I guess eternity has its down side, too.

One of the Eternals, Arthur Frayn, has devised a clever solution for population control. He's a kind of "colonial administrator" for the Outlands. Frayn has fashioned a God, Zardoz, straight from the WiZARD of OZ, to intimidate and control his primitive band of Exterminators who kill the copulating Brutals. Zardoz issues rifles, pistols and sabers to them directly from his hideous mouth.

The film has a mysterious sheen. Besides using fog-filters to cut down the harsh tones, Boorman used smoke throughout the film, whose effect on the audience, he hoped, would create a "dream-like world you can't quite get a hold of."

To complicate matters further, before the mighty head of Zardoz descends from the sky, the film is "introduced" in a monologue by the disembodied head of none other than Arthur Frayn himself. He tells us that he is both Arthur Frayn and Zardoz. He tells us he is a "fake God by occupation, and a magician by inclination." He's lived 300 hundred years and longs to die. "But death is no longer possible," Frayn laments. He refers to himself as "the puppet master," as he will be manipulating the characters and events we'll see. "But I am invented, too," he says, "for your entertainment. And you, poor creatures, who conjured you out of the clay? Is God in show business, too?"

What is Boorman up to here? Like any worthy quicksand, the more you struggle with Zardoz, the more you get sucked in.

Perhaps it's time to meditate at the Second Level with the Eternals. Warning: This is a powerful spiritual practice. Do not attempt this alone. Seek out a qualified Eternal to guide you, please.

Second Level meditation, commence.

Zed (wearing only a red, diaper-like affair) accomplishes his mission by hiding in a mound of grain inside the head. While in flight, he emerges, gun barrel first, to discover people regenerating in the liquid-crystal wombs. He sees the lush Vortex through the void-eyes of Zardoz while gliding through the clouds, effortlessly.

Now comes trouble. Arthur Frayn steps into view and is shot by Zed without a second thought. Frayn tumbles out between those crusty teeth he must have sculpted, commenting, "How pointless!"

Once Zardoz lands, Zed finds himself in the Vortex, near the village, a feat which hasn't been accomplished for over two hundred years. Frayn's house is close by. That's where Zed discovers a crystal ring, the Tabernacle's all-purpose communicator. The ring projects holographic images and spells in "Zardozspeak."

There's Zed now.

Zed hides in bushes outside of a small castle, where large, clear structures enclose humongous green plants. He sees something unknown and asks the ring what it is. "Flower," replies the ring. "For what?" Zed wonders. "Decorative," says the ring. (here I wanted to shake the damn all-knowing crystal-generated voice into having some kind of human feeling-tone)

Zardoz crosses paths with Apathetics. They're extremely spaced out and move in a catatonic shuffle. They seem to be, as far as I can tell, Eternals who have either shut down due to the heavy burden of immortality or who have, quite possibly, partaken too generously of the sacred green loaf.

Boorman considers Eternals, Brutals, Exterminators and Apathetics "aspects of the human condition...tendencies that we have in each of us, taken to extreme forms."

Zed reaches a lake. May (Sara Kestelman), whom we come to learn is a scientist, approaches him, emanating a psychic shield. Zed shoots her (he's going to have to get over his gun-crazy greeting problem) but the bullet is easily repelled and the pistol flies out of his hand. He realizes he cannot fuck with this woman. She calls him an Exterminator. He defends himself by saying that he kills for Zardoz. She reads his mind and knows he's infiltrated the Vortex by the only possible route, inside the obscene stone head.

Zed's mind is probed by May and Consuella and his memories of killing and brutality are displayed on a large screen for viewing by the Eternals. A scene where Zed rapes a woman on a beach is deemed a "key image," and repeated.

Consuella is boiling. "These images will pollute us. Quench it," she says. "Quell it."

At this time the Tabernacle announces, via a ring, that Arthur Frayn is under "reconstruction."

May calls for a "full genetic study" of the infiltrator. She wants to break its DNA code and "study it's emotional and psychic elements in relation to its sociology."

"We have no death," Consuella says to the gathering of Eternals. "We are perfectly stabilized. Now May wants to bring in this animal from the outside...think of our equilibrium. The presence will dismay our tranquillity."

It seems that it already has. Women Eternals are wowed by this new development and begin touching Connery's firm, hairy chest.

Consuella: "Think of the delicate balance we must maintain...it knows its life is at stake. Otherwise it would rape and kill, as it always has." One of the Eternals, Friend (John Allerton), is quite bemused, saying "Let's keep it. "Anything to relieve the boredom."

They give Zed three weeks before he'll be destroyed. He's kept in a cage outdoors, and given to Friend as a slave. May studies him inside her pyramid laboratory by scanning him with her ring. During this time Zed puts in a stint at the sacred bread factory. He's given the honor of removing the freshly baked loafs from an oven resembling an oversize sun lamp.

Cut to a spellbinding scene where a naked Zed is on display in a room of Eternals. He's been brought there for a compelling experiment.

Consuella begins her presentation before the large screen, pointer in hand. Take it away, Consuella.

She goes on: "Of course we all know the physical process involved, but not the link between stimulus and response. There seems to be a correlation with violence, with fear. Many hanged men died with an erection. You are all more or less aware of our intensive researches into this subject. Sexuality declined, probably because we no longer needed to procreate. Eternals soon discovered that erection was impossible to achieve. And we are no longer victims of this violent, convulsive act, which so debased women and betrayed men."

Consuella slowly walks toward Zed and continues. "The Brutal, like other primates living unselfconscious lives, is capable of spontaneous and reflexive erection. As part of May's studies of this creature, we're trying to find once again the link between erotic stimulation and erection. This experiment will measure auto-erotic stimulation of the cortex, leading to erection."

She turns, faces the screen and says "Play" into her crystal ring.

Close-up of a woman massaging her breasts in a shower. Zed's response patterns are thin white horizontal lines superimposed on the screen. But the image is deemed not erotically stimulating because the lines are relatively stable. It's just not happening for Zed. "Change," Consuella says. Instantly two naked women are sloshing around in mud, making love. The Eternals move closer towards Zed and peer down at the body part in question. Nothing doing.

Now Zed looks at Consuella, who is so very lovely, and, well, bingo! The bands of light are turning blue and pulsating like mad. Evidently the experiment has succeeded. Zed looks down at himself, then up at Consuella. The Eternals are terribly amused and break into laughter. Cut.

The next morning Consuella (secretly flattered) visits Zed, who's sleeping in his cage. She asks her ring for the low down on sleep.

"Sleep was necessary for man," begins the dry, no-nonsense voice, "when his waking and unconscious lives were separated. As Eternals achieved total consciousness, sleep became obsolete and Second Level meditation took its place. Sleep was closely connected with death."

May has been granted seven days to work Zed over before he's "terminated." She scans him with her ring which is able to project his genetic structure. God knows what one's genetic structure looks like, but Zed's is a conglomeration of creepy crystal blobs, amoebas and alot of really scary microbes. May tells him that he's a "third generation mutant," therefore "genetically stable," with much "breeding potential."

The majority of Eternals have grown quite fond of Zed by this time and get into an argument over him, at, where else, a dinner party. Zed's serving greenish potatoes. Friend is especially rebellious. He's had enough of the whole shebang. One of the women stands, spreads her arms to her sides above her head, saying "The monster is a mirror. And when we look at him, we look into our own, hidden faces." The Eternals, except for Friend, rise in unison and assume the meditation position, holding their arms in front of them. The woman tells them to "Meditate on this at Second Level" which they promptly do, focusing their attention on Friend all the while. They really let him have it, and he frys. Part of his face is now totally disfigured. Poor Friend.

True to Conseulla's initial insight, Zed's appearance has thrown the Vortex completely out of whack. May goes at him with the full force of her psychic whammy, causing Zed to finally confess that he stowed away inside Zardoz to penetrate the Vortex and destroy the Tabernacle. Whereupon she kisses him about the face, tenderly, tenderly.

Consuella has overheard all of this and promptly hands down May a ghastly sentence of fifty years of aging. In a psychic tug of war, she causes Zed to go temporarily blind. "We can no longer quell him," she says. "He's out of control. We must become hunters and killers ourselves."

Another Eternal sneaks Zed away and tells him that she knows why he is there. "You're the One. The Liberator." And the price they now must pay for their isolation. "You have brought hate and anger into the Vortex to infect us all," she says. She gives him a special green leaf to eat, "When the need arises."

Hmm.

The Eternals are really getting bent out of shape. They begin screaming and clawing at Zed, who's confined within a supposedly indestructible wrapping. Nevertheless, Zed breaks free and gets the hell out of there.

He reaches the Periphery Shield and sees his fellow Exterminators in the distance. But the Shield is impenetrable. He quickly slides down a steep hill and hides in the forest, while Eternals search for him on horseback. Through a liberal hole in the plot, Zed manages to get back into the village in broad daylight, finding himself with a group of Apathetics in an out of the way building.

In yet another odd bit, a female Apathetic touches him with her finger, then tastes it. It's as if she's seen THE LIGHT. She's instantly wide-eyed, her world view deeply and utterly altered. She lets a male Apathetic taste her finger (with cheesy sound to highlight this epiphany). Another woman plants a full kiss on Zed, saying "We take life from you." She, in turn, kisses a couple of women. This leads to a group kiss, where everyone seems to be kissing everyone, including men kissing men. It's a major lovefest which completely weirds Zed out. He eats the leaf. (it sure didn't take long for the need to arise)

Night. Zed, in bridal drag (and it's quite flattering, really) is being smuggled through the woods by Renegades wearing Halloween masks. In fact, the woods are a frenzy of activity, as Apathetics have rapidly progressed to having sex with each other there, too. Zed is taken to Friend's cellar, where May, toting a revolver, pleads with them not to destroy the Vortex, but to "renew it," for a "better breed, given time." "Time," says Friend, "wasn't eternity enough?" "This place is against life," Zed says, "it must die."

May then tells him that she has her followers, and asks that Zed inseminate them all. If he does this, they will teach him all they know. Perhaps then he will be able to break the Tabernacle. Or be broken by it. The trio places their hands around the pistol.

Friend: "An end to eternity."

May: "A higher form."

Zed: "Revenge."

Then comes one of the film's great sequences. A stunning montage where Eternals "touch teach" Zed. They impart their knowledge "by osmosis, out of time." He's told that "the Law of the Unity of Opposites is the fundamental Law of the Universe." And for this, Zed gets to lie comfortably on his back and ritually service the women.

Touch teach now.

We've traveled far, haven't we? There's still a ways to go, but it wouldn't be right to reveal the shocking and poignant ending to this saga. And, just in case you're wondering, Zed and Consuella eventually get together and begin a new generation the old fashioned way, improbable as that might seem.

In another unforgettable sequence, Zed does battle with the Tabernacle, inside its very center: the crystal, mirror-maze. The maze was constructed at Ardmore Studios and was nearly seventy feet across.

Have a look.

Zardoz was not taken very seriously when it was released. Joseph Gelmis, writing in Newsday (March 24, 1974), called Zardoz "a perverse, self-mocking, elusive, anti-utopian slapstick adventure with cosmic pretensions." Paulene Kael wrote in the New Yorker (February 18, 1974): "Boorman wants the world to go back and start on the same course for the second time...He's worried about the intellectuals taking over; he thinks we're endangered by feminization and sterile intellectuality and impotence. Boorman's world view is like a country bumpkin's vision of New York City."

One of the Renegades, a scientist who helped developed the Vortex, says that it's "an offense against nature and was forced to produce Zed in order to break it."

Boorman: "The impasse in Zardoz is perhaps the kind that we've reached already, and in all the predictions about the future of the human race there always seems to be a factor left out--the question of what evolution might do...Anyway, it's all speculation, it's all fun."

I don't think you can argue with that.

Mark Katzman is the author of two artist's books: Along the Way and Inon.

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