The Frozen Fortress of Solitude, better known as High Falls (post snowfall) in DuPont State Forest, NC.
I recently talked about the positive effects of negative ions in the last blog post, Negtaive Ions: Asheville Salt Cave, Kratom Bar and Maeng Da. I originally embarked on this brief road trip down south in order to visit Asheville and the surrounding nature scenery around it. Studying a map I realized Asheville was surrounded by national and state forests and parks, including the Great Smoky Mountains, (which, by some accounts, might be the most visited national park in America) Pisgah National Forest, DuPont State Forest and the Cherokee Reservation. After realizing this I got in my car and drove through NJ, making mandatory local beer drinking stops in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee along the way and back. (The southwest Virginian "Honey Cream Ale" by Wolf Hills wins this ZOOMDOUT "interstate road trip tasting contest," by the way.)
Now, while stumbling into the Salt Cave and Pink Himalayan Salt lamp boutiques in Asheville were a complete coincidence, visiting multiple waterfalls were intentional from the beginning. Interested in the health benefits of breathing in negative ions, I decided to visit some of North Carolina's most majestic waterfalls: High Falls, Looking Glass Falls, Sliding Rock, Mingo Falls and Triple Falls. There are almost zero places better than getting your fix of negative ions than at the bed of a misty waterfall. This source place of persistent power mixed in with misty negative ions is primal ground for both physical and figurative inspiration. It's the perfect place to breathe and dream. Especially during the mornings of the winter months, when very few people bother to visit these exploding waterfalls and, instead, leave them all to you.
Now, while stumbling into the Salt Cave and Pink Himalayan Salt lamp boutiques in Asheville were a complete coincidence, visiting multiple waterfalls were intentional from the beginning. Interested in the health benefits of breathing in negative ions, I decided to visit some of North Carolina's most majestic waterfalls: High Falls, Looking Glass Falls, Sliding Rock, Mingo Falls and Triple Falls. There are almost zero places better than getting your fix of negative ions than at the bed of a misty waterfall. This source place of persistent power mixed in with misty negative ions is primal ground for both physical and figurative inspiration. It's the perfect place to breathe and dream. Especially during the mornings of the winter months, when very few people bother to visit these exploding waterfalls and, instead, leave them all to you.
Looking Glass Falls, Psigah National Forest
I ended up spending a day in DuPont State Forrest shooting and studying the flow and pattern of falling water with a pair of binoculars. As it turns out doing this is an extremely fulfilling way to spend your mornings and afternoons. And if you combine this with mantra chanting along with consciously breathing in the mistily mystical vibrating air around you, you might find yourself launching into the pulsating mystery of Nature herself. Simply observing the bright reflection of white light of the chaotically overflowing water intermingling with the authoritative laws of gravity offers you the realization of what a masterful, nonhuman work of art a waterfall is. Om Hrim Namah Shivaya
Since we're on the subject of falling water and Nature, I might as well take you on a relevant white water tangent of thought. As I busily observed these waterfalls, a peculiar notion I've been intrigued by for some years palpably came back to mind. In an early 1990's interview for the psychedelic brain-candy book, Mavericks of the Mind, the author, David Jay Brown, sat down with the legendary chaos and dynamical systems theorist, Ralph Abraham, to talk about a fun-bag of interesting topics including mathematics, mythology, psychedelics, dynamics, ancient cultures, white water, dolphins, Dionysian rituals, Eros and Chaos (among many other seemingly chaotic topics). Below is a small excerpt of the fascinating interview. If you'd like to read the interview in its entirety check out the full interview with Ralph Abraham: Chaos and Life. Although I really suggest you take it a step further and purchase a copy of Mavericks of the Mind. Just make sure you read it with caution; it might blow your circuitry.
Since we're on the subject of falling water and Nature, I might as well take you on a relevant white water tangent of thought. As I busily observed these waterfalls, a peculiar notion I've been intrigued by for some years palpably came back to mind. In an early 1990's interview for the psychedelic brain-candy book, Mavericks of the Mind, the author, David Jay Brown, sat down with the legendary chaos and dynamical systems theorist, Ralph Abraham, to talk about a fun-bag of interesting topics including mathematics, mythology, psychedelics, dynamics, ancient cultures, white water, dolphins, Dionysian rituals, Eros and Chaos (among many other seemingly chaotic topics). Below is a small excerpt of the fascinating interview. If you'd like to read the interview in its entirety check out the full interview with Ralph Abraham: Chaos and Life. Although I really suggest you take it a step further and purchase a copy of Mavericks of the Mind. Just make sure you read it with caution; it might blow your circuitry.
Sliding Rock, Pisgah National Forest
The repression of chaos began with the patriarchal takeover six thousand years ago. So to look at an example of a high culture accepting chaos as part of their mythological pantheon and in their arts and behavior, one has to go back before that takeover. And the most common example of such a culture is Minoan Crete… A lot of things are known through mythology that are traced back to Crete. One thing that’s known from paintings is the dance with bulls. There were the Bacchic mysteries, derived from the Orphic, the Dionysian and so on. Following this backwards, like tracing roots or Ariadne’s thread, you come to a certain mythic kernel which would be associated with Minoan Crete. I wouldn’t say these are expressions of chaos. They might be, but there are so many differences between our culture and the Cretan culture. We know something about Dionysian ritual; the importance of music in ritual, the dichotomy of religious ritual into two types, outdoors on the open plain and indoors in a cave. The mystic revelation that came with Gaia sees the planet as an organism, and the plain as its surface. Gaia is very chaotic, so if you reject chaos, you reject Gaia. It goes together: the orphic trinity of Chaos, Gaia, and Eros. That’s what I suggest to you to think about. Gaia as the Earth, the love of the planet,the integrity of life-forms; Chaos as the essence of life: more chaos is healthier, Eros as human behavior in resonance with Chaos and Gaia. It’s rumored that the Minoans had a very high degree of bisexual activity, licentious behavior and wild parties. This may be the quality of the genders in a partnership society as described by Riane Eisler.
High Falls, DuPont State Forest
Ralph Abraham also spoke about how the enigmatic dolphin species directly connect themselves with Chaos through the experience of hydrodynamical turbulence that is, white water. He observed that the most perfect chaotic thing we have on this planet can be found in nature in the form of white water. And if you think about it, when is white water not experiencing a state of chaos? Whether you look at the tips of a wave in stride or the utter chaos it produces when it crashes, or if you study the white water in a vicious river rapid it seems to be foaming at the mouth in the same way a broken fire hydrant does. White water is completely chaotic.
High Falls, DuPont State Forest
And waterfalls are full of Chaos! There's something different happening at every millisecond every time white water is involved. It's erratic nature is highly unpredictable, inspired and sporadic. Every four-dimensional looping, twist and spiraling turn is a sublime creative act transmitting and suffusing chaos. It's a high-frequency white-out of white noise. Sporadic static! It's perfectly chaotic, and we can learn from the primordial teachings of Chaos simply by observing it and observing its movements. Just as sun gazing feeds your mind with star light, white water gazing feeds your mind with an inspirational dose of Chaos.
Triple Falls, DuPont State Forest
You should try it some time.
Triple Falls, DuPont State Forest
Falling water at the defunct Mingus Mill, Great Smokey Mountains National Park.
Not a waterfall, but falling water, nonetheless.
Mingo Falls, Cherokee Reservation
I decided to put together a video of these chaotic North Carolina waterfalls to the Ayahuasca-sounding Shpongle track "Tickling the Amygdala" off of their fifth album Museum of Consciousness. I have most certainly heard these far out space sounds under the Ayahuasca trance several times before (both in Daime and jungle settings), along with many other people who have been psychoanalyzed by these weird, deep-space and satellite sounds. Many psychedelic musicians are obsessed with retransmitting these "space sounds" and have, in fact, incorporated these extraterrestrial sounds into their music. Think about the LSD and UFO-loving Jimi Hendrix who basically started it all (EXP - Jimi Hendrix Axis: Bold As Love), or the majority of psytrance and even EDM music of today. You're guaranteed to encounter these alien sounds seeping out of psychedelic festival speakers (Boom Festival, Ozora, Burning Man, Envision, Freqs of Nature) The sounds are certainly weird and reflect a peculiar element of "Chaos." That being said, sit back and enjoy this ZOOMDOUT Shpongle music video. And think about it.
What are your experiences with these sounds? Have your heard them while zooming before? I'm interested to know why the hell they happen in the first place. Could it be simple brain chemistry? Are we zooming in to the sounds of our synapses going off? What is modern neuroscience's explanation for this metaphysical phenomenon? Comments and hypothesis are appreciated in the section below!
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