Hiya TNB faithful. We're a kicking off a new series of posts, Catching Up with the New Adventures of the ThermoNuclear Bar Interviewe Alumni. Starting with our first guest, David Metcalfe (feed over at twitter.com/davidbmetcalfe and the http://theeyelessowl.net/) as he plots out his current trajectory for us. David's always up to something and there's a special Message for listeners that is truly...amaz. -- Rev. R4D4
It's been sometime since TNB listeners have heard directly from you, what has been the high water marks of the last two years of writing and research?
Things have picked up to a feverish pace with the development of the
Liminal Analytics: Applied Research Collaborative. We've been
collaborating with the critically acclaimed photographer Shannon Taggart
(
http://www.shannontaggart.com/)
to put on a series of talks at The Observatory - Brooklyn which focus
on the material aspects of anomalous experiences - these talks have
featured leading researchers and scholars including Dr. Stanley Krippner
presented on his dream telepathy studies at Maimonides Medical Center,
George Hansen gave a two-part talk on the history of psychical research,
and Walter Meyer zu Erpen presented on mediumship development and
seance phenomena.
We've also been closely collaborating with Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut,
Chair of Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and author
of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint, for a project
focusing on the development of the devotional tradition centered on
Santa Muerte (Saint Death). Our website
http://skeletonsaint.com
is one of the only English language resources on the tradition, and we
continue to be two of the only scholars currently covering her tradition
through direct communication with the leaders of her devotional
tradition in Mexico DF and around the world.
Another exciting development came when world renowned 'wonder
makers' Ferdinando Buscema and Mariano Tomatis used one of the Llullian
Wheel models developed by Liminal Analytics in their performance at
Boing Boing's Ingenuity event:
http://youtu.be/RW7GYxRA2m0
Buscema works with the Fetzer Institute, and Tomatis helped design
the museum at Rennes le Chateau, so this was a great opportunity to
demonstrate the interconnectivity of 'invisible' culture.
Great! What are you working on now? Where do you see your new projects leading?
At the moment much of my focus is taken up with research into
Santa Muerte. I'm taking a very broad perspective, and have found that
it overlaps nicely with my investigation into the development and
history of psychical research in the 20th century. There are a lot of
overlapping themes and figures involved in the development of psychical
research and the popularized practical occultism that is apparent in
some of the Santa Muerte material. These connections become more
apparent when tracking down influences that have been centralized in the
tradition. In many ways this all parallels some of the strange
interstices I was investigating with Napoleon Hill, which have now found
greater expression through a wider net of investigation.
I recently relocated to north Georgia, near Elberton and the Georgia Guidestones. Living in a more rural setting, especially so close to such a raw piece of mysterious Americana has been incredibly inspiring, The ambiance of the region has played a definitive role in my current endeavors.
Another project that I'm really excited about is The Message (
http://the-message.bandcamp.com/
) - at this early stage, I can't say much about the full purview of the
project, but I can say that listening to The Message could change your
life.
Very Intriguing, as always. What can we look forward to from you in the next few months?
SkeletonSaint.com is going to be featuring more content from
devotees of Santa Muerte and reactions from other scholars who have been
traveling in Latin America recently and encountered her growing public
presence there. This is an exciting stage for the research, as we've
done a lot of commentary on the growth of her tradition, and now its
time to focus on the actual living experience of Saint Death as she
grows increasingly popular around the globe.
I've been publishing a lot of material on psychical research over
the last few years - this has been in large part focused through the Psi
in the News series and Limitless Mind sub-site on Reality Sandwich -
and I think that this is going to move into more active forms through
different venues that can take advantage of the multi-faceted nature of
this research.
One of the areas I'm really interested in right now is mediumship,
channelling and possession - collaborating with Taggart, who has a long
standing relationship to the Spiritualist community through her
photography, the Foolish People theater group, who use channeling as
part of their practice, as well as interacting more with the Windbridge
Research Institute, who focus on mediumship, and the research into
Afro-Carribean traditions has immersed me in the topic along so many
different angles that it's become really central to my understanding of
the human experience.
With the publication of Gabriel D. Roberts' book, The Quest for
Gnosis, which features interviews with Rupert Sheldrake, Graham Hancock,
Abby Martin, and a number of other leading cultural figures, it seems
like there is a more integral vision being developed around these ideas.
I make an appearance in the book as well, with an interview on
contemplative practices, and in considering the utterly odd mix that
comes out when the book is taken as a whole I'm quite intrigued by the
implications.
Roberts will be hosting a panel with Sheldrake and Hancock at the
upcoming Synchronicity Symposium in Joshua Tree, California, and Hancock
will be collaborating with another interviewee from the book, Sacred
Geometry International's Randall Carlson, for some of the research that
will go into an upcoming book. This all mirrors the kind of experiences
that I've had over the last couple of years collaborating with Carlson,
Roberts, and various others as we investigate the interesting openings
that are coming about in the contemporary culture. It will be
fascinating to see where all of this ends up as these relationships
deepen and develop.
Ben Chasny, from Six Organs of Admittance, Current 93 and the New
Bums, and I were working on an event centering on the contemplative work
of David Chaim Smith, but due to some scheduling issues and other
difficulties we've had to nix that. Hopefully in the future we can put
together something similar that doesn't face the same complications. The
idea of creating an immersive contemplative environment of sound and
vision is really intriguing - I'm incredibly inspired by the Dark
Station/Subtle Listening work that Kim Cascone is doing - and it would
be great to see that type of format brought out in as many different
ways as possible.
Looking forward to all of that! Thank you, David. Any final shout-outs, tips, wisdom you like to share?
I think my rambling in the previous questions covered all shout outs - as for words of wisdom - always remember "La Muerte es lusta y pareja para todos pues todos vamos a morir." and if you have any further questions Listen to The Message.
***
And there you have it folks, Mr. David Metcalfe on his further explorations into wild and weird world that the TNB likes to cover in as many facets as legal airwaves may allow! You can listen to our first talk here. Even more background on the incredible piece The Message and which is quickly garnering worldwide attention is here and here.
So, by now, you should be desiring to hear The Message (as well you should)....to have some 'magneto-psychic mind-sound' interface of life-changing current applied to whatever quandary you must find an answer too. So, ladies and gentlemen, here's....
