Welcome to Journey to the East home page,having to do
with the eclectic exploits and musings of yours truly, Stan Kahn
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New Book Just Out
The Hitchhiker's Guide to Enlightenment
Available as an ebook from Smashwords.com
Sample chapters available at Smashwords
The Hitchhiker’s Guide is an exposition of mysticism and spirituality
themed on my extensive experience thumbing around
Part of my quest, the drive that got me on the road, had to do with finding a commune to live on, where, in the event, I spent nearly five years. Living communally provides insight into the great enlightenment potential inherent in being together as a group. An individual or couple can never match the high one achieves as part of a group vibing as one. It was also a pioneering experiment in living in which we were way ahead of our time. It couldn’t last but left an indelible impression on our lives. Through the internet many of us have remained in contact.
The book also delves into recreational drugs as part of opening one’s mind to higher planes of existence. For many of us pot, mushrooms, peyote and acid served as springboards, if not catapults, into higher consciousness and for sure were a big part of living on a hippie commune.
Seven of the book’s ten chapters are based on specific
hitching adventures, the remainder fill out my life story and beliefs. It’s a
personal memoir which, in addition to mysticism and the occult, focuses on strong
advocacy for the environment and reflects my many years doing hands-on
community recycling. The above abetted by the good fortune of living in
Come along for the ride, it’ll be a fun trip
Y3K
Order
a copy from Amazon.com
also available at other online bookstores
and
now as an ebook: go to smashwords.com
to purchase Y3K in all ebook platforms.
Read Introit and First Three Chapters
Read Review Published in Communal
Societies Magazine
Y3K is a look back from the future to the world’s looming social/ecological disaster – Entropy Gaia, the breakdown of all world systems – through the eyes of latter day environmental activists. It describes a world brought to its knees by indifference to the planet’s health and welfare, and the new ecotopian world that develops out of its ashes.
Y3K provides a periscope into
the future through the eyes of
one who spent five years living in a commune in southern
Living together is never a simple matter, and that is only magnified when dozens of people share the same living space. Yet when our vibes harmonized the energy was transcendental; it was far superior to the energy of any mere coupling. No amount of money could’ve replaced the warmth, camaraderie and oneness we enjoyed. It was a magical, mystical way of life.
We possessed little of the material plane but lived a glorious and fulfilling life nonetheless. Our mountain home wasn’t scenically spectacular but it was green, wholesome and natural. We enjoyed neither electricity nor flush toilets but that was immaterial to our happiness and well being.
The first part of Y3K provides a faithful account of commune life, updated for the thirtieth century only in technicalities. That lifestyle still holds fascination for many people, especially those who are frustrated and put off by the fundamental insanity of modern life. Y3K goes to the heart of how communal living works and is organized.
Y3K takes place one thousand
years in the future partly
because that’s the minimum time it takes to regenerate a
Y3K, in contrast, lets us imagine a natural world that is whole and intact; a landscape that is respected for the greatness therein, as opposed to the value of the lumber or material resources within.
Y3K conjures up a view of how humanity can live lightly on the earth in a way that’s no less fulfilling than the image we now have of what it takes to be happy.
When we think of the future do we see the planet covered with 200 story buildings? Given the option of a green, serene and beautiful environment is that steely, mechanical, hard-edged existence the one we would choose?
Y3K is a road novel that nearly circles the world through many unique urban and communal settings. It is a novel of activism, organizing and demonstrating, since even in a future ecotopia there will be those who wish to revert to the exploitative and destructive times of the past (today).
Y3K is a journey into the mind. It is a primer of spirituality; of mystical concepts and understanding: Manifestation, The Cosmic Mind and more are explored in depth. It includes a discussion of Biblical prophecy as it pertains to Entropy Gaia and hints for survival during the coming troubled times. It also explores the use of mind-expanding recreational drugs.
It’s a fun novel with moments of comedy. It also delves into relationships and has its share of love and sex. Furthermore, it challenges fundamental ideas about those essential human interactions and places them in the year 2999, in a context of an enlightened future.
Y3K is designed to open the reader’s eyes to the many possibilities of the future, both near term and long. It’s a fun ride; welcome aboard.
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Parallel U
- Living and Working in
Slice of
Life If you really can’t get
enough of this
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New Market, Phnom Penh
Overloaded Pickup, Rural Cambodia |
The Blog Has Arrived - Go to stansrant.blogspot.com
Recent Entries
Fukushima Going Down
Excessive radiation has been found 50 kilometers from the plant, the exclusion zone, however, is only 20 k. If they expand to 40 k, 170,000 people will have to be evacuated, probably permanently. The exclusion Zone around Chernobyl is half the size of New Jersey. Moreover the excessive radiation found outside the Fukushima exclusion zone would be over the limit allowed inside the Chernobyl zone. In other words, they are being very lax about their citizens’ safety.
Tsunami Warning
I
It’s ironic that Japan, the country that’s suffered most
from radiation has relied so heavily - 30% of its electricity - on
nuclear
power. It is also, of all countries, most subject to strong
earthquakes.
Something like 20% of all earthquakes over magnitude 6 on the Richter
scale
happen in Japan. As you’d expect, with that background, Japan is,
relatively
speaking, very well prepared for quakes. Forty story buildings in Tokyo
swayed
like palm trees but didn’t crumble.
Polyglot Nation – An Overview of Cambodia Today
The Cambodian people run the gamut of skin pigmentations from almost lily white to nearly black as African, but in contrast to America where people are hyphenated as African-American, Hispanic-American, Asian-American, etc., here they are all Khmer: there’s never a hint of differentiation. Closer to home, in neighboring Thailand, people of Chinese ethnic background, even those who are only half ethnically Chinese proudly refer to themselves as Chinese, whereas in Cambodia, if the response of an older Chinese-Khmer woman I know is a valid indicator, ethnically Chinese Khmer, when asked if they are Chinese, say no, I’m Khmer.
JOURNEY
TO
THE EAST
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STRING OF |
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North of Kathmandu
at 13,000 feet
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Goa, on India's West Coast |
Guangxi Province |
FAR OUT AND AWAY On the Asia Travelers Trail - 1992
First time out at the age of fifty, join me on a year's journey through eight countries.
GLOBAL
DEMOCRATIC
This is somewhat dated after
15 years, but the essence is the same: We will eventually have a single
world government.
Introduction, Table of
Contents and Chapter 1. The Inspiration
Instant
Runoff Voting for Oregon
Fair
Vote Oregon
STRUCTURAL LEGISLATIVE REFORM
Ideas for a radical restructuring of America's electoral systems
STAN
KAHN for District 14
November
1998
Oregon State House of Representatives Pacific Green Party
ELECTORAL
CHANGES
submitted to the 1999 Oregon
Legislature
And finally a few favorite
Links
stan at tripeast . com(put them together to send an email; they’ve been separated to foil email spammers)