The Occult Control System?

I listened to the two podcasts in the You Tubes above a few days ago, featuring Daniel Pinchbeck talking about his new book
'The Occult Control System'.
One at the Mikeadelic podcast titled -
The Occult Control System: Ufos, Aliens, Other Dimensions, And Future Timelines W/ Daniel Pinchbeck

And the other at the 'Aeon Byte' podcast site titled -
The Occult Control System

I'd been at a talk Daniel Pinchbeck gave in Byron Bay, Australia back in 2016, which I wrote about in this post in the link below -
A Dark Night of the Soul?

A photo of Daniel I took at
Somara back in 2016

That's the only times our paths have crossed in real life and having read Daniel's book 'Breaking Open the Head', he was the main reason I was down in Byron Bay for the weekend.
I've never in this present life done psychedelic drugs up to this point, but I have an interest in the accounts of people who have done them, and one day when the time is right for me I will have a go if my fate dictates.
But I'm not going to go out of my way to try them.

A funny thing happened when I was listening to the 

Aeon Byte podcast Daniel was on.
I was doing some ironing while listening to the podcast and was putting my Brisbane Lions football gear back into the overflow cupboard in my computer room sadly until next season and I noticed a few bags I had thrown on the floor of the cupboard when I last moved home and was yet  to sort out.
One bag caught my eye for no particular reason, so I decided to pull it out of the cupboard and sort through it in an effort to discard or sort out the contents of the bag.

In the bag I found an old pamphlet from the Somara retreat I saw Daniel speak at.

One side of the pamphlet had the timetable of the events that were on that weekend and the other side featured works of artists who were there that weekend.
One of those artists was Pauli Mann whose shamanic owl print now hangs right next to this clothes cupboard I use as an overflow clothes cupboard, because my bedroom clothes cupboard is full.
Are the Owls What They Seem?

Pauli Mann's owl print near the cupboard

Mann, That Owl is Freaky, But is it What it Seems to Be?-)

I also met Pauli Mann that weekend and had a casual chat with him where he told me about a UFO sighting he had once, which he felt was a profound experience.
But you know what they say about aliens and Hippies, right?-)

My Luis Tamani print hanging
 in my living room

I also got to watch Luis Tamani do a painting that weekend and we had a chat and I bought the print of his pictured above and below that now hangs on my living room wall.
The Art of Patti Dragonfly

My framed print of Luis Tamani's

So finding that old pamphlet in that random bag in my cupboard, while listening to Daniel speak on the Aeon Byte podcast I thought was rather synchronistic, as I didn't even know that I had kept that pamphlet.
But then I found another pamphlet I don't even remember picking up on that weekend, about a book titled 'The Toad of Dawn: 5-MeO-DMT and the Rise of Cosmic Consciousness', which I probably planned on buying and reading in the future.

"The Toad of Dawn is the dramatic story of how 

Dr. Octavio Rettig Hinojosa — a Mexican doctor with a crack cocaine addiction — came to heal himself by employing an ancient “treasure” almost forgotten for centuries ­— Bufo alvarius (the Sonoran Desert toad).

Under the auspices of the United Nations Venezuela Association, Dr. Rettig has traveled extensively throughout the world and shared 

5-MeO-DMT, a secretion of the Sonoran Desert toad, with over 6000 people, eliminating chemical addictions, depression, anxiety disorders, insomnia, bronchitis, and trauma.

Dr. Rettig’s research has convinced him that the medicine of the Sonoran toad — which, under the guidance of an experienced shaman or medicine man, can be harnessed for healing, awakening, and raising consciousness — has been known and used by high priests of the Mayan, Aztec, Olmec, and other Mesoamerican civilizations.

Part autobiography, part introduction to entheogens and visionary substances, The Toad of Dawn gives an overview of the history, use, and the benefits of the toad medicine, and reveals how it can be used to initiate people on a spiritual path."

Maybe I picked up the flyer because of the introduction to the book by Rak Razam printed on the back, or because I have one of those Chinese toad statues in my kitchen and never thought of it as representing an animal which contains trippy venom?

I recently heard Michael Pollan talk about smoking toad venom -
Micro-dosing, Magic Mushrooms, Michael Pollan and Smoking Toads?

I never thought I would ever hear someone like Michael Pollan talking about smoking toad.

But after listening to Michael Philip talk about his recent Ayahuasca adventure at his TED podcast, I think I'll be passing the bucket list bucket along on this one:-)

Daniel also mentions the book he wrote with Sophia Rokhlin in those podcasts who I wrote about in this post -
Six Degrees of Sophia Rokhlin?

So there's plenty of food, drink and smoke for thought in all of those podcasts and You Tubes above, but as to just who or what is responsible for the hidden control system ...

Or do I?-)