ALTER MaN underwAy

“What you are about to read is the groundwork for an evolution in broadcast and feature infotainment. Alter Man is the working title for a visionary media project so original and evocative it could be described as The Amazing Race meets Nova and Myth Busters. In fact, an apt subtitle for the “Reality” segment of Alter Man would be MYTH HUNTERS. As intriguing as this concept is, the projects “pseudo-documentary” & multi-medium elements are even more innovative. Utilizing free-role-play of open scripted scenarios inspired by a true life voyage of discovery, Alter Man promises to produce episodic metafiction with an X-Files meets Jacques Cousteau explosive potential.”

~Zachariah Paintswithfire, Producer

~Jack Cutterswine, Producer

ALTER MaN underwAy

I’ve heard it said that “You’ve got to understand all of it if you’re going to understand any of it.” Though it seems impossible to explain this project in just a few sentences, I will give it a shot : We are going to gather a crew of filmmakers, artists, musicians, writers, scientists, mystics, freaks, lovers and fishermen. Then we are going to chronicle a range of developments and speculations of that crew, while aboard a neo-futuristic, steampunk style ocean vessel on a very unusual circumnavigation of the globe. This voyage will take one full year to complete on a very particular time schedule, on a very particular course connecting four very particular points around the globe. Much fascinating and undeniably meaningful synchronicity is associated with the development of the project thus far, and we fully expect these to continue and evolve into truly legendary experiences, captured and broadcast on digital film and otherwise. Here is the story of how this project came to be discovered, that helps set-up the fantastic potential of what is to come.

Antithetical Spark And Dream

It was mid-late 2006 when I was struggling to understand what my next creative move should be. I was considering Burning Man, yet how I would probably never go due to my chronic bronchitis. Half-joking, I came up with the idea of ‘Sinking Man’ (which had sprung from its bleaker sibling ‘Drowning Man’). I imagined Sinking Man would be an Elementally Water themed ceremony that would take place out at sea – possibly with a gathering of sailboats. Even doing something desperate like sea-jacking an oil rig crossed my renegade mind… make a big metal man, stick some art, lights and cameras on it and film sinking it to the bottom of the sea at midnight (sink the metal man that is, not the oil rig). Something about the idea stuck with me and sparked my awareness to this continually developing real-live mystical adventure.

Sometime around March 2007 I realized the next link on this chain of events that are becoming project ‘ALTER MaN 4 7’. It struck me that the date of the Burning Man event falls right in the middle of the sidereal astrological* sign of Leo, a Fire sign: Fire sign = Fire ceremony… stands to reason. Yet according to the most commonly adhered form of Western astrology called tropical astrology (what most people think of as astrology), Burning Man is thought of as taking place in the beginning of the tropical sign of Virgo. Virgo is an Earth sign and that is an Elemental placement which does not stand to reason, at least not in relation to a Fire-themed festival such as Burning Man. I’d been studying both the history and practice of astrology for a few years and I was intrigued that I’d noticed both this correlation and this difference. I wondered where I might discover any other incongruities and what, if anything they might mean.

* ( Sidereal {sī-ˈdir-ē-əl} (astrology) is Latin for “measured by the distant stars” and as such is very similar to Vedic astrology. (Which just so happens to forbid the brahman class from crossing the ocean.) Tropical astrology on the other hand, uses only the “four seasons” of the Northern Hemisphere as the foundation of its zodiac because the Greco-Romans who developed it were generally uninformed of the phenomenon called the precession of the equinoxes. Tropical astrologers essentially measure from the stars as they looked @ 2,000 years ago! They completely ignore the current positions of the very asterisms upon which the ancient science of astrology was founded!! Astoundingly and to great detriment , the tropical system continues to this day and contributes to the dismissal of astrology as the deep and vital weapon of consciousness that it is !!! Luckily, the ‘Sumero-Babylo-Egypto’ originated sidereal system has kept pace with the slowly shifting sky. The two systems currently differ by about 23 degrees on the zodiacal ecliptic plane… so in most instances, if you are a “tropical Sagittarius” then you are really a “sidereal Scorpio”.)

Next, in mid May 2007 two injured female humpback whales, a mother and calf that became known as Delta & Dawn got “lost” in the San Francisco Bay. I live in San Francisco and it was a pretty big deal here. Right about the time that they finally and inexplicably decided to swim back down river toward the sea and vanish, I had an ultra vivid dream that I now suspect was somehow influenced by these whales. The dream felt more like what I imagine a vision would, as opposed to what I understand a lucid dream to be. Astonishingly, key elements of this dream surface in my ongoing research and my current creative process of producing the future film: ALTER MaN 4 7.

A DREAM

***

.1.
Looking down from a hill, the sea and a hint of coastline can be seen and an island is visible on the horizon. A stone slab becomes apparent: a man-sized altar framed by two sparse, arcing trees. The surface of the altar is covered with a mound of earth. A youth who is about twelve years old and dressed in loose robes runs up to the altar labored, as though having run from quite some distance. The youth warily approaches the altar and then jumps up upon the mound of earth, lies down and manages to quickly bury them self completely. A group of about a dozen people becomes apparent as being those in pursuit of the youth. They abruptly slow before the altar and assemble in a peculiar formation as they approach and come to a halt before the altar. The group is variously clad in strange, prismatic seashell~metallic armor, wield primitive weaponry and carry other strange objects and instruments. Their formation seems akin to that of a military unit with each one performing a particular tactical function. There are two scouts out front flanking the altar that are minimally armed and armored. Spaced back behind each scout are three individuals armed with curvy hydrodynamic swords and bows with reel-like devices attached to arrows by line. Each of these sets of three people form a kind of outer wing to the group as a whole. These two outer wings begin making intricate weaving~postures toward one another and their movements cause lasting visible distortions in the air around them. The two outer wings form a kind of V-shape protective barrier around a core group of five individuals. Back from the point where the scouts are and in the center of this V-shape stands this core group of five. There are two towards the back holding very long spears that seem to be designed for hunting something large underwater. The spears nearly reach all the way out to the scouts and are pointed at the altar. The three remaining core group individuals radiate a kind of cold, calculating air and seem priestly in some way. They wear robes and employ instruments of indeterminate nature. The two scouts cautiously approach the altar with what appears to be containers for some kind of liquid. The two spear bearers keep pace with the scouts, the tips of their long spears aimed at the mound on the altar. The two scouts reach the altar and hurriedly pour the liquid contents of their containers onto the mound of earth. They leap back and away just as the two spear-bearers thrust their spears into the mound of earth. As they continue to stab a few times it becomes apparent that the youth has vanished under the earth: the youth is gone…

.2.
The landscape is rocky as before and similar flora grows more densely in the background, but the ocean cannot be seen. There is a heavy mist in the air that seems to be coming from cracks and holes in the ground and in particular from a large hole that lies just ahead. A small group of five or six contemporarily dressed people is gathered, sitting and standing around the craggy hole. An elderly lady is closest, sitting and stirring a large and steamy cauldron that is set within the hole. She is dressed unfamiliarly in a dark wrap & shawl type of clothing and she looks directly ahead, then to the pot and then back ahead again. Off to the side and behind her are the other people. One otherwise unremarkable man is up and about, pacing and ranting. He is some kind of land developer, eager to begin some hot new project. Of his ranting, one thing he says comes through perfectly clear: “…WE’re starting a REstauranT Here! NOT the food of JesUs!!” The old woman still stirring and stirring intently looks ahead, and it seems like she begins to make eye contact…

.3.
I’m in a cottage north of San Francisco, closely resembling the place circa 1995. I am cataloging stacks of VHS video tapes. Multiple copies of the same three films comprise the stacks. I select one and turn it over in my hand and vaguely understand it as a film that I-myself have made called OCEAN ~ water will forever change you. The art, pictures, title, design and some of the words are quite clear and familiar to me. On the front of the tape at the top, the words water will forever change you are printed over an image that swims, almost like a hologram… it moves like the picture itself is a few captured seconds of a scene taken from the film. The atmosphere of the scene vacillates between being threatening and merely surprising. In it, a startled young woman in a parka-jacket and a large backpack is turning to look-back over her shoulder. She is in a large underground cavern with stalactites above and behind her. Pools of dark water ripple and behind her a creature rises. Nodes crown the forward sloping head and the neck is also giraffe-like, though serpentine. In size and skin color, pattern and texture the creature exactly resembles the orca whale. It is difficult to tell whether or not the creature is a threat or if something else unseen is threatening off to the side and behind both of them. Beneath this image, the title OCEAN is printed. On the other side of the tape there is another image that has a similar fluid quality: Underwater, murk and debris stir violently. A vast, gaping mouth with the same definite orca markings, huge, yet without teeth, surges forward and inhales. The surrounding sea-water, debris, and all else in its path are sucked into the blackness of the-thing-all-consuming, swimming ever closer. Suddenly there are strangers coming into the cottage, I look up. As I try to show them the film, the atmosphere of the room rapidly turns sinister as a ravenous darkness bleeds in.

***

This dream has stuck with me. And as I said, certain parts of it will resurface and even come to make sense, through my process and as they directly factor into the development of this project. (One truly fascinating connection that I made only recently is to a mysterious organization based in San Francisco called The Jejune Institute. I describe the connection here.)

As Above, So Blowhole

In early July 2007, I made the next connection that really began to tie these things together. I realized that if Burning Man is taking place at the time of sidereal Leo, in Black Rock City, NV, USA (although originally on Baker Beach, S.F., CA, USA), and that coupled with my knowledge about astrocartography (which basically, is graphically transposing the paths of the planets down onto the face of the earth ~ as above, so below), then what if there were three other ‘Elementally themed’ ceremonies based on the four classical Elements of Alchemy and astrology* : one for Water, one for Air and one for Earth. Since Burning Man begins August 25th, 2008 in mid sidereal Leo (Fire), then naturally the other three ceremonies would follow about every 91 days throughout the 365 day year. Tentatively titled for continuity and with gallows humor, ‘Sinking Man’ peaks December 1st, 2008 in mid sidereal Scorpio (Water), ‘Hanging Man’ peaks February 28th, 2009 in mid sidereal Aquarius (Air) and, you guessed it, ‘Burying Man’ peaks May 31st, 2009 in mid sidereal Taurus (Earth). The exact dates of the four Elemental ceremonies should rightly culminate when the Sun reaches the middle of each fixed sidereal astrological sign, perfectly cross-quartered throughout these four times of year, each year. For the current year/cycle, that would make the real Burning Man peak on 01 Sep 09, Sinking Man peaks on 02 Dec 09, Hanging Man peaks on 01 Mar 10, and Burying Man peaks on 31 May 10.

* (Regardless of your predisposed notions about alchemy, astrology, dreams and the like, I ask you to willfully suspend any such judgments for now and please, take up a fresh perspective. And no formal studies of these subjects are required for you to understand and enjoy what comes next. If you’re interested (and you may well become so later on), here is a pretty good starter description of the nature and influence of the Classical Elements of Alchemy on consciousness. And here are the basic diagrams of the circles of the Elements as they relate to the zodiac. Familiarity with the images of these circles and understanding their basic dynamics though, will help make the information in the next section more clear. In particular, notice the fixed quadruplicity in the images: Fire, Earth, Air, Water, F, E, A, W, etc. And notice that directly across from Fire is Air, and directly across from Water is Earth.)

So then if each ceremony takes place at a different time of year, then why wouldn’t they take place at different locations as well? Why not then stretch Burning Man (or at least the spirit of it) into a series of four global events at four points around the world and chronicle the migration of a core group of devotees aboard a ship on the year-long journey to connect all four points? Starting with the first location*, the latitude and longitude (GPS) of Burning Man in Nevada (40.47 N, 119.13 W), then heading west with the path of the Sun and each subsequent location would be spaced every 90 degrees around the planet at that same latitude. I was inspired to test my theory. Now from here on out, synchronicity and a plasticity of imagination rule the day.

* (Google Earth or a good old-fashioned tactile globe really comes in handy here to visually grasp the significance of these four perfectly cross-quartered locations around the globe. Additionally, I have since come to believe that the Point of Fire is more accurately located somewhere near the GPS of the original location of Burning Man on Baker Beach in San Francisco (37.47 N, 122.28 W), and I propose Burning Man to take place on Treasure Island in 2011! I will use both coordinates for now as they will be useful in triangulating the exact position for the ‘Point of Fire’ and they also offer a sense of scale. Also, the number 47 has come up a lot in my research relating to this project. Read about that here.)

I fished out the only map of the world that I had on hand at the time (it was the World Map from the old role-playing game “Call of Cthulhu”) and began plotting the four points on it which turned out to be in Nevada/S.F., off the coast of Japan, in Turkmenistan and with delighted surprise, among the Azores. As I plotted west from the first Point of Fire in Nevada/S.F. out into the Pacific Ocean, I felt I might be onto something when the second point turned out to be situated over the Japan Trench, part of the Mariana Trench which is the deepest point in the ocean and in the world — 7 miles straight down. And since I was plotting for Sinking Man, ‘Point of Water’, I called it a hit. So, plotting west again another 90 degrees, I landed in a place I didn’t ever remember even hearing of before called Turkmenistan. Though I didn’t know anything about Turkmenistan at the time, it was situated far inland and looked like it might even be desert and as I was now looking for the ‘Point of Air’, the combination of inland and desert seemed like another hit. Without skipping a beat I set out assured to plot the final ‘Point of Earth’. Disappointedly I hovered as I could tell my anticipated Point of Earth was about to plop into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. ‘How could Earth be in the middle of the sea?’ But then my pulse quickened after I plotted the final point and took a closer look: the Point of Earth had landed in the middle of a cluster of nine tiny dots on the map that turned out to be a gang of remote islands. My Point of Earth had landed amongst the beautifully enigmatic island archipelago of the Azores… I’d call that a hit, I didn’t yet realize just how strong.

Destination Known

I had heard of the Azores before but I knew absolutely nothing about them. I pulled up a few websites and I was mystified. The Azores are an actively volcanic chain of nine islands on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a major seismic fault line. I should make it clear that the exact Points of Earth for Burying Man landed at 40.47 N, -29.13 W & 37.47 N, -32.28 W, which are in fact in the Atlantic Ocean. The closest currently existing Azorean islands are Corvo at 39.69 N, -31.10 W, and Flores at 39.22 N, -31.15 W. At only @ 100 miles away from each exact point, that is really very, very close given both the scale and the fact that the surrounding area is hundreds of square miles of open ocean in every direction. And who knows what is sunken at those points? There are definite sea-mounts at those very points and they are both perfectly in line with the fault line. There are stories of islands – new earth! – erupting from under the sea in that vicinity as recently as @ 60 years ago. Additionally, upon raising the contoured sea-bed around the islands of the Azores to a time in the past (or future) when the sea-level was different and possibly before the caldera had collapsed or the volcanic land-mass shifted and/or been flooded, the Azores islands are actually the mountain tops of a small continent or large island. In this alternate geography, the Point Of Earth lands on this phantom coastline. Now the first thing that struck me was the pictures of the Azorean landscape. Though I had never seen the Azores before, THAT was the landscape that I saw in my ultra vivid dream back in May 2007. I read on excitedly and found out that Plato and Edgar Cayce and others had thought that the Azores were either the mountain tops of legendary Atlantis, or that they were strongly connected to Atlantis in some way. Okay, interesting and stands to reason since the Azores are after all isolated in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. I was reminded again of my dream and of the strange ‘primitive tribe’ I had observed in it. It seemed their activities were like something one might encounter in a place like Atlantis. While reading through the website, okay, scouring the website, the thing I read next DRIED MY EYEBALLS. The most popular traditional dish of Azorean cuisine is called “Sopas do Espirito Santo” or Holy Spirit Soup. In my dream, the ‘ranting man’ said “…WE’re starting a REstauranT Here! NOT the food of JesUs!!” And the photographs showing how and where they traditionally cook this dish were almost exactly like what I saw in my dream: native Azoreans traditionally cook their dishes outdoors, in places on the islands where holes and cracks in the hot volcanic earth release heat and steam is coming up out of the ground! Just like in my dream. There are even pictures of cookouts that look very much like the scene from my dream… Amazing. And when I saw pictures of the giant underground caverns on some of the islands (…what is lost under these calderas?…), I recognized them as being almost just like the one from the picture on the front of my dream VHS tape OCEAN ~ water will forever change you. What’s more, the Azores are a favorite hang for dolphins and whales of nearly every type and whale watching is a favorite pass-time and tourist economy. Also, I suffer from chronic bronchitis which interferes with me living my life A LOT, and it just so happens that the hot springs and caverns in the Azorean town of Furnas are world famous for the treatment of respiratory ailments. The Azores, when measured from sea base to tip, are the tallest mountains (and growing) on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge… Point of Earth indeed.

[ The Point of Earth is somewhere among the volcanic island archipelago of the Azores :

1. The Azores are considered by many to possibly be the mountaintops of the legendary "lost civilization/continent" of Atlantis.
2. The Azores are the highest peaks of earth along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
3. The various tales of "the earth coming out of the sea" and the volcanic creation of new land and new islands in the Azores. And the sinking of others...
4. I dreamed of these islands in 2007... of the big underground caverns and of the ranting land-developer clearly stating "We're starting a restaurant here! Not the food of Jesus!". Then I discovered that there actually is a traditional Azorean cooking technique for making "Holy Spirit Soups" within cracks in the hot volcanic earth! Just as I had dreamed.
5. An international team of scientists converged on the Azores in 2008 to form a revolutionary joint mission institute to study global warming and earth changes.
6. The Azores were the first stop for the Earthrace vessel on its alt-fuel race around the globe in 2008. Earthrace also happens to have had basically the same circumnavigatory route as ALTER MaN 47.
7. ? ]

The Point of Air is deep in the “Kara Kum” or Black Sands Desert, Turkmenistan (40.47 N, 60.47 E & 37.47 N, 64.03 E), which is exactly 180 degrees around the world from Burning Man, Point of Fire, in the Black Rock Desert, NV, USA & from San Francisco, CA, USA. Turkmenistan borders both Iran and Afghanistan to the south, and though it is essentially located dead center of a lot of the trouble in this world, Turkmenistan’s standpoint of permanent neutrality makes it like the Switzerland of Central Asia/Middle East. It is accessible by sea since it borders the Caspian Sea to the west, and the Caspian Sea connects to the Black Sea by the Volga-Don Canal and then on-through the Black Sea into the Mediterranean Sea and beyond. Turkmenistan is a former Soviet country in Central Asia that has held the distinction of being one of the most isolated and repressive countries in the world. Of all the countries in the world, Turkmenistan is ranked at 167 of 169 on the ‘most repressive countries list’ (169 being the most repressive). Strangely and with appropriate madness that this ‘Point of Air’ (Elemental Air being indicative of clear, intelligent communication), should be so utterly perverted in a world out-of-balance and strayed from true sidereal astrology. Turkmenistan has begun to open to the world only as recently as February 2007, after “President for Life” Saparmurat Niyazov died suddenly of cardiac arrest on December 21, 2006. Turkmenistan’s international profile has been dominated by the country’s position as an increasingly central player in the politics of natural gas production and supply, not to mention its centralized strategic value. In fact, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has recognized Turkmenistan as the leader of “energy security” in the entire region. Turkmenistan, Point of Air, has one of the top, if not THE TOP world reserves of natural gas under its deserts. And here is where I uncovered the existence of the Darvasa Gas Crater, a natural gas crater in the middle of the Black Sands Desert, almost exactly 180 degrees around the world from Burning Man. This crater is the size of a city block and it has been burning since 1967 when a goat shepherd lit a tire on fire and rolled it into the crater to ignite the natural gas emissions so that his goats would not fall into the crater at night… it has been burning since 1967! The Turkmens identify nationally as Sunni Muslims but they, like most of the region’s nomads, adhere to Islam rather loosely and combine Islam with a pre-Islamic Animist Spirituality and Sufi mysticism. The Turkmens do indeed tend to be spiritual but are by no means militantly religious. On the ancient stage, Turkmenistan is the birthplace of Zoroastrianism. The climate of Turkmenistan is extremely dynamic with very hot summers and very cold winters. It just so happens that the time I’d earmarked for Hanging Man to begin, late Feb – early Mar, falls just within the two-month window of Turkmenistan’s most favorable weather conditions. Also, Turkmenistan is very near a major seismic fault line. Turkmenistan sounds like another fascinating place and I’d call it a big hit for Elemental Air. And the looming environmental tragedy of the vanishing Aral Sea just a hundred miles due north hones even greater ‘Elemental urgency’ to the area. And check-out the giant spiders of the Kara Kum who hurl themselves into the Darvasa Gas Crater at night! Talk about spiders from Mars…

[ The Point of Air is somewhere in the vast, barren deserts of Turkmenistan :

1. @ 4,000 years ago, the "lost civilization" of the Margiana built a great city at Gonur Depe (on or near the Point of Air in Turkmenistan) which sat at the hub of the crossroads of many cultures. There they invented Zoroastrism (the first recorded monotheism which also venerated the 4 Elements) and presided over this vast network of cultures during what was called "the happiest time in the history of the world".
2. Historically, the favored funerary practice of the peoples of this vast Central Asian region was excarnation (open Air disposal) on "Towers of Silence".
3. The society of modern day Turkmenistan is considered one of the most repressive on earth. That stands in diametrical opposition to the very essence of the Air Element: 'the shadow of Air'. Elemental Air represents things like the intellect, communication, writing, languages and teaching, as well as commerce and travel.
4. In 2008, a team of international surveyors determined Turkmenistan to have the second or possibly first highest natural gas reserves (Air, the gaseous state of matter) in the world.
5. Turkmenistan is now beginning to enter the news due to its vast energy reserves and because it borders both Iran and Afghanistan.
6. Both the Aral Sea to the north and the Caspian Sea to the west of the Point of Air are drying-up.
7. ? ]

The Point of Water is at the Japan Trench, which is part of the Mariana Trench, in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Northern Japan (40.47 N, 150.47 E & 37.47 N, 154.03 E, 180 degrees from the Azores), a point of the ocean that is nearly 7 miles deep which is part of THE DEEPEST point in the ocean on the entire planet. The Mariana/Japan Trench is a feature of yet another major seismic fault line. Being only a point at sea, it seemed like there was little else for me to learn from this location, and what I had, especially when compared with the other 3 points, it seemed like enough. I was wrong. In mid July 2007, a PBS show that featured a segment on mini-submarines caught my attention. The submarines looked really cool, and I’d always been interested in ocean exploration so I checked out deepflight.com. I was astounded to learn that not only were they on a mission they called Ocean Everest, which was to pilot their prototype submarines to the bottom of the Mariana Trench (which is the underwater equivalent of going to the moon), but that at that time they were scheduled to make that expedition in “late 2007″ which would synch perfectly with late November — the date I had earmarked for the commencement of the very first Sinking Man! What’s more, November in Japan just so happens to be the most calm weather month as the Typhoon season ends in late October… so an early October departure from San Francisco should be exactly right. Unbelievable. You can’t make this stuff up. Mark Twain said, “Of course truth is stranger than fiction; truth need only have happened, whereas fiction must make sense.” Well this was all definitely strange, yet it was also making sense. It turns out that DeepFlight’s headquarters are right here in San Francisco. I began to entertain the possibilities of underwater exploration, especially in regard to what I had learned about the Azores, and I could smell all the makings of an Atlantis expedition and beyond.

[ The Point of Water is somewhere deep in the Japan Trench off the coast of Japan :

1. There are a few undersea ruins of "lost civilizations" off the east coast of Asian countries.
2. The Japan Trench is the northern extension the Mariana Trench which is the deepest point in the ocean and the world.
3. Jaques Piccard and Don Walsh made history in 1960 with Challenger Deep when they journeyed to the bottom of the sea in their bathysphere submarine near the Point of Water.
4. Adventurer Steve Fosset (R.I.P.) had planned to make history again in 2008 with Ocean Everest, which was to pilot the civilian mini-sub DeepFlight II to the bottom of the sea, also near the Point of Water.
5. In 2008, scientists filmed the deepest ever living fish near the Point of Water.
6. In 2008, scientists discovered a triangular tectonic plate that threatens to destroy Tokyo is located near the Point of Water.
7. ? ]

The Point of Fire is in Black Rock City, NV, USA (40.47 N, -119.13 W), although as I said, I now think the Point of Fire is more accurately placed in or somewhere very near San Francisco, CA (37.47 N, 122.28 W), probably the heptagonal man-made Treasure Island! The Nevada desert and San Francisco for that matter, initially seem like arbitrary geographical placements until they’re compared with the other three Elemental locales. Was the exact location of Burning Man or ‘Fire Man’ chosen by Hopi elders? Or, it simply is. The Point of Fire is there, and the people felt it and went there. The location chose itself… “The Black Rock Desert is a 400 square mile, thoroughly flat prehistoric lake bed, completely devoid of any vegetation or animal habitat. Its name comes from a large, prominent dark rock formation located at the north end of the desert. During the summer, the lake bed is primarily a hardpan alkaline playa. During the winter, it becomes a temporary lake which flattens the surface sediment and erases all footprints. This unique geological feature is the reason Burning Man is held in the Black Rock Desert, in Black Rock City”. And there is a ton of fascinating Elemental and mundane Fire stuff concerning San Francisco (see below). I had been interested in Burning Man since its inception, but ironically the very reason for the choice of its current location in the hot and dusty desert, is the primary reason that has held me back from ever going. I have never attended because of my rotten case of chronic bronchitis that I know won’t mix at all well with the environment of the Black Rock Desert. San Francisco on the other hand…

[ The Point of Fire is in or somewhere near the inspired city of San Francisco, CA, USA :

1. The funerary fires of the native Ohlone Indians of San Francisco from ? to the 1700's. I've heard more than once that Native Americans considered San Francisco a 'land of the dead', a burial ground. Did S.F. used to be a big crematorium? I'll count the Ohlone Indians as a "lost civilization".
2. The 'gold-fever-fire' of the Gold Rush in 1800's San Francisco.
3. The Great Fire after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
4. The hippie's 'psychic-fire' surrounding the 1967 summer of love in S.F.
5. The birthplace of Burning Man on Baker Beach, S.F. @ 1986.
6. The discovery of the 'ALTER MaN 47 Point of Elemental Fire' along with the other 3 Elemental Points, in 2007 in South Park, SoMa, S.F., CA, USA, Gaia.
7. ? ]

Burning Man has an aspect of a kind of celebratory funeral that addresses death as cyclic change and transformation. In a way, Burning Man is not unlike a giant public cremation. Each of the other Elements has its corresponding funerary practice as well: Water has burial at sea, Air has ex-carnation, Earth has earthen burial, and Fire has cremation. It is interesting to note that mummification and it’s modern day counterpart cryonics {{{ NORTH POLE }}} suggest aspects of a 5th ‘Point of AEther’… definitely more exalted attempts to deal with the transitions brought upon by death. Self-sacrifice… human sacrifice. And in the interest of covering ALL conceivable methods for dispatching the dead, who could leave out the practice of cannibalism which in its way is really but another ‘fifth form’ of burial that is curiously linked with the spiritual Point of AEther (at least by those who practice it anyway). Some ancient traditions, including Tibetan Buddhism and the culture of the Old Norse, had and continue to have a custom of observing a certain period of time between “death” and burial. According to custom, the body should be left “undisturbed” or moved to a place where it could remain undisturbed for a period of about 7 days. They understand death to be a gradual process rather than an abrupt event. Supposedly these 7 days gave the recently departed the time needed to properly form the subtle body (or one might term second, or alter body). They say that while this practice is not “mandatory”, it is certainly “very beneficial” to the process. Once the subtle body had a chance to form, then the meat body could be disposed of accordingly (and perhaps in accordance somehow with the subjects sidereal astrological Elemental proficiency or deficiency?). Tibetan Buddhists say that the subtle body then goes through a series of complicated stuff lasting another 6 weeks at which point the subtle body is either reincarnated somewhere in the universe, or is freed from the wheel of life to attend better parties. Burning Man lasts a total of 7 days: 5 for the build-up, 1 for the burn and 1 for clean-up.

You Have The Means In Your Possession

I began to realize that whatever I had set out to find, I was finding it. Deep in the process of establishing the real possibility of embarking on a global magical mystery tour for myself and others, I realized I’d been waiting for something like this for a VERY long time. I had set out with an ‘antithetical spark’ from Burning Man, and now I carried a different new fire that was causing a light of its own. I looked back at the map with its 4 Elemental points, and spontaneously began plotting a classic red-dashed course of circumnavigation: departing from San Francisco, across the Pacific Ocean to the coast of Japan, then south to Shanghai, Hong Kong, around the tip of Singapore, to Bangkok, skirting the coast of India, sneaking past the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea, past Mecca, past the pirates of Somalia and the Pyramids, through the Suez Canal and past Jerusalem and Greece, past ancient Troy and past Istanbul into the Black Sea, up the Don River to the Volga River out into the Caspian Sea and on to the Coast of Turkmenistan… I was imagining what wonders of this seaward adventure and began contriving ways to make it a reality… BACK out then now, from the coast of the Turkmens – Back down the way I came. And into and through the Mediterranean Sea and on through the Pillars of Herakles, out into the Atlantic Ocean to the islands promised of in my dreams… the Azores –

‘Might I linger on there, may I lay a bit longer, this lady, I sung her to rest.
May my sea stay unfair, other dreams make me stronger, that lady, I flung to the West.’

–And onward then across the Atlantic to New York City, down the east coast to Havana, down along Central America, through the Panama Canal and then back up north to San Francisco after a year. It looked like the beginning of a great adventure, not to mention a potentially great premise for a ‘pseudo-documentary’ film. And through all of this, inside I knew, the journey would need to be made by sea.

In late July 2007 a photo from a Yahoo! news story caught my eye. It was the picture of WAM-V. Described as a “spider boat”, it is a very unusual and brilliantly designed ocean vessel that would be ideal for the futuristic feel of ALTER MaN 4 7. It had burst onto the scene at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, and caused quite a stir of publicity. Now at this point I had been wishfully perusing the used power and sailboat market, but since I had neither capital nor sailing experience, and without a windfall of some kind, benefactors, sponsorship or the lottery, all I could do was look. So this WAM-V caught my eye and I decided to check it out. First off, the company that makes them is based (once again) right here in my backyard, in Oakland, CA, another hit. Then when I started to read about this particular crafts capability, I really got excited… She can cross the ocean with a negligible carbon footprint on a SINGLE TANK of bio-diesel (no “rigging” experience necessary, etc.), she has auto-pilot (practically remote-controlled), cool sci-fi design, high responsiveness and maneuverability, and she is relatively quite affordable compared to other powerboats in her class. Another great thing about the WAM-V is that she is modular, which means she both collapses easily for shipping, and she can be fitted with extra “modular compartments” that can be ‘plugged-on’ to house things like a mini film studio, and maybe another module for, say, a certain small SUBMARINE…

I realized that this project deserved a working title. Since I was tying together all the other Elemental ceremonies that I saw could be spawned by Burning Man, I figured it should be called ’something-man’, and since the heart of alchemy is transmutation… the word alter popped into my head… Altering Man or simply Alter Man. It sounded a lot like what I was aiming to help to do, to alter as well as alert, even if ultimately only myself. When I looked-up the exact definition of the word alter, it was sealed. [ Alter means: (as a transitive verb) 1. to make different without changing into something else 2. to castrate or spay, (as an intransitive verb) to become different ]. Alter-man also means another self, maybe a better way to be or at least a choice, a chance, a change of course. Considering the state of the world, it didn’t surprise me that the word alter should alternately mean to castrate or spay. It really comes down to the question of fertility vs. infertility: will this world continue to support life as we know it (and want it!) or will it not. Is ALTER MaN 4 7 the modern day manifestation of Quetzalcoatl? Should it be? Wild speculation, a freedom to pursue the fantastic, inner-space and consciousness exploration… these are just the beginnings of what I’m trying to address and achieve with journeying and filming ALTER MaN 4 7.

I believe in meaningful coincidences and linking to old inspiration…

” …you are asking me to tell you in one sentence what this film is about? I’m telling you it is too big for one sentence — even a life sentence. For starters it’s about the National Health Insurance we don’t got. …This film is about overpopulation and the growth of vast service bureaucracies. The FDA and AMA and the big drug companies are like an octopus on the citizen. …So you wanta do something about your big C. You’ve heard about laetrile, Reich’s orgone accumulators, a doctor in France with a magnetic machine, another French doctor who has cured cancer with inoculations of Chagas’ disease, and someone in Rumania… Can you even try these remedies? Fuck no. The FDA won’t let them on the market — they even destroyed Reich’s writings. Now who is to decide whether I take laetrile or use an orgone accumulator for my terminal cancer? Me or the FDA? After all it’s me that’s dying. Is this freedom? Is this what America stands for? So America goes underground. They all make their own medicines in garages, basements, and lofts, and provide their own service. This manual is in every pocket: YOU DON’T NEED A DOCTOR. …All you need is access to the medications. …This film is about America. What America was and what America could be, and how those who try to stifle the American dream are defeated. We have been taught that if you put a better product on the free market, the superior product will sell. So you got the seven-year Amazon Pill and a loft lab. Are you going to get the OK from the FDA to put the big drug combines off the Birth-Control Pill market? You should live so long. In this film we don’t need their OK. Medicine has gone underground. And underground medicine saves the world from disaster. …This film is about a city we all know and love, a city which has come to represent all cities. In the year 2014 New York, world center for underground medicine, is the most glamorous, the most dangerous, the most exotic, vital, far-out city the world has ever seen. …This is the background against which the film revolves. Any treatment, any drug, any vice can be found here for a price. {…Here clients come for operations, drugs, treatments that cannot be bought for any amount of money through legal channels. …The shoestring entrepreneur, the innovator, the eccentric, the adventurer, long banished to limbo by the coalition of the big drug companies and the FDA, reappear. …Essential to underground medicine are the blade runners, who transfer the actual drugs, the instruments and equipment from the suppliers to the clients and doctors and underground clinics. …Some of the underground laboratories are well funded and staffed, and even the lower city grapevine does not know exactly what they are doing. Probably they are working on selective plagues and genetic engineering. There is talk of a “final solution to the problem of the sterile drones,” and of blueprints for a race of supermen. Every underground doctor needs a blade runner, since possession of illegal surgical instruments and drugs is a felony for a doctor, as evidence of illegal practice, but a misdemeanor for a private citizen. …Blade runners keep the underground doctors in business.} …This film is about a second chance for “Billy” the blade runner, and for all humanity. For a virus {…a strain of epidemic flash-cancer is stopped by virus B-23, a virus of biologic mutation which restores humanity to pristine health.} makes a hole in time, and Billy steps into the past — which is also the future. …This film is about the future of medicine and the future of man. For man has no future unless he can throw off the dead past and absorb the underground of his own being. …New branches of medicine evolve. …diagnosis becomes a fine art.”

~excerpt from BLADE RUNNER, A MOVIE by William S. Burroughs, 1979.

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WHAT IS ALTER MaN?

ALTER MaN is a surprise.
ALTER MaN is Metafiction is beyond fiction.

ALTER MaN is extreme collaborative creativity.
ALTER MaN is to demonstrate a process of ‘Fascinating dreams with reality’.
ALTER MaN is an immersive pseudo-documentary movie-making experience.
ALTER MaN is using art, dreams, synchronicity, research, and an interest and pursuit of the fantastic in a tangible way.

ALTER MaN is speculative fantasy you can touch.

ALTER MaN is a space and sea odyssey.

ALTER MaN is to circumnavigate the globe via a certain course over the period of one year.

ALTER MaN is departing west by sea from the port of San Francisco in early October 2008, 09, 10, 11, 12…
ALTER MaN is an attempt to accelerate the ‘balance’ of this earth using The Four Elements: Fire, Water, Air, Earth… then AEther.

ALTER MaN is transposing the path of the planets and the stars from the band of the ecliptic onto planet earth at the latitudes of Burning Man (40.47 N & 37.47 N), as above ~ so below.
ALTER MaN is to reach the fifth Point of AEther, the culminate Point of World arrived at by traveling to and connecting four specific points on the earth, each at the same specific uniform latitude, each spaced @ 91 days and 90 degrees apart… the first point being Burning Man, Fire (40.47 N, -119.13 W & 37.47 N, 122.28 W) in early September 2008 (09,10,11,12…), the second point being Sinking Man, Water (40.47 N, 150.47 E & 37.47 N, 154.03 E) in early December 2008 (09,10,11,12…), the third point being Hanging Man, Air (40.47 N, 60.47 E & 37.47 N, 64.03 E) in late February 2009 (10,11,12…), the fourth point being Burying Man, Earth (40.47 N, -29.13 W & 37.47 N, -32.28 W) in late May 2009 (10,11,12…), and finally returning to San Francisco and on to the real Burning Man on September 01^st, 2009 (10,11,12…) to complete the circle… and then attempt a journey toward the North Pole and the Point of AEther, and beyond.

ALTER MaN is wondering what is happening in Antarctica and the North Pole and at the equator and in the mirrored latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere after all four points have been connected.

ALTER MaN is being ALERT! to developing information and news involving San Francisco, Burning Man, the Mariana Trench, the Japan Trench, the coast of Japan, Turkmenistan, the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, the Azores, the Gulf Stream, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Atlantis, Whales, Antarctica, Deep Flight Submersibles, Hawkes Ocean Technologies, WAM-V, Marine Advanced Research, Inc., Alchemy, Magic, Sidereal Astrology, etc.

ALTER MaN is preparing to go.

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ALTER MaN 4 7 on MySpace and Twitter

[ 'ALTER MaN underwAy' was written in late July, 2007. There has been a lot of research & development, cultivation & observations between then and now (18 Oct 09) that are not yet all collected here, like:

~ Pictures, maps, artwork and logos.

~ Design ideas for the ship that will include a dual-chamber room at its center that will be kept PITCH BLACK at all times. She will also have a strip of pure silver along her keel. Plus a lot of other weird shit. Thinking about enlisting some folks from the Maker Faire, etc.

~ The fact that a prominent astrophysicist has validated sidereal astrology.

~ Does the world go octupolar (eight-polar: 4 poles N & 4 poles S) before a pole shift? A mystical geomorphology?...

~ “During the alchemical process, the subject, Hermetically sealed in the Egg, would go through a symbolic death and rebirth. When the Egg was cracked, a new mystical substance emerged which was an elixir that prolonged life and acted as a catalyst capable of improving any substance that it came in contact with. This substance, called the Philosopher's Stone, could change lead into gold and change an ordinary person into an enlightened master.” Could the AM47 journey act as a catalyst capable of improving any “substance” that it comes in contact with?

~ And much more.

I had fully intended to commence this voyage/film in late 2008. That proved to be impossible due to illness, procrastination and also the ever-evolving nature and scope of the project, not to mention the untimely death of a friend and co-producer and the disorganization of our fledgling crew. And without editorial assistance, I got and still get distracted and overwhelmed. I thought and still think that this project should have been underway in late 2008, even though I now see how that was totally unrealistic given the circumstances and my own lack of experience. I have now settled on a realistic launch date of late 2011, two years from now. And if I don't end up literally going on this voyage, then I'll capture it figuratively in my imagination as speculative fantasy, a metafiction (beyond fiction) tale called THE FAMILIAR. As a producer I see AM47 as a skeleton with a lot of opportunities for other creatives to flesh-out the project and in essence make the project their own. The task of assembling a crew is really the next step. This is an open-collaborative work in progress. It invites and attributes scholarly metaphysical discipline as a valid course of inquiry alongside more conventional methods. Please contact, criticize, connect and contribute to this and to the future of your changing world!

And so, knowing that there is a lot of stuff in the two years between then and now, here is the latest posting regarding AM47: Turning Pandora Right ]