The First Church of David Bowie, Phonomancer

  Gnosis is knowledge of God. That is to say, first-hand knowledge, knowing something from direct experience, as opposed to learning about it from someone else. It’s the difference between reading a book about surfing, or watching a movie about surfing, and actually skidding down the face of a 75 foot monster wave at Mavericks. God is an experience—an awe-inspiring, terrifying, mind-blowing, ecstatically joyful experience that’s nothing like the dead-eyed, going-through-the-motions “religion” that’s taught in churches. Having this Gnostic experience of the Divine is the point of human existence. It’s what we're here to learn how to do. We can teach you how to achieve it. It’s no longer just for ascetics who sequester themselves in caves or monastic cells for decades of meditation, or for a few people who luck into “peak” experiences. With just a couple years of effort, our method for achieving this state of Divine apprehension, which we call phonomancy, will allow you to attain it

  The need for love is like the need for food. Deprived of food, you feel hunger. Deprived of love, you feel loneliness. The longer this deprivation continues, the more excruciating the response in the body and soul-- I need this, I need this, without it I'm going to die. If it goes on for too long, you just might! Unfortunately, human beings cannot photosynthesize. Food, our source of physical energy, must be sought somewhere outside ourselves. Love too can be sought outside, from other people, but being emotion, which is simply another way to say Spirit, or God, it can also be found within ourselves. This is accomplished by quieting our minds and reaching out with our hearts to the very Source of our being.    Loving is wonderful. Being loved is wonderful. Loving and being loved in return is the most wonderful thing of all. It is the condition of bliss. The desire to be in that state is innate to us. It's not a flaw--it's a feature. It's how we were designed. As

   This is a transcript of the second of a series of videos that will explain how to train with the First Church of David Bowie Phonomantic Rite. SHONDA FREUDE Greetings Liebchen! I am Doctor Shonda Freude, a phonomancer of the First Church of David Bowie, Phonomancer. I am making this video to describe how the Phonomantic Rite is structured. This is to help you use it correctly. I also want to explain why it was organized in this way, to communicate some ideas that may prove useful if you decide to construct your own version. As mentioned in Part 1 of this series of how-to videos , the Phonomantic Rite is a way to shape and intensify the psychedelic experience by imposing upon it in a narrative structure. It’s also a way to assign the psychedelic experience a specific meaning by placing it in a ceremonial context. A ceremony is “a formal act or series of acts prescribed by ritual, protocol, or convention.” But follow a set series of actions? you may be thinking. Isn’t the whole poin

  This is a transcript of the first of a series of videos that will explain how to train with the First Church of David Bowie Phonomantic Rite . Well hey! I’m Pa Dammit, and today I’m going to cover some basic concepts. But first, a little background. In the summer of 2017, I had a series of intense visionary experiences in which I downloaded the metaphorical schematics for a religion of the science fictional future. The central ceremony of this religion was something I’ve come to call entheotainment, meaning “a theatrical spectacle designed to create in its audience an apprehension of the sacred.” At one point in my visions I saw a sold-out stadium, tens of thousands of people, singing and dancing along with a stage show that was like a cross between the Cirque du Soleil and old-school Van Halen. But they weren’t just watching the show—they all had roles to play. Their participation was vital to its success. And every one of them, I was given to understand, was on a heroic dose of the

  Psychedelic guides have traditionally discouraged the use of songs with lyrics in favor of instrumental music. To quote an article by Ilsa Jerome on the MAPs website : Most of the music used in psychedelic-assisted sessions is instrumental, and when there are vocals present, they are in an unfamiliar language. This is to make sure that the music is not conveying a specific meaning or telling a specific story. The music should also be culturally appropriate, making it easier to follow and convey emotion rather than drawing attention to itself by use of too 'strange' or jarring melodies or tones. My approach flies in the face of this. In phonomancy, conveying a specific meaning--or put another way, a specific emotional state--is exactly what the programmed music is supposed to do. Why? Because a phonomantic rite is not a free-flowing experience. It's a narrative experience.  A narrative experience is a sequence of specific emotional states. In a phonomantic rite we i

This is a reply to an email I recently received. Hi Greg-- Thanks for your kind interest! In regard to your statement-- god cannot be fully attained in solitude --I wanted to say this: If you're not simply going to live in a cave somewhere, being a part of a community of believers is vital. Not only do the experiences of others help you understand what's possible, that framework of joined belief-- I know, I know, I felt it too! --helps keep the weight of the mundane from ruining your belief in what you've experienced. But even when we're surrounded by other people, ultimately, the Divine is confronted in the privacy of our own consciousness. If God incarnates, that's where it happens. That is to say, it's the intensity of the experience for you, what you feel in your heart and what explodes in your brain and what it all means...to you . In those shining moments our relationship to God is the central fact of existence; how can it not be, when you disco