The First Church of David Bowie, Phonomancer

This rather terrifying image is a screenshot from video recorded during the ceremony I conducted on Saturday, June 25th, 2022. The white glow isn't Photoshop; that's the reflection of a TV screen on my sclerae as my eyes completely roll up into my head. I'm employing the index-and-pink-fingers-extended traditional mudra of " Fuck yeah! " to express endorsement of and assent to the Goddess' Divine Plan that shapes our lives. Phonomancy is a reliable means for attaining intense visionary trance. What can't be demonstrated in this still image is that after 30 seconds in this state, I return to a condition of sober lucidity. Nobody speaking with me who didn't know that I was working on 6g of cubensis turbocharged with a water extract of 5g Syrian rue seeds plus multiple hits of pot would have any idea of the crushing psychic load I'm under. I'm able to carry it with aplomb. That's visionary virtuosity. Yesterday's effort was a hard-fought b

  Any religion that does not offer a means to have a direct experience of the Divine --an experience that delivers transformative energy, information, and meaning, one usually characterized as " mystical " or " visionary "--is a failed religion. Any new religion that fails to offer such an experience is a non-starter.  Enabling and conditioning an experience of the Divine while creating a community in which that experience can be anchored is the only real purpose of religion. Everything else--the " designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations " that are what people generally mean when they say the word--is pointless if it does not support such an experience.

All religions worthy of the term can be understood as games of make-believe that enable and condition experiences of the Sacred while simultaneously creating community in which those experiences can be anchored. A parareality game is deep-played make-believe that fulfills the same functions but also serves as a program for achieving superhuman self-actualization .  'Deep play' is an ecstatic form of play that combines adventure, fun, wonder, real-world risk, and ordeal...It requires daring, discipline, concentration, a tolerance for danger, the ability to live with uncertainty, and a desire for transcendence . Parareality games are a new way to religion. The fun, wonder, real-world risk, etc. they can engender is in large part due to the fact they are designed to be played while in a psychedelically-altered state of consciousness. A parareality game is initiated by pretending to believe something is true (i.e., play make-believe) in order to have a certain kind of exp