BLOTTER SIGNINGS
Lyttle was an early collector and producer of LSD blotter art. He is the person who first conceived of asking psychedelic celebrities like Albert Hofmann, Timothy Leary, Sasha Shulgin, Annie Sprinkle, Peter Fonda, Alex Grey, Laurence Gartel, HR Giger, and others to autograph undipped sheets of blotter. This action inspired increased interest of blotter as an art form. Signed blotter became highly collectible, with rare sheets selling for hundreds or thousands of dollars. Before his death, Lyttle donated some of his more valuable pieces of blotter art to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, and the sale of autographed blotter raised around $20,000 for MAPS.
Peter Fonda
Tab Hunter
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2005-01-27/news/acid-again/
Giger Signing
Giger Signing
Had a private meeting with H. R. Giger in his Madison Avenue hotel suite & saw old friends. Sorry if sequence events out of order, I am exhausted.
Giger signed 500 of my "Illuminatus I" blotter-sheets. Then my production partner Jon B. had also flown in meeting us with the the 750 signed art-prints, perforated fresh off the press, took high-res digital photos of everything going on, matted & framed same for sale at Fuse Gallery that same one-hour window... Fuse is Giger's "chic fetish" gallery host where the reception was about to occur until who knows what hours, chic-dungeon atmosphere, to me so boring..
The door on the Fuse office was made out of of a coffin lid - I had to deal with the owners, plus Giger's agent in this surreal atmosphere. I stood perfect in my David Lynch "Mr. Normal" disguise. With fetish everywhere to the max, I had on a nice Italian suite, $100.00 tie, $300 shoes, etc.
Someone asked me if I was there to "audit the place". I thought about 5 years ago, with $5 bucks in my pocket, no car, no job, no wife, washed up on a beach.... who really are my friends. I'd call it a near-death experience except is was really more like a "near-life" experience. A waking moment.
As I entered Giger's hotel room, he emerged out of a ongoing biz meeting, some Euro- marketing clusterf**k in front of computer screens with Barany, Gigers agent also present.
H. R. Giger walked straight to me and shook my hand. We locked eyes. I said you are still busy sir, let me come back. I left, then returned in an hour after he wrapped up with the Euro toy company. These folks saw us in the lobby as they we leaving.
Once alone, I asked Giger the questions everyone else was either to fearful or too stupid to ask. He was charming, brilliant while staying vulnerable. Still searching. A force even at 65.
I thought we had a bit in common.
Mr. Giger....
Are you a Satanist?
Do you go into vision, to achieve your art?
What is your relationship to Crowley?
What is your relationship to Salvador Dali?
Do you know what LSD is?
The usual stuff.
Giger drew some numerological sequences out and talked about what was happening, all of our meetings, the tarot and Giger's tarot, Frieda Harris, Dali & Gigers birthdates etc. His fave number being 5, my date if birth being 5-5-55... that tact.
Then Giger signed my LSD "Illuminatus" blotter-sheets, and his agent suggested several more contracts between me and famous artists, circles-within-circles. About two hours into it, we left & wen back to Stahlman's loft on 20th St., ate delivered Chinese and drank wine and talked about New Media, the occult of which Mr. Stahlman knows quite a bit. The CIA also of which Mr. Stahman demonstrated some knowledge, and Marshall McLuhan. We had a few laughs. MS's girlfriend arrived.
We then all shared a cab to the RSVP event.
Giger is like a rock star it was a mob scene everywhere.
Giger signed 500 of my "Illuminatus I" blotter-sheets. Then my production partner Jon B. had also flown in meeting us with the the 750 signed art-prints, perforated fresh off the press, took high-res digital photos of everything going on, matted & framed same for sale at Fuse Gallery that same one-hour window... Fuse is Giger's "chic fetish" gallery host where the reception was about to occur until who knows what hours, chic-dungeon atmosphere, to me so boring..
The door on the Fuse office was made out of of a coffin lid - I had to deal with the owners, plus Giger's agent in this surreal atmosphere. I stood perfect in my David Lynch "Mr. Normal" disguise. With fetish everywhere to the max, I had on a nice Italian suite, $100.00 tie, $300 shoes, etc.
Someone asked me if I was there to "audit the place". I thought about 5 years ago, with $5 bucks in my pocket, no car, no job, no wife, washed up on a beach.... who really are my friends. I'd call it a near-death experience except is was really more like a "near-life" experience. A waking moment.
As I entered Giger's hotel room, he emerged out of a ongoing biz meeting, some Euro- marketing clusterf**k in front of computer screens with Barany, Gigers agent also present.
H. R. Giger walked straight to me and shook my hand. We locked eyes. I said you are still busy sir, let me come back. I left, then returned in an hour after he wrapped up with the Euro toy company. These folks saw us in the lobby as they we leaving.
Once alone, I asked Giger the questions everyone else was either to fearful or too stupid to ask. He was charming, brilliant while staying vulnerable. Still searching. A force even at 65.
I thought we had a bit in common.
Mr. Giger....
Are you a Satanist?
Do you go into vision, to achieve your art?
What is your relationship to Crowley?
What is your relationship to Salvador Dali?
Do you know what LSD is?
The usual stuff.
Giger drew some numerological sequences out and talked about what was happening, all of our meetings, the tarot and Giger's tarot, Frieda Harris, Dali & Gigers birthdates etc. His fave number being 5, my date if birth being 5-5-55... that tact.
Then Giger signed my LSD "Illuminatus" blotter-sheets, and his agent suggested several more contracts between me and famous artists, circles-within-circles. About two hours into it, we left & wen back to Stahlman's loft on 20th St., ate delivered Chinese and drank wine and talked about New Media, the occult of which Mr. Stahlman knows quite a bit. The CIA also of which Mr. Stahman demonstrated some knowledge, and Marshall McLuhan. We had a few laughs. MS's girlfriend arrived.
We then all shared a cab to the RSVP event.
Giger is like a rock star it was a mob scene everywhere.
Illuminatus Blotter by Giger
Laurence Gartel "Doll" Blotter
"Doll" Blotter - Gartel
Subj: Notes on Alex Grey's methods, FYI
Date: 11/12/2001 1:14:11 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: ThomLyttle
To: com
Repulsiveness, Material Components, and Cemetery Meditations
The last of the body meditations are designed to overcome one's narcissistic infatuation for one's own body, to abandon unrealistic desires for immortality, and to destroy sensual lust. To achieve these ends two principles are employed. First is vividly and repeatedly impressing upon one's mind the temporary, changing, and compounded nature of the body. Secondly one establishes and persistently reinforces a series of negative associations to the usually sensual features of the body. This latter process employs the same principles as behaviour therapy and Pavlovian conditioning. However, Satipatthana differs from Pavlovian and behaviour therapy in that the conditioning is established by the meditator himself instead of an external agent. Thus the Satipatthana Sutta continues:
And further, monks, a monk reflects on this very body enveloped by the skin and full of manifold impurity, from the soles up, and from the top of the head hair down, thinking thus: "There are in this body hair of the head, hair of the body, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, marrow, kidney, heart, liver, diaphragm, spleen, lungs, intestines, mesentery, gorge, faeces, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, grease, saliva, nasal mucus, synovial fluid, urine." Just as if there were a double-mouthed provision bag full of various kinds of grain such as hill paddy, paddy, green gram, cow-peas, sesamum, and husked rice, and a man with sound eyes, having opened that bag, were to take stock of the contents thus: "This is hill paddy, this is paddy, this is green gram, this is cow-pea, this is sesamum, this is husked rice." Just so, monks, a monk reflects on this very body, enveloped by the skin and full of manifold impurity, from the soles up, and from the top of the head hair down, thinking thus: "There are in this body hair of the head, hair of the body, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, marrow, kidney, heart, liver, diaphragm, spleen, lungs, intestines, mesentery, gorge, faeces, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, grease, saliva, nasal mucus, synovial fluid, urine." And further, monks, a monk reflects on this very body however it be placed or disposed, by way of the material elements: "There are in this body the element of earth, the element of water, the element of fire (caloricity), the element of air." Just as if, monks, a clever cow-butcher or his apprentice, having slaughtered a cow and divided it into portions, should be sitting at the junction of four high roads, in the same way, a monk reflects on this very body, as it is placed or disposed, by way of the material elements: "There are in this body the elements of earth, water, fire and air."
This last paragraph is explained in the Visuddhimagga:
Just as the butcher, while feeding the cow, bringing it to the shambles, keeping it tied up after bringing it there, slaughtering it, and seeing it slaughtered and dead, does not lose the perception "cow" so long as he has not carved it up and divided it into parts; but when he has divided it up and is sitting there he loses the perception "cow" and the perception "meat" occurs; he does not think "I am selling cow" or "They are carrying cow away," but rather he thinks "I am selling meat" or "They are carrying meat away"; so too this monk, while still a foolish ordinary person -- both formerly as a layman and as one gone forth into homelessness -- , does not lose the perception "living being" or "man" or "person" so long as he does not, by resolution of the compact into elements, review this body, however placed, however disposed, as consisting of elements. But when he does review it as consisting of elements, he loses the perception "living being" and his mind establishes itself upon elements.[26] The last of the body meditations are the nine cemetery meditations. Numbers 1, 2, 5, and 9 respectively are quoted here. The remaining five are similar and deal with intermediate stages of decomposition: And further, monks, as if a monk sees a body dead, one, two or three days, swollen, blue and festering, thrown in the charnel ground, he then applies this perception to his own body thus: "Verily, also my own body is of the same nature; such it will become and will not escape it."And further, monks, as if a monk sees a body thrown in the charnel ground, being eaten by crows, hawks, vultures, dogs, jackals or by different kinds of worms, he then applies this perception to his own body thus: "Verily, also my own body is of the same nature; such it will become and will not escape it." And further, monks, as if a monk sees a body thrown in the charnel ground and reduced to a skeleton without flesh and blood, held together by the tendons ... And further, monks, as if a monk sees a body thrown in the charnel ground and reduced to bones, gone rotten and become dust, he then applies this perception to his own body thus: "Verily, also my own body is of the same nature; such it will become and will not escape it."
Similar meditations on the digestion and decomposition of food are listed in other sections of the Pali scriptures for the purpose of freeing the practitioner from undue cravings for food:
When a monk devotes himself to this perception of repulsiveness in nutriment, his mind retreats, retracts and recoils from craving for flavours. He nourishes himself with nutriment without vanity....[27]
While these meditations are intended to eliminate passion and craving they carry the risk of making one morbid and depressed. Therefore the Buddha recommended:
If in the contemplation of the body, bodily agitation, or mental lassitude or distraction should arise in the meditator, then he should turn his mind to a gladdening subject. Having done so, joy will arise in him.[28]
A cartoon in an American medical magazine shows four senior medical students standing together. Three are engaged in active conversation. Only the remaining one turns his head to take notice of a pretty nurse. The caption beneath the cartoon reads: "Guess which one has not done twelve pelvic examinations today." It is doubtful that many persons outside of the medical profession will appreciate the meaning, but to medical students and interns it speaks a reality. During his months of training in obstetrics and gynaecology the medical trainee must spend many hours engaged in examining and handling the most repulsive aspects of female genitals. As a result he finds the female body becoming less attractive and his sexual urges diminishing. During my own years as a medical student and intern, this observation was repeatedly confirmed by the comments of my co-workers, both married and single. As we have seen, the same principle is utilized in the sections of the Discourse on repulsiveness and the cemetery meditations.Other aspects of scientific and medical training can produce results similar to those sought in the latter three body meditations. Chemistry, biochemistry, and histology foster an objective way of viewing the body which is virtually identical to the contemplation of elements. Anatomy, of course, is similar to the contemplation of repulsiveness. And in hospital training the persistent encounter with old age, debilitation, and death continuously reinforces the words of the cemetery meditations: "Verily, also my own body is of the same nature; such it will become and will not escape it." Similarly, in order to acquire a vivid mental image of the cemetery meditations, Buddhist monks occasionally visit graveyards to behold corpses in various stages of decay.[29] However, such experiences bear fruit only if one takes advantage of them and avoids the temptation to ignore and forget.
Date: 11/12/2001 1:14:11 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: ThomLyttle
To: com
Repulsiveness, Material Components, and Cemetery Meditations
The last of the body meditations are designed to overcome one's narcissistic infatuation for one's own body, to abandon unrealistic desires for immortality, and to destroy sensual lust. To achieve these ends two principles are employed. First is vividly and repeatedly impressing upon one's mind the temporary, changing, and compounded nature of the body. Secondly one establishes and persistently reinforces a series of negative associations to the usually sensual features of the body. This latter process employs the same principles as behaviour therapy and Pavlovian conditioning. However, Satipatthana differs from Pavlovian and behaviour therapy in that the conditioning is established by the meditator himself instead of an external agent. Thus the Satipatthana Sutta continues:
And further, monks, a monk reflects on this very body enveloped by the skin and full of manifold impurity, from the soles up, and from the top of the head hair down, thinking thus: "There are in this body hair of the head, hair of the body, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, marrow, kidney, heart, liver, diaphragm, spleen, lungs, intestines, mesentery, gorge, faeces, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, grease, saliva, nasal mucus, synovial fluid, urine." Just as if there were a double-mouthed provision bag full of various kinds of grain such as hill paddy, paddy, green gram, cow-peas, sesamum, and husked rice, and a man with sound eyes, having opened that bag, were to take stock of the contents thus: "This is hill paddy, this is paddy, this is green gram, this is cow-pea, this is sesamum, this is husked rice." Just so, monks, a monk reflects on this very body, enveloped by the skin and full of manifold impurity, from the soles up, and from the top of the head hair down, thinking thus: "There are in this body hair of the head, hair of the body, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, marrow, kidney, heart, liver, diaphragm, spleen, lungs, intestines, mesentery, gorge, faeces, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, grease, saliva, nasal mucus, synovial fluid, urine." And further, monks, a monk reflects on this very body however it be placed or disposed, by way of the material elements: "There are in this body the element of earth, the element of water, the element of fire (caloricity), the element of air." Just as if, monks, a clever cow-butcher or his apprentice, having slaughtered a cow and divided it into portions, should be sitting at the junction of four high roads, in the same way, a monk reflects on this very body, as it is placed or disposed, by way of the material elements: "There are in this body the elements of earth, water, fire and air."
This last paragraph is explained in the Visuddhimagga:
Just as the butcher, while feeding the cow, bringing it to the shambles, keeping it tied up after bringing it there, slaughtering it, and seeing it slaughtered and dead, does not lose the perception "cow" so long as he has not carved it up and divided it into parts; but when he has divided it up and is sitting there he loses the perception "cow" and the perception "meat" occurs; he does not think "I am selling cow" or "They are carrying cow away," but rather he thinks "I am selling meat" or "They are carrying meat away"; so too this monk, while still a foolish ordinary person -- both formerly as a layman and as one gone forth into homelessness -- , does not lose the perception "living being" or "man" or "person" so long as he does not, by resolution of the compact into elements, review this body, however placed, however disposed, as consisting of elements. But when he does review it as consisting of elements, he loses the perception "living being" and his mind establishes itself upon elements.[26] The last of the body meditations are the nine cemetery meditations. Numbers 1, 2, 5, and 9 respectively are quoted here. The remaining five are similar and deal with intermediate stages of decomposition: And further, monks, as if a monk sees a body dead, one, two or three days, swollen, blue and festering, thrown in the charnel ground, he then applies this perception to his own body thus: "Verily, also my own body is of the same nature; such it will become and will not escape it."And further, monks, as if a monk sees a body thrown in the charnel ground, being eaten by crows, hawks, vultures, dogs, jackals or by different kinds of worms, he then applies this perception to his own body thus: "Verily, also my own body is of the same nature; such it will become and will not escape it." And further, monks, as if a monk sees a body thrown in the charnel ground and reduced to a skeleton without flesh and blood, held together by the tendons ... And further, monks, as if a monk sees a body thrown in the charnel ground and reduced to bones, gone rotten and become dust, he then applies this perception to his own body thus: "Verily, also my own body is of the same nature; such it will become and will not escape it."
Similar meditations on the digestion and decomposition of food are listed in other sections of the Pali scriptures for the purpose of freeing the practitioner from undue cravings for food:
When a monk devotes himself to this perception of repulsiveness in nutriment, his mind retreats, retracts and recoils from craving for flavours. He nourishes himself with nutriment without vanity....[27]
While these meditations are intended to eliminate passion and craving they carry the risk of making one morbid and depressed. Therefore the Buddha recommended:
If in the contemplation of the body, bodily agitation, or mental lassitude or distraction should arise in the meditator, then he should turn his mind to a gladdening subject. Having done so, joy will arise in him.[28]
A cartoon in an American medical magazine shows four senior medical students standing together. Three are engaged in active conversation. Only the remaining one turns his head to take notice of a pretty nurse. The caption beneath the cartoon reads: "Guess which one has not done twelve pelvic examinations today." It is doubtful that many persons outside of the medical profession will appreciate the meaning, but to medical students and interns it speaks a reality. During his months of training in obstetrics and gynaecology the medical trainee must spend many hours engaged in examining and handling the most repulsive aspects of female genitals. As a result he finds the female body becoming less attractive and his sexual urges diminishing. During my own years as a medical student and intern, this observation was repeatedly confirmed by the comments of my co-workers, both married and single. As we have seen, the same principle is utilized in the sections of the Discourse on repulsiveness and the cemetery meditations.Other aspects of scientific and medical training can produce results similar to those sought in the latter three body meditations. Chemistry, biochemistry, and histology foster an objective way of viewing the body which is virtually identical to the contemplation of elements. Anatomy, of course, is similar to the contemplation of repulsiveness. And in hospital training the persistent encounter with old age, debilitation, and death continuously reinforces the words of the cemetery meditations: "Verily, also my own body is of the same nature; such it will become and will not escape it." Similarly, in order to acquire a vivid mental image of the cemetery meditations, Buddhist monks occasionally visit graveyards to behold corpses in various stages of decay.[29] However, such experiences bear fruit only if one takes advantage of them and avoids the temptation to ignore and forget.