Thoughts on Media Fasting

Pollution begins on a spiritual level then infiltrates the mind. The mind poisoned, desecrates the temple of the body with junk food garbage. When we ourselves are so full of filth is it any wonder that we spew out trash on the earth?
Notes from my journal on fasting:
The idea that the mental atmosphere of our current culture is indeed poisonous gives rise to the necessity of fasting, and in our age, bloated by the desires of entertainment, media is the substance from which we should fast. I have often thought that a Media Fast of varying lengths of time would be very beneficial for recharging my batteries. We receive so much information, so much of it is in conflict and odds with eachother, that periods of time are necessary just for its assimilation, synthesis, or rejection. It needs to be sorted out like junk mail. To fast from the internet, books, TV, movies, music, etc... would be very refreshing not only mentally, because all these activities, while seemingly being passive, actually use up the energy of the mind that might be put towards more useful activity, or the useful activity of no activity. (So much of what we see and hear results in reactivtiy anyway.) This type of fast from the media would be very beneficial during a more traditional fast from food, during a time of spiritual reknewal... for instance on a retreat or pilgrimage. It is almost necessary to have complete solitude for it to be totally effective. When the ancients fasted, retreated to the desert or wilderness to pray and seek visions, direction in life, they did not have the mass media to contend with, to distract them from the inner journey. To make our fasts from food and other things more effective it needs to be conjoined with a fast from the media and the distractions of the dominant culture.
To sum up, fasting from the media is a kind of preliminary enema that gets your mind back to ground level, to help you know your own thoughts and feelings outside of the constant barrage of emails and blogposts (such as this) and the general atmosphere of information overload. That is one of the major problems of the age of aquarius: the phemonal, exponential explosion of information of media of all sorts. We need to consider it as a kind of mental pollution and take actions to safeguard ourselves from it, because its influence is pervasive and pernicous.
Even so: I still have the drive to add my own two cents into the mediasphere: creating 'Zines and CD's and sending out my voice and music of my choice on the radio, writing books. Not only am I addicted to reading and listening to music, I want to add my own contribution. And where will all those plastic CDR's and xeroxed copies of the Dyslexicon end up anyway? I'm sure some of them have already made it to the landfill.
Something in me is compelled to create and share with others the ecstasies and sorrows of the human condition. Sharing love and compassion with other beings are what is most important to me now, no matter how cheesy and cliche it sounds.
Periodic fasts from the media and other thins in our life might help us as individuals to be more loving and compassionate. The experience of fasting can be humbling for us. Going within, lessening our appetites for the accumulation of fame, reknown, and so-called "spiritual powers" can help us make more optimistic decisions that are not only self seeking but take in to consideration the lives and well being of those around us, humans, animals and earth.
In love and thankfullnes,
Justin Patrick

two old radio show set lists I meant to post awhile ago

from april 26th, 2007

1. last walk around mirror lake - Boom Bip (remixed by Boards of Canada)
2. a track by DROME from the Mesmer Variations, disc 1
3. fateful compulsion - Matt Frantz
4. shattered cradle playground/ the last swirlings - Satyr Oz
5. O Euchari - St. Hildegard Von Bingen (Gothic Voices)
6. Sudugurata - Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson
7. False Soap - 3 Eggs
8. Skauneis - Troum
9. the matter of our discussion - Boom Bip w/ Nina Nastasia
10. this is all I ask - Tiny Tim
11. wheres your master? - Simon Finn
12. great bloody and bruised veil of this world - Current 93
13. asylum on the moon - the Magic Carpathians
14. russolo, a little fella on very ordinary legs on the verge of getting it on - Nurse With Wound
15. voice of the frog - Justin Patrick
16. amber rain - Coil
17. belladonna - Legendary Pink Dots
18. melt - Jeff Greinke
19. a nightside tale - Justin Patrick

from april 12th,
1. haywire - Bedhead
2. blurred vision - Bevis Frond
3. loreli - Cocteau Twins
4. tatayama - cEvin Key
5. boo - Pinback
6. moon beats yellow - Gorkys Zygotic Mynci
7. the red telephone - Love
8. best sanvay unst bit somnover - Thighpaulsandra
9. standard audio front end - Oval
10. cantus in memoriam of Benjamin Britten - Arvo Part
11. cobalt pools - William Basinski
12. july 18th (from Shipwreck Radio vol. 2) - Nurse With Wound
13. stairway to heaven - Rodrigo y Gabriela
14. clear day - Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions
15. drum gets a glimpse - the Liars
16. second peng - Autechre