They Hover Above Us, Glowing With Wisdom

And the glare is dazzling: 

Monica Gagliano says that she has received Yoda-like advice from trees and shrubbery. She recalls being rocked like a baby by the spirit of a fern. She has ridden on the back of an invisible bear conjured by an osha root. She once accidentally bent space and time while playing the ocarina.

I’m sure the following detail is entirely unrelated:

Dr Gagliano… [had] been volunteering at an herbalist’s clinic, and had begun using ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic brew.

Dr Galgiano tells us that her embrace of indigenous Amazonian traditions, including medicine songs and bathing in tree pulp, and presumably the occasional snifter of ayahuasca, has resulted in the uncanny acquisition of “healing knowledge,” told to her by plants.

And because a cake needs icing: 

The New York Times (unsurprisingly) points out that Gagliano also “speaks thoughtfully” on subjects such as the “legacies of colonialism [and] capitalism.”

The University of Sydney is ever so lucky. 

Also, open thread.

Comments

[Connor]

You didn't mention the "telekinetic interactions". :-D

[David]

You didn’t mention the “telekinetic interactions”.

I wanted to leave some surprises, some meat on the bone.

[Angus]

Sydney Uni is really drinking the cool-aid. Sure has changed from my time when our college principal could leave and write this nice accurate book. finishing school for blokes

[sH2]

She has ridden on the back of an invisible bear conjured by an osha root.

DMT will do that to you.

[Burnsie]

You know where this is headed. Soon we'll only be able to eat each other.

[svh]

"telekinetic interactions"

Band name.

[Lancastrian Oik]

She once accidentally bent space and time while playing the ocarina.

I once accidentally broke wind whilst playing the guitar.

I was attempting a very tricky tone-and-a-half double bend on the E and B strings at the fifteenth fret on a heavily strung guitar, and I had partaken freely of Guinness and a chicken vindaloo the night before. My bandmates were not amused, given that it was in a very cramped, hot and under-ventilated rehearsal space, sometime around the middle of July, 1986.

Does that count?

[Lancastrian Oik]

I met Dr. Gagliano at an outdoor cafe in San Francisco

Now there's a surprise.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

The University of Sydney is ever so lucky.

Selected publications

         Book Chapters Gagliano, M. (2018).   Inside the Vegetal Mind: On the Cognitive Abilities of Plants.

An autobiography.

[Liz]

They Hover Above Us, Glowing With Wisdom

She's definitely hovering.

[TR]

She once accidentally bent space and time while playing the ocarina.

But did she straighten it out, or just leave the mess for the rest of us to clean up?

[Russtovich]

She once accidentally bent space and time while playing the ocarina.

Wait... she made space and time gay?

[Killer Marmot]

The 60s phoned. They want their acid trip back.

[Steve E]

At least she's honest. Under the heading "Selected grants," Dr. Gagliano informs us that she received a grant from Templeton World Charity Foundation/Research Support for...wait for it...

Brainless intelligence.

[Rxc]

She claims that trees are intelligent. Therefore they must be sentient, as well. And trees are a part of the plant family.

We should not eat animals because they are sentient, so we should not eat plants, either. Only rock, and sand, for now. I foresee the next relevation will involve the wisdom of viruses and bacteria, and the terrible ecocide that we are visiting on them, as well.

[Richard]

Ayahuasca - different living through chemistry. Ayahuasca is a sort of tea made by combining two plant substances.
Neither substance is particularly psychoactive by itself. There are other "plants" (cacti and mushrooms) that are individually psychoactive. I wonder, what is the adaptive advantage of such compounds in those plants? Do the freaky mental images frighten away animals who eat them?

[David]

Dr Gagliano… was invited to speak at last year’s Science and Nonduality conference, along with Deepak Chopra and Paul Stamets, a respected mycologist who believes that mushrooms are trying to communicate with humans through their hallucinogenic properties.

Sshh. I can’t hear the mushrooms.

[Gerard vanderleun]

FIGHTING HARD to be named the Internet Asstwat of the Week. She's in the lead...

[pst314]

...along with Deepak Chopra...

People in the UK may not know this, but that medical/scientific crackpot appeared regularly on American government-funded ("public") TV.

[Sam]

So Aussies - during the coming Civil War when your local Liberty Battalion rolls into the ruined rubble of Sydney and you've captured "Dr" Gagliano, you let her go right? Or is it against the wall for her? She definitely doesn't rate a free helicopter ride IMO. Just a garden variety nutjob who manged to find employment that suits her nuttery.

[Daniel Ream]

Sshh. I can’t hear the mushrooms.

To borrow one of our host's common phrases, the word 'respected' is doing an awful lot of heavy lifting in that sentence.

She definitely doesn't rate a free helicopter ride IMO

No. Sydney Uni administrators and deans, OTOH...

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Or is it against the wall for her? She definitely doesn't rate a free helicopter ride IMO...Sydney Uni administrators and deans, OTOH...

Australia is a big place, spay and neuter the lot of them, fence off a big chunk of land in the outback, drop in some basic tools and supplies, and watch it like a giant ant farm or sea monkeys. Broadcast it as an educational thing. Hours of fun and entertainment for the whole family.

[Governor Squid]

She once accidentally bent space and time while playing the ocarina.

Sounds like she spent too much time playing Legend of Zelda in her youth.

[Killer Marmot]

The astonishing thing about the New York Times article is the reader comments! Perhaps one in ten are skeptical. Instead Gagliano is lauded for her brave transgressive ideas, and detractors are -- as usual -- accused of cynicism and close mindedness.

[lotocoti]

fence off a big chunk of land in the outback ...

Feral proof fencing is a bit exy. A one way trip to Macquarie Island with a couple of pallets of Spam would be cheaper. And funnier. Viewing-wise.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Feral proof fencing is a bit exy.

The island looks as if it has seals, so I am not sure it is fair to them to inflict them with the bozos, plus feral proof - with the quality of thinkers, and I am using that term extremely loosely, I think a double strand of barbed wire would have them bumfuzzled even as they watched a bandicoot walk under it. A triple strand of concertina would be the same as if one dug a 60 foot wide moat filled will alligators, sharks with frickin' laser beams, and ill-tempered sea bass.

[Pogonip]

My plants 🌱 all say she’s crazy.

[WTP]

She once accidentally bent space and time while playing the ocarina.

Yeah, well Vladimir Putin seeks my advice and the Pope has my cell number. Prove me wrong.

[Papa Francisco]

Prove me wrong.

Orale, WT ese, yo tengo un telefono nuevo y no tengo su numero !

Texto mi su numero a VAtican 1-1111 pronto, pendejo !

        Siempre su vato, Francisco

[Not the Transylvanian]

товарищ ВТП,

Lyudmilia is wanting US&A vacationing home is better Vineyard of Martha or St. Petersburg - am thinking Petrograd St. Petersburg because climate will be like home, but address could be confusion.

Please to making your usual wise advisings and leave in usual blind drop.

       Your old droog, Влад

[JML]

I took magic mushrooms many times in my idiot youth. The only thing you learn from mushrooms is that it’s not a good idea to take mushrooms.

[Hal]

Pretty much in parallel, Florida Man recommends solving hurricanes with ice.

[HArold Kildow]

"Book Chapters Gagliano, M. (2018). Inside the Vegetal Mind: On the Cognitive Abilities of Plants.

An autobiography"

Heh. One must recall that "potted plant" is just above "mineral" in the order of being. And now she is getting stoned.

[Fay]

And here are some more "Glowing with wisdom" folks. Eggstrordinary!

[David]

Eggstrordinary!

Ah, so the eggs aren’t human property and therefore the human protestors are entitled to destroy them? Okay then.

[Zionist Overlord #73]

@pogonip
Yeah, my orchid just told me that ocarina story is completely made up.

[WTP]

Those protesters better be careful. Them roosters gets angry and they don't discriminate very well.

https://www.foxnews.com/health/rooster-pecked-woman-death-freak-attack

[Odelay]

Intelligence Without Brains. My comments bottlenecked. Send help.

[Pogonip]

Brexit Derangement Syndrome:

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2019/09/brexit-and-the-decline-of-the-english-novel/

[Governor Squid]

Brexit Derangement Syndrome

One can only assume that Quadrant pays by the word, because I made it about 1,200 words into that thing before I realized I was less than halfway through and decided to skip to the end.

There was no fulfilling punchline, alas.

[Hal]

There was no fulfilling punchline, alas.

Of the amount I skimmed through, the writeup seems to be a sort of summarizing introductory overview.

[TimT]

Florida Man recommends solving hurricanes with ice.

Ice or atom bombs - either way sounds like a Robert Frost poem:

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

[TimT]

One can only assume that Quadrant pays by the word, because I made it about 1,200 words into that thing before I realized I was less than halfway through and decided to skip to the end.

While you're there, I've got a poem in the current issue. :)

[Peter MacFarlane]

Perhaps Ms. Gagliano can see Carbon Dioxide too?

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/05/02/quote-of-the-week-greta-thunberg-claims-to-be-able-to-see-carbon-dioxide-in-the-air/

[pst314]

She can see carbon dioxide with the naked eye. She sees how it flows out of chimneys and changes the atmosphere in a landfill.

There have been people who claimed to be able to smell out witches, too.

[Darleen]

This will turn out well.

[David]

This will turn out well.

It’s as if they actively refuse to learn from past failures.