Why does the desert speak to me??

The desert speaks to me and tells me, "Do drugs. Do lots of psychedelic drugs."
I don't know why the desert says this to me, I think maybe I need to ask my friends recently back from Burning Man; I think they get the same message. The difference here is, I don't listen to the desert, not this time. I've had enough of her telling me what to do, and we've had a very, very good and elastic time together. I stretched my perception a lot. It was always FAR OUT. But not this time.

I spent Labor Day weekend in Joshua Tree, a little town in the middle of the California desert that defies time and place. And screams, "I am weird, I am quirky, I am unique... you may want to alter your consciousness so you can figure me out..."

But, we don't need to go there again, right? No drugs in the desert, instead a steady stream of movements and focus and concentration at the Tensegrity workshop "As Above, So Below" held at the barely-still-standing Joshua Tree Retreat Center. Tensegrity, as I've recently learned, is a way of being created by the mystic writer Carlos Casteneda from the teachings of the shaman Don Juan Matus. There are followers of this type of awareness from all over the world. I would say the goal is very similar to Buddhism in that practitioners seek enlightenment. But, instead of meditating in a cave, with Tensegrity there are thousands of different movements called "Magical Passes" that one learns and performs to increase awareness and energy.
This may sound weird and woo woo, and it is. But it is also a very interesting study, one that can take you deeper into consciousness and perhaps, for some, FAR OUT. So, I have been seeking this far out feeling ever since I did travel to the desert to enjoy the thrill of melting fuzzy cactuses with sunglasses on and brilliant colors of light emerging from the earth and the night sky.
Those days it was easy to get out, far out, but I was cheating. Now, in my old age, I am finding the same things that I discovered on mushrooms or LSD just by being still, quiet, deep, and, in the case of Tensegrity, by moving fluidly throughout the atmosphere.

I was told as I entered the desert and heard that familiar calling from far out that I would be able to find that same feeling without drugs. And i did.

I never liked to cheat.

And for those who would like a different version of enlightenment there is "Jesus House of Prayer", or JHOP, right there on the side of the road. Hallelujah!