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WHAT'S ON THIS PAGE NAVIGATION BOX OLD STUFF: Wha's Happenin', Man? | OLD STUFF: Defining the Future | OLD STUFF: System Upgrade -- No Need to be Nervous | NEW STUFF: (C)update -- They Gosh While We Gush | AD: Sensi Seed Bank Go to Contents | Go To Next Page (Page 8) |
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| What are we doing!? And why are we doing it? This is the section in which we tell you. But a full year after the paper publication of Coffeehouse Culture and we can still offer up only the same miserable excuses! Is that consistency . . . . or is it dogmatism, closed-mindedness, intransigence and terminal self-delusion? Five of the pieces on this and the following two pages appeared in the paper publication and we still stand right behind them. The other pieces (written especially for the web edition) bring new aspects of the concept into focus and recast some of the older ones. |
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NO SHIT |
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| Wha's Happenin', Man? READ THIS STORY IN PRINTABLE PLAIN TEXT Written on the day before the last of the pages went to the printer, this piece introduced the series of explanations, excuses and lies that masquerade as our editorial policy. Having been blown along by a breeze that turned into a tornado for more than half a year, we were starting to feel a little 'storm damaged'. |
DEFINING THE FUTURE READ THIS STORY IN PRINTABLE PLAIN TEXT Originally published under the title 'Take Out', this article
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IT HAS BEEN a bit like that (Like what? Why a Cheech and Chong movie, that’s what.) as we have tried to get enough wind into Coffeehouse Culture to get it airborne. The whole thing has been a strange, unnerving and more than a little surreal experience. When we came to live in Amsterdam, in the late Spring, it was with the express purpose of starting Coffee- house Culture. We believed, and still believe, that we had and have a new take on the dope smoking experience. One through which it is possible to move dope smoking out of the negative kill-your-life drugs arena into which it has been cast and into something totally new and positive. We had prepared for our mission. We had promotional material -- flyers and a 12 page dummy issue to send out to coffee- shop owners. We even had the makings of our first issue -- well, the features and the diaries. We planned on publishing in August but . . . . And but again. We knew that we had a solid concept; we knew that we had a viable medium through which to communicate it; we knew we had a great product that could fill a market niche; we knew that we could provide coffee- shop owners with a unique and effective way to reach their largest market, English tourists. Indeed, we had the dream idea. A real money- spinner that most marketing men would have wet them- selves to get their hands on. But . . . . Contradiction time. For us this ‘moneyspinning idea’ had nothing to do with money. For us it was something else. And if we could tell you exactly what it was, we would, believe us. We felt that everyone in Amsterdam, all those people from the coffeehouse society, all those people steeped in consciousness, all those people steeped in cannabis, would see what we were capable of doing and get behind us. But, as we all know, life it not like that. As you can see from this issue, we did get a lot of support. And, wow, some of it just blew our minds. There were some beautiful people who could see our vision and the power with- in it, who could associate with where we were coming from, who could empathise with our frustrations at the lack of truth in the world. There were people who took advertising space who gave us hundreds of guilders and wouldn’t take a receipt. We had told them what we and Coffeehouse Culture were about -- increased consciousness and evolution -- and they went with it and trusted us. We are from England, you know, and they don’t do that sort of thing there. It blew us away. But, for all that, it took a lot longer to get going than we had anticipated. However, we are here now. And we are going to do what we have intended all along --- further the cause of conscious- ness, evolution and, by the way and purely coincidentally, cannabis. How we got here is a long and convoluted story with a bigger cast list than ‘War & Peace’. Like many long stories, it is actually a lot of small stories with a common link, a thread, a rhyme and a reason to them. Stringing out that thread, over forty years of it (yes, folks, Coffeehouse Culture is the idea that took nearly half a century to reach fruition!), it is hung with coincidences like underwear on the washing line of life. That makes for a lot of story telling; too much for these pages, anyway. However, there are one or two parts that we simply must tell. Like about what we have discovered in Amsterdam. About the amazing thing that has happened and is happen- ing here. And -- excuses, excuses -- we must explain how we have the audacity to do what we are doing. But telling it is not what this is about; doing it is what matters. As an ageing media guru in a Woody Allen movie once said: “The medium is the message.” And that must mean something. TOP OF PAGE |
FIRST of all, some key background precepts. Look at the blackboard, Stimpkins! X1. The smoking of cannabis promotes the experience of increased consciousness. OKAY with that? Yes, we thought so. Well, try this one. X2. Since consciousness is responsible for everything we are, it must be the factor that dictates how we function in society. YEAH? Now, let’s extend that a little. X3. Regular and repeated experience of increased consciousness brings that consciousness into everyday activity --- provided, and only provided, there is a strong nervous system to support the consciousness. OKAY, so this is a bit more difficult to accept, we know. We do, however, explain it elsewhere on this page. (see 'System Upgrade -- No Need To Be Nervous') SO, those are the ‘key precepts’. That means that everything that follows is based on those precepts. OKAY? Ready? Got your space helmet on? Good, because here we go. AMSTERDAM. Amsterdam. We could almost sing it. This city of light. This glorious sanctuary. This place of freedom. This home of consciousness. SORRY about that. But Amsterdam, you know, is a special place. The whys and wherefores are, we believe, easy to understand. FOR us (and for many others, because we know we are not alone), they come down to one thing: ---consciousness. FOR over thirty years there has been some kind of cannabis society in Amsterdam. For over thirty years there have been a group of people who have been experiencing increased consciousness on a regular, daily basis. SLOWLY, slowly, over those thirty years all that consciousness has been integrated into the functioning of all those people and through them into society. Ever wondered why Amsterdam |
feels so mellow? PUTTING together some of the strings of logic here: if, as we said earlier, consciousness is the thing that dictates an individual’s level of functioning, one would expect to see a higher level of functioning within the coffeeshop society. AND that is the remarkable thing. You can! THE coffeeshop society IS a society functioning at a higher level than straight society. We all know that. The coffeeshop society has a higher level of ethics, a higher level of morality, it is a more caring, a more environmentally aware, a more creative, a more spiritual (much more spiritual) society than the society that proscribes against the substances that promote the qualities that produce this higher level of society. IF you find all that a little too much to swallow, try this. At least, the coffeeshop society is a less aggressive and happier society. That, after all, is one of the reasons we started to smoke cannabis. ALTHOUGH this description gives none of the substance (illegal or otherwise) on which this is based, essentially almost all of those who are a part of the coffeeshop society, whether resident or overseas members, agree that we have found a way to do it better. WE certifiable crazies at Coffeehouse Culture, however, have extended even this outrageous proposition. We believe that we have identified a fully grown culture trying to emerge from the closet. If you consider the things that define a culture -- distinct social values, art forms, spiritual structures, social mores, etc. -- these are all to be found within the coffeeshop society. AND, what is more, we believe that it is time for this culture to stand up and become an accepted part of society as a whole. COFFEEHOUSE Culture, perhaps, represents a first step towards that. TOP OF PAGE |
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No Need To Be Nervous READ THIS STORY IN PRINTABLE PLAIN TEXT If there is a key to developing increased consciousness that is integrated and |
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THEY GOSH WHILE WE GUSH READ THIS STORY IN PRINTABLE PLAIN TEXT After almost a year of locked in our high-tech cave mumbling unintelligible javascript mantras, Coffeehouse Culture reinvented itself as a web publication and made its comeback at the Cannabis Cup. Sponsored by that nice Mr Veling at de Kuil, we had a pitch in a side room with the glassblowers and the smart shops. Unlike our companions, we didn't have much to sell but we did have stuff to give away --- a positive view of the future. It wasn't hard to impart our vision of the future, of a society that functions at a higher level, to the glazed people who had only just been experiencing it, many of them for the first time. As we pointed out the contrasts between their own death culture and the thinking, highly civilised, society that exists in Amsterdam, it was clear that we were only expressing what everyone had already recognised. It was only when we started to put some meanings to the events taking place in Amsterdam that we could smell brains melting. For those who found themselves wearing slimy grey-green epaulets after visiting our pitch, the articles on these pages should serve as a reminder of what we said. TOP OF PAGE |
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If you would like to read Coffeehouse Culture the way we intended (in bed with a joint on the go and a cup of coffee to hand) join our Fools Rush In list. If enough people say they would like Coffeehouse Culture on paper we will produce a lush A4 magazine version. CLICK HERE for more details. |
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| the 1st seed and growshop in Holland www.sensiseeds.com |
xx | THE SENSI SEED BANK & Hash Marijuana Hemp Museum Oudezijds Acterburgwal 150, Amsterdam |
xx | Cannabis Cup Best Seed Company 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 & 1998 8 |
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ON TO PAGE EIGHT | PREVIOUS PAGE | CONTENTS | MAIN HOME PAGE GO TO PAGE: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 Questions, comments or criticisms to: Webmaster@coffeehouseculture.com The Coffeehouse Culture Site is produced by Cheapo Cheapo Productions on behalf of The Enlightenment Company Design: It Is But a Dream (Digital) Enterprises; Words: The Maya (Entertain You) Company Copyright © 1999/2000 The Enlightenment Company THE ENLIGHTENMENT COMPANY IS A NON-PROFIT MAKING EDUCATIONAL TRUST DEVOTED TO PROMOTING INCREASED CONSCIOUSNESS |
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