Advice for lonely women who cannot find a partner to live out their life with

I do love a delicious baked lasagna. It’s not like I can get it often. Here in China, it’s truly a rare thing.

It’s great with a fine bottle of wine. Red wine. Dry red, would be lovely.

Though I do get to eat other kinds of food often enough instead. I think that food is something that needs to be savored. You know, most people, in most nations savor their food. unlike the United States (where I grew up) which was dash, grab, smunch, and return.

Meals should be shared. They should be savored, and they should be enjoyed.

Our health is determined not only by what we do, but what we eat and who we eat the foods with. A solitary life is unhealthy. It really is. I know, I have been solitary on and off for much of my life. I didn’t like it then, and I sure as heck don’t now.

Your weight, I strongly believe, correlates on HOW you eat, WHAT you eat, and WHO you eat with. If you want to trim down, then start going out more with friends and savoring the food.

Isolation is toxic.

Most MM readers are older, and are or have been married. Never the less, every now and then I get a email or a message from someone who is alone and very lonely. I have been there before, and so I just cannot sit by and let this pass.

This is me, ol’ MM, dishing out advice.

I’m going to be straight and honest, and abrupt. And I might upset some people. I apologize for that. I guess that this is my way to plow through a bunch of fears and bullshit, and tell you all things that are truthful. I hope that it connects and changes someone’s life for the better.

Background

This article was inspired by this letter…

I’m almost 32 and still a virgin. I can honestly say I don’t feel human. I hate to admit this but suicide seems more and more like a viable option as every day goes by.

The worst thing is when I try to reach out for help. I don’t know why I am a masochist and try to get advice from my mom…. I told her that I am desperate for a relationship and can’t find one. Her answer was that I should pray to God that I lose my feelings of wanting a relationship. Implying that I should give up and not try.

She even told me that one of her friends had a relative my age and they suggested setting us up. She told me that she said to them “I wasn’t interested”…. not that I would actually want to have someone set me up with a stranger but…. really??? Most moms are dying to help their daughters with this. Mine seems to get a KICK out of sabotaging me and not wanting me to just find someone.

And I was talking to my mom last night and brought up the idea of liposuction. Cue a huge fight between the two of us. I am not overweight but I do have a few odd body proportions that I think make me unappealing…. It’s like an affront against nature for me to try to improve my chances of finding someone. Literally the world turns on me the moment I think of maybe being alluring. Almost every other woman can have her moment, but when I get ideas of trying to be pretty? It’s like I murdered someone. I am now reeling after this conversation, wondering what types of rope would be best to hang myself with.

I don’t know how to navigate life and frankly, killing myself is less of a horrible idea every day. I know that it’s a “permanent solution to a temporary problem” but my situation feels like I am trapped and there is no other way out. People reading this, can you blame me for wanting this to end?

It is unbearable being someone like me, who wants a relationship but can never have it. I am not human. I’m not even sure I should be alive.

I’d almost think of losing my virginity to a prostitute but frankly that would just be me adding to a larger problem of abuse. I’d rather not do that. Frankly, there is no future for me. I am starting to plan out suicide methods at the same time most women are planning baby showers and weddings. I am toying with the idea of going out into the snow during winter and just falling asleep. There is something dignified about just falling “asleep” in the snow. Maybe nobody would find me and it would be a mystery as to what happened to me.

I’ve lost hope.

And, it hurts.

I know it hurts. It really hurts.

So I am going to talk as a man, who appreciates women.

[1] There is a man for every woman.

The very first thing that YOU must understand is that there is a Mr. Right out there, somewhere for you.

This is a TRUTH.

This is an undeniable truth. Somewhere, out THERE, is a guy that is just like you, wanting to share his life.

It’s just that he is not available in your area, with the group of friends that you have, or anywhere near your school, industry or day to day activities.

Hell, I didn’t get to go out with girls / women (myself) until I started getting out of the male-dominated schools, industries, and societies that I frequented. I had to break out of the little close knit life that I had.

You might have to break out from your normal circle of friends to find him. You might have to go out further to find him. You might even have to employ an agency, or travel overseas to find him…

…but find him, you will.

I am convinced that there is a man for every woman simply because I have been exposed to so many men who all have such a wide array of tastes and interests. Many of the women who I wouldn’t be that interested in would really cause some of my male friends to just fall madly in love.

For instance, I am not interested in a woman who is taller than I am. It’s a personal taste. I just feel very odd looking up to a woman, and having to stand on my tippy-toes to kiss her. But that is just me. However, when I have mentioned to this to other men, I find that a goodly 25%, or one in four counter with “so what?” they argue (for the most part) that sex would be great; that our kids would be either fashion models or basketball players, and that all the other guys would think that I was a “stud” because I was with such an extraordinary woman.

I am also freaked out by Polydactylyism. But that is again, just me. It’s not that I am revolted by it, it just seems a little odd to me, and I don’t know if I can focus on the relationship if the woman had eight fingers on each hand. I’d always be wondering what our children would be like.

But on the other hand, a person’s kindness, confidence, experience, ability to communicate and participate in my interests, food, and just being fun goes a long… long way in me wanting to spend time with them.

[2] Men are attracted to a wide variety of shapes, and sizes.

I know I am.

There is NO SUCH THING as being too fat, too “thick”, too thin, too ugly, or too short. Nor is there too old, or too young.

I will tell you that, me personally, I generally have an upper limit on size for a woman that I am interested in. If she is bigger, wider or heavier than I am, I tend to lose interest. It’s NOT that I don’t like thick or fat people, it’s that I lose my interest in them as my interest lies towards smaller women than I am.

But I am not the average.

I have discovered, to my GREAT surprise, that many American men love bigger women. The urban ethnic folk call it “having booty”, and they absolutely go “ape shit” over a bigger voluptuous woman. I mean, really! And they are beyond themselves in how they react to the bigger women. And I mean it, too. The bigger… the better!

Like… really big… is really great. They just love a “pear shaped” woman.

Me, well, robust busty woman with big hair, big smile, and big shoulders are a turn-on. And I am not alone.

And I can see their point of view. I once dated a woman who was much larger than I was, and she had the nicest personality, she loved to cook and I ate well, and Lordy did she have an awesome chest. Purely amazing! So, this one woman altered my perceptions of what I like and favor in a woman. Who would have thought?

So, no matter what you size is… tiny, petite, slim, slender, curvy, athletic, rotund, bouncy… etc, you would be surprised at how others might find you to be attractive. And that is in everything. You NEVER know.

So accept yourself.

Just. As. You. Are.

[3] Stop trying to please your friends

When I was in High School there was a girl that was infatuated with me, and everyone at my work just hassled me and hassled me, and hassled me over it. They kept on saying how ugly she was. Well, I didn’t think that she was ugly, and she sure as heck had a “rocking body”, but I didn’t go out with her after the few precious dates. It wasn’t that I didn’t like her, it was that I hated the non-stop hassling at work, about how ugly she was.

She wasn’t ugly. I thought she was rather strong and handsome in a very womanly way. Like Loni Anderson.

But I listened to the asshole co-workers. Oh, how I regret that decision. Oh, how I lament my ignorance, and my piss-poor decision making ability!

Then one of those co-workers went out with her and they ended up getting married. And I remained single.

Single as in alone with no dates, at all.

Opportunist, jackass, asshole.

She wasn’t ugly. And she had a very appealing body shape. And I didn’t end up with her, even though she was really interested in me. Why?

It was because I listened to my friends and co-workers.

I often think of her. I often wonder what my life would have been if I spent some time with her. i often wonder what it would do to me, and affect my personality, but I never got that chance. I was young and I was a fool. I didn’t know any better. I made mistakes.

But I learned.

Slowly. Unfortunately.

As you get older, you learn that the opinions of others DO NOT MATTER when it comes to your own personal happiness. So shut them off, and go ahead and go after what YOU want. Stop trying to please others.

This goes to both men and women.

On another occasion, I was on a date where my (then) girlfriend brought two of her girlfriends along. I liked the girl. She liked me, but both of her girlfriends disapproved of me. And that was it. Who knows what kind of relationship we could have had. But I do know one thing, it went nowhere because her friends did not like me. I failed in pleasing three girls. I thought that pleasing one would have been enough.

Lesson learned.

Do not listen to your friends. Listen to your heart. Video.

[4] The most important thing that attracts a man is confidence.

It’s the same for women. Isn’t it?

I do not want you all to confuse being aggressive with confidence. I mean being comfortable with you you are, and what you are doing. Confidence. It’s such a turn on. In fact, many men will not ask a confident woman out on a date because they are afraid that she would say “no”.

So be very careful with this power.

You need to be who you are. Be comfortable with your good and your bad traits, and accept them. Think of yourself as a a nice comfortable pair of jeans. Just accessorize yourself as need be and as the occasions arise.

Myself, I am clearly a comfortable tee-shit kind of man, with a clean pair of jeans, and some well worn, but well tended for loafers.

Who are you?

A confident woman, would be able to throw on a dress, put on a thin foundation and some light makeup and run out the door in some low heels without a second thought. Are you that kind of woman?

Be confident on who you are, and what you are. Spend time with friends, and cherish the time with them. Share. Laugh. Enjoy a good drink and good food, and NEVER, ever, ever make a man feel uncomfortable around you. Men are attracted to confident comfortable women. That’s a fact. Video.

Ask any KTV hostess. They will tell you who the most popular girls are. They are the ones smiling, and joking around. Not the ones that are “beautiful” or who “look like fashion models”.

Fact.

This poor girl needs some confidence…

Important day tomorrow yet here I am. I would try to make myself more palatable/acceptable to people by being extra nice to them. Try to please them. At least let’s be the sweet ugly girl than bitter ugly b**ch I thought. No surprise but it doesn’t work. People just walk all over you and don’t treat you well still.

I tried to be cold, strong and someone who stands their ground but I couldn’t. The thing is, my voice gets shaky easily during confrontations and it immediately turns to full on bawling. I once lowkey embarrassed myself in public by crying like that.

So here I am, total people pleaser, doormat, someone who’s taken advantage of, always ditched, flakes out on and yet I take it without standing up once for myself. I hate it. I resent people because I end up giving more than what I get from them. I lost count the times I said sorry when I didn’t have to.

Since I never had good friendships since 17 or so, I don’t know how a healthy adult friendship is supposed to be. I don’t know what to expect, I’m in constant worry “is it okay to share this? Am I burdening this person?”. I never had friends (both online n irl) who I could go and vent to. It feels as if no one will ever understand me and support me.

I’m tired and lonely af. I feel vulnerable and weak.. I’m crying my eyes out as I write this.

Confidence. It’s very important. video.

Do you know what is missing?

Yeah. A smile.

How about this confident woman, instead…video

Or this lovely lass. See how her personality comes out when she smiles… video.

[5] Have a Passion.

So please find out what you love. What are the things that you can go on and on talking about？ Food? Dogs? Cats? Horses? Houses? Furniture? Fashion? Televisions Shows? Alcohol? Hunting or fishing? Politics?

Cast iron miniatures?

Gardening? Crafting? Cooking? Trees? Novels?

Find out your passion, and then find a man what has the same passion. You would be surprised. Yes you would.

You see, men are interested in COMPANIONSHIP.

If your passions match that of a man, then he will over look any of your (perceived) faults and really show an interest in you. You see, men are not looking for 100% perfection. They want 50%, and they will work on the other 50% to meet you half way.

You will be amazed at how they will not be able to see the imperfections that you are so worried about. And you will end up scratching your head at the things… the everyday things… that you do that really “turn him on”.

Something as silly as this video, perhaps.

And…

Here’s a woman who loves to cook. Being able to cook well is on my top personal requirements, and this gal is cooking bacon with peppers, onion and garlic. OMG! video.

I used to date (well we actually lived together) with a very attractive fashion model. I mean she was gorgeous. And though she was amazingly beautiful and we did eventually break up, the thing that attracted me to her was our shared love of poetry. And there she would sit listening to me read my poetry over coffee and absorb it all in.

I loved that.

Alas, she had faults that I could not bear, but that is immaterial. What attracted me to her was our shared passions.

From HERE…

Max was peeved. “I am so sick of boring profiles on the dating sites. The first thing people want is to hold hands and walk with someone at sunset on the beach. The second thing is to cuddle up on a couch and watch TV. Why can’t they think of something more interesting?”

I explained to Max that this yearning for sharing quality time is a universal because it reflects close companionship. This is what we all need and desire. It’s especially vital for older folks who must move at a slower pace and have the opportunity to savour shared quality time.

“But I’m not slow!”, declared Max. “At 68, I can keep up with the 40 year olds when we cycle round the bay on Sunday mornings. I want the companionship of a woman who can ride her bike with me at least for two hours into the country and pitch a tent an enjoy the peace and quiet of the bush”.

Where Max wanted active companionship, John was different. He was the film buff who enjoyed nothing more than holding hands with his woman for a film-fest and then having dinner and debriefing the film.

Both men could find their ideal companion. The significant thing about companionship is that there’s no “have tos” – it’s just time shared where you feel bonded and content.

But is companionship better than sex? It’s actually expressed in good sex!

Trust is an essential ingredient of companionship and trust is essential for good sex.

Kevin believes that love is also essential for good sex. He said, “Sex is empty without love. Sure the physical sensations are exciting and pleasurable but it dissipates quickly and leaves in its wake a sense of longing for what was missing. If loving intimacy is missing I feel both sad and upset during the act, like I’ve used the other and abused my own values – a vacuum forms and I feel it in the pit of my stomach – and in my heart. When everything is in place though and sex is love-making – there is nothing that compares!”

Seniors can be sexual in order to express affection, passion, love, loyalty and appreciation of life as opposed to merely a sexual release.

I acknowledge that some older folks become very limited in being able to engage in enthusiastic love-making. For them, non sexual touch is also magical. An arm around a loved one, a small caress on the back or a brush along the cheek with the back of hand are affirming, reassuring and reflect a partnership where the couple are caring companions.

To be truly loving, a relationship would need to work on a number of levels – spiritual, mental, physical, emotional. All of these are intricately interwoven and in balance, with caring companionship, can enhance longevity and quality of life.

[6] Change what you don’t like.

If there is something that you don’t like about yourself, don’t tolerate it. Change it.

As we get older, our faults become deeper and more ingrained. Our problems multiply, and our issues become real personality faults. Change what you cannot bear.

For some people it is their job.
For others it is their negative friends, or their over-bearing family.
For still others it is their appearance.
What ever it is that bothers you… change it.

We haven’t been taught to change things, but rather to deal with them; to accept them. And that generates anxiety and worry…

We have been worrying ever since we were little about making people angry or disappointed. These are worries that negatively affect us and are not at all beneficial for us.

Are you the type of person that thinks that they worry too much? Have you ever thought that you worry more than others? If that’s so, it’s time for you to change that situation, because you probably don’t like it, right?

Not worrying excessively doesn’t imply that we’re free of worrying, but it does mean we should learn to not give it as much importance as we currently are.

Many of the worries that currently hassle us are pretty silly. Do they really deserve all of our attention? Everybody else doesn’t give them their full attention, you shouldn’t either. Start changing today.

It’s incredible how much your life can change when you decide to change how you think. There are many things that have been instilled in us from our childhood, considerations that torment us when we become adults because something is just simply not working.

So do not worry about the things that you don’t like. You change them into something that you DO like.

If it is your weight, then you can exercise, and change your eating habits. I did not say diet. I said change what your eat, how much you eat, when you eat and all the rest.

If it is your shape, and exercise won’t do it, then sculpture your body.

If it is your outfits, clothing or whatever, you have the power to change it. Bleach away the old and embrace in the new.

[7] Don’ t force the change, embrace it.

Never force things. Always adapt to them.

Maybe you wish to be slim and petite, but you are tall, chunky and robust. No problem. Embrace it. Personally, I like robust women. But you need to know how to wear the proper clothes and how to carry yourself. Here’s some more robust girls that are fine with tight clothing.

It’s the same with me. If I wear tight fitting clothing, I need to exercise on my push-ups and sit-ups to make my frame fit the clothing. Otherwise, I look like an old man with a pot belly so big that it looks like I am nine months pregnant.

So what I do is wear bigger clothing, looser clothing. I just look like a regular guy. You cannot tell that I wear size 2xxL, instead of a M.

This trick is the same with women. Now some more robust women can wear tighter clothing and “pull it off”, but it’s difficult.

Video.

Accept who you are. Then adapt your lifestyle to fit. video

The rule is a simple one.

Tight clothes go on thin bodies. Loose clothes go on thick bodies.

The thicker, or fatter you are, the looser the clothing should be.

The girl below has a “barrel” shaped body, but look how absolutely gorgeous she looks in the nice wide flowing dress. She displays her best features; hair, eyes, cleavage, shoulders, and minimizes the things she doesn’t like.

The heavier you are the looser the clothes should be.

So maybe you wore tight fitting clothes when you were in your teens, today, being twice that size means that you must adapt with the changes and adapt to the newer, more mature you.

Don’t live in the past.

Accept who you are right now.

This is how good a plus sized woman looks when she is wearing roomy clothes that fit her. WOW! Video.

[8] Good enough is good enough

Don’t wait for the perfect relationship to come. Go forth and make friends. One day, one of those friends will end up being the guy that you would like to settle down with. For some people this is quick, but for others it takes a lot of time. Don’t rush it.

Friends first.

Then something better later on, if you want.

Don’t look for perfection. Just look for friends. Given enough friends, you will be able to find the very special person, but the important key is getting out there and meeting him.

Remember; perfection is an ideal. It is not actually possible to obtain.

Do not seek perfection in yourself or in others. It will only cause you heartache and despair. Accept things, people and situations as they are. Not as you want them to be.’

It’s called being pragmatic.

[9] Turn off your preconceived notions.

Men are men.

Women are women.

Cats are cats.

If you think that you are going to change a cat to fit your lifestyle, then you are wholly mistaken. The same is true with just about every other animal, and that includes men and women.

If you are looking for a mate then get to know them first. Over time they will change to fit your needs, and you will change to fit their needs. You do not need to force this as it will happen naturally. But what you do need to realize that in a loving relationship, there is always room to grow… to expand… and to accept.

Be realistic about what men are, how they think, and what their desires are. It is neither a 14 year old teenager’s fantasy, or a feminist nightmare. It is something else entirely.

[10] What a man REALLY wants in a relationship.

I have a post on this. And it boils down to the simple rule of “best fit”.

There are about ten major things that a man looks for in a woman. If you can meet most of those items, you can definitively snag yourself a good decent man that would make a fine husband.

But if just meet the top three, you have a very good chance at a mutually sustaining long-term relationship.

Remember this simple fact; Men play the percentages.

Go here, for the detailed article…What Men Want

[11] Be the best YOU that you can be.

Be clean. have nice habits. Dress in clothes that fits you. Avoid bad people, toxic people, and horrible bosses.

Be kind. Show compassion. Take the time to make others happy. Participate in your community and always do good things.

Be the Rufus. Video.

Not convinced? Here’s six minutes of being a Rufus, and showing compassion. video. 256MB.

Still not convinced? Here’s another three minutes of being a Rufus and showing compassion. video. 78MB

[12] Desperate times call for desperate measures

Forget about the free dating sites. (Or almost free computer dating sites.)

Go to a professional and pay the money.

Get a real assessment of your chances in obtaining dates and meeting desirable men. You will be surprised with the results. If they are good, they will help you and perform an entire “package image makeover”. They are worth their weight in gold.

[13] Smile

A smile is everything. video

The world might be falling apart, you might be ugly and have the body of a whale, but your smile will be what people will remember.

Never forget that.

Make a difference by smiling big and huge and radiating for the entire world to see.

[14] Nothing lasts

You might believe that you have found Mr. Right, and for a set period of time everything is just great. But over time, people learn, change, adapt and all sorts of things happen. For many of us, it means that often we all change. And when we change, we tend to move in different directions and our relationship might become strained.

There is nothing good or bad about this. It is just the way life is. You need to accept it, and realize that you have a window or an opportunity to get the best that you can in life. Accept what you have right NOW, and realize that things… all kinds of things can upset that perfect balance that you are living. So enjoy it. Savor it, and by all means NEVER compare yourself to another person.

Conclusion

I think that this gal is going to take some of my advice. In any event she has moved on, and MM is just a stepping stone on her life road. I hope that I performed some beneficial role in it. She said thank you and moved on. And that was that.

Don’t get caught up in the “woe is me” syndrome.

What ever you do, keep in mind that you are perfect as you are. Improve upon your perfection, and seek out others who share your interests. Get out, and go forth into the world with confidence and gusto.

Do not try to live up to the expectations of others, just know that somewhere out there is someone who understands you. Seek them out.

And know that you might have to travel a bit to find this person. Do not be afraid. Take the fist step in a journey that will continue for the rest of your life. I believe in you.

Do you want some more?

I have more posts in my Relationship Index here…

Relationships

The Gateway technique to isolate your consciousness for independent travel through space and time. An introduction.

This post serves as an introduction to “Hemi-Sync” or the “Gateway Process”. It is a system that permits the isolation of consciousness from the reality that it inhabits. There have been a flood of articles regarding this process because the CIA declassified it’s use when it was involved in “Remote Viewing” activities. Yet all of the theories, and articles put forth still come associated with the “baggage” of an imperfect understanding of the true and real nature of the universe. Here, we are going to present the techniques alongside the way the universe actually operates.

This post was originally posted on VICE. It was edited to fit this venue and all credit to the author. Note that my comments on the post are highlighted and italicized. Written by Thobey Campion on February 16, 2021, at 11:33pm. The original post is from VICE.

Dear MM reader; don't get too caught up on the CIA, and other things that seem outer-worldly and fantastical. Keep yourself grounded and keep in mind that we are consciousness that inhabits a body within a reality that is constantly changing through our thoughts.

How to Escape the Confines of Time and Space According to the CIA

In the 80s, the spy agency investigated the “Gateway Experience” technique to alter consciousness and ultimately escape spacetime.

Thobey Campion writes...

She turned to me the other morning and said, “You heard of The Gateway?” It didn’t register in the moment. She continued, “It’s blowing up on TikTok.”

Later on, she elaborated: it was not in fact the ill-fated 90s computer hardware company folks were freaking out about. No, they’ve gone further back in time, to find a true treasure of functional media.

The intrigue revolves around a classified 1983 CIA report on a technique called the Gateway Experience. The “Gateway Experience” is a training system designed to focus brainwave output to control one’s consciousness.

As such it can ultimately be used to escape the restrictions of time and space.

The CIA was interested in all sorts of psychic research at the time. This included the theory and applications of remote viewing.

"Remote Viewing"  is when someone views real events with only the power of their mind. The documents have since been declassified and are available to view.

This is a comprehensive excavation of The Gateway Process report.

The first section provides a timeline of the key historical developments that led to the CIA’s investigation and subsequent experimentations.

The second section is a review of The Gateway Process report. It opens with a wall of theoretical context, on the other side of which lies enough understanding to begin to grasp the principles underlying the Gateway Experience training.

The last section outlines the Gateway technique itself and the steps that go into achieving spacetime transcendence.

The Timeline

• 1950s – Robert Monroe, a radio broadcasting executive, begins producing evidence that specific sound patterns have identifiable effects on human capabilities. These include alertness, sleepiness, and expanded states of consciousness.

• 1956 – Monroe forms an R&D division inside his radio program production corporation RAM Enterprises. The goal is to study sound’s effect on human consciousness. He was obsessed with “Sleep-Learning,” or hypnopedia, which exposes sleepers to sound recordings to boost memory of previously learned information.Advertisement

• 1958 – While experimenting with Sleep-Learning, Monroe discovers an unusual phenomenon. He describes it as sensations of paralysis and vibration accompanied by bright light. It allegedly happens nine times over the proceeding six weeks, and culminates in an out-of-body experience (OBE).

• 1962 – RAM Enterprises moves to Virginia, and renames itself Monroe Industries. It becomes active in radio station ownership, cable television, and later in the production and sale of audio cassettes. These cassettes contain applied learnings from the corporate research program, which is renamed The Monroe Institute.

• 1971 – Monroe publishes Journeys Out of the Body, a book that is credited with popularizing the term “out-of-body experience.”

Journeys Out of the Body, Books by Robert Monroe. — *Journeys Out of the Body,*

• 1972 – A classified report circulates in the U.S. military and intelligence communities. It claims that the Soviet Union is pouring money into research involving ESP and psychokinesis for espionage purposes.

• 1975 – Monroe registers the first of several patents concerning audio techniques designed to stimulate brain functions until the left and right hemispheres become synchronized. Monroe dubs the state “Hemi-Sync” (hemispheric synchronization), and claims it could be used to promote mental well-being or to trigger an altered state of consciousness.

• 1978 to 1984 – Army veteran Joseph McMoneagle contributes to 450 remote viewing missions under Project Stargate. He is known as “Remote View No. 1”. This is kind of a whole other story.

• June 9th, 1983 – The CIA report “Analysis and Assessment of The Gateway Process” is produced. It provides a scientific framework for understanding and expanding human consciousness, out-of-body experiments, and other altered states of mind.

• 1989 – Remote viewer Angela Dellafiora Ford helps track down a former customs agent who has gone on the run. She pinpoints his location as “Lowell, Wyoming”. U.S. Customs apprehend him 100 miles west of a Wyoming town called Lovell.

• 2003 – The CIA approves declassification of the Gateway Process report.

• 2017 – The CIA declassifies 12 million pages of records revealing previously unknown details about the program, which would eventually become known as Project Stargate.

The Report

Personnel

The author of The Gateway Process report is Lieutenant Colonel Wayne M. McDonnell, hereon referred to simply as Wayne. There isn’t a tremendous amount of information available on the man, nor any photographs.

Lieutenant Colonel Wayne McDonnell’s Analysis of The …

In 1983, Wayne was tasked by the Commander of the U.S. Army Operational Group with figuring out how The Gateway Experience, astral projection and out-of-body experiences work.

Wayne partnered with a bunch of different folks to produce the report, most notably Itzhak Bentov, a very Googleable American-Israeli scientist who helped pioneer the biomedical engineering industry.

A scientific approach

From the outset of the report, Wayne states his intent to employ an objective scientific method in order to understand the Gateway process. The various scientific avenues he takes include:

A biomedical inquiry to understand the physical aspects of the process.
Information on quantum mechanics to describe the nature and functioning of human consciousness.
Theoretical physics to explain the time-space dimension and means by which expanded human consciousness transcends it.
Classical physics to bring the whole phenomenon of out-of-body states into the language of physical science (and remove the stigma of an occult connotation).

Methodological frames of reference

Before diving into the Gateway Experience, Wayne develops a frame of reference by dissecting three discrete consciousness-altering methodologies.

He’s basically saying, there’s no way you’re going to get through The Gateway without a solid grounding in the brain-altering techniques that came before it.

1) He begins with hypnosis.

The language is extremely dense, but the basic gist is as follows: 

..the left side of the brain screens incoming stimuli, categorizing, assessing and assigning meaning to everything through self-cognitive, verbal, and linear reasoning. 

The left hemisphere then dishes the carefully prepared data to the non-critical, holistic, pattern-oriented right hemisphere, which accepts everything without question. 

Hypnosis works by putting the left side to sleep, or at least distracting it long enough to allow incoming data directly, unchallenged entry to the right hemisphere. 

There, stimuli can reach the sensor and motor cortices of the right brain, which corresponds to points in the body. 

Suggestions then can send electrical signals from the brain to certain parts of the body. 

Directing these signals appropriately, according to the report, can elicit reactions ranging from left leg numbness to feelings of happiness. Same goes for increased powers of concentration.

2) Wayne continues with a snapshot of transcendental meditation.

He distinguishes it from hypnotism. 

Through concentration the subject draws energy up the spinal cord, resulting in acoustical waves that run through the cerebral ventricles, to the right hemisphere, where they stimulate the cerebral cortex, run along the homunculus and then to the body. 

The waves are the altered rhythm of heart sounds, which create sympathetic vibrations in the walls of the fluid-filled cavities of the brain’s ventricles. 

He observed that the symptoms begin in the left side of the body, confirming the right brain’s complicity. 

Bentov also states that the same effect might be achieved by prolonged exposure to 4 - 7 Hertz/second acoustical vibrations. 

He suggests standing by an air conditioning duct might also do the trick. (David Lynch and other celebrities are committed adherents to transcendental meditation today.)

3) Biofeedback, on the other hand, uses the left hemisphere to gain access to the right brain’s lower cerebral, motor, and sensory cortices.

Whereas hypnosis suppresses one side of the brain, and TM bypasses that side altogether, biofeedback teaches the left hemisphere to visualize the desired result, recognize the feelings associated with right hemisphere access, and ultimately achieve the result again. 

With repetition, the left brain can reliably key into the right brain, and strengthen the pathways so that it can be accessed during a conscious demand mode. 

A digital thermometer is subsequently placed on a target part of the body. 

When its temperature increases, objective affirmation is recognized and the state is reinforced. Achieving biofeedback can block pain, enhance feeling, and even suppress tumors, according to the report.

The Gateway mechanics

With that, Wayne takes a first stab at the Gateway process.

He classifies it as a “training system designed to bring enhanced strength, focus and coherence to the amplitude and frequency of brainwave output between the left and right hemispheres so as to alter consciousness.”

What distinguishes the Gateway process from hypnosis, TM, and biofeedback, is that it requires achieving a state of consciousness in which the electrical brain patterns of both hemispheres are equal in amplitude and frequency.

This is called Hemi-Sync.

Hemi-Sync

Lamentably, and perhaps conveniently, we cannot as humans achieve this state on our own.

The audio techniques developed by Bob Monroe and his Institute (which comprise a series of tapes), claim to induce and sustain Hemi-Sync.

Here, the document shifts to the usage of quotes and other reports to describe the powers of Hemi-Sync. Wayne employs the analogy of a lamp versus a laser.

Left to its own devices the human mind expends energy like a lamp, in a chaotic and incoherent way, achieving lots of diffusion but relatively little depth. 

Under Hemi-Sync though, the mind produces a “disciplined stream of light.” 

So, once the frequency and amplitude of the brain are rendered coherent it can then synchronize with the rarified energy levels of the universe. 

With this connection intact, the brain begins to receive symbols and display astonishing flashes of holistic intuition.

The Hemi-Sync technique takes advantage of a Frequency Following Response (FFR).

It works like this: an external frequency emulating a recognized one will cause the brain to mimic it.

So if a subject hears a frequency at the Theta level, it will shift from its resting Beta level. To achieve these unnatural levels, Hemi-Sync puts a single frequency in the left ear and a contrasting frequency in the right.

The brain then experiences the Delta frequency, also known as the beat frequency.

It’s more familiarly referred to these days as binaural music.

With the FFR and beat frequency phenomena firmly in place, The Gateway Process introduces a series of frequencies at marginally audible, subliminal levels. With the left brain relaxed and the body in a virtual sleep state, the conditions are ideal to promote brainwave outputs of higher and higher amplitude and frequency.

Alongside subliminal suggestions from Bob Monroe (naturally), the subject can then alter their consciousness.

The Gateway system only works when the audio, which is introduced through headphones, is accompanied by a physical quietude comparable to other forms of meditation.

This increases the subject’s internal resonance to the body’s sound frequencies, for example the heart.

This eliminates the “bifurcation echo”, in which the heartbeat moves up and down the body seven times a second.

By placing the body in a sleep-like state, The Gateway Tapes, like meditation, lessen the force and frequency of the heartbeat pushing blood into the aorta.

The result is a rhythmic sine wave that in turn amplifies the sound volume of the heart three times. This then amplifies the frequency of brainwave output. The film surrounding the brain—the dura—and fluid between that film and the skull, eventually begin to move up and down, by .0005 and .010 millimeters.

The body, based on its own micro-motions, then functions as a tuned vibrational system.

The report claims that the entire body eventually transfers energy at between 6.8 and 7.5 Hertz. This matches Earth’s own energy (7 – 7.5 Hertz). The resulting wavelengths are long. They are about 40,000 kilometers in length. Which curiously also happens to be the perimeter of the planet earth.

According to Bentov, the signal can move around the world’s electrostatic field in 1/7th of a second.

To recap, the Gateway Process goes like this:

Induced state of calm
Blood pressure lowers
Circulatory system, skeleton and other organ systems begin to vibrate at 7 – 7.5 cycles per second
Increased resonance is achieved
The resulting sound waves matches the electrostatic field of the earth

The body and earth and other similarly tuned minds become a single energy continuum.

Image: kovacevicmiro via Getty Images

A psycho-quantum level deeper

Wayne then turns to the very nature of matter and energy.

More materially (or less if you will), solid matter in the strict construction of the term, he explains, doesn’t exist.

The atomic structure is composed of oscillating energy grids surrounded by other oscillating energy grids at tremendous speeds.

These oscillation rates vary—the nucleus of an atom vibrates at 10 to the power of 22, a molecule vibrates at 10 to the power of 9, a human cell vibrates at 10 to the power of 3. The point is that the entire universe is one complex system of energy fields. States of matter in this conception then are merely variations in the state of energy.

The result of all these moving energies, bouncing off of energy at rest, projects a 3D mode, a pattern, called a hologram, A.K.A our reality as we experience it.

This describes the individual world-line realities. Don't get too confused.

It’s best to think of it as a 3D photograph. There’s a whole rabbit hole to go down here. Suffice it to say, the hologram that is our experience is incredibly good at depicting and recording all the various energies bouncing around creating matter. So good, in fact, that we buy into it hook, line, and sinker, going so far as to call it our “life.”

Consciousness then can be envisaged as a 3D grid system superimposed over all energy patterns, Wayne writes…

Using mathematics, each plane of the grid system can then reduce the data to a 2D form. Our binary (go/no go) minds can then process the data and compare it to other historical data saved in our memory. Our reality is then formed by comparisons. The right hemisphere of the brain acts as the primary matrix or receptor for this holographic input. The left hemisphere then compares it to other data, reducing it to its 2D form.

In keeping with our species’ commitment to exceptionalism, as far as we know humans are uniquely capable of achieving this level of consciousness. Simply, humans not only know, but we know that we know. This bestows upon us the ability to duplicate aspects of our own hologram, project them out, perceive that projection, run it through a comparison with our own memory of the hologram, measure the differences using 3D geometry, then run it through our binary system to yield verbal cognition of the self.

Screengrab: CIA

Metallicman comment

This is very similar to the way that the consciousness moves in and out of different world-lines. It moves in a sine wave. One instance it is in a world-line, and the next it is between world-lines in the non-physical reality. We move in this similar way.

The click-out phase

Wayne then shows his cards as a true punisher, issuing, “Up to this point our discussion of the Gateway process has been relatively simple and easy to follow. Now the fun begins.”

Shots fired, Wayne.

What he’s preparing the commander reading this heady report for is the reveal—how we can use the Gateway to transcend the dimension of spacetime.

Time is a measurement of energy or force in motion; it is a measurement of change.

This is really important.

For energy to be classified as in motion, it must be confined within a vibratory pattern that can contain its motion, keeping it still. Energy not contained like this is boundary-less, and moves without limit or dimension, to infinity. This disqualifies boundary-less energy from the dimension of time because it has no rate of change.

Energy in infinity, also called “the absolute state,” is completely at rest because nothing is accelerating or decelerating it—again, no change. It therefore does not contribute to our hologram, our physical experience.

We cannot perceive it.

Now back to frequencies.

Wave oscillation occurs because a wave is bouncing between two rigid points of rest. It’s like a game of electromagnetic hot potato (the potato being the wave and the participants’ hands being the boundaries of the wave).

Without these limits, there would be no oscillation. When a wave hits one of those points of rest, just for a very brief instant, it “clicks out” of spacetime and joins infinity.

For this to occur, the speed of the oscillation has to drop below 10 the power of -33 centimeters per second. For a moment, the wave enters into a new world.

The potato simply disappears into a dimension we cannot perceive.

Theoretically speaking, if the human consciousness wave pattern reaches a high enough frequency, the “click-outs” can reach continuity.

Put another way, if the frequency of human consciousness can dip below 10 to the power of 33 centimeters per second but above a state of total rest, it can transcend spacetime.

The Gateway experience and associated Hemi-Sync technique is designed for humans to achieve this state and establish a coherent pattern of perception in the newly realized dimensions.

Image: Spectral-Design via Getty Images

Passport to the hologram

In theory, we can achieve the above at any time.

The entire process though is helped along if we can separate the consciousness from our body. It’s like an existential running head start where the click-out of a consciousness already separated from its body starts much closer to, and has more time to dialogue with, other dimensions.

This is where things get a little slippery; hold on as best you can.

The universe is in on the whole hologram thing, too, Wayne writes. This super hologram is called a “torus” because it takes the shape of a fuck-off massive self-contained spiral.

Give yourself a moment to let the above motion sink in…

This pattern of the universe conspicuously mirrors the patterns of electrons around the nucleus of an atom. Galaxies north of our own are moving away from us faster than the galaxies to the south; galaxies to the east and west of us are more distant. The energy that produced the matter that makes up the universe we presently enjoy, will turn back in on itself eventually. Its trajectory is ovoid, also known as the cosmic egg. As it curls back on itself it enters a black hole, goes through a densely packed energy nucleus then gets spat out the other side of a white hole and begins the process again. Springtime in the cosmos, baby!

Screengrab: CIA

The entire universe hologram—the torus—represents all the phases of time: the past, present, and future.

The takeaway is that human consciousness brought to a sufficiently altered (focused) state could obtain information about the past, present, and future, since they all live in the universal hologram simultaneously.

Wayne reasons that our all-reaching consciousness eventually participates in an all-knowing infinite continuum.

Long after we depart the space-time dimension and the hologram each one of us perceives is snuffed out, our consciousness continues. Reassuring in a way.

And that is the context in which the Gateway Experience sits.

The Technique

The following is an outline of the key steps to reach focus levels necessary to defy the spacetime dimension. This is an involved and lengthy process best attempted in controlled settings.

If you’re in a rush, you can apparently listen to enough Monroe Institute Gateway Tapes in 7 days to get there.

The Energy Conversion Box: The Gateway Process begins by teaching the subject to isolate any extraneous concerns using a visualization process called “the energy conversion box.”

Resonant Humming: The individual is introduced to resonant humming. Through the utterance of a protracted single tone, alongside a chorus on the tapes, the mind and body achieve a state of resonance.

The Gateway Affirmation: The participant is exposed to something close to a mantra called The Gateway Affirmation . They must repeat to themselves variations of, “I am merely a physical body and deeply desire to expand my consciousness.”

Hemi-Sync: The individual is finally exposed to the Hemi-Sync sound frequencies, and encouraged to develop a relationship with the feelings that emerge.

Additional Noise: Physical relaxation techniques are practiced while the Hemi-Sync frequencies are expanded to include “pink and white” noise. This puts the body in a state of virtual sleep, while calming the left hemisphere and raising the attentiveness of the right hemisphere.Advertisement

The Energy Balloon: The individual is then encouraged to visualize the creation of an “energy balloon” beginning at the top of the head, extending down in all directions to the feet then back up again. There are a few reasons for this, the main one being that this balloon will provide protection against conscious entities possessing lower energy levels that he or she may encounter when in the out-of-body state.

Focus 12: The practitioner can consistently achieve sufficient expanded awareness to begin interacting with dimensions beyond their physical reality. To achieve this state requires conscious efforts and more “pink and white noise” from the sound stream.

Tools: Once Focus 12 is achieved, the subject can then employ a series of tools to obtain feedback from alternative dimensions.

Problem Solving: The individual identifies fundamental problems, fills their expanded awareness with them, and then projects them out into the universe. These can include personal difficulties, as well as technical or practical problems.

Patterning: Consciousness is used to achieve desired objectives in the physical, emotional, or intellectual sphere.

Color Breathing: A healing technique that revitalizes the body’s energy flows by imagining colors in a particularly vivid manner.

Energy Bar Tool: This technique involves imagining a small intensely pulsating dot of light that the participant charges up. He or she then uses the sparkling, vibrating cylinder of energy (formerly known as the dot) to channel forces from the universe to heal and revitalize the body.

Remote Viewing: A follow-on technique of the Energy Bar Tool where the dot is turned into a whirling vortex through which the individual sends their imagination in search of illuminating insights.

Living Body Map: A more organized use of the energy bar in which streams of different colors flow from the dot on to correspondingly-colored bodily systems.https://oembed.vice.com/MBh6HBt?img=1&lazy=1&v=1&app=1

Seven days of training have now occurred. Approximately 5 percent of participants get to this next level, according to the report.

Focus 15 – Travel Into the Past: Additional sound on the Hemi-Sync tapes includes more of the same, plus some subliminal suggestions to further expand the consciousness. The instructions are highly symbolic: time is a huge wheel, in which different spokes give access to the participant’s past.

Focus 21 – The Future: This is the last and most advanced state. Like Focus 15, this is a movement out of spacetime into the future.

Out-of-Body Movement: Only one tape of the many is devoted to out-of-body movement. This tape is devoted to facilitating out-of-body state when the participant’s brain wave patterns and energy levels reach harmony with the surrounding electromagnetic environment. According to Bob Monroe, the participant has to be exposed to Beta signals of around 2877.3 cycles per second.

Conclusions

Wayne expresses concern about the fidelity of information brought back from out-of-body states using the Gateway technique. Practical applications are of particular concern because of the potential for “information distortion.”

The Monroe Institute also ran into a bunch of issues in which they had individuals travel from the West to the East Coast of the U.S. to read a series of numbers off of a computer screen. They never got them exactly right. Wayne chalks this up to the trouble of differentiating between physical entities and extra-time-space dimensions when in the out-of-body state.

Wayne swings back to support mode though, lending credence to the physics foundation of the report. He cites multiple belief systems that have established identical findings. These include the Tibetan Shoug, the Hindu heaven of Indra, the Hebrew mystical philosophy, and the Christian concept of the Trinity. Here he seems more interested in hammering home the theoretical underpinnings that make The Gateway Experience possible, rather than the practical possibilities promised by The Gateway Tapes.

Possibly with his CIA top brass audience in mind, Wayne then gives an A-type nod to The Gateway Experience for providing a faster, more efficient, less subservient, energy-saving route to expanded consciousness. This finishes with a series of recommendations to the CIA for how to exploit Gateway’s potential for national defense purposes.

The missing page

One curious feature of The Gateway Report is that it seems to be missing page 25. It’s a real cliffhanger too. The bottom of page 24 reads “And, the eternal thought or concept of self which results from this self-consciousness serves the,” The report picks back up on page 26 and 3 sections later as if Wayne hadn’t just revealed the very secret of existence.

The gap has not gone unnoticed. There’s a Change.org petition requesting its release. Multiple Freedom of Information Act requests have demanded the same. In all cases, the CIA has said they never had the page to begin with. Here’s a 2019 response from Mark Lilly, the CIA’s Information and Privacy Coordinator, to one Bailey Stoner regarding these records:

One theory goes that that rascal Wayne M.-fricking-McDonnell left the page out on purpose. The theory contends that it was a litmus test—if anyone truly defies time-space dimensions, they’ll certainly be able to locate page 25.

Quick notes

This is an introductory post to this subject. I will include better, more “meaty” posts subsequent to this. I will also include the Hemi-Sync audio tracks that the MM reader can experiment with.

Do you want more?

This post starts it’s own sub-Index. Within this index will be (or are) a collection of audio files (in either MP3 or FLAC formats) for your personal use, adventures and exploration. Free.

GATEWAY AUDIO TRACKS

I have more posts like this in my World-Line Travel Index…

World-Line Travel Index

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Introduction to the art of Todd Schorr.

Today’s artist is the one the only, the amazing painter that turns pop-culture into surreal art, Todd Schorr! Everything he gets his brushes on are simply amazing. All his paintings have so much detail that every time I look back at the paintings I always notice something new to trigger my amazement.

Todd Schorr 17 — Schorr began doing professional illustration while still in college, and soon after graduating in 1976 he moved to New York City where he provided work for a wide variety of commercial projects including album covers for AC/DC, movie posters for George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, and covers for Time magazine that now reside in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

Artist Todd Schorr has earned broad recognition as a master painter. The style and influences of his complex narrative painting have been attributed from a multitude of sources from Northern Renaissance to 18th and 19th century Romantic painters.

Todd Schorr is an American artist and one of the most prominent members of the "Lowbrow" art movement or pop surrealism. Combining a cartoon influenced visual vocabulary with a highly polished technical ability, based on the exacting painting methods of the Old Masters, Schorr weaves intricate narratives that are often biting yet humorous.

-Wikipedia

Todd Schorr 16 — Every viewer brings their own personal perceptions to a depiction of say, Fred Flintstone, but the context he’s been placed in and how he’s been altered physically, triggers new associations in the viewer that didn’t exist before. Conversely, if a depiction of a generic cave man was used in the composition, it might not generate the same intimate emotional response.

Todd Schorr is a living American artist and one of the heavy weights of the “Lowbrow” (pop surrealism) art movement. Keep that phrase “pop surrealism” in mind when you’re looking at his art. Similar to Alex Grey, Todd Schorr‘s pieces are vivid, colorful, and packed with impressively complex and detailed images. Thematically, his art deals with some prominent pop culture themes ranging from fairy tales to television and movie references, from alien encounters to not-so-subtle commentary on modern society.

Todd Schorr 15 — Todd Schorr was born in New York City in 1954 and grew up in Oakland, New Jersey. His parents enrolled him in art classes when he was five, and understandably he claims influences from movies such “King Kong” and the early animated cartoons of Walt Disney and Max Fleischer were (and apparently still are) a driving force in his creative visions.

"There is still a persistent reluctance on the part of  many of these larger institutions in acknowledging this art, but I  really feel they’re shooting themselves in the foot on this point, and  fail to realize the broader audience this art has the potential to bring  in. 

I recently witnessed a rather humorous situation at the Museum Of  Art in New York where the gallery displaying surrealist art was  jam-packed with onlookers, while the gallery containing work of recent  conceptual work was occupied solely by a young mother changing the  diaper of her baby infant. Does that not tell you something?"

-Todd Schorr quoted in Arrested Motion

Todd Schorr was born in New York City in 1954 and grew up in Oakland, New Jersey. His parents enrolled him in art classes when he was five, and understandably he claims influences from movies such “King Kong” and the early animated cartoons of Walt Disney and Max Fleischer were (and apparently still are) a driving force in his creative visions.

Todd Schorr 14 — Todd Schorr is a living American artist and one of the heavy weights of the “Lowbrow” (pop surrealism) art movement. Keep that phrase “pop surrealism” in mind when you’re looking at his art. Similar to Alex Grey, Todd Schorr‘s pieces are vivid, colorful, and packed with impressively complex and detailed images. Thematically, his art deals with some prominent pop culture themes ranging from fairy tales to television and movie references, from alien encounters to not-so-subtle commentary on modern society.

By the late 1960’s and early 1970’s Schorr was drumming in bands and found further influences in the psychedelic music posters and underground comics coming out of the west coast art scene. In 1970 he visited the Uffizi gallery in Italy and began to formulate an idea of combining cartoons with the painting techniques of the Old Masters.

 “Like any artist of worth, it took many long years of struggle and  investigative thought along with trial and error as well as constant  honing of technique to reach the point where I felt I had created a  language which, when spoken well, would command some semblance of  purpose. I work in what is best described as a surreal style but  filtered through the mind and eyes of what is, for better or worse,  uniquely American.” 

– Todd Schorr

Todd Schorr 13 — Schorr works in acrylic, creating complex narrative paintings of his favorite childhood characters — Popeye, Tony the Tiger and King Kong — with a technical bravado borrowed from the Old Masters.

In 1972 he entered the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of The Arts) with designs towards being a painter, but he was directed instead to the illustration department.

Schorr began doing professional illustration while still in college, and soon after graduating in 1976 he moved to New York City where he provided work for a wide variety of commercial projects including album covers for AC/DC, movie posters for George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, and covers for Time magazine that now reside in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

Yeah, Schorr's stuff is just uh-maze-ing.  Really on a whole other  level, there also HUGE.  I think that first one I posted is 90-something  inches across.  

-Comment found on Universal Monster Army

Todd Schorr 11 — Fantastic imagery, cartoon characters, and other pop culture icons rendered with an exacting technique and colorful palette defines the signature style of Schorr’s artwork. His iconic work to date is “A Pirate’s Treasure Dream”, 2006, which depicts a plethora of zany phantoms and animals (such as Donald Duck, Coco the Clown, and a Worry-Bird), all parading around — none other than – the lusty Los Angeles Lowbrow (art movement) collector Long Gone John.

AM: One of the things that people love about your work are  your many references to pop culture. Can you tell us a little about the  significance of this aspect of your paintings?

 
Schorr: I consider myself a cultural anthropologist and use pop  culture reference points in my work because they strike an emotional  resonance with people while also forming a common pictorial language  that’s accessible to just about everyone. They get the viewer’s  attention and pull them into the little scenarios that I’ve laid out  before them on my canvases. Every viewer brings their own personal  perceptions to a depiction of say, Fred Flintstone, but the context he’s  been placed in and how he’s been altered physically, triggers new  associations in the viewer that didn’t exist before. Conversely, if a  depiction of a generic cave man was used in the composition, it might  not generate the same intimate emotional response. I try to get the  essence of the pop culture elements I’m referring to but alter the  perception of that image.

Schorr works in acrylic, creating complex narrative paintings of his favorite childhood characters — Popeye, Tony the Tiger and King Kong — with a technical bravado borrowed from the Old Masters.

Often, they pay humorous homage to his baby boomer childhood or a revered painter, as in “Parade of the Damned” (2005), based loosely on the 1562 Flemish masterpiece by Bruegel called “Mad Meg,” which depicts a harridan who drives everyone around her crazy.

Todd Schorr 0 — Schorr, 54, grew up in New Jersey, immersed in the world of cartoons, commercials and Hollywood horror films. But it was after he went to Europe as a teenager and visited the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, that a light bulb went on: “If I could learn how to paint in the techniques of the Old Masters but use as subject matter my favorite cartoons, I would have the best of all worlds,” he told himself.

In Schorr’s version, the monsters all come from the world of pop culture: Frankenstein and King Kong join a cast of fiends as they casually make their way toward the mouth of hell, where they’re warmly welcomed by Morticia of the Addams Family.

Sometimes, his works have a distinctly sociopolitical undertone, as in “The Hydra of Madison Avenue” (2001), a bacchanalia display of old Saturday morning TV commercial characters — Tony the Tiger, Smokey Bear, Mr. Clean — all sprouting from a many-headed beast as the Jolly Green Giant struts alongside a pink fairy tale castle spewing a cloud of black smoke.

“There’s an undercurrent of malice going in,” acknowledges Schorr, speaking by phone from Los Angeles. “The way I’m presenting it, it’s a serious presentation, but it has an absurdity built into it. I’ve got these ridiculous cartoon characters, but I’m trying to paint them the way an Old Master would paint them.”

The painting is at once deeply personal and sociopolitical: “It’s about advertising, of course,” he says. “You cut the head off, and it keeps coming back. I have mixed feelings about advertising. I think it’s a horrible profession, but at the same time it has given us all these fascinating characters.”

Schorr, 54, grew up in New Jersey, immersed in the world of cartoons, commercials and Hollywood horror films. But it was after he went to Europe as a teenager and visited the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, that a light bulb went on: “If I could learn how to paint in the techniques of the Old Masters but use as subject matter my favorite cartoons, I would have the best of all worlds,” he told himself.

Todd Schorr 10 — Sometimes, his works have a distinctly sociopolitical undertone, as in “The Hydra of Madison Avenue” (2001), a bacchanalia display of old Saturday morning TV commercial characters — Tony the Tiger, Smokey Bear, Mr. Clean — all sprouting from a many-headed beast as the Jolly Green Giant struts alongside a pink fairy tale castle spewing a cloud of black smoke.

From December 2001 through February 2002 the exhibit “Secret Mystic Rites: Todd Schorr Retrospective” was organized by the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Florida. The museum used Schorr’s painting “Clash of the Holidays” on the invitation which provoked some outrage, with various South Florida civil leaders accusing Schorr of blasphemy.

Fortunately the controversy died down after meetings between local, state, and museum officials determined that the cost of the county’s heretic burning permit exceeded the city’s budget for the month.

This resulted in a later ruling by the Florida Supreme Court which reduced the sentence for blasphemy from burning at the stake to simple drawing and quartering, under the logic that the threat of fire damage to the Everglades superseded the rights of local preachers to protect their flocks from outside influence.

Todd Schorr 9 — The art world is very much tied to fashion and fads, and many young artists easily stray into these traps to gain acceptance and what they perceive as popularity. Consider yourself a very fortunate artist indeed if you manage to find just one or a couple of patrons that truly love your work and stick with you through thick and thin.

In most ways, Todd Schorr is living every artist’s dream: His beastly cartoon paintings are plastered throughout the Internet, where they are studied, discussed and analyzed for meaning on hundreds of art blogs.

AM: Many of the younger artists we talk to list you as one of  their inspirations or influences. Being a dedicated artist is not easy,  especially in this economic time. We know you also had some struggles  when you gave up a lucrative illustration career to focus on your own  personal art. Any advice for the younger generation of artists out  there?

Schorr: If a person has artistic inclinations and has something that  by compulsion needs to be expressed, they will somehow find an outlet  and hopefully be able to make a living from that talent. Unlike  commercial art, where you can target the type of client or market you’d  like to work for, the “fine art” gallery world is such an unpredictable  mess of agendas and “of the moment” fashion posturing, that it’s folly  to suggest any one path to success.

However, here are a couple of important thoughts to consider. Stay  true to your vision and what makes you unique while constantly seeking  to evolve and improve on previous efforts. Don’t follow trends. The art  world is very much tied to fashion and fads, and many young artists  easily stray into these traps to gain acceptance and what they perceive  as popularity. Consider yourself a very fortunate artist indeed if you  manage to find just one or a couple of patrons that truly love your work  and stick with you through thick and thin.

Hollywood celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and David Arquette collect his massive canvases. Tycoons, such as Mark Parker, the CEO of Nike, commission his work, while less well-to-do devotees settle for covering their bodies with tattooed replicas of his iconographic images.

Todd Schorr 8 — Indeed, he says, if those Flemish Old Masters were living today, they’d be painting cartoons too. And, who knows, he adds, but maybe art lovers of the future will revere paintings of King Kong, Tony the Tiger and Cap’n Crunch.

Today Schorr lives the life of a reclusive billionaire, quietly depicting the reality of a twisted cartoon otherworld while tossing scraps of lobster to his trained pack of hyenas which provide a secure front line between himself and the frothing mass of groupies camped at his gates.

Todd Schoor is brilliant!!! If you like his style, check out paintings  by Robert Williams. Robt. Williams pioneered the multi-layered, low-brow  painting style. 

 -Comment found on Universal Monster Army

Todd Schorr 7 — Although the label “lowbrow” may be shunned by other artists of his generation, Schorr actually validates the colloquial term and summarizes the genre’s basic traits. In other words, he takes what are often considered to be low cultural references and elevates them into significant artifacts that pulsate with intellectual viability.

There may not be a more dedicated and industrious artist than Todd Schorr. His work ethic is legendary, his output exemplified by dogged attention to detail and skill in technique.

Such a notable career, when taken in sum, encapsulates a unique, personal vision of a conjured world in which he establishes surreal appeal by creating phantasmagorical images that mesmerize the viewer in their meticulously painted execution.

Todd Schorr 6 — Hollywood celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and David Arquette collect his massive canvases. Tycoons, such as Mark Parker, the CEO of Nike, commission his work, while less well-to-do devotees settle for covering their bodies with tattooed replicas of his iconographic images.

Although the label “lowbrow” may be shunned by other artists of his generation, Schorr actually validates the colloquial term and summarizes the genre’s basic traits. In other words, he takes what are often considered to be low cultural references and elevates them into significant artifacts that pulsate with intellectual viability.

Yeah, Robert Williams is pretty much THE MAN when it comes to lowbrow  art, he kind of coined the term (as it applies to this movement of art)  back in the early '80s,  not to mention his stuff is weird with a  capital W.  I'd post some of his work but it rarely prominently features  movie monsters.   

  -Comment found on Universal Monster Army

Todd Schorr 5 — “Like any artist of worth, it took many long years of struggle and investigative thought along with trial and error as well as constant honing of technique to reach the point where I felt I had created a language which, when spoken well, would command some semblance of purpose. I work in what is best described as a surreal style but filtered through the mind and eyes of what is, for better or worse, uniquely American.”

Schorr is a seminal figure in what’s known as the lowbrow school of art, an underground movement centered in Los Angeles that draws on an iconography of cartoon characters and baby boomer images from TV and pop culture. Other artists in the movement, which is also known as pop surrealism, include Camille Rose Garcia, Gary Baseman and Mark Ryden.

Since 1994, they have been steadfastly promoted in the pages of Juxtapoz Arts & Culture Magazine, a pop surrealist San Francisco-based publication.

Todd Schorr’s artistic journey is one that hardly conforms to the time-honored stereotype of Bohemian artist. It is rather a post-war tale bracketed by an America infatuated with the limitless potential of consumerism.

Todd Schorr 4 — Todd Schorr is a living American artist and one of the heavy weights of the “Lowbrow” (pop surrealism) art movement. Keep that phrase “pop surrealism” in mind when you’re looking at his art. Similar to Alex Grey, Todd Schorr‘s pieces are vivid, colorful, and packed with impressively complex and detailed images.

His formative years were spent in a world surrounded by the atomic and space ages, by Saturday morning cartoons and racks of comic books at the local drug store, a land populated by Revell models, Mad Magazine, Testors glue, Mickey Mouse and Rat Fink.

My kind of guy.

Further fueling his developing image bank were the seemingly endless icons from television’s early years: Robbie the Robot, Mighty Joe Young and reel upon reel of animated toons from the likes of Tex Avery, George Pal and Max Fleischer.

Todd Schorr 3 — Todd Schorr is an American artist and one of the most prominent members of the “Lowbrow” art movement or pop surrealism. Combining a cartoon influenced visual vocabulary with a highly polished technical ability, based on the exacting painting methods of the Old Masters, Schorr weaves intricate narratives that are often biting yet humorous.

The compulsion to replicate these characters led to a formal art education and exposure to a new set of influences drawn from the world of advertising and commercial art.

 Todd Schorr (born January 9, 1954) is an American artist and one of the most prominent of the group that has been dubbed "Lowbrow (art movement)" or pop surrealism. An early work is the cover of Patrick Adams Presents Phreek. 

Fantastic imagery, cartoon characters, and other pop culture  icons rendered with an exacting technique and colorful palette defines  the signature style of Schorr’s artwork. His iconic work to date is "A Pirate's Treasure Dream", 2006, which depicts a plethora of zany phantoms and animals (such as Donald Duck, Coco the Clown, and a Worry-Bird), all parading around -- none other than – the lusty Los Angeles Lowbrow (art movement) collector Long Gone John. Todd Schorr is one of the most "successful"/most expensive living artists in the Lowbrow (art movement) scene. 

Schorr studied Illustration and graduated from the Philadelphia College of Art. His art and illustrations have been included in Time, New York Times, and Juxtapoz Magazine, to name a few. He is married to fellow Lowbrow artist, Kathy Staico Schorr.  Both live and work in Beverly Hills, California. 

-Art and popular culture

Todd Schorr 1 — Artist Todd Schorr has earned broad recognition as a master painter. The style and influences of his complex narrative painting have been attributed from a multitude of sources from Northern Renaissance to 18th and 19th century Romantic painters.

“The artwork I respond to is art that’s entertaining but also (makes) you feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand up,” he says. “It should be kind of thrilling. A total visceral response.”

Indeed, he says, if those Flemish Old Masters were living today, they’d be painting cartoons too. And, who knows, he adds, but maybe art lovers of the future will revere paintings of King Kong, Tony the Tiger and Cap’n Crunch.

“This work is going to be tremendously important 100 years from now,” Schorr asserts. “It’s so much an art of our time and place.

Movies that Inspired Me

Here are some movies that I consider noteworthy and worth a view. Enjoy.

Stories that Inspired Me

Here are reprints in full text of stories that inspired me, but that are nearly impossible to find in China. I place them here as sort of a personal library that I can use for inspiration. The reader is welcome to come and enjoy a read or two as well.

Space Cadet (Full Text) by Robert Heinlein

Any Friend of Nicholas Nickleby’s Is a Friend of Mine

Starman Jones (Full Text) by Robert Heinlein.

The Lottery (Full Text) by Shirley Jackson

Farnham's Freehold (Full Text) by Robert Heinlein

Invisible Boy (Full Text) by Ray Bradbury

Job: A Comedy of Justice (Full Text) by Robert Heinlein

Spell my name with an "S" by Isaac Asimov

Not the First (Full Text) by A.E. van Vogt

Space Jockey (Full Text) by Robert Heinlein

My Poetry

Art that Moves Me

An experiment of a bird in a vacuum jar.

Articles & Links

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