Interview from Folsom Prison shortly after his return to the United States
His Last Interview
David: What have you gained from your illness, and how has the dying process affected you?
Timothy: When I discovered that I was terminally ill I was thrilled, because I thought, "Now the real game of life begins. Oh boy! It's the Super Bowl!" I entered into the real challenge of how to live an empowered life, a life of dignity. How you die is the most important thing you ever do. It's the exit, the final scene of the glorious epic of your life. Death is loaded with paradox and taboo, so it's hard for me to be thinking this through, even though I'm involved in the process of dying full-time. Do you follow my confusion? I can not exaggerate the power of this taboo about dying. It's spooky, it's something we're supposed to be frightened of. Death is something symbolized by Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
David: Have you learned anything in particular from this illness?
Timothy: You don't learn, you re-discover. We're all going to die. I'm seventy-five years old, but you're dying too. It's just a matter of scheduling. Of course it's all paradoxical. I think that you shouldn't be a victim, but you have to be one now and then. Maybe once an hour you can complain, and be a victim all you want, but for no more than five minutes! (Laughter) So then once you have that attitude, and you set the domino chips going, then it becomes a force. Death should be good, but it's like setting off a domino tree-- all your prejudices, and all your fears and taboos come up.
David: When you first heard that you had cancer, did you accept that you were going to die, or did you say I'm going to fight this?
Timothy: One thing that we're so fanatic about is this metaphor of fighting. It's unbelievable how in this society we stress fighting and combating a disease. We're fighting everything! The presidential candidates are supposedly trying to figure out what's good for America, but all they do is lie and fight, fight, fight! It's an amazing way to select a president, isn't it?
David: So you think using that metaphor in a medical sense is dangerous?
Timothy: It's even worse. It's so inbred into us, implanted during our childhood.
David: Cryonic suspension aside, what do you personally think happens to consciousness after the death of the body?
Timothy: Well, this is the most important question, right?
David: It's the greatest mystery of all time.
Timothy: What do you think?
David: I have several dozen competing theories and ideas that I entertain regularly. Maybe death, like life, is influenced by what we believe it to be. Maybe only some of us continue, and others don't. Maybe at death one splits apart into many beings, or maybe we unify into some kind of greater Self. Maybe you just transcend this world completely, and journey to another unimaginable level. Maybe you cease to exist altogether. C'mon Timothy, you must have given it some thought. What do you think happens when you die?
Timothy: Well, I always try to be scientific.
David: It's pretty difficult to be scientific about something that's pure mystery, that we can't even measure yet.
Timothy: Why? That's what science is all about. Science deals with the mystery. Science loves being proved wrong. We know that when the heart stops-- flatline-- the brain continues to go on...
David: For another fifteen minutes or so.
Timothy: Yeah, which makes this a very interesting and fascinating notion, doesn't it? Particularly when most of the Eastern religions have stressed something very different from that, right?
David: The Eastern religions-- like Buddhism or Hinduism-- stress a continuity of self, that every self is eternal, and connected to a larger Self. It's pretty difficult being really scientific about what happens to consciousness after death.
Timothy: How dare you? Throw out all of science... because of what?
David: I'm not throwing out science, it's just that there's presently no way to measure consciousness. There's no evidence to go on.
Timothy: Of course there's evidence. I'm going to have my dying room set up weeks, months in advance, so that there will be at least twenty or thirty ways that I'm going to be communicating. Even in the worst case where I can't speak, or make use of any motor ability, there will be some way I can communicate my experience.
David: That's for while you're dying, not after you're dead. After that we'll have to have a seance in order to talk to you. Don't you have some kind of theory, some kind of intuition or idea that you play with about what happens to consciousness after you cross over the threshold?
Timothy: Theory and intuition-- is that the same thing?
David: No, but intuitions can help us to form theories.
Timothy: Based on intuitions. Is intuition like a scale or a truck?
David: It's more elusive, it's a hunch or a feeling.
Timothy: Feeling inside you of what?
David: That something is right, or wrong, or that a pattern will continue a certain way, and it's not based upon just a logical analysis of the situation, but upon an emotional response that's difficult to articulate.
Timothy: But then where did it come from? It must be based on something.
David: I don't know where intuitions come from. But I really want to know what you think happens after you die? (laughter)
Timothy: Well, I'm a very special case. The average person doesn't spend a lot of time...
David: ...preparing...
Timothy: ...all of these years in arranging for their death. By hitting, dialing, arranging for injections, changing the screen, and through all these other options I'll be able to communicate in a language which we're making up for the experience. And see there again, it points out the need for practice and for rehearsal.
David: Kind of like the "metaphase typewriter" that you designed in the sixties, to encode a large amount of meaning into simple commands during a psychedelic experience?
Timothy: Yeah.
David: Do you see the psychedelic experience as being preparation for dying?
Timothy: Well, obviously, that's the oldest metaphor.
Rebecca: I was going to ask what would you like your funeral to be like?
Timothy: Well, you're assuming there's going to be a funeral. Yeah, you're talking about the ceremonies or the activities.
Rebecca: Yeah, what would you like that to be like after you die?
Timothy: Well, just what we're doing right now. Everything that I do, everything that goes on in this house is centrally connected with our work, our philosophy, our religion. It's all woven together.
David: You used the word religion.
Timothy: I consider that to be one of the most dangerous words in the English language-- Croatians, Catholics, Moslems...
David: What did you mean by it then when you said it?
Timothy: Well, I didn't say it, I repeated it.
David: Where do you think that you go after you die Timothy?
Timothy: Well, obviously your body is going to go where you instruct people to bring it. It can be cremation, it can be worms...
David: Timothy, do you think that your consciousness can exist independently of your body?
Timothy: Sure. Oh absolutely. Of course.
David: Oh you do?! You've had experiences of being out of your body?
Timothy: Well, I've taken a lot of LSD.
David: Well, so have I, but I'm not sure that I've had any out-of-body experiences on LSD though. But you have?
Timothy: Oh yeah. Many times I'd feel my leather hands (laughter), and there's no warm blood inside them. Flesh has become simulated skin. Yeah, I've been there.
David: Have you ever had feelings like you've lived before? When you're tripping you must have had that?
Timothy: Oh absolutely, yes. Jesus, yeah. In that state the reality scenarios are amazing.
David: Looking back over your life, what would you say were the most important things that you learned?
Timothy: Over and over again, you say "learned", as though this were some kind of manual we were doing.
David: You say re-discover?
Timothy: Oh, it depends upon the context.
David: What are the most important things that you've re-discovered or learned throughout your life?
Timothy: One of the most important things that I've learned is that when you meet an irresistible force, move on! Keep moving. Don't hang around Bosnia or wherever. Can you believe they're killing each other over there over a tiny piece of land? Always put yourself in the best place you can, the best place to be. The selection of your location-shot-- where you make this movie of your life-- is tremendously important. Go to a place where the people share your interests, your aspirations, and your optimistic point of view. A place, of course, that is secure and safe. You don't want to go into the middle of Bosnia or someplace like that. You have a lot to do with the selection of the place you live, your own goals, and the uniform you wear.
David: Do you have any regrets, or would you change anything in your life?
Timothy: Boy, I have tremendous regrets of letting people down, mainly friends and relatives. It's interesting though, that the things that I regret not doing, I had already begun doing more than full-time, like seeing more of my grandchildren. I just regret that I couldn't do more. It's the same helplessness of any friend or parent when you see someone who you love that you can't help.
David: You wish that you could have done more, or that you could have been more there for them?
Timothy: I'm just sad about it. You're trying to rationalize it. I just fucking feel sad. I don't have to have a reason. (laughter) Right? Funny isn't it.
David: What kind of world do you envision when you're re-animated from cryonic suspension?
Timothy: Why throw that in? Why not just say, what do you think will happen in the future? It might be a place with a bunch of middle-class white men standing around with clipboards. (laughter) If that's the case, then send me back. (laughter)
David: So do you have a particular fantasy?
Timothy: You know, I don't. I'm so involved in living all this. Does that make any sense?
David: Yeah, you're very much in the moment.
Timothy: No, I'm doing it. What does that mean-- I'm doing it? I'm planning it, and trying things out. All this is a rehearsal. I'm rehearsing.
David: For?
Timothy: My death. You know how when people get married they have a wedding rehearsal, with bridesmaids and all that? This is similar. There's going to be a big party.
(To Rebecca) Thank you for your radiance and warmth. I think you like me.
Rebecca: I do like you very much. You've had a very big influence on my life.
David: Yeah, you've had a really big influence on my life too. One of the things I really wanted to do was to thank you for coming to this planet and doing what you've done. You've been an amazing inspiration-- for me, and for a lot of people.
Timothy: Not that I'm making a big victim-problem out of it, but it's possible that I've influenced an enormous number of people. It's possible that I'm one of the most important people of the Twentieth Century. Not that I am, but that this wave going on which I've been a part of is. It was happening and I was there. I saw it happening, and I predicted it, but I didn't cause it.
David: Well, you did more than simply predict it, you surfed it. Your courage and vision inspired a lot of people. You helped to create a lot of what went on.
Timothy: The metaphors, the rituals, the style, and the attitude. There is a definite attitude-- the way I see life-- that I think got incorporated into the culture. It is a very thrilling and wonderful opportunity that we are now lucky enough to be in this position in America. It's staggering how lucky we are. You could be in prison or stuck in Bosnia-- Wow!
David: How are you feeling Timothy?
Timothy: I am absolutely in heaven. This is the best I've felt in many many days. I must tell you I feel emotionally just very very happy, blissed out as a matter of fact, and I'm having a lot of fun. The pain can be terrible, but if I don't move, God, I just feel great. And, also you see, the longer we keep talking, the longer I can get her (Robin-- our friend, the massage therapist) to hang around. (laughter)
When she (Robin) starts getting up under the knees, it's almost like a genital thrill-- ooohhh woooww! (Laughter) Once she gets over the kneecap... oh boy! Just that little squeeze there... I'm having a good time. I hope I'm not playing around too much. I'm feeling mellow, and I'm enjoying it, and I like you guys. So I'm just babbling away here. (To David) You have a very healing face. You radiate a kind of quiet joy. It's amazing. It's very nice. I like you. (To Robin and Rebecca) He's a very nice guy isn't he? Friendly, sincere, good teeth too, boy.
Rebecca: What is important to you right now?
Timothy: Well, right now, this massage. (laughter) Anytime you're being massaged, it's a wonderful world.
David: Is there anything that you haven't done, that you'd still like to do?
Timothy: Well, that's something I've thought about, and the answer is basically, no. I have no desire to expand into adventures or quaint explorations. When you're younger you want to see Athens and the Vatican, to travel around the world. That just doesn't attract me at this stage.
David: How would you like to be remembered?
Timothy: Everybody gets the Timothy Leary that they deserve.
David: What has been the secret, all these years, to your undying sense of courage and optimism?
Timothy: It's common sense. It's all common sense and fair play. See, because fair play is common sense. It's a very obvious approach to life.
Saturday, May 31, 2014
Friday, May 30, 2014
SpaceX unveils new spacecraft to take astronauts to space station, back to Earth
from cnn
By Greg Botelho, CNN
updated 10:39 AM EDT, Fri May 30, 2014
(CNN) -- Space travelers, get ready for a new ride.
The Dragon V2 got its grand reveal Thursday night by SpaceXfounder Elon Musk, who showed off his company's new spacecraft in a live webcast.
While the California-based company has already made its mark on its industry in its 12 years in business, Dragon V2 marks a major milestone as SpaceX's first spacecraft capable of bringing humans to the International Space Station then back to Earth.
"It's all around I think a big leap forward in technology," Musk said. "It really takes things to the next level."
The storied entrepreneur -- who also founded the Tesla car company and is thought by some to be the inspiration for Tony Stark, or "Iron Man" -- said that "Dragon Version 2," as he called it, can transport as many as seven astronauts for several days.
One big upgrade from earlier models is that Dragon V2 will be reusable, which will cut down on costs and open up opportunities for humans to explore. Thanks to propulsion and other technology to slow its re-entry into Earth's orbit and control its descent, Musk said the spacecraft should be able to land most anywhere much like a helicopter.
"As long as we continue to throw away rockets and spacecraft, we will never have true access to space," Musk explained. "It will always be incredibly expensive."
SpaceX has already done three of its 12 scheduled missions to the International Space Station as part of its $1.6 billion contract with NASA. That includes the first ever connection between that orbiter and a private spacecraft in 2012.
But all its trips so far -- including back to Earth, when the SpaceX craft parachuted into the Pacific Ocean -- involved only cargo and were unmanned.
Dragon V2 aims to change that.
Thursday's event included a dramatic unveiling of the new spacecraft, which stood about 15 feet tall, with a rounded, cone-shaped top. At one point, Musk even went inside and sat in one of its four reclined seats.
While such an undertaking likely has been in the works for some time, it comes at a pivotal, uncertain time for the International Space Station and space travel, generally.
NASA's agreement with SpaceX -- plus its $1.9 billion deal with Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corporation for eight missions -- takes on increased importance given Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin's announcement earlier this month that his country does not plan to use the manned orbiter beyond 2020.
That announcement as well as ratcheted up tensions between Russia and the West has raised concerns about the space station's future, especially since Russian Soyuz aircraft have become the only way astronauts have been able to get to-and-fro since the end of the U.S. space shuttle program.
This comes after President Barack Obama, in 2010, pushed for the expansion of private-sector and commercial space industries as part of his reimagining of the U.S. space program.
"We will actually reach space faster and more often under this plan," Obama said, adding this approach would send more astronauts into space over the next decade than previously planned.
"By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send people to orbit Mars and bring them safely back to Earth,"
One team -- Paragon Space Development Corp. and the Inspiration Mars Foundation -- has said it can beat that mark. In February 2013, it detailed plans to send two humans to launch a spacecraft in 2018 that would pass within 100 miles of Mars before coming back to Earth.
And the Mars One project announced in August that more than 100,000 people had by then applied to take a one-way trip to the Red Planet.
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Justice Delayed
Excerpt from appellants opening brief January 5, 2012 Ozenne v Chase et. al. 11-60039
3. What did you ask the originating court to do (for example, award damages, give injunctive relief, etc.) ?
To hold a trial or hearing to enforce USC 362(k), formerly 362(h), to determine the damages caused by this violation of bankruptcy law. The court has consistently ruled that it did not have jurisdiction. 2003, 2007, 2011
That's it, a two sentence request for justice.
Why has it taken over a decade for the court to grant me a trial. Let me state my claim, produce my evidence, and apply the law ?
The undeniable violation of law, (11 USC 362(a) ), caused me to lose the family home of 26 years, and my home based business, Residential Fire Sprinklers.
I don't get it !
3. What did you ask the originating court to do (for example, award damages, give injunctive relief, etc.) ?
To hold a trial or hearing to enforce USC 362(k), formerly 362(h), to determine the damages caused by this violation of bankruptcy law. The court has consistently ruled that it did not have jurisdiction. 2003, 2007, 2011
That's it, a two sentence request for justice.
Why has it taken over a decade for the court to grant me a trial. Let me state my claim, produce my evidence, and apply the law ?
The undeniable violation of law, (11 USC 362(a) ), caused me to lose the family home of 26 years, and my home based business, Residential Fire Sprinklers.
I don't get it !
Upon seeing carnage: 'Nothing is worth this'
from usatoday
On a boat 3 miles offshore on D-Day, William James Miller watched U.S. ships and planes blast the French coast.
When he landed on Omaha Beach the next day and saw the carnage, he thought: "Nothing is worth this."
"I still remember those four words today," says Miller, who served with Headquarters Company of the 6th Engineer Special Brigade. "I wasn't prepared to see all the soldiers and torn-up equipment."
Miller, 91, also recalls seeing a truckload of shells exploding, along with 15 to 20 German prisoners of war guarded by American soldiers.
The chaos of the scene was so great that Miller could not locate his company commander for half a day. When he did, he says, "It was like finding your dad."
In the days after the invasion, Miller remembers seeing bodies surface in the water as the tide went out. Some had drowned from being loaded down with too much equipment as they tried to wade to shore, while others were shot dead by German gunners.
For the next few weeks on Omaha Beach, Miller was assigned to report casualties. Growing up in a farm family, he says, he knew how to take orders. A few months before the invasion, Miller had been promoted to sergeant.
A challenging time came when Miller had to identify 17 dead men with whom he had served for six months.
"What really gets you is that when you're a soldier, every person has stripes on their arms, and they're dressed exactly like you are," he says. "You can relate to each dead body because they're a soldier like you."
After several months stationed at Omaha Beach, Miller and his unit moved to Dun-sur-Meuse in northeastern France. At the end of the war, he was stationed in Hamburg, Germany. By the time he was discharged, he had achieved the rank of a master sergeant.
"I really grew up in the Army," Miller says. "It was one of the best things that happened to me."
After World War II, Miller attended the University of Kansas on the GI Bill and graduated with a degree in business. For 40 years, he worked at Coldwell Banker before founding his own appraisal service. Today, Miller continues to work as a commercial land appraiser six days a week. His wife, Karla, died five years ago
For the 70th anniversary of D-Day, Miller will travel with 50 other veterans and one of his two sons to France, where they will visit famous battle sites, including Omaha Beach. It will be his first time in France since World War II.
"We're going to really have a better understanding of the war," he says. "We were each one little soldier, and now we can look back and see what really happened."
Monday, May 26, 2014
98-Year Old WWII Tokyo Raid Vet Named Grand Marshal of Washington Parade
from fox
By: Antonio Olivo (Washington Post)
By: Antonio Olivo (Washington Post)
The weather over Arlington National Cemetery was sunny and clear, similar to the day in 1942 when Richard Cole helped change the course of American history as one of James H. Doolittle’s “Raiders” during World War II.
As he stood before the grave of his former commander, the 98-year-old ex-pilot who helped stage a daring attack on Japan that lifted American spirits at a crucial time said the memory is bittersweet.
Cole flew in from his home in Texas to be the grand marshal in Monday’s Memorial Day Parade in Washington and to accept a Congressional Gold Medal on behalf of the Doolittle Raiders — a group of 80 U.S. airmen whose mission into Japan on April 18, 1942, inspired Americans reeling over the Pearl Harbor attack and other Japanese victories.
As part of the dwindling ranks of surviving World War II veterans, and one of only four surviving Raiders, he said the honor was joyful but also a bit lonely.
“You’re here to pay your respects to him, but at the same time, you wish they were all still here,” Cole said after saluting Doolittle’s tombstone Friday and those of some other Raiders buried nearby.
Of the 16 million Americans who fought in World War II, about 1.5 million are still alive, according to the Arlington-based American Veterans Center.
The 80 U.S. airmen who volunteered for the Doolittle Raid are giants among that generation of veterans, even though the popular memory of their exploits is fading as the drama of more recent wars eclipses their significance.
“It’s not a well-known story anymore,” said James C. Roberts, president of the American Veterans Center, which is helping to coordinate a documentary film about the Raiders. “That’s something we’re trying to address.”
Cole’s recollections remain in tight formation, their wings glistening in the sun.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Watching Scotty Grow
May 25, 2014
My handsome intelligent son, Scott Lawrence Ozenne, has landed near Mountain City TN.
Tennesee, of course being the home of Andrew Jackson,, one of the last patriot chief executives that fought the greedy banking interests in that period of our countries evolution. The Hermitage, will certainly be one of my stops, after the courts rule on my decades old case.
In the meantime, Scott, has pulled up stakes, in this cutting edge of cellular evolution, known as the Sun Belt, or West Coast. Fast Times in Evolutionary Times.
Like a psychedelic guide, his cousin, Judge Rodgers, also born on February 20, a year earlier than Scott, in 1968, has, with the assistance from his proactive wife, Jennifer, helped to guide Scott, along with mom's assistance, into this new path, this new reality.
Like Govinda, to Siddhartha in the Herman Hesse masterpiece,Siddhartha, a new path was exposed, defining a new reality.
Go for it Scotty
Love Dad
My handsome intelligent son, Scott Lawrence Ozenne, has landed near Mountain City TN.
Tennesee, of course being the home of Andrew Jackson,, one of the last patriot chief executives that fought the greedy banking interests in that period of our countries evolution. The Hermitage, will certainly be one of my stops, after the courts rule on my decades old case.
In the meantime, Scott, has pulled up stakes, in this cutting edge of cellular evolution, known as the Sun Belt, or West Coast. Fast Times in Evolutionary Times.
Like a psychedelic guide, his cousin, Judge Rodgers, also born on February 20, a year earlier than Scott, in 1968, has, with the assistance from his proactive wife, Jennifer, helped to guide Scott, along with mom's assistance, into this new path, this new reality.
Like Govinda, to Siddhartha in the Herman Hesse masterpiece,Siddhartha, a new path was exposed, defining a new reality.
Go for it Scotty
Love Dad
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Guns used in Isla Vista rampage were legally purchased, registered
from latimes.com
Authorities recovered three handguns belonging to the man who killed six people near UC Santa Barbara
The attacker in the Isla Vista rampage had three semi-automatic handguns, all legally purchased.
Authorities recovered three semi-automatic handguns that belonged to the man who launched a mass shooting Friday through the streets near UC Santa Barbara that left six people and the gunman dead.
The guns – two Sig Sauer p226 model handguns and a Glock 34 – were legally purchased from federally licensed dealers and were registered to Elliot Rodger, according to Bill Brown of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department.
Authorities also recovered 34 loaded 10-round magazines for the Sig Sauers and seven 10-round magazines for the Glock, Brown said at a news conference Saturday evening.
Rodger, 22, was a student at Santa Barbara City College living in Isla Vista.
About a month ago, on April 30, Sheriff’s officials responded to concerns from his parents and went to Rodger’s residence to check on his welfare. The deputies determined that Rodger did not meet the criteria for an involuntary hold, Brown said.
“He was courteous and polite, appeared timid and shy” during the welfare check, Brown said, and Rodger expressed that he was “having difficulty with his social life and probably would not be returning to school the next year.”
Brown said that deputies had two other previously documented contacts with the suspect.
In July 2013, Brown said, sheriff’s deputies were contacted by a hospital where Rodger was being treated for injuries. Rodger claimed to be the victim of an assault, but Brown said his investigators “received information that Rodger may have been the aggressor,” and the case was suspended pending more information.
Then, in January 2014, Brown said Rodger contacted the sheriff’s department and accused his roommate of stealing three candles worth $22. Rodger asked for arrest, and the roommate was booked into the jail for petty theft, Brown said. The case was eventually filed with the District Attorney’s office.
At the news conference Saturday, authorities described the rampage as “a chaotic, rapidly unfolding and convoluted incident that involved multiple crime scenes.”
The first three victims were killed in the suspect’s residence before the shootings began. Authorities found the bodies stabbed repeatedly with what appeared to be sharp objects. “It was a pretty horrific crime scene,” Brown said.
Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
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