I'm a mystic, spiritual teacher & spiritual healer, and multidisciplinary R&D & consulting scientist-engineer. I have a Master's degree in the sciences. I'm also a sungazer. In scientific realm, I work in both mainstream science & forbidden science ("strange science"). Lotsa experience w/16S rRNA genomic sequencing to identify microbiota in pricey high-end fermented nutritional supplemements.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Another Update to My Earlier Note re the 1st Int'l Ormus Conference at Enota Retreat Center in GA on Labor Day Weekend 2009

Hi folks:

I have just heard from Thomas Geckler, the event organizer/promoter, that Danae Harding and Vernon Roth are no longer scheduled as speakers, and thus I am retracting Thomas Geckler's earlier-reported confirmation that they were "confirmed speakers".

Incidentally, on a closely related note, the means by which Thomas advised me that Danae and Vernon would no longer be appearing at the conference was via a comment note that he sent to my Wall post on Facebook about the ormus conference. In that note, he had written (at about 8 AM on 8/14/2009):
FROM Thomas A. Geckler: "Well, now Vernon and Danae have cancelled suddenly with no notice. Sorry. I thought their word was good."

Witin an hour or two of the appearance Thomas's above-cited comment note, I replied to his note with the following two replies which are reproduced below:


FROM Vinny Pinto: Thomas, thanks for the update. And, some notes regarding your comments:

You wrote "...have cancelled suddenly with no notice. Sorry. I thought their word was good."

Here's my view, as one who is regularly invited to present at events across the world (and who rejects over 95% of such invitations):

1) First, you stated that they canceled "without notice". It looks to me, even if they were truly "confirmed speakers" (see below for notes on how this term is often misused by promoters), that they've given you almost a one month advance notice. That is, to me, a very liberal advance notice!

2) In my world, a promoter is NEVER allowed to claim that I'm a "confirmed speaker" until and unless I've received cleared prepaid funds from the promoter for air travel, car rental, and hotel room/meals, and all or part of the speaker's fee. So, to me, they would have been "confirmed speakers"ONLY if they had received cleared prepayment from you, else they would have been "tentative speakers"!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FROM Vinny Pinto: BTW, a followup note:
Thomas, from my point of view, Danae and Vernon would have been the PRIMARY reason for attending such an event. In fact, in contrast, some of the other names on the list of speakers tend to make me want to puke (as in "toss my cookies"...)

So, Thomas, you are the event organizer, and thus, of course, you are free to run the event in any way you wish, but me...
If I were in your shoes, I would toss out some of the other "confirmed speakers" (which I suspect were/are really "tentative speakers") and I would then use the freed-up budgetary funds to greatly sweeten my financial offer to Danae and Vernon to induce them to appear, perhaps by greatly increasing their speaker's fee and greatly sweetening the other customary perks/benefits (i.e., prepaid airfare, other travel expenses, etc...!

[End of quoted comment messages from Facebook Wall]

with care,
--Vinny


Thursday, August 13, 2009

News: Official Premiere of Peter's Sungazing Film "Eat the Sun"

Hi folks:

Here, for now, is just a brief announcement of the official premiere of Peter Sorcher's sungazing documentary film, entitled "Eat the Sun", and I am sure that it will be followed up at a later date with further posts offering more information.

As you may remember, there was an unofficial premier of an early cut of the film a couple of months ago at a small arts film festival in Seattle, WA. Filmmaker Peter Sorcher has recently advised me that all editing for the final release version of the film will be completed within the next 30 days or so, and that the film will make its official premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival in California (USA) in October 2009; the film festival runs from Oct 8 thru Oct 18, 2009.

The film contains lots of footage of a number of well-known sungazers, including myself. Peter and his film crew spent a day here several years ago filming me sungazing and talking about sungazing. The film should be fun...!

Enjoy!

with care,
--Vinny

Update to My Earlier Note re the 1st Int'l Ormus Conference at Enota Retreat Center in GA on Labor Day Weekend 2009

Hi folks:

Just a quick update for you re the ormus conference mentioned in my blog post yesterday:

Thomas Geckler, the conference organizer, has confirmed that Danae Harding and Vernon Roth (among others) will indeed be present at the conference as speakers.

Enjoy!

with care,
--Vinny

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

My Replies to Questions About the 1st Int'l Ormus Conference at Enota Retreat Center in GA on Labor Day Weekend 2009

Hi folks:

I have, for the past three or four months, and particularly in the past two weeks, been receiving an increasing frequency of inquiries via phone and text media (that is, via traditional email, Web 2.0 services and so-called private messages on social networking sites) asking me any of a number of questions about the upcoming ormus conference which will be held at the Enota Mountain Retreat center in the state of Georgia in the USA in early September 2009, over the Labor Day weekend. I have reproduced the most common questions below, along with my by-now stock replies! Here goes:

Q.: Vinny, will you be presenting at the First International Ormus Conference to be held in Georgia on the first weekend of August 2009?

A. Well, your question begs to spawn a multi-faceted response, as follows:

-- First, for some reason, almost everyone who contacts me insists upon calling this conference by the name "First International Ormus Conference". The reality is that while that does seem to be the name that the organizer, my esteemed friend and colleague Thomas Geckler, may have used repeatedly for the conference on some ormus list groups, it does not seem to be the name that is used for the conference by anyone else involved, including the conference center hosting the event, nor is that term employed on any websites which talk about or promote the conference. In fact, a Google search on that term will show that there exist no websites catalogued by Google which mention such a conference. Rather, the names that seem to be much more commonly employed for the conference, and which are usable terms if searching the web using a search engine such as Google, are "Ormus Conference" and "All Things Ormus Conference".

-- Next, the conference organizer, Thomas Geckler, who is a friend and colleague, has invited me more than once to speak at the conference. Despite the fact that I like Thomas Geckler and consider him to be one of the few sane and reasonably coherent voices in the ormus world, I have declined each invitation, and rather quickly, for reasons that I will discuss below. So, I will not be presenting at the conference, nor will I be present at the conference. As most members of my list groups, and also most of my colleagues already know, I normally keep myself distanced rather far from the mainstream ormus world and the mainstream alchemy world, largely because of what I feel is an insanely and inordinately high level of hyperbole, exaggeration, nonsense, mythology, New Age faddism and psychosis rampant in those worlds. And, on a closely related note, and much as I have mentioned many times before, I am a mystic as well as a researcher, and I have long ago surrendered my life and all my activities to Holy Spirit and Supreme Heart. In that vein, I must note that my inner guidance from Holy Spirit, Supreme Heart and my angels has also steadfastly asked me to keep a very healthy distance from the mainstream ormus world and the mainstream alchemy world.

-- Despite the fact that, as noted already above, I have declined all invitations to present at the conference, it is also true that I do recommend to many of my callers, when asked, that they might wish to strongly consider attending the conference. Please see the relevant question and answer on this topic below for more information on this whole matter.

Q.: Vinny, well, if you will not be presenting, will your products, such as your Coherent Space devices, your Quantum Coherence devices, your Dark Essence capsules, your Divine Grace sacred water and the Luminous Orb sacred water, and maybe your minor Elixir Vitae, be offered at the Conference? I would love to see them and handle them, and purchase some of them!

A. I have already mentioned above that I will not be presenting at the conference, and that I will not be attending the conference in any way. In a similar vein, despite multiple invitations from the conference organizer, Thomas Geckler, to offer my products at the conference, none of my products will be available for viewing nor for sale at the conference. This is partly due to the factor mentioned above, namely, that I prefer – and my inner guidance insists – that I maintain a very healthy distance from the mainstream ormus world and the mainstream alchemy world.

However, in this case, there is an even more set of important and overriding reasons -- each closely inter-related -- why my products will not be offered at the conference, as outlined below:

-- All of my products, including the few ingestable supplements, are offered only as PoP prototype products, and are thus offered only to a very select and limited audience; they are offered only to mystics and/or researchers who are fully self-informed and who sincerely wish to experiment with them. Thus, it is likely becoming obvious that none of my products are consumer products, and I never sell any of my products on the consumer market. Rather, all of my products are offered as PoP prototypes only, and only to a very restricted audience, and each may be purchased only upon receiving permission from me.
-- Further, for many of my ingestable supplement products, the prerequisite screening requirements are even far more stringent, and, in several cases, any prospective purchaser must also meet anywhere from four to ten additional stringent and firm prescreening requirements before they can receive permission from me to purchase my products.
-- So, none of my products are consumer items, none are ever offered to consumers, and none are ever advertised on the Internet, nor elsewhere, and none are ever marketed via third-party resellers or distributors. Rather, they are specialized PoP prototype products intended for serious mystics and/or researchers only.
-- It should also be understood that my primary role in life at this time, as guided directly by Holy Spirit, is to wear the hats of a mystic and a researcher in a number of strange science fields. Aside from my very restricted and circumscribed offerings of PoP prototype products mentioned above, I am simply not here on Earth to be a marketer, and I do not rely upon the very limited and circumscribed offerings of my PoP prototype products to support me.
-- With all of the above-mentioned factors in mind, allow me to respectfully state that the reality is that it is highly likely that a majority of the attendees at the ormus conference would be eligible to purchase most of my prototype or research products. This then provides yet one more reason why I have been guided to not offer my products in this venue. However, I do simultaneously extend my best wishes to the numerous vendors of ormus and alchemy products who will likely be presenting products at the conference, and I wish them the best.

Q.: Vinny, I am somewhat conflicted about attending this conference, due to the distance and the expense, also just the commitment to be away from home for three or four days. You know me somewhat, and you know that I am a relative newcomer to the ormus field – I have been exploring it for about two years, but I am very enthusiastic. What is your opinion? Do you think I should attend? Thank you for any guidance you can offer!

A. Well, I will be happy to offer an answer, so long as you realize that it is simply my opinion, and will tell you what I have told almost every person who has asked me what amounts to essentially same question so far over the past six months:

Since you are already interested in attending the conference, and since you even went to the extent of asking me to render my own opinion in this matter, this I suggest that you may wish to strongly consider attending this conference, and largely for the following reasons:

-- To me, anyone who has been involved in the fields of alchemy or ormus for six years or less is a relative newcomer, and thus, attending this conference should give you, as one of those relative newcomers, a wonderful chance to rub elbows with many fellow ormus and alchemy enthusiasts, to meet numerous vendors and see, or even try, their product offerings, and to hear a wide array of speakers in this realm. Your attendance at the conference should also likely expose you to niches and corners of the ormus and alchemy worlds of which you had previously been entirely unaware.
-- And, lets be frank: this promises to be by far the largest and best-attended ormus conference ever held, and that alone makes it a very rare and unique event!
-- When I last heard from Thomas Geckler, the conference organizer, about two weeks ago, he informed me that, as of that moment, which was about six weeks prior to the date of the venue, there were about 78 confirmed attendees (I am sure that there are considerably more registered attendees now, since it is now about two weeks later) and also at least 15 confirmed speakers/lecturers. Better, when I last heard from Thomas, he advised me that Danae Harding and her adult son Vernon Roth, both of Ancient Tek (aka Ancient Technologies, at www.ancienttek.com) would be speaking at the event as well. I happen to really enjoy Danae and Vernon, I strongly respect each of them as friends, and also as colleagues in these strange science fields, and I always enjoy speaking with them and spending time with them. Thus, from my point of view, I feel that the presence of Danae and Vernon at the conference alone would be a sufficient, and compelling, reason for most folks in the worlds of ormus and alchemy and strange science to attend the conference!
-- Lastly, the event happens to be organized by my friend and colleague Thomas Geckler, and, to be blunt, he is one of the relatively few people in the ormus world whom I respect and whom I consider to be largely sane, coherent and stable, and who largely manages to avoid the hype, myths, nonsense, hysteria and fads so common in that world, and, in my estimation, his excellent Cherokee Gold products are further testimony to his stature in that world.

Q.: Vinny, thanks for answering my earlier question about the conference, but one thing that still concerns me is that I can find very little information about the conference on the web. They do not seem to have a website, among other things, and I cannot find much on Google about it. Yet, you have repeatedly advised me to attend this thing! Can you shed some light on all this? And can you steer me to more information on the conference? I want more details!

A. Yes, it is true that even a diligent Google search on the more-useful descriptive terms that I offered above (in an earlier reply) yields few web pages and little in the way of information on the conference. So, I am the first to admit that the advance publicity for the conference seems, at least so far, to be very low-key, but that does not keep me from recommending it to almost all folks who ask me for my opinion on the matter. And yes, it also appears to be true that the conference does not yet have its own dedicated website, nor even a dedicated webpage, at least beyond the standard event venue page for the conference hosted at the Enota website, at http://www.enota.com/ormus.htm

I am not sure of the reasoning behind this very-low key approach, but all I can tell you is that I hold the event organizer, Thomas Geckler, in high regard, and I trust him. So, were I in your shoes, I would not allow the relative lack of advertising and publicity about the conference to deter me from attending.

And now, to answer your final question, here are some suggestions on how you may be able to gain some more information about the conference:
-- First, make sure that you have visited the standard event venue page a the Enota Retreat website, at http://www.enota.com/ormus.htm
Some, but not all, of the speakers who will be presenting at the event are listed on the event page at the Enota website. If you have questions about the content of the presentations by any of the various speakers, or about the products that will be offered by the various ormus and alchemy vendors, you are free to contact the speakers and vendors privately, by email or phone, and ask them for more details.
-- I have heard that some additional bits and pieces of information have been offered on the larger mainstream ormus list groups, largely those run by Barry Carter, and so, you are welcome to browse those larger list groups, and their message archives, to learn some more details about the event.
-- If you have questions about staying at Enota in cabins or rooms or a tent, you will wish to contact Enota Retreat Center directly, using contact information offered on their website.
-- If you have questions for the organizer, Thomas Geckler, about the event, or if you have ideas for the event, then you may contact Thomas directly at info@cherokeegold.net (in English, info [at] cherokeegold [dot] net) or tgecks@bigfoot.com (in English, tgecks [at] bigfoot [dot] com)
-- Lastly, I should note that I have twice invited Thomas Geckler, the organizer of the event, to send formal announcements about the event to my ormus-related list groups, and in fact, my first invitation to so was extended to Thomas many months ago. As of this date, Thomas has not yet chosen to announce the event on any of my relevant list groups. I suspect that at least part of the reason may be that he is very busy: he works at a full-time job in addition to his role in operating his ormus-related company, Cherokee Gold, and his other work in the ormus world, including organizing the event.

Q. Vinny, I am puzzled. You have repeatedly suggested to me that I strongly consider attending this event, but yet I happen to know that you will not be present yourself; you have said that you have no interest in attending. Isn't this a discrepancy or a conflict or something? Can you explain?

A. There is no real conflict, nor dissonance, nor discrepancy at all in the fact that I have chosen not to personally appear at the conference, particularly if you consider the fact that I have been involved as an active researcher in alchemy-related and strange science fields since at least 1976, and that I have worked as a consultant to a number of premiere ormus vendors and researchers since 2000, and that I have publicly debunked several myths and frauds in the ormus world since 1996. Frankly, I can easily afford to feel somewhat jaded about the conference and about the mainstream ormus world and also the mainstream alchemy world, but that same reaction might not be at all appropriate for someone who has been involved in those worlds for six or seven years or less, as they are, by my standards, a relative newcomer to these fields. In other words, what works for me may well not work for you, and what makes sense for me to do may well not make sense for you to do.

Further, despite that fact that I trained at the undergrad level as an engineer and that I am a degreed scientist with a graduate degree in my field, I have been a mystic since a very early age, since childhood, and I seem to be one of those extremely rare persons who has surrendered my life to Holy Spirit and Supreme Heart, aka to Divinity, and thus largely given up running my life from what I tend to call the "local mind" or the "limited mind", and which many spiritual traditions call "the ego". As a result, I have been given a number of gifts, including clairsentience and very strong and clear intuitive guidance in life, even in terms of relatively mundane and day-to-day matters. Thus, it is, and always has been, easy for me to know that I am asked to maintain a rather healthy distance from the mainstream ormus and alchemy worlds. Thus, much as I have already referenced above, what works for me may not work for you, and what is sensible for me may be sensible or reasonable for you.

If what I have written above does not yet make sense to you, I invite you to re-visit my replies to earlier questions, particularly to the first three questions, as these will shed more light on where I am coming from.


Q. Vinny, starting about two weeks ago, you've been telling me (and also several of my acquaintances) that Danae Harding and Vernon Roth will be presenting at the Labor Day Ormus Conference at Enota in Georgia. However, I have never seen this fact or claim mentioned by Thomas Geckler on the large ormus list groups or alchemy forms (you call them "mainstream" ormus and alchemy list groups and forums), and neither of them is listed on the conference page at the Enota Retreat Center website.

A. Yes, what you report seems to be entirely true. I was indeed clearly and explicitly informed by the event organizer, my colleague and friend Thomas Geckler, about two weeks ago, that Danae Harding and Vernon Roth would definitely be lecturing at the conference. And yet, it is also true that it seems that there has never been an announcement of this fact by Thomas nor anyone else on the mainstream ormus list groups. And, it is also true that as of today (August 12) their names are not yet mentioned as speakers on the rather paltry standard event listing page at the Enota Retreat Center website.

Since I am involved in this event, and do not wish to be involved in this event – save for this post today on the topic to give folks on my list groups a heads-up about it -- I have no desire nor inclination to do basic legwork for you in further researching or confirming whether Danae and Vernon will, in fact, be presenting at the ormus conference, but you are free to contact Thomas Geckler and ask him, or to contact Danae and/or Vernon and ask them to confirm Thomas's earlier report.

Q. Vinny, I have long been a fan of your work, and I own several of your devices. I will be on the East Coast of USA over Labor Day weekend to attend the First International Ormus Conference at Enota Mountain Retreat Center in Georgia, and will have some free time for three/four days after the conference, and I'll have a rental car with unlimited mileage. I believe that your rural mountain home and lab are located further up on the eastern seaboard from the conference. I know that you do not allow drop-by visitors, but may I schedule a visit in advance with you? I'd like to get at least two hours with you, and I'd like to see your laboratory and strange chambers.

A. Much as is indicated on my main consulting website, and as I indicate from time to time on my list groups, the answer to your question is almost surely no, unless you are a valued colleague (and there are few who fit in that category) or a close friend (and those folks usually already know who they are…), or unless you look, talk and act like The Fifth Element in the film of the same name. In fact, some of my established consulting clients eventually ask me if they may be allowed to visit me here, so that they may see my home, shop and lab, and see all the strange devices and chambers, and so that we may do one of our consulting sessions here in person, and, in over 90 percent of the cases, my answer is no. And, in the majority of those very few cases where an established consulting client is allowed to come here in person for a consulting session, there is usually a (prepaid, as always) surcharge of at least $125 per hour that applies in addition to the prepaid consulting fee (much the same is true for my spiritual healing clients who have asked if they may be allowed to visit me in person for a spiritual healing session; most receive a "no", and the few who are allowed to visit must prepay a surcharge of at least $125 per hour.

So, the bottom line is that you are free to ask if you really feel that you must, but, with the few exceptions noted above, the answer will likely be "no"! I have, to date, received six such requests from conference attendees so far, and in each case, my answer was "no".

And, that about winds up the questions and answers!

Enjoy!

with care,
--Vinny