I have an idea for a future Mindstates venue: San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato. (You know the Robert Rodriguez flick 'Once Upon A Time in Mexico'?)
It's a great little colonial city with lots of hotels, restaurants, a couple of surprisingly hip nightclubs, jazz musicians, as well as hot springs and a cactus garden for Sasha Shulgin. Being in Mexico, it would also keep Jonathon Ott happy, probably.
Being in north-central Mexico, Oaxaca isn't too far and I'm sure peyote explorers would be happy too. What's more it's better connected in terms of infrastructure and probably easier and cheaper to travel to from the United States than Oaxaca, but still retains a laid-back feel.
It's a great little colonial city with lots of hotels, restaurants, a couple of surprisingly hip nightclubs, jazz musicians, as well as hot springs and a cactus garden for Sasha Shulgin. Being in Mexico, it would also keep Jonathon Ott happy, probably.
Being in north-central Mexico, Oaxaca isn't too far and I'm sure peyote explorers would be happy too. What's more it's better connected in terms of infrastructure and probably easier and cheaper to travel to from the United States than Oaxaca, but still retains a laid-back feel.
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Re: San Miguel de Allende Mindstates
Sun, August 14, 2005 - 4:58 PMHey folks,
I feel like a geek replying to my own post, but after visiting SMA this weekend, I've come up with at least two more good reasons why this Mexican town is worth considering for a future Mind States.
• The Beats were among the first North American ex pats to come to San Miguel in search of a spiritual alternative to the American Dream. Neal Cassidy died here in February 1968, walking on the railroad tracks to Celaya. A talk on the history of the Beats' adventures in Latin America could tie in with this.
• San Miguel has a large population of North American retirees. This could be a good opportunity to widen Mind States' potential audience by targeting seniors. Topics for discussion could be psychedelics and end-of-life issues, MDMA for terminal-stage cancer patients: risks and benefits, and so on.
• There could be considerable of interest in the ibogaine projects – both in Mexico and Canada -- as cocaine use seems to be on the rise here.
• It would be easy to raise local interest in the seminar through small ads in the local English-language newspaper, ‘Atención San Miguel.’
• The town’s many galleries cater to a wide range of artistic tastes.
All in all, something for everyone. -
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Re: San Miguel de Allende Mindstates
Sun, August 14, 2005 - 7:31 PMperhaps... but there's not much of a population of high minded folks to cover the costs, it seems, locally compared to CA or the bay area.
But, if you want to do something together, maybe we could work soemthing out with arranging speakers, etc... I'd plan on a year plus to generate buzz, plan, implement, and iron out the wrinkles. Interested?
~mark -
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Re: San Miguel de Allende Mindstates
Sun, August 14, 2005 - 7:52 PMHi Mark,
A first step could be to put a small ad in 'Atención San Miguel,' to find out how many local residents would be interested in having a Mind States there. I can do a fair bit from Mexico City -- having Skype helps -- and SMA is only 3 1/2 hrs away.
I do know what you mean about 'lack of high minded folks,' though. My 'problem' is that I'm kind of grounded in Mexico with wife and a humble language teacher's peso salary and can't make it too often to the good ol' USA for events like MS and Burning Man.
That's why I appreciated MS Oaxaca so much! It would be nice to see what we can do to keep widening the circle south of the border.
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Re: San Miguel de Allende Mindstates
Sun, August 14, 2005 - 8:26 PMI second that, Andrew. Im over on the east coast in the yucatan....although I also have to agree with Mark....not alot of high minded folk in SM. You sure gave some good suggestings though. Ive actually thought about MDMA with my aging folks...and theres gotta be a higher population of alcoholics down here, which supports the ibo idea! Keep it up!!! -
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Re: San Miguel de Allende Mindstates
Mon, August 15, 2005 - 8:31 AMHey, let's not write off the place just yet ... scanning through 'Atención San Miguel' I can see at two possible sources of local support. One is 'LifePath' a guided retreats center (www.lifepathsretreats.com), and 'Om', a buddhist-inspired studio and gallery. -
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Re: San Miguel de Allende Mindstates
Wed, August 17, 2005 - 7:04 PMMaybe we could do a deal with this guy, Joseph Dispenza(www.lifepathretreats.com/about_j...za.asp). We could rent out his whole retreat center for a week. It sounds picturesque: on a hill overlooking SMA. The center only has accommodation space for forty people, so many of us would have to find hotel rooms in the town or camp.
Dispenza is one of those respectable Joseph Campbell-inspired New Age types and would probably balk initially at a whole tribe of heads descending on the town. On the other hand, he sounds fairly pragmatic and open-minded. He's also into Riane Eisler's work (inspiration for Terence's ideas on partnership and dominator societies). So he can't be too bad. -
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Re: San Miguel de Allende Mindstates
Wed, August 17, 2005 - 7:08 PMHow would we cover our costs?
~Mark -
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Re: San Miguel de Allende Mindstates
Wed, August 17, 2005 - 7:24 PMWell, he'd probably want a deposit. We would have to raise the cash between us. Share the loss/share the gains in a partnership arrangement. I don't have a lot of spare cash but I do have a peso bank account that can be useful. Jon, I assume has most experience dealing with the financial side.
We'd have to do this as a team -- none one can tackle all of this on her own. Form a committee.
Like you said, we've got to do the visioning first, create a buzz. Take your time. Talk about it at Burning Man or here and get back to me. If the idea dies it won't be the end of the world. But if you think the idea has legs we can talk to Joseph Dispenza.
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