Trip and tripping

I was in Budapest last week attending the Towards a Science of Consciousness Conference where I presented a poster and caught up with friends and made many new ones. Hong Kong is scheduled to host the 2009 event. I spent time with Stuart Hameroff who gave an excellent talk, and Sam, his girlfriend. We had several great dinners together, including a wonderful boat-trip down the Danube, and visited “Statue Park” which was a park that contained many of the communist-era statues just outside of town. It was great getting reacquainted with Budapest. I met some chess-players at a park and spent some time with them playing speed chess. I haven’t played in over 10 years and it felt great getting back into it, like riding a bicycle.

I shared a room in Budapest with Frank Echenhofer. Frank teaches at the California Institute of Integral Studies (http://www.ciis.edu/faculty/echenhofer.html) where he teaches developmental psychology and researches altered states of consciousness. Frank hooks experienced Ayahuasca users up to EEG and measures their brainwaves while they have an experience. He’s identified high gamma coherence for those tripping on Ayahuasca. Similar gamma coherence findings have been observed during compassion meditation practitioners by Tibetan monks. We had a lot of great discussions related to sacred art, mythology, personal transformation, and ancient knowledge. There is a great talk about ancient knowledge which also touches upon Ayahuasca here: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/69. There were a lot of great discussions and interesting people which makes the Towards a Science of Consciousness Conference such a great event. While in Budapest, I also visited Budapest Kitchen, a media arts lab in Budapest (http://www.kitchenbudapest.hu/) which was a lot of fun.

On my way back to Hong Kong, I visited my friend Pieter in Holland who was one of the Best Men at my wedding. We’ve known each other for almost 20 years. He is married and also with three children, though without any nannies. We had a great time re-connecting and reminiscing. I learned a lot seeing he and his wife (they both work) manage their children and their lives. I also visited V2 (http://www.v2.nl/) and attended the Rotterdam Carnival while I was there. The Dutch know how to party!
Going on a trip right after a “personal retreat” was very interesting. During the conference in Budapest, I lost my wallet in Budapest. I was quite surprised at how easily I was able to just “let it go” and not stress too much over it (which I traditionally have done when I’ve lost items in the past). Luckily, I still had my passport. Having returned to Hong Kong a few days now, I’ve been standing in a lot of lines replacing all of the cards that I had lost. I am literally re-building my identity.