Good Taos 48 Hours: Giant Crystals, Mescalin Cancer Cure, and Armenian Be-Bop

During one period of less than two full days this week, I got the full Taos treatment.

The first remarkable event was hearing a tale about a cavern in a gold mine about an hour away from here where giant pink crystals over 20 feet long poke out from the floor of the cave. The energy field around these crystals is so strong, visitors get nosebleeds from standing too close. I heard this from the owner of the mine, a man whose word I would take for gospel any time, so watch your tongue.

The second was a delightful evening with a new friend from Texas who once had cervical cancer. But after snorting mescalin under the Northern Lights above the Arctic Circle, she suddenly saw the reason for her mother’s sexual hangups. When she came home, her cancer was gone!

Almost as astounding was the mere fact of meeting someone else who’d gone to U.T. Austin in the glory days and knew about the mescalin scene there in the ’60s. You see, the Texas legislature had dutifully banned mescalin without realizing that it was refined from the peyote cactus, with the result that possession of peyote was perfectly legal for quite some time. I knew people who bought peyote by the pound, in big gunny sacks, from someone just outside of town — it might have even been a commercial nursery — and then produced the purest mescalin I’d never see again. The friends I hung out with always had a peanut butter jar full of the stuff in the medicine cabinet in their bathroom — it was always around and always free. Nobody ever snorted it, though. (Tribal memories…)

And then tonight I went to see an incredible musical ensemble in the black box theater at the local high school, of all places. The band is called Taksim, and I can safely say you’ve probably never heard anything like them. Instruments included an amplified oud, clarinet, soprano sax, drums (two percussionists), and bass. Before the show, I’d called their music “Armenian be-bop,” and that wasn’t too far off. Simply amazing musicianship and sensitivity — they had me grinning for two hours straight. I went to this show in my black leather jacket with my hair flying in the wind, all very appropriate.

The apricot tree is blooming, too, despite the fact that it snowed a little bit last night. Life could be worse.

If it would only get warm, we’d be there, man!

Related posts:

1. Healing Energy of Taos
2. Twenty-four Hours of Snow
3. Six Hours of Teevee
4. Less Than 24 Hours… (v.2.0)
5. Taos Squeeze [revised]