Matrix Baby

While browsing Geekologie, I saw the above photo of a little baby hooked up to some kind of brain scanning machine that reminded me of something from The Matrix.

"Newborns Can Learn in Their Sleep"

I found the image so damn creepy I felt that I just had to make the animation- superimposing an invading Sentinel over his fragile biological form. It looks like The Machines are wrapping tentacles around the helpless baby's head, steadily working their way into it's curious little human mind....

Wake up, kid!!!!

Technical PS: Since Blogger & Google don't even support animated GIF files, that is about the only thing I use my Myspace account for. It took me an hour to remember how to upload an animated GIF to Myspace. I kept getting a 'format not supported" error. You have to cancel the Flash-based photo uploader, & then click the 'click here' link for the basic photo upload... multiple times.

It's weird that you still have to figure this kind of crap out just to upload an animated image. Yeah it makes some Myspace pages look like virtual versions of this, but it's convenient to be able to upload animated files if needed.

"Chakra Ascension" Series- Animated

(click for larger size)

Recently, I posted a series of images that I made back in 2003.

The images show a solitary, meditating figure in different environments. Each setting corresponds to the ancient metaphysical energy system within the body, known as "chakras".

I am not a chakra meditation practitioner, so I approached this as a metaphorical work of art. I finally decided to post the "Chakra Ascension" series, for other people to contemplate.

Now that I've posted all the individual entries, you can see the recap of the entire series at this link:

"Chakra Ascension" Series 

by Paul Micarelli 

In addition to a free e-book, in PDF format (that can be downloaded at the link above), I also made the animated GIF at the top of this post.

The animation cycles through the series, in order, which gives a better impression of the "ascension" through the different chakra levels.

Please check out the link above for the hi-res images & their descriptions. I put the images, without the descriptions, into a folder & used them as a cycling wallpaper on my computer.

I also uploaded the animated GIF to my Cheezburger account, if you'd like to give it an upvote or share it.

Cheezburger:
"Chakra Ascension"

Chakra Light Animation

On Awakening Our Truth, I saw this animated GIF of one of artist Alex Grey's paintings- showing a meditator with the colored areas of the chakras lit up. The chakras are a conceptual system of naming the energy centers in the body. The clear white light is coming from the pineal gland in the brain, a mysterious light-sensitive organ that is traditionally associated with the mystical third eye.

Our scientific & medical experts would say these chakra energy centers don't really exist. However, despite all their benefits, the institutions of science & medicine have been completely wrong about many things. There is probably a correspondence to these theoretical locations and actual aspects of the anatomy, such as nerve bundles and major organs.

I think the energetic aspects of the body are a vital aspect of our whole being. We tend to concentrate on the physical aspects of health & disease. How energy flows through our body & mind is usually an overlooked aspect of our overall state. Even if the chakra areas & colors don't have an existence that is verifiable by current science, it is an important visualization tool. Perhaps focusing on these areas can cause a feedback loop of positive physiological and psychological effects. There are many secrets the human body has yet to reveal...

Awhile ago, I made a metaphorical series of images, based on the chakra system. It is available as a free PDF ebook, and my post about the series is here:

"Chakra Ascension" Series 

by Paul Micarelli 

I also made this animated GIF, that cycles through the stages of "Chakra Ascension".

Hypno-Bachmann

I started a profile on Cheezburger.com so I can post some of my crazy creations there.

My favorite sections to browse are FAIL Blog, Picture is Unrelated, Señor GIF, & Totally Looks Like.

Anyway, the first image I decided to post was this mind-bending animated GIF of ol' crazy eyes, Michele Bachmann.

Click on the link to give it an upvote:

Señor GIF:

 Hypno-Bachmann

Photorealistic Evolution GIF

Recently I posted an animated GIF that illustrated the process of morphological transformation over time:

600 Million Years of Evolution, Animated

I came across another image-in-motion that shows the same process in a more photorealistic way, from the point of view of the animals changing over the eons.

600 Million Years of Evolution, Animated

It's the beginning of a New Year, and I'm going to continue the theme of time.

I've explained previously why I think "evolution" is a loaded term that makes people believe the metamorphosis of living forms over time follows an orderly, linear progression.

Despite my unease with the term "evolution", it is an undeniable fact that Life is not a static phenomenon and that living systems change. As the Greek thinker Heraclitus stated, "Nothing is permanent, except change."

Changes are always happening on an individual level, down to the cellular & molecular scales. Noticeable species-wide changes may happen at different rates, though, depending on the situation.

One of the intellectual benefits of digital media is the ability to visualize processes that were previously unimaginable. On Reddit, I came across this animated GIF of biological metamorphosis over the past 600 million years, which starts at cellular life and continues through up to modern humans.

It is available as a flip book, called EVO, from Evoboek.nl

Originally, the order was reversed for some reason, but after some searching I found a version going forward through time.

Here it is on Gfycat, allowing you to go frame-by-frame or reverse the order.

Finally, here is a Youtube video of the animation:

While I was searching Google images for this evolution GIF, I saw this cool animation that I posted before:

The Evolution of Robo-Ape 

Animated Chakra Energy

I have done quite a bit of research and thought on the ancient concept of "chakras," or centers of energy that exist as aspects of our being.

Chakras are often considered a mystical or esoteric concept, an abstraction that is visualized as a focus of meditation. However, these energy centers correspond to physical centers of neurological and glandular importance.

I created this animation using the Forge of Neon app, illustrating the flow of energy through the chakras within and around the human body.

Chakra Energy 

by Paul Micarelli

After I finished it, I kept adding more details - imagining how the energy would interface with the surrounding Unified Field, absorbing and transmitting light.

I thought the "Thousand Petaled Lotus" that is supposed to blossom from the crown chakra would be analogous to the cascading bio-electric fields that our body creates.

Chakra Energy Connecting to the Universal Field

by Paul Micarelli

My wife & I have taken Kundalini classes that have given me a deeper perspective on this concept. She now teaches a "Chakra Flow" yoga class that progresses through poses focusing on the 7 major chakra centers.

Several years ago, I created a Chakra Ascension Series that illustrates each of the chakra points as a progression of an individual through ascending levels.

Here is an animated GIF version of the series:

Primate Self-Reflection

After my last post about the poster featuring the proto-homonids in "2001: A Space Odyssey", I saw this animated GIF of a gorilla seeing itself in a mirror.

The gorilla's reaction is similar to that of our primitive ape ancestors in the movie, when faced with the evolutionary catalyst of The Monolith. Both objects facilitate self-awareness in the consciousness of the animal mind.

Different primates have varying degrees of ability to recognize the reflection in the mirror as themselves. 

Livescience:

 Can Monkeys Learn to Recognize Themselves in the Mirror?

Here's another funny GIF of a monkey seeing itself in a mirror:

Brain Scrambling

This weekend, I'm going to Toy Fair in NYC for a couple days. One reason is to try to find a new publisher for the award-winning strategy game I created & developed, Da Vinci's Challenge™ based on the ancient Flower of Life pattern.

We have also developed some other new games, toys, & activities that we hope will create some interest. Toy Fair is an interesting show to attend & I usually feel some visual overload from trying to take everything in.

Besides spending the last few weeks trying to prepare for the show, I was in a minor car accident in the middle of January & have been dealing with that situation.

Then, I was in work last Wed. & my head started burning up w/ a fever. My fingers felt numb & my body had the chills, despite my head being on fire. The next day the fever went away, but then I had a painful throat infection that lasted several days. It was really bad during the week, but I still went in to work to make sure I got all the stuff done for Toy Fair. I ate nothing but soup for 4 days. To ease the swelling I tried gargling water + everything: salt, honey, hydrogen peroxide, & even cayenne red pepper after seeing it recommended online.

Saturday morning I felt relatively better, & ate some cherry water ice that was like a frozen miracle. Last nite I went out to eat with my parents & was so damn hungry that I tried to tackle a burger, my first solid food in days. Even though I had an ravenous appetite, my throat was so raw that each swallow felt like I was swallowing tiny shards of glass. My Dad was laughing at me, saying I looked like an alligator the way I was grimacing & struggling to put down each gulp.
 
FINALLY, I woke up this morning & could swallow with no discomfort at all! Hallelujah!!! Most of the day, I was still reflexively wincing each time I swallowed, even though it didn't hurt anymore.

No matter how much awareness we place on our well-being, we easily take for granted what a blessing it is to experience life free of debilitating pain.

Anyway, the physical discomfort was enough to frazzle my mind as I've been trying to focus on dealing with the rest of life's steady march of craziness.
I saw the optical animated GIF below & thought it was a good representation of my general state of mind during the last week.

WARNING!!!

IT WILL SCRAMBLE YOUR BRAIN!!!!

I also saw this other cool optical illusion GIF, "Hide the Corners" that is hard to stop staring at:

50 Trippy GIFs

I've made many animated GIF images for my own amusement.

GIFs are a uniquely digital phenomenon, since the looping animations need to bee seen on a computer screen.

You can make all kinds of interesting animations using graphics software & 3D rendering. Here's a collection of particularly psychedelic images.

Buzzfeed: 

50 Animated GIFs to 

"Turn On, Tune In, And Drop Out"

Animated Vader Drawing

I was testing out my new Epson CX8400 scanner/printer I got on sale, so I decided to scan a simple pen & ink drawing exercise I did in college (see above). It's a progressive line drawing of the infamous mask of the Dark Lord of the Sith himself. Once I digitized it, I decided to use Adobe ImageReady to create an animated GIF (click on image below). The age of motion graphics is really only beginning...

Graphic Design is My Passion

The title of this post is true, graphic design is my passion.

I have been a professional designer for my entire adult life, and not a day goes by where I don't strive to be creative in some way.

However, this life-long passion is not what prompted this post. It was actually another aspect of my love of creativity... my amusement by truly awful or ridiculous design.

I saw this animated GIF on The Weird Wide Web and appreciated its hilariously irony:

Hypno-Bachmann

I couldn't help myself...

Despite the dismal field of candidates, I watched the last GOP debate the other night that was sponsored by corporate partners CNN & The Tea Party, Inc. 

I still think the Republicans have no chance to beat Obama if Mitt Romney isn't the nominee. He's the only one remotely electable. Some of the candidates are more far out than others, though. Ron Paul is partially immersed in a Libertarian fantasyland. I completely agree with some of his ideas, but then he goes into illogical extremes with his fictional idea of individual "freedom" which always trumps the good of society.

However, Michele Bachmann, a Congresswoman from a district of crazy people in Minnesota, is out somewhere on her own planet. Besides being one of the most untruthful politicians in DC, she basically wants to eliminate secular government & institute a theocracy based on her own warped view of reality.
It always amazes me how many of these government-hating Republicans want to be career government employees... 

Anyway, I had the image of her iconic Newsweek cover sitting on my desktop, because I knew I could make something crazy w/ it.  ...so, I threw this animated GIF together of "Hypno-Bachmann".  


Don't look at it too long or she will suck out your soul.

Quantum Self-Portrait

I came across this awesome app called Moonshadow that lets you add all kinds of combinations of psychedelic effects to photos or video.

After taking some video of my head & adding some colorful waveforms, I turned it into a looping animated GIF on GIPHY.

The result is a "quantum self-portrait", where my face dissolves into patterns of pure energy...

Paul Micarelli

"Quantum Self-Portrait"

Life is a Hallucination

I saw this animated GIF on fUSION Anomalog that describes the state of our mental experience.

"This Whole Life is a Hallucination"

In Buddhism, the phantasmagoric array of perceptions that make up our conscious experience is called "Maya".

The external sensory input, that our body processes as sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell, create the illusion in our minds of independent existence. Actually, experienced phenomena are manifestations of The All- the underlying, pervasive source of the reality that we perceive.

The light & sound show going on inside our head is a hallucination of sorts, a mere representation of the energies and processes that cause them. We can never know "reality" as it is- only how it is translated through the filter of our senses into our consciousness.

Homer Simpson's Monkey Mind

In Buddhism & other spiritual practices, the purpose of meditation is to tame the "monkey mind".

It is a term to describe the normal state of consciousness- in which an endless stream of thoughts & internal mental chatter interfere with the direct awareness of reality.

This state of mind is illustrated by the monkey in this animated gif, persistently banging cymbals inside Homer Simpson's head.

Wikihow:
How to Meditate

The Simpsons Universe Zoom

This is an awesome looping animated GIF, made from one of the opening sequences from The Simpsons.

It playfully suggest the infinite, fractal nature of our own Universe.

The Dalai Lama on a Dolly Llama

I have read & listened to the wisdom of the Dalai Lama for many years, and consider him to be one of my many gurus.

However, nothing His Holiness has ever said is as profound as this animated GIF that I saw on fUSION Anomalog:

David the Cookie Monster

Yesterday, I got to visit with alot of my Dad's side of the family for Thanksgiving dinner. It's always fun playing with all my nieces & nephews because they are full of imagination & pure joy for life.

Today is my nephew David's birthday. He is a funny little guy, who's developing a personality that's part loveable scamp & part bad-ass attitude.

 I took a series of photos while he was having an absolute blast- eating his favorite delicacy, cookies & milk.

His faces are hysterical, so I made them into an animated GIF & uploaded it so I could show people on Facebook. It's too funny not to share.

For his Cookie Monster birthday party last weekend, I also made this graphic for him:

The Evolution(?) of Man

My Dad, Big Paul, has a funny outlook on technological progress.

He always insists that technology is changing us in such a way that humans are going to end up as immobile blobs, with video screens attached to their faces.

The movie Wall-E had a similar premise:

Considering that I & my siblings have iPhones that we're always on, I can see how he'd think his prediction is being vindicated.

I saw this amusing animated GIF below on Memebase & I immediately thought of my Dad's theory:

I personally think that even with future technology (like an "Apple iThink") humans will still physically function as we do now. However, our senses, perceptions, & mental abilities will be enhanced beyond limits we can currently imagine.

Maybe there will eventually be movements of people, "Naturals," who vigorously oppose the inevitable melding of man & digital machine.

One day in the farther future, however, there might be a point where, as the late, great Terence McKenna claimed, we may 'shed our monkey bodies' & enter hyperspace, no longer confined by the physical constraints of our current biological existence.

Until then... I'll just continue to enjoy the many pleasures & novel sensory experiences of this mortal, humanoid form.

(...although I would appreciate augmented memory & perceptions with multiple, parallel streams of consciousness.)

To illustrate this jump into the Singularity, below is a techno-eschatological self-portrait I submitted to the website, "Can You Draw the Internet?":

From The Monkey Buddha Visual Archive:

"A digital self-portrait
representing the mind integrating with &
transcending physical technology
through immersion into the realm of pure energy.
The Internet is the beginning of a conduit
into a non-local experience of consciousness."