peculiar people
encounters of interesting and strange people I've met
James
Appearance: 60s-70s farm man, wide ranger hat, brown traffic vest covered in dirt, flushed patchy skin,
Entry: A farmer with a dusty wide brimmed hat sits across from me and begins discussing the extent of human stupidity. He starts by comparing social media addictions to the drug Soma from Huxley's Brave New World, and spirals into a discussion surrounding the chaos of society, politics, government, and people. In this conversation, he compares the human herd mentality to topics in Orwell's 1984, as well as Alexander's rat park study. The rant continues on as he states how easily people are manipulated, brainwashed, and controlled, and believes this is why the world is descending into corruption. "Humanity ends because there are too many stupid people", he laughs. He also tells me to search him up on Google. There are several articles on him, and I find out he ran for local government.
Entry: A farmer with a dusty wide brimmed hat sits across from me and begins discussing the extent of human stupidity. He starts by comparing social media addictions to the drug Soma from Huxley's Brave New World, and spirals into a discussion surrounding the chaos of society, politics, government, and people. In this conversation, he compares the human herd mentality to topics in Orwell's 1984, as well as Alexander's rat park study. The rant continues on as he states how easily people are manipulated, brainwashed, and controlled, and believes this is why the world is descending into corruption. "Humanity ends because there are too many stupid people", he laughs. He also tells me to search him up on Google. There are several articles on him, and I find out he ran for local government.
Rose
Appearance: Mid 20s, short dyed hair, circle framed glasses, williamsburg lgbtq hippie vibes
Entry: I met Rose from a meditation volunteer retreat in Australia. They voice their perspectives on technology and society, and shares a powerful ayahuasca experience they had in Columbia. They believe technology is advancing too quick and much of it is unnecessary to humanity. I tell them it justifies better living conditions. They agree but responds there may be a tradeoff between the physical anguish of pre-modern societies (hunting for food, dealing with cold winters, etc.) and mental anguish experienced in modern ones (mental health, depression, suicide, etc.). True. We get to the topic of psychedelics, and they share their experience of meeting these celestial beings on DMT. Their impression is that the DMT entities exist objectively, but what they saw were just "projections" of the higher dimensional beings onto our reality, compressed in a way our brains can comprehend.
Entry: I met Rose from a meditation volunteer retreat in Australia. They voice their perspectives on technology and society, and shares a powerful ayahuasca experience they had in Columbia. They believe technology is advancing too quick and much of it is unnecessary to humanity. I tell them it justifies better living conditions. They agree but responds there may be a tradeoff between the physical anguish of pre-modern societies (hunting for food, dealing with cold winters, etc.) and mental anguish experienced in modern ones (mental health, depression, suicide, etc.). True. We get to the topic of psychedelics, and they share their experience of meeting these celestial beings on DMT. Their impression is that the DMT entities exist objectively, but what they saw were just "projections" of the higher dimensional beings onto our reality, compressed in a way our brains can comprehend.
Stuart and the Pigs
Appearance: 60s, gray messy hair, jeans and plaid farming clothes covered in dust and dirt, barefoot, covered in mud, bright blue eyes, strange friendly demeanor, thick farmer New Zealand accent
Highlights: Has over 150+ pigs as pets
Entry: The most interesting man in Coromandel. I stop on a little dirt road from a few small piglets that stop me in my track. Several feet away, I spot an old man in an enclosed barn fence. As I pet the pigs, he waves his hand to me. He shouts to me, “You can come over here if you’d like”. I make my way over, curious about what he has to say. As I inch closer, I see a shit ton of pigs wandering around inside his fence. I also notice something strange. He has no shoes. His bare feet is standing comfortably pig droppings and mud. He begins conversing about his pigs and tells me he has over 150 of them, pointing to a few and naming their species. I ask him what he plans to do with all these pigs. He proudly states they are just his pets. He tells me one of his pigs gave birth that morning and asks if I want to pet the newborn piglets. I do not hesitate and follow him through the backyard, across a creek to a broken down shack filled with junk couches, scrap metal, and bunches of old newspapers. He disappears inside. A minute passes. At this moment, I sort of realized I fucked up. I was alone with a strange barefoot man covered in mud in the middle of rural New Zealand behind a creek in a junk house. This is how it ends. He was gonna run out with a damn chainsaw. But soon after he pops back out with 2 baby piglets the size of fists. Relief. He let me name them. My excitement about the piglets seemed to make him happy. He told me how people would pass by, run them over for fun, or steal them. But he said people like me made it worthwhile to keep them out on display. He liked to introduce his prized pigs to fellow animal lovers. He was odd, but there was something pure about him. Something innocent. He did not care for money, fame, glory, or power. Just his pigs. Stuart and the pigs.
Highlights: Has over 150+ pigs as pets
Entry: The most interesting man in Coromandel. I stop on a little dirt road from a few small piglets that stop me in my track. Several feet away, I spot an old man in an enclosed barn fence. As I pet the pigs, he waves his hand to me. He shouts to me, “You can come over here if you’d like”. I make my way over, curious about what he has to say. As I inch closer, I see a shit ton of pigs wandering around inside his fence. I also notice something strange. He has no shoes. His bare feet is standing comfortably pig droppings and mud. He begins conversing about his pigs and tells me he has over 150 of them, pointing to a few and naming their species. I ask him what he plans to do with all these pigs. He proudly states they are just his pets. He tells me one of his pigs gave birth that morning and asks if I want to pet the newborn piglets. I do not hesitate and follow him through the backyard, across a creek to a broken down shack filled with junk couches, scrap metal, and bunches of old newspapers. He disappears inside. A minute passes. At this moment, I sort of realized I fucked up. I was alone with a strange barefoot man covered in mud in the middle of rural New Zealand behind a creek in a junk house. This is how it ends. He was gonna run out with a damn chainsaw. But soon after he pops back out with 2 baby piglets the size of fists. Relief. He let me name them. My excitement about the piglets seemed to make him happy. He told me how people would pass by, run them over for fun, or steal them. But he said people like me made it worthwhile to keep them out on display. He liked to introduce his prized pigs to fellow animal lovers. He was odd, but there was something pure about him. Something innocent. He did not care for money, fame, glory, or power. Just his pigs. Stuart and the pigs.
Albus
Appearance: 30s-40s, Skinny, awkward, long blonde side parted greasy hair, small framed dusty glasses, dressed in shaggy all- black clothing
Highlights: Contrarian conspiracy beliefs, former scientologist & free mason, conspiracy about Covid and New World Order (NWO), apparently chatted with Bill Gates
Entry: He enters the kitchen with a plate of pressed down rice and a thin worn down plastic baggy of a husk of corn, tomatoes, and orange peels. I cannot tell if it is compost or food. While he opens a can of tuna and spoons it onto his pressed down plate of rice, he starts to mention his pasts interests with Scientology. He states how science and intelligence is associated with Cain (the “yin” child of Adam and Eve). He also mentions he was a free mason for a very short period of time then left. In our 4 hour conversation, he also has many interesting things to say about time travel, 5th dimensions, true unity of Consciousness, Baha’i faith, etc. He has very contrarian beliefs and conspiracy theories, but I remain respectful and listen promptly. We get to the topic of Covid and he believes the entire point is vaccines is some sort of digital identification / transformation (what he calls the singularity) that will allow “them” to control and reduce the population. To essentially wipe out the weak. It’s part of something called the “New World Order". The general idea is that the "elites" will impose “chaos” upon the general population, so that they can then reintroduce “order”. I am surprised by the clarity and succinct flow of his thoughts. I press him with questions that challenge his beliefs, but he addresses them quite well, with a sufficient amount of self-awareness. Clearly his beliefs are kooky but what I found really interesting was how he was able to come up with reasonably sound arguments for such extreme beliefs. He still sends me some conspiracy articles to this day.
Highlights: Contrarian conspiracy beliefs, former scientologist & free mason, conspiracy about Covid and New World Order (NWO), apparently chatted with Bill Gates
Entry: He enters the kitchen with a plate of pressed down rice and a thin worn down plastic baggy of a husk of corn, tomatoes, and orange peels. I cannot tell if it is compost or food. While he opens a can of tuna and spoons it onto his pressed down plate of rice, he starts to mention his pasts interests with Scientology. He states how science and intelligence is associated with Cain (the “yin” child of Adam and Eve). He also mentions he was a free mason for a very short period of time then left. In our 4 hour conversation, he also has many interesting things to say about time travel, 5th dimensions, true unity of Consciousness, Baha’i faith, etc. He has very contrarian beliefs and conspiracy theories, but I remain respectful and listen promptly. We get to the topic of Covid and he believes the entire point is vaccines is some sort of digital identification / transformation (what he calls the singularity) that will allow “them” to control and reduce the population. To essentially wipe out the weak. It’s part of something called the “New World Order". The general idea is that the "elites" will impose “chaos” upon the general population, so that they can then reintroduce “order”. I am surprised by the clarity and succinct flow of his thoughts. I press him with questions that challenge his beliefs, but he addresses them quite well, with a sufficient amount of self-awareness. Clearly his beliefs are kooky but what I found really interesting was how he was able to come up with reasonably sound arguments for such extreme beliefs. He still sends me some conspiracy articles to this day.