Stand back. Or better yet, run. Or maybe, stay where you are for the next 35 minutes. Why not?

By popular demand the billblog once again hosts the video story of the infamous encounter of your odd yet loveable scribe with Tibetans from the 11th Century, or thereabouts. The actual experience occurred in late 1995. It was subsequently reviewed by those knowledgeable in the field of modern psychiatry. By them, this moutaintop of experiences was re-defined and pathologized as a "manic break". As far as I am concerned, that elevated the so-called "manic break" from the pathological to the existentially awesome.

I've had several manic breaks. This one was the best. What you are about to see is a mere shadow of it. That's the best I can do in performance.

You can look up the literature on mania, manic states and all that jazz, but I promise you, almost all of it sucks. In this performance I publicly refused classification and took a valiant stand for the upside of what is called mania [inside joke]. Like, who really knows what existence is all about? Seriously, who knows?

I wrote down the bare bones of this incredible experience as a story and performed it in November 2002. By coincidence and luck, I was, er, "hypomanic" at the time of the performance and teetering into the good stuff.

Here's to an open mind!

Just click on the image below.


peace out,
bill