(Near-Death Experiences) White American Southern man and farmer dies, which becomes a profound near-death experience for him as he meets the spirit Jesus, which reveals shocking truths about Black people. He never thought he hated them, nor did he notice his implicit biases, only "preferring to stick with his own kind."
In the pre-colonial era, the Indigenous people lived in as many as 100 villages and primarily identified by their village rather than by a pan-tribal name [3].
During colonization, the imperial Spanish invaders referred to these people as Gabrieleño and Fernandeño [a], names derived from the Spanish "missions" (concentration and forced labor camps for Catholic conversion, ethnic cleansing, and reeducation) built on Native land, Mission San Gabriel Arcángel ("Archangel") and Mission San Fernando Rey de España ("King of Spain") [b].
Poor upkeep on modern demonstration models
Tongva (a word that simply means "the land") is the most widely circulated endonym among the people, used by Narcisa Higuera in 1905 to refer to inhabitants in the vicinity of Mission San Gabriel [4]. Some people who identify as direct lineal descendants [5] of the people advocate the use of their ancestral name Kizh as an endonym [6].
The Tongva, along with neighboring groups such as the Chumash (the "beautiful people") of Malibu and Ventura, played an important role in the region's cultural and economic dynamics at the time of the European invasion and displacement "encounter."
The Tongva had developed an extensive trade network through their form of canoes or te'aats (plank-built rowing boats).
Their diverse food and material culture was based on an Indigenous worldview that positioned humans as one strand in a web of life (as expressed in their creation stories) [7, 1, 2, 8].
Over time, different communities came to speak distinct dialects of the Tongva language, part of the Takic subgroup of the Uto-Aztecan language family prevalent throughout Indigenous Mexico, of which Los Angeles was a part.
There may have been five or more such languages (three on the southernmost Channel Islands and at least two on the mainland) [1].
European contact was first made in 1542 by Spanish explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, who was greeted at Santa Catalina by people in a canoe. The following day, Cabrillo and his men entered a large bay on the mainland, which they named Baya de los Fumos ("Bay of Smokes," referring to smog or vapors, a natural consequence of the natural basin) because of the many smoke fires they saw there.
Indigenous peoples smoked fish to preserve it. This is commonly believed to have been San Pedro Bay, near present-day San Pedro [9].
The Gaspar de Portolá land expedition in 1769 resulted in the founding of Mission San Gabriel by Catholic missionary rapist abuser and Priest Junipero Serra in 1771 to begin the ethnic cleansing of the area. Under the mission concentration camp system, the Spanish initiated an era of forced relocation and enslavement. More
Revolutions to resist invaders, imperial occupiers, Catholic rapists
Spanish Catholics celebrating their beautiful traditions in the name of their genocidal God.
Nearly 6,000 Tongva lie dead and buried in the grounds of the San Gabriel Mission today [51]. Carey McWilliams characterized it as follows: "the Franciscan padres ["patriarchs, fathers, Catholic priests"] eliminated Indians with the effectiveness of Nazis operating concentration camps [an idea Hitler and the Nazis got from the USA]...." [52]
There is much evidence of Tongva resistance to the imperial mission system [3, 12] that aimed to enslave and ethnically cleanse them from the land during the ongoing slow genocide.
Many Native individuals returned to their village at the time of death. Many forcibly converted Catholics retained their traditional Indigenous practices in both spiritual and domestic contexts, despite the attempts by the padres and Christian missionaries to suppress, brainwash (erase), and control them.
Traditional foods were incorporated into the white man's impoverished mission diet. Lithic and shell bead production and use persisted. More overt strategies of resistance, such as refusal to enter the system, work slowdowns, abortion and infanticide of children resulting from rape by priests, and uprisings were also prevalent.
Five major uprisings were recorded just at Mission San Gabriel [3], the first of many such concentration camps sexually exploiting the Natives and enslaving them, stripping them of their identity, cultural practices, language, and identity.
Two late-18th-century rebellions against the mission's forced labor system were led by Nicolás José [the Spanish name placed on him by Catholic priests], who was an early Catholic convert who had two social identities, "publicly participating in Catholic sacraments at the mission but privately committed to traditional [Tongva] dances, celebrations, and rituals" [3].
Toypurina: I didn't want us to be raped/erased.
He loved the system so much he participated in a failed attempt to kill the mission's priests in 1779 and organized eight foothill villages in a revolt in October 1785 along with Tongva ShamanToypurina.
She further organized the villages to resist occupation and abuses [53], which "demonstrated a previously undocumented level of regional political unification both within and well beyond the mission" [3]. The mission strategy had always been to divide and conquer.
However, divided loyalties among the Natives contributed to the failure of the 1785 attempt, as well as mission soldiers being alerted of the attempt by Catholic converts or neophytes [3].
George W. Kirkman's 1938 historical map of pre-1860 Los Angeles County shows locations of "Gabrieleño” villages marked with generic "Indian teepees.” (The locals never lived in teepees but rather in wigwam-like structures called kizh).
Kangaroo court trial for Native rebels
Toypurina, José, and two other leaders of the rebellion, Chief Tomasajaquichi of Juvit Village and a Tongva man named Alijivit, from the nearby village of Jajamovit, were put on trial for the 1785 rebellion [53].
At his trial, José stated that he participated because the ban at the mission on Tongva dances and ceremonies instituted by the missionaries, and enforced by the governor of California in 1782, was intolerable as they prevented their mourning ceremonies [3].
When questioned about the attack, Toypurina is famously quoted as saying that she participated in the instigation because “[she hated] the padres and all of you, for living here on my native soil, for trespassing upon the land of my forefathers and despoiling our tribal domains.…
We lived in peace for thousands of years.
“I came [to the Catholic mission] to inspire the dirty cowards to fight, and not to quail at the sight of Spanish sticks that spit fire and death, nor [to] retch at the evil smell of gunsmoke -- and be done with you white invaders!” [53]
Scholars have debated the accuracy of this quote, from Thomas Workman Temple II's article “Toypurina the Witch and the Indian Uprising at San Gabriel,” suggesting it may differ significantly from the testimony recorded by Spanish authorities at the time.
According to the soldier who recorded her words, she stated simply that she ‘‘was angry with the Padres and the others of the Mission, because they had come to live and establish themselves in her land” [53].
In June 1788, nearly three years later, their sentences arrived from Mexico City:
Nicolás José was banned from San Gabriel and sentenced to six years of hard labor in irons at the most distant penitentiary in the region [53].
Toypurina was banished from Mission San Gabriel and sent to the most distant Spanish mission [to be raped and married off to a Spaniard].
[The others all met with similar fates, none exempted, acquitted, or found innocent.]
This violent resistance to occupation, displacement, rape, ethnic cleansing, and Spanish rule demonstrated how the Spanish Crown's claims to California were both insecure and violently contested [12].
By the 1800s, San Gabriel [forced labor camp] was the richest in the entire colonial mission system, supplying invasive species of cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, horses, mules, and other supplies for settlers and settlements throughout Alta ["Upper"] California.
Some historians have dared to accurately portray the mission system as a form of coerced labor that deeply disrupted Indigenous lifeways and autonomy.
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee
Latter-day ethnologist Hugo Reid reported, “Indian children were taken from their parents to be raised behind bars at the mission. They were allowed outside the locked dormitories only to attend to church business and their assigned chores.
“When they were old enough, boys and girls were put to work in the vast vineyards [to make alcohol] and orchards owned by the missions. “Soldiers watched, ready to hunt down any who tried to escape.”
Writing in 1852, Reid said he knew of Tongva who “had an ear lopped off or were branded on the lip for trying to get away” [54].
In 1810, the “Gabrieleño” forced labor population at the mission was recorded to be 1,201 [slaves]. It jumped to 1,636 in 1820 and then declined to 1,320 in 1830 [51].
Resistance to this system of forced labor continued into the early 19th century. In 1817, the San Gabriel Mission recorded that there were "473 Indian [slave] fugitives" [10].
In 1828, a European German immigrant purchased the land on which the village of Yang-Na stood and evicted the entire community with the help of Mexican officials [55]. More
When does summer really begin? It's not an astronomical question, as the people into genes insist gender is as easy to assign as reading x's and y's. It is easy if we make it that easy, but it is not so easy when we do not all agree to that as the objective measure.
What is "social summer"?
Mandatory: All Americans must visit a beach.
There's a kind of social summer, which runs between Memorial Day and Labor Day, just an approximation. The seasons do not always cooperate even in parts of the US where four distinct seasons make themselves obvious. There is "Indian summer," which is just a way of saying a long hot spell after official calendrical summer should have ended.
Another example of social summer is the one set by the local school district: When school ends, that's summer. Just ask Alice Cooper! When school begins again, that resumption is the end, even if the weather is still great and drives to the beach are worth the traffic.
There did not used to be a "universal time" but rather many different times depending on the place. They were not simultaneous but more dependent on the sun circling (not revolving) overhead chased by the moon. Those were Tartarian (Tartary) times, and that's all been erased now. A universal measure imposes a definition that does not make sense for everybody on the ground.
Another social summer measure is determined by the concert calendar. The end comes to Pasadena, Los Angeles with the Just Like Heaven Festival this Saturday (Aug. 22, 2026).
New for 2026: Updated clubhouse amenities, enhanced VIP experiences, plus new shade sails, cooling misters, expanded shaded seating, and additional water refill stations throughout the festival grounds, giving concertgoers even more ways to stay cool and recharge between musical sets. For even more convenience, spend the day in VIP for a lot more money. Spend the day dancing in the expansive VIP viewing areas and lounging in shaded spaces between acts, all while enjoying exclusive food and drink options and air-conditioned restrooms.
Buy Now Just Like Heaven | August 22, 2026
"Defund the police" was a deception to provoke public outrage. Congress funds new secret police forces and pays them much more now. If police officers want to scam the system, overseers look the other way. Let's make THE PURGE legal for a little while, and then we can use the predictable mayhem and disorder as a pretext to implement some Orwellian policies for "public safety" and a smiley face police state.
Drop Dead? Bigger than Nazi Barbie Taylor Swift-Kelce? Olivia, what's a daisy chain? Miss Rodrigo, is sex what you meant? What is this, the rebirth of the Lilith Fair? Sarah McLachlan, Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac), Shirley Manson's Garbage, Chappell Roan (Chapel Rowing?), punkers Bikini Kill, The Breeders, Die Spitz, and a little band we like to call Katseye until they get too famous to take our calls once they're on the road opening for Black Pink and BTS. Doechii, Eli, Quiet Light, Santigold, Rachel Chinouriri. What, no Linda Lindas? Oh, and a special appearance by up-and-coming world superstar and Taylor Swift nemesis Olive Rodricklow (aka our favorite female popstar Olivia Rodrigo).
Daisy Chain Fields is an upcoming charitable music festival, featuring a women-led lineup at Great Park in Irvine, Orange County, California, founded by American singer Olivia Rodrigo in 2026. All net profits are to go toward organizations supporting females, both women and girls. (Trans womyn are on their own).
Background
Pop superstar Rodrigo appeared in Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery (2025), a documentary about the women-led music festivalLilith Fair, which she cited as an inspiration to her music career.
Lilith Fair co-founder Sarah McLachlan is one of the performers at Daisy Chain Fields. Rodrigo announced the festival on June 22, 2026, concurrently through social media, Pitchfork e-magazine, and radio station 88.5 The SoCal Sound.
In an interview with Shaad D'Souza for Pitchfork e-magazine, Rodrigo said that the festival was inspired by Lilith Fair.
She went on to share, "I just feel like we need something really positive to do and see, and young girls need awesome role models who are supporting other women and who are engaging in something that's really joyful and musical and community-oriented."
Spend it for Olivia, girls. She needs it for girls.
Tickets for the festival sold out within 30 minutes on June 24, 2026, which led to event partner Verizon issuing new tickets on July 9, 2026.
The festival's sponsors are Depop, Etsy, Taco Bell, and Verizon. Rodrigo co-designed a merch collection for the festival [to milk more money out of the event] with ten female entrepreneurs; the collection is available for online purchase exclusively through Etsy and will also be available on festival grounds. [So bring money]. More
Why do waves go so well with Buddhism? There's something about sex, sand, and suffering -- which one meets with while reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on the beach. But becoming a greater surfer has much more to do with wu wei (the ease of effortless flow), wushu (martial arts), and applying Taoist principles like yin and yang to Zen (jhana) Buddhist practice, which involves mindful in-the-moment awareness and radical acceptance of what is.
Southland facing a triple threat of heat, humidity, and high surf
Temperatures topping 100 inland raise fire risk
Rong-Gong Lin II (July 21, 2026, Los Angeles); Eds., Wisdom Quarterly
Southern California will face a triple threat this week of dangerous heat, muggy weather and, along the coast, hazardous high waves. It may be better for surfing, but it will be risky for all beachgoers who get near the water.
"We're looking at an at least several days -- if not longer -- heat event, which can really be concerning," said meteorologist Robbie Munroe of the National Weather Service's Oxnard office. Hollywood may catch fire on the Sunset Strip from all the tourists dripping sunblock.
Officials warned of elevated fire danger across large swaths of SoCal starting Tuesday, with a high risk of fast-moving and "plume dominated" fires driven by heat and instability. Such blazes have large vertical growth and can spread rapidly even when not driven by the wind. More: latimes.com
Wisdom Quarterly's new book on going with the flow while out to sea among brutal sharks, cancerous sun, chapping wind, and rich territorial surf punks suffering from localism and getting into fights about it.
Why do waves go so well with Buddhist practice? There's something about "sex, sand, and suffering" -- which one meets with while reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy safely on the beach. But it has much more to do with wu wei, wushu, and applying Taoist principles to Zen practice.
For instance, when out on a wave about to ride, instead of "doing," try "allowing." Go with the flow. Rather than interfering or trying to cut against the grain, embody radical acceptance of what is and ride it out. That's what Wisdom Quarterly's resident Meditation Teacher Seven says is a far better approach than struggling to dominate.
Let the waves dominate so that the only thing to do is allow, allow, allow. Then in this allowing, suddenly it becomes effortless and intuitive, perfectly obvious and impossible to explain with words.
People do sometimes try to express it in words, but it all becomes a jumble of oohs and ahhs like surf slang or Himalayan shoestring spiritual seekers on ayahuasca down in the jungles of the Amazon with shamans Michael Harner.
As a graduate student in the 1950s, Michael Harner undertook field research on the culture of the Jívaro (Shuar)Natives of the Amazon in Ecuador [5] as he began to pursue a career as an ethnologist. His UC Berkeley doctoral dissertation (1963) became the basis for his book, The Jívaro: People of the Sacred Waterfalls[6]. In 1960-1961 he reported that he became a participant-observer by experimenting with the powerful plant medicineayahuascawith the Conibo of the Peruvian Amazon [5]. He wrote about in the articles "The Sound of Rushing Water" (1968)[7] and "The Role of Hallucinogenic Plants in European Witchcraft" (1973)[8]. Dr. Harner, Ph.D. returned to the Native Jívaro in 1964, 1969, and 1973, at which time he learned the use of the psychoactiveentheogenmaikua (Daturabrugmansia, jimsonweed) [5]. More
There's a similar feeling to be had by skateboarding or hang gliding, BASE jumping or surviving the pit (slam dancing to a favorite song at a concert). Surfing seems very safe by comparison. It all becomes instinctive and beyond thinking. It's a good place to be just for that moment, rising above the turmoil of the mind or diving into the silence of the heart. Rumi would understand. The historical Buddha pointed out the detailed Path to it.
I'dunno, Bro, looks pretty gnarly. Let's just tan.
Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual surfer (or two) uses a carefully modified wood, fiberglass, or polyurethane board to "ride" on the face, the forward section, of a swelling wave of water. This swell usually carries said surfer toward shore or to a watery death by drowning for not respecting Mother Nature enough. Waves suitable for surfing are primarily found on ocean shores. But they can also be found as standing waves in the open ocean, artificial simulators, lakes, rivers in the form of a tidal bore, or wave pools (and also in a physics experiment when a tide pool is sent back to sea). More
Surf Spots - California Beaches: The Wedge? That's Newport Beach. LA's Palos Verdes Peninsula isn’t known for its surfing outside of local circles, and there is a sad reason for that. It’s called “localism.” The area has a severe case of the disease. Located between Los Angeles and Long Beach, and possessing some excellent breaks, one would think this place would be much better known. Locals know all about surf spots like Palos Verdes Cove (near the crumbling peninsula called Palos Verdes Estates), Lunada Bay, Haggertys at Malaga Cove, among others.
A few weeks ago, LA and OC beaches were being subjected to king tides, riptides, with dangerous surfing conditions for experts only. The cause this time seems to be a tropical storm elsewhere disrupting the height and frequency of waves. Surfers may love it as they avoid great white sharks, but others will find it hard to take a dip or swim. Localism is, of course, a greater danger as human sharks with a sense of entitlement circle strangers and drive them out. Expect swells, tubular conditions at The Wedge and elsewhere. Warning: Water may be a little contaminated due to crumbling infrastructure. Sharks are a tiny worry compared to the microscopic contaminants and plastic particle debris. Enjoy.
Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Jennifer B., Seth Auberon, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
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