Saturday, October 31, 2026

Thai Buddhist teen Nene Royal wins (A7x)


How did metal guitarist-singer win AGT?

(America's Got Talent) 15-year-old Thai Buddhist rockstar Nene Royal (now 16) is shy...until she starts rocking a heavy metal version of the ditty "Zombie" by the easy listening Irish rockers The Cranberries

(Ake Dalmans) Nene Royal and Avenged Sevenfold perform "Bat Country" and "Unholy Confessions" live in Singapore, Oct. 23, 2026, as Asian mosh pit forms | multi-camera fan edit
Who is 16-year-old rockstar Nene Royal?
Best new rock guitarist and singer of 2026, 16-year-old child Thai Buddhist Nene Royal
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Nene Royal opens for A7x, 2026
Nene Royal [b] (born Rattikarn Amloy [a] on March 14, 2010 [1]), nickname Praew [c], is a Thai rock musician and singer who became world famous on America's Got Talent (AGT).

She is best known for winning the 21st season of America's Got Talent in 2026.

Biography
Phuket province (map)
Nene was born on a small island in the Thai province of Phuket [2, 3] in the southern Thailand, which is not pronounced with any F sound whatsoever.

It is pronounced /pooh-kett/, home of infamous Patong Beach and the massive Taoist gorefest of self-torture to show supernatural endurance, a bloody display called the Vegetarian Festival or the Nine Emperor Gods Festival.
  • Self-purification: In addition to eating pure vegan food, festival participants keep their thoughts pure, wearing white as a symbol of purity. Devout festival participants also abstain from sex, alcohol, and stimulants during the festival. More

Palm tree at dawn, Patong Beach, Phuket province, Thailand (Rene Ehrhardt/flickr)
Taoist vegfest fire-walking, rite of cosmic renewal, washing away sins, bad luck, misfortune
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I won? I beat everyone in America?
Her parents are Narong Amloy and Chuanpit "Oom" Poonkerd [4, 5, 6]. Known by the nickname Praew [7], she has a brother 12 years her junior [6].

She began playing guitar at six or seven years old and, according to her bio, is largely self-taught through YouTube videos [8, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12].


Nene Royal live in Singapore
I've been playing since I was a child of 6 or 7.
Her parents had hoped she would take up a career in business [13]. She wanted to study computing as a co-curricular subject. However, she learned that there were no more spaces in the computer class, so she enrolled in music instead [14]. When she played her first chord, she was hooked, she claims.

She adopted the stage name "Nene Royal" when she began playing in public at age 12 [8]. In 2022, she participated at the Thai talent program Super 10, performing with Thai rock artist PooH Anchalee [7].

In 2023, she competed in the Overdrive Guitar Contest and won second prize, being named "Best Musician" and "Best Vocalist." That same year, she received the Trang Music Award [15].

In 2025, she appeared at the King Power Band Competition and given an "Outstanding Player" award [16, 17]. More


Theravada Buddhism in Thailand
Ancient gold covered Buddha statue in Sukhothai Historical Park, Thailand
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Thailand is next to Cambodia and Laos.
Theravada Buddhism is the largest religion in Thailand, followed by around 92.5% of the country's population as per 2021 [2].

By sheer numbers, it has the world's largest Buddhist population followed by China [which has 1,000,000,00 (one billion) uncounted Buddhists, who are all officially "communist atheists," even though nearly everyone in China follows the Three Teachings of Mahayana Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, which blend seamlessly] and Burma, which has more than 67 million Buddhists [1].

Religion in China: Three Teachings
The Buddha, Lao Tzu, and Confucius (China's Three Teachings)
 
Confucius hands Lao Tzu the baby Buddha
The Theravada tradition is practiced by most Buddhists and shares many similarities with Sri Lankan Buddhism [3, 4].

Buddhism in Thailand has also become integrated with Hinduism from millennia of Indian influence [5, 6], and other Chinese religions (folk, animism, pantheism, polytheism, Taoism, Confucianism) from the large Thai Chinese population [7, 8].

Buddhist temples in Thailand are characterized by tall golden stupas (reliquary mounds), and the Buddhist architecture of Thailand is similar to that of other Southeast Asian Buddhist countries, particularly Cambodia and Laos, with which Thailand shares cultural and historical heritages.

ζ€§ε‘½εœ­ζ—¨ δΈ‰θ–εœ–: Three Sages
Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Sri Lanka, and Laos are five countries with Theravada Buddhist majorities.

Buddhism is believed to have arrived in what is now "Thailand" (formerly Siam) as early as the 3rd century BCE [9], in the time of the Indian Buddhist Emperor Ashoka (who built the empire of "India" by amalgamating many South Asian territories and republics on the subcontinent), two centuries after the life of the Buddha.

Since then, Buddhism has played a significant role in Thai culture and society. Buddhism and the Thai monarchy have often been intertwined, with universally beloved Thai kings historically seen as the main patrons of Buddhism in Thailand.

Nene Royal's 15 best guitar solos

Thai Forest Tradition Dhamma Wheel
Although politics and religion were generally separated for most of Thai history, Buddhism's connection to the Thai state would increase in the middle of the 19th century following the reforms of King Mongkut that would lead to the development of a royally-backed sect of Buddhism (Dhammayuttika Nikaya of which the Thai Forest Tradition is a part) and increased centralization of the Thai monastic community (sangha) under the state, with state control over Buddhism increasing further after the 2014 coup d'Γ©tat.

Playing Phuket's Naka Night Market

Thai Buddhism is distinguished for its emphasis on short-term ordination for every Thai male and its close interconnection with the Thai state and Thai culture.

The two official branches (nikayas) of Thai Buddhism are the royally backed Dhammayuttika Nikaya and the larger Maha Nikaya. More

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Religion of NO Religion (Alan Watts)

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Why hippie communes still inspire



Why hippie communes still inspire today
Modern examples focus on practical ecological sustainability, resilience, counterculture ethos
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Hippie girl Buddhist nun Ven. Pema Chodron
Counterculture roots: Emerging in the 1960s–70s, hippie communes blended art, progressive activism, and shared living to REJECT war, consumerism, and rigid social norms.

Adaptation over decades: Survivors evolved into intentional communities with sustainable economies, selective membership, and functioning governance structures.

Were "hippie" flower children ever real?

Mainstream influence: Organic farming, co‑housing, and alternative medicine from commune culture have entered everyday life and environmental movements. Why do hippie communes still inspire today?
  • Hippie communities illustrate varied approaches to sustaining ideals in changing contexts, from rural self‑sufficiency to negotiated urban autonomy and communal mosh pits.
What natural mellow Cannabis indica/sativa looks like in the wild

Roots in counterculture: birth of commune
Sharon Salzberg, Dipa, Joe Goldstein, Dipa Ma
Hippie communes took shape during the political and cultural upheavals of the late 1960s, driven by anti‑war protests, civil rights activism, and a rejection of consumer [and disaster] capitalism.

Communities like Drop City in Colorado pioneered experimental architecture such as salvaged‑material geodesic domes, while Black Bear Ranch in Northern California embraced the motto “free land for free people.”

These early settlements combined shared labor, artistic expression, and alternative governance, serving as both refuge and social experiment (woodstockmuseum.com).

From utopia to commune: evolution
Peace, love, and good vibes: 30 modern hippie havens we can actually visit today
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Flower children were drug users in the 1960s
Many communes faltered under resource scarcity, leadership disputes, or open‑door policies that strained infrastructure. Those that endured adapted into intentional communities with clearer governance, economic planning, and defined membership.

The Farm in Tennessee restructured into a cooperative after debt challenges, Twin Oaks in Virginia maintained income‑sharing and work quotas, and East Wind Community in Missouri built its base on nut butter production.

The persistence of these communities shows their relevance in addressing modern issues like climate change, social isolation, and economic inequality.

"I Remember"

Living examples: historic and modern communes
We're "hippies" NOW, in 2026, not longing for the 1960s but keeping the ideals alive.
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Historic communes like The Farm remain active with midwifery, organic farming, and solar power, while Twin Oaks continues income‑sharing despite setbacks like a wildfire that destroyed its hammock business. Christiania in Copenhagen retains collective governance in an urban setting, and Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Missouri enforces ecological covenants.

Legacy and influence: communes in mainstream culture

Communes helped normalize practices now common in mainstream life—organic food, co-op (cooperative) economies, home births, and sustainable energy.

Events like Oregon Country Fair and Rainbow Gathering celebrate communal values, while co‑housing and eco‑villages carry forward the spirit. More
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The underworlds below our feet ☠️


Massive discoveries underground
Massive tunnel system discovered under LA
Amplex(Amplex) Oct. 18, 2026: This Amplex investigation explores mysterious underground discoveries, enormous cave systems, strange tunnel entrances in Antarctica and the Himalayas, ancient Egyptian artifacts reported outside Egypt (in the Buddhist Grand Canyon).

There are also theories about forgotten civilizations that still exist (in Agartha (openings at the poles), Hollow Earth, California's Mount Shasta) may have built vast underground networks thousands and tens of thousands of years ago, and an "Actors' Freeways" A-list star use in traffic-choked Los Angeles.
Mt. Shasta mystery: eyewitness
The "Ant People" are Greys?

Myrmidons: Achilles tends to Patroclus, Berlin
ANT-PEOPLE? Their eponymous ancestor was King Myrmidon of Phthia, who was a son of Zeus and "wide-ruling" Princess Eurymedousa of Phthiotis. In one account, Zeus seduced Eurymedousa in the form of an ant [4]. An etiological myth of their origins, simply expanding upon their supposed etymology—the name in Classical Greek interpreted as "ant-people," from myrmedon (Ancient Greek μῠρμηδών, murmΔ“dαΉ“n, plural ΞΌαΏ ΟΞΌΞ·Ξ΄ΟŒΞ½Ξ΅Ο‚, murmΔ“dΓ³nes), which means "ant-nest"—was first mentioned by Ovid in the Metamorphoses.
Timestamps
  • 00:00 Mysterious Underground Discoveries Around the World
  • 00:26 Strange Tunnel Entrances in Antarctica
  • 01:09 Mysterious Cave Entrances Around the World
  • 03:12 Russia's Deepest Hole and the Mysterious [Hellish] Recording
  • 04:02 Underground Tunnels and Hidden Networks
  • 06:16 The Lost Underground City and Documented Ancient Tunnel System Beneath Los Angeles
  • 08:35 Ancient Civilizations and Underground Survival
  • 09:40 Catastrophes and Ancient Underground Cities
  • 14:08 Egyptian Artifacts Beneath the Grand Canyon
  • 16:10 Mysterious Civilizations Beneath the Earth
  • 18:25 Could These Underground Mysteries Be Connected?
Could many of these mysterious structures be connected? Why do similar stories about hidden underground chambers, ancient tunnels, and lost civilizations keep appearing in completely different parts of the world?

Desert discoveries no one can explain

Some of the discoveries have suitable explanations. Others leave behind a lot more questions and suspicions of a cover up. What are people actually finding underground?
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It's all EGO: 'I Me Mine' (The Beatles)

What this band needs is a Japanese Buddhist. Hey, John, will you still be dating after marriage?

Ram Dass, Beatles fan in the 1960s
All through the day/ I me mine, I me mine, I me mine/ All through the night/ I me mine, I me mine, I me mine/ Now they're frightened of leaving it/ Everyone's weaving it/ Coming on strong all the time/ All through the day I me mine/ (CHORUS) I-I-me-me-mine I-I-me-me-mine I-I-me-me-mine I-I-me-me-mine/ All I can hear/ I me mine, I me mine, I me mine/ Even those tears/ I me mine, I me mine, I me mine/ No one's frightened of playing it/ Everyone's saying it/ Flowing more freely than wine/ All through the day I me mine/ (CHORUS)/ All through your life/ I me mine

What's wrong with ego, George?
Ultimately, there is no ego to cling to, Ziggy
"I Me Mine" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1970 album Let It Be. Written by George Harrison -- who has no comparison -- it was the last new track the group recorded before the Beatles' breakup in April 1970.

The song originated from the Beatles' January 1969 rehearsals at Twickenham Film Studios, when they were considering making a return to live performance.

Written at a time of acrimony within the group, the lyrics lament humankind's propensity for self-centeredness and serve as a comment on the discord that led to Harrison temporarily leaving the Beatles.

The musical arrangement alternates between waltz-time verses and choruses played in the hard rock style. The song reflects Harrison's absorption in post-Vedic Hindu texts such as the Bhagavad Gita and their denouncement of the ego, after the Buddha's massive influence on Brahmanism (which became Hinduism) in favor of universal or "cosmic" consciousness.

We waltz, get high, and have love ins...
When Harrison presented "I Me Mine" to the Beatles at Twickenham, John Lennon showed little interest and instead waltzed with Yoko Ono while the other Beatles rehearsed the song. Footage of the dismissive couple dancing was included in the Let It Be documentary film.

In January 1970, by which point Lennon (and unwelcome Ono) had privately left the group, the three remaining members of the Beatles formally recorded the song without Lennon's involvement at EMI Studios in London for the Let It Be album.
Lennon and Ono use wealth to spread peace
When preparing the album for release, producer Phil Spector extended the track by repeating the chorus and second verse, in addition to adding orchestration and a female choir.

Among music critics, several writers have identified "I Me Mine" as a powerful final performance by the Beatles and an apt statement from Harrison.

The song has been referenced by some religious scholars in their commentary on the pitfalls of egoism.

Harrison titled his 1980 autobiography I, Me, Mine after the track. The original recording, lasting just 1:34, appeared on the Beatles' 1996 outtakes compilation Anthology 3, introduced by a mock announcement from Harrison referring to Lennon's departure. More

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Halloween, Samhain, Grateful Dead, DMT

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Irish Samhain traditions
(Holiday History) From harvest to haunting: How Samhain (like ancient Japanese Buddhist Obon and seasonal Mexican/pan-Latin Dia de los Muertos or "Day of the Dead" celebrations) became Halloween for wandering spirits, fairies, elves, ghosts, ghouls, and goblins.

OBON (γŠη›†) or just Bon (盆) is a fusion of the ancient Japanese belief in ancestral spirits and a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of the ancestors.

We'll be together again: samsara
This syncretic Folk (like the Shinto "kitchen god") Buddhist custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday.

During it people return to visit ancestral family places and clean ancestors' graves because this is when the spirits of ancestors are revisiting household altars [like Mexican ofrendas prepared for the Day of the Dead].

Obon has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years and includes the dance Bon Odori. More
What Buddhists can do for the Dead
The Buddha's chief disciple declared "foremost in psychic powers" among the monks Ven. Maha Moggallāna (comparable to the Buddhist nun Ven. Uppalavanna) saves his Brahmin mother from hell by transferring merits to her after she has died: "Mulian Rescues His Mother"
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Folk Buddhists pray soul out of purgatory (Silver)
The "transfer of merit" (Sanskrit pariṇāmanā [Note 1], Pali pattidāna or pattānumodanā) [3, Note 2] is a customary part of Buddhist spiritual practice where a practitioner's merit (puΓ±Γ±a), resulting from wholesome karma (skillful deeds), is transferred to deceased relatives, friends, deities (devas), or to all sentient beings everywhere (as when cultivating the four illimitable Divine Abidings).

Day of the Dead, Mexico, 1995, cemetery prep
Such a "transfer" is a physically enacted deed with its sharing done mentally. The recipient (or another relative stuck in a purgatory such as the realm of hungry ghosts) can receive this merit when they rejoice (feel gratitude, literally becoming the "grateful dead") due to the meritorious acts being done and shared with them on their behalf.

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This is necessary because in the realm (plane of existence) in which the recipient(s) have been reborn, the opportunity to generate beneficial karma by any other means is extremely limited or altogether absent.

Ah, they remember me! I'm grateful for their help!
In any case, the person sharing and transferring merit produces more and more merit (store of skillful karma) by the wholesome act of offering. In Buddhism, sharing merit is seen as a far better alternative to mourning. More
Ghost perceived in bedroom found in art: Spirit of the Dead Watching (Paul Gauguin, 1892)
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The Grateful Dead of the afterlife?

I'd be grateful for help when I pass away
The "grateful dead" in folklore gave 1960s singer and frontman Jerry Garcia the idea to name his band the "Grateful Dead."

According to bassist Phil Lesh, singer Garcia: "In that silvery elf-voice, he said to me, 'Hey, man, how about the Grateful Dead?'" [27]

The definition found in the Britannica World Language Dictionary is "the soul of a dead person...showing gratitude to someone who, as an act of charity, arranged their burial."

According to Director Alan Trist of Ice Nine, the Grateful Dead's music publishing company, Garcia found the name in the Funk & Wagnalls Folklore Dictionary, when his finger landed on it while playing a game of Fictionary [28].

In her Jerry Garcia biography Captain Trips, author Sandy Troy states that the band was smoking the entheogenic psychedelic DMT (also known as "The Spirit Molecule") at the time [29].

DMT: The Spirit Molecule
The motif of the "grateful dead" person appears in folktales from many cultures around the world [30]. Fittingly, the first show under the name Grateful Dead was in San Jose, near San Francisco, on Dec. 4, 1965, at one of Ken Kesey's "Acid Tests" [31, 32, 33].
Scholar Michael Kaler has written that the Dead's participation in those Acid Tests was crucial to the development of their improvisational vocabulary and to their bonding as a band, with the group having set out to foster an intra-band musical telepathy [34].

He says this coincided chronologically with adoption of the same goal by acid rockers Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, and the Velvet Underground [35]. More

DMT: the sacred spirit molecule
Free-base DMT powder and vape extracted from Mimosa tenuiflora root bark (wiki)
  • QUESTION: Does LSD ("acid") release DMT from the pineal gland (agni chakra, third eye, dibba cakhu), or how is it an entheogen (a substance that releases the divine from within) could lead to visions of reality beyond the normal human spectrum?
Logo used by proponents of Cantelmoism
DMT (di-methyl-tryptamine, also known as N,N-dimethyltryptamine or N,N-DMT) is a psychoactive entheogen ("releaser of inner divinity"), psychedelic ("mind-manifesting"), serotonergic hallucinogen ("vision producer"), and investigational wonder drug of the tryptamine family that occurs naturally in many [if not most] plants and animals [2, 3, 4, 1].
Forest ayahuasca (natema): DMT from plants
DMT is used in sacred ayahasuca (aka natema, yagΓ©, caapi, nΓ‘tema, pindΓͺ, patem, shori, mii, miiyagi, uni) ceremonies, abused as a psychedelic drug in urban settings, and prepared by various cultures for ritual shamanic healing purposes as an entheogen [14].

DMT has a rapid onset, intense psychedelic effects, and a relatively short duration of action. For those reasons, DMT was known as the "businessman's trip" during the 1960s in the USA, as a user could access the full depth of a psychedelic experience in considerably less time than with other substances such as LSD or magic (psilocybin) mushrooms [15]. More

DMT Movement: for medicinal and spiritual uses

DMT GOD: Prepare in 8 Days
A wealthy biochemist and Yale University graduate named Chris Cantelmo created an online DMT church or cult he called "Cantelmoism" [Can tell more-ism] in the late 2010s [241].

Mr. C had worked in the pharmaceutical industry for decades, including running multiple high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) companies [241]. 

He began his DMT campaign on Reddit and other social media websites after experiencing the "spirit molecule" in 2018 [241].

He rapidly spent his wealth in a fervent attempt to promote DMT and get as many people to try it as possible, forming a union in the process and becoming an online spectacle [241].

Chase Hughes marked for telling truth
Among other claims, Mr. C asserts that DMT cured his mind cancer and that it could cure other diseases [241]. He later explained that he had mind, not brain, cancer and that what it had really cured was his "severe" atheism, which he likened to a mental cancer [241].

Mr. C, they say, had mental health issues, so he had to be put out of his misery by alleged "suicide" (taken out before others could start following him). He was put under pressure, losing his home in November 2019 [241],

Behavior Ops Manual (Chase Hughes)
Why? He dared to promote a natural cure outside the for-profit Big Pharma model. Since Big Pharma had not yet found a way to legally profit from. Anyone who tells the world about the wonders of DMT risks the same fate. So talk to Chase Hughes if this is too hard to believe.

Black market availability
Vape pens or electronic cigarette cartridges filled with liquid DMT were being sold on the black market by 2018 [39, 38, 40] due to there being no licit market. Akasha Song previously manufactured and sold DMT on the Dark Web and is said to have been the largest DMT producer and seller in history [242].

DMT's legal status
International law
Internationally, DMT is illegal to possess without authorization, exemption, or license. However, natural ayahuasca and other DMT brews (natema, yage, etc.) and plant preparations are lawful. More
Why Asians don't really do Halloween

It's a Mexican tradition, and I love it
Mexican Buddhist, why would the living celebrate the Day of the Dead?
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