Ghost Tokers in the Sky

(To the tune of “Ghost Riders in the Sky”)

A wake’n’ baker went walking one dark and windy day
He rested on a ridge, he passed along the way
A giant hookah came flyin’, o’r the hills above the town
He saw the smoke a comin’ and heard the strangest sound

hippie hi o, hippie hi a, it’s the ghost tokers in the sky

The buds had just been fired, and still looked nice and green
They dripped with oily resin, just like High Times magazine
His heart was stuck by fear as the hookah thundered by
‘Cause he saw the tokers comin’ and heard their mornful cry

hippie hi o, hippie hi a, it’s the ghost tokers in the sky

Their faces gaunt, their eyes all red, their shirts all soaked in sweat
They’re tryin’ hard to catch a buzz, but they ain’t caught one yet
They’re doomed to toke forever, but never will get high
chained to a fire-snorting hookah, as they fly by hear ’em cry

hippie hi o, hippie hi a, it’s the ghost tokers in the sky

As they flew on by he heard, one call out his name
“If you want to save your soul from hell, you better change your ways!
Cut down on constant smoking, or with us you will ride
And you will toke forever, and never will get high!”

hippie hi o, hippie hi a, it’s the ghost tokers in the sky

(copyright Steven Hager 2011)

Energy comes in flavors

Spirituality is just another name for energy, and energy comes in flavors.

You can channel and amplify different energies, depending on what sort of spirituality you’re looking for.

The hippies of the 1960s weren’t called “The Love Generation” for nothing. That was the energy flavor we were seeking to amplify and share, and we learned a lot about how to manifest that energy.

Mainstream culture is dominated by what I call “warrior” energy. The biggest ceremony in the United States is probably the Super Bowl. Please don’t make the mistake of thinking sports isn’t “spiritual.” Everything in life is spiritual.

If you put all the energy flavors together in one big energy stream, that’s god. God is the energy that flows through all things. It’s like an OM circle. When you are chanting an OM, there’s no bad note. You can’t sing off-key. That’s because the OM embraces every note.

Most ceremonies seek to harmonize energy fields. In sports, any team plays better when they are harmonized. And they all have ceremonies to help with that process. When they stand in a circle, put their hands together and chant the team slogan, they are performing a ceremonial ritual designed to harmonize. There’s really little difference between those types of sports ceremonies and an OM circle. (Although I believe the OM circle is actually the fastest and easiest way to harmonize a group of people).

A hippie looks at 60

(To the tune of “A Pirate Looks at 40” by Jimmy Buffett)
Mother, Mother planet
you make me feel so small
spring, summer, winter procession
and, of course the fall
We’ve done it all
We’ve seen it all

Now the winter worsens
birds fall from the sky
fish and frogs are dyin’
the bees are cryin’
what the hell is goin’ on?
somethin’s wrong
somethin’s wrong

Yes, I am a hippie
60 years too late
don’t tell the neighbors
or put it on facebook but
I used to live in the Haight

ran away to the Haight

got schooled in the Haight

Well, I’ve done my share of smokin’
inhaled my share of grass
breathed enough tar and gases
to fill a zillion bags
never meant to last
never meant to last

And I have been stoned now
for over ten years
rolling fatty after fatty
and drinkin’ some beer
but I need to stop smokin’
I’m practically chokin’
Need to stop smokin’
maybe, just a few days
for just a few days
(instrumental solo)

I go for sour diesel
or chemdog when I can find it
long as it’s kind bud
organic and well cured
you know, the super kind
just takes some time
just takes some time

Mother Mother planet
After all the years I’ve found
an occupational hazard is
when an occupation’s just not around
feel like I’m down
gotta head uptown
I feel like I’m down
gonna head uptown
(sound of vaporizer bag filling as music fades out)
copyright Steven Hager 2011

Proof of God’s Existence

All matter is made of energy, and energy systems can harmonize (tune up). When you hug or kiss someone, your two energy fields (auras) are joined into a single field. Likewise, when you sit at family dinner, the family can harmonize into a single energy field and that’s one reason why family dinners can be crucial in raising well-adjusted children. The earth is a self-regulating energy system. Since my definition of god is “everything” and I believe there’s an energy field created by everything, I have no doubt of god’s existence. In Native American terms, the Great Spirit flows through all things. It makes no difference what name you put on this energy field, the fact it’s there is proof that it exists. I can’t really accept the concept of god as a white-haired gentleman who sits in the clouds with angels around him and sends people to heaven or hell.

 

Who is Steven Hager?

I’m a writer, journalist, filmmaker, event producer and counterculture and cannabis activist, and was born and raised in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.

My first start-up was in 1965. I created The Cap’n Crunch Courier, a humor xerox zine given away free at Urbana Junior High. Three years later, I created The Tin Whistle, a monthly newspaper eventually distributed in four high schools in Central Illinois. I obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater (Playwriting) and a Masters of Science in Journalism, both from the University of Illinois. After graduation, I moved to New York City, worked for a number of magazines before becoming a reporter for the New York Daily News. During this time, I began researching the hip hop movement of the South Bronx and sold my original story Beat Street to Harry Belafonte, and the film with the same name was distributed by Orion Pictures. In 1984, St. Martins’ Press released my book, Hip Hop, the first history of rap music, break dancing and graffiti art. I followed that book with Art After Midnight, an examination of the New York club scene and its influence on artists, primarily Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf.

In 1988, I was hired as editor of High Times magazine where I created the Cannabis Cup, the world’s most famous cannabis awards ceremony, and the Freedom Fighters, the first hemp legalization group. I also created a garage-rock revival band called the Soul Assassins (check out the music at http://theoriginalsoulassassins….). In 1990 I began promoting 420 as a counterculture ceremony and played a leading role in spreading the 420 phenomenon around the globe. For 15 years, I regularly appeared at college campuses as part of a debate on the legalization of cannabis, alongside former New York DEA chief Robert Stutman. The event, known as “Heads versus Feds,” began in 2001 and visited more than 350 colleges in fifteen years, regularly drawing standing-room crowds. Bob and I became known as “The Ultimate Odd Couple,” and have became friends despite the cultural gap between us.

The national hemp group I created in the late 1980s, The Freedom Fighters, held council at 4:20 PM for years before the numerology caught on and we successfully snatched the flag and Liberty Boy spirit from President Reagan (until the Tea Party snatched it back decades later). I blogged very little for the first year or so, but a couple years into it, I began using the blog primarily to share my deep political research. Some recently told me my title had become misleading because it’s not a blog about cannabis per se, although the disappearance of cannabis from religion is the major conspiracy I’m currently researching. Just a long-winded explanation for why I changed the blog name today. The tin or penny whistle was one of the most inexpensive melodic instruments invented and sold for a penny in England in the nineteenth century. It’s appropriate because I am a whistleblower on intel’s Tin Foil Hat Patrol. And please don’t get scared by the truth. The oligarchies have been running the show since the dawn of civilization, and true democracy may never appear in our time, but that doesn’t mean we can’t chart a course for future generations to follow. Without an understanding of political realities, there is no enlightenment. And enlightenment is fun.

Unless otherwise indicated, all content on this site is owned by the Steven Hager Archives, 2023.