Tie-Dyed Brain Rays: Earth

I interviewed Nancy Lee Bentley the other day. While the gist of our interview was affordable, homegrown nutrition, it didn't take long for me to get down to the Omega Tau connection. Check out our interview on Vox.

The hook for this interview was how to eat healthy on $40.00 a week, but once we got into our conversation it became clear that Nancy has been doing a lot of thinking about the importance of self sufficiency and...

» Read more on Vox

Here are a series of emails Nancy and I shot back and forth to each other. It goes a little deeper into my whole notion of the coming Great Contingency and our need to get ready for it.

From: "Mike Cope" <[email protected]>
To: "Nancy Lee Bentley" <[email protected]>
Fri 1/23/09 10:00 AM
[email protected]; [email protected]; Mike Cope ([email protected])
Subject: Interview on KXYL in Brownwood, Texas

Nancy,

Thanks so much for the great interview this morning. I'll have a copy of it in MP3 format available for you this weekend if you would like it. I'll also be posting it to my blog. I'll send the link once I've got it online. I would like access to the review copy of the book if I may. I want to read it in depth then have you back for a longer, more in depth interview.

I've been doing quite a bit of thinking about the uncertain future and how we need to get back to the basics of self-sufficiency. You see all this survival literature of the "grab-your-rifle-and-stock-up-on-MREs" variety, but that is so short sided and unsustainable that it isn't even funny. What happens in six months if the lights still aren't on? Who will take care of us, the government? Oh please! And didn't we used to rely on ourselves? What happened to that? I'm totally plugged in to where you are coming from. I want to learn more about your concepts and share them with our listeners. I would like to discuss where to start when deciding to take control of your own food supply. Would that be possible?

Again, thanks for a great interview,

Mike Cope
Wendlee Broadcasting
600 Fisk Ave.
Brownwood,TX 76801
325-646-3535
[email protected]

From: "Nancy Lee Bentley" <[email protected]>
To: "Mike Cope" <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 12:49 PM
Subject: Re: Interview on KXYL in Brownwood, Texas

Wow, Mike,
Thanks so much for the time on air with you this morning. It was great fun!

I appreciate the MP3, as well. I post a number of them on my website so producers and potential clients can hear me and my ability to speak the language with different audiences.

But most of all, Mike, I want to tell you, You made my day with this email. You're GETTING it!   Not a lot of people are yet, although the awareness is creeping into the back of people's minds, Yet, so many people are in such a fearful, low energy brain fog they can't even think straight. Like what do I need to SURVIVE? Hey, what's wrong with this picture when people are /too busy to think about how to survive, even as a /backup plan/?? Yea, HELLO!    Is the government going to take care of us Like you say. Pulleaaaaaase! Well, as I say, No One is going to take care of us.....Oh, yea, with the exception of the Pharmaceutical companies, THEY'll TAKE CARE Of US!   But maybe not in the way you really want them to....

So, it's no accident that I've pulled this information together in this format, nor that we connected in this way. There's alot more in this information package than meets the eye.

So, yes, I'll email you a digital copy of the booklet and we should talk again about how to continue this discussion, maybe even as a series where we tackle pieces of this info at a time..... I have some ideas.

And I'm REALLY GLAD that you emailed me back! It's exciting to see the Lights coming on. People ARE
looking for this kind of information, and truthfully, that's only going to continue. But it's a better idea to
start talking about this now, instead of waiting for when we need it........ahem....notice I said "when".

So, this is great!   Digest some of this, and let's communicate on some concrete ideas soon, even next week, if you have the time

Yes, You got it, I'm your man (so to speak) Well, you know what I mean....

Thanks again,
Soon,

Nancy Lee Bentley
Wholistic Health Expert
www.TrulyCultured.com

From: "Mike Cope" <[email protected]>
To: "Nancy Lee Bentley" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 10:05 PM
Subject: Re: Interview on KXYL in Brownwood, Texas

Nancy,

The easiest way I've found to get interviews to the people who want a copy is to upload them to my personal SkyDrive account. Here's the address:

http://cid-f85c792b015f6703.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/.Public

I'll also be posting a streaming copy to my blog in the next couple of days. I'll send you the link when it is online.

I would like to set something up with you in the next few weeks to talk about preparedness-- not the gun toting MRE hording survivalist stuff, but what we need to do to be more self sufficient and ready for any contingency. I think we could do about 20 minutes that wouldn't go over the heads of our radio audience.

I would like to get into a more thorough discussion and take it point by point, but in all honesty that will be a hard sale to the boss. What I could do, however is set up a time when we could record a long interview that I could edit into sections that we could both use on our respective websites. That would also allow us a little more latitude in topics because we wouldn't have to keep it as general as the radio broadcast requires.

I am so jazzed about what you are trying to do and thrilled that we are thinking along the same lines. I've even been thinking about things such as what knowledge would give small groups or communities the best shot at LONG TERM survival in a worst case scenario. What would we need to know to grow sustainable crops, rebuild houses and buildings, provide clean water and medical aid at whatever level of technology we find ourselves?

Beyond the technological, what other information do we preserve and pass down? What of our culture, religions, history, literature and art do we find important enough to hold on to? Who decides what to save and what not to save? Who controls that information? How can it be distributed so that everyone has fair access to it? We could stand at another cross-roads like the Dark Ages where knowledge is REALLY power. Do we want a single, central, authority to control the dissemination of information?

What responsibility do we as the few who see the big picture have for taking proactive measures to do something about it? Whether it is the asteroid Apophis or a nuke or economic collapse, chances are good that something devastating will befall us. And even if it doesn't, shouldn't we PLAN for the worst, just in case? The builders of the Titanic planned for the second worst thing that could happen and you see how well that worked out.

I think that no matter what happens, some people will survive. What will become of the children born after the MREs are gone? Don't they deserve a chance to get things up and going again? How will the second and third generations born into a post-electromechanical society fare? Can we set the foundation so these people don't have to start from scratch by trial and error?

Just a few thoughts I'm having that get more focused every day. I hope I don't sound like a Doomsday nut. I'm really not all that worried about the Great Contingency, as I like to call it. I just think it behooves us to be ready. And even if that day never comes, shouldn't we all know how to grow a few tasty vegetables?

Thanks for indulging me in a lengthy email. I've found this subject to be a pretty good conversation killer. I appreciate someone who understands where I'm coming from.

Talk to you soon,

Mike

From: "Nancy Lee Bentley" <[email protected]>
To: "Mike Cope" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 1:59 PM
Subject: Thanks and More Thoughts....Re: Interview on KXYL in Brownwood, Texas

Hi Mike,
It's really encouraging that you're taking the time to go through this process and write down your thoughts as you're refining this focus for yourself.. I'm grateful for your thoughts and your willingness to dialogue.

You're right, they're aren't a lot of people who are actively thinking about all of this, and to some degree I've been feeling like I’m a lone she-wolf so to speak crying out in the void. Although I do think that this is going to be rapidly coming to the forefront of people's minds as things continue to get worse.

You're right on. Legitimate questions and concerns. Not necessarily going into fear about things, but HELLO, who's even exercizing enough common sense to have the awareness that we need to at least have a backup plan. Like I say, the writing's on the wall. but not, obviously for everyone... yet.

I do want to continue this dialogue. And I like your ideas about a way to record a longer interview that can be edited down into manageable segments for presenting this information.

And this week, since I've been getting more calls from DJ's and other talk hosts, responding to the Eat for $40 a week focus, I'm also refining my own strategy. And what I'm working on is developing a "Cultured Bytes" miniblog, then audio podcast with small 3-5 minute segments focused on a whole set of "how-to" nuggets of info that would be ideal for radio. Everything from "Getting Closer to Your Food doesn't mean sitting by the Refrigerator to eat" to How to make yogurt" to some of my regular "Are You Smarter than Bacteria?" hooks. I already have some interest from a couple of information services that do daily feeds for talk show hosts and producers. What do you think about this? Would this be valuable to you guys? Would it fly, even with the drivetime RnR group? Would these short segment focuses be practical and useable?

I guess the answer to that is, it depends upon how bad things get, and how fast.   I am in agreement with you that it only makes sense to consider investigating this kind of basic information, even an insurance policy.

Again, I'm not talking about survivalist or hoarding mentality. And I truthfully DO NOT want to get pegged as an alarmist. I think there's a need for calling it like it is, now, before we have to...

Your thoughts?

Stay in touch, Mike, Let's talk about some of this and look at nailing down a date. I really appreciate your communications, it makes me think there's still hope... if you know what I mean...

Best,
Nancy Lee

My on-air partner's cavalier attitude notwithstanding, much of the world seems focused on what may come in the way of great natural catastrophe. The news that Yellowstone National Park has been wracked by a swarm of over 400 earthquakes since Christmas makes "Super-volcano" the next contender for the title of Great Contingency. Fox News just published a list of the five most likely ways the Earth will be destroyed. The real culprit will probably be something we haven't even thought of yet, all pointing up the need to begin collecting the vital information to ensure our survival.

With that in mind, I'm hard at work fleshing out the notion of the Order of the Omega Tau, a cadre of emergency librarians who'll swoop in and save your ignorant asses with that most essential tool, a really good do-it-yourself book. But more than a survival manual the Omega Tau handbook will be a foundation for and philosophy of the rebuilding of civilization. Yeah, I know what you are thinking, but you aren't the first person to call me a nut. Scoff if you must, but there is a huge gap between the shoot-em-dead-when-they-try-to-steal-my-canned-beans survivalists manuals and the move-the-government-into-the-big-shelter-and shoot-em-if-they-try-to-get-in plans. You know who stands in that gap? Us. You know who's thinking about the solution? Me. As I develop the concepts I'll share them with you, but I'm not ready to hatch that egg just yet.

In the meantime, instead of getting caught up in all the doom and gloom that the future may bring us, we should remember that the world is a place of wonder. Last night the moon was at its perigee, or nearest point in proximity to Earth making it appear as much as 14% brighter than usual. Last night's full moon was the biggest and brightest it will appear all year. Victoria Rose and I stood outside in the cold night gazing on it beaming behind the frosty clouds. A Wolf Moon they call it. We took a moment to reflect and share our hopes and dreams for the coming year.

And although the moon has now begun to travel away from us, it should be big and bright in the night sky for several days. Take a moment to stop, look up and reflect. This is a good time to take stock of your life and sort out your plans for the year, even if you aren't a resolution kind of person. If nothing else, taking a moment to pause and appreciate the celestial dance will make you feel more connected to the universe and more at peace with yourself.