My name is James Oroc, I am a writer and this is my first blog. I am the author of two non-fiction books on psychedelic’s and global Psychedelic Culture, Tryptamine Palace:5-Methoxy-DMT and the Sonoran Desert Toad and The New Psychedelic Revolution: The Genesis of the Visionary Age; and a newly released book of short-fiction, Under the Influence: Twenty tales of Psychedelic Noir. For the past thirty years I have also been an internationally recognized adventure-sports journalist who competes globally in the obscure sport of paraglider racing, while as a photographer, my work tends more towards intimate portraits of various facets of Underground Culture. The arrival of this blog coincides with the (re)launch of this website www.jamesoroc.com which has been created as an up-to-date platform to both promote my books, journalism, talks, and photography, and to give me a place and opportunity in which to write about anything I might like to. One can expect that future musings found in this column will most likely run the full gambit between World Politics,, Extreme Sports, Fringe Societies, and the far reaches of Psychedelic Philosophy, and if I have sufficient time, with more things than you can imagine in between. (I tend to think a lot).
As a seasoned writer a blog is a most exciting concept, since it offers a freedom that has never been seen before in history, an opportunity to be both uncensored and unfiltered – which can be both good and bad things – and I am curious to see where this new digital experiment in expression might take me. I also intend to do my best to apply the same discipline that is required to write anything of any quality in the print world, which is why I will most likely only produce one major blog per week, with a shorter daily update or random thought, music, book etc…This blog and platform has also been designed to take me as far possible out of the toxic Facebook culture, to which I contribute a considerable amount of free content daily simply by participating in. (As we all do.) Since however the measure of this blog’s success will be counted by the number of its readers and (free) subscribers, I will be posting a link to the blog on Facebook, and it is my hope that many readers will both subscribe to receive this blog daily, and will share this link also on their own social media channels if they enjoy my often rather unique world-view.
I have chosen to take the the title for this blog from a prescient article I wrote about the dangers of Facebook and Social Media in 2017 https://realitysandwich.com/321306/living-in-dangerous-times/ before the influence of the British company Cambridge Analytica in both Brexit and the Trump election became publicly known. The world has only become a more dangerous place since then, so the title still seems the most appropriate.
