UNDENIABLE RESONANCE

Paul Williams

In 1977 I was 19 and had moved to New Mexico from Pennsylvania by myself. I had gone to high school in PA and everyone I knew was having babies and getting married. Did not feel like my path and so I moved to New Mexico in search of my own “McCloud” cowboy. Although I ended up getting quite good at and loving western dancing, “cowboys” were not my path either.

New Mexico, “The Land of Enchantment” was (and is) full of many diverse types and a lot of that being “New Age” oriented.  The joke has been "Old hippies don’t die, they just move to New Mexico".

It was there sometime in the early 80's I came across this book and it opened my eyes in ways I never knew existed before. Although I had a strong feeling I had known all of it before, a definite undeniable resonance.

I re-read it recently and I still love it and understand why I was so attracted to it back then.

I am forever grateful to Paul Williams, he directed me to my correct path.  My divine path. 

Das Energi by Paul Williams

The first four pages read as follows:

Das Energi

A series of verses by Paul Williams.
 
Page 1

The only sin is self-hatred.
It is the act of negation.
It is the opposite of faith.
There is no such thing as evil.
The concept is a crutch.
We will not heal until we throw away the crutch
To heal is to become healthier.
To become healthier is to enjoy a freer flow of energy.
It is the flow that gets us high.
To perceive something as "evil" is to imagine that
That object, that person, is not a part of me.
he is something else.
To perceive "evil" is to attempt to deny
that we are all one.
We have a myth that relates to this.
The myth is God and Satan.
The fallen angel, Lucifer --
Cast out of heaven for disobeying God.
God who is good. Lucifer who is not-good.
Not-God. Evil.

But who is God trying to kid?
God is All. There is nothing that is not God.
Lucifer is God. There is no distance.
One can not fall from grace.
One can pretend, perhaps, that that brother over yonder

Page 2

Is not me, he is something else, he is everything
that I cast out of myself - one can pretend,
but not for long.
There is no way to cast out any part of one's self

Systems of energy contain no garbage. There is
no such thing as garbage.
Dear God, the jig is up.
Stop chasing your tail. Embrace your self.
Lucifer returns to Heaven!
Let there be dancing in the streets.

The only sin is self-hatred.
We call it sin but it's true name is delusion.
We have got to get ourselves back to the Garden
Easily done.
We are in the Garden.
Let us open our eyes.

Page 3

If you let go, something will happen.
Fear is always anticipation of the unknown.
Most human energy flow problems relate to
The inability to relax.
Fear of letting go.
If you let go, something will happen.
Fear of the unknown.
Rational mind :: wants to make a deal ::
first tell me what will happen,
and then I’ll let go.

Fuck you.

No one ever knows what’s going to happen.
Ever.
The future—next moment---is unknowable---unknown.
Rational mind won’t believe that.
He is afraid to.

Page 4

Sometimes it is enlightening to have a word for
God; sometimes it is blinding.
If you make a list of words for God,
you will have a list of all words.
You will not have God.
Energy flows through all things;
it rests in none of them. 

.......... 

Page 40

The nature of fear is that it feeds itself. Under proper conditions, it feeds itself incredibly quickly. Reason is not fast enough to stamp out fear. That is the mistake most of us make. Do not argue with fear. Wipe it from your mind the instant you recognize it.

Practice. Become skilled at recognizing the earliest symptoms. The only way to deal with fear is by reflex. Stop it. Wipe it out. Shoot first, ask questions later.

Consider a tightrope-walker. The thought begins: what if I were to get scared? What if I were to look down? The thought must be killed at the first sound of “what if.” To wait any longer is to lose one’s certainty, to lose one’s footing, to plunge. We are all tightrope-walkers. We must learn that reflex to survive.

Excerpt from Das Energi, by Paul Williams (1973)
 

More about the author:

“He smoked his first joint with Brian Wilson while listening to the masters of what would become Smile; he counselled a struggling Springsteen on musical direction (just before The Boss finally broke through with Born To Run); he and pal Timothy Leary spent a night with John and Yoko during the Toronto Bed-In-For-Peace, and Williams later rejoined the couple to sing on "Give Peace a Chance". He bitched out Jim Morrison for leaving a book Williams lent him behind on a plane; he hitched a ride to Woodstock in a limo with The Grateful Dead; and all the while, Williams was writing--refracting the pure creative energy around him through a powerful critical lens. And he did it so well that he, as an individual figure, doesn't tend to register in our contemporary consciousness. Rock criticism (and its various offshoots) has become such an integral thread in the cultural fabric that we assume, in a way, that it's always existed. But ask anyone familiar with its history, and they'll tell you that the genre was born of Paul Williams.”

Excerpt Originally published in the San Diego City Beat.
 

Brian Wilson - Smile

From - The Beach Boys: An American Band (1985 Documentary)

 

John Lennon - Give Peace A Chance 

About Paul Williams

Called by many the “father of rock criticism” after founding Crawdaddy Magazine at the age of 17, crucial early champion of Philip K Dick, author of the underground classic Das Energi, confidant of John Lennon, biographer of Bob Dylan and travelling companion to the Grateful Dead, Paul Williams has lived a half dozen remarkable lifetimes, and his work as rock critic, holistic philosopher and avant-garde underground gadfly forms a unique and indispensable link through the past 40 years of pop and rock culture. 

Das Energi (1973)

By far Paul Williams’ biggest selling book (with more than a half-million copies sold) Das Energi is a relentlessly positive, incredibly empowering consciousness handbook. Written in 18 days in the summer of 1970, in the form of thoughts, ruminations and intriguing lines of prose-poetry, Das Energi is a life-love-and-liberty-affirming treatise on the economics of human and cosmic energy, emphasizing the vital importance of energy flow. A timeless treasure fusing rock and roll, Eastern philosophy, and New Age consciousness, Das Energi exists as both an oracle of wisdom and a harbinger of the coming paradigm shift in awareness.
~Ron Colone.


Update:
In 1995, while living with his future wife, the singer Cindy Lee Berryhill in Encinitas, California, Paul suffered a traumatic brain injury in a spill from his bicycle, and was never completely able to resume his full activities as a writer. The injury likely triggered an early onset of Alzheimer’s disease; some symptoms were immediate, while others revealed themselves in tragic slow motion: fading powers of memory, then of comprehension and speech. In 2008, unable to continue caring for Paul while also taking care of their eight year-old son, Cindy began to arrange for Paul to live in managed care outside the home. Like so many freelancers, Paul lived without any structure of institutional support. 

Excerpt  from www.paulwilliams.com

 

Bob Dylan's Simple Twist Of Fate 

- Jerry Garcia Band

The following is from Cindy Lee Berryhill's blog spot:

www.cindyleeberryhill.blogspot.com

Cindy Lee Berryhill and Son Alexander

.......

"Paul holds and considers the guitar pick Patti Smith handed me, 2 weeks ago, to give to him. She acknowledged him and another influential rock journalist Paul Nelson, quite nicely in her book Just Kids".

~Posted by Cindy Lee Berryhill 02/01/13

Instead of epilogue:

Until I did the research for this article, I knew nothing about Paul Williams except that he wrote “Das Energi”.  I was blown away and humbled by what I learned about him past and present. 

My 'path' has taken me many places, all of which I believe have reasons and lessons.

Reasons and lessons that are at times beyond me, yet always divinely a part of me.

I am grateful in this time and space to share this beautiful, timeless book and about its author, Paul Williams, whose story is filled with Love, Humanity and Grace.