right, and center. That was part of the OCD stuff, too. “If you don’t get out of the house in fifteen seconds, you’re going to miss this thing you’re supposed to do.” It was all this big dilemma in my mind.
I’m that way on stage. Sometimes, I have to really monitor myself, but the only monitoring job I really do on myself on stage is, Is this truthful? Is this truthful? Is this truthful? Ideally, I send it in a flow of truth. I’ll suddenly get frightened about something I’m about to say, analyze if I should or shouldn’t say it, and then ask if it’s truthful and continue on. That’s really the intention. An open quality. I think that when you’re open, you’re at your most powerful. I think that’s why people have these really powerful experiences at our shows — because they, us, the whole thing is aiming for a flow of open-hearted power. And from there, whatever develops.
I know I’m completely confusing you, but I’ll give you a basic example. I’ll have a great meditation going, but I’ll hear a voice that says, “Okay, yeah, but not that breath. Not that breath.” [laughs] And then, I tell this voice, “Nothing negative. Nothing negative.” And then if that doesn’t work I’ll say, “Nothing is negative. Nothing is negative. Nothing IS negative.” Until it shuts up. And then once it has shut up, I’ll fill myself with positivity. As soon as I fill myself with positivity, then that voice or that feeling will come back. “You’re so full of shit talking yourself into positivity.” [laughs] I’ll literally tell myself that. “Talking myself into getting smarter, talking myself into positivity is not a legitimate form of positivity.” And I’ll tell it, “Nothing negative. Nothing negative is allowed. Nothing negative is allowed.”
AE: To be honest, I’m the most passionate about pushing the realization that there’s the joy of love and kindness and sharing, all of these basic qualities, on people who are suffering from adulthood. By these people, I mean, I really feel bad. [laughs] I think that in their sadness, they’re destroying the world. The way that they’re destroying the world manifests itself in all these various causes that you have banding together all over the place.
AE: No. I wish that I did. I’m pretty freelance. A freelance meditator. [laughs] I float from one thing to the other. I’m really into the basic idea of Kriya Yoga. The breathing that goes on in Kriya. Other than that, it’s just communicating with the universe and getting the inspiration for different kinds of breath. Basically, I’m into the movement of breath and the shapes of breath. The different kinds of sequences of breath. I like doing that a lot. I sit at a desk so much and sit in that position so much that I am dwindling into an old man. I need to get a little bit more physical. Recording music is not really the healthiest thing for the body. I suffer from some intense forms of OCD. That’ll happen with my meditations. I find one that works, and then my mind just starts repeating it. It all becomes like a f*cking PHOTO: ALEX EBERT 22 ORIGINMAGAZINE.COM
MP: “Nothing negative.” Great. So, what gets you mad? AE: What gets me pretty pissed off is the whole Monsanto engineered foods issue.
I have to constantly tell myself,
MP: I am really loving you as a human being. What causes on the planet right now are you the most passionate about?
MP: What is your morning practice? Do you have a meditation practice, a yoga practice, or jumping jacks? [laughs] Whatever it is. Do you have a daily practice or a weekly practice to keep yourself centered?
And it’ll be like, “Okay.” And it shuts up. And I start getting really positive, and I’m feeling positive. Then I’ll make a move to the left, and that’ll be the right move. That’ll be right. So, I’m feeling good. I make a move to the left with my hand, and I’m thinking, Okay, I’m going to go up. And then my voice says, “That’s
“Nothing negative.” your ego. Your ego says to look up to the sky because you’ve been taught, educationally, that God is in the sky. You’re blowing it right now.” I’ll be like, “Nothing negative! Nothing negative.” [laughing] MP: [laughing] I’m going to have to practice my own breathing after that. AE: [laughing] Yeah! I have to constantly tell myself, “Nothing negative.” There’s a lot of little things. Anyway, those are various things that I deal with while doing the breath.
MP: I knew you were going to say Monsanto. I knew you were gonna say it!
AE: Yeah, it’s horrible, man. That would get me really fired up — to go up against them. I don’t know what can be done at the moment except for enlightening people. Getting them to actually care is a whole other thing. There are plenty of people that know and don’t care about so much. It’s a difficult question because when you’re comfortable, you’re not necessarily inclined to care about things that are contributing to your comfort. It’s difficult. Anyway, foodwise, we bring a juicer on the road with us.
I’m the most passionate about pushing the realization that there’s the joy of love and kindness and sharing, all of these basic qualities, on people who are suffering from adulthood.
horror movie. [laughs] It has taken me years just to get acrobatic enough to be able to combat this negative mind. I’ll give you an example. Lately, the thought, the battles that go on in the way I think of the whole concept of the breath. Yes, it’s just breath, but that would be total bullsh*t because there’s so much mental activity going on. One is the idea of having a voice that is hell-bent on destroying me and hell-bent on negativity. It’s a really old psychotherapy concept, but that’s not really where I get it from.
Where I get it from is that all my life, it’s been attacking me. Very strongly telling me, “Oh, that’s sh*t.” We all have that. Well, I don’t know if we all do, but I do have that negative voice. I will particularly have it when I meditate. When I was younger, it was a disaster because I’d meditate, and it would become very, very powerful. I would take the power of the meditation as an indicator that I was extremely special, that I needed to save the world. This voice would put a lot of pressure on my shoulders. Then my ego would tell me that I was basically blowing it here, left, PHOTO: LAURE VINCENT-BOULEAU ORIGINMAGAZINE.COM 23