Alan E Clements – författare

A deep, psychedelic inner exploration incited by the looming threats of mass extinction, climate change, and global totalitarianism. "Extinction X-rated" takes place as author, activist, and spiritual maverick, Alan Clements, weighs up his reasons to live or die on the eve of his ritualized potential suicide. With a lethal syringe of morphine in one hand and a high dose of acid in the other, Clements invites his readers into a darkly satirical, erotic autofiction that blends a plausible yet unauthorized 50-year history of rebel dharma in the West with all the dystopian elements of 1984, A Clockwork Orange, Blue Velvet, and the Manchurian Candidate. 

Woven within the arising metaphysical landscapes, and pitched against both horror and hilarity, are the stifling grip of propaganda and ingrained legacies of trauma, the struggles of lockdown and long-term Covid, the specter of election fraud, and the probing tendrils of corruption, self-deceit, and spiritual narcissism. 

Populated by a pantheon of disembodied saints and a cabal of the demonized and despised, this work of fiction is a direct, no holds barred assault on the futility of the times, a meditation on good and evil, and a lesson in moral courage that builds from quiet, LSD-inspired reflection to a crescendo of thunderous upheaval and resolution not known until the final page. As the Doomsday Clock ticks ever closer to a fatal midnight, so too do the pages of this book count down to a victory of hope against all odds, or a final goodnight to an inescapable Samsara. 

Alan Clements is a satirist, performing artist, former Buddhist monk, and investigative journalist in areas of war and extreme conflict. He is also the author of numerous books, a spoken word album, and the subject of a feature documentary film, "Spiritually Incorrect" (FilmsforActions.org). His work has been endorsed by President Jimmy Carter, numerous Nobel Laureates, celebrities, and thought leaders worldwide. Full bio at AlanClements.com

"Alan''s presence-his remarkable ability to engage an audience, connect with their heart-stands alongside the best talent I have seen in the world." - Robert Chartoff, Producer of Rocky, The Right Stuff, Raging Bull, New York New York and 35 additional feature films.

From the Prologue

Extinction X-rated was never intended to be published. Rather, it was written as a form of existential self-therapy, to discover new inner landscapes and abide more honestly and courageously in conscience and dignity. Essentially, I wanted to ask myself the most pressing question I''d been living with: In the face of the sixth mass extinction, is there hope and is it realistic? 

As an expression of creative activism, the book confronts established notions of power, both political and spiritual. It asks us to face the incomprehensible. To look into the abyss itself and breathe together. Bearing witness through imagination, invoking humor, maybe not laughter, in response to the horrors of the everyday world.

As a purely creative act, I wanted to break free of and taboos and cross boundaries - venturing into the unnerving frontiers of spontaneous authenticity. By challenging all forms of self-censorship, I created an experience that you may love, or you may hate or may be confounded by.

In the end the book is a prayer, a protest and a scream. As it challenges propaganda and totalitarianism, while (I pray) serving to safeguard freedom of thought, conscience, and expression. To me, freedom, dignity, and the universality of human rights are the vanguard of sanity and the best protection against racism, violence, and war.

"A rare and beautiful dialogue on liberating death. Through the wisdom of our grief,

we enter into an existential sense door, where death itself becomes a festival of wonder,

a heightened radical ride into the heart of the ever-present future, and beyond. This

is a must read for every person on earth who cares about the future of life and death."

- Jeannine Davies, PhD, Psychologist, author, Relational Dharma

Greetings. Thank you for being with me on this journey. A preface to my book, Facing Death. 

A year ago I was diagnosed with a fatal heart condition. An emergency room visit revealed a severely enlarged aortic aneurysm, an often-lethal swelling in the largest vessel leaving the heart. I was told in no uncertain terms that it was like a radiator hose ready to burst, a ticking time bomb on a short fuse, and that death could and likely would come "at any second" if I did not undergo immediate open-heart surgery. 

I scheduled three surgeries and cancelled them all due to the shock and the tears, inevitably, of facing something so dramatic. I decided to come to Maui, my second spiritual home (after Burma) to enter hospice and apply for the right to take my life. 

Hawaii allows the right to die by your own choice, and through a rigorous process I was granted the pharmaceutical substance necessary, should I make this decision.

I took care of business. I went to see my beloved daughter, Sahra Bella, in Vancouver. I wrote my will and my Five Wishes. I looked deeply into who would handle my burial and my body. Reverend Bodhi Be, here on the island, at his green funeral organization, Doorway Into Light, had attracted me. I had known of him, had respect for him, and he agreed to handle my body and bury it, whether I die by natural causes or choose to consciously, mindfully euthanize on my most sacred terms. 

I''ve had this vision for some months, and the only thing that was left was a heart-to-heart with the man that I entrusted, who bequeathed me with his compassion to take care of my body and bury it, should I die here. I felt pressing questions in perhaps a little sharper detail; "Who are you? Who are we?" I wanted to get to know him. 

This book, Facing Death, is perhaps the most sacred conversation I''ve ever had. It was deliberately designed to be one sitting, to be read in an hour to an hour and a half, to be felt, to be resonated with, to cry along with us.

We sit and talk in the context of Ukrainian/ Russian war, and with it the threat of a new world war. Countries are on nuclear alert as global meltdown unfolds and climate catastrophe brings with it some of the most biting questions and difficult answers. Even as we speak, multiple extinctions go on in multiple universes and multiple galaxies. Inbuilt into the system, to state the unthinkably obvious, is death. 

Within it, we each have our religion, our prayer, our miracle, our hope, our mindfulness, our Dharma. This conversation is meant to illuminate, in the humblest way, this epic issue of life and death. What does it mean to mindfully inhabit the inevitable? As Bodhi Be says, "We all know we''re going to die but we don''t know when." It''s inbuilt into the system. 

This book is part prayer, part scream, part hymn, part meditation; a sonnet, a love song to God, to each of us. It''s not meant to teach anything except to inspire our own humble, vulnerable, dignified way to face the inevitable. So, may I invite you to enter this portal with us, an existential human conversation of the heart. I hope there''s something beautiful in it for you, as there was for me, and I know the Reverend Bodhi Be. 

Alan Clements 

Burma''s nonviolent "revolution of the spirit" remains one of the most inspiring and significant movements ever. A conclusion to 43 years of investigative research and unique personal involvement by Alan Clements, this urgent book presents not only a compelling case for the release of Burma''s Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners but a meticulous explanation for the (corporate-media-facilitated, politically expedient, and calculated) patriarchal disgrace of a courageously wise feminine-inspired Buddhist-influenced leader -- a 77 year old political spiritual luminary likened to Nelson Mandela, Gandhi and Martin Luther King -- and her peoples'' nationwide movement. For a rich tapestry of diverse ethnic peoples in this ancient, sacred 4,000-year nation of 53 million people, elegantly safeguarding for centuries the transformational power of nonviolence, the timeless wisdom "mindful intelligence" and the trans-religious practice of mindfulness meditation that is sweeping the world today, the struggle for freedom continues.

Examining the role of the international press in the ongoing crisis and the intricacies of a Dharma-based revolution as taught to Aung San Suu Kyi and National League for Democracy leaders by the late Venerable Sayadaw U Pandita, The Voice of Hope: Aung San Suu Kyi from Prison and a Letter to a Dictator is not only a tribute to the people of Burma''s unwavering quest for democracy and freedom but an articulate first-of-its-kind indictment of the international communities apathy, illustrating the inherent danger of turning away from the country''s legitimate civilian elected government.

Included in this epic and concisely presented work is an in-depth and exhaustive compilation of Aung San Suu Kyi''s position on the Rohingya crisis in her own words, a summary of the author''s findings on the first anniversary of the 2021 military coup and a detailed conversation between Alan Clements and Fergus Harlow that covers the nature of their work and of freedom itself as it relates to the ongoing struggle for democracy in Burma.

The book concludes with an unprecedented, compassionately motivated letter highlighting the power of redemption to Ming Aung Hlaing -- presently the world''s foremost criminal terrorist -- from Alan Clements (a former Buddhist monk in Burma), and an open letter to Aung San Suu Kyi from renowned Rinpoche Dzongsar Jamyang Khyenste.

The Voice of Hope: Aung San Suu Kyi and A Letter to A Dictator builds upon the previous books: "Burma: The Next Killing Fields," (with a foreword by the Dalai Lama) Instinct for Freedom (nominated as the best spiritual teaching/memoir in 2003), Burma''s Revolution of the Spirit, (with essays by eight Nobel Peace Laureates), Wisdom for the World: Alan Clements in Conversation with Sayadaw U Pandita, and the definitive four-volume Burma''s Voices of Freedom (co-authored with Fergus Harlow) and The Voice of Hope: Conversations with Burma''s Aung San Suu Kyi, a work that moved Pulitzer Prize Winner author Alice Walker to write, "Every leader in the world should read this book at least once." 

"...this is the most ...accurate commentary on how the world got it wrong, not unlike Tibet, and what we can do to support Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma, to avert disaster." -Geshe Lhakdor, former interpreter for His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama