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Must Not Sleep by Michael Brownstein
Fiction
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By turns hilarious and chilling, poet and novelist Michael Brownstein's latest novel MUST NOT SLEEP is a shamanic initiation into personal freedom -- political, emotional, and sexual -- which uncovers the secrets behind the destructive policies of those in positions of power. It's the story of Isaac, seemingly just a time-server in the system (he works "at a mid-level position for a mid-sized company in midtown Manhattan") whose programming is wiped clean as the result of a series of "big dreams" during which he loses all fear of death.
Filled with light, feeling invincible, Isaac encounters a woman similarly determined to erase her past who eagerly takes a new name for herself: Georgia. Together they enter a shamanic realm where limitations of time and space no longer apply and where the real forces behind the trashing of the planet soon reveal themselves.
MUST NOT SLEEP answers these questions: Who or what is encouraging environmental meltdown and a state of perpetual war? Why does the current American administration engage in actions seeming to sabotage our future? When Isaac realizes that something more than human greed must explain what's going on, another order of reality opens up. The demonic possession of our leading political figures shows itself in ways he and Georgia are barely able to withstand. But all is not lost: learning to use their innate powers, they are able to heal both themselves and the darkest figure of the present moment, "the man with the frozen heart."
Michael Brownstein's website (www.healingdick.com) contains related work including the new CD "Healing Dick."
"The first roll of the shaman's drum in fiction, this incendiary novel asks why wer'e pursuing policies on a global scale almost certain to result in our destruction. Who or what is responsible for this situation? Read MUST NOT SLEEP and find out." -- John Perkins, author of CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works- 3.0 United States License.
Audio Quality: 
Out of 11 ratings
Narration Quality:
Out of 10 ratings
Writing Quality:
Out of 10 ratings
Overall Rating:
Out of 10 ratings
By: per ove sleen
Jesus Christ and the bloody BIBLE! No way I am going to waist my time on another stupid tale spun over that ridicules old piece of political crap (yes I am still referring to the so called bible) and soup of old pageant hokus pokus that the Jews picked up from the Egyptians, the Babylonians and the Assyrians among others. NO WAY. Keep trying though, practice makes perfect (or at least very close to perfect :-), and keep that old Jesus and Abraham bullshit out of it, we've had just about the nose full of that crap... POSBy: Dax
What a kick in the head this novel was! I just finished listening to this. Thanks, Michael for this surreal, disturbing, quirky, hilarious and inspiring tale! Quite a wild and enjoyable ride. As for the audio quality, I thought it was pretty good. I was able to listen while driving with the window down and could still make out the narration just fine. For anyone who enjoyed this novel, I highly recommend Brownstein's book-length poem, World On Fire. Another kick to the head to say the least.By: Docidu
This book was wikkid, rare to see someone who gets the outer realms and still has the ability to articulate it.. was a light in a holiday season decorated in darkness, let me revisit so many aspects of the path that had began to fade into the background.. i love to see somebody bring something tangable back from the trip... good show
Chapters
| Title | Description | Date Created |
| Episode 1 (17.22 MB) | Episode Description #01: Pulling us right into the shaman's realm of shapeshifting and trance, Chapter One relates how Isaac has a series of mind-shattering dreams which incinerate his previous self-image of hesitation and compromise. Nothing fazes him now, nothing frightens him. Aware as never before of what's going on around him, with a big smile on his face he quits his job at a mid-size company in midtown Manhattan and embarks on a new life. | Dec 11, 2007 |
| Episode 2 (18.88 MB) | Episode Description #02: Isaac meets Georgia, a woman also determined to erase her past. Together they take a megadose of medicine, during which they merge joyfully with each other and, in a comical tour de force, are forcibly purged of the toxic debris clogging their bodies. In the process they're handed the explosive gift of sexual freedom. | Dec 11, 2007 |
| Episode 3 (17.12 MB) | Episode Description #03: Isaac still isn't free of his rage as a political activist, when he had a visitation from extraterrestrials trying to show him something he was unwilling to see. Believing he's begun a new life, instead he is swept into the darkness surrounding the events of 9/11 and can't wait to share what he's learned with Georgia. | Dec 11, 2007 |
| Episode 4 (16.19 MB) | Episode Description #04: Isaac realizes that Georgia is only intermittently in possession of herself. Refusing to listen to his discoveries about 9/11, she reveals that she knows one of his deepest secrets. Spooked for real, calling out to the spirits for help, he undergoes a shamanic initiation and takes possession of his true identity and power. | Dec 11, 2007 |
| Episode 5 (20.06 MB) | Episode Description #05: Isaac learns that Georgia's father was an abusive, controlling figure whose behavior toward her as a child she's too traumatized to remember. They leave her apartment to wander Manhattan's streets, where for the first time he sees mysterious barcodes on the foreheads of a passing couple and they meet Janine, a friend from Georgia's past. | Dec 11, 2007 |
| Episode 6 (22.99 MB) | From below Georgia's apartment comes the nonstop noise of a TV, infuriating Isaac. Disregarding her warning, he confronts the menacing old man whom Georgia calls "Papa," who pulls Isaac into his lair and educates him in the ways of the world, explaining, among many other things, why Iraq must be invaded. | Dec 23, 2007 |
| Episode 7 (21.11 MB) | Isaac discovers that the old man Georgia calls "Papa" can operate outside of space and time--except that, unlike shamans, his agenda is not to heal but to destroy. But his heart is failing. He begs for the healing light pouring from Isaac's eyes and body but Isaac refuses, glimpsing a photo of Osama bin Laden on a shrine as he flees. | Dec 23, 2007 |
| Episode 8 (20.77 MB) | Waiting in vain for Georgia's return, Isaac reprimands himself for not helping the old man downstairs, who has vanished. He is visited by Georgia's old friend Janine. Soon they make love, with Isaac asking her to join him in loving everyone and Janine feeling threatened yet offering her help when he hints at the dark forces out to get him. | Dec 23, 2007 |
| Episode 9 (15 MB) | Isaac encounters more people with barcodes on their foreheads: are they alien entities or normal, law-abiding citizens? He enters a store and watches the Vice-President deliver a speech on TV about the necessity of invading Iraq. That voice, that face: his blood running cold, Isaac realizes this is the old man Georgia called "Papa." | Dec 23, 2007 |
| Episode 10 (18.93 MB) | Isaac has a clairvoyant vision of the Vice-President in Washington D.C., striding into an elevator which descends deep underground. He understands he will have to confront Dick in his secret hideaway. Then he finally finds Georgia and rescues her from a sick low life named Adonis whom they had met earlier. | Dec 23, 2007 |
| Episode 11 (21.3 MB) | Calling out to his power animal, Isaac rides the eagle's wings to the Vice-President's residence. Taking Dick's elevator deep underground, he emerges into a desert landscape and looks on as Dick and a tall Arab man engage in amorous play. Dick implores the man to join his brand of fundamentalism to the Christian and lay waste to "this evil fallen realm." | Dec 23, 2007 |
| Episode 12 (18.16 MB) | Dick notices Isaac watching him and Osama. Enraged, shotgun in hand, he forces Isaac to dig a hole in the desert where he buries him alive. Ravaged by hunger and thirst, Isaac hallicinates, crying out to his power animal not to forsake him and singing at the top of his lungs, "I AM the universe, I AM the Cosmic Christ." | Dec 23, 2007 |
| Episode 13 (20.05 MB) | Rescued by the same extraterrestrials he had encountered long before, Isaac is taken to a military base where he comes upon a top-secret research project to create the new Americans: docile, intelligent, and conformist. Secretary of Defense Dan and Vice-President Dick arrive and Dick spots Isaac in the crowd, but this time he escapes. | Dec 23, 2007 |
| Episode 14 (17.78 MB) | Needing a refuge before Dick's agents find them, Isaac and Georgia accompany Janine to her cabin in the Catskills. Janine looks forward to the three of them in bed together but soon feels she can't match their passion for each other and returns to New York for the big peace march on February 15, 2003 against the coming war in Iraq. | Dec 23, 2007 |
| Episode 15 (16.89 MB) | Georgia finally processes what her father did to her when she was six years old. She sees the Vice-President give a speech on TV and realizes that he and her father are one and the same. But Isaac insists there's more: Dick is an emissary of aliens encouraging perpetual war on this planet so they can move in and take over. | Dec 23, 2007 |
| Episode 16 (19.31 MB) | Isaac tells Georgia that Dick operates in a multidimensional realm free of the constraints of ordinary reality. "You've been there too," he says, and he reminds her of the time she revealed a secret of his which no one could possibly have known. He then asks her to join him in the biggest challenge of all: healing Dick. | Dec 23, 2007 |
| Episode 17 (20.99 MB) | Taking the train from New York to Washington D.C., Isaac and Georgia ride the elevator down to the Vice-President's hideaway. Dick's heart is worse than ever. He hopes that Isaac can save him and invites the couple into his cabin where they see a manacled figure slumped over on the floor: Dick's top-secret prisoner, Osama. | Dec 23, 2007 |
| Episode 18 (27.28 MB) | Georgia ministers to Osama while Dick admits that his extraterrestrial brethren are waiting impatiently for earthlings to destroy themselves. Isaac performs a shamanic healing, sucking black goo out of the old man's heart until a transformed Dick appears, young and smiling. Georgia then has one last mind-shattering surprise for Isaac. | Dec 23, 2007 |