Originally from Oakdale Long Island, New York, I attended Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. from 1976-78, with an emphasis on physics as it pertained to music. I designed and built a bass guitar, including the pickup, while there. With the help of the physics machine shop machinist, the guitar came out great, but the pickup left much to be desired. I wrote a paper on how the pickup worked. I had joined a fraternity, Delta Tau Delta, being rushed (encouraged to join) by Peter Buck, who would go on to become the guitar player for REM. The fraternity’s emphasis was drugs and alcohol, its members being all the Dead Heads and serious partiers. I was introduced to LSD there and I read Robert Anton Wilson’s (and Shea’s) Illuminati Trilogy and Cosmic Trigger. In the fall of 1978, I transferred to Georgia Tech, as there was a professor with an emphasis on audio electronics. For some reason, Timothy Leary was on a college tour and lectured there. He inspired me to drop out of school in 1979 and travel to California in my van. A girl I knew from Long Island was living in Laguna Beach, so I landed there. I stayed in Ca. for 6 months, meeting Timothy Leary 2 more times in Santa Cruz and Esalon. I returned to school in the fall at the University of Miami in a physics of music program, but only lasted one semester. I started reading a roommate’s Buckminster Fuller books there. In 1980 I returned to Long Island to form a New Wave rock band with my high school friends, called the Kind. I came up with the idea for the Quasar Wave Transducer in 1980, by taking my hollow body bass and leaning it on the amplifier, producing feedback, and then tuning the strings down lower and lower, till a strange complex, chaotic sound was produced. The band moved to NYC in 1981 and played the local club scene like CBGB’s. The band lasted till 1983. Also in 1981, I saw an exhibit of Paolo Soleri’s and was extremely inspired by his concept of Arcology
In the fall of 1982 I enrolled in Parson’s School of Design in the Environmental Design program, thinking this would be the perfect environment to further my interest in Fuller and Soleri, but the emphasis there was on Wright, Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. I did do an independent study for my senior thesis entitled Future Environments based on my interests. The biggest revelation I had was of the German Expressionist Bruno Tout’s visionary ideas from post WWI entitled Alpine Architecture. He claimed the earth was alive and we as humans were just instruments of the earth to adorn and shape nature inspired by spirit, eventually doing this into outerspace! The book was published in 1921 and was out of print until last year when the original drawings and manuscript were made available to be published again. I also read Ken Carey’s (at that time the book was by his channeled name Raphael) Starseed Transmissions. This was claimed to be Pleiadian information, about the coming shift. In retrospect, I would not doubt that being exposed to this influenced me, although I was already tuned into this idea. Even the theme of the music of my rock band was about the shift. At some point in my design work, for no particular reason I can recall, I made a small paper model of the shape that would become the Diamond Portal, and have saved it to this day.

I was familiar with the golden ratio, phi, and incorporated it into the shape, making the top diamond the golden ratio of the bottom and the hole the golden ratio, centered on the golden ratio of the height, which was the same as the width. I did a Quasar Wave Performance at a small East Village club once in 1984. I had the idea to build a self contained Quasar Wave Transducer, but didn’t actually do it till 1996 and debuted it at a huge party in NYC called Sub-Station in Jan 1997. Many people told me it was one of the coolest things there. The Quasar Wave Transducer is conceptually transducing the emanations of quasars into an audible sound, and in actuality, is a simple analog feedback device composed of bass strings and pickups, an audio amplifier and speakers. The strings are tuned to subsonic frequencies that I have never measured but could possibly be in the single digits. This is the range of frequencies that the Schuman resonance of the Earth is, and human brain waves are. By tuning to a certain point, this system becomes non-linear dynamic, producing a constantly changing sound, complexity arising from chaos. There have been many books written in this field recently, and there is the interdisciplinary Santa Fe Institute where this is studied. Many people have said that it reminds them of a big cat purring, and it is thought that cat's purring is a healing sound.
I had moved 95% of my belongings to Taos, New Mexico in June of ’96, but kept my apt. in NYC with some roomates and was going back and forth every 3 months or so for the first few years, then half the year in each location for the next few years. In the last few years, I’m going back to NY for short periods and spending much more time in California, mostly San Francisco and LA, and in Taos. I had planned to go to Burning Man in 1995 with my friend Spiro from Taos, and in 1997, while I was in Taos, with my roommate Richard from NY, but both times was overwhelmed by the time and expense involved and didn’t go. In 1998, my friends from Taos went, while I went on a west coast trip, starting in Vancouver, where the friend I went to see was on his first trip to Burning Man! I was there when he returned with his amzing stories. I traveled down the coast tthrough Seattle, Portalnd and San Francisco visiting other friends and promoting my new "Circle of Burning Fuel" pieces, and back to Taos. Finally in 1999, Spiro and I went to Burning Man with our group of other friends from Taos, and I’ve been going ever since. In the fall of 2003, I started thinking of the shape I had made back in 1984 and pulled out the little paper model. I refined the shape, making the diamond a one to two ratio. I drew it on my computer in Photoshop, and made another cardboard model, with no idea of how big or what materials it would be made out of or for what purpose. It was just an abstract sculpture.

I was living in San Francisco from Dec. to March of 2004 and at some point around March, got the idea to build the shape for Burning Man and make it big enough to climb into the hole. At first I thought to make it 20 feet high, but realized how much materials it would take and how difficult it would be, so downsized to 16 feet so it could be made using 8 foot sheets of plywood and 16 foot 2x4’s easily. As soon as I thought of building it for Burning Man, I thought of putting the Quasar Wave Transducer inside of it. I also thought of where it would go and realized that it would have to be located on 11:11, a number I now call the Galactic Activation Code. I had seen the new age book by Solara titled 11:11, and had heard of people seeing the number and having some kind of significance, and had a musician friend that used the named Once Eleven, Once being Spanish for eleven. While at Burning Man, I had some insight into the fact that the city is laid out on a circular plan and that the time denoting location had some significance, relating to what I knew about radionics, that uses a protractor to radiate the subtle energies of healing substances at various degrees. I also came up with name based on the plan view being a diamond like in playing cards and the hole through it being a portal. Back in Taos I started making a 1 inch to the foot scale 16 inch high model of the shape out of wood. I began, but got stuck on the acute angle of the edge and stopped for a few weeks. When I tried again to work on the angle, I had smoked some pot, which I had smoked regularly most of my life up to a few years ago, and hadn’t had any in quite a while. I started working and become totally overwhelmed with a delusion that the shape I was making would actually work in shifting the earth into the next vibrational dimension, especially at Burning Man. I had to stop working till I came down. I finally made that model, but still had no way of figuring out how to build a 16 foot high one. The next step was to construct a quarter scale framing model of the 2x4 structure, by making quarter scale 2x4’s that are three eighths by seven eighths of and inch and building the structure exactly as it would be in full size. I used that model to create all the angles necessary, especially where the cylinder intersects the angled planes and then cut the actual 2x4’s by measuring the lengths and multiplying by four and using the angles to cut them to fit. I had to build it so it was transportable, so each face was a separate piece and the center cylinder, or heart as I call it, was another piece. It is supported at the correct height by ladders, and the four faces then support it. The color for it came from a DMT trip I had in the summer of 1995 where I was shown some colors that had a specific organic meaning. I experimented with trying to realize those colors in 1999 or 2000 with some artists oils, so when I was building the Portal, I automatically decide to use the color I had come up with. For the heart, I wanted a complimentary color and experimented with a range of colors from dark purple to a rose color, applied transparently over the brown Masonite. I decided on the light rose color that produced a rich maroon. I had no idea that I was using heart chakra colors when I made these decisions, and had no idea that the center cylinder’s edge would produce a heart shape when viewed from the ground. All a total coincidence, or synchronicity. At first I thought that the Quasar Wave Transducer would be powered by a gasoline generator, but disliked the idea of the noise, fumes and having to buy and transport gasoline, so I opted for a solar powered system using one panel mounted on top and a set of batteries. They didn’t have enough power to run it 24 hours a day, so I used a timer to cycle it on and off. It’s quite an experience to be in the Portal when it comes on or stops unexpectedly. Many people at Burning Man described the sound as purring and one person pointed out that it is thought that a cats purring is a healing energy. Another person told me about a website called HarmonyEra.com where a woman has developed a series of low frequency healing sounds that she used to heal her son of hormone deficiencies and started an institute to implement these healing tones. Another person spoke of the resonant properties of the earth and how those vibrations may amplify infinitely as Tesla has pointed out. One day at Burning Man in 2004 I had a puff of some strong pot, which again I had not been smoking at all, and went into a total paranoid delusion that I was aware I was in. I was convinced that operatives of the government had covertly infiltrated Burning Man, and that they were on to me and the Diamond Portal being the key to shifting the Earth into the next dimension. I was convinced that they had deliberately not placed the Portal on 11:11 to keep it form actually working, and that they were watching me. On the last day, Sun., it was broken into, but nothing was taken. I told this story to my friends and they didn’t think I was that far off. The Portal was left up through Sun. night, and a friend of mine spent the whole Sun. evening and night while the Temple was being burned chanting along with the Quasar Wave Transducer and getting anyone who was there to join in with him. He was profoundly transformed by this experience for several weeks after the event. People he met that night also had an experience that they emailed me that is on my website, along with many others:
While traveling back from Burning Man I stopped in Moab and met a girl named Bridget in a café that I told about the Portal. She told me about her friend Krista that goes to Burning Man and has an art studio called 11:11. She had actually placed a rock that I received at the Portal inscribed with 11:11, and is in one of my photos. I brought the Portal back to Taos and set it up at a prominent outdoor sculpture gallery and hosted a series of events where I would install the Quasar Wave Transducer and invite people to experience it. The first was on Oct. 2.
I was then asked to do an event on Nov. 2 for Election Day. Also, in Oct. Bridget called me and requested that I do an event on Nov. 11 or 11/11, something I never thought of. I was fortunate to have the writer from the local newspaper’s magazine section attend the Oct. 2 event and take photographs, so that when the Nov.11 edition came out, to my surprise and delight, he put it on the cover and wrote a huge article on it that you can see on my website.
I did one last event on Dec. 12. I gave up the studio I was renting here in Taos for the last 5 years in Dec. and traveled the west coast from LA to Vancouver and back from Jan. to June of this year, while also flying back to NY in March and June. I had the eleventh golden ratio smaller one (a little less than an inch) machined out of aluminum and found a company to cast them and had 400 made to give out as pendants at Burning Man this year. I returned to Taos in July and built the first golden ratio smaller (10 feet) Portal out of steel tubing, outlining the shape, for a show I was in here in Taos, and brought that one to Burning Man as well. It was placed at the distance of the Temple of Dreams and the actual Portal the golden ratio further out, both on 11:11. I had to rebuild the actual Portal this summer, as it was blown over and damaged in a windstorm in the spring, as well as being weathered from the winter. My friends who help me bring it to Burning Man convinced me that they would only help if it were a one-way trip. It would have to be burned. Most people felt that I should just burn it in place, but then I would be responsible for protecting the Playa from the burn scar and would have to put down metal sheets, and I would have to clean up all the debris. I asked the Burning Man people if I could burn it in the Temple fire and they agreed, so I devised axles and wooden wheels that would be put on Sun. evening and then roll the Portal to the Temple to be burned. My friend who had the chanting experience last year returned to help with the Portal, and we came up with the idea to conduct regular chanting sessions every sunset at the Portal, from Tues. evening through Sun. evening. We had many people come out and experience this event. At one time we had 16 people in the Portal itself, although many times the people would be around the outside leaning on the faces, as well as in the Portal. By really letting go, it was possible to have a truly transformational experience by doing this. We would invite people to make any type of sound possible. As soon as the Temple had burned down Sun. night, it was rolled into the flames in front of the crowd that had gathered. The Temple is a sacred, meditative place that people are invited to put their own shrines and to write on anywhere any prayers they desire, especially for people who have passed away, so the burn is especially powerful and meaningful, and my putting the Portal into it became an offering to this shrine. The next day I went to recover what was left, the axles and any screws and bolts that I could find, and was told by a member of the Temple crew that the designer of the Temple was upset that I had pushed it into the fire. I met with him and told him I was given permission by the Burning Man people, but they hadn’t told him. I agreed in retrospect that I should have met and cleared it with him. In the end he was okay with it. I recorded some video of it this year and am planning on making a short documentary. I have been receiving emails of people’s experiences and photos of it.
In the fall of 2005 while in the San Francisco Bay area, I attended the Bioneers conference and at an after party at Solstice Grove in Fairfax, I was encouraged by my friend Zoael, who I had met at Burning Man that year, to renew my studies in sacred sites and the Earth’s energy system. I found the book “The Emerald Modem: A Users Guide to the Earth’s Interactive Energy Body” by Richard Leviton. This book inspired the next version of the Portal, the Emerald Portal. See the Emerald Portal link for the full description of it. I applied for a grant from Burning Man to build it 16 feet on edge, which would have cost over $20,000, but did not receive it, so instead raised funds to build an 8 foot version for Burning Man 2006. This has been succesfully done and the Emerald Portal is available for exhibition in other venues.