Another one tastes the Larger World

"Hilarious and like something from what could be a sequel to “SoapDish”: James Scott, who’s the popular, young, British leading man/villain of “Days of Our Lives” has quit the soap after eight years. NBC must be wondering what the heck is going on. Is this a contract negotiation?

What happened? Earlier this spring, Scott went to Peru, hung out with shamans, and smoked hallucinogenics. He revealed this in an interview in which he also called obsessed soap fans “fucking idiots.” Cue “Bungle in the Jungle”:

Scott told a soap opera site:

“I just got back from Peru. I spent six days in the jungles of Peru doing Ayahuasca with the shaman. It was the single most positive experience of my life. Ayahuasca is this hallucinogenic. I sat in a tent, in a hut, in the jungle, on the amazons with three shaman blowing tobacco smoke into my crown, realigning my chakras and my energy, while I hallucinated for four to six hours. I mean, this is all hard to explain. It’s very spiritual and very interesting. This is a medicine that the people of South America have been using for years to have a relationship with a higher consciousness. It sounds wacky when you say it, but it was truly the most important thing I have ever done. I came back a very different person.”

The TODAY show recently did a piece on this LSD-like medicine (it’s legal in Brazil) after Lindsay Lohan talked about drinking Ayahuasca tea after a miscarriage. Rock star Sting wrote about trying Ayahuasca on a trip to Brazil years ago in his excellent memoir, “Broken Music”:

“Ayahuasca has brought me close to something, something fearful and profound and deadly serious.”

The start of a Ayahuasca trip involves immense physical pain, severe vomiting, and other unpleasantness. Then you have a lot of revelations. Apparently Scott’s was to walk away from a full time job as the star of a soap opera. Scott is not exactly Cary Grant, but on daytime he is. Maybe once the Ayahuasca wears off he’ll back at his station bedding blondes and doing dastardly things.

And these are the day of our lives! Indeed!"



aaaaaaannnnnddddd: FIGHT!:

Best thing I've read all week.

awesome

My favorite line:

He revealed this in an interview in which he also called obsessed soap fans “fucking idiots.”

If this isn't a perfect example of the power that ayahuasca possesses, then I don't know what is!

LOL i just saw something on my facebook feed about and rushed here to post it only to find you beat me! Loved the fucking idiots" part, this dude sounds like he should've been a comedian not a soap star hehe

Such an uprising in these articles lately, not quite sure how i feel about it yet. This article was certainly better than the diplo one hahaha but that's not saying much

I don"t like the "fucking idiots" line. If he has taken ayahuasca and had his horizons expanded does that mean he was an idiot before? Or was he just exploiting idiots? Is ayahuasca a one stop cure for idiocy? Or does it just give some people a bit of a holier than thou superiority complex in addition to any other doors that it may have helped to open.

Calling the people who have indirectly paid for his revelatory ayahuasca sessions idiots is idiotic and indicates to me that what someone gets out of these experiences very much depends on what kind of person they are before the event.

Yeah its funny...

In my experience, ayahuasca gives me understanding of others, not judgement.

He probably quit that job because he came to realize that he was participating in the "idiot games." Recognized after participating -- he, too, is an idiot, and is time for a change.

I have a hard time with deciding how I feel toward his comment about his fans. I really want to disagree, and say, "hey, that's not nice! I'm sure there are some really smart idiots that watch soap tv," but my opinion on television is that even the most brilliant of geniuses can become the biggest of fools when they donate their time to the Media Machine. All inclusive, no exclusions.

I don"t have much of a problem deciding how i feel about his comment (if he actually made that comment in the context that it was presented). It is thoughtless hypocrisy.

Maybe the soap addicts think that those who take psychedelics and devote their time to all encompassing consciousness, other dimensions and entities are idiots. Each to their own. Live and let live. We are all idiots at one time or another.

I will add that there is one soap opera in the UK that has been airing since 1960. It outlived the first psychedelic revolution.

The "fucking idiots" thing is a classic case of deliberately quoting out of context to stir the pot. I suspected this right away, as I didn't believe that someone could spend a week working with ayahuasca and come away with that viewpoint about people who just happen to like soap operas. So I searched for the original interview and it turns out that his comment was not about obsessed fans in general. It was about a certain group of fans that apparently were attacking one of the actresses on the show.

Here's the relevant portion of the interview. I have no idea who this actress is or why the fans were attacking her. But I don't think James Scott is being judgmental by calling them fucking idiots. He's just defending his colleague and speaking the truth as he sees it.


Q: It raises the stakes now for EJami! How was it working with Kate Mansi in this storyline? You two had not really worked together for quite awhile.

JAMES: We had not worked together in a long time, but I enjoyed working with Kate very much. I felt like we developed good chemistry on-screen. She was a lot of fun to work with.

Q: Kate Mansi took a lot of hits from the fans and much of it was very uncomplimentary and mean-spirited towards her, which I found uncalled for.

JAMES: It’s ridiculous! Kate is an actress on a television show. What are they being mean to her for? She gets up, she comes to work, and that’s her job. Don’t be upset with her. That is what she does for a living. Those people are just f***ing idiots … and you can quote me on that.



And here's the source:

http://michaelfairmansoaps.com/...oto-and-more/2014/04/30/

Well. Now that Ziggus was kind enough to provide the context, would you care to recant your very presumptuous assumptions on his "thoughtless hypocrisy"?

You are right, Ziggus was very kind to provide the context of the quote and i am happy to recant that particular comment.
But i not believe that i was being presumptuous as i also questioned the possible context that the "fucking idiots" sentence was written. Did you? Or were you jumping on the "all soap fans are idiots" psychedelic merry-go-round (because that, in itself, could be percieved as a presumptuous assumption in some circles).

I certainly do not recant the spirit in which my comments were made.

No. I just thought it was a funny line and didn't make it into big issue to get all reactionary and offended by and make all sorts of negative Judgements on a line taken completely out of context without knowing all the facts.

I really do not understand how you can say that when i clearly wrote that my judgement was based on the context in which it was presented in the link in your OP. I wasn"t offended at all, i was making an observation.



I am not biting. I am too enlightened

Ironically, you were the only one to post anything negative about the story. And "enlightened" doesn't mean anything, though if you're just joking I get that.

Yes i was joking. I have recently learnt to use emoticons to point out when i am joking. I do not think that i have written anything negative in this thread. I have just given a point view, with an added disclaimer. I also think that my stance on soap fans being idiots is positive as i believe that it is easy for various factions of humanity to get their heads stuck up their arses when it comes to judging one and other"s interests/lifestyles.