The Way I See It

2003-10-18T23:14:00.000-05:00

larry the man,
why do you question? what is that you need to know? i think that you are so close to the big picture, as its known, but you need to understand things from oustide yourself. you are thinking to much. you need to think through the eyes of children, of the sky and the dirt. let go, and you will do great things.

2003-04-16T16:04:00.000-05:00

Questions

What is it that ever was?
Space, the eternal Anapdaka.
What is it that ever was?
The germ in the root.
What is it that is ever coming and going?
The Great Breath.
Then there are three eternals?
No. The three are one. That which ever is is one, that which ever was is one, that which is ever being and becoming is also one; and this is space. Cos space is the place! Dig--

2003-04-16T08:08:00.000-05:00

Kosmos -- The Noumenon -- has nothing to do with the casual relations of the phenomenal world. It is only with reference to the intra-cosmic soul, the ideal Kosmos in the immutable Divine Thought, that we may say: "It never had a beginning nor will it have an end." With regard to its body or cosmic organization, though it cannot be said that it had a first, or will it ever have a last construction, yet at each new manvantara (dawn), its organization may be regarded as the first and last of its kind, as it evolves every time on a higher plane.... Therefore, "In the beginning" is referring to that time before the repoduction of the phenomenal universe

God -- not the crude anthropomorphism which is still the backbone of our current theology, but the symbolic conception of that which is life and motion of the universe.

1. Picture of a circle = Abstract Space

2. Picture of a circle with a point in the middle = Potential space within abstract space

3. Picture of a circle bisected horizontally = Divine Immaculate mother-nature within the all embracing absolute infinitude

4. Picture of a circle bisected horizontally & vertically = Sign for the origin of life to begin

5. Picture of a cross = Fall of man into matter; fourth race begins

6. Picture of a circle with two lines, one of which is perpendicular to the other = Man's involvement with procreation

7. Picture of a circle bisected vertically = separaton of the sexes

The one is an unbroken circle (ring) with no circumferance, for it is nowhwere and everywhere; the one is the boundless plane of the circle, manifesting a diameter only during the manvantaric periods; the one is the indivisible point found nowhere, perceived everywhere during these periods; it is the vertical and the horizontal, the father and the mother, the summit and the base of the father, the two extremities of the mother, reaching in reality nowhere, for the one is the ring as also the rings that are within the ring. Light in darkness and darkness in light: the "breath which is eternal." It proceeds from without inwardly, when it is everywhere and from within outwardly when it is nowhere -- it expands and contracts -- exhalation and inhalation. When it expands, the breath is diffused and scattered; when it contracts, the breath draws back and ingathers.

2003-04-07T10:43:00.000-05:00

Telluric currents - The term usually refers to natural earth currents originating as a result of variations in the earth's magnetic field. Sometimes the term is applied also to earth currents resulting from artificial electric or magnetic fields.

The way I see it, the Celts knew about telluric currents; they had learned the secret from the Atlantides, when the survivors of the submerged continent emigrated, some to Egypt, some to Brittany.

The Atlantides had learned it from those ancestors of ours who ventured forth from Avalon across the continent of Mu as far as the central desert of Australia --when all the continents werea single land mass, the wondrous Pangea. If only we could still read (as the Aborigines can, but they remain silent) the mysterious alphabet carved on the great boulder Ayers Rock, we would have the answer. Ayers Rock is the antipode of the great (unknown) mountain that is the Pole, the true, occult Pole, not the one that any bougeois explorer can reach. As usual, and this should be obvious to anyone whose eyes have not been blinded by the false light of Western science, the Pole that we see is not the real Pole, for the real Pole is the one that cannot be seen, except by some adepts, whose lips are sealed.

The Celts, however, believed it was enough to discover the global configuration of the currents. That's why they erected megaliths. The menhirs had sensitive devices, like electric valves, planted at the points where the current branched and changed direction. The leys marked the routes of currents already identified.The dolmens were chambers of accumulated energy, where the Druids, with geomantic tools, attempted to map, by extrapolation, the global design. The cromlechs and Stonehenge were micro-macrocosmic observatories from which the studied the pattern of the constellations in order to divine the pattern of the currents -- because as the Tabula Smaragdina tells us, what is above is isomorphic to what is below.

But there was more to the problem than that.The other branch of the Atlantidean emigration realized as much. The occult knowledge of the Egyptians passed from Hermes Trismegistus to Moses, who took care no to pass it on to his band of tatterdemalions, their craws stuffed with manna; to them he offered the Ten Commandents, which was as much as they could comprehend. The higher truth is aristocratic; Moses encoded it in the Pentateuch. The cabalists understood this. Everything was already written, an open book, in the measurements of the Temple of Solomon, and the keepers of the secret were the Rosicrucians, who formed the Great White Fraternity -- the Essenes, in other words, who, as is well known, let Jesus in on their secrets. And there you have the real reason why Jesus was crucified....

Of course, the Passion of Christ is allegory, prefiguring the trial of the Templars. And Joseph of Arimithea takes, or takes back, the secret of Jesus to the land of the Celts. But obviously the secret is stil incomplete; the Christian Druids know only a fragment of it, and this is the esoteric meaning of the Grail: there is something, but we don't know what. The secret -- what the Temple already said in full -- is suspected only by a small group of rabbis who remained in Palestine. They entrust it to the occult Moslem sects, to the Sufis, the Ismailis, the Motakallimum. And from there the Templars.

The Templars had wrested the secret from those who knew the powers of the cosmic focus in the Blck Stone of Mecca, the heritage of the Babylonian magi -- for it was now clear that the Tower od Babel had been simply an attempt, however hasty and deservedly a failure because of the pride of the architects, to build the most powerfulmenhir of all. But the Babylonians got their calculations wrong. Had the tower reached its peak, its excessive weight would have made the earth's axis rotate ninety degrees and maybe more, and our poor globe, instead of having an ithyphallic crown pointing upward, would have found itself with a sterile appendix, a limp mentula, a monkey tail flopping downward, a Shekhinah lost in the dizzying abyss of an anarctic Malkhut, a flaccid hieroglyph for penguins.

So, in a word, what's the secret discovered by the Templars? For that please click on the following link: Templar Secret

2003-04-07T08:45:00.000-05:00

No one sees the connections.
Neither do they don't answer the most important biblical question: Who as married at the feast at Cana? The way I see it, Jesus was not crucified, and for that reason the Templars denied the Crucifixion. The legend of Joseph of Arimethea covers a deeper truth: Jesus, not the Grail, landed in France, among the cabalists of Provence.

Jesus is the metaphor of the King of the World, the true founder of the Rosicrucians. And who landed with Jesus? His wife. In the Gospels why aren't we told who was married at the feast of Cana? It was the wedding of Jesus, and it was a wedding that could not be discussed because the bride was a public sinner, Mary Magdalene. That's why, ever since, all the Illuminati from Simon Magus to Postel seek the principle of the eternal feminine in a brothel. And Jesus, meanwhile, was the founder of the royal line of France.

Read more about the Rosicrucians & the Illuminati.

2003-04-07T07:54:00.000-05:00

The writers of the Synoptic Gospels were pranksters
The way I see it, Matthew, Mark, Luke & John met somewhere and decided to have a contest. They invented a character, agreed on a few basic facts, and then each one was free to take it and run with it. At the end they see who's done the best job. The four stories are picked up by friends who act as critics: Matthew is fairly realistic, but insists on that Messiah business too much; Mark isn't bad, just a little sloppy; Luke is elegant, no denying that; and John takes the philosophy a little too far. Actually, though, the books have an appeal, they circulate, and when the four realize what's happening, it's too late. Paul has already met Jesus on the road to Damascus, Pliny begins his investigation ordered by the worried emperor, and a legion of apocryphal writers pretends also to know plenty....Toi, apocryphe lecteur, mon semblable, mon frere. It all goes to Peter's head; he takes himself seriously. John threatens to tell the truth, Peter and Paul have him chained up on the island of Patmos. Soon the poor man's seeing things: Help, there are locusts all over my bed, make those trumpets stop, where's all this blood coming from? The others say he's drunk, or maybe it's arteriosclerosis....Who knows, maybe it really happened that way.

2003-04-07T07:03:00.000-05:00

read Isis Unveiled by H. P. Blavatsky

2003-04-07T06:59:00.000-05:00

Read NEW ATLANTIS
by Sir Francis Bacon

2003-04-04T11:48:00.000-06:00

Humorous Approach to Zen

2003-04-04T11:45:00.000-06:00

The Five Mindfulness Trainings -- Commitments For Practicing Buddhism

2003-03-28T12:56:00.000-06:00

The Umberto Eco Connection

2003-03-12T15:07:00.000-06:00

Read the Thought For Now

2003-01-14T10:56:00.000-06:00

Read The Principia Discordia

2003-01-11T11:30:00.000-06:00

America as Mystery Babylon: Prediction or Self-fulfilling Prophesy?

"The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy"-Revelation 19:10

Revelation 12

The Woman and the Dragon

1 A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.

2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.

3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads.

4 His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.

5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.

6 The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.

7 And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.

8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.

9 The great dragon was hurled down--that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:

"Now have come the salvation
and the power and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Christ.
For the accuser of our brothers,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.

11 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short."

13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.

14 The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent's reach.

15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent.

16 But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.

17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring--those who obey God's
commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

Revelation 17

The Woman and the Beast

1 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the punishment of the great
prostitute, who sits on many waters.

2 With her the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries."

3 Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a desert. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.

4 The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries.

5 This title was written on her forehead: MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

6 I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus.

7 When I saw her, I was greatly astonished. Then the angel said to me: "Why are you astonished? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and of the beast she rides, which has the seven heads and ten horns.

8 The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because he once was, now is not, and yet will come.

9 "This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits.

10 They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for a little while.

11 The beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king. He belongs to the seven and is going to his destruction.

12 "The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast.

13 They have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast.

14 They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings--and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers."

15 Then the angel said to me, "The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages.

16 The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire.

17 For God has put it into their hearts to accomplish his purpose by agreeing to give the beast their power to rule, until God's words are fulfilled.

18 The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth."

Revelation 18

1 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor.

2 With a mighty voice he shouted:

"Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!
She has become a home for demons
and a haunt for every evil spirit,
a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird.

3 For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries."

4 Then I heard another voice from heaven say:

"Come out of her, my people,
so that you will not share in her sins,
so that you will not receive any of her plagues;

5 for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.

6 Give back to her as she has given; pay her back double for what she has done. Mix her a double portion from her own cup.

7 Give her as much torture and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself. In her heart she boasts, 'I sit as queen; I am not a
widow, and I will never mourn.'

8 Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.

9 "When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her.

10 Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry:

"Woe! Woe, O great city,
O Babylon, city of power!
In one hour your doom has come!'

11 "The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more--

12 cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble;

13 cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and bodies and souls of men.

14 "They will say, 'The fruit you longed for is gone from you. All your riches and splendor have vanished, never to be recovered.'

15 The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand far off, terrified at her torment. They will weep and mourn

16 and cry out:

" 'Woe! Woe, O great city,
dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet,
and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls!

17 In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!'

18 "Every sea captain, and all who travel by ship, the sailors, and all who earn their living from the sea, will stand far off. When they see the smoke of her burning, they will exclaim, 'Was there ever a city like this great city?' 19They will throw dust on their heads, and with weeping and mourning cry out:

"Woe! Woe, O great city,
where all who had ships on the sea
became rich through her wealth!
In one hour she has been brought to ruin!

20 Rejoice over her, O heaven! Rejoice, saints and apostles and prophets! God has judged her for the way she treated you.' "

21 Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said:

"With such violence
the great city of Babylon will be thrown down,
never to be found again.

22 The music of harpists and musicians, flute players and trumpeters, will never be heard in you again. No workman of any trade will ever be found in you again. The sound of a millstone will never be heard in you again.

23 The light of a lamp will never shine in you again. The voice of bridegroom and bride will never be heard in you again. Your merchants were the world's great men. By your magic spell all the nations were led astray.

24 In her was found the blood of prophets and of the saints, and of all who have been killed on the earth."

Revelation 19

Hallelujah!

1 After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,

2 for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants."

3 And again they shouted: "Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever."

4 The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they
cried: "Amen, Hallelujah!"

5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying:

"Praise our God,
all you his servants,
you who fear him,
both small and great!"

6 Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: "Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns."

7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.

8 Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear." (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)

9 Then the angel said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!' " And he added, "These are the true words of God."

10 At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, "Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."

The Rider on the White Horse

11 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war.

12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself.

13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.

14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.

15 Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them with an iron scepter."He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.

16 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, "Come, gather together for the great supper of God,

18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and mighty men, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, small and great."

19 Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against the rider on the horse and his army.

20 But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.

21 The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.

How these passages are relevant to recent news:

1. “A woman” = America, effeminate title

2. “fallen, fallen” = Twin Towers collapse

3. “in one hour comes to ruin” = Towers collapsed in little over an hour

4. “a city” = New York, New York

5. “world sees smoke of her burning” = media show towers burning to entire globe

6. “makes nations drunk with her trade” = Center of World Trade

7. “she held a golden cup in her hand” = Statue of Liberty, torch painted gold in 1980s

8. The woman is like Israel = America, Israel are inextricably bound together

9. “has two horns like a lamb” = Christian nation, constitutionally conservative

10. “speaks like a dragon” = Satanic nation, verbally and socially liberal

11. referred to as “great” = described as “great Satan” by Eastern Islamites

12. “glorified herself”= self-worship by worship of individuality, image

13. “lived luxuriously”, “filled with riches” = America is the richest nation on earth

14. “clothed with the sun” = is armed with the greatest nuclear might

15. “with the moon under feet” = Apollo landing,only nation to conquer the moon

16. “rules over the nations of the earth” = single superpower

17. “the earth came to her aid” = international support

18. “given the wings of an eagle” = the eagle is a U. S. symbol (war effort is titled,
“Operation Noble Eagle”)

19. drunk with the blood of the saints” = spiritually apostate

20. “boasts, ‘I am not a widow’” = brags of its goodness, yet is unrepentant

21. “in the cup that she mixed” = worship of God with worship of money

22. Three references to “a woman” = apostate church, paganism, imitates Israel

23. “has a crown of 12 stars” = alliance with and control over EU/NATO

24 God uses her enemies to burn her = international terrorism

25. seven nations, and an eighth against her = seven Islamic nations and Russia

26. “her sins reached to heaven” = leader in pornography, drugs, violence, greed

27. world mourns for her “from afar off” = nations distanced by Pacific and Atlantic oceans

28. Tower of Babel, symbol of multiethnicity = U.S., most democratized, ethnically integrated

29. Tower of Babel, symbol of one language = U.S. only multiethnic nation w/universal English

30. “come out of her, lest you share in her sins” = allure of American lifestyle, difficult to resist

31. “strong is the God who judges her” = a new era in warfare against a faceless enemy

32. “they will plunder her” = Terrorists call for the “plundering” of the U.S.

33. fourth bowl of God’s wrath poured out = retaliation by U.S. employs nuclear option

34. God conveys it is Himself fighting her = Terrorists call the fight a “Holy War”

35. “the light of a lamp shall shine no more in you” = The Gospel hypocritically promoted ends

36. “music” of every kind “shall be heard no more = The U.S. is the center of all modern music

37. “the merchants of the earth mourn for her” = Stock markets and trade halt and decline

38. “The Serpent spewed.. a flood after the woman” = Thousands of terrorist cells network to destroy America through suicide bombings and biological warfare.

39. “The earth swallowed up the flood” = 68 nations commit to crack down on terrorists to aid U.S. Over 100 pledge support in fight against global terrorism, the largest coalition in history

40. “The dragon, enraged, went off to war with her = Christians persecuted globally by religious extremists.

Explanation of the "Evidence"

The Book of Revelation claims that there will be a nation in the end times which sits over the nations of the earth. It’s symbol is a woman who holds up a golden cup in her hand, which she uses to make the nations drunk with the wine of her financial trading fornication. The statue of liberty comes immediately to mind. The original bronze color of the statue has turn a sickly pale green due to soot, and the torch was painted "gold" in the eighties.

On the very same page where mention of this woman, who is referred to as a spiritual harlot, is shown, just a few paragraphs further on, the same page reveals that this woman is "fallen, fallen" and goes on to mention that she is the center of world trade, and that she is also referred to "great". She is the mother of harlots, mystery Babylon. The word “mystery” implies a truth to be revealed in the latter times, “sealed up till the time of the end,” and therefore cannot be interpreted in historical, traditional texts.

Go back to the book of Genesis, where Babylon is first mentioned, and we find that a "Tower" was built based on multiethnic pride, and that God struck it down. “As in the days of Noah, so shall the end be.” Cut back to the present situation. We are a nation that leads the world toward global trade in preparation for a world system of democratic governance (“of one mind”) and capitalism (love of money, idolatry) under multiple religions (paganism), as the leader of this trade, with the Twin Towers being the greatest symbols of that trade.

John writes in the book of Revelation that the "harlot woman nation's" judgement begins when "she is struck in one hour with fire", causing her "towers" to be "fallen, fallen (I think that this is a prosaic way of describing the fall of the two buildings)," which begins the outpouring of the 5th bowl of God’s wrath, leading to nations being “burned with the sun”.

NB: The West is referred to in the East as the "great" Satan. The social virtues of community and non-materialism, as well as a deep respect for God is a profound condemnation against the West, which promotes Christianity yet is socially and morally corrupt.

The European Union, though it has expanded from 12 to 15 nations and is about to add more nations, has chosen to keep its unification symbol of a crown of 12 stars. Thus Europe is our crowning achievement of power, our allies, etc. Furthermore, the John writes that this "woman the moon under feet". The sun is symbolic of nuclear arms, being hydrogen explosions, are the same processes as the sun, and reach the same measure of heat. Also, the author if The Revelation writes that “the stars will fall from heaven.” As a means of astronomical physics, this is impossible. But as a source of symbolism, it might refer to nuclear war.

Lastly, God challenges us to strengthen ourselves spiritually, "lest we be corrupted by worship of money and self".

2002-12-08T15:54:00.000-06:00

The Wizard of...Floyd?

Maybe you've heard the rumor by now. Maybe not. The buzz is that the story has been floating around in the cosmos for years now, mostly among Pink Floyd fans. So what is this rumor? According to the legend, the Pink Floyd classic album, Dark Side of the Moon, was written and recorded as an alternate soundtrack to the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz. The age-old rumor was recently resurrected in April by deejay George Taylor Morris at WZLX-FM in Boston. Almost immediately, it touched off a frenzy. "The phones just blew off the wall. It started on a Friday, and that first weekend you couldn't get a copy of 'The Wizard of Oz' anywhere in Boston," he said. "People were staying home to check it out."

Dave Herman at WNEW-FM in New York mentioned the buzz a few weeks ago. The response of more than 2,000 letters was the biggest ever in the deejay's 25-year on-air career. "It has been just unbelievable," said WNEW program director Mark Chernoff. "I've never seen anything like this."

Ridiculous, you say? Perhaps. Coincidence? Maybe. But are the two somehow eerily connected? After recently reading a New York Daily News article, I had to find out for myself. I searched the web to find the most definitive source of information for instructions on setting up the synchronization, and what to look for while the album is played with the film. Then I sat back and waited to have my mind blown.

Well, something was blown, and it definitely wasn't my mind; it was the whole preposterous theory. Maybe I expected too much after all the hype, or maybe I'm just too darned skeptical for my own good. But I really didn't get it. I felt disappointed, let down, and somewhat annoyed knowing that I'd probably have to quickly come up with another subject to cover in the weekly feature that was due today. My significant other, on the other hand, thought the entire thing was amazing. He kept pointing out synchronicities between the music and the movie, but I figured he was just reaching; that he only saw what he wanted to see. He was starting to annoy me, too. Finally after the CD ended, slightly short of halfway through the movie, I turned both off in disgust.

So much for magic and fairytales, and the theory that everything under the sun is connected. "Maybe we should try it again," he suggested, "this time with the TV volume completely turned off." You see, we had kept the volume of the television on low, thinking that we had to follow what was going on in the movie in order to understand the music, too. "If we just try to forget the story itself, and just see this as one long music video for Dark Side of the Moon, maybe it'll make more sense." I figured I had nothing to lose, and could maybe even salvage enough for my feature.

So we cued up the CD and movie again, this time with no sound from the television. I have to admit, this time was a lot better. The similarities were definitely there, even if certain parts did require a stretch of the imagination. One of the most amazing correlations to me was during the tornado scene, when The Great Gig in the Sky was playing on the CD. The female voice seemed to be moaning in perfect harmony with the storm, rising and falling with the action, then fading softly when Dorothy fell to the bed. Other parts are pretty astonishing if you can put aside everything you remember about the plot of the movie itself, and just see it as one long, strange music video. Just the fact that the scene with the scarecrow runs alongside the song Brain Damage is pretty wild. And Money takes on a whimsical tone when you hear it accompanied by the munchkin scene. This first color segment of the movie (which coincidentally begins at the same time as side two of the album) is even more surrealistic and bizarre when you hear that song in the background. Try to imagine, if you can, Lewis Carroll on acid. Alice in Wonderland meets Jefferson Airplane, if you will. Or in this case, Pink Floyd meets the Wizard of Oz.

In conclusion, I can now understand how one might believe that this wasn't just a coincidence; that perhaps Pink Floyd planned it this way all along. It's hard to discount the theory when the album ends with a heartbeat as Dorothy has her ear pressed to the tinman's chest. Still, I can't say that I'm completely convinced yet. Maybe I just have my feet too firmly planted in reality these days and need to spend a little more time in the land of make-believe. But go ahead and give it a whirl - you've got nothing to lose. You'll see what you want to see, and believe what you want to believe. And whatever you decide, coincidence or fact, you'll enjoy this coupling of two of the greatest classics that ever existed.

Complete Synchronicity Instructions

2002-11-19T21:06:00.000-06:00

Bush's War on the Sick and Dying
by Robert Anton Wilson

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. -- United States Constitution, 10th Amendment

As most of you know by now, my [RAW's] photo went all over the country as the first patient to receive medical cannabis from the city officials of Santa Cruz on September 17; I assume the organizers pushed me up front because of my age, my white beard, my wheelchair and my general resemblence to a colorful Gothic ruin.

I've had a lot of experence with civil disobedience, dating back to Vietnam War days, but this occasion seems unique, in that the mayor, the former mayor, the city council and various other local officials participated [not as patients, but as supporters.] In fact, we all acted perfectly in accord with local and state law: Californians voted to legalize medical cannabis by a 55% majority, and Santa Cruz County by a 75% majority. The TSOG (Tsarist Occupation Government), however, has thrown the tenth amendment into the same garbage heap with the first nine. The Bill of Rights exists now only as a historical curiosity, although you can still find it in the back of a good fat dictionary.

I suggest that you check this out by looking into your own dictionary before His Royal Fraudulency George II has this subversive document removed and thrown down the memory hole.

What will Tsarism in America engulf and devour next? Having invaded medicine -- not only in the present case, but in banning stem cell research-- will the TSOG move on physics next and allow the pointy-headed bureaucrats to decide which of the eight theories of quantum mechanics professors may discuss in class? Will they issue dogmas about mathematical set theory? Will they raid Chinese neighborhoods, indefinetly "detaining" those who prefer herbal meds to allopathic ones? Nothing seems impossible: Tsarist governments use a special logic with deuces, eights and one-eyed jacks wild.

I wonder how many of the serfs even remember that the founders intended to create a free country here.

2002-11-11T17:16:00.000-06:00

Ecstasy has Dramatic Effect on Parkinson's Symptoms

Ecstasy is being hailed as the key to better treatments for the Parkinson's disease, marking a complete turnaround from a few weeks ago when ecstasy was condemned for causing the disease. New animal studies have confirmed anecdotal reports that ecstasy can dramatically curb the uncontrollable arm and leg movements that plague so many people with Parkinson's. But the finding may be of little immediate help to sufferers.

The researchers are not calling for patients to be given legal supplies of ecstasy (MDMA). Instead, they want to look for related drugs with the same beneficial effects. And patients are being warned against trying MDMA for themselves. "It's impure, illegal and dangerous," says Robert Meadowcroft, policy director of Britain's Parkinson's Disease Society. Others are calling for further animal studies to establish the effective dose, followed by human trials. "People who are suffering should have the right to decide carefully for themselves whether or not to take MDMA," says American drugs policy campaigner Rick Doblin. His organisation, MAPS, recently won approval from the Food and Drug Administration for a human trial of ecstasy for treating post-traumatic stress disorder.

Regaining Control

The latest study was prompted by the experiences of a former stuntman, Tim Lawrence. He made headlines when he claimed in a BBC TV documentary that "E" enabled him to regain control of his body for hours at a time. Parkinson's experts at the University of Manchester decided to test Lawrence's claims. Concerns about the dangers of MDMA ruled out human trials, says team member Jonathan Brotchie, who now runs Manchester-based biotech company Motac. So the researchers turned to marmosets with a form of the disease.

Parkinson's is caused by a loss of the dopamine-producing cells in the brain. Symptoms include rigidity and a shuffling gait. Since the late 1960s doctors have treated it with L-dopa, a chemical precursor to dopamine that can "unfreeze" patients. The downside is that patients develop uncontrollable movements after taking L-dopa for a while. Their condition tends to oscillates between flailing limbs while on the drug and immobility off it.

To mimic Parkinson's, they gave six marmosets a chemical that kills dopamine neurons. Then, over the next few months, the monkeys had daily doses of L-dopa until they developed the usual side effect of uncontrolled movements. At this point the animals were given MDMA.

Dramatic Effects

The effects were dramatic. Normally, monkeys on L-dopa move their arms and legs around in a repetitive and uncontrolled way virtually all the time. But in the six hours after a dose of MDMA, these movements happened no more than 15 per cent of the time. MDMA somehow reduces the debilitating side effects of L-dopa without blocking its beneficial effects.

"The magnitude and quality of the effect took us by surprise," says Brotchie, whose team's findings were unveiled this week at the conference of the Society for Neuroscience in Florida. "It was always possible that Tim's response to ecstasy was unusual."

The researchers suspect the finding reflects MDMA's ability to stimulate the release of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain. That might make up for a lack of serotonin caused by taking L-dopa for prolonged periods, says Brotchie. However, there are fears that MDMA can damage serotonin-producing cells. And last month the journal Science published a paper claiming that MDMA can actually cause the type of damage to dopamine cells that can lead to Parkinson's. But the evidence was far from conclusive.

2002-10-02T17:05:00.000-05:00

"YOU ARE EITHER WITH US, OR YOU ARE FIRED!"
(Copied from a recent Michael Moore newsletter)
Dear Friends,

I was going to write you a letter about what a pathetic liar George W, Bush is -- but then I figured, hey, why waste your time telling you something you already know!

You already know that his planned invasion of Iraq is a ruse meant to distract the public from the real issues, those issues being the following:

1. The number of people unemployed since he "took" office has risen by 35%.

2. We had a federal SURPLUS of $281 billion when he was inaugurated; today we have a DEFICIT of $157 billion.

3. TWO MILLION jobs have been eliminated since Bush began his occupation of the Oval Office.

4. The stock market is down 34% since January of 2001.

5. Another 1.4 million people now have NO health insurance, making it a total of over 41 million Americans who can't afford to get sick.

6. Only 13 corporate crooks out of HUNDREDS have been indicted, and none of them have been the close personal friends of Mr. Bush.

THOSE are the real issues facing us, not some phony excuse for a war.

But, like I said, you already know that. You know that Bush is lying through his smirk when he says Iraq has "weapons of mass destruction." He has not offered one shred of evidence to prove this. Not one! You know he is lying when he says that there is a "connection" between Saddam and bin Laden. Even members of his own administration have admitted that is not true. It's just one lie after another, and I applaud those three congressmen who went to Iraq this week and told it like it is -- and
demanded that the sanctions which have already killed a half-million Iraqi children be ended. Sen. Trent Lott said "they should come home and keep their mouths shut." I say, we need more damn Democrats with that kind of courage and with mouths like that!

Which brings me to the real point of this letter. The Democrats.

I have never seen a more lame bunch of cowards and appeasers in my life.
They are ready to bow down before Bush and give him what he wants to wage war against Iraq. This pathetic excuse of a party is an embarrassment to us all. The fact that they let Robert Torricelli run for re-election in New Jersey, knowing how dirty he was, shows just how capable they are of handing the Senate over to Bush and the Republicans come November. They have blown it over and over again, and lots of good people I know who keep putting their faith in the Democrats are just giving up -- and that is the worst thing to happen in a free society.

What are we going to do? Left to their own devices, the Democrats will not only hand both the House and the Senate to the Republicans in November, they will guarantee that Bush gets his second undeserved term in 2004. We must not let that happen. This year's election was theirs for the taking.

Just look at the state of the union Bush gave us: Bush cronies caught stealing from the corporate till, Bush and Cheney caught breaking the law in the '90s, the economy in the toilet, and Bush failing to do the only real job he had to do since 9/11: Get bin Laden! What a disgrace! Yet the Democrats could not even find enough candidates to offer a REAL challenge to the Republicans in nearly 200 House districts for the November 5th elections. What an appalling excuse of a party.

OK, I know, there is not much we can do about this now. But we all need to get busy and ensure that this whole rotten system is rocked by the disgruntled millions come election day 2004. Otherwise, we have no right to complain.

In the meantime, we must stop the Bush attack on Iraq. We must find out now, as W says, "who is wid us and who is agin us." I am asking each of you to please sign the petition I have posted here and on my website informing the Democrats that whoever amongst them votes for this war, we pledge NEVER to vote for them again. I will personally see that your on-line signatures are delivered to every member of Congress. I guarantee your voice will be heard loud and clear.

Sign the petition to the Democrats: "You're Either With Us Or You're Fired." Then let's figure out together what we can do to turn things around by 2004.

Thanks for taking the time to do this. We have no other choice.

Yours,
Michael Moore

2002-09-21T21:47:00.000-05:00

There's Somethin' Happenin' Here

"Being Beat & Creation. Beat means the absence of ambition directed towards the accumulation of wealth. Practically everyone spends their days in active pursuit of wealth. Those few who ignore this trend are given a special grace, the freedom from the mindfuck which enables them to Create & receive the Joy."
---Ron Rice, underground filmmaker

Authenticity. A perfect word to explain a central value for which those in counterculture movements are searching. It was used to describe the yearning of the Beats and Hippies and now 21st-century Battle of Seattle Anarchos, but the same desire was shared by, say, American Transcendentalists of the 19th-century, Thoreau or Emerson. As humans have "progressed" via industrialization, computerization and other technological developments, the simpler delights of existence become outmoded in our haste for the profits that are the engine of the alleged progress.

What whiny malcontented dissidents--such as myself--argue is that an increased proliferation of true justice (read fairness) and a considerable shift away from war for profit and man-made suffering are also what constitute progress. Regrettably, these concepts aren't given a higher priority than the development of a smarter missile by the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderbergers, the NSA, Alan Greenspan, the Council on Foreign Relations, Bill Gates or the rest in the apocalyptic rush to create a New World Order. Isn't anyone else tired of the relentless technocracy and greed and a slavish work ethic and the hierarchy of bullies who have diminished our relationship to our own--as well as each other's--hearts, in favor of making and spending money?

2002-09-15T18:04:00.000-05:00

Technopoly Conspiracy

Technopoly represents a modern-day spin on the Synarchie, Frechman's Jean Coutrot's 1930s secret society whose goal was a faceless bureacracy based on hierarchy and specialization of function. Today's Synarchie is an infromation age of faceless computocracies and microserfs run by Bill Gates and a few other Synarchial meglomaniacs and builders of the information technology, smart weapons technology, and the Internet. Technopoly, in the words of social critic Neil Postman from his book Technopoly, is when "culture seeks its authorization in technology....This requires the development of a new kind of social order...those who feel most comfortable in Technopoly are those who are convinced that technical progress is humanity's supreme achievement and the instrument by which our most profound dilemmas may be solved."

Bill Gates

Megalomaniacal software-computer control-freak geek-tycoon, co-founder, and CEO of Microsoft, whose allegedly predatory and monopolistic business practices have made him the richest nerd in the world and landed Microsoft in various antitrust suits. (Microsoft controls nearly 80% of the world's PCs and is a sponsor-investor of the MIT Media Lab, among many, many other technocracy friendly endeavors.) Gates is now also suspected of being the modern-day incarnation of Illuminiati founder Adam Weishaupt. After all, Bill Gates, goes the theory, is the name of a magical character in the Aleister Crowley book Moonchild, and German Illuminati members address one another by the abbreviated form B (for Bavarian) Ill (uminati), or just plain Bill for short; and "Gates" is but an acronym of the Germanic spelling of the American Illuminatis' lodge, the Geheime Amerikanische Tochtergenossenschaft der Erleuchteten Seher.

2002-09-15T16:09:00.000-05:00

Bilderbergers

Held every year since 1954, when it was founded in Oosterbeck, Holland's Biderberger Hotel, by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and Joseph Retinger, a 33rd-degree Freemason and Jesuit priest, this highly secretive three-day gathering of Europe and America's most influential politcos and wealthiest business leaders (not all of whom are Jewish, by any means) consists of networking and meetings on how to run the world better and make even more money doing so, i. e., make it more conducive to free-market capitalism. Critics claim the group manipulates global finances and establishes rigid and binding international monetary rates. The idea of the European Common Market was nurtured at the Bilderberg, as was GATT, and at the 1972 gathering, attendees hand-picked Jimmy Carter as the 1976 presidential candidate and even supplied him with list of names of people who would fill his cabinet. The Bilderbergers have a huge crossover of membership with other global power councils, such as the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Trilateral Commission--in fact, the idea of the Trilateral Commission was first proposed by Bilderberger leader David Rockefeller at one of the group's annual meetings.

2002-09-14T22:08:00.000-05:00

That would be John Fitzgerald...Lincoln?

The names Lincoln and Kennedy both have seven letters.
The names of their assassins Lee Harvey Oswald and John Wilkes Booth both have fifteen letters.
Their respective successor vice presidents: Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson, was born in 1808; Kennedy's, Lyndon Baines Johnson, was born in 1908.
Lincoln's secretary's name at the time of the assassination was Kennedy, and Kennedy's secretary's name was Lincoln.
Both Kennedy and Lincoln were involved in messy wars, and both supported the rights of blacks.

When I was twelve, I purchased this info from one of those ubiquitous $0.25 vending machines typically found in the entrance of most grocery stores. Weird!

2002-09-10T20:50:00.000-05:00

Retooled Doors find new magic in old hits before revved-up fans at Harley fest.

Read the LA Times' review of the Sept. 6 reunion concert. Another review from September 6th, 21st Century Doors concert AND Pictures from the show!

Find tickets to the September 29th show in Toronto, here!

2002-08-18T22:03:00.000-05:00

US adviser warns of Armageddon

2002-08-03T15:38:00.000-05:00

See my CD collection!!

2002-07-29T21:10:00.000-05:00

THE LORD'S PRAYER
From the song Sheep by R. Waters

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD i SHALL NOT WANT
HE MAKES ME DOWN TO LIE
THROUGH PASTURES GREEN HE LEADETH ME THE SILENT WATERS BY.
WITH BRIGHT KNIVES HE RELEASETH MY SOUL
HE MAKETH ME TO HANG ON HOOKS IN HIGH PLACES.
HE CONVERTETH ME TO LAMB CUTLETS.
FOR LO, HE HATH GREAT POWER AND GREAT HUNGER.
WHEN COMETH THE DAY WE LOWLY ONES,
THROUGH QUIET REFLECTION AND GREAT DEDICATION,
MASTER THE ART OF KARATE.
LO, WE SHALL RISE UP,
AND THEN WE'LL MAKE THE BUGGER'S EYES WATER.

2002-07-28T13:30:00.000-05:00

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE LIZARD KING

James Douglas Morrison was born on 8 December 1943, at 11:55 am, in Melbourne, on Florida's east coast, the first child of George Stephen Morrison and Clara Clark Morrison, a career Navy couple. His astrological chart makes him Sagittarius, Aquarius rising, Moon in Taurus, Venus in Scorpio; he was followed by a sister, Anne, and a brother, Andrew.

After spending his formative years as a Navy brat, emerging with all the usual emotional problems appertaining thereto, he attended St. Petersburg Junior College and Florida State University, finishing his academic career at UCLA in 1965, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a major in film.

In the summer of that year, he began the only gainful employment he was ever to have -- a singing job with a band called The Doors. He remained with them until March 1971, when he went to Paris, intending to return in the fall to join his handfasted wife, Patricia, in New York, where he was planning to record a solo album.

The way I see it, in the early morning of 3 July 1971, Pamela Courson, a girlfriend and heroin addict, gave Morrison what was to prove a fatal dosage of her own smack -- a drug he hated, and would never on his own account have used -- watched while he vomited blood, and then herself fell asleep in a drug-induced stupor, leaving him to die bleeding in a bathtub.

When she finally awoke at dawn to find him, a long delay followed, while the non-French-speaking Courson phoned various friends to get them to summon emergency assistance for Jim -- even, by her own later statement to police, violently striking him several times, presumably in an attempt to revive him; but when the police and the firefighters (who respond to emergency calls in Paris) finally arrived it was too late by hours, not minutes, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Following his death, Morrison's body, packed in ice and wrapped in plastic, was at Courson's insistence ("I'd like to keep Jim that way forever") left in the apartment until the morning of Wednesday, 7 July, when he was at last hastily and secretively interred at Paris's Cimetière de l'Est, popularly known as Père-Lachaise. According to invoices, Courson buried him in a seventy-five-dollar coffin (366 francs), his entire funeral costing less than two hundred dollars (878 francs).

Eyewitnesses -- strangers -- have gone on record that the interment lasted less than eight minutes; the five attendees did not wear black, gave Morrison no service or respectful ceremony, and conducted themselves with gross inappropriateness. Courson was quickly spirited out of France to avoid further inquiry into her involvement in Morrison's death or possible arrest on drug or murder/manslaughter charges, and returned to California. After spending some time in Marin County, north of San Francisco, she went back to Los Angeles, and following a career as a prostitute died of a heroin overdose in April 1974.

Morrison had a long-term, on-again/off-again relationship with Courson, and lesser relationships with numerous other women, but the only woman with whom he ever exchanged wedding vows is Patricia Kennealy Morrison, the author of a very successful series of science fiction books called THE KELTIAD, the first (The Copper Crown) and most recent of which (Blackmantle) are both dedicated to her dead mate. Additionally, she wrote a memoir of her time with him called Strange Days: My Life With and Without Jim Morrison, which if perhaps not the most objective of the books written about him is certainly the best written and arguably the most moving.

He was the author, in his own lifetime, of The Lords, The New Creatures and An American Prayer; after his death, two more volumes of poetry were "edited" and published by the parents of Pamela Courson, who inherited his estate when their daughter, to whom he had left everything in an unrevised 1968 will, died intestate.

In 1991 he was the victim of an alleged biopic called, incorrectly on all counts, "The Doors," directed by one Oliver Stone, and in the years since his death has been subjected to a number of badly written and demonstrably factually incorrect biographies.

Morrison's grave quickly became a pilgrimage site for deranged vandals of all nationalities; calling themselves "fans," they litter the consecrated ground with their trash, deface the tomb of their supposed idol (and all the tombs surrounding) with disgusting graffiti, and even attempt to desecrate his remains by breaking into his grave.

It is believed that his parents, Admiral and Mrs. George S. Morrison, whom he had claimed in interviews were dead, and who took the Coursons to court, claiming rights to their long-estranged son's estate, must remove him from Père-Lachaise by the year 2004 at the latest, because of lawsuits and objections lodged by the families of those buried nearby.

Patricia Morrison has publicly voiced her wish (which was also Jim's wish) to have his remains cremated and his ashes scattered, so that this sort of disgraceful behavior is not repeated elsewhere and he might be safe at last from the dreadful threat of graverobbers; but she despairs of this ever happening.

2002-07-11T19:55:00.000-05:00

[The interview that follows was originally published in CREEM in November 1969.]
THE WALRUS WAS PAUL?

CREEM
November 1969

by Deday LaRene

Detroit is known for automobile factories, Greenfield Village, Grosse Pointe, Motown Records, sewage, Zug Island, drag racing, race riots, Bob-lo, salt mines, air pollution, Walter Reuther, pizza, Vernor’s ginger ale, Henry Ford, coney island hamburgers, bad teeth, the GM Tech Center, two-headed dogs, the Lions, the Tigers, the Red Wings, the Pistons, the MC5, blind pigs, cheap statues, and now, The Great Paul McCartney Death Hoax.

Russ Gibb was doing his weekend radio show in WKNR-FM on Sunday, October 14, when "Some kid from Eastern Michigan University called and asked very simply, what did I think of the story that Paul McCartney was dead. I said ridiculous, no such thing, we’d know about it, the media is right there all the time and obviously you couldn’t hide something like Paul McCartney’s death." A reasonable response, one would think. But the kid asked Russ to play Revolutions No. 9 backwards and see what he thought. When the phrase "number nine," which is repeated sonorously over and over throughout that cut, is played backwards, it sounds a lot like "turn me on, dead man." Hearing that, a seed of doubt was planted.

Of course, without more, there’s really nothing in that "turn me on, dead man" to suggest that Paul McCartney is the dead man referred to, that the dead man is any of The Beatles, that it’s a real dead man they’re talking about, or that there’s any significance to the aural phenomenon at all. After all, if you played a recording of someone speaking the word "dog" backwards, you’d get something that sounds as much like "god" as "number nine" played backwards sounds like "turn me on, dead man." Depending on the accent of the speaker, of course. (Has anyone out there tried playing Rufus Thomas’ Walking The Dog backwards? There may be more to that record than meets the eye/ear).

But the idea of Paul McCartney being secretly dead was too macabre, too bizarre, too ridiculous, therefore too appealing to go no further. For the next few days, WKNR’s switchboard was jammed with calls from people who had unearthed new clues supposedly pointing to Paul’s death.

"I was listening to Russ’ show on the way to this Oakland Community College number that I was supposed to emcee, and I heard this kid, kid named Tom or something, telling Russ to play "number nine" backwards. And Russ did, and I heard it, briefly, and I heard this thing evolve on his show, with a lot of kids calling, the excitement and the weirdness, and Russ was totally freaked. I got home and John Small called me and asked me what I thought of it. I said ‘pretty strange,’ and he said yeah, and that’s as far as it went. The next morning about eight o’clock he calls me again and says that he and Russ were up most of the night, that Russ was pretty freaked, and that we should look into this when I get into the station." Dan Carlisle, WKNR-FM disc jockey.

"I vascillated back and forth from thinking he was really dead to the fact that he was playing a game of being symbolically dead," says Gibb. On Monday, KNR had to call in two extra people to man the switchboard. Gibb, Carlisle and Small waited to see if it would cool down, but instead it kept growing, and by Wednesday they decided they ought to get something together.

The decision was in large part the responsibility of John Small, WKNR-FM program director. "At first I got the impression that everybody thought it was a joke." But as he got more involved in the matter, things began to assume a new seriousness. All the WKNR people seem to feel that they did no more than respond to public demand. The kids, it turned out, were taking it seriously, and in one way or another they found themselves taking it seriously themselves.

DEEPER AND DEEPER INTO THE BIZARRE

On Monday, a University of Michigan student and Paul Krassner fan named Fred LaBour started to write a review of Abbey Road for the school newspaper, the Michigan Daily, but he had heard Gibb’s show on Sunday and was taken with the idea of a Beatle Mystery. So instead of writing a review of Abbey Road, he fabricated a fantastic plot which he attributed to The Beatles. Paul, he said, had left the EMI studios one night early in November, 1966, to be found four hours later "pinned under his car in a culvert with the top of his head sheared off." He then went on to outline succeeding events in impressive detail.

"When word of Paul’s untimely demise was flashed back to the studios," he wrote, "the surviving Beatles, in a hurriedly called conference with George Martin decided to keep the information from the public for as long as possible. As John Lennon reportedly said, "Paul always likes a good joke," and it seemed that they considered the move an attempt to make the best out of a bad situation." George supposedly did the burying. Ringo conducted the services, and John went into seclusion for three days. "After his meditation," LaBour explained, "Lennon called another meeting of the group, again with George Martin, and laid the groundwork for the ensuing hoax. Lennon’s plan was to create a false Paul McCartney, bring him into the group as if nothing had happened, and then slowly release the information of the real Paul’s death to the world via clues secreted in record albums."

At this point, LaBour’s article started to take a macabre turn. "Brian Epstein," he wrote, "was informed of the group’s plan, threatened to expose it all, and mysteriously died, leaving five men who knew of the plot."

The story was that through a lookalike contest, someone named William Campbell was found to be the new Paul. According to LaBour, there’s a picture of him–pre-coaching and minor plastic surgery–on the foldout sheet that came with the double album. Campbell was easily introduced, he explained, because Paul lived in the homosexual half-world and had few close friends. So when Jane Asher was hired to play the girlfriend, there was no real girl or other friend to expose the ruse. Whew.

Even stranger was LaBour’s assertion that the hoax began to assume an "essentially religious nature" in the minds of the plotters. With John masterminding the enterprise, which was supposedly no less than the founding of a new religion with Paul as Messiah, resurrected by John to propagate an order of "beauty, humor, love, realism, objectivity. It is a religion for everyday life." On the cover of Abbey Road the risen Paul, still dressed as a corpse in business suit and without shoes or socks, is led from the cemetery by John the anthropomorphic God, and his friends. "The real Paul is still dead, of course," wrote LaBour, "but his symbolic resurrection works fine without him." The gospel, you will note, is the entire second side of Abbey Road.

LaBour peppered his article with clues from Beatles albums, some of which he had heard suggested on Gibb’s show, some of which he discovered himself. None of them really go to confirm the actual workings of the plot he outlined, but are presented as its manifestations. Similarly, all the clue hunting that went on that week had as its end the finding of manifestations of a premise, rather than the discovery of whether or not a hypothesis was in fact correct. So where one aspect of a larger phenomenon could be construed as pointing to the death, it was seized out of context, whether or not it was consistant with the thrust of the larger thing of which it was a part. Keep that in mind as we wander through the elaborate sand castle constructed by the death theorists.

A SLEW OF CLUES

Drawing from LaBour’s article, listener phone calls, and their own investigations, Gibb, Carlisle and Small put together a two hour documentary that was aired the following Sunday night. They divided the presentation of their case into three parts: visual clues, aural clues, and supporting analysis of human phenomena uncovered by their inquiry.

They started with Yesterday and Today. On the cover, Paul sits in a trunk which stands open on one end. Turn the album sideways, they recommended, and it looks like he’s (sort of) lying in a coffin. Also, here’s the first appearance (reported) of the much-mooted Death Hand Sign. Ringo’s hand is resting on the top of the trunk, so that in effect it is held palm down over Paul’s head. This, they learned from a professor of Eastern culture, is a mystical symbol of death or dying. Another professor noted that it is a sign of blessing, buy anyway it’s one of the constants in the search for Paul’s death.

Moving on to Revolver, they noted the pen and ink artwork by Klaus Voorman in which three of The Beatles look forward, while Paul looks away. John eyes Paul suspiciously, and on the back of the jacket Paul is less clearly defined than the other three. Not much yet, but with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band things really start to turn up.

The grave. The guitar in flowers, it was decided, was a left handed bass (well, it does have three strings); looked at another way, it spells Paul; less elaborately, it is the initial P. The bust on the grave is a minister; a doll representing Shiva, the destroyer, dissolution. Paul himself. Taller, a hand extending over his head from the crowd in back. On the inside of the jacket a moustache obscures a previously apparant scar and generally makes comparison with the "real" Paul more difficult. The braid he wears is apparantly dark edged, he wears a medal supposedly commemorating death, and the patch on his left arm reads "O.P.D.," "Officially Pronounced Dead." On the back cover Paul has his back turned, while the others face forward, and George points to a line in A Day In The Life that goes "Wednesday morning at five o’clock," the supposed time of Paul’s accident.

(An interesting sidelight to this whole affair also centers around Wednesday morning at five o’clock, The Beatle myth that immediately preceded the death ruse also involved Paul, who has supposedly left the group sometimes between Revolver and Sgt. Pepper, and is now living on an island paradise. If you were to call Billy Shears in London, whose number is spelled out by the stars in the word "Beatles" on the front of Magical Mystery Tour, at five a.m. Wednesday, and say - get this–"turn me on, dead me," you would get a one-way ticket to Paul’s island. People who tried calling this number, or checked it with London information to see to whom it was listed, found that a Billy Shears was involved somewhere, whose name was familiar to London operators and who only accepted calls from the States at certain times. The number has been changed, though, and the only people who ever claimed to have gotten through are not now available for comment. Many of the "clues" involved in this fantasy were used interchangeably by the death theorists, but in this business ambiguity is no liability at all. I kind of like the paradise island story better, though.)

Magical Mystery Tour gave the investigators twenty four pages of pictures to play with, and they went to work with a vengence. The cover shows three white animals and one black one, a walrus, whose arms are spread in a crucifixion pose: and "we know from Glass Onion that ‘the walrus was Paul’," don’t we? Walrus, it was also learned, is Greek for "corpse." Mmmmmmmmmm. And the predominant walrus teeth were vaguely connected with Paul’s supposed head injury. Page five, where the walrus is seen playing the piano while a white hippo plays Paul’s customary bass, didn’t throw the theorists. They explained simply that the hippo is not Paul, but is holding Paul’s axe, a clue in itself. (My mistake here is perhaps in looking for internal consistency: Glass Onion can stand on its own, establishing no more than that Paul really is what the walrus seemed to be: crucified, a corpse. It’s not necessary that Paul actually was the walrus, and Glass Onion can by saying only "well, pretend that the Walrus actually was Paul; do you understand now?" I hate to give aid and comfort, but this construction has an irresistible obtuseness that I had to set out.)

Once inside the cover, clues abound. On page two, George plays a sinister death figure that keeps appearing. Hands over Paul’s head again; in this picture alone there are two. On page three, Paul playing army recruiter, with lip scar and eyebrow line unlike any other picture of Paul. And the sign on the desk: "I YOU WAS." On page four, Paul holds a writing stick in his right hand; Paul is left handed. Page five shows four policemen guarding a fantasy involving a line of surgeons, a black walrus playing a white, operating table-like piano, and, as already mentioned, Paul’s bass being played by another. Page six has John in disguise in front of a sign which reads "the best way to go is by M&D coach." It was suggested that M&D might mean M.D. or the like. On page ten, Paul wears black trousers and no shoes, which is the way corpses are dressed for burial. Also, the moustache is gone and no scar is visible on his lip. On page thirteen, Paul is again pictured shoeless, while empty shoes turn up next to Ringo’s drums. Empty shoes, we are told, were a Greek symbol of death. Page twenty shows three Beatles wearing red carnations, while Paul’s boutonierre is black, and on page twenty four Paul is again pictured with arms raised and a hand over his head.

The double album, The Beatles, is sleeved in pure white, which somehow reflects on the nature of the plot, and the fold-out contained within was discovered to contain a wealth of clues. The picture of Paul in a bathtub "might well indicate a brain splatter." The moustached death figure is back, and Paul’s head is cut off in one picture, as it was in his death. Toward the lower right hand corner, a pair of ghostly hands appear to reach out for Paul as he plays. Hands are raised, faces are distorted, there is a welter of confusion.

The cover of Abbey Road brings the visual aspect of the inquiry to a peak, with the symbolic resurrection. John as savior in white, leading Ringo the undertaker, Paul the corpse, dressed in business suit and shoeless, out of step and carrying a cigarette in his right hand, and George the gravedigger. They are leaving a cemetery and heading in the direction of Paul’s house. The white Volkswagen bears the license number 281F, and if Paul had lived, he would have been 28 this year. A police ambulance (?) is on the other side of the street. Is this the road to the Abbey? Where.

BACKWARDS INTO THE OZONE

The whole thing started with "number nine" played backwards, and the idea of tampering with recordings was so intriguing that by the time they were ready to produce their program, the WKNR investigators had received a good deal of help from technology oriented listeners in reversing, phrasing, isolating, patching, boosting, interpreting and doing all manner of strange and wonderful things to Beatle music, all aimed at uncovering more of this heady stuff. Of course, they didn’t do so bad on their own.

Attention centered on 'Revolution 9', where it all started. Gibb, Small and Carlisle presented the following transcription of the mélange toward the end of that cut: He hit a light pole; we’d better get him to see a surgeon. (A scream) So anyhow, he went to see a dentist, who gave him a pair of teeth that weren’t any good at all. (A car horn) My wings are broken and so is my hair. I’m not in the mood for words. (Gurgling. Sounds of war) Find the night watchman. (Something about a suit) It must be a louse. A fine natural imbalance. Must have got it between the shoulderblades. The twist. The Watusi. Eldorado. "Take this, brother, may it serve you well," says John. Well, OK.

At the end of I Am The Walrus is a passage from King Lear, taped, according to Beatles Press Officer Derek Taylor, off a radio play, replete with references to burial and untimely death. According to LaBour, this is recorded simultaneously with the announcement of Paul’s death which was never broadcast, but investigation did not disclose same. At the end of Strawberry Fields Forever is a passage which, when played at 45 rpm, sounds like "I buried Paul."

'Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da', put on one track, equalized and played backwards can sound like "hahaha I think we did it." Your Mother Should Know, backwards and rephrased, through creative listening, comes out as: "why, why doesn’t she know me/I shed the light/why doesn’t she know me/dead/why doesn’t she know me/dead/I shed the light/why don’t they ask my mind/I don’t know why/why doesn’t she know more/if I shed the light." Getting further and further out, more abstruse, more surreal. Hey, Popular Science, can you dig it? Blue Jay Way, also done to a turn: "find me/find me my body/please God, please/find my body/find me/find me." Comments the creative young engineer: "it’s like a chant; the resurrection, y’know?"

The clues contained in lyrics when played forward are many but fragmentary. From the foolish (deathlike?) grin of The Fool On The Hill to John struggling with Paul’s body on I Want You (She’s So Heavy) (Paul was gay, remember?), the automobile accident passage in A Day In The Life, John beseeching Paul (who, according to a rumor started by LaBour and since accepted as fact, was called Prudence since the days of the Nurk Twins) to "come out and play." You can find references in virtually every song which can be made to correspond with death. Or with sleep, or bowling, or mashed potato eating. This part can be left to the creative reader’s imagination.

WHO SAYS WHAT

Astrological charts were consulted, rationalized, reported. Stevie Winwood was called; he verbally shrugged, stammered, demurred. Eric Clapton got out record jackets and puzzled. Derek Taylor denied all: "They’re not as subtle as you suppose." Rationalized: "We cannot see the symbolism, because there is none. Because we live far more spontaneously than anyone supposes. What you have here are four Beatles who are acting their lives out in a spontaneous way and having read into that acting out something that isn’t there."

Would Paul care to make a statement to WKNR about his death? Said Taylor: "It would certainly be great to have a tape of Paul saying he’s not dead, but it gets very grotesque. If people don’t believe that the man who married Linda, or the man who sang Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, or the man who’s on the Abbey Road cover is Paul, who’s going to believe that his voice on the air is Paul?" More people than you might think, Derek. Two days later, Gibb received a phone call from London from someone who identified himself as Paul McCartney. For half an hour the caller very brusquely explained that he was alive, that none of the supposed clues meant anything like what WKNR was saying they did (that their were no clues at all), and that he resented what he thought to be a cheap publicity stunt. When asked whether the conversation, which was taped, could be broadcast, he answered rather angrily that WKNR had reaped enough benefits from the hoax already, and that an exclusive Paul McCartney interview would not be added thereto. The tape was, however, turned over to a voiceprint specialist, Oscar Tossi of MSU, who stated that he was pretty sure it was really Paul on the phone. But a phone call to Derek Taylor brought yet another denial. Paul, it seems, was in Scotland when the call was made from London, and so it couldn’t possibly have been he. On the other hand, McCartney’s secretary said that Paul did make the call. The answer to that was that one of Paul’s assistants, after a "trying day," decided to have a bit of a joke and put the colonials in their place at the same time. Well….

WKNR finally obtained an interview with John Lennon (though not through Russ Gibb, who went to England and spent some time hanging around Apple, but never got to talk to John)–or with someone who looked, sounded, acted and smelled like John Lennon–who dismissed the possibility of Paul’s death with: "It’s a joke, isn’t it? Paul isn’t dead: if he were, we would have told you. I don’t understand at all." He couldn’t comment on the clues, because "I’ll tell you, I’m not aware of any of them; I only read about them this morning in the paper and I can’t remember them. If you play anything backwards you’re gonna get a different connotation because it’s backwards. I’ve got no idea what Beatles records sound like backwards; I never play ’em backwards." He claimed not to think of himself as Christ-like, or Paul’s appearance on the Abbey Road cover as corpse-like: It’s the most stupid rumor I’ve ever heard. Sounds like the same guy that blew up my Christ remark, where the remark had been out for six months in England before anybody said anything about it, and this guy just blew it all up. Paul walks barefoot across the road because Paul’s idea of being different is to look almost straight, but have one ear painted blue; something a little subtle. We all were a bit like that. We used to go on stage with, say, one polythene bag on one foot, and nobody might notice it. Just us would be laughin’. So Paul, he decided to be barefoot that day, walkin’ across the road, but when you first glance at the album it looks like four Beatles or whatever fully dressed."

WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT

WKNR’s presentation was done on thirty six reels of tape, edited down to two hours by John Small, broadcast once, updated, and broadcast again a week later. After the first show, according to Carlisle, "we thought that was it, we had done our number and it would cool off. That was a week after the whole thing started on Russ’ show. But we had forgotten that that Monday, a week later than we had started working on it, it was like the next day to the rest of the world that was just getting the story. So it was reaching epidemic proportions in the rest of the country, while it was just cooling off here. So then we were caught up in that, and we had to go through that whole number again with the rest of the country."

Time magazine, which has something to do with the rest of the country, called just as they were going to press, on information from the Detroit Free Press’ Mike Gormley. They published a short, garbled account of what was going down in Detroit. Life Magazine was there the night of the first broadcast, and a story appears this week, including (of course) new and exclusive pictures of Paul, whereby it is hopefully demonstrated that reports of his death have been grossly exaggerated.

Meanwhile, sales of Beatles albums are, as they say, booming. "Almost instantaneously after Russ got the initial calls, and the pyramid began on Sunday," says Tom Gelardi of Capitol Records, "the E.J. Korvette chain, who probably are the best barometer in the Detroit area of record sales and movement, by Monday or Tuesday were wiped out of Beatle product. It was significant not only because of the fantastic sales of Beatle catalog (past releases), but also because of kids opening packages that were sealed and examining covers for maybe a half hour before buying the package. And it has developed off the last few weeks in sale of Beatle product, particularly their catalog, like we have not experienced since the group has been in existence and had a catalog of any consequence. As the newspapers and radio stations in individual cities pick it up, the record sales do the same thing that’s happened here." Picture thousands of kids, all over the country, spending hours in record stores, passing up comic books and haircuts to buy these collector’s items, taking them home and ruining their record players trying to play them backwards, trying to figure out some new way in which Paul can be officially pronounced dead.

Of course, the point that Gibb, Carlisle and Small are most insistent about driving home is that they never actually said that Paul McCartney was dead. Rather, they point out, they have suggested that that message is contained in Beatle artifacts, and that the conclusions that can be drawn therefrom are variable. Says Carlisle: "I think it’s obvious that The Beatles were doing a riff on the people and we caught them before they were ready to tell us about it. And they’re trying to keep us off. They’ve been victims of rumors for years, and they’ve always ignored them; this one they’re not ignoring. We noticed that on Magical Mystery Tour they got outrageous with their clues, and they sort of hung back and then came out again. They underestimated the public. They underestimated people in the media who were trained from Meet The Beatles to understand The Beatles. We just got so deep into them we became like one of their minds." He does not believe that Paul is dead, but rather that The Beatles have been pretending that he is and had set next Easter as the date for the denuement of their hoax. What the denuement might be, he’s not sure, but there seem to be only two possibilities: that they would "resurrect" Paul from his paper and vinyl grave, or join him in it.

Small and Gibb for the most part agree. "Either they’re milking us," says Small, "they’re milking the press, they’re milking the public, or there’s something desperately wrong. There’s still the possibility that Paul really is dead; I’m vacillating back and forth. There’s just too much incongruity to the story. Listening and talking to Derek Taylor, phony Paul McCartneys, the availability of Lennon, Ringo, and Harrison–it’s just unprecedented in terms of media people like ourselves getting to them. They were just not available, and now all of a sudden they’re so congenial. Something smells yet."

"I think that Paul McCartney is alive," says Gibb. "I think that The Beatles have gotten themselves involved in a charlatan game. I feel that they have been hot and cold on this game, and that what started out as the rebuttal to John’s comment about The Beatles being more popular than Christ started John thinking, and he rapped this out with the other fellas, and they proceeded to play the game. I think that in the near future we will see a resurrection of Paul McCartney. I think that we’ve blown their cover a little bit early, but there is still some kind of conspiracy, in a gentle sort of way, to put the world on."

Whether or not that’s right, the fact that the hoax, whoever originated it, can work the way it has, says a good deal about what it means to be a culture hero in the USA. The thing that struck me most about the people that took the possibility of Paul’s being dead most seriously was the glee with which they went about proving their case. The young engineers who recited a supposed dirge with what was obviously great satisfaction at having dredged it out of its surrounding electronic complexities, for example. The callowness with which the matter of the death of a human being was approached was incredible, and on the part of those who didn’t relate to is as just a macabre Beatle joke can only be explained by saying that the people didn’t think they were dealing with a human being. Paul McCartney was never real to them, so his death couldn’t be approached the way you would approach the death of a real person.

I can’t blame this depersonalization on The Beatles’ withdrawing themselves from their public, because it was other manifestations of the same phenomenon of depersonalization which brought them to take that step. If you think of Paul McCartney as a human being, you don’t jump him on the street in order to touch him, to get a piece of his clothing or his hair. You only do that to objects. But The Beatles aren’t objects, and it was to escape the physical and mental effects of being so treated that they stopped touring. They’re still not thought of as human beings, but at least now they don’t have to spend three months at a time sitting around in hotel rooms, afraid to go out for fear of being torn apart like so many Barbie dolls in a rush of pre-adolescent enthusiasm for a new toy.

I think that the death hoax is purely a figment of the public’s imagination; I don’t believe there was ever a plot on the part of The Beatles to propagate any such story. But if there was, the point has been made. The Beatles are human beings who are thought of as objects, as outlets for the unsatisfied needs of millions of people. Ironically, Russ Gibb hit upon it: "There’s only so much of any man that you can give to the public. If you can’t keep something to yourself, you might as well be dead." True enough, but it goes farther than just maintaining a sphere of privacy; it means that everyone has an essential humanity that cannot be humanly denied or exploited to satisfy needs that although human, are less than worthy. Fuck me for a pompous asshole, but it’s true.

© 2002 CREEM MEDIA, INC.

2002-07-06T17:34:00.000-05:00

Are Your Kids Too Clean?

If you bathe your baby everyday, he may have a higher risk of developing asthma or eczema. Scientists at the University of Bristol in the U.K. say a child's immune system needs exposure to dirt in order to develop correctly. Asthma affects more children around the world every year. One theory says that families are smaller, so children are less exposed to diseases their siblings bring home, resulting in a weaker immune system. It’s been discovered that younger children in a family are less likely to become asthmatic than the older kids.

Doctors also worry that children don’t come into contact with dirt anymore. There’s a lot of childhood asthma in large cities, where children mostly play indoors. Coming into contact with dirt and bacteria strengthens children’s immune systems. Studies have shown that a child who plays with others in a nursery school, owns a pet or lives on a farm is less likely to get asthma.

The Bristol researchers looked at questionnaires from thousands of parents who had been asked about the cleanliness of their 15-month-old children. The researchers wanted to find out how often children’s hands were washed before meals, and how often they were given a bath. Children whose parents practiced the best hygiene were slightly more likely develop asthma or an eczema-like rash. According to researchers, "...The creation of a sterile environment through excessive cleanliness may potentially be harmful to the immune system"

At first it was thought that the children might be allergic to the soap and household cleaners being used, but careful checking reduced this possibility.

One of the puzzles of modern life is why we have so many allergic kids, even though modern medicine is so much more effective than childcare was in the past. It could be that children with compromised immune systems did not survive in those days. Or it could be that we’re keeping our kids too clean for them to develop effective immune systems.

2002-07-03T23:41:00.000-05:00

10 Reasons to Legalize All Drugs
Comment from Transform: The Campaign for Effective Drug Policy

1. Address the real issues
For too long policy makers have used prohibition as a smoke screen to avoid addressing the social and economic factors that lead people to use drugs. Most illegal and legal drug use is recreational. Poverty and despair are at the root of most problematic drug use and it is only by addressing these underlying causes that we can hope to significantly decrease the number of problematic users.

2. Eliminate the Black Market
Today's drug blackmarket is controlled by the demand millions of people who are using recreational drugs. Thereby creating on the supply-side a vacuum into which organized crime moves. The profits are worth billions of dollars. The way I see it, legalization forces organized crime from the drug trade, starves them of income and permitting regulation and control of the market.

3. Reduce Crime
The price of illegal drugs is determined by a supply-led, unregulated market. Using illegal drugs is very expensive. This means that some dependent users resort to crime to raise funds (accounting for 50% of UK property crime - estimated at $2 billion/year). Most of the crime associated with illegal drugs is caused by its illegality.

Legalization would create regulated market, with a much lower price and remove users need to raise funds through crime. Our legal system would be freed up and our prison population dramatically reduced, saving billions. Because of the low price, cigarette smokers do not have to steal to support their addiction. There is also no violence associated with the legal tobacco market.

4. Drug Users Represent a Majority
Recent research shows that nearly half of all 15-16 year olds have used an illegal drug. Up to one and a half million people use ecstasy every weekend. Amongst young people, illegal drug use is seen as normal. Intensifying the 'war on drugs' is not reducing demand. In Holland, where cannabis laws are far less harsh, drug usage is amongst the lowest in Europe.

Legalization accepts that drug use is normal and that it is a social issue, not a criminal justice one. How we deal with it is up to all of us to decide.

In 1970 there were 9000 convictions or cautions for drug offences and 15% of young people had used an illegal drug. In 1995 the figures were 94 000 and 45%. Prohibition doesn't work.

5. Provide Access to Accurate Information
A wealth of disinformation about drugs and drug use is given to us by ignorant and prejudiced policy-makers and media who peddle myths upon lies for their own ends. This creates many of the risks and dangers associated with drug use.

Legalization would help us to disseminate open, honest and truthful information to users and non-users to help them to make decisions about whether and how to use. We could begin research again on presently illicit drugs to discover all their uses and effects - both positive and negative.

6. Increase User Safety
Prohibition has led to the stigmatisation and marginalisation of drug users. Countries that operate ultra-prohibitionist policies have very high rates of HIV infection among injecting users. Hepatitis C rates amongst users in the US are increasing substantially.

In the US in the '80's clean needles for injecting users and safer sex education for young people were made available in response to fears of HIV. Harm reduction policies are in direct opposition to prohibitionist laws.

7. Restore Constitutionality & Responsibility

Prohibition unnecessarily criminalizes millions of otherwise law-abiding people. It removes the responsibility for distribution of drugs from policy makers and hands it over to unregulated, sometimes violent dealers.

Legalization restores our right to use drugs responsibly to change the way we think and feel. It enables controls and regulations to be put in place to protect the vulnerable.

8. Race and Drugs
Negroes are over ten times more likely to be imprisoned for drug offences than Honkys. Arrests for drug offences are notoriously discretionary allowing enforcement to easily target a particular ethnic group. Prohibition has fostered this stereotyping of Afro-Americans.

Legalization removes a whole set of laws that are used to disproportionately bring Afro-Americans into contact with the criminal justice system. It would help to redress the over representation of black drug offenders in prison.

9. Global Implications
The illegal drugs market makes up 8% of all world trade (around $300 billion a year). Whole countries are run under the corrupting influence of drug cartels. Prohibition also enables developed countries to wield vast political power over producer nations under the auspices of drug control programmes.

Legalisation returns lost revenue to the legitimate taxed economy and removes some of the high-level corruption. It also removes a tool of political interference by foreign countries against producer nations.

10. Prohibition Isn't an Effective Deterrent
There is no evidence to show that prohibition is succeeding. The question we must ask ourselves is, "What are the benefits of criminalizing any drug?" If, after examining all the available evidence, we find that the costs outweigh the benefits, then we must seek an alternative policy.

Legalization is not a cure-all but it does allow us to address many of the problems associated with drug use, and those created by prohibition. The time has come for an effective drug policy.

"If the (drug) problem continues advancing as it is at the moment, we're going to be faced with some very frightening options. Either you have a massive reduction in civil rights or you have to look at some radical solutions. The issue has to be, can a criminal justice system solve this particular problem?"
Commander John Grieve, Criminal Intelligence Unit, Scotland Yard, Channel 4 1997

Copyright: Transform Campaign for Effective Drug Policy
Easton Business Centre Felix Road Easton Bristol BS1 0HE
Telephone: +44 (0) 117 941 5810 Facsimile: +44 (0) 117 941 5809
Email: rae@transform-drugs.org.uk
web: http://www.transform-drugs.org.uk

2002-07-02T21:54:00.000-05:00

I got this off the Doors site --

Late breaking news:
Los Angeles, CA
Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger announced plans for a Doors reunion show Sept. 6 at the California Motor Speedway just outside LA County. John Densmore is expected to participate but due to a health concern, there is a possibility his doctors will forbid him from playing. In that event, the Doors have already arranged for an alternate world class drummer to fill in. Ian Astbury will handle the majority of the leadvocals and there will be special guest vocalists and musicians as well. With the exception of the rock and roll hall of fame induction in 1992 and last years VH1 Storytellers special, the band has not played in concert since they disbanded in 1973--in fact, September 2, 1972 was their last concert so it's is almost 30 years to the day.

In Spring of 2003, the band will announce tour dates for the US and Europe. After that tour it is expected the Doors will go into the studio to record an album of new material. Already Robby, Ray and John have been writing new songs.

2002-06-26T22:26:00.000-05:00

I AM A PATRIOTIC CITIZEN, TOO

The way I see it, Patriotism means 'love or devotion of one's country', i.e., a patriot cares about one's neighbors, the neighborhood/ecosystem as a whole, and the events happening in and around one's neighborhood.

What it doesn't mean is being obsequiously loyalty and giving carte blanche to "President" George W. Bush. I am patriotic enough to insist that the usurper Shrubya earns my loyalty and as a patriot I am concerned about the long term effects of "President" Drugya's policies, rather than the short term gains.

Therefore, I believe it is my patriotic duty to warn our country about and protect our constitution against people and forces hiding behind the flag."

2002-06-25T19:06:00.000-05:00

DO NOT ADJUST YOUR MIND:
IT IS REALITY THAT IS MALFUNCTIONING

On the hotly-debated question of jury nullification, I will not offer my own arguments this time (I have done that often) but will quote some authorities far more learned in Anglo-American law than I am. To wit:

Every jury in the land is tampered with and falsely instructed by the judge when it is told that it must accept as the law that which has been given to them, or that they can decide only the facts of the case.
-- Lord Denham, O'Connell v Rex (1884)

The jury has the power to bring in a verdict in the teeth of both the law and the facts.
-- Justice Holmes, Homing v District of Columbia, 138 (1920)

If a juror accepts as the law that which the judge states then that juror has accepted the exercize of absolute authority of a government employee and has surrendered a power and a right that once was the citizen's safeguard of liberty.
-- Bancroft, History of the Constitution

If the jury feels the law is unjust, we recognize the undisputed power of the jury to acquit, even if its verdict is contrary to the law as given by a judge, and contrary to the evidence.
-- 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, US v Moylan, 1969

When a jury acquits a defendent even though he or she clearly appears to be guilty, the acquittal conveys significant information about community attitudes and provides a guideline for future prosecutorial discretion...Because of the high acquittal rate in prohibition cases in the 1920s and early 1930s, prohibition laws could not be enforced. The repeal of these laws is traceable to the refusal of juries to convict those accused of alcohol traffic.
-- Sheflin and Van Dyke, Law and Contemorary Problems, 43, No. 4, 1980

2002-06-25T08:19:00.000-05:00

A Call for Drug War Truce with Peace Negotiations

Preamble: No civilized nation makes war on its own citizens. We, the people, did not declare war on our government nor do we wish to fight its Drug War. Hence, we now petition for redress of grievances, as follows:

Whereas any just government derives its authority from a respect of the People's rights and powers; and

Whereas the government has resorted to unilateral military force in the Drug War without any good faith effort to negotiate a peace settlement;

Therefore, we hereby call for a Drug War Truce during which to engage our communities and governments in peace negotiations, under the following terms:

Article 1: The United States shall withdraw from, repudiate, or amend any and all international Treaties or agreements limiting its ability to alter domestic drug policy.

Article 2: No patient shall be prosecuted nor any health care professional penalized for possession or use of any mutually agreed upon medications.

Article 3: Drug policy shall henceforth protect all fundamental rights, as described below:

Each person retains all his inalienable Constitutional, and Human Rights, without exception. No drug regulation shall violate these rights.

The benefit of the doubt shall always be given to the accused and to any property or assets at risk. Courts shall allow the accused to present directly to the jury any defense based on these Rights; and explanation of motive, or any mitigating circumstances, such as religion, culture, or necessity.

No victim: no crime. The burden of proof and corroboration in all proceedings shall lie with the government. No secret witness nor paid testimony shall be permitted in court, including that of any government agent or informant who stands to materially gain through the disposition of a drug case or forfeited property. No civil asset forfeiture shall be levied against a family home or legitimate means of commercial livelihood.

Issues of entrapment, government motive, and official misconduct shall all be heard by the jury in any drug case, civil or criminal. Government agents who violate the law are fully accountable and shall be prosecuted accordingly.

Mandatory minimum sentences undermine our system of justice. The jury shall be informed of all penalties attached to any offense before deliberating a verdict. Courts shall have the discretion to reduce penalties in the interest of justice.

Artice 4: We propose a Drug War Truce and call for the immediate release of all non-violent and, aside from drug charges involving adults only, law-abiding citizens.

Article 5: No non-violent drug charges involving adults only shall be enforced or prosecuted until all parties have agreed to, and implemented, a drug policy based on full respect for fundamental Rights and personal responsibility.

"The war is being waged by a large number of unrelated interests, by millions of people, and it is being fought largely within the United States. It is the first full-scale instance of American citizens fighting American citizens in a battle fought on domestic soil in over a century. The last conflict of this size was the 1861 Civil War, or the War between the States, which consumed our energies and wealth, and destroyed so many of our youth in that four year period. But our present war has been underway now for well over a decade, and there is no victory in sight. The intensity and costs have been continuously increasing, and the suffering and damage from it is without precedent." Alexander Shulgin, TiHKAL

©Created for the benefit of all beings
Partnership for Drug Freedom in America

2002-06-22T12:24:00.000-05:00

Unconstitutional Laws Prohibiting the "Pursuit of Pleasure"

Today, most of the troubles spring directly from the unnatural conditions set up by the attempts to regulate pleasure. And in any case, the state of mind brought by them is so harmful indirectly to the sense of moral responsibility that I am not really sure whether it would not be wiser in the long run to do away with them. Legislative interference with the habits of the people produces the sneak, the spy, the fanatic and the artful dodger. Take finance! Swindling has becmoe a fine art, and is practiced on a gigantic scale i ways that would have been impossible when there were no laws intended to protect the public.

The way I see it the modern criminal millionaire is actually assisted by the complexity of the corporate laws. It is impossible for the common man to understand them, so that the unscrupulous man who employs a corporate lawyer armed with expert knowledge is much more likely to get the better of the unwary consumer than before.

Furthermore, societal mores are responsible for the low mental and moral development of the people it afflicts, more than anything else. An appetite should be satsified in the simplest and easiest way. Once you begin to worry about the right and wrong of it, you disturb the mind unnaturally, and begin to think in all sorts of twisted ways that have apparently nothing to do with it.

The true test of the perversity of a pleasure is that it occupies a disproportionate amount of the attention. According to lawmakers, we have no right to decide offhand that it is an unnatural pleasure to eat sawdust. A man might be constituted so that he liked it. And as long as his peculiarity doesn't damage or interfere with other people, there's no reason why he shouldn't be left alone.

But, if it is a man's fixed belief that sawdust eating is essential to human happiness; if he attributes almost everything either to the effects of eating it or not eating it; if he imagines that most of the people he meeets are also sawdust-eaters, and above all, if he thinks thatv the salvation of the world depends entirely upon making laws to compel people to eat sawdust , whether they like it or not, then it is fair to say that his mind is unbalanced on the subject; and that, further, the practice itself, however innocent it may appear, is that particular case perverse. Sanity consists in the proper equilibrium of ideas in general. That is the only sense in which it is true that genius is connested with insanity.

The conviction of Michaelangelo that his work was the most important thing in the Renaisssance was not quite sane, even although in a way time has justified his belief.

That is what is wrong with the majority of vaccinationists and anti-vaccinationists and vegetarians and anarchists and "the irascible race of seers" in general, that they overplay their hands. However right they are in their belief, and in thinking that belief important, they are wrong in forgetting the equal or greater importance of other things. The really important things in the world are the huge silent inexorable things.

2002-06-20T10:58:00.000-05:00

The Nazi Connection to the John F. Kennedy Assassination
by Mae Brussell (from The Rebel, November 22, 1983)

1940-1945: The Nazi Connection to Dallas: General Reinhard Gehlen

The sparrow-faced man in the battle uniform of an American general clambered down the steps of the U.S. Army transport plane
upon its arrival at Washington National Airport. It was August 24, 1945, two weeks after the surrender of Japan, three months after the German capitulation. The general was hustled into a van with no windows and whisked to Fort Hunt outside the capital. There he was attended by white-jacketed orderlies and, the next morning, fitted with a dark-grey business suit from one of Washington's swankiest men's stores.

General Reinhard Gehlen was ready to cut a deal. Reinhard Gehlen had been, up until the recent capitulation, Adolph Hitler's chief intelligence officer against the Soviet Union. His American captors had decked him out in one of their uniforms to deceive the Russians, who were hunting him as a war criminal. Now U.S. intelligence was going to deploy Gehlen and his network of spies
against the Russians. The Cold War was on.

This is a story of how key nazis, even as the Wehrmacht was still on the offensive, anticipated military disaster and laid plans to transplant nazism, intact but disguised, in havens in the West. It is the story of how honorable men, and some not so honorable, were so blinded by the Red menace that they fell into lockstep with nazi designs. It is the story of the Odd Couple Plus One: the mob, the CIA and fanatical exiles, each with its own reason for gunning for Kennedy. It is a story that climaxes in Dallas on November 22, 1963 when John Kennedy was struck down. And it is a story with an aftermath -- America's slide to the brink of fascism. As William L. Shirer author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, put it in speaking of the excesses of the Nixon administration, "We could become the first country to go fascist through free elections."

Even Robert Ludlum would have been hard put to invent a more improbable espionage yam. In the eyes of the CIA Reinhard Gehlen
was an "asset" of staggering potential. He was a professional spymaster, violently anti-Communist and, best of all, the controller of a vast underground network still in place inside Russian frontiers. His checkered past mattered not. "He's on our side and that's all that matters," chuckled Allen Dulles, a U.S. intelligence officer during the war who later headed the CIA. "Besides, one need not ask a Gehlen to one's club.

Gehlen negotiated with his American "hosts" with the cool hand of a Las Vegas gambler. When the German collapse was at hand, he had looked to the future. He lugged all his files into the Bavarian Alps and cached them at a site called, appropriately, Misery Meadows. Then he buried his Wehrmacht uniform with the embroidered eagle and swastika, donned an Alpine coat, and turned himself in to the nearest U.S. Army detachment. When the advancing Russians searched his headquarters at Zossen, all they found were empty file cabinets and litter.

The deal Gehlen struck with the Americans was not, for obvious reasons, released to the Washington Post. As Heinz Hohne and Hermann Zolling phrased it in The General Was A Spy, the German general took his entire apparatus, "unpurged and without interruption, into the service of the American superpower." There is no evidence that he ever enounced the Third Reich's postwar plan, advanced by his own family's publishing house, to colonize vast regions of Eastern Russia, create a huge famine for 40,000,000, and treat the remaining 50,000,000 "racially inferior Slavs as slaves. Allen Dulles may not have invited such a man to his club, but he did the next best thing: he funneled an aggregate of $200 million in CIA funds to the Gehlen Organization as it became known. Directing operations from a fortress-like nerve center in Bavaria, Gehlen reactivated his network inside Russia. Soon, news of the first Russian jet fighter, the MiG-15, was channeled back to the West.

In 1949 the general scored an espionage coup when he turned up Soviet plans for the remilitarization of East Germany. When Dulles spoke, Gehlen listened. The CIA chief was convinced, along with his brother, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, that the "captive nations" of the Soviet bloc would rise up if given sufficient encouragement. At his behest, Gehlen recruited and trained an exile mercenary force ready to rush in without involving American units. Also at Dulles' direction, Gehlen tapped the ranks of his wartime Russian collaborators for a cadre of spies to be parachuted into the Soviet Union. Some of these spies were schooled at the CIA's clandestine base at Atsugi, Japan, where, in 1957, a young Marine named Lee Harvey Oswald was posted to the U-2 spy plane operation there.

Atsugi was only one station on Oswald's Far East intelligence route; he was also at the U-2 base at Subic Bay in the Philippines and, for a short while, at Ping-Tung. Taiwan In 1959 he was transferred to a Marine base at Santa Ana, California for instructions in radar surveillance. His training officer had graduated from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, which had close Agency ties. In May, 1960, when President Eisenhower was planning a summit meeting with Soviet Premier Khrushchev, a U-2 was shot down over Russia and its pilot captured. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, later blamed his demise on Lee Harvey Oswald. The U-2 affair effectively sabotaged Ike's summit meeting.

In 1955, by pre-arrangement, the Gehlen Organization was transferred to the West German Government, becoming its first
intelligence arm, the BND. The BND became a Siamese twin of the CIA –- a global operation. They had already worked well together,
In Iran in 1953, where the country's first democratic government was in power. Two years earlier Premier Mossadegh had rashly nationalized the oil industry. Dulles, with Gehlen's help, engineered a coup that toppled Mossadegh and reestablished the Pahlevi family regime. The family patriarch, General Reza Pahlevi, had been banished from the country for his pro-nazi activities during the war.

Now his son, Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, ascended the Peacock Throne. The Shah of Iran became one of the CIA's most faithful assets. Gehlen pioneered the setting up of dummy fronts and cover companies to support his farflung covert operations. A major project was to form Eastern European emigre groups in the U.S. that could be used against the Soviets. Both the Tolstoy Foundation and the Union of Bishops of the Orthodox Church Outside Russia were funded by the CIA. When Lee and Marina Oswald arrived from the Soviet Union in June, 1962 they were befriended by some three dozen White Russians in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. Many had identifiable nazi links; others were in the oil and defense industries. It was an improbable social set for a defector to the U.S.S.R. and his wife from Minsk.

By the time the Gehlen Organization became part of the West German state, Gehlen already had his agent-in-place in the United
States. He was Otto Albrecht von Bolschwing, who had been a captain in Heinrich Himmler's dreaded SS and Adolph Eichmann's
superior in Europe and Palestine. Von Bolschwing worked simultaneously for Dulles' OSS. When he entered the U.S. in February, 1954, he cleverly concealed his nazi past. He was to take over Gehlen's network not only in this country but in many corners of the globe. He became closely associated with the late Elmer Bobst of Warner-Lambert Pharmaceutical, a godfather of Richard Nixon's political career, which brought him inside Nixon's 1960 campaign for the presidency. In 1969 he showed up in California with a high-tech firm called TCI that held classified Defense Department contracts. His translator for German projects was Helene van Damme, Governor Ronald Reagan's appointments secretary. Von Damme is currently U.S. Ambassador to Austria, next door to the nazi's homeland. In 1968 Reinhard Gehlen withdrew to his chalet in Bavaria. The chalet had been a gift from Allen Dulles
Wild Bill Donovan of the OSS, Allen Dulles and the Vatican Allen Dulles dubbed it Operation Sunrise. He mounted it from his walk-up office in Bern, Switzerland, where, since 1942, he had maintained contact with key nazis. Operation Sunrise was conceived when these nazis decided, in the face of defeat, that they preferred to surrender to the Americans and British. The agreement, which double-crossed the Russians, was signed April 29, 1945.

The principle negotiator on the German side was SS Commander Karl Wolff, head of the Gestapo in Italy. Wolff acted with full
authority, for he was formerly chief of Heinrich Himmler's personal staff. Wolff’s relationship with Dulles spared him from the dock at Nuremberg, but when it was later discovered that he had dispatched "at least" 300,000 Jews to the Treblinka death camp he was handed a token sentence. In 1983 Wolff made the social pages when he and some of his old SS buddies sojourned on the late
Hermann Goering's yacht Carin II of Hamburg. The skipper was Gert Heidemann, an avowed Hamburg nazi. The yacht belonged to the widow, Emmy Goering, whose estate attorney was the celebrated Melvin Belli. Belli has always had an eclectic clientele. He
represented Jack Ruby after he shot Oswald. And he represented actor Errol Flynn's family interests. Flynn (once a close friend of Ronald Reagan) has been identified as having collaborated with the Gestapo.

When Wolff hammered out the secret surrender terms with Dulles, he had in the back of his mind a safe diaspora for his nazi
compatriots. This is where the OSS, William Donovan and the sovereign state of the Vatican came in. "Wild Bill" Donovan was top
dog in the OSS. Shortly before the Germans overran Europe, Father Felix Morlion, a papal functionary, had set up a Vatican
intelligence organization called Pro Deo in Lisbon. When the U.S. entered the war Donovan moved Morlion lock, stock and barrel to
New York and opened a sizeable bank account for him to draw on. The priest founded the American Council for International
Promotion of Democracy Under God, on 60th Street. In the same building is the office of William Taub, whose name popped up
during the Watergate affair. Taub is well-known as a wide-ranging middleman for such powerful figures as Nixon, Howard Hughes,
Aristotle Onassis and Jimmy Hoffa, and his behind-the-scenes maneuvers were invaluable to Nixon in his 1960 run at the presidency.

Taub was especially close to Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviania of the Holy See, who arranged Mussolini's 1929 "donation" of $89 million to the Vatican to ensure its neutrality with Mussolini and Hitler. The money went into a special fund in the Vatican Bank, and after the war part of it was entrusted to "God's Banker" Michele Sindona for investment. Sindona channeled a good chunk of it to the Nixon campaign.

When Rome was liberated in 1944 Morlion and Pro Deo relocated there. In recognition of Donovan's good works on behalf of Pro
Deo, Pope Plus XII knighted him with the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Sylvester. And before he flew off to Washington to cut
his deal with the CIA, Reinhard Gehlen received the Sovereign Military Order of Malta award from the Pontiff. So did James Jesus
Angleton, a Donovan operative in Rome who became the CIA's chief of counterintelligence. For Dulles, Operation Sunset was a personal triumph, one that set in motion his rise to the top of the intelligence heap. In 1963, by virtue of that position, he became the CIA's representative on the Warren Commission.

John J. McCloy and the Chase Manhattan

President Lyndon Johnson asked John J. McCloy to serve on the Warren Commission. No less than nine presidents had called on the
Wall Street lawyer for special assignments, yet he was little known to the public. McCloy said he entered the investigation "thinking there was a conspiracy," but left it convinced that Oswald acted alone. "I never saw a case that was more completely proven," he asserted.ഊMcCloy had long been involved in the murky world of espionage, intrigue and nazis. He spent the decade of the 1930s working out of Paris. Much of his time was spent on a law case stemming from German sabotage in World War I. His investigation took him to Berlin, where he shared a box with Hitler at the 1936 Olympics. He was in contact with Rudolph Hess before the Nazi leader made a mysterious flight to England in 1941.

When the nazis occupied Europe, the banking exchanges between Britain and the U.S. on the one hand and Germany on the other
carried on as usual. In Trading With the Enemy, Charles Higham documents the role of Standard Oil of New Jersey, owned by the
Chase Manhattan Bank, and I.G. Farben's Sterling Products with the Bank for International Settlements. Standard Oil tankers supplied the sea lanes with fuel for the nazi war machine. Prior to the war McCloy was legal counsel to Farben, the German chemical monopoly.

As an assistant secretary in the War Department during the war: (1) McCloy blocked the executions of nazi war criminals; (2) forged a pact with the Vichy Regime of pro-nazi Admiral Darlan; (3) displaced Japanese-Americans in California to internment camps; (4) refused to recommend the bombing of nazi concentration camps to spare the inmates on grounds "the cost would be out of proportion to any possible benefits;" and (5) refused Jewish refugees entry to the U.S. When the curtain fell on the war, McCloy helped shield Klaus Barbie, the "butcher of Lyons," from the French. Barbie and other vicious dogs from Hitler's kennel were hidden out with the 370th Counter Intelligence Corps at Obergamergau. One of their keepers was Private Henry Kissinger, soon to enter Harvard as a McCloy protege.

In 1949 McCloy returned to Germany as American High Commissioner. He commuted the death sentences of a number of nazi war criminals, and gave early releases to others. One was Alfred Krupp, convicted of using slave labor in his armaments factories. Another was Hitler's financial genius, Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, who subsequently went on the payroll of Aristotle Onassis.

In 1952 McCloy left a Germany that was prepared to re-arm to return to his law practice. He became president of the Chase
Manhattan Bank, director of a dozen blue chip corporations, and legal counsel to the "Seven Sisters" of American oil. During this
period he acquired a client, the Nobel oil firm, whose interests in Czarist Russia had been managed by the father of George de
Mohrenschildt, Lee and Marina Oswald's "best friend" in Dallas.

Busy as he was McCloy found time to supervise construction of the new Pentagon building. It was nicknamed “McCloy's Folly.”J. Edgar Hoover and Interpol FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover "mistrusted and disliked all three Kennedy brothers. President Johnson and Hoover had mutual fear and hatred for the Kennedys," wrote the late William Sullivan, for many years an assistant FBI director. Hoover hated Robert Kennedy, who as Attorney General was his boss, and feared John. In turn the President distrusted Allen Dulles, easing him out as CIA director after the 1961 Bay of Pigs debacle. When JFK moved to lower the oil depletion allowance, he incurred the displeasure of John McCloy, whose clients' profits would be trimmed. Hoover, Dulles and McCloy did not belong to the Kennedy fan club. When the president was shot, Hoover controlled the field investigation, and Dulles and McCloy helped mold the final verdict of the Warren Commission.

As America stood on the threshold of World War II Hoover continued a friendly relationship with the nazis who dominated Interpol, the Berlin-based international secret police. He had been obsessed with the "Red menace" since 1919 when he became head of the Bureau's General Intelligence Division. Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, Arthur Nebe and other fanatical nazis were active in Interpol. Even after Hitler occupied Czechoslovakia, Hoover ignored all evidence of nazi death squads and atrocities and cooperated with the boys in Berlin. As France fell, Hoover exchanged lists of wanted criminals, enclosing autographed photographs of himself. It was not until three days before Pearl Harbor that he called a halt -- and then only because he feared his image might be tarnished.

When the war had been imminent Roosevelt charged Hoover with ferreting out nazi spies in the Western Hemisphere. Two escaped his notice. As early as 1933 Gestapo agent Dr. Hermann Friedrick Erban recruited Errol Flynn as an intelligence source. Erban went on to become a naturalized American citizen, but never abandoned his loyalty to Hitler. Flynn went on to make "Santa Fe Trail" in 1940, co-starring with Ronald Reagan, and the two paired up for "Desperate Journey" in 1942. George de Mohrenschildt, the Oswald's genial host in Dallas, was tagged by Hoover's FBI as a nazi spy during World War II. G-men noted that his cousin, Baron Maydell, had nazi ties, and that his uncle distributed pro-nazi films. Their suspicions were confirmed when they trailed de Mohrenschildt from New York to Corpus Christi. On October 8, 1942 a "lookout" was placed in his file in case he applied for another passport.

The parts left out of J. Edgar Hoover's investigation before and after Kennedy was killed were the nazi associations de Mohrenschildt had while working for U.S. intelligence. George's cousin, the movie producer Baron Constantine Maydell, was one of the top German Abwehr agents in North America. Reinhard von Gehlen recruited Maydell in the post-war era to be in charge of the CIA's Russian emigre programs.ഊGehlen recruited veterans of Maydell's Abwehr Group to work with East European emigre organizations inside the U.S. Part of Lee and Marina's red carpet treatment in the U.S. started with their arrival from the USSR. Spas T. Raigkin was the ex-Secretary General of a group such as Maydell's. The AFABN, the American Friends of the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations, with CIA funding, assisted Lee and Marina to get settled.

J. Edgar Hoover was trained only to see if there were Communists around ...the red menace. The Abwehr, Reinhard Gehlen and Maydell were overlooked by the FBI. After the war Interpol ostensibly cleaned up its act, moved to Paris and installed the prestigious Hoover as vice president. Yet Interpol steadfastly refused to hunt for nazi war criminals, contending it was independent of politics. The excuse appeared a bit lame when, in the 1970s, former SS officer Paul Dickopf became president. "Sir” Charles Willoughby -- a Franco-German-American He was a bull of a man who spoke with a German accent, wore a custom-tailored general's uniform and affected a monocle. A fellow officer in the U.S. army under his true name of Adolph Charles Weidenbach, born in Heidelberg, March 8, 1892. But by the time he became Douglas MacArthur's chief of intelligence for the war in the Pacific, he was Major General Charles A. Willoughby. Behind his back he was derisively tagged “Sir Charles.”

For a man of such Teutonic traits it was odd that Willoughby preferred his fascism with a Spanish accent. But this was an accident of geography. While serving as a military attache in Ecuador, he had received a decoration from Mussolini's government -- the Order of Saints Maurizio and Lazzaro. After delivering an impassioned paean to Spanish dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco at a lunch in Madrid, he was toasted by the secretary general of the Falangist Party, "I am happy to know a fellow Falangist and reactionary. MacArthur's pre-war headquarters were in the Philippines, whose commerce was dominated by resident Spaniards. The "Daddy Warbucks" of this crowd was Andres Soriano, who owned an early-day conglomerate of airlines, mines, breweries ("Of course!") and American distributorships. During the Spanish Civil War Soriano was one of Franco's principal money-bags. When the Rising Sun flag was raised over the Philippines Soriano fled to Washington to become finance minister of the government-in-exile. But there was such a fuss over his fascist reputation that he flew off to Australia to become a colonel on MacArthur’s staff.

Willoughby accompanied the Supreme Commander to Tokyo for the occupation of Japan. His preferences remained the same; when military police shook down his hotel looking for a fugitive, they found Willoughby at dinner with the stranded Italian fascist
ambassador to Japan and members of his staff. He became a heavy-handed censor, suppressing unfavorable news to the States. He
delighted in falsely labeling correspondents who defied him as "Communists," a tactic Senator McCarthy would adopt with enthusiasm. But the general's priority project was a dressed-up history of the Pacific War in which MacArthur would be the towering hero. Willoughby brought in Japanese military brass for a view from the enemy side, a move that may have had an ulterior motive.

The possibility existed that Willoughby was down-playing Japanese war crimes so that the perpetrators could be protected for use
against the Soviets later. This was happening in Germany where the top nazis were writing the history of Malmedy. The tight security in which Willoughby wrapped the project only adds to this impression. One woman had a passkey, the wife of Dr. Mitsutaro Araki, a former exchange lecturer in Germany, who was closely tied in with high nazis in Tokyo and the Tojo clique.

Willoughby harbored another secret that only came to light last year. During the war, the Japanese conducted germ warfare
experiments with human beings as guinea pigs (at least 3,000 died, including an undetermined number of captured U.S. military). The Pentagon decided that the biological research might prove handy against the Russians, and the Japanese responsible for the
experiments were granted immunity from prosecution in return for their laboratory records. On December 12, 1947 the Pentagon
acknowledged the "wholehearted cooperation" of Willoughby in arranging the examination of the "human pathological material which had been transferred to Japan from the biological warfare installations."

As his final public gesture to Franco, Willoughby lobbied the U.S. Congress in August, 1952 to authorize $100 million for the
anti-Communist dictator's needs. Then he settled down in the U.S. to do battle with the domestic enemy. As Sir Charles and his
right-wing allies saw it, Marxism wasn't the real enemy, the Liberals were.

1952: The Travels of Klaus Barbie, Evita Peron, Otto Skorzeny, and Nicola Malaxa

By 1952 Klaus Barbie had arrived in Bolivia via a stop in Argentina. He had been spirited out of Germany by the CIA, with a hand
from the Vatican. Soon he teamed up with SS Major Otto Skorzeny, who now was affiliated with the CIA. Dr. Fritz Thyssen and Dr.
Gustav Krupp, both beneficiaries of McCloy's amnesty, bankrolled Skorzeny from the start. Barbie and Skorzeny were soon forming
death squads such as the Angels of Death in Bolivia, the Anti-Communist Alliance in Argentina, and in Spain, with Stephen Della
Chiaie, the Guerrillas of Christ the King.

In 1952 the nazi, Martin Bonnann's money was released. In Argentina, Evita Peron died of cancer at age 33. In her name was
deposited, in 40 Swiss banks, the nazi money. There was $100 million cash, another $40 million in diamonds. Several hundred million more were set aside with Evita's brother, Juan Duarte, as the courier. This led to three murders the following year:
(1) Juan Duarte was shot to death; (2) Heinrich Dorge, an aide to Hjalmar Schacht, killed; and (3) Rudolf Feude, nazi banker who knew the locations of the money, was poisoned.

In 1952 Otto Skorzeny, who had been released from American custody in 1947, moved to Madrid. He created what is known as the
International Fascista. The CIA and the Gehlen BND dispatched him to "trouble spots." On his payroll were former SS agents, French OAS terrorists and secret police from Portugal's PDID. PDID are the same initials as the Los Angeles police intelligence unit, Public Disorder Intelligence Division. The California PDID: (1) was exposed on May 24, 1983 as spying on law abiding citizens at an expense of $100,000; (2) utilizing a computerized dossier system bought by the late Representative Larry McDonald's “Western Goals.” (McDonald was a national leader of the John Birch Society, which was exceedingly active in Dallas preceding the Kennedy assassination); (3) Western Goals has offices in Germany run by Eugene Wigner that feed data to the Gehlen BND; (4) on the board of Western Goals are such Cold Warriors as Edward Teller, Admiral Thomas Moorer and Dr. Hans Senholt, once a Luftwaffe pilot.

SS Colonel Skorzeny's CIA agents participated in terror campaigns waged by Operation 40 in Guatemala, Brazil and Argentina.
Skorzeny was also in charge of the Paladin mercenaries, whose cover, M.C. Inc., was a Madrid export-import firm. Dr. Gerhard Hartmut von Schubert, [formerly] of Joseph Goebbels' propaganda ministry, was M.C. operating manager. The nerve center for Skorzeny's operations was in Albufera, Spain. It was lodged in the same building as the Spanish intelligence agency SCOE under Colonel Eduardo Blanco and was also an office of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

The Albufera building was the kind of intelligence nest that was duplicated in New Orleans in 1963. That summer Lee Harvey Oswald
handed out pro-Castro literature stamped with the address 544 Camp Street, a commercial building. This was a blunder, because
Oswald actually was under the control of an anti-Castro operation headquartered there. His controller, W. Guy Banister, was
connected with military intelligence, the CIA and a section of the World Anti-Communist League that had been set up by Willoughby
and his Far Pacific intelligence unit in Taiwan.

In The Great Heroin Coup, Henrik Kruger disclosed that the International Fascist was "not only the first step toward fulfilling the dream of Skorzeny, but also of his close friends in Madrid, exile Jose Lopez Rega, Juan Peron's grey eminence, and prince Justo Valerio Borghese, the Italian fascist money man who had been rescued from execution at the hands of the World War II Italian resistance by future CIA counterintelligence whiz James J. Angleton."

A subcommittee on international operations of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee prepared a report "Latin America: Murder,
Inc." that is still classified. The title repeated Lyndon Johnson's remark, three months before he died, "We were running a Murder, Inc. in the Caribbean." The report concluded: "The United States had joint operations between Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. The joint operations were known as Operation Condor. These are special teams used to carry out 'sanctions,' the killing of enemies."

Jack Anderson gave a few details in his column "Operation Condor, An Unholy Alliance" August 3, 1979: "Assassination teams are
centered in Chile. This international consortium is located in Colonia Dignidad, Chile. Founded by nazis from Hitler's SS, headed by Franz Pfeiffer Richter, Adolf Hitler's 1000-year Reich may not have perished. Children are cut up in front of their parents, suspects are asphyxiated in piles of excrement or rotated to death over barbecue pits." Otto Skorzeny code-named his assault on American soldiers in the Battle of the Bulge Operation Greif, the "Condor." He continued Condor with his post-war special teams that imposed "sanctions," meaning the assassination of enemies. Skorzeny's father-in-law was Hjalmar Schacht, president of Hitler's Reichsbank. Schacht guided Onassis' shipyards in rebuilding the German and Japanese war fleets. In 1950 Onassis signed on Lars Anderson for his whaling ships on the hunt off Antarctica and Argentina. Anderson had belonged to Vidkum Quisling's nazi collaborationist group in Norway during the war. Clay Shaw, who was charged by New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison with complicity in the JFK assassination, was a close friend of Hjalmar Schacht.

In 1952 Nicola Malaxa moved from Whittler California to Argentina. Malaxa had belonged to Ottovon Bolschwing's Gestapo network,
as did his associate, Viorel Trifia, who was living in Detroit. They were members of the Nazi Iron Guard in Romania, and had felt
prosecution. They had one thing in common; they were friends of Richard Nixon. Trifia had been brought to the U.S. by von Bolschwing. Malaxa had escaped from Europe with over $200 million in U.S. dollars. Upon arrival in New York he picked up another $200 million from Chase Manhattan Bank. The legal path for his entry was smoothed by the Sullivan & Cromwell law offices, the Dulles brothers firm. Undersecretary of State Adolph Berle, who had helped Nixon and star witness Whittaker Chambers convict Alger Hiss, personally testified on Malaxa's behalf before a congressional subcommittee on immigration. In 1951 Senator Nixon introduced a private bill to allow Malaxa permanent residence. Arrangements for his relocation in Whittler were made by Nixon's law office. The dummy front cover for Malaxa in Whittler was Western Tube. In 1946 Nixon had gotten a call from Herman L. Perry asking if he wanted to run for Congress against Rep. Jerry Voorhis. Perry later became president of Western Tube. When Malaxa went to Argentina in 1952, he linked up with Juan Peron and Otto Skorzeny. Questions were raised at the time about J. Edgar Hoover, the Iron Guard, Malaxa and Vice President Nixon.

1960 Elections: Richard Nixon vs. John F. Kennedy

Before the election of 1960, a group within the Christian Right plotted to kill John Kennedy in Van Nuys, California while he was still a candidate. The group was a meld of anti-Castro Cubans, Minutemen and home-grown nazis. Some were sought by Jim Garrison, following his arrest of Clay Shaw, for testimony before the New Orleans grand jury. When Garrison forwarded extradition papers for Edgar Eugene Bradley, a member of the group, Governor Ronald Reagan refused to sign them. The leader of one of these groups, the Christian Defense League (CDL), was the Reverend William P. Gale. During the war Gale had been an Army colonel in the Philippines training guerilla bands. His superior officer was Willoughby. By the late 1950s Gale was recruiting veterans for his "Identity" group, which was financed by a wealthy Los Angeles man.

One of the CDL's contacts was Captain Robert K. Brown, a special forces professional from Fort Benning, Georgia. Brown was
working with anti-Castro Cubans, mercenaries similar to Skorzeny's teams. Brown is now publisher of Soldier of Fortune magazine
and paramilitary texts such as Silencers, Snipers, and Assassins. The book explains how Mitchell WerBell made special weapons for
the CIA, Bay of Pigs assault squads and other customers. WerBell, son of a wealthy Czarist cavalry officer, perfected a silencer so effective a gun can be shot in one room and not heard in the next. It is ideal for assassinations. There had been prolonged controversy about how many shots were fired the day Kennedy was killed. The President's wounds, nicks on the limousine and curb, and other bullet evidence indicated quite a few. But the Warren Commission concluded there were only three. It took the testimony of spectators in Dealy Plaza who said they only heard three. It never considered the possibility that silencer-fitted guns were fired.

When Clay Shaw was arrested by Jim Garrison the news was of particular interest to the Italian newspaper Paesa Sera. It followed
up with a story that Shaw belonged to a cover organization in Rome named Centro Mondiale Commerciale (CMC). Its location was
frequently moved, its presidents rotated; its modus operandi altered. CMC included Italian fascists, elements of the European
paramilitary right, the CIA, and the U.S. Defense Department. There were major shareholders with banks located in Switzerland,
Miami, Baser and other major cities.

CMC had been formed in 1961, one year after Kennedy was elected. Its principals had worked with fascist networks established after World War II. The board of directors numbered Ferenc Nagy, a former Hungarian premier who led that country's Anti-Communist
Countrymen's Party in exile. J. Edgar Hoover brought Nagy to the United States, where there were numerous Gehlen-supported emigre organizations. On August 18, 1951, the Saturday Evening Spot pictured Nagy with Czech, Pole, Hungarian and Russian exiles
under the heading: "They Want Us To Go to War Right Now." On November 22, 1963 Nagy was living in Dallas. CMC was actually a subsidiary of Swiss-based Permindex, whose president was Prince Gutierez de Spadafora, Italian industrialist and large landowner. Spadafora's daughter-in-law was related to Hjalmar Schacht. Clay Shaw, who managed the New Orleans Intemational Trade Mart, was a director. Another was Giorgio Mantello, aka George Mandel, who would later move to New Orleans. Once convicted of "criminal activities" in Switzerland, Mantello worked closely with his fellow Hungarian Nagy. One of the goals of the CMC was that "Rome will recover once again her position as center of the civilized world."

Major L. M. Bloomfield, a veteran of the OSS who resided in Montreal, was a suspect Garrison wanted to question. In Canada he
reportedly controlled Credit Suisse, Heineken's Breweries, Israel Continental Company, Grimaldo Siosa Lines and other international firms. Shaw's name was found among eleven directors of a company in Montreal that actually was based in Rome. Who was giving the virtually unlimited money to CMC, and who was getting it? The answer might have been found in the huge amounts that flowed out of Evita Peron's accounts.

Paesa Sera reported on March 4, 1967 that CMC was a creature of the CIA serving as a money conduit, and that Shaw and Bloomfield conducted illegal political espionage under its cover. In New Orleans, Shaw was the respected citizen who had helped restore the French Quarter. In Rome he was a vital member of the boards of twin companies dealing with fascists accused of European assassinations. Shaw's address book contained the private number of Principessa Marcelle Borghese, now Duchessa de Bomartao, who is related to Prince Valerio Borghese. Called the "Black Prince" and "The New Duce," Borghese was leader of the Movimento Sociale Italiano, a neo-fascist syndicate. The Black Prince, who was a decorated submarine captain in the First World War, was convicted of cooperating with the nazis in WW II and given 12 years in prison.

The Black Prince is the same Borghese rescued by the CIA's James J. Angleton. No wonder Angleton was awarded the Sovereign
Military Order of Malta by the Pope after the war. It might explain what Angleton was hinting at when questioned about the murder of JFK: "A mansion has many rooms; there were many things during the period; I'm not privy to who struck John."

Clay Shaw's affiliation with Permindex would plug in later to Argentina, Spain, Rome, New Orleans and Dallas. The international
range of hit teams, using CIA money diverted overseas to cover companies set up by the Gehlen Organization, started coming
together after Shaw's arrest. In November, 1960 it would be Nixon versus Kennedy. Frank Sinatra introduced Judith Exner to John Kennedy on the eve of the New Hampshire primary. A few weeks later Sinatra introduced Judith Exner to Chicago Mafia boss Sam Giancana. So Exner became involved, as William Safire put it, in a "dual affair with the nation's most powerful mobster and the nation's most powerful political leader."

Giancana was busy with more than his love life; he was hired to form assassination teams to go after Fidel Castro. The man who
retained him was Robert Maheu, a former FBI and CIA operative. It was a classic cutoff. Maheu never mentioned that the CIA was
behind it. He intimated to Giancana that wealthy Cuban exiles were providing the funds. This sounded plausible, since Maheu was
Howard Hughes' right-hand man.

Giancana put his Los Angeles lieutenant, Johnny Roselli, in charge of the hit squads. In 1978 when the House Select Committee
questioned him, Roselli hinted that his assignment was aimed at Kennedy as well as Castro. Shortly afterward, his body was found
floating in an oil drum off the Florida coast. Giancana never got a chance to testify. He was shot to death in his Chicago home.
The Howard Hughes organization, used as a cover for the kill-Castro conspiracy, (Hughes thought it was a patriotic idea) has long
retained Carl Byoir Associates as its public relations arm. Throughout the war Byoir represented nazi bankers and industrialists and the I.G. Farben interests. One of his clients was Emest Schmitz, member of the I.G. Farben-Ilgner and the German American Board of Trade. His Information Services was subsidized by the nazi government. George Sylvester Viereck, editor of the German Library of Information, was also in business with Byoir. A lucrative Byoir client was the Frederick Flick Group. Flick, a Nuremberg defendant released by McCloy, was the single greatest power behind the nazi military muscle. Frederick Flick's son was close to the W.R. Grace Company, and invested over $400,000 in partnership with J. Peter Grace in the United States. During the war, WR. Grace was accused in a military report of protecting a certain nazi Colonel Brite in Bolivia. In 1951, when the CIA smuggled Barbie out of Germany, he was sent to join the same Colonel Brite. George de Mohrenschildt was a close associate of the company's founder, William Grace.

De Mohrenschildt was a man of many faces. He befriended Lee and Marina Oswald, introducing them to the White Russian community. He made phone calls to obtain Lee jobs and housing. As he told it to the Warren Commission, he was fascinated with this strange couple just out of Russia. But at the Petroleum Club in Dallas, De Mohrenschildt sang the praises of Heinrich Himmler. His travels took him all over the world on missions identified with intelligence. In 1956 he was employed by Pantepec Oil Company
owned by the family of William Buckley.

De Mohrenschildt often discussed Oswald with J. Walton Moore, the CIA's Domestic Contacts Division resident in Dallas. In the
spring of 1963, just after visiting the Oswalds, he went to Washington. There is a record of a phone call de Mohrenschildt made on May 7, 1963, to the Army Chief of Staff for intelligence. The same month he had a meeting in person with a member of that staff. His military connections seem to have been wide. One of the first persons de Mohrenschildt took the Oswalds to see in Dallas was retired Admiral Chester Barton.

Although De Mohrenschildt and his wife Jeanne testified at length before the Warren Commission, only attorney Albert Jenner and
Pentagon historian Alfred Goldberg attended. One of Jenner's clients was General Dynamics, maker of the F-lll fighter that would
achieve fame in Vietnam. The chief of security for General Dynamics in Dallas, Max Clark, was another De Mohrenschildt associate donating money to help Marina while George got Lee his next job in Dallas. He found one at the graphics house of Jagger-Chiles-Stovall, which held classified military contracts.

Jeanne de Mohrenschildt was originally brought to the U.S. by a family member employed by the Howard Hughes organization. In 1977, George was found fatally shot, allegedly a suicide, on the day a House Select Committee investigator came by looking for him. Jeanne consented to a press interview. She said George had been a nazi spy. The placement de Mohrenschildt got for Oswald allowed him to visit the Sol Bloom agency at least 40 times. It was this agency that later decided the motorcade route for Kennedy's fatal visit. Ruth Paine, whom Oswald met via George, had called Roy Truly and procured work for Oswald at the Texas School Book Depository. If Maydell and the Gehlen agents were active in the U.S. they knew all the right moves to secure their patsy.

1960: Young Americans for Freedom

President Harry Truman warned about the CIA "Gestapo" he had created. President Eisenhower left the White House fearing the new "military-industrial complex" he handed to us. In 1960, candidate Richard Nixon was qualified for the job of President. A lot of influential people were sure he was the only choice. Nixon was familiar with every red scare tactic. From his first campaign against Jerry Voorhis in 1946 for the House seat, or vs. Helen Douglas in the Senate, and working with Sen. Joe McCarthy, he knew it well. The prosecution of Alger Hiss, with such flimsy evidence, proved his value alone. But Nixon had also accumulated strong connections with members of the crime syndicate, the Vatican hierarchy, defense industries and known nazis. He knew them all.

What if he lost after those seventeen years of preparation? Would there be a back-up team for the future? Could the Pentagon or
Reinhard Gehlen visualize leaving the entire United States presidency to chance elections? Remember what happened to Senator Robert Kennedy on the eve of his primary election in June, 1968? They can't get that close to losing it again, you know. With both Kennedy's gone, Nixon finally made it.

September, 1960, two months before the elections, William F. Buckley Jr. launched his YAF, Young Americans for Freedom, from
the grounds on his Connecticut estate. Prior to that date, Buckley's career was one of the most conservative in the U.S. Following his graduation at Yale, mentor Frank Chodorov grabbed him for purposes related to his job with McCormick's Chicago Tribune. Buckley served the CIA in Japan from 1950 to 1954. He also did a stint with CIA in Mexico with E. Howard Hunt. Co-founder of YAF was Douglas Caddy, whose offices were used by the CIA and Howard Hughes organization, at the time of Watergate illegal entries and other dirty tricks.

After the CIA in Japan, Buckley was ready to publish his own magazine, The National Review. This was an unusual opportunity to
bring together the world's most conservative writers for publication and much propaganda accompanied by Buckley's glib innuendos.
Once the publication was going, Buckley decided to bring Young Americans for Freedom to the campus; old ideas, old money, and
young minds to mold. Behind the project were always the well-funded military masters, such as the YAF's Tom Charles Huston and
the Cointel-Program Nixon cooked up.

The selected advisory board for YAF was a Who's Who of oldies even then: Senator Strom Thurmond, Senator John Tower, Mr. Ronald Reagan, Professor Lev Dobriansky, General Charles Willoughby, and Mr. Robert Morris are a sample. Robert Morris may not be a household name. But William Buckley knew him well, and Morris, Nixon, and Senator Joe McCarthy were team players. Senator Joe McCarthy's two strongest supporters for him to represent Wisconsin were Frank Seusenbrenner and Walter Harnisfeger. Both admired Adolf Hitler and made continuous trips to Germany.

Senator McCarthy obliged fast enough. Before he went after the commies in the State Department, he had to release a few of Hitler's elite nazis lingering in the Dachau prison camp. McCarthy beat John McCloy by about three years. In 1949, during congressional hearings on the Malmedy Massacre, the bloody Battle of the Bulge, McCarthy invited himself to take over the entire testimony. He wasn't satisfied until the prison doors flew open. The most detestable and ugly battle of World War II, an assault upon Americans and civilians in Belgium, was ignored. Hitler's precious Generals Fritz Kraemer and Sepp Dietrick, along with Hermann Priess and many others, were free.

With that business finished, McCarthy took on Robert Morris as Chief Counsel for the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee.
Morris' earlier training in Navy Intelligence in charge of USSR counter-intelligence and psychological warfare could be utilized well by Senator Joe. Particularly the psychological warfare part.

After McCarthy died, Morris moved to Dallas, Texas. He was a judge, and became president of Dallas University. In 1961, a year after Buckley founded YAF, another conservative organization was formed in Munich, Germany, calling itself CUSA, Conservatism USA. These were not students, but members of the U.S. army, soon to be mustered out, then to appear in Dallas, Texas, by November 1963. The host would be Robert Morris.

A correspondence between Larry Schmidt in Dallas, to Bernie Weissman in Munich, Germany, in preparation for their arrival, was
published in the Warren Commission Hearings, Vol. XVII. Segments of the letters are as follows:

November 2, 1962: Dallas to Munich, Larry Schmidt:

"Gentlemen we got everything we wanted." "It saved the trouble of infiltration." "Met with Frank McGee ... (president of the Dallas Council of World Affairs.)" "Suggest Bernie convert to Christianity and I mean it." (Bernard Weissman, the only Jew, was brought all the way to Dallas on November 22, 1963, to lend his name to the "Wanted for Treason" fliers handed out to welcome JFK. He testified that the John Birch Society paid for the ads and "wanted a Jewish name at the bottom.") “We must all return to the church." “These people are religious bugs.” "I think in terms of 300,000 members, $3,000,000.” "The John Birch Society has a million members. Look for us to merge with them in 1964." "Arrangements are being made for me to meet the heads of the Dallas John Birch, General Walker, and H.L. Hunt, Texas oil millionaire." (General Walker had been retired from the military by John Kennedy for his compulsory Pro-Blud indoctrination.) "I have already met the top editors of the Dallas Morning News, the country's most conservative newspaper.”"These people are radicals but there is a method in their madness. You see, they're all after exactly what we're after.”"No Liberal talk whatsoever, none." "Down here a Negro is a nigger." "I mean, no one is ever to say one kind word about niggers." "Liberals are our enemies." "The conservative isn't against the Niggers, he just wants to keep him in his place for his own good." (Pres. John Kennedy and Atty. Gen. Robert Kennedy had waged a bitter battle from Sept. 30 to
Oct. 3, 1962, at the University of Mississippi. The integration of one Black student brought in the U.S. Army and caused Gen. Edwin Walker to be confined.)

January 4, 1963 Larry Schmidt to B. Weissman, Munich:

"I want big men ... believe me if I had a dozen such men I can conquer the world." "I will go down in the history books as a great and noble man, or a tyrant." "I expect to see you here in Dallas, especially Norman and Larry.” "If Jim Mosely is not here by Feb. 15, he is finished." "One thing had best be understood, I am not playing games here in Dallas and expect you not to play games in Munich." "I am not here in Dallas for my health or because I think Dallas is a wonderful place.” "Continue to have regular meetings and try to get things back in order in preparation for the big meetings."

February 2, 1963 Larry Schmidt:

"We have succeeded, the mission with which I was charged in Dallas has been achieved." "Friday night I attended a gathering of the top conservatives in Dallas." "The meeting was at the home of Dr. Robert Morris, President of the Defenders of American Liberty.” "Present were Mr. George Ward, Detective for Dallas City Police, Mr. Ken Thompson, editorial writer for the Dallas Morning News,ഊMr. Clyde Moore, former PR man for H.L. Hunt, former UPI writer. (Eight others).” "I told them exactly what I wanted."“Others suggested using an already existing movement, named the Young Americans for Freedom, with already 50,000 members." "CUSA, as set up in Munich, is now an established fact in Dallas, only we are calling it YAF. I think you catch on." "We are starting Munich chapters of YAF To spread to Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Berlin, Kaiserslautern." "We are getting every top name in business, education, politics, and religion to endorse YAF." "The advisory board includes 37 congressmen ...including Sen. Strom Thurmond, Sen. John Tower, and Sen. Barry Goldwater. There is Ronald Reagan, Gen. Mark Clark, Gen. Charles Willoughby, John Wayne, etc." "Change all your records to read YAF." "All those months in Munich were not wasted. I accomplished my task in Dallas. I need you here soon. I sold these people on each of you and they are expecting you to come to Dallas and play an important role.” "The days of leisure are over." "We want to see you, Norman, Jim and Bill Burley back here in Dallas." "Sheila and my brother will be here in August; Ken Glazebrook in Sept."

June 13, 1963, Larry Schmidt to B. Weissman in Munich, Germany:

"Warren Carroll, our only other recruit to CUSA, is already a PhD and two MS's. Warren is a scriptwriter for Lifeline, the H.L. Hunt television and radio series. Hunt is the millionaire oilman." "Warren is 32, former CIA man. Don't worry, he has been checked out." "Hunt checked him out." (This appears to be a military action, DIA. They have to check out the CIA man, using Hunt's security).

After Jack Ruby was arrested for killing Oswald inside the Dallas jail, there were copies of Warren Carroll's Lifeline on the seat of his car. The section was on "Heroism," on how to become a "hero." This is interesting because one of the first reasons Ruby gave for killing Oswald was, "I wanted to show them a Jew had guts." "We want to get Norman into the Republic National Bank ... where we are building our credit like crazy for the day we need ready cash."

(The Dallas Republic National Bank was identified by the Washington Post, February 26, 1967, as a conduit of CIA funds since 1958.)

(Connie Trammel, who worked at the Republic National Bank, accompanied Jack Ruby to the office of Lamar Hunt, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 1963, two days before Kennedy was assassinated.)

October 1, 1963, Larry Schmidt to Munich, Germany:

"This town is a battleground and that is no joke. I am a hero to the right, a stormtrooper to the left." "I have worked out a deal with the chairman of YAF. The arrangements are always delicate, very delicate. If I don't produce the bodies it is likely Dale (Davenport) will think me a phoney.”"He needs our help now. Adlai Stevenson is scheduled here on the 24th."
"Kennedy is scheduled in Dallas on November 24." "All big things are happening now.”

1963: A few connections in Dallas -- Gen. Walter Dorberger, Michael and Ruth Paine

When George de Mohrenschildt was busy introducing Lee and Marina to the Dallas-Ft. Worth White Russian displaced Czarists, he
managed to keep the social level equal with his American contacts. One casual dinner in the company of Michael and Ruth Paine, and that was enough meeting to set the Oswalds’ course. George and Jeane didn't have to meet with them again. Ruth Paine would provide housing for Marina while Lee went to New Orleans. A few weeks later, she drove Marina to join Lee. After summer vacation at Wood's Hole, Mass., Ruth returned and brought Marina to her home in Irving, Texas, while Lee was on the bus to Mexico with Albert Osborne/John Bowen, and four other Solidarists from the Russian network.

After Kennedy was murdered, the Dallas police rushed to the Paine's home. From that garage and elsewhere, via the Paines, came most of the incriminating evidence against Oswald. The alleged murder weapon never could be proven by the Warren Commission as ever having come from their garage. The cropped photo that Life printed with Oswald holding a rifle came from a box removed from the garage, taken to the police department, then returned the next day, with nobody present to indicate where it came from.

Accessory after the fact, the letter was delivered to Marina in December undated and unsigned, to cover up General Walker's anxiety to blame a "Communist,” Lee, for shooting at him in April and came from Ruth to Marina. It wasn't in the home before then. The Warren Commission required planted evidence sometimes in order to divert from Lee Oswald's links to the Defense Department, assisted by Ruth and Michael Paine. Michael Paine's occupation at Bell Aircraft is the Defense Department. This job requires security clearances, so what would the unlikely Oswalds be doing in his home? Oswald, the "defector?"

Paine's boss at Bell Aircraft as Director of Research and Development, was none other than the noterious war criminal General Walter Dornberger. Dornberger was supposed to be hanged at Nuremburg for his war crimes, slave labor and mass murders. The British warned the U.S. not to let him live because even after the war he was conniving for another one. As stated, "Dornberger
is a menace of the first order who is untrustworthy. His attitude will turn ally against ally and he would become a source of irritation and future unrest." (Project Paperclip. Clarence Lansey.)

The very first call to authorities after the gun went off on November 22, 1963, was from an employee at Bell Helicopter who suggested "Oswald did it." Police never located the source of both Oswald addresses that day. Michael Paine took Lee to a meeting with General Edwin Walker shortly before the assassination. Soon Oswald would be charged with having shot Walker in April, and Walker would be calling his nazi cronies in Germany 24 hours after JFK was killed telling them he finally solved "who shot through his window" seven months earlier: the same Oswald. Who were the Paines? To believe the Warren Commission and the CIA staff of lawyers, they were Mr. and Mrs. Good Neighbor, all heart, altruistic. Ruth simply wanted to learn more Russian from a native. For that price, she housed Marina, a two-year-old daughter, a new infant, with all the fuss and mess of three extras in a tiny house.

Michael Paine was a descendant of the Cabots on both sides. His cousin Thomas Dudley Cabot, former president of United Fruit, had
offered their Gibraltar Steamship as a cover for the CIA during the Bay of Pigs. Another cousin was Alexander Cochrane Forbes, a
director of United Fruit and trustee of Cabot, Cabot, and Forbes. Both Allen Dulles and John J. McCloy were part of the United Fruit team. The Paine family had links with circles of the OSS and the CIA. Ruth Hyde Paine maintained close ties with the Forbes families. Peter Dale Scott investigated the Paines, "the patrician Paine and Forbes families." A far cry from anybody's neighbor.

Michael's education came as a tradition, third generation physicist at Harvard before working for Bell Helicopter. The British were correct on the Dornberger evaluation. Another clue to Albert Speer, the Reichmaster for Munitions and War Production, and General Dornberger, is their meeting as early as April, 1943. When it was obvious to Hitler they would be losing the war against the USSR, all top Nazis made detailed plans for two years on how to proceed next. Speer met with Dornberger, at Peenemunde, the missile and rocket factory run with Werner Von Braun, and instructed him in "the dispersion of functions throughout the Reich."
Translated, that meant get ready to come to the U.S. Lee Harvey Oswald, Albert Osborne.

When Lee Harvey Oswald entered Mexico at Laredo, Texas, on Sept. 26, 1963, his companion on the Red Arrow bus was Albert Osborne, alias John Howard Bowen. Bowen-Osborne had been running a school for highly professional marksmen in Oaxaca, Mexico, since 1934. The cover for the place was his particular mission, and he was the missionary. The FBI records on Bowen go back to June 4, 1942, in Henderson Springs, Tennessee. He operated a camp for boys known as "Campfire Council." Neighbors complained it was for pro-nazi activities with young fascists. Bowen vehemently opposed the U.S. going to war with nazi Germany. They stomped on the American flag.

Before that, Bowen worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority since 1933. His dual citizenship between Great Britain and the U.S. took him over the entire globe. So did his use of multiple aliases. After the Warren Commission published their report in September 1964, several attorneys in the Southwest recognized the name of Osborne. September 8, 1952, Jake Floyd was murdered. The target was meant to be his father, District Judge Floyd. Two suspects were caught, one got away. Their testimony was about being hired by Osborne and how he ran the school for assassins.

Later investigation revealed Osborne's connections to Division V of the FBI, and to Clay Shaw's Centro Mondiale Commerciale, with
funding coming from New Orleans for the CIA, Anti-Castro Cubans, and others. Lee Harvey Oswald applied for a tourist card to
enter Mexico while still in New Orleans on September 17, 1963. Four other persons, having consecutive tourist numbers, departed nine days later, like Oswald, all to arrive at the same time, entering from several different cities. They were part of the White Russian Solidarists, the Gehlen emigre community that Lee and Marina mingled with. This assassination team funded Maurice Brooks Gatlin, Guy Bannister, and the Miami office of Double Check Corporation. J. Edgar Hoover's Division V, Domestic Intelligence, working with the American Council of Christian Churches, had used this group from the Bowen-Osborne academy of assassins.

Volume XXV of the Hearings has many pages of interviews with people who had sent money to Jack Bowen. They never met him, and some like Mrs. Bessie White, Pikesville, Tenn., mailed $35 a month to John Howard Bowen who she believed had been doing missionary work for 18 years in Mexico." Osborne-Bowen had a mission. Lee Harvey Oswald, agent from U.S. Defense Dept., had a team of doubles impersonating his behavior, leaving trails of anti-American frustration and meetings with various people.

While Oswald was in Mexico just prior to Kennedy's murder, the purposes were concealed. Meanwhile, the CIA and various
authorities led Oswald to the Cuban Embassy, the Soviet Embassy. When the face or voices didn't match the authentic Oswald, it
didn't matter, given a difference of 40 to 50 pounds and shape. What came from all this was the conclusion that Oswald had really
wanted to go to Cuba next. Which Oswald, and why? This was to finalize with the illusion of an Oswald-Castro admiration just days before Kennedy would be killed.

Senator John Tower and Marina Oswald

One of the most consistent conservatives among Buckley's YAF Advisory Board was Senator John Tower, Texas. If there is anything he wouldn't want in his back yard it was a defector and his allegedly Communist wife from Minsk. Yet, two years after joining the YAF team in 1960, Tower was passing all waivers in order for Marina Oswald to get to the United States as soon as possible. Without his permission, this trip might never have taken place. Many wives from the USSR are not that lucky. March 22, 1962, Senator Tower cooperated. "The sanctions imposed on immigration and nationality are hereby waived in behalf of Mrs. Oswald. The file check on Marina by the FBI, CIA, Dept. of Security Office, Division of biographical intelligence and passport office," (Volume XXIV, 298).

George de Mohrenschildt testified in Volume IX, PP· 228-229, "Marina Oswald's father had been a Czarist officer of some kind. I
don't remember whether it was army or navy.” Her real father was never identified by name in all of the testimony. Between 1948 and 1950 over 200 Byelorussian nazis and their families were brought to New Jersey. Both George de Mohrenschildt and Marina had come from Minsk, part of the Byelorussian area. The Gehlen nazi emigres were useful to every part of the Kennedy assassination cover-up. John Tower knew Marina was a safe bet. Otherwise, why the hurry? Our CIA and the Defense Department knew all there was to know about both Oswalds. Therefore, Tower signed the immigration papers fast.

The Argentine Connections: Isaac Dan Levine and the Ziger Family

The Warren Report wasn't published until September, 1964. Testimony of witnesses and exhibits were being collected up to the day of printing. Yet as early as June 2, 1964, Isaac Don Levine, another arch-enemy of Communists and a so-called expert on the Soviet mind, was arranging with the Warren Commission staff to bring the daughters of Oswald's boss, Alexander Ziger, from the Minsk Radio factory to Argentina. He suggested using CIA assistance. What was that about?

"When the Oswalds left Russia they smuggled out a message to one of the relatives of the Zigers living in the U.S. They wanted help to get the Zigers’ daughters out of Russia. The daughters, having been born in Argentina, could claim Argentine citizenship. Levine suggested some confidential source in the American Government such as the CIA should contact the Argentine Government to set machinery in motion. (Memorandum from W. David Slauson: Conference with Mr. Isaac Don Levine, May 23, 1964).

January 21, 1964, John J. McCloy told Commission members, before any witness was yet called, "this fellow Levine is a contact with Marina to break the story up in a little more graphic manner and tie it into a Russian business, and it is with the thought and background of Russian connections, conspiracy concept." If there was a Russian conspiracy to kill President John Kennedy, John McCloy, Isaac Don Levine, Allen Dulles, and J. Edgar Hoover, not to speak of Nixon and others, would squeeze that out.

Remember Gary Powers strongly hinted at Oswald's role in downing the U-2, breaking up the Eisenhower-Khrushchev meeting while Lee was employed at the Minsk Radio factory? Nicola Malaxa, Otto Skorzeny, and international CIA-DIA agents were thick in both Minsk and Argentina. It was Alexander Ziger and his family who introduced Lee to Marina Oswald. That same evening they were at the home of an unidentified woman just returned from the U.S.

The President of the U.S. had been murdered in 1963. Six months later the CIA is supposed to assist the Ziger daughters? One more connection to Richard Nixon. When poor Whittaker Chambers almost collapsed from the strain of having to testify against Alger Hiss, it was Isaac Don Levine who took "Chambers by the arm, a reluctant Chambers, and arranged the meetings where he would begin to smear Hiss." (Friendship and Fratricide, Meyer Zelig). When Levine was searching for a Soviet connection to Kennedy's death, he was also doing business with Marina's new manager, James Martin. It was Martin who was selling the photo of Oswald posing with Communist literature and a rifle, the same evidence pulled from the Paine's garage. Notice the similarity to the Whittaker Chambers pumpkin papers years earlier that launched Nixon's political career and convicted Alger Hiss. If the evidence didn't fit the conclusions of the investigators, the one picture would sell the Oswald assassin story.

"Treason for My Daily Bread” -- Argentina and Martin Bormann

In August 1971, a French paper headlined a news story, Martin Bormann Behind the Kennedy Murders. It listed an international band of killers that was located in Texas. They carried out the two assassinations at the German command. Six years later, June 8, 1977, the London Guardian reported, "Bormann Linked with Kennedy Murder." This story was based on a new book titled, Treason for My Daily Bread by Mikhail Lebedev. Lebedev detailed how Martin Bonnann left Europe, established his current life in Paraguay, and how the fatal head shot to Kennedy was delivered by an agent paid by Bormann, alias of Zed. Is any of this true?

Many of these allegations and names come together with both Paris Flammonde's The Kennedy Conspiracy and the Nomenclature of an Assassination Cabal, known as the "Torbitt Document." "Zed" allegedly used a .45 for the final shot. Buddy Walters, murdered January 10, 1969, picked up a .45 slug in Dealey Plaza and gave it to the Dallas Police. There were two possible assassination teams in Dallas. The military from Munich, Germany, that was to take over the YAF, with Robert Morris' help, have yet to be identified or interviewed (Morris from U.S. intelligence, having to do with USSR covert work.) Gen. Edwin Walker's arrangement with U.S. Military in Germany or, the arrival of such people for Nov. 22, 1963, is open to question.

Albert Osborne's "mission" in Mexico, with direct links to Clay Shaw's Centro Mondiale Commerciale, has never been touched. This was the international band of killers with the Borghese-James Angleton operations working throughout the world. Otto Skorzeny's CIA and Reinhard Gehlen death squads, with headquarters in Madrid, were funded by Martin Bormann when the Evita Peron funds were shared after 1952. Lebedev mentions "Ruth," David Ferrie, Clay Shaw, Guy Bannister, and Colonel Orlov. The very first day George de Mohrenschildt visited Marina Oswald she was alone and Lee was working. He brought with him a "Colonel Orlov.”

The House Select Committee on Assassinations "investigated" the murder of President John F. Kennedy from 1976-1978. The information about Bormann was available from 1971. Treason for My Daily Bread was published while they were supposed to be
finding the "smoking gun."

G. Robert Blakey, Chief Consul for the Committee, refused to admit any research or documents on these subjects. He would hang up
the telephone and even refused to say if he had ever seen the Torbitt Document. Six million dollars was allotted by Congress to
investigate the assassination of President Kennedy.

Martin Bormann may have had his motives for his actions through the years. What were G. Robert Blakey's?

What form of prosecution should be suggested for committees paid to uncover the truth who continuously sweep under the rug?

In A Study of a Master Spy, published in London in 1961, Bob Edwards, a member of Parliament and Kenneth Dunne, presented
documentary evidence that Allen Dulles of the CIA carried on secret conferences with representatives of Hitler's SS Security Office in February and March 1943. They learned that "Official Washington knew Martin Bormann, Deputy Fuhrer of Hitler’s Germany, master-minded the international 'Die Spinne' (Spider) underground organization which is planning to revive nazism as soon as West Germany is adequately rearmed by the United States. Official Washington seems disinterested." With John J. McCloy, Allen Dulles and J. Edgar Hoover in control of the Kennedy assassination investigation, these nazi connections were buried.

The Bunge Corporation, Argentina & Germany

The stock market dropped 24 points in 27 minutes when news of President Kennedy's assassination was announced. 2.6 million shares were sold off. It was the greatest panic since 1929. Somebody made a huge profit selling short in many markets. Somebody made half a billion dollars in one day. Coincidentally, the Allied Crude Vegetable Oil Refining Corporation, headed by New Jersey commodities dealer Anthony De Angeles, crashed the same day, driving the market down.

Allied Crude was controlled by U.S. American Bunge Corporation and financially controlled by a group of share-holders headquartered in Argentina, known as "Bunge and Born, LDA." Business Week of October 19, 1963, one month before the Kennedy assassination, described the Born family in Argentina, the biggest shareholders for Bunge, as being from Europe, specifically Germany.

Everything about Bunge has German influence. They have a $2 billion annual business in 80 countries. There are over 110 offices, all linked by Telex and under-the-ocean telegraph channels. The Bunge Corporation is referred to as "the Octopus." The book Were We Controlled? detailed the relationship of the Bunge Corporation, the foreknowledge of Kennedy's murder, and the
Argentine-German connections.

General Edwin Walker and the Hitler Nazis

The Eagle's Nest, now a mountain restaurant, was given to Adolf Hitler by nazi aide Martin Bormann for the fuhrer's 50th birthday. It is not far from Hitler's former summer home in Berchtesgaden. Nearby is the Platterhof Hotel, built for guests when they came to pay their respects. The Platterhof has changed its name to the General Walker Hotel.

November 23, 1963, one day after Kennedy's death, Gen. Edwin Walker called Munich, Germany, from Shreveport, La. Walker's important story, via transatlantic telephone, was to the nazi newspaper Deutsche National Zeitung un Soldaten-Zeitung. Walker couldn't wait to tell them in Munich that Lee Harvey Oswald, the lone suspect in the Dallas murders, was the same person who shot through his window in April, 1963. There was never one shred of evidence, or a reliable witness, that could make this connection Dallas police and FBI were taken by surprise.

In order to cover this over-exuberance of trying to link a Marxist assassin to this altercation, it became necessary to have Ruth Paine deliver that ridiculous letter to Marina Oswald on December 3, 1964. The delayed letter was to have been written the night Lee was out shooting in Walker's home. The only piece of bullet that remained in custody was never positively identified as coming from the 6.5 Mannlicher Carcano, and there is no proof Oswald even handled this rifle.

Why was General Walker in such a hurry to get his information printed in Germany before anybody in Dallas ever heard about it?
Kurt-George Kiesinger had just been installed as Chancellor of West Germany and Franz-Josef Straus as finance minister. Kiesinger entered the radio propaganda division of nazi Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop at age 36. He was then directing a world-wide radio propaganda apparatus with 195 specialists under his supervision during the war. He was the liaison officer, coordinat-ing his department's work with that of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.

Richard Nixon and Kurt-George Kiesinger were soon, or maybe before, to become pals. Nixon tried to hide his nazi past. But General Walker, now home from military service in Munich, knew the importance of such propaganda. He was calling the same
people who, under Hitler, published and controlled the newspapers. There were two motives for this call:

(1) It gave international attention to the fact that Oswald, the Marxist gunman, was shooting at Walker as well as the President.
General Walker knew too many people in the Defense Department and in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that could be part of this
assassination. He made himself appear as a victim instead of a suspect.

(2) Along with the expertise of Robert Morris's counter-intelligence and psychological warfare training, was to create a profile for Lee Harvey Oswald. No possible motive could explain why Oswald would really want to kill President Kennedy. By having Oswald appear to shoot the right-wing General Walker with his John Birch connections, his militant anti-communist stance, then shoot John Kennedy, the same Commie-symp Walker was accusing of treason, it would appear that Oswald was just nuts. He didn't know right from left. The Munich newspaper Walker called was linked to the World Movement for a Second Anti-Komintern, part of the Gehlen and U.S. right. Some of Hitler's ex-nazis and SS-men were on the Staff. The editor, Gerhard Frey, was a close friend with various nazi members of the Witiko League. The Witiko League and the Sudetendeutch Landsmannscraft were organizations for displaced refugees. By the summer of 1948 they formed large organizations and by 1955 Dr. Walter Becher was elected to the executive board of the Witiko League. Becher was one of the kingpins of nazi front organizations. Sen. Joe McCarthy, Charles Willoughby, Gen. Edwin Walker, and Robert Morris' links to the German nazis converged when Dr. Walter Becher set up offices in Washington, D.C. in 1950.

By July 16, 1957, Becher, praised by American Opinion and other extreme right publications, started his policy of liberation. General Douglas MacArthur, Senator Joe McCarthy, General Willoughby, members of the U.S. Congress or public officials then started openly to meet with and cooperate with the nazi resurgence. Dan Smooth, former Dallas FBI agent is the type of person who kept strong nazi ties with Dr. Becher in Munich, to Western Goals today. His printed sheets were identical to the Goebbels propaganda years ago, or to Walker's disinformation one day after Kennedy was killed. Volkmar Schmidt came from Munich, Germany, to work full time for General Walker. How long did he work, and where was he on November 23, 1963, when Walker made the call to the same city the CUSA imports came from?

The YAF crowd in Dallas was an interesting gang: Col. Charles Willoughby, intelligence Chief for S. Pacific, Robert Morris, U.S.
counter-intelligence and psychological warfare, Gen Edwin Walker, brought home from Munich by JFK, William Buckley, CIA in
Japan, Mexico, and elsewhere, Sen. John Tower, who gave the okay for Marina Oswald.

1964: The Warren Commission

President Lyndon Johnson was forced to select a commission to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy and the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby. Texas authorities were supposed to do the original investigation. There were too many suspicious people around the world who believed a conspiracy existed. Those rumors had to be squelched. J. Edgar Hoover's FBI never budged from its conclusion that Lee Harvey acted alone. Whatever evidence didn't fit this decision was ignored.

Twenty-six volumes of witness testimony and exhibits were published. 8000 copies were sold. No more reprints. The contradiction between the conclusions of the Warren Report, and the abundance of discrepancies in the other volumes, makes fascinating reading.

Chief Justice Earl Warren, John J. McCloy, and Allen Dulles were the logical choices for LBJ. President Kennedy didn't trust Allen Dulles as CIA Director. Now JFK was dead and Dulles would be in charge of all possible "conspiracy" segments. Richard Nixon, temporarily retired from politics for the first time since 1946, selected Rep. Gerald Ford to be on this Commission.
Nixon selected Ford a second time when he ran home to escape impeachment during Watergate.

One of the first subjects for commission members to share in January, one month before witnesses were selected, was the matter of Lee Harvey Oswald being a government agent. Gerald Ford was the only member of the group to write a book on the assassination. His book opened with the hushed and secret meeting where allegations had been received that Oswald worked for the FBI. What Ford left out of his book, and the commissioners ignored in their Report, was that Oswald was also identified as working for the CIA. Commission Chairman Earl Warren and Commission Attorney Leon Jaworski knew about this. They stated that "Mr. Belli, attorney for Jack L. Ruby, was familiar with these allegations."

Oswald's informant number was Number 110669. How was that for a starter? The next move was to start building the myth about the deceased and ignore fact one, stated above. This grand commission would call in a doctor who never met Lee Oswald or Jack Ruby to assist them with their project, covering up. Justice Warren suggested bringing in Dr. Overholser, who "of course is not a lawyer. He is a doctor from St. Elizabeth's Hospital." As the Chairman went on to explain, "we felt we ought to have someone who, in that field, could advise us on matters concerning the life of Oswald and possibly the life of Ruby also.”

The next order of business was who should write the Report for them? By January 21, 1964, that had to be decided. Chairman Earl Warren said, "we consulted with the Defense Department, and they have offered to lend us one of their historians to do this job, and we think that it is quite essential to the work of the Commission." Mr. Goldberg would assist from the Air Force. Mr. Cokery was from the Army.

"Mr. Winnaker recommended them," Chief Counsel J. Lee Rankin offered. "We would work with them to try to anticipate all of the
various historical aspects.” Who's Who in the CIA described "Mr. Winnaker" as having been born in Germany in 1904. His full name is Dr. Rudolph August Winnacker. He was an analyst for the OSS, historian in the War Department from 1945-1949, and then Chief of Historical Division of the Pentagon." Was Winnaker the ilk of Willoughby? Or Reinhard Gehlen? When did he come here from Germany? Where is he now?

Marina Oswald was the first witness to testify on February 3, 1964. Warren wanted nothing more than to make her comfortable. The first question dealt with the General Walker story because Walker had blown it by calling Munich so soon. That scandal had to be put to rest right away.

Warren asked Marina "if Exhibit 2 was familiar to her because it was a picture of General Walker's house?" Marina said, "no," but that wasn't good enough. She was asked again, and once more said, "I didn't see it, at least, taken from this view I can't recognize it. I never saw the house itself at any time in my life." That wasn't sufficient. She just couldn't remember "this particular one."

Chairman Warren was ready to go "off the record." They had only just begun. Chief Counsel Rankin suggested he show her "more pictures," then maybe she would recognize the Walker home. This time she was given a selection of a location in New Orleans, two snapshots from Leningrad, and the same shot of the Walker home. Because Walker wasn't living in a castle in Leningrad, Marina assumed that house in Dallas must belong to "General Walker." Therefore, this was admitted for identification and the Defense Department history could then proceed. "Marina Oswald positively identified the photograph of General Walker’s home among Lee's possessions.

There are a lot of things that remain to be said about this commission and their phoney report. Admission of an old card trick at the beginning set the tone for what was to follow. What was never supposed to come out was the use of Reinhard Gehlen agents surrounding Lee and Marina Oswald for the purposes of covering up the assassination conspiracy. Two Lee Harvey Oswalds existed. One memorized the Marine manual by age 17, went directly into radar and electronic work. He trained at U-2 bases, learned the Russian language, got himself into and out of the Soviet Union, wrote clear and literate letters. He was met, upon arriving home, by Government agents, provided with occupations, fathered two children, owed no debts, traveled around a great deal, met with interesting oil geologists, defense department and intelligence agents. Their social circle included the "Cabots and Lodges" from Czarist Russia, Admirals and some fancy folks.

The other Oswald was one developed by the Warren Commission to divert attention from the facts. Nobody ever saw the original "diary" that he couldn't have possibly written. Every Gehlen witness and emigre associated with the CIA, Tolstoy Foundation, or Creek Orthodox Church was directed towards the most ridiculous questions. From all that garbage the Defense Department wrote the history. The last thing that should happen is for the warriors to interpret and define for us. The facts speak for themselves.

2002-06-11T20:53:00.000-05:00

The Merovingian Mythos:
It's Symbolic Significance,
And its Roots in the Ancient Kingdom of Atlantis

The Frankish King Dagobert II, and the Merovingian dynasty from which he came, have been romantically mythologized in the annals of both local legend and modern mystical pseudo-history, but few have understood the true meaning and origins of their alluring mystery. The mystique that surrounds them includes attributions of saintliness, magical powers (derived from their long red hair), and even divine origin, stemming from their supposed descent from the one and only Jesus Christ. However, the importance of the divine origin of the Merovingians, and the antiquity from whence it comes, has never to this author's knowledge been fully explored by any writer or historian. And Boyd Rice and I will explain in more detail in our forthcoming book, we have uncovered mountains of evidence which indicates that the origins of the Merovingian race, and the mystery that surrounds them, lies ultimately with a race of beings, "Nephilim" or Fallen Angels, who created mankind as we know him today, and with a civilization, far more ancient than recorded history, from which came all of the major arts and sciences that are basic to civilizations everywhere, even unto today. As we intend to show, all of the myths and symbolism that are associated with this dynasty can, in fact, be traced back to this earlier civilization. It is known, in some cultures, as Atlantis, although there are many names for it, and it is the birthplace of agriculture, astronomy, mathematics, metallurgy, navigation, architecture, language, writing, and religion. It was also the source of the first government on Earth - monarchy. And the first kings on Earth were the Gods.

Their race was known by various names. In Greece, the Annodoti. In Sumeria, The Annunaki. In the Celtic lore, the Tuatha de Danaan. In the Semetic scriptures (Torah, Talmud, Old Testament, and other Apocryphal texts like the Book of Enoch), they are called The Nephilim, "The Sons of God", or the Watchers. They are described as having attachments such as wings, horns, and even fish scales, but from the depictions it is clear that these are clothes or costumes worn for their symbolic value, for these symbols indicated divine power and royal blood. The gods themselves had their own monarchy, with laws of succession similar to our own, and they built a global empire upon the Earth, with great cities, temples and monuments, and mighty nations established on several continents. They created mankind as a slave race to work on their farms and in their gold mines, among other things. The Sumerian legends are very clear: Man was made to "bear the yoke of the gods." Man was separate from the gods, like a domesticated animal, and there was a great cultural taboo amongst the gods against sharing any of their sacred information with humanity, even things such as writing and mathematics. These Gods ruled directly over Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Indus Valley, and their rule is recorded in the histories of all three civilizations.

This global monarchy was the crowning glory of the Ages, and the period of their rule came to be called the Golden Age, or as the Egyptians called it, "The First Time", when the Gods watched over man directly, like a Shepherd his flock. In fact, they were often called "The Shepherd Kings." One of the symbols of this world monarchy was an eye hovering over a throne, and this eye now adorns our Dollar Bill, presented as the missing capstone of the Great Pyramid of Giza, underneath which are written the words "New World Order." Clearly this New World Order is the global monarchy that our Founding Fathers (not a Democrat among them) intended for this nation to participate in all along, symbolized by a pyramid as a representation of the ideal and perfectly ordered authoritarian Empire. During the Golden Age of the Gods, a new King's ascendance to the global throne would be celebrated by the sacrifice of a horse, an animal sacred to Poseidon, one of the Atlantean god-Kings and Lord of the Seas. (Recall that Merovingian King Clovis was buried with a severed horse's head.) In fact there is an amusing story about how King Sargon's rebellious son Sagara tried to prevent his father's assumption of the world throne from being solidified by stealing his sacrificial horse. The horse was not recovered until years later, and Sagara, along with the "sons of Sagara", i.e., those members of his family who had assisted him, were forced to dig their own mass grave. This grave was oddly called "The Ocean."

It was just a rebellion such as this that lead to the downfall of the entire glorious Empire. At some point, it is told, some of the gods broke rank. This is again recorded in just about every culture on Earth that has a written or oral history of legends. Some of the Gods, finding human females most appealing, intermarried with them (breaking, of course, a major taboo within their own culture), and creating a race of human/god hybrids. Some of these offspring are described as taking the form of giants, dragons, and sea monsters, while others are said to have born a normal human countenance, with the exception of their shimmering white skin and their extremely long life spans. This is the bloodline that brought us Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, King David, Jesus Christ, and many others, in other words the Grail Bloodline. Legend has it that these beings taught mankind their secrets, including the above-mentioned arts of civilization, as well as a secret spiritual doctrine that only certain elect humans (their blood descendants) would be allowed to possess. They created ritualistic mystery schools and secret societies to pass this doctrine down through the generations.

However, these actions (the interbreeding and sharing of secrets with humans) incurred the wrath of the Most High God, and a number of other Gods who were disgusted by this interracial breeding. This sparked the massive and devastating battle of the gods that has come down to us in the legends of both the War in Heaven, and the Deluge. Then, in order the cleanse the Earth's surface of the curse of humanity, they covered it with a flood. Interestingly, this Flood is mentioned in the legends of almost every ancient culture on Earth, and the cause is always the same. Often the waters are described as having come from inside the Earth. "The Fountains of the deep are opened, it is said. "Suddenly enormous volumes of water issued from the Earth." Water was "projected from the mountain like a water spout." The Earth began to rumble, and Atlantis, fair nation of the gods, sunk beneath the salty green waves. As we shall see, this is analogous to part during the "War in Heaven" when the "rebellious" angels or gods were punished by being cast down "into the bowels of the Earth", a very significant location.

To be certain, some of the Atlanteans managed to survive, and many books have been written about the Atlantean origin of the Egyptian, Sumerian, Indo-Aryan, and native South American civilizations (bringing into question the validity of the term "Native American.") Little, however, has been written about those who escaped into Western Europe, except for a passing reference in Ignatius Donnelly's Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, in which we writes:

"The Gauls (meaning the French) possessed traditions upon the subject of Atlantis which were collected by the Roman historian Timagenes who lived in the first century before Christ. He represents that three distinct people dwelt in Gaul: 1. The indigenous population, which I suppose to be Mongoloids, who had long dwelt in Europe; 2. the invaders from a distant land, which I understand to be Atlantis; 3. The Aryan Gaul."

That the Merovingian bloodline came from elsewhere is clear because of the legend that surrounds their founder, King Merovee, who is said to have been the spawn of a "Quinotaur", a giant fish or a sea monster, who raped his mother when she went out to swim in the ocean. Now it becomes clear why he is called "Merovee", because in French, the Mer means sea. And in some traditions, Atlantis was called Meru, or Maru. (It is also the name of the famous "World Mountain" of Eastern tradition.) For these gods, navigation above all was important to them, for it was their sea power that maintained their military might and their successful mercantile trade. (Mer is also the origin of the word "mercantile.") The Atlanteans were associated with the sea and were often depicted as mermen, or sea monsters, with scales, fins, and horns. And they were variously associated with a number of important animals, whose symbolism they held sacred: horses, bulls, goats, rams, lions, fish, serpents, dragons, even cats and dogs. And as we will see, all of these things relate back to the sea imagery with which these gods were associated.

Now lets go back to the Quinotaur, which some have named as being synonymous with Poseidon, the Greek God of the sea and, according to Plato, one of the famous kings of Atlantis. Others have seen it as being emblematic of the fish symbol that Christ is associated with, thus indicating that he was in fact the origin of the bloodline. However, the roots of this Quinotaur myth are far more ancient. The word itself can be broken down etymologically to reveal its meaning. The last syllable, "Taur", means "Bull." The first syllable "Quin", or "Kin", comes from the same root as "King", as well as the Biblical name of Cain, whom many have named as the father of a particular branch of the Grail family. The Bull King who swims in the ocean is a recurring them in many ancient cultures, most notably, ancient Mesopotamia. In fact he comes from that dynasty of kings who reigned over the antediluvian world and who were all associated with the sea, as well as this divine animal imagery. These kings included Sargon, Menes, and Narmar. Their historical reality morphed into the legends we have in many cultures of gods said to have come out of the sea at various times and taught mankind the basic arts of civilization: agriculture, metallurgy, architecture, navigation, mathematics, medicine, etc. They were known by various names: Ea, Enki, Dagon, Oannes, or Marduk (Merodach). They depicted as half-man, half-fish, half-goat half-fish, or half-bull, half-fish, but as we have said, in many of these depictions it is clear that this affect was merely achieved by the wearing of costumes, and that these God-Kings were using this archetypal imagery to deify themselves in the minds of their subjects.

Dagon, Oannes and Enki are essentially synonymous, and interestingly, Marduk or Merodach is his son, just as Merovee is the son of the Quinotaur. Dagon was depicted with a fish on his head, the lips protruding upward, making what were referred to as "horns." This may be the origin for the custom (common in the ancient world) of affixing horns to the crown of a king. It has also been historically acknowledged as the origin of the miter that the Pope wears. (Now we understand why, in the post-mortem photo of Berenger Sauniere lying on his death bed, this small parish priest is seen next to a Bishop's miter.) The Christian Church has always been associated with fish. Christ himself was, as was John the Baptist, and the early Christians used the fish sign of the "icthys" to designate themselves. From Dagon's name Oannes we get the words "Uranus", "Ouranous", "Jonah", "Janus", and "John." Perhaps we finally now understand why the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion assume the symbolic name of John.

The syllable "Dag" merely means fish, which makes it interesting to note that the Dogon tribe of Africa, who have long baffled astronomers with their advanced knowledge of the specifics of the faraway star-system from which, they say, their Gods came, claim that these Gods were "Fish-Men." This author wonders if the words "Dag" and "Dog" aren't etymologically related, especially since the star from whence these fish-men supposedly came is named Sirius, "The Dog Star." From Dagon comes our word "Dragon", as well as the Biblical figure of Leviathan, "The Lord of the Deep", a title also applied to Dagon. In fact, many of these gods received the titles "The Lord of the Waters", "The Lord of the Deep", and "The Lord of the Abyss", which appear to have been passed down from father to son along with the throne of the global kingdom. They are specifically associated with the Flood of Noah, which as I have mentioned, destroyed their global kingdom and was somehow linked to their disastrous breeding experiment with the human race that lead to the Grail Bloodline, to which the Merovingians belong. For this they were consigned to the Abyss or the Underworld, which is why these gods were known as the Lords of both.

Enki was also known as the "Lord of the Earth", and it is because of this "amphibious" nature of their progenitor, reigning over both land and sea, that the Merovingians are associated with frogs. But this "Lord of the Earth" title is significant, for this is a title also given to Satan. And it has been historically acknowledged that Enki, as the "Fish-Goat Man", is prototype for the Zodiac sign of Capricorn, which is itself recognized as the prototype for the modern conception of Satan or Lucifer.

Furthermore, a well-known and pivotal episode in Enki's career was his rebellion against his brother Enlil over the succession of the global throne. Enki eventually slayed Enlil, something that is recorded in the Egyptian myth of Set murdering Osiris, and perhaps in the Biblical story of Cain murdering Abel. Cain eventually became King - in fact that's where the word comes from, and now it makes perfect sense why Enki would be called the "Quinotaur." The identity of Enki and Enlil with Cain and Abel can be further proven by the fact that Enki and Enlil were the son of Anu (in some Sumerian legends, the first God-King on Earth), whereas Cain and Abel were the sons of "Adamu - the First Man." Adamu and Anu appear to be etymologically related.

This family feud erupted into a long and overdrawn battle between the Gods, who were split into two factions over the issue. These appear to be the same two factions who were at odds over the mating of Gods and Men to create the Grail Bloodline. Those who supported Enki, Satan or Cain were clearly the ones who were inclined to breed with mankind, perhaps in attempt to create a hybrid race that could assist them in retaining the throne for Cain. But they were overpowered. After they lost the "War in Heaven", they were cast into the Abyss, according to legend, now the realm of Satan, and the Earth was flooded so as to rid the Earth of their offspring.

Yet according to the legends, those Gods who had created the hybrid race attempted to contact one of their most favored descendants - called Uta-Napishtim in the Sumerian legends, or Noah in the Hebrew - and helped him to rescue himself and his family, preserving the seed of hybrid humanity. (Uta-Napishtim contains the Sumerian and Egyptian word for fish, "Pish", and perhaps we can see why some authors have claimed that the character of Noah is in fact based on Oannes/Dagon/Enki as well.) We see remnants of this in the Vedic legends of the Flood, in which the surviving family is warned about the Flood by a horned fish called the Manu (who turns out to be the Hindu God Vishnu in disguise). He tells them to build an Ark, and then tie its mast to his horn, then proceeds to tow them to safety upon a high mountain. So clearly Vishnu is the same as Enki, Dagon, and Oannes, and clearly he is the one who saved Noah from the Flood. Yet this same kind deed became attributed, in the Old Testament, to the same God, Jehovah, who had caused the Flood to begin with. In fact the word Jehovah, or "Jah" is said to have evolved from the name of another Sumerian sea god-king, Ea, "The Lord of the Flood." Likewise, Leviathan, or Dagon is responsible in some references for "vomiting out the waters of the Flood." This occurs at the Apocalypse in the Book of Revelations as well. Leviathan, like many of these Sea Gods, was the Lord of the Abyss, or "Absu" in Sumerian, and these waters were believed to he holding the Earth up from underneath, in the regions of Hell. And yet "Leviathan" is almost surely etymologically related to the Jewish name "Levi", and therefore the "Tribe of Levi", the priestly caste of the Jews from whence part of Christ's lineage came.

This dual current, being associated with both the Heavenly and the Infernal, with both Jesus and Jehovah, Satan and Lucifer, is something that has marked the history of the Merovingian dynasty, as well as all of the other Grail families, and the entire Grail story itself. It is at the heart of the secret spiritual doctrine symbolized by the Grail. This symbolism hits you immediately when you walk in the door of the church at Rennes-le Chateau and see those opposing statues of the demon Asmodeus and Jesus Christ staring at the same black and white chequered floor, which itself symbolizes the balance of good and evil. This principle is further elucidated by the words placed over the doorway, "This place is terrible, but it is the House of God and the Gateway to Heaven." This phrase turns up in two significant places. One is in the Bible, when Jacob has his vision of the ladder leading to Heaven, with angels ascending and descending. The other is in the Book of Enoch, when Enoch is taken for a tour of Hell. The existence of this phrase at the entrance to the church, coupled with the images that meet you immediately therein, render the meaning obvious. For Berenger Sauniere, who arranged these strange decorations, this Church represented some kind of metaphysical gateway between Heaven and Hell.

For this reason, the double-barred Cross of Lorraine, symbolizing this duality, has come to be associated with the Merovingians. In a now famous poem by Charles Peguy, is it stated:

"The arms of Jesus are the Cross of Lorraine,
Both the blood in the artery and the blood in the vein,
Both the source of grace and the clear fountaine;
The arms of Satan are the Cross of Lorraine,
And the same artery and the same vein,
And the same blood and the troubled fountaine."

The reference to Satan and Jesus sharing the same blood is very important. A tradition exists, one which finds support among the Book of Enoch and many others, that Jesus and Satan are brothers, both sons of the Most High God, and they both sat next to his throne in Heaven, on the right and left sides, respectively, prior to Satan's rebellion and the War in Heaven. This may be just another version of the persistent and primordial "Cain and Abel" story. It makes sense that Satan should both be a direct son of God, since he is described as God's "Most Beloved Angel" and "The Brightest Star in Heaven." (Note: The Book of Enoch refers to the Watchers, or Nephilim, as "stars", with various "watchtowers" in the houses of the Zodiac. Bear in mind that the ancients saw the sky above as a giant "Sea", the waters of which were kept at bay by the "Firmament of Heaven" - that is, until the Flood.)

However, this symbol is far older than the modern conceptions of Christ and Satan, or Lucifer. As Boyd Rice will explain to you in another article, this symbol can be traced back to the hieroglyphs of ancient Sumer, where it was pronounced "Khat" "Kad", and sometimes even "Cod." This was another title for the Kings who were known as God of the Sea, and the word "Khatti" became associated with his entire race, and the region that was their capitol, "Amarru", "The Land to the West" (like Meru, the alternate term for Atlantis). This land was symbolized by a Lion, which may explain the origin of the word "Cat", as well as why the lion is now a symbol of royalty. We would argue that this was at the root of the word "Cathari" (the heretics associated with the Holy Grail who occupied the Languedoc region of France that the Merovingians ruled over), and Adam Kadmon, the Primordial Man of alchemy, as well as the Mesopotamian kingdom of "Akkadia", which itself has morphed into "Arcadia", which further morphs into Acacia, the traditional Sprig of Hope and symbol of Resurrection after death. Perhaps this sheds further light on the phrase "Et in Arcadia Ego", which pops up more than once in association with the mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau and the Merovingians. This phrase was illustrated by Nicholas Poussin with the scene of a tomb, a human skull, and three shepherds. The tomb and skull clearly represent death, while the Sprig of Acacia implied by the word "Arcadia" translates to "resurrection from death." The Shepherds, furthermore, represent the divine kingship of the Atlantean gods and the Grail bloodline, for these God-Monarchs were also known as the "Shepherd Kings" (a title, notably, taken up by Jesus as well.) This indicates that it is the Global Monarchy of these Atlantean gods that shall rise again from the tomb, perhaps through the Merovingian bloodline.

This archetype of the Fallen King who shall one day return, or the Kingdom that disappears, only to rise again in a new, Golden Age, is a very common one, and one as I have shown in another article to be integral to the Grail legend. It was also one used quite effectively by the last of the Merovingian kings who effectively held the throne of the Austrasian Empire - this magazine's mascot, Dagobert II. Dagobert's entire life, as historically recorded, is mythological and archetypal. His name betrays the divine origins of his bloodline. "Dagobert" comes, of course, from Dagon. Now the word "Bert", as the author L.A. Waddell has shown, has its roots in the word "Bara", or "Para", or Anglicized, "Pharoah", a "Priest-King of the Temple (or House.)" So Dagobert's name literally means "Priest-King of the House of Dagon." Interestingly, a rarely-found but nonetheless authentic variation on Dagobert's name was "Dragobert", emphasizing his lineage from the Beast of the Deep Waters, the Dragon Leviathan.

Dagobert made use of the myth of the Returning King early on in life. His father had been assassinated when he was 5 years old, and young Dagobert was kidnapped by then Palace Mayor Grimoald, who tried to put his own son on the throne. He was saved from death, but an elaborate ruse was laid out to make people think otherwise. Even his own mother believed he was dead, and allowed his father's assassins to take over, placing Grimoald's son on the throne. Dagobert was exiled to Ireland, where he lay in wait for the opportunity to reclaim his father's throne. This opportunity showed itself in the year 671, when he married Giselle de Razes, daughter of the count of Razes and niece of the king of the Visigoths, allying the Merovingian house with the Visigothic royal house. This had the potential for creating a united empire that would have covered most of what is now modern France. This marriage was celebrated at the Church of St. Madeleine in Rhedae, the same spot where Sauniere's Church of St. Madeleine at Rennes-le-Chateau now rests. There is an existing rumor that Dagobert found something there, a clue which lead him to a treasure buried in the nearby Montsegur, and this treasure financed what was about to come. What came was the reconquest of the Aquitaine and the throne of the Frankish kingdom. As Baigent, et. al write in Holy Blood, Holy Grail, "At once he set about asserting and consolidating his authority, taming the anarchy that prevailed throughout Austrasia and reestablishing order." The Fallen King had risen from his ashes, born anew as Dagobert II, and had come to once more establish firm rule and equilibrium in his country. The similarities to the Parzival/Grail story don't even need to be repeated.

Sadly, Dagobert II would himself play the role of the fallen king just a few years later, in 679, and the circumstances are decidedly strange. You see, since the time of the Merovingian King Clovis I, the Merovingian Kings had been under a pact with the Vatican, in which they had pledged their allegiance to the Mother Church in exchange for Papal backing of the their united Empire of Austrasia. They would forever hold the title of "New Constantine", a title that would later morph into "Holy Roman Emperor." But that "allegiance" on the part of the Merovingians towards the Church began to wear thin after a while. Obviously, given their infernal and divine origin, their spiritual bent was slightly different from that of organized Christianity. In addition, as direct descendants of the historical Christ himself, they would have possessed access to the secret teachings of Christ, now doubt shockingly different from the one promoted by the Church, and reflecting more the "secret doctrine" of the rebellious gods that we've talked about in this article. Any public knowledge of this or the blood relationship between Christ and the Merovingians would have been disastrous for the Church. Christ would therefore be a man, with antecedents and descendants, instead of the "Son of God - Born of Virgin" concept promoted by the church. Seeing in Dagobert a potential threat, the Roman church entered into a conspiracy with Palace Mayor Pepin the Fat.

On December 23, while on a hunting trip, Dagobert was lanced through the left eye by his own godson, supposedly on Pepin's orders. There are many aspects to this event that appear to be mythologically significant. For one, it took place in the "Forest of Woevres", long held sacred, and host to annual sacrificial bear hunts for the Goddess Diana. Indeed, this may have taken place on such a hunt. This was near the royal Merovingian residence at Stenay, a town that used to be called "Satanicum." Then there is the date itself, almost precisely when the astrological period of Capricorn begins. Capricorn, as we have mentioned, is based on Enki, the horned Sea-God that spawned the Merovingian bloodline. It is also close to the Winter Solstice, the shortest day in the year, when the Sun was said to "die", mythologically, and turn black, descending into the Underworld. This "Black" period of the Sun is associated with the God Kronos, another horned sea-god, ruler of the underworld, and king of Atlantis who figures repeatedly in this Grail/Rennes-le-Chateau mystery. Secondly, the murder is said to take place at midday, which, as I have mentioned in another article, is an extremely significant moment in time for mystery schools of the Secret Doctrine, like Freemasonry. The parchments found by Berenger Sauniere and the related poem, Le Serpent Rouge make a special mention of it. This is when the sun is highest in the sky. Hiram Abiff was murdered at midday, while resting from his work, just as Dagobert was murdered at Midday while resting against a tree. The fact that it was done by a family member is significant too. This is similar to the "Dolorous Stroke" that wounds the Fisher King in the Grail story, something which also took place at midday and was inflicted by the King's own brother. In the Grail story, the brother who wounds the Fisher King is himself known as the "Dark Lord", and during the fight he is wounded in the left eye, precisely as Dagobert was wounded. The same thing happened to Horus in Egyptian mythology, fighting his uncle, Set. The "Left Eye of Horus" came to symbolize the hidden knowledge of the Gods, just as the "left hand path" does today. Dagobert's death appears to follow the same patterns as many of other "Fallen Kings" or murdered Gods whose death must be avenged. And it is meant to symbolize the concept of the "Lost or Fallen Kingdom" the same way the Dolorous Stroke does in the Grail story.

Clearly it meant the end for the Merovingian kingdom. All subsequent Merovingian kings were essentially powerless, and they were officially thought to have died out with Dagobert's grandson, Childeric III. 49 years later, Charles Martel's grandson, Charlemagne was anointed Holy Roman Emperor. But in 872, almost 200 years after his death, Dagobert was canonized as a Saint, and the date of his death, December 23, became "St. Dagobert's Day." Write Baigent, et. al.:

"The reason for Dagobert's canonization remains unclear. According to one source it was because his relics were believed to have preserved the vicinity of Stenay against Viking raids - thought this explanation begs the question, for it is not clear why the relics should have possessed such powers is the first place. Ecclesiastical authorities seem embarrassingly ignorant on the matter. They admit that Dagobert, for some reason, became the object of a fully fledged cult... But they seem utterly at a loss as to why he should have been so exalted. It is possible, of course that the Church felt guilty about its role in the king's death."

Guilty, or afraid? For surely they knew that this "Priest-King of the House of Dagon", with his divine lineage, so beloved by his people that they worship him like a god 200 years later, would of course be avenged for his treacherous murder. Surely they knew, as most Dagobert's Revenge readers know, that the Merovingian bloodline didn't die out, surviving through his son Sigisbert, and continues to jockey for the throne of France to this very day in various royal bloodlines throughout Europe. Surely they knew that this kingdom would rise again, and that the Lost King would return someday. The seeds of their return have already been planted. France is united into the political mass that Dagobert had envisioned it be when he united Austrasia. And the "Holy Roman Empire", which the Merovingian Kings were clearly attempting to form with the help of the Vatican, has now become a reality, in the form of the European Union. During WWII and immediately after, the Priory of Sion, that secret order dedicated to the Merovingian agenda, openly campaigned for a United States of Europe. They even proposed a flag, consisting of stars in a circle, that is identical to the flag used by the European Union today. (This flag was carried by a divine white horse, a symbol of Poseidon and world monarchy.) Furthermore, the World Empire of the Atlantean Kings who spawned the Merovingians is closer now then it has been since the Gods left the earth during the Deluge. The United Nations, a feeble example, will surely give way at some point to a united world government strong enough and glorious enough to be called an Empire. The Fallen Kingdom of the Gods is clearly returning, and the new Golden Age is upon us. And if this author's hunch is correct, this is, indeed, a glorious time.
TRT.

2002-06-08T21:02:00.000-05:00

Bush's First Year: 77 Reasons Why It Was A Disaster

1. Significantly eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops.
2. Cut federal spending on libraries by $39 million.
3. Cut $35 million in funding for doctors to get advanced pediatric training.
4. Cut by 50% funding for research into renewable energy sources.
5. Revoked rules that reduced the acceptable levels of arsenic in drinking water.
6. Blocked rules that would require federal agencies to offer bilingual assistance to non-English speaking persons. This, from a candidate who would readily fire-up his Spanish-speaking skills in front of would-be Hispanic voters.
7. Proposed to eliminate new marine protections for the Channel Islands and the coral reefs of northwest Hawaii (San Francisco Chronicle, April 6, 2001).
8. Cut funding by 28% for research into cleaner, more efficient cars and trucks.
9. Suspended rules that would have strengthened the government's ability to deny contracts to companies that violated workplace safety, environmental and other federal laws.
10. OK'd Interior Department appointee Gale Norton to send out letters to state officials soliciting suggestions for opening up national monuments for oil and gas drilling, coal mining, and foresting.
11. Appointed John Negroponte - an un-indicted high-level Iran Contra figure to the post of United Nations Ambassador.
12. Abandoned a campaign pledge to invest $100 million for rain forest conservation.
13. Reduced by 86% the Community Access Program for public hospitals, clinics and providers of care for people without insurance.
14. Rescinded a proposal to increase public access to information about the potential consequences resulting from chemical plant accidents.
15. Suspended rules that would require hardrock miners to clean up sites on Western public lands.
16. Cut $60 million from a Boys' and Girls' Clubs of America program for public housing.
17. Proposed to eliminate a federal program, designed and successfully used in Seattle, to help communities prepare for natural disasters.
18. Pulled out of the 1997 Kyoto Treaty global warming agreement.
19. Cut $200 million of work force training for dislocated workers.
20. Eliminated funding for the Wetlands Reserve Program, which encourages farmers to maintain wetlands habitat on their property.
21. Cut program to provide childcare to low-income families as they move from welfare to work.
22. Cut a program that provided prescription contraceptive coverage to federal employees (though it still pays for Viagra).
23. Cut $700 million in capital funds for repairs in public housing.
24. Appointed Otto Reich - an un-indicted high-level Iran Contra figure - to Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs..
25. Cut Environmental Protection Agency budget by $500 million.
26. Proposed to curtail the ability of groups to sue in order to get an animal placed on the Endangered Species List.
27. Rescinded the rule that mandated increased energy-saving efficiency regulations for central air conditioners and heat pumps.
28. Repealed workplace ergonomic rules designed to improve worker health and safety.
29. Abandoned campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide, the waste gas that contributes to global warming.
30. Banned federal aid to international family planning programs that offer abortion counseling with other independent funds.
31. Closed White House Office for Women's Health Initiatives and Outreach.
32. Nominated David Lauriski - ex-mining company executive - to post of Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health.
33. OK'd Interior Secretary Gale Norton to go forth with a controversial plan to auction oil and gas development tracts off the coast of eastern Florida.
34. Announced intention to open up Montana's Lewis and Clark National Forest to oil and drilling.
35. Proposes to re-draw boundaries of nation's monuments, which would technically allow oil and gas drilling "outside" of national monuments.
36. Gutted White House AIDS Office.
37. Renegotiating free trade agreement with Jordan to eliminate workers's rights and safeguards for the environment.
38. Will no longer seek guidance from The American Bar Association in recommendations for the federal judiciary appointments.
39. Appointed recycling foe Lynn Scarlett as Undersecretary of the Interior.
40. Took steps to abolish the White House Council on Environmental quality.
41. Cut the Community Oriented Policing Services program.
42. Allowed Interior Secretary Gale Norton to shelve citizen-led grizzly bear re-introduction plan scheduled for Idaho and Montana wilderness.
43. Continues to hold up federal funding for stem cell research projects.
44. Makes sure convicted misdemeanor drug users cannot get financial aid for college, though convicted murderers can.
45. Refused to fund continued cleanup of uranium-slag heap in Utah.
46. Refused to fund continued litigation of the government's tobacco company lawsuit.
47. Proposed a $2 trillion tax cut, of which 43% will go to the wealthiest 1% of Americans.
48. Signed a bill making it harder for poor and middle-class Americans to file for bankruptcy, even in the case of daunting medical bills.
49. Appointed a Vice President quoted as saying "If you want to do something about carbon dioxide emissions, then you ought to build nuclear power plants." (Vice President Dick Cheney on "Meet the Press.")
50. Appointed Diana "There is no gender gap in pay" Roth to the Council of Economic Advisers. (Boston Globe, March 28, 2001.)
51. Appointed Kay Cole James - an opponent of affirmative action - to direct the Office of Personnel Management.
52. Cut $15.7 million earmarked for states to investigate cases of child abuse and neglect.
53. Helped kill a law designed to make it tougher for teenagers to get credit cards.
54. Proposed elimination of the "Reading is Fundamental" program that gives free books to poor children.
55. Is pushing for development of small nuclear arms to attack deeply buried targets and weapons, which would violate the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
56. Proposes to nominate Jeffrey Sutton - attorney responsible for the recent case weakening the Americans with Disabilities Act- to federal appeals court judgeship.
57. Proposes to reverse regulation protecting 60 million acres of national forest from logging and road building.
58. Eliminated funding for the "We the People" education program which taught School children about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and citizenship.
59. Appointed John Bolton - who opposes nonproliferation treaties and the U.N. - to Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.
60. Nominated Linda Fisher - an executive with Monsanto - for the number-two job at the Environmental Protection Agency.
61. Nominated Michael McConnell - leading critic of the separation of church and state - to a federal judgeship.
62. Nominated Terrence Boyle - ardent opponent of civil rights - to a federal judgeship.
63. Canceled 2004 deadline for automakers to develop prototype high mileage cars.
64. Nominated Harvey Pitts - lawyer for teen sex video distributor - to head Securities Exchange Commission.
65. Nominated John Walters - strong opponent of prison drug treatment programs - for Drug Czar. (Washington Post, May 16, 2001.)
66. Nominated J. Steven Giles - an oil and coal lobbyist - for Deputy Secretary of the Interior.
67. Nominated Bennett Raley - who advocates repealing the Endangered Species Act - for Assistant Secretary for Water and Science
68. Is seeking the dismissal of class-action lawsuit filed in the U.S. against Japan by Asian women forced to work as sex slaves during WWII.
69. Earmarked $4 million in new federal grant money for HIV and drug abuse prevention programs to go only to religious groups and not secular equivalents.
70. Reduced by 40% the Low Income Home Assistance Program for low-income individuals who need assistance paying energy bills.
71. Nominated Ted Olson- who has repeatedly lied about his involvement with the Scaiffe-funded "Arkansas Project" to bring down Bill Clinton - for Solicitor General.
72. Nominated Terrance Boyle - foe of civil rights - to a federal judgeship.
73. Proposes to ease permit process - including environmental
considerations - for refinery, nuclear and hydroelectric dam construction. (Washington Post, May 18, 2001.)
74. Proposes to give government the authority to take private property through eminent domain for power lines.
75. Proposes that $1.2 billion in funding for alternative renewable energy come from selling oil and gas lease tracts in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve.
76. Plans on serving genetically engineered foods at all official government functions.
77. Forced out Forest Service chief Mike Dombeck and appointed a timber industry lobbyist.

2002-06-07T21:10:00.000-05:00

Hitler and The Spear of Destiny

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Both Guernica and the 1934 drawing conceal references to a mystical battle between Picasso and Hitler in connection with the Spear of Destiny. This hidden pictorial narrative, set in the context of Wagner's opera Parsifal, reveals some uncanny associations with events in Hitler's life and with his quest to dominate Europe.

Vienna 1909-1913
According to the account of Dr Walter Stein, the young Hitler whilst living as a down and out in Vienna undertook a penetrating study of the Occult meanings underlying Wolfram Von Eschenbach's Thirteenth Century Grail Romance, 'Parsival'. Stein through various contacts with Hitler became convinced that he was deeply involved with the Occult and had an experienced spiritual mentor, possibly linked to the infamous 'Blood Lodge of Guido Von Liszt.

Hitler later claimed in Mein Kampf, that these had been the most vital years of his life in which he learned all he needed to know to lead the Nazi Party.

Stein got to know Hitler because of their mutual interest in the Spear of Destiny - a relic on display in the Hapsburg's treasury at the Hofmuseum in Vienna. The relic was said to have phenomenal talismanic power having once been used at the Crucifixion to wound the side of Christ. According to legend, possession of the Spear would bring its owner the power to conquer the world, but losing it would bring immediate death. The relic had been owned by a succession of powerful European rulers down through the centuries and eventually came to be in the possession of the Hapsberg Dynasty. Hitler confided to Stein that the first time he saw the Spear he had witnessed extraordinary visions of his own destiny unfolding before him.

In 1923, on his deathbed, Hitler's mentor Dietrich Eckart, a dedicated Satanist and central figure in the Occult Thule Society and a founder member of the Nazi party, said:

'Follow Hitler ! He will dance, but it is I who have called the tune !' 'I have initiated him into the 'Secret Doctrine', opened his centres in vision and given him the means to communicate with the Powers.' 'Do not mourn for me: I shall have influenced history more than any other German.'

On 12th March 1938, the day Hitler annexed Austria, he arrived in Vienna a conquering hero. He first port of call was to the Hofmuseum where he took possession of the Spear which he immediately sent to Nuremberg, the spiritual capital of Nazi Germany.

At 2.10 on 30th April, 1945, during the final days of the war, after considerable bombing of Nuremberg, the Spear fell into the hands of the American 7th Army under General Patton. Later that day, in fulfilment of the legend, Hitler committed suicide.

© Mark Harris 1996

Further Reading: The Spear of Destiny, by Trevor Ravenscroft, Published by Neville Spearman, London, 1974.

2002-06-07T00:40:00.000-05:00

This is from Michael Moore's page & the way I see it, it bears repeating:

Mike's Book Tour Diary
4/15/02

"Stupid" Stays at #1 on NY Times List, 4 Weeks in a Row

Dear Friends,

I [Michael Moore] woke up in Tampa, Florida, yesterday, picked up the Sunday newspaper, and there it was: the New York Times today had declared that, for the fourth week in a row, "Stupid White Men" is the #1 book in the country. I am out of explanations at this point as to how this thing has stayed atop on the Times bestseller list for a month. I've been informed that the book is now in its 19th printing. Also, it remains #1 in Canada, and it has gone to #1 this week in Britain and Ireland, according to the Sunday Times of London.

All this has occurred in spite of a virtual press blackout on the book. Or maybe because of it. The more the book is ignored by the media, the better it does. So, if you are a newspaper editor or a TV producer, PLEASE do NOT pay any attention to this book! Just because more Americans are reading it than any other book in the country for the past month should NOT persuade you to ask crazy questions of yourselves like, "How can this be happening when the 'President' has the highest approval ratings ever?" Just concern yourselves with repeating your mantra of the past 7 months - "America Loves Bush! America Loves Bush!" It's a comforting mantra, one that seems to bring you solace at a time of journalistic confusion. It's also simple and easy to repeat - and it means that you don't have to go out and do the work you are supposed to do (like rooting out the Enron-backed criminals in the White House or finding out what really happened before and after September 11th ).

The front page of the Tampa Tribune yesterday was all ablaze with the news about the convention of Florida's Democrats on Saturday in Orlando. There was a color photo of a smiling, waving Al Gore. Lieberman was there and so was Kerry and a host of other stars of the Democratic Party. About 2,500 Floridians were in attendance.

But in Tampa, on that same night, I was looking out from the stage at the Sun Dome at a crowd of nearly 7,000 people who had come to the "Democracy Rising" rally organized by Ralph Nader. Tampa has now produced the largest crowd of the book tour (I signed the 2000th book of the evening somewhere around 2am). This is 3 times the crowd that the Democrats got and, again, there is virtually no coverage.

But remember - it NO LONGER MATTERS that most of the media ignores the real news. It no longer matters because much of the media has chosen to make itself irrelevant through its lazy reporting, sleazy presentation, its obedience to the corporate agenda, and all the blowhard pundits who scream out their useless opinions. A political shift has occurred in the country and the media has completely missed it. We have become a nation where the majority of citizens are very liberal and progressive on the issues. The majority of Americans now call themselves pro-environment, pro-choice, pro-labor, and anti-Big Business. 154 million out of the 200 million voters in this country did NOT cast a vote for George W. Bush. That is the America in which we now live. Liberal, progressive, and sick of the stupid white men who run the country.

Hey, here's something that you haven't seen on the Fox Nuisance Channel - there are now over 140 college campuses in the U.S. with an active student Green organization. The Green kids in Florida are everywhere and their numbers are among the largest. You wouldn't think so, not after the blame that was heaped on the Greens for causing Gore to "lose" Florida. But they are building a mass movement, and the turnout I saw in Tampa was proof to me that there is a ruckus afoot in America, and if it's rockin' in a place like central Florida, then it's happening just down the street from where you live.

The Democrats could have stopped this. They could have spent the past two years fighting to raise the minimum wage or to lower the amount of pollutants spewed into the air or to call for a Special Prosecutor to investigate Bush and Enron.

But, no. The Democrats have spent their time trying to act like Republicans, thinking that's how they will win back the House this November. Note to Democrats: You will not win the House by being your usual weak, lame-o selves. The Greens will deny you the chance you have had to take charge. Until you get a clue, the Greens will thrive and grow. You want to avoid a repeat of 2000? Fight for the working people of this country! You want to stop the Greens? Act like a real Democrat! Stand up for something! Do the math: A couple of thousand in Orlando come to see the stars of the Democratic Party, while, at the same exact moment, nearly three times that number is in Tampa to cheer on a progressive agenda - which is greater? If the Democrats can't add 2+2, then they are doomed.

I should also mention that Tampa is the command headquarters for the war on Afghanistan. It's all done via remote control from the comfort of Florida's beautiful Gulf coast. How many civilians have we killed now? I believe the last number I read, it was more than the civilians who died on September 11th. Oh, I know the Bush boys over at Macdill Air Force Base have their rationalization as to why, in wartime, sometimes civilians have to die. The terrorists of 9-11 had their rationalizations, too. Everybody's got their rationalizations. Well, here's mine - there is NO rationalization for the killing of other human beings except in the rare and extreme cases of true self-defense.

Today is the beginning of National Library Week. As many of you know by now, it was a single librarian who saved my book from the corporate shredder. In the next day or so, I will send you another letter telling you about what she did and what you can do to support the libraries of this country.

Thanks again to everyone for your support. I'm in Oklahoma City and Norman, Oklahoma, tonight (4/15). I head to Canada to the University of Toronto tomorrow night (Tuesday), and I'll be in the Northwest later in the week. Hope to see many of you there.

Yours,

Michael Moore
Author
Filmmaker
Detroit Tigers fan

www.michaelmoore.com

Write me at:
stupidwhitemen@aol.com

TO ORDER "STUPID WHITE MEN," GO TO...
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PS. I have just landed in Dallas and turned on the TV. A representative from the humanitarian aid group, Oxfam, is describing the massacre of Palestinian civilians and children by the Israeli army in the Jenin refugee camp. It is shocking and horrifying when terrorism is committed by desperate suicide bombers. It's beyond belief when that terrorism is committed as an organized act by an avowed democratic state. Twenty Palestinians lined up against a wall and executed? Ten-year old children burned to death after soldiers set their homes on fire? Are we funding this? Yes, bring to justice those specific individuals who have committed acts of murder against Israelis citizens. But execute the innocent? Has everyone gone insane? What are we going to do to put a stop to this? For God's sake, we can't wait for Bush to find out where the West Bank is located on a map.

2002-06-03T22:42:00.000-05:00

The Rennes-le-Chateau Mystery
A recent interview with Tracy Twyman for the Occulture Festival

Q1) Tracy you are recognised as one of the worlds leading experts on the Rennes-le-Chateau mystery. What is the essence of this enigmatic puzzle?

Rennes-le-Chateau is certainly the most amazing location in all of Europe, perhaps the world, not only because of what is visible to the naked eye (the fantastically decorated Church of St. Magdalen, and the five surrounding mountain peaks that form a mathematically perfect pentagram), but because of what remains unseen - the treasures still hidden underground, and the spiritual treasures that permeate the entire atmosphere. It is the site of what will be, when it is finally unearthed, the greatest discovery in human history - proof of an ante-diluvian culture, a royal bloodline, and a secret spiritual tradition that goes back to the very beginnings of human history. It will unlock the shared meaning behind all of the world’s religions and occult teachings. My partner, Boyd Rice and I have speculated that beneath the five mountain peaks that form the pentagram at Rennes-le-Chateau are five ziggurats - man-made stepped pyramids that were created by ancient people to represent the sacred polar mountain which mythologically stands at the center of the Earth. All of these artificial mountains - from Egypt to South America to Mesopotamia - stand on top of vast networks of caverns that have been constructed beneath them. These were created, in part, to mimic the ancient conception of the World Mountain, with peaks reaching up to Heaven, and cavernous depths reaching down into the very pits of Hell. In the case of the pyramids by Rennes-le-Chateau, this may be more than mere symbolism. The words that are written above the entrance to the Church of St. Magdalen at Rennes-le-Chateau -"This place is terrible. It is the House of God, and the Gateway to Heaven" - come from the Biblical story of Jacob’s Ladder. Jacob went to sleep on a magical stone that had fallen from Heaven, saw a vision of a ziggurat with seven steps reaching unto the stars, with angels ascending and descending. Afterwards, he was inspired to erect on that very spot a temple like the one he had seen in his dream, using the stone from Heaven as the foundation stone. According to Jewish tradition, God then took that cornerstone and pressed it down into the Abyss, to mark the very center of the Earth. This ‘stone from Heaven’ is the very Holy Grail stone that is rumored to be buried in Rennes-le-Chateau, and if is literally located in the center of the Earth, then there must be caverns beneath those mountains that lead to it. The mayor of Rennes-le-Chateau told us on our visit last year that, "This place is the center of the Earth", and I do not believe he was being merely metaphorical.

Q2) The sacred bloodline of Christ was carried to Rennes-le-Chateau?

Jesus and his wife, Mary Magdalen did travel to Rennes-le-Chateau after the crucifixion, and there raised their children, whose ancestors went on to found the royal Merovingian bloodline of France - the bloodline from which stem most of the royal houses of Europe today. All of the Presidents of the United States, and a number of Europe’s elected officials have come from this bloodline as well. It is the Grail bloodline - the kingly line that has always been associated with both earthly and spiritual leadership since the beginning of time. Christ was not born of a virgin, and be did not spontaneously generate out of a vacuum. He had a mother and a father like all of us, and his ancestry comes directly from King David, the founder of the Royal House of Judah. This line can further be traced back to the first king, called by the Sumerians IA, the first possessor of the Holy Grail, who is remembered in ancient mythology as the creator of human civilization.

Q3) From where did Sauniere acquire his vast fortune do you think?

I believe that Berenger Sauniere, the curé of the Church of St. Magdalen at Rennes-le-Chateau discovered proof of the treasures buried beneath the village, and of the royal bloodline of Christ that once resided there. I believe he was paid off by both the Catholic church, and the royal house of Habsburg. The Catholic church paid to shut him up, the Habsburgs paid him to keep looking for more clues, and more treasure.

Q4) Why did Sauniere construct the chapel with what seems to be overtly mysterious symbols?

Sauniere constructed the symbolism of the Church, and the surrounding landscape, as a topographical treasure map for future generations of initiates. Since the treasure is not just monitarily, but spiritually and intellectually valuable, he had no reason to horde it for himself. As a priest, he would naturally want to spread this spiritual knowledge among all those who were ready to receive it. Since it was not safe at that time to shout these things from the rooftop, and they would probably not have been received well by the public anyway, he used the understated method of symbolism, so that those who had eyes to see would see.

Q5) Was Sauniere a member of the secret society the Prior de Sion?

If Sauniere was not a card-carrying member of the Priory, he was certainly acting on their behalf, and he was probably also a member of another group as well, most likely the Martinists or the Freemasons.

Q5) What are the activities and purpose of Prior de Sion?

The Priory of Sion represents the members of the sacred royal bloodline of the Holy Grail, and those that serve them. They have been active at least since the Crusades, which they orchestrated, along with their military arm, the Knights Templar, a seat of global and spiritual power which their believed was rightfully theirs, because of the Merovingian descent from King David. They created the Holy Roman Empire, lead by the crown heads of the Grail family, and they are currently organizing a reconstruction of that empire in the form of the European Union today. Mark my words: before the next two decades have passed, the EU will be a unified empire, lead by a monarch from the Grail bloodline. The institution of monarchy as a real form of government did not die out - it waits in the wings, and you might be surprised how quickly things could happen, especially after some massive event of global proportions.

Q6) In the past you have mentioned a connection with Atlantis and Rennes-le-Chateau, what is this link?

"Atlantis" was the capital of a global empire during the Golden Age of what is now called "pre-history." Historians do not accept this period’s "history" because they dismiss all of the monumental evidence showing that there was a vast civilization that once spanned the Earth, and was destroyed by a global cataclysm. The kings of Atlantis are remembered in the legends of almost all global cultures as gods, and it is from this bloodline of Atlantean kings that the Grail line, and all of the world’s historically-accepted monarchs, have derived. Beneath the mountains of Rennes-le-Chateau, we believe, stand the ruins of an Atlantean-era city, perhaps inhabited by refugees from the global cataclysm. We may find evidence of their culture, their arts and sciences, and their religion, which is the primordial basis for our own religions. We may also find the bodies of Atlantean kings who, according to legend, lived longer and were much taller than modern people.

Q7) It is said that the Merovingian race was sired by a water beast known as the Quinotaur. This Quinotaur took the form a sea bull. Does this have any bearing on the mystery?

The kings of Atlantis, and therefore of the ancient world, were associated with sea symbolism, because it was their skill at navigation that allowed them to conquer the globe. Their monarchs were known as "Lords of the Earth" and "Lords of the Sea." Therefore many of these pre-diluvian god-kings are depicted as sea-bulls, sometimes represented as a horned fish, embodying the symbolism of both the earth and the sea. The story of the Quinotaur represents the descent of the Merovingians from these Atlantean kings. But the name "Quin" points to one king in particular - the one recorded in the Bible as being called "Cain" - the rebellious son of Eve whose father was, according to Apocryphal writings, the Devil himself. This person is remembered in other traditions much more favorably. The Sumerians called him Enki, the Phoenicians Baal, and the Creeks Chronus. He was a conqueror of the Earth’s nations, with megalithic monuments erected to him all over the world, and his name is the source of the words "king" and "Khan." The Quinotaur story may indicate that he survived the flood that destroyed Atlantis, and migrated to Southern France, where he spawned the royal bloodlines of Europe through the Merovingians. This may be a separate lineage from that of Christ. When Jesus and Mary came to the south of France, it was their sons and daughters who intermarried with the locals to breed the royal line, so the people that they married must have had their own lineage. Perhaps their lineage went back to another divine figure, this god-king known as Cain. However, this could also be an indication of a secret tradition purporting that Jesus’ Davidic lineage may ultimately stem from Cain - the "son of God" a lineal descendant of the Devil. Poetic indeed.

Q8) Can you tell us more about the Priory de Sion document Le Serpent Rouge located in the Biblioteque Nationale, France.

Le Serpent Rouge is a poem published by the Priory of Sion and deposited in the Biblioteque Nationale for the purpose of fostering inquiry into, or spreading rumors about Rennes-le-Chateau, the Merovingians, and of course, the Priory of Sion itself. Le Serpent Rouge consists of a prose poem, 13 stanzas in length, with each stanza dedicated to a different house of the zodiac. A thirteenth house, "Ophiuchus - The Serpent Holder", has also been added. The authors are purported to be named "Louis Saint-Maxent, Pierre Feugere, and Gaston de Koker", three men who, just days after the poem was deposited in the library, were found hanged without explanation. Strange and frightening as this appears, these men may not have in fact been the authors, for the poem does not appear to be the work of a committee, but rather a single quixotic mystic. This author is willing to bet that the true author of the poem was Jean Cocteau. One only needs to read Cocteau’s known work, or view his film Orpheus to recognize the style of writing and the symbolism. Cocteau was clearly obsessed with the symbol of the Divine Horse, as well as the pentagram, which he used in his personal signature. And of course, Jean Cocteau is recorded as one of the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion.

The poem alludes to a number of aspects of the mystery. For one thing, it describes the inside of the Church of St. Magdalen, like the line, "The Mosaic tiles of this sacred place alternate black or white and Jesus, like Asmodeus observes their alignments." This is the black and white chessboard tiling on the floor of the Church at Rennes-le-Chateau, which both the statues of Jesus and Asmodeus are staring down on, their stares almost in perfect alignment. Then there is a reference to the holy water stoup, held aloft by Asmodeus, with the line, "In the sanctuary however, is the font, fountain of love of those who believe, reminding us of these words: 'By this sign you will conquer.’" The holy water stoup at Rennes-le-Chateau is marked with this same phrase, first used by Constantine the Great. There are also clear references to the Flood, such as, "The pilot of the indestructible Ark of Noah", and "The sky having opened its floodgates", as well as references to the goddess Isis being buried in the nearby mountains, something which is the subject of a persistent local legend. The treasure of the Temple of Solomon, and the rebuilding of the Temple, is yet another recurring theme in the poem. There are also a number of Masonic references, like, "to reassemble the scattered stones, work with the square and compass", and "I put my hand to my mouth, biting my palm.", the Masonic Sign of Horror. Finally, there are clear allusions to the coded parchments that Sauniere supposedly discovered at Rennes-le-Chateau, which blew the whole mystery wide open. I believe that Le Serpent Rouge is the key to deciphering the meaning of these parchments. Together they form both a treasure map and a "decoder ring" for solving the riddle of Rennes-le-Chateau. I also think it is possible that the parchments that have been brought forth publicly by representatives of the Priory of Sion are not the ones Sauniere found, but are the work of Jean Cocteau as well.

Q9) Does the actual name 'Red Serpent' have any significance?

There are many possible meanings to the term "The Red Serpent." The most obvious meaning is the alchemical sulphur used in the transmutations of metals, which is symbolized by a red serpent. This is an especially likely interpretation because the poem describes the serpent as being "salty and bitter", like sulphur, and there are also many other alchemical references throughout the poem. However, this may also refer to the red "bloodline of the Grail" uncoiling across the generations, or of a global conspiracy encircling the Earth, the Priory of Sion tightening its grip on world governments. Such conspiracies are often symbolized by a serpent encircling the globe, or by an octopus, and as it happens, the poem also makes reference to a "monstrous octopus expelling its ink." Along this line we might specifically link the serpent with the formation of the European Union, which is interpreted often as being the "red dragon" of the Apocalypse written of in "The Revelation of St. John the Divine."

Q10) Who is the current head of the Prior de Sion?

I am not sure who the current head of the Priory is. The last known Grand Master, Pierre Plantard, retired about 15 years ago, and died recently. However, I am willing to speculate on who might be a member of the Priory today, which has chapters all over Europe, the UK, the U.S., Canada and Australia. Likely candidates include Otto and Karl von Habsburg, Prince Charles of Britain, George Bush Sr. and Jr., François Mitterand, Brigitte Bardot, André Douzet, Philippe de Cherisey, William F. Buckley, Sean Connery, Ringo Starr and Kelsey Grammar.

Learn more about Tracy Twyman.

2002-06-02T22:10:00.000-05:00

BLOODLINE (Part 6)

The Vatican's Constitutions record that the first Bishop of Rome was Prince Linus of Britain, the son of Caractacus the Pendragon. He was installed by St Paul in AD 58, during Peter's own lifetime. From the 1100s, the powerful Knights Templars and their cathedrals posed an enormous threat to the 'male-only' Church by bringing the heritage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene to the fore in the public domain. The cardinals knew that their whole establishment would tumble if the Messianic descendants gained the upper hand. They had to be crushed! And so the brutal Inquisition was implemented-a hideous persecution of all who dissented from the rule of the bishops.

It all began in 1208, when Pope Innocent III sent 30,000 soldiers into the Languedoc region of southern France. This was the home of the Cathars ("the Pure Ones") who were said to be the guardians of a great and sacred treasure-a mysterious secret which could overturn orthodox Christianity. The Pope's so-called Albigensian Crusade lasted for 36 years-during which time, tens of thousands of innocent people were slaughtered-but the treasure was never found. The main thrust of the Inquisition (or "Holy Office") was instituted by Pope Gregory IX during the course of this massacre, in 1231, and it was set against anyone who supported "the Grail heresy". By 1252, the torture of victims was formally authorised, along with execution by burning.

"Heresy" was a wonderful charge to level against captives, because only the Church could define it. The victims were tortured until they confessed, and having confessed they were executed. If they did not confess, then the torture continued until they died anyway. One recorded form of torture was to spread the victim, little by little, with fat (beginning with his feet), and then to roast him alive in sections, limb by limb, over an open fire. These savage persecutions and punishments were openly waged for more than 400 years, and were also extended against Jews, Muslims and Protestant dissenters. But the Inquisition was never formally terminated. As recently as 1965 it was renamed "the Sacred Congregation", and its powers are theoretically still in force today.

Undaunted by the Inquisition, the Nazarene movement pursued its own course, and the story of the bloodline was perpetuated in literature such as the Grand Saint Grail and the High History of the Holy Grail. These writings were largely sponsored by the Grail courts of France (the courts of Champagne, Anjou and others), and also by the Knights Templars and the Desposyni; and, at that stage, Arthurian Romance became a popular vehicle for the Grail tradition. In the light of this, the Templars became a specific target of the Inquisition in 1307 when the henchmen of Pope Clement V and King Philip IV of France were set in their direction. The papal armies scoured Europe for the Templar documents and treasure-but, like the Cathar inheritance, nothing was found. However, many Knights were tortured and executed in the process, and their companions escaped to countries outside the papal domain.

But, the Templar hoard was not lost, and while the Vatican emissaries were searching, the treasure and documents were locked away in the Chapter House Treasury vaults of Paris. They were under the protection of the Templar Grand Knights of St Anthony-"the Guardian Princes of the Royal Secret"-who loaded the hoard one night onto 18 galleys of the Templar fleet at La Rochelle. By daybreak, the fleet had sailed for Scotland, and on arrival they were welcomed by King Robert the Bruce who, along with the whole Scottish nation, had been excommunicated by the Pope for challenging the Catholic King Edward of England. In Scotland, the Templars and their treasure remained, and the Knights fought with Bruce at Bannockburn in 1314 to regain Scotland's independence from Plantagenet England.

Subsequent to the Battle of Bannockburn, Bruce and the St Anthony Templars founded the new Order of the Elder Brothers of the Rosy Cross in 1317-from which time the Kings of Scots became hereditary Grand Masters, with each successive Stewart King holding the honoured Grand Priory title of "Prince Saint Germain". So, why was it that King Arthur, a Celtic commander of the sixth century, was so important to the Knights Templars and the Grail courts of Europe? Quite simply, because Arthur had been unique, with a 'dual' heritage in the Messianic line. King Arthur was by no means mythical, as many have supposed. Far from it. But he has generally been looked for in the wrong places. Researchers, misguided by the fictional locations of the romances, have searched in vain through the chronicles of Brittany, Wales and the west of England. But the details of Arthur are to be found in the Scots' and Irish annals.

He was indeed "the High King of the Celtic Isle", and he was the sovereign commander of the British troops in the late sixth century. Arthur was born in 559, and he died in battle in 603. His mother was Ygerna del Acqs, the daughter of Queen Viviane of Avallon, in descent from Jesus and Mary Magdalene. His father was High King Aedàn of Dalriada (the Western Highlands of Scotland, now called Argyll)-and Aedàn was the British Pendragon ("Head Dragon" or "King of Kings") in descent from Jesus' brother James. It is for this reason that the stories of Arthur and Joseph of Arimathea are so closely entwined in the Grail romances.

Indeed, the coronation records of Scotland's King Kenneth MacAlpin (a descendant of Aedàn the Pendragon) specifically refer to his own descent from the dynastic Queens of Avallon. King Aedàn's paternal legacy emerged through the most ancient House of Camulot (England's Royal Court of Colchester) in a line from the first Pendragon, King Cymbeline (who is well-known to students of Shakespeare). By that time, Messianic descendants had founded Desposynic kingdoms in Wales and across the Strathclyde and Cambrian regions of Britain. Arthur's father, King Aedàn of Scots, was the first British monarch to be installed by priestly ordination, when he was crowned and anointed by Saint Columba of the Celtic Church in 574. This, of course, infuriated the Roman Church bishops because they claimed the sole right to appoint kings who were supposed to be crowned by the Pope!

As a direct result of this coronation, Saint Augustine was eventually sent from Rome in 597 to dismantle the Celtic Church. He proclaimed himself Archbishop of Canterbury three years later, but his overall mission failed and the Nazarene tradition persisted in Scotland, Ireland and Wales and across the breadth of northern England. An important fact to remember is that the Grail dynasts were never territorial governors of lands. Like Jesus himself, they were designated "Guardians" of the people. The Merovingians of Gaul, for example, were Kings of the Franks-never Kings of France. King Aedàn, Robert the Bruce and their Stewart successors were Kings of the Scots-never Kings of Scotland. It was this implicitly 'social' concept which the High Church found so difficult to overcome, for the bishops preferred to have dominion over 'territorial kings', while the people's senior lord and master was supposed to be the Pope. Only by maintaining ultimate spiritual control over individuals could the Church reign supreme, and so whenever a Grail dynast came to the fore he was met by the wrath of the papal machine.

In 751 the bishops managed to depose the Merovingian succession in Gaul, and they established a new tradition whereby kings of the Carolingian succession (that of Charlemagne) had to be approved and crowned by the Pope. But the Church could never topple the Desposynic lines in Scotland, even though the old Celtic kingdoms of England had been dismantled by Germanic Anglo-Saxons from the sixth century. Even into the Middle Ages-long after the Norman Conquest of England-the Nazarene Church and the long-prevailing cult of Mary Magdalene were prominent in Europe. Women's rights of equality were upheld throughout the Celtic structure-and this was an enormous problem for the male-only priesthood of orthodox Christianity.

The underlying principle of the Grail monarchs was always one of Service, in accordance with the Messianic code established by Jesus when he washed his apostles' feet at the Last Supper. And so the true Grail dynasts were kings and guardians of their realms, but they were never rulers. This key aspect of the Grail code was perpetuated at the very heart of nursery tale and folklore. Never did a valiant cardinal or bishop ride to the aid of an oppressed subject or a damsel in distress, for this has always been the social realm of Grail princes and their appointed knights.

The Grail code recognises advancement by merit and acknowledges community structure, but, above all, it is entirely democratic. Whether apprehended in its physical or spiritual dimension, the Grail belongs to leaders and followers alike. It also belongs to the land and the environment, requiring that all should be "as one" in a common, unified Service. Throughout the ages, parliaments and governments have had as much trouble as the Church in confronting the Messianic social code, and the position is no different today. Presidents and prime ministers are 'elected' by the people. They are supposed to represent the people. But do they? In actual fact, they don't. They are always affiliated to a political party, and they achieve their positions by way of majority party vote. But not everybody takes the trouble to vote, and sometimes there are more than two parties to vote for. Consequently, at any given time, more than half the people of a nation may not be represented by the political party in power. In this regard, even though a 'majority vote' has been applied, the democratic principle fails. What emerges is not "government by the people, for the people", but "government (read -> "control") of the people".

Jesus confronted a very similar situation in the first century. At that time, Jerusalem and Judaea were under Roman occupation, with King Herod and the Governor, Pontius Pilate, both appointed by Rome. But who represented the people? The people were not Romans; they were Holy Land Jews-Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and the like. Apart from that, there were large numbers of Samaritans and Gentiles (non-Jews, the Arab races). Who represented them? The answer is "no one"-until Jesus made it his mission to do so. This was the beginning of the Grail code of non-affiliated princely service-a code perpetuated by the Messianic dynasts in their continuing role as "common fathers" to the people. The Grail code is based on the principles of liberty, fraternity and equality, and it was particularly apparent in the American and French revolutions, both of which discarded the lordship of despotic aristocracy. But what has replaced it? It has been replaced by party politics and largely non-representative government. From the Middle Ages there were a number of chivalric and military orders specifically attached to the Messianic Blood Royal in Britain and Europe. They included the Order of the Realm of Sion and the Order of the Sacred Sepulchre. But the most prestigious of all was the Sovereign Order of the Sangréal-the Knights of the Holy Grail. This was a dynastic order of Scotland's Royal House of Stewart, the royal house which in the 14th century introduced the unicorn of the Cathars as the sovereign emblem of Scotland. Shortly afterwards, they introduced the prestigious Order of the Unicorn, which carried the Grail motto "All as One".

Like King Arthur, the Stewart Kings also had a dual Desposynic heritage from both Jesus and his brother James. In fact, from the 1370s they were the senior house of the Messianic line, and they were Europe's longest-reigning dynasty, holding their crown for 317 years until finally deposed by the Anglican Church in 1688. They were deposed because, in compliance with the Grail code, they claimed affinity to God and the nation before Parliament, the Church and the aristocracy. Today, the senior legitimate descendant in this line is HRH Prince Michael Stewart, Count of Albany (whose own book, The Forgotten Monarchy of Scotland, is scheduled for publication by Element Books in May 1998).

And now to a question that I have frequently been asked in the months since Bloodline of the Holy Grail was published. The question is: why is all this information coming to light at this particular time? The fact is that the information has never been suppressed by those whom it concerns. It has been suppressed by outside power-seekers who have sought to serve their own ends, rather than serve the communities they are supposed to
represent.

Today, however, we are in a new age of 'questing', as many people grow more disillusioned with stablishment dogma that prevail. We live in an age of satellite communications, sound-barrier travel, computers and the Internet-so the world is effectively much smaller than before. In such an environment, news travels very quickly, and the truth is far more difficult to restrain.

Also, the very fabric of the 'male-dominated' Church and governmental structures is being questioned, and it is generally perceived that the old doctrines of spiritual control and territorial management are not working. More and more people are searching for the original, uncluttered roots of their faith, and for their purpose in society. They are seeking more effective forms of administration to combat the all-too-apparent slide into social and moral decline. They are, in fact, questing for the Holy Grail. This quest for new enlightenment is considerably heightened by the coming new millennium, and there is a widespread feeling that this should also present a new Renaissance, an era of rebirth wherein the precepts of the Grail code are acknowledged and practised-the precepts of liberty, fraternity and equality. Grail lore spells out loud and clear that the wound of the Fisher King must be healed if the wasteland is to return to fertility.

And so, given that I had been afforded privileged access over past years to the archives of the Knights Templars, the Celtic Church and the Messianic sovereign houses of Europe, the time arrived for me to play my own small part in trying to heal the age-old wound of the Fisher King. The result was my book, Bloodline of the Holy Grail.

About the Speaker:

Sir Laurence Gardner, Kt St Gm, KCD, is an internationally known sovereign and chivalric genealogist. He holds the position of Grand Prior of the Celtic Church's Sacred Kindred of Saint Columba, and is distinguished as the Chevalier Labhràn de Saint Germain. Sir Laurence is also Presidential Attaché to the European Council of Princes, a constitutional advisory body established in 1946. He is formally attached to the Noble Household Guard of the Royal House of Stewart, founded at St Germain-en-Laye in 1692, and is the Jacobite historiographer Royal.

Editor's Notes:

1. Sir Laurence Gardner was a guest speaker at the 1998 NEXUS Conference, 25-26 July, in Sydney, Australia.

2. Correspondence should be addressed to Sir Laurence Gardner, Kt St Gm, KCD, c/- Element Books, Shaftesbury, Dorset, SP7 8DP, United Kingdom.

3. Laurence Gardner's book, Bloodline of the Holy Grail: The Hidden Lineage of Jesus Revealed, contains the detailed story upon which this lecture was based. It was published by Element Books in 1996 (ISBN 1-85230-870-2 h/c), and is now available in paperback (ISBN 1-86204-152-0), distributed by Penguin Books and widely available through bookshops. It was reviewed in NEXUS 4/01. The second book in his Grail bloodline trilogy is Genesis of the Grail Kings, which was published in the Spring of 1999.

2002-06-01T01:33:00.000-05:00

BLOODLINE (Part 5)

In this, the bishops were aided by the words of Peter and Paul, and on the basis of their teachings the Roman High Church was enabled to become wholly sexist. In his Epistle to Timothy, Paul wrote: "I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp any authority over the man, but to be in silence." In the Gospel of Philip, Peter is even quoted as saying that "Women are not worthy of life". The bishops even quoted the words of Genesis, wherein God spoke to Eve about Adam, saying "He shall rule over thee".

The Church Father Tertullian summed up the whole Roman attitude when writing about the emergent disciples of Mary Magdalene: "These heretical woman! How dare they! They are brazen enough to teach, to engage in argument, to baptise.... It is not permitted for a woman to speak in church...nor to claim...a share in any masculine function-least of all in priestly office." Then, to cap it all, came the Roman Church's most amazing document, The Apostolic Order. This was compiled as an 'imaginary' conversation between the apostles after the Last Supper. Contrary to the Gospels, it supposed that Mary Magdalene had been present at the Supper, and it was agreed that the reason why Jesus had not passed any wine to Mary at the table was because he had seen her laughing!

On the basis of this extraordinary, fictitious document, the bishops ruled that, even though Mary might have been a companion of Jesus, women were not to be afforded any place within the Church because they were not serious! This sexist attitude has persisted within the Church to the present day. Why? Because Mary Magdalene had to be discredited and removed from the reckoning so that her heirs could be ignored. But things are now changing, and, in the Anglican Church at least, women are being restored to the priestly station.

Notwithstanding the avid sexist movement, the Messianic heirs retained their social positions outside the Roman Church establishment. They progressed their own Nazarene and Celtic Church movements and founded Desposynic kingdoms in Britain and Europe. They were a constant threat to the Roman High Church and to the figurehead monarchs and governments empowered by that Church. They were the very reason for the implementation of the brutal Inquisition because they upheld a moral and social code which was contrary to High Church requirement.

This was especially apparent during the Age of Chivalry, which embraced a respect for womanhood, as exemplified by the Knights Templars whose constitutional oath supported a veneration of "the Grail Mother", Queen Mary Magdalene. Prior to the Middle Ages, the individual stories of this family were historically well-known. But when the Church began its reign of fanatical persecution (the great Inquisition), the whole Nazarene and Desposynic heritage was forced underground.

But why the vengeful onset of the Inquisition? Because the Knights Templars had not only returned from the Holy Land with documents that undermined the Church's teachings, but they also established their own Cistercian churches in opposition to Rome. These were not just any churches; they were the greatest religious monuments ever to grace the skylines of the western world: the Notre Dame cathedrals of France. Despite their present-day image, these impressive Gothic cathedrals had nothing whatever to do with the established Christian Church. They were funded and built by the Knights Templars, and they were dedicated to Mary Magdalene-Notre Dame, Our Lady-whom they called "the Grail of the world".

This, of course, defeated every dogma that the High Church had encouraged, and the bishops retaliated by re-dedicating numerous other churches to Mary, the mother of Jesus. But, in so doing, they made a strict decree that all artistic portrayals of Mother Mary, the Madonna, must henceforth show her dressed in "blue and white only"-so as not to grant her any rights to ecclesiastical office in the male-only priesthood. Mary Magdalene, on the other hand, was being portrayed (by the world's greatest artists) wearing the red mantle of cardinal status or the black robe of a Nazarite High Priestess-and there was nothing the Church could do about it. The bishops' only option was to proclaim the practice sinful and heretical-because, in having previously elected to ignore Mary Magdalene and her heirs, she was outside their jurisdiction.

It was at that time that Grail lore was itself denounced as a heresy by the Vatican. The sixth-century writings of Merlin were expressly banned by the Ecumenical Council, and the original Nazarene Church of Jesus became an "underground stream", aided by such notable sponsors as Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli. In those days, the Church policed and controlled most literature in the public domain; and so, in order to avoid outright censorship, the Grail tradition became allegorical and its message was communicated by way of secret watermarks, esoteric writings, Tarot cards and symbolic artwork.

But, why should Grail lore and the writings of Merlin have posed such a problem for the High Church?

Because, within the context of their adventurous texts, they told the descendant story of the Grail bloodline; a bloodline which had been ousted from its dynastic position by the Popes and Bishops of Rome who had elected to reign supreme by way of a contrived "apostolic succession". This apostolic succession was said to have been handed down from the first bishop, St Peter (and, indeed, this is still the promoted view). But one only has to study the Church's own Apostolic Constitutions to discover that this is simply not true.

Peter was not a Bishop of Rome, nor of anywhere else!

2002-05-30T20:37:00.000-05:00

BLOODLINE (Part 4)

In fact, Joseph of Arimathea was none other than Jesus Christ's own brother, James, and his title had nothing whatever to with a place name. Arimathea never existed. It therefore comes as no surprise that Joseph negotiated with Pilate to place Jesus in his own family tomb. The hereditary "Arimathea" title was an English corruption of the Graeco-Hebrew style ha-Rama-Theo, meaning "of the Divine Highness", or "of the Royal Highness" as we'd define it today. Since Jesus was the senior Messianic heir-the Christ, Khristos or King-then his younger brother was the Crown Prince-the Royal Highness, Rama-Theo. In the Nazarene hierarchy, the Crown Prince always held the patriarchal title of "Joseph"-just as Jesus was a titular "David" and his wife was a "Mary".

In the early fifth century, Jesus and Mary's descendent Fisher Kings became united by marriage to the Sicambrian Franks, and from them emerged a whole new 'reigning' dynasty. They were the noted Merovingian Kings who founded the French monarchy and introduced the well-known fleur-de-lys (the ancient Jewish symbol of circumcision) as the royal emblem of France. From the Merovingian succession, another strain of the family established a wholly independent Jewish kingdom in southern France: the Kingdom of Septi-mania, which we now know as the Languedoc. And the early princes of Toulouse, Aquitaine and Provence were all descended in the Messianic bloodline of the Holy Grail. Septimania was granted to the Royal House of David in 768, and Prince Bernard of Septimania later married a daughter of Emperor Charlemagne.

Also from the Fisher Kings came another important parallel line of succession in Gaul. Whereas the Merovingian Kings continued the patrimonial 'male' heritage of Jesus, this other line perpetuated the matriarchal heritage of Mary Magdalene in a 'female' line. They were the dynastic Queens of Avallon in Burgundy, the House del Acqs-meaning "of the waters", a style granted to Mary Magdalene in the early days when she voyaged on the sea to Provence. Those familiar with Arthurian and Grail lore will by now have recognised the ultimate significance of this Messianic family of the Fisher Kings, the Queens of Avallon and the House del Acqs (corrupted in Arthurian romance to "du Lac"). The descendant heirs of Jesus posed an enormous threat to the Roman High Church because they were the dynastic leaders of the true Nazarene Church. In real terms, the Roman Church should never have existed at all, for it was no more than a 'hybrid' movement comprised of various pagan doctrines attached to a fundamentally Jewish base. Jesus was born in 7 BC and his birthday was on the equivalent of 1 March, with an 'official' royal birthday on 15 September to comply with dynastic regulation. But, when establishing the Roman High Church in the fourth century, Emperor Constantine ignored both of these dates and supplemented 25 December as the new Christ's Mass Day-to coincide with the pagan Sun Festival.

Later, at the Synod of Whitby in 664, the bishops expropriated the Celtic festival of Easter (Eostre), the Goddess of Spring and Fertility, and attached a wholly new Christian significance. In so doing, they changed the date of the Celtic festival to sever its traditional association with the Jewish Passover. Christianity, as we know it, has evolved as a 'composite religion' quite unlike any other. If Jesus was its living catalyst, then Christianity should rightly be based on the teachings of Jesus himself-the moral and social codes of a fair-minded, tolerant ministry, with the people as its benefactors. But orthodox Christianity is not based on the teachings of Jesus: it is based on the teachings of the Roman Church, which are entirely different. There are a number of reasons for this, the foremost of which is that Jesus was deliberately sidestepped in favour of the alternative teachings of Peter and Paul-teachings which were thoroughly denounced by the Nazarene Church of Jesus and his brother James.

Only by removing Jesus from the frontline could the Popes and cardinals reign supreme. When formally instituting Christianity as the state religion of Rome, Constantine declared that "he alone" was the true "Saviour Messiah", not Jesus! As for the Bishops of Rome (the Popes), they were granted an apostolic descent from St Peter-not a legitimate Desposynic descent from Jesus and his brothers, as was retained within the Nazarene Church. The only way for the Roman High Church to restrain the heirs of Mary Magdalene was to discredit Mary herself and to deny her bridal relationship with Jesus. But what of Jesus' brother James? He, too, had heirs, as did their other brothers, Simon, Joses and Jude. The Church could not escape the Gospels which state that Jesus was the Blessed Mother Mary's "first-born son", and so Mary's own motherhood also had to be repressed.

As a result, the Church portrayed Mother Mary as a virgin, and Mary Magdalene as a whore-neither of which description was mentioned in any original Gospel. Then, just to cement Mother Mary's position outside the natural domain, her own mother, Anna, was eventually said to have borne her by way of "Immaculate Conception"!

Over the course of time, these contrived doctrines have had widespread effect. But, in the early days, it took rather more to cement the ideas because the original women of the Nazarene mission had a significant following in the Celtic Church-women such as Mary Magdalene, Martha, Mary Jacob-Cleophas and Helena-Salome who had run schools and social missions throughout the Mediterranean world. These women had all been disciples of Jesus, and close friends of his mother, Mary, accompanying her to the Crucifixion, as confirmed in the Gospels.

The Church's only salvation was to deny women altogether; to deny them not only rights to ecclesiastical office, but to deny them rights to any status in society. Hence, the Church declared that women were all heretics and sorceresses!

2002-05-28T21:47:00.000-05:00

BLOODLINE (Part 3)

From AD 33, therefore, Jesus emerged with the dual status of a "Priest Christ" or, as is more commonly cited, a "Fisher King". This definition, as we shall see, was to become an hereditary and dynastic office of Jesus' heirs, and the succeeding "Fisher Kings" were paramount in the history of the Grail bloodline. Prior to the birth of her second son in AD 44, Mary Magdalene was exiled from Judaea following a political uprising in which she was implicated. Along with Philip, Lazarus and a few retainers, she travelled (by arrangement with King Herod-Agrippa II) to live at the Herodian estate near Lyon, in Gaul (which later became France).

From the earliest times, through the mediaeval era, to the great Renaissance, Mary's flight was portrayed in illuminated manuscripts and great artworks alike. Her life and work in France, especially in Provence and the Languedoc, appeared not only in works of European history but also in the Roman Church liturgy-until her story was suppressed by the Vatican. Mary Magdalene's exile is told in The Book of The Revelation which describes that she was pregnant at the time. It tells also of how the Roman authorities subsequently persecuted Mary, her son and his heirs: "And she, being with child, cried...and pained to be delivered...and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads...and seven crowns...stood before the woman...for to devour her child... And she brought forth a man-child...and the woman fled into the wilderness... And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war forever with the remnant of her seed...which...have the testimony of Jesus Christ."

It was to Gaul that Mary was said to have carried the Sangréal ("Sangreal" translated = the Blood Royal = the Holy Grail); and it was in Gaul that the famous line of Jesus and Mary's immediate descendant heirs, the Fisher Kings, flourished for 300 years. The eternal motto of the Fisher Kings was "In Strength" - inspired by the name of their ancestor, Boaz (the great-grandfather of King David), whose name similarly meant "In Strength". When translated into Latin, this became "In Fortis", which was subsequently corrupted to "Anfortas", the name of the Fisher King in Grail romance.

We can now return to the Grail's traditional symbolism as a chalice containing the blood of Jesus. We can also consider graphic designs dating back well beyond the Dark Ages to about 3,500 BC. And in doing this, we discover that a chalice or a cup was the longest-standing symbol of the female. Its representation was that of the Sacred Vessel-the vas uterus, the womb. And so, when fleeing into France, Mary Magdalene carried the Sangréal in the Sacred Chalice of her womb-just as the Book of The Revelation explains. And the name of this second son was Joseph.

The equivalent traditional symbol of the male was a blade or a horn, usually represented by a sword or a unicorn. In the Old Testament's Song of Solomon and in the Psalms of David, the fertile unicorn is associated with the kingly line of Judah; and it was for this very reason that the Cathars of Provence used the mystical beast to symbolise the Grail bloodline.

Mary Magdalene died in Provence in AD 63. In that very year, Joseph of Arimathea built the famous chapel at Glastonbury in England as a memorial to the Messianic Queen. This was the first 'above-ground' Christian church in the world, and in the following year Mary's son Jesus Justus dedicated it to his mother. Jesus the Younger had in fact been to England with Joseph before, at the age of twelve, in AD 49. It was this event which inspired William Blake's famous song, Jerusalem: "And did those feet in ancient time, walk upon England's mountains green." But who was Joseph of Arimathea, the man who assumed full control of affairs at the Crucifixion? And why was it that Jesus' mother, his wife and the rest of the family accepted Joseph's intervention without question?

As late as the year 900, the Church of Rome decided to announce that Joseph of Arimathea was the uncle of Jesus' mother Mary. And from that time, portrayals of Joseph have shown him as being rather elderly at the Crucifixion, when Mother Mary was herself in her fifties. Prior to the Roman announcement, however, the historical records of Joseph depicted a much younger man. He was recorded to have died at the age of 80 on 27 July AD 82, and thus would have been aged 32 at the time of the Crucifixion.

2002-05-27T18:08:00.000-05:00

[This was in a comment that I received from a few days ago and to be fair it serves as a good rebettal to my position and beliefs regarding the Hemp Problem]:

A Straight Dope Classic from Cecil's storehouse of human knowledge

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Is hemp (nonpharmacological marijuana) the answer to our environmental problems?
31-Jan-1997

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Dear Cecil:

What's the scoop on hemp? Is it true that in earlier days of our country over 90 percent of paper was made of hemp? Is it true hemp is one of the strongest fibers known to man? Why is it illegal to grow it, since it is only about 1 percent THC? In fact, it is only a relative of the plant that is cultivated for smoking, is it not? It just seems that cultivation of hemp would be such an easy solution to the deforestation problems we are having. --Tyler Hartley, Lincoln, Nebraska

Dear Tyler:

Our deforestation problems! Yes, absolutely, hemp is a perfect solution. I myself can recall thinking as a youth (puff) that we've got terrible deforestation problems these days (puff). What can we do about them? (Puff. Long pause.) What was I just talking about?

One of the nuttier developments of recent times is the sudden interest in nonpharmacological hemp cultivation among people who've never grown so much as a radish. It's true that prior to criminalization hemp was grown commercially for paper, cloth, rope and twine, and other products. It grows pretty much anywhere, doesn't require much tending, and produces plenty of strong fiber.

During World War II the government relaxed the antihemp laws and encouraged midwestern farmers to grow the stuff for the war effort. It's said that a parachute rigging made of hemp saved the life of George Bush when the young bomber pilot bailed out of his burning plane.

What with the renewed interest in natural fibers, there's a good case to be made that hemp farming should be promoted rather than suppressed. What the hell--we might as well legalize the stuff altogether, since we know perfectly well that cannabis smoking doesn't cause insanity or any of the other horrors that federal narcotics authorities feared when they clamped down in the late 1930s.

But let's not get goofy about this. Hemp cultivation isn't going to save the planet, as some claim. It won't halt deforestation, which is driven mainly by the demand for lumber and agricultural land.

Hemp wasn't a mighty industry in the U.S. prior to passage of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. Only about 1,300 acres of hemp--about two square miles--were under cultivation. It was cheaper to import the stuff than grow it.

Even so, total U.S. consumption was only about 2,000 tons, and most of that was used for rope and such. Textile manufacturers had long since abandoned hemp for cotton, which was easier to process. An improved hemp-processing technology had been invented, and the industry might have rebounded had it not been for the antihemp crusade. But nobody knows for certain.

The suppression of hemp wasn't, as some have alleged, the result of an unholy conspiracy between federal narcotics commissioner Harry Anslinger, the Du Pont corporation, and William Randolph Hearst. No question, Anslinger was a zealot who thought marijuana was a menace to society, and Hearst's newspapers had done their best to whip up antihemp hysteria. But so had everybody else in the press. Lurid antimarijuana stories appeared in the New Yorker, for God's sake.

The hemp industry didn't pose a significant threat to Du Pont and its new synthetic product, nylon. The most widely publicized early use of nylon was for women's stockings. Hemp wasn't used for this purpose.

Getting back to the present, let's not pretend that hemp and marijuana are two different things. They come from the same plant, Cannabis sativa. The "industrial hemp" variety, which is useless for recreational purposes, is tall and spindly, where the stuff prized for high-potency smoke is short and bushy. While it's reasonably easy to tell the two apart when you're up close, they can't be readily distinguished during aerial surveillance. Federal drug officials are probably right when they say legalization of hemp cultivation would greatly complicate enforcement.

Given the unlikelihood of total decriminalization of cannabis, Cecil can appreciate that proponents of the weed might want to sneak partial decriminalization in through the back door. On the one hand I think, hey, whatever works. But on the other hand I think, this is just the kind of hypocrisy we 60s types used to try so hard to avoid.

PUT THIS IN YOUR PIPE AND SMOKE IT

Dear Cecil:

I enjoy your usually well-researched columns but am sorely disappointed at your lack of depth on hemp cultivation. You said it "won't halt deforestation, which is driven mainly by the demand for lumber." Uh, if hemp becomes a source for cellulose, won't the demand for lumber ease? I heard of a bumper sticker in a rural area last Sunday: "If you don't like logging, wipe your ass with plastic." Hemp makes paper. Those hurting loggers could sorely use a new commodity to make a living from.

You dismissed the Hearst conspiracy claim with nothing but your assertion that "everybody else" did it. Just why and how was hemp suppressed? Why did the press do their best to whip up antihemp hysteria? I had my suspicions about the conspiracy theory and had hoped you would be the one to clarify it. A simple denial does not cut it.

"Hemp wasn't used for [nylon stockings.]" No it wasn't, but it certainly could be. Why isn't it just as good as the petroleum and wood pulp the companies use now? Maybe it is control of the oil wells and tree plantations? Hmm? If it was good enough during WWII, why is it goofy now?

If my current profession goes belly-up, there ain't much call for my specialty. I might need a subsistence crop. You're not helping my survival. There is a growing number of people who think the government should not be enforcing their brand of oppression and indeed the laws should be scrapped as a monstrous waste and enemy of liberty. Denying Americans the potential of this plant (whether it will save the planet or not) while the rest of the world passes us by and continues to enjoy its bounty is folly. In Russia they grow huge fields of . . . [impassioned plea truncated, no room.] --William Hathaway, via the Internet

Cecil replies:

William. Kick back. Have a toke of this. Feel better? Look, I'm the first to concede that the gentle weed is harmless and ought to be legalized. But the day I start believing this dope-will-save-the-planet stuff is the day I switch to Kool-Aid. To address your claims and some of the dozens of others that flooded my mailbox:

Hemp is ideal for paper, cloth, and a thousand other products. Don't be ridiculous. Even hemp advocates concede the stuff has a lot of drawbacks. It makes a fairly coarse cloth (OK for jeans though) and, given current technology, doesn't lend itself to high-volume, low-cost paper production. (Granted, research in this area is continuing.) Many proposed uses are speculative or far-fetched. Check out back issues of HempWorld magazine, available on-line at hempworld.com. Amid the rah-rah stuff you'll find some clear-eyed assessments of hemp's pros and cons.

By the way, William, "lumber" is usually understood to mean "construction lumber." There's been talk of using hemp in particleboard and such. But take it from someone who's been there, there's still no substitute for a wood two-by-four.

Cecil has been duped by the antimarijuana conspirators. If somebody tells me he was abducted by aliens, it's not my job to prove he wasn't. It's his job to prove he was. I've yet to see any credible evidence for the alleged Anslinger/Hearst/Mellon/Du Pont antidope cabal. Most historians of U.S. drug laws say the outlawing of cannabis was the work of narcotics commissioner Harry Anslinger, a formidable figure who persuaded Congress that this little-known weed was undermining the republic. What exactly motivated Anslinger is a matter of debate, but it seems silly to blame a fat-cat conspiracy--as I said earlier, hemp was a minor crop in the 1930s and posed no competitive threat.

The legalize-hemp-cultivation movement is not simply a backdoor attempt to legalize marijuana. I'm sure many of the agribusiness types in the hemp coalition have never smoked a joint. But for a much larger crowd, your eco-green-save-the-whales types, hemp has become a kind of alternative vegetable. (Literally--I've even seen hemp recipes.) No doubt many of these people have persuaded themselves that hemp is mankind's last hope, but don't tell me it hasn't occurred to a lot of them that legal hemp might be a step toward legal marijuana. One hemp shoemaker has a product out called H.I.G.H. Tops. Another, U.S. Hemp, stamps a marijuana leaf on its shoes, and owner Cathy Troutt was quoted in HempWorld as saying, "we aren't going to lie about our feelings on marijuana." Good for you, Cathy. Wish everybody else were as upfront.
--CECIL ADAMS

2002-05-27T16:31:00.000-05:00

BLOODLINE (Part 2)

If we now look at St Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews we discover that he explains the said Ascension event in some greater detail, for Paul tells of how Jesus was admitted to the Priesthood of Heaven when he actually had no entitlement to such a sacred office. He explains that Jesus was born (through his father Joseph) into the Davidic line of Judah-a line which held the right of kingship but had no right to priesthood, for this was the sole prerogative of the line of Aaron and Levi. But, says Paul, a special dispensation was granted, and he tells that "for the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law". As a result of this express "change of the law", it is explained that Jesus was enabled to enter the Kingdom of Heaven in the priestly Order of Melchizedek.

So, in September AD 33, the first child of Jesus and Mary Magdalene was born, and Jesus duly entered the Kingdom of Heaven. There is no reference to this child being a son (as there is for the two subsequent births), and given that Jesus returned three years later, in AD 36, we know that Mary must have had a daughter. By following the chronology of the Acts, we see that in September AD 37 a second child was born; and then another in AD 44. The period between these two births to the second restitution in AD 43 was "six years", which denotes that the AD 37 child was a son. This fact is also conveyed by the use of cryptic wording-the same cryptic wording afforded to the AD 44 child-so we know that this third child was also a son.

In accordance with the scribal codes detailed in the Dead Sea Scrolls, everything cryptic within the New Testament is set up beforehand by some other entry which explains that the inherent message is "for those with ears to hear". Once these codes and allegories are understood, they never ever vary. They mean the same thing every time they are used, and they are used every time that same meaning is required.

For example, the Gospels explain that Jesus was called "the Word of God": "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us...full of grace and truth." John goes to great lengths to explain the relevance of this definition, and subsequent entries give details such as "the Word of God stood by the lake" and "the Word of God was in Samaria". Messages conveying information about fertility and new life are established in the Parable of the Sower whose seed "bore fruit and increased". Thus, when it is said that "the Word of God increased", "those with ears to hear" would recognise at once that "Jesus increased"-that is to say, he had a son. There are two such entries in the Acts, and they fall precisely on cue in AD 37 and AD 44.

Probably the most misrepresented book of the New Testament is The Book of The Revelation of St John the Divine misrepresented by the Church, that is; not by the book itself. This book is quite unlike any other in the Bible. It is dubbed with terrible supernatural overtones, and its straightforward imagery has been savagely corrupted by the Church to present the text as some form of foreboding or prophecy of warning! But the book is not called "The Prophecy" or "The Warning". It is called "The Revelation".

So, what does the book reveal? Chronologically, its story follows The Acts of the Apostles, and the Book of The Revelation is, in fact, the continuing story of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and their sons, particularly the elder son, Jesus Justus. It follows his life and details his marriage, along with the birth of his own son. This much-misunderstood New Testament book is not a foreboding or a warning as the fearful Church would have us believe. It is precisely what it says it is: a revelation.

As we saw earlier, ordained priests of the era were called "fishers"; their helpers were called "fishermen", and baptismal candidates were called "fishes". Jesus became an ordained fisher when he entered the Kingdom of Heaven, but until that time (as explained by St Paul) he held no priestly office. In the rite of ordination, the officiating Levite priests of the Sanctuary would administer five loaves of bread and two fishes to the candidates, but the law was very firm in that such candidates had to be circumcised Jews. Gentiles and uncircumcised Samaritans were on no account afforded any such privilege.

Indeed, it was this particular ministerial ritual which Jesus had flouted at the so-called "feeding of the five-thousand", because he presumed the right to grant access to his own new liberal ministry by offering the loaves and fishes to an unsanctified gathering. Apart from eventually becoming a fisher, Jesus was also referred to as "the Christ"-a Greek definition which meant "the King". In saying the name "Jesus Christ", we are actually saying "King Jesus", and his kingly heritage was of the Royal House of Judah (the House of David), as mentioned numerous times in the Gospels and in the Epistles of St Paul.

2002-05-25T21:59:00.000-05:00

BLOODLINE (Part 1)

We know from the Gospel chronology that the Bethany second-marriage anointing of Jesus by Mary Magdalene was in the week before the Crucifixion. And we know that at that stage Mary was three-months pregnant and therefore should have given birth in the following September.

So, what do the Gospels tell us about events in September AD 33? In fact, the Gospels tell us nothing, but the story is taken up in The Acts of the Apostles which detail for September the event which we have come to know as "the Ascension". The one thing that the Acts do not do, however, is call the event "the Ascension". This was a name given to the ritual when the Roman Church doctrines were established over three centuries later. What the text actually says is: "And when he had spoken these things...he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight." It then continues that "a man in white" said to the disciples: "Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus...shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go." Then, a little later in the Acts, it says that "heaven" must receive Jesus until "the time of restitution".

Given that this was the very month in which Mary Magdalene's child was due, is there perhaps some connection between Mary's confinement and the so-called Ascension? There certainly is, and the connection is made by virtue of the time of restitution.

Not only were there rules to govern the marriage ceremony of a Messianic heir, but so too were there rules to govern the marriage itself. The rules of dynastic wedlock were quite unlike the Jewish family norm, and Messianic parents were formally separated at the birth of a child. Even prior to this, intimacy between a dynastic husband and wife was only allowed in December, so that births of heirs would always fall in the month of September-the month of Atonement, the holiest month of the Jewish calendar.

Indeed, it was this very rule which Jesus's own parents (Joseph and Mary) had themselves broken. And this was the reason why the Jews were split in opinion as to whether Jesus was, in fact, their true Messiah. When a dynastic child was conceived at the wrong time of year, the mother was generally placed in monastic custody for the birth so as to avoid public embarrassment. This was called being "put away privily", and Matthew states quite plainly that when Mary's pregnancy was discovered, "Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily".

In this instance, special dispensation for the birth was granted by the archangel Simeon who at that time held the distinction of "Gabriel", being the angelic priest in charge. Both the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Book of Enoch (which was excluded from the Old Testament) detail that the "archangels" (or chief ambassadors) were the senior priests at Qumran, retaining the traditional titles of "Michael", "Gabriel", "Raphael", "Sariel", etc.

In the case of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, however, the rules of wedlock had been obeyed to the letter, and their first child was properly conceived in December AD 32, to be born in September AD 33.

From the moment of a dynastic birth, the parents were physically separated-for six years if the child was a boy, and for three years if the child was a girl. Their marriage would only be recommenced at the designated time of restitution. Meanwhile, the mother and child would enter the equivalent of a convent, and the father would enter "the Kingdom of Heaven". This Kingdom of Heaven was actually the Essene High Monastery at Mird, by the Dead Sea, and the ceremony of entry was conducted by the angelic priests under the supervision of the appointed Leader of the Pilgrims.

In the Old Testament book of Exodus, the Israelite pilgrims were led into the Holy Land by a "cloud"-and in accordance with this continued Exodus imagery, the priestly Leader of the Pilgrims was designated with the title "Cloud".

So, if we now read the Acts verses as they were intended to be understood, we see that Jesus was taken up by the Cloud (the Leader of the Pilgrims) to the Kingdom of Heaven (the High Monastery). And the man in white (an angelic priest) said that Jesus would return at the time of restitution (when his Earthly marriage was restored).

2002-05-19T21:37:00.000-05:00

Aug. Memo Focused On Attacks in U.S. Lack of Fresh Information Frustrated Bush

By Bob Woodward and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, May 18, 2002; Page A01

The top-secret briefing memo presented to President Bush on Aug. 6 carried the headline, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.," and was primarily focused on recounting al Qaeda's past efforts to attack and infiltrate the United States, senior administration officials said.

The document, known as the President's Daily Briefing, underscored that Osama bin Laden and his followers hoped to "bring the fight to America," in part as retaliation for U.S. missile strikes on al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan in 1998, according to knowledgeable sources.

Bush had specifically asked for an intelligence analysis of possible al Qaeda attacks within the United States, because most of the information presented to him over the summer about al Qaeda focused on threats against U.S. targets overseas, sources said. But one source said the White House was disappointed because the analysis lacked focus and did not present fresh intelligence.

New accounts yesterday of the controversial Aug. 6 memo provided a shift in portrayals of the document, which has set off a political firestorm because it suggested that bin Laden's followers might be planning to hijack U.S. airliners.

In earlier comments this week, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and other administration officials stressed that intelligence officials were focused primarily on threats to U.S. interests overseas. But sources made clear yesterday that the briefing presented to Bush focused on attacks within the United States, indicating that he and his aides were concerned about the risks.

The new reports came amid continued demands for an independent investigation on Capitol Hill, along with more revelations about possible intelligence missteps before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Intelligence sources said last night that at least two names listed in a July 2001 FBI memo about an Arizona flight school have been identified by the CIA as having links to al Qaeda. The FBI memo was never acted upon or distributed to outside agencies prior to Sept. 11 and was not provided to the CIA until last week, sources said.

The memo, sent to FBI headquarters by a Phoenix FBI agent, warned that bin Laden could have been using U.S. flight schools to train terrorists and suggested a nationwide canvass for Middle Eastern aviation students. The CIA's discovery of an al Qaeda link was first reported by ABC News.

Sources cautioned that CIA officials are not sure that they could have linked the two names to al Qaeda had they been given the memo last summer.

Three of the Sept. 11 hijackers received flight training in the United States, although all had ended their classes by the time the memo was written. The document was never shared in August with FBI investigators in Minnesota, who were scrambling to ascertain whether French national Zacarias Moussaoui was part of an al Qaeda plot. He since has been charged as a Sept. 11 conspirator.

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said yesterday that criticism of the administration's intelligence actions before Sept. 11 is unfair.

"What you have are some folks trying to do -- and unfortunately in a fairly accusatory way -- take the benefit of 20-20 hindsight with pre-9/11 information and trying to impart upon it a post-9/11 wisdom," Ridge said in an interview.

Ridge said there were no formal mechanisms in place before Sept. 11 to guarantee that the FBI's activities in Arizona and Minnesota were put into the overall intelligence picture, and that he and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III were talking about ways to coordinate key agencies.

"The FBI's working on it; the CIA's working on it; we're working on it with them," he said. He added that the solution "is not more spies and satellites" but an analytic team devoted to intelligence about domestic terrorism.

Under growing criticism for a failure to act on the Phoenix memo and other potential warning signs, Bush administration officials have said repeatedly that U.S. intelligence analysts never envisioned the possibility that terrorists would use jetliners as suicide missiles and slam them into such buildings as the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

"I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people . . . would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile," Rice said Thursday.

But a 1999 report prepared for the National Intelligence Council, an affiliate of the CIA, warned that terrorists associated with bin Laden might hijack an airplane and crash it into the Pentagon, White House or CIA headquarters.

The report recounts well-known case studies of similar plots, including a 1995 plan by al Qaeda operatives to hijack and crash a dozen U.S. airliners in the South Pacific and pilot a light aircraft into Langley.

"Suicide bomber(s) belonging to al-Qaida's Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives (C-4 and semtex) into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), or the White House," the September 1999 report said.

In other developments yesterday, CIA officials said Cofer Black, head of the agency's Counterterrorism Center for the past three years, has been assigned to another position. They described the move as part of normal turnover at the agency.

After weeks of interviews, a joint, bipartisan congressional committee investigating intelligence before Sept. 11 announced it has hired Eleanor Hill, a lawyer and former Defense Department inspector general, to head its staff. Hill served for 15 years as staff member for former senator Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) on the Senate permanent investigation subcommittee and was Nunn's person on the joint Iran-contra investigation.

But the sharpest focus remained on the Aug. 6 presidential briefing memo, which Rice described Thursday as historic and analytic in nature. But she did not explicitly note that the memo, according to sources, was focused primarily on a discussion of possible domestic targets.

As an example, sources said the memo cited the case of Ahmed Ressam, who was caught attempting to smuggle explosives across the Canadian border for an al Qaeda attack on Los Angeles International Airport during the 2000 millennium celebrations.

The briefing also notes that al Qaeda members were known to live in or travel to the United States, and that still more would attempt to enter the country.

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters yesterday said the headline on the document was, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike the United States." But sources who have read the memo said the headline ended with the phrase "in U.S."

Fleischer described the briefing as a summary containing "generalized information about hijacking and any number of other things."

Rice and other Bush administration officials have said the memo contains no reference to suicide attacks of the kind carried out on Sept. 11, focusing instead on "hijackings in the traditional sense." Hijackings were a minor part of the analysis, officials said.

In one brief mention, sources said, the memo noted that unconfirmed information from British intelligence in 1998 showed that al Qaeda members talked about using an airline hijacking to negotiate the release of imprisoned Muslim cleric Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, who had been convicted of plotting to blow up New York City landmarks.

Some sources familiar with the briefing told The Washington Post on Thursday that the FBI added the notion of hijackings to the document, and that it had not included such references in early drafts.

But other senior U.S. officials said yesterday that the report, prepared by the CIA, "was never looked at by the FBI." One source said the document also is incorrect in citing the FBI as providing information related to hijackings.

Staff writers Mike Allen, Bill Miller, Dana Priest and Walter Pincus contributed to this report.

© 2002 The Washington Post Company

2002-05-19T21:05:00.000-05:00

FAQ's re: The "Proof" of a Flat Earth

1) What is the Earth's shape?
The Earth is flat. It is shaped in the form of a pentagon, and thus has five corners.

2) What is the "middle corner"?
If one was to draw a line from each corner to the centre of the opposing side of the Earth, the line would intersect in the middle of the Flat Earth. This place is known as the Middle Corner.

3) Hey, wait a minute, that is not a real corner...
So? The equator of the spherical earthers is an imaginary line as well. Does this mean that their model does not have a northern and a southern hemisphere? You cannot count in imaginary numbers, but does that mean that they do not exist?

4) What about the northern and southern hemisphere?
Globularist rot. This implies the Earth being a SPHERE, which it is not. The Earth has, however, an Inner and Outer Ring.

5) What is Platygæanism?
Platygæanism is the scientific hypothesis which holds that the Earth is flat or planar in topology.

5) Does the "middle corner" prove that 5=6?
Yes.

6) How are continents located on the Flat Earth.
Generally, the "southernmost" continents are on the outside, whereas the "northern" ones are on the inside.

7) Does this mean that the Middle Corner is at the North Pole?
Not necessarily. It may be anywhere in the northern part of the Earth.

8) What is, then, at the south pole?
The Edge of the World. It is surrounded, at least in places, by a huge mountain range.

9) Where are the corners of the Earth?
Opinion is still divided on this issue. Conventional wisdom places the five corners at the following locations:

Corner 1: the northernmost extent of Lake Mikhayl in Tunguska, Siberia

Corner 2: Greenland or Iceland (Ultima Thule); though some researchers place it at Brimstone Head, on Fogo Island, Newfoundland, Canada.

Corner 3: Easter Island.

Corner 4: Uncertain; possibly Hokkaido (Japan), Lhasa (Nepal), or a desolate location in Outer Mongolia.

Corner 5: Somewhere near the south of Tasmania or New Zealand, though some researchers have suggested somewhere in the vicinity of the South Pacific island of Ponape.

9) How long is the edge of the Earth?
The edge of the Earth is infinitely long.

10) Does this mean that the Earth has infinite area?
No, no more than England does. See Benoit Mandelbrot for more information.

11) Does this fit in with the Hollow Earth theory?
Yes. Beneath the Earth, or hanging off the edges, is a land populated by either green-skinned women or Nazis. All those claiming to have seen this have misinterpreted it to fit in with the spurious and false Spherical Earth theory.

12) Did H. P. Lovecraft know about the Flat Earth?
Yes. Read _At the Mountains of Madness. The choice of the South Pole by the Old Ones makes more sense with the Flat Earth Theory.

13) What about gravity?
Gravity is a lie invented by the purveyors of the inherently false spherical Earth theory. The theory of gravity has never been proven. There is no gravity, only inertia. The Earth moves through space like a giant elevator. We do not fall off because we are kept down by inertia. The Earth has inertia. There is a school of thought which states, however, that the Earth does not move through space, but rather that it rests on the back of a giant turtle, and that what we call gravity is, in fact, the turtle's animal magnetism.

14) What about photographs of the Earth from the moon?
Most of these are fake. It is well known that the "moon landing" was faked. The film of what is claimed to be the moon was taken in the desert in the US state of Arizona. There exist some genuine photographs from high altitudes, which appear to the untrained eye to show a spherical Earth. The reason for this effect is that the Earth's atmosphere becomes denser the further one ascends, after thinning out at about 5 miles. This causes light to be refracted more at high altitudes, giving the appearance of a spherical Earth.

The reason the atmosphere becomes denser is the increased pressure. If not for this extreme pressure, the sun, and all stars, would not be able to hold together but would gradually dissipate in accordance with the gas laws, and Brownian motion (see any basic school physics text). Further proof that there is atmosphere all the way between the earth and the sun, moon, etc, is that heat from the sun warms the earth. Heat cannot travel through a vacuum, as anyone who has ever used a vacuum flask knows. Real astronauts would need pressure
suits to protect them from the incredibly high pressures they would encounter.

15) How does the Earth move through space?
There are two schools of thought: one which states that the Earth is constantly moving in a straight line, and the other which states that the Earth is moving in a toroidal shape. There is a popular opinion which states that the Earth does not move as such, but rather that space moves around the Earth.

16) Can ships be 'lost' at the edge of the Earth?
Yes, at least in places where there are no mountains preventing this from occurring. The edge of the Earth is, in places a tremendous waterfall, and anything going over the edge will disappear into the aether. This can also happen to aircraft which fly off the edge.

17) If large amounts of water disappear off the edge, where does all the water come from?
This is an argument for the theory that the Earth has a toroidal orbit. In a toroidal orbit, all the water which disappears off the edges falls back to Earth as rain when the Earth revolves about its orbit. This also means that the inhabitants of ships and aircraft lost in space will, in some occasions, return to Earth.

18) Does this explain Fortean phenomena, such as frog-falls?
Perhaps. One is tempted to believe that the frogs, fish and other beings are somehow expelled into space off the edge of the Earth. However, this conflicts with the long-established Mad Fishmonger theory, which states that showers of fish are the work of a deranged fishmonger and his cohorts. (See: the Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson for more details.)

19) What is the "Springfield Effect"?
The Springfield Effect is the name given to the phenomenon by which every place named Springfield is hard-linked in hyperspace to every other place of this name. In other words, there is only one place named Springfield, but it is "linked" to various locations in the world.

20) Does Idaho exist
No. The existence of Idaho is a lie, fabricated by a conspiracy of cartographers, as is England (see: question 10).

21) What about North Dakota?
That doesn't exist either.

22) Any other places which are believed to exist but really don't?
Yes, Australia. And then there are the cryptogeographica, places such as Kadath, Carcosa, Hobbiton, Narnia, Hy-Brasil, Hell and such whose existence has not been satisfactorily proven.

2002-05-15T18:31:00.000-05:00

Why Do Terrorists Keep Picking on the United States?

Washington's war on terrorism is as doomed to failure as its war on drugs has been. "I think the American people need to know that we live in a world where by virtue of America's leadership to some degree, by virtue of a degree of fanaticism by some people, we will be targeted," declared National Security Adviser Sandy Berger after the bombings of two US African embassies on August 7, 1998.{1}

When asked "What is it that these terrorists want from the United States?", Richard Haass, head of the foreign policy department at the Brookings Institution, replied: "Well, the answer is it's not anything we're simply doing. It is who we are. It's the fact that we're the most powerful country in the world. It's the fact that we're a secular country. ...it is simply who we are and it is our existence that really bothers them."{2}

Thomas Friedman of the New York Times would say amen. Terrorists, he wrote, "have no specific ideological program or demands. Rather, they are driven by a generalized hatred of the U.S., Israel and other supposed enemies of Islam."{3}

Finally, we have President Clinton: "Americans are targets of terrorism, in part, because we act to advance peace and democracy and because we stand united against terrorism."{4}

These are some of the platitudes our leaders and pundits feed us after each terrorist attack against an American installation.

...the image of America the beauteous on its hill,
so envied by all that it is subject to attacks by
terrorists who cannot bear so much sheer goodness
to triumph in a world that belongs to their master,
the son of morning himself, Satan.
- Gore Vidal{5}

What our leaders and pundits never let slip is that the terrorists - whatever else they might be - might also be rational human beings; which is to say that in their own minds they have a rational justification for their actions. Most terrorists are people deeply concerned by what they see as social, political, or religious injustice and hypocrisy, and the immediate grounds for their terrorism is often retaliation for an action of the United States...

The shooting down of two Libyan planes in 1981; the bombardment of Beirut in 1983 and 1984; the furnishing of military aid and intelligence to both sides of the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88 so as to maximize the damage each side would inflict upon the other; the bombing of Libya in 1986; the bombing and sinking of an Iranian ship in 1987; the shooting down of an Iranian passenger plane in 1988; the shooting down of two more Libyan planes in 1989; the massive bombing of the Iraqi people in 1991; the continuing bombings and sanctions against Iraq; the bombing of Afghanistan and Sudan in 1998, the latter destroying a pharmaceutical plant which provided for half the impoverished nation's medicines; the habitual support of Israel despite the devastation and routine torture it inflicts upon the Palestinian people; the condemnation of Arab resistance to this; the continued persecution of Libya, now nearing the end of its second decade; the abduction of wanted men from Muslim countries, such as Malaysia, Pakistan, Lebanon and Albania; the large military and hi-tech presence in Islam's holiest land, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere in the Persian Gulf region; the support of anti-democratic Middle East governments, from the Shah to the Saudis ...

These are some of the American actions that can turn an Arab or a Muslim into a fanatic, into a terrorist, into a decrier of "America, the Great Satan". But, those who feed us the platitudes know this. They're merely performing the time-honored public dumbshow. Mir Aimal Kansi, the Pakistani who shot five people outside CIA headquarters in 1993, told the FBI that he had done so to protest US policies toward Muslims in the Middle East, including the bombing of Iraq.{6} Two days after Kansi's conviction in 1997, four Americans were gunned down in Karachi, Pakistan while driving in a car. "I think the linkage is quite evident," said a former CIA counter-terrorism expert about the Karachi slayings.{7}

The bombing of PanAm 103 in 1988 was clearly initiated by Iran as an act of retaliation for the shooting down of its own passenger plane by the United States a few months earlier, and American officials well know this. The bombing of the two US embassies in Africa in 1998 took place on the eighth anniversary, to the very day, of the arrival of the first US troops in Saudi Arabia, following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. And during the
US bombing of Iraq in 1991, there were dozens of terrorist attacks against American institutions all over the Middle East and elsewhere. Did American officials and the media not pick up any hint of cause-and-effect? They did, but subsequently, when it's been platitude time, they suddenly become pre-Alzheimer.

When terrorists attack, they're terrorizing.
When we attack, we're retaliating. When they
respond to our retaliation with further attacks,
they're terrorizing again. When we respond with
further attacks, we're retaliating again.
- Norman Solomon, media critic

Good and Bad Terrorists

On March 13, 1996, the United States assembled 27 world leaders in Egypt at an "anti-terror" conference after a wave of suicide bombers had killed dozens of people in Israel. President Clinton asserted: "We must be clear in our condemnation of those who resort to terror. Violence has no place in the future we all seek in the Middle East."{8} At the very same time, in Iraq, the US was supporting with millions of dollars the Iraqi National Accord, which was using car bombs and other bombings in Baghdad and other cities, trying to destabilize Sadaam Hussein. It was estimated that the bombings had taken the lives of more than 100 civilians in Baghdad alone during the preceding few years. Two weeks after the Egyptian conference, the attending countries met in Washington for a follow-up on counter-terrorism. Among the topics discussed were the flow of funds to terrorist groups.{9}

The following month, President Clinton, with much fanfare, signed the Anti-terrorism Act, which bars financial transactions between American corporations and countries accused of supporting terrorism. Four months later, the administration quietly exempted Sudan, to allow a US oil company to negotiate an oil deal. At the same time, Syria was granted an exemption, to encourage participation by Damascus in the Middle East peace process.{10}

In February 2000, there arose a new proposal for a major international conference to combat terrorism. On this occasion the United States was quick to throw cold water on the very idea, saying it would have no "practical benefits". The proposed conference was backed by the 119-member Non-Aligned Movement of Third World Nations. One of the issues the conference hoped to address was how to distinguish between a "terrorist" and a "freedom fighter", citing the examples of the Hizbollah and Hamas groups fighting Israel. The question of "state terrorism" also loomed as a possible conference issue - for example, should military attacks by armed forces of any State be deemed acts of terrorism when civilians are killed? The 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia had been discussed as a case in point.{11}

FBI Definition of Terrorism

The FBI defines international terrorism as "the unlawful use of force or violence committed by a group or individual, who has some connection to a foreign power or whose activities transcend national boundaries, against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives."{12}

The FBI definition, although meant to describe acts directed against the United States, would seem to cover rather well countless acts of the US government itself. Many of these acts will be found in the pages of this book, under the headings of bombings, interventions, torture, chemical and biological warfare, etc.

NOTES

1. Washington Post, August 22, 1998
2. NBC, "Today" show, August 22, 1998
3. New York Times, August 22, 1998, p. 15
4. Washington Post, August 9, 1998
5. The Nation, April 4, 1998
6. Washington Post, November 6, 1997
7. Ibid, November 16, 1997
8. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, 1996, V.1, p.437
9. The Independent (London), March 26, 1996, p.8
10. Washington Post, January 23, 1997, p.1
11. Inter Press Service (headquartered in Rome) report from the United Nations, February 21, 2000.
12. FBI press release, "FBI Policy and Guidelines", Feb. 16, 1999

This is a chapter from the book Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower, by William Blum

:: William Blum's Homepage ::

To write to the author:
:: William Blum ::

2002-05-14T23:40:00.000-05:00

He Blew His Mind Out in a Car

All the Clues to Help Unravel Pop Music's Most Notorious Rumor

Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. If I were dead, I'd be the last to know.
~Paul McCartney

The untimely demise of "the cute Beatle" Paul McCartney was first suggested by an American college student in a
Thesis paper. As a local newspaper got hold of the rumor, it began to spread like wild fire across the country. Eventually, it made it's way over to Great Britain and then the world. In Tokyo, Beatles records flew off the shelves and in Amsterdam, phone lines were jammed as Dutch operators tried to place the number of frantic calls.

The story turned into mass hysteria as thousands of weeping mourners surrounded Paul's estate in London. In New York, hundreds of fans waited outside one of the television studios and waited for any kind of news. The entire story wasn't put to rest until a magazine journalist found Paul in seclusion at his Scottish farm.

Although Paul's existence has been proven (so THEY say), many believe that the Beatles themselves actually had a hand in placing the numerous clues in the songs and on the album covers. It has been argued that the sheer number of "Paul is dead" clues goes way beyond coincidence. Even today, detectives all over the world continue to delight in figuring out the clues that still remain in the music and in the cover art.

THE ACCIDENT
It was the 9th of November 1966, "...stupid bloody Tuesday". Light rain had turned into a torrential downpour when Paul was driving through swinging London that night. He was headed towards the country to spend time with friends. Although he knew he should pull over, he was determined to make it there by midnight. Did he pick up a hitchhiker that night? Some "reports" say that he did. He saw a figure drenched in the pouring rain and couldn't resist stopping to offer assistance. Moreover, the figure turned ou to be a young girl. While in the car, she realized that she was with Beatle Paul, she became beatlemanic, thereby fatally distracting him.

JANE ASHER
Is it a coincidence that she removed herself from the Beatle "scene" around late '66? Or... was it after a recording session at Abbey Road studios? The story goes that Paul had a spat with one, or all, of the other Beatles (probably because they considered him a "perfectionist" and "primo donnum"). He allegedly stormed out of the studio in a snit, leapt into his Aston Martin and roared off. All that emotion and all that rain created a lethal combination, and he crashed at an intersection. Witnesses failed to recognize him because he was decapitated in the accident, but they all "felt that they knew him somehow".

CLUES TO THE MYSTERY

ABBEY ROAD
On the front, the four Beatles are said to in a funeral procession. Paul is the dead one, as he is barefoot (in many areas of the world, the dead are buried barefoot). Ringo is the undertaker in black. George is the gravedigger and John is the minister. (Many believe he's even supposed to signify a christ figure.)

The license plate number on the Volkswagon is "28IF". Assuming Paul would have lived, he would have been 28.
(Actually, Paul would have been 27 at this time. But, in some eastern traditions, a newborn is considered to be almost one-year-old at the time of birth to account for the 10 months in the womb.
NB: Paul was intensely interested in eastern religion.
Paul is out of step with the others. He is also in the path of a car that has just passed.
Paul is the only one smoking and he has the cigarette in his right hand (he is left-handed).
On the back cover, if the dots in front of "Beatles" are connected, they form a "3".
Also on the back, a crack runs through the "Beatles" sign in the brick wall. This is a sign of imperfection. While looking at the back cover, turn it 90 degrees counter-clockwise. A skull and spine image appears in the brick wall.

MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR
Although John sings, "I Am the Walrus", it is later revealed in "Glass Onion" that "The Walrus was Paul". Also disputing the fact that John is the Walrus is "Little Nicola", who says "No you're not!" underneath the song title inside the cover. Therefore, Paul is the black Walrus, a supposed symbol of death.
On page 3 of the booklet, a recruiting poster sits in front of Paul on a desk with the words "I WAS" printed on it.
Above Paul's head in the very same picture, are two flags, which are supposed to imply a military funeral.
On page 23 of said booklet, the Beatles all wear white suits with red flowers in their lapels, except Paul’s, whose flower is black.
On page 8, if one turns the picture 90 degrees to the right, an image of a skull can be seen with one of the diner's beret acting as one of the eye sockets.
At the end of "Strawberry Fields Forever", John reveals, "I buried Paul".
Part of the lyrics for "Magical Mystery Tour" are "dying to take you away".
In "I Am the Walrus"; John sings "goo goo ga joob". These are Humpty Dumpty's last words in Joyce's "Finnigan's Wake", before he falls and cracks his head.
At the end of "I Am the Walrus", the song fades into a reading of the death scene from Shakespeare's "King Lear".

SGT. PEPPER
Front Cover
Three Beatles are standing at an angle while Paul is standing straight on. This is because George, John, and Ringo are supporting his corpse.
BEATLES is spelled out in marijuana leaves at the bottom of the cover. This is said to be Paul's grave.
Under BEATLES, there is a group of yellow flowers arranged in the shape of Paul's guitar. But, when the cover is turned 90 degrees counter-clockwise, it is a "P".
A man's hand, palm out, above Paul's head. This is a religious symbol of death: At the end of a funeral, ministers hold up their hands with the palm's out and say, "May the Lord bless you and keep you".
Alongside the psychedelic Beatles, there are the Beatles (c. 1964). They appear to be looking down at the grave in mourning.
Right under them, is some sort of religious doll with a thick black line down the center of his head. This is to remind us that Paul split his head open in the "accident".
All the way on the right is a Shirley Temple doll with a toy Aston Martin (Paul's car) in one hand and a bloody driving glove on her other side.

Inside Gatefold
The armsleeve patch worn by Paul on his costume reads "OPD", which stands for "Officially Pronounced Dead". It is the British equivalent to "DOA" (Dead on Arrival).
Like the front cover, Paul is straight and the other three are at and angle, again implying support.

Back Cover
George, John, and Ringo are facing forward, with only Paul having his back to the viewer. If you look closely at George, he is pointing with his right hand. His finger points to the lyric, "Wednesday morning at 5
o'clock", supposedly the time Paul was pronounced dead.

The Lyrics
"The one and only Billy Shears"- Billy Shears was the Paul look-alike who took his place after his death.
Paul's death was covered up "...with a little help from [his] friends".
"I'm fixing a hole" implies digging a grave.
"Wednesday morning at 5 o'clock" is the time Paul was pronounced dead.
"When I get older, losing my hair"- Paul losing his hair in a head injury sustained in a car wreck.
"He blew his mind out in a car/ He hadn't noticed that the lights had changed / A crowd of people stood and stared / They'd seen his face before"- This is practically a first-hand account of Paul's fatal accident. The people recognized him but didn't know it was Paul because he was decapitated.
After "A Day in the Life", there is a secret track called "Sgt. Pepper's Groove". In it is a drawn out E note, sybolizing a departing soul.

THE WHITE ALBUM
In "Revolution 9", the lyrics "number nine number nine" become "turn me on dead man turn me on dead man" when the record is played backwards.
The gibberish between "I'm So Tired" and "Blackbird" conceals the message "Paul is dead man, miss him, miss him".
"You were in a car crash, and you lost your hair" - lyrics from "Don't Pass Me By".
There are the sounds of a horrible car crash in "Revolution 9".
In "Glass Onion", John tells us, "Here's another clue for you all, the Walrus was Paul". This reinforces the idea of Paul as the Walrus (a symbol of death) from "Magical Mystery Tour”.

The way I see it, these clues are very compelling. For more read, The Walrus Was Paul : The Great Beatle Death Clues by R. Gary Patterson, Jr.

2002-05-13T19:55:00.000-05:00

The Dark Side of the Rainbow

Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon & the MGM film version of The Wizard of Oz. Two profoundly successful pieces of pop art that one would think are completely unrelated. Yet, the way I see it, there exists a synchronous relationship between the two that escapes logic or understanding.

Momentarily, Suspend your reason and your sense of order to the universe. (Suspend, too, your belief that I might be doing some very serious drugs.) Then, rent The Wizard of Oz turn off your television’s sound, put Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon in your CD player, set it to repeat the entire CD once and press play at the exact moment the MGM lion roars for the third time. The result is surprising. It's as if the movie was one long avant-garde music video for the album. Song lyrics and titles match the action and the music swells and falls with character's movements.

Note to the sober folks: Don't expect to be overwhelmed, but, do expect to see enough firm coincidences that will make you wonder whether the whole thing was planned. And, expect to see many more coincidences that would be definite reaches if it weren't for other parts lining up so well.

If you're not really familiar with TDSotM, it will help to have a lyric sheet handy. But always keep an eye to the TV, because you might miss something. (Don't try the pause-play-pause game; being three or four seconds off really neutralizes the effect.)

Here is what to do to get started:

The Set-up

Pause the CD on track one.
Set your player to repeat the entire CD once.
Put in the movie and wait for the MGM Lion logo to appear.
When the MGM Lion roars for the THIRD time, unpause the CD.

The timing is correct if the credit for the producer Mervyn LeRoy appears just as the transition from Speak To Me to Breathe takes place..

Supporting Incidents

1. The lyric "...balanced on the biggest wave" is sung just as Dorothy is balancing on the fence.
2. Dorothy falls into the pig pen as you hear the words "...race towards an early grave" and the song On the Run starts just as Dorothy falls off the fence. (This creates a much "darker" feel than the movie by itself.
3. As Auntie Em is yapping, a female voice can be heard in the background of the album that stops just as Auntie Em stops running her mouth.
4. Dorothy turns around and looks down just as the lyrics "Look around; choose your own ground" are sung.
5. As Dorothy is singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow, often she looks up at the planes flying by in the background sound effects of On the Run.
6. A verse in Somewhere Over The Rainbow is "...birds fly, why can't I?" In the song Breathe, there is a verse that is "...for long you live and high you fly."
7. Toto appears to be laughing at Dorothy as the laugh is heard in the background of On the Run.
8. Chimes and Bells start ringing as the mean old lady rides up on her bike. These fade when she gets off her bike, and she gets hit by the fence to the beat of the music.
9. When inside, the music reflects the tone of the scene, especially the change when Dorothy shifts her attention to different characters.
10. The words "Past Present, and Future" can be read on a sign outside of the fortune teller during the solo to Time.
11. The fortune teller tells Dorothy that she needs to go home just as the lyric "Home, home again. I like to be there when I can" is sung.

The Great Gig In The Sky:

1. The song begins just as Dorothy leaves the fortune teller.
2. The tornado is shown in the background as the words "And I'm not frightened of dying" are spoken"
3. Drums begin just as the wind starts causing damage.
4. As the window hits Dorothy and she gets knocked out, the singer begins to sing softly as if she is singing Dorothy a lullaby.
5. The song ends when the house lands and Dorothy opens her eyes.

Money / Time

1. The cash register begins at the same time as Dorothy opens the door.
2. The lyric "...and racing around to come up behind you again" from Time is sung just as the camera shot changes and shows Dorothy from behind.

Us & Them / Any Colour You Like

1. The Ballerina Munchkins enter on "...us...us...us..."
2. One ballerina seems to lip sync "ordinary men"
3. Three wise looking Munchkins enter on "...me...me...me..." (And, it is the third synchronous event on this part of my list. Coincidence?)
4. One of the wise looking Munchkin's begins to jerk in sync with the music.
5. "Forward, he cried!" is sung as Dorothy turns to face forward.
6. The Good Witch appears to play her wand like a guitar. She seems to sway to the music and even moves her fingers along the wand as though she is really playing a guitar.
7. The Wicked Witch appears on "...black...black..."
8. On "...blue...blue..." the camera switches to Dorothy who is wearing a blue dress.
9. "And who knows which is which and who is who" is sung just as the Wicked Witch of the West looks at the recently killed Wicked Witch East. (A play on words)
10. The Wicked Witch of the West goes up the platform on "...up..up..up..." then, walks down on "...down...down...down..."
11. "And in the end..." is spoken when the recently killed Witch of the East disappears.
12. "...out...out...out..." when the Good Witch of the North leaves.
13. Song transition to Any Colour You Like during scene change.
14. Song Brain Damage played as The Scarecrow sings If I Only Had a Brain
15. The Scarecrow's dialogue is accentuated by David Gilmour's wa-wa guitar. (i.e., the guitar plays whenever Dorothy or the Scarecrow speaks.

THE TIN MAN

1. Heartbeat heard at the end of the album is heard when Dorothy listens for The Tin Man's heart.

***The CD repeats here and the heartbeat starts again.***

2. When the Tin Man is oiled up, he begins dancing to the music.
3. The steam comes out of the Tin Man's head to the beat of Nick Mason's hi-hat.

THE LION

1. His roar corresponds to the roar-like sounds in the background.
2. He appears to be conducting the music as he speaks.
3. He appears to be playing a saxophone as the sax solo plays.
4. All three characters skip to the beat during the scene change.
5. A bat is flying past the screen during the song's airplane sound effects.

THE EMERALD CASTLE

1. Dorothy falls down to a music change.
2. Dorothy knocks on the door of the castle to the beat of the music.
3. The horse changes color in the order of the colors of the rainbow on the album.
4. A music change occurs as they walk down the big hallway.
5. When the wizard is in the room, the fire seems to "dance" to the beat of the music.
6. The Lion jumps out the window on "...down...down...."
7. The chimes heard at the beginning that were assciated with the mean lady on the bike now accompany the crowd cheering in the hot air balloon scene.
8. Dorothy clicks her heals to the beat of Nick Mason's hi-hat.

HOME, HOME AGAIN

1. The lyric "Home, home again..." is sung just as Dorothy awakens from the dream.
2. The lyric "...and in the end, we're only ordinary men" is sung when the three actors who play the Lion, Scarecrow, and the Tin Man are talking to Dorothy.

These are only a few of the sychonicities, the fun is in finding your own. Enjoy!

2002-05-10T14:41:00.000-05:00

Perils of Cocaine Abuse

Two recent political leaders allegedly had this nefarious habit.
Both came to power after dubious elections, by non-electorial and irregular methods.
Both nations immediately experienced attacks on famous public buildings.
Both blamed an ethnic minority before forensics had any evidence.
Both led "witch-hunts" against the accused minority.
Both suspended civil liberties "temporarily."
Both put the citizenry under surveillance.
Both maintained secret and clandestine governments.
Both launched wars against most of the world.
One had a funny mustache. Can you name the other one?

2002-05-09T21:50:00.000-05:00

Reefer Madness

What if there was a plant that could feed and clothe the world, end global deforestation, replace smutty fossil fuels in the gas tanks of your car, and offer salubrious therapy for dozens of ailments? What if George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had grown it, were required by law to grow it, so useful was this mysterious shrub? Well, then, it stands to reason that a combine of jealous industrialists, shrieking demagogues, and yellow journalists would scurry to stomp the “demon weed” out forever and purge its distinguished legacy from the history books.

The name of the botanical martyr? The founding Fathers, who drafted the Declaration of Independence on paper made from the plant, knew it as hemp. You might know it by another of its many appellations: Indian hemp, true hemp, bhang, dagga, ganja, muggles, muta, grefa, tea, boo, goo, gauge, herb, weed, ”the kind”, cannabis, reefer, buds, grass, pot—to wit, marijuana. Beginning to get the picture?

In his eminently civilized book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, Jack Herer has exposed the “malicious conspiracy to suppress not a ‘killer weed,’ but the world’s premier renewable resource, for the benefit of a handful of wealthy and powerful individuals and corporations.” Herer is the founder of a group called HEMP (Help End Marijuana Prohibition). He sees the sixty-year war on pot as more than a pox on tokers: It is a latter-day Inquisition, a pernicious reprise of the Dark Ages, and, not least, “a conspiracy against mankind.” As do so many, this conspiracy began in the smoke-filled boardrooms—and you can bet the smoke wasn’t a mellow sinsemilla haze. The year was 1937, and with the advent of new mechanical fiber stripping technology, hemp was poised to make a grand comeback as the nation’s favorite, most versatile textile. But as Herer relates it, an unholy trinity of hemp enemies orchestrated the notorious prohibition of this “member of the most advanced plant family on Earth.”

First, a brief history lesson, necessary because the story of hemp has indeed been obscured by half a century of suppression: Before the invention of the cotton gin in the early 1800s, hemp products made from the fiber of the plant’s reedy stalk were everywhere in America—and the world. The word canvas comes to us from the Dutch pronunciation of the Greek kannabis. From the fifth century BCE through the late nineteenth century, ships’ sails and rigging were made from hemp. For thousands of years, cannabis fibers had been the chief source of the world’s clothing, tents, carpets, rope, bedding, and flags—including Old Glory. As Herer helpfully reminds us, Washington and his troops would have frozen to death at Valley Forge were it not for their hemp threads. The Conestoga wagons that trekked across the American prairies were covered with
cannabis canvas, and the settlers’ Bibles were printed on reefer paper. For thousands of years, hemp-seed oil did yeoman’s duty as lamp fuel and even food. And during the nineteenth century, patent medicines utilizing the plant’s more familiar chemical attributes were imbibed by God-fearing Americans from all walks of life.

By the late 1930s, Popular Mechanics and other magazines were hailing technology that promised to make hemp, the strongest of the natural fibers, a “new billion-dollar crop.” But there were those who connived to bury hemp’s illustrious history under a mountain of slander, vilifying “marihuana” as the killer weed smoked by murderous Mexicans and insolent Negroes.

The first powerful player in the anti-hemp triad identified by Herer was William Randolph Hearst. The millionaire magnate deployed his sprawling Hearst newspaper chain in a hysterical crusade against marijuana.

The second, and most strident, figure in the plot to assassinate hemp was a corrupt hypermoralist named Harry J. Anslinger. Described by his contemporaries as “a bull-necked, bald-headed, slab-shouldered cop” with “the demagogue’s flair for slogan-like phrases.” Anslinger was the spearchucker in the war on pot. His crude propaganda, laughable today, popularized spurious myths about pot in (Hearst) articles with headlines like—MARIHUANA—ASSASSIN OF YOUTH and MARIHUANA MAKES FIENDS OF BOYS IN 30 DAYS: HASHEESH GOADS USERS TO BLOOD-LUST. Axe murderers, rampaging gunmen, and suicidal motorists were “depraved creatures” motivated by “reefer madness.” In one publicized speech, Anslinger warned, “If the hideous monster Frankenstein came face to face with the monster marihuana, he would drop dead of fright.” (Like many a morality cop, Anslinger was also a first-class hypocrite. He later admitted to illegally supplying morphine to the Redbaiting and drug-addicted Senator Joseph McCarthy. During WWII Anslinger helped the OSS, forerunner to the CIA, in unsuccessful
experiments with a hashish derivative they hoped to use as a truth serum on spies.

Forming the third flank in Herer’s was the powerful Du Pont corporation. All three had reasons for extinguish-ing the hapless weed. Although most historians have explained the Anslinger-Hearst assault on pot as a product of the prohibition era, paranoia over creeping immorality, and old-fashioned Jim Crow racism, Herer has thrown an economic theory into the mix.

It seems that the Hearst Paper Manufacturing Division, with its sprawling timber acreage, was threatened by the a new milling process devised by the US Department of Agriculture to convert the woody stalks of hemp into reams of high-grade paper, cardboard, and fiberboard. Incidentally, the process produced fewer toxic chemicals than wood-pulp manufacturing and, according to the government, would save four acres of fragile forest for every acre of hemp cultivated. Concludes Herer: As far as Hearst and the wood-pulp-based paper industry were concerned, “Cannabis hemp would have to go.”

In the campaign to assassinate hemp, Anslinger and the Hearst papers weren’t above race baiting. The bull-necked narc often described marijuana users as “ginger-colored niggers” with big lips, whose “satanic” music and demon weed drove white women “to seek sexual relations with Negroes.” He warned Congress that most of the reefer fiends were “Negroes and Mexicans,” or, worst of all, “entertainers.” Hearst articles depicted languid, pot-smoking Mexicans who could turn into homicidal lunatics at the snap of a fried synapse. According to Herer, Hearst hammered (and misspelled) the Mexican slang term marijuana into the public consciousness in a campaign designed to confuse and frighten folk who might otherwise discover that the demon weed and the
historic fiber were one and the same.

Soon enough the fix was in. Anslinger’s Treasury Department bosses held closed-door meeting that yielded sneaky legislation to slap an exorbitant $100 tax on unregistered dealers selling hemp. (Anslinger, notes Herer, owed his job to his “uncle-in-law,” Andrew Mellon, owner of the sixth largest bank, who also happened to be…a Du Pont banker.) Thanks to the influence of House Ways and Means Committee chairman Robert L. Doughton, a dyed-in-the-wool (make that poly-blend) Du Pont ally, the anti-marijuana law (posing as a tax law) breezed through Congress over the weak objections of hemp producers and the American Medical Association. Thus was born the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, which effectively outlawed the drug—and the rest of the plant—in America.

And sure enough, shortly after the 1937 marijuana ban, Du Pont unveiled its “plastic fibers,” which came to dominate markets previously served by hempen goods. The following year, Du Pont patented Nylon and the Super-polluting wood-pulp process. As if to rub Rayon in hemp users’ faces, in 1939 Lammont Du Pont boasted in Popular Mechanics of “conserving natural resources by developing synthetic products to supplement or wholly replace natural products” (emphasis added). Now, thanks to the governmental ban on cannabis, Du Pont continues to be the nation’s “largest producer of man-made fibers, while no citizen has legally harvested a single acre of textile-grade hemp in over fifty years.” Perhaps it’s the price of progress: The snuffing of a versatile, clean, renewable resource paved the way for the Du Pont dynasty, dioxin, timber clearcutting, and of course, the leisure suit.

2002-05-06T12:01:00.000-05:00

From The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com

America as Mystery Babylon

Forty Symbolic "Proofs"

By Brett Daniel Wills
e-Venthorizon.net

"The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy
- Revelation 19:10

Revelation 12, 17-19

1. “A woman” = America, effeminate title
2. “...fallen, fallen” = Twin Towers collapse
3. “...in one hour comes to ruin” = Towers collapsed in little over an hour
4. “A city” = New York, New York
5. “...world sees smoke of her burning” = media show towers burning to entire globe
6. “...makes nations drunk with her trade” = Center of World Trade
7. “She held a golden cup in her hand” = Statue of Liberty, torch painted gold in 1980s
8. The woman is like Israel = America, Israel are inextricably bound together
9. “...has two horns like a lamb” = Christian nation, constitutionally conservative
10. “...speaks like a dragon” = Satanic nation, verbally and socially liberal
11. Referred to as “Great” = described as “great Satan” by Eastern Islamites
12. “Glorified Herself” = self-worship by worship of individuality, image
13. “...lived luxuriously”, “filled with riches” = America is the richest nation on earth
14. “Clothed with the sun” = is armed with the greatest nuclear might
15. “...with the moon under feet” = Apollo landing, only nation to conquer the moon
16. “...rules over the nations of the earth” = single superpower
17. “...the world came to her aid” = international support
18. “...given the wings of an eagle” = the eagle is a U.S. symbol, war effort is titled,
“Operation Noble Eagle”
19. "...drunk with the blood of the saints” = spiritually apostate
20. “boasts, ‘I am not a widow’” = brags of its goodness, yet is unrepentant
21. “...in the cup that she mixed” = worship of God with worship of money
22. Three references to “a woman” = apostate church, paganism, imitates Israel
23. “Has a crown of 12 stars” = alliance with and control over EU/NATO
24 God uses her enemies to burn Her = international terrorism
25. Seven nations, and an eighth against Her = seven Islamic nations and Russia
26. “Her sins reached to Heaven” = leader in pornography, drugs, violence, greed
27. World mourns for Her “from afar off” = nations distanced by Pacific and Atlantic oceans
28. Tower of Babel, symbol of multinationals = U.S., most democratized, ethnically integrated
29. Tower of Babel, symbol of one language = U.S. only multiethnic nation w/universal English
30. “Come out of her, lest you share in her sins” = allure of American lifestyle, difficult to resist
31. “Strong is the God who judges Her” = a new era in warfare against a faceless enemy
32. “They will plunder Her” = Terrorists call for the “plundering” of the U.S.
33. Fourth bowl of God’s wrath poured out = retaliation by U.S. employs nuclear option
34. God conveys it is Himself fighting Her = Terrorists call the fight a “Holy War”
35. “The light of a lamp shall shine no more in you” = The Gospel hypocritically promoted ends
36. “Music” of every kind “shall be heard no more = The U.S. is the center of all modern music
37. “The merchants of the Earth mourn for Her” = Stock markets and trade halt and decline
38. “The Serpent spewed...a flood after the woman” = Thousands of terrorist cells network to destroy
America through suicide bombings and biological warfare
39. “The earth swallowed up the flood” = 68 nations commit to crack down on terrorists
to aid U.S. Over 100 pledge support in fight
against global terrorism, the largest coalition in
history
40. “The dragon, enraged, went off to war with her Christians persecuted globally by religious
offspring” = extremists.

Explanation of the Evidence

The Book of Revelation claims that there will be a nation in the end times which sits over the nations of the earth. It’s symbol is a woman who holds up a golden cup in her hand, which she uses to make the nations drunk with the wine of her financial trading fornication. The statue of liberty comes immediately to mind. The original bronze color of the statue has turn a sickly pale green due to soot, and the torch was painted "gold" in the eighties.

On the very same page where mention of this woman, who is referred to as a spiritual harlot, is shown, just a few paragraphs further on, the same page reveals that this woman is "fallen, fallen" and goes on to mention that she is the center of world trade, and that she is also referred to "great". She is the mother of harlots, mystery Babylon. The word “mystery” implies a truth to be revealed in the latter times, “sealed up till the time of the end,” and therefore cannot be interpreted in historical, traditional texts.

Go back to the book of Genesis, where Babylon is first mentioned, and we find that a "Tower" was built based on multiethnic pride, and that God struck it down. “As in the days of Noah, so shall the end be.” Cut back to the present situation. We are a nation that leads the world toward global trade in preparation for a world system of democratic governance (“of one mind”) and capitalism (love of money, idolatry) under multiple religions (paganism), as the leader of this trade, with the Twin Towers being the greatest symbols of that trade.

The Bible says that the very beginning of the judgment of this harlot woman nation is that she is struck in one hour with fire, causing her "towers" to be "fallen, fallen," which begins the outpouring of the 5th bowl of God’s wrath, leading to nations being “burned with the sun”. Remember also that we are referred to in the East as the "great" Satan. The social virtues of community and non-materialism, as well as a deep fear of God, albeit a false God, is a profound condemnation against the West, which promotes Christianity yet is socially and morally bankrupt, apostate, corrupt. It is a gross hypocrisy, without equal.

The European Union, though it has expanded from 12 to 15 nations and is about to add more nations, yet has chosen to keep its unification symbol of a crown of 12 stars. Thus Europe is our crowning achievement of power, our allies, etc. The bible goes on to say that this woman has "the moon under feet". The sun is symbolic of nuclear arms, which are hydrogen explosions, the same as the processes of the sun, reaching the same measure of heat. Also, “the stars will fall from heaven.” As a means of astronomical physics, that is impossible. But as a source of symbolism, it refers to nuclear war.

Lastly, God calls on Christians to come out America spiritually, lest we be corrupted by her worship of money and self. Today, Christians suffer severely from this. And God may well have to rapture us out of here in order to judge America in full. As long as we remain in it, God promises not to judge it in full, because “for the sake of ten” and even one, his “wrath is withheld” as well see in the Old Testament when prophet stood in the gap between God’s anger and the apostate cities and nations.

So, we may indeed retaliate against terrorism and crush the nations that sponsor them. But until we overcome our own gross hypocritical religious nature on a national level, on a par that matches or exceeds the social virtues of the false theocracies, God has no choice but to judge us, lest he be otherwise be mocked by us and accused by the nations we endeavor to evangelize.

The way I see it, this is just fun readin' [wink!].

2002-05-05T16:22:00.000-05:00

The Hemp for Victory Bill of Amendment

Amendment XVIII

1. No law shall be passed preventing the production of renewable energy resources including but not limited to industrial hemp. Any laws currently enacted that prevent the production of renewable resources are no longer valid.

2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation promoting production of renewable resources domestically.

With gas prices rising constantly and tension growing throughout the world over the dwindling supply of energy resources. The time has come for a change. I propose an amendment to the constitution, one that will set the stage for a worldwide movement to renewable resources.

The United States has the opportunity right now to lead the world into times more prosperous than any previously seen in recorded history. The key to this prosperity is renewable resources and free energy. In order to achieve this we must begin by promoting the production of industrial hemp as an energy source. This could revitalize stagnant economies across the globe by making fuel cost effective as well as providing a boom in agricultural industry. Such action would restore the image of our nation as a protector of freedom and individual choice. We must amend our constitution to guarantee the human right to share in the abundance of energy available from the earth. No law shall be passed that interferes with access to free energy. The earth belongs to all of us. No government has the right to impede the development of cheap sustainable energy sources. No corporation has the right force people into dependence on expensive, inefficient, and poisonous energy in the name of personal gain.

We as a people must stand in the face of this adversary who deals in hate, greed, and war. Instead of challenging other countries to better themselves, let us work on problems here at home in order to use our influence to lead by example.

2002-05-04T20:30:00.000-05:00

Let it be known that the Born-Again Pagan, Christian Mystic, Zen Gypsy Warlock, Psychedelic Mind-Fucked Church is searching for people interested in joining a secret society that fosters egalitarian idealism, environment-al activism, and post-scarcity anarchism. We have recently been contacted by three secret MisChiefs who have uncovered ancient papyrus manuscripts calling for the Illustrious Shady Backflash, High Holy Bollweevil and Illuminated Seer of the Wholly Apocaleptic Order of Eris to the Infinite Power to form and be acting Lord of Misrule for a Skull 'n' Rosey Crucian sect to be known formally throughout the universe as

The Hermetic Order of the Grateful Dead.

Therefore, we need members.

The purpose of the aforementioned organization will be to unveil the occult secrets of the ages, training qualified members to raise their Fundalini energy in the interest of spreading Comic Consciousness.

We are now accepting applications from all interested poets, pranksters, psychics, charlatans, lumpenbeatniks, gutterpunks, blissninnies, good-for-nothings, sages, mages, bozos, fools and vagrants. Should you be an interested applicant who falls into one of the aforementioned categories and wish to explore documents which have been hithertofore unavailable to the public, on orders of THOTH (The Hippie Of The Highest) we ask that you proceed by desecrating a sacred space, partaking of the elementals of earth (Mushrooms), air (Smoke), fire (LSD), and water (Single Malt Scotch of your choice). Burn sandalwood incense long enough to scare away all of your neighbors, and then play the version of "Dark Star" on the Fillmore tape dated 2/13/70 backwards until such time as you receive the transmission contained therein. It will have specific instructions on where to go for your formal initiation.

In the event that you receive no such transmission, I apologize for the inconvenience, and regretfully inform you that you are not among the Estimated Prophets and should probably find gainful employment immediately.

Thank you on behalf of myself and the Paratheoanametamystikhood of Eris Esoteric.

2002-05-03T23:50:00.000-05:00

Paul’s Mythological Jesus

During the years of Jesus the Christ’s monastic separation (the “heavenly state”), his apostles continued to preach - but they had no concept of founding a new religion. Albeit their message was radical, but they were still Jewish, and sought only to be reformers within Judaism, with Peter at the evangelical forefront of operations.

In direct opposition to the evolving movement was Saul of Tarsus, a staunchly orthodox Hebrew who was tutor to King Herod-Agrippa’s son. Saul had no time for the liberal Hellenist views of Jesus. He believed that Jews were superior to all Gentiles, and considered James to be the rightful Messiah.

The year 37 CE was one of administrative change throughout the Roman Empire, and especially in Palestine. Emperor Tiberius had died, and the new Emperor, Gaius Caligula, sacked Pontius Pilate to install his own man, Felix, as Governor in Judaea. Also ousted from their positions were Caiaphas the High Priest, and Simon Zelotes the Father. Theophilus, the brother of Jonathon Annas, took over as High Priest. A whole new administration was in place, and it was more answerable to Rome than any before.

In 40 CE Jesus was in Damascus, where the leading Jews attended a conference to discuss their position in relation to Rome. Just as Jesus knew that the Jews could never defeat Rome while divided from the Gentiles, Saul of Tarsus was equally sure that association with Gentiles represnted a weakness that left the Jews vulnerable and exposed. Saul was particularly incensed when a statue of Caligula was set up within the Temple of Jerusalem – an outrage for which he put the blame squarely on Jesus and the Hellenists, whom he regarded as having split the Jewish nation. He, too, made his way to Damascus to state his case.

The account in Acts suggest that Saul went to Damascus with a mandate from the High Priest in Jerusalem, but that cannot have been the case. The Jewish Sanhedrin had no jurisdiction whatever in Syria. It is much more likely that Saul, who was attached to the House of Herod, was in fact operating for the Roman administration in an attempt to suppress the Nazarenes.

Before Saul had a chance to make his presence felt at the conference, Jesus confronted him in the monastery buildings. When Saul entered at noon, the sun was at its immediately above the vestry skylight. Jesus was there ready to face his accuser:

…Suddenly the shined round him a light from heaven; and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, why persecutest thou me? (Acts 9:3-4)

Having listened to Jesus’ persuasive sermon, Saul realized that he had hitherto been “blinded” by sectarian dogma (Acts 9:8).

Jesus then instructed the disciple Ananias to further enlighten Saul, but Ananias hesitated, believing Saul to be an enemy agent: “Lord I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem” (Acts 9:13).

Nonetheless, the disciple obeyed, saying, “Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus , that appeared to thee in the as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight” (Acts 9:17).

The use in the passages of the words sight and the way are again cryptic for the doctrinal theme of the
Community was called The Way. After a course of instruction in Hellenist thinking, Saul was initiated so that he could see clearly the path to salvation in unity with the Gentiles:

“There fell from his eyes as it had been scales; and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized” (Act 9:18).

From this experience, Saul emerged a fully-fledged Hellenist. At once, he began preaching in Damascus - but there was a problem, for the people could not believe that the man who had come to challenge the Messiah was now promoting him instead. The people were confused, distrustful and, within a short time, angry; Saul’s life was threatened, and the disciples had to spirit him out of the city. Nonetheless, by 43 CE, Saul was a fervent evangelist, known well enough under his new name to be associated in the popular mind with Peter.

However, a much more insidious problem remained. His conversion had been so traumatic, his change of heart so far-reaching, that Paul regarded Jesus not as an earthly Messiah with an inspiring social message, but as the manifest Son of God - a heavenly power-lord.

Through Paul’s imaginative rendering, a whole new concept of Jesus arose. No longer was he simply the “Anointed One”, the Messiah who would reinstate the Davidic line and free the Jews from oppression in Palestine. He was now the heavenly Savior of the World!

…the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible… And He is the head of the body, the church: …that in all things He might have preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell…. (Colossians 1:15-19)

While James and Peter were individually preaching their less imaginative message, Paul had strayed into the realm of pure fantasy. In his unbridled enthusiasm, he invented an inexplicable myth, and uttered a string of self styled prophesies that were never fulfilled.

Throughout the ancient Mediterranean world, there were many religions, whose gods and prophets were supposedly born of virgins and defied death in one way or another. They were all of supernatural origin and had astounding powers over ordinary mortals. To be fair to Paul, he certainly encountered problems that James and Jesus never faced in their native environments.

Paul’s route to success against such extraordinary odds was to present Jesus in such a way that would transcend even these paranormal idols. But in so doing, he created an image of Jesus so far removed from reality that Jewish society regarded him as a fraud. Notwithstanding any of this, it was the transcendent Jesus of Paul’s invention who later became the Jesus of orthodox Christianity.

2002-05-01T22:50:00.000-05:00

See my CD Collection!!

2002-05-01T22:49:00.000-05:00

JESUS SLEPT!

Mysteries turn up in the strangest places. Buried in a story by the 12th-century writer Chrétien de Troyes is the tale of a beautiful woman who decides to escape an arranged marriage and elope with a young,
handsome knight. Her motives are understandable enough, but the way she sets about it is strange indeed.

Instead of simply eloping – an act that would tarnish her reputation – she decides to feign death and then run off in secret with her lover. To simulate her own death, she takes a narcotic potion and, three days after burial in a new tomb, is resurrected.

Parts of Chrétien’s story are strikingly familiar. There are elements not only of Romeo and Juliet – the potion, the tomb and the awakening – but also of the crucifixion story. Consider the parallels. The woman, like Jesus and Juliet, dies after taking a drink; she, like Jesus, is buried in a new tomb and restored to life three days later; even the heroine’s name, Fénice – the French for phoenix – serves as a reminder of Jesus, since the phoenix was used as a symbol of Christ and his resurrection in medieval times. These and other
allusions to the New Testament crucifixion story suggested that Chrétien was making a point. He was getting as near as he could to questioning a fundamental tenet of Christianity – Jesus’ resurrection.

Both Chrétien and Shakespeare were sailing close to the wind. The 12th century was not a time when it was possible overtly to question Christian orthodoxy, since state and church were closely linked. However,
Chrétien was writing for the court of Champagne, a court with links to the Templars and notable for producing translations of the Bible; he might have calculated that with such backing, it was safe enough to criticize Christianity through the medium of a story. He may have been right, but with the few details we have of his life, nothing is certain. All that we know is that his last work, Perceval – the earliest version of the Grail story – was never completed.

Gerbert de Montreuil, one of the writers who continued it, claimed
that death prevented Chrétien from completing his work. Was this a natural end, or could he have been pushed? It seemed to me that an investigation was called for.

Many questions suggest themselves. If Chrétien had reason to believe, for example, that Jesus took a narcotic potion on the cross, what could it have been? And are there any other traces in his work of a belief that Jesus survived the crucifixion?

Various people have suggested in the past that Jesus may have survived the crucifixion, citing as proof the fact that blood flowed from the lance wound after he was declared dead. (It is medical opinion that blood cannot flow from a corpse.) Two of the more recent books – The Jesus Conspiracy and The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail – suggest that he owed his survival to a potion containing opium and vinegar. The inclusion of vinegar should come as no surprise, since all the Gospel accounts, except Luke’s, refer to the fact that Jesus’ death followed his being offered a sponge soaked with vinegar.

The idea that the sponge contained opium might appear superficially attractive – even the first-century master herbalist, Dioscorides (above, c. AD 60–75), refers to the sleep-inducing qualities of opium – but there are several arguments against it. First, the largest component in the opium,
morphine, produces rapid breathing, a very different effect from the “giving up of the breath” reported
of Jesus. Then, morphine is absorbed only slowly by the body, arguing against the sudden reaction reported after Jesus took the vinegar. Last but not least is the fact that vinegar, according to Dioscorides, counteracts every poison "and in particular opium." This would not be disputed today, since the effect of combining acetic acid (vinegar) with morphine sulphate (the narcotic component of opium) is to produce a substance – morphine acetate – which is less effective as a narcotic than the original morphine sulphate.

The idea that a vinegar-based potion contained opium can therefore be scotched. Ninth- and 12th-century sources point to another possibility. According to the Antidotarium of Nicolai of Salerno, a soporific sponge
could be applied to patients’ nostrils to create a state of anesthesia. He suggests that one of the substances in the sponge was mandrake.
According to Dioscorides, touching or eating the apple-like fruit of the plant could bring on tiredness, and the root and bark were even more potent.

Cooked in vinegar, the root could leave a person unconscious for
up to three or four hours, leading Dioscorides to recommend its use for “people about to be cut or cauterised (who) wish to become insensible to the pain.” The bark could produce a "dead sleep", and a whiff of it was enough to produce a death-like stupor.

In the 1890s, a doctor, Benjamin Ward Richardson, carried out experiments with mandrake. He administered a mixture of alcohol and mandrake root to pigeons and rabbits, and found that not only did it act as a "general anesthetic of the most potent quality," but the "animals’ hearts continued to beat after their respiration had ceased." Interestingly, New Testament accounts describe Jesus as having "given up the breath." We now know that mandrake contains a mydriatic alkaloid, mandragorine (C17 H27 O3 N),
which interferes with the transmission of nerve impulses across pathways. You only need to block a few pathways to produce a devastating effect and stop all sensation or control of movement.

There are references to mandrake in the Old Testament, showing that it grew in biblical lands (Genesis 30:14; Song of Songs 7:11–13). There also appear to be references to mandrake in the work of the first-century historian Josephus. Josephus refers to a plant ba’ar (a word meaning to burn) as having characteristics which are associated only with mandrake. He also says that it shines brightly at night – a feature of mandrake described elsewhere.

Further, the root of mandrake came to be valued as a talisman,
believed to confer on people their every wish. So, if Chrétien de Troyes imagined that Jesus had taken a narcotic, there is a fair chance that he might
have thought the substance in question to be mandrake. Is there any more tangible evidence that he had this in mind? His last, unfinished work, Perceval, provides a clue.

Perceval was written some time before 1188 and describes an extraordinary encounter between its hero, Perceval, and an object referred to as the Grail. He first glimpses this in a procession in which a squire grasps a lance dripping with blood. The description of the Grail does not, on the face of it, give much away about its true nature. According to Chrétien, it shines so brightly that it eclipses the stars and maintains the life of a man (the Fisher King’s father) who had sustained a serious wound in years past. Perceval’s big mistake, the story tells us, was not to ask why the lance bled. Had he done so, we are told, the man’s suffering would have come to an end.

The emphasis on the bleeding lance directs one back to the crucifixion. An escape of blood is not generally consistent with death, a fact which was acknowledged by the church father Origen in the second century AD. The existence of a bleeding lance would remind doubting minds of these facts, and further poignancy would be created by the knowledge that Perceval was reluctant to ask why the lance bled. The answer was unorthodox.

That is not all. The descriptions of the Grail also lead back to the crucifixion since – and this has not been remarked on before – descriptions of it are reminiscent of mandrake. In fact, the Grail was imputed with all the characteristics of mandrake. It supplied people with whatever they wanted (the mandrake’s talismanic qualities) and it shone brightly at night (as did the mandrake). Moreover, its third attribute – of forestalling death – was linked to mandrake’s anesthetic qualities insofar as the apparent death induced by mandrake is followed by a resurrection, showing, by inference, that mandrake prevents lasting death.

The realization that the Grail stands for mandrake is an indication that the story is a cipher for Chrétien’s heretical beliefs about the crucifixion. This shows that Chrétien’s purpose may have been far from innocent, and that he may have intended an attack on Christian orthodoxy. Perhaps, then, the death that prevented his completion of Perceval was no accident. This would not be surprising; his patron for Perceval, the Count of Flanders (the man credited with giving Chrétien the book on which the story is based) was related to a founder member of the Templars, and his other patron, the Countess of Champagne, was related by marriage to another founder member. In another hundred years the Templars would be the target of an
Inquisition which accused them of blasphemy and heresy, and denying and spitting on the cross. Quite clearly, Templar beliefs did not coincide with Christian orthodoxy. Some say that the Templars looked for and discovered secret scrolls under the Temple in Jerusalem, and it is possible that the Templars communicated their findings to the court of Champagne, and thence to Chrétien. Thereafter, these heterodox ideas survived intact in the pages of other, apparently innocent, literary texts, including a story in
Boccaccio’s Decameron, Romeo and Juliet, and Snow White, and are worthy of some consideration.

Boccaccio’s story tells of an abbot who uses an anesthetic potion to send a husband, his rival in love, to purgatory (he is given enough powder to put him to sleep for three days). The abbot keeps him in a darkened cell for several months, and then only allows him to be ‘resurrected’ as the man’s wife falls
pregnant by the abbot. The husband is convinced that he has "risen from the dead" and is universally believed.

Then there is Romeo and Juliet, in which another man of the church, a friar, provides a narcotic potion. All three elements of the crucifixion story are here – death after taking liquid, burial in a tomb, and resurrection three days later. One of Shakespeare’s sources – Da Porto’s tale of Romeo e Giulietta (1530) – even appears to offer an ironic allusion to Jesus’ "I thirst" in the fact that Giulietta feigns thirst as she prepares to take the potion.

Finally, we have Giovanni Battista’s 17th-century story of Snow White. The apparently innocent story of a young girl who eats an apple and enters a deep sleep is yet another allusion to mandrake, for its fruit – a whiff of which could knock you out – was often likened to apples. The mystery has come full circle. Chrétien in the 12th century dared to question orthodox beliefs. He may have sacrificed his life as a consequence.

2002-05-01T22:34:00.000-05:00

Hamlet's Cat's Soliloquy

To go outside, and there perchance to stay
Or to remain within, that is the question:
Whether 'tis better for a cat to suffer
The cuffs and buffets of inclement weather
That Nature rains on those who roam abroad,
Or take a nap upon a scrap of carpet,
And so by dozing melt the solid hours
That clog the clock's bright gears with sullen time
And stall the dinner bell. To sit, to stare
Outdoors, and by a stare to seem to state
A wish to venture forth without delay,
Then when the portal's opened up, to stand
As if transfixed by doubt. To prowl; to sleep;
To choose not knowing when we may once more
Our readmittance gain: aye, there's the hairball;
For if a paw were shaped to turn a knob,
Or work a lock or slip a window-catch,
And going out and coming in were made
As simple as the breaking of a bowl,
What cat would bear the household's petty plagues,
The cook's well-practiced kicks, the butler's broom,
The infant's careless pokes, the tickled ears,
The trampled tail, and all the daily shocks
That fur is heir to, when, of his own free will,
He might his exodus or entrance make
With a mere mitten? Who would spaniels fear,
Or strays trespassing from a neighbor's yard,
But that the dread of our unheeded cries
And scratches at a barricaded door
No claw can open up, dispels our nerve
And makes us rather bear our humans' faults
Than run away to unguessed miseries?
Thus caution doth make house cats of us all;
And thus the bristling hair of resolution
Is softened up with the pale brush of thought,
And since our choices hinge on weighty things,
We pause upon the threshold of decision.

-- Shakespaw