The Thread for Intermittens #3: Weirdness

[the last yatto]

I can edit. 

do it now

[Iason Ouabache]

Too late to add?  As promised here is me answering Billy Graham's mail:

http://chaoskeptic.blogspot.com/2009/01/dear-rev-reinard-11209.html

Dear Rev. Reinard

Q: I really want to serve God, but I don't know how. Just showing up at church doesn't seem like much, but what else should I be doing? - Mrs. M.W.

A: Well, the first thing that you need to do is find a good piece of God. I usually suggest a 6 lb cut from the rump area (Exodus 33:20-23). Next apply your favorite rub. I like a mix of salt, pepper, paprika, and dry mustard. Place the roast on a shallow baking pan and then into a 325 degree oven. Make sure to use a meat thermometer to ensure you don't over cook. No one likes a tough deity. Figure about 18 minutes per pound for rare meat. And if you aren't going to cook it rare then WAYSA? Let meat stand for 10 minutes so that the juices can settle. Serves 10 to 12.

If you can't fit it into Issue #3 then I can wait and submit it in another issue. 

[AFK]

I will find a space for it.  Thanks. 

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

Do we have linkage??

[Cain]

I'm going to finish this tonight, for real.  Even if it kills me makes me late for coffee and plotting.

[bds]

I'm going to finish this tonight, for real.  Even if it kills me makes me late for coffee and plotting.

Mine's in danger of being finished tonight too.



edit: MOTHERFUCKER I DIDN'T FINISH IT TONIGHT.
BLARGGHHH...


Tomorrow then, sorry.

[Cain]

I'm nearing the end.  Six fucking pages.  Removed almost all parapolitical references, for Intermittens #5

[Cain]

OK, two posts will contain it all.  Format and correct spelling mistakes as you wish.


Guaranteed Fear and Loathing. Abandon all hope. Prepare for the Weirdness. Get familiar with Cannibalism.

- Hunter S Thompson

So, are you ready?  As Hunter suggests, this has the potential to be one hell of a ride.  And by the end, you may indeed want to chew your own eyeballs out, just to get rid of the images in your head.  After all, once you know, there is no real way you can unknow.  And that's the problem.  Do you take the red pill, or the blue one?  I would suggest getting acquainted with High Weirdness is better than going through life without knowing, but then again, I would say that.  And even I don't know how deep the rabbit hole really goes...so maybe by the end of my trip, I will have decided it wasn't worth it after all.

But I'll assume you're still here, and reading, and therefore interested.  The question is, where to start?  There is so much out there, some of which seems patently crazy, but only before certain facts fall into place.  Just as a disclaimer, I'm not professing belief in anything I say here.  I'm only relating what others say.  But I cannot deny something odd may be going on.

I think the  Necronomicon is an excellent start.  Most of you, especially those of you up on your Illuminatus! reading, already know about this legendary book, and the background it comes from.  As such, it is an excellent starting point for our discussion.  H. P. Lovecraft invented the book, or at least he thought he did, and it has had a troubling history ever since making it into his works.  Figures in the occult world, such as the former US military intelligence officer and founder of the Temple of Set, Michael Aquino, have long been writing ceremonies and the like incorporating aspects of the Mythos.  But more interesting than these nods to a master of horror writing are the beliefs of Kenneth Grant, one of the last living disciples of Aleister Crowley and founder of the "Typhonian OTO".

Grant believes that Lovecraft was an unconscious adept, and indeed the author did claim to get ideas for his books from his dreams – or nightmares, if you prefer.  Grant believes that working through the Tree of Life, one can enter the Qlippoth (the Tree of Death that mirrors the Sephiroth) and, from the diseased, horrible world that supposedly exists beyond, bring back the Old Ones of the Mythos into the real world. Because, Grant believes there are certain correspondences between the works of John Dee, Lovecraft and Crowley.  For example, John Dee mentioned an Enochian demon called "Choronzon" who he said may interfere with a magician's work. Crowley called Choronzon "the Breaker-Down of all Thought and Form," and said he was the guardian of the gateway of Daath. Grant says Lovecraft knew him as "Yog-Sothoth," for this line from The Dunwich Horror: "Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and the guardian of the gate."  Regardless of whether or not Grant is correct, or has an accurate viewpoint of the world (something I am highly doubtful of), we have bona fide Cthulhu cultists running around the planet, trying to open The Gate, and let the Old Ones back through.  Doesn't that worry you, just a little bit?

Of course, the influence of the mythos on the national unconscious spreads far and wide.  How else could one account for Bush quoting almost verbatim from The Crawling Chaos in his 2005 re-inauguration speech.  "We have a calling from beyond the stars."  Coincidence?  Sure, could be. We know Bush isn't much of a reader himself, though presumably his speech writers have a passing knowledge of the concept. And maybe the hundreds of dead, large squid, with their unconscious suggestions towards Cthulhu, washing up on the Orange County coast on the day the speech was made, were just coincidence as well.

Maybe.

This is the problem with the weird, especially at this level.  You start seeing the same themes and concepts cropping up everywhere.  And while it may well be the Law of Fives...you can never shake off the terrible feeling it may be otherwise.  Consider, continuing with our theme, the original name of the Necronomicon, according to Lovecraft, is "Al Azif - azif being the word used by the Arabs to designate that nocturnal sound (made by insects) suppos'd to be the howling of daemons."  But the buzzing of insects is associated with other supernatural phenomenon as well.  To name a few, apparitions of the Virgin Mary, in the presence of UFOs, around 'Fortean' entities such as the Mothman, during DMT trips, in near-death experiences and during astral projection.

Lovecraft presumably researched some of the occult for his books, but is he really this good?  Is anyone?  Again, I'm not passing judgement on the actuality of these events, some of which I am again sceptical of, I am only noting this thread of commonality.  If its a coincidence, which it may well be, its an amazing one.

Assuming the Necronomicon is entirely fiction, and a creation of his own making, that doesn't mean its not dangerous.  The problem with great ideas is that once they are out, they take on a life of their own.  And the alien horrors of Lovecraftian works can have a powerful effect on unstable minds.  Such as, for example, seventeen-year old Roderik Ferrell, self-proclaimed leader of a vampire clan, who carried out ritualistic killings of animals and, in some cases, people, based on one of the many versions of the book currently in print.

Belief is a very dangerous weapon, in the wrong hands.  Fanatics and would "Knights Templars" are invariably the worst sort of monsters, assured so totally by their moral certitude they never even question the depravity of their actions.

Lets change the topic from the occult to the alien now.  One might question such a huge change of topic, but perhaps the leap is not so big at all.  In 1918, for example, in New York City, infamous occultist Aleister Crowley conducted the "Amalantrah Working", a ritual designed to bring foreign intelligences into this world.  One of those was supposedly the creature he called Lam.  Google a picture of Lam, there are plenty of copies of Crowley's sketch of him on the web.  Remind you of anything?  This character does seem to bear a certain resemblance to modern day little Grey aliens, does he not?

And the coincidences do not end there.  In 1946, Jack Parsons, a NASA scientist, and L Ron Hubbard, future founder of Scientology, both met in New Mexico to conduct a ritual they called the Babalon Working.  Both were members of the American OTO, and although reports suggest Crowley thought them nuts, they went into the desert and using his system, were intent on reestablishing the opening supposedly created by Crowley's 1918 working, and with a considerable amount of intensity that was lacking from the original work.  Regardless of whether or not it did work, a year later, in 1947, the modern UFO age began with a rash of sightings over the USA.

UFOs interest me.  There is so clearly something going on that, to me, they merit further research.  I very much doubt they are in fact piloted by off world visitors of some sort, but that does not mean they are not still odd.  Even if they are, for example, cases of hallucination or mass hysteria, it suggests the human mind is a rather fragile instrument, and perhaps not entirely trustworthy.  If they are experimental aircraft, being tested by various governments, we have to question why they profit from apparently showing off these top secret weapons near large civilian populations – where many unexplained UFOs have been sighted.  And there are the correspondences with the occult tradition, as I have outlined above.  Something strange is going on, but the strangeness may not be what it seems.  The alien hypothesis is a red herring, which distracts from the more important questions.

Such as, why do so many supposedly alien contactees go on to establish cults or cult-like organizations?  No doubt throughout history there have been no shortage of con-men willing to exploit the unexplained, especially if part of the current zeitgeist, but this many?  Sociologists have also studied the phenomenon, including many apparently very sincere individuals who do not profit from their organizations in any way.  Respected UFO investigator and scientist Jacques Vallee suggests a high level of social manipulation is present in the UFO phenomenon, for currently unknown purposes. To excite panic, wonder, fear, despair...any or all of those could be valid reasons.  But one way to quickly establish control of a society is through the introduction of cult-like cells, especially if one has access to advanced technology one can wow people with.

And the experiences of some people who have been supposedly abducted by aliens mirrors the initiation rituals of more obscure groups.  Approached by members of the group, wearing strange costumes.  They are blindfolded or somehow rendered dependent on this group.  They are then led or taken through a strange and difficult route, before being placed in the presence of an authority figure, in a specially designed, windowless room.  He is then given a test, made to answer questions, shown symbols of death (either personal or planetary), is told they may not survive this upcoming ordeal, given ritual food and drink, then led back outside.

And what are we to make of the Prophet Yahweh?  Born Ramon Watkins, a former US marine and Black Hebrew Israelite, has claimed and, apparently shown before major news organization cameras, his ability to summon UFOs.  He could be a con-man of course, and probably is.  But the links between UFOs and religion is established again.

According to Bud Hopkins, famed UFO and abduction investigator, there are a "curious pattern" among abductees of "personal, cherished objects...seeming to vanish and then reappear under highly unusual circumstances." For instance, a wedding ring placed on a kitchen top one moment and gone the next reappeared several days later beneath the tacked-down carpet of an upstairs bedroom. Hopkins doesn't know what to make of it, though he finds the pattern repeats enough to be "intriguing" and to "deserve mention."

If Hopkins had paid more attention to folklore and mythology, he would however.  Jacques Vallee, in his brilliant Passport to Magonia, discusses in depth the correspondences between supposed alien activity and the stories of faeries and the fair folk in previous centuries.  Their impish trickster nature often led them to pranks of this kind, as well of those noted in many abduction experiences.  Far too many.

Of course, not all UFO phenomena are so benign as to result in the peaceful Space Brother feeling either.  Let us consider the story of  Kelly Cahill and her husband, in Australia.  In 1993, when driving home, along with several other drivers, stopped her car and exited to get a better look at the strange objects in the sky.  But while looking at the strange apparition in the sky, she notices something moving in the field below the UFO.  About seven feet tall, it was apparently cloaked in black, with red luminescent eyes.  All of a sudden, she starts screaming, and even she admits she doesn't know how she came up with this, but she starts screaming, "They've got no souls." And then again: "THEY'VE GOT NO SOULS!"

Another darker occult crossover occurred in the UK, in the area of Clapham Wood, well known for its odd events over the years.  In recent years, Clapham Wood has been a locus of UFO activity and occult presence.  Strange flying objects are seen at night, as one would expect.  But allegedly a cult devoted to the Goddess Hekate, also operated in the area.  Dogs, too, frequently vanished from the area, enough to prompt investigation.  Hekate, for those of you who don't know, is the Goddess of crossroads, witchcraft and hunting.  Frequently, dogs were sacrificed in her honour.  According to an informant, phoning an investigative journalist working on the story, the group used dogs for monthly "services" and would continue to do so into the forseeable future.  They also did not take

[Cain]

to being investigated, and would defend the identities of their members by all means available.

I would be disinclined to disbelieve this story, but another investigator apparently discovered Winchester and London networks at the same time, of a larger group.  Of course, they may have meant to have been found, as purposeful disinformation.  But the dogs keep disappearing, and the UFOs keep flying regardless.

Speaking of missing dogs...what can one make of the Four Pi Movement, an offshoot of the Process Church of the Final Judgement, itself the fruit of a split from the Church of Scientology.  Two members of 4P were picked up by California Highway Patrol in 1970, with human finger bones in their pockets and confession of cannibalism on their lips. 4P members based their rituals based on a stellar timetable, which included "the sacrifice of Doberman and German shepherd dogs".

Two years before, in areas around San Jose, not far from where the cannibalistic hippies were picked up, there discoveries of canines, skinned and drained of blood, without apparent motive.  According to the director of a Santa Cruz animal shelter, "Whoever is doing this is a real expert with a knife. The skin is cut away without even marking the flesh. The really strange thing is that these dogs have been drained of blood." 

And these did not stop with our counterculture clowns in prison.  Between October 1976 and October 1977 a disturbing pattern resumed, this time in New York City, when 85 German shepherds and Dobermans were found skinned and drained of blood.  Hey, wasn't Sam Berkowitz running around NYC at that time, knocking people off?  And didn't he make up a bullshit story about hearing Satanic voices from a neighbour's dog?  And didn't Berkowitz claim his serial killings were in fact group murders, committed by a "Satanic" organization called Four Pi?

My, those coincidences just pile right up, don't they?

For instance, let us consider Sirius, the "dog star".  Dogs to dog stars is not such a huge leap, really.  Plus this was a particular interest of Robert Anton Wilson, who talked about its possible significance in depth in Cosmic Trigger.  Its importance is not just shared by acid casualty hippies and ancient Egyptians, however.

The Neo-Templar Order of the Solar Temple, for example, believed that after martyrdom, they would be reborn upon a planet orbiting Sirius.  This probably was of great comfort to its membership, who self-destructed after orders from its Grand Master in 1994, possibly relating to its links with BCCI and the criminal underworld (more on this in Intermittens #5).  Members were killed in their sleep, or else committed suicide, leading to the total disintegration of the group.  Sirius has an interesting occult legacy. 

In Morals and Dogma, Albert Pike writes that Sirius was "the inventor of language, grammar, astronomy, surveying, arithmetic, music, and medical science; the first maker of laws; and who taught the worship of the Gods, and the building of Temples." He adds that the "Blazing Star" pentagram of Masonic Lodges represents Sirius, the "Guardian and Guide of our Souls."

A disciple of Helena Blatavasky, one Alice Bailey, went one better, claiming Sirius was key to the higher mysteries of Masonry.  Kenneth Grant (yes, him again), student of Aleister Crowley and founder of the "Typhonian OTO" and its "Cult of Lam," writes in The Magical Revival that Crowley "unequivocally identifies his Holy Guardian Angel with Sothis (Sirius), or Set-Isis."

Adam Gorightly, in "Ritual Magic, Mind Control and the UFO Phenomenon," writes how, in the 1950s and '60s, alleged contactee George Hunt Williamson is said to have "summoned forth certain denizens purportedly from Sirius, conversing to them in the same 'Enochian' or 'Angelic' language used by John Dee and Aleister Crowley." Williamson also claimed that a secret society on Earth had been in contact with Sirius for "thousands of years, and that the emblem of this secret society is the eye of Horus, otherwise known as the all-seeing eye."

Interestingly, there is a tradition of the people of Mali, the Dogon, that Sirius has another, hidden companion star.  This was confirmed, but only with advanced, 19th century tech.  The Dogon, who had passed down this myth for hundreds of years couldn't have known this, creating a useful cottage industry on books about how the Dogon were supposedly visited by Sirius based aliens.

But clearly, belief in the importance of Sirius lives on.  The brightest star in the night sky, it is an attractor for people who pay attention to such things.  And, perhaps, a useful tool of manipulation for people who want to use such beliefs to put people under their control?  John Keel's ultraterrestrials, if they exist, must be chucking in glee over the possibilities.

Back to the dead animals and strange night sightings for a moment, however. In 1995, in Kelowna, British Columbia, two cigar shaped UFOs were sighted by one woman looking out of her kitchen window.  As the strange vessels passed over her neighbours garage, she couldn't help but be worried for neighbourhood cats, who often congregated around the garage, for reasons unknown (though knowing the creatures, it was almost certainly due to food or warmth).

She was right to worry though.  Lights came down from the ships, searching that precise area.  Then the lights turned off and the objects just vanished, like they dropped out of existence.  The cats, too, were never seen again.

And that was probably for the best two.  Reports of  "cat mutilation" are not unknown to the good people of BC.  The Kamloops area of BC was privy to a rash of half cat mutilations, with a dozen or so cats mysteriously cut up. The usual show, no blood, no muss, no apparent fuss and again, never a sign of struggle, no fur strewn about and no spilled blood.  Since the early 90s, exsanguinated cats were found in Vancouver too.

Now, no-one is suggesting that UFOs kidnap and experiment on cats.  The idea is crazy, even with the current topic under consideration.  There is nothing to gain from it, their physiology is well known, their genetic code relatively easy for an advanced culture to discover. But why should it be any less crazy when it happens to cattle?  Why when it is pets, we attribute such gruesome deaths to cults and really fucked up people, but with livestock it must, for whatever reason, be aliens, seeking genetic material?

No doubt there is a correlation between UFO activity and ritual killing, but it doesn't mean one causes the other.

But let us turn our eye to more conventional religions.  Such as, for example, Scientology.  We know L Ron Hubbard was the founder of the organization, its true.  And we also know he took a lot of his structure and ideas from Crowley, mixed in with his own, personal brand of lunacy.  Like many cults, its inner teachings are manifestly different from its outer teachings.  Hubbard's space opera may sound like a joke, but let us consider the effect it has on a real believer.  For instance, Tom Cruise, the supposed messiah and heir apparent of the Scientology movement in America. 

According to unverified rumours, Cruise became psychotic while during his initiation to OT III.  Here, the "fact" that our personalities are not our own, that Thetans exist, are revealed to the initiate, who usually does not respond well.  We know that after reaching this level, Cruise looked sickly in public, with black circles under his eyes, and pasty skin.  He expressed disillusionment with the organization, and wanted to be alone.  But he wasn't.  And now?  Now Cruise cannot shut up about how great the Scientology crowd are, and how its the last true hope for humanity.

The Church also has a weird militarism, which is well documented, with its powerful internal security system, and groups such as Sea Org.  More curious, however, is the fact that a disproportionate number of Scientologists were part of the CIA's mostly hilarious and inept attempts to use paranormal abilities to augment the functions of the agency, especially when it came to Project Stargate and remote viewing.

Even more powerful, rich, unknown and strongly connected with the world of black operations and espionage is the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the leader of the decidedly scary Unification Church.  Often dismissed as a crank, Moon has built a fortune of several billion, owning media outlets like the Washington Post and United Press International.  He has a powerful, far right and religious agenda, which could accurately be described as theocratic.  And he is the major financier of the evangelical right in the USA, having bailed individuals such as Pat Robertson out of debt in return for their allegiance. 

Moon would still be easy to dismiss, if he did not have such personal contacts within the corridors of international power.  Consider that, in 2004, Moon met with several high ranking members of the US legislature in a Federal building in Washington D.C., where, in a bizarre ceremony, there was a coronation and he was crowned as Saviour, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent, as well as King of Peace. 

President Bush II  is said to have had a design of a crown put on his bed while in the White House.  Its worth noting that Moon has also campaigned for the symbol of the Crown to replace the Cross in Christianity.  Lots of crown motifs there.  Again, it could just be coincidence...but maybe not.  Allusions to monarchy are also popular with Dick Cheney, who sent out a Christmas card in 2003 with this seasonal message: "And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?"

Moving from the newer and arguably crazier Protestants of America, we cannot forget our own dear Catholic Church, an institution with influence, power, history and crazy in buckets.  Such as how did Opus Dei, a group that practice self-flagellation and supported the Phalange in Spain, with a cultish devotion to secrecy, become so powerful so fast?  The last two Popes have both courted its wealth and influence, ignoring its disturbing confluence of political and religious extremism.  Its not all Albino Monk Assassins, to be sure, but its not all hymns and good deeds, either.  God's Work pays well, and for some reason almost always includes helping regimes who like people to disappear without trials, or even identifiable gaves.

Also, the continued influence of the Fatima continues to amaze.  The strange sighting, more in common with an apocalyptic UFO cult experience, exerts an influence over the Church well into the present.  The end of the world, the imagery of hell and death and destruction, hang over the leadership of the Vatican like a plague, adding to the panic that The Prophecy of the Popes, attributed to Saint Malachy, is nearing the end of the List.  For many devout Catholics, the End Times are just around the corner, and the world will tremble at what is to come next.

Britain is also a land that hasn't forgotten how weird it really is.  Any country where one can frequently see standing stones, and where the myths and terrors of the Celtic period are still modern day fairy tales is one that hasn't forgotten how strange reality can get sometimes.  Only a couple of years back, children were being killed in rituals, imported from sub-Saharan Africa it would seem.  Dead sheep have been found laid out in occult diagrams.  A dead Cornish councillor with an obsession with black magic.  There is also the strange death of Nicholas Gangari, who was either jumped or fell from the cliffs in Lewes.  His home was covered in torn Bible passages, scrawled with the message "God help me, I have been cursed".  Suspicion fell upon a strange friend of Nicholas, a fascist with far-right connections (and how strange it is, that we see those two beliefs closely linked so often).  And what do we make of the final drawing of the murdered Sarah Payne, a schoolgirl who, before she vanished, drew a picture of a man standing upon a 13-square checkered floor, between columns bearing Sarah's name. He wears what appears to be an apron of 33 studs, and holds an object in his left hand. His right sleeve is missing.  Even for someone like me, who distrusts those who talk about "Masonic plots", the parallels here are striking.

But enough about the UK.  What can one say about malevolent clowns?  Good fodder for horror, of course, but nonsense in real life, right?  Sadly no.  In the first week of May, 1981, Daniel O'Connell, the Investigative Counselor of the Boston Public School Board, alerted the district's principals that "it has been brought to the attention of the police department and the district office that adults dressed as clowns have been bothering children to and from school. Please advise all students that they must stay away from strangers, especially ones dressed as clowns."  Several days later, in Brookline, Massachusetts on May 5, two clowns using candy as lures tried to entice children into their black van parked near Lawrence Elementary School.  By May 8th, reports of clown men in vans harassing children had come in from East Boston, Charlestown, Cambridge, Canton, Randolph, and other cities near Boston.... 50 miles south, in Providence, RI, reports of clown men disturbring children were coming to the attention of psychiatric social workers counseling the city's youth. 

No children were actually taken, but perhaps that was not the point.  Perhaps the point was to menace, and nothing more.  The Weird Times can be wonderful and terrific, but we should always remember that terrific isn't far off from terror.  Perhaps the aim of some weirdness is to do nothing more than thumb its nose in arrogance, spread a tale of despondence and immunity.  After all, what can you do against alien invaders, or the apocalypse, or the insane plans of the Old Ones?  Of course, none of these things are real, but the belief is, and the belief is the danger.  Don't succumb to the belief.  Fall too far into panic.  Keep your critical faculties and remember to laugh at those who tell campfire stories about these weird times.

To end as we started:

"We have seen Weird Times in this country before, but the year 2000 is beginning to look super weird. This time, there really is nobody flying the plane. ... We are living in dangerously weird times now. Smart people just shrug and admit they're dazed and confused.

The only ones left with any confidence at all are the New Dumb. It is the beginning of the end of our world as we knew it. Doom is the operative ethic."

Now get with the program.

[Cain]

I'd like to point out, researching all this gave me a greater sanity drain than Cthulhu himself.

[LMNO]

Wow.  Cain, that was a really good read. 

[Cain]

Motherfucking SANITY DRAIN is what it is.

I'm going to continue this theme with Intermittens #5, because although the occult and parapolitics are almost certainly not real, it is some mega fucked up shit, and may be the jolt someone needs to start critically examing what they read.

Or else they'll go insane and top themselves.

[LMNO]

I believe that's what's known as a "win-win".

[Cain]

Well unless its me, for reading this drivel.

Seriously though, the only death sentence Bush Jr commuted as Governor of Texas was for a mass-murderer who showed no guilt for his crimes and claimed to have links with a "Satanic" occult underground.

Fo realz.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Holy shit cain, speaking as someone who loves collecting and spreading conspiracy theories as a means to freak out cabbages during polite conversation, this is so full of win that I'm going to have to build a win reservoir in my garden just handle the overflow!

corrections (if I may be so rude)

part1 para 9:

Fanatics and would be "Knights Templars" are invariably the worst sort of monsters, assured so totally by their moral certitude they never even question the depravity of their actions.

part2 - para1

I would be disinclined to disbelieve this story

par2 para14

And that was probably for the best twotoo.

Part2 para26

Of course, none of these things are real, but the belief is, and the belief is the danger.  Don't succumb to the belief.  Don't Ffall too far into panic.  Keep your critical faculties and remember to laugh at those who tell campfire stories about these weird times.