The Great Beast

Lovely night, isn't it?  :\

On this Halloween, I would like to turn your attention to a man who should be of interest to anyone who dabbles in the paranormal or who likes the just plain weird.  Issues of time and space prohibit me from giving even the most superficial treatment of this man so I will be providing links for further information at the end of the post.

His name was Aleister Crowley.  He was an occultist.  A mystic.  A philosopher.  A hedonist.  A “magician.”  A man despised by his own mother so much that she called him “the Beast.”  The name stuck.  He was a member of the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and supposedly a high-level Freemason, though that latter organization denied any affiliation.  He founded his own religious philosophy, Thelema and lived by a credo of “Do What Thou Wilt.”  Hmm.  Sounds more like he was a pioneering libertarian than a demon “beast,” but we’ll move on.

His life even left ripples in popular culture.  In Dennis Wheatley’s novel, The Devil Rides Out, the Satanic cult leader is said to be modeled after Crowley.  There are Crowley-like figures and even cameos by the Beast himself in works such as Rosemary’s Baby and From Hell.  The great Ozzy Osbourne even wrote a song about Crowely, having the unintended effect of further linking Ozzy falsely to Satanism:

Given these areas of research that he was passionate about and the fact that he lived out his days in the Victorian era, Crowley was not without his share of controversy.  British press at one point dubbed him “the wickedest man in the world.”  Allegations of Satanism surrounded him.  Viewed in retrospect, Crowley has been called a racist, a drug addict, sexist in the extreme, and really more of a sensationalist and a carnie showman than any sort of spiritualist.  I’ll leave that debate to others.

What interests me about Crowley is the fact that he claimed to have been in contact with an entity called “Lam.”  Crowley claimed to have been working with ceremonial magic (or “magick” as he called it) in an effort to contact “higher intelligences.”  In doing so, he purported to have encountered Lam, an extradimensional being with gray skin, a large and bald head, and slit-like eyes.  Sound like anyone discussed around here?

Of course it does.  Lam can and has been easily accounted for as a “Grey” alien by many, including spiritualists and Crowley followers who claim to have made contact with Lam themselves.  Interestingly enough, Crowley was neither abducted by nor experimented upon by Lam as so many others report being by the Greys.  Instead, Lam was a mentor to Crowley, a spiritual guru whose teachings Crowley infused into his own philosophies.

I have no idea as to the veracity of Crowley’s claims and really don’t care to get into any kind of tussle over them.  There is still more for me to read.  Yet given Crowley’s uncanny description of Lam, I cannot help but wonder if he made alien contact or at the very least, I wonder what Crowley would have had to say about the entire alien abduction phenomenon.

So I need to get through the night.  Hopefully the trick or treating won’t be so bad.  Wish I had the time and resources to establish some sort of laser perimeter defense outside the house.  Or at the very least, to post an ElmoSapien.

The Aleister Crowley collection at the University of Texas

Wicked: A Gallery of Aleister Crowley at Life Magazine


Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

Suicide Forest

Tomorrow is Halloween.  Or "Samhain" as it was known in certain Celtic precincts.  Time for jack-o-lanterns, apple bobbing, bonfires, and evil spirits.

I'm not a big fan of this holiday.  In fact, it's in my top three least favorites along with New Year's Eve and Fourth of July.  Being a police volunteer tends to change your perspective on all of those celebrations.  One good thing to come from this day, however, is intriguing television programming that you don't get to see other times of the year.  It was on one of these shows that I learned of Japan's "Suicide Forest."

Aokigahara, also called "Sea of Trees," is located near Mount Fuji in Japan.  It is a dense forest that has long since been touted as a dwelling place of demons in Japanese mythology.  It has been called an "eerily silent" woods and is almost devoid of wildlife. 

Most disturbing of all is the fact that Aokigahara appears to be a mecca for people who wish to commit suicide.  Depressed people would go to the area, leave their cars parked in trailhead parking lots, then hike into the woods and enter thanatopsis.  Over 247 people attempted suicide there in 2010 alone and 54 were successful.  Every year, Japanese officials move through the forest and collect the remains of those who have gone deep into the woods to hang themselves or otherwise end their lives.  Signs warn visitors to reconsider suicide and give contact numbers of where to seek help.  The forest is also said to be a place where ubasute was practiced as recent as the 19th Century.  Ubasute was the act of leaving an elderly relative in a forest or on a mountainside to die.  Not surprisingly, this has all led to stories of ghosts haunting the forest.  Another popular misconception is that the area plays havoc with compasses and GPS units.  This appears unlikely as the Japanese Self Defense Force runs training maneuvers in the forest all the time and their stuff seems to work pretty well.  So what is to account for all of this?   Despite the forest's eerie qualities and morose reputation, I believe there's a slight possibility of something else at work.

Geologically, Japan is very active.  From earthquakes to volcanoes, they've got a lot going on in their ribbon-thin nation.  There is evidence that suggests that bursts of electromagnetic energy occur during seismic activity.  Electromagnetic field fluctuations are proven to have an adverse effect on the human brain.  Feelings of fear, depression, and paranoia can result from exposure to these energy waves.  Someone claiming to live in a haunted house might not have ghosts, but just exposed household wiring.  Given the geologic activity of the region, could these naturally-occurring EM waves be altering the thinking of forest visitors?  Or are the people already depressed and have their minds made up long before they get there?  

I can't really say.  However, every person who died in Aokigahara had someone who loved them...even if the deceased didn't see it that way.  The sheer loss of life alone makes me think this qualifies as an "evil place."  No supernatural or paranormal reason needed.


Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

Will the oceans kill us?

Those fine folks over at io9 have posted a scenario for the end of the world that most people have not even considered.

The postulation comes from geobiologist Joe Kirschvink at Cal Tech who has studied mass extinctions in our world's history.  The new theory for "the end of all that is" goes like this: a mutation occurs in ocean microbes wherein they don't take water from the ocean, but salt.  These diatoms split salt molecules in half, absorbing the resultant sodium and releasing the chlorine to go free.  Problem with that being that chlorine is poisonous.  If it should be released en masse into the atmosphere, it would be curtains for the human race and most other breathing organisms.

Sound far fetched?  Consider this.  Life on Earth is here pretty much because two billion years ago, microbes started breaking apart water molecules and releasing oxygen into an atmosphere that was thick with methane.  Lifeforms that lived off of that methane at the time went through a mass extinction.  As stated in the article: "Of course, there is no known evolutionary advantage to such a shift taking place. But then again, there is no known advantage to cyanobacteria developing a metabolism that farted out oxygen 2.35 billion years ago, either."

Will this happen?  Who knows.  Will Global Warming somehow kickstart this chlorine-instead-of-oxygen process?  If there is any evidence suggesting that, the io9 article does not say.  What does seem safe to assert is that if we continue to be irresponsible with our environment, you know, with things like oceans, then the chickens will come home to roost as Malcolm X said.  I don't see it being at all outside the realm of plausibility that after ocean waters have altered by human interference and the ecosystem goes berserk, microorganisms would perhaps adapt and evolve in order to survive.  Such and adaptation might be exactly the sort of transformation that Kirschvink describes.  Notice I said plausible, not necessarily probable.  If you don't know the difference, look it up.

After choking on chlorine, nuclear war might not seem so bad after all.

Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

Girls kick ass

During the recent reboot of the DC comic book universe, one of the more controversial elements was the portrayal of the character, Starfire.  Several fans found the reboot of the character to be vapidly sexual and a poor role model for young women.  Other readers thought that the aforementioned camp just really needed to lighten up.  Before you ask, I don't fall into either one of these groups especially.  The debate, however, did make me think.

All in all, this is not a bad time to be a female science fiction character.  Let's face it, female characters of the genre started out in a perdition of serving the role of eye candy and as the people who needed rescued from glass tubes and the hands of alien monsters.  So what makes the characters different now?  What is the secret to creating a good female science fiction character?

Oddly enough, I don't think that there is a "secret" to it that is any different from the creation of male characters.  We need to identify with them, even if only on one single level.  They need dichotomies of the kind that we all have, e.g. love dance music, hate to dance.  They must have at least a soupcon of strength and of intelligence, otherwise we could never stand by their choice of actions and follow them on their narrative.  In other words, they just need to be likable.  Even just a little tiny bit.  So without further ado, I thought that I would take a look at just a few of my favorite women of science fiction and why I think they're great.

Going chronologically, the first one I think of is Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in the Alien franchise.  Her character is important because she really dialed back the babe quotient.  That is not to say that Sigourney Weaver is an unattractive woman (I mean, she's Dana Barrett after all), I simply mean that her appearance is only one facet of Ripley's complex character.  Ripley is tough.  A real ass-kicker.  But best of all, we see her turn into a caregiver with Newt in Aliens.  As much as that little girl needed her, Ripley needed Newt in order to become a whole person.

Speaking of the maternal instinct, Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor shows a nice range of evolution.  Inner strength is brought out of her during Terminator and by T2 she becomes someone you just really wouldn't want to mess with.  And what motivates her besides the salvation of the human race?  Her son.  The safety of her son.  I also like how her character was allowed to show bitter hatred.  Up until that point, Schlockywood seemed reticent to do that with a female protagonist.

Then there's Natalie Portman as Padme Amidala.  Yeah, yeah, screw off.  Regardless of what you think of the last trilogy, Portman offers a character that in a few ways surpasses even Leia.  Padme is smart, an independent thinker, and tough.  I just love the scene in Attack of the Clones where lets Anakin yap on while she frees herself from her bonds in the arena.  It was one bright spot in my otherwise least favorite of the Star Wars films.  Too bad Amidala's character could not have been expanded more, but due to script and directorial shortcomings, it just was not to be.

I had to consider and reconsider including Jessica Alba as Max in Dark Angel.  On the surface, she seems yet another case of the tired, "she's hot, she fights crime" paradigm.  Maybe that's what makes her a good choice.  She is not just one or the other, she is both.  While not the only example of this kind of character, Max is my favorite plus she has the original angle of being genetically modified.

Finally, I would not consider Underworld science fiction nor even a decent movie for that matter.  But it's got Kate Beckinsale as the hot and ruthless Selene, so that's good enough for now.

And I've been horribly remiss in not mentioning Trinity from The Matrix.  Again we see smart, tough, pretty, and a bit of vulnerability thrown in for good measure.





Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

Hallo "Spaceman"

When I first read the premise for Spaceman, all I could think of was Frederik Pohl.

Spaceman, a new comic book series from DC/Vertigo written byBrian Azzarello, deals with a character named Orson who is genetically modified to live on Mars. 

"I took things that I wanted to happen in the future, like all these dire climate change predictions," Azzarello said of his inspiration for the story. "They all come true, which leads to economic upheaval and political upheaval and social unrest and that kind of really, really rich milieu to work a story into. In the middle of the story is this character, his name is Orson."

NASA takes Orson and re-engineers his body to have denser bones, thicker skin, and larger muscles.  Tragically, NASA goes under and disbands and the journey to Mars never takes place, leaving Orson alone and abandoned as well as forever changed.

Oh the postmodern irony.

Many a science fiction writer likes to believe that they are “edgy.”  They see themselves as doing something in the way of Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange, Orwell’s 1984, or Heinlen’s Stranger In a Strange Land.  Azzarello is no exception.  As he proudly proclaimed to Newsarama:

“This isn’t science fiction.  This is science hell.”  Ooo.  Catchy.

“If you like Blade Runner, you’ll like Spaceman.”  Well I do indeed like, no love, Blade Runner.  Having read several pieces of Azzarello’s earlier work, I must say that you, Mr. Azzarello, are no Philip K. Dick so I would hold off on the Blade Runner comparisons.  Heck, Frederik Pohl did this story decades ago with Man Plus, about…you guessed it…a man modified and augmented to live on Mars and the existentialist angst that ensues.  The comic book does seem to have at least a slightly different take on the concept with the spaceman never making it to Mars after all.  Props for that.

Not sure if that's enough to reel me in, though.  But the book is selling for only $1 a month and that just might be enough to get me to stop and check it out.

Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

Ummm...oops

In case you did not notice, it all ended last Friday, October 21st.

Not that I would have minded.  If the world were going to end, I can think of absolutely no better place for it to happen than while I am watching Duran Duran live on stage.  But it didn't.  So much for the prescient and clairvoyant abilities of Harold Camping.  Should we be surprised?  The Christian minister previously proclaimed May 21st as the end of all that is.  Stating that it would be Judgement Day.  "Rapture" for the fundamentalist Christian faithful.  Or as he said:

“…the Bible has given us absolute proof that the year 2011 is the end of the world during the Day of Judgment… Amazingly, May 21, 2011 is the 17th day of the 2nd month of the Biblical calendar of our day…”

Seriously, in the theory of rapture, the "worthy" would be brought upward from the Earth and above the atmosphere, despite the lack of oxygen.  Power of God over nominative science not withstanding, didn't Jesus spend his days here with a few of the most flawed and worst sinners imaginable?  Sigh...  "Thou shalt not know the hour nor the day."

I'm really most exhausted with doomsday claims from the Christian fundamentalist set.  There are fates that God, should he/she deem necessary, could bestow upon us that would allow us no recourse.  Doomsdays such as asteroids hitting the Earth, deadly new plague viruses, and the like.  At the same time, there are numerous fates that human beings are wholly capable of preventing and forestalling.  Ends from economic chaos, global warming, and nuclear disaster are chief among what I speak.

When the power of love overcomes the love of power and money, then the world will know peace.  Love comes in many forms.  If the love or multiple loves of someone else does not fit your dogma, than judge not lest you be judged as well.

I understand that Camping and "Family Radio" spent millions of dollars to warn us of the impending rapture.  I'll give you a tip, guys.  Instead of spending all of that money on warning us of a "rapture," how about you put it towards the hungry, the needy, and the millions of dogs and cats that so-called "humans" neglect and relegate to shelters each year?  I feel certain that Jesus would approve of an act of charity and beneficence above any scripture reading ass-kissing. 

Or not.  Maybe you really were raptured up from all the rest of us.  In that case, I'm laughing.  Because the finest human beings I've ever known (Debbie, George, Jen, I'm looking at you) are still with me.  And I will throw my lot in with them over any of the fundies any second of the day or week. 

The end of days is upon us.  So they say.  Earthquakes, famine, war, you know...all that stuff that has been with us since history's dawn...are around more than ever.  So if this is armageddon, then bring it on.  I might be afraid of the aftermath, but I fear no judgment. 

Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

Satellite recycling

Now here is a novel idea. Those fine minds at DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) have found a way to not only cull the swarming cluster of space junk around the Earth…but to actually take advantage of it.

Earth orbit is now a thick mess of thousands of defunct satellites, spent rocket stages, and overall just trash and debris. Each year that goes by increases the chances of more collisions between spacecraft, resulting in the potential loss of a high value asset (e.g. a military spy or communications satellite colliding with a dead MTV relay) and thereby even more space junk. The Phoenix program at DARPA aims to take care of that.

The Phoenix would be a robot in orbit that would go to dead satellites and remove the still usable parts, such as antennas and panels. It’s sort of like harvesting an organ donor if you think about it. Hmmm. Maybe they should call it “The Ghoul.” Probably doesn’t have the positive spin they’re looking for in a PR name.

Anyhow, antennas are big and therefore require copious amounts of rocket fuel to get into orbit. If small satellites could be launched without the antenna (“satlets”) so that the antennas could later be attached in space, it would save a great deal of money. Add that in with the whole “recycling” aspect of the program and you should have a winner. I can see the ad copy now. “Going green…in the black!”

Nice to see we have a little bit of innovation left when it comes to a space program, even if it is essentially a military endeavor. But will it be enough to prevent China from laying claim to the Moon by presence?


Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

"Loathsome money pits"

Writing for Reuters last week, former and final president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, did an op/ed piece that expressed what some would call an objective worth persuing and others an idealistic dream.

The notion is nothing less than a world free of nuclear weapons.

"Critics present nuclear disarmament as unrealistic at best, and a risky utopian dream at worst," Gorbachev writes. "They point to the Cold War’s 'long peace' as proof that nuclear deterrence is the only means of staving off a major war.
As someone who has commanded these weapons, I strongly disagree."

What Gorbachev argues for is a world where the U.S. finally signs the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and after that an earnest reduction of nuclear stockpiles on all sides, especially between the U.S. and Russia commences.  He goes on, describing nuclear weapons and their conjoined support and security systems as "loathsome money pits" in today's economy.  Gorbachev is correct on that point.  He is also right in asserting that a world without nuclear weapons is a safer world.  No one except perhaps Reagan knew better than he on this matter.  Referring to the historic Reykjaic summit of 25 years ago, Gorbachev argues that, "Our efforts 25 years ago can be vindicated only when the Bomb ends up beside the slave trader’s manacles and the Great War’s mustard gas in the museum of bygone savagery."

Great idea.  Not too sure how it will work. 
The genie is out of the bottle.  Let's say that by one diplomatic miracle or another both the U.S. and Russia dismantle all of their long range and tactical nuclear weapons.  By a similar stroke of pure divine intervention, we manage to get India, Pakistan, China, and all other nuclear powers to do the same.  The knowledge of nuclear physics and the very process by which these ferly weapons can be built still exists.  You cannot kill an idea. 
Second of all, the weapons themselves are also a great and sad equalizier.  They can keep a small nation state feeling securing when threatened by a larger and more belligerent one.  An Israel will always want such weapons with an Iran nearby and calling for Israel's destruction.  I don't say this is any kind of support for detante, rather stating an unfortunate fact that appears hardwired into human DNA.  For evidence of this need for keeping a tactical edge, Mr. Gorbachev need only look at his fellow countryman, Vladimir Putin.

As a result of my choice and consumption of fiction, I have been terrified of nuclear armageddon from about age seven.  All of those images of the world rendered a wasteland, similar in appearance to the surface of Mars, society rendered to little more than a loose collective of murdering and raping thugs...those cautionary tales stay with you.  I would love to say that Gorbachev isn't dreaming and certainly hope that he isn't.  But let's just say that his regard for human nature must be a great deal higher than my own.



Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

The transhuman art of Duran Duran

Note: Pics are from "Time Out Chicago" and Jen Hernandez.

It has reached the point where any review I write of a Duran Duran concert will be redundant.

I've never seen them put on a truly bad show, so the spiel will unfold almost by numbers.  "They were incredible," "they rocked the house," "I've loved them for nearly 30 years," and so on and so forth all the live long day.  Their concert last night at the Chicago Theatre is certainly no exception to this.  The set selection was fairly solid overall and was more than enough to get this geek dancing.  Then again, if they just stood there and played out of tune funeral dirges, I would have been happy.  So in order to do something distinctive with this review, I thought that I would talk about the concert vis-a-vis a few of the usual subjects of Esoteric Synaptic Events.

The first thing I noticed upon walking into the hall, other than it was damn dark because I waited too long to take my seat, were the four mannequin faces suspended above the stage. 

White, blank, featureless other than obviously humanoid heads, they were somewhat unsettling in appearence.  I thought this to be a rather well-chosen prop as it sums up Duran pretty well.  It's glamour-related, it's somewhat Warhol in insipiration, and the creepiness of the blank faces reflects that edge, that underlying subversive theme that the band has always had yet has been neglected by so-called rock critics.  Just listen to "Night Boat" or "The Chauffeur" and drink in the gothy anomie.  You'll see what I mean. 

Little did I know that the mannequin heads were not only decorative but functional.

During the song, "Blame the Machines," the familiar black and green binary of The Matrix scrolled over the heads in rolling motions.  All this while clips from Fritz Lang's Metropolis played on the viewscreens behind the band.  "And now there's no way home, this love affair has ended.  I should have known when I bought into the dream.  So like your sonic soul to leave me lost and stranded.  I blame myself...and I blame the machines."  Many times, the lyrics of Simon Le Bon are left up to poetic interpretation.  I've always liked that about him.  Parents and other people would ask me, "what the hell do those lyrics mean?"  Well, what the hell does T.S. Eliot mean in The Waste Land?  Exactly.
Me, I choose to believe this song to be about someone who became addicted to cybernetic body replacements...and paid a price.

On and on behind the band there popped and overlayed juxtaposed, multi-colored squares.  Somewhat remincent of their Big Thing tour and record from 1988-89.  Mixed in with this were clips from the band's Second Life habitat and the avatars that dwell there. 

Speaking of Nick, "The Controller" was in fine form as usual last night within his bank of synthesizers and computers.  In his typical guyliner, he deftly manned the conn of the Starship Duran, steering the show to the artistic level I've come to expect from them.  Nowhere was this more evident than during the instrumental, "Tiger Tiger" from their landmark 1983 record, Seven and the Ragged Tiger.  Starting with Nick's layered synth sounds, the song progresses into that immediately recognizable, John Taylor (hands down the greatest bass player alive) bass line.  While this plays out on stage, tweets from fans both in the audience and on Twitter worldwide are scrolled onscreen.  Thanks to digital and mobile technology, it is now possible for fans to interact with their favorite bands in a way never before available.  Many "earthier" bands would probably never go for this.  That's ok.  Dinosaurs are cool.  I used to play with dino toys as a kid and I like seeing their bones in museums.  Duran, however, are demonstrating themselves to be on the cutting edge of technology as always.

And the mannequin heads just kept hanging there.  I started a bit during "The Reflex" as the individual faces of the band members supered up on the porcelain-white surfaces, one to a head.  With flat, robotic expressions they mouthed the "ta-na-na-na" refrain of the song.  Likewise the "wild boys, wild boys, wild boys" chant for the song of the same name.  Have I mentioned that "Wild Boys" was a song for a would-be film to be based on the titular William Burroughs story?  Of course I have.

Closing out the night, the band played "Rio" as they traditionally do. The iconic visage of the Nagel cover appeared on each mannequin face.  As the theater shook from the sonic force of the song, I could not think of a more perfect way for them to end the night.

Here's the set list from Duran Duran.com:

BEFORE THE RAIN
PLANET EARTH
A VIEW TO A KILL
ALL YOU NEED IS NOW
BLAME THE MACHINES
COME UNDONE
SAFE
REFLEX
THE MAN WHO STOLE A LEOPARD
GIRL PANIC
IS THERE SOMETHING I SHOULD KNOW?
TIGER TIGER
CARELESS MEMORIES
LEAVE A LIGHT ON
ORDINARY WORLD
NOTORIOUS
HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLF
SUNRISE
[encore]
WILD BOYS
RIO      

Brilliant show, fellas.  I eagerly anticipate your return. 
But then that's redundant, isn't it?  

Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

The Rockefeller UFO connection

In this day and age of Occupy Wall Street, 99% v. 1%, and overall economic strife, it becomes easy to overlook the benefits that the wealthy have sometimes given society.

One of those services that came as a surprise to me was that of Laurence Rockfeller.  With a last name like that, you can pretty much guess how loaded the guy was and how he continued to accrue wealth throughout his life as a financier and venture capitalist.  Mr. Rockefeller, however, was very interested in the subject of UFOs.  My research into this is ongoing but I’m uncertain as to how this interest was sparked.  One source claims that it was due to Rockefeller’s friendship with World War I flying ace, Eddie Rickenbacker.  Rickenbacker himself was rumored to have been a UFO believer, citing fellow pilots who had witnessed anomalous aerial craft.

Regardless of how the enthusiasm began, Rockefeller instituted the UFO Disclosure Initiative to the Clinton White House in 1993.  Along with other members of the Rockefeller family, Laurence called for the declassification and the release of any and all files that the government had on the subject of UFOs.  First and foremost, according to Rockefeller, of incidents to be disclosed was the Roswell UFO crash of 1947.  Rockefeller even held a UFO conference at his Wyoming ranch and also personally briefed then-President Clinton on the results of UFO research of the time.

Obviously, no disclosure came of this.  It is well known that Clinton made a Presidential request to see such materials.  Like with Jimmy Carter, the response from the NSA was more or less along the lines of “this information is ‘need to know’ and mere curiosity on the part of the President does not constitute ‘need to know.’”

If this case tells us anything, we can use it as a barometer as to how deep the tendrils of the UFO conspiracy go.  If a President and a man as wealthy and connected as Rockefeller cannot break through the walls of secrecy, what chance do the rest of us rate?

Click here for more detailed information on this case.

Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

Revisiting Donnie Darko

Last Monday, I blogged about Siddhartha.  Just me, seeking to decode a kind of meaning out of the artificial flotsam and jetsam of our human experience.  I found another source to turn to in my philosophical quest, even if it's one that many would find unusual.

The name of the film is Donnie Darko.  I've reviewed it on this blog before.  A simultaneously mindbending and mindexapnding film that deserves every little bit of its cult film status and more.  There is just so much to this for the dark, brooding philosopher.  Youth in search of self-identity, self-knowledge, the existence of God, and the meaning of life.  Pretty much what we all want, isn't it?  Those of us who can think, that is.

Are we in the Primary Universe or the Tangent Universe?  There could very well be arguments for both.  Donnie was told that [SPOILER ALERT] the jet engine that fell into the house was construct from the Tangent Universe, knocking all things "over here" all helter-skelter.  Only he can set this cause and effect to right, thereby in my opinion, granting him meaning and purpose...those elusive intangibles that we're all after.  It might even be Gretchen who telegraphs this a bit when she says, "Donnie Darko? What the hell kind of name is that? It's like some sort of superhero or something."

For those who find Donnie Darko nonsensical, I can concede that point...to a degree.  Donnie says and does things that appear to defy reason or what the bland, stinking normals would argue as being "well-adjusted."  It may be, however, that Donnie's actions are perfectly in line with what he is here to do.  It's almost as if he's being fed some code of conduct that even he isn't aware of.  Something in his subconscious or within inactive memory or...I don't know what, is already solidly aware of his meaning and his purpose.  It is Donnie himself who has yet to learn it.   If that makes any sense.

In fact, this may be an indicator, a signifier that somehow it is Donnie who is an artifact of the Primary Universe and who finds himself living out life in the Tangent Universe.  He is an outsider, the same as many of us feel sometimes...or most times even.  He cannot relate to those around him for they value other, more tawdry concepts.  Donnie thinks.  Few of the others in his universe seem to be capable of that action. Therefore, he doesn't belong there.  Wouldn't that just explain everything if you knew that about yourself?  Would do it for me.  Or as Donnie said: "I hope that when the world comes to an end, I can breathe a sigh of relief, because there will be so much to look forward to.

I realize that this might be one of my most rambling and crooked-pathed posts to date.  Sorry.  These are the mere stream of consciousness musings of a heat oppressed brain.  I leave you now with one of my favorite scenes from the film, sorry for the crazy crude intro that the uploader tacked on:



Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

Infinity and UFOs

Over at The Huffington Post, writer R.W. Sanders posted an article that muses on a number of subjects. 

I must admit that this is my first time reading Sanders’ work but after reading this bit and looking at the titles of the articles in his repertoire, I think that he now has a fan in me.  But I digress…

Today’s article was on the nature of infinity, the cosmos, and ultimately UFOs.

“The subject of UFO'S is being discussed in more and more places, these days. I predict that soon there will be a cable channel devoted to nothing but UFO'S.”

Oh stop, R.W. It’s like you’re talking dirty to me.

Seriously, he is correct in pointing out that public belief in UFO contact is at a high.  While it is true that this may indicate that people aren’t running UFO sightings through a much-needed scientific filter, it does show that popular opinion is growing more and more comfortable with the idea that we are not alone in the universe.  Given that pesky Fermi Paradox, which states something along the lines of “if the universe is teeming with life then where is everybody?”, Sanders suggests that ultimately the discovery of other intelligent lifeforms may be done through logic and mathematics.  He posits the following:

If given that everything is infinite:

“1. Wouldn't this indicate that there have to be civilizations that can, do, will or have detected our existence and studied humanity?

2. Conversely, does this mean that humans will, or have, detected them?

3. Am I a complete idiot for spending time thinking about these things?”

To the last point I give a resounding “no” and to the first two a semi-solid “yes.”

As I have pointed out in numerous other posts, there is solid, physical evidence involved in the UFO phenomenon.  I’m not talking about downed spacecraft in government possession (although I do think that is likely,) I’m talking about evidence that has been made public by the likes of Stanton Friedman and Leslie Kean.  Why “the establishment” won’t consider it is beyond me.  Actually it isn’t, I understand full well their desire to suppress the truth.  Along with the Fermi Paradox, the enormous distance between stars is often brought it up in a case against UFOs being alien visitors.  Sanders even mentions it in the article.  To that, I must put forth two points.

First of all, “aliens” is only one possible explanation for the UFO phenomenon.  There are other weirder, psychologically-linked answers that may end up being the truth. 

Second of all, when considering interstellar distance, it is important to remember that we are viewing such distances through the prism of our current standard of technology.  Of course a voyage between stars would be an impossibly long and harrowing ordeal given what we have to work with at this time.  Humanity, however, is rather young.  A civilization that has been around for a few million years longer than we have has undoubtedly surpassed us in technology and scientific understanding.  Remember, people once looked at a locomotive and said, “We’ll never go faster than that.”  And by people, I mean the public writ large and not visionaries such as Wells.  Indeed, it might in reality be as easy for aliens to reach us as it is for us to fly to a corner of our planet.

It is almost a mathematical certainty that alien civilizations exist, despite whatever Fermi had to say.  Likewise, there exists the chance that they could be studying us.  And that, my friends, may be the reason for all the UFOs.
Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

Depression and genetics

One of the worst things you can say to someone with depression is “it’s all in your head.”  “Come on, just be happy” is a close second but the former still holds on to the number one spot.

There are two problems with saying it.  One, it shows a startling amount of naïveté on the part of the speaker and two, it is actually correct from a certain point of view.  Depression begins inside the brain as levels of the chemical serotonin become irregular.  A 2003 study determined that there is actually a serotonin transporter gene in the human body.  The formation of the gene in an individual is an indicator for depression, thus allowing the media to dub it “the depression gene.” 

And let me tell you, folks.  It is genetic.  I come from a long line of it.  My mother, her father, her brother, and her great-uncle have all dealt with this insidious beast.  Now, a new study suggests that the presence of the gene may predict happiness in children as well. 

Ever wonder why certain people can stand up and face life’s stressors or can be cool in any situation no matter how daunting.  On the other hand, there are those who grow sad under pressure or begin to shut down?  The difference may be this gene and just what kinds of negative experiences the individual was exposed to during childhood.  Benjamin L. Hankin, lead neuroscientist on the study, put it this way:

“Some individuals are orchids, some are weeds. Weeds will grow anywhere; they’ll be just fine. Those are the kids who carry the long version of this gene. The orchid, if [it has] a wonderful, flourishing environment, [will] grow up into a beautiful flower. If not, it’ll wither.”

Therein, my friends, is the difference.

To be sure, there are a number of things that one can do to manage depression, just as there are coping methods for those with diabetes or high blood pressure.  Medications, while still not the greatest, can be a stabilizer while you begin to sort out how to handle things.  A good counselor can teach cognitive and behavioral approaches to gaining control over your emotions and your reactions to negative situations.  There’s meditation, acupressure, and a whole host of other “alternative” methods for dealing with depression that I am ignorant of but wish to learn more about.  I myself am very hopeful that research will bring about methods by which the gene itself can be modified.  That’s right, I’m all for genetic engineering.

However, don’t blame the individual suffering from this condition.  Yes, we’re hell to live with and the things we do might not make much sense and for that you all have my pity but we can’t help it.  Yes, there are ways to manage it and we all should do our best to do so, but in the end it’s just who we are.  We have this thing, this gene, and that’s just how it is.  So if you see someone who responds to a situation in a way that you deem “irrational” or who is perpetually gloomy or “broken,” please don’t tell them to “snap out of it” or worse, “grow a pair of balls and be a man.”  Know that this is a genetic condition, a “gift” left from parent to child.  A “gift” none of us ever asked for nor would we even want to.  Then ask yourself, how would you be if you had it?

Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

Return to Siddhartha

There are those who seek “inspirational quotes” and platitudes as balm, something to get them through the day.  Great if it works for them.  For me, not so much.

                

So often I feel that I exist within an artifice.  A manufactured world of paperwork, cubicles, reports, and “direct service hours” that seems to draw its energy from the act of knocking one onto his/her dorsal side.  This can’t be real, what’s “really real” anyway.  Then again, what is “real?”  I know that I am not alone in these questions.  So since the quotes don’t do it for me, I seek philosophy. 

Spawned by a philosopher and brother to one as well, I’m not exactly foreign to the discipline.  I have read many philosophers, including Nietzsche, Voltaire, The Stranger by Camus, and I would even toss Burroughs in there as well.  Even when I encounter writing that I disagree with I still manage to glean something useful from it.  All the fragments fuse together to compose the greater whole and that is what has led me back to Siddhartha.

I read Siddhartha by Herman Hesse back in undergrad when we were required to take a course on India and China.  The novel’s titular character is a young Indian man who lived during the time of Buddha.  In the first chapter, Siddhartha leaves his comfortable home and sets out with his friend Govinda in search of enlightenment.  Siddhartha has all manner of experiences, worldly, carnal, and spiritual and in the end attains enlightenment.  This state of enlightenment arrives not through education, nor through experience, nor the acquisition of wealth.  It comes as a sum total of all of those things and more.  In a way, “any road can get you there.”

Why now?  Why has this novel, a book I once thought long since buried in the heaping wreckage of my past, come the fore?  Hesse said that in writing Siddhartha, he wanted to “cure his sickness with life.”  Maybe that’s what I’m trying to do as well.  Though my current existence is dreary, confining, and unrelenting, it gives me hope to believe that such a forced march through a sharp and jagged-walled tunnel may be just what helps to bring about true knowledge.  That, quite honestly, works better for me than any platitude possibly could.

Do yourself a favor and order Siddhartha on Amazon.

In an interesting aside, Wikipedia reports (and if you can't trust them, then who can you trust? heh.) that there was a 1971film version of Siddhartha in which Govinda was played by Don Johnson.

I’m simultaneously intrigued and repulsed.

Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

Meet the Republicans: part deux

I am not an overwhelmingly big fan of our current POTUS.

I voted for him in 2008 but as many others do, I feel that I was sold a bill of goods that just didn't hold up to the ad slogans.  While I prize intellectualism, we seem to have a leader who appears wishy-washy rather than decisive.

That said, I will likely vote for him again in 2012 (that is if I decide to vote in what increasingly appears to be a "slave suggestion box.")  Why?  Well, what option do I really have?  Let's take a look:

Rick Perry: Or as I like to call him, Cowboy Bush the Sequel.  For a guy who screams like Yosemite Sam against "big government," he sure didn't have a problem mandating that all young girls in Texas get an STD vaccine.  

Mitt Romney: Or as I like to call him, "That Guy Who Lost Last Time."  Yeah, Obama has "failed" America with that pesky universal healthcare program...something not unlike what Romney did to Massachusetts not that long ago.  And they called John Kerry a "flip-flopper." And let us not forget one of Romney's more recent quotes, "Corporations are people, my friend." Oy.

Newt Gingrich: It was "patriotism" that led him to extramarital affairs and the abandonment of his cancer-stricken wife?  That's "conservative family values" for you.  I'd have more respect for this lummox if he would've just said "I was horny."

Herman Cain: It will take more than a marketing slogan like "9-9-9" to effectively repair our economic woes.  Additionally, there is evidence to suggest that Cain even lifted this idea from the computer game, Sim City 4.  And when he was asked if he was the political "flavor of the month," Cain compared himself to a flavor of ice cream...that has long since been discontinued.

Rick Santorum: Sorry.  One trigger-happy GOP-er is enough for one lifetime.  I think that by now, most of America is about as war-weary as you can get.

Jon Huntsman: Who?

Michelle Bachmann: Giggle...snicker...come on, really??

Ron Paul: While his standpoints are a bit radical, I like a guy who knows how to shake things up.  Were I forced to make a pick from the current crop of GOP, he would be the one.  As a matter of fact, I find Paul to be the only Republican in the race who is truly putting forth ideas.

And those are the alternatives to Obama.  All in all, this gives me the perfect campaign slogan for the Dems in 2012 and it is truly a ringing endorsement...

"Obama: C'mon...you could do worse."

Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

By request: more on Nazis, secret weapons, and UFOs

I have been receiving a few inquiries lately regarding the correlation between Nazis, advanced weapons, and UFOs.

There's a lot of crazy information out there and I have already posted about certain aspects of it, namely that many Nazis supposedly escaped to a secret Antarctic base after the war and that the German war machine might have been more advanced than we realized.  But here is what we know for sure:

-There was indeed a German expedition to Antarctica in 1938. They claimed a swath of land and named it New Swabia.

-The German military had been experimenting with rocket propelled weapons such as the V-2 and with advanced aircraft that were wing and saucer shaped.  After the war, one American aerospace engineer was quoted as saying, "I have seen enough of their designs and production plans to realize that if they (the Germans) had managed to prolong the war some months longer, we would have been confronted with a set of entirely new and deadly developments in air warfare."

-Allied pilots sighted numerous UFOs while flying over Europe, called "foo fighters" as a slang term.  At the time, these were thought to be secret German aircraft.  That is until we captured Luftwaffe pilots who said they had seen the objects too and assumed they were us.

-As the Air Force conducted its ludicrous Project Blue Book, Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt of the project said, "When WWII ended, the Germans had several radical types of aircraft and guided missiles under development. The majority were in the most preliminary stages, but they were the only known craft that could even approach the performance of objects reported to UFO observers."

That's about as solid as the information gets.  From there on out, it's whack-o city.  My specialty.

There are those who claim that the German Vril Society, a supposed secret society in Berlin, worked in cahoots with the occult organization known as The Thule Society and with the Nazi party to contact an alien race.  They were successful and acquired actual flying saucers.  It was all too late, however, as the Allies stormed across the homeland, forcing the Nazis and the Vrils to flee to...you guessed it...Antarctica.

Another proponent of the Antarctica theory is Ernst Zundel.  This guy is a real winner.  An antisemitic publisher and holocaust denier, Zundel openly claimed that the UFOs were indeed flying saucers but were piloted by Nazis, flying out of their secret base in Antarctica.  From there, they would soon conquer the world with their advanced weapons.  Zundel even offered seats on an expedition, for the low low price of only $9999 per, that he said would go to Antarctica to find the entrance to the Hollow Earth where the Nazis had supposedly made allies with cryptoterrestrials.  An associate of Zundel's asserts that Zundel confessed it was all a marketing scheme and the facts appear to bear this out.  After all, they've had since 1945 and they've yet to take over the world.  Maybe the "UFO weapons" really aren't that advanced after all.

On The History Channel, both UFO Hunters and Ancient Aliens appear convinced that the Nazi high command came into possession of a crashed alien spacecraft.  The genius German scientists and engineers (which they were, no one could or should debate that) reverse-engineered the saucer and built replicas for themselves.  Again it was too late for the war but people like Wernher von Braun brought the knowledge with them to America and began the U.S. space program.  Supposedly, someone once complimented von Braun on the ingenuity of German aerospace technology and he replied, "it didn't come from us.  It come from 'out there.' "  

The notion that Nazis were working with anti-matter is much tougher to pin down.  This has long been among the allegations in terms of secret Nazi weapons technology.  Seems a bit unlikely that they were since we are only now beginning to understand the properties of anti-matter and learning that it is not merely a science fictional concept.  If anyone has information on the Nazi/anti-matter link, please let me know.  Anti-gravity on the other hand is widely suspected amongst those who support the notion of Nazi/alien collaboration or even just that the Germans had highly advanced weapons that went undeployed.  The aircraft with the saucer shape to them were thought to run on an anti-gravity drive that was still a work in progress at war's end.  Then there's the "Nazi Bell" which may have resulted in the Kecksburg UFO crash of 1965.  More information on that here.  The aircraft with the saucer shape to them were thought to run on an anti-gravity drive that was still a work in progress at war's end.  Then there's the "Nazi Bell" which may have resulted in the Kecksburg UFO crash of 1965.  More information on that here.

Amidst it all there is a bit of solid work.  In his book Arktos: The Polar Myth, Joscelyn Godwin presents a well-balanced look at the "mythology" surrounding our world's poles and this includes the Nazi/Hollow Earth/UFO assertion.  The man's an actual scholar and I recommend the book for a read.

The Nazis have a certain mystique about them.  With so much evil, so many connections to the occult, and an array of true and confirmed advancements in the science of warfare, it's easy to make speculations such as those I've discussed.  Getting tangible evidence for them is quite another matter.  Any claims of such must therefore be weighed with more than a bit of askance.

Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

Nerd poker

Like any geek worth my salt, I used to play Dungeons & Dragons.  Like many of my kind, it was my introduction into the world of role playing games.  For reasons that really pass understanding, I've been thinking about it lately.  

My first exposure to the game was a series of ads run in Marvel comic books.  (Geez, it really doesn't get any geekier than that, does it?)  These ads were full-page comics, showing off the adventure and excitement of a D&D campaign.  Being familiar with the work of Tolkien, especially The Hobbit, the game immediately appealed to me.  I got the "starter kit" for Christmas when I was 12 years old and found that it was not exactly a game you can start playing right out of the box.  There are computations to be made, elaborate rules with which you must be familiar, and the construction of the identity of the character that you want...right down to his/her philosophical and moral view of the the fantasy world.  As a young Catholic boy, I had been brought up to take such things as ethics with earnest seriousness and I spent more time than I needed to laboring over what constituted "ethical" character choices.  

I also found that you need other people around you with which to play the game.  That is, other people who were willing.  My parents had less than zero interest and my brother was six at the time.  I'd try to engage him in a dumbed-down version of it, but the campaign just never seemed to hit its potential height.  Maybe it was because he just wanted to play with the little pewter characters.  I eventually found others my age to game with but in a rural community we were rather spread out so sessions were infrequent.  That and they required copious amounts of time just for set-up.  In the spaces between, I take to reading for research and development.  I learned about medieval weapons, castles, and became especially interested in British and Celtic myth.  My version of the game came with a "suggested reading" list of both fiction and nonfiction books.  Many of them were available right in the middle school library.  With a stack of graph paper, I designed my own D&D castle and forest settings.  Yep.  Uber-nerdom came at an early age.  

This "nerd thing" took off into a full-blown industry for Gary Gygax and TSR, the people who sold Dungeons & Dragons.  I like to call the game "nerd poker" for that was our social game of choice.  Often it took place on a regular night of the week and it almost always had snacks involved.  There was never any betting in the campaigns I was in but I can see how it could happen.  "Bet my guy can shoot an arrow through that tiny slit of a window and nail the orc straight in the eye."  "You're on and I'll raise you my magic fire sword."  "Deal."

Of course there were the scandals.  "Dungeons & Dragons leads to suicide and Satanism" and all that rot.  That did happen in a few extremely rare cases however the vast majority of D&D sessions were far less sanguine...and almost downright pathetic in their banality.  The only violence would be in the following types of sad arguments: "how could I possibly be hit by a sword from around a corner?" "You can't cast magic missile twice without leaving the play area to relearn the spell!" "Who took the last Mountain Dew?"  "Why did they name the game that if we never really go into dungeons and our guys aren't strong enough yet to face dragons?"  Ahh the truly weightiest of matters argued over that rickety card table.

In college I met more gamers who became my best friends.  One guy had even created is own fantasy game.  Most of the time however, we played science fiction and superhero-oriented rpgs and I found those more to my tastes.  But a part of me still yearns for those D&D days.  More than affording me a fun time with friends, it enhanced my imagination.  It wasn't a game, it was a narrative.  It was a story unfolding that while guided by the dungeon master, it was really being composed by the characters as we went along.  We, I would argue, were not playing as much as we were writing.  When I was with people who took their game seriously, I saw how they demanded that players be consistent with their characters as if they were acting in a movie or play.  Know your character's psychology and play accordingly.  It was worlds apart from the gamers I ran into in adulthood who preferred the "hack and slash" method of combat-only gaming.  In other words, lots of frosting, very little cake.  An incredible training ground and field in which to play for a writer.  Because for me it was all about story.  It wasn't a game, I really was a half-elf sorcerer in a party of fearsome adventurers who slew a vampire in the cemetery of a medieval monastery.   In a way, this interactive storytelling was a cosmogony of sorts, our collective consciousness dreaming these things up and thereby making them real in at the very least our minds.  There might have actually been a bit of profound in with our pathetic.

So due to my recent nostalgia, I bought the 2011 version of the Dungeons & Dragons starter kit.  It was quite cheap at a Borders graveyard dance, so I figured why the hell not?  If you're in the far west Chicago burbs and feel like rolling a few dice, hit me up on email or in comments.  Let's see if we can get something going.
 


Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets

Film Review--Altered States

ALTERED STATES

Starring William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban, Charles Haid, and Coolio as The Beav.

A Harvard scientist (Hurt) begins to experiment upon himself.  We’ve never seen that go wrong now have we?

With the aid of mind-altering drugs and a sensory deprivation chamber, he begins to seek out other states of consciousness.  What ends up happening is a complete evolutionary regression.

This ended up being so much more than the “mad scientist” movie that I had expected.  There is the additional dimension of the main character seeking out the very nature of consciousness and thereby he is seeking the truth of God.  The film is crammed with religious imagery that signifies this fact.  Given that there are drugs involved, things take a turn for the psychedelic, the abstract, and the artfully non-sequitor, giving the film a wonderfully disjointed look at times.  This film had me the whole way, especially the scene where Hurt, now a protean form of human, is loose in the university lab and causing mayhem.  On a more human level, the married couple patter between Hurt and Brown is very realistic, adding yet another dimension to the film.  Yes, had me the whole way…until the end.  I know that there are film mavens who dig the ending but I was left feeling unimpressed.  It simply…ends.  I know that may be the point but it still has an unsatisfactory aftertaste.  Still, that’s my one and only complaint.  My God, the questions raised alone make this worth viewing.  This film is a gem and one we will never see the likes of again with a Hollywood churn-em-out mill running at full bore (and I do mean bore.)  I could end up owning this one happily.

Watch for a cameo by John Larroquette as an X-ray technician and a baby Drew Barrymore.  Also note the cave art in the Mexican locale.  Greys??

Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets