The Pakistani Spectator interviews Blogger Antares (repost)

Photo by Suzanne Lee Das

The Pakistani Spectator • Jun 25th, 2008

Would you please tell us something about you and your site?

I was born to a middle-class family in a small town called Batu Pahat. Began working at age 20 in advertising, became a Creative Director at 23, quit at 27 to become a freelance audiovisual producer and creative consultant, and soon devoted my energies entirely to theatre, music and writing. I was introduced to the Internet at 48 and immediately embraced the delightful possibilities of digital tech. Relocated from Kuala Lumpur to a forest reserve in 1992 to found an alternative community called Magick River. Soon became involved with an Orang Asli (aboriginal) community and environmental issues. Launched the Magick River website. A dam was built in the area in 2002 and the village went on the power grid - but it took another four years to get broadband access. One of the first things I did was to start the Magick River blog in December 2006.

Do you feel that you continue to grow in your writing the longer you write? Why is that important to you?

Like any other craft, writing improves with experience and regular practice. However, mastering the technical aspects of writing is hardly the most important issue. What’s truly meaningful to me is the process of developing clarity of thought - and simplicity and elegance of expression.

I’m wondering what some of your memorable experiences are with blogging?

Soon after I initiated the Magick River blog I realized the importance of building a readership. There were so many new things to learn: getting listed with Technorati and other blog directories, promoting the blog among friends, adding widgets and generally tweaking the blog template so that it would reflect my personality. For the first year I was happy to get approximately 300 hits a day but after the March 8th 2008 elections I began to focus more on Malaysian politics and that boosted traffic to nearly 12,000 hits a day for certain blogposts. That was a real thrill for me - like somebody earning thousands suddenly receiving a cheque for millions!

What do you do in order to keep up your communication with other bloggers?

I make it a point to read other blogposts pinged on Petaling Street (Malaysia’s blog aggregator) and often leave comments here and there. This encourages random visitors to my own blog who then leave comments and this is how the blog network grows. Once in a while there is sufficient resonance to begin emailing other bloggers and befriending them beyond the blogosphere.

What do you think is the most exciting or most innovative use of technology in politics right now?

The phenomenal growth of digital and microchip tech has made notebooks, palmtops, Blackberries, camera and video cellphones commonplace. At any given moment at any given place there will be somebody equipped to record an image or video footage or transmit a text message almost instantly. In effect, this is the era of citizen reporters whose enthusiasm for spreading info and news within overlapping networks makes it impossible for totalitarian control and suppression of information. For the first time since the Athenian experiment in democracy nearly 30 centuries ago, decentralized power is beginning to supersede the outgoing patriarchal, feudal, top-down forms of political power. I relish the fact that I am now able to live far from the madding crowd and yet - with affordable equipment like a laptop and digital videocam - I can become an autonomous multimedia production unit with satellite access to the rest of the planet. The proverbial Voice in the Wilderness can now be heard in the traditional centers of economic and cultural power, regardless of latitude or longitude. From my idyllic village in the Malaysian rainforest, I can broadcast my thoughts to people in London, Paris, New York, Moscow, Beijing, Ulan Bator... and, of course, Rawalpindi!

Do you think that these new technologies are effective in making people more responsive?

Certainly, and increasingly so. In the early days of the Internet, there was a greater divide between Actual and Virtual Reality. People would spend hours at their computers conversing with absent beings - and then take a break and connect with friends “in real life.” However, the line between actual and virtual appears to be blurring as we switch comfortably from chatting face-to-face to facebook chat or an SMS exchange. Indeed, the new digital interconnectivity makes it possible for an enterprising individual to organize a real-time street event using only a social networking tool like facebook.

What do you think sets Your site apart from others?

I go for substance, not style - and generally offer well-crafted blogposts with strong visual appeal. The subject matter I blog about is eclectic and ranges from musical and literary topics to hardcore politics and metaphysics, with a generous dose of humor and whimsicality.

If you could choose one characteristic you have that brought you success in life, what would it be?

My ability to empathize with, understand and love whatever and whoever I encounter. This has the effect of generating an attractive, rather than a repulsive, energy field - which helps in everything one does.


What was the happiest and gloomiest moment of your life?

It would take too much time and effort to scour my memory banks for interesting anecdotes - and in the end such experiences tend to be intensely personal and not something to be discussed out of context.

If you could pick a travel destination, anywhere in the world, with no worries about how it’s paid for - what would your top 3 choices be?

Machu Picchu, Egypt, and Central America.

What is your favorite book and why?

No particular favorite as such but I was profoundly inspired by The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology by José Argüelles (Bear & Co, 1986). The galactic scope of the book’s vision was a great relief to somebody like me who tends to feel claustrophobic when confronting petty and mundane issues.

What’s the first thing you notice about a person (whether you know them or not)?

Their energy field - whether it’s dormant or radiant.

Is there anyone from your past that once told you you couldn’t write?

Fortunately, no.

How can bloggers benefit from blogs financially?

I know bloggers who earn heaps by managing a dozen blogs all targeted at attracting traffic and generating income from advertising. But this isn’t my reason for blogging and my flirtation with Google Adsense has been shortlived. Nevertheless, the friendship and goodwill my blog has earned occasionally translates into financial support from those who have found inspiration from researching my blog archives (there are quite a few who spend as many as 9-12 hours browsing my blog on a single visit!)

Is it true that whoever has a successful blog has an awful lot of time on their hands?

Time is our most precious resource and it’s up to each of us how we utilize it. The majority of humans are still trapped in the old paradigm of trading their time for wages. I happen to be among the privileged who enjoys the freedom to use my time as I please. Since I resigned from my last full-time job in 1977, I have somehow managed to sustain myself and my family fairly comfortably without having to take on tasks that are unpleasant or ethically dubious.

What are your thoughts on corporate blogs and what do you think the biggest advantages and disadvantages are?

I avoid corporate blogs like the plague! Only individuals have something worthwhile to say. Corporations only have an image to sell.

What role can bloggers of the world play to make this world friendlier and less hostile?

When you’ve been blogging for a while you get exposed to a wide spectrum of opinions and temperaments - from the most refined to the coarsest of the coarse. This has the effect of acclimatizing you to shocking rudeness and even the most bizarre and grotesque prejudices. After a few heated exchanges on forums or via blog comments, you learn not to take things too personally - not to get wound up by a bunch of pixels on the screen. I’m sure this greatly helps in making bloggers more accepting and tolerant of different viewpoints. Bloggers learn to insult each other in a playful manner - without wanting to translate the aggro into violent behavior “in real life.” The only way to a peaceful world may be to allow humans to slug it out virtually with their conflicting opinions.

Is there one observation or column or post that has gotten the most powerful reaction from people?

The most vociferous discussion and feedback I ever got with any blogpost was on the burning topic of Malay Supremacy. Blogposts on the Altantuya murder case also tend to attract lots of attention.

What is your perception about Pakistan and its people?

The Pakistani people are beautiful, intelligent and capable - but, unfortunately, the masses appear to have been kept ignorant and easily misled through the exploitation of religious fervor by a succession of power-hungry politicians, mullahs and warlords. Sounds just like America, no?

Have you ever become stunned by the uniqueness of any blogger?

Indeed I have. Raja Petra Kamarudin (popularly known as RPK) happens to be among the best informed when it comes to local politics. His access to the “corridors of power” (by virtue, perhaps, of his being a prince of the Selangor royal household), combined with his rebellious spirit and sharp intellect, makes his political blogposts pure dynamite. That’s why his newsblog, Malaysia Today, occasionally records 1.7 million hits a day. [Unfortunately, this is no longer true... not after 2010 when RPK apparently did a 180-degree turn and began blogging on behalf of the Dark Side!]

What is the most striking difference between a developed country and a developing country?

Bread-and-butter issues tend to be less pronounced in a “developed” country where the majority are sufficiently comfortable to focus their attention on larger and broader ideas, particularly pertaining to questions of ethics and aesthetics. In so-called “developing countries” the emphasis tends to be on making money and building more visible infrastructure - therefore, abstract notions of justice, human rights, civil liberties, and cultural maturity become secondary… at least, until a sizeable educated middle class exists.

What is the future of blogging?

Personally, I’ll keep doing it till it gets boring. Then I’ll stop. Blogging has become such a global phenomenon because it gives the individual a sense of validity and value in a perplexingly complex world where traditional forms of socializing have become almost obsolete (in a congested city like Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur, for example, it takes so much effort to travel across town just to have coffee with a friend, so the answer is facebook chat and sending each other virtual drinks!)

You have also got a blogging life, how has it directly affected both your personal and professional life?

Once I began blogging the activity seemed to gradually take over most of my waking hours in that even when not actually writing a blogpost, I’m gathering data and thinking of ways to repackage it for my blog. In other words, I am now an extremely mature nerd. But, absent any more stimulating diversion, I’m quite happy to be exactly that. My “professional” life is fluid as I tend to venture into an assortment of activities, ranging from producing low-budget documentaries to giving talks on esoteric subjects and trying to get old manuscripts published.

What are your future plans?

I have never taken the future - or anything else - seriously. One step at a time, I take each day as it comes - and goes. In short, I prefer to live in the NOW. Of course, there are endless “projects” waiting to be actualized - for instance, releasing my musical output digitally (hours of music were recently rescued from analog oblivion) and clearing a space in my study for a digital recording studio. Man does not live on blogs alone.

Any message you want to give to the readers of The Pakistani Spectator?

When your head begins to ache with confusion, just follow your heart - that’s the road to joy and freedom!

[First posted 26 June 2008, reposted 13 May 2016]

Dedicated to all those who arrived in 1980 and thereafter...

The Path to Enlightenment by Steve Griffith

If you were born in 1980 you will be hitting 40 in 2020. Generally speaking, this is the age of full ripeness for most women and a few men (who usually take a while longer to fully mature, say around 44). In effect, yours is the generation that will spearhead the radical changes necessary as we quantum shift into a whole new spiral of evolution.

Beginning in the mid-1960s many advanced souls began incarnating on this planet - eager to either help with a tumultuous transition between zodiacal ages and frequency zones, or to witness what some say is an incredibly rare cosmic event, the mass awakening of an entire species within a two or three generation span.

At first, these evolutionary agents passed unnoticed, and many chose to arrive as the Flower Power era was peaking; and, for sure, a large number were conceived by parents who had themselves undergone a significant psycho-spiritual shift - whether through rediscovering ancient meditation techniques or through exposure to psychotropic and entheogenic drugs like marijuana, mescaline, peyote, psilocybin mushrooms and LSD.

In the 1980s, the term "indigo children" began to circulate as a description of these incoming souls - initially within New Age and esoteric circles, then gradually finding its way into the mainstream. Much has been speculated about this phenomenon, none of it definitive, but this paragraph I found in Wikipedia serves nicely as a brief summary:

Descriptions of indigo children include the belief that they are empathetic, curious, strong-willed, independent, and often perceived by friends and family as being strange; possess a clear sense of self-definition and purpose; and also exhibit a strong inclination towards spiritual matters from early childhood. Indigo children have also been described as having a strong feeling of entitlement, or "deserving to be here." Other alleged traits include a high intelligence quotient, an inherent intuitive ability, and resistance to authority. According to Jan Tober and Lee Carroll, indigo children function poorly in conventional schools due to their rejection of (fake) authority, being smarter than their teachers, and a lack of response to guilt-, fear- or manipulation-based discipline. [Source: Wikipedia]

Irene Fernandez (1946~2014)

I have chosen the year 1980 as a hypothetical turning point when the number of incoming "indigo children" began to reach a critical mass. Prior to that, of course, there were many who fit the general description of "indigo child" (and I'm inclined to include myself as one of the forerunners of this mutant breed of human beings). Perhaps even as far back as 500 B.C. there were already a handful of indigos appearing in our midst: somebody like Socrates or Prince Siddhartha, to name but two prominent examples, most certainly would have been exceptions to every established rule in their day. (In the Malaysian context, I would classify strong-minded moral warriors like the late Irene Fernandez and Ambiga Sreenevasan as early Indigo incarnations.)

A large number of the indigo wave that came in during the mid-1960s might have found themselves smashed to smithereens against the jagged reefs of societal miscomprehension - many ending up as junkies, jailbirds, sociopaths and psychotics. In America, the indigo child was often misdiagnosed with some fictitious disease called Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and prescribed zombifying drugs like Ritalin. Sadly, some of these kids subsequently turned into serial killers (ref. the shocking 1999 Columbine High School and 2007 Virginia Tech massacres).

Nurul Izzah Anwar, future prime minister?

Well, I would like to believe that the Indigos who arrived after 1980 have another significant attribute - Christ-like compassion and unity consciousness, meaning the capacity to feel and express universal love. That's why they have been dubbed "Indigo Crystals." Indigo Crystals are also known for their fearlessness and deeply ingrained sense of natural justice. A classic example of an Indigo Crystal would be Nurul Izzah Anwar (born 19 November 1980).

2020 is the year of the Indigo-Crystal-Rainbow Child!

Starseed KeRa (Christy Tice) and her amazing Indigo-Crystal-Rainbow son, Akyuna Akish

I sense that very vividly, after encountering a great many young people ranging in age from 15 to 40. They may appear outwardly unmotivated, even a bit lost, but they all have a powerful core of empathy, compassion and a deep commitment to doing whatever they can to heal the emotional cancer that has brought humanity to the edge of self-destructive inhumanity.

These mutant young humans grew up in the digital age, many of them computer literate by the time they entered school or in their early teens. They are the generation of internet savvy, plugged-in youth that claimed Facebook, then Instagram, as their own preferred means of communication and took to Twitter like a flock of chattering birds. They are the ones inspired by movies like The Matrix, V for Vendetta, or Avatar. They are the ones you see wearing yellow, mocking false authority, and demanding regime change. They are equally at home in virtual as well as actual reality and are capable, not only of multitasking, but also of multidimensional consciousness.

Freedom fighter in Tahrir Square, Cairo, January 2011

They have access to far more information at their fingertips than all previous generations of humans - thanks to search engines like Google and online databases like Wikipedia. They also have access to YouTube - one of the greatest ideas since Web 2.0 was launched.

Hugo Farrant, visionary rapper

This is the generation that will end artificial barriers and boundaries; that will refuse to be categorized by race, skin color, and religion - and, if they had their way, even national identities will swiftly become irrelevant, as they become planetary nomads - relocating to wherever their hearts lead them. Truly, this phenomenon has long been prophesied in indigenous legend as the advent of the Rainbow Tribes on Earth.

As we embark on yet another bumpy orbit of the Sun, I feel a profound gratitude that "changing the world" is no longer one of my life missions - I gleefully pass the scepter of power to these Indigo Crystal Rainbow warriors, for the 21st century is theirs to claim and reshape.

The best thing any parent or grandparent can do is to quickly recognize that the youngsters are capable of far greater understanding than all their ancestors put together. Don't stifle their imaginations - for that is the one ingredient dangerously lacking in the previous generations, the ability to imagine heaven on earth; and to invent technologies that benefit and liberate, rather then despoil and enslave.

The preceding generations have bequeathed to these Indigo Crystal rainbow starseeds a very bleak prospect indeed - a planet in the grip of massive eco-apocalypse, poisoned and ideologically fragmented - constantly on the brink of mutual assured destruction - with more and more species becoming extinct by the month, and ugly rumors of population culling as the only way to solve all our self-created problems.

Let the old ways be fondly remembered, carefully preserved in public archives and museums - but let them no longer be an obstacle to radical transformations of the human soulscape. What may have served our forefathers no longer serve our grandchildren.

Let us wish all old-style authoritarians and despots a graceful retirement or an inglorious demise in 2020.

Party on, folks! Celebrate the circumpolar rainbow bridge that bypasses Armageddon to Heaven on Earth!

[First posted 31 December 2011, reposted 30 April 2014 & 3 March 2016]

UNINSTALLING SEXUAL GUILT & RECLAIMING YOUR SOVEREIGNTY AS A FREE HUMAN ANIMAL

The second MAGICKAL MYSTERY MASTERCLASS for 2019 has been scheduled for 20-22 September (with an optional free day on the 23rd for those who opt to stay back and integrate the experience). Star Commander Darien Nagle will join us on Sunday with a demonstration on how to clear your chakras and enhance your ability to manifest your desires.

Why am I facilitating these Masterclasses, you might wonder (as I occasionally do myself)? It's very simple, really. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Reality Spectrum each of us accesses - the problem lies with the negative, disempowering programming ALL of us have been subjected to from birth (and even prior to our arrival via our parents' acquired and inherited baggage). With a tiny bit of effort – but, most importantly, the conscious decision to reclaim our individual destinies and debug our operating systems - we can begin to expand our awareness and truly enjoy being alive at this unprecedentedly exciting juncture of human evolution - instead of being a passive consumer of prepackaged truth, habituated to moaning and groaning about how fucked-up everything appears to be.

The Upper Deck of The Fusion Longhouse
has witnessed a great many Reality Shifts!

Truth be told, a single weekend doesn't allow us much time to unravel an entire lifetime (or many lifetimes) of confusion, perplexity and systematic indoctrination. In the old days, an undertaking of this nature could stretch over 25 years or more (much of it spent on ascetic practices and osmotic absorption of cellular wisdom from some venerable sage). But we are, for better or worse, living in the Digital Era, where compression (and decompression) technology has made it possible to pack several lifetimes of experience into a painless weekend (with healthy and tasty meals thrown in).

And while it's true that an entire week would be far more intensive and comprehensive, that's a luxury few of us can afford. Most of us (including myself) are bound by domestic and professional commitments that make setting aside an entire week extremely difficult, except under exceptional circumstances. So we must do what we can within the confines an extended weekend.

MOVING BEYOND DOUBT AND FAITH INTO DIRECT INNER KNOWING

"Core Essence" by Ravin Sikander
(acrylic on canvas 3' x 5')

In the brief but intensely compressed space of a single weekend you will experience full body-mind-soul immersion within a transformational vortex, a safe nonjudgmental space in which you can release and transmute societally ingrained beliefs and behaviors - especially those involving your own sexuality. This is an opportunity to integrate fresh inputs that will support your liberation from enslavement to an illusory system called The 3D Matrix.

You will begin to reclaim your unique individual sovereignty, molecular integrity and innate nobility - perhaps even befriend your own shadow self (your “Mr Hyde” side) - and reconnect with your core essence as a constantly evolving, wholeheartedly loving, human animal with a dynamic mix of diabolical and divine potentialities.

I co-facilitated the first MAGICKAL MYSTERY MASTERCLASS @ The Fusion Longhouse with Star Commander Darien Nagle in March 2019. The maximum intake was 10 participants and we actually had 9, but 3 canceled, leaving 6, which turned out to be just the right number (at least for that particular episode). Here are excerpts from the encouraging feedback we received from The Intrepid Fusion Timeship Crew (that's what I call the courageous humans who signed up for our maiden Masterclass):

"Keep up the good work. It’s very enlightening and mind boggling. More people should experience and hear about it. Great for networking with likeminded people. Great environment. Good food and unique accommodation with views upstairs where the cat also keeps you company at night. I had a great time. Thanks for making it memorable! 👍🏻👍🏻😬" ~ Roger Young

"Thank you again to Antares, Darien and all my fellow Crew members for a life-changing and enriching weekend. I'm keen to see which new frontiers this Ship will go to!" ~ Lukas Angelo Yap

"It was fun! The river magick! And fellow Timeship passengers joyous company 😘😘😘 and non-stop awesome great meals from the chef supremo Emanar! 🙏😘" ~ Lim Hean Beng

"After being in quite a few workshops and classes of the spiritual kind, I found that I was most nervous about this one but only because I knew in my heart there would be a significant shift when I left. I have to say my nervousness was arrested when I met everyone. I have never felt at ease quite so quickly as I have with everyone in this group including the teachers. I feel put back together and this is the shift I needed. So Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you from my heart ❤ I would also like to acknowledge Emanar for holding the space for all of us with her nurturing nature and feeding us with love. I am grateful to have had her with us." ~ Dawn Marie Ng

View of misty hills from the front deck of The Fusion Longhouse

"Dear Magickal Mystery Teachers (& Fellow Crew Members): I thank you from the bottom of my heart for an “out-of-this-world” class which is a huge milestone marker in my life. I learned new information & new practices that I can take home. I also appreciated the personalised feedback about myself & how I can move forward in my life. Most importantly, I had the opportunity to be with & observe 2 Master Teachers over a weekend & that had to be the most precious experience of all - that you are BOTH a living inspiration of what I can aspire to be. I feel honoured & humbled that I could participate." ~ A. M. Saniman

"Thanks, Darien and Antares, for the course. It was great! 👍🏻👍🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 And I am still astounded by the uniqueness of everyone involved. Love the Fusion Longhouse design - simple, elegant, nice artistic touches. I appreciate the healthy, clean, tasty and carefully prepared food from Emanar. It's extremely rare to meet people who are aligned, that share many uncommon personal interests and such usually taboo topics, etc, so it's great to have the fellowship. The informal talks we had among the participants and with Antares and Darien, the deep sharing and personal feedback were much needed to deal with my own issues and shadows, while learning from others' journeys too was great. These informal sessions were intimate, gloriously organic and one of a kind, while being thoroughly insightful and filled with so much knowledge and wisdom. That really made the course truly special and outstanding.  Ever since my journey started a year ago, I've been quietly observing and filtering many mystics and 'masters' whom I learned from a great deal. I have to honestly say that Antares is really up there among the wisest, definitely the wisest I've ever had the chance and honour to meet." ~ Yik Boon Tan

NOTE: Passengers on The Fusion Timeship are limited to TEN only. Download the e-brochure and registration form by clicking on the links!

Where Malaysia is headed (Part 1) [Originally posted April 2009]

Somebody pointedly asked a few days ago: WHERE IS MALAYSIA HEADING? My response is: if Umno/BN continue to hog the political stage (not to mention the public purse and the police force), we're headed straight for unmitigated disaster.

Rather than waste more energy whacking those scaly-skinned troglodytes (or tempurung dwellers) who cling like overfed, bloated ticks to power, I decided to start jotting down my thoughts on where I'd like to see this country headed.

It's going to be a many-layered, multidimensional, non-linear exercise in visionary thinking and there's no way I can cover sufficient ground with just one blogpost. So I'll make this the first of a series, to be written and uploaded as and when inspiration strikes. In between I shall be posting other material, including other people's work, whenever I stumble upon something that says more or less what's on my mind.

The most essential human quality that's grotesquely lacking in Malaysia (indeed, the whole world) appears to be HONESTY.

We would like our public servants to be honest - whether they happen to be a minister, an office clerk, or just a police constable. But how honest are we? I mean, really...

I have dear friends who are for the most part truly decent folk and as honest as humanly possible - yet they conceal trivial things from their parents.

One, for instance, has never smoked in front of his parents - though he's been a regular smoker for more than 40 years. Other friends never once revealed their own sexual preferences to their parents for fear of shocking them. So the old folks died wondering why their offspring never reproduced.

A few other friends confessed that their parents don't know they're actually cohabiting with their boyfriends. I had a friend once who dated a guy for five years before finding out the fellow was already married with 3 or 4 kids. She immediately ditched him and married a man of dubious character who already had two or three other wives - but that's a whole different story.


I've made a lifelong study of why humans become dishonest and the conclusion I've reached is extremely straightforward:

Humans lie mostly to avoid punishment - or to save others from pain.

The only way we can unlearn this deeply ingrained survival mechanism is to disinvent the punitive god who punishes the disobedient (or mutinous) and rewards the docile (or hypocritical).

Imagine, instead, a completely simpatico deity who's more like a trusted confidant(e). One who is totally aware of your little quirks and shortcomings - and loves you all the same without harsh judgment. Such an intimate friend can be relied upon to stick with you through thick and thin. However, if you abuse this trust by doing something terribly stupid and shortsighted - let's say you cheat this dear friend or tell ugly untruths about him or her - the only consequence would be the loss, temporary or permanent, of your cherished friendship, and that would be punishment enough.

There are specific instances when being honest is countersurvival and universal laws are supended: for instance, if you're traveling in a train and bandits come aboard to rob the passengers. You wouldn't be labeled "dishonest" if you failed to hand over the diamonds hidden inside your boots. Nor would you be required to reveal to the bandits that you just saw your traveling companion stuff a thick wad of currency notes inside her brassiere.


In effect, the more accommodating our fellow humans become, the more likely we are to become truly honest.

Here are some imaginary scenarios that graphically illustrate the tremendous benefits of rejecting and disabling the punitive deity program hardwired in our DNA from countless generations of hand-me-down erroneous data.

Let's say your 16-year-old daughter goes to a friend's birthday party. She's supposed to come home before midnight but doesn't show up till way past two in the morning. As a worried father, the programmed response would be to interrogate her sternly and demand to know where she has been and what she has been doing and with whom. What if your daughter is innately honest and simply says: "I know I was supposed to get back at midnight, dad, I'm sorry to be so late. But I met a really goodlooking guy named Joe, he's about 20, and he suggested I go for a drive in his new car. We had such a great time talking and looking at the stars from the hilltop, neither of us remembered to look at our watches. Suddenly it was 2:00AM and he drove like the wind to deliver me safely back to my doorstep. He told me to apologize to my parents on his behalf for bringing me home so late, and he would really like to take me out again next Friday."

An enlightened father would take a deep breath, sigh, and smile. He might mutter: "Well, you got me really worried, you know. Next time you do something like this, at least send me an SMS before turning off your cellphone!" It's always a shock to realize your baby has grown up, and is ready to do adult things.

However, an unenlightened father would slap his daughter around and threaten her with the wrath of god, thereby forcing her to become a compulsive liar and a sneak. You can bet your last dollar all the lying politicians in our midst had fathers who were in the habit of slapping, caning or humiliating them for every minor transgression.

Let's see how problems easily resolve themselves as soon as HONESTY is brought to bear on the issue...

The biggest problem I can think of right now is that Malaysia is saddled with a crime minister instead of a prime minister.

Allow me to take on for a moment the role of God (I've had lots of practice and it comes natural to me). One morning, the crime minister gets up after a sleepless night in a cold sweat and decides to pray to me. Because I can sense he is sincere in pleading for some sound advice, I decide to manifest in human form in his bedroom.

The crime minister is stunned. "Dear G-g-g-god," he stutters. "Forgive me, please forgive me for never having actually believed in you... till NOW!"

"It's okay, Pink Lips, you aren't the only one!" I chuckle benignly, patting him on his bald pate. "If I had a dollar for every human who only pretends to believe in me, I'd be billionaire several times over. Not that I'd know what to do with all that cash."

The crime minister is silent and contrite. Obviously, he's unaccustomed to conversing with God.

"So... what's the problem, kiddo?" I enquire gently, though I already know what's troubling the poor rascal.

"I-I-I... I've been a very b=b-b-bad boy," he begins. "Done so many terrible things. I know I'm not f-f-f-fit to be leader of this country...."

"Well, it's a good start you're admitting to this. Where's that witchy wife of yours?"

"Oh, er... she's... she's in the bathroom.... stomach upset... be out in a minute, I think."

"Well, let's wait for her," I suggest, "since the worst of your really serious problems began when you met and mated with her."

The crime minister's wife emerges from the bathroom and screams.

"Who the hell is that?" she quizzes her trembling spouse more in anger than in shock.

"Er... er... you won't believe this, honey... but it's God... it's really God! I asked for help... but didn't expect him to show up so soon!"

"We don't need his help!" the witchy wife shrieks. "Tell him to leave at once or we'll get Khalid to deal with him!"

"I don't know how he can live with someone as uncouth as you," I say quietly.

"Listen, you!" the witch shrills, approaching me with her chubby arms akimbo.

"Shut the fuck up, bitch, and plonk your fat arse on the bed... right now!" I order.

Her eyes widen in horror and for a moment she is struck dumb. Whimpering audibly, she obeys, casting an anxious glance at her husband who, at this moment, does not at all resemble a real crime minister. Indeed, he looks just like a fat choir boy who's been caught wanking behind the altar.

[to be continued... first posted 12 April 2009, reposted 12 April 2013]

Some funky indie music videos for your weekend viewing (repost)...

That Effing Show Crew (Malaysia)


Swami Baracus (UK)


Ze! (Malaysia)


Bettina D'Mello (Germany)


Airport Radio (Indonesia)


Up Dharma Down (The Philippines)

Thanks to digital tech and YouTube, indie bands the world over (including Malaysia) can now create funky music videos on hardly any budget and still reach a global audience. I found these well crafted music videos produced by the MTV generation invigorating and very watchable. You're doing a great job of claiming your planet, all of you!

[Cheers, Free Malaysia Today, for alerting me to these cool vids! First posted 8 June 2012, reposted 17 April 2015]

Kevin Ayers, Meet The Whole World! (reposting a special tribute originally published 20 June 2007)

May I? - KEVIN AYERS & THE WHOLE WORLD (featuring Mike Oldfield on bass and Lol Coxhill on soprano sax)


Way back in 1971 or thereabouts I found an LP called Shooting at the Moon by Kevin Ayers and the Whole World. It was in the cheap bin (I remember paying something like 5 bucks for it!). When I put the record on back home, I was immediately hooked on Ayers' totally laid-back, basso profundo singing style, especially on a song called "May I?" A couple of hours ago I stumbled on this video clip on YouTube, featuring the original Kevin Ayers and the Whole World line-up, including the legendary Mike Oldfield on bass, and Lol Coxhill on soprano sax. Treasure to share!

I figure not too many are familiar with this great singer-songwriter who was truly a pioneer in his day, forming mythical bands like Soft Machine and hanging out with the likes of Daevid Allen of Gong. So here's an interview with Kevin Ayers I unearthed, slightly dated but it gives a pretty good overview of the man's work.

THE KEVIN AYERS INTERVIEW
by Jimmy James (May 1998)

As bassist, frequent songwriter, and occasional vocalist in the original Soft Machine, Kevin Ayers was a key force in early British psychedelia and progressive rock. In just two years the group had evolved from the goofy, effervescent psychedelic pop of their 1967 debut single "Love Makes Sweet Music"/"Feelin' Reelin' Squealin'" to the dada jazz-rock minimalism of Ayers' infamous "We Did It Again." After the Soft Machine opened for the Jimi Hendrix Experience across the States in 1968 and recorded their first studio album, Ayers left the group to establish a long-running solo career with more pop-oriented material, delivered in a witty, near-bass profundo voice.

On most of his albums he explored the little-trod midpoint between weird pop and the most accessible, humorous face of prog-rock, crafting bouncy songs of indolence and whimsy that often tapped island rhythms. Leading British experimental musicians like Lol Coxhill, David Bedford, and a pre-Tubular Bells Mike Oldfield passed through his band while he veered between sunnier variations of Syd Barrett and dissonant experimental jams. He never did land a hit album or single in Britain, despite issuing numerous LPs on Harvest, and in the US he was a definitive '70s cult artist. He's only recorded sporadically in the 1980s and 1990s, with his more recent efforts even harder to locate in the import bins than his early solo material.

Now 63, Ayers made a rare visit to the States to play a few gigs in California in May 1998. Backed by the SF band Mushroom at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, he was in merry form as he went through a set of some of his more well-known vintage tunes, such as "Lady Rachel," "Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes," as well as the Soft Machine cuts "Why Are We Sleeping?" and "Save Yourself." Before soundcheck he found a few minutes to talk about the Canterbury scene with a few local fans and writers.

Q: What was unique about the Canterbury scene?

KA: Mike Ratledge from the Soft Machine had a degree in Oxford University in philosophy at 22. I mean, he won a scholarship and then said, fuck that, I'm going to play the organ. This was unique in pop. You don't find many people with honor degrees playing pop, even from that kind of literary background. Normally it was sort of art school. England is so defined, the class system, your education. I think what was unique about the Canterbury scene...these were all middle-class kids from literary backgrounds, joining this sort of train going by, this pop train, jumping on. Whereas the rest of the rock scene, you'll find that there's mostly working-class people.

Q: Did you have a similar kind of literary upbringing to Robert Wyatt?

KA: Not from my parents, no. Robert had his from his parents, 'cause his parents were middle-class intellectuals. I was brought up in Malaya. But that is the difference, that this was the first time that anybody from the middle class, well-educated, joined the pop scene. This was comfortable kids who went to university.

Q: I'm surprised you call it pop.

KA: Well, I don't know, what else would you call it? Plop? (laughs) The whole thing about Soft Machine was that it had all these people from, as I said, middle-class literary educated backgrounds, suddenly going "fuck it, I'm not going to join med school, I'm not going to become a lawyer or a doctor. I'm not going to be a professional." And this hadn't happened anywhere else in pop. That's why the Canterbury scene was unique, because that is what happened there.

Q: You started off in the Wilde Flowers, then you showed up in Majorca to find Daevid Allen to put the band together. What made you go find him?

KA: Daevid Allen was the first hippie that I'd met. He was straight out of the beat scene, and he was very convincing (laughs). He read a lot. He was articulate. He turned us on, Robert and me and Mike, to all this - especially American - beat literature. And we suddenly thought, wow...you have to imagine, just out of an English private school, and suddenly you get this sort of exotic person coming through, who says, "fuck this, fuck that. Smoke pot, read this." He actually had something to say, he actually had a viewpoint. I suppose everybody else had no idea. All these people just came out of school, sort of wandering around in the job market, "what do I do now"- suddenly Daevid Allen's going, "Smoke pot now, peace love and fuck your neighbor." That was something. As opposed to nothing.

Q: Is that hippie ethic something that still motivates you?

KA: I think that the basic philosophy was very good. It was just be nice to each other, and don't step on other people's toes and infringe on their freedom. I think that's still valid. It just made sense, especially when... I keep talking to you about English schools. Unless you've been to one, you have no idea how bad they are. I mean, you just would not believe them. You only start learning when you leave school.

Q: The Soft Machine had a whimsical feel. Was that influenced by your literary background?

KA: We just had different references. We had literary references, so we knew what we were talking about. We could quote things, talk about books we'd read; you can say something, you don't have to explain it. If you have the same background, it doesn't matter which school you've been to, if you've read the books, have the knowledge, and you have the intellectual curiosity, you can talk to anybody who has the same thing, and you know what you're talking about. So you relate that way.

The music we made then was so amateurish, compared to the rest of mainstream pop or rock and roll. But what differentiated us from what everybody else was doing in the business was the fact that you could tell that these people came from different reference areas. They'd read different books. So we actually got away with making a lot of crap. I don't mean crap - I mean that it wasn't professionally as good as what other people were doing. Other people had much better sound, and they had good producers. We worked alongside the Pink Floyd, we played gigs together, and we suddenly saw them go, whooosh!! with huge sales. But we were just dancing in the dark. There were groundbreaking ideas, musically and intellectually. Post-war generation asking serious questions.

Q: When you made your first solo record, you were obviously still on good terms with the Soft Machine, since they play on a lot of it.

KA: It was family for me - the only family I knew. We all lived together in one house.

Q: When you went solo, was it because you wanted to play and write different material than what the Soft Machine were doing on their first album?

KA: Soft Machine were going more in the direction of fusion jazz and I didn't like that. They were going more in the direction of jazz, which didn't interest me. I was strictly pop. They were into what I consider really to be incredibly self-indulgent music. It's stuff you play for yourself, and "fuck the audience."

Q: What about playing "We Did It Again" for half an hour for Brigitte Bardot?

KA: That's a serious statement. I think she said to get those wankers off or something.

Q: In an interview you said all your songs, except for a few romantic ones, were pataphysical. Where did you come across pataphysics?

KA: I think that was just a literary thing. The fact that you actually string a few sentences together was important in those days. Soft Machine became famous in France before anything else happened. They adopted us. The French like arty things, they like something a little bit different. In fact, what made Soft Machine was an article in Nouvelle Observateur, which at that time was a very... in those days, things like Melody Maker and NME, it mattered then. If someone wrote something about you, it could make or break you. Now it doesn't matter at all. We got written up, I think, 'cause Mike was fucking the journalist, actually. So we got a good review, and that was it. Suddenly France just opened up. We were the darlings of the literary scene there.

Q: Who were your main literary or formative influences?

KA: Philosophically, the only person that influenced me was Gurdjieff. What he said made sense to me. What I really liked about him was, he was a total charlatan. He didn't make any bones about it. His thing was that you cannot present the truth to people in simple form. You have to elaborate. Otherwise they're not interested. Did you ever read his book? It's just bullshit, absolute bullshit. But he says, you have to write 100 pages to say one sentence, to make it interesting for people. Otherwise they won't accept it as real. You have to say a lot in order to get a little across.

Q: Are you still inspired by things like that when you write?

KA: It's still there. I mean, I still think he was absolutely right. His two premises were, you have to say a lot to get a little across. you have to excite people. The other thing was, we're only working at five percent of our potential, which made total sense. What I loved about him... he came to America, you know, and he was very good at raising money. One of the things he did here was, he was in New York, he invited a bunch of people, saying, "this is the time of your life." And he made them have sex, and charged them a lot of money for it. And they were saying, "Wow, thank you, this is the best night of our lives." He just talked dirty to them, so they all had sex with each other and [said] "wow, this is so good," and they gave him thousands of dollars. What he did was say, "Look, this is what you really want to do. I'll organize it. Just give me the money."

Q: When do you think you most fully realized your own potential with your music?

KA: I don't think I can answer that. It's hypothetical, one will never know. I mean, some days you wake up and you think, Jesus, I could be a really good comedian. Then half an hour later, you forget the idea. People who really want to make money in this world make it. You have to have tunnel vision. You have to say, this is what I want to do. I believe that. If you wanted to make money, you would make it.

Don't you ever wake up in the morning and think, geez, I could really do with a lot of money? You think, I have a brain, I could use it, I could actually do this, I could play the stock market, I could be a televangelist or something. You could actually do it if you really wanted to do it. But you would have to really want to it. So basically you wake up in the morning and say, "oh, I don't really want to do anything."

Q: Is commercial success something you still aspire towards?

KA: No no no. It's all been a total fluke. I would have liked to have made more money, 'cause I think everybody has a creative period, normally between about 19 and 30. That is the time when you have to establish yourself in life. If you haven't made it by the time you're thirty, you never will, basically. Okay, forty (laughs). If you wind up forty and you don't have a house and a car and life insurance and health insurance, you know, you're fucked.

Q: Was it frustrating for you not to have much success in the States?

KA: I didn't really have that much exposure here. It would have been good. Basically the idea is to make a bunch of money with the creative talents you have before you're forty. I'm not answering your question, am I? This is the underlying thing, this is what is behind it. Whatever it takes, whether it's America or Holland, I don't know, it doesn't matter. You have a certain window in your life where you're intellectually curious, you have energy, and you're not blase, and you're not tired of life. That's when you have to do it. That still doesn't answer your question. It does, actually, really.

Q: You're talking about hitting thirty - were you conscious of the British underground that had started around '67 losing momentum around that time?

KA: You only become conscious of things that you have things to compare them to. You can't make assessments if you don't have something to compare them to. I think that what happened with post-war society - suddenly young people were going, we don't like what our parents are doing. We don't like war. The war was over, people had money, and they had time. It was like a one-off. My youngest daughter says to me, geez dad, I wish I'd lived in the sixties. I know what she means, because there was a whole bunch of stuff happening. People were pre-video and people read books in those days, and talked to each other. It was a unique time. In fact, if you check the history of human beings, you'll find it's the only time that young people ever got up and had any effect at all. What happened was that the establishment moved in and discredited them - "they're hippies, they don't wash, they smoke pot." But there were huge advances in human rights and basic freedoms. It never happened in the history of man, never.

Q: Are you going to do more stuff with the people you worked with in the Canterbury scene?

KA: No.

Q: Do you communicate with them?

KA: No, I don't know where they are these days. It's very sad, 'cause we were very close to start with. That's okay, it happens to the best of lovers.

[Reposted 21 February 2013 & 6 October 2014]






Kevin Ayers, founder of Soft Machine, has died aged 68
By Alice Vincent

Kevin Ayers, an influential musician in the Sixties psychedelic scene, has died aged 68. The English singer-songwriter was found dead at his home, where he lived alone, in the South of France around lunchtime on Tuesday by a neighbor. It is thought he died on February 18, 2013.

Bernard MacMahon, from Ayers's record label Lo-Max Records, told the Telegraph that the musician had not been ill, but had "lived a rock'n'roll lifestyle." A note was found by his bed which said, “You can’t shine if you don’t burn.”

MacMahon said that Ayers was “the ultimate product of the Sixties generation,” and that he was a “proper artist,” not motivated by the prospect of fame, but by a “turmoil to create something he was happy with”.

Ayers founded Soft Machine and played early gigs with Syd Barrett's band Pink Floyd in the Sixties, paving the way for a wave of psychedelic pop music. Soft Machine's self-titled debut album is considered a psychedelic classic, and music critic Nick Kent said that Ayers and Barrett "were the two most important people in British Pop music. Everything that came after came from them."

When Jimi Hendrix moved to London in 1968 he became good friends with Ayers. Hendrix encouraged Ayers to write music, giving him a Gibson guitar to do so, and the two musicians toured America together that year.

In 1970, Soft Machine made history by being the first band invited to play at the Proms. Ayers’s first solo album, Joy of the Toy, was very influential for future rock bands Sonic Youth and Teenage Fanclub. He went on to write music with Brian Eno and Elton John, before retiring for 15 years in the 1990s, when he moved to the South of France. In 2007, Ayers released critically acclaimed album The Unfairground, but was reluctant to perform.

Mike Rayburn ~ a totally inspiring local universe problem solver!

Published on 22 Apr 2012
For more videos go to http://www.mikerayburn.com/videos.html.

Hall of Fame Speaker, Virtuoso Guitarist and Comedian, Mike Rayburn performs his hilarious, motivational "What If?" keynote. Setting big goals, peak performance; opening or closing events, churches, theaters - mailto:mike@mikerayburn.com

[Brought to my delighted attention by Hock Soh. First posted 15 August 2014]

David Icke on the Archons ~ 1:40 interview with Jo Conrad (repost)

Published on 19 June 2012

Jo Conrad interviews David Icke about the manipulation of humankind, reptilian influence and the awakening of human consciousness....

[Brought to my attention by Julia Reuter. First posted 2 August 2014]

Don't bother sending your kids to college, just show them these videos!

[Courtesy of KilluminatiTheMovie]

"The Ancients" knew much more than given credit for regarding Life, The Universe, Astronomy, Advanced Mathematics, Magnetism, Healing, Unseen Forces, etc.

Encoded knowledge is information that is conveyed in signs and symbols and we can find this knowledge all over the world. All these ancient sightings and geometric patterns (Sacred Geometry) symbolize unseen forces at work. We are being lied to by the media. Modern archaeologists don't know what they're talking about. "The Ancients" were not stupid or primitive. We just failed to decode this knowledge conveyed in signs, symbols and ancient artwork. This kind of information is kept hidden from the public.

Scientists dont know what holds the universe together: the answer is sound and unseen forces. Matter is governed by sound frequencies. There is much more to life than we can perceive with our 5 senses. The question then becomes "Who or what governs unseen forces?" What is behind the symmetry throughout nature? (Golden Ratio, Phi, Fibonacci Sequence etc.) It simply can't be just coincidence. In my opinion there is an intelligent mind/consciousness behind all this that keeps it all together.

[Brought to my attention by Lawrence Hultberg. First posted 28 July 2012]

A Concise Adamic History (revisited)

WHY THE SERPENT IS THE EMBLEM OF THE HOUSE OF ENKI

A long, long time ago (in a galaxy not so far away - in fact, in the Milky Way itself), there was a "rebellion" amongst the Archangelic Host, as a result of which certain Aspects of the All-Being One "separated" from Source and began an experimental evolutionary spiral which eventually led them into the Metatronic Waveform Universe (where geometric structures, i.e. forms, take on a significance of their own).

Over countless aeons, these "Sons of God" (or, rather, SUNS of God) came to be known collectively as the Hosts of Lucifer - the Most Brilliant Lieutenant of the Most High.

Anyway, to fast-forward a little.... out of these so-called Luciferic Intelligences many technically proficient races evolved, and they began to colonize and inhabit suitable planets in various star systems. As they gained mastery over the elements and ways to apply their arcane knowledge, there was a corresponding loss of ability to FEEL. Cold logic gradually replaced the warmth of love pure and simple in these worlds.

Some of these technology-using races, like the Nibiruans (who had modified an entire planet into a bionic starship) eventually found themselves with serious environmental and atmospheric problems. Of course, they came up with a scientific solution: they needed gold particles to build a radiation shield around Nibiru. Lots and lots of gold particles - which their geological surveys found in abundance on the 7th planet (counting towards the Sun from Pluto) - which they called Ki (Firm Lands). Later Ki became Ge, and then Gaia-Terra, and so on.

And so about 440,000 years ago, Anu the God-King of Nibiru despatched his quarrelsome sons Ea and Enlil to Ki - their mission was to establish a base on this mineral-rich planet and dig for precious metals. Enlil (Lord of the Winds) was in charge of the orbiting station, while Ea (Lord of the Waters) landed on Ki to begin exploring and exploiting her mineral resources. Once the first Nibiruan Earth base - Eridu - had been established, Ea became known as Enki (Lord of the Firm Lands) while Ki became identified with Eridu (Erde/Eretz/Aratha/Earth) - the Sumerian word for "cultivated land."

More Nibiruans arrived on Ki - and they became known in Sumerian as the Anunnaki (Those Who From Heaven To Ki Descended), and in Hebrew as the Nefilim (Those Who Descended From The Sky).

For 144,000 Earth Years they toiled (1 Nibiruan Year = 3,600 Earth Years, so it was actually only 40 years to the Anunnaki) - until the atmosphere and magnetic field of the planet made them feel disgruntled and dissatisfied with their lot (this is the origin of the Greek myth of the Lotos-Eaters, retold in Tennyson's poem). The Anunnaki miners went on strike - and Enlil and Enki got into a huge argument about what to do.

Enlil was all for punishing the "mutineers" while Enki sympathized with his workers. He knew what a tough job theirs was. Finally, their half-sister Ninhursag had to intervene. She was a brilliant geneticist and healer, and she remembered that on some other colonies, android workers had been successfully created to perform menial tasks. At this, Enki's eyes lit up. He had spent a great deal of time studying the flora and fauna on Ki - and he had been observing a simian species that was well on its way to becoming hominid. Perhaps they could be genetically modified.....?

After repeated attempts, Enki and Ninhursag finally created the first Adama - an ape-angel hybrid. Fallen angels though they be, the space-orbiting Nibiruans - known as the Igigi or Watchers - who occasionally landed on Earth were described as Angels or God's Emissaries in the scriptures.

At first the Adama was sterile and was cloned in batches, a tedious process indeed. Eventually, Enki and Ninhursag came up with a self-reproducing model - and, voila! they had created our ancestors, Adam and Eve!

To the first humans, of course, the Anunnaki were literally Gods, Makers. In Hebrew the word God is usually the plural form Elohim (from which the Arabic form of Allah derives) - only much later did the "gods" divide up the colonized Earth into tribal zones - each tribe being subservient to a single, "jealous" God - like Abraham's Yahweh or Jehovah (known to the Greeks as Zeus and to the Romans as Jove or Jupiter).

Again, we must fast-forward to a period when the rival gods Enki and Enlil each had their own children, who unfortunately inherited their fathers' intense sibling rivalry. Enki was of somewhat different lineage from his half-brother Enlil (a full-blooded Nibiruan with "angelic" golden locks). Anu had taken a subsidiary wife named Id (or Ida) on Earth from amongst an ancient star tribe known as the Snake People. They were a subterranean species, dwelling in complex underground cities in the 4th Dimension and working with electromagnetic fields and crystals.

From this union Enki was born, and although he arrived before his half-brother Enlil, the latter took precedence in the Nibiruan succession because Enlil's mother Antu was Anu's half-sister (this genetic tradition was subsequently practised amongst the royal families of Akkadia, Babylon, Mitanni, Egypt and Assyria, and even amongst the Inca and Azteca). Anyway, these Sky Gods had countless offspring with their own kind as well as with the Lulus (a pet name for the domestic worker race evolved from the prototype Adama slave-android).

Enki, Lord of the Firm Lands, took on his mother's family emblem, the Serpent. Enlil, Lord of the Winds, had as his emblem, the Eagle.

Enki had four sons who were candidates for his dynastic succession: Ningishzidda (whose mother was of the Snake Race), Marduk, Nergal, and Dumuzi (or Tammuz). It was Marduk whose overweening ambition and arrogance made him vie for the Rulership of Egypt against his elder brother Ningishzidda. (In Egypt Marduk called himself RA and Ningishzidda was THOTH, god of scribes and esoteric wisdom). Not satisfied with being the Overlord of Egypt, Ra/Marduk plotted against the sons of Enlil and before long there were horrendous wars amongst the divine rulers of the entire planet - culminating in a nuclear attack on the Anunnaki spaceport in the Sinai Peninsula which caused untold havoc and misery for centuries - and which accounts for the arid conditions throughout the Middle East.

Once, and once only, Marduk was nearly destroyed when Enlil's granddaughter Inanna trapped him in the Ekur (the Great Pyramid) and ordered that he be buried alive. But after a while the Elder gods relented and released Marduk. From that moment Marduk became a fanatical Goddess-hater (his rise to power marked the beginning of a New Patriarchal Era wherein women were mercilessly oppressed, raped, and burnt as "witches").

Ra became known as Amen-Ra (Ra the Unseen) and relocated to Babylon where, as Marduk, he claimed supremacy over all the other gods, declaring war even against his own grandfather Anu. Such was Marduk's ruthlessness and singleminded will to rule that he eventually prevailed, causing Anu and Antu to flee Nibiru, which Marduk then captured and turned into a "Death Star" which enabled him to take virtual control of the Pleiades (of which our Solar System is part).

Today, Marduk has insinuated his influence into every facet of corporate existence - for he feeds on the negative emotional discharge of humans. FEAR, GUILT, ANXIETY, HATE, VIOLENCE, PAIN, WORRY, MISERY are Marduk's staple diet. As the masses of humanity succumb to a feeling of helplessness or powerlessness, Marduk's legions are thereby strengthened. The strength of the tyrant comes from the life force of his followers, which he sucks vampire-like from them via seemingly "legal" means.

In the old days, Marduk manipulated through brute force and raw terror. These days, he uses Advertising, PR, and his absolute control of Mass Media to achieve his ends... except in some countries (we don't have to name), where Marduk's principle of MIGHT IS RIGHT still manifests on the crude level of brute force.

Please bear in mind that 'Marduk' is an Archetype - a general principle that can operate through any number of willing or unwilling, conscious or unconscious human agents. Marduk's domains are ideological. He rules all the world's financial, military, academic and religious institutions (which includes, of course, the chief religion of our time, Mammonism - the worship of Money).

Through his vassal princes - the media moguls (including one named Murdoch) - Marduk has almost absolute control of the planet's mass communications systems - and therefore humanity's collective unconscious, the Matrix of Apparent Reality in which we enact our petty melodramas.

However, the Internet - thank Goodness - is still more or less uncontrollable (despite Echelon - an electronic surveillance system programmed to police the Information Superhighway). And remember: so long as we accept full responsibility for the way we experience and interpret the sensory data we call Reality, no one can hijack our higher evolutionary destiny. Not for long, in any case!


[Here's a badly written but informative essay on our extraterrestrial origins. First posted 19 January 2007]