Sci-Fi Meets Reality.. or Schizophrenia?

A booming New Age conspiracy culture can't survive without a few political assassinations. Kids these days seem to love nothing more than exposing inside jobs committed against their heroes-especially those of the pop-idol persuasion. But it's not some crazy stoners who take the cake for the most left-field assassination theory this time!

Back in 1980, Steve Lightfoot, a now 55 year old man from California started his own passionate investigation into the murder of John Lennon. Convinced that the public had been seriously dooped about the events leading up to Lennon's death, Lightfoot started his own campain and website (lennonmurdertruth.com) which claims to provide some evidence on the "REAL killer" in the John Lennon case. So who IS the REAL KILLER? Are you ready?......OBVIOUSLY STEPHEN KING. Ya, that's right...horror/sci-fi fiction writer Stephen King. Admittedly, once you start poking around into this theory, you realize it's going to take a while...

Lightfoot believes that Lennon's murder was a carefully planned assassination carried out by Ronald Reagan, President Nixon and... Stephen King. According to his theory, the night of the murder, King was swapped for decoy Mark David Chapman (the man incarcerated) who, he points out, looks eerily similar to King.

Who is this crazy old man and how did he come to believe this? Well, his supposed discovery came first from the facial resemblance between King and the last man to get Lennon's autograph (pictured above).

Lightfoot also points to 1980s newspaper headlines which describe the murder scene as "One great big zippo lighter"- a line from King's 1980 horror/sci-fi novel 'Firestarter.'

All the peculiarities of Chapman's arrest aside, Lightfoot points to supposed government codes in the media and to King's own words as evidence- he hi-lights quotes like this one from King's 1983 interview with Playboy:

KING: "Writing is necessary for my sanity...All the rage and hate and frustration, all that's dangerous and foul and sick within me, I'm able to spew out into my work..."

PLAYBOY: "Where do you think you'd be today without your writing talent?"

KING: "I might very well have ended up there in the Texas tower with Charlie Whitman, working out my demons with a high-powered telescopic rifle instead of a word processor. I mean I know that guy Whitman. My writing has kept me out of that tower."

WHOA..ok. A little creepy maybe?

So there's the facial resemblance, the creepy and candid admissions of morbidity and various references to political assassination in King's fiction...Is Lightfoot just insane?


NASA SECRETS

I've returned from hiding out in the northern wilderness to share some important and fairly recent news on the NASA conspiracy.

At a National Press Club conference called by the Paradigm Research Group (PRG), Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell (the 6th man to ever walk on the moon) announced his conviction that earth is being "visited."

Mitchell grew up in Roswell Mexico at the time of the famous 1947 UFO crash incident which he says started the American government's cover-up program which has persisted for about 60 years.

It is nearly common knowledge that we have now identified a number of planetary bodies that are likely inhabited (see Enceladus below).

A number of NASA astronauts have been threatened by "spooks" to keep their stories secret.

Around the world however, many other governments have started opening up- Belgium, France, Brazil, Mexico and England have declassified mysterious files. The Catholic Church has even made statements declaring that belief in UFOs does not compromise religiosity. Whether NASA will follow suit, we'll have to wait and see.

The Paradigm Research Group claims to have substantial evidence of alien encounters and gave something of an ultimatum for the government to talk this year- or else- they said they would reveal their evidence.

When asked to describe these extraterrestrials, Mitchell says they are like small people with strange facial features. He assures us that their intentions are peaceful-otherwise, he says, we would not be here today.

Mitchell's message to the world: "We are really universal beings" and it is time to understand our role accordingly.

In the words of a good friend- namaste Ed.

Life on Enceladus?

***Weekly astronomical update***

In February of this year, Carolyn Porco of the Cassini mission to Saturn announced that there is good reason to think that Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons (pictured above), may be hiding an ocean under it's surface capable of necessitating extraterrestrial life! This theory has been drawn largely from the discovery of salt water ice crystals which are said to contain the chemical energy and compounds needed for life.

In Greek mythology, Enceladus was a child of Gaia (Earth) with limbs that resembled a dragon-like water serpent.

Most likely inhabitants?
...sea monsters of course.

True Blood Brothas

I'd like to devote this post to my favourite of supernatural beings and my latest obsession-vamps. As teenagers, we all secretly wish for a sexy vampire to show up in the woods behind our mansion (or greasy spoon diner) and hypnotize us into falling in love with them-and then demand that we leave them alone. Well, now you can live out your s&m fantasies vicariously through one of the latest celebrity vamps or their love victims!!

In True Blood (based on Charlaine Harris' 'Southern Vampire Mysteries') Anna Paquin (go Winnipeg!) plays Sookie Stackhouse-perky small town waitress with telepathic powers and the love interest of vampire Bill Compton. An imitation blood drink has been invented to keep the thirsty minority vamp population under control, but they remain an oppressed sub-group in society fighting for equal rights and mainstream tolerance.

In the beginning, I wasn't sure if I was suppose to take this show seriously..the intro is amazing- but something about a bunch of young waitresses in daisy dukes living on a trailer park, running around the forest looking for vampires really screams cheesy thrasher movie...In fact, you can almost predict the order in which people will be killed based on their level of skanky-ness.

But don't be fooled...you will get hooked. Just wait until the vamp blood is being traded on the black market as viagra!

Wait a minute... telepathic waitress with a creepy boss getting pulled into the dark underworld...? It's almost as if someone was sniffing around my diary...

But the award for *best fang-banger* goes to Kristen Stewart (a.k.a. Bella) from my new favourite movie -Twilight (thanks for the addiction Kate). It may be that Bella's character is more natural..more believable, therefore allowing me to more easily pretend to be her. It may be the suspense, the special effects or dreamy co-star Robert Pattinson. Whatever it is, I am officially in the Twilight zone.

How To Disguise Your Cult #1

Some of you (thousands of readers!) may remember back when I wrote a few articles trying to inform the public about the Church of Scientology-

well I received some angry messages claiming that I was bashing a religion out of ignorance and now I'm afraid that someone is going to proclaim me a 'suppressive person' (an "antisocial" whose behaviour is "disastrous") and destroy me. Lucky that my bank balance is at $-5, so they can't get me there!

Anyways, I've thought a lot about what exactly terrifies me about this new movement of some (supposed) million people. At first I thought it was the use of non-professional psychological methods as 'religious ritual.' But I wouldn't want to claim that (potential) alternative healing methods (whether accepted by the APA or not) should never be considered a spiritual exercise. Mind you, no one should be misled into paying thousands of dollars for these methods.

No- It's the fact that they're not even TRYING to hide!

TOP 3 WAYS TO DISGUISE YOUR CULT

1. Try not to be responsible for mysterious and avoidable deaths.

2. Maybe don't market your 'religious' services at the carnival-
it will only make me associate your cult with the absurd EVEN MORE.

(I had some dianetics done on me last summer right after the tilt-a-whirl when I was hangin with my homegirls at the Toronto Exhibition. This guy who looked like a robot fiddled around with his alarm clock and told me I was completely stressed out and I needed to purchase Hubbard's book on dianetics. But I was clearly having a blast. FAIL for dianetics.

3. You probably should not sue into bankruptcy and then monopolize the only active cult watch group in the country. It makes you look creepy.

...MORE TIPS TO COME

Life in the abstract

During the last few years of my relentless struggle to finish a philosophy degree, I've had the unexpected pleasure of knowing and arguing with so many thoughtful characters who are, for the most part, excited to be philosophers.

But at the same time, there's no denying the nagging of skeptics who say philosophy is too abstract...too spacey-the ones who keep warning me to give business school a chance- Because after all, let's face it- I'm never going to find a respectable career or make any money as a philosopher (what am I going to do with my degree?...maybe try to understand the universe OK..!??).

As draining as this has been, I still believe there is something fundamental happening in the world of the abstract...something beyond science...a new consciousness that will save us all (even you). And this is where the mystery comes in- How can we define knowledge and belief against one another? It seems presumptuous even to define the 'natural' and 'supernatural.' How do narratives of the supernatural or paranormal type penetrate everyday storytelling? The more we know- the more we know we don't know. There doesn't really seem to be a place for hardcore skepticism anymore- and like many others...

I WANT to believe.