I don't know about you, but TV was very important to me growing up.
There were programmes I loved with a passion, ones that made me feel alive & seemed to understand my desire for adventure. My home life was very strange - an often grey time that I could not understand & made no sense. So I frequently slipped into TV & later books as a means to find life.
In the last few years my world has turned upside-down & that's fine, because I can no longer live well in the right-side up world. However my posts on Twinsel Town & Pete Duel brought home to me the hyper-fabrication of the world of programming that we call entertainment. I have found myself both sad & angry at the need to re-see & release what were once much loved 'friends'. Furthermore I'm wondering just how much of an effect our programmed childhoods had on us. I mean for one thing - it is all lies - it's not real & never was - actors are not the people they play, the stories are not real, the words are someone else's. It's a conglomeration of many people shaped & dandied into a mighty delusion, and while we may have 'known' it wasn't real, did our subconscious?
I have to wonder why entertainment has become so huge. My son said to me once it was because life is just not that exciting & then I wondered, "Is there a reason why our lives are dull & choked with monotony" - could it be to drive us into the arms of the 'dream world'? Seeing the depth of the awakening at least among some people I have to wonder what the world would look like now if 'dreamervision' did not programme the populace on a nightly basis.
The word entertain popped into the English language on a sunny day in 1475, it's job description being "to keep up, maintain" & it has done it's job very well indeed. It not only keeps the wheels of the Western world well & truly oiled, it's also managed to get a job in the driving seat as well as being chief navigator - should you get lost in life just look to a celebrity to lead the way.
So what were the reel reasons behind movies & TV.
Were they the natural progression of a technologically advancing(?) civilisation or were they a carefully designed programme made to slot into the minds & dreams of a traumatised world? Had humanity been ripened for a form of mind control by the 1930's? Had the 'Great War' & then the 'Great Depression' primed consciousness so much that it was ready to 'receive' the baptism of Holy-Wood?
"In the 1930's the motion pictures were the most important entertainment of The Great Depression. Everyone was going to the theaters for some entertainment. During the depths of the Depression in the early thirties an average of 60 million to 75 million movie tickets were bought each week. For a long time during The Great Depression movies were an escape from the Depression's reality. You might have an extra dime one day, so you'd go to the movies. While the reality of the Depression seemed inescapable, this short trip to a faraway land was the thing to do."
"Cinemas became temples of escapism, fabulous buildings with fabulous names built in the opulent style of the palaces of old, all marble and statues and grand entrances."
While trawling my local library a little while ago, I found a book about Blockbuster Movies dating back to 1930 (with one 'hit' movie per year featured). The first three blockbusters presented surprised me - I guess I was expecting some cutesy or romantic type movies - instead we have a smorgasbord of horror-thrillers.
1930 summoned in Dracula, 1931 saw Frankenstein dropping by for tea & King Kong knocked the whole bloody house down in 1932.
While we may laugh now, nurses were on standby for Dracula & Frankenstein, the latter 'had it's original audiences screaming & fainting in large numbers." A double-bill of these two movies was marketed to the public as 'We dare you to see it' & ambulances were parked outside cinemas on standby.
"It was in the early 1930s that American film producers, particularly Universal Pictures Co. Inc., popularized the horror film, bringing to the screen a series of successful Gothic features including Dracula (1931), and The Mummy (1932), some of which blended science fiction films with Gothic horror, such as James Whale's Frankenstein (1931) and The Invisible Man (1933). "
I'm no expert on mind control but blasting the psyche with trauma does seem to be the basic starting point so for any mind control connoisseur, the 20th century must have been a dream come true.
So let's have a little fun with some wild theories.
To play the game that follows it might be best to place what you know into a safe location where you can come back & pick it up later - it'll just get in the way if you take it with you. This game, shall we call it Mindopoly does have it's own kickoff point - it is based on the idea that TV & movies & the media were designed to have an overpowering effect on the human race.
So, what if the traumas of the 20th century were planned & unleashed to prime the human mind for future programming - what if WWI, The Great Depression & later WWII were created to drive a traumatised species into the waiting & oh so welcoming arms of a modern day Hypnos? 
Looking for all the world as if they've fallen asleep in front of the telly, we find Hypnos, god of sleep, with his twin brother Thanatos, god of death. Interestingly enough these boys are the sons of Nyx or Night, the favoured time for popular programming.
"The 1930's and the 1940's have been described as "The Golden Age of Motion Pictures"... Hollywood quickly became the world capital of motion pictures. No matter where you were in the world, if you wanted to make movies, you came to Hollywood... How fitting that this decade culminated with the most extraordinary year in motion picture history...1939. Never in the history of film has there been a year which produced so many great motion pictures. When we think of 1939, we immediately think of Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz but one can only gasp in awe at the list of other greats created that same year...Gunga Din, Wuthering Heights, Goodby Mr. Chips, The Women, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Destry Rides Again, Ninotchka, The Old Maid, Stagecoach and the list goes on!
The thirties closed with this remarkable year serving as a last gasp of innocence before the dark clouds of war descended
The above quote fits perfectly with the premise of our game - the decade that leads up to the second worldwide crime against humanity is ushered in with a stunning display of programming (rather reminds me of the ubiquitous fireworks display without which no new year can now be ushered in). The m-asses are serenaded to war down a yellow brick road until they are out of sight & gone with the wind, oops, sorry! my mistake that was no wind, that was a Sherman Tank. By the end of the '30s, public programming was firmly accepted as 'friend' to the masses, providing a weekly crossing of the rainbow bridge, out of hell & into Asgard, land of the gods (price of return journey is included in the ticket).
From wiki -"In the early days of silent movies the names of the actors and actresses appearing in movies were not publicized or credited as they are now. Some of these performers had to help build the sets, clean up and other chores around the film studio."
Well haven't things changed!
"The star system was the method of creating, promoting and exploiting film stars in Classical Hollywood cinema. Studios would select promising young actors and create personas for them, often inventing new names and even new backgrounds. Examples of stars who went through the star system include Cary Grant (born Archie Leach), Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur), and Rock Hudson (born Roy Harold Scherer Jr.)."
In our little game we note that for a very long time indeed the big wigs of this world have been ultra fascinated by the stars. Mythology just wouldn't be the same without them. They are the realm of the gods, our guiding light, we find our way by them - although in this game we note that we don't seem to be going anywhere.
So the movie world not only provided wonder-filled dreams, but it also took the stars from the heavens & placed them upon the earth & lo they walked among us & we were (& still are) bedazzled.
"the movie business...set out making gods & goddesses, people with an international fame never known before."
I have to say I was rather surprised to find that cartoon characters are also included in the above Hollywood Walk of Fame, but then again...
...I had a very interesting conversation with a friend this week.
She told me that when she was little she could not tell the difference between cartoon characters & 'real people'. Now I had a little trouble trying to get my head around this, but I didn't doubt what she said. My friend said that if she saw a dressed up character, you know like those big furry animals at Disneyland, she knew they were fake, but the characters on screen were as real to her as any person. I'm guessing I was most probably the same, but I don't think I ever thought about it - I just accepted what I saw (without question).
In this game I'm gonna say that I reckon cartoons enchanted the minds of the watchers with doses of extra strength magic. Before the audiences very eyes, the unreal & downright impossible were brought into existence - perhaps God is in fact a cartoonist & that's he managed to get the world underway in just seven days. In the 'reel' world - all things are possible.
Now lets climb a ladder & hop into the 60s.
By now TV had brought the enchantment into homes everywhere. Programming had shifted from a weekly to a daily basis. In the interim, the world had been re-traumatised by WWII, the children of WWI survivors had now received their own 'priming'. America being in the enchanters driving seat, popped in the Korean War for extra trauma flavour before preparing something a little grander in Vietnam.
In our game we will see the '60s as the decade where two worlds were married - so-called fact & fiction. The same altar that now sat in so many homes brought not only entertainment but also 'truth' (cough) & called it 'the news'.
The telly was a bit like our godly friend Janus - one head with two faces.
Now the thing is... everything that is shown on TV is designed to be believed - actors pretend to be someone else, shows pretend to be actual events, the news pretends to have all the facts & we the viewers are happy with that.
But what if it's not that simple? What if our subconscious mind is not so clear on what is fact & what is fiction? If the trauma of the last century was designed to herd the public into the lounge
...then surely there must be a bloody good reason for it.
If I look from the vantage point of my particular lounge & ask what has TV done for me, I'm not sure that I can say that it has added anything great to my life - especially now when I see so much of the trickery that was hidden in shows I loved.
I virtually gave heart & soul to many TV programmes & movies, especially when I was growing up. I certainly gave far more to them than they ever gave to me - it was at times a love affair - albeit one-sided.
So what is it all about? I've been thinking much since I wrote Twinsel Town, but also as far back as my article on Adrienne Shelly. In Twinsel Town I saw so many look-alike actors - I've come across even more since then, as well as readers who also left their comments - I have other mugshots on file for perhaps another Twinsel post, but right now I just want to wander & wonder a bit deeper.
The 'jarring' deaths of actors like Pete Duel & Adrienne Shelly are far removed from the twinkly starry lights of Hollywood. We're familiar with acceptable actors deaths, you know the ones caused by drink & drugs - we've been sold, at a very moderate price, the idea that these demi-gods can't always take 'the strain' & are liable to excess - it's the price of stardom.
But then there are the ugly deaths that just don't feel right at all - I will cover this when I finish the second part of my Adrienne Shelly article. For now lets open the dark door at the back of the stage & shine a light inside. I have read many times, especially in recent months about the occult nature of Hollywood. So lets just say fuck it & go all the way on this one - seeing how it's just a game we're playing and all.
What if Hollywood is one very large seance? What if some or all actors are not acting at all, but are in fact calling spirits or entities into themselves & giving them a life form that is then transferred onto cellulose or whatever medium is used to record movies today?
What if the programmes & movies we watch, & love or loath are en-crypted with other life forms or forces? What if, with the help of our avid attention they weave spells across the world.
Some time ago I wrote an article called Bonding with a Time Lord - I was going to add the last part of that article here for a quick read, but in truth it won't make a heap of sense if you don't read it all - the crux of the article however is that I was left wondering if somehow a programme I had watched one evening could have somehow been part of an event that took place thousands of miles away at about the same time.
http://toolonginthisplace.blogspot.com/2008/06/bonding-with-time-lord.html
What if these spells are created to hold us & this world in a state of apathy & limbo. Hmmm perhaps we could relabel programmes as 'spells'?
My friend Devin over at My Favorite Monsters made mention of the Telesterion a little while ago - the name was too close to Televsion to leave out.
From wiki "Telesterion was one of the primary centers of the Eleusion Mysteries. At some point in the 5th century BC, Iktinos, the great architect of the Partenon, built the Telesterion big enough to hold thousands of people.
As the climax of the ceremonies at Eleusis, the initiates entered the Telesterion where they were shown the sacred relics of Demeter and the priestesses revealed their visions of the holy night... This was the most secretive part of the Mysteries and those who had been initiated were forbidden to ever speak of the events that took place in the Telesterion.
It was destroyed by the Persians and was subsequently rebuilt some time later by Pericles" - hmmm... if you read the final article on the Sacrifice you will know that Pericles was claimed to be a previous incarnation of Winston Churchill - a chief player in both the mindcontrol creations that were WWI & WWII.
Just one further stop down a last rabbit hole & you can get back to your own Telesterion:)
I am short-sighted & have been for a long time. Some years ago I tried a method of vision improvement. Now my sight didn't get any better, but I nevertheless learned a great deal. My teacher, Peter Grunwald, was at one time so 'blind' that he used to wear his glasses in the shower! He developed his own technique & understanding & is now glasses free. One of his main tenets is that the eye is a mirror of the body, think reflexology - each part of the eye connecting with different parts of the body - however there's a vast difference between the two concepts.
Anyway I got to wondering if the raison d'etre behind TV could have a great deal to do with owning or possessing our eyes. Could the images below be telling it to us exactly like it is?
My teacher saw the eye as one of the most vital parts of the body - it responds to all trauma & it his belief that for physical trauma to be resolved, it must be addressed through the eye. He would give me directions to focus my attention on various parts of my eye while he made slight adjustments in the corresponding parts in my body. I gained a great understanding from my time with him - although I am still short sighted it is of no great importance, I now choose to wear glasses only when compelled to & the rest of the time I live comfortably in a slightly blurry world.
According to Grunwald, glasses are cut in such a way that light is directed to the fovea centralis & 5% of the brain within the lower visual cortex receives constant & intense amounts of information. The rest of the retina is not stimulated & thus a large portion of the brain is starved of information & stimulation. Now I reckon we can apply that principle to TV watching, because our eyes are forced to focus on a small area, without depth for extensive periods of time - just what effect has that had on our brains?
He once gave me a tremendous description, (well this has always been my take on it), that one of the roles of aqueous humour, the "thick watery substance that is between the lens and the cornea" is to flow & 'filter' anything harmful or negative that is directed at us - perhaps an image would be something like standing behind a waterfall, if something is hurled at you it will be washed away before it can reach you. Now I just find this idea bloody marvellous - a natural form of self-protection for those unfair slings & arrows that get launched far too often these days. Has this form of protection been targeted & disabled through years of intense & unblinking TV watching?
Although we actually 'see' images in the visual cortex at the back of our brain, nothing gets there without going through our eyes. The eyes, it is said are the windows of the soul - there are stories of people selling their souls to the devil, but what if the devil never needed us to go that far, he just needed us to create a detour so that we couldn't find our own way back? What if we gave up ownership of our eyes by placing them before an occult shrine & worshipping on a daily basis?
What if we need to reclaim our sight & start seeing for ourselves again
Sorry, did you say encore or no more? Oh well while I'm here...
My Dad invited me to see the latest BIG movie, Australia, last night. I must digress for a wee moment to excalim "WTF' - as in wtf were clips of The Wizard of Oz & the singing & harmonic-ing of 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' doing in there???
Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, I couldn't help but note an extraordinary amount of 'eye' exposure for want of a better description - heaps of e-x-t-e-n-d-e-d camera shots of wide eyes especially by the young aborigine boy & Nicole Kidman. After the movie was over my Dad made the comment about how hypnotic the boys eye's were & how he got lost in them.
It is perhaps no accident that the sound of ourselves is the same sound with which we absorb our world - I - Eye.
