It's been said- often, recently- that History doesn't repeat but it rhymes. I guess it also comes with a vintage Linn beat and icy Prophet 5 riffs.
I only remember the last time they raised their heads out of the murk, and what effect they had on the world around us.
Think about it: not only has MK ULTRA now become a household word but so has "Deep State," terms that were largely relegated to the mimeograph and shortwave fringe in the early 80s. And yet the CIA dumped truckloads of files onto the 'Net in the past week and all of a sudden people realize just how strange they could get.
CIA Docs Reveal Agency’s Longtime Obsession With UFOs, Magic
The documents also include substantial information about CIA obsession with UFO sightings, policies for using invisible ink, and their determined investigation into magicians.
(REPORT) — The juicy bits of the CIA’s massive document dump may have centered on their overt use of torture against detainees and the internal debates underpinning that policy, but it’s far from the only thing in there that warrants a second look. The documents also include substantial information about CIA obsession with UFO sightings, policies for using invisible ink, and their determined investigation into magicians.
Reports on the UFOs described some 20% of sightings as “unexplained,” and sought more cooperation from the Pentagon in documentation of such sightings, particularly pushing to ensure that all high-ranking Air Force commanders were briefed on the rules for reporting about them.
The CIA showed concern both about the “national security” implications of flying saucers, and the intelligence ramifications of them, with the advisory committee urging “close attention” be paid both to Russian actions with respect to UFOs, and public opinion within the US about them.
With respect to magic, the CIA appears to have become intensely interested in the phenomenon in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with one 1969 document about a “self-educated magician” in Soviet Georgia who was able to perform “miracle” healings through the laying of hands.
The CIA’s interest in magic got a lot bigger in short order, and within a few years they were bringing in television psychic Uri Geller, who famously used to bend spoons on TV with the power of his mind.
Incredibly, the CIA was quickly convinced that Geller had real powers, and tried to move into remote viewing, the attempt to conduct surveillance on sites they don’t have access to via supernatural means.So why are we hearing about all of this now? And I mean this week? Why are we hearing about this during a time when the new President is allegedly at war with the CIA? If the timing doesn't strike you as curious, you're probably not paying close enough attention.
In the midst of all the chaos and controversy of Inauguration Day, when Donald Trump-- an Eighties man if ever there was one-- declared open war on pretty much everyone, his picks for Defense and Homeland somehow sailed through confirmation with 98-1(Mattis) and 88-11 votes (Kelly). These were the first cabinet members to be approved.
98-1.
If you don't see the crystal clear symbolism at work here, I have failed you.
Curiously, the vote on his CIA director (Mike Pompeo) has been delayed. A recent story about the apparent conflict between Trump and the outgoing CIA leadership cited a former analyst who is now a fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, which we discussed recently in connection to the Satanic Temple, strangely enough.
There was another signal sent out, meant to send a message about the violence and vandalism committed by some of the more radical elements among the protests in Washington yesterday. It received little attention, but jibed with the ice-cold undercurrent at work in this new regime who are behind all of Trump's reality TV bluster and bravado* :
The Trump administration condemned what it called the "anti-police atmosphere" in America and called for more law enforcement and more effective policing in a statement on the White House website after President Donald Trump's inauguration.
"The dangerous anti-police atmosphere in America is wrong. The Trump administration will end it," said the statement on (www.whitehouse.gov) after it was taken over by the new administration.
I recently watched a Canadian documentary on remote viewing that confirmed what I knew already; that despite the spin you may have heard in the media, the CIA took it very seriously and there were reams of statistics to back up its efficacy. $25 million was spent on a program whose technology essentially consisted of paper and pencils.
The host of the documentary even got a major hit during a class held by the controversial Major Ed Dames, which turned his studied skepticism around completely.
You'll be hearing more about this, if the current rerun models hold true. And you have to ask yourself- what happens to all the promising graduates of these private RV programs anyway?
And that Cold War we keep hearing about sounds a lot like something you have seen in an Eighties movie or sci-fi story:
A spectre is haunting the West -- the spectre of cyberwar.
It's now clear, according to American intelligence agencies, that the Russian government engaged in a campaign of hacking, email leaks and fake news in an attempt to undermine the American political process -- and steer the presidential election to Donald Trump. Russia has repeatedly denied the allegation.
But many are now asking: Are we at cyberwar?
In the cybersecurity industry -- mostly made up of hackers and spies -- the conventional wisdom was that cyberwar is like physical war. It's only war when someone dies or something explodes.
But what happened during the recent American election is forcing experts to revisit that idea.
"'Nothing's blown up' is the old school way of thinking," said Dave Aitel, a former scientist at the National Security Agency. "But I don't have to blow something up to destroy your country. I just have to reduce trust in your national way of life."
"I think it's a cyberwar, and I think we've lost a battle," said Aitel, now CEO of the security consulting firm Immunity.I can just hear the Tangerine Dream soundtrack now.
There are a lot of films released in the early Eighties that people might do well to rewatch in the coming days. Brainstorm is one, and more than ever before it acts as a very precise kind of roadmap to the thinking we've seen coming out of Silicon Valley, thinking that's only going to become more pronounced.
Brainstorm is also an interesting film because it was the brainchild of effects guru Douglas Trumbull (2001: A Space Odyssey) and was subject to a wave of "bad luck", including the drowning death of its female lead, Natalie Wood.
That in turn sparked off a suppression effort by the studio that you can't help but but wonder about, given the dark and conspiratorial nature of the film. And perhaps the tales being told out of school.
And appropriately enough, Trumbull's career was saved by his work on the Back to the Future theme park ride and work on IMAX technology, which in turn did so much to save Hollywood itself.
Of course there's also Altered States, based on John Lilly's experiments with ketamine and isolation tanks and a stunning precursor to the ayahuasca trend that's become so popular among Silicon Valley cognoscenti.
Psychedelics and tech entrepreneurship have long gone hand in hand. Steve Jobs experimented with LSD. Bill Gates dropped acid on occasion.
Ayahuasca, a psychedelic drug that induces mind-boggling hallucinations, is Silicon Valley's latest infatuation. Tim Ferriss, a well-known angel investor, recently described it to The New Yorker as being as ubiquitous as "having a cup of coffee."
While you won't find people sipping on ayahuasca in Starbucks, an increasing number of entrepreneurs swear by the plant — which contains DMT, an ingredient designated Schedule I by the Drug Enforcement Administration — as a method of professional and personal development. Businesses have sprouted to facilitate demand.This is how new cultures develop. Ideas seep into the conversation first as trends, cycle out of the mainstream and then gestate among hobbyists and specialists. There they grow and mutate and then eventually reintroduce themselves when conditions in the greater culture become right. Often this is during times of widespread conflict and social dissolution, when the gatekeepers of the old paradigms are on their back feet. Then what was once marginal becomes self-evident.
The question becomes then who are the real revolutionaries at work in the culture today? The protestors in the streets peddling centuries-old Marxist dogma or this weird nexus of spooks, nerds and military, kicking at the legs of the tables of Reality itself?
I guess we'll find out soon enough.
