Sunday, September 30, 2012

Soul Sold: An interview with Chris Forbes of Metal Core 'Zine


At what point in your life did metal come around and rear its ugly head?
CF: Well went I was about 10 or 12 years old, I was born in 1965, I was listening to stuff like The Sweet, The Jackson 5, The Osmonds, etc and don't laugh too much. Well when I was 13, this would be 1978 I discovered rock n roll. Bands like Van Halen, The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Deep Purple and bands of that nature. Well soon after that I discovered a band called Black Sabbath. The riffs, the sound, the vocals and just mood they created completely blew me away. It was beyond anything I had ever heard before. Now at the time I had never heard the term “heavy metal”, but Sabbath was at the time for me the heaviest thing I ever heard. I went and brought all their older albums so I would say Black Sabbath was the band that started me on my metal journey.    
Who was the band that was responsible for turning you into a "lifer"?
 CF: Well this is a band that I am sure for some of you older folks will be no surprise. Now if your talking about a “lifer” as far as underground metal bands, Metallica is that band and the bands debut release, “Kill Em All”. Just hearing “Hit The Lights”, “Whiplash” and “Metal Militia” to name a few was something I had never, ever heard before. I mean here was a band that just as heavy as Sabbath, even the Dio Sabbath era, and the speed was something I had never heard before in my life. I was instantly hooked by the power, speed, the intensity and the vocals as well. Let’s not forget the cover as well. “Whiplash” and “Metal Militia” lyric wise, pretty much sum it up for me. Now after Metallica, I found bands like Motorhead, Venom, Slayer, etc. It just started with them and I was like a kid tasting candy for the 1st time as I wanted more, more, and more. 
What was the scene in New Jersey like back in the 80's/early 90's? I'm wagering that it must have been a veritable "sea" of feathered mullets and hairspray!
CF: It was indeed a mix of both. I mean you had all the “hair metal” bands and the funny thing a lot of the local “hair metal” bands thought they were gonna be the next Poison or Motley Crue. Heck the only band that ever did anything out of that area (now keep in mind I lived in south jersey, not north jersey, near phila, pa) was Cinderella, who had some success. The rest of the garbage, bands like Teeze, Scarlet Fever, Dead End Kids, Britney Fox, etc never went anywhere. They looked like a bunch of fools up there with all that hairspray and make-up and I still chuckle when I see pics of them on Facebook every now and then. There were 3 clubs in the area that had metal shows. The Galaxy, which had “hair bands” play every weekend and I wouldn’t be caught dead there. The other club was The Empire and they had all age shows every Sunday. That was where Cinderella and Teeze played a lot. I went there a few times and then one night I saw a band that blew we away because they were a local band playing speed metal and that band would be Black Task. They had only release a demo at this point, but holy fuck it total blew me mind that we had a band in my backyard playing the metal I craved. They would play the Empire around every 2 months or so and I’d be at every show and it was great to be hanging in the parking lot before they would go on hanging with local metalheads talking about Exodus, Slayer, Metallica, Motorhead, Venom, etc. After Black Task came Anvil Bitch who was another local thrash band that is still around today and they actually put an album out in 1986 called “Rise To Offend” on New Renaissance Records and they about 2 years ago got back together with 4 of the original members, which is ultra cool. Around 1988 or so another club opened up in South Jersey called “Bonnie’s” and the female that booked the club was into all that “hair metal” crap and she booked all that local crap, heck she probably sleep with all of them back in the day too. About a year into that, a guy named Mike Minnick took over the booking and he managed Deadly Blessing at the time and they also had an album called ‘Ascend From The Calderon” on New Renaissance Records as well. He, for one, didn’t like the “hair metal” stuff so after a bit he brought in bands like Hades, Nuclear Assault, Autopsy, etc. Then we also had G’Wilker’s, which a lady named Ann booked and omg she brought in underground bands from all over. Nuclear Death, Paineater, Carcass, Prime Evil, Morbid Angel, Incantation, Mortician, immolation, Suffocation, Gorephobia, Exmortis, Death, and a million more. That lasted several years.
Now we will hit the North Jersey and NY club scene. By the mid 80’s “metal” was a booming business. You had all the “fake metal” and the “real metal” bands. Headbangers Ball on MTV was in full swing and all some of the “hair metal” bands were selling millions of records. Clubs popped up all over North Jersey. Clubs such as Dingbat’s, Club Bene, Studio 1, and I know a bunch more, but their names escape me.  Now I started going to some of these clubs in the 90’s, but the one club that changed my life forever is Lamour’s in Brooklyn, NY, which is sadly closed. I will never forget hanging out one night in the Empire Parking Lot with a couple of the guys from Anvil Bitch and I think it was drummer Chuck who said hey why don’t we go up to Brooklyn to see Overkill (fell the fire had just come out) and we hoped in a car or maybe 2 and went to the show. Now my memory isn’t great, but I just remember walking into this huge club that probably could fit over 2000 people and it was packed for Overkill. I am not sure who were the opening bands, but Overkill totally blew me away and also due to the fact that here was a club full of over 2000 true metal heads. Headbanging away to all their tunes. I saw some classic shows there from say 85 till 95. Bands like Savage Thrust, Biohazard, Blessed Death, Carnivore, Slayer (85 and 86), Exodus, when Baloff was sick and the band played and the entire crowd sang all the words, Dark Angel, Death, DRI, Possessed, and many more. The best venue I have been to due to the atmosphere and era of the bands I saw.

Chris and Bill Zebub (left)
What was it like for you first hearing "death metal" after years of thinking that thrash was as heavy as it got?
CF: Possessed smoked me when “Seven Churches” came out as did Celtic Frost. The music was even more heavier than thrash and the vocals more demonic . Seeing Possessed in 1986 at Lamour’s was insane and they just blew me to pieces. Oh let’s not forget the 1st 2 Death albums, ‘Scream Bloody Gore” and “Leprosy” which are true classics. The vocals are easily what separated it from thrash and well as having a more demonic sound. Singers nowadays still recreate that style back then. A lot of death metal singer don’t have that “it” factor that say Jeff from Possessed had that’s for sure.  Too many sound the same nowadays. Now if you want to lump “Bathory” and “Venom” in there with this question they were also both heavy and as brutal as it got, at least for that time. Of course after Possessed, Death and bands of that nature, you had a huge wave of death metal bands come out via demo tapes.
How did the formation of Metal Core come about?
 CF: Well on our way up to the Overkill  show at Lamour’s, we stopped off at a store called “Rock N Roll Heaven”,which was run by Johnny Zazula, who had formed Megaforce Records with his wife and had brought Metallica out to the East Coast in 1983 to play some shows (wish I saw those). This store was very small, but it sold all underground stuff, including imports. I always like to read and in the pas had read Creem, Circus, Hit Parader, etc, which usually had “hair metal” crap, but sometimes had Dio, Ozzy and some actual “metal bands” within the pages. That night I went and picked up a mag called “Kick Ass Monthly” which featured ‘Venom’ on the cover. I am sure a few days after the show I must have read through it and the discovered more band that I had never heard of as this mag had reviews from bands from all over the world and from labels I had never heard of. These labels were from overseas and wow lo and behold there were tape traders and demos from other bands. Keep in mind the only demos I had were from Black Task and Anvil Bitch. Tape trading had seeing reviews of other demo demos from across the US was another world for me. So I started doing a little tape trading and buying a demo here and there from Rock N Roll Heaven as whenever we went to Lamour’s that store was our pit stop ha ha. I also was buying punks zines such as Maximum Rock N Roll and Flipside as well as Metal Mania which was put out by Ron Quintana, who I recently interviewed. Now to get to me starting up the zine, it would have been either at G Wilker’s or the Empire Rock Club that a brought a zine called ‘Total Thrash” which was put out by Scott Helig, who was from Phila, PA. I thought that was ultra cool that we had a zine and it was in my backyard so to speak. I would see him at shows and stuff and I saw he had posted in one of his issues that he was looking for contributors to help with his zine. I offered he accepted and I sent him some reviews to print in his zine. I must have been sending him too much stuff cause at one point, I assume he said this cause he could see how enthused I was, he suggested I should start up my own zine. I took that up as a challenge and decided to go for it. So in December of 1985 I began the task of putting together my 1st issue, which came out in Jan or Feb of 1986. It was half size, no photos, and I made 150 of them and the issue was typed out on my father’s typewriter ha ha. I sold a few, but mostly just gave them away. Actually I just went and printed about 5 extra copies of it. I have a copy of ever one of my issues and I know you didn’t ask, but the name came from I was thinking names up and SOD and Overkill were doing a 7 date mini-tour of the East Coast and they dubbed it the “Metal Core” tour. I thought that was a cool name and since I was into metal and hardcore I thought it was the perfect name.
Nowadays, obtaining an interview is just a couple of keyboard clicks away, not to mention "test driving" a band's material out over on Youtube or Myspace, etc. Could you tell me a bit about the creative process of putting together a fanzine back in those days?
 CF: Well back in 1986 we had no computers, no internet and basically my 1st issue was interviews with local bands like Faith of Fear, Black Task, Anvil Bitch, Machine Dog, Nuclear Assault and Lethal Aggression. The reviews were stuff that I recently brought like, AOD, Nuclear Assault, Muphy’s Law, Metal Church, At War, Cryptic Slaughter, etc. Demo reviews were some that I brought and some that actually got to sent me like: Fantom Warrior, Dirge, Mad Butcher, Savage Death, Social Decay, Machine Dog, Wreckage, Gore, Voice of Doom, Hauntz, ROT and Dream Death, I also threw in some shows reviews as well.  I made a ton of flyers and passed them out in mail I did and wrote to every band I saw a demo review of in other zines. It obviously got easier as more issues came out. Bands started sending me stuff without me even asking and my flyers were everywhere as I made copies at work of them ha ha so I had thousand’s out there. Around issue 5 I started getting promos from labels like Combat and Roadracer and also bands from overseas sending me stuff. By issue 10 I was pretty established, but I always still made up flyers and stuff and actually labels and bands started taking out ads. It was a lot of hard work personally writing letters back in the day, but you had to do what you had to do to get your name out there so to speak.

How did your involvement with Immolation come about?
CF: They had known me for a number of years with the fanzine and that I had helped manage Deadly Blessing so they asked me to manage them, which I did for a number of years. It ended in sort of a weird way as the guitar player Tom Wilkinson, who started a label called Soul Sold and that was me running it with him helping with the money end of things. We released a Bloodstorm CD and then things kinda fell apart with me and Tom. The internet had started booming and I had to explain to him we need a website we need to trade with other labels, we need to set up an on-line store, etc and he wasn’t to keen on the idea. He ended up leaving the band the label soon after folded. The band wanted me to move to NY and I really wasn’t keen on that idea so we never actually broke things off it was kinda just a mutual understanding between both of us. I am still on good  terms with Ross and Bob, who are still making great music these days as well.  
The two Chris'. Mr. Forbes and Mr Gamble (Goreaphobia)
What was the death metal scene up in the Northeast like in the early days in regards to bands such as Mortician, Incantation, Goreaphobia, Immolation, etc..?
 CF: I was great cause even though Mortician and Immolation were from NY and at that time Incantation was based out of North Jersey, I would get to see them live at G’Wilkers and also a bunch of time they would come to see  show cause as I said earlier Ann was booking underground bands from all over the US that you pretty much couldn’t say in many places, and it was mostly death metal bands, so those guys from those bands would come down and sometimes even spend the weekend in the area as well.
Metal Core has been going strong since 1986. What is the secret to your longevity?
 CF: The music. I still enjoy the music. Now out of all the underground genres, thrash metal is # , followed by death metal, heavy metal and then black metal. For every 10 bad bands, there will be one band that blows me away and makes me realize why I still love this music. At the time I am typing this, Havok just blew my doors off live last night as did Slayer this past summer as well as Whiplash too. I will also say this, and this is about Facebook, as much as it can be a pain in the ass at times, I have found many, many old bands and friends from back in the day on there and most when I ask about an interview are willing to do it. I just posted a 50 question interview with Deceased recently and just got back a HUGE longass interview with Whiplash and Marco who worked at Metal Blade and Century Media and also did a fanzine called Ill Literature. It is a great interview. I also got to do and post and interview with Ron Quintana, who published Metal Mania Fanzine out of CA and he was a big influence on my zine and it was one of my favorite interviews I ever did. Sadly, Bob Muldowney, who published Kick Ass Monthly, which is my favorite fanzine of all time, passed away a few yrs back, so obviously I won’t be able to interview him. His writing style was great. Also interviewing Laurent from Snakepit recently was a blast too. Just seeing bands old demos being pressed on cds now, interviewing various fanzine editors, old bands that have broken up 20 yrs ago and are willing to take a stroll down memory lane, hearing a new band that just makes me headbang or my blood boil. I guess when that stops happening it will be time to close up shop so to speak.  Of course having the zine on the internet makes it a million times easier than doing it in print and I went over that in another question. I will say it will be a sad day if I decide to close down the website, let’s hope never lol.
The metal scene has obviously changed in many ways since the 80's and 90's. What would you say are the pros and the cons?
 CF: Well I’ll do the pro’s first. Obviously there are many ways a band can promote their music now with My Space, Facebook, Twitter, Reverbnation, You Tube, your own website and the  many webzines  and any other social networking sites out there in internet land. Heck you don’t ever need a record label to develop a strong fan base nowadays. Getting hold of this music has never been easier as well. Just go on-line to say Amazon, I-Tunes or a great underground site such as Hellsheadbangers and hit a few clicks, hit check-out and in a few days music is in your mailbox. Of course if you want to be a cheapskate and don’t want to pay there is file sharing, which I guess is a modern form of tape trading. I never thought of that till now actually. And this goes for import releases as well. Just go to Google type in the band’s name and release and I am sure some site will pop up where you can order their music. There is also Ebay and sites like that as well. Same thing with touring. You can post your tour dates on your website, the other sites I mentioned above and in any metal forums and groups that are on many sites. If you keep a list of webzines that have groups or post news you can send them over your tour dates and soon after they are on that website. When I was going to shows, you pretty much relied on flyers, word of mouth, etc. Even now you can sign up for a particular club’s mailing list and every other week or so you get an email telling you what shows are coming up. Now a club like Lamour’s had no mailing list, but a club like City Garden’s in Trenton would mail me out postcards once a month cause I joined their mailing list. Lamour’s had a DJ and in between songs and bands he would announce shows for like the upcoming 2 months. Back in the 80’s there used to be a local newsprint mag called ‘East Coast Rocker”, which is still around today it is now called The Aquarian” and it comes out weekly and has a ton of ads in for clubs all over the NJ/NY area. Back in the 80’s clubs were everywhere up in North Jersey so I would pick that up to find out what bands were playing where and there was always an ad for Lamour’s in there as well. 
Name Three albums that you cannot live without:
I’ll divide this into 2 sections
Rock N Roll/Straight Up Metal
AC/DC “If You Want Blood…You Got It”, Van Halen debut album, and AC/DC “Bonfire” cause it is a boxed set ha ha…
Underground Metal
Slayer ‘Reign In Blood, Metallica ‘Kill Em All” and Possessed ‘Seven Churches”  
Are there any newer bands that have caught your ear lately? Any suggestions?
 Off the top of me head I’ll just throw some out there, Havok, Deathhammer, Poisonious, Witchtrap, Blessed Curse, Bestial Holocaust to name a few. Some veteran bands that have some great new music include Kreator, Testament and Overkill.
What does the future hold for you and Metal Core?
 CF: Well I don’t plan on stop doing it anytime soon. I have 2 girls that will be 2 years old by the time you are reading this and they take up a lot of my time, but I always fit in time for Metal Core. I will say this, if it wasn’t for the internet, I would have to stop the zine. Having the internet makes things a million times easier and it is easier to send out an interview via email than to actually write, do a phone one or type one out and then when you get it back, you have to either transcribe it or re write it. I just wouldn’t have the time with my little ones. I just take things month or month now and like I said I always find time to do it and as long as that holds true then the website will exist. I can’t believe sometimes it has been over 25 yrs and counting. What the hell was I thinking ha ha.
Many thanks Chris, for taking the time out to do this! Any final words?
CF: Well thanks a million for doing this interview with me. I hope you and your readers found something of interest while reading it and I had a blast typing away and reliving lots of old memories from back in the day. They are times I will cherish till I head 6 feet down. If any of your readers want to check out m site it is
If any bands want to send me anything for review you can send it to me at
Chris Forbes PO BOX 622 Marlton, NJ 08053
Anything sent will be reviewed and best of luck with your zine/blog and it is people like you that will keep the metal flag burning bright my friend.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Exalted Deeds Done Dirt Cheap: An interview with Bill Zebub

At what point in your life did you realize that metal was going to be taking up a large portion of it? Who was the band that made you into a believer?

I have always loved metal.  Perhaps the point when if became a big part of life was when I picked up a guitar.  What I mean by that is that practicing music takes up time.  Shortly after that I had a radio show so more of my life was music-related.  As for which band really did for me, I would have to say "Mercyful Fate" because it was so different and stimulated my imagination



I understand that you have always had a taste for the doomier side of metal. Back in the 80's, doom bands were rather far and few between. Who, in those early years, did you turn to in order to cop your fix?

The first doom band I heard was "Candlemass".  One day I took a chance on a Peaceville music sampler, and I heard Anathema and My Dying Bride.  That made me actively seek out more music that was like that.  There is a rich variety of doom styles.  I enjoy the lifeless cold doom of "Skepticism", the ebbing flow of "Shape of Despair", the atmospheric sadness of "Esoteric:, as well as the heavenly operatic soprano in very early "Funeral'>

At what point in the game did you start to notice the "gayer" things in life?

I am not sure what thou art trying to ask, but I didn't start calling things "gay" until I heard a girl use that adjective.  It matter not when I used that word, for I made the same observations before that. A rose by any other name is still gay.

What year did you decide to come up with The Grimoire, and how did that come about?

1992.  I had lost my radio show and I needed something to fill that void.  I have always enjoyed helping people to discover new music.  Mere conversation could not have the power that a radio show has, so my only outlet was a fanzine, a simple photocopied stapled-in-the-corner thing for 5 issues, before it developed into newsprint.  It was originally going to be called "Grimoire of the Deluxe Cheese Sandwich".  For the past couple of years I have been considering making a movie called "Fanzine Editor" which depicts that early era, fictionalized somewhat, but a story that might entertain.

My favorite thing about reading The Grimoire was seeing what bands were going to be decimated each month in the reviews section. Did you find that writing negative reviews was a more liberating endeavor as opposed to coming up with something positive to say?

When I worked on the first issue I wrote a review while I was drunk.  I never meant to print it.  I was mad at myself for getting drunk on the night that was meant to be the first official work night for the fanzine.  I listened to an album and hoped to be competent enough to write something.  But that album was bad.  It made me angry.  I was going to throw it in the garbage, but I wrote a short insulting review first.  The next day, a friend found it and laughed so hard I thought he was going to get a stroke.  I told him that was just a joke review, and he begged me to print it.  After some thinking, i realized that it might be fun to write reviews like that, but it is cowardly to have the last word in my own magazine, so I sent a copy to the record company to show the band, and I offered the band to write whatever rebuttal they wanted, and I would print it right after the review.  This was my rule for a while - I wouldn't publish a bad review without giving the band a chance to respond.  But after the fanzine became popular, bands wished to get a bad review just so they could write a rebuttal.  The rebuttals started getting fake.  What I mean by that is, for the first few issues, the rebuttals were actually threats.  The bands didn't write them to get printed, but my legal loophole was that "anything you write will get printed" so their threats and insults showed the world who they really were, ha ha.  When the threats started being fake, I decided to let that part of the magazine die.

What is the current state of The Grimoire?

Tower Records went bankrupt, and before they did, they ordered triple the amount of mags, and then didn't pay for them.  At that point the fanzine had become a magazine, all glossy, so each issue was very expensive.  Losing that much product fucked me for a while.  I released a tabloid style issue that was distributed for free, and I am considering doing that again on a regular basis, but movies have really started to take over my time, and the website suffices for now.

There was a rather revealing interview that you had done with Craig Pillard, years ago. I had seen it on the Grimoire website back in '06, I believe, and had went back to read it agin but noticed that that along with a host of other interviews and reviews were taken down. What was the reason for this and is there any chance of you putting that stuff back up?

The web host pulled the plug on me and wiped out the site.  So what you see now is a little-by-little salvage operation.  I wish I could devote more time to it, but I am writing, editing, and filming movies constantly.

You've been involved in "low budget" film making for quite some time now. How did this all come about and are pleased with where you are at currently?

When I was 18 I was given a video camera as a gift, and I constantly shot skits and public stunts.  One day a scream queen told me to make a full movie.  I made the first "Metalheads" as a practice movie, hoping to one day be good enough to have a company pick it up, and that day came much sooner than anticipated.  My practice-movie was acquired for distribution.  I'm happy about my current status.  I have talked to other indie directors who seem ashamed of their situation, but being indie is actually cool.  I make my own rules.  I can explore anything I want and I can depict things in any manner that I choose.  Luckily, there are enough people who support me.  Most people hate my flicks, but I think I prefer that.  I'd rather have a smaller following composed of cool people.

Metal has obviously changed much since the 80's and 90's. What are your thoughts on the current state of the genre and do you feel that the pros outweigh the cons in regards to the advent of the internet, or is it the other way around?

I'm not really sure if metal had changed much.  I don't pay attention to things that I don't like, so if there are any drastic changes that are negative, maybe that is why I don't agree with you - I don't see negativity.  The Internet has made it easy to cheat bands out of money, and it's killing them.  Some bands can generate money in other ways, like touring and selling merch.  I just like to tell people to buy music that they love, and to commit theft for music that they just like.  I live by my words.  If a record company sends me a promo that I love, I go out and buy the retail version.  The Internet has also killed printed items, like cool fanzines.  But having a website enables me to reach people who would not ordinarily be able to buy a print version.

Three albums that you cannot live without:

MERCYFUL FATE:MELISSA
MERCYFUL FATE: DON'T BREAK THE OATH
ELEND: LES TENEBRES DU DEHORS

You've scrutinized many musicians within the inquisitors chambers throughout the years. What were among your favorite interviews that you conducted?

I have always enjoyed Phil Fasciana from Malevolent Creation.  In his first interview we talked about the word "nigger" being in one of his songs.  It was a funny interview.  When his next album came out he tried to hint to me that I should lay off the racial humor, but I didn't get the hint.  Cognitive dissonance.  After it was over, he told me that they got into a lot of hassles over it, especially in Germany.  When I hear stuff like that, I always ask, "Where was the outrage when the Nazi's were in power?"  It takes no balls to show outrage these days.  Anyway, when I interviewed him a third time, he began the conversation by saying, "What's up, nigger?" I sent an advance copy to Nuclear Blast to show how hilarious it was, and they requested that I pull the interview, which of course I would never do.  Phil left a message on my phone that the record company was thinking about dropping the band.  Gay!  I had been doing racial humor for a while, and I know that mature people either find it funny, or they just dismiss it.  I am suspicious of people who become drama queens.  They make sure to be public in their outrage.  It almost makes me think that they're covering up something.  

I'm certainly not a religious nor am I particularly spiritual yet when I look around me, I cannot help but think that we are in the final stages of playing ourselves out as a species. What are your thoughts on this?

I think that every old person thinks that about the previous generation.  I think that this era is pretty damn stupid.  When I first went to college, my tests were very challenging.  I've returned to college, and the tests are mostly multiple-choice.  I have talked to friends who have become teachers, and they cannot flunk black kids because it is considered too traumatizing, so they end up in high school with a 3rd grade reading level.  I am developing a science fiction story that addresses some of these observations.  In the animal kingdom, the retarded don't survive.   In the human world, they are nurtured.  Actually, a lot of people who should really die off are being preserved.  I see that as a burden.  Now let me make clear that these are just things that I am putting into a story.  There is no data to support any of what I have just said.  I'm just doing what I said that I like to do - to explore ideas without any fear from an investor or boss.  Here's a way to leave the subject on a positive note.  The more shitty that people tend to become, the easier it will be for you to find the cool ones.

Are there any newer artists/bands that have caught your ear as of late? Any suggestions?

I was going to say "Shape of Despair" but they are not exactly new.  A recent album that kicked my balls one by "Satan's Host".  They have the singer from Jag Panzer.  It's a perfect album.  It has not left my stereo.

How does one go about obtaining back issues of The Grimoire?

One does not.

What does the future hold for Bill Zebub?

I will probably be dead within 5 years.  

All right Bill, many thanks for your time. Any final words?

That question should be left for the day when I stand blindfolded in front of a firing squad.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

The Mysterious Death of Danny Casolaro



By David MacMichael

The following article appeared in the Winter 1991 issue of "Covert Action Information Bulletin," #39, pps. 53-57. 

The author can be reached through the Association of National Security Alumni at +1-202-483-9325. 

In a recent telephone conversation the author identified the other FBI agent who was to have met with Casolaro the day he died as one Ted Gunderson. We discussed the possible relationship between the Casolarocase and the death threats received by Judge Col. Hamilton Gayden and attorney Albro Lundy III shortly after they were contacted byCasolaro with regard to the POW/MIA issue in the weeks prior to Casolaro's death. MacMichael speculated that the connection was, "drugs" i.e. southeast asian heroin used in support of the Company's black operations. --seraphim@ais.org

David MacMicheal is a former CIA estimates officer. He is the Washington representative of the Association of National Security Alumni, and editor of its monthly newsletter, "Unclassified."

Joseph Daniel Casolaro was one of many freelance investigative reporters stirring the witches brew of scandal simmering in the nation's capitol. He was also an aspiring novelist, newsletter publisher, and freelance writer for publications running the gamut from the now defunct Washington Star to the National Enquirer. From a well-to-do family (his father, a doctor, had invested well in Northern Virginia real estate), he was 44 years old, divorced, and living comfortably on a five-acre estate in Fairfax County, Virginia -- home to the CIA

Casolaro was working on a book aimed at exposing what he called "The Octopus," a group of less than a dozen shadowy figures whose machinations figured heavily, he claimed, in the Inslaw case, Iran-ContraBCCI, and the October Surprise.

DEATH SCENE, WITH INSTANT EMBALMING

In the first week of August, Casolaro told friends and acquaintances that he was going to West Virginia too meet a source who would provide a key piece of evidence he needed to complete his investigation. He drove to Martinsburg, West Virginia, on Thursday, August 8, and checked into room 517 of the Sheraton Hotel. Two days later, at 12:51 p.m., hotel employees found his naked body in a bathtub full of bloody water. Time of death has been estimated at about 9:00 a.m. 

Both arms and wrists had been slashed a total of at least 12 times; one of the cuts went so deep that it severed a tendon. Press accounts differ on minor details of the scene, but there was apparently no evidence of struggle. There was a four sentence suicide note in the bedroom.

Hotel management called the Martinsburg police who brought along the local coronerSandra Brininga registered nurseMs. Brining ruled the death a suicide, took small blood and urine samples, and released the body to the Brown Funeral Home. Without authorization from officials or Casolaro's next of kin, the funeral home embalmed the body as a "courtesy to the family," according to Brining's statement at an August 15 press conference in Martinsburg.

Martinsburg police notified the next of kin, Dr. Anthony Casolaro, also of Fairfax, of his brother's death on Monday, August 12. Casolarosays that police explanations for the delay, like the hasty, unauthorized and illegal embalming, seemed either extraordinarily inefficient or highly suspicious. West Virginia state law requires that next of kin be notified before a body can be embalmed.  Casolaro requested a second  examination, which was performed by West Virginia state medical examiner Jack Frost, who stated at the same August 15 press conference that the evidence was "not inconsistent" with suicide. At the same time, he declared that he "could not rule out foul play" and admitted that performing a conclusive autopsy on an embalmed body is almost impossible. 
Anthony Casolaro publicly stated his disbelief that his gregarious and high-spirited brother could have committed suicide. Danny was so afraid of blood, he said, that he refused to allow samples to be drawn for medical purposes, and would never have chosen, in any case to slash his veins a dozen times. Other relatives and friends offered that same assessment: Danny Casolaro was not the suicidal type. Moreover, added a former girlfriend, he hated being seen in the nude. 

Brining's blood samples showed traces of an anti-depressant drug and the non-prescription painkiller Tylenol 3. Casolaro stated that his brother was not depressed and his medical record showed no prescription for anti-depressants. On the other hand, as Ridgeway and Vaughn reported after examination of Casolaro's medical records and conversations with his personal physician (his brother's professional partner), there was clear evidence that the reporter was in the early stages of multiple schlerosis (MS). He had experienced incidents of loss of vision, a couple of severe falls, numbness in one leg, and persistent headaches. His resistance to blood tests could conceivably be attributed to fear that a diagnosis of MS might be confirmed.

Some press reports hint at an alcohol problem.  Most accounts, however, suggest that he enjoyed the company in bars more than alcohol; according to friends, he would nurse a few beers all afternoon or take four hours to finish a bottle of wine.  Other accounts speculated that his inability to interest publishers in the book he planned to write had made him despondent.  He was also alleged to have been worried about his financial situation. He had borrowed heavily to finance his research and publisher's rejections were a blow. In a letter to his agent he referred to his debts" In September I'll be looking into the face of an oncoming train." Friends, however, dismissed the allegations -- debt was Casolaro's usual situation and he was given to overstatement. Said one friend, "Danny would not off himself over money problems."  Also, he was negotiating the subdivision of his five acres, a deal that should have netted him several hundred thousand dollars. His employment of a full time housekeeper suggests that he was not severely strapped.

Casolaro had spoken to family and friends of the danger of his  investigations, warning them not to believe it if he died of an "accident." But one of Casolaro's sources claims that despite being cautioned, the reporter was cavalier about taking safety measures. 
In April 1991, Casolaro told longtime friend and former business associate, Pat Clawson that he had uncovered a "web of corruption" while investigating the Inslaw case. The "web" involved top-ranking Justice  Department officials, New York organized crime figures, and Medellin Cartel drug trafficers, jointly bankrolling "off-the-books" intelligence projects, including Iran-Contra. Their fund-raising schemes, Casolaro said, included: software exports restricted under the Export Control Act, gunrunning, illegal arms sales, bogus mineral and oil investment scams, and drug smuggling through Canada. Monies generated were so immense, Casolaro said, that government officials regularly skimmed off a hefty percentage. None of this has thus far been documented.

COINCIDENTAL DEATHS OR PARALLEL MURDERS?

Casolaro's death was promptly linked to that of other journalists in Guatemala and Chile. On January 29, 1991, Lawrence Ng, a stringer for theLondon Financial Times, was found shot dead in the bathtub of his Guatemala City apartment. Ng had been probing BCCI connections to arms sales in Guatemala. Jack Anderson and Dale Van Atta have attempted to link Casolaro's death to that ofBritish aviation writer Jonathan Moyle -- also ruled a suicide when he was found in March 1990 hanging in the closet of his hotel room inSantiago, Chile.  Moyle was looking into the activities of Chilean arms dealer Carlos Cardoen, who figures prominently in the Inslaw case.

Anderson and Van Atta take seriously the possibility that both reporters were murdered and that both had been tracking the same "octopus."  Both were investigating the activities of Cardoen, a suspected conduit for arms sold to Iraq. According to an affidavit filed in the Inslaw case,Cardoen also played a role in the sale of Inslaw's purloined software to Iraq. 

Both Casolaro and Moyle had communicated with Anderson, who believed they were "no further along in the story" than others. "On the surface," Anderson and Van Atta wrote, "Neither man had evidence worth killing for."

British journalist David Akerman disagrees, arguing that Moyle had uncovered information on connections between leading British arms makers and Cardoen, who used British licenses to manufacture high-technology weaponry for illegal delivery to Iraq. Because the illegal weapons transfers were generally known among arms dealers, public disclosure would have been sufficiently embarrassing and financially damaging to have placed Moyle's life in jeopardy. There are those who feel just as strongly about the facts surrounding the death of Danny Casolaro.

THE INSLAW MORASS

The most politically volatile side of this story is Casolaro's extensive investigation into the Inslaw case. Elliot Richardson is legal counsel to the Washington, D. C. - based computer software company, Inslaw. Widely respected for his ethics and legal expertise, Richardson quit as Nixon's Attorney General in 1973 rather than carry out the order to fire Watergate Special Prosecutor Archbald Cox. In a recent radio interview, Richardson was asked if he believed Casolaro killed himself. He answered:
I don't. I think everything we know makes it much more likely that he was eliminated by a person or persons unknown who feared that he was about to disclose information that would be severely damaging... he told [friends] separately that he had in hand or ready, significant hard evidence pointing to the connections between Inslaw and these other events [Iran-Contra, BCCI, October Surprise]. He said he was going to West Virginia to get additional evidence that would really lock this whole picture into place. Now, that I think is the most significant piece of information we have. There's no reason to suppose that he was lying to his friends. Why should he? And there's no reason to suppose that they lied in saying that this is what he told them. 

The Inslaw case involves charges that the Justice Department, under Attorney General Edwin Meese, stole the powerful database softwarePROMIS (Prosecutor's Management Information System) from Inslaw. When a federal bankruptcy court ruled in Inslaw's favor in 1987, presiding Judge George Francis Bason concluded that the Justice Department "took, converted, and stole" the software "through trickery, fraud, and deceit." 

Allegations about the theft of PROMIS have suggested three possible motives: To fund off-the-shelf covert operations; to market a "trojan horse" database which could then be easily monitored by the National Security Agency; and to pay off Reagan attorney General Edwin Meese's political crony, Dr. Earl Brian. Now president of the floundering United Press International, Earl Brian has longstanding ties to Reagan and served in his cabinet when Reagan was governor of California.

Whatever it motivations, the Justice Department has twice been found guilty of theft and was ordered to pay Inslaw 6.8 million, plus legal fees. In 1989, the decision was upheld by federal judge William Bryant who said, "the government acted willfully and fraudulently..." Under bothEdwin Meese and Richard Thornburgh, the Justice Department stonewalled efforts to investigate, refusing to release documents either toSenator Sam Nunn's Government Affairs Investigations Subcommittee or to Congressman Jack Brooks' House Judiciary Committee.

In June, after eight years of litigation, the Federal Appeals Court of the District of Columbia voided the two previous decisions. October Surprise figure Judge Lawrence J. Silberman cast the deciding vote, declaring that the case had been wrongly heard in a bankruptcy court in the first place, and must be retried in a federal district court. Inslaw has appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Washington, D. C. bankruptcy court judge who had heard the case and decided in Inslaw's favor was removed from the bench one month after his decision. He was replaced by S. Martin Teel, Jr., one of the Department of Justice lawyers who had unsuccessfully argued the case. According to a writer for Barron's, "Even jaded, case hardened Washington attorneys called the decision 'shocking' and 'eerie.'" 

OCTOBER SURPRISE

October Surprise is the as-yet unproven theory that members of the 1980 Reagan presidential campaign arranged a deal with the government ofIran to continue holding 52 U. S. hostages in Tehran until after the election in order to prevent President Carter from benefiting politically from their release.

The Inslaw case is tied to the October Surprise by the sworn affidavit of Michael Riconosciuto, a West Coast computer and weapons technician with self-proclaimed ties to the intelligence community. He testified last March that he had modified the PROMIS software for sale to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) at the request of a Justice departmentcontracting officer named Peter Videnieks and Reagan/Meese crony Earl Brian. In an unsworn statement to Inslaw's president William A. HamiltonRiconosciuto says he met Brian in 1980 when he helped him deliver $40 million to Tehran to consummate the October Surpriseweapons-for-hostages deal. 

After Riconosciuto first contacted InslawCasolaro traveled several times to California and Washington in 1990 and 1991 to talk to him.Riconosciuto claims knowledge of many covert activities in the U.S., Latin America, and Australia, and doubtless influenced Casolaro's concept of the Octopus. In his affidavit in the Inslaw case, Riconosciuto declared that Videnieks told him "not to cooperate with an independent investigation... by the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States House of Representatives." Riconosciuto also stated that Videnieksalso threatened him with specific punishments he "could expect to receive from the U.S. Department of Justice... " if he cooperated with that investigation. Within eight days of swearing the affidavit, he was in fact arrested on charges of distributing methamphetamines and has been held without bail in Washington state since March. My appointment to speak to Casolaro on his return concerned Riconosciuto, in whose wide-ranging, not entirely believable allegations we shared a keen interest.

Viedenieks has denied in a sworn affidavit any knowledge of or contact with RiconosciutoEarl Brian has done the same. Although Videnieksidentifies himself as an employee of the U.S. Customs in his affidavit, the customs personnel office has denied any knowledge of him. An independent check with regional Customs officials also produced no evidence of VidenieksCasolaro, however, told Hamilton that he had contacted Videnieks at Customs shortly before his fatal trip. 

FINAL RENDEZVOUS

What is known about Danny Casolaro's trip to Martinsburg is that he met on Thursday, August 8, at about 5:30 p.m. in the Sheraton bar with a man described by a waitress as possibly Arab or Iranian. This may have been an Egyptian named Hassan Ali Ibrahim Ali. According to documents provided to Casolaro by former Customs informant Bob BickelAli headed an Iraqi front company in the U.S. called Sitico.
According to Ridgeway and VaughnCasolaro had shown a photo of Ali to a friend shortly before leaving for MartinsburgMiddle East expertMary Barrett has asserted that Hassan Ali -- known as "Ali Ali" -- had close ties to the late Gerald Bull, the American ballistics engineer working on super long-range artillery for Iraq and South AfricaBull was murdered in Brussels in March, apparently by Israeli agents. 
After meeting with Ali, Casolaro waited in the same bar to meet another source, who never arrived. In a conversation with Tom Looney, a fellow hotel guest he met there, Casolaro spoke of the source he was waiting for, explaining that the man had the information to solve theOctopus riddle, something which Casolaro explained in detail to his skeptical listener. Looney told Ridgeway and Vaughn that he had a hard time believing that just seven or eight men were responsible for 40 years of scandals.

OTHER FIGURES FROM THE SHADOWS

On the following day, Friday, August 9, Casolaro met with a former Hughes Aircraft employee, William Turner, in the Sheraton parking lotat about 2:00 p.m. Turner gave him some papers relating to alleged corruption at Hughes and at the Pentagon.
To further complicate matters, Turner was arrested on September 26, on charges of holding up a rural bank near his home in Winchester, Virginia. In an interview with Ridgeway and Vaughn in mid-August, Turner professed to being "scared shitless" because of the evidence Casolaro had  shown him connecting "the Octopus" to Oliver North, BCCI, the Keating Five, and the Silverado Savings and Loan scandal. 

Finally, there is the ubiquitous Ari Ben-Menashe, the former Israeli military intelligence officer who claims to have been involved in organizing the October Surprise affair in 1980 and to have been a key element in the subsequent supply of U.S.-provided military equipment to Iran

On news of Casolaro's death, Ben-Menashe called Inslaw's William Hamilton to say that the two FBI agents from Lexington, Kentucky(where the Israeli lived in the late 1990 and early 1991), had been en route to Martinsburg to talk to Casolaro about their own investigation of the Inslaw case. Ben-Menashe said the agents were prepared to give him proof that the FBI was illegally using PROMIS software, Hamiltonreports.

Ben-Menashe further told Hamilton that one of the agents, E. B. Cartinhour, was angry that the Justice Department was not pursuing Reagan administration officials for their role in the October SurpriseCartinhour refused to talk to Ridgeway and Vaughn, but recently a retired agent who had worked with Cartinhour told Ridgeway that he knew of Ben-Menashe and "that involves classified information."  The ex-agent also claimed knowledge of an investigation about the Hamiltons, computers, the Justice Department, and a coverup. He told Ridgeway that if anyFBI agents had been going to talk to b, it would have been to get information, not to give it. 

The Inslaw investigation has extended into Kentucky for very concrete reasons. One of Inslaw's major sources is Charles Hayes, who runs a computer reconditioning business in Kentucky. Hayes, who claims to have been a former CIA asset, has found evidence of the PROMISsoftware in former Justice Department computers he acquired for his business. 

According to Ben-MenasheRidgeway and Hamilton had botched what he told them, and had ruined Cartinhour'FBI career by alleging that he was going against Justice Department policy. Ridgeway, for his part, says his reporting is accurate.

AFTERSHOCKS

Casolaro's housekeeper reported receiving several telephone calls on Friday, August 9, at Casolaro's house. At 9:00 a.m., a male caller announced, "I will cut his body and throw it to the sharks." An hour of so later another caller said simply, "Drop dead." Between then and 10:00 p.m., when she left for the night, there were three more calls in which there was only silence or the sound of music in the background. The following day, Saturday, August 10, she got a final call at 8:30 p.m. --approximately twelve hours after Casolaro's death. A man's voice said, "You son of a bitch. You're dead." 

On the previous day, around 6:00 p.m., as widely reported in the press, Casolaro called his mother's home in McLean, Virginia, to say he was on the way home but would be too late for a family celebration.

Whether Casolaro was murdered or killed himself, his death has brought the Inslaw case back into the public spotlight. Elliot Richardson, calling the situation "far worse than Watergate," has written to the Justice Department to request appointment of an independent counsel to investigateCasolaro's death.

If Casolaro was murdered because of what he knew, Inslaw is the most probable cause. There is no evidence that his Octopus theory, or his investigations into BCCI and the October surprise, are likely to have uncovered information worth killing for. Inslaw is a different matter. Here is a real crime, with real people who, if found guilty, would face real jail terms and stand to lose millions. It is possible that Casolaro, who was in close touch with Inslaw owners Bill and Nancy Hamilton, might have been too close to something conclusive which sealed his death warrant.

The possibility of murder remains the subject of serious inquiry, but the suicide theory is gaining rapidly. Ron Rosenbaum, an investigative  reporter and longtime acquaintance of Danny's, elaborately staged his own death. Reviewing Casolaro's history as a journalist, Rosenbaumframes a good case showing that the dead man had neither the investigative track record, nor an adequate understanding of covert operations to make his extraordinary claims credible. He also offers evidence that some of Casolaro's death threats may have been imaginary. Rosenbaumconcedes, however, that Casolaro was dealing with dangerous individuals, and that his investigations had uncovered serious new material.

Unanswered questions surrounding Casolaro's death, including the disappearance of his briefcase and a rash of anonymous calls after he died, have generated significant public pressure. Newly confirmed Attorney General William Barr has ordered a retired federal judge, Nicholas J. Bua, to conduct a 120-day "top to bottom" review of the Inslaw matter. This is a welcome change from the stonewalling of Meese andThornburgh. It remains to be seen whether Bua will conduct a thorough investigation or simply preside over yet another government whitewash.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

The Writings and Teachings of Robert DeGrimston


AS IT IS

     A man cannot change his way of life by changing his clothes nor by speaking with a different voice. To change basically, permanently and meaningfully he must reach down into himself and pluck himself out by the roots.
     A man cannot lose his fear by telling himself that he is not afraid and believing it. He must know his fear; see it, feel it, and accept it. Then, if he does that which he is afraid to do, says that which he is afraid to say, thinks that which he is afraid to think, sees that which he is afraid to see and knows that which he is afraid to know, he has no fear, for by making known what was unknown or only half known, he discovers his basic invulnerability.
     AS IT IS, is written for those who want to break away from the futile human pattern of seeing reality as it is not and thereby living a lie, to abandon the anaesthetic of ignorance and suppression within which man cocoons himself and to embrace the intensity of reality – as it is.
                                                  Humanity is doomed!
     If we are part of humanity, identified with humanity, in sympathy with humanity, we are doomed.
     If we attempt to save humanity from its doom, we shall fail, because humanity has chosen its doom and has shown its unwillingness to reverse its choice.
     Our only valid course of action is to detach from humanity, climb out of the quagmire of its lies, its hypocrisy, its blind desire for its own destruction, find our own truth and create our own destiny.
     But is it enough to break the links on the surface, to rebel against the superficial manifestations of a deeply rooted corruption? Is it enough to say, “I am not one of you?”
                                             How deep is our conviction?
     If the world is to blow itself up, shall we escape the cataclysm by removing ourselves to an island?
     By no mans. Although we have no link with the mainland above the level of the sea, the link is strong and permanent below, and if we think the water separates us effectively, we deceive ourselves.
     So it is our links with the human race. We can protest and separate ourselves, act differently, openly reject the normally accepted values of humanity, but how deep does it go?
     Not very. Below the level of our conscious cries of revolt, lurking in the hidden depths of the mind, powerful and deep-rooted, are links as solid as the ocean bed, that bind us to the human predicament.
     Consciously we are detached. Unconsciously we are part of, identified with, immersed in, submerged by the futile tragedy of the human game.
     It is our futile tragedy, whether we like it or not, because unconsciously we have made it ours.
     If we are ready to break the links we ourselves have created, we must dive down into the depths and find them, bring them to the surface and examine them, know them, understand them. For as long as we keep them hidden, and as long as we pretend to ourselves that they are not there, as long as we on our island imagine we have severed all contact with the mainland, the links will continue to bind us, and at the end, far from finding that we are free of the agony of man’s destruction as a race, we shall find ourselves part of it, as horrified to see his image crumble, as dismayed to discover the hollowness of his vision of himself, as the most convinced conformist.
     For at that time all superficial differences will vanish, all conscious disagreements will cease to apply, and what will emerge will be the basic realities, the basic agreements, the basic identifications. And if we have let these remain as we originally created them within ourselves, there will be no escape. Humanity’s doom will be our doom. Humanity’s damnation of itself will be the damnation of ourselves.
     We shall be like men who invest in the beginning of a project, sink all they have in its original creation, and then forget they have a stake in its success. When all looks black and nothing can be done to avert catastrophe, they opt out, but because they have forgotten, they fail to break the ties that bind their fortune to the fortune of the project. So that when the end comes, they find themselves inextricably involved with the disaster.
     So we must break our links, sever our ties, plumb the depths of our unconsciousness, and cut the bonds, which we’ve bound ourselves.
     And there isn’t much time. The distant rumblings that are heralds of the End have become a mighty roar closing in about us, piercing our eardrums and causing the very Earth to quake beneath our feet, so that very soon even the blindest, numbest, most oblivious of us will no longer be able to shut out the sound of it.
     By then the whole world will be stricken by the sound of its own approaching doom. Every man will gaze in horror at his fellow man, and see his own fear reflected back to him.
     And by then we must be free if we are ever to be free. By then the bonds that bound us must be broken, and we must stand above the terror of the End, aloof, detached, a part of something new.
     For every end there is a new beginning, and if we are not of the End, then we shall be of the New Beginning. Either we shall be the ashes of the Phoenix, or his resurrection from the ashes. And if we care about the death of the Phoenix, then we shall be his ashes, but if we are detached and see the cycle of which his death is but a part, then we shall be his resurrection.
     And those who care for the human race, those who would preserve it in all its hopeless degradation and irreversible decay, they shall die with it, they shall feel the burning disappointment of the latter days, they shall feel despair, they shall know the horror of a lie exposed too late, they shall feel the fires of destruction within their souls. And they shall die because they could not die. They shall be destroyed because they would not be destroyed. They shall suffer agony because they would not feel agony. They shall see the utter devastation of their race because they would not see it.
     For he that looks for salvation in the world, looks for a glowing ember in the sea. Be that clings to the coat tails of mankind and seeks to be carried up to heaven in its wake, shall find himself in Bell.
     For though we are in this world, we shall find no truth in the bounds it sets itself, no right within the rules by which it lives. We must be of another world, another set of laws, another code, a world where black and white are seen as what they are, not merged into the lie of murky grey and swallowed blindly, and then forgotten.
     If love is what we seek we must know hate. If joy is what we pursue then we must find agony and feel it. If harmony is our ideal then strife and conflict we must serve to find it.
     No pendulum can swing only in one direction. And if we have run away from pain, then we have denied ourselves the rights of pleasure. And if we have hidden our faces from the hideous facts of war, then we have taken away the gentle harmony of peace from our experience. And if we have shut our eyes and ears and hearts to ugliness, then we can never know the sweetness or beauty. And if to be safe we have cut ourselves off from the black side of truth, if we have linked ourselves with the mass decision of humanity to see God and the Universe as all loving, all forgiving, and all light, then we have checked for ourselves the pendulum and denied ourselves the white side or truth as well, settling for the meaningless compromise of the middle road, the lie with which the race has sealed its doom.
     And we have set our own seal upon that general seal, and by agreement linked ourselves with the fortunes of humanity.
     And if we leave the seal we leave the link, and if we leave the link we go with the rest, and if we go with the rest we die with the rest and are bound for eternity to the lie we clung to for security; no longer in merciful ignorance, our awareness dulled by the anaesthetic of our own suppression, but in stark and agonizing consciousness of the twisted inverted nature of the code we stand by. Like a man who is blind, and lives surrounded by the most hideous ugliness imaginable, and then suddenly one day he can see, and the horror of what he sees is unbearable, and he cannot change it and neither can he become blind again.
     So before the End, when all accounts are settled and the shackles that still bind us because we have not had the courage to break them asunder, are fixed forever, before the time that must soon come, when the choice is no longer ours and the game is done, we must make the choice that still remains, whether to join the throng and throw in our lot with humanity's lie, whether to be one of the self-deluded optimists who see the race rising towards a magnificent destiny on the wings of scientific progress, who see centuries of hatred and violence that show no signs of abating as no more than the unfortunate driftwood floating on the surface of our civilization, and who see man as a pillar of strength and wisdom, plotting his path unerringly towards ultimate fulfillment, whether like the ostrich to hide our heads in the sand and hope the Day of Judgment will pass us by, or whether to open our eyes and see the race of which we chose to be a part, see it in all its helpless futility, careering blindly and irrevocably towards its doom.
     And if we choose the last, then we must lay bare our souls before us, expose our own futilities, our own lies, our own distorted agreements that at present hind us to the destiny of man, and rip the lies to pieces and he free.
     And to do this we must go to the root of the lies, the basis of them, we must find the point at which we chose to invert the truth in order to be safe. We-must find the first rejection, the first distortion, the first denial of what we knew. We must know ourselves, reach deep down into the very core of our being, grasp whatever we find there, though it be the foulest and most hideous manifestation of Hell, and bring it out for our ruthless scrutiny.
     And when we know the nature and extent of each cretinous lie, we know the key to its elimination. We know the truth behind it, and in the face of such knowledge no lie can continue to exist. But so long as we remain in ignorance of the lie, the lie remains and clings like a limpet, unrelenting.
     And when the day comes and the human race begins the final phase of its disintegration, then shall those who have clung to the lie through self-imposed blindness and ignorance, know the truth behind the lie; but not because they sought it. And they will try to separate themselves from the lie, which now in the light of truth becomes like fire to their souls. And because they have not sought to know the lie and cast it out but have clung to it, now shall it cling to them, and they shall not be rid of it, though it give them the ultimate anguish and they cry for mercy. For theirs is the heritage of man, and they shall carry it with them into eternity.
     But those who have found the lie when there was still time, and have seen the truth behind it and thus destroyed the lie, they shall go on, not in the blinding agony of doomed humanity, but to the new cycle of the risen Phoenix.
     And a new creation shall begin. New laws shall rule the players of a new game. New worlds shall be created.
     Truth is the awareness of reality. Facts are nothing; they are the material of statisticians. Reality is the nature of a being; the will, the purpose, the knowledge, the experience of a spark of consciousness created by a God to fulfill a function.
     Each being is a separate entity, and yet a part of Him who gave it its existence. Each being has a nature all its own, yet all are centered on the will of their creator, like spokes that radiate from a hub. And each has truth within its grasp, through knowledge of itself.
     And the wheel turns and the spokes flash fire in the sunlight, and life begins.
     And there is movement, a pattern, a time of evolution, a cycle, a sequence. Each phase follows from the last and prepares the way for the next. And in the motion of the wheel there is no lie, no grating of a harsh anachronism. Logic permeates the smooth passage of time, and logic is inexorable.
     The wheel spins and revolution follows revolution, and the sequence is precise like the movement of the stars. And the hub remains, and the spokes branch out and circle it. And change is manifested only in the flashing spokes.
     But while each spoke remains pure, bright, unsoiled, undamaged, only a flickering oscillation of light marks the passage of time. Overall the pattern stays unchanged -even within the wheel.
     Only when a spoke is dulled, is bent, breaks off from the central hub, becomes entangled with its neighbor, twists itself into grotesque shapes, then begins the change, not in the motion of the wheel for that goes on with the inexorability of logical sequence, but within the wheel itself. The light is distorted. No perfect patterned regularity in the flashing oscillations, but a limping, awkward, rhythmless, nightmare of distorted images.
     The wheel continues unaffected. The spokes devolve. They have lost reality, discarded it. So that within the wheel exists no truth but a jumble of conflicting lies.
     Such is the creation of the human race. Each spoke the image of a living lie. Each being lost, blinded to the nature of itself.
     The passage of time is inexorable; the orbit of the planet around the sun, relentless. The laws of evolution are indestructible.
     But men! What parodies of God's original creation, what strange unrecognizable manifestations! What dreadful apparitions! Grotesque nightmares! God in His Heaven shudders at the ghastly sight.
     Is this the race He spawned? Is this the army He created? Is this His brood? His beloved creation? Is this the thing He fashioned in His own image, instilled with the burning fire of life? Is this what He placed upon a richly fertile world? Is this the precious work upon which He bestowed His love?  “WHAT HAVE I DONE?” He cries.
     For the lie, like a treacherous cancer, has taken root, and man has embraced it. And the world has become the lie. And the lie is the world, and the world is the lie, and man is lost in his own blind worship of the lie.
     Yet beyond the caverns of the mind is truth. For truth is the knowledge of reality, and behind the lie of blindness, the darkness, the ignorance, the twisted images, is light.
     And light is knowledge, because by light we see, and by seeing we know.
     And far beyond the tortuous blackness of the lie, is the dazzling brightness of the truth, the vast open spaces of the soul; where all is clarity; where the logic of the creation is manifested in the perfect harmony of function and will, purpose and emotion, vision and reality; where there are no blank walls or tiny crevices, no dead end passages or paths that circle on themselves, no gaps too narrow to pass through, no partings of the ways, impossible choices, confusions. Nor are there the terrors of mysterious sounds, deceptive, echoing, seeming to come from above then from below, distant then close at hand, ahead, behind, then all about us. No lurking sound or footsteps in the dark, no hideous visions that appear, then disappear, no doors that are, then are not, or lead to nothing, no sudden precipices and no fantasies of death.
     None of the horrors of the lie. For here, in perfect knowledge of what is, is life, the spark of consciousness that exists at the core of every being and is limitless, yet is confined ideally within the limits of what is no more nor less than its complete reality, its natural state.
     A being that is boundless is hounded by its very boundlessness. One that is hounded by the perfect hounds, the hounds that harmonize with the nature of its existence, is truly boundless.
     But lost within the lie we are nothing; chaff blowing in the wind. We are the twisted members of a broken down machine; meaningless, worthless, having no part with truth and the ultimate game. Buried in the catacombs of self-importance, self-protection, and the fear of death, we cease to matter, become vulnerable, and live the very death we fear, the death of our existence.
     For within the confines of the lie, what else would follow but a paradox, an inversion of what seems to be? He that seeks to save his life shall lose it. He must, for if he feels his life is forfeit, already he is in the bosom of the lie, therefore his life is not life at all, but death, and if he seeks to preserve it he remains in death.
     For life, true life, the spark of consciousness, is indestructible, except by the self and the Creator. So where there is life there is no need for protection, for there is no fear of loss.
     But man is in the bosom of the lie and he is afraid. He wanders blindly in the darkness of his fantasies. He creates hope and then destroys it. He casts light upon the dingy walls that hem him in, gazes at them for a while, seeing an image of the light of truth, and then plunges himself in darkness again. He holds a mirror to his face and says; "1 exist, for I can see myself". He touches his flesh, so that it calls back to him; "You are real, because you can feel". He gives himself pain, then pleasure, and then pain again, and says: "I am alive".
     He hears others near him, cannot see them in the murky light and the twisting passages. He hears their groans, their hollow laughs, their short lived cries of satisfaction, and their shrieks of apothem. And he says: “We are all alive!” And he turns another corner.
     He is lost, and double lost, because he thinks he is not lost but found. And the world and all its horrors and grotesque distortions is his tomb, because he sees it as a carriage to salvation, and grimly stays aboard.
     Fear in the heart of Man, Fear in the blood of man.
     Fear like a cancer grows and envelopes the being. It swells to indescribable proportions, till nothing else is visible and all is terrifying, all is a horrible nightmare, and there is no chink of light through which even a ray of true hope might pass.
     Fear has the upper hand, rules all and carries the day. Man is the servant of fear whom he worships with greater reverence than any God. Fear has his way with him to the ultimate extreme. Fear can destroy him quicker and more agonizingly than anything else. Fear is his master and encompasses the Earth.
     Man is driven by fear to God. Man is driven by Fear away from God.
     Man is driven by Fear into the stale limbo of nothingness that is neither God nor anti-God, but un-God.
     Fear is the all-controlling element; the whip, the snare, the spur that cannot be denied.
     And Fear feeds on the lie. For without the mystery of the caverns of the lie there can he no Fear.
     In the all-pervading light of truth Fear cannot exist, cannot find a foot- hold. Knowledge is the enemy of Fear, ignorance his greatest ally.
     And ignorance is father of the lie.
     And in the labyrinth of the lie that ignorance has built, stalks Fear .He is everywhere lying in wait, lurking in the shadows, in the walls. His whispers echo from one chamber to the next, and pierce the very souls or all those who wander through the narrow twisting passages or self-deception.
     And hand in hand with Fear stalks Guilt, his blood brother, and each echoes but the other's cry, and both speak the same message. But Fear is the king, the master, and Guilt the next in line.
     And sometimes Fear lurks in the back of the mind, unseen. But his effects are no less treacherous, as the mind responds unconsciously, and absurdly plunges yet deeper into the caverns of the lie, seeking respite from the threat in the very place where the threat is spawned and fostered.
     And there is no respite. For the deeper the being delves into the lie, the greater its mystery and ignorance; the greater its fear.
     And as it drives further into the murk of the lie, the presence of Fear grows stronger.
     And often Fear crashes into the consciousness of a being. The being feels him, knows him, and runs again even further into ignorance and the lie. And the being shuts its eyes and shuts its mind and hides its stricken head. And Fear passes once more into the back of its mind and continues his work in a sphere where he can operate without disturbance, and drive the being slowly but inexorably, and quite unconsciously towards its doom.
     Man, make no mistake. The world is not your footstool but your grave.
For in it the throne of judgment is the lie, and upon that throne sits Fear I and beside that throne stands Guilt.
     And while you seek to conquer the Earth and bend it to your will, master the laws of nature, rule the atmosphere and cram the whole structure of the world into a miserable pattern of your own invention, Fear dictates your every move.
     The lie is upon you, around you and within you, and unconsciously you grovel in the blindness of its an embracing aura. And Fear is your master.
     Fear, the ultimate destroyer, the final death, the all enveloper, the torturer, the spreader of anguish, the crawling cancer of the mind the heart the soul, the inexorable disease that defies all antidote.
     For when you chose to reject your God and rule your own destiny, when you entered the portals of the caverns of the lie, Fear came to you to keep you in mind of the God you had rejected; fear of death, fear of pain, fear of failure, fear of the great unknown beyond the grave. But far from using Fear to remember your God, you used Fear to increase your rejection of your God, to force more blindness and ignorance upon yourself, to negate your emotions, cloud your awareness, and bury your knowledge of your God and your creation by Him beneath a solid crust of self-deception and hypocrisy.
     And now comes the moment when the lie is exposed for an eternity; the lie you have built around yourself out of your fear, and thus perpetuated the fear. For deep down the truth remains; it cannot be destroyed but only submerged.
     And your rear you have used to roster the lie, and the lie creates more rear.
     And the spiral goes outwards, farther and farther from the core of knowledge. And your fear grows greater and the lie more tortuous and monumental. And finally you are lost forever in the dark caverns of the twisting labyrinth of falsehood.
     And when the End comes and all is revealed, all lies are swept from the Universe, so that only the core of stark reality remains, that is the moment of truth, the moment of inescapable knowledge.
     And if that moment finds you detached from the lie, free of the ignorance or blind rejection, having journeyed back through the tortuous caverns of the mind to reach the truth through knowledge of what really is; if that moment finds you in the light, truly separated from the ties that bind humanity to its doom; then, though the world shall be buried for ever beneath the smoldering ashes of the Phoenix, you shall be a part of his resurrection. You shall rise with the new epoch and be reborn with the new creation.
     But if that moment finds you alienated from all reality, suspended outside what is, a floating agonized anachronism, then that shall be your fate for all eternity. Only the pain shall stay with you. The dubious comfort of your home made lie will have gone, and with it the presence of Fear .For where there is already the ultimate anguish, the final fulfillment of the ultimate nightmare, what is there left to fear?
So be it.
Copyright 1968; The Process, Church of the Final Jud


HUMANITY IS THE DEVIL
In the beginning was GOD. And GOD breathed upon the vast and empty space of the Universe. And GOD created humanity.
And humanity could choose whether to remain subject to the Will of its Creator, or to set out upon the path of destiny by the power of its own free will.
And humanity chose free will. Humanity chose to guide its own path through the annals of time.
And GOD gave humanity a light by which to steer. GOD gave it the knowledge of right and wrong, that it might follow a path that would lead it back to the Truth from which it had set out. He gave it the concept of good and the concept of evil, and He said: "Follow in your heart the concept of good, for that is of Me, and the path that follows it will lead you back to Me, and you will find yourself in Heaven. But follow in your heart the concept of evil, and you will go further and further from Me.
For though I have created evil for your choice, evil is not of Me; it is of Satan, who is the Devil, and must for you be the Enemy so that yon do not follow Him. For the path of evil will lead you to the Devil and yon will find yourself in Hell."
And Hell is a place of darkness and misery and pain and anguish and hatred and violence and discomfort and unrest and unease and sickness and failure and death and futility and ignorance and malice and greed and envy and despair. And Hell is a place where no man should wish to be.
And humanity set off upon its journey through the annals of time, and the path of good and the path of evil lay before it. And the path of good was harsh and thorny, steep and narrow, and promised great sacrifice; but it led to the light of Heaven. And the path of evil was soft and comfortable, gentle and easy, and promised great self-indulgence; but it led to the darkness of Hell.
And humanity felt the conflict of good and evil; discomfort now with the promise of joy to come on one side, and pleasure now with the promise of agony to come on the other. And humanity found that choice was not the easy sense of power which it had imagined, but a gnawing sense of doubt and uncertainty. For the power to choose is the burden of responsibility ; there cannot be one without the other. Humanity had sought the power; now it was saddled with the burden.
But choice it had demanded, and now choose it must. To make no choice, is to take the easy way, and leads to Hell. To pretend there is no choice to be made, is to take the easy way, and leads to Hell. To accept the burden of responsibility and shoulder it, is to take the hard way, and leads to Heaven. It is the beginning of the road that leads back to GOD.
Humanity chose the road to Hell. Humanity rejected the burden of responsibility that came with the power of choice. Each man put the burden onto another. Each man claimed that another made his life for him. Each man saw himself the victim of his circumstances. Each man saw his life as the sum total of the decisions of others and the hand of fate.
And humanity's choice was manifested when each man blamed another for his own misfortunes. For blame is the ultimate rejection of responsibility.
Blame is the detonator or all evil. All sin stems from blame. All destruction stems from blame. Unless a man reels the need to blame there is no destruction in him; unless he reels the need to blame there is no hatred in him; unless he reels the need to blame there is no evil in him.
And humanity chose to blame. Humanity felt the need to blame. Each man blamed another, who blamed him in return. Humanity began to pattern the future course of the history of the world, on the basis of blame. Blame became the common factor in all events, and with it humanity set out along the road to Hell.
And blame begets ignorance, because in order to blame, a man must know the power of his choice , otherwise he will know the scope of his responsibility. If he knows that he has chosen to suffer, he cannot blame his suffering on someone else.
So humanity became blind to its own reality, for fear of having to bear the burden of responsibility and for fear of seeing the full extent of its power to choose. Humanity told itself a lie, a monstrous lie that provided the escape from the burden it was not willing to carry, and thereby it pursued the elusive comforts of the road to Hell, ignorant of the nature of its choice, and blind to the consequences.
And blame gave birth to blame, and evil was spawned all over the face of the earth. And violence and hatred were born within the hearts of men, and were hoarded in the name of peace, to be released from time to time with merciless destruction in the name of war.
And the pattern of blame was handed down from generation to generation, so that all men lived by its code, and blame became the hallmark of humanity. And though men began by using blame to pass aside the burden of responsibility, soon they were ruled by blame, their lives were dominated by it. It became the basic instinct of man; to blame.
He could suppress it, turn it upon himself, try to ignore it; it made no difference; his greatest need was to blame. And as his life became more worthless and corrupt from his pursuit of the road to Hell, so he felt a greater and greater need to blame; there was so much more for which something or someone had to be blamed.
And so it is. Man has taken the road to Hell, and steers by the lodestar of blame. Sometimes his eyes are opened for an instant, and he sees where he is going. And he cries: "We must not blame! We must all accept responsibility!" But no one listens. So he closes his eyes again, and finds someone to blame for the lack of response to his appeal. "Men will not accept responsibility," he sighs. "They continue to blame. It is the fault of our President. He is to blame for the hopeless state of our nation."
And the waters close over his head once more.
But there is no vision of the blame for what it truly is. Sometimes there is a vision of the consequences of blame, and there are many who say: "We must not fight one another!" So vast quantities of blame are suppressed, hoarded unconsciously, and built upon from lack of satisfaction through expression. Hatred is held in check, so that no violence is allowed to show above the surface. But soon the pressure of frustrated blame becomes too much; the dam bursts and violence erupts in war or riot or revolution or assassination.
But no one asks the question: "Why? Why-deep down-do we need to blame one another, and thence to hate one another, and thence to destroy one another?"
So it goes on. And if anyone WERE to ask the question: "Why?" No one would know the answer. It is buried too deep beneath the centuries.
Many would reply. Many would find countless reasons, countless rationalizations, countless justifications for humanity's compulsive need to blame. But no one would know the answer. Humanity has traveled too far along the path to be able any longer to look back and answer why it came this way. The true reason is long forgotten and cannot be recalled.
You can tell a man why he blames, and he might understand with his intellect, and he might even agree that what you tell him is so, but he will not FEEL the reality of what you say to him, he will not feel it inside himself so that his instinct to blame is plucked out by the roots and discarded. Humanity has sunk too low for that to be possible. The cancer has taken hold, and man has trapped himself irrevocably within the lies from which he blames. Nothing can save him now.
So the end of the road has been reached; the climax of the easy way, the point from which there is no return. The Devil has won. Satan has triumphed over man, and humanity is doomed. Man demanded the power to choose and man has made his choice, and nothing shall change it. For the time of the harvest is come and the Separation is already taking place.
The Judgment of mankind is now.
The Spirit of the Lord Christ is manifest upon the earth, and mighty sword is ready in His hand to strike down all who would cling to the values of humanity.
And the Lord Satan has done ms work and is free from the burdens of the Underworld, free to stalk the earth with the prowling Fiend of Hell beside Him; Tempter no longer, for the time of sin is past; Destroyer now, for the time of retribution is at hand.
And men still search for their meager sins, straining at gnats, whilst camels lie in their bellies, swallowed without a qualm. Too late; the evil now in the world is not the manifestation of men's sins, but the ultimate consequence of their choice to sin.
For the evil of the Latter Days is not of man, but of GOD. It is the retribution brought upon the world as promised time and time again; the end of the path of wrong. It is the Mighty Hand of the Lord GOD, and no man
Shall stem Its progress.
Humanity was warned, and did not heed the warning. Now comes the final settlement; the Judgment and the Devastation of the world of men.
For the world of men is a place of darkness and misery and pain and anguish and hatred and violence and discomfort and unrest and unease and sickness and failure and death and futility and ignorance and malice and greed and envy and despair. For the world of men is Hell.
The earth is Hell, and man has made it so.
Humanity chose the easy way that leads to Hell, and now its journey is ended. Humanity is In Hell, for it has created Hell around itself.
The game is over. It remains only for the Separation to be complete and Hell to be destroyed.
And Bell is the home of the Devil. And the Devil is mean and corrupt; a liar blinded by his own deception, yet cunning within the confines of his ignorance. And the Devil is weak, and yet strong in his weakness, for the Devil by his cunning can suck the strength from the truly strong and bring them down with him. And the Devil breeds death, the death of the soul, and gives life to the torturous conflicts of the mind in which the soul has trapped itself. And the Devil sustains whomever will maintain the corruption and decay which are his life-blood. And the Devil destroys all that promises to bring the spirit of purity and oust corruption. And the Devil charms with a sweet facade which hides a treacherous heart. And the Devil talks of love, and leaves the scars of hatred in his wake. And the Devil cries peace, and brings war. And the Devil speaks of glory and a magnificent destiny, and leads deeper into death and degradation. And the Devil is brimful of promises and so-called good intentions, yet behind him is a trail of abject failure and betrayal.
And the Devil is afraid, for he is steeped in evil.
And as with all things, by his fruits shall ye know the Devil. And the Devil's fruits are foul; bruised and bitter, and rotten to the core. And the Devil's home is Hell.
And humanity is mean and corrupt, a liar blinded by its own deception, yet cunning within the confines of its ignorance. And humanity is weak, and yet strong in its weakness, for humanity by its cunning can suck the strength from the truly strong and bring them down with it. And humanity breeds death, the death of the soul, and gives life to the torturous conflicts of the mind in which the soul has trapped itself. And humanity sustains whomever will maintain the corruption and decay which are its life-blood. And humanity destroys all that promises to bring the spirit of purity and oust corruption. And humanity charms with a sweet facade which hides a treacherous heart. And humanity talks of love, and leaves the scars of hatred in its wake. And humanity cries peace, and brings war. And humanity speaks of glory and a magnificent destiny, and leads deeper into death and degradation. And humanity is brimful of promises and so-called good intentions, yet behind it is a trail of abject failure and betrayal. And humanity is afraid, for it is steeped in evil.
And as with all things, by its fruits shall ye know humanity. And humanity's fruits are foul; bruised and bitter, and rotten to the core. And humanity's home is the earth, and the earth is Hell.
Satan is free for His work is done. Satan is no longer the Devil, for He has passed the poison on to that which chose to take it and become it.
Now there is nothing more evil in the universe than man.
His world is Hell, and he himself the Devil.

Copyright 1968; The Process, Church of the Final Judgment



A CANDLE IN HELL

Brethren, as it is,
Justification is the light and the darkness, the right, or the image of right, that takes away the totality of wrong; the good, or the image of good, that takes away the totality of evil; the white, or the image of white that takes away the vitality of black.
When as humans we justii1] in human terms, we run from the total darkness of the Godless world of men We create for our own peace of mind, an artificial man-made light, an image of rightness to counteract the knowledge of total wrongness in a world that has rejected its Creator. We manufacture an illusion of good, so that a11 is not seen to be evil. We paint white, that which is in essence black because it has removed its elf from the source of 811 life and knowledge. We give the semblance of truth to that which we know to be a lie.
That is the human game. When a man does wrong and knows he has done wrong, he tries to make it not so wrong by justifying it. He harms another man, feels the guilt, and then tries to reduce the burden of sin against himself; by blaming another, by reducing his awareness of the extent of the harm he has done, by pleading ignorance, by insisting that he only intended good, anything to create some rightness, or illusion of rightness, to relieve the sense of total wrongness.
That is the justification of men, the justification of self by self; a man-made light flickering feebly, but just perceptibly in the great void of Godless darkness.
And by agreement, in the world of men, they justify each other -except when they MUST blame each other in order to justify themselves. And they alternate between combining forces in fear against the common enemy of total darkness, and fighting one another for the meager and inadequate substitutes of artificial light. A man must feel justified, even if it means the whole-hearted condemnation of another man. If for him to maintain his illusion of being right, another must be shown to be wrong, then that is the goal he pursues.
The world of men is the absence of GOD, and therefore the antipodes of Heaven, which is Hell. And man carries a candle in Hell, so that he can pretend he is in Heaven.
And whenever a man feels wrong in the eyes of GOD, he tries to make himself right in the eyes of men. When he feels the darkness of his estrangement from GOD closing in upon him, he lights a candle of man-made lightness, and fights off the suffocating gloom. He justifies.
Every time he makes an excuse for his actions; every time he pretends to himself that what he has done is not as bad as it rea11y feels to him; every time he blames his shortcomings on his background, or his upbringing, or his environment; every time he blames his circumstances on his neighbors, or his employers, or the government, or the weather; every time he blames his failures or mistakes on his friends, or his enemies, or his colleagues, or his lack of education; every time he protects his good and altruistic intonations against the knowledge of his selfishness; every time he blinds himself to the destructive consequences of his actions; every time he makes a show of good will which balies his inner feelings of distaste; every time he makes himself feel pity of remorse, to convince himself of his virtue; every time he shifts responsibility for a11 the ugliness and wrong around him; he justifies. He carries a candle of illusion into the darkness of reality.
For if a man can justify his state of being, if he can find just a chink of light in his world, or if not find it, then create it, then he can continue in that state of being OF that world.
That is what it is to justify. If we are wrong and we know without a shadow of doubt that we are wrong, then we MUST cease to be what we are. If what we do is ev1l, and we cannot escape the knowledge that it is ev1l, then we MUST stop doing it. N o one can do or be that which no part of him tells him to do or be, and if no part of him can find even a pretence of an illusion or rightness or good in an action or state, then no part of him drives him towards it. He has no justification.
But if we can find a grain of what seems to be rightness in what we are, or create an image of rightness, even if it only lurks in the back of the mind, then we can go on being what we are. That grain, that image, drives us to continue. And if we can create the illusion of just one shadow of goodness in our actions, or at least a suggestion of inevitability which counteracts the concept of deliberate evil, then we can go on acting as we do. These tiny images of rightness and goodness and choice-less-ness, are enough to give us what we need to continue as we are.
They are our justifications.
The world of man lives in a constant state of justification.
The lie is: "...justification reveals the truth, and therefore it is the right thing to do."
Justification is one of the roads of Hell. It runs parallel to another road in Hell called Blame, which is the detonator of all evil.
And man carries a candle to light his way. And so as man believes he is moving forward, he moves in a state of illusion. The candle lights his way in Hell, so that he can pretend he is in Heaven.
In the world of men, countless bright and shiny images, dreams and illusions, bum to keep humanity justified in its estrangement from its Source of Life. Man has, in his terms, justified himself and his Godless state of being, justified his actions, justified his way of life, with everything the world has offered him.
But a few, a precious few, have stopped before it was too late. They have remembered the Light of Life. They have recalled its brilliance and its purity, and they have remembered that it was not made by man, but stems from GOD. They have seen the inky blackness of man's self-justification. They have witnessed what he calls his altruism, and seen it as no more than masked egotism. They have looked behind the protested appearances off good intention, and seen the self-interested and destructive motives which they hide.
They have looked at man, the mighty lord of all creation in his own deluded eyes, and seen an empty husk, chasing, in ever decreasing circles after an empty dream. They have known the hollowness of man's endeavors on his own account. They have seen the utter futility of his attempts to create a GOD that works on man's agenda.
And, they move forward. They have rejected justification. They OWN the Circumstances that surround them. They see what stops them, acknowledging the failure and moving forward. They stand powerfully in the giving of their Word and are responsible for their actions. They seek out a clear space to create profound thought and concepts. They uncover that which is concealed.
They reconcile opposites and watch as Blame and Justification no longer become their well traveled road.
Alone, they reach into the murky depths of the pool of darkness and feel for a hand and pull on it to reveal the man that does not know he is drowning.
And when the man is pulled out of the pool he is bent over barely able to stand, weak, in all of the nakedness of his illusions. And now he looks around him and looks at sights that he can vaguely remember from a long time ago, years past, in his youth; and the man begins to cry so deeply that there is no sound, only the pain on his face, for now he confronts the source of all of his ills, himself.
Copyright Church of the Final Judgment, 1967



THE UNITY OF CHRIST AND SATAN



CHRIST said: Love your enemies.
CHRIST's Enemy was SATAN and SATAN's Enemy was CHRIST.
Through Love enmity is destroyed.
Through Love saint and sinner destroy the enmity between them.
Through Love CHRIST and SATAN have destroyed their enmity
and come together for the End;
CHRIST to Judge, SATAN to execute the Judgement.
The Judgement is WISDOM; the execution of the Judgement is LOVE.


WHY THE UNITY OF CHRIST AND SATAN?

Christ said: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that despitefully use you and persecute you." But why? Why is it right to love our enemies? At another time He said: "Agree with thine adversary whilst thou art in the way with him." But why? Why should we agree with our adversary when the whole basis of our relationship with him is disagreement? Christ does not say that we have no enemies. He recognizes the existence of conflict. But he tells us that our task is not to propagate and intensify the conflict, but to set about eliminating it.
CHRIST TEACHES US THAT IT IS NOT ENEMIES WHICH WE SHOULD SEEK TO DESTROY, BUT ENMITY.
The essence of conflict is blame. I blame you. You blame me. I think you are "wrong". You think I am "wrong". I believe you to be "bad". You believe me to be "bad". That is a state of mutual blame. And the inevitable result is conflict. And as long as the blame continues, the conflict continues. As long as each of us continues to think and believe that the other is "wrong" and "bad", each of us will continue to be the enemy of the other. If we stop thinking the other is wrong, we stop blaming him. And if we both stop blaming, then there is no more enmity, no more conflict. If even one of us stops blaming, then the conflict goes. Because it requires two opposing forces to create a conflict. The other may still feel that there is a state of enmity. But it is no longer a mutual agreement, therefore although it may continue to manifest in his head, it cannot manifest outwardly.
YOU CANNOT CREATE A BATTLE WITH ONLY ONE ARMY.
To recognize that a person is doing wrong, is not blame but awareness - " wrong" in this case meaning something which is necessarily destructive or damaging to himself and other people. For example, when we see someone blaming, we know that it must give him pain and therefore it is an undesirable activity. Christ would not advise us to ignore this, or to be unaware of it. But to decide on the basis of this that the person is wrong, that he is evil, that he is a bad person, that is blame. That is identifying him with the wrong which he is enacting. That is saying that because he does bad things, it follows that he himself is a bad thing. When a person creates negative effects, it is right that we should judge what he does negatively. But it is not right to judge what he is negatively. That ca n only lead to blame. When Christ says: "love your enemies", He means separate what a person is from what he does. He does not say: "love what your enemies do to you". He has other advice for that. "Resist not evil" means "accept the bad things which are done to you. Don't fight against them." But "love your enemies" means "don't identify those bad things with the person who is doing them".
THERE ARE BAD EFFECTS, BAD ACTIONS, BAD MANIFESTATIONS - BAD IN THE SENSE OF UNDESIRABLE. BUT THERE ARE NO BAD PEOPLE.
Enmity - paradoxically - is good people doing bad things to one another. We know this. We can see it so clearly when we are on the outside of a conflict, when we see two people, both of whom we love, hating each other. Each of them is convinced that the other is bad, but we know that both of them are good and the badness is rooted in a misunderstanding between them. Now if we choose to take sides, then we become part of the conflict, and one side begins to look bad and the other good. But if we remain impartial, then we also remain aware of the basic reality that both are in fact good, and the badness lies not in them but in the conflict that exists between them, and the things they do to one another because of that conflict. And blame is the detonator. The agreement in each that the other is wrong, is the element which sparks and then maintains the conflict. Christ Himself has an enemy; the enemy. He is called Satan, which means enemy. And that conflict between Christ and Satan is the basic conflict, the prototype of all conflict. It's the light against the darkness, the high against the low. But also it is a conflict of all conflicts, because it is the conflict between the power which stands for conflict, the Satanic power, and the power which stands for no conflict, the Christ power. If that is resolved then all conflict is resolved. Now as long as Christ opposes Satan in His work, as long as He blames Sat an and sets Himself against Satan, then He maintains the conflict. In order to fulfill His own function, which is the elimination of conflict , He must take His own advice. He must separate Satan from what Satan is doing. He does no t have to love what Satan does, although He must accept it as an essential aspect of the Game, but He must love what Satan is. He must love Satan Himself. Love is the opposite of blame. Love is the recognition of a fundamental validity, behind and beneath all undesirable manifestations. If Christ has that recognition with regard to Satan, he cannot identify Satan with His undesirable manifestations, so He cannot blame Satan. He can se e the invalidity of what Satan does, but at the same time He can see the validity of what Satan is. And that is love. If Christ and Satan are in a state of unity instead of conflict, then Sat an has been defeated, but it is the defeat of salvation, because through it He is released from the function of creating conflict. It is defeat in that the enmity which it has been Satan's function to create and propagate has been eliminated. And it is salvation in that Satan is thereby freed from the burden of that essentially negative function. And if Satan is no longer able to maintain a conflict and a state of enmity with Christ, then He can no longer create and maintain conflict in the world. Because that would be an activity against Christ, who stands for the elimination of conflict. Therefore, if conflict is to be eliminated from the world, there must be a state of unity between Christ and Satan. As long as there is war between Them, then the power of conflict, which is Satan's power, is predominant. As long as Satan can keep Christ in a state of mutual enmity with Him, then He can keep men in a state of mutual enmity with one another. As long as Christ, who represents love, can be kept in a state of blame with regard to Satan - then blame is the rule, love is the exception to the rule, and conflict is the order of the day. But although the final coming together of Christ and Satan is needed for the final elimination of conflict, yet each and every human being can make his or her contribution towards that coming together. Christ did not say: "I must love my enemy before you can love yours." He did not say: "I must stop blaming Satan before you can s top blaming one another." He said: "love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that despitefully use you and persecute you." Christ will ultimately free us from conflict. But our part is to help Hi m to free Himself from conflict. He teaches us what to do. We do it and thereby help Him to do the same. This is our contribution. If He could do it on His own, He would have no function in the world. But this is the nature of existence. He helps us to free ourselves, and we in turn help Him to free Himself. He carries the greatest burden of all - the burden of the direct hatred and enmity of Satan Himself. He cannot throw aside that burden until we have thrown ours aside - with His help. Then, by the Universal Law, His will be lifted.
THE BASIS OF CHRIST'S TEACHING IS THE WAY TO ELIMINATE BLAME.
EVERY PARTICLE OF KNOWLEDGE HE GIVES US IS DIRECTED TO THAT END.
He does not simply tell us not to blame. That would be like telling an alcoholic that the solution to all his problems is to give up drink. He leads us on a journey, that if we follow it to its logical conclusion, must inevitably end with freedom from blame He approaches it from every angle. He teaches us the nature of blame. W e must know what it is, what effects it has on us, what causes it and what it causes, where it manifests and how it manifests. And He teaches us the value of the absence of blame; H e shows us the desirability of eliminating blame. Then He helps us not to blame, by exposing for our inspection the fundamental nature of things, the basics of the universe, the incredible logical structure of creation. That shows us the basic validity of everything. When we know the nature of blame and when we know the effects of no blame , we want to eliminate blame. When we know the true nature of all things, and how and why and for what good purpose they have been created, then we can begin to love all things; and the more we love the less we blame. Christ does not preach to us about the merits of love. He gives us the knowledge, which, if we will absorb it and make it our own, enables us to love.
IF WE KNOW THE UNIVERSE AND ALL THINGS IN THE UNIVERSE, WE CANNOT HELP BUT LOVE THE UNIVERSE AND ALL THINGS IN THE UNIVERSE. AND THAT MUST INCLUDE OUR ENEMIES.
But knowledge of basics must go deep and take root before it is a match f or our instinctive reactions to apparencies. The instinct is to blame the enemy, to identify him with his actions and his attitudes, and to brand him with them. Knowledge of his fundamental validity, and of hi s basic positive link with ourselves, must be very firm and deeply felt to counteract such an instinct. For example, it's not enough just to know with your intellect that someone is a child of GOD. That knowledge alone does not stop you hating him when he hurts you - and I mean hating him, not what he has done. But knowledge can be absorbed. It can be learned in such a way that it c eases to be an intellectual adjunct to our personalities, and becomes an integral part o f our personalities. And for that we require time and repetition. And we require not only the simplicities, which stand out as the main high-lights of the pattern, but also the complexities, which form the intricate network of logic and explanation that ties the pattern together into a cohesive whole. Our personalities are structures of illogical agreements, which are geared only to reacting to apparencies. And one of the themes of these structures is hatred of our enemies and the instinctive propagation of conflict. But through the teachings of Christ we can undermine those structures, and replace them with structures of logical understanding, which are geared to responding to fundamental realities. At present our thoughts are aware of the realities, but our emotions, where the power is, are still governed by the apparencies. Eventually, as we absorb and assimilate the knowledge which Christ gives us, our thoughts will be aware of the apparencies - we shall not fail to see them with great clarity - but our emotions will respond t o the deeper and more meaningful realities. We can see examples of this in small ways even now. When you really love a person, you don't stop loving him because he does something bad or destructive. You' re aware of the destructive action, but it doesn't affect your much more basic positive response to the person himself. Now imagine that on a grand scale; as a way of life covering all relation ships between people both close and remote. All enmity would be destroyed before it could take root. Destructive intentions would produce no retaliative response, and would therefore be starved out of existence. They would be seen and known, but they would b ring about no equal and opposite counteraction. Therefore they would find no foil, and would die.
LOVE IS THE RECOGNITION OF A FUNDAMENTAL VALIDITY.
When we truly have this recognition, with reality, and when we apply it t o all things and all people, then we cannot blame. We can only love, both friends and enemies Then Christ can love Satan, and through that love, Satan's enmity must be dissolved. Then the Unity of Christ and Satan is not just an ideal, but a fact. And all conflict vanishes. At the beginning we asked: "Why should we agree with our adversary, when the whole basis of our relationship with him is disagreement?" We have the answer to that question now. Our relationship with him is on the level of apparencies. And on that level the basis is disagreement. The apparencies are at odds with one another. But if the apparencies are less relevant than the deeper realities, then our relationship has a different basis. And the deeper we go, the less disagreement we find and the more agreement. Again we have examples even now in this strife-orientated world. The man who cannot go to war and kill another man, whatever that other man may have done; because to him the agreement involved in the fact that both of them are human beings, is more real and meaningful than the disagreement involved in the fact that they subscribe to opposing political ideologies, or even the fact that they belong to different nations which are in conflict with one another. The more basic positive link here takes precedence over the more superficial enmity. That is a small harmonic of the way towards the Unity of Christ and Satan There are many many signs which can help to lead us towards replacing blame with love. One is the Universal Law; "As we give, so shall we receive." The human instinct believes that as we take so shall we receive. But that's the Game. That's the challenge. That's all part of the strife-orientated reality which absorption of Christ's teachings can undermine and replace. But as well as working towards the establishment of the Universal Law as an instinctive reality instead of just an intellectual idea, there are things that can b e learned from knowledge of the Law. If someone hurts us, our instincts tell us that that person is bad and should be resisted and opposed. But the Universal Law tells us something quite different. It t ells us that we have inflicted a similar hurt on someone else. Now we are at liberty to hold onto both realities. They are not mutually exclusive. But they have an inevitable conclusion. X has hurt me, therefore X is bad. If X has hurt me, it is because I have hurt someone else. Therefore, I am also bad. At once we undermine our own blame, not with a resistance to it or an inhibition on it, but with a simple logical follow-up. "All right", says the Universal Law, "believe that X is bad and wrong and evil and undesirable. But if that belief is based on what X has done to you, then you must also believe that you are equally bad and wrong and evil an d undesirable. Because you must have done the same to someone else". With that kind of logic, we can no longer give any credence to our instinct to isolate badness outside ourselves. If there are evil forces outside us and we are affected badly by them, it can only tell us that there are precisely the same evil forces inside us as well.
IF OUR ENEMY CAN HARM US, THEN WE ARE JUST AS BAD AS HE IS.
How far can we blame him, with that particular knowledge to circumnavigate? We are quite convinced that we are not really bad, not at heart where it matters. How can we escape the knowledge that the same must apply to him? Two birds are killed with one stone. First, we are forced into some awareness of his fundamental validity - otherwise we must reject our own! And second, we cannot validly even hold his actions against him, because we have clearly equaled them ourselves. So what have we left? All we know is that looking at him we are looking at us. The Mosaic Law tells us to love our neighbor as our self. The Universal L aw forces us to love our enemy as our self. If we are valid, he is equally valid. If he has done wrong, we have equally done wrong. There is nothing basically to choose between us when it comes to validity and invalidity, or good and bad, or right and wrong. As this becomes real, blame must give way to love - gradually maybe, reluctantly perhaps, but inevitably. The Universal Law puts evil where it belongs; and that's within ourselves
YOU CAN ONLY GIVE CREDENCE TO YOUR HATRED OF SOMEONE IF YOU ARE PREPARED TO GIVE CREDENCE TO YOUR HATRED OF YOURSELF.
In fact we only hate and blame other people because we hate and blame our selves and we see ourselves reflected in them. Which is why a large part of Christ's teachings is concerned with showing us our own basic validity. If we can learn and believe in t hat, we can very quickly learn and believe in the basic validity of others. But Christ also said: "By their fruits ye shall know them". Does this not indicate that a person who creates bad effects is himself fundamentally bad? No, not fundamentally bad. But we cannot find or give any meaning to a person's fundamental validity, if the invalid aspects of his nature are being concealed behind a facade of validity. First the facade must be stripped away. We must see behind it, behind the protests and the unreal images. We must look at the effects a person creates, and if they are negative, despite an apparency of good intentions, we must recognize that behind that apparency is a source of negativity, an inner sickness, which shows not in the image but in the effects created. Christ never said that we must be blind to a person's faults. Quite the reverse. Only when we can see them clearly, know them and understand them with reality - and for that a person's effects on others are the most important evidence - can we reach behind them to the fundamental validity which must be there. We cannot heal someone, for example, if we cannot see what's wrong with him. We cannot penetrate to his basic validity, if we ignore or are blind to the nature and extent of the invalidity which he has piled on top if it. Christ does not manifest love for Satan by pretending or insisting that Satan is really not a destroyer and a separator and a creator of conflict. He recognizes Satan 2E He knows His destructive power, His divisive effects and His propensity for separation and conflict. He sees the effects and He knows where they come from. But also He knows that behind and beyond that negative activity, is a true Son of GOD, full of love and life -giving. That is love; a full recognition of all the invalidity, together with an awareness of the underlying validity. So by their fruits ye shall know them. Yes. By their effects you will k now their agreements, their patterns, their functions, their problems, their weaknesses, their strengths, their abilities, their inabilities, their intentions, their fears, their hopes, their loves, their hates, their instincts and their inclinations. And most of it may be very undesirable indeed; someone ready made to constitute your enemy. Then use your knowledge and your Christ-taught understanding, to recognize beyond that undesirable apparency, the fundamental validity of a child of GOD. And instead of setting out to destroy your enemy, set out to heal him. That is love. The bad is inside ourselves, and yet we are valid. Another simple logic presents itself from this reality. We are fundamentally good. But from that fundamental goodness springs a fountain of bad effects. How can this be? Only if even the bad effects themselves have a positive and valid purpose 2E If it comes from a source of validity, then even invalidity must have its own validity. A paradox, but understandable if we realize that without the existence of negativity, positivity has no meaning. If there were no darkness, then there would be no such thing as light. I f there were no pain, there would be no pleasure. If there were no suffering, there would be no deliverance. If there were no hell, there would be no paradise. If there were no hatred, there would be no love. If there were no swing of the pendulum in one direction, there would be no swing in the other.
ALL GOODNESS IS JUDGED AGAINST THE PRESENCE OF ITS OPPOSITE.
So not only can we see the fundamental validity of our enemy, and thereby love him despite his negative apparency, but we can carry that logic a step further, and love him with his negative apparency. We still do not need to love the negative apparency itself, in other word s we do not have to wish to preserve it. But a recognition of its validity, as being an essential and GOD--created element in the Game, introduced for a positive and basically life-giving purpose, will take us a long way towards a true acceptance of it. And an acceptance of evil as opposed to an instinctive resistance of it, is part of the prelude to eliminating it.
GOOD CREATES EVIL IN ORDER TO GIVE ITSELF MEANING; JUST AS THE SOUL CREATES THE BODY IN ORDER TO GIVE ITSELF DEFINITION.
And GOD created anti-GOD in order to bring about the Game. None of this makes pain less painful, or evil less undesirable. We still want to get rid of it. The difference is that now we have it in perspective. Now we understand it. Now we appreciate it. And now, because we know it, we can begin to control it, instead of being under its control. When we have full knowledge of pain and evil and conflict and hatred and enmity, then we control them. And then we can get rid of them. In a state of ignorance we desire to eliminate conflict, but we cannot. When there is knowledge, that changes. The desire to eliminate conflict remains; but t he difference is we can. Love is the recognition of a fundamental validity; which is knowledge, which is control. That is part of its nature. When we recognize the fundamental validity of our enemy, we love him, we know him, we control our relationship with him. Therefore because we love him, we want to eliminate our conflict with him , and because we love him, we can eliminate our conflict with him. Every time we do this, even in the smallest way and on the lowest level, we add another contribution to the love of Christ for Satan. And thereby we bring the Unity a little closer still. And finally, when Christ, by the giving of knowledge, receives the knowledge that He needs to bring about that Unity, Satan's function as the creator of conflict an d separation in the world will be over, and all conflict, and therefore pain, misery, frustration, unhappiness, rejection, guilt, fear, depression and regret in the world will be dissolved, gradually but inexorably.
Copyright Church of the Final Judgment, 1967