Production Notes for De-Occulted

There will be many questions concerning the writing of this script. Since this is the first chapter in a large and quirky story, I was limited in how much I could say and how. My first priority was to create a foundation on which to build the narrative arch. This is largely accomplished through the character of Christian Uptown and his biography. Characterized by a convoluted matrix of truth and fiction, the seemingly endless monlogue helps introduce the show's themes as well as parody salient characteristics of the "Whistleblower Community." For heuristic purposes I define them as follows.

1. The Christian Underground. Invariably, conspiracy types are also Christian. This is understandable. Christianity, as Nietzsche once articulated, is a religion which thrives on resentment. In order for its theology to be relevant, its followers must exist in a state of oppression, in that it provides a pretext for "salvation". Therefore, it's nomral for paranoia mongers like Alex Jones to profess Christian belief because the theological basis of Christianity is conspiratorial! This situation becomes more complex when we consider the tension between Orthodox Christians (Eastern, Roman Catholic, etc) and Protestants (everyone else). The Orthdoxy has traditionally feared Satanic conspiracies throughout history. From the national expulsion of Spanish Jews, to the burning of heretics and "witches" in the Middle Ages, to the suppression of "Bogomilism" in slavic countries, and the war with Protestanism in France and Northern Europe, the Orthodox Churches have never failed to perceive the devil's influence in history. Thus, fast forward a few centuries and you get the quintessential Mel Gibson type, whose unwavering belief that Salvation is only possible through the apostolic church (see the Gospel of Matthew) has made him a paranoid maniac. Naturally, this type desirses a return to an Orthodox Chrisitian society as defined by apostolic authority. Anyone who doesn't agree is either a Satanic agent or (worse) Jewish. On the opposite end of this spectrum, we have the protestant. In terms of conspiratorial thinking, he is at one with the Orthodox Christian, and like him, implicates the other camp in the grand Anti-Christian Conspiracy. For those who don't know, this is what is meant by "Bible-Believing" Christian. The term is discriminatory, denoting non-protestant Christians. If they believed in the Bible, it's reasoned, they wouldn't belong to Catholic or Eastern Orthodox Churches in the first place. Instead, they choose to belong to a crypto-pagan institution which secretly worships the devil. To an extent, there is nothing wrong with this observation, but the same is also said about the Protestants. Therefore, I have made this tension apparent in the show, to lampoon the oh-so-loving character of Christian compansion. In the words of Oliver Cromwell, "I disembowel you for Christ's love."

2. Appeals to imaginary authorities. Another prominent quality of our subject is the tasteless concoction of privileged experience and spurious qualification. Without fail, all "experts" in the Whistleblower community had high security clearance in the military, completed doctorates in arcane fields, and were members of the meta-conspiracy themselves. Of course, owing to their betrayal, the New World Order has destroyed any record of their spectacular careers and academic accomplishments. This does not only exnonerate these self-styled experts from any legitimate test of skill or acument, but it also keeps skeptics from interrupting the party with evidence to the contrary.

3. The threat of the Occult. Whereas Wiccans resent comparisons to Thelemites, Laveyan Satanists to "devil-worshippers," santeros to voodoo, Free Masons to Shriners, and vice versa, the whistle-blower community would have you believe that all these groups are a uniform agenda. The only reason they employs different symbolic trappings and forms of cultural expression is to confuse the naive public. They all worship Satan, dable in crime, and want to enslave the world.

4. The deployment of half-truth, quasi-science and flights of fancy. In a way this characteristic is an extension of the second. Without it, very little could be "proved" in the way of conspiracy theory. A year ago, when my fascination with the subject began, I put the most commonly pertuated beliefs espoused by the likes of David Icke, Alex Jones and the typical late-night Art Bell caller to honest tests of veracity. In cases which the theorists provided sources, I ran them down and studied the recommended literature. Predictably, none of the sources corroborated said claims. The one exception was Eustace Mullins. Then again, this shouldn't come as a surprise since Eustance Mullins is actually the author of the most popular conspiracy theories today. Thus, a self-referrential loop is created whereby the belief is tested against its source, without any sense of irony. 5. Anton Lavey. Even though the San Francisco based eccentric consistently denied belief in spirits, demons and diety, the Whistle-Blower community has made him into an avatar for ancient, anti-cosmic forces. Lavey would have found this amusing. Although he maintained a healty curiosity in the occult--at times suggesting there was underlying reality to ceremonial magic--Lavey hated New Age mysticism because of its credulity and emphasis on "white-light" values. Incidently, a new generation of pagan conspiracy theorists has emerged and they too implicate Lavey and his ilk in nefarious plots for world domination, through their use of dark forces. Still yet, another group, trust-fund socialists, blame Lavey, a jew, for the proliferation of Neo-Nazism in North America. Oy vey.

6. The old fashioned rant. It will soon become apparent that the characters in the script often pursue muddled tangents of thought in the middle of a coherent discussion. The reason for this is that conspiracies are not a linear phenomenon; they cannot be proved and understood in conventional Aristotelian fashion. They are only valid by way of inference and "reading between the lines." Were these whistle-blowers to resort to actual research and the processes of deduction, their careers would be cut short.

The themes having been discussed, I would like to move onto to some additional considerations, namely acting.

I'm not an actor. However, I do know a great deal about theatrical literature, and once entertained aspirations as a playwright. This puts me in a dificult situation, as I understand that scripts are often revised to accomodate the strenghts of a given actor. In this wise, I encourage anyone involved with the production to follow the script, yes, but to take liberties where necessary. This injunction is best illustrated by a hypothetical scenario.

Suppose you come to a line which reads: "I received a strange vibration on the astral," but you feel your character would most accurately say, "I got strange vibes, man," then it should be performed as such. As a general rule, I encourage everyone to follow the script as close as possible. But verisimilitude is our goal here. And the script must ultimately yield to the performance.

Keeping in line with my emphasis on performance, I suggest the actors make character studies. There are numerous personalities on the internet which make for excellent empathic templates. Personally, I recommed Sean Stone (read: "stoned"), Douglas Dietrich and Alex Jones.

I would also encourage those invovled with the first podcast to generate new ideas amongst themselves. These ideas should then be forwarded to David or myself.

As it becomes necessary, this document will be expanded to include other practical observations.

Miguel04/29/2015