Judging from his autobiography, Downard was most likely a paranoid schizophrenic (Binnall and Gorightly seem pretty embarrassed by this inconvenient fact), so it's highly possible that he was exposed to Jungian analysis, perhaps when institutionalized. That's the first thing that occurred to me when reading about his work in Vankin's 50 (now 80) Greatest Conspiracies of All Time way back in the early 90s.
Cheers to Mike Clelland for the heads-up. 2007 Secret Sun entry on Downard here.
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5 comments:
I've been having this very discussion with a friend who believes that much of Downard's life story, at least as communicated in "The Carnivals of Life and Death" is evidence of severe mental illness. He believes not.
There is much to the idea that persons with varying levels of psychosis gravitate to the more tightly woven and convoluted areas of conspiratainment, that are in turn spun by some seriously affected minds.
But then a crazy world so often results in...
It's hard to remain stable and on track in this fruit loop world. I know. My voices tell me so all the time.
I did hear a recent Downard interview with Vyzygoth and the ludicrous nature of many of Downard's ideas were shown. So much of modern conspiracy "research" has it's foundations in the output of Downard and Hoffman, right-wing Jew hating hardliners who basically liberally applied conjecture and prejudice to an ideological/religious agenda, producing a personal tour of their own inner worlds. And it's a journey through the nine circles of Hell often enough (It is worth noting that Dante's "Divine Comedy" is a top recommendation of Hoffman).
Hell can be other people, but really Hell is the demons projected by the tormented onto the world at large. And then others become possessed by the same terrors too. Fear and loathing is contagious.
As per my previous post it seems that I must make a correction. My opening line should read:
"I've been having this very discussion with a friend who believes that much of Downard's life story, at least as communicated in "The Carnivals of Life and Death" is not evidence of severe mental illness. I believe that it is."
I blame the late hour. My brain can't function at after 2am.
I think James Shelby Downard is a creation of Adam Gorightly and two other people, who's names I can't remember right now.
He says as much in an interview.
Thuth
I'm sorry, it was Adam Palfrey - not Adam Gorightly - that I was thinking of. Gorightly mentions this in the Binnall interview which I'm listening to now.
Thanks!
T
I don't think Adam Goightly is "embarrassed" by Downard's schizo-paronoia at all---given Adam's own absurdist sense of the pantheon of alternative media, and his twisted take on culture---Downard is the perfect product of the psy-ops and ritual abuse to which he claims to have been subjected.
Also, in the Binall interview, Adam forthrightly explains that HAD Downard been a "fabrication" the book would have been even more interesting as a result.
If the Downard we know from "King-Kill 33" and "The Carnival of Life and Death" is in some way a fabrication, it is likely that of Michael Hofman---and as Gorightly admitted in the interview: Downard was a terrible writer---to which some inventions of Downard's personna may have been literary license.
That said, it is a far cry to attribute any great expanse of "conspiracy theory" to Hofman-Downard, although theirs may be far more entertaining, sordid, and twisted; and in that sense a glimpse into the mindset of the perverse cryptocracy.
Interestingly,in both the book, "James Shelby Downard’s Mystical War" and the Binall interview, Gorightly breaks out a series of synchronicities connected to the place names connected to the JFK assassination---all part of the onomatological methods which Downard exposed---but absent the navel-gazing, seriousness of Jungian analysis.
Downard was a mess! His life a tragi-comic nightmare. The man was a racist and a misogynist---none of that is whitewashed. What comes through in Gorightly's book is the dark humor of a man who could recount his wife's ritual sex exploits---and refer to her as "The Great Whore".
In another post on "Secret Sun", recently,Chris alluded to the "revelation of the method" being attributable to (possibly, if I read between the lines correctly) Downard/Hofman---and dismissed such as a fabrication of "right wing conservatives." To which I can only add that: whether you believe it or not; and whether, if in fact, one can term Downard and Hofman as "right wing"---the revelation of the method has as much credibility in analyzing semiotics as Jungian archetypes, and is vastly richer than the endless threads of Sirius/Dogstar minutiae....
lighten up---stop being so "sirius"
RandyM
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