The Zen of Disclosure

 

Damien Echols on UFO disclosure and the Epstein files. Well, I don´t think I agree...

"It depends on who´s looking"

Damien Echols is a celebrity with a controversial past: he spent 20 years on death row in Arkansas for a crime he *may* not have perpetrated. Do I even dare linking to his content? Let´s just say that all the usual caveats apply in this case...

In this YouTube clip, Echols actually reads extensively from John Michael Greer´s book "Monsters". Echols is fascinated by the fairy or fey, not the Tinkerbell characters of pop culture, but the "real" fairy of Celtic and British folklore. Both Echols and Greer believe in their existence. Indeed, they believe that the fey are a global phenomenon. 

The short story is that the fey are strange beings whose energies are concentrated on the "etheric plane" rather than the physical ditto. Humans, by contrast, have their energies focused on the physical. In occult philosophy, the etheric plane is the dimension of existence immidiately "above" the physical. When the fey appear on the physical plane, they therefore come across as incomprehensible to humans. We can´t fathom their purposes, nor can we see them as they really are. The fay have the ability to manipulate our consciousness (an ability known as "glamour"), which explains why they can take essentially any form they want - they can "see" our thoughts (which are "visible" on the etheric plane) and adapt themselves to our preconcieved ideas about how a supernatural creature should look like. Yes, you guessed it: UFOs and aliens are just fay in new disguises. Damien Echols references the film "The Mothman Prophecies" here, in which Richard Gere´s character asks Indrid Cold (the Mothman): "How do you really look like?" at which Cold answers "It depends on who´s looking"! 

Echols also agrees with Greer´s take on cryptozoology. There are essentially two kinds of cryptids: the flesh-and-blood variety, which are real but unknown animals, and the paranormal version, which are fay disguising themselves as unknown animals. There are a number of signs that give the fairy game away, so to speak: if the cryptid has unnatural features (say seven toes on every foot), smells like sulphur rather than like an animal, or come in weird colors, it´s most probably a fay messing with your mind. Echols also reveals that there are ways in which humans can defend themselves from the fairy. Magic is one way, another is iron. For whatever reason, iron can hurt the etheric body. (Note: it´s not silver or garlic!)

In a later portion of the broadcast, Echols discusses seemingly unrelated topics, including enlightenment. His system seems to be a somewhat eclectic combination of the Golden Dawn, Mahayana Buddhism, Tantrism and perhaps even Eckhart Tolle. A truly enlightened person is incomprehensible to the unenlightened, since he no longer has any desire. Indeed, an absolutely enlightened person can´t even remain in our universe. However, many enlightened beings chose to remain here anyway, perhaps to teach the unenlightened, perhaps for reasons known only to themselves. In order to stay, the enlightened person must hold on to *some* earthly desire, which explains the otherwise curious fact that even highly accomplished spiritual teachers might have a fondness for, say, good food. At another point, Echols says that the enlightened have "preferences" rather than desires. (I´m not sure if I buy any of this, frankly.) More intriguing is the claim that enlightenment is only a part of something Echols calls "the Great Work". In other YouTube clips, he seems to be suggesting that the Great Work entails becoming an angelic being and creating your own worlds... 

For information purposes only. 

The secrets of the Ouroboros

Damien Echols spent 20 years on death row for a crime he didn´t commit. In prison, he took up a variety of spiritual practices, and today seems to have established himself as a spiritual teacher of sorts. His system sounds like a combination of the Golden Dawn tradition and Buddhism. One goal is enlightenment, which forms part of a much larger project known as "The Great Work". The methods used include ritual magic, during which the practitioner invokes angels and archangels in order to master the planetary energies, representing layers of reality higher than the physical. The magician will establish rapport with the "HGA" or Holy Guardian Angel, from which much secret knowledge can be learnt. During this process, the adept will develop a "solar body", which is perhaps similar to the "rainbow body" of Tibetan Buddhism. 

In the clip above, Damien discusses the Ouroboros, a mysterious (and mysteriously universal) symbol showing a snake or a dragon biting its own tail. Damien believes that Ouroboros is connected to the Biblical monster Leviathan. It symbolizes "the Abyss" on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, and is connected to the Archons of Gnostic mythology. The Ouroboros is the never-ending process of reincarnation, from which the human soul must extricate itself in order to reach enlightenment or liberation. The Ouroboros isn´t something "out there", it´s a "program" in your own soul, which constantly tricks you into reincarnating. Damien doesn´t claim to know where it comes from. Is it "natural", somehow? Or was it inplanted in us by evil demonic overlords? 

Good karma, while not bad or wrong in itself, can´t transcend the Ouroboros. Good karma leads to a better rebirth, but not to liberation from the cycles of rebirth. Karma, both good and bad, must therefore be transcended. 

One interesting but also scary thought is the idea that the Ouroboros *tricks* human souls into reincarnating. The light that shines forth after the soul has transcended the sphere of Saturnine energies is *not* divine, but the glamour of the Ouroboros. *If your soul enters the light, it will be captured by the Ouroboros and recycled*. People who believe Near Death Experiences are wholly benign might find this idea objectionable...

What happens to those who manage to transcend their karma and break free from Leviathan? Free from "the system", they can now create their own systems if they so wish, in effect become a kind of gods (!). Or they can re-enter "our" system in whatever way they wish. (Compare Buddhist teachings about siddhas and bodhisattvas). They also realize that every individual consciousness is really part of a divine "One Consciousness", observing itself through the eyes of the myriad individual consciousnesses. 

The clip also contain a discussion on the Book of Revelation, which Damien feel is both metaphorical and true, but its truths are incomprehensible if you interpret it absolutely literally. It´s a metaphor for the struggles within our own souls and our personal "apocalypse", but non-metaphorically it´s about the rise of the centralized modern state and its surveillence apparatus. 

Will probably look at more of this man´s content in the near future!