#manson #witchcraft #cult In this new mini-doc I take on the markers of a cult. For twenty years and after two books I’ve looked into cults and their patterns and have attempted to boil it down to the ten key factors that stand out. At the end I consider witchcraft and its emergence.
In this episode, I decipher the philosophical and sometime esoteric underpinnings to two popular 90s films, Groundhog Day and The Truman Show. Surprising perhaps to some, both films exhibit a great deal of philosophical depth and forethought. Curious ethical and metaphysical questions are raised in both, and with The Truman Show in particular.
The 2018 film by Alex Garland bears remarkable similarity to his previous film Sunshine from a decade ago, where a team of scientists attempts to re-ignite the sun. Here, a team of scientists and specialists investigates a mysterious “shimmer” that has appeared near a state park where previous teams have disappeared. The film has generated much speculation, with comparisons to Kubrick: I will take you deep into the film’s symbolism and mythological context.
Based on the redone chapter in my best selling book on film analysis, Esoteric Hollywood: Sex, Cults & Symbols in Film. The original analysis was written SEVEN years ago. I take a different view than most analysts. My book also led to a TV show with Jay Weidner available at Gaia. Almost 200k views!
Jay and Tristan return to cover the announcement that 2019 is the year of the vegan diet in the Economist, the Guardian and many other publications. We discuss previous debates with Vegan Gains, atheism and relativism and the impact on millennials. From there we dive into movies and pop culture, looking at Blade Runner, PKD, Bird Box, Under the Silver Lake, social engineering, and the rise of the AI smart city though Jacques Attali.
Many objections and challenges have come in recently after the last couple debates so I thought it would be useful to do a stream specifically on several fundamental philosophical questions and challenges. Most people are not familiar with the basics of philosophy, yet attempt to engage in debates and discourses on highly philosophic subjects. In this talk we will consider the three branches once again, as well as the assumptions of these branches and modernity’s deconstructing of them leading to atheism and scientism.
