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 AntiChristian 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 WhistleBlower community has made him into an avatar for ancient, anticosmic 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 whistleblowers 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.
Miguel
04/29/2015