Category Archives: spirituality

Robert Stark talks to James O’Meara about Mysticism After Modernism

1960's, aesthetics, Alan Watts, Aldous Huxley, Aleister Crowley, Alfred Hitchcock, American Culture, Aristocratic Individualism, Art, Basic Income, Bronze Age Pervert, Buddhism, California, capitalism, Carl Jung, Christianity, Cinema, Class, Colin Wilson, conformity, Conspiracy Theories, Consumerism, Corporations, counterculture, Culture, David Lynch, Donald Trump, dreams, Economics, England, Fascism, Franz Kafka, Gnosticism, Greg Johnson, H. P. Lovecraft, History, Hollywood, Homosexuality, Human Bio Diversity, Islam, James O'Meara, Jason Reza Jorjani, Jeffery Mishlove, Journey to Vapor Island, Judaism, Julius Evola, Liberalism, Literature, Managerialism, Marin County, Marquis de Sade, materialism, Media, meditation, Mitch Horowitz, Morality, Mythology, Neville Goddard, New Thought, Nietzsche, Occultism, Oscar Wilde, parapsychology, Philosophy, Political Correctness, Politics, Psychology, Religion, Rudolf Steiner, Science, Sexuality, Socialism, spirituality, Stanley Kubrick, Sufism, Surrealism, Third Way Economics, Traditionalism, Transcendentalism, Transhumanism, Utopia, Vaporfornia, William S. Burroughs

Robert Stark speaks with James O’Meara about his book, Mysticism After Modernism: Crowley, Evola, Neville, Watts, Colin Wilson, & Other Populist Gurus. Mysticism After Modernism is published by Manticore Press, where it is available for purchase. You can also find it at Counter-Currents and on Amazon.

“Our spirituality has gotten too tame today. James J. O’Meara has a solution [in Mysticism After Modernism]
–Mitch Horowitz, PEN Award-winning author of Occult America and The Miracle Club

-The intersection of mysticism with politics and culture, and how mysticism is available to any political persuasion
-Countering the Hippie-dippy liberal  stereotype about New Age gurus
-Critiquing the reactionary who passively accepts cycles of decay, and the need to embrace infinite possibilities
-A practical take on magic/mysticism, in regards to enacting real world change
-Aleister Crowley’s definition of magic as transforming the World in accordance with one’s will
-Examples of opinions and attributes of Alan Watts and William Burroughs that come across as anti-liberal
-Greg Johnson’s article, “The Spiritual Materialism of Alan Watts: A Review of Does It Matter?”
-Watts’ ties to quasi-fascist Serbian mystic, Dimitrije Mitrinović
–New Thought, and an explanation for how Neville Goddard’s Law of Assumption works
-New Thought as a vehicle for political change, by removing all mental constraints
-Why Theosophy is the theology best adapted to hereditarianism (eg. illiberal pluralism)
-William Burroughs’ obsession with rejecting control in a metaphysical sense
–The Greek Qabalah, hidden esoteric traditions in Abrahamic faiths
-Colin Wilson’s practical mysticism, focused on expanding consciousness
-Parapsychology and Spiritual Science
-The need for spiritual elitism and Aristocratic Radicalism
-Robert’s novel, Vaporfornia, which has themes relating to New Thought
-James’ book, Passing the Buck: Coleman Francis and Other Cinematic Metaphysicians

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark talks to Keith Preston about Rudolf Steiner

Academia, Aleister Crowley, American Culture, Anarchism, Aristocratic Individualism, Art, Austria, capitalism, Carl Jung, Christianity, Consumerism, Culture, decentralization, Despair, Distributism, dreams, Drugs, Economics, Emile Durkheim, Enlightenment, Eugenics, Fascism, Germany, Gnosticism, Hinduism, History, Human Bio Diversity, Jeffery Mishlove, Julius Evola, Keith Preston, localism, Managerialism, Marxism, materialism, Matthew Pegas, Morality, Nationalism, neo-tribalism, Neoliberalism, Nietzsche, Occultism, parapsychology, Philosophy, Political Correctness, Politics, Psychology, Rationalism, Religion, Robert Putnam, Rudolf Steiner, Science, social capital, Social Isolation, Social Media, social trust, Socialism, spirituality, Surrealism, technology, Thinkers Against Modernity, Third Position, Third Way Economics, Timothy Leary, Traditionalism, Transhumanism

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas talk to Keith Preston about the life and philosophy of Austrian occultist and Renaissance Man, Rudolf Steiner, and what we can learn about Steiner’s ideas to address contemporary problems. Check out Keith Preston’s article, Scientific Spirituality and Ethical Individualism: The Legacy of Rudolf Steiner, and Troy Southgate’s new book, THE SPIRIT UNBOUND: RUDOLF STEINER’S PHILOSOPHY OF FREEDOM. Keith Preston is a historian, social scientist, political analyst, author, lecturer, trends researcher, and the editor of Attack the System. Follow Keith on Twitter.

Topics:

The crisis of modernity as anomie, uprootedness from place, identity, tradition, and social bonds, and its impact on the human psyche
Parallels between the modern existential crisis and that of Steiner’s era
Traditional religion being replaced by new secular religions (eg. social justice, scientism, secular heresies)
Steiner’s belief that spirituality and science are interconnected
Parapsychology, including studies of near death experiences
Comparisons to Carl Jung and Christian mystics, Emanuel Swedenborg and William James
Anti-vaxxers’ fascination with Steiner’s warnings of genetically re-engineering people’s spirituality
Steiner’s views on spiritual races and the Steiner schools becoming a target of cancel culture, though Steiner was staunchly anti-fascist
The limitations of materialism and rationalism, and Steiner’s influence from Romanticism 
Steiner’s philosophical relation to other thinkers, including Julius Evola, Nietzsche, Aleister Crowley, and Martin Buber
How the essence of Steiner’s political philosophy was reconciling the differences  between individualism and rootedness, liberal egalitarianism and tradition, and occultism and ethics
How Steiner favored an economic system like distributism, over capitalism or Marxism, and decentralized local autonomy and identities, over nationalism

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark interviews Montgomery Markland about his movie Malibu Road

1960's, 1970's, 1990's, acting, aesthetics, Aldous Huxley, Alfred Hitchcock, Alice in Wonderland, American Culture, Ancient Greece, Architecture, Art, Banking, Beatniks, Beverly Hills, Buddhism, California, capitalism, Carl Jung, censorship, Cinema, conformity, Conservatives, Conspiracy Theories, Consumerism, coronavirus, Corporations, counterculture, Culture, David Lynch, Despair, dreams, Drugs, Economics, Enter The Void, Film, Film Noire, Gaspar Noe, Hinduism, History, Hollywood, horror films, Hunter S. Thompson , Literature, Los Angeles, Malibu, Malibu Road, Matthew Pegas, Media, Mid-Century Modern, Montgomery Markland, Mulholland Drive, Mythology, Philip K. Dick, Philosophy, Photography, Political Correctness, Politics, Prostitution, Psychology, relationships, Religion, Sexuality, spirituality, Surrealism, Texas, Tiki, Timothy Leary, Travel, Twin Peaks, Vice, Video Games, William S. Burroughs, Zoomers

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas speak with filmmaker, Montgomery Markland, about his film Malibu Road, which he both directed and starred in. Malibu Road is available to watch for free on Tubi, and for purchase on Apple TV and Amazon. While the pandemic delayed Malibu Road’s theatrical release, Montgomery has further plans for multipicture deals.

“Fast living Los Angelenos are targeted by the Central Intelligence Agency during Operation Midnight Climax, part of MKUltra. The experience takes a turn for the deadly during New Year’s Eve 1960 and now a professor, a starlet and the workers at a hotel with a questionable reputation must rediscover reality or be trapped in an endless cycle of sex, drugs and murder in ‘paradise.'”

–Malibu Road (2021) IMDb 

Montgomery Markland has an idiosyncratic resume. Originally from Dallas, Montgomery was a state and local reporter in Austin, worked in the Texas state legislature on policy, was  then a producer, president, and CCO at a number of video game companies, before working in Hollywood. Follow Montgomery on Twitter.

Topics:

Applying videogame design principles to Cinema
The Meisner acting technique
MKUltra connections to university professors and Hollywood (eg. Irvin Keshner)
Timothy Leary’s prediction that video games had the potential to recreate psychedelic trips
The History of the Albatross Hotel in Malibu and connections to Old Hollywood
Cinemaphotographic techniques used to capture the psychedelic aesthetic
Distorting reality in stories as representations of dreams (eg. traumnovelle), and influences from David Lynch
Influence from soap operas, telenovelas, and 90s Cinemax
The set design, recreating the aesthetics of the 60s and 70s
Influences from Jungian archetypes, as well as Ancient Greek, Hindu, and Buddhist mythology (eg. Timothy Leary on the Tibetan Book of the Dead)
Hunter S. Thompson
Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo
Malibu Road’s filming locations, including Malibu State Park and Will Rogers State Historic Park
The politicization of entertainment, and why overtly political conservative media fails
Reasons to be optimistic about opportunities in entertainment via niche markets
The Banking crisis, Economic Death Spiral, and narratives of collapse

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas try to start a New Religion

Adam Parfrey, aesthetics, Aleister Crowley, Alex von Goldstein, Alexander Dugin, Alt Center, Andrew Yang, Boyd Rice, Bronze Age Pervert, Buddhism, Calexit, California, California Jesus, Calvinism, Camille Paglia, Carl Jung, Charles Manson, Christianity, Cults, Culture, David Lynch, dreams, ecofascism, Edward Dutton, Environment, Eugenics, Fascism, Gnosticism, Hinduism, History, Human Bio Diversity, IQ, Jason Reza Jorjani, Julius Evola, Liberalism, Marianne Williamson, Matthew Pegas, Mel Gibson, Memes, Mental illness, Mike Marinacci, Morality, Multiculturalism, Nietzsche, Occultism, parapsychology, Personality Types, Philosophy, Pilleater, Politics, Psychology, Race Relations, Radical Center, Religion, Richard Dawkins, San Diego, Science, Sexuality, Shaun Partridge, social capital, Social Isolation, spirituality, the New Right, The Partridge Family Temple, Third Position, Traditionalism, Vaporfornia, Yosemite

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas  tease the notion of a speculative new spiritual movement. This is a simulcast with Matt’s literary podcast, New Write, and a field-recording, conversation on cults, the new age movement, Matt’s Substack article “The Renaissance of the Ritual“, Robert’s novel “Vaporfornia“, California as fertile soil for new religions, occultism, and much more. Recorded on May 1st, 2022, on a trip through the backcountry of San Diego County, near Palomar Mountain, where Crowlian occultist, Wilfred Talbot Smith, erected an Ordo Templi Orientis temple.

Topics:

Background on the “new religion,” started as a half joke in Yosemite
A self-initiatory religion, comparable to Discordianism
Social reasons for the rise in cults
California ‘s spiritual movements: Mike Marinacci’s book California Jesus, Order of Atwa, and the Partridge Family Temple
Syncretic occultism and the esotericism/New Age to fascist pipeline
The right hand vs. left hand path and Jungian shadow work
The occultist ritual, finding structure in chaos, and a metaphysical/esoteric take on self-improvement
Knowing when to surrender and embrace the photosynthesis of the Universe/Light of God
The relationship between spirituality and biology (speculating where atheism and various theologies fit on the Bell Curve meme)
An anti-liberal and anti-blank slatist case for Theosophy
Robert’s article on a psychological inspired approach to solving political and social problems
Aesthetic alchemy (Sigils), and the spiritual, ethereal component to  aesthetics
Bronze Age Pervert as a foundationalist (not a traditionalist), and Mike Ma as an instinctive Christian
Jason Jorjani’s Prometheism 
Why spirituality and reclaiming vitality needs to come before politics

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark interviews Squid Game actor Geoffrey Giuliano

acting, American Culture, Animal Cruelty, animals, Asia, Asian Culture, Cinema, Coen Brothers, Culture, Donald Trump, Film, Geoffrey Giuliano, Hollywood, India, Korea, materialism, Media, meditation, Politics, spirituality, Squid Game, Stanley Kubrick

Robert Stark talks to actor Geoffrey Giuliano about his role as VIP 4 in Squid Game, animal rights, and other projects.  A true Renaissance Man, Geoffrey Giuliano is an American actor based in Thailand, an author best known for his biographies of the Beatles, artist,  journalist, and has acted in 28 movies, including Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula and Kate starring Woody Harrelson. Check out Geoffrey’s website, YouTube channel, Instagram, and his upcoming podcast, Geoffrey Giuliano’s Dog Fight, which will be an intelligent alternative to Joe Rogan and Howard Stern.

Topics:

The stylized acting performance of the Squid Game VIPs, the Kubrick influence, the Trump archetype of VIP 4, and Geoffrey’s response to the critics
The casting, production, and acting instructions for the VIPs
What its like for actors to play uncomfortable roles
Contrasting the portrayal of Americans in Squid Game with how Asian characters have been portrayed in American cinema
Squid Game as an allegory for the gross materialism of the modern world
Geoffrey’s animal rights documentary ‘Facist Food Confessions Of A Corporate Clown My Life As Ronald McDonald’
Geoffrey’s strangest fan mail as well as threats from those who are not able to divorce the VIP character from reality
How “if you want Squid Game to come to your town” you have to come to Geoffrey

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Instagram, and Stark Truth TV