Category Archives: Psychology

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

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 pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Kevin Lynn interviews Robert Stark about Why No Collapse is the Real Dystopia

Kevin Lynn interviews Robert Stark about his article, No Collapse is the Real Dystopia: still waiting for the Big Collapse. This recording is a simulcast for Kevin’s Institute for Sound Public Policy’s YouTube channel, recorded on June 13th. Kevin Lynn is executive director of the Institute for Sound Public Policy and Progressives for Immigration Reform, and founder of US Tech Workers. Follow Kevin on Twitter.

Topics:

Revisiting past predictions about economic collapse, the current stagnant vibes,  and return of bullish copes about the economy
John Michael Greer’s Not the Future We Ordered and his theory of catabolic collapse
Research predicting future cycles of collapse by Peter Turchin, Neil Howe & William Strauss’ Fourth Turning, and the Kondratiev wave
Reponses to the article , including a re-publish on ZeroHedege, and a critical response from Jeet Heer
Those who are psychologically invested in collapse
The pros and cons of being a perma bear, and Kevin revisits the 08 crash
How the bears will be vindicated in the long run, due to unprecedented levels of debt
The impact of demographic cycles on politics, social strife, and the economy
The scope of the migrant crisis which is unprecedented in American history, and Michael Yon’s reporting from the Darien Gap
Janet Yellen’s statement, expecting a slow steady decline of the dollar
The exodus out of California 
The Hard Times Create Strong Men meme 
Speculation about the Trump incitement and 2024 election

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

Robert Stark talks to Keith Preston about Rudolf Steiner

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 pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark interviews Montgomery Markland about his movie Malibu Road

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 pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark talks to Dan Baltic about his debut novel Nutcrankr

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas talk to Dan Baltic about his debut novel Nutcrankr. Dan Baltic is the co-hosts of the literary podcast, New Write, with Matt Pegas. Nutcrankr is available in print and ebook at Terror House publishing.

Topics:
Intro to the protagonist Spencer Grunhauer and the plot
Spencer’s philosophy and his manifest
The psychological process of how one becomes more alienated, unstable, and unhinged
Psycho-sexual motives behind politics and moral panics
Social status, elite overproduction, and out of whack life expectations
Making your own way “pill”
Narratives about online grifters
Bullishness on the future of dissident arts
Terror House’s book reading in Brooklyn, NYC
Creating effecting satire
The literary genre of alienated loners
A homage or modern day reboot of Confederacy of Dunces
Comparisons to Robert’s novel Vaporfornia and Matt’s Dragon Day

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

Robert Stark talks to Andy Nowicki about his Novella Muze

Robert Stark talks to Andy Nowicki about his new novella, Muze, and Robert’s new surreal dark comedy novel, Vaporfornia. Andy Nowicki is a former English professor and the author of numerous books including The Columbine PilgrimLost Violent SoulsHeart Killer, Beauty and the Least, Under the Nihil, and The Insurrectionist. Check out Muze on Terror House Publishing and Andy’s YouTube channel and writings at his Substack.

Topics:

Revisiting Andy’s earlier work and the genre of the alienated loner
References to incel culture in Muze
Other themes in Muze, including pharmaceuticals, transhumanism, blackmail, and mind control
Writing about depravity from a socially conservative/Catholic perspective
The revival in 00’s conspiracy theories
David Lynch and open ended narratives
Robert’s novel Vaporfornia and its similar themes to Muze
Allegories for degradation
Revisiting Robert’s mocumentary Supply
Matt Pegas’ Dragon Day
The growing dissident literary scene
Andy’s trip to South Africa in 2011
The politics of crisis: acceleration vs. gradual decay

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

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas try to start a New Religion

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 pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark chats with Default Friend

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas talk to Default Friend about online subcultures, incels, and generational trends. Default Friend, Katherine Deee, is a writer, cultural commentator, cultural anthropologist, internet historian, and digital native. Check out Default Friend’s Substack, Default Wisdom, her writings for the Claremont Institute’s American Mind, and follow her on Twitter.

Topics:
Thoughts on various political-spheres including the intellectual dark web
The politicization of sex and relationships
On being a proto-Femcel
The impacts of dating apps and income inequality on the “sexual market place”
New York Times article, A Manifesto Against Sex Positivity, reviewing Default Friend’s writings on the backlash against hookup culture
The rise in conservative feminism and woke puritanism
Generational differences between Millennials and Zoomers, and cultural shifts from the 00s-to the 2010s, and 2020s
The trend in the end of mass youth subcultures and the rise in fusionism of “hybrid collages” and nostalgia based upon past generations’ nostalgia
The internet as the astral plane
Prediction of a tech backlash in the 2020s
Justin Murphy’s and Alex Kaschuta’s neo-traditionalism

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

Robert Stark talks to Edward Dutton about the Coming Apart of Civilization

Dr. Edward Dutton is an English Anthropologist based in Finland and is the host of the Jolly Heretic on YouTube, and BitChute. You can follow Dutton on Twitter and check out his books on Amazon. His latest books are Sent Before Their Time: Genius, Charisma, and Being Born Prematurely and Witches, Feminism, and the Fall of the West.

Topics:

The historical context of the Witch Trials as an era of harsh Darwinian selection
COULD THERE BE A SILVER LINING TO THE CHAOTIC EXCESS OF MALES?
The impact of Malthusian selection pressures on fertility trends
Why populists or dissidents seizing power would not impede the incoming civilizational collapse
The evolutionary psychological motives behind woke culture, and why wokeness will wane out in the long run
Why techno-dystopian scenarios of the elite using technology to enslave the masses will not happen
How the rise in conspiracy theories are a sign of the winter of civilization
Why enclaves will be the Neo-Byzantiums of the future
The housing crisis and why NIMBYism is dysgenic
The social and psychological reasons to why terrorism will become much worse in the future
The scientific measurement of cycles of crisis, including the work of Peter Turchin and Jani Miettinen’s research on GENERATIONAL HORMONE CYCLES
The high probability of World War III and a global economic catastrophe this decade

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

Robert Stark discusses his novel Vaporfornia

Robert Stark is joined with Matt Pegas and Dan Baltic to discuss his new novel, Vaporfornia. Vaporfornia is a surreal dark comedy, a coming of age story set in California, and is the sequel to Robert’s first novel, Journey to Vapor Island. This show is a simulcast with Matt and Dan’s dissident, counter-culture, literary podcast, New WriteVaporfornia is available for purchase on Lulu publishing. Also check out Matt’s review of Vaporfornia.

Topics:

Contrasting Vaporfornia with Journey to Vapor Island, and how both novels capture the zeitgeists of their respective eras
The niche genre of the satirical moving adventure story
Literary comparisons to a Confederacy of Dunces, William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, Lucky Jim, Voltaire’s Candide, and Gulliver’s Travels
The situational humor and dramatic irony
Vaporfornia as a satire of the themes in Robert’s Substack that delve into California’s social, political, class, and demographic dynamics
Vaporfornia as a travelogue for California
Allegories and symbolism in the book
Saudade, a longing for what could have been or nostalgia for lost futures
Gio Pennacchietti’s video about how Robert’s literary fiction and visual art complement each other
The protagonist’s personal and political journey
The politics of the “Chad Centrist” presidential candidate Roger Blackstone
Whether Robert Stark will run for California Governor or have a Vaporfornia tour some day

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and in production documentary The Gospel of Gibson, and subscribe to his Substack.