The Nonsense Bazaar

24 - The ”I AM” Activity Part II: Death Blasts Over The White House

It's the bizarre and disturbing conclusion to our series on the "I AM" Activity and the Accredited Messengers Guy and Edna Ballard. It's crescendo of money, madness, masters, and mind control as Guy and Edna wrap their almost one million followers in blankets of total fear and paranoia and set out on their goal of establishing Saint Germain's New Government in America. We learn about Ascension, the "golden particle accelerator chair", a whole rotten slew of new Ascended Masters (and "Lady Masters" too!), the white tuxedo-wearing militant group of bodyguards called the "Minutemen", and ritual assassination magic as the "I AM" Activity approaches a fever pitch about to get truly and seriously dangerous. And then...

23 -The I AM Activity Part 1: Saint Germain‘s Cup of Cream

We begin our look at Guy and Edna Ballard and the I AM Activity who coined the term "Ascended Master" and, although only active for the last half of the 1930's, gained upwards to a million followers, made tens of millions of dollars, and drove their followers insane with a technicolor barrage of paranoia and easy, meaningless answers to life's hardest questions. Oh yeah, they were also literal fascists whose stated goal was to overthrow the United States Government. And you've probably never heard of them. In part one, we look at the early life of Guy (AKA Godfre Ray King), Edna (AKA Lotus Ray King), and the "dream child" Donald, learn about Guy's meeting with Saint Germain on Mount Shasta, and how they used legitimate occult knowledge and a stolen army of Nazi hype-men to birth a monster that still plagues us to this day. 

22 - The Ascended Masters, An Inquisition Part 0: Prelude

Have you ever heard of the ascended masters? How about angel numbers, ascension, or the violet flame? Has some creep ever told you they're your "twin flame"? Has Saint Germain ever offered you a cup of his golden cream? This week we're introducing a multi-series saga exploring the history of the "Ascended Master Teachings" AKA the I AM movement, an off-shoot of Theosophy which has spawned countless cults, flim-flammers, psychic Nazis, and successful YouTubers making cricket sounds to channel extraterrestrial intelligences. The extremely strange thing about all of this is that no one seems to know that it comes from the same place and is not, in fact, secret ancient wisdom. For the first part of the inquisition we have a rambling discussion about the earliest history of the ascended masters and try to paint a picture of what all this is about, in preparation for some of the most insane and insanely important stories everyone has forgotten about. 

21 - Connor Murphy

We take a look at the strange, strange trajectory on which a young man named Connor Murphy is currently hurling himself. After becoming a genuine sensation on YouTube for his bodybuilding videos and videos where he takes his shirt off at girls, Connor lost his gains and found a taste for psychedelics and performance art. Shifting into the oh-so-hot sphere of YouTube spirituality, Connor now identifies as God is making some of the weirdest stuff on the internet while he tries to teach the world some valuable spiritual lessons. According to the bizarre world of internet bodybuilders, the boy has lost his mind and it's "a sad sight to see." It's definitely something. What do you think? Is Connor Murphy crazy or is he the only sane one left?

20 -The Count of St. Germain

We look into the life, afterlife, and after-afterlife of one of the great weirdos of history: the Count of St. Germain. Known only by this title, the mysterious count was a staple of the royal courts of Europe during the 1700s. Seemingly never aging, with no real name, he was known in the court of Louis XV as an alchemist, mystic, philosopher, violinist, composer, diplomat, and spy. Contemporaries said he claimed himself to be 500 years old, and after his death some documents claim that he showed up to warn Marie Antoinette of the coming French revolution. Then theosophy and a very weird cult called the I AM activity turned him into an "Ascended Master" and we've all been suffering since.

19 - The Lacerta Files

It's time for reptilians, the secret history of the world, and what really happened to the dinosaurs! This week we're looking at the "Lacerta Files", a recently re-surfaced series of interviews from 1999 between one intrepid Swede and a...sexy reptilian who calls herself Lacerta whose species lives inside the Earth. Recently gaining a following on the internet it never had when it was released, the Lacerta Files (allegedly) teach us about other lizard people, raccoon people, white people people, and the history of the human race they don't teach in schools. 

18 - John McAfee Part II: Death and Taxes; or, Freedom is a Two-Edged Sword

The conclusion to the John McAfee saga. In this episode we cover John's escape from Belize and the remaining eight years of his life including meeting his wife Janice, John's two presidential campaigns, his escape from the tax man to Cuba and international waters, and the last eight months of his life imprisoned in a Spanish jail. We hear a lot more from the man himself this week and maybe I've been brainwashed, but this one is surprisingly moving. Cheers to one of the most human humans who has ever lived. John McAfee was both the best and the worst of us and the world is smaller for his absence. And he never did pay those taxes.

17 - John McAfee Part I: Meditations on Love and Vanity

This week, we begin our look at the life of John McAfee. Brilliant computer programmer, international fugitive, two-time-presidential candidate, and powerful wizard, John McAfee's life was truly the stuff of legends. In the first part of our series ,we cover the bulk of John's life from his early years through the creation of McAfee Antivirus, and his absolutely insane misadventures down in Belize. There's drugs, there's guns, there's a clandestine jungle laboratory, and a whole lot of nonsense. Enjoy! 

16 - Upton Sinclair's Nonsense Hour

Upton Sinclair was one of the first "muckraking" journalists of the 20th century. But we're not really talking about that part. Instead we're mostly focusing on Mental Radio, a book detailing Upton and his wife, Mary's investigations into psychic phenomena and a Polish rabbit-hypnotizing wizard named Jan. We also take a look at the artist commune Sinclair set up to get other people to raise his kid, and his bid for the governorship of California in which his opponent produced the some of the first fake news attack ads, still ripping western civilization to shreds after all these years.

15 - Neville Goddard

This week we learn about Neville Goddard, the Mad Mystic of 48th street, who lectured mid-20th century on the power of "mental causation" and the God of the Christian Bible being nothing more than an extended metaphor for your own wonderful, human imagination. Also you're the only thing that exists and you made all of this up by imagining it. Have fun with that burden.