--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <no_re...@...> wrote: > > Today I watched the Ron Howard film of "Angels > And Demons." I've read the book, but Dan Brown > is such a bad writer that the ending of it and > who the villain or villains were left my mind > an hour after reading it (that is a backhanded > way of saying that Dan Brown writes the literary > equivalent of Chinese food), so some sense of > mystery was preserved while watching the movie. > More, in fact, than while reading the novel, > because Dan Brown is such a hack writer that > he cannot help but "telegraph his punches" so > much that anyone with an IQ over 50 knows what > is coming 50 pages before it arrives. > > That said, "Angels And Demons: The Movie" is a > great deal better than "Angels And Demons: The > Pageturner." The primary screnwriter, Akiva > Goldsman, somehow managed to turn Dan Brown's > wooden dialogue into non-wooden-enough dialogue > to entice Tom Hanks to reprise his role as > Robert Langdon, and even entice Stellan Skarsgård > (who loathes Dan Brown almost as much as I do) > into appearing in the movie. > > So, bottom line, it's watchable. The *other* > bottom line, for readers of Fairfield Life, is > that it's pretty much a "must-see" if you want > to ever approach understanding the arcane and > beyond-rationality machinations a cultist will > go through to protect his belief system. > > In this film, you actually have two cults. One > is the Illuminati, a mythical organization that > may, in fact, have been mostly mythical. The > other, of course, is the Catholic Church. Its > longevity as a cult is so profound that some in > this reading audience bristled the moment I > referred to it as a cult. But of course it is > one. So is any major religion. The only difference > between a minor cult like TM and a major cult like > the Catholic Church is time, and the number of > followers (and their attendant checkbooks) the > cult can draw into its aura, and more important, > keep there. > ***I heard that the so-called Illuminati was and is associated with the Holy Roman Catholic Church... There were several branches or groups that developed in Europe, that had access to ancient knowledge, techniques and systems, based in gaining power and amassing wealth... The group who was most interested in 'Control and Domination' would be the Illuminati Group, and the associated groups aligned with the Iluuminati... These days, it is more of the 'Old Corporate/Military' guard...
But there were other groups, also in Europe, that were practicing more of what would be called, 'White Magic'...many followers of this group, would be killed, burned at the stack, tortured...many of the things that George W.Bush and Dick Cheney represented... In Hitlers time, many of the forces of the Illuminati converged, and killed off many of the other ones, who stood the way of the control the Third Reich sought.... Just recently a huge mass of this energy was thrown off, in the election of Barack Obama... There are still many resistances to his agenda, from the ones who like to control the wealth and power...especially in the banking industry... But, with the rise in awareness of these bozos, things will change... Change we can believe in! > The similarities I see in the film between the > Catholic Church (and in particular the Vatican) > and the TMO are *not* in terms of dogma. It's > more of a "look and feel" thang. I see Cardinals > in their red robes parading smilelessly through > the halls of the Vatican and I cannot help but > think of TM Rajas in their white robes parading > smilelessly through the holy halls of Vlodrop. > I see Stellan Skarsgård as the head of the Swiss > Guard (the fanatical group of police who guard > the Pope) and I cannot help but think of the > Germans Maharishi assigned to the same task in > Seelisberg. I see the Camerlengo and I think > of Bevan Morris. > ***Yes, those Germans guarding Maharishi...I remember on my TTC course in France, they had a crew sent in, the gestapo types... He says to me, "How did they let YOU, in here"... I had never seen this guy before in my life... Must have known I was a 'trouble maker'... Anyway, they let me in! I think a lot of these guys are former Nazis, in their most recent past life's, and that they felt familiar with the notion of following a 'Perfect Leader'...on that would bring 'Utopia for the German People'... They had the German Group on TTC, segregated from the rest of us; I guess we we're as up to par with the 'Masters of the Universe'... Bevan fits exactly with his superior attitude and looking down your snoot at the swine, the 'common folk'.... > It's about "resonance" for me, not an "exact match." > What Dan Brown *is* good at (besides writing cliff- > hangers at the end of each chapter to keep you turn- > ing the pages) is capturing the "look and feel" of > a place and its inhabitants, and what that "look and > feel" says about the *minds* of the inhabitants. > > In the film, Robert Langdon (Hanks) is the ostensible > "rational man," the person who describes his feelings > for God as, "I'm an academic...my mind tells me that > I will never understand God. [My heart] tells me that > I'm not meant to...faith is a gift that I have yet > to receive." That honesty grants him access to the > Vatican Archives, and the solution to the mundane > mystery. But not the metaphysical one. > > In my humble opinion, the primary difference between > the long-lasting cult of the Catholic Church and the > ephemeral, gone-within-one-generation-after-the-death- > of-its-founder legacy of the TM movement, will be the > attitude expressed by Nabby recently in his (essentially) > "Let them eat cake" rant, expressing no concern at all > for the "unwashed masses." The TM movement is so full > of itself, and so full of its puny, self-important > self, that it failed to "follow the rules" of all long- > lived cults. That is, you have to at least *pretend* > to care about the "unwashed masses." It violated MMY's > own dictum about "putting the cart before the horse" > and thought that if it put on enough pomp and circum- > stance that reverence from the masses would follow. > > The Catholic Church, for all its mistakes, has lasted > for 2000 years after the death of the spiritual teacher > it was founded to revere. Mark my words...at the rate > it's going, the TM movement won't last ten years after > the death of its founder. >
