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3/25/2012 - Brendon O'Brien - Brilliant, Bigoted or just plain Whacky?

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Berean

Skilled Investigator
There is no other place to begin but with the following quote (2:16:10) from Brendon O'Brien:

"...just like when Catholics die they are put in the ground and a big piece of granite is stuck over their head. The Church is turning them into a battery and they've been preconditioned to be the battery by being told when they die they're gonna lay there until the horns of jubilation. And that keeps their soul and their battery power fixed under that piece of granite.....human battery. The Church actually cultivates souls and uses them as batteries. That's why they put granite gravestones on their head and put the body underneath the gravestone and indoctrinate them before they die that they are gonna be in that place until the horns of jubilation. This is black magic."

The next word, from Chris, said it all: "Wow"

If I'm not the crazy one here, Brendon is postulating the following:
- Catholics invented the headstone/grave marker for their own sinister purposes (c'mon now)
- the soul remains within the body until burial
- Granite has the ability to entrap a soul within within the grave
- Catholics believe their soul remains with their body after death until they hear a particular horn blast
- entrapped souls can be somehow cultivated for use as a "battery"
- this soul battery power is used by the Catholic Church for its own nefarious ends
- billions of people on this planet are participating in black magic at the behest of the religion they love and believe offers them salvation.

I've heard some crazy stuff on this show and others, but this takes First Prize. Congrats Brendon.
 
I have to admit, I balked when I heard that. I didn't realize it was Chris' brother who said it.
That's crazy talk man, crazy...

(By the way, the granite doesn't actually cover the body. Its adjacent to it.)
 
I have no idea of the accuracy of the following information, but checking to see about the origin of gravestones, this seems to indicate those Black Magic Catholics didn't initiate the practice:
The custom of placing a monument over the grave of a departed person is an ancient Jewish tradition. The Book of Genesis1records that Jacob erected a tombstone over the grave of his wife Rachel. It is also written2 concerning King Josiah of Judah: "And he said, 'What is this marker that I see?' And the people of the city said to him, 'The grave of the man of God who came from Judah...'" From Biblical times onward, wherever Jewish communities have existed, Jews have continued this practice of erecting a memorial in honor of their deceased.

As for the battery claim, maybe he's right. But I'm not inclined to test it.
 
I have no idea of the accuracy of the following information, but checking to see about the origin of gravestones, this seems to indicate those Black Magic Catholics didn't initiate the practice

I totally agree. In fact I'd bet humans have been marking the graves of their dead since prehistoric times. First with sticks, then stones, then harder rocks like marble, and finally granite because of it's ability to withstand weathering longer.

Of course, it's granite's ability to entrap a soul within the ground that made it the headstone of choice for some evildoers.
 
I totally agree. In fact I'd bet humans have been marking the graves of their dead since prehistoric times. First with sticks, then stones, then harder rocks like marble, and finally granite because of it's ability to withstand weathering longer.

Of course, it's granite's ability to entrap a soul within the ground that made it the headstone of choice for some evildoers.
Why would granite entrap a soul if its not surrounding it?
 
I gave up on this episode when he claimed that the Mayans had to "pull more hearts" to gain the same effect on the "balance" of nature that formerly ripping the heart out of "just" one terrified, innocent murder victim had caused. So I didn't even hear the bit about the Catholic Church's conspiracy to turn us all into batteries. (Kind of makes me wonder where both O'Brien boys picked up what seems to be very flagrant negative prejudice towards the CC.)

I'm totally hooked on the Paracast, but I have to say this had to be the worst slate of guests that has ever appeared on it.
 
There were bits and pieces that were imo worth the time to tune in to, but i found 5 people in the one podcast a bit to many, people were climbing over one and other to get their airtime.
There was some (imo) signal, but there was a lot of noise too
 
Sorry - with Catholicism, I am compelled to call it like I see it - and that is, an utter pile of shite with virtually zero redeeming features. That is my kind version.

Maybe trying reading a little. *(There's nothing about the Church's pioneering work in turning dead people into batteries, though. Sorry!)

How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization

THOMAS E. WOODS, JR.
From the role of the monks to art and architecture, from the university to Western law, from science to charitable work, from international law to economics, How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization delves into just how indebted we are as a civilization to the Catholic Church, whether we realize it or not.


P-HI11-2115805.JPG
 
Hm...I'm fighting with a temptation to express so many disagreements with what have been said by the guests on this episode but I will address just one.
Rituals. Ok - science isn't perfect and far away from explaining the universe but whenever I hear word rituals I begin to think about what it actually means. Please don't tell me that it's impossible to understated it from a rational point of view cause for me it would suggest that it's either a fantasy or finding a comfort in something that looks powerful and presumably can be accepted without any questions. I choose to think and ask questions, I think Bill Mayer would sums up this approach better than I can. I see a ritual as a dance when a person goes into a trance - how does it help to teleport myself from point a to point b? There were many other instances of mentions different things that can be achieved with rituals with no explanations - how?


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Just downloaded the podcast because I see you brought back Clifford Mahooty! I really liked listening to him last time, so interesting. Thanks for bringing him back!
 
Hm...I'm fighting with a temptation to express so many disagreements with what have been said by the guests on this episode but I will address just one.
Rituals. Ok - science isn't perfect and far away from explaining the universe but whenever I hear word rituals I begin to think about what it actually means. Please don't tell me that it's impossible to understated it from a rational point of view cause for me it would suggest that it's either a fantasy or finding a comfort in something that looks powerful and presumably can be accepted without any questions. I choose to think and ask questions, I think Bill Mayer would sums up this approach better than I can. I see a ritual as a dance when a person goes into a trance - how does it help to teleport myself from point a to point b? There were many other instances of mentions different things that can be achieved with rituals with no explanations - how?


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I could believe a version of teleportation which is really astral travel. I can't swallow the idea that the physical body is transported by that means.
 
Hello Paracast listeners Brendon O’Brien here.
After viewing some of the responses to the paracast I felt the need to qualify a statement I made on the show. First I’d like to say I was surprised at the response to my analogy of the Catholic Church practicing black magick. For those of you who took offense I’m sorry for your discomfort but I wonder: We talking about the same Catholic Church? The one that decimated a thriving culture of 2+ million Maya leaving them with a population of less than 100,000 by the time they had done their dirty work? The Church that took Nazi money pried from the mouths of Jews, Gypsies, gays, etc? The same one that terrifies poor hungry people with the terror of hell for the use of condoms so they can have more Catholics and fill more graveyards with those dying of starvation and AIDS? Let’s be clear: I speak of the church not its unknowing participants. The Church is practicing the same rituals today they have from their beginning. Catholic history is a tale of barbarism, butchery and genocide against indigenous peoples around the world and destroyers of several the world’s great libraries including the Maya books and the Aztec codices.

What is “magick”? “Magick is the ability to cause change in conformity with Will.” We all practice magick in our daily lives. Black Magick is the ritual of thwarting the true will of others.

The consecration and use of the cemetery by the church in its outward nature was to promulgate its facility to claim souls through its teaching. Those who were living were more likely to follow the path of their ancestors who lay in the church’s hallowed ground. The Church, knowing you were born with nothing and must leave with nothing, created a dogma, authored it to Christ and stood between its follower’s birth and death with a large net to acquire power and wealth through its members toil while offering a future redemption upon the blowing of horns on Jubilee. This, my friends, is Black Magick. A lie, this fantasmic illusion of redemption available only through the church is the ritual act of lying thus Black Magick. The “battery” metaphorically speaking is a combination of physical places like grave yards in combination with rituals to hold the illusion in place (esoteric 101). Saint Peter’s Basilica -- the heart of the church and from where her power derives -- is built on a grave yard! Like numerous churches in Europe that were built over crypts filled wall to wall with stacks of bones.

Having as a child been a practicing Catholic myself, having participated in the rituals of the church being an altar boy is one of the karmic crosses I shall always bear. I can speak from practical experience about the mundane aspects of the Catholic experience as well as to some of the inner working of the mass and some of the other outer rituals designed for a poor sinner’s consumption. That however would be a lengthy digression.

It was many years after my Catholic experiences of drunken priests and sadistic Jesuits that I began to understand the rituals I participated in and their deeper forms. My understanding came after many years of studying comparative religion and becoming an active member in the Church of Santaria at Casa Obatala Boston, a Chaplain for Zetland Lodge in Boston (the oldest Masonic lodge in the country) as well as actively researched other western esoteric traditions and orders for many years.
 
Well, it was a very disjointed show. Some interesting tidbits of information on indigenous ritual practices, but the small amount of time that Brendon had and what he chose to voice was the real surprise. I think maybe he was confusing the Matrix plot with something he read on the evil CC. But, I've got to say with all Gene's (not so much Chris) touting of the show's ability to ask the hard questions and to call crazy talk into question, not one peep from him. All Chris could utter was "Wow". Come on guys, maybe the comment was not in the Mayan apocalypse doom and gloom silliness, but something should have been said about it.
 
Listening to the show, right now, but I wanted to chime in to point out something:

Yes, there are many ethnic groups in Southeast Mexico that share the same genealogical lineage of the ancient Maya; but that doesn't mean they are the direct descendants of the people that built the ancient city-states that constitute the Maya civilization.

The city-states underwent many social upheavals caused probably by climatological changes that strained the delicate ecological balances from which the Mayas depended on to raise their crops and sustain an increasing upper class of nobles and priests. Eventually, the cities were abandoned and the people who survived moved elsewhere, and later the Conquistadores landed and New Spain was founded.

That's the reason why, not until the fantastic work by American researchers like Linda Schele et al was carried out, that NOBODY knew how to read the Maya glyphs covering the ruins and stelae scattered all over the Yucatán peninsula and Central America. It was Schele & co. who taught the modern Mayas how to read the signs left by their ancestors (Omni magazine, February 1995).

But, listening to Chris' brother, one would get the impression that the modern Maya elders didn't want to share their heritage with the new settlers of their land. And of that I respectfully have my reservations.

--"Oh crap! they finally figured out how to read our stuff. Now what do we do?"

--"I've got it. We'll start spreading the rumor that the world is going to end in 2012. That'll teach them not to meddle where they are not invited"

Sure, a lot of oral tradition and rituals survived the downfall of the Maya civilization and the Spanish Conquista, but many things were sadly and irreparably lost.

...Or maybe I'm just displaying my Criollo bias :-/
 
Thanks for weighing in Mr. O'Brien. I hope you weren't too offended by the title of the thread. One's name is precious and I considered that before starting this thread.

I admire you for owning your opinion about the Church. I was also raised in Catholicism and no longer consider myself a member. I agree that many Catholics, great and small, have been guilty of many crimes and inhumanities through the centuries. Name a religion which has not suffered sinners. Any faction - atheists, ethnic groups, governments - name one which is exempt. The more power a group amasses the greater potential for evil on a large scale. Try googling "crimes of Santeria" and you will be sickened.

Your thesis on Catholicism would, I'm certain, be considered quite foreign to scores of respected Catholic philosophers and theologians down through the centuries. I also think you danced around the whole 'granite headstone/battery' issue with words like "metaphorically" and "illusion". It didn't sound like a metaphor in your original statement.

So, in the end, I don't believe you're particularly "brilliant" or "whacky" relative to this issue. The term "bigot" is a strong one though and I almost wish I had used another term. "Anti-Catholic" just doesn't seem strong enough. This stuff is just way out there.

Maybe we can hash this out over a couple cervezas in Cozumel some day.... man I love it there.
 
I think people readiness to believe in this nonsense with a doomsday may partly come from planetary wide tiredness of the fast pace we have in our daily lives. This is like a wish to slow down and take a step back.

Partly it's due to plan dumbness.

Partly it may come from people disbelief in science because of the impact on environment we have and people blame science on that.

Now I would like to present an argument to show that living your life like the only one may not be a bad thing at all. If you live each day of your life like this your last day it will make appreciate it, be creative and do good things in your life. I'm paraphrasing here the man we all know and hope still remember.

Anyway, December 21 will be Friday and so it would be great if Gene and Cris will manage to have a guest on this day to release a podcast on December 24 -;)


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We talking about the same Catholic Church? The one that decimated a thriving culture of 2+ million Maya leaving them with a population of less than 100,000 by the time they had done their dirty work?

I was thinking that this had to do with it. Thanks you made that clear. You'll have to admit, though, that for people like me, who weren't expecting something like that and who don't know the context, the theory does really sound "out there". I was born into Catholicism myself and got to be quite disenchanted with it, so that I would consider that there might have been groups of fanatical Catholics back in medieval times who would come up with stuff like that. But it sure sounds like something out of a nastier kind of Dan Brown novel. No doubt there have been unimaginable atrocities over the centuries in the name of the church, but this black magick stuff, I don't know.

As for the show, I was surprised that no one seemed to have a doubt that some change or other is about (although it may not have to do with Mayan calendars or december 2012). Seems that more and more people are seeing that things can't go on the way they do...?
 
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