GENRES: Mutant jazz. Little big band. Large Language Modal jazz. Beep Bop. Big Soul. Deep scratches. Tribetablism. MPHDJ cuts. Rainshroom rap. Token word. Slick, tight, funky drums. Updown beat. Sinnermatic soundscapes. Wake boxing. Canto tott trott. Blues, redefined: Tanmoy blues. Spew jazz bursts. Cosmic trigger word punctuations. Data set sax solos. Optihop energy. Optical street soul. Fly funk. Movie soundtrack vibe. Axiomatic jazz structures. Geometric classical elegance. Non von neumann swing. Non-being core philosophy. Data dust crew sound.
credits
released January 8, 2025
All music by Steve Fly + Udio + Gemini AI. Tanmoy 2025. MPHDJ.
And I think the joy of art is trying to convey what you perceive so that other people will perceive it more or less the same way. Art is a form of seduction. I mean, there are rapists in the intellectual world. They become politicians. The seducers become honest. We try to seduce people into our reality tunnels instead of leading them there with a gun. But we are trying to get them into our our reality tunnel, or our reality labyrinth, or whichever it is. In my case, it’s a reality labyrinth.
When I call the universe infinite, I do not assume it is infinite in space-time. But it has infinite aspects. Which means that anybody who looks out will see something different, but anybody else who looks out will come back a day later and look at it again and it will still be different. William Blake said, “I see infinity in a grain of sand.” And you can, if you’re open enough.
“The ideology driving Putin has a name: Eurasianism. The idea is to kill off, once and for all liberalism which is viewed as “the greatest threat to the ethno-cultural survival of all the earth’s people”. Those are the words of the man behind Putin, his informal but very vocal ideologue, Alexander Dugin. Eurasianism, the Eurasia Party and the International Eurasian Movement are his brainchildren.
If you ain’t looked into Dugin yet, I strongly suggest doing so, if you wish to get closer to an understanding of our predicament in 2022. Dugin and his ideas have a direct impact on the invasion of Ukraine and the expansion of Russian space, geopolitically. However, Dugin has a whole heap of other thoughts he is known for, which crisscross many of my own pet interests and on-going study, best described by the tale of the tribe as defined by the late Robert Anton Wilson. (and by myself in my book: Fly On The Tale Of The Tribe)
Dugin seems to be a formidable intellectual opponent, and as repulsive and dangerous and elitist his ideas are, I strongly feel they need puncturing and addressing seriously, immediately. Not least due to what I view as adjacent ideologies sweeping across Europe, the UK, North America and the rest of the world, here called, the Western New Right. In taking on Dugin, and breaking down some of his arguments, I hope to simultaneously address the diseased heart of Putin’s Russia and its western counterpart traced through the double whammy blow to western unity: Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, through the lens of Steve Bannon in the U.S. and Dominic Cummings in the U.K.
As a side note, I published a poem 2 years ago titled Bannon Cummings Dugin, loosely focused on this trio of populist deception and confusion. I’m no expert in these areas, I hope to present my suspicions and best guesses, and I also hope acknowledging that can highlight, for starters, the process oriented philosophy and related neurological relativism that I see as a counter strike to dogmatic mystical tsarism. Here’s an example of my beloved Karl Popper, twisted into Dugin’s intricate geopolitical disinformation warfare:
Basing himself on Karl Popper, Dugin defines National Bolshevism as a “meta-ideology common to all the enemies of open society.” Indeed, what is most important for him is that right-wing and left-wing totalitarian ideologies are united in their refusal to accord a central role to the individual and to place it above the collectivity, be it social or national.
Marlene Laruelle, Aleksandr Dugin: A Russian Version of the European Radical Right?
One distinguishing feature of Dugin from Bannon and Cummings, seems to me to be his explicit reference to esotericism, by way of his quasi-religious Traditionalism (Traditional Conservatism), rooted in an array of esoteric traditions bent to fit his messianic white supremacist fantasy, or new axis of superpowers, distinct from he calls the Atlanticists (to mean the U.S.A. the U.K., and Western Europe, not the lost city of Atlantis, although he’d probably have a thread about it in his labyrinthine imagination).
Dugin seems to be able to insult and debase religious and spiritual traditions, while at the same time taking bits of them that he likes, and puzzling them together into a Q-anon-like global deep state geopolitical conspiracy. In some sense Dugin is more of a candidate for Q than either Bannon or Watkins, his study and research and practice of occultism plus his geopolitical paranoia, plus his ability to conflate classic left/right ideologies puts him among the roots of the Q-anon movement. Q-anon, like Brexit and European conspiracy mongering has the hallmarks of a Dugin fantasy, resulting in mass demoralization of the west, confusion and paranoia everywhere: trust nobody, they’re all the same, liars. Reports such as the following do not help and only fan the flames of hatred:
For example, in 2016 the US–based Christian evangelical organization the World Congress of Families held its annual international conference in Tbilisi, uniting ultraconservative, anti-LGBT+ activists from around the world and featuring local speakers including Patriarch Ilia II and the infamous Levan Vasadze. Former US president George W. Bush expressed his support for the gathering in a public letter that was read onstage.
April Gordan, A New Eurasian Far Right Rising (2020)
Who can know how much of Dugin’s intellectual poison has reached Putin? Dugin himself would probably say he was against the invasion of Ukraine, just because that’s what the contrarian would say, or just to add to his self-mythologising and popular appeal. Perhaps Putin suddenly took some parts of Dugin’s rhetoric about War and strength and Eurasia, and decided to give it a go and expand his space, show military aggression and flex it’s dogmatic muscles on the world stage? I don’t know. What I do strongly suspect is that by delving deeper into Dugin’s mind you’ll get a panoramic view of the global conflict, and see the sordid array of Arayan idealists, kleptocratic poster boys and oligarchic engineers. If the phrase “know thy enemy” is anything to go by we’ve all got a lot of reading and some dark and dangerous corridors to investigate to get a handle on Dugin and so by osmosis the sudden escalation of Russian expansion under Putin.
Dugin openly admits that the main sources of his ideology are non-Russian anti-democratic concepts.
Andreas Umland, Neo-Eurasianism”, the question of Russian fascism and Russian political discourse.
Putin aside, and Bannon and Cummings and Watkins and all the others who are seemingly influenced by the work of Dugin, I’d like to look at Dugin alone, and I’d like to pitch his wide range of geopolitical, religious Traditionalist, esoteric, conspiratorial, eschatological and psychological ideas against those of an equally formidable character on the subject matter, our man, Robert Anton Wilson.
In my estimation, and as I’ve described through dozens of articles, essays, albums and films, few individuals who lived through the 20th/21st century have managed to make sense out of it. Both humanitarian science/technology, physics, mathematics, biology, and arts, conspiracy theory, esotericism and some damn damn good humored jokes. I’m biased, but I view RAW’s collected output as an adequate response to the likes of Dugin and his lineage of dark-side intellectuals. RAW’s experiential knowledge of various occult and/or religious practices and his multi-model agnosticism, demonstrated by his careful written and spoken communications, tackle and take-down a notch much of the fascist, racist, xenophobic and barabaric ideologies at the root of the New Right Eurasianism of Putin/Dugin.
“Dugin writes, “there must be placed one fundamental principle–the principle of ‘a common enemy.’ A negation of Atlanticism, a repudiation of the strategic control of the United States, and the rejection of the supremacy of economic, liberal market values–this represents the common civilizational basis, the common impulse which will prepare the way for a strong political and strategic union”
Whereas Dugin promotes a pluralism of global disturbance and eschatological end-times, Wilson promotes a pluralism of empathic understanding, solidarity and optimism based on technological advancement coupled with neurological relativity, a minarchy of self-owning one’s, or individualist mutualist syndicalists. Where Dugin uses language and symbols to manipulate his readers to question everything and follow a god-like authority, Wilson uses language and symbols to seduce his readers into questioning everything, thinking for themselves in a secular manner and finding the others. Both writers have an uncanny ability to cause you to think differently about the left/right axis of politics, however one of them is a part of Vladamir Putin’s inner circle and the other isn’t. Perhaps it’s time those shouting about protecting western democracy and defeating the new Russian threat supported independent artists, writers and critics of the Robert Anton Wilson school, grass roots organizations, publishers, media savvy fun loving peaceful warriors who wish to help with their skills, yet are underfunded and largely ignored by mainstream, for profit, news media and learning institutions imho.
Faith and docility are the bulwarks of Tsarism; any hint of scientific knowledge, rationality or even plain “horse sense” among the serfs are its major worries, and it blocks them every way it can. No Tsar will ever lavish such praise on scientists or other professional skeptics as [Barry] McCaffery lavishes on the faithful and the sheep-herders who lead and fleece them.
Robert Anton Wilson, TSOG: The Thing That Ate The Constitution. (2000)
Another sharp contrast between the two esotericists is Wilson’s understanding of general semantics and his explicit willingness to encourage readers, whoever they be, to think clearly and use the tools he’s offering up for the betterment of themselves and their community. Dugin appeals to militarists and sociopathic hard-men with his mapping of Aryan Traditions and elitist boasting. Wilson satirizes and mocks such anal-territorial pontifications using both non-fiction and fiction. Then there’s conspiracy theory. Then Q-anon. Then there’s Putin’s shadow. How much from the Dugin school of political conspiracy mongering is manifest right where you are sitting now?
Aleksandr Dugin: A Russian Version of the European Radical Right? by Marlene Laruelle is an excellent place to start if you’re not so familiar with Dugin. My only critique of my sources used here, is the authors do not aim to provide much of a rebuttal and/or suggested reading list to help combat these powerful truths uncovered. Where are the good guys in this fight? RAW accompanied his critical writings on sordid entities with maps, models and new metaphors to help build an alternative to the obstacles and entities invoked by the research, i.e,. multi model agnosticism, neurological relativity, interacting mind-body nervous-system processing, non-simultaneously apprehended plurality.
Gehlen was not only a master spy but a wizard negotiator. Within a week, he was out of his Nazi uniform and into a U.S. Army General’s uniform; the U.S. intelligence services, in return, got the info about the Soviets, including access to Gehlen’s agents in the Soviet government — a group of Mystical Tsarists who had infiltrated both the Red Army and the KGB.
“The early-20th century Eurasianist ideology of a part of the Russian emigration and modern neo-Eurasianism developed by Aleksandr Dugin has been declared the main ideology of the organization.[6] On its website, the movement declared the West and in particular the United States as its main opponent and termed it as the “main evil”
The anti-Americanism of the Japanese, “who remember well the nuclear genocide and the disgrace of political occupation,” must be unleashed, as well as the fervent anti- Americanism of fundamentalist Muslim Iranians (234, 241). On a global scale, Dugin declares, “the main ‘scapegoat’ will be precisely the U.S.
“In 2005, Dugin was invited to participate at an inaugural meeting of the British New Right group organised by Troy Southgate, a former British National Front activist and currently a self-confessed New Rightist.
Dugin advances various occultist lines of reasoning in favor of this Hyperborean theory, drawing on the mystique of the alphabets, sounds, numbers, and geometric symbols, references to the Kabbala, alchemy, Hermeticism, Gnosticism, the law of astrological correspondences, parallels with Iranian and Indian culture, etc.
Dedicated to my mother Della Pratt, on her 75th Birthday. I love you.
“Dao, the process, seems more nitty-gritty and tangible since I acquired an apartment with a panoramic vista of Monterey Bay and the surrounding hills. The view never seems quite the same twice. Waves, sun, fogs, seasons, dogs, dolphins, moons, planets, stars — all seem flowing, as if every kind of evolution, cosmic to biological, parades before me. More and more I lose contact with “me” and flow with all else that flows..the Dao-process.”–Robert Anton Wilson, Thought Of The Month 2002.
I want to dive into the hot and holy waters of spirituality to see where my thoughts take me if I ask myself, what does Steve Fly believe? (2.4k Words, approx. 3-4 min. read)
Off the top, I’d define my own position or my goal when communicating on these matters as Multi-model agnosticism, a term lifted from Robert Anton Wilson, roughly translated to mean, suspension of disbelief coupled with a passion for new synthesis and pluralism.
I feel I do not have to believe in a permanent supernatural force to enter into alternate modes of consciousness, associated with spirituality, religion. That said, I try to remain humble to the fact that some discipline and devotional practice can cause states of consciousness radically different from what my own limited experience can produce. Scepticism mixed with a playful willingness to engage with alternate realities is a personal balance you must strike, one man’s play is another man’s absolute reality. On a general level the ability for each of us to navigate the thermo-plastic reality around us is critical for our sanity and survival, narratives that we tell ourselves and others limit or expand our perceptions of spirit.
In soundbites I could say, give me religion without priestcraft, give me my own church in the form of my body and our planet, give me scripture in the language of RNA-DNA transcription and Python code, give us all the Gods and in all the things, give me parables poetry and true story. Be aware of throwing the baby out with the holy water. Every culture, tradition, ritual, religion, book, method and language is a portal of discovery for YOU to interpret and to grow from. With a mantra on repeat such as “the map is not the territory,” the dangers of taking anything too literally is lessened, together with fear of the word of god.
Any psychonaut who conducted a little post-research into parallel experiences will come to discover Shamanism. For me, personally speaking, I thought I’d found my spiritual home when I first read about wild rituals that include entheogenic substances, ecstatic dancing, singing, chanting and trans-dimensional trips with insect animal-plant entities! Hell yeah, where do I join up? I was a naive teenager and perhaps fit the stereotypical middle-class white kid who discovered acid and went on to believe he was an urban shaman because he could float down to the 24-hour petrol station and buy a pack of large Rizzla papers at 4.00 A.M.
As the years passed I continued my study of Shamanism-lite, today I remain in awe of indigenous and aboriginal traditions that survived today, in the face of growing adversity in part due to disaster capitalism munching on their homeland and spirit allies. To make a fanciful analogy, imagine if Vatican City were situated deep in the Amazon jungle and only a handful of priests lived there. Imagine loggers and fossil fuel prospectors moving in, threatening to destroy their holy Churches (trees) and violent threats on their life if they do not comply by moving, or selling out. Imagine the major religious institutions being under such a threat as indigenous Shamanism, while at the same time secular society relegates Shamanism to snowflake culture, off with the fairies and the druggies.
I’ll consider these different views while at the same time shouting loud from the rooftops: entheogens consumed in the correct set and setting, make up a part of my spiritual practice based on past spiritual experiences. My spiritual philosophy is best defined and demonstrated in nature, a process evidenced by the evolutionary epistemological synthesis between Toads, Toadstools (Fly Agaric) and flies. See Fly Agaric, Flies And Toads: A New Hypothesis by Georgio Samorini 1999.
My challenge to you and to other religions and spiritual practitioners is to try and match these facts of processes observable in nature with scripture. Botanical and epistemological processes observable in nature, I would argue, are holy scripture composed in the complex undecipherable chemical-geometrical language of RNA-DNA synthesis, cell replication, photosynthesis and symbiosis. Nobody “said or wrote” anything.
Spirit entities like those encountered in plant based Shamanic traditions are entangled with our human RNA DNA brain-body nervous system, somewhat trapped in our symbolic language, held hostage by the individual ego and sense of self. I’m guessing here. Shamans meet with, are devoured by, wrestle and dance with all manner of entities, a phantasmagoria of animal insect-plant/fungus hybrids, winged serpents, toads, birds of prey, buffalo, bats, bees, flies, reindeer. I find it interesting and poignant that rarely are humans encountered in Shamanic vision quests, I deduce this stays in the domain of the anthropomorphic traditions where the schlong is more or less what makes an entity divine or not.
I can think of a number of western parallels to this problem of language and identity, such as the Korzybski, Sapir Whorf Hypothesis: the language you use can transform your apprehension of the cosmos (also lifted from R.A.W) Benjamin Whorf, coincidently, studied Hopi languages extensively, concluding that they have a unique apprehension of the cosmos due to a unique use of Syntax. By extension of this idea, you can follow this principle and imagine how different cultures using different language and syntax experience the cosmos (to mean everything) very differently. By extension of extension, now consider Marshall McLuhan and how the medium of the message transforms the message utterly.
The implications and findings from comparative studies of religion, in contrast to Shamanic traditions, are worthy of consideration and to me brings up another challenge to those who adhere to a single true religious faith, in what language does God speak to you?
Experimenting with polytheism may also bring clarity to the questions of Shaman to a Western mind, rather than deny and negate subjective experiences based on some absolute, I’d suggest yet again that a playful willingness to experiment with belief, temporarily. Here I might also point you to Magick and Acting as two such existing playful examples. Take notes and keep a diary, write out your thoughts if you can, I find this process helps me to order and clarify my own thoughts and consider how to share them with others.
Another distinguishing feature can be found in sacraments, how they’re consumed, with what intention and what is the Sacrament chemically made of, what may it mean symbolically. I conclude that the three major religions forbid any entheogen or psychoactive compound, rather using alcoholic wines and placebo (the eucharist wafer) to mimic ingesting flesh of the gods. Shamanic traditions on the other hand, openly and explicitly ingest and worship Peyote, Ayahuasca, Iboga and a variety of Magic Mushrooms. Evidence suggests humans and proto-humans have been getting high long before the one and only true religions were established before over-confident individuals claimed contact with the divine or stated their absolute knowledge of man, god and universe. In other words, I’ll tolerate your limited knowledge of spirituality, if you’ll tolerate mine.
One interpretation linked with the end of the Mayan Long-Count Calendar and prophecy that I like, involves the tribe (humanity) rediscovering entheogens (Magic Mushrooms) and regrouping to lead the regenesis of planet earth, which mimics the general goal of the current climate crisis movement. Through deeper connections with the planet, new maps and models and metaphors can be formed, to help assist in the regenerative process, to give the planet, flora and fauna what they need to continue doing what they do: grow naturally abundant. Psychedelics (entheogens) are critical tools for nurturing intelligence and harmony, attention to detail and the ability to cultivate compassion/empathy.
To be blunt, I see a lot of fake shit out there today, a lot of disease and ignorance. Many are lost, have been lost for a long time, some have ignored the signposts and repeated warnings, choosing to walk into the wall over and over again. You cannot recover from death, and that’s where we are heading, some sooner due to stronger ignorance. Like moths flying into a light bulb over and over again every night, not listening or caring or being willing to learn can lead to physical Death. Sometimes I feel a deeper connection with animals, plants and insects than I do with humans, especially the greedy racist xenophobic homophobic violence-prone, loud-mouthed liars and predators. Critical decisions personal and collective lie ahead, we all have work to do, billions of people need help, billions. A new world is possible, shine your light. I refuse to look away but I also refuse to pass without comment.
Yes, to me this fits the description of a global spiritual emergency and a global material emergency. Thoughts and prayers as currently practised are not working for the large population of earth. Perhaps modify our thinking and prayer so it includes indigenous and aboriginal teachings. Nurturing common ground with the Thoughts and Prayers across faiths and lead the way into deeper thoughts and deeper prayer rather than blow off the cliche’ used to mask detail. Join in thought and prayer on the regular, innovate to lead by example. Where do your thoughts go?
I am currently an apprentice Shaman of the urban poet, drummer, DJ variety. These practises or art forms make up my spiritual practice, or you could say my religion, my means to connect with non-human entities, such as my muses. If I had to choose a pre-existing spiritual tradition that hits all the bases of my interests, I’d pick Shamanism, drums, music, long poetic chants, sacred sacraments and dancing, yep.
Shamanic practice has some overlap with the original illegal rave scene in the UK and the birth of most forms of electronic music and the spontaneous gatherings of urban tribes worldwide. Seeking connection through ecstasy, there’s a kinship with ancient ancestors who share similar desires for dancing, exultation, healing, ecstasy plus a yearning to reconnect and regenerate mother earth. Terence Mckenna was on the periphery of this movement and was present in the mix that led to new tribal sound systems throughout the 1990s and into the naughties.
Mirrored by what happened in the 1960s, the 90’s birthed a new generation of apprentice Shaman, stumbling along the bardo’s seeking truth through art and beauty through harmony and dance, surrounded by neoliberal disaster capitalism and climate degeneration. Groups of fledgeling urban Shaman formed and splintered off into a thousand paths, some went into PR, marketing, advertising, super clubs and the global dance music business. Like what transpired in the late ’80s to produce Silicon Valley, Shamanic skills deployed and sold to the worldwide computer industry and the emerging telecommunications industry.
A smaller but significant tribe took other routes, continued to innovate art and music and words with respect, integrity and passion. The temple is not for sale and Shamanism is not for sale, religion and art share a lot in common, it’s the price that distinguishes the difference here, how much for the temple and paid in what kind, blood/gold/bitcoin?
Today it’s clear to me that religious or secular ideology that does not accept the fact we are all brothers and sisters rooted and sprouted from the same RNA-DNA transcript (individually expressed through our unique body sense and experience of time) are antiquated, heading for extinction like dinosaurs. Yet another distinguishing feature of indigenous spiritual practice is the shared tradition of the gathering. The idea/story/song that tells of a tribal gathering event, a gathering of humans during a global emergency (take your pick) to reconnect with mother earth listen to her advice and pass it on to ALL the people.
Some powerful thoughts and prayers are required, fierce blessings, no doubt. Perhaps entheogens play a part here if we can listen and interpret what we hear with selfless reverence. Keep in mind the power of story to transform humanity very quickly using hyper-connected media, sometimes producing a new piece of common ground with diverse peoples worldwide.
I guess that if six highly experienced Amazonian Shaman came up with a practical solution, such as a recipe for a new medicine or vaccine tomorrow, mainstream medicine and culture would not take it seriously. However, if the recipe was detailed in a documentary format with a soundtrack by DJ Shadow, guest narrators Samuel Jackson, Jamies Oliver, Gordon Ramsey and Jack Back, with a global release scheduled on Netflix, these facts can get fleshed out and reach the minds of the people, maybe leading to a new sub-genre of experimental films made with experimental techniques.
Story and narrative are powerful beyond measure. Song and music and dance and costume are even more powerful when bootstrapped, use forces don’t fight them. Have fun, challenge the gods to a duel, stand your ground, play, take down a King or Prime Minister, be a cruel dispassionate God who tortures his characters, play with paradox and explore the dark recesses of your creative mind, reach for forbidden fruit and eat it, take another. Within story world you are alike Kukulkan (Quetzalcoatl: The Winged Serpent) a roving spirit of intelligence, free to fly anywhere and anytime, free to write what you like and add a serpent’s bite, you have two wings, one tragedy the other comedy and a tale that reaches the furthest galaxies. Consider the Shamanic overtones to the animated series: Midnight Gospel, for example.
I consider the process of building a proposal and plan for a documentary, part of my spiritual practice and shamanic apprenticeship. Singing matter, dancing matter, healing matter, moving images, rooted in plants/insects/animals and flora, the tale of the gathering of the tribes.
“This is why the shaman is the remote ancestor of the poet and artist. Our need to feel part of the world seems to demand that we express ourselves through creative activity. The ultimate wellsprings of this creativity are hidden in the mystery of language. Shamanic ecstasy is an act of surrender that authenticates both the individual self and that which is surrendered to, the mystery of being. Because our maps of reality are determined by our present circumstances, we tend to lose awareness of the larger patterns of time and space. Only by gaining access to the Transcendent Other can those patterns of time and space and our role in them be glimpsed.”–Terence McKenna, Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge.
For me, this might be the greatest single bit of good news for all-around-the-world humanity in 2020 and beyond. I live in optimism that one day, as Tom Robbins once remarked, 15% of the worlds population will know the name of Robert Anton Wilson, and have the means to explore his life’s work, affecting a new golden age, a new enlightenment.
There have been rumors of an Illuminatus! Trilogy production buzzing around for a few years now, and we have an official press release to get our dreams and strategies up and running. We dream big that this will be the mind-expanding, hilarious and dazzling first catapult of a fully loaded Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea, series. Yes. Wishing success and good will to all production crew, directors, actors and those who have helped this happen.
And a happy new year and success to all my followers, supporters. Cheers.
–Steve Fly
Before the X-Files, before alt.conspiracy, there was Robert Anton Wilson and his legendary Illuminatus! Trilogy.
Full press release below:
LOS ANGELES, CA– December 11, 2019 – Hivemind today announced that it has partnered with writer/director Brian Taylor (HAPPY!, CRANK) and European production company Kallisti for a new television series based on THE ILLUMINATUS! TRILOGY – the hugely influential science-fiction franchise created by authors Robert Anton Wilson & Robert Shea that first introduced the concept of “the Illuminati” into the popular consciousness, while simultaneously fueling, deconstructing, and skewering America’s modern-day obsession with conspiracy theories.
When the offices of a Manhattan news publisher are bombed, anti-authority reporter George Dorn begins to suspect that the disturbing conspiracy his editor has spent months investigating is not only real, it might be the key to unlocking all of history’s greatest unanswered mysteries. As George sets out to find his mentor and uncover the truth about an all-seeing secret society that seems to unify every insane, inane, and outlandish conspiracy theory ever told – from the JFK assassination, celebrity cabals and lost continents to UFOs, ancient gods and the truth about the New World Order – he finds himself drawn deeper into a war between two shadowy groups. On one side stand the Discordians, a clandestine band of chaos-loving guerrilla fighters led by the enigmatic modern-day pirate Hagbard Celine; and on the other, the Illuminati – elite authoritarians who secretly manipulate world events, ever expanding their wealth, influence, and physical power in a plot to escape the limitations of human existence.
ILLUMINATUS! will be executive produced by Dinesh Shamdasani and Hunter Gorinson for Hivemind, and Iris McPherson and Kirstin Winkler for Kallisti. Taylor will serve as executive producer and showrunner.
“ILLUMINATUS! is a kind of mind-blowing literary miracle… It manages to be completely seminal while as relevant today – if not more so – than the day it was published,” said Taylor. “Wilson and Shea have created a fractal-like world of conspiracy inside conspiracy that completely anticipates today’s internet-fueled, Post-Truth culture.”
A globetrotting science-fiction/conspiracy thriller laced with subversive humor, ILLUMINATUS! was first published in 1975 at the height of post-Watergate paranoia and has remained in print ever since. Often ranked alongside Frank Herbert’s DUNE, Douglas Adams’ HITCHHIKERS’ GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, and William Gibson’s NEUROMANCER as one of the most influential and obsessively followed pieces of cult science fiction ever produced, references and allusions to the series have turned up everywhere from John Carpenter’s THEY LIVE to ABC’s LOST with high-profile creators such as Philip K. Dick, Alan Moore, George Carlin, Damon Lindelof, Grant Morrison, and more citing the series as an inspiration and influence.
Celebrated as a “mind-twisting science fiction…classic for more than 30 years” by the New York Times, “the ultimate conspiracy book” by the Village Voice, and the “New Testament” of the American counterculture underground by Vice, ILLUMINATUS! has spawned nearly a dozen sequels and spin-offs, along with comic books, stage plays, radio productions, role-playing games, and more based on the original trilogy. In recent years, Kallisti has also developed an immersive ILLUMINATUS! VR experience, exploring series’ many iconic characters and settings, that has exhibited at numerous arts and technology events in the United States and Europe.
“Since acquiring the rights to this wild and unique series, we have been working on an immersive experience around THE ILLUMINATUS! TRILOGY and are thrilled to bring this beloved story to television. We couldn’t think of more ideal partners than Brian Taylor and Hivemind. The themes of this cult classic are more current than ever today, and we cannot wait to bring it to life,” said Kallisti partners Iris McPherson and Kirstin Winkler.
“The series’ staggering influence has only continued to grow with each passing year not just because it explores and indulges the most compelling depths of America’s conspiratorial imagination, but because it also gives us the tools and knowledge to understand it. If there was ever a series primed for 21st century television, it’s ILLUMINATUS!” said Hunter Gorinson, Hivemind’s VP of Brand & Content Strategy.
ILLUMINATUS! will mark Taylor’s next television project following HAPPY!, based on the Image Comics series and starring Christopher Meloni and Patton Oswalt, alongside left-field guest appearances by Jeff Goldblum, Ann-Margret, and musicians “Weird” Al Yankovic and Amanda Palmer. The series recently concluded its acclaimed run on Syfy with an 88% Rotten Tomatoes score for its final season. Taylor and Grant Morrison’s reimagining of Aldous Huxley’s BRAVE NEW WORLD is currently shooting for USA Network in London.
To be produced in collaboration with Kallisti, ILLUMINATUS! marks a major new addition to Hivemind’s rapidly expanding roster of high-profile film and television projects, which also includes Amazon’s acclaimed science-fiction series THE EXPANSE, which was recently renewed for a fifth season in advance of the fourth’s December 13th debut; Netflix’s much-anticipated adaptation of THE WITCHER starring Henry Cavill, debuting December 20th; and Sony Pictures’ feature film BLOODSHOT, starring Vin Diesel and Guy Pearce, in theaters February 21st, 2020.
Taylor is represented by Verve Talent & Literary Agency. Hivemind is represented by UTA.
DEEP SCRATCH 