JP Sears is the creator of the hilarious Ultra Spiritual Life series of videos on Youtube. A satire of the new age, these videos are more than just entertainment. They are also a form of therapy. In this interview JP explains that they offer him a chance to deal with some of the aspects of his own shadow-side.

Topics include: Youtube channel, emotional healing, Ultra Spiritual Life, satire, comedy, spiritual seekers, shadow, meditation, yoga, being too serious, disconnection from self, spirituality, dogma, sense of control, gray area, mystery, ego, sense of safety, sense of self, rebirth, journey, finding meaning, ayahuasca, addiction, Carl Jung, soul, feelings, Southern California, progressive shadow, futility of debate, vegetarianism, gluten, power of viewer, art, acceptance, external and internal world, perfection, creativity, higher purpose

In this interview Pearse Redmond shares some of his research and thoughts on Scientology and cults in general. What is a destructive cult, and why would anyone join one in the first place? A better question might be: what pseudo-cults have I, myself been involved in, and to what extent? Human nature is ours, but it is also the Garden from which the guru attempts to pick Forbidden Fruit.

Topics include: cults, Scientology, Tom Cruise, Hollywood, Going Clear, destructive cults, religion, Sea Org, gurus, L Ron Hubbard, CIA, Unification Church, Moonies, Radio Free Asia, Operation Snow White, IRS, tax exempt, David Miscavige, SRI, saving the world, Peoples Temple, hypnotism, terrorism, brainwashing, blame the victim, superhuman powers, engrams, auditing, conception, abortion, Dianetics, occult, Alesiter Crowley, magic, celebrities, secret societies, pseudo-cults, Alcoholics Anonymous, groupthink, elections, children, instant acceptance, guilt, disconnection, illusion of no personal control, depression, internet, political cults, alt media, 9/11 truth, National Socialism, looking for answers, Libertarianism, Stephan Molyneux, DeFooing, shut out family, Gold Standard, absolutism, advertising, changing labels, branding, racism, exploitation

What appeared to be a grassroots protest rallying against the dangers of artificial intelligence was no more than a marketing stunt. One designed to sell an online dating app of all things. The inability to understand abstract ideas has led us to a point where marketing holds tremendous sway over our lives.

topics include: Stop the Robots, SXSW, marketing, artificial intelligence, grassroots movements, Adam Mason, media, protests, politics, counter-intelligence, infiltration, admitting our faults, transhumanism, Ray Kurzweil, attention, ideas, images, alchemy, mystique, subjectivity vs objectivity, perception, rationalization, Four Arguments For the Elimination of Television, Jerry, Mander, seeing is believing, subconscious, mind, abstract concepts

Please note that Themes and Memes has a new dedicated feed and website. Be sure to check out tmpodcast.com and subscibe to the feed as future episodes will be posted there exclusively.

Aaron gives some added points on past podcasts. The World Stage concept continues to be important in its relation to what is said here.

topics include: Carlisle PA, Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Jim Thorpe, Great Sioux War, Benjamin Franklin, David Lynch, Andy Kaufman, performance art, trickster spirit, nothing is real, transcendental meditation, cosmic consciousness, truth, relief, relaxation, religion, cults, Michael Richards, Laurel Canyon, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern, Bruce Dern, films, Hollywood, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive.

This is a special roundtable discussion featuring Thomas Sheridan, Tom Secker, and Adam of Themes and Memes. Aaron Franz hosts, and the topic at hand is the rise of Race Politics in the alternative media. Why is it that alt media has taken such a dark turn, and what can the rest of us do about it?

topics include: racism, alternative, Truth Movement, psychology, frustration, psychic energy, Russell Brand, Adolf Hitler, National Socialism, midlife crisis, no resolution, masculine and feminine, dialectic, far right politics, Nazi Sympathy, revisionist history, personal values, obsession with disaster, sincerity, drug addiction, White Nationalism, division, mainstream recognition, self destruction, complexity, human nature, dogma, simple identity, reassessing self, need to belong, extended adolescence, The Greatest Story Never Told, emotive music, Hallmark commercial for Third Reich, Transformers score, WW2, narrative, Stalingrad, German people, Poland, distorted logic, truth documentaries, futurism, Nazi flying saucers, Nazi Bell, propaganda, Goebbels, taking allegory as literal, cults, ideals, synchronicity, Walpurgis Night, confronting history, ideological vacuum, idealizing the past, virility, doublethink, confusion, Nuremburg Racial Laws, play the victim, race politics, slavery, preserving culture, multiculturalism, cultural laws, authoritarian government, complexity, sectarianism, Downfall film

Everyone knows that David Lynch has a dark side, but what about his enlightened side? As it turns out this might just represent the darkest thing that Lynch has to offer. There is certainly more going on than is to be seen on the surface when it comes to transcendental meditation and its most famous proponent.

topics include: Berlin presentation, Invincible Germany, performance art, video, body language, David Wants to Fly, transcendental meditation, cult, spiritual concepts, baseless optimism, heavy unstressing, dissociation, depersonalization, derealization, Russell Brand, Ellen Degeneres, Jerry Seinfeld, Ringo Starr, Martin Scorsese, fact and fiction, ideas, esoteric, mystique, films, occult, lighting, dreams, sexual perversion, violence, altered states of consciousness, mind control, DID, dissociative identity disorder, Mulholland Drive, nihilism, audience, confusion, new age, magic

In this episode of Themes and Memes Adam and Aaron take a trip down memory lane as they talk about a number of films that they watched in their younger days. Many classics from the 80s and 90s are looked at in terms of predicitive programming and culture creation.

topics include: Short Circuit, MIC, occult, lightning, alchemy, gold, Terminator, Terminator 2, James Cameron, machines, transhumanism, Ai, film franchises, Aliens, Transformers, Optimus Prime, cartoons, trauma, arrested development, independent films, color, Top Gun, Navy, Tony Scott, suicide, homosexuality, Jurassic Park, genetic engineering, remakes, Total Recall, Judge Dredd, changing morality, Lion King, caste system, Social Darwinism, Disney, mind control, 1993, Jacques Ellul, propaganda, ideas as resources, subconscious

Hang in there as Aaron preaches about exercise, because later he deals with the incredibly pressing issue of the 2015 Grammy Awards. People do tend to get worked up about such events, but what kind of performances nearly always go unnoticed?

topics include: cycling, exercise, weight training, making time, health, Grammy Awards, Kanye West, Beck, performers, stage, world stage, reality and fiction, subtlety, Andy Kaufman, theater of war, presidents, actors, speech writers, propaganda, perception

The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin has always been steeped in controversy. Keeping this tradition alive here, Aaron examines some of the darker elements of this book. 

topics include: Benjamin Franklin, William Temple Franklin, printing, media, propaganda techniques, shaping pubic opinion, secret societies, Junto, American Indians, alcoholism, genocide, Pennsylvania, philosophy, science, Royal Society, Philadelphia Experiments