Lance Morcan's Blog, page 78

Introducing…the (real) man who stared at goats

Meet Major General Albert Stubblebine III…

This former head of US Army Intelligence masterminded the army’s psychic warfare program back in the early 1980’s. He features in our book THE ORPHAN CONSPIRACIES: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy because he’s one of the more colorful characters we came across when researching the existence or otherwise of Manuchurian Candidates, or mind-controled assassins if you will.

Here’s an excerpt from the book:

One of the more colorful characters circulating rumors of hypnotized assassins is former head of US Army Intelligence, Major General Albert Stubblebine III… Yes, the same Stubblebine the Third who famously tried to create a soldier who could levitate and walk through walls, and who – on the record – said he believed American soldiers could win all wars if they could walk through walls!

Army program makes it to the big screen.

In case you still doubt Stubblebine’s credentials to speak on this subject, he’s the officer that the central character of the 2009 feature film The Men Who Stare at Goats, is based on. Is there a higher accolade than that? Still not convinced? Well, the central character was played by none other than George Clooney. Happy now?

Actor Clooney plays Stubblebine.

According to Stubblebine, that story had its origins in his office when he was asked to develop the minds of people so that if they stared at a goat long enough its heart would explode. What’s more, he claims he has seen evidence that such a thing is possible, and he says he’s positive that the creation of Manchurian Candidates continues in America today.

We are not sure how seriously Albert Stubblebine III should be taken. Our first impressions are that he’s one sandwich short of a picnic.

Perhaps the Encyclopedia of American Loons should have the last say on Stubblebine. In a blog post dated January 13, 2013, the encyclopedia claims: “He is currently heartily insane, but seems to have been batshit crazy even before he tried to walk through walls”.

In a final diagnosis, the post ends: “I guess one could make an argument that the world needs hapless, elderly men called ‘Albert Stubblebine’ who are constantly befuddled by their failure to walk through solid walls”.

Then again, Stubblebine achieved the esteemed military rank of Major General and was the head of US Army Intelligence for many years. Those things don’t normally happen to loons.

Perhaps the last word on mind control and Manchurian Candidates should go to Jesse Ventura, former Governor of Minnesota who is probably America’s – and possibly the world’s – best known conspiracy theorist. The Governor fronts Sleeper Assassins, a 2010 episode of the popular US television series Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura.

Governor Ventura…believes in existence of Manchurian Candidates.

The episode starts with Governor Ventura telling viewers he has uncovered a Government plot to turn ordinary citizens into programmed killers.

“I’ve also seen how hypnosis, torture and other techniques can make ordinary people do things they otherwise couldn’t do,” says the Governor. “I met a man who says they did it to him. All the high-profile assassins who fit this same pattern…believe the government turned them into weapons. Could this be a coincidence? I don’t think so.”

We explore this concept in detail in THE ORPHAN CONSPIRACIES – and uncover some interesting theories (some would say facts) relating to real-life Manchurian Candidates in the employ of government agencies.

To read more go to:  http://www.amazon.com/The-Orphan-Conspiracies-Conspiracy-Theories-ebook/dp/B00J4MPFT6/

Not all is what it seems!

 

*************************************************  

Meet Number Nine: orphan, spy, lover…assassin

Meet Number Nine – an orphan, a spy, a lover…a master of disguise, an assassin, a shapeshifter…a freedom fighter, a human chameleon, a reformed contract killer.

He’s all of the above. He’s none of the above. It’s his story we tell in our international thriller series THE ORPHAN TRILOGY (The Ninth Orphan / The Orphan Factory / The Orphan Uprising).

 

           

Nine is enslaved by the Omega Agency, a shadowy organization seeking to create a New World Order. When he tries to break free and live a normal life, Nine is hunted by his mentor and father figure, and by a female orphan he spent his childhood with. On the run, his life becomes entwined with his beautiful French-African hostage and a shocking past is revealed…A past that involves the mysterious Pedemont Orphanage in Chicago, Illinois.

Standing in the way of Nine’s freedom are his fellow orphans – all elite operatives like himself – who are under orders to terminate him. Nine finds himself in a seemingly infinite maze of cloak and dagger deception. Time and again, he must call on all his advanced training to survive.

But can the ninth-born orphan ever get off the grid? To find out you’ll need to go on a tumultuous journey around the world to such far-flung locations as the Arctic, Asia, Europe, the Amazon, Africa and South Pacific islands.

One of the Omega Agency’s black ops employs MK-Ultra mind control technology on genetically engineered agents to facilitate the agendas of those in power. When Nine successfully deprograms himself from MK-Ultra, all hell breaks loose. But to gain his freedom he must bust out of the Pedemont Orphanage and break into Omega’s other orphanages and underground medical laboratories around the world. In the process he uncovers chilling scientific experiments taking place on children.

 

Here’s what Amazon reviewers are saying about The Orphan Trilogy:

★★★★★ “Intrigue, mystery, deceit, coverup, black hat, special ops, conspiracy – you name it, you’re pretty much going to find it here in these exciting three books.” -Greg Kuhn (author & quantum physicist) 

★★★★★ “The Orphan Trilogy is the best of the best in thrillers!” -J.B. DiNizo (author of ‘Comings and Goings’)

★★★★★ “An epic thriller trilogy.” -SJ Hailey (author of ‘The 5th Amulet’)

★★★★★ “Wonderful conspiracy trilogy.” -A Bit Of Everything Reviews

★★★★★ “Morcan fans will enjoy the books.” -Jerome Brooke (author of ‘City of the Mirage’)

★★★★★ “This is a fast paced, high action story line with enough truth in it to rattle you.” -WelcomeHomeSoldier Reviews

★★★★★ “I can’t say enough about this international conspiracy thriller series…Fast paced action and an extremely thought provoking premise.” -Phoenix Book Review

The Orphan Trilogy is available via Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BGGM05U/

 

Happy reading! -Lance & James

 

*****************************************************

 

Subliminal messaging…How widespread is it?

Subliminal messages – those sensory stimuli that occur below an individual’s threshold of conscious awareness – are nothing new. They’ve been around at least since the advent of radio and television, and it’s no secret that advertisers and programmers have long inserted hidden messages that consumers receive unknowingly. 

But how widespread is the use of subliminals today, and how legal is it…and, for that matter, how moral is it for messages to be sent to your mind without you being aware of the fact?

We explore these questions in our book THE ORPHAN CONSPIRACIES: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy. Here’s an excerpt:

There are numerous well-known incidents of subliminals being used in media advertising. A CBS News article headed The 10 Best Subliminal Ads Ever Made  provides some interesting examples. You can check them out at: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-10-best-subliminal-ads-ever-made/

The known history of this advertising technique essentially began in 1957, when market researcher James Vicary inserted subliminal messages into screenings of a film at a movie theater in New Jersey. The subliminals instructed cinemagoers to eat popcorn and buy Coca-Cola. According to Vicary, sales for both Coke and popcorn went through the roof.

Vicary’s cinema experiment coincided withthe publication of Vance Packard’s bestselling book The Hidden Persuaders, which highlights subliminal tactics used by advertisers.

Bestselling book highlights subliminal tactics.

These developments prompted many others with an interest in influencing minds to begin researching this new technique. And so the subliminal movement was born.

Subliminal messaging has been banned in some countries including the UK and Australia, but it remains legal in most countries.

Although legal in the US, subliminal messaging is frowned upon – officially at least. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) warns it will revoke any broadcaster’s licence where the use of subliminals is proven, and high profile American broadcasters and television networks pay lip service to the intent behind the FCC’s warning and to their expressed desire to protect listeners and viewers from subliminals.

Since the 1950’s, numerous proposed laws to ban subliminal advertising have been introduced to the US Congress, but all have perished in committee without making it to the floor of either the House or Senate for a vote. Several states, including California, have at times discussed anti-subliminal advertising laws, but none have enacted those laws. The usual excuse given by lawmakers is that as research has failed to conclusively prove subliminal advertising is effective there’s no need to pass such laws.

There is a school of thought in America that there’s a conspiracy – in which the big corporations and ad agencies are key players – to convince the public that subliminal advertising doesn’t work.

Advertisers and others have gone to great lengths to assure us subliminals do not work, trotting out the results of “exhaustive studies,” “consumer poll results” and “extensive research” that point to the results of subliminal messaging being fairly ambiguous at best. One study quoted by Wikipedia claims “subliminal messages produce only one-tenth of the effects of detected messages”.

However, there is credible research that shows subliminal stimuli often sparks actions someone intended to perform. In other words, actions can be subliminally prompted if someone was already planning to carry out that action, but it will not force them to do something they weren’t already thinking of doing.

 

Conspiracy theorists go much further than that and often state or imply many or even most of our everyday actions are the result of subliminal messages we have seen or heard. They argue we receive so many subliminals throughout our lives that it has a cumulative effect which, when added up, amounts to mind control.

So there you have it: the two extremes. As is often the case, the truth may be somewhere in the middle. Or is it?

Many independent researchers have come to the shocking conclusion that we are being bombarded with so many subliminals every day it’s virtually impossible not to be influenced by them in some way.

And science may be beginning to support the claims of these researchers. For example, very recent studies involving functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have revealed that subliminals activate crucial regions of the brain including the hippocampus, the amygdala, the primary visual cortex and the insular cortex. These latest scientific studies directly contradict 20th Century research.

Read more in The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy: http://www.amazon.com/The-Orphan-Conspiracies-Conspiracy-Theories-ebook/dp/B00J4MPFT6/

Not all is what it seems!

****************************************************** 

Ninth-born orphan’s search for abducted son takes him around the world

In The Orphan Uprising, the ninth-born orphan’s idyllic lifestyle is shattered when his young son is abducted by operatives and dispatched to underground medical laboratories for scientific testing and experimentation. This  explosive conclusion to The Orphan Trilogy resumes five years after book one, The Ninth Orphan, ends.

Welcome Home Soldier Reviews calls this novel “A heart tearing, mind splitting, gut churning crusade.”

Having eluded his former masters at the Omega Agency and escaped his past life as an operative, Nine has married his soul mate, Isabelle. They’ve carved out a new life for themselves, off the grid, in the remote islands of French Polynesia.

The contented couple have a five-year-old son, Francis, who is a chip off the old block and who has inherited his father’s unique DNA. Francis will soon have a sister as Isabelle is about to give birth to a baby girl.

Their idyllic lifestyle is shattered when Francis is abducted by operatives in the employ of the Omega Agency, the shadowy organization that brought Nine into the world and once controlled every aspect of his life. The terrified boy with the unique DNA is dispatched to one of Omega’s underground medical laboratories for scientific testing and experimentation.

Nine is desperate to find Francis before Omega can harm him. He soon finds he’s up against his fellow orphans – all elite operatives as he once was – who are under orders to kill him on sight. To overcome them, he must call on all his former training and skills. His search takes him around the world – from Tahiti to America, Germany, Greenland and the Congo.

To add to Nine’s worries, he has a serious heart condition that requires immediate surgery. The clock is ticking and he knows he’s on borrowed time. It’s a race against the clock to find his son before Omega can harm the boy – and before his heart gives out. 

 

Here’s what Amazon reviewers are saying about The Orphan Uprising:

★★★★★ “The Law and Order like twists keep you on the edge of your seat. An extreme roller coaster ride of emotions awaits the reader.” -My Scribe World

★★★★★ “A Finale Worthy of Your Attention” -Greg Kuhn (author & quantum physicist)

★★★★★ “Great end to a great series” -Lynelle Clark (author of ‘A Pirate’s Wife’)

★★★★ “Does not disappoint” -C9C Reviews

★★★★★ “A well-written and suspense-filled thriller” -J.B. DiNizo (author of ‘Comings and Goings’)

★★★★★ “A heart tearing, mind splitting, gut churning crusade.” -WelcomeHomeSoldier Reviews

★★★★★ “Fast paced action and an extremely thought provoking premise.” -Phoenix Book Review 

The Orphan Uprising is available via Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BFC66DM/

 

Happy reading! -Lance & James

 

*****************************************************

Underground cities in America…crazy conjecture?

Conspiracy theorists claim the US Government is building underground cities in preparation for a coming catastrophe they seem certain is imminent. Whether it will be some kind of nuclear apocalypse or a religious, Armageddon-type scenario, nobody knows. At least, nobody we know knows.

Crazy conjecture? Maybe…

In episode 4 of the third season of Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura, former Minnesota Governor Ventura and his son Tyrel Ventura, along with Sean Stone, son of Oscar-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone, travel to the Ozarks, that mountainous region of the central United States, to investigate rumors of underground developments there. They find the entrance to what appears to be an underground city being built inside a mountain.

Jesse Ventura (center) and team outside what they call an underground city.

Despite heavy fortifications – and no doubt aided by Ventura’s status as former Governor of Minnesota – the team gain vehicular entry to the massive underground facility, which they discover covers an area of 50 square miles! As they drive around freely, they quickly deduce it is indeed an underground city in the making, complete with offices, warehouses, manufacturing plants, indoor farming facilities as well as stockpiles of food, water and crude oil.

As Ventura says, “It’s like they’ve got door-to-door transportation for the chosen few when it’s time to move inside and weld those doors shut. I don’t necessarily think it’d be a good place to live, but it would be a good place to survive.”

It does raise the question, what is happening below ground? We address this very question in our book THE ORPHAN CONSPIRACIES: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy.

Here’s an excerpt from the book:

There’s a long list of claims regarding the nefarious activities conducted by the global elite and their pawns in these underground bases. Some say they have clandestine prisons where officially designated missing persons and others who have dropped off the grid are held captive; some believe human-alien joint ventures are taking place in these bases to further black technologies or to advance certain species.

When it comes to suppressed science, the hit sci-fi television seriesWarehouse 13, which at the time of writing is still on TV and into its fifth season, probably best portrays the secret science bunker concept. The basic plot has two US Secret Service Agents assigned to a top-secret government warehouse to protect scientific discoveries and radical technologies invented by Nikola Tesla and others – none of which the public are aware. The premise of a largely underground warehouse storing suppressed discoveries and inventions is based on conspiracy theories that have been swirling around for decades.

Hit TV series taps into theory.

There have also been reports from former military engineers and government geologists about supersonic transportation systems underground. Who knows, maybe the global elite travel between cities and countries below ground, utilizing the underworld’s rumored faster transportation methods?

It has also been claimed that radical biological experiments take place in the Splinter Civilization’s underworld. The kind that the laws of the land above ground don’t allow – such as unsanctioned forms of genetic engineering, human cloning and illegal drug testing by pharmaceutical corporations. Some conspiracy theorists who believe complex viruses like HIV/AIDS, SARS and Ebola are all manmade, have even theorized that these viruses are manufactured and tested in underground facilities before being unleashed above ground.

Neo-Nazi technologies are also said to exist below ground. This apparently dates back to the Project Paperclip scientists who, as we mention in chapter 12, were secretly ushered in to America immediately after WW2. Werner von Braun, the German-turned naturalized American and Godfather of NASA’s space rocket program, is one that many researchers have named in relation to underground bases. These Nazi Paperclip scientists were supposedly crucial to the development and construction of the underground bases and tunnels that now exist beneath American soil.

If that sounds farfetched, remember it’s well-documented that von Braun and other Paperclip Nazis built V2 rockets for Hitler in large underground missile facilities in their German homeland in the 1940’s.

Aircraft and God knows what else stored underground…somewhere. (Photo not verified).

Wildest of all, are the numerous conspiracy theories that maintain many of these underground bases – of which there are rumored to be thousands worldwide – are full of captive men, women and children. Some suggest the captives may have been taken from above ground, which may partially account for the hundreds of thousands of missing persons reported annually around the world who are never found; others suggest the captives are human clones designed to spend their lives enslaved underground to further the global elite’s agendas; and still others suggest some captives are used as human guinea pigs in radical science experiments conducted by scientists working for the Splinter Civilization.

And then there’s the intriguing statements made by one Philip Schneider, an American geologist who, until his untimely death, also claimed to be an ex-government military engineer.Schneider said while he was involved in constructing additional bunkers in one underground base in New Mexico, he discovered aliens conducted horrific experiments on people detained in bunkers miles below the earth’s surface. (More on Schneider later in this chapter).

Read more in The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy: http://www.amazon.com/The-Orphan-Conspiracies-Conspiracy-Theories-ebook/dp/B00J4MPFT6/

Not all is what it seems.

********************************************************

23 orphans trained to kill: one wants out

The Orphan Factory (The Orphan Trilogy, #2) is an epic, atmospheric story that begins with 23 genetically superior orphans being groomed to become elite spies in Chicago’s Pedemont Orphanage and concludes with a political assassination deep in the Amazon jungle. It’s the prequel to The Ninth Orphan.

In the late 1970’s, in Chicago, Illinois, the secretive Omega Agency initiates the Pedemont Project – a radical experiment utilizing genetic engineering technologies – to create twenty three orphan babies with the plan to turn them into the world’s most effective assassins.

One of the prodigies will rebel: meet Number Nine, an orphan with a mind of his own.

In 1998, when Nine reaches adulthood and graduates with honors from the Pedemont Orphanage, he is already an adept of the deadly espionage arts. Ordered by his Omega masters to assassinate a survivor of the Jonestown tragedy in Guyana’s Amazon rainforest, Nine is forced to draw upon all of his advanced training just to stay alive.

 

Here’s what Amazon reviewers are saying about The Orphan Factory:

★★★★★ “Black ice and black ops perhaps have a lot in common. You don’t see’em coming until you spin out.” -WelcomeHomeSoldier Reviews

★★★★★ “The escapades of Nine as a new teenager, away from the structure of the orphanage, are interesting and completely believable.” -C9C Reviews

★★★★★ “Buckle up for another wild ride in the Orphan Trilogy” -My Scribe World

★★★★★ “In Book 2 many questions are answered” -Lynelle Clark (author of ‘A Pirate’s Wife’)

★★★★★ “Never a dull moment in this conspiracy suspense” -Review of Books For You

★★★★★ “Riveting right to the book’s last page” -J.B. DiNizo (author of ‘Comings and Goings’)

★★★★ “Answers a lot of questions while also opening other doors for the final book in the trilogy” -The Kindle Book Review

★★★★★ “I especially enjoyed the quantum physics I encountered” -Greg Kuhn (author & quantum physicist)

★★★★★ “An extremely thought provoking premise” -Phoenix Book Review

★★★★★ “A wonderful story!” -A Bit Of Everything Reviews

★★★★★ “An eerily relevant lesson in our media-saturated world.” -Gapers Block Book Club, Chicago, Illinois

★★★★ “Exciting story” -Zoltan Istvan (author of ‘The Transhumanist Wager’)

The Orphan Factory is available via Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008M9WWKW/

 

Happy reading! -Lance & James

 

*****************************************************

Middle East events inspire a sense of déjà vu

As we recoil from the awful images and try to make sense of the horror unfolding in the Middle East right now, and as America considers broad military action against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, we can’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu.

ISIS militants in Syria…adding to the latest confusion and horror in the Middle East.

We are taken back to the First Gulf War of 1990-91 – also referred to as the Persian Gulf War and the Kuwait War and codenamed Operation Desert Shield/Operation Desert Storm. The reasons for America’s involvement in that dust-up were as cloudy and confused as they are for its involvement in the region’s current problems.

Someone said the First Gulf War was like a movie without a screenwriter. Can’t remember who it was who said that. Wait a minute…oh yes, it was us! Certainly, it seemed to lack a coherent storyline or plot. And we should know. We are after all screenwriters as well as novelists.

The First Gulf War…like a movie without a screenwriter.

Some journos observed that the war was about overthrowing a dictator, which didn’t happen if you recall, while others said it was fighting to free the Iraqi people, which didn’t happen either.

As former Pentagon defense analyst Pierre Sprey told Congress, “The shallow, Nintendo view of the war on TV was false. It was created by hand-picked video tapes and shamelessly doctored statistics.”

We shed more light on this in our book THE ORPHAN CONSPIRACIES: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy. Here’s an excerpt:

Let’s return to the June 1998 article Washington Peace Center intern Steve Pickering wrote for the center. It was curiously headlined The Making of an Enemy: Saddam Hussein. In this insightful article, which was written in the interim between the First and Second Gulf Wars, Pickering goes to great lengths to acknowledge the Iraqi leader’s war crimes, but also mentions US “foreign policy propaganda” and states the US had reasons for “demonizing Saddam Hussein”. He claims those reasons had nothing to do with fighting for the freedom of the Iraqi people.

In the article, Pickering goes on to describe how throughout the period of the Iran-Iraq conflict “United States foreign policy was firmly in support of Iraq”. During this time, the Soviet Union, the UK, the US and various other major nations, all saw their (mainly oil) interests being threatened. As “the war shifted in Iran’s favor,” these superpowers and industrialized nations suddenly realized if Iran defeated the Iraqi regime, “Iraq would have become a mirror of the political situation seen in Iran”.

“In order to tip the scales back in the favor of Iraq,” Pickering continues, “the international community began to supply technologically advanced weapons, credit facilities and important military information to Iraq.”

Pickering also explains how the West saw its Middle Eastern interests threatened again in 1990 when Iraq invaded Kuwait. Only this time, Iraq was in the position Iran had formerly been in where they were the ones threatening Western interests.

And thus, Pickering concludes, Western media suddenly informed the public of “the horrors of Saddam Hussein, of his despotic control, of his endless paranoid quest for power”.

We are reminded of a passage in The Orphan Factory, book two in our thriller series The Orphan Trilogy. Here’s an exceprt from that book: 

From the many years he’d spent in the Omega Agency, the special agent understood there were no obvious good guys or bad guys on the world stage. Contrary to the PR spin generated within Congress and spoon-fed to the well-meaning American public by a gullible or at least malleable media, Kentbridge also knew there were no clear sides anymore. As he often told the orphans, patriotism was a useless emotion because the modern world was no longer shaped by countries or governments. In fact, nations had long since been superseded by the vast spider web of elite conspirators spanning the globe.

THE ORPHAN CONSPIRACIES: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy is available at: http://www.amazon.com/The-Orphan-Conspiracies-Conspiracy-Theories-ebook/dp/B00J4MPFT6/

Not all is what it seems! – James & Lance

 

******************************************************

How do you catch a man who is never the same man twice?

 

How do you catch a man who is never the same man twice? That’s the question posed in the conspiracy thriller novel The Ninth Orphan, book one in The Orphan Trilogy.

An orphan grows up to become an assassin for a highly secretive organization. When he tries to break free and live a normal life, he is hunted by his mentor and father figure, and by a female orphan he spent his childhood with. On the run, the mysterious man’s life becomes entwined with his beautiful French-African hostage and a shocking past riddled with the darkest of conspiracies is revealed.

But can the ninth-born orphan ever get off the grid? To find out you’ll need to go on a tumultuous journey around the globe to such far-flung locations as China, France, the Philippines, Andorra, America, England, Germany and French Polynesia. The frenetic cat-and-mouse chase moves from airports to train stations and hidden torture prisons, taking the reader on a shocking, nail-biting ride into the world’s closet of skeletons that goes beyond conspiracy theories to painful reality.

Here’s what Amazon reviewers are saying about The Ninth Orphan:

★★★★★ “What makes The Ninth Orphan stand out from other thrillers is its intelligent handling of its themes. Like Kazuo Ishiguro’s haunting novel, Never Let Me Go, The Ninth Orphan taps into our fascination with the possibilities of genetic selection, and the consequences it may bring. Throw in a pinch of romance and the suggestion of political shadow organizations that may or may not operate in the real world, and you have an exhilarating read that will keep the little grey cells ticking over long after you’ve reached the final page.” -The Flaneur Book Reviews UK

★★★★★ “The authors manage to weave political intrigue, espionage and eugenics into an exciting fabric of mystery and entertainment. The reader can’t but believe that the novel may not be only a work of fiction.” -I.A. Wilhite, Ph.D.

★★★★★ “Moves at the speed of a runaway train” -J.R. Rogers (author of ‘Doomed Spy’)

★★★★  “A Cloak and Dagger Grand Prix” -The Kindle Book Review

★★★★★ “A fantastic spy thriller” -A Made Up Story Book Reviews

★★★★ “This book is fast paced, and I mean fast.” -C9C Reviews

★★★★★ “Every twist and turn that you can imagine” -Holy Smoley Book Review

★★★★ “Ranks amongst the best thrillers” -Kindle Book Review UK

★★★★★ “This psychological thriller really kept me on the edge of my seat!” -Susan M. Heim, bestselling author of the ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ series

 

The Ninth Orphan is available via Amazon as a trade paperback and Kindle ebook at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0056I4FKC

 

Happy reading! -Lance & James

 

*****************************************************

 

Those Illuminati conspiracy theories just won’t go away

Have you noticed how every incident of national importance that has a whiff of conspiracy about it is linked to the Illuminati?

In recent times, the secret society has even been linked to actor Robin William’s tragic death (International Business Times, Aug. 18), to Katy Perry seeking to join the society (RollingStone, Aug. 2) to electric-pop trio London Grammar denying they are members of the society (The Independent, Aug. 7) and the list goes on…

Author Dan Brown’s 2003 mega bestseller The Da Vinci Code introduced many in the mainstream to the Illuminati, even though a thousand and one NWO theories had referred to this mysterious group well before the novel ever hit bookstore shelves.

Bestseller introduced many to the Illuminati.

But like the novel, the infamous Illuminati secret society is a mixture of fact and fiction. And probably more fiction than fact.

We investigate the Illuminati in our book THE ORPHAN CONSPIRACIES: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy. Here’s an excerpt:

The (true) Illuminati story begins in Europe with historical records showing the Order of the Illuminati was founded by German professor Adam Weishaupt, in Bavaria, in 1776. The underground organization was a type of breakaway group that separated from European Freemasonry, with most of the founding members being recruited from German Masonic Lodges. In 1785, the order was destroyed from within by agent provocateurs working for the Bavarian Government, which feared secret societies could eventually overthrow the ruling Bavarian Monarchy.

Unfortunately, that’s where the facts and historical evidence surrounding the Illuminati end. Virtually every other supposed piece of Illuminati evidence that conspiracy buffs put forward is debatable at best and pure fantasy at worst.

In the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, there were many prominent figures who surmised that the Illuminati may have somehow survived and masterminded key historical events, including the French Revolution.

But again, there’s no evidence of this.

However, those rumors are nothing compared to more recent rumors, which reflect fear and paranoia.

Between the First and Second World Wars, as fascism advanced, various rampant anti-Semitics said the Illuminati served elite Jewish bankers who, they claimed, were dividing Europe to gain financial control and create a Jewish type of NWO. It’s possible some of these Illuminati theories aided in creating a furtive and fertile environment for the likes of the Nazi Party to assume power so easily.

In the early 21st Century, Illuminati folklore has blossomed, perhaps off the back of The Da Vinci Code, or maybe it has more to do with increases in mental illness cases!

The supposed mind control program Project Monarch, which we covered in chapter 2, is closely tied in with modern Illuminati theories. If you Google phrases like mind controlled celebrities or Hollywood stars and the music industry, you’ll find countless conspiracy theories referring to the Illuminati and its numerous “Monarch slaves”.

Music stars in particular are said to be Monarch victims, and common names bandied about include Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus and Rihanna. What’s more, they all supposedly use Illuminati symbolism in their music videos.

None of the Tinfoil Hatters ever seem to consider that these ancient Illuminati symbols could have simply been hijacked by modern and infinitely less powerful groups. This is what Dan Brown seems to be getting at in his Robert Langdon novel Angel’s & Demons, when he writes, “It means that when organized philosophies like the Illuminati go out of existence, their symbols remain… available for adoption by other groups. It’s called transference. It’s very common in symbology. The Nazis took the swastika from the Hindus, the Christians adopted the cruciform from the Egyptians”.

Furthermore, any death of an A-List celebrity is always claimed to be Illuminati-orchestrated, according to conspiracy extremists. For example, on February 2, 2014, the day Academy Award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman tragically died, YouTube was awash with hastily compiled videos featuring titles such as “Philip Seymour Hoffman Murdered by Illuminati” and “PHILLIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN…ILLUMINATI SACRIFICE?”

Philip Seymour Hoffman…linked in death.

None of those who promote such theories ever seem to question whether the Illuminati still exists. Nor do their followers, it seems. Again, the last confirmation of the Illuminati’s existence was in 1785. Something tells us if they still were around, there would have been at least one verification of their presence in the more than two centuries that have since elapsed.

Nor do these conspiracy theorists ever seem to acknowledge there’s not a shred of evidence to prove Project Monarch exists. Instead, Monarch gets lumped in with the highly documented CIA mind control program MK-Ultra. This is rather deceitful to say the least.

Some celebrities, including Jay-Z, Kim Kardashian and Howard Stern, have fought back against the keyboard warriors who make such videos or write such blogs, by issuing media statements and publicly denying they are members of the Illuminati.

Jay-Z and Kim Kardashian…fighting back.

Unfortunately, when such high profile names defend themselves like this, it only seems to add fuel to the Illuminati fire.

Read more in The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy: http://www.amazon.com/The-Orphan-Conspiracies-Conspiracy-Theories-ebook/dp/B00J4MPFT6/

Not all is as it seems.

The Illuminati debate continues in our new Goodreads group. Everyone invited! For those interested, go to: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/142309-the-orphan-conspiracies-discussion-group

***************************************************** 

 

Restructuring capitalism

With its profits-over-people agenda, capitalism has unfortunately spawned a monster that’s now out of control.

The free enterprise concept inherent in the economic model of capitalism should mean common people, or lower and middle class wage-earners, have greater potential to rise up and gain financial independence. In reality, however, free enterprise all too often leads to an almost total lack of government regulation that in turn allows the global elite to run amuck in Gordon Gecko-style financial coups.

Even if capitalism is the best economic system in theory – which it probably is – the type of corporatocracy it leads to in the real world usually means the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. And although much good has come from capitalism – America’s phenomenal success in the 20th Century was arguably due to the free market economics its Founding Father’s encouraged – the system’s immense flaws have also become evident in recent years.

We expand on this in our book The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy – Here’s an excerpt:

It’s almost as if capitalism is a robot that was originally programmed with a single instruction: Make profits by all means necessary.

Initially the profits surged in, putting food on the table for untold families, building communities and lifting living standards in numerous countries. However, the robot could not be stopped or reprogrammed, and without governments being able or willing to set boundaries the same system that once gave to the people now began to take from them. It began to lower living standards by widening the gap between rich and poor and by destroying the same communities it once built.

Unregulated capitalism began to abuse working class citizens – the very people it was designed to assist; it allowed leaders of corporations to play God while employees became workhorses for their owners. Perhaps a better description would be worker bees sacrificing their own welfare for the benefit of the royal queen bees.

Unfortunately, the advanced civilization and technological utopia that capitalism helped create is also one where most humans are treated like dogs in a dog-eat-dog world.

None of this means we are socialists or communists. Nor are we anti-progress. And no, we are not about to suddenly reveal that this whole book has been a thinly veiled disguise for our political beliefs – although no doubt some shallow thinking book reviewers may assume this. For those who have read this book in its entirety, it should be abundantly clear we are staunchly apolitical and believe that no political system can ever provide a total solution.

Most of the issues we’ve raised in this book are essentially social concerns rather than economic or political ones.

Also, as filmmakers and authors, we are fully aware that we have benefited, and continue to benefit, from a capitalistic system. There is surely much good in capitalism. For example, the American Dream – the same dream that people of most other nations desire – says anyone who has ambition and a good work ethic can succeed no matter their race, gender or social class. Living up to those ideals is likely possible only in a free, democratic and capitalistic society.

Therefore, we would support a revised form of capitalism, rather than doing away with it completely. This restructured economic system would hopefully be one with more heart and social awareness while still allowing for self-made entrepreneurs to rise up and be rewarded for their efforts. Rewarding achievers is crucial as history has proven that whenever socialism or communism is implemented there’s little incentive to succeed because success is not duly rewarded.

It’s obvious something has to change in our capitalistic society as there’s far too much unnecessary suffering on the planet right now.

We have faith our book will contribute in some small way to that change and help make a dent in that awful statistic that reminds us 21,000 fellow humans die of starvation every single day. (Two people just died in the time it took you to read that brief statement).   

Read more in The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy: http://www.amazon.com/The-Orphan-Conspiracies-Conspiracy-Theories-ebook/dp/B00J4MPFT6/

A book that’s for the common people...the 99%.

************************************************************