Church of the Motherfucker

LIVE TEXT

[ 0:01 - First Slide – “It is the development of
the human being which counts, nothing else.” ]

[ 0:05 – Earth to the Unknown Power, rising. Seth, Greg and Jake form a triangle around Mark. Seth is spreading a path of salt; Greg is burning a sage smudge; Jake is using a branch (laurel) to dip into a bowl of water to spread it around. Nothing is hurried, but it is deliberate. Procession to the podium by 0:40. Seth, Greg and Jake exit to backstage. ]

Good evening, Brothers and Sisters. Welcome to the Church of the Motherfucker.

Step One: Prepare the test subjects to receive a new meta-program.

[ John Lilly ]

“In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true either is true or becomes true, within limits to be determined by experiment.”

[ Marshall McLuhan ]

Everything you hear, everywhere, has an effect on you. Every bit of information you encounter changes you irreversibly. That’s just the way it is; even if you blocked your ears against the sound of my voice…

[ McLuhan movie ]

…the waves of phonons, washing over you, would leave an impression. You’ll never leave this moment entirely behind.

[ Shots of proto-humans touching the Monolith, from 2001 ]

From the moment that humans began to speak, spreading their infections this way and that, we have been in each others heads, never entirely ourselves…

[ Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Hoover, Nixon, Reagan,
Clinton ]

…mostly a pastiche of someone else’s fears and dreams and Will to Power.

[ THE WAY TO SUCCEED - AND THE WAY TO SUCK EGGS! ]

Yet humans suck seed because we are so gullible, so willing to imitate the idiotic and tragically successful behaviors of the other members of our species.

[ 2001: Dr. Floyd touching the Monolith ]

This virus of language has successful inoculated us from any sort of ridiculous extinction – even as it leaves us more and more at each others’ mercies…

[ A steady shot of HAL 9000 ]

Today, at least, you have surrendered yourselves to Richard Metzger’s idea of high weirdness…

[ METZGER in STRAIGHTJACKET ]

… busted out of your straightjackets and left your cynicism and rationalism behind. Which is right where I want you.

[ Videodrome: Max getting the videotape inserted. ]

You are – for the next few minutes – in my hands, eager and willing to be programmed, ready to become the acolytes of the Church of the Motherfucker.

Step Two: Memetic Infection

[ Eye in Pyramid; fade into brilliant white ]

In the Beginning, the Word emanated from Ain Soph, too brilliant to be directly perceived…

[ “Thou shalt not look upon my face and live.” -
shots of the increasing complexity of forms.]

…except in the ever-increasing perfection of forms which populate the universe, the receiving antenna of the broadcasts of the divine current.

The Great Lie –

[ Trickle-down gnosis. ]

– perhaps once true – held that a singular recipient – Pharaoh, Melchizedeck, Moses – possessed the mysteries of revelation, keys to the kingdom.

[no iee HeT neinnie]

And thus ever since: no way to the kingdom but through me; there is no god but Allah and Mohammed his prophet; Hear O Israel: I am that I am, I am one.

[ A pentagon, in red ]

And this, then, the entry point into the human space of being, to lift it up. But the lovers of power, transfixed by puissance, subtly deny the Bringer of Light, drape the Logos in different language, substitute black for white,

Church of the Motherfucker – LIVE SCORE – Page 4

heaven for hell. All things reversed, the temper tantrums of a blind idiot god Chaos the only possible release.

[ Star Wars. Princess Leia: “The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers” ]

And this the first rule: Imposition of Order = Escalation of Chaos.

[ wait one second ]

The lightning strike.

[ Flash of lightning from Altered States ]

Actualities revealed. Sight itself a blow against the Empire. A crack in the egg of perception, and through it, another truth. The Buddha. Lao Tzu, the “Old Boy”. This current comes for AL…

[ The Stele of Revealing ]

…come swim in its waters and emerge anew.

[ Michel Foucault ]

But of course, we did not believe it. We could not believe it, too much trained to disregard the evidence of our own senses in favor of what we have been taught to believe.

Then the prickly creatures of another Aeon…

[ Crowley ]

…who pronounced the Word from lips so foul we knew not to linger on the speaker, but the spoken.

Love is the Law. Do as thou wilt.

[ The Eye in the Triangle ]

You are your own High Priest. This is the greatest of all the mysteries, the greatest of heresies, that which must not be True if the Center – their center – is to hold.

It is all out there. It has all been revealed.

[ Abrahadabra ]

Everything is known. Believe it. Believe it. Believe it.

[ Dramatic Pause... ]

So now the End begins.

Step Three: Subjugation of the Will

[ Timewave, with overlays for “creation”, “life”, “language”, “science” ]

Falling into a global mind, increasingly the gravity of the situation threatens to overwhelm any commentary that can be made about the process; at some point we cross the Schwartzchild radius of the Noosphere, an Eschaton of sorts, the moment of irreversibility when everything becomes both true and trite, absolute and certain as air, safe as milk and the very pillar of family values.

The lines of simulation – imagination electrified, and the engines of creation – the ultimate articulation of Will – seem intent on a transhuman convergence, one which will not free us from entropy nor upload us into eternal, meaningless silicon, but will place us squarely where our boundaries are dissolved; between I and thou, this and that, us and them. The Eschaton is an emotional event, transcendent even in its expectation.

Every word spoken by every one of us brings us ever closer, another necessary iteration as the fabric of reality twists itself into a hypersurface, then disappears into the ultraviolet catastrophe of a single point. In a moment, our words will take control of us; just as the stuttering codes of our genes spell out the actualities of our bodies, so our memes will dictate the interiors of our being.

[ Buy the ticket, take the ride. ]

There is no escape, except this: “The way down is the way up.”

[ Local timewave, with “artificial life”,
“nanotechnology” and “eschaton”. ]

It can not be very far. It doesn’t feel very far.

And you can go there and see for yourself.

Step Four: Teach them the Rituals

There is only one ritual in the Church of the Motherfucker; a sacrament we take very seriously. Our only common practice. As is the case in all earlier mystery cults, it involves the ingestion of a sacred substance, an entheogen, to infuse the earthly body with the divine spirit.

[ The Matrix: "Take the blue pill, and you'll wake up up in your bed.  Take the red pill and you’ll learn how far down the rabbit hole this thing really goes.” ]

During the initiation ritual, an incredibly powerful and fast-acting psychedelic is inhaled, producing an ecstatic out-of-body experience which can only be compared to a thermonuclear communion with the divine. An appearance on the other side of the Eschaton.

[ 5MEO-DMT ]

I will not threaten the legal status of this true Soma, this Philosopher’s Stone, by mentioning its name, but I am prepared to tell you this: it is both perfectly legal and freely available. I buy it on the Web.

[ Mark gestures offstage. Seth comes forward and presents the “box”, etc. 30 seconds, max! ]

The passage through initiation is the shamanic journey from death to rebirth, a tsunami striking down the fragile walls of ego, carrying the shattered planks of being to a distant shore…

[ Mark lights the pipe and draws a hit from it. Crescendo from 2001, finishing with Keanu Reeves going “Woah” from The Matrix.]

The wave recedes, and the universe has changed. You are back. But you were gone. You had passed from this world. And you are back.

[ 2001: Bowman thoroughly freaked out ]

I cried like a child at my own initiation, with the beauty and wonder of the World, and my gratitude to be back within it.

[ Slowly ]

Shortcuts to gnosis invariably draw the ire of those who have tirelessly sacrificed to receive the same benefits as those bestowed by pineal grace. For those souls there is no truth except by the path of suffering. But for those who can receive it, the Church of the Motherfucker offers instantaneous grace, a guarantee of gnosis, and a sure-fire path to illumination.

[ The Star Baby, floating above the Earth, from 2001. ]

But he who seeks illumination is like an arrow flying directly into Hell.

Step Five: Pronounce them members. Make them feel involved; special.

For this reason, we need community; to hold us together when everything falls apart. No one can take the trip with you, but they can hold your hand and focus their love. Nothing more is required. No dogma, just ritual and love. Go there! – to that place after the End of History – and when you’ve come back to us, make up your own mind. Do as you will: Join us – or don’t.

[ To join the Church of the Motherfucker / Bury
$3125 in your backyard / One of our underground
agents will contact you - shortly. ]

But if you find something so extraordinary, so beyond expectation, so utterly surprising, then let us know. We’ve been there. I’d say “We understand,” but we don’t. No one does. But it is possible to share our confusion – and our wonder. Together.

We may not be able to offer much in the way of conventional religion: no festivals, no fasting, no bingo games, but…

[ Masha as Pope ]

…we do have a Pope. There she is. She pronounced the word of the Aeon as only a Russian-born, Moscow-raised and New York City-dwelling bitch goddess can.

[ Masha screaming “Mot-her-fuck-er!” ]

When everything else has been stripped away, ground to dust before the Absolute, burnt away in Revelation, where no word but “Yes” is possible, then – then! – you will be a Motherfucker.

Until that blessed moment, you will wander in the courts of the Temple; afterward, you’ll dwell in the Holy of Holies. Forever.

It is complete; it is complete; it is complete.

I pronounce you – all of you – acolytes in the Church of the Motherfucker.

Oh, Boys!?!

Clockwork Orange: Alex crying he's been cured.

[ Seth, Greg and Jake come from wherever they’ve been
hiding, and escort me off stage again, reversing
their actions. ]

Finis.