posted December 17, 2007 03:08 PM         

In the early months of 1968 Village Voice readers voted Jim Vocalist of the Year. (The Doors ran away with the Newcomer of the Year award, Ray Manzarek was voted third best Musician of the Year after Eric Clapton and Ravi Shankar, and the group’s first album was second only to [the Beatles’] Sergeant Pepper.) A seven-page spread in Life magazine made a case for the Doors’ validity in literacy and reportedly Jim’s New Haven arrest sympathetically.† The band also appeared in Who’s Who in America, an honor rare in their field.1

Morrison often performed physically ambitious feats on stage like walking a tightrope during a concert and intentionally toppling into the audience.2 His early death, on July 3, 1971, only heightened his standing as the ultimate rock performer, icon and anguished artist for later generations. Despite his bohemian image, Morrison was one of the truly, quantifiable geniuses of rock. Unlike many rock stars, Morrison was a college graduate. He published several books of poetry which are used by professors today as curricula in various colleges and universities throughout the United States.3 He and Doors’ organist Ray Manzarek graduated from the UCLA Film School in the summer of 1965.4 The Doors’ music notwithstanding, a large portion of the Doors’ success was because of the media’s fascination with Morrison’s intellect. "He made good copy," explained Danny Fields, promotion man for Elektra. "He was so smart. He gave such great interviews and such fabulous quotes. He just threw them out. And the writers got off writing about him. That was the true secret. He made the writers enjoy writing about him. So they didn’t laugh at him. They took him seriously."5 The following excerpts from No One Here Gets Out Alive, by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman, reveal Morrison’s often forgotten intellect:

Throughout his years at GW [George Washington High School] Jim maintained an 88.32 grade average with only minimal effort, twice being named to the honor roll. His IQ was 149. In his college boards he scored above the national average in mathematics (528, contrasted with the national 502) and much higher in the verbals (630, compared to the average 478). But statistics tell us little. The books Jim read reveal much more.

He devoured Friedrich Nietzsche, the poetic German philosopher whose views on aesthetics, morality, and the Apollonian-Dionysian duality would appear again and again in Jim’s conversation, poetry, songs, and life. He read Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Greeks, becoming enamored of Alexander the Great,* admiring his intellectual and physical accomplishments, while adopting some of the look: "…the inclination of his head a little on one side towards the left shoulder…" He read the great French Symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud, whose style would influence the form of Jim’s short prose poems. He read everything Kerouac, Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, Kenneth Patchen, Michael McClure, Gregory Corso, and all the other beat writers published. Norman O. Brown’s Life Against Death sat on his bookshelf next to James T. Farrell’s Studs Lonigan, which abutted Colin Wilson’s The Outsider, and next to it: Ulysses (his English teacher in senior year felt that Jim was the only one in the class who’d read it and understood it). Balzac, Cocteau, and Molière were familiars, along with most of the French existentialist philosophers. Jim seemed to understand intuitively what these challenging minds offered…6

Morrison’s militancy

Jim Morrison was probably one of the most militant voices in rock music during the 1960s. His militancy was probably a combination of the turbulent times combined with his poetic sensibilities which clashed with his father’s military career as a Naval Captain—later Admiral—who participated in the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964, an event which marked the beginning of large-scale US military involvement in Vietnam. As Captain/Admiral George Steven "Steve" Morrison rose to the upper echelon of the Navy, Jim got fed up with family life and more or less renounced his membership in the Morrison household. In 1964, at the age of 21, he spent his last Christmas with his family.7 Although he had two living parents, Steve and Clara, and two younger siblings, Anne and Andy, Jim’s original bio for Elektra records indicated he had no family and his parents were dead.8 His contempt for his father’s support of America’s war machine must have been quite profound.

In the lyrics to one of the Doors’ first songs, When the Music’s Over, Morrison declared "We want the world and we want it now!" Morrison showed his anti-war poetry in the song, Unknown Soldier: "…breakfast where the news is read; television children fed; unborn living, living, dead; bullet strikes the helmet's head, and it's all over for the unknown soldier." Some of Morrison’s most militant lyrics are in the song, Five to One: "…five to one, baby; one in five, no one here gets out alive; now you get yours, baby I'll get mine; gonna make it, baby if we try; the old get old and the young get stronger; may take a week and it may take longer; they got the guns but we got the numbers; gonna win, yeah we're takin' over."

Morrison created quite an uproar (some say a riot) at a Doors concert in Chicago—on May 10, 1968—by playing those three songs back-to-back plus Break on Through to the Other Side9: "You know the day destroys the night; night divides the day; tried to run, tried to hide; break on through to the other side…I found an island in your arms; country in your eyes; arms that chain us, eyes that lie; break on through to the other side." No song exemplified the Doors’ namesake more than Break on Through to the Other Side." Morrison often described the meaning of the Doors: "There’s the known. And there’s the unknown. And what separates the two is the door, and that’s what I wanna be."10 The inspiration for the band’s name was reportedly Aldous Huxley's book on mescaline, The Doors of Perception, which referred to a line in a poem by William Blake.11

Morrison’s militant lyrics and his ability to energize large crowds at Doors’ concerts during the height of America’s involvement in the Vietnam War got the attention of the FBI. In Hoover’s eyes, Morrison was certainly viewed as a political activist urging revolution, two attributes of the FBI’s "New Left." In fact, rock music researcher Alex Constantine claims the FBI had collected 89 pages on Morrison.12 The FBI’s investigation of Morrison was corroborated by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman in their book, No One Here Gets Out Alive. The following is an excerpt:

[In 1969] Jim’s legal problems were increasing. Florida was trying to extradite him on the ridiculous "fugitive from justice" charge and the FBI was conducting an intensive investigation of his background, calling on former friends and faculty at Florida State University.13

Morrison was friends with nerdy but intellectual Alan Wilson of Canned Heat. Fito de la Parra—drummer for Canned Heat—described the relationship between the two California bands and the friendship between Morrison and Wilson in his book, Living the Blues: Canned Heat’s Story of Music, Drugs, Death, Sex and Survival. The following is an excerpt:

December 1, 1967. A date I’ll never forget. My first gig as a full-fledged member of Canned Heat. We shared top billing with the Doors at the Long Beach Auditorium. We were a good fit with the Doors. We were both the vanguard of the L.A. sound, formed in the Topanga-Venice scene, attracting the same kinds of audiences. The San Francisco groups that got such hot press—the Grateful Dead, the Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish—were into the psychedelic sound and Indian music. L.A. bands like Canned Heat and the Doors were more blues oriented. Even though we did a lot of shows together across the U.S. and Europe, we never really got close to the Doors. The environment was cordial but competitive, though we sometimes spent a few minutes before a performance rapping and sharing a joint. The exception was Alan, who used to hang around sometimes with Jim Morrison—the two creative introverts, both courting death like a dark, elusive sweetheart.14

Entanglements

As previously stated, the infamous "Manson murders" were apparently designed to discredit rock music in general and the Beatles and John Lennon specifically. The effort was apparently directed at Jim Morrison as well, who was acquainted with Jay Sebring, one of the murder victims found at Sharon Tate’s resident on August 9, 1969. The following is a description of Morrison’s professional relationship with hair-stylist Jay Sebring, as told by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman in their book, No One Here Gets Out Alive:

Jim Morrison & Pamela Courson

During the Doors’ stay in New York in September [1967] there were three important photography sessions and it was for these that [Jim] went to Jay Sebring, Hollywood’s most fashionable hair stylist, before he left Los Angeles. "What do you want it to look like?" Jay asked. "Like this," Jim said, producing a page torn from a history book showing a picture of a statue. "Like Alexander the Great."15

Two years later, Morrison bought his long-time girlfriend Pamela Courson a boutique in Los Angeles. An artist friend was hired from Topanga to design the shop.16 Jim also bought Pamela a cottage in Topanga.17 As you may recall, Topanga was the area where Charlie Manson’s satanic acquaintances lived. Gary Hinman lived in Topanga Canyon. Hinman’s mutilated body was found at his home on July 31, 1969. He was the first victim of the notorious "Manson murders." On September 3, 1970, the body of Morrison’s friend, Canned Heat guitarist Alan Wilson, was also found in a wooded area in Topanga Canyon near the home of Canned Heat’s lead vocalist, Bob Hite, whose home was in that area. (NOTE: At the time of Wilson’s death, he was been living with Hite, but often slept outdoors in a sleeping bag.)

Canned Heat drummer Fito de la Parra claimed that Hite boasted of "knowing Manson family members."18 It is quite possible—given the location of Hite’s home in Topanga Canyon—that Hite met members of the Manson family at the Spiral Staircase, the Satanic house in Topanga Canyon where Manson and his family members once spent a lot of time. It seems odd that Morrison was acquainted with one of the victims of the Manson murders, Jay Sebring, and his girlfriend’s boutique was being designed by someone who lived near the satanic cult which the Manson family visited in Topanga Canyon. Also, Jim Morrison’s birthday is December 8th, the same day John Lennon was killed. On December 9, 1970—the day after Morrison celebrated his 27th birthday—he sensed things were unraveling. As Jim sat on a couch, in the Doors’ business office, gazing at the LA Times, he saw where a grand jury had indicted Charlie Manson and four others for the slayings of Sharon Tate, Jim’s hair dresser friend Jay Sebring, and others. Jim put down the paper and said to others in the room, "I think I’m having a nervous breakdown."19

The Miami Concert

Jim got into hot water with the FBI and the courts after he gave a controversial performance at a Doors concert in Miami, Florida on March 1, 1969.20 It is commonly known that Jim attempted to expose himself during the Miami show, and was charged with a variety of crimes dealing with immorality. Jim was specifically accused of exposing his penis to the crowd, and was eventually convicted of "indecent exposure" (a misdemeanor), although it is generally accepted by rock historians that he did not expose himself as charged. It is true that Jim intended to take off his pants during the show, and he was somewhat intoxicated at the time, but there’s more to the story than a drunken singer merely trying to get naked in front of his fans. It may seem contrived, but Jim was making a political statement. He often got intoxicated in order to perform, so relating his intoxication to his attempt to disrobe is not necessarily as simple as it might seem. Before we proceed, let’s back up for a moment and examine the political and social climate of the time.

March 1969 was a tumultuous period during the late 1960s. Richard Nixon* had been inaugurated President of the United States just six weeks earlier, on January 20, 1969. Lyndon Johnson had left the White House leaving behind 540,000 American soldiers (mostly draftees) in South Vietnam. By mid-March seven men—dubbed the "Chicago Seven"—were indicted for leading anti-Vietnam war demonstrations, which turned violent, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago the previous summer. Many viewed the incident as a police riot. Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated less than a year earlier—in April and June of 1968—which triggered race riots in scores of cities across America throughout the ensuing summer. The Beatles released the song, Revolution, written and sung by John Lennon, during the summer of 1968. Several other rock musicians began to openly call for revolution. Riots on college campus were routine occurrences. On November 29, 1968, John Lennon shocked the rock music world when he and his then-girlfriend Yoko Ono released an avant-garde album, Two Virgins, which showed the couple stark naked on the album cover. Shortly afterwards, they appeared semi-nude in a photo collage which accompanied the Beatles’ White Album. On March 20, 1969, John and Yoko were married in Gibraltar. On their honeymoon the couple staged a "bed-in" for peace in Amsterdam from March 25 through March 31.21 By the spring of 1969, the Vietnam War was driving America to the brink of revolution and Jim Morrison was following a spiritual calling to join the resistance through rock music, as John Lennon was already doing. The following is a description of Jim’s feelings about revolution, as described by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman in their book, No One Here Gets Out Alive:

[Jim] would never say so aloud to anyone but his closest friends, but he thought of himself as a revolutionary figure, one who had had to provide a social balance by opposing his father [the admiral]. Or so it seemed. Jim didn’t like to admit it, but he was a lot like his father. Their goals may have been opposing, but they had the same kind of ambition and drive. Jim did not necessarily want to lead the revolution, but if there was going to be one, he was all for it. Though he claimed that some of his songs came to him in a vision, he was never unaware of the mutinous and apocalyptic nature of that vision. When his fans and the rock public came to regard him as a figurehead in the political/social movement taking place, Jim was publicly unmoved, but secretly flattered. For a long while he believed records could serve the same purpose that books and printed manifestos had in earlier revolutions.22

Jim was searching for a better means of political expression than merely writing rock songs with politically or socially conscious lyrics and performing them at concerts. He was looking for something more, a new direction, but he wasn’t exactly sure what it was. He was probably impressed with John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s use of nudity as a form of political/social expression, but he was reportedly influenced by others as well. Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman claim Jim was inspired by the works of radical dramatic theorist, Antonin Artaud, whose disciples—Judith Malina and Julian Beck—led "The Living Theatre," an avant-garde theater group.23 In early 1969, The Living Theatre staged a revolutionary show called Paradise Now which culminated with a scene where the actors challenged authority by taking off their clothes. In February 1969, The Living Theatre performed Paradise Now on five nights at the University of Southern California (USC). Jim Morrison and several friends attended all five of the scheduled performances.24 The following is a description—per Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman, from their book, No One Here Gets Out Alive—of the Living Theatre’s last performance of Paradise Now at USC, which occurred on February 28, 1969, the night before the Doors performed in Miami:

[Jim] was seated with friends in the front row, as he had been all week long. The play opened with "The Rite of Guerilla Theater," in which actors mingled with the spectators speaking first of five key, cathartic phrases.

"I am not allowed to travel without a passport."

The Living Theater was touring the United States after four years of self-imposed exile in Europe. During that time the troupe had become international in composition and knew the hassles of border-crossing firsthand. They engaged the spectators in dialogue, baiting them if necessary to get a response, shouting the words in anguish and frustrations.

"I cannot travel freely, I cannot move about at will."

"I am separated from my fellow man, my boundaries are set arbitrarily by others!"

"The Gates of Paradise are closed to me!"

In a few minutes’ time the actors were close to hysteria, and the USC theater was transformed. Jim was on his feet with many others, shouting slogans, bellowing for Paradise Now.

The actors retired quietly, returning to the stage, paused for a moment, then began again, now with the second phrase: "I don’t know how to stop the wars!"

And so it went: a catalogue of complaints, presented with explosive energy.

"You can’t live if you don’t have money!"

"I’m not allowed to smoke marijuana!"

And finally: "I’m not allowed to take my clothes off!"

"The body itself of which we are made is taboo!"

"We are ashamed of what is most beautiful, we are afraid of what is most beautiful!"

"We may not act naturally toward one another!"

"The culture represses love!"

"I am not allowed to take my clothes off!"

The actors began to strip, removing much of their clothing, then standing in the aisles and on the stage, the forbidden areas of their bodies covered. It was an active demonstration of the prohibition. When the stripping reached the legal limit, the actors shouted once more, "I’m not allowed to take my clothes off! I am outside the Gates of Paradise!"

That was when the cops moved in and stopped the play from continuing.25

Jim was apparently quite inspired after seeing The Living Theater’s show. The next night, March 1, 1969, he attempted to incorporate elements of Paradise Now in the Doors concert in Miami. He planned to taunt the audience about not being allowed to take off his clothes, claiming it was a restriction on his personal freedom, just as the The Living Theatre had done the night before. He planned to work the crowd into a frenzy, then take off his pants, but he was wearing large boxer shorts. Unfortunately he hadn’t told anyone in his band or entourage of what he planned to do. Consequently, they got nervous when it appeared he was going to remove his pants on stage, so one of his handlers physically restrained him, thereby giving the impression that he had in fact intended to expose himself. After that, Jim proceeded to get wild with audience, encouraging them to dance and jump on the stage. It became potentially dangerous because the stage could have collapsed, but it didn’t and no one was hurt. According to Hopkins and Sugerman, even the cops enjoyed themselves. Jim’s attempt to expose his boxer shorts—which looked like he was going to be vulgar—was apparently an innocent miscommunication between himself, the band, and the group’s entourage. It was innocent enough, but it was used by the FBI to bring Jim down.26 The following is a summary of events that occurred AFTER the Miami concert.

*

On March 5, 1969, warrants are issued for Morrison’s arrest charging him with one felony and three misdemeanors. The felony is "lewd and lascivious behavior." The misdemeanors are indecent exposure, open profanity, and drunkenness. If convicted of the felony charge, Jim could be sent to Raiford Prison—one of Florida’s toughest—for seven and a half years.27
*

In late March 1969, the FBI issues a warrant for Morrison’s arrest, charging him with "unlawful flight," although Jim had left Miami three days before any warrants were issued.28
*

On April 4, 1969, Jim surrenders himself to the FBI, accompanied by his lawyer, and is released on $5,000 bail.29
*

On May 23, 1969, PBS airs a Doors performance of the song, Build Me a Woman, and a ten minute interview with Jim Morrison by Richard Goldstein. Jim is sober and presents a new image.30
*

On August 10, 1970, the trial of Jim Morrison begins in Miami for his controversial conduct at a concert given by the Doors in that city on March 1, 1969.31
*

On September 19, 1970, a jury convicts Jim of two misdemeanors—indecent exposure and drunkenness—but acquits him of the felony charge, lewd and lascivious behavior and the other misdemeanor, open profanity.32
*

On October 30, 1970, Judge Murray Goodman sentences Jim to six months hard labor at Dade County jail for the exposure conviction and sixty days of the same for the profanity charge. In addition, Jim is to be put on probation, after the jail term is completed, for two years and four months. Goodman also fines Jim $500.33

At the beginning of the trial, around the evening of August 12, 1970,34 Jim sat in with Canned Heat for four songs at the Marco Polo Hotel in Miami.35 Canned Heat drummer, Fito de la Parra, described the gig in his book, Living the Blues: Canned Heat’s Story of Music, Drugs, Death, Sex and Survival. The following is an excerpt:

One night in Miami, Jim Morrison joined us on stage, then hung around afterward sitting at a table with Alan [Wilson], talking quietly. Two very tormented souls. It was the last time they saw each other and the last time I saw Jim.36

Twenty-two days later, on September 3, 1970, Alan Wilson was found dead in his sleeping bag in a wooded area in Topanga Canyon. Fifteen days after that, on September 18th, Jimi Hendrix was found dead in a London hotel. The next day, September 19th, Jim Morrison was convicted of indecent exposure and drunkenness. Before going to court that morning, Jim read about Hendrix’s death in a Miami newspaper; he reportedly asked aloud, "Does anyone believe in omens?"37 Hopkins and Sugerman claim Jim went into a "desperate funk" when he heard that Janis Joplin was dead of an overdose a few weeks later. Hopkins and Sugerman claim Jim’s standard line to friends while out on the town was, "You’re drinking with Number Three."38 Given Jim’s personal friendship with Alan Wilson, and the close time span between Wilson’s death and the deaths of Hendrix and Joplin, it seems more likely that Morrison’s line was "You’re drinking with Number FOUR."

Morrison’s death

Jim Morrison was found dead in a Paris apartment on July 3, 1971. His death was ruled a heart attack;* he was age 27. Several facts surrounding his death point to foul play and conspiracy. One of the last places Morrison visited during his final days was Marseilles [France]. In my book, Opium Lords, I concluded that President Kennedy’s assassins were [French Corsicans] recruited in Marseilles, probably at the behest of the FBI, because the Bureau was created by a member of a famous Corsican family, the Bonapartes. In 1908, the Bureau was created by Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte, great nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte. The following is a description of the time Jim Morrison and longtime girlfriend Pamela Courson spent in Corsica, from the book No One Here Gets Out Alive by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman:

[Around June 1971] Jim and Pamela left for Corsica. They flew to Marseilles, where Jim lost his driver’s license, passport, and wallet, necessitating a return to Paris to acquire duplicates at the American Embassy. They again flew to Marseilles and finally to Ajaccio, the island’s major port and capital city, as well as the birthplace of Napoleon. Corsica is also known for the inordinate number of recruits it provides for the Paris police force, its high red thrusts of rock, quaint villages at the bottom of a mountain as awesome as any part of the Rockies or the French mainland Alps, wet-eyed fishermen’s widows shrouded in black, a lack of young people, and the pungent and pervasive smell of Corsican maquis (grass), which is eaten by the cattle and appears in the meat, cheese, and milk. Jim and Pamela toured the island for ten days. On every day but one it rained. Pamela said it was idyllic.39

Corsica may have seemed idyllic to Pamela on a superficial level, but it is also an area known for heroin trafficking, organized crime, and hit men mercenaries who provide their services to intelligence services around the globe. This was not a safe place for a young rock star who energized large crowds to rebel against authority figures, who opposed the Vietnam War, who encouraged revolution, and who wrote militant lyrics like "we want the world and we want it now!" As previously stated, the roots of the FBI are in Corsica, via the Bonaparte family, and the FBI had targeted Jim Morrison as an agitator. If Morrison was in fact murdered, the loss of his driver’s license, passport, and wallet in Marseilles may not have been accidental. This information would facilitate the writing of a death certificate—prior to the actual death—and other official documents related to the unexpected death of a young American citizen who expired on foreign soil. Having stated that, the following are excerpts from No One Here Gets Out Alive, by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman, which describe the official version of Morrison’s death:

…On Friday night, the 2nd of July [1971], Alan [Ronay, Jim’s American friend] suggested the three of them [Alan, Jim and Pamela] have dinner at an outdoor café not far from the Morrison flat…After supper Jim…sent a telegram to Jonathan Dolger, his editor, regarding the cover of [his book, The Lords and The New Creatures]…He then took Pamela home…

[AUTHOR’S NOTE: It is unclear where Jim went after taking Pamela home, although Hopkins and Sugerman speculate on several possibilities: he goes to the movies, he goes to a night club, he boards a plane, he walks all night, and so on. At some point he came home to his flat.]40

Pam and Jim were alone at the flat (sometime after midnight, Saturday, July 3, 1971) when Jim regurgitated a small quantity of blood. He had done this before, Pam said, and although she was concerned, she was not really upset.

(AUTHOR’S NOTE: According to researcher Alex Constantine, Morrison had developed an ulcer from the FBI’s relentless harassment.41 This would explain why he coughed up blood and why Pamela was not overly alarmed.)

Jim claimed he felt okay and said he was going to take a bath. Pamela fell asleep again. At five she woke, saw Jim had not returned to bed, went into the bathroom, and found him in the tub, his arms resting on the porcelain sides, his head back, his long, wet hair matted against the rim, a boyish smile across his clean-shaven face. At first Pamela thought he was playing one of his macabre jokes, but then she called the fire department’s resuscitation unit. A doctor and police followed, Pamela said, but all were too late…42

…By Monday morning, July 5, Jim was rumored to be dead43…Clive Selwood, who ran Elektra’s English office, called the company’s office in France for verification. Elektra France was not even aware that Jim was in France44…He then decided to call Bill Siddons [Doors manager45] in Los Angeles46…[Siddons] decided to call Jim himself. Pamela answered the phone and told [Siddons] he’d better come right over47…Siddons arrived in Paris on Tuesday, July 6. He was met by Pamela, a sealed coffin, and a signed death certificate. Funeral arrangements were quickly and secretly confirmed48…Siddons was efficient, and on Wednesday afternoon [July 7] the coffin was lowered into the ground at Père La Chaise [a cemetery]…Five mourners were present: Pamela, Alan Ronay, Agnes Varda, and Robin Wertle.* They threw flowers on the grave and said their goodbyes49…

One factor causing much of the initial disbelief was timing. Bill [Siddons,] told his story to the media a full six days after Jim died, two days after the funeral50…

Co-authors Hopkins and Sugerman glossed over the timing anomaly, merely quoting from Siddons’ announcement: "The initial news of his death and funeral was kept quiet because those of us who knew him intimately and loved him as a person wanted to avoid all the notoriety and circuslike atmosphere that surrounded the deaths of such other rock personalities as Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix."51 Hopkins and Sugerman were apparently satisfied with that explanation because they dropped the issue, but it is an important point, so I will pick up where they left off. If six days passed before Bill Siddons told the media that Morrison had died, this means Siddons made the announcement on July 9, 1971. If Siddons arrived in Paris on Tuesday, July 6, 1971, this means he waited three days before announcing to the world that Jim Morrison had died. What was Siddons doing during that three days? As previously stated, Siddons had Jim buried the next day, July 7 (Wednesday), so that explains one of the three days, but what about the other two? Siddons’ explanation of wanting to "avoid all the notoriety and circuslike atmosphere" gets him off the hook until the day of the funeral, but it does not explain the other two days? What happened between Wednesday, July 7, when Jim was buried, and Friday, July 9, when Siddons announced Jim’s death to the media? This does not add up at all. We have an American rock star hounded and harassed relentlessly by the FBI, suddenly he turns up dead in Paris at the age of 27, and his manager’s primary concern is getting the body buried, then waiting another two days to tell the world that his famous client is dead. Hopkins and Sugerman did not pursue the missing two days, but they focused on another point:

Another factor causing much of the disbelief was the fact that Siddons never saw the body. What he did see at Jim and Pamela’s flat was a sealed coffin and a death certificate with one doctor’s signature. There was no police report, no doctor present. No autopsy had been conducted. All he had was Pamela’s word that Jim was dead…Who was the doctor? Siddons didn’t know; Pamela didn’t remember. But signatures can be forged or bought.52

That was the extent of the information provided by Hopkins and Sugerman in 1980 when they first published No One Here Gets Out Alive. They also mentioned in passing that Pamela "died three years after Jim"53 in 1974. Fifteen years later, it 1995, their book was reissued with an Epilog—written by Jerry Hopkins—which, among other things, stated that Pamela "died of an overdose of heroin."54 Other than explain the legal entanglements she was involved in when she died, Hopkins offered no further details about Pamela’s death, not even the precise date, only the year. Nevertheless, Hopkins provided new information pertaining to Jim’s death. The following is an excerpt from the Epilog—written solely by Jerry Hopkins—in the 1994 edition of No One Here Gets Out Alive, by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman:

There was controversy regarding how Jim died. During the lead-up to the film’s release [Oliver Stone’s 1990 movie, The Doors] and in the months that followed, new information was made available. First, the official documents from the Paris police were uncovered. These did nothing but add detail to the official story, that Jim had died of a heart attack in the bathtub. But then, after 20 years of silence, Alan Ronay and Agnes Varda, two of the five present at the funeral, gave an interview to Paris-Match, saying Pamela called them after finding Jim dead. They rushed to the Morrison flat, where they found firemen and police already on the scene.

They were told that cardiopulmonary resuscitation efforts had failed and Jim’s body had been moved from the bathroom to the bed. A physician arrived. Pamela told police on the scene and later in her deposition that Jim never used drugs and had a breathing problem complicated by a chronic cough. She said he had a history of asthma and was a heavy smoker. The doctor examined the body, found no evidence of foul play—such as puncture marks as might be caused by intravenous drug use—and said the death was due to natural causes, a "myocardial infarction," or heart attack. No autopsy was required under the circumstances and Pamela was allowed to continue with her funeral plans.

Now, 20 years later, Ronay and Varda told Paris-Match that Jim and Pamela shared some heroin—Jim, perhaps even for the first time—after a night of drinking in bars. Jim put a tape of the first Doors album on the sound system, and they nodded out. Pamela said she was awakened by Jim’s coughing. Jim said he wanted to take a bath. Pam went back to sleep, awoke a few moments later, and went to the bathroom, where she found Jim in the tub, complaining that he was going to be sick. Three times Pamela brought a kitchen cooking pot to him, cleaning it in a nearby sink each time he vomited. Pamela told Varda and Ronay that Jim seemed to recover, telling her to return to bed. He said he’d join her in a minute. The next time Pamela woke up, she called the police.

The assumption is that Jim died of an inadvertent overdose, that the heroin and the alcohol acted synergistically, when the joint action of drugs taken together increase each other’s effectiveness. In other words, one plus one equals three…55

In the same Epilog, Jerry Hopkins takes the following parting shots at both Pamela and Jim:

Danny [Sugerman] talked with Pamela and while he said she seemed wracked with guilt—an opinion shared by Diane Gardiner—much of the time when she talked about Jim, she was radically inconsistent, veering from the assertion "it was not my fault" to "if he’s alive, he’ll call."

Hopkins’ remarks about Pamela have all the earmarks of what is known in the intelligence world as a "fallback position." When someone is bumped off by an intelligence agency, an official explanation surfaces along with one or more fallback positions. They’re all false, but they’re floated about as a diversion. While Hopkins overtly accepts the official heart attack scenario, he leaves the door open to blame Pamela for Morrison’s death. Notice how Hopkins wrote that "Danny [Sugerman] talked with Pamela and while he said she seemed wracked with guilt…she was radically inconsistent…" Hold on, who wrote the Epilog, Hopkins or Sugerman? Of course, it was Hopkins. But one has to wonder, if Sugerman actually talked to Pamela and observed that she seemed "wracked with guilt" and her stories were "radically inconsistent", why didn’t he (Sugerman) write the Epilog instead of Hopkins? Frankly, the Epilog doesn’t pass the smell test. Jerry Hopkins maligned Pamela Courson’s character, but Hopkins referenced Danny Sugerman as the source for the damning comments. By using this approach, neither Hopkins or Sugerman can be nailed for libel because Hopkins can always claim he merely quoted Sugerman and Sugerman can claim his words were taken out of context. It’s similar to tag-team wrestling.

What about the witch?

Hopkins and Sugerman have another gaffe in their biography of Jim Morrison. They completely dropped the ball regarding Morrison’s wife, Patricia Kennely, a practicing witch, or Wiccan. They describe the Wiccan marriage in Chapter 10 (which begins on page 293 of No One Here Gets Out Alive), but as the book continues, Patricia basically disappears and Jim moves to Paris with his regular girlfriend, Pamela Courson, who is not the least bit concerned that her long-term boyfriend chose to marry another woman instead of her. I realize Jim Morrison was a multi-woman man, but for the sake of proper writing, one would think Hopkins and Sugerman would explain how Morrison ditched the witch for the so-called junkie, Pamela. Maybe I have an innate bias against witches, but it would seem logical that since Hopkins and Sugerman chose to speculate that one of Morrison’s ladyfriends did him in, one would think that his wife—the witch—would be a prime suspect.

To be fair, Hopkins and Sugerman provided a lot of information about Patricia Kennely, the witch, but their timeline and dates are difficult to follow. Nevertheless, I shall attempt to piece together their version of events regarding Jim Morrison and his marriage to Patricia Kennely, a practicing witch. The following excerpts are from No One Here Gets Out Alive, by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman:

Jim had begun calling and writing New York editor and critic Patricia Kennely the previous September [1969], had renewed his communication in March [1970], and in April, when she reviewed his book of poems in her magazine Jazz & Pop, he telegrammed his thanks.

Patricia was an initiated, practicing witch, high priestess of a coven—something that fascinated Jim—and the day after his telegram arrived, she was in Philadelphia visiting other witches56…

Twenty-four years old at the time [1970], Patricia was the editor-in-chief of a rock magazine, and one of the several Doors loyalists in the East Coast rock critical establishment. She had adored Jim from the moment they met, eighteen months previously when she had interviewed him at the Plaza Hotel…Since then, Patricia had written about Jim and the Doors often in her magazine57…

[While spending the night a Patricia’s New York apartment in the summer of 1970, Jim developed a high fever.] Her doctor, who only lived two blocks away, wouldn’t make house calls. Jim’s temperature rose to 1050F58…At two o’clock Patricia decided to take his temperature one more time before calling an ambulance. Suddenly the fever broke, dropping from 1050 to 1010F in fifteen minutes. Within three hours Jim was up and walking around as if nothing had happened…The following night Jim and Patricia were married59…Midsummer Night, 1970. Candles were lighted in Patricia’s Victorian Gothic apartment. The wedding ceremony was explained. Witches, or Wiccans, are not Satanists; they worship the ancient forces of nature, the Triple Goddess, the Great Mother, and her male counterpart, the Lord, the Horned God. It is a religious tradition that predates Christianity and Judaism, and is thought by many scholars to be a survival of the oldest universal religion.

A Wicca wedding, Patricia explained, is a blending of souls on a karmic and cosmic plane that has an effect on future incarnations of the two involved: death does not part, and the vow taken is "forever in the Goddess’s sight." Patricia told Jim there was legend that Henry VII and Anne Boleyn had been married in the witch ritual—probably for some of the same reasons.

One of Patricia’s friends, a high priestess of a coven, conducted the ceremony, assisted by a high priest. They led Jim and Patricia through a traditional handfasting, with prayers and an invocation of the Goddess, blessings, the making of two small cuts on each partner’s wrist and forearm, and the mixing of a few drops of their blood into a consecrated cup of wine from which they later drank, a ritual stepping over a broomstick, the exchanging of certain vows, and the final calling down of the Goddess’s presence.

To Patricia, this was a perfectly natural ceremony in her religion, but Jim was totally caught up in the ritual. He gave Patricia a silver claddagh, the traditional Irish wedding ring, and she gave him a matching gold one. The officiating priestess and Patricia, in her capacity as a priestess, made out two hand-printed documents, one in English, one in witch runes. Everybody present signed, with Jim and Patricia required to mark their signatures in blood. The pair were declared wedded, and Jim fainted.60

(AUTHOR’S NOTE: It is presumed that Morrison fainted because he had just recovered that day from a 1050F fever. In addition, he apparently gave a small amount of blood which was used to sign the Wiccan marriage document.)

Hopkins and Sugerman do not specify if the Wiccan marriage was legal or not. They never mention a marriage license, blood tests, or any of the legal things normally associated with getting married in the United States. The only blood mentioned was marking their signatures in blood on the Wiccan marriage documents. Somehow that doesn’t sound like it would go over very well at the local courthouse.

Kennely threatens Morrison with maternity suit during the Miami trial

According to Hopkins and Sugerman, Jim never lived with Patricia Kennely as husband and wife, but she claimed to have gotten pregnant with his child only a few months after their Wiccan wedding. Hopkins and Sugerman portray Morrison as the heavy, but they never explore the possibility that perhaps Kennely wasn’t really pregnant at all, or if she was, perhaps Jim was not the father. The couple had a sexual relationship, but their sexual encounters couldn’t have occurred with much frequency since they lived in separate cities. Married couples sometimes have to work at having sex on a regular basis in order to achieve pregnancy. Yet Kennely got pregnant with just a few sexual acts. Sure, it’s possible; but given her background (She’s a witch, remember? Not exactly Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.), it’s also possible she was part of a conspiracy to push Jim over the edge emotionally after he had already been drained by the Miami trial. Within this context, Jim comes across as a fairly secure man when threatened by his so-called wife. The following is an excerpt from No One Here Gets Out Alive, by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman:

Monday night [presumably August 17, 1970; the second week of the Miami trial] a second drama began with the arrival of Patricia Kennely. Jim had talked to Patricia by telephone on Friday, [September] 14th, learned that she was pregnant, and asked her to join him in Miami. He sent his publicist and one of his lawyers and the lawyer’s wife to meet her at the airport. Jim was most cordial as they drank at the hotel bar, but whenever Patricia tried to direct conversation toward her pregnancy, he skated away61…

(AUTHOR’S NOTE: Why is Patricia Kennely, a pregnant woman, drinking in a bar, or anywhere else? Hopkins and Sugerman’s attempt to portray Kennely as the fair-haired damsel violated by Morrison, the irresponsible ogre, doesn’t quite ring true upon closer analysis.)

[Two days later, around August 19, 1970] the long-promised talk began. "I know it’s not exactly the best time and place to ask you to deal with this, with the trial and all," said Patricia, "but the fact remains, it happened and now—"

Jim smiled awkwardly and said, "We’ll manage."

"Listen, I’m not exactly thrilled by the idea either, you know. But you happen to be the only man I ever considered good enough to father a child of mine, and now it’s come to pass and I don’t know what to do. I do think you owe me a bit more than your checkbook."

Jim glanced at her, then away. "If you have that baby, it’ll ruin our friendship. A baby isn’t going to change my life at all, but it would alter yours tremendously, forever."

"I could take it to court."

(AUTHOR’S NOTE: It is unclear why Kennely would take Morrison to court. She reportedly told him he owes her "a bit more than your checkbook," which is an acknowledgment that she believes Morrison would support the child financially. Basically, money is all the courts require from fathers estranged from their children. The courts cannot mandate that a father love his offspring or spend time with him/her. All they can do is tell him to pay a certain amount of money per month. Kennely’s statement reveals that she believes Jim will fulfill his legal responsibility as father of her child, which is to pay child support. Therefore her threat of legal action is apparently intended to intimidate Morrison.)

posted December 17, 2007 03:09 PM         

He looked surprised by the idea. "Another trial? Well, of course, you could do that, and it’d be just like this one we’re doing now. It’d take a long time, though. First you’d have to have the baby; that’s, what, another six months. Then you’d have to set up a preliminary hearing, with blood tests and all that, just to find out if you have a real case, and maybe there wouldn’t be any witnesses because I’d buy everybody off first. And even if you finally got it to court, you might not win, and there would be incredible publicity, which you would hate. And even if you won in the end, what would you have gotten out of it? Some money and some satisfaction and a lot of bad feelings. I don’t think you think it’s worth it."62…

Hopkins and Sugerman provided quite a bit of additional dialogue between Jim and Patricia, but the bottom line is Patricia agreed to have an abortion and Jim promised to accompany her but he didn’t show up. Perhaps Jim acted like a rat, or perhaps he smelled a rat and decided to stay away. His eyes may have been opened when the Wiccan/witch threatened him with a paternity suit in the midst of what he viewed as a governmental effort to destroy him. The ensuing summer (1971), Jim gets together with his longtime girlfriend Pamela Courson and they move to Paris, where he dies and Hopkins and Sugerman subtly suggest that Courson may have had something to do with his death. Frankly, Hopkins and Sugerman do a terrible job of connecting the dots between Jim’s marriage to Patricia Kennely and his ongoing relationship with Pamela Courson. It’s believable that Pamela was willing to share Jim with other women, but it stretches credulity to think that she might quickly forgive him for marrying someone else. Hopkins and Sugerman don’t mention Jim’s marriage to Kennely other than describing the Wiccan wedding ceremony. In fact they later refer to Pamela as Jim’s common law wife. How can someone be the common law wife of a man who is already married to another woman? Excuse me, but that’s either poor writing or Disinformation 101. Something doesn’t add up.

Twenty paternity suits

Hopkins and Sugerman mention in passing that Morrison had "no less than twenty paternity suits" filed against him by December 1969; however they treat the suits lightly. Can you imagine one man having twenty paternity suits filed against him? The following is Hopkins and Sugerman’s description—from No One Here Gets Out Alive—of the growing pressures on Jim which included the stated paternity suits:

The pressures were growing. Jim was being pulled and twisted this way and that. Frank [Liscisandro], Paul [Ferrara], and Babe [Hill] wanted more money to finish the [documentary] films and the Doors wanted the filming stopped, believing it was draining Jim of his energy he should be devoting to the group. They also wanted Jim to shave his beard and shed a few pounds for the string of concerts starting in New York in just a few weeks. Pam [Courson] was instantly demanding that Jim give up his singing career with the Doors and begin a domestic life with her, in which she envisioned him peacefully at work on his poetry. At the same time no less than twenty paternity suits were pending. Jim knew that the audiences on the upcoming tour would be expecting the grotesque when all he wanted to do was stand still and sing…63

Notice how Hopkins and Sugerman interject the twenty law suits, then change the subject. They seem to be avoiding it for some reason. I doubt that they would include such an outrageous fact in their book if the twenty or so suits had not been filed. On the other hand, their avoidance of the issue is quite telling. Let’s analyze it logically. Morrison was a good-looking young male rock star constantly on the road. If he had sex with twenty different women while on the road, who would they be? Groupies, of course. He may have met a few under different circumstances, but most of them would be groupies. Next question: how many times would he have sex with a typical groupie? They were likely one night stands for the most part. Think about it. What are the chances of a man impregnating twenty different women with whom he had sex with each only one time? IMPOSSIBLE. Perhaps he had an ongoing relationship with a few of these women which resulted in repeat sexual encounters. But that would only be a handful.

Let’s focus on groupies for a moment. The average groupie is interested in what? Having a good time with her targeted rock star. Do you think a groupie is going to file a law suit against a famous rock star because she believes he impregnated her? Not likely. These are groupies, women who aggressively look for sex from a star, not a bunch of virgins interested in protecting their reputations. If twenty or so groupies filed law suits against Jim, someone probably put them up to it, possibly paid them to do it. Recall how earlier we referenced the Church Committee’s report on dealing with the New left. (See Chapter 11,) It stated that "[FBI] Agents were instructed to gather information on the New Left’s ‘immorality’ and the ‘scurrilous and depraved’ behavior, ‘habits, and living conditions’ of the members of the targeted groups."64 It appears that the FBI may have been doing a number on Morrison by encouraging twenty or more women, who genuinely had sex with him, to file bogus paternity suits. This would explain why Hopkins and Sugerman mentioned the suits in passing, then dropped all discussion of them.

Tom Baker and Leon Barnard

Patricia Kennely was not the only suspicious character in Morrison’s life. Close analysis of No One Here Gets Out Alive, by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman, reveals that at least two other people seemed to be with Morrison when trouble occurred. Their names were Tom Baker and Leon Barnard. Hopkins and Sugerman do not explain who Leon Barnard was, or what he did for a living, only that he worked at the Doors business office.65 I have learned from other sources, however, that Barnard was the Doors’ press agent. Tom Baker was a young actor acquainted with Jim Morrison in a very odd way. They had shared the same girlfriend, Pamela Courson. The following is Hopkins and Sugerman’s description of how Jim became friends with Tom Baker:

The band returned to Los Angeles the end of November [1966] and Jim moved in with Pamela Courson. They’d been seeing each other off and on for about a year and now she had a small place in Laurel Canyon. If Pamela hadn’t fully accepted Jim’s irresponsibility, by now she’d come to expect it…More important—and frustrating—to Pamela was the fact that just because Jim spent Tuesday through Friday nights in her bed, it didn’t mean he’d be there Saturday and Sunday, or the following Wednesday or Thursday nights.

In fact, it worked both ways. When the Doors were in New York Pamela had called their hotel room three times a day trying to find Jim in his room, then gave up and began seeing a young actor named Tom Baker. When Jim returned (and Pamela returned to Jim), the two men became friends, learning they shared a love for the theater and poetry and a nomadic military background.66

On November 11, 1969, about eight months after the infamous Miami concert (which occurred on March 1, 1969), Baker managed to get Jim and himself arrested by the FBI for drunk and disorderly conduct while flying on a commercial airliner. They were also charged with a more serious crime of "interfering with the flight of an aircraft" (a felony). The two men were traveling from Los Angeles en route to Phoenix to attend a Rolling Stones concert. They were accompanied by two other men, Leon Barnard and Frank Liscisandro.* The following is an excerpt from No One Here Gets Out Alive where Hopkins and Sugerman described how the FBI arrested Jim and Tom:

The plane was empty except for the four and FBI agents from the Phoenix office, who cuffed Jim’s and Tom’s hands behind them before taking them out for the gathered photographers…Jim and Tom were charged with being drunk and disorderly and interfering with the flight of an aircraft, the latter an offense against the new skyjacking law that could result in a $10,000 fine and a ten-year sentence. Jim was not yet twenty-six, and this possible sentence, added to the three years hanging over him in Miami, meant he could spend the next thirteen years of his life in prison.67

Basically the foursome behaved like teenage boys getting slightly rowdy and being fresh with a female flight attendant, but Tom Baker was the instigator, not Jim. At one point, Baker grabbed the flight attendant’s thigh. The following is Hopkins and Sugerman’s description of events on the plane that led to Jim and Tom’s arrest:

"My name is Riva," said the stewardess, starting her pre-flight warmup.

"If your name is Riva," Baker called out, "then your old man must be called Old Man Riva."

Jim and Leon and Frank joined Tom in a chorus of the song: "That old man Riva, he just keep rolling…"

The stewardess was visibly upset, but began giving instructions about oxygen masks. As the mask fell down from her hand, Tom called out again, "My girlfriend has one of those, but she calls it a diaphragm!"

Tom then went to the toilet and on the way back dropped a bar of soap in Jim’s drink. Jim pushed the button for the stewardess, and when she came out, he whined, "He put soap in my drink."

"All right, Jim, all right, keep it cool, okay? I’ll bring you another."

Instead she brought the plane’s captain, who said, "If you young men don’t change your attitude, we’ll turn this ship around and return to Los Angeles, where you’ll be arrested, all four of you."

They were quiet for a while, but as a stewardess named Sherry went by, Tom reached for her thigh. Soon after, Jim threw Leon the sandwiches he’d been served and Tom threw an empty plastic drink at Jim. The stewardesses and the ship’s officers seemed to ignore the rowdiness, but as the plane rolled to a stop in Phoenix, it was surrounded by cars with revolving top-lights. An announcement came over the plane’s PA system: "Ladies and gentlemen, please accept Continental’s apologies…disembarkation will be delayed for just a few short moments." Suddenly the police appeared before Jim and Tom.

"As captain of this ship, I am placing you both under arrest. The other passengers will exit first and you will be escorted off by the FBI."68

This has the earmarks of a sting operation where Tom Barker was probably used as an FBI informant to entrap Jim. It was Baker who interrupted Riva, the stewardess who was trying to give preflight instructions. It was Baker who led the four young men in a rendition of "Old man Riva." It was Baker who made the vulgar remark to Riva comparing the oxygen mask to his girlfriend’s diaphragm. It was Baker who dropped a bar of soap in Jim’s drink, causing yet another scene. It was Baker who reached for another stewardess’s thigh, probably the most serious offense. All Jim did on his own was throw some sandwiches at Leon. Everything else was instigated by Tom Baker.

Not long after the Phoenix incident, Tom Baker became verbally belligerent with Morrison at Barney’s Beanery Bar, in Los Angeles, while the two men were drinking with Frank Liscisandro and Babe Hill. The following is an excerpt from No One Here Gets Out Alive where Hopkins and Sugerman describe how the Baker tried to instigate a brawl with Morrison:

"You’re a pussy, Morrison," said Tom, baiting his friend. "You’re a ******* no-count pussy."

Jim ignored the taunt. Frank and Babe stared into their drinks.

"Tell us now, Mr. Jim Morrison, rock star," Tom went on, a voice that traveled the length of the bar, "tell us what happened in Miami."

It was a tiresome subject for Jim. He glared at Tom, took another swallow from his drink.

"Come on, Jim, tell us once and for all."

"Yes," said Jim quietly, "I did it."

"Did what, Jim?" Tom’s voice was strident, triumphant.

"I showed my **** ."

"Why, Jim? When I showed mine in my movie, you said it wasn’t art."

"Well," Jim said in a low voice so everyone present had to strain to hear him, "I wanted to see what it looked like in the spotlight."

There was a moment’s pause before Babe and Frank simultaneously burst out laughing, spraying the bar with their drinks. Jim grinned mischievously.69

On March 25, 1970, the night before the Phoenix trial, Tom Baker and Leon Barnard both become belligerent with Jim. Baker was trying to get Jim drunk while Barnard shouted vulgarities at him. The following is an excerpt from No One Here Gets Out Alive, by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman, which describes how Baker and Barnard antagonized Jim on the night before the Phoenix trial:

Jim remained distracted throughout this period. His thoughts were on the impending Phoenix trial and the possible heavy sentences he faced: up to three months and $300 on the assault charge [being drunk and disorderly], up to 10 years and $10,000 on the federal charge of interfering with airline personnel on a commercial flight. Jim, Frank [Liscisandro], Tom [Baker], and Leon [Barnard] flew to Phoenix on Wednesday, March 25, for a brief pretrial meeting with Bill Siddons and Jim’s lawyer, Max Fink. Drinks were ordered from room service. As usual, Jim and Tom began to compete. Tom was getting belligerent. He wanted to go out drinking. "**** this drinking-in-the-room ******** ! C’mon, Jim." Jim said sure and lurched to his feet. Siddons suggested they stick around. He didn’t want Jim out in public, not tonight. He figured sure as hell he would get arrested for drunkenness, at least, which would have made for a lovely press the day of the trial. Suddenly Leon [Barnard] was standing on a coffee table screaming at Jim, "******* ! ******* ! ******* !"

"Why are you calling me that?" Jim asked. "Why are you talking to me like a child?"

"Because you’re acting like one."

Frank [Liscisandro] moved in and told Leon to mind his own ******* business…70

Hopkins and Sugerman did not attempt to explain why the Doors’ press agent, Leon Barnard, shouted vulgarities at Jim Morrison for no apparent reason on the night before the trial in Phoenix. Hopkins and Sugerman ended the story by explaining how things were interrupted by a "pneumatic blond" who knocked on the door and asked to see Jim. Everyone else quickly "tiptoed out," leaving Jim alone with the woman, and that was the end of that. Hopkins and Sugerman wrote: "Jim was quickly all over her, running his mouth down her blouse." Now let’s back up a moment. A few sentences back, Hopkins and Sugerman wrote that "Jim remained distracted…His thoughts were on the impending Phoenix trial and the possible heavy sentences he faced…" Yet he apparently arranges to have a sexual encounter with a groupie on the night he met with his lawyer and manager to discuss the very case that had him so preoccupied. This defies logic. Who was the "pneumatic blond"? Hopkins and Sugerman made no attempt whatsoever to explain who she was or who invited her.

A few more questions need to be asked. First, why were drinks ordered from room service? Why would Jim’s attorney, Max Fink, allow such conduct? The others were young men in their twenties, but he was older, supposedly more responsible. Why would he allow his client to be drinking the night before he went to court, whether it was in a bar or in a hotel room? After all, alcohol consumption had contributed to Jim’s Phoenix arrest in the first place. Why would Mr. Fink not attempt to keep Jim and the others sober on the night before the trial? Second, why was the Doors’ press agent, Leon Barnard, shouting vulgarities at Jim? Once again, Barnard’s conduct—like Tom Baker’s—has all the earmarks of an FBI sting operation. Also, the fact that Max Fink apparently encouraged his clients to drinks the night before they went to trial suggests that he was also working with the FBI to bring Jim down. But being a licensed attorney, Fink could not go as far as Baker or Barnard in entrapping Jim, but Fink certainly allowed Jim to incriminate himself. Earlier, Baker got Jim arrested on trumped up charges after he (Baker) created a ruckus on a planed headed to Phoenix. Now Baker and Barnard were apparently trying to rattle Jim on the night prior to the trial for the Phoenix incident. Baker tries to get Jim drunk—and probably arrested again—while Barnard belittles him. When Frank Liscisandro comes to Jim’s defense, a sexy blond suddenly appears at the door and seduces Jim on the spot.

On March 26, 1970, Jim was convicted of two charges, and Tom—the instigator—got off scot-free. The following is Hopkins and Sugerman’s description—from No One Here Gets Out Alive—of the Phoenix trial:

Next morning [March 26, 1970] Jim and Tom both wore white shirts and ties and double-breasted blazers. Their long hair was brushed back behind their ears. Leon and Frank were called as witnesses, as were the stewardesses, Riva Mills and Sherry Ann Mason. It was Sherry’s testimony that convinced the judge. She said she was pawed at throughout the flight by one of the defendants, despite several warnings to him to keep his hands off her. She identified Jim as her assailant. [Note: It was actually Tom Baker, not Jim who had reached for Sherry Ann Mason’s thigh on the plane.]

Jim was bewildered. Each time Sherry described something she said he had done, she was actually describing Tom’s actions. She had the two of them confused. It was like a scene from Alice in Wonderland. Finally the prosecution asked his witnesses not to refer to Jim and Tom by name, but as "person in seat A" and "person in seat B." Jim was found innocent of the federal charge, but guilty of "assaulting, threatening, and interfering with the performance of" the two stewardesses. Tom was acquitted of all charges. Sentencing was set for two weeks later…71

On April 6 [1970], Jim returned to Phoenix with Max, ostensibly for sentencing on the skyjacking law violations. When Max told the court that the stewardess named Sherry had made a mistake and wanted to change her testimony, the judge deferred sentencing and rescheduled Jim for another appearance later in the month…72

On April 17 and 18 [1970] the Doors played a huge convention center in Honolulu. Then, leaving the other Doors behind to begin a short vacation, Jim flew back to Phoenix with [Bill] Siddons to meet Max Fink and the stewardess named Sherry [Ann Mason]. Sherry reversed her testimony on the 20th and the final charge against Jim was dropped.73

This was a great turn of events for Jim, but he had endured quite a bit of abuse from his so-called friend Tom Baker the day after he (Jim) was convicted of "assaulting" the stewardesses, while Baker—the true perpetrator—had been acquitted. March 27, 1970, the day after Jim was convicted, Baker continued to get Jim in trouble with the law, but Jim began to see Baker as a troublemaker and confronted him. The following is Hopkins and Sugerman’s description—from No One Here Gets Out Alive—of how Morrison finally confronted Baker:

The next morning [March 27, 1970] they all returned to Los Angeles where Jim went to the Palms bar with Tom and some girls—one of them mysteriously brought back from Phoenix by Jim, the other a long-time Doors groupie. They drank heavily and played pool. Tom got drunk and tipped over the pool table. The bar owner called the sheriff’s office and Jim and Babe wrestled Tom back to the Doors’ office nearby.

[NOTE: Tom Baker’s behavior was highly suspicious. On the previous day, he and Jim had faced assault and skyjacking crimes in Phoenix. Jim was convicted for Baker’s actions, and Baker was acquitted of all charges. So why did Baker feel the need to get drunk and rowdy? If anyone had the right to feel angry, it was Jim, not Tom. Still Baker had the nerve to tip over a pool table at a bar, apparently attempting to pull Jim deeper into problems with the local authorities.]

On the way Tom bellowed, "Morrison, you’re no ******* good! Whole world hates you! Hates you! You’re no ******* good at all!"

In the office Jim and Babe [Hill] and some of the others suggested that Tom leave. Finally, Jim explained [to Tom] what was eating him. He [Jim] had paid all of Tom’s Phoenix expenses: the plane tickets, the hotel rooms, meals, drinks, lawyers, the whole shot. He had also taken the rap for Tom, and all he got back was crap.

Jim threw himself at Tom and tried to wrestle him toward the door. Tom was laughing. "You gotta get outta here," Jim grunted, "this is a place of business."

A friend of Tom’s appeared and threw himself at Jim; then Tony Funches [Jim’s bodyguard] arrived and grabbed Tom’s friend. Tony was joined by Babe in punching the friend. Jim slipped away into Bill Siddons’ office to call the sheriff. A car came quickly, direct from the previous call to the Palms.

"You mean to tell me you called the cops?" asked Tom. He was standing apart from the others now, looking at Jim, stunned.

"You mean it was you who called us?" asked the cops, equally stunned.

Babe began bad-mouthing the sheriff’s deputies, who chose to ignore him and leave. Tom got into his friend’s car and drove away, leaving Jim standing with Babe and Tony on the sidewalk. When Tom returned ten minutes later to throw a rock through the Doors’ office window, Jim had already gone to Barney’s Beanery to have another drink. It was the last time Jim saw Baker for almost a year.74

A couple of questions arise. First, who was this "friend" of Tom Baker’s who appeared from nowhere and threw himself at Jim while Jim was "wrestling" Baker to the door, trying to get him to leave the Doors’ business office? A few sentences back, Hopkins and Sugerman wrote that Jim and Babe had wrestled Tom back to the Doors’ office from the Palms bar after Tom had gotten drunk in the morning, tipped over a pool table at the Palms, causing the owner to call the sheriff. There was no mention of a "friend" helping Jim and Babe. And think about it, if Tom was so drunk that the police had been called, a genuine drinking buddy would probably put some distance between himself, Tom and the sheriff. If this so-called friend of Tom’s "appeared" when trouble erupted at the Doors’ office, this means the friend surreptitiously followed Jim, Babe, and Tom back to the Doors’ office, which suggests that the friend was a spy; perhaps an FBI agent, informant, or undercover cop. Whoever he was, it sounds like he got beaten up by Jim’s bodyguard, Tony Funches, assisted by Babe Hill.

This leads to a second question. Why did Babe Hill become upset with the deputies? They were on his side, right? Yet when the cops arrived, summoned by Jim to take away the troublemakers (Tom Baker and his unidentified friend), Babe Hill suddenly switched teams and began "bad-mouthing" the cops. It makes no sense that it would have happened that way, but if in fact that is the correct version of events, Hopkins and Sugerman should have provided an explanation to clarify why Babe Hill got mad at the cops. Just speculating, it is highly possible that the unidentified friend of Tom Baker’s was in fact an undercover cop—or an FBI agent—and the sheriff deputies recognized him, saw that he was being beaten up by Hill and Funches, and threatened to arrest Hill and Funches. Of course the deputies probably didn’t tell anyone that the guy being manhandled by Hill and Funches was a cop, but they probably jumped to the guy’s defense, which likely upset Hill. Why else would Hill be angry with the cops? Apparently they were angry with him but Hopkins and Sugerman omitted that part of the story. Within two weeks Babe Hill had some bad luck. The following is Hopkins and Sugerman’s description:

[Around April 8, 1970] Babe Hill fell from a moving car and broke two vertebrae in his neck after a drinking bout with Jim at the Phone Booth…75

Was this a genuine accident, or was it reprisal for beating up an FBI agent or undercover cop?

Strange things began to happen to Jim after the Phoenix trial and the ensuing confrontation with Tom Baker. As previously stated, in June 1970, Jim married Patricia Kennely in a Wiccan wedding ceremony. On the day of the wedding, Jim’s temperature shot up to 1050F then dropped. Jim’s immune system was apparently fighting off pneumonia but he didn’t realize it at the time. A few days later Jim went to Paris with Leon Barnard. When Jim returned to the states, he realized he had pneumonia. Pamela Courson reportedly nursed him back to health at her apartment.76

On August 10, 1970, Jim’s Miami trial started.77 On September 3, 1970, Alan Wilson died. On September 18, 1970, Jimi Hendrix died. On September 19, 1970, a jury convicted Jim of two misdemeanors—indecent exposure and drunkenness—but acquitted him of the felony charge, lewd and lascivious behavior and the other misdemeanor, open profanity.78 On October 4, 1970, Janis Joplin died. On October 30, 1970, Judge Murray Goodman sentenced Jim to six months hard labor at Dade County jail for the exposure conviction and sixty days of the same for the profanity charge. In addition, Jim was to be put on probation, after the jail term was completed, for two years and four months. Goodman also fined Jim $500.79

In June 1971, Jim ran into Tom Baker just before he (Jim) left for Paris. They reportedly acted like brothers. The following is Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman’s description of the reunion, from the book, No One Here Gets Out Alive:

The next day Patricia [Kennely] returned to New York and Tom Baker came back [to L.A.] from eight months in London. It had been at least that long since Jim and Tom had last seen each other. Now they fell on each other as brothers, and by the end of the day Jim had become so drunk and obnoxious that they were thrown out of one of the Santa Monica Boulevard clubs.80

On July 3, 1971, Jim died at his apartment in Paris, reportedly of a heart attack. Given Tom Baker’s treacherous behavior toward Jim, one has to wonder if Baker had anything to do with his death. Based on Hopkins and Sugerman’s description of Baker, I would suspect him of being involved in Jim’s death more than Pamela, who obviously loved him.

What really happened?

Based on my research and analysis of the Morrison case, I have developed a scenario of what probably happened to Jim Morrison in the early morning hours of July 3, 1971 in Paris. The following is a summary:

*Jim was drained emotionally by the FBI and numerous informants who penetrated his inner circle for two and a half years prior to his death, beginning with the notorious Miami concert on March 1, 1969. Four informants in Jim’s inner circle were probably Tom Baker, Leon Barnard, Patricia Kennely, and Bill Siddons. Baker was Pamela Courson’s former boyfriend who befriended Jim several years earlier. (Courson was Jim’s long-term girlfriend whose relationship with Jim was constantly on and off.) Baker was essentially a provocateur for the Bureau whose mission was to befriend Jim, become his "drinking buddy," then encourage him to get in trouble with the law so he could be prosecuted and imprisoned. Barnard was the Doors’ press agent. He too was apparently a provocateur, although not as aggressive as Baker. Barnard sometimes times belittled Jim, calling him vulgar names in front of friends and colleagues. Kennely was a practicing witch and a rock journalist who married Jim in a Wiccan wedding ceremony, although it was apparently not a legal union. In the midst of the Miami trial, Kennely claimed she was pregnant with Jim’s child and threatened to file a paternity suit against him. Twenty additional paternity suits were filed against Jim by other various women, presumably groupies.

*The FBI worked with local police forces, local district attorneys, and an endless supply of informants to get Jim arrested, publicly humiliated and prosecuted for numerous crimes, some of them felonies. The primary charges resulted from (a) his controversial performance with the Doors at a concert in Miami on March 1, 1969, and (b) an incident—on November 11, 1969—where he was entrapped by provocateur Tom Baker into committing mischievious acts on a commercial airliner while traveling from Los Angeles en route to Phoenix to attend a Rolling Stones concert.

*The FBI likely sponsored the murder of L.A. hair stylist Jay Sebring—along with Sharon Tate and several others in the notorious "Manson murders"—in order upset Jim and possibly cause him to have an emotional breakdown. Sebring was specifically targeted because he was well-acquainted with Jim. At Jim’s request, Sebring cut Jim’s hair like Alexander the Great in 1967. Sebring’s hairstyling of Jim had a lot to do with the mystique that surrounded—and still surrounds—Jim Morrison.

*Jim’s wallet, driver’s license, and passport were intentionally stolen by professional criminals while he and Pamela Courson visited Marseilles in June of 1971. The stolen documents were probably used to create a fraudulent death certificate while Jim was still alive.

*Someone close to Pamela—possibly Tom Baker, her old boyfriend and Jim’s friend—encouraged her to get Jim to try heroin, but not by needle. After Jim tried it, the assassins sneaked into the couple’s apartment at night, while Jim was taking a bath, and smothered Jim with a pillow or strangled him with a wide piece of clothe such as a bath towel, two assassination techniques which cannot be detected in a postmortem examination.

*Pamela acted guilty because she genuinely felt responsible for Jim’s death because she had encouraged him to try heroin.

*Doors’ manager Bill Siddons was part of the cover-up. He aggressively intervened, did not allow an autopsy to be performed, and made certain Jim’s body was buried for several days before announcing his demise to the world.

Findings of rock researcher Alex Constantine

Rock researcher Alex Constantine published an interesting book entitled The Covert War Against Rock (2000). The book has several flaws. For example, the cover is atrocious, a picture of Lee Harvey Oswald’s grimaced face the moment he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, but a hand clutching a microphone is superimposed on the picture. The cover gives the impression that Oswald is a singer in a rock band. Given the tragedy of President Kennedy’s assassination, and the tragedy that befell Oswald’s surviving family members, the satirical picture of Oswald is truly an appalling display. Even worse than its lack of sensitivity to a serious topic, it gives the impression that Constantine’s book is a satire, not a serious endeavor. A second flaw in Constantine’s book is his obsession with blaming everything on the CIA, the Mafia, fascists, and Nazis, rather than focusing on the crimes themselves. He often mentions the FBI but he creates the impression that the CIA and the FBI are one big happy band of killers. What he fails to realize is the two agencies are extremely adversarial.

In addition, Constantine’s endless discussions about the Mafia are pointless because they deflect from the driving force behind the war on rock stars. He gives the impression—as many researchers do—that carrying out political assassinations is an extremely complex process. Nothing could be further from the truth. It requires three things: (a) nerve, (b) professional assassins, and (c) complete control over the American news media in order to cover up the crime. Of the three requirements, C is the most difficult; and from my research, the FBI is the only intelligence agency capable of pulling it off. There is no evidence that the CIA or the Mafia has absolute control over the news media, but there is plenty of evidence that the FBI does. With such control, political assassination becomes a piece of cake. It’s done the same way it has been done since the beginning of time. No sophistication is needed; just nerve, professional assassins and the money to pay them, plus sufficient power to cover up the crime by pushing a cover story on the populace via the news media.

Having stated the criticisms of Constantine’s book, I wish to state that I am not criticizing Constantine personally. After all, he may have had little control over the book’s cover. And his editor or publisher may have insisted that he pepper comments about the CIA, Mafia, and Nazis throughout the book. It’s difficult to say why his book is so needlessly flawed, but nevertheless, it is. Having stated that, I wish to point out the constructive parts of his book. If one strips away Constantine’s hyperbole about the CIA, the Mafia, fascists, and Nazis, a lot of interesting information is revealed. The following is a summary of Alex Constantine’s research, as it relates to Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison—less the CIA/Mafia/Nazi spin—from the book, The Covert War Against Rock:

* Jim Morrison’s biographer, Danny Sugerman, co-author of No One Here Gets Out Alive, is married to Fawn Hall, Oliver North’s secretary at the National Security Council who shredded documents linking President Reagan to the Iran-Contra scandal. Because of Sugerman’s connection to US intelligence, he downplayed foul play regarding Morrison’s death in his book.81 (AUTHOR’S NOTE: This explains why a fallback position was introduced to blame Jim’s death on Pamela Courson.)

*Doors’ organist Ray Manzarek believed the FBI paid special attention to Morrison because he was more influential than other rock stars of the era. The following are Manzarek’s comments (from an interview conducted around 1991) as presented by Alex Constantine:

They [the FBI] were going to stop all rock ‘n’ roll by stopping the Doors. As far as Americans were concerned, he was the most dangerous…Janis Joplin was just a white woman singing about getting drunk and laid a lot, and Jimi Hendrix was a black guy singing, "Let’s get high." Morrison was singing, "We want the world and we want it now." There was plenty of hounding…The vice squad would be at the side of the stage with our names filled in on the warrants, just waiting to write in the offense. Narks to the left, vice squad to the right, into the valley of death rode the four…They wanted to stop Morrison. They wanted to show him that he couldn’t get away with it.82

*The FBI harassed Morrison so much that he contracted an ulcer. Constant arrests drained him financially and took away his motivation to perform.83

*The FBI collected seven pages of notes on Jimi Hendrix, 89 pages on Jim Morrison, and 663 "documents" on Elvis Presley. The Bureau opened a file on Presley since he exploded on the music scene in 1954. Hoover received complaints from conservatives demanding that he "do something" about Presley.84

*The FBI opened a file on Jimi Hendrix in 1969 after he participated in a concert for Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden, Bobby Seale and the other defendants of the Chicago Seven conspiracy trial. In addition, Hendrix made controversial statements about the United States government in an interview published in a rock magazine. Teenset published an interview with Hendrix on January 1969 entitled, "Hendrix: Black Power and Money." He made the following comments: [We have to] get the Black Panthers not to kill anybody, but to scare the [federal officials]…I know it sounds like war, but that’s what’s gonna have to happen. It has to be a war…You come back to reality and there are some evil folks around and they want you to be passive and weak and peaceful so that they can just overtake you like jelly on bread…You have to fight fire with fire."85

*Jimi Hendrix’s manager, Michael Jeffrey admitted he was an intelligence agent.86 Constantine cites information uncovered by Hendrix biographers Harry Shapiro and Caesar Glebeek in their book, Jimi Hendrix: Electric Gypsy; from rock historian R. Gary Patterson in his book, Hellbounds on Their Trail: Tales from the Rock ‘n’ Roll Graveyard; and from John McDermott and Eddie Kramer in their book, Hendrix: Setting the Record Straight. The following is a summary of their collective findings:

*Jeffrey often boasted of "undercover work against the Russians, or murder, mayhem and torture in foreign countries." Jeffrey’s father said his son had been stationed in Egypt years earlier and could speak Russian.87

*Friends of Hendrix suspected Jeffrey was crooked and they (the friends) confiscated documents from his office which indicated he was embezzling large amounts of money from Jimi’s concert performances. The friends gave the documents to Hendrix, who reportedly took legal actions to recover the embezzled money.88

*In July 1970, two months before his death, Hendrix broke all communications with Jeffrey. At that time, Hendrix told film director Chuck Wein: "The next time I go to Seattle will be in a pine box."89

*Two days after Hendrix’s death, Michael Jeffrey confessed to recording engineer Alan Douglas that he was involved in the murder. "In my opinion," Douglas reportedly stated, "Jeffrey hated Hendrix.90

* The Denver Rock Festival (June 1969, a month before Woodstock) at Mile High Stadium was a disaster. It featured Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, Mothers of Invention, and Credence Clearwater Revival, among others. Police beat youths who tried to get in for free. Bikers were hired to run security, although Constantine does not specify if it was Hell’s Angels or another gang. According the Constantine, a group of 300 police initiated a confrontation with a group of "non-paying long-hairs" listening to free music. Someone on the rocker side threw a piece of watermelon at the police who responded by igniting a huge cloud of tear gas and scalding mace on the crowd of youths. Later, the Denver police chief blamed the incident on the American Liberation Front, an anti-war group that advocated revolution through rock music.91

*Hell’s Angel Ralph "Sonny" Barger was chief of security at the a nightmarish rock festival at Altamont Motor Speedway outside of San Francisco on December 6, 1969. Constantine alleges that Barger was an informant and hit man on the payroll of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).92

* Beach Boys’ drummer Dennis Wilson signed into St. John’s Hospital, two days before his death, to "be clean of alcohol and drugs." Two visitors, a man and a woman, came to see him. He signed out and went to a yacht.93 As previously stated, on December 28, 1983 Dennis Wilson died from drowning while free-diving in the frigid waters of Marina Del Rey Harbor. According to the official story, he was legally intoxicated.94 He was 39.95

*Abigail Folgier—the wealthy coffee heiress found dead at Sharon Tate’s residence on August 9, 1969—had financed Charlie Manson and Timothy Leary. Manson reportedly met Folgier at the home of Cass Elliot (real name, Ellen Naomi Cohen), singer with the Mamas and the Papas. Cass Elliot died July 29, 1974 in London, England. Cause of death is uncertain. The coroner’s report stated that she "probably choked to death," but there was also "a possibility of heart attack."96

*J. Edgar Hoover had an FBI file on Cass Elliot which stated the following: "She reportedly has associated with drug addicts and individuals opposed to the President’s Vietnam policy."97

*Cass Elliot was reportedly friends with Sharon Tate. On June 4, 1968, the evening Bobby Kennedy was killed,* Cass reportedly had dinner with Sharon and husband Roman Polanski "at the home of film director John Frankenheimer in Malibu Beach."

posted December 17, 2007 03:16 PM         

I agree, those guys never would have been Jim Morrison or Kurt Cobain, with or without the drugs. I've known many people who take mushrooms and just goof off, and dont get any true visions, mystical insights, or ecstatic fervors. Those waters arent for everyone. The soul must be somewhat amphibian.

But I believe some drugs, especially the organic ones, collaborate with us, and give us what we need and/or what we seek. If you arent meant to see the mysteries, the mysteries are not disclosed to you. And just because you drown, or go mad, seeing them, doesnt mean it wasnt a step in the right direction.

"If you wish to drown,
do not torture yourself with shallow water."
- Bulgarian Proverb

"And there are those who see shipwrecked men,
and say, 'The sea is unfit for sensible men',
and perhaps it is so; and I would rather be senseless."
~ Valerian The Fool

There is no telling what Jim and Kurt might have been without the drugs. All we know is that the longing for transformation was inherent and profound in them, and they would have found other means to alter consciousness, for good or ill. They were warning flashes to us, that our culture must provide other, higher means for transformation, or else, resolve to accept and make do with the ones we have. In any case, great souls will always seek shortcuts, and will carve their own paths, if need be.

Some people say there are no easy answers,
I say they're not looking hard enough!
- Bart Simpson

In the meantime, I reflect on all the great artists who were fond of a wide variety of forms of intoxication, from alcohol to absynthe to opium, and so on, -- and credited these with inspiring some of their most sublime works. Many of the worlds greatest masterpieces would not exist if not for these muses, harsh and jealous mistresses though they sometimes may be. And we may reflect that no intoxicant has inspired more works of art, or ruined more artists, than the love of a woman*. For all that, I say, love women! Love drugs! Love the great adventures, though they break you and bring you to your knees.

posted December 17, 2007 03:43 PM         

A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

posted December 17, 2007 03:44 PM         

Freedom in her eyes
She dances on her knees
Pirate prince at her side
Starin' into a hollow idols eyes
Wild child full of grace
Savior of the human race
Your cool face
Your cool face
Your cool face
Do you remember when we were in Africa?

Cool link: The Doors filmed in the process of recording "Wild Child"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY0nPHeyTkA

posted December 17, 2007 06:33 PM         

I am planning to see the movie 'The doors'.

And read some more about Rimbaud.

LTT - I too find perfection boring. No scope of growth. I rather buy paiting which everyone does not want to buy Hahahaha....

posted December 17, 2007 06:33 PM         

And read some more about Rimbaud.

LTT - I too find perfection boring. No scope of growth. I rather buy painting which everyone does not want to buy.

I am crazy and I like crazy people because I see a reflection of them in my mirror. LOL

posted December 17, 2007 10:57 PM         

I'm so glad you are discovering Nietzsche.
He was a genius among geniuses.

Try the Walter Kaufman translation.

posted December 17, 2007 11:08 PM         

I grew up with a parsi boss. I am not new to the religion. I didn't know the west knows them as Zarasthura. We call them parsis
I am reading Osho's translation of Nietzsche translation of Zarasthura's words.
Osho simplifies a lot for me I am happy with his wise words
Will also try Kaufman in future.

Parsi people in India are like jews of America. The filthy rich people. They are the Tatas and Godrej's. LOL

Zarasthura their God, is indeed unqiue compared to buddha or jesus or Mahavira, etc.

posted December 17, 2007 11:54 PM         

One person's warning flash is another person's annoying admonishment... I have found...

"All we know is that the longing for transformation was inherent and profound in them, and they would have found other means to alter consciousness, for good or ill."
So, they were high vibe Water creatures... what if new means of reaching those transformations were revealed to them before the paths they discovered...

But... they were meant to be the way they were meant to be for their time, and what happened to them was meant to happen. Now, maybe there are meant to be messengers of a better way.

It is all leading to THIS
NOW
HERE

I watch so many people alchemically transform what some might view as evil into the harmless, and even desirable. I watch so many transform (and/or reveal) the mundane and commonplace into(/as) the sinister.

It is complicated and as experiments are known to do... the results change depending on who is watching and what they all believe will happen.

I know what I have watched. I Know what I feel inside I am meant to do and I See innumerable events and minuscule happenstance which have led me to this point. I have faith in my overwhelming intention to love and share love. My message is for someone and I am glad I have "spoken" today! I wish I could do my presentation for any of you who wished to hear/see it.

posted December 17, 2007 11:56 PM         

It is "Zarathustra",
and Nietzsche's Zarathustra is not parsi,
or Zoroastrian, or anything like that.

It is a character he created,
a "mouthpiece" for his personal philosophy,
and not any religious system.

Nietzsche despised religion and systems.

I dont agree with him on everything,
but he is a thinker of the highest order.

posted December 18, 2007 12:10 AM         

Really? I thought Zarathustra was many many years before Jesus.

http://www.livius.org/za-zn/zarathustra/zarathustra.htm

posted December 18, 2007 12:40 AM         

Parsis believe in living life positively. No need to believe in hell and heaven.
Life is God. No need to give up pleasures of life or renounce the world.

When the followers die they don't incinerate the body. They leave it to vultures. Lot of hindus laugh at that. I too made the mistake of laughing. But I still don't understand their truths.

I have to read the book to find out why Nietszche choose this guy after so many centuries when no one would bother with that prophet He is so like me. Hahaha..

posted December 18, 2007 10:00 AM         

Actually I do. Never mind. The more I speak the more I am getting in to thoughts zone. The physical reality. Thoughts creates smokings guns around you. No thought zone clears the smoke.

posted December 18, 2007 10:07 AM         

quote:

---

No need to believe in hell and heaven.
Life is God. No need to give up pleasures of life or renounce the world.

---

From the link you posted:

quote:

---

Zarathustra warned the people that there would be a Last Judgment, where the friends of The Lie were to be condemned to Hell and the pious allowed to enter Heaven.

---

posted December 18, 2007 10:12 AM         

quote:

---

He is so like me. Hahaha..

---

posted December 18, 2007 10:29 AM         

quote:

---

I am reading Osho's translation of Nietzsche translation of Zarasthura's words.

---

No. You are not.

quote:

---

Parsi people in India are like jews of America. The filthy rich people.

---

I dont know where you picked up this idea about Jewish people,
but, in America most rational people consider it racist propaganda.

posted December 18, 2007 10:34 AM         

Well I didn't mean to sound it condescending. You should know by now I am not against rich people LOL

posted December 18, 2007 10:35 AM         

quote:

---

One person's warning flash is another person's annoying admonishment... I have found...

---

Which am I? LMFAO

Touché.

You've given me something to think about.

Thank you.

I think, if you give kids love early on,
and surround them with a peaceful atmosphere,
meditation will be easily taught, or may even teach itself.

But for us, "the middle children of history",
this solution remains relatively inaccessible.
We are like a burning bridge to the overman, yes?

Surely, Jim knew about meditation,
just as Kerouac and Ginsberg and others knew.
But we all grew up in a time and place where the foundations
on which meditation rests were systematically ravaged.
And our temperaments were not predisposed,
as very few are, to resist this assault.
Is it any wonder we seek more immediate spiritual gratification?
Perhaps meditation is not for everyone.
Perhaps, for some, there is only burning.

quote:

---

"I will never walk it through
I could never promise to
If some things fall I do
Its another point of view

I could never die again
I would lose another friend

This will mean me to me
I could never have a seam
It's a neverending dream
I will always wanna flee

If I'm me you'll never know
everything I ever know -
Free!!!!!!!!!!!
Ahhh-aahhh, aahhh-aahhhh,
you know you're right!!!

At least we'll be in love again
Guess I'll never have a fan

She will see another me,
When I'm through I'll meditate
Guess I know I'll medicate,
Guess I'll fall and medicate

Just another opiate
But for me its here to stay-
A Ring!!!!!!
Ahhh-aahhh, aahhh-aahhhh,
you know you're right!!!"

~ Kurt Cobain
(alt lyrics: "You Know You're Right")

---

The problem, it seems to me,
is in the individual, as it is in society.
Many people say it all begins in the individual,
but, as I understand this, it is misleading.
We are all in this together,
all taking turns carrying the One Cross.
The individuals with power to stop the crucifictions
must not point to the crucified, and say,
"Come down from the cross, if there is God in you,".

Does that make sense?

quote:

---

I wish I could do my presentation for any of you who wished to hear/see it.

---

I wish I could have seen it too.