John Keel: The Eighth Tower

luc

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I just finished John Keel's "The Eighth Tower".

I was not familiar with his work and didn't know too much about high strangeness and such, so it was very worth it. He basically gives a run-down on all kinds of strange phenomena that he studied, mentions some very interesting patterns and offers some speculation at the end of the book.

His style is really funny and engaging, it's a quick read! What I found a bit disappointing is that he didn't source his stories/accounts, so we kind of have to take his word for it. But maybe he did all that in his other books and just repeats them in this one to sustain his narrative, not sure because I haven't read any of his other books.

As Laura said in this thread about his "Operation Trojan Horse", he interprets UFO's as part of the same phenomenon that also produces other unexplained things like monsters, psi etc. He clearly understands the hyperdimensional perspective.

Just as an example for the many interesting thoughts Keel offers:

The Illuminati, the International Bankers, the Freemasons, the Jesuits, and the CIA have all been blamed for the antics of the MIB during different periods in history. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries secret societies were popular, not so much to join as to blame. By the turn of the century a new mythical group seized the public imagination—the sinister International Bankers—a loathsome cartel of munitions makers, money manipulators, and archfiends. Like the Illuminati and other phantom orders before them, they were accused of running the world from behind the scenes. The mischievous men its black suits were tagged as agents for the International Bankers in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s.

It's interesting to note that indeed, various groups have been accused in the past and present for 'running the world', i.e. for being at the top of a 'grand conspiracy'. International bankers and neocons (or neoliberals) are the latest incarnations it seems. But what if this conspiracy-hunt is just smoke and mirrors? Of course there are certain 'conspiracies' and such, but maybe this angle prevents people from seeing the unseen, from looking at it in the context of hyperdimensional realities. Most importantly (and related to the 'higher perspective'), it may prevent people from getting into the nitty gritty of pschological knowledge, i.e. HOW do humans work on a psychological level, producing all these negative results that look like a 'conspiracy', but may have more to do with humans just being humans, with their various motivations and pathologies, including psychopathy?


I think his scientific explanations (such as about the electromagnetic spectrum) are a bit over the top and too simplistic/speculative, as far as I can tell. They are still useful though in that Keel really has a knack to get your thinking going. His speculation at the end of the book about the "eighth tower" that controls humanity and that may be an artifact of an ancient civilization might be an interesting metaphor (and offers some food for thought), but it seems to me Keel's imagination runs a bit wild here (and he admits as much).

All in all, I think it's a great book, especially if you aren't familiar yet with these things.
 
I've just got into this book after forgetting about in my book pile, and I've got to say it's a tremendous piece of work. Keel figured so many things out, it's hard to believe that this was first published in 1975. Way ahead of his time, it's been fascinating reading this, a real page turner.

The fact that he could envisage a Cosmic Mind was great to read in particular. His following of the Big Hairy Monster sightings was amusing too, don't think I'd like to bump into one of those beasties though. His study of what he calls the Superspectrum is interesting, a bit redolent of the information field discussed before on here.

I'm about half way through, and it gets a big thumbs up from me. Essential reading for fans of the subject.
 
Finished reading this book over the weekend. It's the only book I've read of John Keel - figured I'd read the last one as @hlat mentioned in a post in the Trojan Horse thread that this book essentially summarised Keel's thoughts.

I thought the book was both great and frustrating.

What was great?

He put forward a compelling argument for a lot of paranormal incidences including UFOs being underpinned by some sort of spectrum that's invisible to us. He showed that this spectrum isn't static per se but is able to relate to our psychological nature which makes it even more insidious. It reflects back to us things that then validate our thoughts or vice versa. It seems intelligent to an extent and it appears certain people are better equipped to perceive parts of it than others.

So what's this super spectrum? Knowing what we know, I have to say that Keel was describing the hyper dimensional nature of reality, touching upon aspects of 4D and also other things that may not necessarily be underpinned by 4D e.g. ghosts, apparitions etc.

What was frustrating?

In my opinion, I thought he didn't really pin down what the superspectrum was. I'd imagine this would be very confusing for someone who wasn't familiar with the C's, Law of one or similar. He didn't convincingly set the foundations for the basis of what the phenomenon was. He merely made the argument that the phenomenon existed and it manipulated us.

Having said the above, it really made me think that planets and space may not be as we perceive it in 3D. What else could space and planets be if it's not how we perceive it? 😳

His speculation at the end of the book about the "eighth tower" that controls humanity and that may be an artifact of an ancient civilization might be an interesting metaphor (and offers some food for thought), but it seems to me Keel's imagination runs a bit wild here (and he admits as much).

4 years later 😅... I think he got you here, or rather the superspectrum got you here. Keel wasn't saying the superspectrum was created by an ancient artifact. He was demonstrating how a plausible "devil theory" can be created and made to appear plausible if you take a set of known facts and develop them into a theory. As the superspectrum isn't really pinnable in the rigorous sense that you can pin down a stone for example. I think he was showing how we are very vulnerable to it because it has this thing that interacts with our psychology and perceptions and it acts in a way to validate certain believes we may have thereby leading us down wrong ally ways.

Anyways, here's the bit where he confirms he wasn't running wild with his imagination but rather he was doing a mental exercise to pass a point

IMG_20210809_084941.jpg
 
Operation Trojan Horse is a good one too. UFO with the letters UFO on the side. Funny stuff.
 
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