In fact, the site was so popular, I'm surprised nobody
saw fit to put
an ad on it. They would have raked it in!
But if you didn't get a chance to see it, today's your
lucky day, cuz
ol' Jimbo here has just what you're looking for: the address
for a
mirror site (an exact duplicate). It's sitting out there
at
<http:/www.disinfo.com/prop/media/hgate>,
just waiting for all you
voyeurs to cop a peek.
Almost as interesting is the Higher Source website mirrored
at
http://www7.concentric.net/
where the cultists offered their website
design services. It even contains links to clients' websites,
including such staid customers as the San Diego Polo Club.
This site
shows the more banal, business-like side of the cult.
But as the century comes to a close, there seems to be
a growing
fascination with conspiracy theories, at least in the
West. Comets
carrying spaceships, crop circles, cattle mutilations
any subject with
the slightest bit of mystery seems grist for the conspiracists'
mill.
First it was Aids which was said to have been devised by
CIA biotech
labs in Zaire, now it's the Ebola virus.
If the 1890s were known as the gay 90s, then this decade
must surely
be the paranoid 90s.
Just what accounts for this fearful fin-de-siecle mood?
Is it a
response to the end of Cold War? Or part of some personal
need to have
a bit of mystery in our lives?
A little of both, perhaps. The X-Files, one of the most
popular TV
shows in America, may simply be replacing those old spy
thrillers like
Mission Impossible. Only now those devious aliens are
the enemy,
rather than the inscrutable Commies.
The point is, conspiracy makes for great entertainment.
It allows for
meaningful suspense. Everyone loves a story about a lone
underdog
taking on a huge, malevolent ring of conspirators. The
bigger and more
believable the conspiracy the better.
Of course, there is no better place to seek out conspiracies
than the
Internet. The Web seems to be crawling with home pages
compiled by
feverish nerds pouring out all their paranoid delusions.
In that
sense, the Higher Source cult's digital dirges seem most
appropriate.
Conspiracy theories, like cult religious musings, aren't
bad by
themselves. It's when people take them too seriously as
in San Diego
that tragedy strikes. In that sense, the Fortean Times
has the right
attitude.
A particularly paranoid reader recently recommended me
this magazine,
which has its homepage at www.forteantimes.com and claims
to explore
the wild frontiers between the known and unknown in a
way that is
supposed to be both fun and educational .
Question every assumption and have fun learning, urge the
editors.
This month's issue, for instance, has articles on the
US' supposed
fake moon landings (don't worry, most readers think they
were
genuine), a mystic language from inside the Hollow Earth
, and the
search for the cobra-grande of Amazonia a snake said to
be big enough
to swallow deer whole.
The magazine carries on the work of Charles Fort, an early-century
skeptic of scientific explanations who said that, I conceive
of
nothing, in religion, science, philosophy, that is more
than the
proper thing to wear, for a while . Not a bad motto, considering
the
way scientific theories are continually being revised.
Witness how
Newtonian mechanics has given way to quantum mechanics,
at least in
the atomic realm.
My conspiratorial friend also suggested I check out the
DisInformation
website at www.disinfo.com.
Written in vivid red lettering on a black
background, this site has a darker, more malevolent air
to it.
It also contains a lot more material. You can spend hours
exploring
all the links to sinister subjects. But be warned: you
may come out of
it a quivering wreck, your grap on reality slipping...
The truth is
out there, way out there, it advises.
DisInformation currently has a Suicide Special Report on
the Higher
Source cult: Is there a more bizarre story this decade?
Waco, OJ, even
John Wayne Bobbitt's porno career pale in comparison.
You can also
read between the lines on TWA Flight 800, find out what
Newt got away
with, or learn about the insidious side effects of bovine
growth hormone.
These guys aren't exactly paranoid, as the saying goes,
they just
think everyone is against them. So go ahead. Read away.
But take it
all with a pinch nay, a pillar of salt.