End Of Days – Tom Shroder X Lon Milo DuQuette |Old Souls|Bin Laden|Enochian Magic|Tarot|EOD 24
Episode 24: Echoes Of The Fallen
Michael begins by introducing us to tonight’s guests. First up is award-winning journalist, writer and editor, Tom Shroder. His new book is The Most Famous Writer Who Ever Lived: A True Story of My Family {http://amzn.to/2nj56Iu}. He is also the author of Acid Test: LSD, Ecstasy, and the Power to Heal {http://amzn.to/2mPVlnc}. His book, The Hunt for bin Laden {http://amzn.to/2ntdLHI}, became the #1 selling Kindle single on Amazon. Then after the break, Lon Milo DuQuette returns to the program. A musician and recording artist since the 70s, Lon quit the business to pursue his interest in mysticism and the work of Aleister Crowley. Michael predicts tonight’s show will be a bit of a rattlesnake…
Shroder was born in New York City then moved to Florida when he was a teenager. He later became a journalist at the University of Florida, worked at the Miami Herald, and is still friends with humor columnist Dave Barry. Michael gets Tom to recount various stories about Florida. He’s also written a book about the Everglades, his first book, Seeing the Light: Wilderness and Salvation – A Photographer’s Tale {http://amzn.to/2ntf5dM}, about Clyde Butcher.
Michael then asks Tom about his thoughts on the paranormal and if he’d ever seen anything unusual. Tom mentions his book, Old Souls: Compelling Evidence from Children Who Remember Past Lives {http://amzn.to/2njj8Kf}, explaining he spent a month in Lebanon and a month in India researching these cases. He says he attempted to come up with some type of scientific explanation for it.
Michael brings up the 1994 story of the schoolchildren in Zimbabwe who had a mass sighting. Michael says a large group of children don’t lie. Tom doesn’t doubt the existence of intelligent life in the universe, he just doesn’t understand how contact between them could be physically possible. He reminds us that the more we understand the more we understand how little we know.
Back to reincarnation, Tom takes the stance of a scientist. He thinks that coincidence, lying, and delusion are just a small part of this. He thinks something else is going on with these cases. But he doesn’t think reincarnation is testable. He thinks it’s possible that reality is a dream and mentions his many synchronistic experiences. He recounts a story about traveling around Mexico with a friend when they were in their 20s and asking for a sign. He got one and considered it more of a gift.
Michael asks Tom what he knows about the death of bin Laden. Tom believes that Seal Team Six did find and kill bin Laden in 2011. There’s no doubt in his mind. He got to know the shooter, Robert O’Neill, pretty well. Tom is ghostwriting his book, The Operator: Firing the Shots that Killed Osama bin Laden and My Years as a SEAL Team Warrior {http://amzn.to/2mXF1kT}, which is scheduled to be released in April.
Tom’s most recent book, The Most Famous Writer Who Ever Lived, is about the life of his grandfather, MacKinlay Kantor, the Pulizer Prize-winning novelist who wrote the best-selling book, Andersonville {http://amzn.to/2mgcx2j}. He left his papers to the Library of Congress, which Tom later researched and explored.
Tom’s website is tomshroder.com.
Michael welcomes Lon Milo DuQuette back to the program and recalls the last time they talked was many moons ago and at the time didn’t get a chance to explore Lon’s musical career. Lon tells us he started playing guitar when he was 14 and actually found steady work at that time. He then fell in with the recently-departed songwriter Charles D. Harris. They got a contract with CBS to record on the Epic label. Their song, The Word Is Love, went to #1 in a few markets. He recalls it being a wild and crazy lifestyle. His college years, during which he was a Drama major, was only so that he could score LSD. He was introduced to Eastern mysticism and magic at that time as well. He left music when his son was born and became a student of occultism.
As a “stupid kid from Nebraska,” Lon says he needed to be shocked into seeing how deep the mind really was. He grew up during the psychedelic 60s and in the 70s came into contact with the Rosicrucian AMORC Order, which he describes as mystic Freemasonry. He said he really enjoyed dressing up in robes. At that time he began taking a Kabbalah course and learned about the Tarot as well. Eventually he found Crowley’s Thoth Tarot Deck, which he said were unlike any other cards he’d ever seen. That deck led to him going to Dublin to be initiated into the Ordo Templi Orientis, which was quite small at the time. Today he’s been in the OTO longer than any other living member. He estimates there are now over 4,000 members world-wide, making it the largest overtly magical organization in the world. He is currently Lodge Master in Newport Beach and the United States Deputy Grand Master.
The last time Michael and Lon spoke Lon was in China. He said he’s been back five times since. He teaches an on-going Kabbalah course there which is now being made into a book. He sees it as part two of his book, The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford: Dilettante’s Guide to What You Do and Do Not Need to Know to Become a Qabalist {http://amzn.to/2lR8vkZ}. Lon explains that the rabbi is back and they’ve discovered new information around the Hebrew alphabet. He’s created a three-degree initiatory organization based on this new information. He says the students in China are very open and ripe for this.
Lon mentions that his book, Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot: An Authoritative Examination of the World’s Most Fascinating and Magical Tarot Cards {http://amzn.to/2mXR4yD} has been published in Chinese edition as well. He describes it as a primer for Kabbalah, Tarot, and magic, so it’s become a very handy textbook.
He also has a new album coming out called Sweet Babylon, and will be recording a new single within the next six weeks called She Don’t Know Where the Money Comes From. He recently did a show at Dusk Dawn Club in Beijing where he had a large English-speaking audience. In September, Lon will be heading to New York City to attend Weiser’s 70th Anniversary where they’ll be reissuing The Book of Thoth {http://amzn.to/2mQg1f4}, Crowley’s book on Tarot, as well as Lon’s Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot. While he’s there he’ll do a show.
The OTO is having their bi-yearly convention in Orlando in August, and Lon may be going to Romania to teach Enochian. He said he’s always wanted to go to Transylvania. Michael asks if he uses a crystal ball and Lon says he doesn’t. He does have a replica of John Dee’s black obsidian mirror that someone gave him, but explains he’s not a scryer.
Lon tells us that in February he attended a big yearly pagan event just to conduct a 90-minute Enochian working. He had 300 people chanting in Enochian, the biggest group he’d ever had. He said they all got insanely stoned – *specifically* stoned.
Michael asks Lon about the witches who conducted a binding ritual to get rid of Donald Trump. Lon wasn’t really having any of it. He says you could whip up a demon to hurt your enemy, but then again you could just punch them in the nose. This is more respectable than getting a demon to do it for you. Lon says you don’t want your demons to think you’re a coward. It’s your job to make them scared of you and not think that you’re too frightened to do things yourself.
Michael asks Lon for his thoughts and opinions on today’s popular music. Lon says he doesn’t listen to it. He mentions the Nine Inch Nails concert that aired on PBS. His wife enjoyed it, especially the two female backup singers, and recommended Lon use them the next time he needs that type of backup vocal. Lon was able to use one of them during the recording of one of his singles.
Lon is currently writing an alchemy song, explaining that his drug of choice these days is his guitar and open-mic night. He was without a guitar for 25 years. Michael tells Lon he broke his guitar and is starting to experience withdrawals. Lon tells us his entry drug was the ukulele.
Michael asks Lon what interested him about Aleister Crowley. Lon describes him as “a fun grownup” in a stuffy magical world. Crowley could laugh at himself and wasn’t afraid of being an eccentric. Lon says that through Crowley he got over his superstitious programming, saying “The only black magic I could find in Aleister Crowley was in the darkness of my own unfounded fears.” He thought Crowley was the coolest guy of the 20th Century. Lon said he had the good fortune of meeting several of Crowley’s students. He also mentions that Crowley did not eat any babies. “If I was a smarter person I would not have needed to ask that question.” Lon adds that Eastern Tantrics are not as superstitious as those of us in the West.
Michael asks Lon his opinion on Michael Aquino and the Temple of Set. Lon said he isn’t familiar enough with his work to comment. Michael mentions he’s caused quite a bit of controversy on this and on his former program. Lon says they once conducted an outdoor ceremony and caught some backlash from a neighbor, but that’s about the extent of the negativity he’s experienced. He says he gets along well with people because they get to know him.
The topic of Ouija Boards comes up. Lon doesn’t see the need for them. He doesn’t think the door should be opened that wide. Enochian magic opens just a tiny slit of consciousness. “You don’t get focus like that with a Ouija Board.”
Lon sees Scientology as “a dangerous cult.” They also discuss the Mormon church, pastors in general, and cults in particular. Lon says that every individual should have the opportunity to explore what might be helpful to them, even if that’s an irrational belief system. He shares with us that he’s know people who have spent time in cults and eventually snapped themselves out of it. They felt that the time was valuable and they learned from it. He reminds us that we don’t know what someone’s karmic needs are and what their baggage is. And that we can’t go through life making everyone else see things the way we do.
Lon’s website is his Facebook page. He also has a fan page there too. If anyone would like to support his work on a monthly basis, his Patreon page is at https://www.patreon.com/
Michael closes the program with his thoughts on the new Wikileaks CIA documents, and mentions the enormous popularity of his interview with Stan Deyo. Please visit the show’s website, michaeldecon.com, to listen to all past episodes of the program.