UPDATE 2008: After SIX YEARS of constant defamation and cyberstalking on the part of Vincent Bridges and his associates, the enormous amounts of time and even money that are spent on this activity, we suggest that it is time to state the obvious: Vincent Bridges is not just a cyberstalker, he is a paid COINTELPRO agent.
UPDATE 2003:- At the present point in time, Spring 2003, when the Quantum Future Group Websites are getting a “face lift,” there has been some discussion as to whether or not to retain this report and its related documents onsite. It has been, to understate the matter, somewhat controversial. It has also made us a target for ongoing attacks from the individuals discussed herein. It could so easily be deleted. Things certainly might be very pleasant if we did so as we have been told by the subject of the report.
But, the “easy way” is not always the right way.
As we discussed the matter of the “Bridges Dossier,” we realized that it was through the “lesson” and example of Vincent Bridges and friends that all of us were prepared to SEE through George Bush and his gang of warmongers as well as many other cyberstalking types.
The chief question we are concerned with is its value as a teaching tool. The Quantum Future Research Group members all agree that the dynamics of this “experience” did more to teach them about life in general than any other single process.
In order to understand this report, it is useful to read about Laura Knight-Jadczyk and her Cassiopaean experiment. As Laura has written, her interest in the paranormal and so-called “channeling” was purely scientific. Her background and extensive writings confirm this. She found the results of the experiment to be sufficiently interesting to publish on the net for discussion and feedback purposes. In fact, the source – declaring itself to be Laura in the future – had urged her to “network” via the internet. Following this direction was, in fact, the means by which she and her husband, physicist Arkadiusz Jadczyk, were brought into contact with one another. However, networking is problematical.
The internet is a double-edged sword. Not only does it offer the possibility for contact between like-minded individuals separated by vast distances and even belonging to different cultures, it also provides the opportunities for individuals of a predatory nature to seek out prey for any number of nefarious reasons. Never before have the possibilities of networking been so enhanced, and the dangers so prevalent.
In the case of Ark and Laura, there were certain safeguards in place. Ark was a prominent physicist in the European community with a public presence that could be easily verified. As Tom French wrote in his article in the St. Petersburg Times:
Ark seemed perfect for Laura. In fact, he seemed almost too good to be true. So I checked. I did not want to see Laura crushed into oblivion. I did not want to learn, six months down the line, that this soul mate of hers was actually a 14-year-old boy in Philadelphia, doing what any 14-year-old boy would be doing on the other end of the computer line. I asked one of the Times’ researchers to see if Arkadiusz Jadczyk was real. Indeed he was; in 1995, he had even won something called a Humboldt Award, which if I understood correctly, was a respectable achievement in the world of physics.
Ark had similar assurances about Laura. Not only had Mr. French spent over five years following Laura and her work, and was available for contact, Ark and Laura also had a mutual acquaintance – another physicist, Ruggiero Santilli.
In what seemed to be a similar situation, Vincent Bridges had certain “bona fides” published on the internet that assured Laura that he was who he said he was. What she did NOT consider was the fact that such bona fides were “manufactured.” It’s not only 14 year old boys on computers that we have to worry about. Anybody with a computer can claim anything they want to claim, create websites to “validate” their claims, and proceed to con anybody in any manner they choose.
Internet fraud generally refers to any type of fraudulent use of a computer and the Internet, including the use of chat rooms, email, message boards, discussion groups and websites, to conduct fraudulent activities. The attributes of internet technology – low cost, ease of use, and anonymous nature, among others – make it an attractive medium for fraudulent scams, child sexual exploitation, and increasingly, a new concern known as “cyberstalking.”
~~~
Vincent Bridges first wrote to Laura in the spring of 1999. Mr. Bridges claimed to be writing a book about subjects which Laura had been researching for some time – alchemy and Fulcanelli – and she willingly shared all her data and answered his questions while he wrote his book. When Laura later read the book, she was disappointed to note that not only was it a shallow and juvenile treatment of the subjects, but that Bridges had obviously been utilizing the information Laura had freely given to him to pad his book in a few areas, though clearly he had either misinterpreted her comments, or had deliberatly twisted them. The correspondence lapsed. (This correspondence is archived with all headers intact and is available to legitimate researchers upon request. You can read the letters online HERE.)
In response to the many questions and requests for more information from readers of the Cassiopaea site, in the spring of 2000, Laura began to write the Wave Series. This attracted even more attention, mostly positive, though it also attracted the personal attention of some extremely questionable groups and individuals. Laura received a mysterious email:
From: “Christaofer Richarde”
To: Laura Knight-Jadczyk
Subject:
Date sent: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 19:25:39 -0700
Oh, it is possible to even concoct the wanderings that you have concocted. Nevertheless, there is more to this story of Rennes, than meets the eye…as the king might say.
Laughed my way, wholeheartedly, through your article! Le Cercle would be most amused, in fact.
May Saturn husk hexagonal corn for you….. D-
Knowing that Vincent Bridges claimed to be an expert on “occult groups” from a journalistic perspective, Laura wrote to him to inquire what he thought of the above email. It was only later, after many other strange events transpired, that it was learned that Bridges, himself, had sent the above email with the hope that it would “re-start” the correspondence without him having to appear as the initiator. This is a typical tactic of the cyberstalker – to “create” seeming synchronicities so that the victim will be emotionally “ripe” for manipulation.
After a few exchanges, Bridges launched a discussion with Laura in which he claimed to be a struggling new publisher needing good authors – with an offer to publish her work and promote it with a “conference.”
Laura, overwhelmed with the task of keeping up with the research group, answering questions, editing and arranging the transcripts, researching clues from the material, and writing articles for the site, thought that Mr. Bridges was a godsend! Having “known” him in cyberspace for almost two years – including being aware of his “credentials” published on the internet that he had pointed to, as well as having a book in her hand that bore the imprint of his claimed publishing company – Laura felt she could trust him, and she turned over to him unpublished material, confidential materials that he suggested he would help to edit, and believing that her life’s work was in good hands, she settled down to concentrate on writing.
There were, of course, differences in opinion regarding the material and its possible interpretations between Ark and Laura and Vincent Bridges, but Laura was confident that, given time, Bridges would prove to be amenable to a more open-minded approach. As one observer of the dynamic noted succinctly: “If other people are so knowledgable about what Laura is doing so that they are qualified to pass judgment, then why aren’t they conducting their own successful “experiment?” Why haven’t their lives changed dramatically – and for the better – as Laura’s and Ark’s have because they have actually APPLIED the things they have learned?”
The fact is, Vincent Bridges did try his own “channeling” and the reader may like to have a look at a discussion between Dan Winter and “Dr. Strange” on the results. We were not impressed.
In the summer of 2001, Mr. Bridges came to visit Laura with the intent of attempting to hypnotize her to try to extract infomation that he believed she had in her subconscious. Laura cooperated with this experiment and, as a consequence, perceived a direct visual representation of Vincent Bridges himself! What she saw stunned her. His “mask” was so effective and convincing that Laura could hardly believe that what she was seeing was true. After all, this was not just a matter of deciding you didn’t like someone and didn’t want to associate with them for one reason or another. The fact was, Laura liked Vincent Bridges very much and had spent several enjoyable hours in conversation or correspondence with him.
Laura had many, many doubts about what she was seeing. It was actually painful to contemplate the necessary response to the understanding of Vincent Bridges’s nature and malefic intent toward her – if it were true. And, since Laura did not consider psychically received information to be reliable, she decided to make some tests.
Ark and Laura discussed the matter for weeks seeking hard data – evidence. It was not lacking, certainly, but it was always possible to “give the benefit of the doubt” and overlook the subtle clues. A hypothesis was formed, a series of tests were devised, and with dismay, Laura saw that Vincent Bridges failed every test of honesty and sincerity.
As mentioned above, Ark and Laura had agreed to speak at a conference Bridges had said he was organizing. At this point, knowing what they did about Bridges’s probably true intentions, they felt it was simply the best course of action to cancel the conference appearance and terminate any further business relations. Bridges had a number of other presenters lined up, and the cancellation was made more than six weeks in advance of the conference so there was no reason for this cancellation to produce any problems other than a change in schedule and perhaps a mild upset that is normal in any parting of the ways.
Ark and Laura were NOT prepared for the vicious and extreme attacks Vincent Bridges launched against them in public. Laura tried to understand it as “hurt feelings” – non-professional, certainly, but understandable – and even though she knew that they had done the right thing, and Bridges’s reactions actually proved his true nature, she still felt a great deal of sympathy for Bridges who obviously had his heart set on the money he could make, and the prestige he could achieve as their publisher and associate. It was certainly these two things he targeted particularly in his months and months of virulent slander and defamation against them: their reputations and consequently, their ability to earn their livelihood and support their family. It seemed as if Bridges had decided that if he could not “own” Laura and her material, he would make sure that no one else would ever be interested in approaching it or discussing it with her ever again.
Observing this behavior was astonishing. Vincent had seemed to be a truly civilized man – even a Renaissance man – and to witness and experience him acting like a street gang member or an uneducated guttersnipe, was truly puzzling to Laura. It was this puzzlement that compelled the questions that lead to this report.
On a practical level, Laura’s doubts about the matter were put to rest when the Quantum Future (formerly Perseus Foundation) research group undertook an investigation of Bridges – including a professional private investigator’s report – in the fall of 2001. To Laura’s chagrin, it was revealed that Bridges was little more than an ordinary con-artist. Not only was his entire published “resume” a complete fraud, he had a history of attaching himself to individuals – to ride on their coattails, so to say – in hopes of stealing their work, their money, or both.
Even though there was a history of fraud, Ark and Laura were reluctant to publish the report on Bridges. However, after three months of exhausting cyber-attacks including public defamation and cyberstalking, it became necessary to respond publicly. The results of the initial investigation were published on Thanksgiving Day, 2001.
Mr. Bridges reacted to the data presented in this report as expected: at all costs he wanted it removed, and since he could not force us to remove it legally, (according to U.S. statutes, truth is not libel or slander), he resorted to attempted blackmail and extortion to try to force us to remove this report.
We learned later that in addition to what we knew about his public activities, that Vincent was up to a lot more nefarious things behind the scenes. The reader may want to have a look at the data – including evidence – that Vincent Bridges was hacking into the computer of a member of our research groups and stole her passwords and used her internet account to the tune of about $800.00 over a period of three months . That’s a lot of bandwidth!
In January 2002, a former member of the Cassiopaea experiment, Frank Scott joined forces with Vincent Bridges to discredit the experiment, to label the members of the research group as members of a “cult,” obviously in a concerted effort to put an end to the experiment itself, to further destroy Ark and Laura’s reputations, and thus to deprive them of the means of earning their living.
Laura had to acknowledge the fact that two people she liked very much, whose companionship she had enjoyed immensely, and who she felt could have been the most marvelous of co-experimenters, were simply not what they had presented themselves to be. She had, in short, been victimized by individuals fitting the profile of the psychopath.
Day after day Laura struggled to make sense of what was happening in her life. She was heartbroken. Her health deteriorated rapidly, and in January of 2002 she suffered a life-threatening illness that was a direct result of the daily stress of being stalked, defamed, threatened and harassed.
After she had recovered enough to sit at her desk, Laura did the only thing she knew to do with what she had learned: she sought daily to understand the dynamic she had experienced and then, shared it with others by writing the Adventures Series, an account of the events and dynamics as well as the many threads of research she followed and the results.
As it turned out, Laura’s act of converting her suffering to sharing led to some of the most profound revelations brought forth in modern times regarding the nature of our reality. Seeking to understand the inexplicable perceptions and capacity for deception of Vincent Bridges, Frank Scott, and others involved in the attacks, Laura searched and probed and “tested” on the daily public stage of the internet. The search for answers led to revelations about psychopaths, a topic crucial to understanding history, religion, politics, and many other social constructs. This material found validation in the most interesting ways in terms of the work of Bob Altemeyer on the Right Wing Authoritarian personality type, not to mention some esoteric sources that emerged from the Eastern Orthodox tradition! Without this understanding, it would be almost impossible to comprehend the events on the World Stage, including the behavior of George Bush and his gang.
The Bridges Dossier
Vincent Bridges is a man who claims to have such extensive knowledge of conspiracy theory, mind control, Satanic ritual sex abuse, psychology and related subjects, that it seems amazing that he has not been assassinated by any of those people whose secrets he claims to hold. That, in itself, is a clue to the nature of his backers, though not the only one.
Bridges is one of many such individuals who have taken advantage of a special “market niche” in our reality – individuals who claims cannot be checked because they deal with an underworld of mystery – a field ripe for con-artists to move in, set up shop, and take advantage of a lot of people who have the idea that something strange is going on in our world – but that it is all hidden behind a veil.
In the time since the publication of this report, Vincent Bridges has altered his websites, changed his “bio,” and generally “cleaned up his act” in public.
Let us look first at the credentials of Vincent Bridges as they existed on the Laura Lee Website at the time Bridges began his correspondence with Laura.
From the Laura Lee website, these are Vincent Bridges’ claimed credentials:
Vincent Bridges currently practices a form of psycho-acoustic therapy, a trauma abreaction technique using light and sound entrainment of brain frequencies, in the Uwharrie Mountains of North Carolina.
His academic background includes (at the University of South Carolina and North Carolina) English, History and Classical Studies with graduate research into the Hermetic origins of the Renaissance; other fields of intensive research include: ancient cultures and their shamanic practices, the history of language, cultural anthropology, Egyptology with extensive research into the El-Amarna Era, comparative religion, mathematics and sacred geometry, brain physiology, psychology, theoretical physics and psycho-acoustic technology.
He is also a consulting geomancer or earth grid engineer and the Director of the Fifth Way Mystery School, an international group of Ophanic researchers.
Vincent’s background includes stints as a small town journalist, for the North Charleston News and the North Davidson Dispatch; rock critic for magazines such as Rolling Stone, Cream, Downbeat, Seventeen, and High Times; fiction in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Hustler, Crescent Review and a novel, Walpurgisnacht from DAW Books (1981).
An initiate of many different spiritual traditions, including Voodoo, Sufism, Rosicrucianism and ceremonial magick, Vincent lives with his wife, the artist Darlene, and their four cats in a haunted yellow Victorian house on the edge of the Uwharrie National Forest.
Altogether, quite impressive qualifications, are they not? Mr. Bridges is an accomplished writer, scholar, and collector of various initiations. The question is, are these statements true?
A former group member, an English teacher at the University of Wisconsin, researched Mr. Bridges credentials through the databases available to the university where she is employed. She discovered that Mr. Bridges had none of the credits he claimed. She attempted to find references to his early work. She found none. Looking for his name among the publications he had listed in his publishing credits, nothing was found under the name Vincent Bridges. She announced this research to our group, and we were certainly surprised because until she started to “check up” on him, no one had ever seriously thought that his credentials might be faked. We all just took it as a given that he was who he said he was.
The same former member then began to question Bridges’s “educational” credits. Since she was in a position to check, Mr. Bridges responded to her that he had been very up-front with us about these matters. He later wrote the same in an email that he asked, at the end, to have “shared with as many people as possible.” In this email he wrote:
Laura has made much of my bio listing on the LL site and its supposed errors. If she had read through her old emails and inner group postings she will find that I’ve already told the story. I went off to USC, South Carolina, as an English major. I had a few awards in poetry and playwriting to my credit and had met James Dickey the summer before my freshmen year at a poetry conference. He liked me, I already knew how to drink, and he became my mentor that fall at school. With his help, I breezed through the undergraduate English courses on advanced studies and by my sophomore year had a major for myself in History and Theatre Arts, as it was quaintly called in those days.
We did read through all the old emails looking for a clue that he never claimed any degrees.
From one of the earliest, on Fri, 7 May 1999 he writes: “as far back as Grad school in the mid seventies.”
On Sun, 3 Oct 1999: “I switched from English to History, got out of undergraduate work and then went on to psychology… I went back to school, graduate work in Medieval History…”
On Fri, 20 Apr 2001: “In the winter of 1977 – 78, I was in grad school in History and Classical studies at UNC, working part time as a freelance writer, including books reviews, etc. for the Psychical Research Foundation at Duke, part of FRNM or the Rhine Foundation.”
Mr. Bridges is correct. He never claimed any degrees. However, he wrote in such a way as to imply them. After all, one does not go to “grad school” without having graduated. And he did, definitely state that he was in “grad school.” He later “explained” this to mean that he did “graduate level work.” But that is putting so fine a point on it that it begs the question: why would someone make their meaning so obscure that 99 out of a hundred people would miss the “catch?”
Since none of Vincent Bridges “credits” and credentials were checking out on the briefest of inspection, another member of the group undertook to ask Mr. Bridges for “his side of the story.” In the lengthy essay, chronicling his abuse at the hands of the members of the Cassiopaea group, he revealed that he had used several aliases in his writing career over the years. In his own words:
“…Two other points here: My novel and my credentials as a therapist. First of all, the DAW books list that I find on-line covers only backstock and doesn’t even go back to 1981. It is possible that there is another list I haven’t found that covers every title they’ve ever published.
“All I know is that DAW paid me a small advance for a book called Walpurgisnacht, by “Roland Maxwell” in 1980 and my sudden departure in 1981 left everything hanging. If by some chance they chose not to publish it, then that’s actually good news to me. That I used it at all on my bio is a sign of insecurity and I plan to take it out. Another sign of insecurity was my habitual use of pseudonyms, Victor Sutherland for music reviews, G. Richard Bozarth for science fiction, and so on.”
A quick check of the internet showed that Mr. Victor Sutherland was a dead character actor. Mr. G. Richard Bozarth certainly did appear as the author of a single story in Asimov’s Sci Fi magazine.
Mr. Bridges has earlier stated clearly that a book Walpurgisnacht, written by one of his “aliases” was published, that it “saw print, though in a heavily bowlderized (sic) form.” That does seem to suggest strongly that he actually laid eyes on his work. The story certainly has morphed when he says:
“All I know is that DAW paid me a small advance for a book called Walpurgisnacht, by “Roland Maxwell” in 1980 … If by some chance they chose not to publish it, then that’s actually good news to me. That I used it at all on my bio is a sign of insecurity and I plan to take it out.”
A “sign of insecurity?” I guess it does make people insecure when their claims don’t check out. And if he had any proof of writing it, instead of “taking it out,” why didn’t he just produce the evidence? Don’t authors usually memorialize their first book by copying the check? How about saving the contract? Questions, questions, questions…
Nevertheless, there was a listing of G. Richard Bozarth, and Victor Sutherland in an index! (Or so it was claimed.) What’s more, the explanation about Walpurgisnacht was now seen as reasonable by some who were taken in by poor Mr. Bridges’s charming and self-effacing way. We could all sleep well now. Mr. Bridges was just a tragic guy who needed real friends and supporters in his time of trial. It is utterly amazing how effectively psychopaths play the pity card.
And, so it was, in the course of reading the many posts by Mr. Bridges and his followers in order to find clues to understand his outrageous behavior, his stalking and relentless defamation of Laura and Ark, that Mr. Bridges’s entire life rose to the surface demanding answers.
How was it that a man could claim to be a “New Age Guru” and to make so many “sage” pronouncements and present himself as a “purveyor of love and light,” and be such a LIAR?
It wasn’t even just being a liar: it was the kinds of lies he told. The filth that poured out of his mouth and pen was shocking. Here we aren’t talking about differing opinions. We are talking about outright, objective lies. Lies about facts and dates and doings that were witnessed by a sufficient number of reputable people whose concensus was that Mr. Bridges either had to be stark raving mad – a delusional psychotic – or something very serious was going on.
Once the question about Mr.Bridges’s sanity was raised as a result of observing his behavior, the next question was, of course, how much of all the things he had EVER said before, the things we assumed to be true, actually WERE true?
Had something just suddenly happened to the man to make him go off the deep end?
How can a person lie so blatantly and viciously and not even think that anyone will notice, nor that anyone will bother to check?
Only a crazy person would lie that way with no concern for being exposed.
Examining a large selection of Mr. Bridges contradictory remarks about channeling, as well as numerous postings on the internet regarding same, even including some of his own claims to have channeled “Ophanic Intelligences,” and to have received profound “insights” of a dubious nature, we came to the realization that, again, something did not quite fit. Even an amateur could see that the material he “received” himself was highly questionable. It also raised the question as to why he undertook such a long process of insinuation into our group (an overview of his emails clearly indicates this process as is being revealed in the Adventures Series) if he had his “own source.”
Since he was claiming, by virtue of his extensive credentials, to be the expert of all experts on channeling, and having these enormous questions about his sanity being brought to the fore due to his actions, we decided to have a look at one or two of these claims in order to be better able to assess his condition.
Was he lying so boldly and viciously because he had simply gone crazy? Or had he been lying all along and were we now seeing the REAL Vincent Bridges?
What we are presenting here needs the caveat that we have used due diligence in gathering our information. We are making no claims, we are just reporting. Any other person who follows the same procedures we have will find the same things. We have undertaken to contact all of the parties listed in Mr. Bridges resume, as well as the many “notable” people he has mentioned in his many emails describing how he came by his expertise. Our initial inquiries were neutral.
After these initial neutral inquiries to determine if we were in contact with the appropriate parties, Mr. Bridges claims in regard to his interactions with the many and varied people have been forwarded to them for review and commentary. When the results came back, if necessary, we sent follow-up inquiries so that the individual checking the records would be apprised of all the particulars that needed to be checked. We wanted to be fair and to include all the different aliases Bridges had claimed to use in the event the person may have known him under a different name. We include here only the final results.
All contacts and emails have the transmission codes and headers on them, stored in several places so as to verify their original status. Any claims by Bridges that we “manipulated” the results can be shown to be false. However, we consider it to still be “open” that one or more of the respondents to our inquiries could have missed something or may even have an agenda to harm Mr. Bridges. If Mr. Bridges can provide certified true legal copies of any proofs that he has to back up his claims, we will be more than happy to investigate if they are genuinely certified, and if so, to publish them here.
[Note added July 2003: to date, Mr. Bridges has NOT produced anything to certify any of his prior claims. He has said that he "made two little mistakes on my bio," and that he has "apologized" but that we, here at QFS, refuse to acknowledge his contrition. Even though he has cleaned up his false claims from his websites regarding his credentials, its clear that Bridges continues to lie.
Bridges has produced a set of images showing that he was a contributor to several free advertising circulars in the area where he lives, but this in no way corrects his previous lies about his major publishing credits.
He has also had his friends post comments about his "writing credentials," stating that he has actually "published far more than he originally claimed." It should be noted that these "publications" consist of articles and posts on internet sites, forums and groups and in no way can be considered to address the issue of previous, falsely claimed, major publishing credentials such as we address in this report.]
Some of Mr. Bridges claims are in regards to people who are now dead, but we have expectations that the heirs, associates, and/or executors of estates will be able to answer our questions, and we have forwarded the relevant material to them with requests that they inquire of any and all concerned parties so as to discover if there is any possibility that the claims are true. We certainly want to deal with Mr. Bridges in a fair and objective way.
As it happened, the to-date return on his claims and credentials from the various parties contacted has been 100 percent negative.
We realize that the likely explanation that will be given by Mr. Bridges for this factor, taking into account his previous postings, will be that of a “conspiracy.” Somebody is “out to get him.” (Probably us.) They have “erased” his life. He is really the only one who “knows the truth” and somebody wants to destroy him and they are using us to do it. That was, after all, what Ira Einhorn claimed when the authorities found Holly Maddux’s mummified body in his closet. Curiously, Bridges once claimed an affinity for Ira.
“Just the facts, Ma’am, just the facts…”
In the late 1960′s there was a very popular American TV show about the Los Angeles Police Department called “Dragnet”. One of the lead characters, a terse and laconic Sgt. Joe Friday, became famous almost overnight for saying “Just the facts, Ma’am, just the facts…”. Anytime he would interview someone and that person would start to embellish his or her story, he would interrupt them and remind them to say – “Just the facts.”
What Joe Friday understood all too well was that whenever someone tells a story, they are giving their “interpretation” of the facts. The facts of a situation never change, but it’s crucial to understand that how they are perceived, and then spoken about, depends very much upon who is telling the story. But in the case at hand, we are not merely dealing with an “interpretation” of the facts, we seem to be dealing with an appropriation of facts to the use of a single individual who does not seem to be entitled to these facts.
Magicians are very popular these days. One only need look at the soon to be billionaire J.K. Rowling and her cottage industry of Harry Potter books, with their associated tie-ins to marketing companies’ dream lists of products that can be sold with the cache of her invented name. The Harry Potter movie alone is set to break all records and become the biggest grossing movie of all time. Harry Potter is a legitimate phenomenon and success story.
Which brings us to the antithesis of young Harry potter, and the subject of this report – Vincent Bridges.
Vincent Bridges: a real, honest-to-goodness magickal (with a “k”, gotta have a “k” in magick or the spell won’t work!) “Magician”, who practices his questionable art on the edge of the Uwharrie National Forest in North Carolina.
How do we know that Vincent Bridges is a real Magician? Well, he says so.
Vincent Bridges is the co-author, with Jay Weidner, of a book entitled “A Monument to the End of Time”. Due primarily to the authorship of this book, certain doors were opened to both Bridges and Weidner – an interview on the Laura Lee Show, an appearance on a Discovery Channel television program, and so on. This, along with the articles published on his own website, magicjourney.com, has given him a certain status in the New Age/occult/magic community. People look up to him. People go to him for advice. People go to him for hypnosis sessions. They go with him on trips to see the mysteries of Egypt and the secrets of Rennes-le-Chateau. They trust him, and they assume that he is who and what he says he is.
In addition to the credentials from the Laura Lee website, quoted at the beginning of this report, in an E-mail on Sun, 11 Feb 2001 19:29:46 -0500, (repeated later in a mass mailing) Vincent Bridges claims:
“I have been initiated into five different traditions. I hold a 3rd degree in traditional Wicca, I am a Christian minister of a gnostic and non-demoninational variety, and I am one of the highest ranking initiates of anything that passes for the Golden Dawn, also I have the barakah of the founder of the Abu Al Hagagg Sufis of Luxor Egypt and I am part of the Medicine Buddha and Kalachakra lineage of Tibetan Buddhism as well as a terton or terma treasure holder, of the Nyngma-pa tradition.”
Altogether, quite impressive qualifications, are they not? Mr. Bridges is an accomplished writer, scholar, and collector of various initiations. The question is, are these statements true? Well, let’s see what we can find out.
We’ll begin with the easiest claim to check, the writing. We know that he and Jay Weidner did, in fact, publish “A Monument to the End of Time.” Not only that, but we are told that Vincent Bridges is a real honest-to-goodness published writer even before this book. How do we know? Well, he says so.
On Fri, 20 Apr 2001 10:58:57 -0400, regarding the book Walpurgisnacht, Mr. Bridges had written:
In a very weird way, I was sort of assigned to write a novel about Aleister Crowley, Hitler and the more unsavory aspects of WWII’s black magick. I was paid for it, although it took until 1981 to see print, and then in a heavily bowlderized form. To do this, I was “given” access to every bizarre Nazi document in existence. One of my friends in the group even got me access to the archives in Washington to look up certain strange practices of the SS. Again, I didn’t question any of this, it just happened, so go with the flow, don’t think too much, have a good time.
We are going to ignore the questions about being given access to archives of bizarre Nazi documents because we simply have no way of investigating such a claim. So let’s look at this novel, “Walpurgisnacht”. Daw Books still exists, and in contradiction to what Mr. Bridges notes above about their list of books, the on-line list goes back to their beginning. None of Mr. Bridges’ aliases was listed in their on-line directory of published works, recent or otherwise. But that doesn’t negate the possibility that they made arrangements with him to publish the book (as indicated by his statement above about receiving an advance) but never published it. If an advance was paid, accounting records would still indicate it. So we wrote directly to Daw and asked if they had ever published or contracted for anything written by any one of the known aliases. The following reply was received from them:
From: “Fodera, Sean”
Subject: RE: Vincent Bridges
Date sent: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 16:05:00 -0500
Thank you for checking this with us. According to our records, we have never had any contract with Mr. Vincent Bridges (under the “Roland Maxwell” pseudonym, or any other) for any title. Nor have we ever published any novel titled Walpurgisnacht. Mr. Bridges claims of a business relationship with DAW Books appear to be false.
Please contact us if you require any further information.
Sincerely,
Sean P. Fodera
Dir. of Contracts
DAW Books, Inc.
UPDATE!
Mr. Bridges has explained the fact that DAW books denies any business relationship in the following:
[RE:}Walpurgisnacht. I have found several drafts and pieces of the project in the vault, and have had my memory jogged by another friend who was directly involved. There are several points to consider:
1) The novel was written under strange circumstances. My syndication agent had arranged with DAW for the books publication under our current work for hire contract as the idea was to produce a series of occult Nazis science fiction written by a classic pulp house pseudonym "Roland Maxwell." The company essentially bought my research and hired me to rough out the first novel in the series. I received nothing from DAW, and even if the deal had gone through, I would have received nothing directly from DAW. I was paid by the syndication agency.
2) Since my life and my sanity was on the line at that particular point, it is not too surprising that I have forgotten some of the details, particularly those that happened after I retreated to NC. At that point, I wanted as much distance as possible from everyone in my former existence.
3) Walpugisnacht was my working title. The Astral Reich was the proposed series title and this was to be Walpugisnacht in the Astral Reich. One of the major problems was that everyone hated the title. So, I over wrote and turned out a novel that didn't make anyone happy. The series was due to kick off in 1981, but naturally didn't. In October of 1982, the syndication agency paid me off for my work on the project and I signed a release for all rights. First novel fiasco indeed! So, as I said, I never should have mentioned it to begin with without looking up in my own files what had happened to it. I will now stop to wipe the serious egg off my face...
DAW has responded to this "morphing" of the story as follows:
From: "Fodera, Sean"
To: "'lark2@ozline.net'"
Subject: RE: Vincent Bridges - the story morphs again
Date sent: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 14:13:14 -0500
Dear Ms. Knight-Jadczyk:
Thank you for forwarding the additional information from Mr. Bridges. [...]
I can state with absolute certainty that DAW has never signed any agreements with any syndication agencies, nor (and more importantly) would DAW ever publish any books featuring Nazis. DAW was, in fact, founded by a Jewish family, and this policy has existed for 30 years.
It is possible, of course, that Mr. Bridges did work for some syndication agency at that time, and that they mislead him regarding a publishing arrangement with DAW. However, DAW maintains that we have no business ties with Mr. Bridges.
If I can be of any further assistance, please let me know.
Sincerely,
Sean P. Fodera
Dir. of Subsidiary Rights, Contracts and Electronic Publishing
DAW Books, Inc.
What about his claim of writing for the North Charleston News?
The North Charleston News P.O. Box 60580 North Charleston, SC 29405
(843) 744-8000 Fax (843) 744-5505 circulation 10,000 weekly
From: thenews
Sent: 19 November 2001 07:46
Subject: Vincent Bridges
Vincent Bridges was never employed by The News, in Kingstree, SC
(We have other inquiries out on this. Stay tuned.)
What of his claim that he wrote science fiction under the name G. Richard Bozarth which was published in Asimov’s magazine? Well, there is, in fact, a writer named G. Richard Bozarth, and he is a published writer. He did publish a science fiction story in Asimov’s magazine. The problem is, he’s not Vincent Bridges.
From: Asimov’s
Sent: 16 November 2001 13:12
Subject: Re: Attn: Brian Bieniowski
Luckily, Asimov’s has a long record of just about everyone that has ever worked with our magazine.
I don’t have any records for anyone named Vincent Bridges. However, I do have paperwork stating that a man named G. Richard Bozarth had a story titled “Bat Durston, Space Marshal” in our Sept/Oct 1978 issue.
This story was also optioned for inclusion in a paperback anthology of ours that never was published. I do have signed contracts for Mr. Bozarth which include his address (as of 1978, of course).
All I can recommend now, is that you get in contact with the Owlswick Literary Agency. Our original editor from that time period, George Scithers, is now a very active agent there. The assistant editor at the time (Darrell Schweitzer) is George’s partner at Owlswick. You might want to jog their memories about Bozarth.
Please don’t hesitate to email me if you require any further information.
Best,
Brian Bieniowski
Assistant Editor
After a long and circuitous series of inquiries, Mr. G. Richard Bozarth was found alive and well and still writing, though not science fiction.
From: TSMelton@…
Date sent: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 10:47:55 EST
Subject: Re: G. Richard Bozarth
G. Richard Bozarth is a real person in Texas and that is his name, not a pen name. He has written for the Truth Seeker several times in the past. I will give your message to Bonnie when she gets in and see if she can be more specefic.
Regards,
Nancy Melton
Computer Editor,
Truth Seeker Co., Inc.
Not long after, we were in contact with the individual who provided us with Mr. Bozarth’s address and phone number, after we had explained why we were trying to contact him. A few days later, we spoke to his wife on the phone.
Mrs. G. Richard Bozarth is quite sure she knows who her husband is, and she is equally certain that he is the one who wrote the story published in Asimov’s magazine entitle Bat Durston, Space Marshall. Not only that, but the Bozarth’s are understandably concerned that someone is claiming G. Richard’s identity and publishing credits! After our phone conversation on November 17, Mrs. Bozarth followed up with the following:
From:”[Mrs. G. Richard] Bozarth”
Subject: G. Richard Bozarth
Date sent: Sat, 17 Nov 2001 15:50:07 -0600
Please send us any information you may have regarding the person attempting to use my husbands identity. I will have Richard read it and send comments when he is able. Thank you for letting us know of this indiscretion.
Thank you,
[Mrs. G. Richard] Bozarth”
[To protect their privacy, we are withholding email and home addresses.]
UPDATE!
From: “G. Richard Bozarth”
Subject:Vincent Bridges as G. Richard Bozarth
Date sent: Sat, 1 Dec 2001 11:18:03 -0600
Dear Perseus Foundation,
I wrote a letter about Bridges’s claim to be me. That letter describes my proof of who I am and what I’ve done as a writer. I mailed it last Monday, so you should have received it by now. If you haven’t, let me know. It’s still on my computer. If it doesn’t show up in Monday’s mail, let me know and I’ll send it e-mail or I’ll send a photocopy of the copy I made for my files. Very bizarre stuff, isn’t it?
G. Richard Bozarth
Sent later:
From: G. Richard Bozarth
Date sent: Sat, 1 Dec 2001 16:12:20 -0600
It occurred to me that making you wait for s-mail to deliver my letter wasn’t required for anything, so attached is that letter. I’ve also attached my publishing history. I have copies of all the stuff, so they really do exist. It would be amusing to discover why this other “G. Richard Bozarth” obviously does not know how much stuff has been published under that by-line.
If he insists I’m the one who stole his by-line, I have copies of correspondence that go back to the early 70s when I was still in the Marine Corps that shows I’ve been using the name for a lot longer than he is currently claiming to use it. I began using the name in high school because I never liked “George” and have liked “Richard”. Using “G. Richard Bozarth” for my by-line was inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Let me know if I can be of further help. It’s very foolish to tell this kind of lie without thoroughly checking to see if “G. Richard Bozarth” has been busy as a writer in other ways than the commercial one
Sincerely,
Richard
How about “Downbeat,” a respected music magazine? In response to our inquiry, On 20 Nov 2001, at 22:38, the following response was received:
Jason Koransky here, editor at Down Beat.
A writer by the name of Vincent Bridges has never worked at Down Beat.
Thanks,
Jason
Jason Koransky
102 N. Haven Rd.
Elmhurst, IL 60126
http://www.downbeat.com
[The inquiry listed the various aliases, however, to make certain, an additional inquiry has been sent.]
Rolling Stone – Never heard of Vincent Bridges or any of his aliases. Seventeen – Never heard of Vincent Bridges or any of his aliases.
High Times - Never heard of Vincent Bridges or any of his aliases.
Hustler – Letter sent. [One reader has reported that he thinks that he remembers Vincent Bridges as author of a "letter" published in the "letters to the editor" section of the magazine.]
Crescent Review – Mr. Bridges has kindly provided an exhibit from something called the “Crescent Observer.”
Cream magazine is defunct, so it can’t be checked.
Let’s turn to the academic claims. How do we know that Vincent Bridges is a real honest-to-goodness Academic? Well, he says so. To review, at Laura Lee’s website, he presents his Academic credentials thusly:
His academic background includes (at the University of South Carolina and North Carolina) English, History and Classical Studies with graduate research into the Hermetic origins of the Renaissance; other fields of intensive research include: ancient cultures and their shamanic practices, the history of language, cultural anthropology, Egyptology with extensive research into the El-Amarna Era, comparative religion, mathematics and sacred geometry, brain physiology, psychology, theoretical physics and psycho-acoustic technology.”
As we have noted at the beginning, Mr. Bridges pointed out that he had never claimed to have graduated from anywhere. He stated that he did “graduate level work.” However, it was pointed out that he did say “grad school” and not just “graduate level work,” so the story morphed again. Here it is:
I went off to USC, South Carolina, as an English major. I had a few awards in poetry and playwriting to my credit and had met James Dickey the summer before my freshmen year at a poetry conference. He liked me, I already knew how to drink, and he became my mentor that fall at school. With his help, I breezed through the undergraduate English courses on advanced studies and by my sophomore year had a major for myself in History and Theatre Arts, as it was quaintly called in those days.
There was scholarship money available from an alumni organization for an overseas work study in Shakespeare, and with Mr. Dickey’s help I designed an essay that was sure to win the scholarship award. It did, and winter quarter 1972, I was off to Oxford for a six week Shakespeare intensive, and then another six weeks working on the crew at the Shakespeare Festival at Stratford. It was a dream deal, and if all had gone as planned, I would be an academic today, a Shakespeare scholar, maybe even that doppelganger in Kansas. But it didn’t.
Well, what can I say? It was 1972, I was 19 with an extremely high IQ and an opinion of myself to match. I had never gone anywhere completely on my own. My only comparable adventure was a senior class drama trip to New York, but even that was as part of a group. When I hit the airport in New York, and had to ride the bus to change airports, etc. I was truly overwhelmed.
And so, in the passenger lounge of British Airways, I fell in love. Her name was Suzy, French Canadian from Montreal on her way to Paris and then Lyon and Provence to visit relatives. We talked as we waited and then, by arrangement of a tricky universe, we had seats next to each other all the way to London. As we parted at customs, she gave me her phone number and address in Paris and told me she didn’t really have to be in Lyon for a week or so.
I barely remember the train up to Oxford, but I came down hard when I found the right college. So hard, I immediately found the bursar and conned him into cashing my scholarship check and then letting me leave without paying out my tuition. By the next morning, I made a brief excursion to see Stonehenge, I was on the plane to Paris.
A week later, when Suzy left for Lyon, I was broke and brokenhearted. I ended up in Amsterdam where four months later I was arrested and given a quick trip home by the State Department. Seems that my parents and the University had been looking for me.
The upshot of this sorry story is that the English department no longer wanted me, even after I gave the money back. I switched to History, and with the aid of a friendly faculty member put together a degree, BA in History and Classical Studies. Unfortunately, the degree was mostly bogus. I did very little of the work, my faculty member friend simply enrolled me in the classes I needed, and in December 1973, I officially graduated.
Now, I don’t condone this kind of behavior, and I am not proud of it. But I was young, and it seemed the best way to get away from Columbia and USC. So I did it. After a few years’ break in which I wrote rock’n'roll reviews, I applied to graduate school in Classical Studies at UNC. My degree held up, and the Classics department was so hungry for new blood that they accepted me with very little hassle. After a few semesters I realized that the academic life was truly not for me. (Later, I found out that my degree had been invalidated when a new computer system revealed the inconsistencies. So it goes…)
An offer to study magick came up and that led to my exposure to Enochian and eventually to a realization that something was very rotten about the set-up. I retreated to North Carolina, went to work for the Shakespeare festival, went into therapy and so on.
The above is all well and good, and we expect the final word any day not only as to whether Mr. Bridges ever graduated, but whether he ever attended classes, and if so, what. We will update this article when the information comes back. In the meantime, let’s look at a couple of interesting items in the above account.
UPDATE! We have received verification that Vincent Bridges did, in fact, attend USC, but that he dropped out in January of 1972. He did not, apparently, return to put together any degree as claimed. There was no further attendance by Vincent Bridges at USC as he has claimed, with or without a degree of questionable validity being awarded. We are still awaiting the return from UNC and will post the results when they arrive.
INFORMATION VERIFIED
Name On School’s Records: “Vincent Bridges”
Date Awarded…………: N/A
Degree Title…………: No Degree — Enrollment Only
Official Name of School.: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Attendance Period…….: 08/16/1970 to 01/17/1972
What about his claim to be a protege of James Dickey by virtue of his ability to drink liquor?
Unfortunately, James Dickey has passed away. But he left behind an organization called The James Dickey Society, a group of academics, many of whom worked with him and knew him well, as well as other scholars who study his work. From the woman who was a friend/associate of James Dickey and now is the head of this group:
From: “joyce**” joyce***@…
Subject: Re: James Dickey protege?
Date sent: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 10:18:20 -0500
I’ve never heard of Vincent Bridges or any of the other names mentioned in this email. Mr. Dickey arrived at the University of South Carolina in 1968. Some of the more specific details might confirm more about Mr. Bridges, such as his sojourn at UNC. Also, his “few awards in poetry and playwriting” before attending USC are or should be facts that can be substantiated. Very interesting.
Joyce P***
And from a USC associate of James Dickey:
Date sent: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 12:00:43 -0500
From: “Matthew Bruccoli”
Subject: Re: Protege of James Dickey?
Sorry, but I don’t recognize the “protege.” I will forward your letter to Prof. Ward Briggs in USC’s Classics Department.
Cordially,
Matthew J. Bruccoli,
Jefferies Professor of English
We have contacted other members of the James Dickey Society, especially those from the University of South Carolina, who were acquainted with him. We will update this page as we receive more information.
Back to Mr. Bridges’ academic statement:
…winter quarter 1972, I was off to Oxford for a six week Shakespeare intensive, and then another six weeks working on the crew at the Shakespeare Festival at Stratford. It was a dream deal, and if all had gone as planned, I would be an academic today, a Shakespeare scholar…
The officials at Oxford were highly amused by this tale. Here is the response:
From: “David Collins”
Sent: 19 November 2001 01:47
Subject: Re: Student Enquiry
Your Mr Bridges/Bozarth/Maxwell/Sutherland clearly has a fertile and highly-coloured imagination but no knowledge of the University of Oxford, as indeed we have no knowledge of him. Such a career as he describes would be impossible: undergraduate teaching in Arts subjects is not departmentally-based but directed by a college tutor and degrees are awarded on performance in public examinations not by credit-accumulation: undergraduate fees are paid via the college not the department and undergraduate students are admitted and permitted to change courses by their college: it is not possible to obtain a B.A. degree without a minimum of two- years residential study even when exemption from the First Public Examination has been granted on the grounds of previous academic attainment elsewhere. None of this would seem to apply to Mr Bridges.
Oxford Colleges do sometimes rent out their accommodation to organisations who are in no way part of the University so that those organisations may hold summer schools, and of course Shakespeare is a popular topic and Oxford is conveniently placed for visiting Stratford. Persons attending such summer schools are not members of the University or the college and so we would have no records of attendance.
However his chronology renders even this possibility suspect as “the winter quarter” would coincide with the first term of our academic year when the colleges would be fully occupied with their own students.
An American graduate would not be able to walk in off the street and gain admission to ANY college, and any Bursar’s first concern is to secure the college and University fees, not to cash cheques. There is an Oxford Colleges’ Admissions Office and an application to read for a Second BA degree would have to have been made the previous Autumn, references taken up and a formal offer made.
Perhaps he hoped to get round such checking as yours by his statement that his degree had been invalidated after discovery by a computer system. However it would not have removed his name from official records so completely that I can find no trace at all even in pre-computer records which were in use in the 1970′s, and as the officer who has run our central computer records for the past twenty years I know of what I speak.
Yours sincerely
David Collins
Student Records Officer & Assistant Registrar
University Offices
University of Oxford
Wellington Square
Oxford OX1 2JD
In other words: there is no record of Vincent Bridges at Oxford where one would certainly exist even if only in the accounting offices. And the comment about any Shakespearean intensive being held at any of Oxford’s colleges during winter quarter is quite telling.
There are a couple other items in the above account by Mr. Bridges that deserve comment.
“And so, in the passenger lounge of British Airways,”
There probably was no BA passenger lounge in the States back in 1972. In the UK yes, plenty of them, much less so abroad.
“When I hit the airport in New York, and had to ride the bus to change airports, etc. I was truly overwhelmed.”
Yet later, in Oxford, he is able to make a lightning trip to Stonehenge and make the morning flight out of Heathrow as follows:
“By the next morning, I made a brief excursion to see Stonehenge, I was on the plane to Paris.”
Our investigator in UK has commented on this as follows:
“Imposible wthout a car. To get to Stonehenge you have to travel cross country from Oxford by train, necessitating a change or two, then a bus. Then, to get to the airport, another bus, train with a change or two or three and the underground tube line to Heathrow airport. Can’t be done in a morning! Not in a million years. If you set off from Oxford at 8 am, did stonehenge for an hour, you would not be at Heathrow until evening.”
“A week later, when Suzy left for Lyon, I was broke”
Now “Suzy” had a place to stay in Paris, as she told Vincent. Now how on earth can you go broke in a week spending twelve week’s worth of scholarship money and expenses? Were they staying at the George Cinq? Were they dining at the Ritz every night? The Moulin Rouge after?
“and brokenhearted. I ended up in Amsterdam where four months later I was arrested”
So Vincent is broke after five days in Paris and survives four months without funds in Amsterdam? And just why was he arrested? Funds gathering, perhaps?
“and given a quick trip home by the State Department.”
We are still investigating this point, but so far, what we have learned suggests that this scenario is impossible because if you are deported, first you have to serve your arrest sentence. If no sentence to be served, the State Dept. would not bail you out unless you were completely destitute, and even then we find it hard to believe. They do do it, and you are made to sign a chit that you will pay back the fare. No, Vincent’s parents, guardians, or friends would have had to spring for the ticket home, not the State Dept. We expect that this will be the new variation on the story.
The remainder of this episode stretches credulity beyond the breaking point. So far, Mr. Bridges has tossed a chance at Oxford (according to him), stolen money from the university, gone on the lam for four months in a foreign country, is brought back in disgrace and all he says is this:
“The upshot of this sorry story is that the English department no longer wanted me, even after I gave the money back.”
Did they (the “University”) press charges? Without major family money or position, this scenario would never play out. And if there had been any money to begin with, there would have been no need for the scholarship, or the purported theft of the scholarship money, or the four months in Amsterdam living, we presume, on the streets.
“I switched to History, and with the aid of a friendly faculty member put together a degree,”
After all that went before? People stuck their neck out for him, and he shafted them, and now he says someone else just liked him so much and felt so sorry for him that it was done again? Seems highly unlikely. Unless it was the Dickey effect, again.
“BA in History and Classical Studies. Unfortunately, the degree was mostly bogus.”
No kidding. Well, until further information is received, we will leave this most interesting period of Mr. Bridges career.
The reader now has an idea of what a great writer Mr. Bridges is. Over the past year, Mr. Bridges entertained and entranced the members of the Quantum Future research and discussion group with his fantastic stories of encounters from his past, stories which were intended to convey a deep knowledge of, and first-hand experience dealing with far-reaching conspiracies, mind control, and Satanic sexual abuse. Unfortunately, some cannot be checked, as the main stars are quite dead. But not all.
For example:
In the winter of 1977 – 78, I was in grad school in History and Classical studies at UNC, working part time as a freelance writer, including books reviews, etc. for the Psychical Research Foundation at Duke, part of FRNM or the Rhine Foundation. A lady came through town doing psychic readings and the PRF picked her up as part of the team.
[We are waiting for the reply from FRNM at Duke.]
She however was obviously looking for talent, and definitely not interested in Bill Roll’s return to Amityville kind of trip. To make a long story much shorter, we became acquainted and before she left she gave me a letter from a guy in California and a list of phone numbers.
[We have covered the bases. Dr. Roll has received an inquiry also.]
The letter was an ego stroke offer to go study magick, all expenses paid. My freelance rock’n'roll journalist career was in a slump, grad school was going nowhere, and frankly I missed San Fran and the high life. I bit, big time.
At first, everything was great. My career took off because they knew everybody in the business. The magickal training was great too. I was learning and experiencing faster than I had dreamed possible, and for a sensation junkie like me, this was heaven. Suddenly, my proposed thesis on the origin of the Tarot cards looked academic and tame. These people had real power and the information to back it up. Somehow, stupid me, I never thought to ask what the pay off would be.
By the summer of 1979, my basic magickal training was over and other subjects and tasks started coming up. In a very weird way, I was sort of assigned to write a novel about Aleister Crowley, Hitler and the more unsavory aspects of WWII’s black magick. I was paid for it, although it took until 1981 to see print, and then in a heavily bowlderized form. To do this, I was “given” access to every bizarre Nazi document in existence. One of my friends in the group even got me access to the archives in Washington to look up certain strange practices of the SS. Again, I didn’t question any of this, it just happened, so go with the flow, don’t think too much, have a good time.
When my research was done and a rough version of the book was circulating to publishers, I had the pleasure of a visit by the head man in the Order. This guy is still around, going by the alias of Dr. Christopher Hyatt of Falcon Press. I become one of his main magickal student flunkies, and for the next six months or so I did nothing but follow him around through one bizarre episode after another. The most interesting of which was international drug and gun running. I kept thinking: This is gonna make a great movie/novel one day. To which a small voice would reply: if you survive.
After a couple of epics, including one where I made the run to Mexico and back on my own, I was invited out one evening to go sailing with the boss and some very special friends who had things they wanted to discuss with me.
So, here we are, in a large sail boat drifting off Sausalito on a warm August night. Just as I’m thinking that my life has turned into a gangster movie and I don’t even like guns, the boss and his friends come on deck. They own the boat, and a stranger pair of rejects from the Addams clan I’ve never seen. He’s had hair transplants done to give him an exaggerated widows peak, and she’s in full aging Mortitia drag. Indeed, when we came on board, I thought she was a drag queen.
We chit-chat for a while. They introduce themselves as Michael and Lillith, and we talk about magic, Crowley, Nazis and a variety of such subjects for the better part of an hour. Testing me, is what I thought at the time. And then, smoothly, the conversation shifts.
It happened so smoothly, I didn’t notice it, but suddenly the question were no longer academic, but personal. Did I believe this…hadn’t I experienced that…didn’t I understand the other…etc.
I remember the chill to this day. A warm still night, and even through my jacket it felt like the cold of outer space. That jolted me somehow, and I started asking questions. And I didn’t like the answers.
Highly condensed, here’s what they told me: (Keep in mind that it is THEIR belief system.)
The earth and everything on it is the property of a higher dimensional being who is on its way back to claim it. Our only choice is controller or slave, but those who choose to serve will be rewarded. This has been in the works for a thousand years and will soon reach fruition, in the next 20 years or so. The Nazis were part of it, but incomplete. Now, they’d get it right.
Stunned, I wanted to know how they thought I fit in. They said that I was being offered the chance to become a conscious operator with my pick of the New Age infiltration projects. Only hitch, I’d have to undergo my initiation, which in simple terms involved doing something so disgusting and illegal as to make my participation in simple smuggling look tame.
I blanched, and they reminded me that I was already in pretty deep.
No shit. Well, finally scared back to my senses, I said I needed to think about it, but yeah I’d play along. That made them happy and we spent a few perverse hours discussing orgies before I got off the boat.
I left the next day for a UFO conference back in Tuscon, literally shaking in my boots. I had been to the very edge of the pit, and I wasn’t sure if there was a way to get out. I avoided them and the issue until October, when I got fired from my job. Without telling anyone, I hopped on a bus and escaped to North Carolina. By the time Hyatt found me, eight or nine months later, I was too deeply entrenched to remove easily. I played drug causality and pretended not remember anything and I suppose that helped. Anyway, they left me alone after that.”
Well, there are two rather well-known names in this story. Dr. Michael Aquino is the executive director of the Temple of Set in San Francisco, an offshoot of the Church of Satan. He is also its founder. Lilith is his wife. He’s pretty well known. But, as it happens, Dr. Aquino was a young guy working on his Ph.D. at the time the above events were said to be happening. “Full aging Mortitia drag?” (sic) We sent the above story to Dr. Aquino and asked for his input. This is his reply (not that we think he is a paragon of truth and virtue either, by the way!):
From: Xeper@…
Subject: Vincent Bridges
Date: Friday, November 16, 2001 1:10 AM
“Vincent Bridges, Jay Weidner, G. Richard Bozarth, Roland Maxwell, Victor Sutherland.”
I have never known nor had contact with persons of any of these names.
“He’s had hair transplants done to give him an exaggerated widows peak, and she’s in full aging Mortitia drag. Indeed, when we came on board, I though she was a drag queen.
“We chit-chat for a while. They introduce themselves as Michael and Lillith, and we talk about magic, Crowley, Nazis and a variety of such subjects for the better part of an hour.”
No such incident has even taken place with anyone by any name. I have never owned any boat, nor been on anyone else’s around Sausalito, nor had any hair transplants for that matter.
Regards,
Michael A. Aquino
In a a follow-up email, Mr. Bridges “story” as follows was included for comment:
An old friend that I knew had intelligence connections called me up with a strange story. He thought that if anybody might have a clue what was going on, it would be me. A friend of his wife’s, going back to Pentagon days, had gone crazy and started accusing everyone of being a satanist and under mind control. Her husband had had to take their kids away from her and she was on the run, calling them from phone booths along the highway. Could I help?
She called me the next day from a phone booth in Maryland, and we talked enough to convince her that I would take her story seriously. So she hopped in her car and drove straight through to Winston-Salem. She got to my office around six and we talked to midnight, when she left to hide somewhere, she wouldn’t say where or how, and then came back the next day and talked for another four hours or so. Then she got in her car and left. I never saw her again, alive.
What she told me was so bizarre that at first I figured it had to be a plant. They wanted to see what I’d do with such stuff, and then flatten me when I used it. And remember, this was 1993, pre X-files… She had been in the Program since the mid-50s, what she called the “Stepford Wives” division. Girls with looks and good grades from selected backgrounds were fast-tracked to prep schools and finishing schools, where they received some basic programming, and then “sold off” to Intel and other government types as wives. Many of them ended up married to NASA geeks for the sole purpose of spying on them. Early on, she figured out the game and played along until her handlers discovered she was virtually immune to hypnotic programming. That earned her truly special attention.
The issue of hypnotic immunity was the fly in the ointment for the larger reaches of the program. If a significant number of citizens were flatly immune to your best efforts, then mass control was unlikely. Somebody would always resist. So this poor lady became a guinea pig for the full range of Program experimentation. They learned that while she couldn’t be successfully programmed, she could be broken. She was put back into circulation, while her pregnancies were monitored and genetically tampered with, causing mis-carriages and abnormal births. Two children survived, both boys, one 13 and the other five in 1993. They had been experimented on since the day they were born, and the eldest, like his mother, was resistant. The youngest however was something else, perhaps literally.
And here’s where all the threads of our story converge on the Gordian knot nexus point of maximum weirdness. When they wanted her for something, she simply hit her up with drugs to knock her out and did it to her. However, over time, she developed a tolerance for the drugs and would be half awake for the last few hours of whatever. And so she woke up one night in 1987 to find herself having sex with something that looked like a cross between Night on Bald Mountain and an iguana. She freaked and a group of people held her down while “it” finished. Several of the people she remembered enough to identify. One was her husband, another was Michael Aquino.
Dr. Aquino’s comments regarding the above excerpt:
From: Xeper@…
Date sent: Mon, 19 Nov 2001 02:24:17 EST
Subject: Vincent Bridges
In a message dated 11/18/01 6:58:26 PM, you write:
This book was supposed to have been the result of research that was funded and promoted by an implied association between yourself and a Dr. Christopher Hyatt.
I have never funded/promoted any research by anyone else. Dr. Christopher Hyatt is a real person; I think he is associated with New Falcon Publications, which has a website, so you might be able to contact him that way. I do not have a personal address for him, as the two of us have never met nor had any contact.
“… She freaked and a group of people held her down while “it” finished. Several of the people she remembered enough to identify. One was her husband, another was Michael Aquino.”
In addition to never meeting anyone on a boat off Sausalito, I have never held anyone down either!
Mr. Bridges claims that Dr. Hyatt was his “mentor and teacher” of all things magickal and that he is the “Highest degree recognized adept in the various Golden Dawn traditions …
The Golden Dawn was a turn-of-the-century (1890s-1910s) British Rosicrucian society – law-abiding and reasonably respectable. Today there are a few revivalist G.D.s around, and I think that Hyatt is involved with one or more of them. Again, you’d have to ask him about that, and whether he knows anything about this Bridges character.
I’d recommend contacting them directly and asking them. Just about every group has a website these days, or is at least referenced by other websites.
I’m a Political Scientist (Ph.D. UC Santa Barbara, 1980) 
Sincerely,
Michael A. Aquino
And what of the other person mentioned in Mr. Bridges’ story, Christopher Hyatt? Mr. Bridges teacher and mentor? Dr. Hyatt is the editor-in-chief of New Falcon Books. They, too, have an extensive website. In response to an inquiry sent to Dr. Hyatt, the following was received:
Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2001 12:42:58 -0700
From: “New Falcon Publications”
Reply-to: info@…
Thanks so much for the info.
No one here (including Dr. Hyatt) recognizes any of these names. As you might surmise, we find this situation very disturbing, particularly because the material he sent you includes some extremely defamatory statements. Apparently this individual knows enough specifics about Dr. Hyatt (e.g., that he likes to sail) to have woven a modicum of truth into a rather bizarre, fictional tale. This suggests to us that he may have been acquainted with us, though perhaps only peripherally, at one time or another.
We are surmising that ALL of the names he gave you are aliases. If you have any info on where he claims to live, this might give us a better clue to his true identity. And we’d appreciate any other info you may have on him.
We are curious about one other thing: from what you’ve said we take it that you have not been able to verify much (anything?) of his bio?
Perhaps we shall be able to deal with this mystery together.
Warmly,
Nick Tharcher
We would like to point out that, in the above case, though Dr. Hyatt does own a boat, in Mr. Bridges account, Dr. Aquino owns the boat. “…the boss and his friends come on deck. They own the boat…” So, indeed, we do have “facts,” but rather than being “interpreted” they are “appropriated” – and not very accurately, as it seems. In response to a follow-up letter. Mr. Tharcher, writes:
Date sent: Tue, 20 Nov 2001 13:23:14 -0700
From: New Falcon Publications
Send reply to: info@…
Subject: Re: Vincent Bridges
Thank you for taking the time to write to us. The situation seems rather ugly and we wish you the best in sorting it all out.
As to us: no one at Falcon is familiar with Mr. Bridges or any of his aliases. Essentially everything you told us he said about Dr. Hyatt, Falcon Press and his ‘association’ with us is simply untrue.
Again, we wish you the best and, should our name pop up in this mess again, we would appreciate your letting us know.
Warmly,
Nick Tharcher
UPDATE!
The following are real publishing credits of Vincent Bridges. They are not precisely along the line of his claims, but he has dug them up and provided evidence.
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| 1983 – Crescent Observer article about reggae by “M. Bridges” copyright by Wyrd Trips, Ink |
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| 1984 – North Davidson Dispatch |
1985 – Shakespeare festival on the 500th anniversary of the death of Richard III in 1485 – promotional brochure
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| 1987 – Triad article and Piedmont article |
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| 1990 – Style article |
Keep in mind that Vincent Bridges publishes on the internet, on his own website and on the websites of his friends. He has also had some modest input in other internet publications, all of which he claims are proof that this report is a “smear job.”
Well, we are not questioning what he has done since his appearance on the Laura Lee show – just what he used to launch himself on the stage of “expert status,” all of which was false.
Following is a chronology put together from Vincent Bridges’s own statements, a few comments from others who knew where he was and what he was doing. He sure does get around! He’s a regular Doug and Dave of occultism and expert status!
1966- I may have mentioned that my early exposure to all of this was through a group of exiled leftist writers (John Dickson Carr was probably the best known) living in Greenville SC of all places. They were also keen Theosophist and that’s where I first stumbled onto Burgoyne and the HBofL material. Not unusual, they had everything, including a bound collection of the Proceedings of the SPR. I was their mascot writer wanna-be from age 14 through college and later in some cases. Along the way, I met many people who only later when I watched the movie Reds did I realize were famous. One of these guys was an actor leftist science fiction writer by the name of Fritz Leiber.
1971 – In the early 70′s, I spent some time at Eckard College/Florida Presbyterian and the adjacent St. Pete beach. I still have nightmares about SS check day at that huge department store downtown.
1971 -In 1971, at Fla. Pres. College, now I think it is Eckard University, out at St. Pete Beach, a group of us experienced repeated UFO sightings, and some other rather strange experiences, as well as the most overwhelming sense of evil and imminent destruction that I have ever felt. Then again, a decade (1981?) later in the aftermath of the Greensboro debacle, Reagan’s election and the YIPie fiasco at the inauguration I was conned into coming to Clearwater for a vacation that resulted in my being arrested for burglary. After a week in the Pinelas County jail, my family managed to get the charges dropped. I guess I had more resources than they figured, because the rest of my friends from that period are either dead or still in jail on various charges.
1972 – winter quarter 1972, I was off to Oxford for a six week Shakespeare intensive, and then another six weeks working on the crew at the Shakespeare Festival at Stratford. … 1972, I was 19 with an extremely high IQ (that would mean he was born in 1953, not 52 since his birthday is in May. ) I ended up in Amsterdam where four months later I was arrested and given a quick trip home by the State Department.
1972 – Between 1972 and 1976, I read everything, and I do mean everything, that had anything at all to do with what I thought was my quest. I went back to school, graduate work in Medieval History, and by 1978 was sure I had figured it all out.
1973 – December 1973, I officially graduated
1977-78 In the winter of 1977-78, I was in grad school in history and classical studies at UNC, working part time as a freelance writer, including books reviews, etc, for the Psychical Research Foundation at Duke, part of FRNM of the Rhine Foundation. … Grad school in the mid seventies[...] I switched from English to History, got out of undergraduate work and then went on to psychology … Left to pursue magickal studies.
1978 – I met a group of “magickal” folk who were looking for a guinea pig. My freelance rock’n'roll journalist career was in a slump, grad school was going nowhere, and frankly I missed San Fran and the high life. Like a fool, I signed on. Three years later (1981) I fled to North Carolina with my sanity hanging by a thread.
(Where did San Francisco and the “high life” come from?)
1979 – By the summer of 1979, my basic magickal training was over I was sort of assigne to write a novel about Aleister Crowley, Hitler and the more unsavory aspects of WWIIs black magick. I was paid for it, although it took until 1981 to see print, and then in heavy bowdlerized form. To do this, I was “given” access to every bizarred Nazi document in existence. One of my friends in the group even got me access to the archives in Washington to look up certain strange practices of the SS.
1980 – Back in 1980, I had the opportunity to follow around the UFO researcher who had first broached the whole Hanger 18 thing, Ray Fowler, for the Whole Earth people. They wanted proof of a gov. cover-up, but all I found after 3 months was that Fowler had been part of some gov. experiment, but it looked more like a Psy-Op project. I wrote the story, from the point of view that the aliens may or may not be real, but some portion of the gov. is going out of its way to make us think that they are. Needless to say, the Co-Evo Quarterly, spin- off of Whole Earth that commissioned it, refused to print it. I stood my ground, refused to re-write and change conclusions, and so got fired. I ended up back in North Carolina.
1980 – Three years later (all of which time spent in magical training) I fled to North Carolina with my sanity hanging by a thread.
1980 – I hopped on a bus and escaped to North Carolina.
1981 – By the time Hyatt found me, eight or nine months later, I was too deeply entrenched to remove easily. I played drug causality and pretended not remember anything and I suppose that helped. Anyway, they left me alone after that. In fact, all of this scared me so bad, what it said about me I mean, that I went into therapy and before the decade was out was a therapist myself. I rationalized what the weird people had said as fantasy and wish-fullfilment role-playing, enhanced by substance abuse, all around, and my own criminal nature projected outward.
1981 – three years of therapy with Dr. Margaret McCoy
[We have information from an informant that Vincent Bridges was actually a patient in the State Mental Hospital. Neither the doctor nor the hospital will confirm that information.]
1980 or 81 – (1981?) later in the aftermath of the Greensboro debacle, Reagan’s election and the YIPie fiasco at the inauguration I was conned into coming to Clearwater for a vacation that resulted in my being arrested for burglary.
1983 – Crescent Observer article about reggae by V. M. Bridges copyright by Wyrd Trips, Ink – A travelogue, “get the tourists in to spend money filler type article.”
1984 – I wrote a book, unpublished, called the White Indian Myth. It bounced around among publishers for a while, and the basic story was optioned for a movie, which also never happened. But in the course of my research, I turned up something truly strange. –Documented evidence, including archeological finds, of a Celtic group in central NC.
1984 – North Davidson Dispatch article about the Town creek Indian mounds. Written as a “travel guide” to drum up tourist business.
1985 – After a period of emotional recuperation, (from the magical training) I got a job at the Shakespeare Festival — use that classical education! — and began to write again. Fairy stories mostly, and one book on the white indian myth. Shakespeare festival publication on the 500th anniversary of the death of Richard III in 1485
1986- The day after Easter in 1986, I was sitting under a crepe myrtle bush in High Point NC meditating while I waited for my car to be fixed.
1987 – A year later, I was leading a Harmonic Convergence event. – Triad article – a local “film rag” . Oddly, in the image of the page, a photo has been blanked out and a piece of the masthead inserted in the place. WHAT was in the picture? Piedmont article: another “encourage the tourists” attraction description.
1988- I was a therapist doing deep hypnotic work on trauma abreactions
1987 and 88 – I was a facilitator for a Melchizedek group that focused on the Keys of Enoch
1988 – Back in 1988, Barbra Marciniak and I were part of the same newage/magickal group called the Order of Melchizedek in NC. The group was about to start some save the world type project involving traveling to remote places and anchoring the Blue Light (K-Marts specials for everyone!). Egypt was the first stop and BM came to me for a Tarot reading on whether she should go or or not. The indicator of the reading was the death card, crossed by the devil. She freaked, and I must admit, I had no pleasant way to interpret that kind of sign. She wouldn’t stay for the rest of the reading and left in a huff. A couple of months later, we’re in the Great Pyramid doing our hoodoo with the Great Guru, when BM starts to shake and passes out. She’s sick the rest of the trip, having some truly bizarre episodes. [...]
1989 – And then, just as my practice got going in the summer of 1989, [working at Duke Diet clinic?] I met Dr. Andrija Puharich. Dr. P. was in hiding on the Reynolds family estate in Devotion North Carolina, and he felt that they were closing in. I suppose that the fact of one of his benefactors took a swan dive off a hotel roof in Tampa had something to do with that. I had followed his work from the late ’50s through the late 1970s when he seemed to drop off the map. I was ready to hear anything the man had to say. Over the course of that summer, we became friends, mainly, as he liked to say after a few shots of good vodka, because I reminded him so much of Ira Einhorn.
1989 -A year after that I was leading the service for a hundred people on Bell Rock in Sedona while the Berlin wall fell.
[One wonders how Bridges could have been hanging out with Puharich AND be in Arizona at almost the same time.]
1990 – my practice exploded, - I was gaining credibility with the Bowman Gray Med School’s MPD clinic, and all was looking bright.
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| Duplex apartment (at right) occupied by Bridges during time he claimed his “practice was exploding.” |
[From an informant: The above is a lie. Vincent was living on poverty row in a house at 21 Devonshire. He was involved with L** H**. She use to own W**** in Forsyth Co. Her family were the ones that funded what was Charter Hospital (a private psy hospital) in Winston, N.C. Charter has now been taken over by Bowman Grey Hospital and L** sold W*** years ago. Vincent was a "friend" of L**'s and they worked together on W**** (a new age type of retreat). There was a falling out, L** tried to terminate relations with Vincent, but he wouldn't let her. He set her property on fire and destroyed her possessions. After a scandal, W**** was sold due to community opposition and problems with a non-profit and Vincent was run out of town.]
1990 – Style article – Says nothing about him being a therapist which you would expect it to say if, as he claims, his “practice exploded.” It is another tourist guide type thing about Pilot mountain, building temples, UFOs and Bermuda Triangle. He says: “I’m part of the blue army. We’re the rescue squad.”
1991 – Two years later, I was in India, Nepal and Tibet, collecting Vishnu and Shiva initiations and following in the footsteps of Padmasambhava.
1993 – An old friend that I knew had intelligence connections called me up with a strange story. He thought that if anybody might have a clue what was going on, it would be me. A friend of his wife’s, going back to Pentagon days, had gone crazy and started accusing everyone of being a satanist and under mind control. Her husband had had to take their kids away from her and she was on the run, calling them from phone booths along the highway. Could I help?
She called me the next day from a phone booth in Maryland, and we talked enough to convince her that I would take her story seriously. So she hopped in her car and drove straight through to Winston-Salem. She got to my office around six and we talked to midnight, when she left to hide somewhere, she wouldn’t say where or how, and then came back the next day and talked for another four hours or so. Then she got in her car and left. I never saw her again, alive. …A few days later I got a call from a detective in Memphis who wanted to know if I knew anything about her. She had been found dead in a motel room under suspicious circumstances and she had my card.
1993 – October I got the following letter. It had no heading or letter head and bore a Las Vegas postmark. Hi Vince, Good to hear from old friends, what they’re doing and all, isn’t it? We’ve been admiring your work, and we must tell you that we couldn’t be more pleased. Doubt you would have been so effective even if you had taken our offer. Christopher I fell into a months long Sherlockian funk, that fortunately coincided with our several moves so I had time to think as I packed and unpacked endless boxes of books.
My new partner (Dr. Jean Templeton) and I worked out a plan. She would take the professional flack and work within the emerging treatment community to get the word out and to find more cases so we could see if my sample was skewed or accurate, or even if the whole thing was another form of mind control. I went to work on the technical end looking for therapies and gizmos that would aid in the recovery process. We worked at it until early 1997,
1995 – Three years after that, I was initiated into the Sufi order in Luxor, met the Dalai Lama and received the Kalachakra initiation. (What about the trip to Nepal, India, and Tibet in 1991? Or are there two trips to collect initiations?)
1996 – We invoked the Ophanic angels of Dr. John Dee, back in Sedona on Bell Rock. Then, I plunged into alchemy and Fulcanelli. In the next few years, some truly interesting things are scheduled to happen involving the Grail and Nostradamus.
1996 – Jay Weidner says: I didn’t meet VB until 1996 when he was hanging out in Boulder with Dan Winter. I told him about Hendaye and the Cross and my visits to France. I funded (with my own money) a research trip to France. He told me that he would pay me back for the trip but that was 3 years ago and I have yet to recieve a cent.
1996 – On Wednesday, April 24th, 1996 I was in Tampa, the book says University of Tampa, but all I remember is a large and funky 1890′s hotel deep in downtown, doing a seminar with my partner Dr. Jean Templeton for a group of therapists and psychs on early childhood abuse and our light and sound entrainment procedures for treating it.that was my last seminar with Jean. She went off to Masters and Johnson that summer and became famous for our technique. I manned the store while she was gone and then that fall I decided I had had enough. I started pulling back on clients, keeping only those that were willing to do the work. By early ’97 I was officially retired.
1997 – [Re therapy practice] everything fell apart due to heavy pressure on my partner. Psychic attacks, Love Bite vampires and office break-ins forced a change. I went into semi-retirement, retreating to Mt.G.
1998 – From: “wiolawa72″ .luke gato had a sacred geometry conf..in denver in 98 and stan said he would sue the participants because of dan..[...] conference participants..ie michael heleus..etc….[...]well it wasnt till a little later that dan brought holt to my house.. and holt set up an assassination plot.. headed my way with drunvalo…then dan had Vincent and his wife do a ritual with sekmet at bell rock in sedona. all nite and a crowley exericise in futility to the ophanim…. i didnt like that either..as they were using my timeshare…. [...] ron holt was drunvalos major jackass assistant.. and he is married to lyssssa royal.. yerka..was the czech.. who funded drunvalo.bought him a million $$$ house temple.whatever in prescott.. drug money king.. also funded hoagy… all that is a long story…. i got out of the assassination attempt thanx to dennis banks of aim.. police also trying to get drunvalo.. coca…etc..yes he is a snake….sedona is headquartersfor much nwo shit..solarcapstone.org.
1999 – March – in France with Jay Weidner sez VB
1999 – in “real” life I’m a therapist working with severe childhood trauma, sexual abuse, etc. Takes up a lot of my time. (What happened to being retired in 1997?)
If anyone can confirm or deny any of Mr. Bridges whereabouts or claims, please contact the owners of this website. Information will be kept confidential and any names will be disguised for the protection of the innocent.
CONTINUE: Vincent Bridges:
Psychotherapist? Or Hacker and Thief?
SUPPLEMENT: Is Truth Defamatory? It seems that we are not the only ones! Many truth seekers are being targeted! Will you be next?
Added, Spring 2004: While in the case of Vincent Bridges, we are not discussing a murderer, the following remarks from Bad or Mad? published in New Scientist vol 181 issue 2439 – 20 March 2004, page 38, have a direct bearing on the subject – it is only a matter of degree.
WHAT is evil? In today’s largely secular western society we may find it hard to define. But, historically, the question of evil has been a theological one. Generations of apologists have searched for ways to justify God in an imperfect world. In the Christian tradition, Saint Augustine distinguished between two forms of evil: “moral evil”, the evil humans do, by choice, knowing that they are doing wrong; and “natural evil”, the bad things that just happen – the storm, the flood, volcanic eruptions, fatal disease.
Whatever your views on God, the distinction is appealing. In our secular world, where crimes are punished, we need to believe that someone who commits an inexplicable act of violence or physical cruelty, such as torture, child abduction or murder, has freely chosen to do so. We accept that there may be mitigating circumstances, including diminished responsibility or mental illness. What we find most chilling are crimes that are planned, where offenders have a goal in mind and demonstrate control. Like Uma Thurman’s character in Quentin Tarantino’s film Kill Bill, people who commit such crimes are seen as unambiguously morally evil. “It’s mercy, compassion and forgiveness I lack,” she says, “not rationality.”
Thurman’s character “The Bride” can be seen as possessing what is now recognised by psychiatrists as a severe antisocial personality. Such people are not clinically mentally ill, and they usually know when they are doing wrong. But are they really evil? Neuroscience is beginning to tell us that while the cognitive, planning part of the brains of severely antisocial people works normally, other neural centres do not. [...]
Whether violence is impulsive or premeditated, we want to know what makes people do it. Here science can move beyond the theological explanation of free will. Starting in the 1990s, Adrian Raine, a British psychologist at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, pioneered the use of brain imaging to study people with antisocial personalities. His brain scans of impulsive, reactive killers show that these people have reduced activity in frontal regions of their brains, including an area called the orbitofrontal cortex. This area sits at the head of a chain of connected brain regions, including the amygdala, hypothalamus and peri-aqueductal grey, which are activated when we are threatened. People with damage to this area often display loss of control. They are inappropriately irritable and aggressive when crossed, and they find it hard to alter their response to a situation when circumstances change and it would be in their interests to modify their behaviour.
This last sentence above is the key to the behavior of Vincent Bridges as the reader has seen in this presentation of the “Bridges Dossier.” Additionally, the following excerpts from our research on psychopathy will serve to make the report on Vincent Bridges more comprehensible.
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| Jay Weidner and Vincent Bridges |
The reader should note that, when the Perseus Research Team – now the Quantum Future Group – began its investigation of Mr. Bridges, the results – coincident with Bridges’s behavior – were almost incomprehensible to us. While Bridges seemed to be in full possession of reasoning ability, even a superior intellect, he repeatedly demonstrated a complete inability to comprehend the meaning and significance of his behavior. He was described by one of his earlier victims (who contacted us as a result of this investigation) as a “spiritual terrorist.” As time has passed, other victims have contacted us with their stories and it has become increasingly clear that our assessment has been correct though we are unable to publish most of this personal information because his victims are still so traumatized and frightened of his “aggressive response when crossed” that they are unwilling to expose themselves to further “spiritual terrorism.”
One of the primary things the research team learned in dealing with Bridges was that the normal rules of etiquette simply do not apply. His inner landscape seemed to be so radically different that we began to think that we had landed on another planet and were dealing with a completely different species even though outwardly, he looked like a regular human being. On the one hand, he wrote many fine literary pieces that – on the surface – seemed to express a well-organized emotional state, while in real life, he seemed to have absolutely no comprehension of the effects of his actions on other – usually innocent – people. This was disorienting to all of the research members – about a dozen people – and we struggled to understand someone who knew all the right words about emotion, but didn’t seem to have any ability to apply them to real life and real human relations. This problem is exemplified in Laura’s reflections in The Taste for Things That are True:
During the past week or so, we have had to sit down with our children, show them the terrible, hurtful lies that are being written about us by these contemptible, solipsistic, malignent, and lawless people. We have had to show them that these people have no compunction about writing about the children themselves, using their names, possibly endangering them, certainly embarrassing them, and most definitely hurting them psychologically and emotionally.
We have had to explain to them about people who choose conscious evil; people who are malicious, evil-minded, envious, obnoxious, and loathesome. We have had to explain to them about people who are so twisted that they derive gratification from deceiving other people and hurting other people. And we have had to explain to them that these people pose as “good and helpful and friendly” when they meet you and when you have something they want, or something they wish to destroy, whether they are being directed by some nebulous Control System, or their own internal deficiencies and general failure at life.
What is more, we have had to explain it to ourselves.
And of course, the children have asked us: Why do you even do it? Why not just walk away from the world such people inhabit? Why not just go back to “normal life,” and forget about it. Let the world do what it wants to do, let everybody just go away and leave us alone?
And frankly, as I write this, I am hard pressed to answer that question. Why, indeed?
The emotional, psychological and physical cost of the attacks of Vincent Bridges and his gang of cyber-terrorists on Ark and Laura, their family, friends, students and work, have been high.
When normal people are shown pictures of people’s faces expressing distress, the amygdala is activated. It sends signals to the hypothalamus and other brain regions that prompt our bodies to react with the characteristic racing heartbeat and sweaty palms. Only later, when the brain’s higher cortical regions are engaged, does the emotional response become conscious. Ray Dolan from the Institute of Neurology in London has found that we respond even when our attention is diverted to other matters and we see pictures of distressed faces only at the periphery of our vision. Empathy, concludes Dolan, is automatic and visceral. It is beyond our control. When we feel a wave of emotion at someone’s suffering, or revulsion at the sight of their wounds, we are communing with them, whether we like it or not.
But violent individuals do not react in this way. Is their lack of empathy a cause or an effect of their behaviour? Do such people start life without empathy, does it fail to develop, or do they lose it through wrongdoing? Opinions vary. Raine and others have found that children who later grow up to be violent have abnormal visceral responses such as a relative lack of palm sweating. Twin and adoption studies point to a substantial contribution of heredity to criminal, antisocial conduct, although the genetic effect is stronger for acquisitive and impulsive crime than for premeditated crimes against other people. [...]
Some commentators have suggested that the architects of the Holocaust and other genocides must have been abused as children – why else would they have committed such appalling acts? But all the available evidence contradicts this. James Waller at Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington, has trawled the literature on what he calls “extraordinary evil”. He and other social scientists find perpetrators of evil who look remarkably normal in psychiatric terms. [...]
Aristotle said: “Men become builders by building and lyre-players by playing the lyre; so too we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.” Modern thinkers agree with the idea that, in part, we create ourselves through our actions. The way the antisocial brain is configured may limit a person’s choices from the outset, but, argues forensic psychiatrist Paul Mullen from Monash University in Victoria, Australia, it is by choosing evil that we seal our own fate. Mullen sees the antisocial personality as the outcome of a developmental disorder of ethical action. Someone who does not reflect upon the consequences of their actions while growing up – or who is not provided with a parent who will do so for them – creates their own antisocial destiny. [Bad or Mad? New Scientist vol 181 issue 2439 - 20 March 2004, page 38]
The terms sociopath or psychopath often bring to mind images of sadistically violent individuals such as Ted Bundy or the fictional character of Dr. Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter in the book and movie The Silence of the Lambs. But I believe the defining characteristic traits of sociopaths actually cover a much broader spectrum of individuals than most of us would ever imagine. The sociopath is that truly self-absorbed individual with no conscience or feeling for others and for whom social rules have no meaning. I believe that most all of us know or have come in contact with sociopathic individuals without even knowing it. [Wendy Koenigsmann]
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| Vincent of Arabia? |
CHARISMATIC PSYCHOPATHS are charming, attractive liars. They are usually gifted at some talent or another, and they use it to their advantage in manipulating others. They are usually fast-talkers, and possess an almost demonic ability to persuade others out of everything they own, even their lives. They are irresistible, persuasive, eloquent, and seemingly full of the milk of human kindness and concern for others.
While the psychopath has likes and dislikes and fondness for the pleasures that human company can bring, analysis shows that he is completely egocentric, valuing others only for their enhancement of his own pleasure or status. While he gives no real love, he is quite capable of inspiring love of sometimes fanatical degree in others.
He is generally superficially charming and often makes a striking impression as possessed of the noblest of human qualities.
He makes friends easily, and is very manipulative, using his ability with words to talk his way out of trouble. Many psychopaths love to be admired and bask in the adulation of others.
With the lack of love, there is also a lack of empathy. The psychopath is unable to feel sorry for others in unfortunate situations or put himself in another’s place, whether or not they have been harmed by him.[Gordon Banks]
How Psychopaths View The World
Not only do they covet possessions and power, but they gain special pleasure in usurping and taking from others (a symbolic sibling, for example); what they can plagiarize, swindle, and extort are fruits far sweeter than those they can earn through honest labor. And once having drained what they can from one source, they turn to another to exploit, bleed, and then cast aside; their pleasure in the misfortune of others is unquenchable. People are used as a means to an end; they are to be subordinated and demeaned so that the antisocial can vindicate themselves…
The psychopath is a manipulator, who knows exactly what makes us tick and knows how to manipulate and influence our feelings. They have the talent to spot “kind, caring” women.
Mimicry of emotion by word or cleverly produced effects (including tears, sighs, and highly dramatized emotional appeals) is often used to convince others that the psychopath is a normal human being. He does this to create a false empathy with his victim. The psychopath will try to make you believe he has normal emotions by spinning some sad tale or professing profound, moving experiences; the truth is, most psychopaths go through life as in an incubator, touched by few and having no real compassion for others; but they will lie to convince you that they have normal emotions. The pity factor is one reason why victims often fall for these “poor” people. [...]
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| Vincent Bridges as “Nostradamus Expert” (at right) |
Lying is like breathing to the psychopath. From personal experience with psychopaths, I can relate to this. When caught in a lie and challenged, they make up new lies, and don’t care if they’re found out. As Hare states, “Lying, deceiving, and manipulation are natural talents for psychopaths…When caught in a lie or challenged with the truth, they are seldom perplexed or embarrassed — they simply change their stories or attempt to rework the facts so that they appear to be consistent with the lie. The results are a series of contradictory statements and a thoroughly confused listener.” [Hare, 46]. Often, their behaviour serves to confuse and repress their victims, or to influence anyone who might listen to the psychopath’s side of the story. Manipulation is the key to their conquests, and lying is one way they achieve this.
When dealing with a really good psychopath, even the most astute observer can be fooled. And, the ones most easily deceived are those with real emotions which the psychopath engages, blinding them to objective facts. If you are a person with a highly developed empathic nature, you are more likely to be fooled by a psychopath than someone who operates at only a minimal level of human empathy.
