Product Description

James Shelby Downard, who died at the age of eighty-three in 1996, is one of the most compelling conspiracy theorists of the twentieth century.

Robert Anton Wilson wrote that Downard's "King-Kill" essay, regarding the involvement of Freemasons in the murder of John F. Kennedy, is "the most incredible Illuminati theory of them all." Marilyn Manson wrote a song based on "King-Kill 33," and even two rock bands, one in Atlanta and the other in Seattle, named themselves after Downard's piece.

The Carnivals of Life and Death is James Shelby Downard's thrilling life story, detailing the skullduggery and ritualism of the KKK and Freemasonry and how they imposed themselves on the young Downard and his family in Depression-era Deep-South America in the 1930s.

Editor Elana Freeland writes in her introduction, "Downard's tale is a piece of the puzzle of a very important period when networks of fraternal orders were front and center in consolidating techniques of sociopolitical control."
Interest in the hidden aspects of Freemasonry is reaching boiling point today, and James Shelby Downard's eagerly awaited contribution to this secretive and little-known aspect of American culture will be widely read and discussed.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #623813 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 280 pages

From Booklist
Veteran readers of vivid conspiracy and Illuminati screeds may remember Downard from Adam Parfrey's Apocalypse Culture compilations or one of the man's own excursions into conspiracy theory, such as King-Kill 33 [degrees], in which he detailed the alleged role of the Freemasons in the Kennedy assassination; it inspired a Marilyn Manson song. Here Downard tells his own story, touching, as so often elsewhere, on the sub rosa, commingled influences of the Freemasons and the Ku Klux Klan, not to mention FDR, on history. Dismissed as a conspiracy nut, considered a beacon of truth cutting through the fog by his adherents, Downard could write gripping prose full of piquant detail and his own weird experiences. "Sex circuses for public and private consumption are actually Masonic sex magick [sic] rites arranged by gringo Masonic sorcerers and greaser witches," begins his reminiscence of a 1934 trip to Memphis to explore the "Rite of Memphis" and attendant phenomena. Too dense to explain simply, too involved to dismiss out-of-hand, Downard's stuff must be experienced to be appreciated. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
Crackling with paranoid vitality...(an) archival gem of a conspiracy book. -- Lone Nutter News, Autumn Equinox (2006) Edition

About the Author
James Shelby Downard is said by Robert Anton Wilson that Downard's theory is "The most absurd, the most incredible, the most ridiculous Illuminati theory of them all".

Elana Freeland edited East West Journal in the mid-'70s was a reporter for The Seattle Sun, 1979-80, and currently writes for mkzine.com, a website that reports on mind control abuses.

Customer Reviews

Mysteries Magazine review
It is rare to find a conspiracy writer as animated as James Shelby Downward. Crackling with paranoid vitality, his self-aggrandizing, cyclopean prose, while coming off as abstruse, is an otherwise excellent means to further unraveling the mysteries of mind control, the kabbalah, witchcraft, and various other invisible cabals.

A self-proclaimed scapegoat of early 20th-century Freemasons, the author of the bizarre, autobiographical The Carnivals of Life and Death has become something of a post-mortem curio amongst conspiracy aficionados. Fortunately, this morbidly engaging book serves to further add mystery to the intrigue that was Downward's life. One inevitably sees the world as he did--a miasmic conundrum perpetually rife with skullduggery, subterfuge, and endless quandary. In response to what appears to be an oppressive childhood, James further unravels concepts that most would write off as patently unknowable.?As he explains:
In actuality, the most naive people refuse to understand that the material world is only a cover for a perpetual spiritual battle for the minds of men...The control mechanism is a hidden thing, a subtle thing, and wishful thinkers overlook it.

Fortunately, for those of us who lack the means of perceiving the hidden control mechanisms, perusing this archival gem of a conspiracy book will assist one in developing the required acumen to grasp what Downward called mystical toponomy (the occult science of deriving meaning from place names), as well as onomancy (divination through names), and the occult transmission known as contagion (the influence upon the subtle body, such as auras and chakras, by unseen forces).

While many may dismiss the potentially ludicrous claims the author makes (especially in regards to the bizarre ways that he says he was targeted by various occult groups in his youth), it is most important to consider that there is something palpably cogent about his eerie and traumatic reminiscences.

While some would like to dismiss Downward as a side-show act from the Jurassic age of conspiracy theory, there are many who would like to place him back into well-deserved prominence. Ultimately, it is up to you how to regard The Carnivals of Life and Death--either as a kind of metaphorical exegesis born of a tormented soul or as a useful travelog through a magically convoluted territory that most could not pass through, let alone survive to write about it.
Mysteries Magazine

Lift the Masonic "Hoodwink"
At last James Shelby Downard's autobiography has emerged from the underground like a Cowan from a Masonic crypt, breathing with vitality and tales of the bizarre. Feral House has edited this account which was previously only available in a rough but thorough form from Downard's protégé, Michael A. Hoffman II (it's still available and makes for an interesting comparison for savants of Downardia). In addition, the book is enlivened with an introduction by Adam Parfrey, recounting his personal experiences with Downard and giving an insightful framework to the reader who is--to put it mildly--in for a wild ride.

The story is at times tragic and by turns hilarious, shot through with the dichotomies of the man himself. Downard uses racial slurs yet fights against racist exploitation; oscillates between eloquence and slang; denigrates immorality while operating by his own confessedly "situational ethics." Above all we have a sense of a mind awake, a brilliant man who takes his dark life by the Devil's horns and gradually discerns in his daily world a web of symbolic connections which lead him to see past his own repeated manipulation, finding his own part in the Play. As he does so, he frustrates his Stage Directors time and again by deviating from the script and outfoxing them all, emerging with a sense of humor and wonder, two qualities his grim pursuers lack.

In addition, the editor has highlighted several of Downard's insights in textboxes, supplementing them with historical details which form a backdrop to the account and educate as they elucidate. Have you read a Masonic whitewash account which reassures you that the Grand Lodge has nothing to do with, say, the occult lodges of the OTO? Downard explains this to be part of the "Masonic hoodwink." Through his life story, Downard helps lift that blindfold enough for us so that after laying the book down, we can go out and see more than we did before, discerning charades, finding patterns, symbols, and even discovering a level of poetry and humor in our existence. We might even be inspired to step outside the script like Downard and fight the Cryptocracy itself.

This is your brain on conspiracies.
This is a stunning work of insanity/entertainment that takes the protagonist through such mind-boggling adventures as wrestling with crocodiles and experiencing orgasms after electro-tortures by secret government officials. It is fascinating that so many dubious accounts could be gathered into one man's life! The book is shockingly amusing and difficult to put down.

I was left wondering, "Has the author committed the most egregious act of undermining others who have purportedly been victimized by the sharp blades of conspiracy and secret societal workings; or has he lent more valid attention to their cause?" Was he simply trying to entertain? The allegations presented in this book are extreme.

If the author was completely deranged, then it is impressive that he maintained the capacity to write as intelligently as he did.

This is certainly another worthwhile and unforgettable exploration of bizarre consciousness by Feral House.