PSYCHEDELIC WONDERLAND / APOCALYPSE CULT: Timothy Wyllie Is A Weird Dude

You guys remember that post about John C. Lilly from a little while back? You know, the guy who dropped a bunch of LSD and figured out how to communicate with non-human entities (cetaceans mostly -- "dolphins" to the unwashed masses)? Well, my studies involving Mr. Lilly and his psychotropic excursions into inerspecial language led me to another esoteric LSD-fueled linguist and his work with non-human entities as well.
But I'm getting ahead of myself here...

First things first:

Satanic/Christian Cults. Nothing wrong with this picture, right? Jesus and Satan should be worshipped equally, we all know that. What's surprising is that there aren't MORE Satanichristians out there.
Well, the best known Heaven/Hell crossover cult would probably be The Process Church of The Final Judgement, a contemporary of Anton LaVey's Church of Satan that flourished throughout the late 60's and early 70's. Founded by Robert Moor (who later changed his surname to DeGrimston) and Mary Anne MacLean, "The Process" (as it came to be known) was originally a Bro-Cult with Scientology, although their Luciferian leanings and general wackiness eventually earned them scorn and a declaration of "enemies" from Mr. L. Ron Hubbard himself.
Recently, Feral House (home of Lords of Chaos and the Apocalypse Culture series) published a tell-all of sorts focusing on the zany hijinks of The Process in their glory years, with text written by former Process member and all-around weird dude Timothy Wyllie (above right - you can buy said book HERE). Mr. Wyllie is who we're here to talk about today.

(Before I forget: You guys should really watch the trailer for Crispin Glover and Apocalypse Culture/Love Sex Fear Death editor Adam Parfrey's film What Is It? RIGHT NOW.)

Above: this would get you onto an airplane in 1970.

After their beef with L. Ron, The Process bailed to Xtul (on the Yucatan Peninsula), where they further developed their concepts and beliefs about the reconciliation of Christ and Satan. When The Process moved back to the States (settling around the London area), they quickly gained public notoriety through both the striking image of Process members in black cloaks sporting goat's-heads and an affiliation with a handful of celebrities -- Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, and some guy named Charlie Manson, among others. The Process became known as an "Apocalypse Cult" due to their dark imagery and focus on evil and transcendence thereof. Timothy Wyllie was ordained in 1969 and given the "sacred name" of Father Micah. Dude was getting into some deep shit.

There are THREE major elements to "processean theology", which Wikipedia describes thusly:

"- Jehovah, the wrathful God of vengeance and retribution, demands discipline, courage and ruthlessness, and a single-minded dedication to duty, purity and self-denial.

- Lucifer, the Light Bearer, urges us to enjoy life to the full, to value success in human terms, to be gentle and kind and loving, and to live in peace and harmony with one another. Man's apparent inability to value success without descending into greed, jealousy and an exaggerated sense of his own importance, has brought the God Lucifer into disrepute. He has become mistakenly identified with Satan.

- Satan, the receiver of transcendent souls and corrupted bodies, instills in us two directly opposite qualities; at one end an urge to rise above all human and physical needs and appetites, to become all soul and no body, all spirit and no mind, and at the other end a desire to sink beneath all human codes of behavior, and to wallow in a morass of violence, lunacy and excessive physical indulgence. But it is the lower end of Satan's nature that men fear, which is why Satan, by whatever name, is seen as the Adversary.

In between these Three Great Gods and man, is an entire hierarchy of Gods, beings and superbeings, angels and archangels, demons and archdemons, elementals and guides, and fallen angels and watchers."

At this point, oddly enough, Wikipedia adds: "There is all this and more too, in heaven and in hell and on Earth."

In an interview with Phawker.com (read it re-published on the Feral House website here), Wyllie explains that inside the Church, early Processeans referred to these entities simply as "The Beings", the Christian connotations not being added until The Process began increasing their public visibilty in the late 60's.


In 1973, Wyllie reportedly experienced a near-death experience, although details are difficult to obtain. In his own words (from the aforementioned interview): "I had a near death experience in 1973 and angels pulled me back. I was strapped to a machine and healed. I had the actual experience of witnessing angels, which was an especially profound experience, but for a few years I kind of pushed it to the back of my mind, trying to cope with the reality of it."
In 1974, Process founders DeGrimston and MacLean split up, and the burgeoning Process Church of the Final Judgment split with them. In fact, DeGrimston (an almost Manson-esque figure at the time, shown above and below) was removed from his position as "Teacher" in the Process' "Council of Masters" and his teachings were expunged. As he attempted to re-start The Process elsewhere, The Church changed its name to The Foundation Faith of The Millenium. In 1977, the Church dissolved almost completely, Wyllie dropping out and most followers doing the same. The Process/Foundation Faith actually mutated further in the 80's and 90's though, and today exists as the animal welfare group known as the Best Friends Animal Society (no, I'm not making this up).
But The Process has remained something of a Christian cult bogey-man, enshrouded in mystery and darkness since their "official" dissolution. In his 1971 Manson Family expose The Family, author Ed Sanders wrote extensively about The Process and their connection to Manson (as well as Manson's connections to Scientology), but The Process actually sued him and were successful in having their name removed from the book.

(For another excellent book on Christian cults entitled The Family, this one written by Jeff Sharlet, click HERE. This vehemently homophobic, ultra-rich and ultra-powerful Family is a whole other post in itself...)



Here's a quick YouTube bumper Feral House produced for the 2009 publishing of Wyllie's book:



To celebrate the release of said book, Feral House also arranged a gathering/concert with well-known underground (contradiction acknowledged) musicians performing hymns and chants originally sung at church functions by The Process. An excerpt of this gathering can be viewed below. It is still somewhat difficult to locate information on The Process, as their beliefs and scriptures tend to be a bit esoHOLY CRAP OVER 500 PAGES OF PROCESSEAN WRITINGS DOWNLOADABLE IN PDF FORMAT.



Luckily, as I mentioned earlier, Tim ditched out on The Process and is a totally normal dude now. Right, Tim?


Yep.

Okay, so now we begin Part 2 of today's post. This is the part where we talk about Tim Wyllie going all New Age and talking to dolphins and eating acid. Oh wait, he didn't just talk to dolphins, he talked to angels and aliens too? Alright then. Cool.


Oh, and did I mention that Timothy is a total shredder? It's true. When he's not sailing around the multiverse talking to extraterrestrials and uncovering the secrets behind human consciousness, Mr. Wyllie plays guitar in a progressive metal band in New Mexico called Cognitive Dissidents (no, I'm not making this up either).



Like our boy John C. Lilly, Wyllie has had his share of interactions with non-human intelligence, from the angels he encountered in his 1973 near-death experience to extensive work with cetaceans and beyond. And Love Sex Fear Death was by no means his only literary work, either. He has explained the quantum nature of the universe, his own interdimensional travels, and his ability to communicate with what he calls "spiritual intelligences" in a series of books published from the 80's to the present. BUY ALL OF THEM.

- Ask Your Angels
- Dolphins, ET's, and Angels: Adventures Among Spiritual Intelligences
- Dolphins, Telepathy & Underwater Birthing: Further Adventures Among Spiritual Intelligences
- Adventures Among Spiritual Intelligences: Angels, Aliens, Dolphins, & Shamans

Interview with Timothy Wyllie on Beyond Reason with Teddy Bart:


... 2, 3, 4, 5.

Multiverses? Alien intelligence? Hogwash! Right, respected astrophysicist Michio Kaku?



Hmmm...
Maybe Timothy Wyllie is on to something here. I have to admit, I'm more than just a little fascinated by this guy's life story. And his claims about non-human intelligence sure seem tasty. Honestly, if Timothy Wyllie decided to start another cult I'd probably be pretty tempted to slap on a black cloak and join. As long as prog-metal is involved in one way or another.

Need more convincing? Go to Mr. Wyllie's website and let the sounds of his ambient jam "Gnosis" wash over you as you peruse a collection of his ultra-trippy fantasy art (produced in conjunction with fellow artist June Atkin):










Super mellow!