Debunking cult thinking: pop artist case study

Nothing like a smoking gun in the artist's own words. I've often blogged about how there is a network of people I call 'cultists' who often present themselves as even mainstream Evangelicals and so forth, but who harbor cult beliefs and practices. Worse, these beliefs are "hidden" in their productions: movies, books, art work. I've mentioned how it is easy to flip to just about any book and find interesting items on pages 126, 216 and 612 because editors work to put "Left Behind" and "AntiChrist" references, even in boring textbooks, on those pages. Well, here we have a case study from today's news.

Just by background, there was a much beloved artist, Al Hirschfeld, who included in his caricatures of celebrities (usually to illustrate a newspaper review) the name of his daughter "Nina" as part of the pencil work. It was not occult or secret since it was an open tribute to his daughter, and when he signed his works he would indicate the number of times he has placed "Nina" subtly in that day's drawings. I enjoyed looking for them, in my copy of the New York Times. That is an innocent tribute and one that's nice.

What I've learned, however, is as I describe one scenario above, every piece of media, as far as I can tell, passes through the hands of either the producer or the editor who includes occult meaning. The most common is "lucky numbers," but with a fortune teller and "numerology" purpose. They hide these numbers, not so the viewer can, as with AH, look for the "Nina," but so they feel they are encoding occult power in their works. They are also doing the old canard of subliminal hypnosis. They figure, if they have a 'birthnumber' that they want to be 'lucky' for them, to include that number in lots of works that lots of people buy. No matter how you spin it, it is idolatry.

So, here is an article about a very popular artist of schmaltz, Thomas Kincade.

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/culture/2008/11/14/thomas-kincades-16-guidelines-for-making-stuff-suck.html

When you read the article the reviewer is focusing on the very easy and totally justifiable focus of bashing TK's art as being total talentless schmaltz. But the reviewer includes a memo from TK about how the filming of a movie should maintain his "look." Here is the smoking gun, his fascination with hiding personal occult numerology in his works, which suckers then buy, unknowingly participating in his cultist mindset.

snip

6) Hidden details whenever possible, References to my children (from youngest to oldest as follows): Evie, Winsor, Chandler and Merritt. References to my anniversary date, the number 52, the number 82, and the number 5282 (for fun, notice how many times this appears in my major published works). Hidden N's throughout -- preferably thirty N's, commemorating one N for each year since the events happened.

Yeah, I know. Those of you who are still stable and balanced figure that this is just an example of someone very anal with a lot of narcissism, but otherwise harmless. That's what I thought too, giving people the benefit of the doubt ("dumb but not malicious") until I spent five miserable years undercover among the people who are actually doing this sick stuff (sick because of the occult underlying belief and the desire to manipulate the "destiny" of others) and had what they were doing explained to me in their own words! It's unbelievable and incredible how warped so many human minds have become. God knows, sees, watches and waits.