You Can't Take the Sky From Me

The Moon Landing

Means, Motive, and Opportunity

I don’t believe anyone has ever set foot on the moon.

I think it’s fake. A hoax. Pretend.

Will I defend this position with facts and reason and logic?

No.

Well… maybe a little. If I feel like it.

But listen, I’ve been around the block enough to know that such an exercise would be mostly pointless. It’s been over fifty years since the original tin cans allegedly went up to the Sea of Tranquility and by now all the arguments on either side have been beaten with a dead horse. I’m not under any delusion that I’m here, by going through those arguments one more time, going to change anybody’s mind. Nor, really, do I feel any particular need to do so. Believe whatever you like. It’s no business of mine. So, if you came here looking for a post about how the moon landing was faked then I’m sorry but you’re going to be disappointed.

Instead… I’m going to talk about why.

I’m going to tell you what I think the motive behind the hoax was.

This is important because, no matter what evidence you have, if you’re unable to provide a motive for a crime, a jury is far less likely to convict. The simple truth of the matter is that, to the average person, The Achilles Heel in almost every Conspiracy Theorist’s argument is the simple question of, “Okay… but why would they lie??” So focused have conspiracy theorists been on proving means and opportunity that these fringe (often borderline autistic) detectives have failed to appeal to the human element, and thus have generally failed to be convincing. 9/11 being “an inside job” has a lot more followers than most conspiracy theories simply because there the motive for such a crime is fairly obvious, even if you find the alleged means and opportunity to execute it borderline impossible. “Feeding the military industrial complex” or “stealing oil” or “gaining control of the world’s opiate supply” are straightforward motivations that present themselves without too much imagination and, hey, maybe they didn’t call Herbert Walker “Poppy Bush” for nothing.

By contrast, the motivation for pretending to go to space is not at all obvious and the typical reasons offered by “the conspiracy community” (such a dumb phrase) like “beating the soviets” or “proving U.S. supremacy” just aren’t overly convincing. We are, after all, talking about an operation involving a lot of people, a ton of money, and an enormous risk of sociopolitical blow-back if they were to get caught. It’s only reasonable therefore to demand that, if the Moon Landing were faked, there’d have to be a pretty spectacular reason for people to have wanted to fake it. In my experience even the best moon landing conspiracy theorists usually fail to provide such a reason and I therefore sympathize with conspiracy skeptics, those who believe the official story about the moon. Like them, without a sufficiently convincing motive I too thought all the “Moon Truthers” were patently ridiculous.

…

Until one day in the theatre.

One day while watching a play the idea of faking the moon landing made complete and total sense.

Galileo

Life of Galileo is a stage play written by Bertolt Brecht in the early 1940s and I saw it as a college student when some dummy had the bright idea for the University Theatre club to put it on. I say “some dummy” because it was a horrible choice of a play for college students, and anyone who’s ever known theatre kids could readily guess why. On the whole, a college theatre club is… how to say this delicately… slutty? You know, to say the least? This is a mostly universal rule amongst college theatre students and I am here comfortable stereotyping all of them with that particular adjective. Slutty. There has never been a 19-year-old in the history of Theatre that kept their pants on.

It’s just not something that happens.

And so something like Best Little Whore House in Texas? Boy they were into that play, let me tell you.

Rocky Horror Picture Show?

Kids played their hearts out.

Heck, even the flirty sexy bits of Tartuffe were enough to get them interested but… Life of Galileo?

They just weren’t about it.

Very subdued performance.

A play in which most of the characters are old celibate priests and there’s absolutely zero chance to show skin? I dunno. I’m just saying that I’d seen them do better.

The performance notwithstanding, the story of the play still came through well enough and it was more or less what you’d expect. Your boilerplate “science vs religion” narrative where the religious are portrayed as narrowminded and violent and those willing to go their own way and buck tradition portrayed as humble and kind.

A well-worn plot by this point, to be sure.

However, for whatever reason as I was watching the play I found myself thinking for the first time just how much Religious Authority came from observations of the sky.

Think about it.

Sumer. Mesoamerica. The Chinese. The Greeks… The bread and butter of the priestly caste of nearly every ancient culture was predicting the movements of the heavens. Astrology. Reading the sky. The sun, moon, and stars were the gods after all, worshiped under a myriad of different names like Ra and Venus and Apollo, and if you could predict with certainty how they moved… if you could tell when the next solar eclipse would happen or when the moon goddess would turn red or the exact day on which Venus would enter retrograde…

Well…

You were a special man.

A man to whom the gods spoke.

And make no mistake, the Ancients could do this by the way. Probably so could the Pre-Historics. Modern people, inundated as we are with fancy graphs and maths in our textbooks and television screens, are often under the assumption that you need a complete understanding of celestial mechanics in order to make such predictions.

Hogwash.

As it happens, the heavens above our heads rotate with an astonishing regularity and simply by watching the sky each night and keeping careful notes you can, over the course of several hundreds of years, get a pretty darn good idea of what the stars and planets are up to. It’s not impossible to imagine that the Egyptian priestly caste might have had astrological records going back over a thousand years. The Mayans maybe likewise. With that much data it’s easy to pick out patterns. Things like the fact that Mars returns to the same relative position with respect to the Sun every 780 days or that Jupiter conjuncts with Venus every 39 months become readily apparent. Armed with such information, a priest could go to the people and say, “The gods have told me that in two weeks the morning star will rise and the moon will turn to blood…” and have everyone be astonished when it actually happened. Such a man would be a prophet. An oracle. The sort of guy who could saddle up to the ruler and say, “Now listen here Kingy… I’m telling you… you push your coronation back a month, we can work it so it goes off right in the middle of a solar eclipse. Sky turns black in the middle of the day and everything. You can use that to claim the gods are behind you. That your authority is divinely ordained…”

That kind of a man is useful.

A caste of such men is capable of amassing a great deal of power.

Church Cosmology was officially geocentric for a long time. They’d like you to forget that now but…

So too was it that a surprising amount of Church Authority was rooted in Astronomy. Not as immediately obvious a claim as it might be for pagan religions, true, because Christianity does not, at least on the surface, worship the stars and planets. Nonetheless, prior to Galileo The Church did stake it’s Rule on various astrological affirmations, like the earth being fixed and unmovable, or the sky being a firmament with a fixed dome, or, at times, even claiming that the Earth was flat…

And I know people will quibble with that.

Feel free too.

A lot of those claims were implicit rather than explicit, that is true, and so if any of you are uncomfortable thinking that Christianity ever made false claims about the cosmos then I welcome you to not think it. As I stated in the beginning, I don’t need to change anybody’s mind. That said, I’m familiar enough with medieval prayers and hymns and so on to know that phrases like “Middle Earth” pop up here and there and imply a model of the cosmos quite different from our own. I’m aware that back then they sometimes thought that purgatory was a real, physical place (in Ireland) you could go to. I’m aware that they thought “space” was a vast perfect crystal, a glass-like structure in which each of the planets were neatly and eternally embedded…

And so on.

Either way, whatever you’re comfortable thinking, I believe most of us would agree that The Church had at least a few issues with Galileo’s version of the universe and felt that that Renaissance Man’s cosmological model was a challenge to its Authority. It seems therefore that not even Christianity could escape the notion that, somehow or other, the knowledge of God and the ability to speak for him was directly related to one’s knowledge of the Sky. Much as we’ve tried to make it otherwise, “Heaven” has never been fully separated from “The Heavens” in peoples’ minds. Up is Up after all, and Christ ascended somewhere when he left Earth didn’t he? So when people think of God they naturally imagine him to be somewhere out there. Somewhere Above and Beyond. Somewhere Up.

And that’s why they faked the moon landing.

To steal Up.

A Priestly Caste

It’s no coincidence that the dramatic rise in Science and Scientists as Authority Figures happened shortly after the Apollo missions. Why shouldn’t it? To land on the moon is to symbolically dethrone all the world’s religions in a single go. For Religion… priests and monks and nuns and imams and fakirs and rabbis… they only ever promised to take you to Heaven later, after you died.

But NASA?

NASA was claiming to be able to take you there right now. Riding on a chariot of fire no less.

Like Elijah.

The proof of this is in the pudding. Think about it. Whenever a moral question arises in society today, whenever there’s an issue of ethics or philosophy or a basic question about right and wrong… Who do we ask?

The Pope? Pastors? Do we ask Billy Graham (he’s dead now but you know what I mean)?

Does the Archbishop of Canterbury appear on our television screens reading us answers about such dilemmas from the Bible? Does Sakyong Mipham come before Congress and teach them sutras before they vote on some new law? When the president or a prime minister needs to assure the public that they are acting with wisdom and prudence about some war or public health measure or climate regulation… do they ask Eric Yoffie to get up and consult the Torah?

No.

Instead, the public gets answers from people like this guy:

Neil Degrasse Tyson.

Or this guy:

Brian Cox

Or, if you’re on a shoestring budget and can’t afford a real scientist, maybe this guy:

Bill Nye. The Halo is intentional. They know what they’re doing.

Science dethroned The Bible you see. Took away the crown from The Pope and any claim to enlightenment from The Buddha. As we speak, Science is openly talking about making gods for us to worship. About making “A.I.” Like the priests of Ur they will make a black box with a voice inside it that’s supposedly omniscient. Create a statue of a man for you to kneel before as though it’s God. And hey… maybe the statue will be robotic and able to walk around this time. That’d be cool.

An improvement on the old idols of bronze and gold anyway. The ones that just stood there.

See…

Science is a replacement religion.

So much so that sometimes, when it’s feeling saucy, it will even come out and promise us eternal life.

And my point is why shouldn’t it?

Why shouldn’t we cede all religious ground to Science? After all, if they really did put a man on the Moon they have worked a miracle. In a real, tangible way, they’ve Ascended Unto Heaven. Followed in the footsteps of Jesus. They literally transcended the limits of this world and where the Tower of Babel failed, modern Science has succeeded.

If the moon landing was real then Science went to Heaven before you did.

That’s just the facts. And you know… even if you chaff at that… even if you think that’s ridiculous and stupid and wrong and reflexively dismiss such claims as silly…

I guarantee that most of you don’t act like it is.

No. You don’t act like it’s silly.

I mean, who do you ask to Heal you? Hmm? Be honest.

When you are sick do you turn to Jesus? To your pastor? Do you do as the Apostles said in the Bible and go to church to be anointed with oil and prayed over?

… do you?

Or do you instead go to the Doctor to get anointed with his pharmaceuticals? To receive the laying on of hands of the surgeon? If you are lame today, if you are deaf, if you are blind… to whom do you turn for help? To make you walk again? To make you see?

You don’t turn to God.

Or, at least, you don’t turn to any of his earthly representatives.

Cochlear Implant. “He makes the deaf to hear…”

It’s not bad. Again, I’m not judging you or telling you to forsake modern medicine or to avoid that surgery if it’ll help you feel better. No. I’m just pointing out a simple objective fact which is that most people, regardless of their stated beliefs, actually worship at the altar of Science. That’s where they think the Power is. That’s where they think the Healing is. That’s where they think the Knowledge is.

They don’t think it’s in a Church.

We saw this plainly during the incident a few years back, didn’t we? Science told everyone to close their churches.

Everyone dutifully obeyed.

So I ask you… where do people really think Authority lies?

And again, if Science really did transcend Earth and reach The Moon then we are right to give it a higher authority than our religions. We are right to do that because that would mean it objectively has more wisdom than the Church Fathers, more power than a baptism, and more experience than a sage. If the moon landing was real, then through Science we’ve gotten closer to God than anyone else. If it was real… then with Science we’ve gone to Heaven.

Literally.

We literally touched the goddess in the night. Luna and Selene.

And that’s why they faked it.

Not for money or for power or to get a leg up on the Reds in the USSR. No. They faked it to steal your worship. Ultimately… they faked it to steal your soul.

“They”

Clarification is in order and, sadly, here I can’t go any further without revealing to you a bit of my own idiosyncratic beliefs. This, frankly, is where I get a little loopy. Where I get a little strange. This is where I cross a mental bridge that maybe others are unable to follow me down and that’s okay. Not trying to force you along my path.

But…

If I tell you “they” faked the moon landing, you’d rightly wonder who “they” is. Additionally, you’d rightly wonder how “they” were capable of pulling off such a stunt, especially if you think by “they” I mean the U.S. government, or NASA. Rocket Scientists are smart, sure… but they’re not on another playing field from the rest of us altogether (in fact… by some definitions of the term, I used to be one). Pulling off a deception that large would seem to be something like faking out a dog by pretending to throw a ball, and thus would seem to require an intelligence differential between Deceiver and Decieved somewhere on par with that between a man and a labrador. Therefore, if by “they” we’re talking about other human beings…

I agree it seems rather impossible.

But I’m not talking about other human beings.

I’m talking about Demons.

Satan. The fallen angels. All that. As I said, my position requires a substantial intelligence differential in order to function and my theory absolutely has such a thing in it. Recall if you will that when Satan tempted Christ he offered him all the kingdom’s of the world in exchange for his worship.

…

and Jesus never objected that Satan didn’t possess such a thing to offer.

See, fundamentally, I believe that the world is run by demonic forces.

You know, at least at “the top”.

The world is run by the devil and the “They” in most of my conspiracy theorizing is demons. Demons which use human vessels to accomplish their various goals. I believe that not just America, but more or less all of worldly governance, is occupied by individuals under the dominion of Satan. Men and women who’ve sold their souls for worldly power and wealth and influence.

I even think this is provable.

Selling your soul isn’t as funny as this.

For example, I think one of the ways you often get to be a big shot is by doing something reprehensible. I think one of the ways you enter the halls of power is by sacrificing your morality. Raping minors on an island maybe, like we saw with Epstein. Or being willing to lie about weapons of mass destruction in order to start a war like we saw with Bush. Maybe you get power by race-baiting the country in order to pit people against one other, or by taking “campaign contributions” from big business in exchange for letting them poison your citizens.

Look… is anyone really going to argue those aren’t paths to success?

Well, that’s selling your soul. That’s what that looks like.

It’s not as dramatic as a little red man with horns appearing in your room in a puff of smoke with a document for you to sign in blood.

I think it’s rather like a test.

A temptation.

I think selling your soul happens as simply as a little whisper in your ear at the moment of a crucial decision. A little voice in your conscience asking you what you’ll do in exchange for money, or for power, or for sex or influence. How far are you willing to go, asks the Devil. “If I offer you the presidency…

Will you commit to seeing everyone slaughtered in Ukraine?”

That’s how I think selling your soul works.

I think it’s just “All these kingdoms shall I give you, if you but fall and worship me,” in a thousand different little forms.

So personally I doubt there were many human beings involved in the Moon Hoax. I doubt there were very many at all who were “in” on it, so to speak. A handful of people. Perhaps a couple of dozen. If I had to guess I would wager that most of the engineers who worked on the project and most of the people manufacturing the spacesuits and freeze-dried ice cream had no idea of the ruse and thought they were doing something real. But, you know… most of the top guys in NASA’s early history were provably evil men. Literal Nazis in many cases… like men who’d been part of the Third Reich and brought over to American through Operation Paper Clip. Wernher Von Braun, NASA’s golden boy, was in the Nazi SS for crying out loud, and The Jet Propulsion lab… one of NASA’s primary campuses, was started by a guy who tried to summon the antichrist.

So, yeah.

I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to suggest that maybe some of the folks involved with the Apollo missions might have been comfortable with lying. Comfortable with a little demonic exchange of their morality for power. I think there was something guiding them to do it. Showing them how best to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes. When I wrote that post “Lizard People” back in April, that was the sort of person I’m referring to. People who’ve gotten into high places in this world by hollowing themselves out. By becoming vessels for other things. The demons after all, are dragons, and so this persistent theme in modern folklore that some people house within them something else… that something behind their eyes seems strangely reptilian…

Well.

I think there’s something to it.

I know there is.

Firsthand I’ve witnessed the soul leave a person’s eyes and watched something else step in to take their place. Something full of loathing and death suddenly jumping in to animate the body and make the person incapable of reason. Something that produces a Hate beyond what I believe a human being is capable of, and I’ve known people to whom that hate appeared visibly.

But…

Let’s not get into that now.

Suffice to say that the “They” I refer to is Something Else and “They” is not interested in money. “They” is not interested in power. “They” is not interested in fame.

Their human vessels might be, yes. But “They” aren’t.

No.

“They” is interested in you. In devouring you. In sucking you dry.

That’s who “They” are.

And that’s why they faked the moon landing.

NASA is the transliteration of the Hebrew word for “to deceive” and is the word used to describe what the serpent did to Eve in the garden. Don’t get mad at me. It just is. I didn’t make Hebrew. I didn’t name NASA. It’s not my fault.

Amor Vincit Omnia.