Jeffrey A. Friedberg (2010)
ISBN 9780615384924
Reviewed by Marty Shaw for Reader Views (08/10)

Today, Tyler R. Tichelaar of Reader Views is pleased to interview Jeffrey Friedberg, who is here to discuss his new novel “Lost Relic of the Gods: The God Conspiracy Vol. 1., of 4 volumes.”

Jeffrey A. Friedberg is a master of secrets; he’s a 32nd Degree member of the mysterious Masonic Brotherhood—the second highest degree possible—and he was also a private eye for thirty-two years. As a private detective he worked in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as well as New Jersey, Delaware, New York, and Florida, employing up to 125 people. He specialized in: organized crime, deep investigation, undercover, surveillance, homicide, nuclear plant and public utilities protection (DOD clearance), and more. He has been an Internet website guru, data mining expert, and an Internet consultant at America On Line.

Jeff has a BA in English and Psychology/Sociology and has been writing for a lifetime. He holds various certifications in martial arts, firearms, and self-defense. Jeff lives and writes from his mile-high hurricane shelter in the New Mexico desert, in the shadow of a dormant volcano (not extinct), in the USA, Earth, System Sol, Milky Way Galaxy.

Tyler: Welcome, Jeffrey. I’m happy you could join me today. I know a lot of your readers are very taken by your main character, Jack Vane, so let’s start with him. Will you tell us about Jack and his life at the beginning of “Lost Relic of the Gods”?

Jeffrey: Jack has a spotty history. He grew up in South Philadelphia. His neighborhood was Little Italy, and friends’ families were all, shall we say “connected.” He went to South Philly High with Frankie Avalon and Connie Francis, but dropped out to volunteer and fight in Vietnam as a Green Beret. Actually, he ran away from home when he mistakenly thought he’d killed somebody. Anyway, after Vietnam Jack became a Philly cop, and then a private eye. Following that, he let his own wealth and power make him into a classic drunk and whoremonger. He wrecked his marriage and business—you know, the usual private-eye-territory stuff. But when the mob put out a contract on Jack for the “bad manners” of beating up a made guy, he ran away again. Jack ended up a drunk in Albuquerque, New Mexico. But he was taken in by a boyhood friend there, Nick D’Agostino, Esq.—“Nick Dago,” from the old ’hood. Nick introduced Jack to Diana Rose Yazzi, a stunningly beautiful Native American, half Jack’s age. Diana was a substance abuse counselor, and helped Jack get sober. In fact, she married him, she said, because she fell in love with his great warrior spirit. So, Jack is now sober, and desperately in love with his beautiful, pregnant wife. He wants nothing—except his new life with her. What he doesn’t know is—that she has what the natives call Blood Lightning. This is a supernatural connection to her ancient gods that pitch both her and Jack out into a monstrous landscape of prophecy, doom, and destiny. So Jack Vane has a destiny...but he must discover whether it’s to save Humankind—or destroy it.

Tyler: What about Jack Vane do you think appeals to readers?

Jeffrey: The obvious. The Primal. That which people sense has been taken from them or hidden from them. They admire Jack’s psychological and physical ability to operate outside of a smothering social System applied by old men and women writing things down. Jack knows there is no eternal Truth in laws—laws are only temporary instruments of Fashion: they are mere rules-of-the-moment. They are written by politicians, not by the heart of humanity. Politicians do not lead the way forward. Politicians call shots from the rear—from out their rear-ends. They don’t lead. They restrict. They repress. They control. Laws and politicians change like history. They become alien, like the distant Ages themselves. What was admirable 2000 years ago becomes a hanging offense today. Go figger. But what fascinates me is that Politicians of every epoch are assisted by those who lust after watery dribbles from the breast of Humanity. These slime are the self-appointed, high priests of the newest, most “pop” social rules—the loyal, royal media—parasitic hangers on to political power. I just read a media article. It marvels at the recent success of a Sylvester Stallone film. It proclaims that the “alpha male,” the warrior in movies, is a “dying breed.” The article states that the hero-warrior is a dying breed, because there are so few films made that feature them. So, it must be true, because just “everybody” says it’s true. Further, that Stallone’s popularity is silly, crass, mass “nostalgia,” and no big deal. Crapolla. The hero-hunter-warrior is ingrained in our DNA as Mythic Story; we Expect to see him or her in tales that are mystically already embedded in our primordial mind. We are born carrying them inside. They are dreams and visions and blueprints of how we are supposed to be. Such tales, stories, and nursery rhymes never go away because they are rooted in us as survival-images that show us how to behave in circumstances. Joseph Campbell embraced this beautifully in “The Power of Myth.” These images and archetypes can never be expunged from the mind of Humanity because they are Part of our humanity. But it is the gratuitous, fatuous, flirtatious, school-girl-loquacious Pop Media who have seemingly decided such heroes should not be part of Their presentational template. The media uses such image-templates to control and socially engineer “Joe (and Jane) Six Pack,” as they arrogantly and derogatorily term real people. Humanity—real people—are the societal enemy of these power-sycophantic, wannabe, self-anointed, elitist rulers-in-waiting. But our Jack Vane doesn’t need media. Jack doesn’t need laws; Jack doesn’t need any steenking bodges; Jack knows what’s right or wrong because he was born knowing how to be human. Jack has no time to suffer fools, because he’s busy being human—and seeking his destiny. This is why we are all here in the first place. To figure out What the hell to do here with our time here.

Tyler: Our reviewer here at Reader Views said that Jack is a hero not forged in the typical hero mold but one who has a moral code of his own. How would you describe that moral code?

Jeffrey: Just a minute, Tyler, I’m waiting for the echoes of my last speech to fade from the stones of this hall [laughs]…OK, what was the question again?

Tyler: Our reviewer at Reader Views said that Jack is a hero not forged in the typical hero mold but one who has a moral code of his own. How would you describe that moral code?

Jeffrey: Jack Vane listens to his deepest human instincts. He follows human common sense. He’s an instrument of self-preservation. He has not signed a suicide pact with the absurd laws of society. Jack wants to survive, and he wants Humanity to survive. Jack is instinctively a “sheep dog;” he protects the herd from wolves. That is the way hunter-heroes are. It’s in their blood. They can’t help themselves. He must protect the weaker. Jack cannot bear to witness injustice, stupidity, or moral inversion. Jack may be THE Instrument of human self-preservation, chosen by invisible forces that run the universe—billions of years ago. Jack Vane takes no shit from anybody. If you’re a good guy, he may like you. If you’re a bad guy, he may kill you on the spot—or in his spare time. Jack Vane fills the need for a new icon of our times, the same as Bond did in his time. The same as Hercules, Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, Kit Carson, and Wonder Woman did in their Age. These are all archetypal hunter-heroes. The human mind responds to this tale instinctively. It’s all about instinct here. Jack Vane is a crafted combination of various people and archetypal characters. What people are responding to in Jack is that he takes no crap, and that he will protect you and the flock—but if an enemy crosses him, or you, or the flock, then Jack will obliterate that enemy. He answers the frustrated cry of modern Humanity: “Get the hell off my lawn…please?” With Jack on your side, on your team, there’s no fear that the entire Gang will come back and kill you, your family, or the cat. Jack Vane will burn them to the ground and kill everyone they ever knew or loved. People today want to—but are scared—to stand in their own doorway and protect the primeval hearth. Look, even Ben Franklin’s aged wife Deborah did this, in 1764, when she stood alone in the door of her home with a loaded musket and warded off dangerous men. There is almost nothing more genealogically iconic. But in today’s Philadelphia city, Deborah Franklin would be arrested for firearms violations, targeted for lawsuits, and probably subjected to prosecution, and torn apart in the media. In fact, Tyler, as we are doing this very interview, I’ve just now picked up this headline: “Man Arrested For Defending Home And Family From Dozens Of Gang Members...threatening my family, my life. ‘Oh you’re dead, mother*cker. I’m gonna kill your family and your babies. You’re dead.’ So when this mutt says that to me, 20 others guys come rushing around the corner at me and my family...” Tyler, it is not natural to allow such threats against the sacred hearth. Threats become actions.

Tyler: Jeffrey, readers often have a tendency to confuse or interpret main characters as fictional depictions of their authors. Is there any Jeffrey Friedberg in Jack Vane?

Jeffrey: …can I see that I.D. again? Take it out slowly….

Tyler: All right, well, so Jack is a tough guy and a hero, but I seem to recall at the beginning of the novel he has a cane and some other medical issues? What’s the deal there?

Jeffrey: Jack is the archetypal Wounded Man. This ingrained figure is common to Arthurian mythology, the ancient troubadours, tarot cards, and—in fact—to all cultures, in all times, in all recorded histories. Jack’s injuries mirror those of the Mayan sun god, First Father, Hun-Hunahpu, also associated with corn. In the story, Jack favors corn tacos which he receives from a salt-of-the-Earth kind of common man. What Jack represents in this context is a particle of the god’s manifestation on Earth. It helps carry the “great prophecy” of the story forward. The book is loaded with symbolism, literary references, and the poetics of my hyper-alert nature as a detective. It’s like philosophy meets action, like Merlin meets Mike Hammer, but back when Mike Hammer still used his bare hands to rip out windpipes.

Tyler: So on to the novel’s plot. What is the job Jack is offered that gets the story rolling?

Jeffrey: There is a lost, 5000 year old Sumerian relic of incalculable power that the mysterious Ms. Charmant wants to locate. She wants it so her clandestine, global organization can rule Earth. She wants to install her private vision of Paradise. This is the same thing that a competing, world-wide, splinter Cabal wants to do also. And, it’s the same thing the Native American Indians want—Paradise—but each wants their own version. Each has a different view of what “the True Paradise” should be. Tyler—how many True Paradises can there be? If you pick the wrong one, then where do you “go” when you “die”? Which religion is the “right one?” Which political system is the “right one”? Jack would spit in all their eyes. But Jack’s assignment is to find the relic before the other groups find it, and he has to avoid being killed or captured. For this Jack will receive a shoebox full of gold coins, and a place in the new order of the world. Jack Vane. Mike Hammer. Sam Spade. Phillip Marlowe. Holmes. They are archetypes—iron men who appear as needed to defend Humanity from its enemies. Bruce Willis in “Unbreakable.” See? They are the equivalent of Gilgamesh, Heracles, or maybe even Arthur. Do you see how when I say “Arthur,” you know exactly who I mean? That is the mythic archetype—recognition, hope, and courage flow from him. One day—we intuitively hope—Arthur will rise from his mystic slumber at Avalon, and free all Britannia from…whoever. So, you see therein the deepest, warmest, most human element of sweet human hope and challenge, Tyler. Humanity’s love of its own métier. This is what it means to be human: to be afraid; but to face it without fear.

Tyler: Yet, I recall that Jack doesn’t want to partake in this mission to save the world at first—can you elaborate a little on what makes him change his mind?

Jeffrey: Selfless greed. A shoe box full of stacked, gold coins. Cash. Untraceable. He wants the money for his family, not for himself. Let me explain how greed can be selfless. With his business a failure, no money in the bank, and creditors closing in, he fears losing his wife Diana and their future together. Therefore, he will do anything to get the money—and stop at nothing. Because if anyone stands in his way, he’s “from where they make trouble,” and knows how to spread it around.

Tyler: And what exactly is the Lost Relic of the Gods?

Jeffrey: To its Sumerian creators, the Relic was what they knew as a demon bowl—an ancient demon trap. It contained a real demon whose powers they could control. Whatever it really was, the bowl is made of gold, the size of a basketball, and so impossibly engraved with ancient symbols so fine, they are a thin, golden sheen on their surface, yet incised there sharp as razors. The symbols convey the Art of a lost science, so advanced it is practically magic. Not all science uses transistors and magnets. This is a science of eternal truths and formulaic workings—older than even the Sumerians, but lost to Time. Is this starting to sound like Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol”? Yeah, a little, but I was published before Dan Brown’s book came out, and I was probably copyrighted a year or three before him, and I like my story better—so, buy my book [gestures hypnotically].

Tyler: I understand the novel has two secret organizations in it. Can you tell us a little about each one, and is one the good and the other the bad guys?

Jeffrey: There are three groups battling for control of the bowl and its power. The No One, the Combine, and the Native Americans—Indians, who once knew where it was hidden, but have forgotten. All these groups believe they are the good guys. Nobody actually sets out to be “bad.” They each have a “justifiable” goal, and a political, religious, or social motivation they feel is completely justified. You know, like Adolph Hitler felt. The problem is, each group wants to force their own views down everybody else’s throat. And anybody who doesn’t agree with each of the others needs to be killed. These are all Systems—and to Jack, all systems are just plain bad. First comes the system, and then the Enforcers. Jack wants the flock left alone. Humanity will find its own way without “help”—every time it needs to do so. It’s in the genes, you see. It’s in the cosmic Connection which those genes and their enzymatic, electron-protein-tunneling have with hard physics. With the Quantum Zone (which is outside of every day physics). And also their connection with…well…Eternity. See? My book is so much deeper than some others which came out after mine did, so buy my book [laughs].

Tyler: In the novel, Jack spends a lot of time receiving help from his Native American brother-in-law. Will you tell us a little about that character?

Jeffrey: Little Boy Yazzi, or “LB,” is a 6’ 6” former special forces NCO and also an Ultimate Fighting Champ. He worships his baby sister—Jack’s wife—Diana Rose, also known as Little Red Moon. With Diana’s death he seems to go off the deep end. He is highly educated and has studied Indian lore at UNM. He throws in with Jack to hunt down Diana’s killer. But, as a very religious Indian, he insists that Jack follow a moral war-path, which is the only valid war-path. A war-path is seen as a necessary burden of the highest morality. Little Boy also insists that Jack must learn the Indian Way more thoroughly, and must be cleansed in the high desert, in the sacred mountains, before undertaking the holy quest to restore “rip in the universe.” Jack is retrained to fight the Indian Way, on sacred Manhorse Mountain, where he suffers revelation. Little Boy is a powerful man whom you never want for an enemy. Jack and LB don’t always get along. Jack’s instinct is to lash out and kill whoever he suspects of the murder, where LB insists on good order, investigation, and morality. LB is a moderating influence on Jack. LB wants what he personally believes is best for his tribe and the spirit of his murdered sister.

Tyler: Why did you include the Native American element in the novel?

Jeffrey: Five years ago, I sold my house on Estero Island, Florida, and moved to the high desert of Albuquerque, New Mexico, just to be here and write this quadtych—my four-book epic. I have been writing it every single day for six years. I need two chairs in my office, because I have to changeover or my backside will go into fibrillation. I wanted to be here, in New Mexico, desperately, and nowhere else, because—Tyler, this is where all of those 1950s, seminal, black and white sci-fi movies were shot. I wanted to recapture the shudder, fear, and desire in that dark theater, alone in the dark. On a Saturday afternoon you could see a triple feature for 25 cents. You staggered out into the sunlight and real world, disbelieving in both. There was nothing else like it. About the Indians—if you’re here, in New Mexico, then it’s all about Indians. There’s the Petroglyph National Monument—a mile from my house—there’s Chaco Canyon, Tent Rocks Canyon, the holy Sandia Mountain, and a bunch of other mystic places sacred to the Indians. How could I not write about them? Also, they are central to the underlying “prophecy” of Book I, “Lost Relic of the Gods.” There is nothing localized to this prophecy, it is global, but there are focal points here, places where real events have changed recorded history. I had a Native informant in the beginning but was ultimately asked to not use a name or mention them anywhere. “It could cause trouble,” I was told. So I honored their wishes. LB’s tribe—the Ojito—I made that up.

Tyler: And what is that underlying prophecy in Book I?

Jeffrey: It’s a blend of Mayan and Southwest American Indian. It’s the 2012 conjunction, the Mayan end of time prophecy, and Indian creation gospel—the Hero Twins. In the Mayan story they are named Hunahpú and Xbalanqúe. In the Southwest gospel, they have different names, like maybe the Fighter Twins, called Ogre Slayer and Youth of Water—sons of the Sun god and the moon goddess.

Tyler: What are some of the other cultures and myths you weaved into the book?

Jeffrey: Lost ancient knowledge, ancient history, native creation gospel, religion, immortality, conspiracy theories, and shadow-governments. The Renaissance. Ancient Hebrew, Sumerian, Greek, Roman, early American, and French philosophies. Paranormal activity, the mystery at Roswell, and other things I’ve studied over the decades. Please remember, however, I’m a trained Investigator—not a wide-eyed whacko—and I approach this book in all seriousness, as a crime scene. It’s all based on fact as much as I can make it. As I was writing this book, parts of it seemed to come true in front of me. In the early research stage of this book, while writing a conspiracy segment, I was telephoned by a “Mr. Smith,” of the Government, who tried to tell me that I didn’t know what I actually already knew from my own eyes about certain events. I had seen some very odd, disturbing phenomena, and I had made inquiry about them. But five years later, I found photographs of those exact, same events in a tech magazine—real stuff that I saw, but was told didn’t exist by “Mr. Smith.” So, you see, I’m not kidding around, and neither are They. Them. Like the giant ants in that old sci-fi movie shot here in New Mexico—THEM, but the new Them are lodged in our walls and halls, inside our schools and Government. Not the desert Them—but, Them. The new monsters, the new crawling blob, the new pod-creatures slithering and masquerading among us—nibbling away at our naked Humanity bit by bit. For profit, power, adoration—you can smell Them in your sheets.

Tyler: I better go do my laundry then. But, Jeffrey, if all these conspiracies or Big Brother type government agencies exist, what is their purpose? What do you think they are hiding, or can’t you tell us?

Jeffrey: I can’t tell you. I took an oath and received an obligation. But let me quote Melville’s Captain Ahab. Like Jack Vane, Ahab was a prophet alone, misunderstood, driven by invisible forces beyond knowledge or comprehension—trapped between sea and sky. He said, “…all visible objects are but as pasteboard masks. Some inscrutable yet reasoning thing puts forth the molding of their features. The white whale tasks me; he heaps me. Yet he is but a mask. ‘Tis the thing behind the mask I chiefly hate; the malignant thing that has plagued mankind since time began; the thing that maws and mutilates our race, not killing us outright but letting us live on, with half a heart and half a lung…What is it, what nameless, inscrutable, unearthly thing is it; what cozening, hidden lord and master, and cruel, remorseless emperor commands me; that against all natural lovings and longings, I so keep pushing, and crowding, and jamming myself on all the time; recklessly making me ready to do what in my own proper, natural heart, I durst not so much as dare? Is Ahab, Ahab? Is it I…or who, that lifts this arm?...how then can this one small heart beat; this one small brain think thoughts; [who] does that beating, does that thinking, does that living, and not I. By heaven, man, we are turned round and round in this world, like yonder windlass, and Fate is the handspike…This act’s not written—it’s been decreed, rehearsed by thee and me a billion years ago.”

Tyler: Jeffrey, your novel includes references to prophecies about the year 2012. What about that year do you find fascinating, and how is your book unique compared to other films and books trying to capitalize on the 2012 Mayan prophecies?

Jeffrey: Tyler, I minimize 2012 as much as possible. I’m not at all “fascinated” by it. I’m nowhere near the movie, which I have not seen—except for the trailer. “Lost Relic of the Gods” is not about 2012. It’s about an evil relic that travels through time the slow way—by existing through the Ages. The relic is Eternally pursued by one great-souled warrior who tries to destroy it—good versus evil, but with a twist. Is the good bad, or is the bad good? Is violence evil, or is it just violence? As to 2012, anecdotes give you many choices, among these: polar shift—not to be confused with pole reversal—a rogue planetoid, aliens, benevolent entities, solar storms, earthquakes, flood, faeries, George Bush, Halliburton, and so on. It’s all about a real astronomical/astrological conjunction. In and of itself, I can’t see where there could be any actual physical effects from a conjunction. I mean there never has been before, and these conjunctions are all over the place like pigeons in Philly. However…the conjunction may be a recorded signpost of some recurrent physical event—a marker meant to predict a regularly returning catastrophe. This is serious stuff. This conjunction apparently happens about every 27,500 years. To make such a prediction so accurately, a culture would have had to watch the skies and make calculations—maybe over hundreds of thousands of years, who can say. But, the thing is—they did make the calculations and they are right about the conjunction itself. Usually, when you want to make an idea immortal, you encode it into a religion where it will be immutable. And…like…the Mayans did. So, we shall see: December 21, 2012, 11:11 AM, GMT. And—maybe—ding-dong, the witch is dead.

Tyler: This book is the first in your series titled “The God Conspiracy.” Will you tell us a little about what that title means?

Jeffrey: It relates to a theme running through all four books of my quadtych. Religion, politics, power, and the herding of Humanity as chattel to the Gods—raw Power.

Tyler: Jeffrey, I mentioned you are a Mason. I know you can’t tell us their secrets, but can you tell us if that had some influence on your writing of the book?

Jeffrey: Tyler, can I see that I.D. again?

Tyler: I’ve seen your book compared to such works as “The Da Vinci Code”? Do you find that a fair or flattering comparison?

Jeffrey: As I mentioned, I’m reading “The Lost Symbol,” and I am shocked that it seems to actually have the same theme as “Lost Relic of the Gods”—one “side” wants godpower, and the other side must stop it from happening. But where Dan—I always call him that—he doesn’t call me anything—but where Dan focuses on the reader’s fascination with research and investigation, I’m more interested in changes the characters must go through to try and achieve their goals—his/her ghost-story, drives, conflict, emotion, motivation, opponents—the raw human encounter. I don’t think Harry Langdon ever changes. He’s haplessly sucked into events and has to face some or other Hannibal Lecter-like, all-knowing, all-powerful bad guy. Then he inevitably must follow an irresistible drive to unravel the great mystery. ZZZzzzzzz. The character in Symbols reminds me of Tom Harris’ Red Dragon—now that is some great creative writing there. I always call him Mr. Harris—he doesn’t call me anything either [laughs]. My characters all have weaknesses, a ghost-story, fear and desire. It’s all about fear and desire, the human condition. With Dan it always seems to be about the research and unraveling the puzzle. It just falls like dominoes. Ho hum. It’s great stuff, I love it. But…ya know? Yanno?

Tyler: What do you feel is the key to writing a book about such mythology or conspiracies so it works as readable fiction? I know you’ve written about writing before, so can you give us a pointer or two of what works best for you?

Jeffrey: I base it in research. Collectively, I must have over a year of research into the quadtych. As I write, I research everything I come up with. I think you called once me out on the tablets of Gilgamesh, mentioned in “Lost Relic of the Gods,” but I rechecked that, and I was still right. You were exactly right, but I was still right. I may tell a story but it’s based on reported fact to the best of my ability of a professionally trained detective. I TRY to use these facts to reveal my personal vision of the story—the myth or the prophecy—like a French impressionist might use charcoal on canvass prior to drenching it in the brilliant flames of a Van Gogh’s Starry Night. I want to light the reader’s mind with a VISION that plays before them like a living movie that completely envelopes them in a dark theater. According to my reviewers and readers, I do exactly that. They tell me—and I already know—that I put the reader Inside the vision, the myth, the great prophecy, the experience. I pitch them out into the adventure.

Tyler: Will you give us any hints about the next book—the title, plot, or release date?

Jeffrey: Wait just a few seconds Tyler, until the echoes fade…OK, there we go. All right. To answer your question, I just started work on “Book II: Lost Relic—Foundations.” Jack Vane returns to Philadelphia and begins his new detective agency, but the mundane becomes Unthinkable—love, betrayal, terrorism, paranormal retribution—and more. Here’s the opening paragraph: “In the lower right hand drawer of my desk, where I keep the bottle of Jim Beam Rye, I one time poured out a bag of Hershey Kisses. I thought I polished them off long ago, but every time I rummage through the holsters, knives, and bullets, I seem to find just one more Kiss.” Anyway, Tyler, it will take six to nine months to write.

Tyler: Besides obviously wanting to entertain your readers, Jeffrey, do you have any other hopes for them, such as to learn or understand anything new, after they read “Lost Relic of the Gods”?

Jeffrey: Yes, Tyler. Words are magic and writing is sorcery—even the Greeks banned poetry for a time. You see, I want to bring the reader’s mind and imagination into a universe I created. I want readers to see what I see. But then I just want them to draw their Own conclusions. I want them to derive new information intuitively from my paintings—about having been born, living, eventually dying, and—maybe—their own connection to Eternity. In the end, it’s their dream, or their nightmare. But it’s theirs alone. Not mine. Red pill. Blue pill.

Tyler: Thank you for joining me today, Jeffrey. Before we go, will you tell us about your website and what additional information can be found there about “Lost Relic of the Gods”?

Jeffrey: Yes, it’s www.lostancientknowledge.com. It’s a work in progress, Tyler. Eventually it will be full of articles, ancient wisdom, cool photos, and excerpts from my books. Right now it’s a “portal” to purchasing my paperbacks or e-books on Amazon. Oh, damn! Sorry, Dan! I said “portal.” That’s your Masonic Mystery Word, Dan. By the way, Dan, the rite and ritual is NOT the way you depicted it—at least it was not what I experienced in taking the 32nd Degree of a Master Mason. Oh…and, anyway, this stuff about the Masons—it’s all just movie stuff. …OR IS IT…?

Tyler: Thanks, Jeffrey, for the entertaining and also informative interview. I wish you lots of luck with “Lost Relic of the Gods” and completing “The God Conspiracy.”