George Pickard is constructing a Jim Keith rememberance website at users.intercomm.com/gpickard/jimkeith.
Several years ago, I became aware of Jim Keith's abundant writings, which so often displayed unusual courage and curiosity. With the book Alternative Three, his name became seared in my memory. I remember thinking, "Wow! Who's this guy, how did he get this book published, and how's he so well known?" I was impressed and wanted to be like him in that regard, writing and actually getting published books that were controversial and ordinarily suppressed. Jim seemed to be selling quite a few of them, as well, which is also very difficult. He was a maverick paving the way for many others, as far as I could tell.
Secret and Suppressed published by Feral House was another of Keith's fabulous works. In fact, it was because of this book and our mutual friendship with eminent conspiriologist Kenn Thomas that, to my delight, I became friendly with Jim. I did not know him well, but over these past several months of exchanging email with him, I felt a kinship with him, particularly when on a couple of occasions he and I got lumped together in various discussions. I was pleased by such an affiliation, as, despite Jim's often-difficult subject matter, his writing displayed care and thoughtfulness, rather than the recklessness and laxity found in the works of others.
Jim also had an extraordinary wit and gracious sense of humor. Even when confronted by the fact that some of his work had been "copied" by others and not attributed, he shrugged his shoulders instead of calling for vindication. He seemed to recognize the fierce competition and professional jealousy in his field and the world at large, and not to let it affect him. Indeed, I can envision him raising a beer in honor of his "sincerely flattering imitators."
The conspiracy world will be sadder and poorer for the loss of this warm, pensive and dauntless man. I for one will have Jim Keith sitting on my shoulder as a muse whenever I write about subjects that were near and dear to his heart. Jim has left an inspiring mark upon the world during his all-too-short life.
Acharya S Archaeologist, Historian, Mythologist, Linguist Member, American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Greece Associate Director, Institute for Historical Accuracy Director, Center for the Research and Study of Theology Author of The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold www.truthbeknown.com
A fucking knee operation?
My Friend Jim Keith
One of the charms of death is a brave death. And, while I wasn't next to this irreplaceable friend when he died, I can't imagine anyone confronting death with more courage than Jim Keith - not an aging Medieval knight marching straight to his end, rather an adventurer setting off in several extreme directions at once, always smiling knowingly at the absurdities of life.
I never met Jim Keith. I never even talked to him.
Now that I begin to read "Saucers of the Illuminati," I realize what a huge mistake that was. All the gut feelings that have run through my mind and conversations over the past few years are brilliantly set down in black and white. Things barely grasped and a little frightening (or maybe a lot frightening) to my feeble mind were old hat to Jim.
We had an e-mail correspondence of sorts for about 6 months. It started when I rather forcefully rebutted his musings on remote viewing. He read it on the "Latest Word" section at Steamshovel and we began a friendly electronic back-and forth on the state of mind-over-time-and-matter. I sort of teased him about his Scientology background, but he didn't seem to care. What could be better than someone who disagrees with you, but would happily buy you a beer anyway, as I knew he would have? This is one of the few great things left about life in the USA, particularly in the west, and outside of big cities, where ego preservation usually seems to be a life or death matter.
To some, especially the uninitiated, Jim was like some sort of conspiracy-theory Zen master. His koans were embedded in his writings, even in the titles of his books. Maybe they were Zen humor too--serious and joking at the same time. You need a sense of humor as a life/mind-preserver in the rough and murky waters of parapolitical research, even if it might be a little morbid at times.
The last time we communicated was on Friday, September 3rd. We were discussing the weird "coincidence" of deleted files on our computers over the last few days. Jim said that "three or four" other researcher/ writers he knew of had experienced anomalous hard-drive erasures in the past week. He asked for my account, which I sent along before he went to Burning Man. By the next Tuesday, he was dead.
Words like "shock" and "waste" do not begin to cover the range of emotion. They are like banging rocks together when what you need to express your feelings are finely-tuned instruments. They do not exist, and neither more does Jim Keith's uniqueness.
Namu Amida Butsu
Greg Bishop
9/23/99
Jim gave me rights to publish a little known talk he did, entitled "UFOs at the Edge of Reality", which was published in Paranoia in Fall 1997. It's really cool. His best quotes are the following:
"there seems to be a coverup about the fact that awareness creates reality, is actually in charge of reality."
"there is an in-between realm in this omiverse where thought and matter meet."
"The prototypical alien grey face is based upon the least information units that you can interpret and still come up with a face."
"UFOs may constitute an "imagining" into future possibilities ... a trial run
in a new pair of shoes."
Let me know if you'd like this article. Actually, I'd have to type it, since the original document is gone. But that would only take me a few days.
My heartfelt condolences on the passing of your friend. We have all lost a comrade in arms.
A BREW POURED ON THE GROUND FOR A DEAD HOMEY.
Soon after I started Flatland in 1984, Jim Keith sent me his zine, Dharma Combat. I liked it right away and so did Flatlanders. Since then, I listed every one of his non-fiction books as he produced them at an incredible rate of three a year. Keith showed me flashes of brilliance tempered with cynical contempt. I respected him. He disappointed me. I'm sad he's dead, he had a spark.
If you're an investigative journalist who's lately publicly addressed some fairly "warm" recent conspiracies, we would STRONGLY advise that you be EXTREMELY careful NOT to have a relatively minor fall which might result in a bruise serious enough for you to desire medical advice/attention. If you DO incur such a bruise (or any other condition needing medical attention), we would STRONGLY advise seeking care from a KNOWN and TRUSTED practitioner ONLY. You wouldn't want a "blood clot" from the impacted area to go to your lungs and kill you instantly, a one-in-a-trillion possibility (if that), which mysteriously and MOST UNFORTUNATELY purportedly occurred in the case of the late Jim Keith. Within the past few weeks the well-known and well-respected Keith, via the Internet's "Nitro News" organization, had published articles which showed how the airplane "crash" which took the lives of JFK Jr., wife and sister-in-law last July was in fact caused by sabotage by means of an explosive device; and also that the similarly "engineered", scripted "accident" which took the life of Princess Diana 2 years ago was implemented at that time because Diana was pregnant. Not long after these articles were published, Jim Keith incurred a minor leg injury for which he sought medical attention at a nearby hospital. This medical attention resulted in Jim Keith's death. During this same period of time the "Nitro News" website inexplicably went down for several days. To our knowledge no credible explanation has yet been put forth for this. This all seems, to say the least, suspicious.
TOTAL BUMMER!!! Will spread the news. Although I am in the process of moving all my shit to Cleveland... TOMORROW.
(KT's rejoinder: Jim Keith has died and Ivan Stang moves to Cleveland. Surely Bob is at hand.)
I feel he is still here and i feel bad cause i was doing a ritual at burning man..and mentioned these tall red haired freaks of the desert to a few people..and possible the spirit world or the government someone took jim from us....i must tell you i know this to be fact..jim did not go on his own to the other side...it was an act...of something...please e mail me.. back
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