The Carnivals of Life and Death: My Profane Youth, 1913-1935

by Elana Freeland and James Shelby Downard

James Shelby Downard, who died at the age of eighty-three in 1996, is one of the most compelling conspiracy theorists of the twentieth century. Robert Anton Wilson wrote that Downard's "King-Kill"... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932595155
• ISBN13: 9781932595154
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Feral House
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Autobiography, a Hoax or Both?

Carnivals of Life and Death is very entertaining whether it's a hoax or not. It's basically the amazingly eventful early life of a cowan or Masonic snitch. Downard can also be said to be one of the original CIA-OSS mind control victims. Depending on your persepctive it can read like the biography of a most astonishing, unknown American or a brilliant piece of conspiracy theory satirizing the books of Brice Taylor and Cathy O'brien. There are hints that Downard is a Golem within the book and literary invention on the internet. One anonymous posting claims that Downard was a hoax perpetrated by an alleged anti Semite, an alleged Saudi foreign agent and a Jewish publisher. Adam Gorightly floated the idea that the "anti semite" and the Saudi agent just wanted an outlet for their more outrageous conspiracy hunches.. The Downard meme started in the popular cult book, Weird America by Jim Brandon aka William Grimstad - possibly a Saudi Arabian foreign agent who definitely publishes books which have a definite anti-Zionist slant, one funded by the Saudi's themselves(Antizion). Weird America was a reference book of strange anomalies throughout America sorted by region. Under the Dallas section there is a paragraph concerning the JFK assassination claiming it was a ritual sacrifice - King Kill 33. Downard's theory was then popularized by Illuminati disinfo agent and satirist Robert Anton Wilson, author and so-called antisemite Michael A. Hoffman II and publisher Adam Parfrey. The King Kill theory was also later picked up by conspiracy salesman, David Icke. There are also strange pieces of evidence that Downard was at the very least a real person with bad grammar and an old fashioned political incorrectness whose incredible works were polished up by Hoffman, Parfrey and Freeland. Doing a random search on Google I stumbled upon a pdf document of patents filed by James Shelby Downard, Sr. - our hero's father. If you enjoy questioning whether an entertaining "non-fiction" book is telling you the truth or not, "Carnivals.." will keep you guessing. Reviewer Mark Newbold was amazed at the mention of the old Taxil Hoax. The official story of the Taxil Hoax itself maybe a hoax. I haven't read it in a long time but I remember Israel Regardie relating that he saw the charter for the Palladian Rite in an associate's library (if I remember correctly it was a library of some sort). This was recounted in Eye in the Triangle - recently reprinted. Hoaxes within hoaxes within hoaxes...Welcome to the wonderful world of secret societies..

A Wonderfully Refreshing Book!

The Carnivals of Life and Death : My Profane Youth, 1913 - 1935 by James Shelby Downard An unlikely book to come one's way in, I suppose, any lifetime. Yet one can only be glad it did. The story of a young boy born to what appears to have been a very highly-connected Illuminati family, a clever father who held many useful and money-spinning patents in road-construction, yet seems to have had to disappear occasionally to return with suitcases full of money - why? -- how? -- and from whom and where? -- was he a professional hit-man on the side? -- questions after questions! -- and who also sometimes had to live apart from his family so that a seemingly loving and basically kind mother, yet subservient to unknown persons of secret rank, could go away with strange men of noble name and evil deed, taking young Shelby into the heart of Illuminati secret-society stealth-games involving ego and sex-perversions to establish some internal pecking-order, while the father had to conform to their desires and their power over his wife and his son. Young Shelby seems to have successfully defended himself against all sorts of attempts on his mind, his person and his life, acquitting himself well against unbelievable odds. For young boy to have fought this well, these stories seem, to the casual reader, to be the purest fiction, yet against this all being boyish fantasy, there is however some good circumstantial evidence : One might so-easily attribute these unlikely stories of a young boy to his own cover-memories in order to blank out awful deeds done to him, and yet, one facet shines through it all : he almost never admits directly to a killing done by himself, or what the real end of his antagonists was, once even attributing their demise to a herd of feral hogs ... yet he was the one carrying the shotgun! And his experiences in Cuba, shooting out the non-safety-glass windows of old secret-police limousines with a .45 Colt Model 1911, leaving the implication that it was the shattering glass that killed their occupants -- in one case, four persons, which, of course, is absurd -- unless one supposes that the glass was only the first step to stop the car and thereafter a few more shots were fired, that he is smart enough not to self-implicate himself over ...? To be sure, his later life, as in the biography, "James Shelby Downard's Mystical War" by Adam Gorightly, sees him carrying, not his favourite .25 ACP or .32 ACP automatic pistols, but ... a Colt Model 1911 .45! Had he correctly been convinced of its efficacy by his experiences in Cuba? To me, it surely sounds like it! As I said at the beginning, an unlikely book to come one's way in any lifetime, and yet, it was so very refreshing, so frank and open and full of hope, so full of young Downard's basic Joy of Life, his deep compassion for animals if not for his human antagonists, that after only a few pages, I ordered a second copy. This one is a real keeper! Five Stars!!!!!

Ectoplasmic esoterica

Many will not understand or appreciate Downard's intellectual highjinx. But, I for one, find it fascinatingly erudite and entertaining. While dubious whether it is authentic in the literal sense (it most probably isn't), it is true in the hyperbolic archetypal realm. I personally don't care for much fiction or biographies, but this is an "autobiography" w/fascinating stream of the most elite's ritualistic underbelly. Deadpan humor slices through this account of over-the-top adventure and madcap escapes of our hero Downard as American icons acting as sorcerers use, abuse, and attempt to eliminate little boy Downard from the scene. Part of what I really enjoy is that while it certainly is not a factual account of his experiences, more is being said than may meet most minds. You have to be open to the most incredulous conspirators who do the most diabolical things; but that really is not at all far from the truth. And they do love their symbology, magic, and ritual, though anyone of high esteem and power in society will staunchly deny it. A great piece that leaves the mind spinning, love it or not.

Coincidence?

You can learn something from the experiences of Drownard. His perspective is quite different from that of most people. He used his paranoia as a weapon to help him survive. His stories are bright bits and pieces in a chain of circumstances that some may call a Grand Design and others a Great Conspiracy. Oddly enough, the vibe of this book is much like that of HBO's series Carnival. Coincidence???

Lift the Masonic "Hoodwink"

At last James Shelby Downard's autobiography has emerged from the underground like a Cowan from a Masonic crypt, breathing with vitality and tales of the bizarre. Feral House has edited this account which was previously only available in a rough but thorough form from Downard's protégé, Michael A. Hoffman II (it's still available and makes for an interesting comparison for savants of Downardia). In addition, the book is enlivened with an introduction by Adam Parfrey, recounting his personal experiences with Downard and giving an insightful framework to the reader who is--to put it mildly--in for a wild ride. The story is at times tragic and by turns hilarious, shot through with the dichotomies of the man himself. Downard uses racial slurs yet fights against racist exploitation; oscillates between eloquence and slang; denigrates immorality while operating by his own confessedly "situational ethics." Above all we have a sense of a mind awake, a brilliant man who takes his dark life by the Devil's horns and gradually discerns in his daily world a web of symbolic connections which lead him to see past his own repeated manipulation, finding his own part in the Play. As he does so, he frustrates his Stage Directors time and again by deviating from the script and outfoxing them all, emerging with a sense of humor and wonder, two qualities his grim pursuers lack. In addition, the editor has highlighted several of Downard's insights in textboxes, supplementing them with historical details which form a backdrop to the account and educate as they elucidate. Have you read a Masonic whitewash account which reassures you that the Grand Lodge has nothing to do with, say, the occult lodges of the OTO? Downard explains this to be part of the "Masonic hoodwink." Through his life story, Downard helps lift that blindfold enough for us so that after laying the book down, we can go out and see more than we did before, discerning charades, finding patterns, symbols, and even discovering a level of poetry and humor in our existence. We might even be inspired to step outside the script like Downard and fight the Cryptocracy itself.