Jim Morrison Top 10 Commandments 0607

Special Report - $47
The Top 10 Commandments of Jim Morrison

Priceless Prescriptions for the Soul
More gloppy, pretentious, pseudosurrealistic, hyperliterary, quasi-mystical prose has been written about The Doors than about any rock group ever. Whenever The Doors are mentioned in print, the similes fly like shrapnel in an air raid. They are unendurable pleasure indefinitely prolonged, they are the messengers of the devil, they are the patricide kids, the Los Angeles branch of the Oedipus Association, the boys next door (if you live next door to a penitentiary, a lunatic asylum or a leather shop). So say the metaphor makers anyway. Lilian Roxon, Rock Encyclopedia, 1969
JimMorrisonjustwontfadeaway.Despitemanyattemptsovertheyears
to put the final nail in his coffin and banish him forever from our consciousness,TheDoorsareaspopularasever.Lotsofcriticssaidthegroup wouldnt last, but millions of fans of all ages continue to say otherwise. Unlikemostothermusicfromthe60s,TheDoorsarestillfresh,compelling, andrelevant.ForabandthatwasdismissedbymajorrockcriticslikeLester Bangs, Greil Marcus, Robert Christgau, and Dave Marsh (to name only a few),thelistofwhatsomemightcallastonishingfactsaboutTheDoorsgoes onandon.Considerthefollowing: In2010,thehittelevisionprogramColdCasefeaturedallDoorsmusicin
an episode called Metamorphosis. In 2000, National Public Radio selected LightMyFireasoneoftheNPR100,itslistofthemostsignificantAmerican musical works of the last century. In 1999, twentyeight years after
New Book! Jim Morrison and the Heros Journey www.doorsgoldmine.com/hero

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Morrisons death, he was chosen by a live VH1 studio audience as the #1 frontmaninallofrockandroll.45millionDoorsalbumshavebeensoldsince 1991,ayearinwhichCarynJameswonderedwhatthefussisaboutinher reviewofOliverStonesTheDoors.MorrisonsgraveinPereLachaiseisone of the top Paris tourist destinations and is said to be the 3rd most visited celebrity gravesite on the planet. People from all over the world make it a destination,notjustaplacetovisitwhileinParis.Thewordpilgrimagehas beenusedbyvariouswriterstryingtofigureoutthecontinuingallure. Morrisons legacy is still highly controversial, with some calling him an
intrepid seer and others a mockDionysian sex god. No one doubts the genius of The Beatles, Bob Dylan, or The Rolling Stones, but The Doors artistryisstillwidelydebatedandoftenridiculed.Eventoday.Inearly2011, Alex von Tunzelmann said this about the Oliver Stone film: Its a bloated, pompous, unbalanced film, which looks great but has nothing going on beneath the surface. This is the biopic Jim Morrison deserved. In 2010, Stephen Holden summed up Morrison as faintly ludicrous and a charismatic male pinup. In 1991, George Will pilloried Morrison in SlammingTheDoors,hisdoublelengthNewsweekdiatribe:JimMorrisonis dead,deadasadoornail.Hehasbeensince1971,whenheexpired,bloated andburntout,inabathtubinParisat27,notamomenttoosoon.Hislifewas a bad influence. Dave Marsh wrote in 1979 that The Doors were the most overrated group in rock history. Many people apparently agree with Marsh, Will, and von Tunzelmann. But anyone who thinks that there is nothing going on beneath the surface of Jim Morrison is very badly mistakenandmissingoutonsomethingofextremeimportance.
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This Special Report focuses on Morrisons Commandments for breaking
through to higher consciousness and selfknowledge. I am not going to explain the continuing popularity of The Doors and their meaning in any detail. I happen to think that they are the most underrated group in rock, despite all the accolades, but I havent listened to 10,000 bands. Here, I am mainly interested in what Morrison did in order to have us reach higher knowledge.AsIseeit,JimMorrisonwasafearlessexploreroftheunknown who made an amazingly profound discovery of universal significance. Morrisonjourneyedtotheedgeofconsciousnessandbroughtbackfindings ofgreatimportancetoallofus.Hehadsomethingoftheutmostmagnitude toteachEVERYONE.AndImeanEVERYONE.Ifyoucanfogamirror,this includesyou. ThereisuniquehealingpowerinthemusicofTheDoors,andMorrison
wants you to experience it for yourself. He knows that the music can take you to places youve never been, places you want to go. The nourishment Morrison offers in songs like Soul Kitchen goes way, way beyond chicken soup. Ithinkitcanbeargued that The Doorscreatedthe ultimate selfhelp music. The Doors may well be the most important tool you will ever find to help youonyourjourneytowardsselfdiscoveryandactualization.Itiscertainly one of the easiest and most pleasurable. One reason The Doors continue to havesomanyfansofallagesisthatthemusicsoundssogood. My first real attraction to The Doors came from the lyrics. Something
about Morrisonswordsmade themquite different from other songs onthe radio in the 60s. Instead of boy meets girl, teen heartbreak, and fun in the sun, we had someone who sang about the unconscious, travel, snakes, and
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freedom. I happen to love the sound of The Doors, but if the lyrics were devoid of meaning like most pop fare, there would hardly be any staying power.TheDoorswouldjustbeanotherflashinthepan.Doesanyonelisten toTheAssociation,TheBoxTops,theStrawberryAlarmClock,Donovan,or theTurtles,allofwhomhadhugehitsin1967?Wherearetheynow?Areany of theminregularrotationon radiostationsaround theworld? Was anyof their music recently included by Rolling Stone readers on the list of Top 10 songsofthe60s?Idontthinkso. Anyone who calls Morrison pretentious, banal, evil, satanic, or
nihilisticdoesnthavetheslightestideaofwhatTheDoorswereallabout. Sex,drugs,rebellion,androckandrollhardlybegintosumupthegroup,yet this is how The Doors have often been defined. Instead, Morrison was the living embodiment of the artist and shaman who combined mythology and musictointerpretwhatJosephCampbellandBillMoyerscalledthedivinity inherent in nature. Morrison used a secret alphabet (Soul Kitchen) and spokeinanewlanguage(TheWASP).Heprovidedsymbolsandsignposts to guide us, using the heros journey as a dominant theme throughout his work. Theherosjourneyultimatelyleadstoatreasureofonekindoranother.
Morrison coined the phrases the only solution (Shamans Blues) and the goldmine(TheEnd)tosymbolizetheextraordinaryprizethathehadfound. These pairs of three words each are extremely profound. They stem from a coherent and positive philosophy, not from nihilism, eternal dread, or the abyss. They represent a mental discovery that makes Morrison much more than just an entertainer or a singer or a poet or a sex symbol or a chick
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magnet. He may have been all of these, but he was also a thinker of the highestcaliber. FollowtheTop10Commandmentsandacquirethesecretknowledgethat
Morrisonachieved.MorrisonknewtheextraordinarypowerofDoorsmusic to transform consciousness and change lives for the better. Thats why he said,Ifmypoetryaimstoachieveanything,itstodeliverpeoplefromthe limitedwaysinwhichtheyseeandfeel.Enjoythemusicandfindyourself onthejourneyofyourlife.Thisisthebeginning,nottheend. BeforewelookattheCommandments,afewnotesaboutmylist.First,all
are from a Morrison song or poem. Songs by guitarist Robby Krieger like LightMyFireandTouchMemaybeabsolutelyfirstrate,buttheyarehardly major compositions like The End or When The Musics Over. Second, the Commandmentsareallintheaffirmative.Theyarenotprohibitions,asinthe Bibles thou shalt not kill. They stand for positive actions that Morrison wanted us to take. Third, I wanted to make sure that you can put thou shaltatthebeginningofeachCommandmentsothatthephrasereadslike anorder.Example:thoushaltbreakonthrough. This rule means that important Morrison declarations like You cannot
petitiontheLordwithprayer(TheSoftParade)dontmakethecut.Alsoleft out are exquisite lines like Some call it heavenly in its brilliance. Others, mean and rueful of the western dream (The WASP). These lyrics may not qualify as Commandments, but they and many more gems are absolutely essentialifoneistounderstandMorrisonstimelessvisionandwhatitmeans foreachofus.ThelateLesterBangs,farandawaytheworstDoorsdetractor and cynic, pejoratively said that Yew CANNOT peTISHSHON the Lo
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WARD with PRAYer was a Bozo moment and a drunken yowling sermon. On the contrary, Morrison is dead sober when he shouts out his rebuttal to a proposition he says he heard in seminary school. (By the way, Morrisons voiceasinstrument must be heard to be believed.) Morrisons declarationisanunqualifiedindictmentofthenotionofapersonalGod.Itis basedonprofoundillumination. Sandy Pearlman once mocked Morrison by saying, As if, there in the
background, a great world system can somehow be perceived. Pearlman was far from alone in his misunderstanding of Morrisons vision. Despite suchridicule,thatworldsystemisthere.ItexistsindependentlyofMorrison andisavailabletoallofus.Andnoworldsystemoutranksitinimportance. ThatswhyMorrisoncalledittheonlysolution. The depth and profundity of the hidden meaning behind The Doors
makes the mysteries of the The Da Vinci Code, The Secret, and the CIA Kryptos puzzle look like childs play. I say that with all due respect. A detailedexaminationofthetreasurethatMorrisonfoundisbeyondthescope ofthisSpecialReport,butyoucanlearnmoreinmybookJimMorrisonand theHerosJourney.
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They come out on stage not to entertain but to preach, with all the disdain and cold fury of a revivalist preacher confronting an audience wallowing in sin.
This Way to the Egress, Newsweek
The Top 10 Commandments of Jim Morrison
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X
Break on through (to the other side) Wake Up! Dance on fire as it intends Ride the snake to the lake Take a journey to the bright midnight Surrender to the waiting worlds that lap against our side Learn to forget Live in light of certain South Take it as it comes Get here and well do the rest

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LetsexaminetheCommandmentsinreverseorder,workinguptothemost importantone.
Get here and well do the rest

The End, The Doors
Kurt von Meier had discovered in him rich suggestions of sex, death, transcendence. What transcendence did he have in mind, death through sex or sex through death? The first on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, the second on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays. Bernard Wolfe, Esquire
This Commandment is from The End, the most important Doors
composition. The song is a priceless prescription for salvation emanating from deep spiritual knowledge, not nebulousness passing for depth, as RobertChristgaumistakenlyclaimed.PriortothelineGethereandwelldo therest,MorrisonhastoldustoheadWest.ItmightseemliketheWestis California, but Morrison is actually referring to the mythological West. The herosjourneyconsistsofthreemainelements:thehero,thedragon,andthe treasure. Each of these elements has numerous variations across time and culture.Themostwidespreadversion hastheheroventuringWestinorder toconfrontanddefeatadangerousobstaclesuchasadragon.Whenthehero is triumphant, he is reborn at midnight in the East, attaining the treasure. Get here is Morrisons command to join him in overcoming the dragons, whichheoncecalledthedarkforces.

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Take it as it comes
Take It As It Comes, The Doors

Their intentions were quasi-profound, but their music was fairly pedestrian, and the bulk of Morrison's opaquely platitudinous lyrics was chuckleheaded word spinning.saturnalia, incestuous rape, and other debauched sensualisms were the working themes, but they were the narcissistic fantasies of an imaginary sybarite. Timothy White, Rock Lives
InthisCommandment,Takeitasitcomes,Morrisontellsustotakelife
as it unfolds. Elsewhere in the song, he tells us to slow down. The breakthrough to freedom that Morrison urges takes place when we achieve stillnessandaquietmind.LiberationtakesplaceatwhatT.S.Eliotcallsthe still point. We must be completely in the present, free of fear, desire, and anticipation.(ThissongwassaidtohavebeenwrittenforMaharishiMahesh Yogi,FounderoftheTranscendentalMeditationProgram.)
VIII Live in light of certain South

An American Prayer, An American Prayer
Something in the combination of the lyrical and musical vibrations created by this band has yet to be explained. Given only 27 years on this planet, Jim Morrison became possibly the most mysterious and controversial rock and roll star in history. Jim Ladd
Morrison had recorded his own poetry in thestudio in December,1970.
RayManzarek,RobbyKrieger,andJohnDensmoresetsomeofittomusicin AnAmericanPrayer,releasedin1979.(AnAmericanPrayerissaidtobethe topsellingpoetryalbuminhistory.)Wow,Imsickofdoubtprecedesthe

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lineLiveinlightofcertainSouth.Morrison,whohasattainedthetreasure, has gotten beyond doubt. He has achieved the light (the gold mine), and one aspect of what I call gold mine knowledge is complete certainty. Morrisonwantsustoexperiencethisstateofzerodoubt,hencehiscommand Liveinlight.AnAmericanPrayerisMorrisonsfinalpoeticsummation.
VII Learn to forget

Soul Kitchen, The Doors
Of all creative bands in the history of rock music, the Doors may have been the most creative. Their first album contains only masterpieces and remains virtually unmatched. Jim Morrison may well be the single most important rock frontman. He is the one who defined the rock vocalist as an artist, not just a singer They are the closest thing rock music has produced to William Shakespeare. Piero Scaruffi
In order to experience higher consciousness, you need to let go of false
notions.Youneedtolearntoforget,orunlearn,muchofwhatyouknowor think you know. Its like peeling away the layers of an onion to get to the core.Here,thelayersrepresentfalsehoodsandillusions,andthecoreisfinal truth.Campbellnotedtheancientideathatthetranscendentlieswithineach ofus,waitingtobediscovered.TheHinduconceptofmayacomestomind, where much of what we think we know is an illusion, a false way of perceiving reality. Breaking through to higher consciousness involves forgettingmanyuntruths.

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VI Surrender to the waiting worlds that lap against our side

Moonlight Drive, Strange Days
If velvet came an inch deep, if endless bits of baklava never began to cloy, theyd arouse sensations like those that invade you when you listen to The Doors. You mingle in the sweet, rich sensuousness of the music; the music mingles in you. Listeners close their eyes and smile beatifically. It is as if The Doors play on some secret frequency that directly affects the smile center of the brain. Susan Szekely, Teen Talk, New York Post
This Commandment is one of surrender. Morrison is telling us to
surrendertothelifeforceorhigherpowerthatinformstheuniverse.Thisis not the same as resignation, by the way. One might callit active surrender. The previous line in Moonlight Drive is Lets swim to themoon,lets climb throughthetide.Inmythology,waterisasymboloftheunconsciousaswell asrebirth(forexample,thebaptismritual).Themoonisassociatedwithbirth anddeath,andwithitsphases,thenotionofrebirth.Morrisoninstructsusto exploretheunconsciousandmakeitconscious.Thereareparallelshereand elsewhereinthelyricstothebellyofthewhalemotiffoundinTheBible.(In StarWarsandHarryPotter,thesamethemeofdescentintotheunconscious takes on other forms.) Recall Morrisons oftcited line there are things knownandthingsunknownandinbetweenareTheDoors.Theveryname of the group has relevance. Here, doors symbolize a passageway from ignorancetoknowledge.MoonlightDrivewasthefirstsongMorrisonsangto RayManzarekonthebeachinVeniceandistheoriginofTheDoors.

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Take a journey to the bright midnight

End of the Night, The Doors
Whats the difference between artistic ambition and pure pretentiousness? When one listens to the Doors, this question can never be far from ones mind. Yes, the group often does blow open the namesake doors of perception in many a young childs fragile eggshell mind, but these same minds also tend to reach a point at which they are ashamed at having been so transfigured. Once they break on through to the other side, they find themselves embarrassed to realize how little substance there is to the Doors parables of transgression. The garage-goth organ and the sinewy guitar figures remain alluring, perhaps, but the overriding silliness of Jim Morrisons posturing, his portentous, overenunciated delivery and his egregious lyrical overreach, becomes impossible to ignore and all too easy to ridicule. Rob Horning, Generation Bubble
Take a journey to the bright midnight refers directly to the
mythological journey of the hero. We have already seen its basic outline: hero, dragon, treasure. This trinity is psychological, not physical. The hero must overcome the danger in order to win the treasure and be reborn. At the nethermost point of the night sea journey, when the sun hero journeys throughtheunderworldandmustsurvivethefightwiththedragon,thenew suniskindledatmidnightandtheheroconquersthedarkness.Thispassage isfromTheOriginsandHistoryofConsciousness,byErichNeumann.All the elements of the heros mental journey are encapsulated here. In a story fromNoOneHereGetsOutAlive,byDannySugarmanandJerryHopkins, MorrisonissaidtohaveknockedTheOriginsandHistoryofConsciousness off his bookshelf when he threw an empty beer can at a wastebasket and missed.

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IV Ride the snake to the lake

The End, The Doors
I think that his importance should not be underestimated because I really think that his art was changing people. I think that when you walked out of a Doors concert, you walked out changed. Your perception was altered and it wasnt some transitory drug-induced wow I saw the light kind of thing. It was something where Jim showed you. He got up there and either you said, this guy is completely nuts and Im never going to do this again or you said we can do anything. I can do anything. To me he showed us all the possibility of change and the possibility of growth because he lived it and was it. Bill Siddons
Thesnakeisatimelesssymbolwithmanymeanings.Letmeclearupany
misperceptions once and for all: snake does not equal penis in Morrisons usage. Morrison is of course wholly aware of Freud and others who may reduce the snake to a body part (and I am oversimplifying here), but Morrison uses the snake primarily as a symbol of consciousness. Like the dragon,thesnakecanbeanobstacletobeovercomeintheWest.Itisalsothe uroboros,awellknownsymbolofpsychicliberationandfreedom.
Images of the Snake Across Cultures New Book! Jim Morrison and the Heros Journey www.doorsgoldmine.com/hero
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The familiar image of the snake biting its own tail symbolizes thecyclic
nature of the universe: life from death, creation from destruction. Renewal, regeneration, and rebirth are all highly associated with the snake, which shedsitsownskin. In Buddhist mythology, the King Cobra often appears to the left of the
Buddha, protecting the Buddha from the elements. In a tale familiar to all Buddhists,AmitbhaisaBuddhaofimmeasurableradianceorinfinitelight. Uponillumination,agreatlakeofblisswithlotusflowersappears.Morrison, whotellsustoridethesnaketothelake,islikelycombiningthesnakeof consciousness with the illumination that ends at the lake. There are other storiesaboutsnakesandancientlakesinmythology,soIdonotwanttotie TheEndtoonespecificmyth.Sufficeittosaythatthisissonginvolvesvery compleximagery,andittookMorrisonmorethanayeartocomplete. TheEndisthemostcontroversialsongofTheDoors.In2010,Blender.com
rankedTheDoorsat#37onitslistofThe50WorstArtistsinMusicHistory, describing The End as overblown screeds of nonsense. Such a ridiculous assessmentshowshowfarwehaventcomeinunderstandingTheDoors.On the other hand, Piero Scaruffi tells us that The Doors are the closest thing rock music has produced to William Shakespeare. I dont have more than 20,000+CDslikeScaruffi,butIdoubtthatanyothergrouphasproducedthe qualityandintensityofpoeticdramathatTheDoorsdid. One aside: the phrase smooth hissing snakes of rain appears in The
CelebrationoftheLizard.CampbelltalkedtoMoyersaboutseeingamovieof aBurmesesnakepriestess,whohadtobringraintoherpeoplebyclimbing upa mountainpath, callinga king cobrafromhisden,andactuallykissing

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himthreetimesonthenose.Therewasthecobra,thegiveroflife,thegiver ofrain,asadivinepositivefigure,notanegativeone.Manyofusthinkthat the snake is associated only with evil or with the downfall (the Garden of Eden), but its symbolism can be both positive and negative. Morrison uses the snake throughout his work, as it is one of the core symbols in all mythology. About The End, Morrison once said the following to New York Times
reporterBernardWolfe:thethemeisthesameasinLightMyFire,liberation fromthecycleofbirthorgasmdeath.
III Dance on fire as it intends

When the Musics Over, Strange Days
During a stage performance, Jim as the Dionysian reveler sang the modern myths and as the shaman he invoked a sensuous panic to make the words of the myths meaningful. He acted as if a concert were a ritual, a ceremony, a sance, and he was the medium communicating with the supernatural. He tried to shock people out of their seats, out of their ruts, out of their minds so they could view the other side of reality, if even for just a brief glimpse. His message was: break through any way you can, but do it now. Often the message was unfocused and so it got lost in the music, the myths, the magic and the mania. Frank Lisciandro, An Hour for Magic
When the Musics Over is Morrisons secondmost important song. (Nick
ToschesmadetheabsurdclaimthatthissongandTheEndweretheworkofa pretentiousfool.Youcanviewthemusicanywayyouwant,butIsaythat thiswasaverybadcall.)ThelinepriortoDanceonfireasitintendsisFor the music is your special friend. In this section of the song, Morrison commentsonhisownartandtellsusthatDoorsmusichasintentionsofits own. The imagery of Dance on fire (as well as Kriegers Come on baby,
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lightmyfire)isrich,complex,anduniversal.WerewaybeyondIwantto hold your hand in terms of imagination and suggestiveness. Fire brings destruction and ruin, but it also brings light and purification. Love is also knownastheeternalflame.Thedancewearetoexperiencethroughmusic, which Morrison also calls your only friend, is one of transcendence, salvation,andfreedom.TheuniquemusicofTheDoorsintendsthatwefind ourselves. Morrisons dictum is the same as the one at the entrance to the OracleofDelphi:knowthyself.
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Wake Up!
The Celebration of The Lizard, The Doors in Concert

As for The Doors, I feel about them today much as I did when I composed the following review that wild July night thirty years ago: riff for riff, image for image, little red rooster for little red rooster, they were the most exciting rock and roll band America ever produced. Tom Robbins, Seattle, July 1997 The Doors. Their style is early cunnilingual, late patricidal, lunchtime in the Everglades, Black Forest blood sausage on electrified bread, Jean Genet up a totem pole, artists at the barricades, Edgar Alien Poe drowning in his birdbath, Massacre of the Innocents, tarantella of the satyrs, L.A. pagans drawing down the moon The Doors.Jim Morrison, vocals. Morrison begins where Mick Jagger and Eric Burden stop. An electrifying combination of an angel in grace and a dog in heat. He becomes intoxicated by the danger of his poetry, and, swept by impious laughter, he humps the microphone, beats it and sucks it off. Sexual in an almost psychopathic way, Morrison's richly textured voice taunts and teases and threatens and throbs. With incredible vocal control and the theatrical projection of a Shakespearean star, he plays with the audience's emotion; like a child with its doll: now I kiss you, now I wring your neck. Tom Robbins, Seattle, July 1967
Originally appearing on Absolutely Live, Wake Up! was the opening
toasectionofTheCelebrationofTheLizard.Thismultipartsongwaswritten for Waiting For the Sun, but only Not to Touch the Earth made it onto that
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album. Paul Williams noted Morrisons tendency to scream Wake Up beforesingingLightMyFireinconcert:Whichisfunny,becauseIdoubtthat anyone thinks it is a direct command (save Jim)nothing about The Doors sticks out enough to require special attention, and Wake Up! is just perceivedasanotherpartofwhatsthere,whetherthepersonisthereornot. Williamsobviouslydoesntgetit.(NotethatthewordBuddhameansthe awakened one. Morrison borrowed freely from both Eastern and Western mythologyandmanyreligioustraditions.) From Morrisons viewpoint, we are not awake if we have not been
reborn. Morrison screamed Wake Up! in an attempt to jolt his audience into a heightened state of awareness. Williams nothing about The Doors sticks out enough to require special attention completely misses the point. This is not ordinary music, not by a long shot. In a line that I love, Janet Maslin called The Doors the 60s most selfimportant rock band. If they were,theyhadeveryreasontobe.Theywerecertainlythemostimportantin the overall scheme of things. Maslin also gave us another gem in her 1991 reviewoftheStonemovie:foranyonewhotooktheDoorshalfasseriously astheDoorstookthemselves.

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Break on through (to the other side)

Break on Through (to the other side), The Doors
I think what we are looking for is a way of experiencing the world that will open to us the transcendent that informs it, and at the same time forms ourselves within it. That is what people want. That is what the soul asks for. Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth
The mother of all Morrison Commandments, Break on through is the
essentialDoorscredo.Theothersideisnotdeathorthelackofrestraint,as manysuperficialcriticshavecontended.Instead,theothersiderepresents spiritualrebirth,andoneofitsprerequisitesisspiritualdeath.Itisclearfrom the lyrics that the other side is beyond physical pleasure and ordinary temporal reality. Morrison, who was mocked by Tosches for his messianic urgency, wanted us to get past our fears and limitations. He wanted us to experiencetheblissandraptureofspiritualawakeningthatisthetreasureof the heros journey. He knew that Doors music could be a potent force for achievingsalvationandtheMindofGod. Those are my choices for The Top 10 Commandments of Jim Morrison.
They represent only the tip of the Morrison iceberg. One critic said that Morrisonislevels,andhewasquiteright.Themusiccanbeenjoyedonits own by listeners who dont know a thing about Buddhism, Greek tragedy, SirJamesFrazer,Blake,orFreud.OnedoesntevenhavetoknowEnglishto likethesongs,forthatmatter.Butthereisdepthandinsighttotheworkthat can be fully appreciated only if you know Morrisons inspirations and sources.Theway Morrison putwordstogetheristhemainreasonwhyThe Doors have lasted this long. The lyrics have gotten far too little attention,
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especially when compared to the massive coverage of Morrison as a sex anddrugfilled bad boy of rock. Yes, sex sells, but its not even close to Morrisonslegacy. Many critics have focused almost exclusively on the bulge beneath
Morrisons pants. Robert Christgau and Stephen Holden have never gotten beyondtheirabsurdimpressionofMorrisonasshallowsexsymbolandrock god. Theyve been listening to The Doors all wrong for more than forty years. I wantyoutoavoidthatfate.Ontheotherhand,MichaelCuscunainterviewed MorrisonforDownBeatandfoundatotallydifferentpersonfromtheonehe expected. He writes that he was initially dismayed at the prospect of encountering another rock ego. However, he ends by saying, in Jim Morrison, I found to my surprise a beautiful human being who, not unlike Charles Mingus, has been a victim of sensational publicity and harassment by silly journalists. The silly journalism may be a good read, but dont thinkthatthisgetsyouinsideTheDoors. There is much more here than meets the ear. The musicianship of Ray
Manzarek,RobbyKrieger,andJohnDensmorecanbequitesophisticated,not to mention mesmerizing. Their use of Bach, Coltrane, Eastern music, the blues,jazz,andotherinfluencesisoftenoverlooked.AlthoughMorrisonwas thevisionaryleaderoftheband,themusiciansbroughtthewordstolifeand created songs that still have an extraordinary power to communicate more than40yearslater.WhenYoureStrangeExecutiveProducerDickWolf(of LawandOrderfame)callsDoorsmusichypnoticandcomplex. I urge you to go beyond the superficial and the obvious. Get inside
Morrisons secret alphabet and new language. Experience the hidden

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treasurewithinandembarkonalifelongjourneyofselfdiscovery.Ifyouare interested in opening the doors in your mind, sign up for my July 3 Celebration of the Lizard Online Festival and check out my book Jim MorrisonandTheHerosJourney.
Im the freedom man Thats how lucky I am Jim Morrison, Universal Mind
My Story
Hello,thanksforreading,andletmeintroducemyself.Likeothersofmy generation,IrememberhearingLightMyFireontheradioin1967.Itseemed tobeeverywherethatsummer.However,IthoughtthenthatTheDoorswere just another pop group like The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, TheMamasandThePapas,andhundredsofothers.In1970,Istartedreally listeningtotheDoors,thinkingthattheremightbesomethingtothemusic.I knew that Morrison had borrowed heavily from Blake, and his artistry suggestedthatFather,Iwanttokillyou.Mother,Iwanttocouldntbe dismissedassimplyarebelexorcisinghisOedipuscomplexinordertoshock peopleandviolateataboo. ItseemedtomethatTheEndhadamethodtothemadness.Iftherewas
anyrealmeaningtothelyrics,Iwantedtoknowwhatitwas.PeteJohnson, in a 1967 moment of what was I not thinking creativity, called the song singularly simple, overelaborated psychedelic non sequiturs and fallacies. Ooops. A lot of people have felt the same way about this song for decades. Flash forward to Blender.coms overblown screeds of nonsense

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characterization. Despite the passage of more than 40 years, Jim Morrisons workisstillfarabovetheheadsofmanylisteners. Igraduallybecameconvincedthattherewassomethinggoingonthat
wasnt at all obvious to the casual listener. In 1972, when the three Doors played in Boston, I was able to get a backstage pass and meet them. I also literally ran into Dr. John, all dressed up in the door to his trailer on the BostonCommon.Whocouldforgetsuchasight?(Hewasrecentlyinducted intotheRockandRollHallofFame.)Sincethen,Ivebeenenjoyingthemusic and researching the group. Ive collected dozens of books and countless articles, albums, tapes, CDs movies, interviews, and bootlegs. Ive given Doorslecturesandspokenaboutthematnumerousevents. ImalwaysinterestedinknowingwhatthenewesttakeonTheDoorsis.
Thebandisnolongermakingmusic,buteverysooftenthegroupreenters the public consciousness. When the Oliver Stone movie came out, I was as interested in global reactions to the film as the film itself. It is played regularlyontelevisioneventoday. The 2010 Morrison pardon for his Miami transgressions was another
occasion for a fresh round of debate about his legacy as well as that of the 60s.ThepardonwascarriedontheNBCNightlyNews,withBrianWilliams saying that Morrison remains a rock legend. Such signs of Morrisons continuing appeal are omnipresent, from kids and adults wearing Doors t shirts to the presence of Doors fan clubs around the world. Journalists and critics pore over every Morrison factoid (true or untrue), and an extraordinarymythsurroundshim.Itseemstogrowinscopeandstatureas timegoesby.
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The Doors have been scrutinized every which way but loose for more
than40years.In1997,GeoffBartonwroteyounameit,thecoalshavebeen raked over so often theyve turned into brittle dust. Yet despite all the attention,Morrisonisstillthebestknown,leastunderstoodfigureinrock (touseDannySugarmans1979phrase).Morrisonswordshavebeenlostin the swirl of sex, death, and controversy. His work remains elusive and underappreciated. About the detractors, Morrison once said that The Doors werethebandyoulovetohate.Idontcareifyouhatethem;Iwantyouto understandthemfirst. InadditiontobeingaDoorsfanaticandtheworldsleadingauthorityon
the group, I am the author of God Does Not Play Dice: the Fulfillment of Einsteins Quest for Law and Order in Nature. I graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a Danforth Fellow in the EnglishPhDprogramattheUniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley.Ialsohavea MasterofManagementfromtheKelloggSchoolatNorthwesternUniversity. Youcanreachmeatdshiang@doorsgoldmine.com.
Praise for God Does Not Play Dice Very provocative, erudite, and solidly based on intelligent and logical thinking! Congratulations on making an excellent contribution to understanding the role of a higher intelligence in organizing the affairs of the universe! Pat McGovern, IDG Founder and Chairman, Co-founder of The McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT

23
Announcing the Long-Awaited Book
Jim Morrison and The Heros Journey: Inside The Doors to Salvation and The Mind of God
Get on the Real Fast Track to Spiritual Ecstasy
Take the heros journey into the unknown and reap the extraordinary treasure of the life-changing music of Jim Morrison and The Doors. In the first book that really takes you inside Morrisons stunning vision, I show how Doors music can transport you to transcendence, self-knowledge, and inner peace. Morrison spoke in a secret alphabet (Soul Kitchen) and new language (The WASP), giving us symbols and signs to guide us on our individual quests. The music has survived in part because The Doors tapped directly into our unconscious mind and what scientists call the reptilian parts of the brain. Doors music has a way of getting inside you. It may well be the most important tool you will ever find to help navigate the souls journey.
Transform Your Consciousness

Jim Morrison and the Heros Journey provides you with the key to Morrisons timeless vision and the revolutionary meaning of the only solution. It takes you inside the powerful and surprisingly fresh music as no other book can. Exploring Doors classics such as Light My Fire, The End, When The Music's Over, Shamans Blues, and The Soft Parade, it illuminates Morrisons breakthrough and show how his spiritual psychiatry intends to bring you to the Mind of God. No matter where you are in your search for meaning and self-knowledge, Jim Morrison and the Heros Journey can accelerate your progress. Experience the thrilling pleasure, unsurpassed intelligence, and mindblowing rapture of the music of The Doors. Newbies, hard-core Doors fans, and cynics will all find new and valuable insights. Avoid the fate of critics who have been listening to The Doors all wrong for more than forty years. Dont waste your time like they did. Find what your soul is asking for now.
Order risk-free now Jim Morrison and the Hero's Journey

(http://bit.ly/kzrdD6)
The time you wait subtracts from joy.

24
See Excerpts from Jim Morrison and the Heros Journey on the Next Page
Order now for only $12. Save 33%. Enjoy special early-bird bonuses that take you inside the music as never before.
This is a pre-publication limited-time eBook offer. Take advantage now and get the following extras:
Bonus 1. A free interactive 60-minute teleseminar that will take you inside Morrisons mind. Attendance is limited to the first 100 people so that I can answer your questions personally. Bonus 2. The key to a secret online vault giving you access to hours of rare and hard-to-find Doors interviews, television specials, concerts, music, memorabilia, and much more. Access is limited to 250. This treasure chest has been years in the making and is a must for any Doors fan. Bonus 3. Excerpts of work-in-progress until the complete PDF is available (Fall, 2011).
This amazingly generous offer may be withdrawn at any time, so Order Now! For the cost of a lunch, you could change your life. Dont let the doors close without you. You are protected by a full 60 day moneyback guarantee. If you are not 100% satisfied for any reason, I will give you a full refund. You cant lose. The time to hesitate is through.
Order risk-free now Jim Morrison and the Hero's Journey
(http://bit.ly/kzrdD6)

25
Excerpts from Jim Morrison and the Heros Journey

Doors music is about what Joseph Campbell called the soul's high adventure, the quest of mortals to grasp the reality of God. Doors concerts were often rituals designed to bring audiences to new worlds. The Doors combined poetry, mythology, spirituality, psychoanalysis, philosophy, and tragedy to take you places youve never been. * * * * * Far from being singularly simple, overelaborated psychedelic non sequiturs and fallacies (Pete Johnson) or nebulousness passing for depth (Robert Christgau), The End is a cogent, mesmerizing, and priceless anti-Freudian prescription for salvation emanating from deep and authentic spiritual knowledge. Morrisons vision of liberation means the overthrow, the obliteration, of the cockamamie construction known as the Oedipus complex. * * * * * Morrisons the only solution is what all of us are searching for, whether we know it or not. The treasure at the end of the journey is psychological. As Campbell rightly observed, God is an intelligible sphere a sphere known to the mind, not to the senses. This means that those such as Stephen Hawking who are searching for the Mind of God wont find it at the Large Hadron Collider. * * * * * Morrison was much too deep and intelligent for Timothy White and many others to fathom. Although Morrison wanted to be understood by the intelligentsia, most were too unintelligent to make sense of what The Doors were all about. The idea of a rock star who had something important to say didnt compute. Ignorance is not necessarily bad, but condemnation without the slightest understanding is one of the sins of criticism. And the list of bad critics goes on and on. Even forty years after Morrisons death, newbies such as Alex von Tunzelmann (an Oxford grad, no less) serve up inane analyses that completely miss the point. Reviewing the Oliver Stone movie in early 2011, she says, It's a bloated, pompous, unbalanced film, which looks great but has nothing going on beneath the surface. This is the biopic Jim Morrison deserved. Yeah, right. In spite of such shallowness and stupidity (it started in 1966, over 45 years ago), the music of The Doors has survived. And then some. * * * * * One question that has repeatedly been asked over the past for years is Why are The Doors still so popular? After all, Don Heckman wrote the following in The New York Times the month after Morrisons death: The Doors presumably will fade into the vague anonymity that always drifted just below the surface of their music. Less than a decade after Morrisons death, Dave Marsh called him "misanthropic and pretentious" and argued that The Doors were "the most overrated group in rock history." In 1991, Janet Maslin commented on the groups surprisingly long-lived popularity. (Quite frankly, Im not sure why she was surprised.) George Will claimed in his 1991 Slamming The Doors diatribe that Morrison was a bad influence who left behind some embarrassing poetry and a few mediocre rock albums containing ersatz profundity. If these critics are right, why do Doors albums sell in huge quantities for a group that hasnt made music in decades?

26

Jim Morrison Top 10 Commandments 0607

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Special Report - $47

The Top 10 Commandments of Jim Morrison

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This Special Report focuses on Morrisons Commandments for breaking

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The Top 10 Commandments of Jim Morrison

I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X

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Get here and well do the rest

This Commandment is from The End, the most important Doors

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Take It As It Comes, The Doors

VIII Live in light of certain South

Morrison had recorded his own poetry in thestudio in December,1970.

RayManzarek,RobbyKrieger,andJohnDensmoresetsomeofittomusicin AnAmericanPrayer,releasedin1979.(AnAmericanPrayerissaidtobethe topsellingpoetryalbuminhistory.)Wow,Imsickofdoubtprecedesthe

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VII Learn to forget

In order to experience higher consciousness, you need to let go of false

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VI Surrender to the waiting worlds that lap against our side

This Commandment is one of surrender. Morrison is telling us to

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Take a journey to the bright midnight

Take a journey to the bright midnight refers directly to the

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IV Ride the snake to the lake

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CelebrationoftheLizard.CampbelltalkedtoMoyersaboutseeingamovieof aBurmesesnakepriestess,whohadtobringraintoherpeoplebyclimbing upa mountainpath, callinga king cobrafromhisden,andactuallykissing

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III Dance on fire as it intends

When the Musics Over is Morrisons secondmost important song. (Nick

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The Celebration of The Lizard, The Doors in Concert

Originally appearing on Absolutely Live, Wake Up! was the opening

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Break on through (to the other side)

The mother of all Morrison Commandments, Break on through is the

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Morrisons secret alphabet and new language. Experience the hidden

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Announcing the Long-Awaited Book

Transform Your Consciousness

Order risk-free now Jim Morrison and the Hero's Journey

The time you wait subtracts from joy.

Join the Celebration of the Lizard Festival www.doorsgoldmine.com/celebrate