"Occult" Strikes Fear Into Hearts of Many
Among the deluge of Michael Jackson articles to hit the web this week, one fact that kept hitting my news filters was the fact that his Thriller video, considered by many to be the best music video ever, starts out with a very blatant and, in my view, somewhat bizarre disclaimer: "Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses a belief in the occult."
Did anyone actually believe that it did? Apparently, yes, even though the music video was little more than a short horror movie and really didn't show anything more than a bunch of dancing monsters.
Is that what anyone really thinks about "the occult"? Werewolves and zombies?
The fact is, I find the mere word "occult" creeps people out. When you ask them what they think it means, they suddenly get very vague. "Well, it's dark stuff." What kind of dark stuff? "Well, I don't know the specifics. I don't want to know about such things." Ok, fair enough, but how do you know it's bad if you can't express a definition even in generalities? You're scared by a word rather than any concept behind the word.
Comments
Michael Jackson’s mother was a Jehovah’s Witness, and the children were brought up with that belief system, although I believe that none of them are actually members now. The Witnesses stress rejection of anything “worldly,” and especially anything that might be the least bit occult, even horror movies.
I keep hearing Marguerite Perrin on Trading Spouses screaming about being a God warrior and how the family she stayed with was dark-sided whenever a discussion of what is occult arises.
Catherine’s probably too young to remember this, but the same “occult” meme circulated about the Beatles back in the day.
Micheal Jackson himself might not be aware but the thriller video is indeed rife with symbolism. The obvious being the ending of the video when Micheal Jackson leading the girl away turned around with his ghoulish face, and the horrible laughter going in the background. Look at whats on the table behind him, a white Phallus object. How about that for an ending !
MJ knew precisely well the occult symbolism in Thriller, Ghosts, HiStory, Dangerous and other vids. Check your cd inserts for pentagrams. They are there. You missed them. Check out this link for a 1973 series with the same name. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212429/#comment
The greatest trick of the devil was to convince the world, that he does not exist.