Page 5: The Great Harlot

My most memorable encounter with a doorbell-ringer happened while I was still a teenager. I was the only one home at the time and gave them the usual brush-off…until I noticed that the current issue of The Watchtower had an awesome painting of the Whore of Babylon on the cover. I’d always been fascinated by Revelation, and had by that time already taught myself Greek in order to study the text in the original Koine. As the proselytizers turned to leave, I had no choice but to stop them and plead, “Wait! How much do I have to give you for a copy of that?” I've saved the issue to this very day.

The best thing I ever got from door-to-door proselytizers.

 That image of Hitler smiling approvingly from the wings just puts this image over the top.

On a related note, also on page 5 of The Billionth Monkey: In the writing and lecturing that I do as part of my metaphysical life, I was a speaker at the first annual Babalon Rising festival in 2006, which at that time took place in French Lick, Indiana. The city name always stuck in my head, so I couldn’t resist making it the location of Arouse! magazine's story about the garage sale Grail.

Although the story of Seal Team Six is just as fictional as my sale-Grail tale, I can see in my mind's eye the illustration of Jesus directing soldiers upstairs to Bin Laden. It's a two-page spread, with a headline across both pages and a half-width column of text superimposed on the right side. I’d love to see it done for real. On black velvet.

Another image from The Watchtower.