The movie "Ghostbusters"

[FourthBase]

All this recent gatekeeper talk reminds me of Ghostbusters.<br>Speaking of, what in the hell was up with all the gods in that movie?<br>Anything related to RI stuff? They sounded Egyptian or Sumerian or something. <p></p><i></i>

[Dreams End]

Yes...someone else who remembers better will post but somewhere in all this it turns out that the main "ghostbuster" was modeled directly after one of these followers of the nine, I think. <p></p><i></i>

[glubglubglub]

truly a funny movie. here we go:<br><br>Gozer = the bad guy<br>Zuul = (something?)<br>bupkas = the evilish dog-things<br><br>and the ghostbusters were:<br><br>Bill Murray <-> Peter Venkmann<br>Dan Aykroyd <-> Raymond 'Ray' Stantz<br>Harold Ramis <-> Egon Spengler<br>Sigourney Weaver <-> Dana<br><br>all the basic details can be gleaned from here (where I got them):<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087332/plotsummary">www.imdb.com/title/tt0087332/plotsummary</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>which includes the point that Gozer is supposed to be Sumerian.<br><br>There appears to be a rather fanatical group of fans congregating at ghostbusters.net .. either searching or registering and asking directly would probably dredge up whatever scuttlebut there is about the movie's influences...here:<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://forums.ghostbusters.net/forum-18.html">forums.ghostbusters.net/forum-18.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i></i>

[glubglubglub]

the attention given to pop culture arcana never ceases to amaze me. here we go:<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.joshsanctum.com/folklore/gbdisc.htm">www.joshsanctum.com/folklore/gbdisc.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>moneyquote: " The 1984 blockbuster film Ghostbusters presented an invented deity "Gozer" and its invented servant "Zuul." This wouldn't really have been a problem, except that they attributed those creatures to Sumerian mythology. For many years, I (and I'm sure some others) were under the impression that Gozer and Zuul were indeed part of the Sumerian pantheon. After extensive research to make sure I wasn't accidentally overlooking them, I came to the conclusion that Gozer and Zuul were simply creations from the minds of Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd (who wrote the screenplay). Incidentally, I recently came across a transcript of an interview with Dan Aykroyd where he says as much."<br><br>and some probably-correct facts thrown into a truly bizarre ph.d thesis in film studies (the thesis's thesis is beside the point...with peer review standards to meet I doubt the facts are correct): <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://human-threshold-systems.whitlarks.com/bpchp1p7.html">human-threshold-systems.w...hp1p7.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>money quote:<br><br>"A member of the American Society for Psychical Research, Aykroyd had personal interests in phenomena outside traditional science. Once he saw on the stairs of his childhood home “ectoplasmic tubes of light” (Shay 6). His religious background included a spiritualist component: “My grandparents, apparently, were holding seances, and my father would tell of being invited to participate as a medium and being put into trances” (Shay 6). In writing about the spirits, Aykroyd extrapolated from his own parapsychological beliefs. The original draft had an alien creature capture a “Terror Dog” pet of Gozer, ruler of another dimension. Aykroyd derived the name “Gozer” from “a documented haunting in England” where the word appeared on the wall (Shay 7). Spiritualism (which had cultic trappings) and parapsychology (which lacked them) were both attempts to prove the existence of religious phenomena physically and thus were controversial products of the materialistic desire for scientific corroboration associated with stage five. Aykroyds multi-dimensional universe is about as large a mega-verse as stage five can envision. At this postmodern stratum of that stage, the willingness to defy the conventional has reached such a height that it accepts the paranormal, so long as spiritual events receive a material explanation."<br><br>which corroborates the shorter version in the first quote. There's some interesting observations scattered throughout the remainder of the link, and given the local weather...<br><br>if you're looking to unwind this any further Dan Aykroyd's interest in the paranormal is probably the right thread to tug, from the looks of things. <p></p><i></i>

[FourthBase]

Well, there's also off the top of my head a couple of other connections.<br>The method of capturing ghosts is similar to Scientology dogma regarding thetans or whatever.<br>And the manifestation of the marshmellow man is similar to the Montauk monster conjuring. <p></p><i></i>

[glubglubglub]

but the bad guys appear to have been labeled Sumerian for cachet, it looks like -- if anything the original draft (it's mentioned in the second link), which had Gozer ~ some hyperdimensional evil force, is also in the RI vein...<br><br>I think the particular Sumerian angle is probably a red herring...but yeah, given Aykroyd's interests I'm inclined to think most of the remaining appearances of similarity / connections are intentional.<br><br>Given today's weather I'll see if I can find the original draft online somewhere -- from the quote above it sounds like it'd be worth a look. <p></p><i></i>

[glubglubglub]

no sign of the early drafts anywhere online. Some information about the earlier drafts was posted here:<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://forums.ghostbusters.net/ghostbusters_post4483.html&highlight=aykroyd+screenplay">forums.ghostbusters.net/g...screenplay</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>(unsure how many revisions in this is...the differences the fans are interested in are mostly nitpicks, and the big-picture stuff is only mentioned in passing)<br><br>apparently the reference work on spirits (tobin's spirit guide) does exist, and is some very rare 'old book, few copies' guide to spirits put out in 1800s-ish Ireland:<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://forums.ghostbusters.net/ghostbusters_post2935.html&highlight=aykroyd+screenplay">forums.ghostbusters.net/g...screenplay</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>And 'the first church of Dan Aykroyd' has a fairly decent excerpt from the sections of 'Ghostbusters: the making of' that has some information about the earlier drafts' contents.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Lot/2976/ghostarticles.html">www.geocities.com/Hollywo...icles.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br> <p></p><i></i>

[robertdreed]

The theme music from "Ghostbusters" (title song by Ray Parker Jr., "Soulfinger" by Booker T. and the M.G.s) works superbly for most general purposes of cleansing, exorcism, positive empowerment, and hoodoo prophylaxis, without need of resorting to additional outside aid. Professional house calls are usually only required for the most severe manifestations, such as recurrent poltergeist behaviors. <br><br>As an added bonus, if used in conjunction with a sufficiently powerful auto stereo, either song will shut down any product ever released by Eminem, Jah Rule, or Fifty Cent in about 20 seconds flat. <br><br>And then, while everyone is still reeling for blocks around, hit them with "Equinox" by John Coltrane. <br><br>Just make sure you have lots of clean power, woofer conage, and cabinet space. You can't take the chance of being out-powered when the stakes is that high. And, not to get overly dramatic, but bulletproofing the windows of your truck cab is sound policy, just for insurance against sore losers.Gunplay probably won't happen, though...the energy is too strong for any evildoers. Especially the Coltrane. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=robertdreed>robertdreed</A> at: 10/8/05 1:49 pm<br></i>

[AnnaLivia]

glubglubglub...you forgot Winston on your list of the ghostbusters. <p></p><i></i>

[glubglubglub]

I got tired of typing, you're right -- they're listed on imdb in order of appearance and my eyes glazed over, but for the record:<br><br>Eddy Murphhy <-> Winston<br><br>Still no luck finding any earlier Aykroyd drafts online... <p></p><i></i>

[AnnaLivia]

it wasn't eddie murphy, silly! i think it was ernie something <p></p><i></i>

[albion]

<!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.protoncharging.com/ghostbusters/images/people/hudson.gif" style="border:0;"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br><br>" As the fourth member of the Ghostbusters team, Ernie Hudson grounded Ghostbusters in reality by playing the most normal person in the movie." <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.protoncharging.com/ghostbusters/cast/hudson.html">link</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> <p></p><i></i>

[glubglubglub]

now, anyone got any leads on Dan Aykroyd's connections w. paranormal types? He was clearly a believer and, being a celebrity, probably at least fairly networked or often-approached by recruiters for those kinds of organizaitons. <p></p><i></i>

[albion]

Hey I just remembered, Aykroyd also wrote the script for the 1987 remake of "Dragnet," & starred as Joe Friday. The plot of that involved corrupt elites, a pornographer, a priest, pagan rituals, etc. All done as lighthearted buddy comedy. <p></p><i></i>

[Dreams End]

fwiw,<br><br>Akroyd once went on Letterman and actually brought a copy of Tim Good's "Above Top Secret" to show while talking about UFO's.<br><br>Somewhere in one of Jeff's stories I think is a comment from somebody that the ghostbusters were actually modeled on Puthoff and the SRI guys, but I can't remember if that was sourced or not. <p></p><i></i>