Starlight Sickness: Gaslighting, Consent Engineering, & How I Got Lost In Ufology's Hall of Mirrors

This episode began as an investigation into Sigmund Freud, Edward Bernays, propaganda, psychoanalysis, and the hidden machinery through which modern perception management came to be. But somewhere along the way, it became something much more personal.

In Starlight Sickness, Kelly traces the strange lineage between Freud’s abandonment of the seduction theory, Bernays’s engineering of consent, and the ways power moves harm out of view by relocating it into the minds of the harmed.

From the origins of modern public relations to the hall of mirrors inside ufology, this episode asks what happens when the tools we use to interpret reality also become the tools used to obscure it. How do we practice discernment without losing trust in our own perception? How do we make room for complexity without allowing complexity to become fog? And what does accountability look like when the story you were living inside begins to collapse?

In light of recent allegations against her former best friend and creative partner Jay Christopher King, Kelly turns the same questions back on herself, beginning the process of untangling what happened, what she believed, what she may have gotten wrong, and what this community is owed now.

This is an episode about gaslighting, trauma, consent engineering, ufology, and the terrifying difficulty of finding solid ground in a world built to manage perception.

Topics explored: Sigmund Freud | Edward Bernays | propaganda | psychoanalysis | gaslighting | consent engineering | perception management | public relations | the unconscious | repression | seduction theory | the Oedipus complex | Jeffrey Masson | Freud Archives | Emma Eckstein | Wilhelm Fliess | institutional betrayal | therapeutic language | expert authority | trauma | memory | interpretation | accountability | narrative control | invisible government | torches of freedom | United Fruit Company | Guatemala coup | ufology | experiencer communities | anomalous experience | sexual trauma | abduction narratives | vulnerability and power | Jay Christopher King | The Experiencer Group | spiritual abuse | trust and betrayal | epistemic instability | discernment | reality testing | | truth and coherence | symbols and meaning | systems of control | manufactured consent | moral injury | the hall of mirrors

Referenced in this Episode:

Addressing the Allegations Against My Former Creative Partner, Jay Christopher King

Starlight Sickness — Helico Tele

Propaganda — Edward Bernays (1928)

The Engineering of Consent — Edward Bernays (1947)

The Aetiology of Hysteria — Sigmund Freud (1896)

The Interpretation of Dreams — Sigmund Freud (1900)

Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality — Sigmund Freud (1905)

The Assault on Truth: Freud’s Suppression of the Seduction Theory — Jeffrey Masson (1984)

Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition — David Bakan (1958)

Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator — Ryan Holiday (2012)

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell — Tucker Max (2006)

Support The Show

Patreon: inquirywithkellychase.comSubstack: inquirywithkellychase.substack.com

Connect with Kelly

Website: kellychase.mediaX: @kellychasemediaInstagram: @kellychasemedia

TIMESTAMPS

05:27 Propaganda and The True Ruling Power

09:20 Freudian Ick10:58 Jeffrey Masson, Heretic

13:18 Sigmund Freud and The Source of the Nile

17:49 Wilhelm Fliess, A Passionate Friendship

19:55 Emma Eckstein and The Stronger Sex

22:06 A Little Sleight of Hand24:21 The Oedipus Complex and The Nucleus of Neuroses

32:02 The Baby and the Bathwater

33:21 Trust the Experts

34:44 You Can’t Do Anything With This Information

37:54 The Torches of Freedom

40:31 The Coup

43:11 A Koan

48:15 The Abstract Becomes Horrifyingly Personal

52:21 Responding to Jay Christopher King’s Statement

01:01:03 Fall 2023

01:05:21 The Epistemic Black Boxes of Ufology

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