I’ve been reading a lot about Richard Nixon lately, and the period of time from 1968-1974. Those years had some really weird, dark energy; dark energy that the late Robin Williams summed up as “The Manson-Nixon Line.”

Author Peter Levenda in his 3-volume work Sinister Forces sees the two seemingly diametrically opposed public figures, Nixon and Charles Manson, as essentially being opposite sides of the same coin:

“On the plane of the real world as understood by the media and the public at large, Manson was an insignificant crook compared to Nixon, the President of the United States, undeserving of the President’s attention or comment; but on another plane, Manson and Nixon were warring black magicians, fighting over airtime and the fifteen-second sound bite.”

I write this now because I have the strong sense that we are seeing another “re-cycle” take place…of Watergate, obviously, but the Manson energy as well. And it’s not even like we are seeing one particular person as the re-cycle of Manson, as the Manson figure this time around…but rather, the Mansons, and Manson-energy, are legion.

Like Manson, Nixon has captured the imagination of popular culture (and esoteric thinkers) in the deepest of ways…

In Alan Moore’s graphic novel The Watchmen (and the movie of the same name), Nixon is re-elected repeatedly, still President in 1985 when the main plot takes place.

In this world, the 22nd Amendment has been repealed, and plucky young reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein have been mysteriously murdered (by the Comedian, of all people).

To author Philip K. Dick, Nixon was the incarnation of the Emperor of Rome; the author enshrined him as the character President Ferris F. Fremont, each initial letter in the name representing the number 6 (as in 6-6-6).

Dick also believed that VALIS—the “entity” he was possibly channeling/being possessed by—directed him to write a series of letters to various officials and media during the last days of the Watergate scandal regarding Nixon…and he believed that these were crucial in the defeat of the President:

“…she (VALIS) said that the Republic was in danger—she meant the American Republic. She said that once again, the Empire threatened to take over. She was there to see that the empire was destroyed…she said that the oscillation between the Republic and the Empire was a constant in history. She caused me to see periods in history in which the Empire had been defeated…

…that was the situation in the United States in 1974, that the Republic was turning into an Empire. And she said, ‘and they shall be destroyed because they are murderers.’ She then dictated a series of letters to Charles Wiggins. Charles Wiggins was on the House Judiciary Committee, sitting in on the decision on whether or not to impeach Richard Nixon…she would dictate the letters. She dictated a series of letters to Congressman Wiggins. They dealt with Constitutional law, I didn’t understand the letters…

…he came from Fullerton, which is where I was living in. It was his practice to read every letter that came from Fullerton and to answer it. She revealed to me that she had moved me to Fullerton from Canada so I could write to Charles Wiggins on the Judiciary Committee while they were sitting in judgement on whether they should vote a letter of impeachment on President Nixon. She dictated a series of letters informing Congressman Wiggins that he had no loyalty to the President of the United States because the President had violated his oath of office that he would uphold the Constitution…

Congressman Wiggins answered each letter. Then she sent the final letter. The letter contained the information that the Nixon transcripts were forgeries; they did not correspond with the tapes, and if the tapes were released they would show that the transcripts were forgeries.”

It is at this point that we must remember that at a crucial moment, Wiggins did switch from defending Nixon to supporting impeachment. Did a letter dictated to a science fiction writer from a supposed interdimensional entity have any influence?

And in the series Futurama, Nixon’s head has been preserved in a jar, to again run for President in the distant future. The symbolism seems to be: there is some energy regarding Nixon that is literally eternal.

Now let’s take a quick look at the past (the “past”), in the stretch of time from ’68 to ’74. It boggles the mind just how many significant events were squeezed in between these mere six years. (Again: I feel we are entering a similar re-cycle.) I will be referring to this timeline in future posts.

Particularly important: notice how the antics of Charles Manson and the lurid details of his crimes was increasingly used by Nixon—and in turn, the media—as a distraction from the President’s “credibility gap” on Vietnam and the later Watergate scandal. And notice the at-times seemingly synchronistic dates of when certain events happen (I’ve included PKD in the timeline):

February 1, 1968: Richard Nixon announces his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.

April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King is assassinated.

June 5, 1968: Robert Kennedy is assassinated.

November 5, 1968: Nixon is elected President of the United States.

November 22, 1968: The Beatles release their “White Album” on the 5th anniversary of JFK’s assassination.

January 20, 1969: Nixon sworn in as President.

March 1969: Nixon approves secret bombing campaign on Cambodia.

July 18, 1969: Ted Kennedy drives off a bridge at Chappaquiddick Island; Mary Jo Kopechne dies in the submerged car, and Kennedy’s Presidential ambitions are more-or-less over.

July 20, 1969: The first man walks on the moon.

August 9, 1969: Members of the “Manson Family” murder pregnant actress Sharon Tate & friends. It will later be revealed that “Helter Skelter”—the name of one of the songs on “The White Album”—was the defacto “trigger word” for the killings.

October 12, 1969: The Manson Family is raided by authorities, and Charles Manson is arrested.

December 1, 1969: Charles Manson is publicly connected to the Tate murder in a press conference.

December 6, 1969: Violence breaks out at the Altamont Free Concert, culminating in the murder of Meredith Hunter by the Hells Angels during the Rolling Stones performance. It is known as the “End of the Sixties.”

April 30, 1970: Nixon announces the ground invasion of Cambodia, going against his campaign promises of ending the war in Asia. There is evidence going back to late 1968 that Nixon might have scuttled chances for an early ending of the conflict in Vietnam, in order to further his own political gains.

June 15, 1970: The Manson trial begins.

August 9, 1970: Nixon publicly declares Manson “guilty,” a highly unusual thing for a president to do & get involved in, and which could have resulted in a mistrial. It’s also the first anniversary of the Tate murder.

January 25, 1971: Guilty verdicts are delivered in the Manson trial.

February 1971: Daniel Ellsberg leaks the Pentagon Papers, which detail secret information regarding the U.S. government’s involvement in Vietnam. Nixon and the White House will try several strategies in vain to prevent this leak from being published in the press.

March 29, 1971: The death penalty is announced for Manson & his co-conspirators.

January 5, 1972: Nixon announces he will run for a second term. Had Ted Kennedy not have been involved in the Chappaquiddick incident, he would have been the natural choice to run against him & most likely would have beaten him.

June 17, 1972: Five men break into the headquarters of the Democratic Party at the Watergate complex in Washington D.C. and are subsequently arrested. These men would later be linked to the Nixon administration.

July 1973: Evidence mounts against Nixon and his staff regarding the Watergate break-in, including the discovery of Nixon’s tape-recording fetish.

October 30, 1973: Nixon fires Watergate independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox, prompting the resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus. It will be known as the “Saturday Night Massacre.” FUN FACT: The night Tate and her friends were murdered was also a Saturday.

February 2, 1974: Science-fiction author Philip K. Dick receives the first of what he called his “VALIS” experiences. Dick, who was obsessed with Richard Nixon & considered him to be the incarnation of an evil Roman Emperor, would later say that VALIS instructed him to send a series of letters to people & media involved in the Watergate investigation. Dick believed that these letters played some part in the eventual “defeat” of Nixon.

March 1, 1974: A grand jury in Washington D.C. indicts “The Watergate Seven.” Nixon is secretly named an unindicted co-conspirator.

August 9, 1974: Nixon, facing almost certain impeachment for his actions regarding Watergate, resigns the presidency. It is the 5th anniversary of Sharon Tate’s death, and the 4th anniversary of Nixon making his odd, attention-whoring “Manson is guilty” statement.

It is my opinion that we are, at present, entering a similar bizarre matrix of events—including the notable space exploration milestone stuck in the middle of it—though one with a far more “compressed” timeframe.

But while the “Nixon” part of our current situation may seem obvious…who is the Manson?