Photo by Jennifer K. Hugus for The Los Angeles Beat
Feeling f&cked up, deprived, tired of this all too fleshy shell you lug around every day and call a body (and that is merely your kind nomenclature for it)? Christianity not cutting it? Buddhism not bodacious enough for you? Satanism too second-banana to any and all manner of apple lore? Then perhaps a new movement christened “Illuminecho” is for you! Reminiscent of a pivotal scene in “The Graduate” in culmination with something hearkening the likes of Mr. Roboto, it is apparently quite the past-due movement to be reckoned with! Peppered with glowing pyramids, elements of New Ageism, and some (mostly fundamentalist Christians) would label Satanism, and most chiefly Transhumanism; Illuminecho aims at combining sound with light–and PLASTICS, gobs and gobs of PLASTICS–in order to foment a life lived on this all-too-bang-‘em-up-shoot-‘em-down-gun ridden-polluted-corporately funded-paradisical rock of an obscure planet in what The Onion terms (and agreeably so) “the lamest part of the universe”—FOREVER!!! Sounds fun huh?
I enter the establishment that once was an old store front: Espiritu Da Vita I believe it was called coincidentally and incongruously enough. Further irony ensues when I realize that the Sci-fiology—er Scientology Celebrity Centre sits right across the street like a glistening beacon awaiting any and all potential disenchantment within this ambiently unique conversion ritual.
Photo by Jennifer K. Hugus for The Los Angeles Beat
A glowing telltale so-called “illuminati”-like pyramid adorns the display window. The walls, once painted a light color teal or sand dollar, are now the darkest of black. (Really, this black goes to 11!) A DJ dressed as the grim reaper-wife-beater-sleeve-style, “spins” on the wall closest to the comedy/improv club, though what he would even toil at mixing and manipulating is beyond my ken as all it sounds like is an eerie, malevolently, misleading, “peaceful” yet static drone. But perhaps he is not really present at all..? We never see his face.
The random card I found on the street prior to Illuminecho’s unveiling read something like “art and light fusion exhibit”. However, once arrived, the pamphlets adorning the door like all so many transhumanist take out menus read, “The Path to spiritual Illumination”. But I’m thinking this is for effect? (And later, quite possibly real world fodder for an Onion Article…?)
Once said pamphlet is cracked open completely unlike the unfurling of a random Torah, in a passage titled “Polymers: The God Molecule” the crux of this conundrum is disclosed:
“DNA, the building block of all life, is a carbon-based polymer: It is no coincidence that plastics are carbon-based polymers as well. The discovery of plastics by our father, Leo Hendrik Baekeland, revolutionized the world. We are surrounded by plastic, in forms both divine and debased. Although plastics have been vilified and degraded to the realm of grocery bags and water bottles, they are actually the holders of the key to immortality.” Shya—especially in Beverly Hills I hear!
”…Plastics can survive for 100,000 years. Before you let that scare you, think about what this means for the coming age of plastic-based life forms: over 1,000 times the current average lifespan of humans! The time has come to start replacing our feeble bodies with strong, durable plastic ones that will never age, have replaceable parts, and allow us to explore our galaxy and beyond.” (Oho SOMEBODY’S exploring a galaxy above and beyond currently and psychologically–no doubt!)
There is cheese, water and sodas in the back of the thing, but no wine. Geez! Don’t tell me plastic-people-of-the-light imbibe not the fermented liquid grape! This and this hypothesis alone is rendering the heretofore eschewed idea of Christianity better and better by the minute; as creepy as is their symbolic zombie-cannibal ritual surrounding said drink!
“ILLUMINECHO is a revolutionary spiritual movement rooted in mind and body transformation,” the pamphlet further enlightens us. “The word ILLUMINECHO was given to our group in a prophetic vision received during one of our signature Light Echo Meditation Retreats ™. A Level 10 Light Guide was shown the way to spiritual Illumination.” (Aha! But do any of them go to 11?)
“In her vision, a transparent, immortal super-human, radiating pure white light telepathically transmitted the true destiny of mankind and the secrets to immortality. ILLUMINECHO is the sound that we will use to communicate the fiber that will form our bodies, the source of all that we will see.”
Said brochure then goes on to declare that until and only until our flesh has been replaced with plastic, will our bodies be capable of conducting light (particularly if it’s see through plastic I would assume?) That somehow white light that moves at 300,000 km per second will combine with our own DNA—no, wait…sorry..uh plastics, “plastics” and replace sound, speech, the written word, and all other methods of communication. (Funnily enough however, they do not touch upon smoke signals, flares or Morse Code in the process. How in hell it conducts via plastic rather than metal, I’ll never know. But you may as well forget everything you learned in elementary school Kids, in order for to live magnificent lives of spirituality as virtual Barbie and blow up dolls in quiet certainty it must rival Scientology and all their old school “space age” methods. But again, if the above is not for you, the Scientology Celebrity Centre is right across the street… Even still, I somehow find myself pinning for the days of good ol’ Bob Dobbs and The Church of the Subgenius through it all…
The art itself however is bewitchingly out of this world, as is the vibe of the thing. Illuminecho runs until December 17 from 7-10 pm at the old empty space that used to be a novelty and/or clothing store (I really can’t remember which) at 5915 Franklin Ave near the corner of Franklin and Bronson.
For more information, (wherein the term in question is labeled “An Immersive Light Installation”) please visit:
I worked at Espiritu De Vida. They sold incense, candles, Buddha’s, jewelry, clothing, antique furniture…credit card holders. It was basically a novelty store.