Beyond Lemuria :: The Shaver Mystery and The Secrets of Mt. Shasta :: An Adventure in Wonder and Terror

On the evening of June 29th, 2010, we had a special showing of BEYOND LEMURIA for the Los Angeles university art-student community. This event was sponsored by Charles Irvin. Over 25 students and faculty attended. The management at Hop Louie's restaurant (formerly Madame Wong's pagoda) provided free popcorn. Producer Poke Runyon, Star Chris Sanders, and Media Director Lawren Freebody from C.H.S. Productions answered questions following the film. One person said: "It's rumored that you had high-ranking Freemasons and former intelligence officers in the cast?" I replied that if we told him who they were we'd have to kill him. 

For you dark-side Lemurians check out the Master Kenneth Grant's THE NINTH ARCH for references to Lemuria, Richard Shaver, Deros and Nan Madol of Ponape. This book will cost you over $500.00 if you can find it, so you'll probably have to take my word for it.

We are planing another underground showing of BEYOND LEMURIA at a secret location in the Los Angles area -- so stay tuned in to http://www.blogtalkradio.com/the-hermetic-hour   for an announcement of when and where. If you would like to sponsor your own secret, underground showing of BEYOND LEMURIA, we will authorize you to do so providing you do not charge admission (and that you promise to provide free popcorn).

We have an article titled SHASTA, MOUNTAIN of MYSTERY in the latest issue of ATLANTIS RISING, Jan/Feb 2010 #79. This is a summary of the mystic Shasta legends featured in our film. We also have a full page ad on the inside back cover.

Thanks to the effort of our star, and t.v. producer, Chris Sanders, we are now listed on IMDb.

We are also in national distribution with Reality-Entertainment.com and you can rent BEYOND LEMURIA on NetFlix.

Just for kicks try running BL in B&W on your t.v. Increase the brightness and contrast, then minimize the color. This gives the movie that old 1940-50s sci-fi thriller look----which is the style in which we did it, so the effect is really quite good. It makes it look more like a Shaver Mystery film as it would have been released in say 1949.  Shasta was at its mystic peak in the 1930s, so it is fine for the B&W era also. Perhaps we should have done the film as a period piece but we couldn't afford to. Finding classic cars up in Shasta and then getting them back into the lava fields would have been too expensive.

Kudos to Dero Princess Isabela for the new, redesigned web site.  Let's hear from you Lemurians out there.

Poke Runyon,  writer-producer

From FATE Magazine, September-October, 2008 – page 92

Beyond Lemuria, The Shaver Mystery and the Secrets of Mt. Shasta

Written and produced by Poke Runyon, directed by Gregory Jednack

Maelstrom Press (Orange, CA) 2007, DVD 120 minutes.

Given Hollywood’s bottomless thirst for material, and penchant for recycling, it is a bit puzzling that there have been virtually no attempts to bring the visions of Richard S. Shaver to the screen. Shaver’s bizarre and allegedly true accounts of torment at the hands of depraved subterranean beings known as Deros would seem to be a good prospect for cinematic realization. (For more on the Shaver Mystery and its relationship to the beginnings of this magazine, see "What’s This? A Shaver Revival?" by Doug Skinner, June 2005.)

Enthusiasts were intrigued by the release of the Shaver-inspired Japanese horror film "Marebito" in 2004. Now the Shaver Mystery has finally become the focus of a domestic effort.

Beyond Lemuria is hardly a work of mainstream Hollywood, however. A production of the California based Church of (the) Hermetic Sciences, the film makes a virtue of a low budget. Computer-generated imagery (a Dero invention if there ever was one) is mercifully absent. Instead, the filmmakers pursue a consciously retro aesthetic with results that call to mind the old "Star Trek" or "Doctor Who" TV programs.

The plot of Beyond Lemuria centers around a University of California student named William Morgan whose story plays out in parallel narratives. In one he is the committed initiate of a benevolent group of wisdom seekers on a pilgrimage to Mt. Shasta; in the other he is the neophyte pawn of a diabolical cult seeking to make contact with the evil Deros.

Elements of Shaver’s mythos are woven together with the Lemurian revelations of Frederick Spencer Oliver’s 1894 book "A Dweller on Two Planets." Complex information about lost civilizations, inter-dimensional travel, and occult science is skillfully presented, and an abundance of esoteric eye candy keeps things visually engaging. Shaver fans will not be disappointed. See www.beyondlemuria.com for more information.

Reviewed by Andrew Honigman.

We are off and running with BEYOND LEMURIA now available from AMAZON for immediate shipment. Check out the great reviews! We won’t open our store for direct credit card buying until the ad campaign kicks in, so if you just can’t do Amazon, send your check or m.o. made out to Maelstrom Press for $19.95 to Maelstrom Press, 8502 E. Chapman Ave., Suite 649, Orange, CA 92869 and we’ll rush ship the DVD to you by Priority Mail at no extra charge (unless you are in Khazakastan or Outer Mongolia).

Our full page ad in NEXUS just appeared and you will shortly see others in FATE, ATLANTIS RISING and UFO MAGAZINE. Please visit the first and foremost Shaver Mystery web site “Shavertron” (www.shavertron.com) for an in depth interview on the film and my background conducted by Richard Toronto, editor-publisher of the classic Shaver Mystery journal Shavertron. This interview is really an insider’s look at the truth and the science behind our “science fiction.” 

Also, get NEXUS and you’ll find a confirmation of Samyaza’s prophecy in the same issue as our ad (“2012 and Planet X….A Prophecy of Doom from the Fallen Angel Semyazza”). 

Dr. X is taking over the maintaining this web site, so we’ll be updating and expanding soon. Dr. X is also working on a third generation of the Star Mech -- Hidden World Receiver (see www.shavertron.com) the original of which was the great granddaddy of our Intragravatron. More on this as we progress. But, heed the warnings. Don't try to build one even though the plans are available at Shavertron. Leave it to the professionals. 

Timothy Green Beckley has a new book coming out on mysterious Mt. Shasta in which I have a chapter on my mystical experience that we used as a basis for the transcendental revelations in the film, also location photos from the film. Watch for it from Global Communications “Bizarre Bazaar” and (www.conspiracyjournal.com). All for now!

At long last our occult science fiction adventure film 

BEYOND LEMURIA: The Shaver Mystery and the Secrets of Mt. Shasta (DVD) is released and available for purchase at Amazon.com The price is $19.95 and you get an attractive eight page booklet called "Wisdom of the Avatars of Mt. Shasta" inside the DVD case, along with a commentary track, and scene selection menu. From an occult standpoint this two-hour film is unique and outstanding. It features authentic, uncensored occult secrets delivered by real magicians such as Lon Milo DuQuette (Hermes Trismegistus) Paul Clark (Jesus), Merrick Rees Hamer (Phylos) and Poke Runyon (Dr. Roland). It is also a marvelously exciting and sometimes frightening adventure filmed on location at Mt. Shasta, in the lava caves nearby and --- using earlier exclusive footage -- in the ruins of Nan Madol (underwater and jungle covered). Sci-fi/fantasy fans will recall that Nan Madol was the entrance to the subterranean world of lost Lemuria in A. Merritt's classic fantasy The Moon Pool--which influenced Richard Shaver's later subterranean "Dero" stories that he claimed were based on fact. Phylos of Atlantis, the first Mt. Shasta mystic avatar, was also based on an allegedly true account: A Dweller on Two Planets by Frederick Spencer Oliver.   This film is unique. There is nothing else like it. Please order it now and you'll receive it right after New Years. 

Happy New Year!

Poke Runyon
(Dr. Marion Roland)
Producer: Beyond Lemuria

BEYOND LEMURIA is getting some great reviews. Check out the full-page spread in FATE MAGAZINE last issue (Sept./Oct.) "...lost civilizations, interdimensional travel, and occult science -- skillfully presented. Shaver fans will not be disappointed." And we have another review coming up in FILMFAX+ along with a full-color back cover ad. Our East Coast distributor Tim Beckely is reprinting the rare Shaver Mystery journal "THE HIDDEN WORLD." HW #3 is at Amazon now and features Shaver's wildest, most controversial novel MANDARK, with a new introduction by none other than your old Lemurian Dero himself, Poke Runyon -- so get on Amazon and "one-click it." Also at Amazon, or from Global Communications/Inner Light, you'll find MYSTERIES OF MT. SHASTA, HOME OF THE UNDERGROUND DWELLERS AND ANCIENT GODS, with a chapter I contributed on my personal Mt. Shasta visionary experience -- related to our film, of course. 

 By the way, if you don't want to buy BEYOND LEMURIA from Amazon or Inner Light, you can order it through ATLANTIS RISING -- or, best yet, send a check or m.o. for $19.95 to Maelstrom Press, 8502 E. Chapman Ave., Suite 649, Orange, CA 92869 -- we'll rush-ship it to you Priority Mail at no extra charge. You save money and we make money. It's a win-win deal. Dr. X (Mark Nelson) is doing the final testing on the "Hidden World Receiver," greatgranddaddy of the "Intragravatron." We will take it up to Mt. Shasta and Pluto's Cave next year. Meanwhile go to www.shavertron.com and learn about the most feared "spook radio" in underground history.

BEYOND LEMURIA is "In the Can." But, no sooner did we wrap it up than the devilish Deros attacked Southern California with a three county fire storm! They were aiming at our headquarters especially; the Silverado fire was arson. We had to evacuate on October 20th  with a special showing of the film scheduled at the International Hidden Light Conclave on October 27th. All our projection equipment had to be left at Rivendell in the canyon. As homeless refugees we showed the film to nearly one hundred occultists from all over the world. They really enjoyed it -- but then what better audience could we have?

        Our refugee status lasted two weeks, holding up the process of duplication, proofing & printing the cover, packaging, etc. At this date we are still involved in that process. Following that we have to go through a releasing cycle -- so all I can say at this point is we're trying our best to make the film available in 2007 -- but we have it "In the Can" at last, with Chapter Selection Menu, Commentary, Trailer and an eight page bonus booklet "Wisdom of the Avatars of Mt. Shasta" included as an insert. The film runs 2 hours. 

        DVD Price will be $19.95. Please do NOT send orders yet....but keep checking in. We'll let you know as soon as it's available.

All shooting is now completed. The two short documentary sections--the first on The Shaver Mystery and the second on the mystic lore of Mt. Shasta--are now finished. We added the Atlantean Temple scene and the end of the Lemurian Temple scene today. We start final edit tomorrow; that means we will tie the whole movie together, fill in a few transition shots, such as the hour-glass with the sand running out, and then lay on the music track. If goes well we should have a finished film ready for test viewing in a few more weeks.

We will soon be updating the photo gallery with scenes from the film itself. We will be adding biographies of our stars and key crew members. In some ways the making of this film has been almost as strange and exciting an adventure as that depicted in the film itself. We will share these behind the scenes episodes with you in weeks to come. Keep checking in for the latest on Beyond Lemuria.