How Richard Nixon, L. Ron Hubbard and Conspiracy Theories Tie Into ‘Twin Peaks’

As Twin Peaks fan numero uno, I am absolutely giddy about its return to TV next year.

Last week I got my copy of The Secret History of Twin Peaks by series co-creator Mark Frost. The book is meant to fill in the 25 year gap between when the series was cancelled to the present day reboot. I have only read maybe the first 10 pages because I am so excited that I have to take it in piece by piece.

But today I stumbled on a recent interview with Mark Frost regarding the new book. I was already a huge Twin Peaks fan, but now I'm an even bigger Twin Peaks fan because in this interview Mark Frost revealed that Season 3 is going to be a convergence of some of my favorite Occult themes from UFOs, to L Ron Hubbard, & Conspiracy Theories.

Link to the WSJ article can be found HERE.

In Frost’s vision, the mythology of “Twin Peaks” stretches far beyond that eerie, wooded patch of the Pacific Northwest, tying in UFOs and secret societies, as well as historical figures like Lewis and Clark, Jet Propulsion Laboratory co-founder and occultist Jack Parsons, and Richard Nixon. As much as Frost added to the mythology, though, the author took care to stop the dossier’s narrative right around when the original incarnation of the show concluded in 1991.

The Interview:

This book also acts as a secret history of the U.S. Why did you decide on that?

I’m a big American history buff. So, you bring Meriwether Lewis into the story, and suddenly the founding of the country is up for grabs, and that led me into the incredible mystery surrounding his death, which follows thereafter. I quickly realized there’s an alternate way of looking at American history through a paranoid lens, through a lens of this dichotomy that’s then set up in the book as the difference between mysteries and secrets.

Thematically, that’s the fish I was after, to distinguish between the kind of corrosive effect secrets can have on a society and the liberating effects, in a Joseph Campbell kind of way, that embracing mysteries can have for connecting with things that are evanescent and just out of reach. So I wanted to play with that tension, because I think that tension is central to American history. Mysteries are healthy. Secrets are dangerous, as history has tended to tell us. Once I’d identified that, it became the spine of the book.

Did you ever fear you were demystifying it too much? That’s been one of the big draws of “Twin Peaks.” People theorize so much and look for clues. By providing this kind of hard information, were you ever worried you would sap some of the mystery?

I knew there was a line to walk between revealing too much and trying to deepen the mystery. To do that you have to give people some answers, and I always felt that, as expansive as the show felt at the time, it took its time telling the story, there were still areas where I thought we could go deeper and wider. The book gave me the opportunity to do that. It also gave me a chance to redress a few things that were not fully covered in the series, and to more deeply explain things that might have been inexplicable. For instance, the whole Andrew Packard-Josie story, which felt a little rushed sometimes when I went back to watch it. So it was a chance to tie everything up together in that thematic bundle.

Why did you decide to make Richard Nixon such a key part in the Secret History of Twin Peaks?

One of my first memories is watching the debates with JFK on TV, and Nixon loomed large for my generation. I was living in California when he ran for governor — you won’t have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore — and then he rose like Lazarus in ’68. And they were always saying, did this guy make a deal with the devil, or what? How did he do that? How did he get back in the game? … So Nixon, for me, he was the antichrist during that period. He was the black prince. And he was genuinely interested in [UFOs].

That’s where I’m trying to mix fact and fiction a lot. How do I weave in the guy who, aside from Aaron Burr, is the darkest conspiratorial figure in American history?

L. Ron Hubbard comes up, too. In Hollywood, is it as tough to take a shot at Scientology these days?

No, I think the bubble has kind of been burst. … It’s a classic cult. I think Alex Gibney‘s film ["Going Clear"] completely took the cover off, and the Laurence Wright book. To me, he was the latest iteration of that theme we start from the very beginning of the book. He’s conspiratorial, he’s secretive, he claims to have mysteries when really all he’s doing is creating a vaccuum into which he can pull power. He was obviously a sociopath himself. So, I felt, thematically, it was a really good fit. I have a friend that works at [Jet Propulsion Laboratory], so I learned about the Jack Parsons story years ago, and I thought this was a really good chapter to bring ["Twin Peaks" character and novel protagonist] Doug Milford into. It’s the bridge between Project Blue Book and Richard Nixon, and the House Un-American Activities Committee. All of it is part and parcel of that strain of conspiratorial thinking and paranoid power grabbing, so that felt like a natural progression in the American history we recounted here.

Why do you think these conspiratorial ideas persist in America?

Alex Jones is a good example. There are people for whom reality is not enough. They can’t simply accept that facts are facts. They can’t accept the idea that a lone gunman shot JFK, for instance, that it could have been a disgruntled Marine deserter to Moscow who was also screwed up in the head. Things like this have such a momentous impact that I think there are some minds that have to believe there was something greater at work. They can’t accept that it was a deranged lunatic who had a rifle and happened to be an accomplished marksman, and had the means, the motive and the opportunity. They have to invent and conflate it into a grand conspiracy.

This is not a new trait in American thinking. This is what Burr trafficked in, this is what Benedict Arnold was given to. It’s kind of the dark side of American history. That’s the parallel track that is the corrollary to our thematic line of direction here, that there’s history as we understand it, and there are people who can’t accept that history can be that mundane. There has to be something else. It’s a persistent strain in human imagination. I wanted to play with that and explore it, and see why we are so nutso about stuff like this. Why are there people who actually believe that a plane didn’t fly into the Pentagon, for instance?

I should also note that several years ago (before the Twin Peaks reboot was conceived) I read an interview with Mark Frost where he mentioned that he had been working on a non fiction book detailing the history of the United States & The Occult. From the answers he gave in this interview, it looks like he scrapped the non-fiction idea and wove some real Occult American History into the Twin Peaks universe.

Also, Dan Brown is a total hack that ripped off Mark Frost's two novels The List of Seven & The Six Messiahs.

Interesting.

As a X-files fan myself, I can't help but notice some similarities, in particular the UFOs and the mention of American history as viewed through a conspiratorial lens.

a reply to: ColdWisdom
I have just started rewatching the originals.

a reply to: Greggers

There have been many actors from Twin Peaks that later acted in X Files.

Major Briggs in Twin Peaks plays Scully's Father in X Files.

David Ducovny played a transsexual DEA agent in Twin Peaks before he went on to play Fox Mulder in X Files.

I actually had a list of all the actors in TP that went into X Files. I'll find it for you and post it when I do.

a reply to: reldra

Finally something we have in common?

originally posted by: ColdWisdom

David Ducovny played a transsexual DEA agent in Twin Peaks before he went on to play Fox Mulder in X Files.

That sounds awesome.


I have tried to watch Twin Peaks before, on Netflix. I've heard great things about it, but I can't seem to get past the first 3 or 4 episodes. Perhaps it's the dated presentation. I'm sure it was a lot different watching it first-run.

I've had people tell me the same thing about the X-Files -- they couldn't get into it. I usually explain that the first third of the first season of X-files was fairly week and the best seasons were 3 through 5.

Is it similar with Twin Peaks? Is it a slow starter?

originally posted by: Greggers

originally posted by: ColdWisdom

David Ducovny played a transsexual DEA agent in Twin Peaks before he went on to play Fox Mulder in X Files.

I have tried to watch Twin Peaks before, on Netflix. I've heard great things about it, but I can't seem to get past the first 3 or 4 episodes. Perhaps it's the dated presentation. I'm sure it was a lot different watching it first-run.

Same here. Late 80s is quite old for attempting to get interested.

Alas, Ill try again!

a reply to: ColdWisdom

Here we go again🤗
Good to see you Cold!
As I'm retiring to bed, i will S&F and read along quietly. 😊

Oh my. What do we have here? Plot Twists!👍

But Beware!

a reply to: Greggers

I have tried to watch Twin Peaks before, on Netflix. I've heard great things about it, but I can't seem to get past the first 3 or 4 episodes. Perhaps it's the dated presentation. I'm sure it was a lot different watching it first-run.

I've had people tell me the same thing about the X-Files -- they couldn't get into it. I usually explain that the first third of the first season of X-files was fairly week and the best seasons were 3 through 5.

Is it similar with Twin Peaks? Is it a slow starter?

Indeed it is true that the writers for X Files got a lot of inspiration from their predecessor Twin Peaks.

If you can't get into the show maybe watch the prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me first?

It's totally worth immersing yourself into.

a reply to: Greggers

A list outlining all the Twin Peaks actors that have crossed into the X Files universe.

1. David Duchovny . . .our favorite hero. On Twin Peaks he played Special Agent Dennis/Denise Bryson, Coop's cross-dressing FBI colleague(pictured above). Then he became the star of The X-Files, portraying lead male Special Agent Fox Mulder. Hmmmmm? Perhaps the FBI is in this actor's blood . . .

2. Don Davis, who played Major Briggs in Twin Peaks, guested on The X-Files as Dana's father, Capain William Scully. He appeard in episodes Beyond the Sea and One Breath.

3. Richard Beymer, Twin Peak's Benjamin Horne, played Dr. Jack Franklyn on The X-Files episode Sanguinarium.

4. Kenneth Welsh, the ever evil Windom Earle, played Millenium Man in The X-Files episode Revelations.

5. Michael J. Anderson, the Little Man From Another Place, played Mr. Nutt, a Trailer Park Landlord in The X-Files episode Humbug.

6. Claire Stansfield, who had a small role in Twin Peaks as Sid, played The Jersey Devil on The X-Files episode Jersey Devil.

7. Michael Horse, Deputy Hawk from Twin Peaks, played Sheriff Tskany on The X-Files episode Shapes. Another actor with Sheriff in his blood . . .

8. Jan D'Arcy was Sylvia Horne in Twin Peaks, and she appeared as Judge Kann in The X-Files episode Tooms.

9. Frances Bay, who played Mrs. Tremond in Twin Peaks, guest starred as Dorothy on The X-Files episode Excelsius Dei.

And a Reddit thread on the subject.

www.reddit.com...

originally posted by: ColdWisdom
If you can't get into the show maybe watch the prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me first?

Woh woh are you crazy? Don't tell him to do that! I know you're just trying to convince him not to give up on it but...

The mistake most people make is not watching the pilot. If you don't watch the pilot, the early episodes don't make sense because the pilot is in fact the actual first 2 or 3 episodes, I forget which.

I don't know how Netflix does it, but the pilot was often not available with the rest of the series like on the original VHS and DVD releases. It was due to licensing issues; different company had the license to the pilot, iirc.

For a long time the pilot was harder to track down so lots of people actually did watch the show for the first time on VHS and DVD and were patient enough to give it a chance but yeesh, now just watch that pilot first and a lot more of it will make sense right away.

Also try to avoid the European pilot as it was released in theaters and given an ending that spoils some stuff from the TV show to make it seem more like a movie. I don't think this is really an issue anymore though as the US pilot shouldn't be hard to find now.

a reply to: 11andrew34

Woh woh are you crazy? Don't tell him to do that! I know you're just trying to convince him not to give up on it but...

The mistake most people make is not watching the pilot. If you don't watch the pilot, the early episodes don't make sense because the pilot is in fact the actual first 2 or 3 episodes, I forget which.

To be honest I watched FWWM long before Netflix put up every episode of the TV show. It had no effect on my ability to understand and enjoy the Twin Peaks universe in its totality.

But I do understand that the general tendency is to see it in the order with which it was released.

I now have everything on Blu Ray when my mother got me Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery for Christmas last year. Combine that with the book and I have every piece of Twin Peaks content ever released before Season 3.

originally posted by: ColdWisdom
a reply to: Greggers

A list outlining all the Twin Peaks actors that have crossed into the X Files universe.

1. David Duchovny . . .our favorite hero. On Twin Peaks he played Special Agent Dennis/Denise Bryson, Coop's cross-dressing FBI colleague(pictured above). Then he became the star of The X-Files, portraying lead male Special Agent Fox Mulder. Hmmmmm? Perhaps the FBI is in this actor's blood . . .

2. Don Davis, who played Major Briggs in Twin Peaks, guested on The X-Files as Dana's father, Capain William Scully. He appeard in episodes Beyond the Sea and One Breath.

3. Richard Beymer, Twin Peak's Benjamin Horne, played Dr. Jack Franklyn on The X-Files episode Sanguinarium.

4. Kenneth Welsh, the ever evil Windom Earle, played Millenium Man in The X-Files episode Revelations.

5. Michael J. Anderson, the Little Man From Another Place, played Mr. Nutt, a Trailer Park Landlord in The X-Files episode Humbug.

6. Claire Stansfield, who had a small role in Twin Peaks as Sid, played The Jersey Devil on The X-Files episode Jersey Devil.

7. Michael Horse, Deputy Hawk from Twin Peaks, played Sheriff Tskany on The X-Files episode Shapes. Another actor with Sheriff in his blood . . .

8. Jan D'Arcy was Sylvia Horne in Twin Peaks, and she appeared as Judge Kann in The X-Files episode Tooms.

9. Frances Bay, who played Mrs. Tremond in Twin Peaks, guest starred as Dorothy on The X-Files episode Excelsius Dei.

And a Reddit thread on the subject.

www.reddit.com...

Thanks for posting.

I've also always found it interesting that Brian Cranston and Vince Gilligan first worked together on Season 6 Ep1 of X files, and later went on to make Breaking Bad together. If not for that episode, Breaking Bad doesn't happen.

DUDE! I'm so freaking excited for next year. I can't hardly contain myself. Trying to get my wife into Twin Peaks right now. She says it's "too slow" but it picks up! and BOY does it!

Thanks for this thread, now i've got to find a copy.

I remember years ago I found "The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer" by Lynch's daughter in a goodwill for like $2. Good stuff.

originally posted by: ColdWisdom

To be honest I watched FWWM long before Netflix put up every episode of the TV show. It had no effect on my ability to understand and enjoy the Twin Peaks universe in its totality. But I do understand that the general tendency is to see it in the order with which it was released.

Hmm interesting. Myself, I still haven't gone back to watch all the relatively recently released deleted scenes yet. You're right that it's a deep enough show that it won't be a huge problem for a lot of people, but FWWM has a bunch of spoilers for the show as well as not entirely being a prequal so lots of people wouldn't want to see it first because of that.

originally posted by: ColdWisdom
Combine that with the book and I have every piece of Twin Peaks content ever released before Season 3.

IIRC, there are a few obscure ones like 'Diane...The Twin Peaks Tapes of Agent Cooper' which was an audio book made up of Cooper's microcassette entries. Nothing is hard to find now if you know to look for it, of course.

a reply to: ColdWisdom

I didn't know about this book. And there's me thinking I was the biggest Twin Peaks fan around here. Will be snapping this up. Thanks for the heads up.

a reply to: Greggers

If that's the case then i suggest you skip directly to the movie that was made after the show ended it is called Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. You will get into the movie and it will make you want to watch the show since it is somewhat the prequel to the show (with some typical unique David Lynch twists).

I am a HUGE fan of the show, even have twin peaks tattoo, but what made me a fan is the work of David Lynch and im not sure if he will be involved in the remake. (Havent read up on it yet I want to be surprised).

originally posted by: 11andrew34

originally posted by: ColdWisdom
If you can't get into the show maybe watch the prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me first?

Woh woh are you crazy? Don't tell him to do that! I know you're just trying to convince him not to give up on it but...

The mistake most people make is not watching the pilot. If you don't watch the pilot, the early episodes don't make sense because the pilot is in fact the actual first 2 or 3 episodes, I forget which.

I don't know how Netflix does it, but the pilot was often not available with the rest of the series like on the original VHS and DVD releases. It was due to licensing issues; different company had the license to the pilot, iirc.

For a long time the pilot was harder to track down so lots of people actually did watch the show for the first time on VHS and DVD and were patient enough to give it a chance but yeesh, now just watch that pilot first and a lot more of it will make sense right away.

Also try to avoid the European pilot as it was released in theaters and given an ending that spoils some stuff from the TV show to make it seem more like a movie. I don't think this is really an issue anymore though as the US pilot shouldn't be hard to find now.

I agree. Watching FWWM before the series will take away all the mystery and magic that made it what it is.

My advice to people who "can't get into it".
Just don't bother.
Much like other Lynch works, you either like it or you don't.
There's no "trying to get into it".
If you dig it, you dig it. Trying to dig it will just make your brain hurt more...