TIM SKOLD / NERO BELLUM "NOT MY GOD" ◊ DEATH IS LIFE

Review of The Band NOT MY GOD

◊🔥 I’m a huge fan of NOT MY GOD, my favorite band aside from Marilyn Manson which Tim has been part of. Musically and lyrically, I can’t say enough. Their sound led me to also become a fan of Nero Bellum, who contributed so much to the electronic dimension of the collaboration. I don’t know Nero’s pronouns, so I defer to they/them. Their originating band, Psyclon Nine, was incredible to witness at a later concert, especially to hear their voice — absolutely mindblowing. But mainly, I’m a lyrical fanatic, and I was blown away by Tim’s poetic prowess. He is truly a master of the English language, which is not his first language — evidence of his extraordinary intelligence.

Resonance With my Ayahuasca Background : The Medicine of Death

◊🧬💐 This resonated deeply with my background in Ayahuasca. At first, I assumed Tim had no knowledge of how meaningful this would be to me as an Ayahuasqera, but I later discovered that Ayahuasca was subtly referenced in his earlier work with KMFDM through inversive theatrics, which implied a hidden respect for medicine traditions. Perhaps he secretly does have a background with Ayahuasca.

◊🦇 Within medicine communities, Ayahuasca is widely known as a practice of spiritual death. While traveling through Peru in my early days of study, I often heard Ayahuasca described as a “medicine of death.” These traditional ceremonies bring about ego death or the shedding of the false self, supporting enlightenment or self-realization. Even when not explicitly about death, Ayahuasca visions and teachings often carry this theme in some proufound way.

◊🧬🌈 Having participated in well over 500 traditional Ayahuasca ceremonies myself, I deeply resonate with this perspective. Many spiritual traditions view fear as the root of all illness, and fear of death as the root of all fears. Through these ceremonies, fear of death was obliterated from my psyche, replaced with expanded self-awareness and empowerment. These experiences nurtured profound philosophical contemplation and radical introspection, while deeply fostering self-preservation ethics.

Death As Illusion ◊ Revealing Life As the Only Truth

◊🕊 The essential theme of this work for me has been the realization that death is an illusion. While I respect beliefs in reincarnation or the afterlife, I do not personally hold them. Instead, this healing journey has shown me life as the all-encompassing truth, while death dissolves into illusion — not only by definition, but in ways far deeper than society allows us to consider.

The Relevance to Life of Contemplating Death Through Art

◊💎🌈 In numerology, zeros have no value. Therefore, this number reduces to 144. The 72 FACETS (IN 144) — a core art template much of my work is based on — represents the dual / union version of 72, a number symbolizing life and God. Through this lens, NOT MY GOD’s exploration of Christianity’s limiting and harmful cult aspects takes on deeper significance, freeing the numbers from Revelation’s prophecy.

◊📖 This freedom removes the oppressive societal obsession with scripture that would eclipse the relevance of my numerological perspective on this song. Though the song clearly critiques religious oppression — in line with the band’s name, symbolizing rebellion against religious authority — I feel it is even more within that very theme to propose a deeper, truer meaning to the lyrics.

Abyssus lyrics : “Volatile superior / Take the body and be cleansed / Victim inferior / Take it and be cleansed again”

◊⚖️ This creates a clear hierarchy between “superior” and “inferior,” suggesting power, dominance, and submission — in theme with high-control religious groups such as Jehovah’s Witnesses or, to a lesser extent, Mormons. The repeated idea of being “cleansed” through ritual could symbolize transformation, destruction, or forced enlightenment, fitting industrial/occult motifs. The phrasing mirrors ritualistic control structures, echoing selection, dominance, and spiritual purification, all tied back to the 144,000 motif.

Abyssus lyrics : “Walk on the silica feel the pulse of the womb / I hear the sirens come ah la la”

◊🌀 The womb imagery ties these themes to a cyclical sense of repetitive rebirth, reminiscent of Born Again Christians. Sirens traditionally symbolize danger, temptation, or alluring destruction. This line adds tension — beauty and peril intertwined — reinforcing the hypnotic, apocalyptic tone. The meditative phrasing invites contemplation of how fear of death underpins the cycle of repetitive “crisis > violent or warlike separation from the world > rebirth or self-reinvention” inherent to the Born Again. High-control religious groups exploit this fear of death (the desperate search for eternal life) to isolate members, cutting them off from worldly ties and even their sense of self.

◊🔔 The repetition of the 144,000 number and ritualistic phrasing creates the atmosphere of a dark liturgy, as though forming an anti-religious cult. The irony is sharp : while such groups might accuse NOT MY GOD of cult-like behavior, the song turns the mirror back, exposing their own dynamics.

◊🖤🔑 These lyrics evoke ritual, spiritual testing, and extreme transformation — both frightening and hypnotic. In this way, the song supports discernment against high-control groups through meditative poetry, while capturing the audience by weaving biblical numerology with industrial / dark ritualistic motifs.

◊📖 For those unfamiliar with the defining factors of a cult, I’ve provided them here, along with examples of how Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Scientology fit into these patterns. This framework helps illuminate how the industrial art of NOT MY GOD critiques the same authoritarian dynamics found in high-control groups : 

Defining Characteristics of a “Cult” aka “High Control Religious Group”

3. Isolation (Physical, Social, Psychological)

◊ Jehovah’s Witnesses : Discouraged from higher education / close ties with outsiders; ex-members shunned, even by family.
◊ Mormons : Socially distinct, esp. in Utah/Idaho; strong cultural separation but not complete cut-off from society.
◊ Scientology : Members often cut off from critics, sometimes live communally (Sea Org); “disconnection” policy cuts ties with dissenting family.

4. Exploitation

◊ Jehovah’s Witnesses : Heavy unpaid labor (door-to-door preaching), time demands; financial donations exist but not ruinous.
◊ Mormons : Mandatory 10% income tithe; unpaid missionary service; strong volunteer culture.
◊ Scientology : Extremely high financial exploitation — courses, auditing, donations = tens of thousands (sometimes hundreds of thousands) of dollars. Also reports of unpaid/abusive Sea Org labor.

5. Us vs. Them Worldview

◊ Jehovah’s Witnesses : Sharp divide — only JWs survive Armageddon, “the world” is doomed.
◊ Mormons : Believe they are “the restored true church.” Outsiders have traditionally seen as less enlightened, but more cooperative with others today.
◊ Scientology : Non-Scientologists seen as “wogs” (derogatory). Enemies (critics, journalists) are “suppressive persons” and must be neutralized.

6. Manipulative or Coercive Practices

◊ Jehovah’s Witnesses : Shunning of ex-members; fear of Armageddon; emotional blackmail via family/community.
◊ Mormons : Heavy social pressure; leaving brings estrangement but not universal shunning. Guilt/shame tied to purity rules.
◊ Scientology : Aggressive use of “auditing” to reveal secrets; later used for blackmail. Harassment (“Fair Game”) of defectors and critics.

7. Apocalyptic or Messianic Urgency

◊ Jehovah’s Witnesses: Central — repeated end-of-world dates (1914, 1975, etc.). Armageddon is imminent, motivating obedience.
◊ Mormons: Strong apocalyptic focus historically (19th century); today softer, but “building Zion” and Second Coming still important.
◊ Scientology: Not classic apocalypse, but cosmic urgency — Earth is spiritually endangered, only Scientology tech can save humanity.

8. Loss of Individual Identity

◊ Jehovah’s Witnesses: Entire social world is inside the group; leaving = loss of family, friends, and meaning.
◊ Mormons: Strong conformity (marriage, gender roles, family ideal). Some individuality allowed, but dissent discouraged.
◊ Scientology: Identity reshaped through auditing; individuality suppressed in favor of “the mission.” Sea Org members especially lose autonomy.

Summary:

◊ Jehovah’s Witnesses : Textbook high-control cult dynamics: authoritarian, apocalyptic, shunning, intense isolation.
◊ Mormons (LDS) : High-demand religion with cult-like traits, but more socially integrated today.
◊ Scientology : Extreme in financial exploitation, coercion, and authoritarianism — closer to destructive cult models like NXIVM or Jonestown.

Conclusion

◊✨ In reflecting on NOT MY GOD, Tim Skold, Nero Bellum, Ayahuasca, and my own journey, I see a unified thread : death is not an end, but an artistic, spiritual, and psychological revelation of life. Whether through ritual on stage, visions in ceremony, or poetic lyrics challenging the grip of cult-like control, all point toward the same realization — that life is the eternal presence, and death only an illusory veil. UNITY LIFE Mystery School exists to honor this truth : that death is life.

ADDENDUM :

◊❤️ It was an honour to see on instagram after tagging Tim Sköld and Nero Bellum in the post about this archive, that they responded with interest. Nero took the time to research into my instagram and viewed the entire story of several slides. Also, most excitingly, Tim actually gave a like on the story which tagged him, which specifically promoted the new AI artwork that I created for this archive, as a screenshot of the blog thumbnail including the title and date.

◊💐💫 It’s an HONOUR - sooooo truly, and very exciting for me. However I have now reached a new evolution of how I publicly present likes / views from stars. It’s a major fan phenomenon to instantly promote screenshots of every star’s views and likes (usually on the story) — But I have decided to not just do that and instead strive to tell the stories, when appropriate, from the inner world of my understandings of what it meant. This avoids outside misinterpretation of the meaning.

◊💸 Fascinating depth piece here with Tim, because he has liked my comment once on his pop up shop / merch post, showing knowledge of this fan phemomenon of always posting these to stories. This was transparently designed so that I would DO THE THING (put the merch store post ON MY STORY NOW to support his advertising) 😂💎💫. That works with Tim’s style, who prides himself on being intimately familliar with the Mansonite fan community on instagram.

◊🌟🌈 Same in this case, again. And this is no assumption - I believe once again he was encouraging me to post the like, this time modelled as an encouragement to post the new artwork as a standalone with explanation of the art. Actually, this is the third time recently that I’ve received what I felt as encouragement to do just that as a wise form of self-promotion of my AI art, as an artist, which I felt was mentored by these stars. First with Marilyn Manson, then with Jared Leto. The only difference is, with Manson and Jared, this was purely a spiritual intuition I was experiencing.

◊🧬🕊 It was as if I was spiritually receiving a message from these stars - I felt just a very strong magnetic draw towards taking these actions with an intense sensibility coming up about this as what they would want. Actually more honestly, the way it struck me was that they would be proud of the art as being related with them and so beautiful. But I just read into it more, pontificating on perhaps if their commercial wisdom about self-promotion might have been a factor of guidance here.

◊🖤 But normally I wouldn’t speak of such things as this falls under weird superstitions. As purely a spiritual intuitive view, it’s complex to explain, and confusing for some. I’d have to say it must have been just the angels informing me of what these stars WOULD like if they were fully informed as to have any opinion. You see, I would assume angels would be at work for my benefit, assuring, in all their infinite wisdom, that the stars will love what they see at such occaions when they glance upon my work.

◊💎(x144) It’s just that since this instance of it with Tim seemed not as an inuition but as the impression I got from his like based on a logical breakdown of his strategies, this took the intuitive into the real. It’s for that reason that I have chosen to share this story.

◊❤️‍🔥 Also, story views are actually well considered in the fan community to be a huge honour. Certainly, the notion of an anti-like from viewing and not giving a like, is completely abandoned in favour of trusting from an educated place that any view indicates respect. It is well known that to give a like is actually not easy for a star as it has has many complex strategies involved, so it’s rare no matter how much love they may feel. In that light, here’s what I think it meant that Nero viewed my whole story :

◊📖 “His?” viewing, along with Tim’s like, both meant that they had read the archive. In Nero’s case, to view the entire story indicates that “he?” has not only checked the article out but also taken more time to browse my entire instagram, searching for context and background researching more as well. I believe stars like to sometimes check full stories in order to communicate those kinds of things - because it looks like that. Which is such an honour. One that I’m thrilled to share with you.

◊ Finally, here is the uncensored version (with algorithm-sensitive words not disguised) of the instagram caption that I added to explain my AI artwork as requested by Tim, in a new post about it :