Solar Plexus Clown Gliders

**Theories** |  · Mimetic parasite entity · Demonic presence · Early internet legend

**Solar Plexus Clown Glider** (SPCG) is the collective name given to a broad range of paranormal phenomena attributed to a corruptive entity which infects weak and vulnerable people through the Solar Plexus chakra. Originally used by 80s New Age practitioners, the phenomena was linked to a horror themed email forwardable in the late 90s, which claimed that simply reading or hearing the words "**Solar Plexus Clown Glider**" made one susceptible to infection.  Others claimed that one became infected through viewing a set of spooky black and white images circulating online.

Rather than a material cryptid SPCG is ephemeral and operates at the level of language. It makes itself known through images and words. The SPCG appears to feed off human misery, bombarding its host human with realistic hallucinations, Glitches in Reality and weakening them emotionally. [1] They then simply drive the host beyond their fullest capacity for psychological pain. The 'sickness' that comes with SPCG contact is described as similar to meth addicts experiences of withdrawal paranoia symptoms, up to and including near-constant full body hallucinatory experiences, and actual psychosis.[2] The reported effects are also similar to delirium states.

## Background

According to Hindu culture, the solar plexus harbors both positive and lower negative emotions. This chakra, one of the seven main ones, is also the center of perseverance and the desire to win. As well as anger, irritation, hate, envy, greed, destructiveness, violence, cruelty, resentment, worry, anxiety, fear, selfishness, aggressiveness, and more.
The idea of demonic forces which literally feed off of these negative emotions is widespread throughout the world in a variety of contexts outside of chakra cleansing, and it was in this context the phrase was first used in New Age circles during the 80s. No trace of the phrase can be found prior to the 90s mailart movement.[3] It was speculated that the phrase was engineered by a CIA experiment in mind control, as those who repeated them often reported a feeling of unseen presence, or of encroaching cold. Similar experiments were attempted as part of the MKULTRA experiments.

Known suspected victims include Dead Rabbit Radio podcast host Jason Carpenter who saw what he described as a giant cobra rise and slither down the aisles of a courtroom. After this experience, which was tinged with anxiety already, Carpenter described his mood and quality of life taking a serious decline. It was only later after researching the topic of SPCG that he speculated the experience was related. He considers the SPCG to be a memetic parasite which exists only to spread human suffering.[4]

## Manifestations

As per the most well known image and the name, SPCG has occasionally physically manifested as a daemonic jester figure, but its form is ultimately fluid, capable of infiltrating and deforming any visual surface once it has enough power over its victim. Its "body" is more often said to resemble oozing forms of slugs or snakes.[5] It can often appear to be made of a substance outside of the normal laws of three dimensions, similar to Black Stick Men.

However, attributing any specific form to this entity is meaningless as it is ultimately not reducible to its hallucinatory contents but to the rumored effects of a phrase engineered to trigger mental deterioration. Alternately there is also a supposed set of black and white images (of which only one is now in circulation) which achieve the same effect of madness. Other tellings implicate a special frequency associated with the SPCG.[6]

[7]

## History

It has been suggested that SPCG is an example of an early internet legend, boosted after a Trojan virus code by the same name which gained quick recognition. It was an early jump-scare prank, only especially cruel as the code could wait indefinitely to suddenly flash a scary face onscreen at random times, terrifying users oblivious that their home PC was infected.[8]

It has been suggested that the urban legends surrounding SPCG were spread in the wake of the virus, or by the creator, to further cement the effect of the computer being haunted. To this extent, SPCG myths appeared at a critical juncture as ostentation myths with the digital in mind. Ostentation is when individuals or groups act out folkloric scenarios, reenacting a tradition. An example of an ostentation myth familiar across generations is the Bloody Mary routine: stand in front of a mirror, say her name [X] times and Bloody Mary will appear.[9]

SPCG was further informed by a sturdy pre-established frame of sci-fi and comedy stories about mimetic phenomena that kill anyone who is exposed, such as the neuron-collapsing images known as basilisks in *BLIT* by David Langford.[10]  An image of a fractal called 'The Parrot', with text ripped from Langfords story, claiming that the image will kill all who view it, circulated around the same time as SPCG's mimetic images and phrases.

In music, horrorcore rap artist 'Tulpadrip' includes a song based on the myth on their 2020 album 'The Exorcist.'[11] Screamo band 'Deimos Crown' officially released a song with the title 'Solar Plexus Clown Gliders' that explores the legend in 2021.

A 2020 issue of literary zine *Pinecone* contains poetry by Alexander Williams named after SPCG which includes mantric repletion of the phrase throughout.[12]

## Theories

* An interdimensional demon which activates in the solar plexus region. This was the original meaning of the term used by New Age practitioners, notably chakra healers and transcendental meditation advocates in the late 80s and early 90s.
* American film director David Lynch, who explored the popular occult circuit at this time in his career, would go on to write extensively about a very similar entity or psychic illness. He calls it—capitalizing each word like SPCG—the “**Suffocating Rubber Clown Suit of Negativity**” and describes it in ways which correspond to the SPCG legend.[13]
* A military-scientific or underground project to create a mimetic brain-deteriorating weapon.[14]
* An example of digital folklore ostentation practices
* A hoax, perhaps a misremembered jumpscare virus[15]
* A demon
* It's just a dude with a burger king crown on edited[16]

## Notable Accounts

* *"So when I was in college I had an assignement I had to sit in a court house [...] and watch a trial and take notes. Im sitting in the back because I'm too cool to sit in the front [...] sitting in one of those orange plastic chairs [...] Had my arm up on the chair [...] I saw something out of the corner of my eye, my right eye. And I'm alone in the back row, just me and Im sitting right in the aisle [...] and im Sitting there [..] and I remembe rturning to look, and then the chair maybe two or three chairs down from me was a three foot long cobra [...] It was coiled at the bottom and its head was baout the height of me.  It made this super weird movement, almost like this hyper-animated movemement that I don't think a snake can move in real life. Now obviously there was no real cobra sitting there... I just looked over and saw it and it was such a weird thing and at the time I just thought [...] I was super tired, it was early in the morning I wa sbored, I see something in the corner of my eye and my brain constructs somehting for me to see [...] Now here's another weird thing: it dissapeared [...] it didn't dissapear, it simply ceased to be there. It was really weird at the time [...] it just simply stopped being there."*

- *Jason Carpenter, USA.[17]*

* *"Soon, a mass about the size of a human torso began forming underneath the table. It was a large, translucent blob with no discernable form. C. and I started screaming for M. and A. to come back and they ran into the room. The blob started speaking to me telepathically, telling me that it was going to spiritually possess me and use my body to murder my friends.*
*As it was speaking it began climbing up my body. It inserted three tentacles into my navel and began to enter my body. Where the tentacles touched me, I felt a sensation similar to ice-cold needles being pushed through my skin. I wanted to get up and run away but the creature had me completely paralyzed. A. started screaming at me to run and for M. and C. to do something, but they just stood there, dumbfounded. A. took matters into her own hands and took a flying leap at the creature and tackled it, ripping it out of my body. M. grabbed me under my arms and C. grabbed my legs and carried me to the other bed. During this my body was still completely frozen. They dumped me on the bed and tried to get me to respond but for a few minutes I was unable to move or speak. I have very vague memories of what happened next. All I recall is A. telling me that the creature was gone [...] The shadow people stayed with me for a few months. I saw them constantly, even when I wasn't high. I personally believe that what we saw that night was real. M. disagrees and believes that everything we saw was drug-induced. I am no longer on speaking terms with C. and A. and thus cannot put forth their opinions. I believe that A. and I have some sort of psychic powers and that methamphetamine put us in a highly receptive state. To further complicate this matter is the subject of the photos. We all saw shadow people in those photos when we reviewed them at a later time. Today however, M. claims that there is nothing in those photos and they all have mysteriously 'disappeared' (all photos were on M.'s phone). I think he is in denial and does not want to face what the four of us went through and so disposed of the photos.*"

-'Saint Jimmy', 2004.[18]

* *"So about the solar plexus clown shit.'i’ve had contact with the entity back when i was 18 and did LSD for the first time. at the time i thought it was just some weird trip but after reading [about SPCG] it’s crazy man.'Okay so basically i took around a 100 mg of this blue gelatinous LSD shit at around 2pm on a school night. anyway i was chilling, up until it started getting late. (btw i was completely doing it all wrong — no trip buddy [by myself] , not in anyway respecting the drug, not a spiritual setting, just listening to music in my room and on twitter). I start to become pretty annoyed at this point cause it’s like 1am and i’m a star athlete and star athletes are supposed to have their 8 hours. i close my eyes. a jet stream of visions bombard my third eye. then nothing. void. a buttery orange back drop manifests around where my disembodied spirit now stands. i’m some desert i think. i pan this new surrounding and i see what i immediately know to be a carnival (think “on avery island” cover art) and as i’m panning, standing directly in front of me is this clown. just a clown. maybe a little spooky looking with his ear to ear grin but just a clown. he only stands in front and watches me. nothing happens and the vision fades and i’m back in me, and now it’s 5 and i call out sick. didn’t know what i saw or if it was anything worth even remembering up until recently. some call him the gate keeper and some say he’s actually Loki, a jester in court motley. maybe it’s a fallen angel, an interloper residing in the in-between."*

- Anon, 2020, [19]

> *Jan 15, 2020 - >Be me >Fall asleep >Start dreaming/lucid dreaming >See these words written on a gray wall: >"Solar Plexus Clown Gliders" How fucked am I?*[20]
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