Unused still taken from the Psychic City (Voodoo City) video by Judah Switzer.

Two years ago, while traveling through the West Texas desert on tour, we experienced firsthand a paranormal phenomenon called the Marfa "Mystery Lights." This experience was a catalyst, and we soon moved to Marfa, Texas, to work and develop our already-acute interest in religion, ritual, and mystery.

As a result of this research, the "Psychic City" video depicts us performing religious rituals from all eras of human spirituality. Some will be familiar to viewers — the eucharist, for example — while others may remain obscure. Those who think that this video is an old-fashioned love story between Good and Evil are only partially correct: we protest the stigma of "occultism" and see the Left and Right-Hand paths as being simply two roads through the same woods.

The ceremonies seen in the video are done in honor of the Mystery Lights themselves and their continuing influence on our creative output. Now that this video has been released to the world, we can all be witnesses to whether or not such rituals do, in fact, work, and what they can mean to us.

The "Psychic City" video was directed by Judah Switzer, who worked with YACHT previously on the video for "Summer Song." It was filmed, partially, in the desert near Mosier, Oregon, on a RED One Digital Cinema camera. When Judah first presented us with the concept for "Psychic City," he couldn't remember if it was dream or reality; much as every change in doctrine in the Mormon Church comes from direct revelation, which takes precedence over learned consideration of the status-quo, Judah embraced a revelation and made it the word. He traversed the bridge from the unreal to the real.

A full bibliography, as well as an annotated list of references and rituals, is available to any interested parties. The YACHT "Catalogue of Inspirations 2007-2009," and The Secret Teachings of the Mystery Lights: A Guide to Overcoming Humanity and Becoming Your Own God, both supplementary materials to this video, will be available to purchase online and at official YACHT events in the near future.

We wish to emphasize that this film in no way suggests an affiliation with any religious organization, nor does it aim to rebuke them. The title card — which states that we do not endorse practice of the occult — is something of a false truth, in homage to the late Michael Jackson. We encourage education in all matters, and the choice of one's own path. We should never be afraid to read and think about those things which the mainstream establishment might label outré; there is value in all ideas.

For us, there is profound value in symbolism, too, and we used it heavily in the "Psychic City" video. Mythology is full of stories, rituals, battles, and romances, which serve as placeholders for the great philosophies of the ancient world. We must use this symbolic language in order to keep it alive. In the words of Manly P. Hall, "symbolism is the language of the Mysteries; in fact it is the language not only of mysticism and philosophy but of all of Nature...every form existing in the diversified sphere of being is symbolic of the divine activity by which it is produced."

Invaluable assistance was provided by the genius Ryann Bosetti, who styled and dressed us, Guy Wagner, our cinematographer, Bernadette Spear, our producer, Jordan Karr-Morse for gaffing, Emily Baker of Sword+Fern for the jewelry, Brian Lichtenberg for lending us clothes, Sarah Meadows for the still photography, and Nile Hagen for everything else.

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