Welcome to the sci-fi fantasy electronic and alternative opera... For your information, Shhhh! Digital Media is in no way associated with the Salvation Army or any other religious or ideological organization. I myself have no association with them as well. There are people trying to sell you a much different picture of who I actually am than is the truth. I do not live or work in a homeless shelter with all due respect, nor do I live or work in a prison. I am an advocate for charities represented here on Shhhh! Digital Media, but I am not a volunteer.

Terms And Conditions

By using this content, you agree to the Terms Of Use disclaimer and our Views Expressed disclaimer.

Tuesday, February 10, 2026

Let's Get Some Facts Straight Here...

Hi. I'm Brian Joseph Johns.


I'm not a guitar player and have never owned a guitar.


The only instrument I've ever really played and studied are keyboards, piano and MIDI, and I have a pretty extensive background in music theory, though I'm a horrible sight reader and horribly out of practice, but I can still play, and I can still write music, amongst other skills I possess.


I do NOT have hepatitis and never have had it or any other STD in my life.


I am not Jamaican. I am European Canadian, and I have no African or Caribbean heritage at all, but I'd have to ask then, why is there a problem that I don't?


Nobody, and I mean nobody is controlling me except me, and I'm not anyone but myself, Brian Joseph Johns.


I am not Scottish. I am not Irish. I am not South American. No disrespect meant by those statements.


I am not a member of any ideology or cult that swaps identities between people and never have been, though that's not a criticism of any books or movie plots where that sort of thing happens, because its a common vehicle in writing. Crossed Swords (a book my Mark Twain) examines this theme, as much so as Freaky Friday does, though in Freaky Friday, I believe that the protagonists literally swap minds, whereas in Crossed Swords, the protagonists are two different people who look remarkably similar and who are on the opposite extremes of wealth and poverty. Same with the Count of Monte Cristo and The Man in the Iron Mask, both by Alexander Dumas, though the latter two were more stories of revenge and/or redemption.


Regardless, I am not a member of any ideology that would swap two people's identities, and I am not possessed by the disembodied mind or soul of another person that has subjugated my own mind or soul to the back seat, while it drives my body around like a hijacked car.


I am aware of the fact that I've written stories and books along this line in terms of plot (Era of the Spellbound has large elements along these lines), but because I write things of that nature, doesn't necessarily mean that I believe that they occur in real life.


I believe that symptomatically, there are things that can occur with the human body that could potentially make it seem like something of that nature is occurring, but the people who interpreted it that way would in all likelihood be misinterpreting the actual phenomenon itself, and formulating a very different hypothesis of what was actually going on under the hood in terms of science or magic.


I do believe that there are people who actually attempt to do such things to other people, but I believe that their efforts are confined mostly to successfully fooling people into believing something on that order is occurring rather than it actually occurring. In most cases, its very easy to fool people for whom there is something to be gained by believing it versus the one being duped, and this is certainly the case where intellectual or creative property theft is concerned. There are cults and collectives who actually turn it into a social form of entertainment attempting to steal creative and intellectual property from others, and quite often those who do (who almost always operate in large groups collectively) leave a trail of destruction in their path, and there are few people who'd dare cross them.


There are also cults and collectives who swap the histories of two people, often without their knowing or being aware, as a means to dispose of the garbage of one upon the other, with the other only finding out when people attempt to hold that person to account for whatever history or actions such swapping might entail.


Some groups that do this, turn it into a sort of snare, i.e. like a trap, that binds their victim the more they struggle to get free of it, benefiting from the manic reactions their victim has against their newly inherited history, with some people even regarding it as a form of alchemy attempting to effectively craft such a swapping of histories and the associated character traits and behaviours to make it all seem consistent, but the one thing that all such attempts rely upon is everyone who knows the truth of the matter, either going with the truth, or going with the lie, and unfortunately, it seems that in this day and age, that a group of people will go with what benefits them the most, rather than what is factually the truth, meaning that history can be altered if there is a profit to be made by those upon whose recollection the alteration depends.


If a cult decided to pit a community against a person, in order to steal that person's creative efforts, they'd only have to create a scheme where everyone who went along with the idea earned a reward of some form for going along with it, such as getting the credit for that person's efforts, instead of them. That person does something that gets attention of people, and instead of that person benefitting for their effort, the people around them benefit, perhaps landing job opportunities or some kind of financial reward, while the person whose actual effort yielded the output gets nothing but having everything taken from them. Everyone who remembers things the way that benefits the group rather than the individual whose effort was stolen, benefits, while the one whose efforts were stolen doesn't.


I suppose that eventually that person would just give up, which would then prove to be a fatal flaw, as those who benefited would no longer benefit from that person's effort.


If its so important to be sure that I don't get the credit for my own effort, then what is there to keep me going? Nothing in most cases. I'd just find something else to do that requires a completely different set of skills that those people don't have, that could yield a potential future for my efforts and if the same thing happened again, then I'd have two examples from which to pursue legal recourse, because the more people the become involved in a lie, the harder it is the keep that lie in place.


Sure, the kinds of scammers that would operate something of that nature might use some kind of barter system as a means of rewards and payment, but even that would eventually get found out. The audit trail would be a bit more difficult to uncover, but not impossible.


So here I am just trying to build my brand, and generally doing my best to be inspiring to others, and then a nasty group of people attempt to steal all of my work from me and give it to the credit of people who have nothing to do with it. In fact, that nasty group it turns out have been planning such a thing all along and the people that you trusted have actually been going along with a scam and rewriting the factual history with a false one.


As I stated, as it stands currently, I'm up in the air as to whether to continue or not as a result, meaning that all of the stories are at a stand still as of now, and until I decide what to do about the situation, though it is heart breaking that a bunch of people that read and benefited from my writing would conspire to steal it from me and attribute it to the effort of people who actually have nothing to do with its creation whatsoever.


So, I'll try to be back in about a week to continue working on Grand Tapestry 03, and then from there Era and then Butterfly, unless there's another incident in which case I'll delay it further. I've got lots of other work to do, that combine the skills of writing, programming, physics, artwork and musical composition as well. I'll put my mind to that for the rest of the week. Sorry if anyone was looking forward to as much as I was about Elsa's story in Grand Tapestry. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.


See you soon... oh and I'm not Trent. My name isn't Terence. I'm not Andrew, and I don't play guitar, and I'm 6 feet tall and weigh 175 lbs and am pretty fit for my age of being a 58 year old man. My time training in Goju Jujitsu Ryu, and Aikido is still with me, despite my lack of maintenance and upkeep, enough so that I'll be able to write Butterfly again when I get back to it, with some inspiration from some Wing Chun practitioners who've been serving as skill and style references.


Be back soon :-)

This content is entirely produced in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at 200 Sherbourne Street Suite 701 under the Shhhh! Digital Media banner.

at