"I am the Lizard King. I can do anything."
Jim Morrison	This summer we will recognize the 30th anniversary of Jim Morrison's mysterious death. Watch for MTV and VH1 specials in July02 and for the talk shows to be featuring living members of The Doors. You had to be there to understand what Morrison was like and how he impacted music and, in some ways, life itself. Not before or since has there been another like him. "This is the end. My only friend. The end."
The Doors blew open the rock-n-roll scene in the mid 60s, when the Beatles and the Stones were on top. The British Invasion, we called it. Morrison, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore and Robby Krieger seized the industry by the throat and forced it back to the USA with a sound so in touch with the dark side of life that it frightened many, especially the adults. Drugs were the thing back then, man. Pot. LSD. And The Doors — especially Morrison — led the way. Morrison's artistry as a poet and Manzarek's musical genius combined to bathe the pop music world in the darkness that accurately reflected the mood of the Vietnam War era in the U.S. "You know the day destroys the night Night divides the day Tried to run Tried to hide Break on through to the other side " So who was this poet who challenged authority, charmed the women and eventually drank himself to death? How does ANSIR® view this icon of rock-n-roll history? Morrison's mutinous mindset began early. His father was a command-level officer in the U.S. Navy, most likely Sentinel and Diligent Styles, and sensitive Jim had great difficulty with the order and discipline his father demanded. Jim was an emotional, intuitive fellow, and our experience suggests a father-son combination like this — especially in the 40s and 50s — would be problematic. Jim withdrew, but he also found a strength to disconnect from his mild manner and strike out. In their biography of Morrison, No One Here Gets Out Alive, Jerry Hopkins and Daniel Sugerman tell of an incident when Morrison, at the age of 12, deliberately endangered the lives of his younger brother and sister in a toboggan run. Jim's father stopped the sled moments before it would have crashed into their cabin. Revenge? Payback? "We was just havin' fun." Morrison wise-cracked to avoid confrontations in school and maintained only isolated friendships, preferring to live in a world of his own making. As an adult, he lived two lives — the outgoing alcoholic and the shy, soft-spoken private Morrison. Close friends say he could be incredibly generous. One story involves a Rolling Stones concert in L.A. and a Doors office worker who worshipped the band but could not obtain tickets. Morrison got him 3rd row center seats. Giving made him feel good. Receiving was another story. On the issue of love, Hopkins and Sugerman conclude, "Like the others, Pam (Courson) loved Jim dearly, and Jim told them all that he loved them. Sometimes he meant it. But most of the time he was simply trying to be loved and accepted as a person rather than a star." Sounds Empath to us, and here's more. This insight comes from Patricia Kennely, a woman Jim married but maintained a distant relationship. "He was forever testing people, forever trying to see how much you were willing to put up with from him, how you were going to react to him. He didn't trust anyone. He never seemed to believe me when I said I loved him...I felt that when I said I loved him I was handing him a weapon to use against me, something to hold over my head." In Ray Manzarek's wonderful book Light My Fire, he offers more insight. "...he knew he would be forgiven any excess. He was just too charming and too damned much fun to be with for us to ever hold a grudge against him for more than a couple of hours. And he knew it. He'd give you that sly grin of his, and you were hooked. You were his...And with your acquiescence came all the more reason for the next outrageous episode." Manzarek loved Jim Morrison and — we think — knew him better than anyone. Manzarek knew him when he permitted himself to be vulnerable. Open. Trusting. Adventurous. Ray disliked the hangers-on who Jim couldn't seem to let go. Always the need for affirmation. Ray knew well the character Jim became when he drank. "Jimbo" he called him. Detached emotionally. Redneck. Loud. Demanding. Unpredictable. When Jimbo wasn't around, Manzarek knew Morrison as one of the most sensitive and creative people on the planet. Destined to play the role of a modern Dionysus, a poet who brought his artistry to the world of rock-n-roll in an attempt to help open The Doors of perception in the minds of listeners. Jim Morrison: Sentinel/Evokateur/Empath. Profile Boss: Empath. Born to teach people to love one another and possessing the natural out-of-the-box creativity (Evokateur) with which to do it. But, trapped by the emotional Achilles' Heel of needing to "feel" loved as he was capable of loving, he lacked the Self-confidence required to believe anybody could actually love him. Despite these two highly intuitive and emotional Styles, Morrison's Sentinel provided the disconnect necessary to permit him to endanger Others. He once incited a riot, for example, "just to see what would happen." Add to this combination a dependence on alcohol (and its false shield of Self-confidence), and you have the whole of Jim Morrison. "When the music's over, turn out the light." Jim Morrison was 27 years old when the lights went out. For more on Jim Morrison and the doors, including music, ANSIR® recommends the band's official Web site, http://www.thedoors.com.

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