**A walk through La Cimetière du Pere Lachaise (Père Lachaise Cemetery) in Paris, France and a visit to rock legend Jim Morrison’s gravesite. Fans of The Doors crowd the gates for a chance to feel the now otherworldly presence of the Lizard King. **
I knew at a very young age that one day, whenever I could finally visit Paris, I would go to see the gravesite of Jim Morrison. La Cimetière du Pere Lachaise is not only magical because Jim lies there, it is also the final reseting place of hundreds of famous artists, writers, and musicians including Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, and Frédéric Chopin.
The cemetery offers a très cool interactive map on their website.
Now I will tell you 10 freaky things you maybe didn’t know about Jim Morrison. We’ll start with the LEAST freaky.
Ten Freaky/ Hot Things About Jim Morrison
10. James Douglas Morrison was the son of a United States Navy rear admiral and naval aviator. Hot!
9. Jim Morrison rocked the original hipster beard, but then it was just a hippie beard. Again, hot.
8. Jim Morrison really looks like Caleb Followill- Kings of Leon vocalist- but only in this one picture. Freaky, and hot.
7. Jim Morrison was an amazing poet and when his beautiful voice read his poetry it drove people mad. Listen to it in my video.
(ok freaky time)
6. Although she was not even his main girlfriend, Jim was ‘married’ to Patricia Kennealy in a Wiccan hand-fasting ceremony. She now claims his last name and that she is still his wife. I would too.
5. In 1947, as the young Jim Morrison’s family passed the scene of a car accident in the desert one night, Jim believes he absorbed the soul of a terrified bleeding Indian (or two) on the highway. He was aware of this and shared the story freely from the time he was a child through his later years and into his music with The Doors. He called it his most formative experience in life.
4. Some say the Indian soul Jim absorbed was that of a Shaman, or clan’s spiritual leader. This explains Jim’s Shaman dances and ritual style performances during his shows. Jim’s knowledge of himself as a Shaman, his studies in shamanism, and his journeys into altered states of reality in order to unite and heal the crowd resulted in the most dramatic onstage performances ever witnessed.
3. Jim Morrison was obsessed with ancient Greek mythology and Friedrich Nietzsche’s writings. He identified himself strongly with Dionysos- the god of ritual madness and ecstasy.
2. While many say he was simply on drugs, Jim claimed he could eventually reach altered states of reality without the help of LSD. In fact, the band name The Doors is from a book title called The Doors of Perception– referring to altered states of perception.
1. Stemming from an understanding that what The Doors were doing was more than just music, it was religion, a First Church of the Doors established briefly. People worshipped Jim Morrison as a divine being, shaman, and incarnation of Greek god Dionysos.
And there you have it!
