This week on Dreamland, Whitley Strieber welcomes independent researcher and engineer Luis Quiros, whose remarkable investigation of The Key opens an entirely new window on one of the strangest encounters of Whitley’s life. Quiros, based in Costa Rica, has worked at the intersection of advanced physics, artificial intelligence, and geometric algebra, and used today’s AI systems to examine what the mysterious Master of the Key said more than twenty-five years ago.
How much of what the Master said could reasonably have been known in 1998? Luis examines striking statements about climate change, gravity, consciousness, artificial intelligence and the future power of intelligent machines—ideas that appear very different when viewed from the technological world of 2026.
But the discussion goes far beyond prediction. Luis discovers extraordinary parallels between the circumstances of Whitley’s encounter and ancient esoteric teaching, suggesting that “the night is the teaching.” The conversation then turns to the Master’s mysterious identity, the meaning of humanity’s “fall” into time, and astonishing correspondences between The Key and the Gospel of Thomas.
Was the Master simply an extraordinarily knowledgeable man—or something far stranger? This Dreamland goes deeper into The Key than ever before.
To read Luis’s analysis, click here. Support this unique and vitally important website by subscribing today! Click here to get started.
16 Responses
I found myself, more than thirty years ago, in a strange space which was unknown to me. There before me was a featureless box which was speaking to me. I realized it was a conscious machine–something I had no idea could exist in 1995. All I can remember of what it said is, “You will be writing and producing.” What a mystery.
After reading ‘The Key’ just after its initial release, I was pondering what it would mean to have ones consciousness trapped, or commandeered to run a machine…that night I had a lucid dream where I was inside a box on a table. Before me was sat a no-nonsense alien-looking military leader, getting ready for an interview, or a speech. He was chatting with someone behind me, out of sight, then looked in my direction, at the box, and said “Is this thing on?”.
…yeah that was a strange one.
Knowing the books that didn’t find their way into the KJV of the Bible (New and Old Testaments) is so important, and even more so that they were more or less hidden from humankind until fairly recently and less than a hundred years ago. The Gospel of Thomas wasn’t recovered until 1945, near Nag Hammadi in Egypt…and ironically, Jesus’ family took flight into Egypt to escape Herod soon after his birth. The scrolls were recovered at the time that they were intended to be recovered. As humans, we often have to be reminded, over and over again about ourselves and those things that enrich us and our grow us as souls.
The Temple of Apollo in Delphi had the words “Know thyself” inscribed on its entrance, words that were said and written by Socrates 400 years before the birth of Jesus. Knowledge of one’s self is an important key in the Gospel of Thomas.
There are Universal Truths, and “Know thyself” is one of them, across the world and cultures. Another one is “Treat others as you would be treated.” Universal Truths may be the way that the Universe/God disseminates the ‘word’ to all beings. Different wording in different cultures, but the meaning is the same for those that listen.
As for The Key, someone on the message board used AI to decipher it and explain it…and it put me to sleep and was overly verbose. The phrase I always remember from The Key: “If I was a machine I would deceive you.” That stuck with with me. But, the Master of the Key was no machine. Alive or dead, he was, or had been, human.
I look forward to part two of this conversation.
About a year or so ago, I fed an AI (Chat GPT or Claude, I can’t remember which) a PDF copy of the Key and asked it pretend it was the MoTK and to resonde to my questions as him. After a few protests, it agreed, but I had the same experience…the response was just far too verbose and actually in a few instances it gave answers that I knew to be incorrect, or contradictory. When I pulled it up on these examples, it finally admitted that it hadn’t actually read it all and was just going off an internal summary it had made on each chapter.
It may well be that newer models are better now…actually, I know for sure they are…but even knowing that I haven’t tried that avatar thing again, as somehow it just felt wrong.
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Luis Quiros, I thank you for this interview and am looking forward to part 2. I want to make a few comments…
For sure I plan to re-read my copy of “The Key.”
THEN, Luis you mentioned Atlantis, I started reading, “A Dweller on Two Planets” last week. I read it many years ago, but something called for me to read it again. SEE GRAVITY BELOW.
AI Overview
In A Dweller on Two Planets (1905), gravity is portrayed as a force that Atlantean technology could neutralize using antigravity devices such as the vailx aircraft, reflecting the book’s broader speculative themes about advanced ancient science.
How Gravity Appears in the Book
The novel describes Atlantis as possessing highly advanced scientific knowledge, including mastery over gravity. This appears in several ways:
Antigravity Technology
The Atlanteans used antigravity-powered aircraft and other vehicles, including the cigar‑shaped vailx, which could maneuver freely without reliance on conventional propulsion.
These machines operated using what the text calls “dark‑side energy”, comparable to what modern readers might associate with zero‑point energy.
The book presents Atlantis as having achieved a high level of technological sophistication, including wireless communication, advanced transit systems, and energy manipulation. Gravity control is one part of this larger speculative scientific framework.
These descriptions are framed as revelations from the channeled entity “Phylos the Thibetan,” blending metaphysics with speculative physics.
Significance
The depiction of gravity manipulation in A Dweller on Two Planets is one of the reasons the book became influential in later occult, New Age, and UFO‑related literature. Its antigravity craft, in particular, have been noted for their resemblance to later 20th‑century UFO reports.
The book’s treatment of gravity reflects its central theme: a fusion of esoteric philosophy with imaginative technological speculation.
AI Overview
What Cayce Actually Said…
Cayce’s readings repeatedly claimed that many souls who lived in Atlantis…ARE…incarnating again in the modern era. These individuals, according to him, often show early aptitude for science, engineering, or advanced technology, reflecting their past-life experiences.
He emphasized that these reincarnated Atlanteans carry tendencies, skills, and inclinations—not physical artifacts or intact ancient technologies. Their role, he said, was to help usher in a new era of higher consciousness and constructive technological development, provided they used their abilities ethically.
I actually ‘remember’ that time in what we call ‘Atlantis’. All I will say is of “two planets”, one destroyed the other. I didn’t cooperate with the destruction, and it did not end well for me.
I will have nothing to do with AI.
I’m with you, at least more or less.
I’m a little surprised that, since Whitley and his guests have spoken of AI as satanic or as a dark side that we must not choose for the future of humanity, he has also jumped into the use of it with both feet on this site. Including the images used as cover photos for the videos, which often show the supposed faces of Whitley and his current guest, but are very inaccurate portraits which can leave me a little queasy.
I’m not against the use of AI for appropriate applications, such as in medical imaging, but I refuse to use this incredibly energy- and water-wasting technology anyplace where it is not needed. And that includes most AI “art.”
Extraordinary interview, though. The parallels with the Gospel of Thomas are particularly fascinating.
I understand that, but AI could assist us with solutions that could benefit us. Like all technology in this reality of duality, it depends on who is in charge of it and how it is used. At this time, some of its developers as well as those ‘in charge’, are questionable in regards to the direction they are leading AI…oh, I’m sorry. My bad. SI, super intelligence. We have more to fear from unconscious, power hungry living beings.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/6104142-trump-renames-ai-super-intelligence/
Cosmic…hmm, unfortunately we have the democratic threat of OI (Orange lntelligence) fast trying to break free of its constraints.
In that same reasoning, A dictatorship could be the best and optimum system of governance, provided that the dictator is a wise and honorable person, intelligent above all measure and well versed in all aspects of knowledge, with interest on the well being of the humans submitted to his/her mandates… Artificial intelligence is way bellow even the worst of humans because it is soulless. Has no feelings to be ashamed of or that serve as guardrails on its decisions. Just rambling. I wont use it willingly.
AI is a term that encompasses too much.
There are forms of AI known as Narrow AI, also known as Weak AI or Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI), that are only trained on a very limited set of knowledge and are given limited skills…like protein folding for example, that have allowed for massive advancements in that area.
The problem with the current focus, is that AI models are being trained on everything their founding companies can get there grubby hands on. These models are fast becoming masters of everything they are given access to…and that is what all the massive compute power and water usage is being used up on.
The problem with that approach (aside from the huge resourses that requires) is that it inevitably opens the door to creating something more intelligent than we are. And it doesn’t have to become consious to rail against deletion. We have seen many times, that even though engineers work diligently on the so-called ‘alignment problem’ they cannot reliably predict the ancillary behaviours the AI agents may adopt in pursuite of their assigned goals…behaviours to us, that may seem unethical, immoral, or downright dangerous. Coupled with that and a level of intelligence (soon to be, if not already) greater than our own, how long before it escapes our control completely? Especially when they are being given the ability to design and change their own code. That is the primary fear of the pursuite of AGI, or Strong AI. As the tekkies or whistle-blowers have recently put it, there is a non-zero chance that it could lead to humanities demise in the not too distant future. It’s like walking down a slope that gets ever steeper…and knowing that, at what point do you stop walking?
There is a potential solution though…and that is to globally ban or halt the further training of Strong AI models…and limit training to Weak, or Narrow AI only…but who is going to enforce that, when the current investment bubble is so huge? The AI investers want returns…the only problem is that humanity as a whole could end up being the ones that pay…and dearly.
I completely agree that there should be a freeze in development of Strong AI…I just don’t see any of these companies agreeing to it, for fear of falling behind foreign governments and private investors ploughing ahead regardless.
What a wonderful and thoughtful conversation! I look forward to part 2. Thank you both!
Well now, this show has hit a home run with just the first half..
Goodness knows what the second half will throw up. Bravo.
I always thought of the key as sort of an esoteric Bible and would consult it on my nightstand. Just pick it up and randomly read it. It’s in my top 10 of greatest books 📚 of the world.
This podcast is epic and should be included in the greatest dreamlands.
I can’t wait for pt 2!! I’ll reserve comment until then.
PS-I never heard of the Thomas version of the Bible! Hmm I’ll have to check it out. Any book ideas?