The Gods of Eden
by William Bramley
29
The World Afire
ONE SIGNIFICANT BY-PRODUCT of the American Revolution
was a philosophical reshaping of how people viewed revolution. When Benjamin Franklin was in France to win French
military support for the American cause, he engaged in an
intensive public relations campaign. He vigorously promulgated the idea of "virtuous revolution"—a concept which
had already found increasing favor in the Masonic lodges.
The public at that time tended to view violent revolution as
a crime against society. Franklin was successful in changing
this perception by encouraging people to accept violent revolutions as steps in the progress of mankind. Revolutionaries
were no longer to be frowned upon as criminals, he argued,
because they were idealists righting for freedom and justice.
A new motto was coined: "Revolution against tyranny is the
most sacred of duties."1
These bold ideas electrified Paris
and helped to win open French support for the American
cause, but at a terrible long-term cost to human society.
The ideas expressed by Franklin have helped to stimulate
endless bloody revolutions ever since.
The American Revolution was followed by many other
revolutions and/or the establishment of republican-style governments throughout the western world and South America.
The success of the American Revolution had made it easy
to rally people to fight. We witness during this era the
French Revolution, the creation of the Batavian Republic
in the Netherlands (1795-1806), the Helvetic Republic in
Switzerland (1798-1805), the Cisalpine Republic in northern Italy (1797-1805), the Ligurian Republic in Genoa
(1797-1805), and the Parthenopean Republic in southern
Italy. Between 1810 and 1824, the Spanish colonies in
South America took up arms and won their political
independence. In 1825, the Decembrist revolt broke out
in Russia. A second revolution erupted in France in 1830.
In that same year, a revolt in Holland brought about the
sovereignty of Belgium. A Polish revolution in 1830 and
1831 was successfully stamped out by Russia. In 1848, a
major wave of revolutionary activity swept Europe spurred
by an international collapse of credit caused in good part
by the new inflatable paper money system, bad harvests,
and a cholera epidemic.
In nearly all of those revolutions, we continue to see
important revolutionary leadership positions held by Freemasons. During the first French Revolution, a key rebel
leader was the Duke of Orleans, who was the Grand
Master of French Masonry before his resignation at the
height of the Revolution. Marquis de Lafayette, the
man who had been initiated into the Masonic fraternity
by George Washington, also played an important role
in the French revolutionary cause. The Jacobin Club,
which was the radical nucleus of the French revolutionary movement, was founded by prominent Freemasons.
According to Sven Lunden's article, "The Annihilation of
Freemasonry":
Herbert, Andre Chenier, Camille Desmoulins and
many other "Girondins" [moderate French republicans
supporting republican government over monarchy] of
the French Revolution were Freemasons.2
Freemasons were the primary leaders of the 1825 Decembrist revolt in Russia. Some of the planning for that revolt
took place within their lodges.
In South America, according to Richard DeHaan, writing
in Collier's Encyclopedia:
The order [Freemasonry] played an important role in
the spread of liberalism and the organization of political
revolution in Latin America. Like French Freemasonry,
the Latin American movement was also generally anticlerical. In Mexico and Colombia, Masons helped win
independence from Spain, while in Brazil they worked
against Portuguese domination.3
Mr. Lunden agrees:
In Latin America, too, the process of liberation from
the Spanish yoke was the work of Freemasons, in
large measure. Simon Bolivar was one of the most
active of Masonry's sons, and so were San Martin,
Mitre, Alvear, Sarmiento, Benito Juarez—all hallowed
names to Latin Americans.4
Regarding other revolutions, Mr. Lunden adds:
Many of the leaders in the great year 1848, which
saw so many uprisings against feudal rule in Europe,
were members of the Order; among them was the
great Hungarian hero of democracy, Louis Kossuth,
who found a temporary refuge in America.5
The 1800's also witnessed the wars of Italian unification led by Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882), who was a
thirty-third degree Mason and the Grand Master of Italy.
The victorious Garibaldi placed Victor Emmanuel, another
Freemason, on the throne. [all toward the tyranny of a state eventually dc]
The Italian wars of unification left two important legacies: a united Italy and the modern Mafia. The Mafia was
a loosely-knit secret society founded in Sicily in the mid
1700's. At first, the Mafia was a resistance movement formed to oppose the foreign rulers who controlled Sicily
at the time. The early Mafiosi were popular heroes who
specialized in criminal acts against the hated foreigners.
The Mafia built an underground government in Sicily and
held power by extortion. The Mafia assisted Garibaldi when
he invaded Sicily in 1860 and declared himself dictator of
the island. After the foreign rulers were ousted and Italy was
unified, the Mafia became the violent criminal network we
know today.
Freemasonry was clearly an important catalyst in the
creation of modern Western-style government. The vast
majority of Freemasons who participated in the revolutions
were well-intended. The representative form of government
they helped to create was certainly an improvement over
some of the governments they replaced.* Regrettably, the
lofty ideals of those Freemasons were in the process of
a speedy betrayal by sources within the Brotherhood network itself.
*This is not to say that monarchy is always bad. History has seen a few benevolent monarchs who ruled well, who could act for peace, and who were popular with their people. Hereditary or life-term leadership has the advantage of stability. It can work if the monarch is accountable for his or her actions and' can be removed for chronic incompetence or abuse of power. Monarchies have rarely functioned well on Earth because monarchs have usually ruled by so-called "divine right" and have therefore not been accountable to the people they governed.
One consequence of the French Revolution was a severe
disruption of the French economy. Food production had
dropped severely and the new regime was in deep political
trouble because the majority of Frenchmen were still loyal
to the monarchy. Under this cloud, the revolutionary government decided to solve the problems of political opposition,
hunger and distribution of wealth by reducing the human
population of France. Rather than increase food production
to meet the demand, it was decided to reduce the demand to
match the lessened amount of food. Throughout the French
nation, a program of mass murder was launched as an official program of the revolutionary council. This program was known as the Reign of Terror. People were put to death by
all means available, including guillotine, mass drowning,
bludgeoning, shooting, and starvation. Although not as
many people were murdered as the council had planned,
it has been estimated that over 100,000 people died. [how silly that number sounds Reign of Terror & a hundred thousand dead, something lost somewhere in the translation dc]
We have noted that genocides are committed by grouping
people into superficial categories usually based upon race,
religious belief, or nationality. The victims are then targeted
for slaughter even though they may be guilty of no crimes
against their murderers. The French revolutionaries took the
process to an extreme. During the Reign of Terror, people
were grouped simply according to their economic and vocational standing. Those who fell into the wrong categories
were deemed members of an undesirable social class and
were killed. This was certainly as superficial a distinction
as one can make, yet grouping people in this fashion has
been extremely successful in factionalizing human beings. [in a covid 19 ? vaxxed, unvaxxed way? dc]
The French Revolution dragged nearly all of the major
powers of Europe into a war. Initially benefiting from this
was William IX, the prince who had inherited the immense
Hesse-Kassel fortune. William IX rented out, at a handsome
fee, 8,000 soldiers to England to fight against the French
during the first half of the 1790's. When Napoleon Bonaparte
later became emperor of France, William IX seemed to
gain even more. After Napoleon's troops occupied German
regions west of the Rhine River, including some Hessian
properties, Napoleon compensated William IX by awarding
him a large section of Mainz and by conferring upon William
the title of Elector—a status higher than prince. The cordiality between Napoleon and Elector William did not last very
long, however. William IX tried to play the old trick of
courting both sides of the conflict in order to make a fortune
by renting soldiers. William foolishly leased mercenaries to
the Prussian king for a quarter of a million Pounds to fight
Napoleon and then tried to claim "neutrality." True to the
warning of Machiavelli, this double-dealing finally caught
up and backfired on the House of Hesse. Hesse-Kassel was
soon annexed and made part of Napoleon's "Kingdom of
Westphalia." It was not until after Napoleon's defeat at
the Battle of Leipzig in 1813 that William IX was able to regain Hesse-Kassel. Hesse-Kassel remained under the
control of his dynasty until 1866, when it was taken over
by Prussia. Although the Hessian royal family has remained
influential in German society until well into the twentieth
century, it never regained exclusive rule over its territory.
Hesse merged into what has become modern Germany—
a country that was unified in large part by the Prussian
Hohenzollern dynasty.
Despite the reversals suffered by Hesse-Kassel, the
upheavals in France proved to be a boon for one of
William IX's financial agents: Mayer Amschel Rothschild
(1743-1812), founder of one of the most influential banking
houses of Europe.
Mayer Amschel was an ambitious and hard-working
merchant who began his career in the Jewish ghetto of
Frankfurt-am-Main in Hesse. In 1765, two decades before
the French Revolution, Rothschild managed to gain a hardwon audience with Prince William IX, who was still at
that time living in Hesse-Hanau. Mayer Amschel strove
to ingratiate himself with the Hessian prince by selling
antique coins to William at extremely low prices. William,
who always had an eye open to increasing his material fortunes in any way possible, was delighted to take advantage of
Rothschild's generous bargains. As a reward, William
granted Rothschild's request to be appointed a "Crown
Agent to the Prince of Hesse-Hanau." This appointment,
made in 1769, was more honorary than substantial, but it
gave Mayer Amschel a big boost in his community standing
and aided his efforts to create a successful banking house.
During the twenty years following his appointment, Mayer
Amschel continued to keep in close contact with Prince
William IX. Rothschild's goal was to become one of the
Prince's personal financial agents. Rothschild's perseverance finally paid off. In 1789, the year in which the French
Revolution began and four years after William IX inherited
the wealth of Hesse-Kassel, Mayer was given his first financial assignment on behalf of Prince William. This, in turn,
led to the coveted position as a personal financial agent to
the Prince.
Rothschild made a fortune from various activities while
serving under William IX. The French Revolution and
the wars it triggered created many shortages throughout
Hesse. Rothschild capitalized on this situation by Sharply
raising the prices of the cloth he was importing from
England. Rothschild also struck a deal with another of
William IX's chief financial agents, Carl Buderus. The
deal enabled Rothschild to share in the profits from the
leasing of Hessian mercenaries to England. Virginia Cowles,
writing in her excellent book, The Rothschilds, A Family of
Fortune, described the arrangement:
At this point Mayer made a proposition to the enterprising Carl Buderus. England was paying the Landgrave [ William IX] large sums of money for the hire of
Hessian soldiers; and the Rothschilds were paying
England large sums of money for the goods they were
importing. Why not let the two-way movement cancel
itself out, and pocket the commissions both ways on
the bills of exchange? Buderus agreed, and soon this
extra string to the Rothschild bow was producing an
impressive revenue.6
Out of those beginnings rose the House of Rothschild,
named after the red shield ("roth" [red] and "schild" [shield])
used as its emblem. The Rothschild family soon became synonymous with wealth, power, and banking. For generations,
the Rothschild house was Europe's most powerful banking
family and it remains influential in the international banking
community today. Sharing the Rothschild house in Frankfurt
during its early days was the Schiff family. The Schiff's also
became a major banking family and they have done business
with the Rothschilds all the way up until our own time.
Control of the Rothschild house, as well as many other
banking houses, passed from father to son(s) over the
generations. The Rothschilds, Schiffs, and other banking
families were truly part of a hereditary "paper aristocracy"
to which Brotherhood revolutionaries had given a great deal
of power when they established the inflatable paper money
system and its attendant central banks.
Many historians writing about the Rothschild family focus
on the fact that Mayer Amschel was Jewish. The Rothschilds
have been important supporters of Jewish causes throughout
the family's history. Less frequently mentioned is the fact
that the Rothschilds were also associated with German
Freemasonry. This association apparently began with Mayer
Amschel, who accompanied William IX on several trips to
the Masonic lodges. Whether or not Mayer actually became
a member is uncertain. It is known that his son, Solomon
(founder of the Rothschild bank in Vienna), had become a
Freemason. According to Jacob Katz, writing in his book,
Jews and Freemasons in Europe, 1723-1939, the
Rothschilds were one of the rich and powerful Frankfurt
families appearing on a Masonic membership list in 1811.
The Scottish degrees used in the German lodges were
Christian in nature. This created problems for Jewish men
like Rothschild who may have wanted to participate. To
solve the dilemma, efforts were made in Jewish communities to change certain rituals in order to make
Freemasonry acceptable to Jews. Special Jewish lodges
were created, such as the "Melchizedek" lodges named in
honor of the Old Testament priest-king whose importance
we discussed in an earlier chapter. Those who belonged to
the Melchizedek lodges were said to be members of the
"Order of Melchizedek." This was an extremely interesting
development, for across the Atlantic Ocean the name of
Melchizedek was about to be resurrected on the American
continent during what some people believe to have been a
series of significant UFO episodes. Those episodes gave the
world a new religion: the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints, better known as the Mormon Church.
30
Master Smith
and the Angel
WE HAVE SEEN many instances in which religious agitation
and revivalism were associated with the UFO phenomenon:
the Hebrew rebellions in Egypt under Moses, the Christian agitations under Jesus, the Islamic militancy under
Mohammed, and the religious activism during the UFO plagued years of the Black Death.
In the early 20th century, a particularly interesting bout
of intense religious fever overtook some communities in
British Wales. This incident is known as the Welsh Revival
of 1904-1905, in which a preacher driven by "inner voices"
electrified the countryside with his sermons. People were
reporting all manner of unusual phenomena during the
Revival years, including bright moving lights in the sky
that we would today label UFOs. For example, we read the following personal eyewitness accounts gathered by the
Society for Psychical Research (SPR) and published in its
Proceedings of 1905:*
*"For the SPR's complete report on the Welsh Revival, please see "Psychological Aspects of the Welsh Revival" by A. T. Fryer, which was published in the Society for Psychological Research, Proceedings, 19:80, 1905. A copy of the complete article may be ordered from The Sourcebook Project. (Please see Bibliography for address.)
First of all my attention was drawn to it by a person in
the crowd, and I looked and saw a block of fire as it was
rising from the mountain side, and it followed along
the mountain side for about 200 to 300 yards, before it
gradually rose to heaven. Then a star, as it were, shot
out to meet it, and they clapped together and formed a
ball of fire. It also grew brighter as it rose higher, and
then it seemed to sway about a lot; then it seemed to
form into something like the helm of a ship. The size
of it at this time would be about the size of the moon,
but very much brighter, and lasted about a quarter of
an hour.1
. . . the star appeared, like a ball of fire in the sky,
glittering and sparkling, and as it went up it seemed
to be bubbling over. This continued for about 20
minutes . . .2
Firstly, there appeared in the heavens a very large and
bright ball of fire. It was of a much more brilliant
lustre than an ordinary star—very much the colour
of a piece of iron white-heated. It had two brilliant
arms which protruded towards the earth. Between
these arms there appeared a further light or lights
resembling a cluster of stars, which seemed to be
quivering with varying brightness ___ It lasted for ten
minutes or more.3
It is interesting that in some regions of Wales, the lights
arrived at the very same time as the Revival. The Proceedings report:
In reply to questions about his experiences, Mr. M.
stated that he had never seen such lights before the
Revival, nor before he had heard of others seeing
them. . . . They [the lights] were seen "high up in the
sky, where no houses or anything else could lead us
to make any mistake" (i.e. to mistake ordinary lights
for them); they were seen both on very dark nights
and also when the moon and stars were visible.4
The lights were seen at least once near a chapel, and also
leaving an area where a prominent preacher lived, thereby
hinting at a direct UFO involvement with some of those
people who were responsible for the Revival:
We happened to reach Llanfair about 9:15 P.M. It was
a rather dark and damp evening. In nearing the chapel,
which can be seen from a distance, we saw balls of
light, deep red, ascending from one side of the chapel,
the side which is in a field. There was nothing in this
field to cause this phenomenon—i.e. no houses, etc.
After that we walked to and fro on the main road for
nearly two hours without seeing any light except from
a distance in the direction of Llanbedr. This time it
appeared brilliant, ascending high into the sky from
amongst the trees where lives the well-known Rev.
C. E. The distance between us and the light which
appeared this time was about a mile. Then about eleven
o'clock, when the service which Mrs. Jones conducted
was brought to a close, two balls of light ascended
from the same place and of similar appearance to
those we saw first. In a few minutes afterwards Mrs.
Jones was passing us home in her carriage, and in a
few seconds after she passed, on the main road, and
within a yard of us, there appeared a brilliant light
twice, tinged with blue. In two or three seconds after
this disappeared, on our right hand, within 150 or 200
yards, there appeared twice very huge balls of similar
appearance as that which appeared on the road. It was
so brilliant and powerful this time that we were dazed
for a second or two. Then immediately there appeared a brilliant light ascending from the woods where the
Rev. C. E. lives. It appeared twice this time. On the
other side of the main road, close by, there appeared,
ascending from a field high into the sky, three balls of
light, deep red. Two of these appeared to split up, whilst
the middle one remained unchanged. Then we left for
home, having been watching these last phenomena for
a quarter of an hour.5
Included among the Welsh aerial phenomena were music
and sound effects coming from out of the sky. It seems that
the sound effects were designed to more firmly implant the
Revivalist message in people by making them believe that
they were witnessing visitations from heaven:
E. B., on Wednesday previous, heard about four
o'clock what appeared to him to be a thunder clap,
followed by lovely singing in the air.
E. E., on Saturday evening, between seven and
eight, while returning home from his work, heard
some strange music, similar to the vibration caused
by telegraph wires, only much louder, on an eminence,
the hill being far from any trees and wires of any kind,
and it was more or less a still evening.
J. P. heard some lovely singing on the road, about
half a mile from his home, on Saturday evening, three
weeks ago, which frightened him very much.6
It is interesting that these UFO phenomena were debunked
in 1905 in an identical way that modern UFOs are debunked
today, revealing that debunking is by no means a late 20th century phenomenon. One investigator, in his report of February 21, 1905, dismissed all of the Welsh phenomena as
farm lanterns, marsh gas, the planet Venus, and "phantasies
of overwrought brains." Such explanations were no more
helpful in 1905 than they are today in shedding light on
some genuinely remarkable phenomena.
The Welsh Revival was not an isolated event. It followed
a similar occurrence in New York state almost a century
306 William Bramley
earlier. The events in New York included a vision leading
to the founding of the Mormon Church by a teenaged
youth named Joseph Smith. His story is worth looking
at.
Joseph Smith described it as a beautiful clear day in the •
spring of 1820. Master Joseph was 14 or 15 years of age and
his mind was in a state of confusion. In his hometown of
Manchester, New York, intense quarreling had broken out
between various Christian sects, all of which were vying for
members. To sort out the controversies in his mind, Joseph
climbed a lonely hill near his home, prayed aloud, and
hoped that God would answer him. What happened next
was probably more than he had bargained for:
.. . immediately I was seized upon by some power
which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that
I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me,
and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to
sudden destruction.
JOSEPH SMITH 2:15*
*The words of Joseph Smith are quoted from the book, Pearl of Great Price.
Just as Joseph was about to give in to despair, he saw:
. . . a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the
brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until
it fell upon me.
It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered
from the enemy which held me bound. When the light
rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above
me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling
me by name, and said, pointing to the other—This is
My Beloved Son. Hear Him!
JOSEPH SMITH 2:16-17
So began a series of appearances by an "angel" whose
reported dictates and pronouncements are the foundation
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also
known as the Mormon Church. This church is, without
doubt, an important institution. Its membership in 1985
totaled approximately 5.8 million people and the Church
has extensive business and land holdings. Beginning with
a teenaged boy on a hill in New York State, the Church has
grown to influence the lives of many people.
Joseph's vision on the hill was the first of several visits that
he would receive from his "angel" friend. The second visit
occurred three and a half years after the first. Joseph Smith
had just gone to bed, was in the act of praying, when:
I discovered a light appearing in my room, which
continued to increase until the room was lighter than
at noonday, when immediately a personage appeared
at my bedside, standing in the air, for his feet did not
touch the floor.
He had on a loose robe of most exquisite whiteness
beyond anything earthly I had ever seen; nor do I
believe that any earthly thing could be made to appear
so exceedingly white and brilliant.
JOSEPH SMITH 2:30-31
The figure in Joseph's room had naked hands, wrists,
feet and ankles. It also had a bare head, neck and
exposed chest. The figure introduced itself as Moroni,
the angel of a man who had lived centuries earlier. The
resurrected "Moroni" imparted a message to Joseph consisting of quotes from Final Judgment prophecies in the
Old Testament. Moroni stated that the prophecies were
about to be fulfilled. Moroni also informed Joseph about
the existence of ancient metal plates which contained some
of the history of the early North American continent.
Joseph was told that he must later dig up the plates,
have them translated, and present the translation to the
world. After this message, the image of Moroni vanished
in a unique way:
. . . I saw the light in the room begin to gather immediately around the person of him who had been speaking
to me, and it continued to do so until the room was
again left dark, except just around him; when, instantly
I saw, as it were, a conduit open right up into heaven,
and he ascended till he entirely disappeared . ..
JOSEPH SMITH 2:43
Joseph did not have long to ponder the curious phenomenon. The mysterious light and visitor soon re-entered his
room. Of this second visit that night, Joseph relates:
He [the angel] commenced, and again related the very
same things which he had done at his first visit, without
the least variation; which having done, he informed
me of great judgments which were coming upon the
earth, with great desolations by famine, sword, and
pestilence; and that these grievous judgments would
come on the earth in this [Joseph Smith's] generation.
Having related these things, he again ascended as he
had done before.
JOSEPH SMITH 2:45
The apparition in Joseph's bedroom came and went
repeatedly the full night. On the following day, while he
was out in the field, the exhausted young Smith abruptly
lost his strength while trying to climb a fence and he
fell unconscious to the ground. Upon regaining awareness,
Joseph observed above him the same angel repeating the
same message. A new postscript had been added, however: the angel instructed Joseph to tell his father of the
visions.
Some critics dispute the accuracy of Joseph Smith's
stories, pointing out that Smith did not record his first
vision on paper until nineteen years after it had happened.
Under the circumstances at the time, this delay is understandable when we consider Joseph's youth and minimal
education.
To the degree Smith's accounts are accurate, they are
worth looking at. Did he have a true religious vision as his followers believe, or was he, as others suggest, a victim of
UFO tampering?
Joseph's angel, Moroni, was different than the angels
described by Ezekiel and John in the Bible. Smith's angel
did not wear items that could be interpreted as a helmet
and boots. Moroni was a figure in a true robe. However,
Joseph appears to have been looking at a recorded image
projected through the window into his room. The clue to
this lies in Joseph's words that Moroni had repeated the
second message "without the least variation." This suggests a recorded message. The manner in which Moroni
disappeared indicates a projected light image from a source
in the sky outside the house. When Moroni returned for
a third time that same night, Smith "heard him rehearse
or repeat over again . .. the same things—as before...."
{Joseph Smith 2:48-49).
If Smith's account is accurate and
UFO-related, there would be tremendous humor in it. Today
we can go to Disneyland and marvel at remarkable, lifelike, projected images of talking heads in the Haunted
House ride. A similar projection viewed by a young country
bumpkin in the 19th century would no doubt be considered nothing less than a true vision from God. Certainly
young Smith's narrative resembles earlier Custodial encounters in many respects: a bright light descends from the
sky followed by the appearance of "angels." Joseph's testimony that he felt seized and unable to move is identical to several modern UFO close encounters in which
eyewitnesses report being immobilized, especially before
an abduction.
Other Mormon writings also tend to support the likelihood
that Joseph Smith had had a UFO encounter. The Mormon
doctrines revealed by Smith state that there are many inhabited planets in the universe. This was quite a daring idea for
an uneducated man of the nineteenth century. Smith added
that God inhabits a human flesh-and-bones body (see, e.g.,
Doctrines and Covenants 130:22) and that God lives near a
star called Kolob (see Abraham 3:1-3). In other words, God
is a humanlike extraterrestrial living on another planet. What
we seem to clearly have in Joseph Smith's experience is
another appearance of our Custodial friends pretending that they are God and meddling in human affairs by implanting
yet another apocalyptic religion on Earth.
Harsh criticism is often aimed at the "bible" of Smith's
religion: the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is said
to be a translation of the ancient metal plates that Smith
had dug up at the command of his angel. The stories
contained in the Book of Mormon are remarkable, and to
many, unbelievable.
The Book of Mormon is written in a style of prose resembling the Old Testament. It ties the history of ancient North
America to the history described in the Old Testament.
According to Mormon, people from Palestine were transported in saucer like submarines to the Americas under the
guidance of "God" in the year 600 B.C. "God" was sending
them to the New World largely because of the Tower
of Babel incident. Somewhere in the Americas (perhaps
Mexico or Central America) the refugees built magnificent
cities rivaling those of the Old World. They fought wars and
were obedient to the same "God" and "angels" worshipped
in the Middle East.
The Book of Mormon tells of regular
visits by "angels" and of their deep involvement in the
affairs of ancient America. The angels encouraged their
human servants to practice important virtues, the foremost
being, of course, obedience.
The Book of Mormon tells us that many other remarkable
events took place in ancient America as time went by. In the
first century A.D., Jesus Christ reportedly made an appearance in the Americas immediately following his crucifixion
on the other side of the world. The Christ vision described
in Mormon is complete with glorious rays of light in the
sky from which Jesus emerged.
Although many scholars take the Old Testament seriously
as an historical record, little such deference is given the Book
of Mormon. Mormon stories seem so outrageous, and the
manner in which Joseph Smith reportedly obtained and
translated the plates appears so suspect, that scant academic
heed is paid to them. The question is: should the Book of
Mormon be dismissed out of hand?
In truth, the Book of Mormon may well be one of the most
significant historical records to come out of the Custodial religions. Based upon all that we have already studied in
this book, the history of ancient America as told in Mormon
is precisely the type of history we would expect. Earth is
small. We would anticipate that an "ancient astronaut" (i.e.,
the Custodial) race would rule human society in the same
fashion everywhere, on every continent. We would expect
them to exhibit the same brutality and to promote identical
religious fictions. The dates extrapolated from the Book
of Mormon for the arrival of the Palestinians to America
are especially interesting because they coincide with the
dates that historians have assigned to the emergence of
the ancient civilizations of Mexico and Central America.
The Book of Mormon might therefore explain why those
civilizations abruptly arose in North and Central America
so long after similar civilizations had already come and
gone on the opposite side of the world.
This still leaves a puzzle unsolved.
If Mormon is at least partially true, where are the ruins of
the cities it names? Many magnificent American ruins have
been found, of course, but not all of the key cities identified
in the Book of Mormon. Mormon offers a chilling answer:
some were utterly destroyed by "God" in a frightening
cataclysm.
As elsewhere, it was very difficult for humans in ancient
America to please their Custodial masters. Mormon tells us
that some ancient Americans did an especially poor job of it.
As a result, a massive punishment was inflicted upon a large
American region reportedly around the year 34 A.D., coincident with the crucifixion of Jesus on the other side of the
world. The Mormon account of this American cataclysm is
extraordinary. It accurately describes a nuclear holocaust:
.-. . in the thirty and fourth year, in the first month,
on the fourth day of the month, there arose a great
storm, such an—one as never had been known in all
the land.
And there was also a great and terrible tempest [violent wind]; and there was terrible thunder, insomuch
that it did shake the whole earth as if it was about to
divide asunder.
And there were exceeding sharp lightnings, such as
never had been known in all the land.
And the city of Zarahemla did take fire:
And the city of Moroni did sink into the depths of the
sea, and—inhabitants thereof were drowned.
And the earth was carried up upon the city of
Moronihah that in the place of the city there became
a great mountain.
And there was a great and terrible destruction in the
land southward.
But behold there was more great and terrible destruction in the land northward; for behold, the whole face
of the land was changed, because of the tempest and
the whirlwinds and the thunderings and the lightnings,
and the exceeding great quaking of the whole earth;
And the highways were broken up, and the level
roads were spoiled, and many smooth places became
rough.'
And many great and notable cities were sunk, and
many were burned, and many were shaken till the
buildings thereof had fallen to the earth, and the
inhabitants thereof were slain, and the places were
left desolate.
And there were some cities which remained; but the
damage thereof was exceeding great, and there were
many of them who were slain.
And there were some who were carried away in the
whirlwind; and whither they went no man knoweth,
save they know that they were carried away.
And thus the face of the whole earth became deformed,
and because of the tempests, and the thunderings, and
the lightnings, and the quaking of the earth.
And behold, the rocks were rent in twain; they were
broken up upon the face of the whole earth, insomuch
that they were found in broken fragments, and in seams
and in cracks, upon all the face of the land.
And it came to pass that when the thunderings, and
the lightnings, and the storm, and the tempest, and
the quakings of the earth did cease--for behold,
they did last for about the space of three hours; and it was said by some that the time was. greater; nevertheless, all these great and terrible things
were done in about the space of three hours—and
then behold, there was a darkness upon the face of
the land.
And it came to pass that there was thick darkness upon
all the face of the land, insomuch that the inhabitants
thereof who had not fallen [died] could feel the vapor
of darkness;
And there could be no light, because of the darkness,
neither candles, neither torches; neither could there be
fire kindled with their fine and exceedingly dry wood,
so that there could not be any light at all;
And there was not any light seen, neither fire, nor
glimmer, neither the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars,
for so great were the mists of darkness which were
upon the face of the land.
And it came to pass that it did last for the space of
three days that there was no light seen; and there was
great mourning and howling and weeping among all
the people continually; yea, great were the groanings
of the people, because of the darkness and the great
destruction which had come upon them.
3 NEPHI 8:5-23, BOOK OF MORMON
The rumblings, flashes of lightning, rapid incineration
of cities, all within three hours, followed by three days
of thick heavy darkness combine to accurately depict a
nuclear strike followed by the inevitable thick lingering
cloud of soot and debris. The above passage is especially
remarkable when we remember that it was first published
over a century ago—long before nuclear weapons were
developed by man. It gives added credence to the Mormon
Church's claim that Joseph Smith had not invented the
Book of Mormon as some critics have charged. It is highly
unlikely that any person in Smith's day could have accidentally imagined an event so closely mirroring a nuclear
holocaust.
Some Mormons stress that the spiritual teachings found
in Mormon texts are more important than the historical information. Mormon spiritual beliefs are indeed significant because they are quite forthright about Custodial
intentions.
The basic spiritual beliefs of the Mormon Church can be
summarized as follows:
Humans are immortal spiritual beings occupying human
bodies. The spirit is the true source of intelligence and personality, not the body. As spiritual beings, we existed before
birth and will continue to exist after death. The true goal of
life is to improve spiritually, and everyone can eventually
achieve a rehabilitated spiritual state that mirrors the state of
a Supreme Being. Ethics are an important step to achieving
such a state. Everyone is endowed with free will.
These beliefs sound like the teachings of a maverick
religion. We can at once understand why so many people
are drawn to Mormonism and remain devoted adherents.
Members are told important truths. When we read further
into Mormon works, however, we find that the above truths
are given many fatal twists which actually prevent people
from ever attaining their spiritual salvation.
Mormon texts state that people are actually immortal
spirit bodies which inhabit human bodies. Spirit bodies are
made of matter and look just like human bodies. Joseph
Smith said that "spirit is a substance; that it is material,
but that it is more pure, elastic and refined matter than
the body." (HC, IV. p. 575.) A Supreme Being (God) is
said to be a similar material being who inhabits a perfect
and immortal flesh-and-bones body. The ultimate goal of
Mormonism is to achieve the same state as "God" and dwell
in a perfect immortal human body for the rest of eternity.
Mormon teachings, which are alleged to have come from
ancient plates and Custodial "angels," therefore encourage
humans to welcome the grim fate of endless entrapment in
human bodies. The Book of Mormon expresses that objective
this way:
The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its
perfect form;. . . their spirits united with their bodies,
never to be divided;. . .
ALMA 11:43, 45
Ancient Mesopotamian texts told us that mankind's Custodial "gods" wanted to permanently join spiritual beings to
human bodies so that the Custodians would have a slave race.
Maverick religions have argued that a spirit's enmeshment
in a human body is the primary cause of suffering. To
counteract this maverick teaching and to promote Custodial
aims, Mormonism falsely declares that a spiritual being can
only achieve ultimate happiness and Godliness when it has
been permanently joined to matter:
For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit
and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness
of joy;
And when separated, man cannot receive a fulness
of joy.
DOCTRINES AND COVENANTS 93:33-34
Only where true spiritual understanding has been lost can
such a teaching take hold, as it has on a widespread scale
on Earth.
Mormonism teaches that everyone lived with the Heavenly Father (God) before coming to Earth. As part of
God's grand plan, people are sent to Earth in order to
learn right from wrong, and to demonstrate to God that
they prefer doing good over evil. However, something
is done to all spiritual beings who are sent to Earth:
they are induced with amnesia about their pre birth existences. According to a pamphlet published by the Mormon
Church:
. . . though we might sometimes sense intimations of
our premortal existence [spiritual existence before taking on a body] as "through a glass darkly" [vaguely],
it would be effectively blocked from our memory.7
This is a remarkable claim, for it suggests that memory of
pure spiritual existence is in some way deliberately blocked
from human memories by the Custodial society as part of
its effort to weld spiritual beings to human bodies. The
Custodial society does seem to have effective methods
316 William Bramley
for occluding memory, as demonstrated in modern UFO
abduction cases where human victims are apparently caused
to suffer almost complete amnesia regarding their abduction
experiences.
The forced amnesia described in Mormon had several
purported purposes, one of which was:
... to ensure that our choice of good or evil would
reflect our earthly desires and will, rather than the
remembered influence of our All-Good Heavenly
Father.8
This is also an astonishing admission. It alleges that
spiritual memory is dimmed so that people will base
their actions on their concerns as material beings rather
than upon their knowledge and remembrance of spiritual
existence. This can only hamper the ability of individuals
to attain a high level of ethics because true ethics must
ultimately take into account a person's spiritual nature
when confronted with an ethical dilemma. By reducing
all questions of ethics to strictly earthly concerns, people
are prevented from fully resolving those ethical questions
that will start them on the road to full spiritual recovery.
This restriction is precisely what the Custodians wanted, as
revealed in the Old Testament: "God" did not want Adam
and Eve to "eat" from the "tree of knowledge of good and
evil" because it would lead to knowledge of how to regain
spiritual immortality.
The above passage further suggests that there exists a Custodial intention to block human remembrance of a Supreme
Being. The implication is that people not only have buried
memories of prior spiritual existence, but they also hold
hidden recollections of contact with a Supreme Being. If
such memory exists, we can at once understand why the
Custodians would try to veil it. By blocking such memory,
the Custodial society further deepens spiritual ignorance
and is better able to promote its religious pretenses and
fictions.
This is not to say that the Custodial society would alone be
guilty of causing spiritual deterioration and amnesia. Such deterioration would have probably begun long before the
formation of the Custodial civilization. Mormon writings would only suggest that Custodians took advantage of such deterioration and hastened it to suit their
own ends.
We have noted the use of breeding war as a Custodial
tool for maintaining control over the human population.
According to the Book of Mormon, this tool was used in
the ancient American civilizations where "God" was held
responsible for the outbreak of many wars:
And it came to pass that I beheld that the wrath of God
was poured out upon the great and abominable church
[Satan's church], insomuch that there were wars and
rumors of wars among all the nations and kindreds
[families] of the earth.
1 NEPHI 14:15
Mormon states that wars would continue to be bred over
the generations as "God's" tool for maintaining control:
Yea, as one generation passeth to another there shall
be bloodsheds, and great visitations [disasters] among
them; wherefore, my sons, I would that ye would
remember; yea, I would that ye would hearken to
my words.
2 NEPHI 1:12-13
In light of the above, it is not surprising to discover that
Mormonism is another branch of the Brotherhood network,
even though the Mormon Church has traditionally been
opposed to other secret societies, such as Freemasonry.
Mormon opposition to Freemasonry is based upon passages
in the Book of Mormon which seem to suggest that God
opposes secret societies. For example, we read in 2 Nephi
26:22-23:
And there are also secret combinations, even as in times
of old, according to the combinations of the devil, for
he is the foundation of all these things . . .
Many people object to interpreting the above passage as
being directed against societies like Freemasonry. After all,
did not Joseph Smith himself create a multileveled priesthood patterned after Freemasonry, complete with secret
ceremonies and a ceremonial apron?
The Mormon priesthood is divided into two sections:
the Priesthood of Aaron (named after Moses' brother) and
the High Priesthood, better known as the Priesthood of
Melchizedek (named after the Biblical king Melchizedek).
According to Alma 13:1-14, the Mormon high priesthood
is precisely the same one over which Melchizedek had
reigned many centuries earlier. The Mormon Priesthood
today continues to follow the step-by-step initiation process
of other Brotherhood organizations. Its highest ceremonies
are performed in secret and initiates are required to take
vows of silence. During such ceremonies, initiates often
wear ceremonial aprons as various "mysteries" are revealed
to them through the use of symbols and allegory.
Joseph Smith claimed that he patterned the Mormon
priesthood according to the dictates of an angel. He did
not rely entirely on his extraterrestrial friend, however.
Smith also became a Freemason for a short period of time
in order to borrow from the Craft. According to Thomas F.
O'Dea, writing in his book, The Mormons:
Joseph went to Masonry to borrow many elements of
ceremony. These he reformed, explaining to his followers that the Masonic ritual was a corrupted form of
an ancient priesthood ceremonial that was now being
restored.9
Joseph Smith was made a Master Mason on March 16,
1842 at a lodge in Illinois. That same lodge was joined
by other top Mormons. Perhaps the most famous Mormon
Freemason was Brigham Young—the man who led the
Mormon exodus across America to Utah and established
the headquarters of the Church in that state, where it
remains today.
The above facts do not mean that Mormonism was a
branch of Freemasonry. Organizational ties between the Mormon Church and Freemasonry were severed quite early
on. Smith and the early Mormons went to Freemasonry to
borrow, not truly to join. The Mormon Church was but
another faction at war with other Brotherhood factions.
Mormons were told that their religion was "the only true
and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with
which I, the Lord, am well pleased. ..." (Doctrines and
Covenants 1:30.) This proclamation naturally conflicts
with every other Custodial religion which declares the
same thing, thereby setting in motion more senseless
"religious" disputes to keep people fighting and disunited.
Some people are still fighting the Mormons now. Joseph
Smith suffered for it when he was murdered by an angry
mob in 1844.
Throughout the Church's embattled history, Mormons
have found solace in the future Judgment Day promised
by Smith's angel. Smith's writings clearly indicated that
the Judgment Day was to arrive during his own generation.
Perhaps the predicted Great Conflagration did arrive: the
American Civil War broke out in 1861. Many of Smith's
personal followers were still alive to witness that brutal conflict which must have seemed like an Armageddon to many
Americans.* As always, the promised millennium of peace
and spiritual salvation did not follow that Armageddon, so Mormons did what so many other apocalyptic religions have done: they reinterpreted their Judgment Day prophecy to keep it alive even though it had clearly failed.
* Interestingly, the Southern secessionist and pro-slavery movements which
had caused the Confederacy to split from the Union, and thereby set
the stage for the Civil War, were greatly influenced by the Brotherhood
network. We see this, for instance, in two of the many proposed flag
designs for the new Confederacy: the designs prominently feature the
Brotherhood's "All-Seeing Eye" of God. Before the outbreak of the
War, a group of Southerners had created an influential pro-slavery
secret society called the Knights of the Golden Circle. Those fraternal
Knights were committed to the preservation of slavery in the lands
bordering the Caribbean Sea—the so-called "Golden Circle." The seal
of the Knights featured a cross similar to the Maltese cross used by
the old Knights of Malta. The Knights of the Golden Circle eventually
vanished and were replaced by the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. The
Klan was a crude Brotherhood-style secret society which arose in the
turbulence of the postwar South. Reportedly founded as a joke, the
Klan quickly grew and became a powerful social and political force
in the South. Klan teachings are deeply racist and rooted in
Aryanism.
One great project of the Mormon Church today is the
maintenance of a vast genealogical library—the world's
largest. "Genealogy" is the study of family lineage and
ancestry. It tells who gave birth to whom, as well as the
racial and social characteristics of a person's family tree.
The Mormon genealogical vaults are housed in a mountain
in the Rocky Mountains about twenty miles south of Salt
Lake City. The vaults are protected by 700-foot thick mountain granite and a 14-ton steel door. The library is clearly
meant to survive almost anything. According to a Mormon
pamphlet, ongoing record collection produces more than
60,000 rolls of microfilm each year containing data from
deeds, marriage licenses, family Bibles, registers, cemetery
lists, and other sources.
This remarkable activity began during the first half of
the twentieth century. It is ostensibly carried out because
Mormons believe that families go on forever. Mormons
are taught that they need to trace family lines so that all
those who lived and died in the past can be blessed in
ceremonies performed in the present by modern Mormons.
The Mormons, however, do not limit their genealogical
research to just Mormon families. Their goal is to "perform
the necessary genealogical research so that all those now
or ever in the spirit world can be vicariously baptized."10
Since every human being who has ever lived fits the above
category, we must conclude that the Mormon objective is
a complete genealogical record of the entire human race!
According to the Mormon Church, that is precisely the goal
of the project, to the degree that it can be accomplished.
This activity understandably concerns some people. Many
individuals living today witnessed the racial madness of
the German Nazis and might shudder at the devastating
impact that the Mormon genealogical collection could have
in the hands of racists. This unease is increased by early
Mormon doctrines which had placed dark-skinned people
in a greatly inferior position to whites. Aryanism was an
important element of early Mormon philosophy. In 2 Nephi 5:21-24, we read that dark skin was created by "God" as a
punishment for sin:
. . . wherefore, as they (those being punished) were
white, and exceeding fair and delightsome, that they
might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God
did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.
And thus saiih the Lord God: I will cause that they
shall be loathsome unto my people, save they shall
repent of their iniquities.
And cursed shall be the seed [sperm] of him that
mixeth with their seed; for they shall be cursed even
with the same cursing. And the Lord spake it, and it
was done.
And because of their cursing which was upon them
they did become an idle people, full of mischief and
subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts
of prey.
Much to their credit, Mormons have recently dropped
these racist beliefs and now admit black people to the
priesthood. Mormons must nevertheless be alert to ensuring
that their genealogical records are never permitted to fall
into the hands of those who might desire them for racial
"purification" purposes.
Modern Mormon activities do exhibit many humanitarian
leanings. The Church, for example, encourages strong family
units. In 1982, I was gratified to see a television advertisement produced by the Mormon Church that expresses the
importance of not ignoring a child's accomplishments. This
brings up a very important point:
No individual or organization is purely good or purely
bad. In our crazy universe, "absolute" good and "absolute"
evil just do not appear to exist. In the worst of people one
will always find a tiny ember of good {e.g., the psychopath
Adolf Hitler was kind to children), and in the best of
individuals there is always at least one thing that should
change. The majority of people who join a group or follow
a leader do so for the right reasons: they have heard an
element of truth or they seek the solution to a genuine
322 William Bramley
problem. The real trick in judging a person or group is to
determine whether more good is being done than bad, and
how the bad may be corrected without destroying whatever
good there might be. The task is not usually an easy one.
Mormon writings declare that "God" (i.e., Earth's Custodial
management) intends to eventually eliminate the "spirit
world" entirely as part of "God's" great Utopian plan for
mankind. In other words, nothing but the material universe
is to ever exist as far as the people of Earth are concerned. This can be translated to mean total spiritual entrapment in physical matter. Such intentions would require that
philosophies of strict materialism be created and imposed
upon the human race so that humans do not look beyond the
material universe. Such philosophies would teach that there
is no spiritual reality and that all life, thought, and creation
arise solely out of physical processes. Such ideas have
become very fashionable and they are, sadly, helping to
push the human race into an ever-deepening spiritual sleep.
Leading this trend for many years was a political philosophy which had gained its initial momentum in 19th-century
Germany. I am speaking, of course, of "communism"—
that ever-so-curious mix of apocalypticism, materialism,
and Protestant work ethic which was such a significant
force in the 20th century.
31
Apocalypse of Marx
THE FIRST FRENCH Revolution of 1789 marked the beginning of a long series of uprisings in France. A new Duke
of Orleans, Louis-Philippe, became the figurehead of a July
1830 revolt which placed him on the throne of France as
the ruler of a constitutional monarchy. Assisting him was
the Marquis de LaFayette. Another of Louis-Philippe's
important backers was a man named Louis-Auguste Blanqui,
who was decorated by the new government for helping to
make the 1830 revolution a success.
Blanqui remained an active revolutionary after 1830 and
provided significant leadership for a long string of uprisings. According to Julius Braunthal, writing in his book,
History of the International, "Blanqui was the inspiration
of all uprisings in Paris from 1839 to the Commune* in
1871."1
*The Commune was a revolutionary group which governed Paris from
March 18 to May 28, 1871
Blanqui belonged to a network of French secret societies
which organized and planned the revolutions. Nearly all of
those secret societies were outgrowths of Brotherhood activity and were patterned after Brotherhood organizations. Each
society had a different function and ideological foundation
for drawing people into the revolutionary cause. Although
the revolutionary societies sometimes differed in matters of
ideology and tactics, they had one objective in common: to
bring on the revolution. Many revolutionary
leaders participated in several of these organizations simultaneously.
One of the most effective of the secret French revolutionary groups was the Society of the Seasons, over
which Blanqui shared leadership. This society was designed
explicitly for the purpose of hatching and carrying out political conspiracies. One of the Society's allied organizations
was the "League of the Just." The League of the Just was
founded in 1836 as a secret society and it aided Blanqui
and the Society of the Seasons in at least one revolt: the
uprising of May 1839. A few years after that uprising, the
League was joined by a man who would later become the
revolutionaries' most famous spokesperson: Karl Marx.
Karl Marx was a German who lived from 1813 until 1883.
He is considered by many to be the founder of modern communism. His writings, especially the Communist Manifesto,
are an important cornerstone of communist ideology. As
some historians have pointed out, however, Karl Marx did
not originate all of his ideas. He was acting largely as a
spokesperson for the radical political organization to which
he belonged. It was during his membership in the League of
the Just that Marx penned the Communist Manifesto with his
friend, Friedrich Engels. Although the Manifesto contained
many of Marx's own ideas, its true accomplishment was
to put into coherent form the communist ideology which
was already inspiring the secret societies of France into
revolt.
Because of his intellect, Marx gained considerable power
within the League of the Just, and his influence caused a
few changes within that organization. Marx did not like the
romantic conspiratorial character of the secret society network to which he belonged and he was able to do away with some of those traits within the League. In 1847, the name
of the League was changed to "Communist League." Associated with the Communist League were various "workers"
organizations, such as the German Worker's Educational
Society (GWES). Marx founded a branch of the GWES in
Brussels, Belgium.
At this point, we can see the extraordinary irony in these
events. The same network of Brotherhood organizations
which had given us the United States and other "capitalist"
countries through revolution, was now actively creating the
ideology (communism) which would oppose those countries!
It is crucial that this point be understood: both sides of the
modern "communist vs. capitalist" struggle were created by
the same people in the same network of secret Brotherhood
organizations. This vital fact is almost always overlooked
in history books. Within a short one hundred year period,
the Brotherhood network had given the world two opposing
philosophies which provided the entire foundation for the
so-called "Cold War": a conflict that lasted nearly half a
century.
Considering the affiliation of Karl Marx to the Brotherhood network, it should come as no surprise that Marx's
philosophy follows the basic pattern of Custodial religion.
Marxism is strongly apocalyptic. It teaches a "Final Battle"
creed involving forces of "good" and "evil" followed by a
Utopia on Earth. The primary difference is that Marx molded
those beliefs into a nonreligious framework and tried to make
them sound like a social "science" rather than a religion.
In Marx's scheme, the forces of "good" are represented by
the oppressed "working classes," and "evil" is represented
by the ownership classes. Violent conflict between the two
classes is portrayed as natural, inevitable, and ultimately
healthy because such conflict will eventually result in the
emergence of a Utopia on Earth. Marx's idea of inevitable
class tension reflects the Calvinist belief that conflict on
Earth is healthy because it means that the forces of "good"
are actively battling the minions of "bad."
Marx tried to make his "inevitable conflict" idea sound
scientific by fitting it into a concept known as the "dialectic." The "dialectic" was a notion espoused by another German philosopher, Hegel (1770-1831). Hegel's idea of
the "dialectic" can be explained this way: from a thesis (an
idea or concept) and an antithesis (a contradictory opposite)
one can derive a synthesis (a new idea or concept which
is different than the first two, but is a product of them).
Marx took this seemingly scientific idea and incorporated
it into his theory of social history. In the communist model
of "dialectical materialism," social, economic, and political
change arises out of the clash of contradictory, and often
violent, opposites. In this way, the endless wars of history
and the unceasing array of opposing factions on Earth are
said to be a natural part of existence out of which all social
change must occur. This makes endless social conflict seem
desirable, and that is precisely the illusion Marx tried to
convey in his "class struggle" theory.
The communist vision of Utopia is a curious, but significant one. In it, everyone is a worker equal to every other
worker. No one owns anything but everyone together owns
everything; everybody gets everything they need but not necessarily everything they want; but before this Utopia occurs,
everyone must first live in a dictatorship. Whew! This bizarre
vision of Utopia seems clearly designed to maintain mankind
as a work race and to encourage humans to accept conditions
of social repression (i.e., dictatorship).
By Marx's lifetime, spiritual knowledge had reached
a severe state of decay. The "quickie salvation" of the
Protestants and the embarrassing rituals practiced by
nearly all religions were understandably driving many
rationally-minded people out of religion altogether. It is
not surprising that the validity of all spiritual reality began
to be questioned. This questioning led many people to
lean towards a strictly materialist outlook on life, and
Marx provided a philosophy for many of those people
to step into. Although Marx acknowledged the reality
of spiritual existence, he erroneously stated that spiritual
existence was entirely the product of physical and material
phenomena. In this way, Marx's teachings helped promote
the Custodial aims expressed in the Book of Mormon and
in ancient Sumerian tablets of bringing about a permanent
union between spiritual beings and human bodies. Marx's writings gave this union "scientific" acceptability by suggesting that spirit and matter could not be separated at all.
Marxist philosophy added that "supernatural" reality (i.e.,
reality existing outside the bounds of the material universe)
is not possible. Marx's Utopia therefore amounts to a Biblical
Eden: a materialistic paradise in which everyone is a worker
with no route to spiritual knowledge and freedom; in other
words, a pampered spiritual prison.
During the same era in which communism was being
shaped into an organized movement, the practice of banking
was undergoing important developments. By the late 19th
century, the new system of inflatable paper money was
the established norm throughout the world. This money
system was not adequately organized on an international
scale, however, and that was the next step: to create a
permanent worldwide central banking network which could
be coordinated from a single fixed location.
One scholar to write about this development was the late
Dr. Carroll Quigley, professor at Harvard, Princeton, and
the Foreign Service School of Georgetown University, Dr.
Quigley's book, Tragedy and Hope, A History of the World
in Our Time, achieved a degree of fame because it was used
by some members of the John Birch Society to prove their
"Communist Conspiracy" ideas. Putting this notoriety aside,
we find that Dr. Quigley's book is exhaustively researched
and well worth reading. Dr. Quigley was not a "conspiracy
buff," but was a highly-respected professor with outstanding
academic credentials. Dr. Quigley's book describes in great
detail the development and workings of the international
banking community as it established the inflatable paper
money system throughout the world.
Let us take a brief look at what Dr. Quigley had to say.
32
Funny Money Goes
International
IN HIS BOOK, Tragedy and Hope, Dr. Quigley divides the
history of "capitalism" into several stages. The third stage,
which is described as the period from 1850 until 1931, is
defined by Dr. Quigley as the stage of Financial Capitalism.
Dr. Quigley states:
This third stage of capitalism is of such overwhelming
significance in the history of the twentieth century, and
its ramifications and influences have been so subterranean and even occult, that we may be excused if
we devote considerable attention to its organizations
and methods. Essentially what it did was to take the
old disorganized and localized methods of handling
money and credit and organize them into an integrated
system, on an international basis, which worked with
incredible and well-oiled facility for many decades.1
Dr. Quigley described the overall intent of the new integrated system:
... the powers of financial capitalism had another far reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system
of financial control in private hands able to dominate
the political system of each country and the economy of
the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled
in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world
acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in
frequent private meetings and conferences. The apex
of this system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned
and controlled by the world's central banks which
were themselves private corporations. Each central
bank.. . sought to manipulate foreign exchanges, to
influence the level of economic activity in the country,
and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent
economic rewards in the business world.2
In the English-speaking world, the newly-organized central banks exerted significant political influence through an
organization they supported known as the Round Table.
The Round Table was a "think tank" designed to affect the
foreign policy actions of governments.
The Round Table was founded by an Englishman named
Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902). Rhodes had created a vast diamond and gold-mining operation in South Africa and in the
two African nations named after him: Northern and Southern Rhodesia (today Zambia and Zimbabwe, respectively).
Rhodes, who was educated at Oxford, did the most of any
Englishman to exploit the mineral resources of Africa and
to make the southern African continent a vital part of the
British Empire.
Rhodes was more than a man driven to make a personal
fortune. He was very concerned with the world and where
it was headed, especially in regard to warfare. Although
he lived almost a century ago, he envisioned a day when
weapons of great destruction could destroy human civilization. His farsightedness inspired him to channel his
considerable talents and personal fortune into building a
world political system under which it would be impossible for a war of such magnitude to occur. Rhodes intended to
create a one-world government led by Britain. The world
government would be strong enough to stamp out any hostile
actions by any group of people. Rhodes also wanted to unify
people by making English the universal language. He sought
to diminish nationalism and to increase awareness among
people that they were part of a larger human community.
It was with these goals in mind that Rhodes established the
Round Table. In his last will, Rhodes also created the famous
"Rhodes Scholarship"—a program still in operation today.
The Rhodes scholarship program is designed to promote
feelings of universal citizenship based upon Anglo-Saxon
traditions.
Rhodes' heart was clearly on the right track. If successful,
he would have undone many of the harmful effects caused by
purported Custodial actions and by the corrupted Brotherhood network. A universal language would have undone the
damaging effects described in the Tower of Babel story of
dividing people into different language groups. Promoting a
sense of universal citizenship would help overcome the types
of nationalism which help generate wars. Something went
wrong, however. Rhodes committed the same error made
by so many other humanitarians before him: he thought
that he could accomplish his goals through the channels
of the corrupted Brotherhood network. Rhodes therefore
ended up creating institutions which promptly fell into the
hands of those who would effectively use those institutions
to oppress the human race. The Round Table not only failed
to do what Rhodes had intended, but its members later helped
create two of the 20th century's most heinous institutions:
the concentration camp and the very thing that Rhodes had
dedicated his life to preventing: the atomic bomb.
Rhodes' idea for the Round Table had begun in his early
twenties. At the age of 24, while a student at Oxford,
Rhodes wrote his second will, which described his plans
by bequeathing his estate for:
.. . the establishment, promotion and development of a
Secret Society, the true aim and object whereof shall be
the extension of British rule throughout the world . .. and finally the foundation of so great a power as to
hereafter render wars impossible and promote the best
interests of humanity.3
Rhodes' secret society, the Round Table, was finally born
in 1891. It was patterned after Freemasonry with its "inner"
and "outer" circles. Rhodes's inner circle was called the
Circle of Initiates and the outer was the Association of
Helpers. The organization's name, the Round Table, was
an allusion to King Arthur and his legendary round table.
By implication, all members of Rhodes' Round Table were
"knights."
It was inevitable that Rhodes' success and political influence would bring him into contact with other "movers and
shakers" of English society. Among them, of course, were
the major financiers of Britain. One of Rhodes' chief supporters was the English banker, Lord Rothschild, head of
the powerful Rothschild branch in England. Lord Rothschild
was listed as one of the proposed members for the Round
Table's Circle of Initiates. Another Rhodes associate was
the influential English banker, Alfred Milner.
After Rhodes died in 1902, the Round Table gained
increased support from members of the international banking
community. They saw in the Round Table a way to exert their
influence over governments in the British Commonwealth
and elsewhere. In the United States, for example, according
to Dr. Quigley:
The chief backbone of this [Round Table] organization
grew up along the already existing financial cooperation running from the Morgan Bank in New York to
a group of international financiers led by the Lazard
Brothers.4
From 1925 onward, major contributions to the Round
Table came from wealthy individuals, foundations, and companies associated with the international banking fraternity.
They included the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, organizations associated with J. P. Morgan, and the Rockefeller
and Whitney families.
After World War I, the Round Table underwent a period
of expansion during which many subgroups were created.
The man responsible for getting many of the subgroups
started was Lionel Curtis. In England and in each British
dominion, Curtis established a local chapter (in Quigley's
words, a "front group") of the Round Table called the Royal
Institute of International Affairs. In the United States, the
Round Table "front group" was named the Council on
Foreign Relations (CFR).
Many Americans today are familiar with the New York based Council on Foreign Relations. The CFR is usually
thought of as a "think tank" from which come a great many
political appointees at the Federal level. Under the Presidential administration of Ronald Reagan, for example, more than
seventy administration members belonged to the Council,
including a number of top cabinet members. The CFR has
dominated earlier Presidential administrations as well, and
it dominates the present administration. The chairman of
the CFR for many years has been banker David Rockefeller,
former chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank. Another
Chase executive chaired the CFR before that. The warning of
Thomas Jefferson has come true. The banking fraternity has
exercised a strong influence on American politics, notably
in. foreign affairs, and the Council on Foreign Relations is
one channel through which it has done so. Regrettably, that
influence has helped to preserve inflation, debt and warfare
as the status quo.
When Cecil Rhodes was alive, he gained considerable
power in South Africa and served for a number of years as
colonial governor there. He had a unique and effective way
of delegating power. According to one of Rhodes' closest
friends, Dr. Jameson, Rhodes gave a great deal of autonomy
to his trusted men. Dr. Jameson once wrote:
. .. Mr. Rhodes left the decision [on what to do in a
situation] to the man on the spot, myself, who might
be supposed to be the best judge of the conditions.
This is Mr. Rhodes' way. It is a pleasure to work
with a man of his immense ability, and it doubles the
pleasure when you find that, in the execution of his plans, he leaves all to you; although no doubt in the
last instance of the Transvaal business he has suffered
for this system, still in the long run, the system pays.
As long as you reach the end he has in view he is not
careful to lay down the means or methods you are to
employ. He leaves a man to himself, and that is why
he gets the best work they are capable of out of all
his men.5
This can be an effective style of leadership, except when
the means used to achieve an end create their own problems. Some of the methods used by Rhodes' men did more
long-term harm than immediate good. In South Africa, for
example, a struggle between Dutch settlers (the "Boers")
and the English erupted into the Boer War. During that
conflict, one of the British officers under Rhodes, Lord
Kitchener, established concentration camps to hold captured
Boers. The camps were decreed by Kitchener on December
27, 1900 and over 117,000 Boers were eventually imprisoned within forty-six camps. Conditions were so inhumane
that an estimated 18,000 to 26,000 people died, primarily
from disease. It was tantamount to mass murder. Today
we associate concentration camps with Nazi Germany and
communist Russia, but their 20th-century usage actually
began with the English under Lord Kitchener.
Perhaps the greatest irony in the story of the Round Table
was the role of that organization in creating the atomic bomb.
After Rhodes' death, the Round Table groups went on to
establish other organizations. One of them was the Institute
for Advanced Study (IAS) located in Princeton, New Jersey.
The IAS greatly assisted the scientists who were developing
the first atomic bomb for the United States. Institute members included Robert Oppenheimer, who has been dubbed
the "Father of the A-Bomb," and Albert Einstein, to whom
the Institute was like a home.
As we have seen, the world was. undergoing many important developments as it entered the 20th century. Central
banking was being organized into an international network.
Bankers gained great influence in British and American
foreign affairs through such groups as the Round Table and the Council on Foreign Relations. Meanwhile, the
communist movement was gaining increasing momentum
in Europe. This momentum bore fruit in 1917 when communist revolutionaries established their first "dictatorship of
the proletariat" in Russia.
Once again, the world was on the road to a Biblical
Utopia.
NEXT
The Workers' Paradise 175S
Notes
CHAPTER 29: The World Afire
1. Fay, Bernard, Revolution and Freemasonry, 1680-1800
(Boston, Little, Brown, & Co., 1935), p. 259.
2. Lunden, op. cit., p. 189.
3. DeHaan, Richard, "Fraternal Organizations," Colliers
Encyclopedia, Halsey, op. cit., vol. 10, p. 338.
4. Lunden, op. cit., p. 190.
5. Ibid.
6. Cowles, Virginia, The Rothschilds, A Family of Fortune
(New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1973), p. 22.
THE GODS OF EDEN 463
CHAPTER 30: Master Smith and the Angel
1. Fryer, A. T., "Psychological Aspects of the Welsh Reviv
al," Society of Psychical Research, Proceedings, 19:80,
1905 (republished by the Sourcebook Project, Glen Arm),
p. 158.
2. Ibid., p. 159.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid., p. 149.
5. Ibid., p. 148-149.
6. Ibid., p. 134.
7. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, "Granite
Mountain—Where a Billion People 'Live' " (advertising
pamphlet, undated), p. 7.
8. Ibid.
9. O'Dea, Thomas F., The Mormons (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1957), p. 57.
10. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, op.
cit., p. 5.
CHAPTER 31: Apocalypse of Marx
1. Braunthal, Julius (trans. H. Collins and K. Mitchell),
History of the International, vol. I: 1864-1914 (New York,
Frederick A. Praeger, 1967), p.
46.
CHAPTER 32: Funny Money Goes International
1. Quigley, Carroll, Tragedy and Hope, a History of the
World in Our Time (MacMillan Co., New York, 1966), p.
50.
2. Ibid., p. 324.
3. Plomer, William, Cecil Rhodes (Edinburgh, Peter Davis,
Ltd., 1933), p. 25-26.
4. Quigley, op. cit., p. 951.
5. Imperialist, Cecil Rhodes, a Biography and Appreciation
(New York, The MacMillan Company, 1897), p. 401-402.
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