Illuminati, conspiracy, Atlantis, etc...

[tiltpoint]

Looking for a book that was recommended on this board (or coulda been dot net) one or two months ago.

It was about history of civilization and seemed to be a conspiracy theorists wet dream, including pyramids, aliens, buncha far out ideas. I'm hoping someone here will remember, as with all the board hopping search function is not helping.

Title or author would be a tremendous help. Thanks.

[Felipe Bidó]

I think Mike Strong posted the link

[cerebus]

I could name a couple of such books. The best by far is "Cosmic Trigger, Final Secret of the Illuminati" by Robert Anton Wilson. Also good (though written as a fictional novel) is "Illuminatus!" by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea. Let me know your intersts (ie fiction or non-fiction) and I can suggest others....

[I-mon]

another good one i read recently was "supernatural" by graham hancock.

[tiltpoint]

I was looking for a specific one that had been recommended here before (recently).

My specific interests are long walks on the beach... oh, you mean reading? Being distracted by well written, thoroughly researched, extremely far-fetched theories.

[Mike Strong]

The Secret History Of The World ( As Laid Down By The SECRET SOCIETIES ) by Mark Booth is a fun read, and informative, but I wouldn't take it too seriously ...

... Someone else, ( I'm sorry I don't remmber who ) recomended Access To Western Esotericism,- by Antoine Faivre.

And Cerebus has recomended The Voudon Gnostic Workbook, by Michael Bertiaux.


Yeah.

[Darth Rock&Roll]

anybody can tell me exactly why you have interest in these things?

[cerebus]

anybody can tell me exactly why you have interest in these things?

Allowing oneself to believe, not in certainties, but in possibilities, is a mind-expanding experience. When the Wright brothers dreamed of creating a flying machine (which, of course, everyone knew to be impossible), people asked that same question you just asked. When the first rocket scientists dreamed of man walking on the moon, well that was even more cuckoo than simply flying, and so on...

Basically, yeah, there may be alot of hogwash in many of these theories/ concepts/ ideas, but there may also be a surprising amount of truth. However no one will ever know if they don't open their minds to the possibilities...

[Darth Rock&Roll]

well, paths to invention and discovery contrast heavily to revisionist history. IE: tere isn't anything being created by the conspiracy theories except for mabye confusion, obfuscation of actual truth and so on.

no one will build anything useful out of a theory about how reptiles rule the earth and we are all slaves, or 911 was caused by Dick Cheney so they could start a war in Iraq or so on and so forth.

there will be no net new technology from conspiracy theories and there will be monumental time spent pondering on a lot of premise that is as you say yourself "hogwash" with a lot of the rest falling in the category of "meh" and "so what" lol.

I agree, chariots of the gods was an interesting read and so on. But if you look at where these guys are coming from, then so what if aliens visited earth 40,000 years ago and genetically manipulated us into being so we could work in mines for our alien overlords.

It really wouldn't make much of a difference in the here and now and what would be the eventual consequence of the proof of such things good or bad?
Nothing?

[cerebus]

It depends alot on the material one is reading. What are the author's sources? Are they using verifiable material, showing definite or possible connections and building logically from there? Or are they just making shit up? If it's the latter, then I'll go to the fantasy section for my pure fiction, but if it's the former, then many interesting facts can be found to have many interesting connections which can be used for a variety of theories.

For instance, I truly enjoy Robert Anton Wilson's "Cosmic Trigger, Final Secret of the Illuminati". Wilson is very coherent, logical and down to earth. He doesn't "BELIEVE" in any particular theory, but is willing to look at any theory and see what it may contain. I also truly enjoy Wilson's fictional works which blend historical facts with fantastic craziness, and which he admits right away are fictional novels.

On the other hand, I've browsed some of the "Montauk" books (whose author I forget), and while I think they could have been formed into interesting novels by a competent author, I find that they have too much horseshit in them for me to bother with. I guess for me to enjoy crazy "nonfiction" I prefer for it to have at least a somewhat larger percentage of verifiable facts than crazy speculation, but that's just me...

[qiphlow]

cosmic trigger is the shizznit! as is prometheus rising by the same author.

[Darth Rock&Roll]

a casebook for alternative 3 and alternatice 3 are interesting.

I have several books on freemasonry, an epic tome by none other than John Dee, the golden dawn complete, have read all of AC and HB materials and piles more.

I think much of what was involved had to do with the preservation of knowledge and it was so enshrined in sacredness. If not for institutions such as Freemasons lodges or even the Vatican, there would be no such thing as generational learning outside of the most cursory survivalist sense. there would be NO universities and no continuation of genius after said genius is dead and so on.

When we take that idea into account and how that really makes sense that ideas be enshrined in the sacred to cause memory of same by future people, then alien overlords, 911 conspiracies, men in black and so on seem ridiculous. Whereas sacred geometry and knowledge and wisdom of the ancients being accessible to us moderns is amazing!

So, yes, there are truths. One of them being that you give milk to babies and meat to the strong, hence the secretiveness of the socieities that often get pegged as evil by conspiracy theorists. lol

[tiltpoint]

"I think much of what was involved had to do with the preservation of knowledge and it was so enshrined in sacredness. If not for institutions such as Freemasons lodges or even the Vatican, there would be no such thing as generational learning outside of the most cursory survivalist sense. there would be NO universities and no continuation of genius after said genius is dead and so on."

Entrust your knowledge (genes) to just a handful (ie freemasons), and over time it weakens and dies. Not a viable population, to borrow from evolutionary theory.

Entrust your knowledge to many (ie universities), and it not only survives but evolves.

It is my opinion that while secret societies may have at their founding had a more complete knowledge, it would be difficult to even speculate how much has remained viable... Evil conspiracies? No. Inept circle jerks? Probably.

But to answer Darth's question: revisionist history I find amusing for the same reasons I enjoy B grade horror movies. Suspension of (dis)belief.

[Eisenhans]

@Darth Rock'n'Roll:

I see! You ARE ONE OF THEM!!