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00:00In Dan Brown's latest book, The Lost Symbol, his main character, Robert Langdon, is on a quest
00:09that leads him into the heart of Freemasonry. If I were a novelist like Dan Brown, and I needed
00:16a good plot device, you couldn't do better than the pig on Freemasonry. With their illustrious
00:21membership and secretive symbols, Freemasons inspire conspiracy theories and speculation
00:26about global control. Freemasonry is the largest secret society in the world. For nearly 300
00:34years, millions of Masons have obeyed their oaths of secrecy. The problem with Freemasonry
00:39is they will neither confirm nor deny anything. And as Dan Brown turns the world's attention
00:44back onto the secret society, we will separate the myths from the truths. The doors of Masonic
00:52lodges will be flung open, and their code of silence broken as sacred rituals are exposed.
01:00This is the temple room. We reveal the hidden world of Freemasonry in The Lost Symbol, Truth
01:09or Fiction. On the opening page of Dan Brown's new book, a graphic description of a Masonic
01:18initiation ritual sets the scene for another blockbuster thriller. And the men taking part
01:25in the initiation are some of America's most powerful figures. But how much of Dan Brown's
01:30bestseller is based on truth? And how much is fiction? He mixes fact and fiction in equal
01:37measure. And a lot of people don't really see where the line is. It's like a blurring of
01:43the line. And that's quite a clever thing for a novelist to do. Ever since modern Freemasonry
01:48was born in London around 300 years ago, it has been plagued by conspiracy theories. Often
01:55disturbing, strangely secretive, and definitely controversial. Freemasons have been accused
02:02of running the world, taking over countries, and even murder. We'll hear from all sides. From
02:13skeptics like writer Conrad Goringer. Part of me wishes that they would get out and maybe be
02:18a little more vocal in defending themselves. To author and Dan Brown expert, Simon Cox.
02:25People are more or less confused about Freemasonry. People think either A, Freemasons rule the
02:30world, or B, they're nothing more than a bunch of guys meeting on an evening having a few beers.
02:36And nobody really knows much about them. And in a revealing interview with John Hamill,
02:41the Director of Communications for England's Grand Lodge, Masons have the chance to defend themselves.
02:47Certainly for the last 40 years in this country, an absolute dream for conspiracy theorists.
02:53But one of the things I gently remind people from time to time is Dan Brown writes fiction,
02:59not facts. The lost symbol has thrown the spotlight once more onto the world's most secret society.
03:06After centuries of rumour, suspicion and scandal, the Brotherhood finally reveals its secrets.
03:15Today, there are over 5 million Freemasons worldwide, with Masonic lodges in many major cities.
03:24Most remain closed to outsiders, though they are always open to suspicion. It's the Freemasons' historic
03:34demand for secrecy that has made outsiders wary, and the fact that so many of them hold positions of
03:40great wealth, fame and authority. Brent Morris, author of An Idiot's Guide to Freemasonry.
03:46In the United States, 14 of our Presidents have been Freemasons. If it's good enough for George Washington,
03:52then it's good enough for me. Members of the British Royal Family, Sir Winston Churchill,
03:58and even the Emperor Napoleon were also Freemasons. Is this evidence of a shadow government
04:05controlled by the Brotherhood? Jim Mars writes about Masonic conspiracies.
04:11If you ask a Freemason today if there are two circles within Masonry, a large outer circle
04:17of members who really don't know what the true agenda or objectives are, and a small inner circle,
04:24that are privy to the innermost secrets, they're going to tell you no. Because if they're a member
04:30of the outer circle, they truly don't know about the existence of the inner circle, and if they're
04:34a member of the inner circle, then they've taken an oath not to reveal that. In Dan Brown's book,
04:41The Lost Symbol, Robert Langdon's mentor, Peter Solomon, is a member of this elite inner circle.
04:46People have got into their heads. We've never really been able to discover why. That we are this
04:55conspiracy who are trying to run the world. This idea that we were a sort of secret government behind
05:00the government. As I said to someone recently, if we were running the world, I wouldn't be talking to you.
05:09In the past, there have been good reasons for Freemasons to keep their practices underground.
05:17In 20th century Europe, Masonic secrecy was a knee-jerk reaction to the policies of Adolf Hitler.
05:24It's estimated up to 200,000 Freemasons died in Nazi concentration camps.
05:30Freemasonry's survival depended on who was running the country at the time,
05:34and people were persecuted. The worst case, of course, being in the 1930s and during the Second World War,
05:39when just like Jews, Gypsies and everybody else, Freemasons were sent off to concentration camps
05:45simply for being Freemasons. Hitler claimed the Freemasons were in league with the Jews
05:52to control European politics and the press. Once in power, Hitler destroyed all German lodges
05:59and adopted a policy of openly exterminating Freemasons. We went through a period starting
06:06just before the Second World War where we almost took ourselves out of society. We had been very
06:11visible within the local communities. War came along, everybody became very private. We cut ourselves
06:18off from the public and we allowed a mythology to go up about Freemasonry being a sort of vast secretive
06:25well. Secret societies are a rich territory for thriller writers like Dan Brown.
06:31His novels are filled with codes, conspiracies and hidden agendas. In The Lost Symbol, Robert Langdon
06:38is trying to prevent secret film of a Freemasonry ritual from being made public. He needs to immerse
06:45himself in the world of Freemasons and solve a series of cryptic clues hidden in the most powerful
06:50capital city in the world, Washington DC. Set during an intense 12-hour timespan, Dan Brown's new book,
06:59The Lost Symbol, searches for Masonic symbols hidden in Washington DC.
07:07The use of Washington DC in the book is interesting because I think a lot of people are unaware that
07:12Washington DC is in effect a Masonic city laid out under Masonic terms by Masons and the streets are
07:20laid out in such a way as to form interesting shapes and symbols within the streets.
07:27The US Capitol was designed under direction from George Washington, a Freemason.
07:35In 1792, the cornerstone of what was then the President's House was laid by the Freemasons
07:42and in 1793, the cornerstone of the Capitol was laid by George Washington.
07:47So in that sense, as being symbolic builders, the Freemasons have had a vast influence on Washington.
07:57There are many people that believe that there are secret signs and symbols laid out in the streets of
08:03Washington. I've looked at the maps and I don't see them. I can see an incompleted star. There are some
08:12conspiracists that believe that the Freemasons made some kind of satanic symbol just north of the
08:19White House with a pentagram, but the pentagram's not even complete.
08:25There is without a shadow of a doubt, and I know that Masons will contest this, but there's without
08:31a shadow of a doubt an inverted pentagram to the north of the White House. I know that some of the streets
08:36don't quite cut through, but in the original Enform plan they did. Washington incorporates Masonic imagery
08:43and symbolism, and the actual Masonic symbols themselves are carved and represented within
08:51many of the monuments within Washington DC. The Freemasons played a decisive role in the
08:57struggle to gain independence. At least nine known Freemasons signed the Declaration of Independence
09:04on the 4th of July 1776. Today, there is still Masonic symbolism at the heart of US government.
09:15In January 1989, George Bush Senior took his oath of office.
09:21Millions were watching, but what they couldn't see was the Bible President Bush chose to hold in his hand.
09:27It dates back 200 years and was the same Bible used by George Washington, a Freemason,
09:35at his swearing-in, and is filled with cryptic signs and symbols understood only by the Brotherhood.
09:43Whether they saw it as merely historic or knew of its deeper significance,
09:47Dwight Eisenhower and both Bush presidents requested the same Bible for their inaugurations,
09:53reinforcing the conspiracists' claim that Freemasons rule the world.
09:59Freemasons have even been accused of encoding messages on America's banknotes, most famously the
10:05one dollar bill. The reverse of the great seal of the United States shows an uncompleted pyramid,
10:13and at the top of the pyramid is the all-seeing eye of Providence, and that is a Masonic emblem.
10:18And the Latin words, Novus Ordo Seclorum, conspiracy theorists translate as a new world order,
10:28and link to the Masons.
10:33However, the truth is that the words mean a new order of the ages,
10:39referring to the modern world's first democracy and the overthrow of monarchy.
10:44M-A-S-O-N.
10:58More proof of ominous Masonic manipulation?
11:03Washington DC is steeped in Masonic history.
11:06And it became home to the headquarters of Scottish Rite Freemasonry, a branch of the
11:13order that traces its origins back hundreds of years, not to Scotland, as the name suggests,
11:18but France. John Wesley Chisholm is a Scottish Rite Freemason.
11:23The Scottish Rite was developed and became formal around 1800 as a way to continue your Masonic
11:34education. So Scottish Rite effectively is a Masonic university.
11:40These temples of wisdom may look merely monumental, but inside is a hidden realm of images and icons,
11:46marble and myth.
11:47They are the perfect background for Dan Brown's fictional characters,
11:53and he uses the temple room initiation ceremonies with expert effect.
12:00Freemasons rise up the ranks by gaining degrees. The first degree focuses on mastering emotions and
12:07impulses. The second on gathering knowledge. Master Masons have achieved the third degree by becoming
12:15physically purified, mentally sharpened, and intellectually broadened. Extra degrees reward
12:21further personal development. Akram Elias has reached the 33rd degree, which is as far as a Master Mason can go.
12:30This is the temple room of the world's headquarters of the Supreme Council of Scottish Freemasonry.
12:39The Supreme Councils of the world, they come here once every two years to meet in Washington DC.
12:51In Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, Robert Langdon's adversary buys his way into the inner circle.
12:57In reality, to even be nominated as a first degree Freemason, a new member must be approved by secret ballot.
13:06A white ball signifies a yes vote, a single black cube means exclusion.
13:13Prospective members have to state an interest in joining Freemasonry at their own will,
13:18and believe in a supreme being. The prime qualification for entry into Freemasonry under our grand lodging is a belief in God.
13:27We believe that Freemasons should have a religion and practice it, and as a result of that,
13:32we seem to have achieved what many others haven't. You can come into a lodge in London and you will find
13:38Christians of various denominations, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs,
13:41meeting together without any differences of religion coming between them. The two things we can't discuss
13:47at Masonic meetings are the two things which divide everybody, which is, of course, politics and religion.
13:53Once they step into the lodge, members are asked to leave their religious ideals at the door.
13:59Central to the furniture of a lodge is the altar.
14:03It is at the altar that the initiate takes his obligation as a Freemason.
14:14You notice there are three, what we call, three lesser lights here around the altar.
14:20When the candidate is being initiated, it is dark, and when he sees the light, those three lesser lights
14:27help him see what is here, the volume of the sacred law and the universal symbol of Freemasonry,
14:34the square and the compasses. Both of these Masonic symbols are on the front cover of Dan
14:41Brown's new book, The Lost Symbol. The compass is to remind members to restrain their desires
14:48and encompass their deeds with an immoral code. The square represents honesty and fair dealing.
14:55The letter G, representing the great geometer, the grand architect of the universe. That is,
15:10that supreme being, supreme intelligence, whoever, whatever that is, reflecting the beliefs,
15:15again, the diverse beliefs of the Brotherhood. The original motives for starting a secret club
15:22are still shrouded in mystery. But most Masonic lodges agree that modern Freemasonry descends from
15:28stonemasons who built the great cathedrals and castles of the Middle Ages. It wasn't until 1717,
15:36when four English lodges came together, that Freemasonry became a formal organization.
15:42They met at a pub called the Goose and Gridiron in the shadow of St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
15:47Six years later, they had already gained hundreds of members, several new branches called lodges,
15:55and a written constitution filled with official rules, regulations, hierarchies, and the secret
16:01Masonic rites of passage. In The Lost Symbol, a sacred rite of passage is attended by high-ranking
16:08American politicians and security chiefs. They are secretly filmed, then blackmailed with the threat of
16:14releasing the film to the public. An act, it is believed, will shatter confidence in the US government
16:19and bring about its collapse. So what are the Masonic rituals they previously didn't want us to see?
16:29We're inside this Masonic temple with exclusive access to witness the initiation ceremony of a
16:35third-degree Master Mason. The men involved are real Freemasons, and against their historic protocol,
16:43are allowing cameras inside the secret ceremony. The use of costumes dates back centuries.
16:51The initiation ceremony of a third-degree Mason is based on the ancient legend of a biblical
16:56stonemason named Hiram Abiff, the architect of King Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.
17:03Dan Brown names the main family in his new book, Solomon.
17:06Grandmaster Hiram Abiff, for the third time, I demand of you the secret word of a Master Mason.
17:12Your demands are vain. Wait until the temple is completed, and I will do my best to serve you.
17:18Then die!
17:21The reenactment of the death is to protect the Brotherhood's secrets. Hiram Abiff embodies the
17:26values modern Masons must strive for in their quest to become Master Masons.
17:31He's a personification of a belief system. It's a purely Masonic myth.
17:40Robert Lomas is author of Turning the Hiram Key.
17:43And Hiram Abiff represents the ego, and the ego has to be slain before the spirit can rise free.
17:52So you've got to learn to control your ego.
17:54A key element of the ceremony is the ancient password which dies with Hiram Abiff.
18:01Brethren, let us rise. I shall substitute a word which shall be used for the regulation of all
18:06Master Mason lodges until the wisdom of future generations should discover and bring to light
18:12the true word. King Solomon then creates a new word, a word that no Mason will ever reveal on or off camera.
18:20Well, the replacement word was made up when the Masons discovered Hiram Abiff's body and
18:28they tried to raise it. They were all impacted by the event and they all made a sound, just a guttural
18:34kind of sound. And then they put all those sounds together and had a made up word that Masons used
18:39to identify each other. Of all the secrets of Freemasonry, none is as tightly guarded as this secret word,
18:47the pass key to the third degree of the Master Mason. Members swear never to utter it outside of
18:53the lodge under penalty of death. Now, I'm not supposed to say that word. Just go to the local
18:59bookstore and look it up. It's, it's, or, you know, check it on the internet. You'll get it instantly.
19:05But I made a promise as a Mason not to say the word. The secret word is Mahabon. In this initiation
19:13ceremony for all new master Masons, the candidate plays the role of Hiram Abiff, the architect who
19:20dies to protect the password. The candidate is not told what to expect. His fear is real.
19:28It's a wonderfully powerful ritual. And it's the ritual, the, the, the basic teaching of Freemasonry is
19:34to teach you to know yourself. And when you act out the role of Hiram Abiff, it's the most dramatic
19:41way of learning what your deepest fears are. To the Mason, the lesson is clear. The understanding
19:48of the brotherhood is taken to the grave. These dramas form an important part of Masonic symbolism,
19:54but author and Freemason, Robert Cooper, believes people take them too literally.
20:00What we have today, unfortunately, is a situation where people now, especially non-Masons,
20:06look at what Freemasons do in these dramas, in these plays, and believe them to be literally
20:14true. And of course, they are not. And this is where they fall into really quite serious error,
20:20because trying to prove something that was never ever designed to be true is impossible.
20:27But not everyone accepts the Mason's claims that the third degree ritual is merely symbolic.
20:33The internet gives conspiracy theorists the ability to explore and explain the darker side of Freemasonry.
20:40Kevin McNeil Smith runs a site called Freemasonry Watch.
20:44According to Masonic ritual, if you break your oaths, you, you will be murdered. That is, that is the
20:51basic of the oath. Now, Masons will say, well, it's a joke. We don't murder people anymore. Well,
20:57the punishments become more bizarre, from having your throat slit to having your
21:04chest open perpendicularly and your lights thrown over your shoulder and buried in the sand.
21:09In fact, the Masonic oath guarantees a gruesome death for those who reveal the secrets.
21:18I do promise and swear under no less penalty than to have my breasts torn open,
21:24my heart and vitals taken from Venice and exposed to rot on the dunghill.
21:30But have the Freemasons ever actually killed anyone? The public's willingness to believe the
21:37Masons would go to extreme lengths to protect their secrets led them to be accused of involvement in
21:42one of the highest profile deaths of the 20th century, that of the man known as God's banker,
21:48Roberto Calvi. His body was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge in London.
21:56Best-selling authors like Dan Brown continue to feed the public's appetite for conspiracy theories
22:02about the Freemasons. In his latest book, The Lost Symbol, a character infiltrates a Freemason lodge
22:10and plans to expose the names on its tightly guarded membership list.
22:13There is some truth to the storyline of someone trying to infiltrate the Freemasons for their own
22:21purposes. It's happened before in real life, with dire consequences.
22:30On the 18th of June 1982, Blackfriars Bridge in London became the focus of a murder mystery
22:36that put the Masons in the line of fire. A grisly discovery is made at dawn,
22:42the body of a well-dressed man found hanging under the bridge. His wallet stuffed full of cash,
22:50along with a fake passport and pockets filled with bricks. The body was identified as Roberto Calvi.
22:59Calvi was the chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, Italy's largest private bank with close ties to the Vatican.
23:06The tabloid press exposed a mass of scandal and financial embezzlement. Calvi was also a member of P2,
23:14a clandestine quasi-Masonic lodge run by a powerful Italian financier, Licio Gelli, a former envoy of Mussolini's.
23:21P2 was established in 1877, and it was a very traditional Italian Freemason lodge. However,
23:29in the 1960s, it was taken over by Gelli, and when Gelli infiltrated the organization,
23:36it became a Freemason lodge with an agenda. He was a member of the Blackshirts during the Mussolini era.
23:42He compiled a list of several hundred people that he targeted. Calvi was a member of the lodge. Banco
23:51Ambrosiano was loaning money to P2 and serving as a paymaster for some of the people connected with Gelli.
24:00Gelli amassed over 900 powerful members, including the heads of Italy's secret service,
24:06bankers, politicians, military generals, and corrupt businessmen with mafia connections.
24:13Basically, this one's an attempt by a Masonic lodge to take over a modern country and create a right-wing dictatorship.
24:21I suspect that Calvi was attracted to P2 because it offered him business opportunities,
24:26because it satisfied his interest in the idea of hidden power. He probably wasn't aware when he
24:32initially joined, and he was certainly in the lower rungs of the organization, and he was actually
24:36joining not just a secret society, but a secret society with a very real and conspiratorial agenda
24:43to actually seize control of the Italian state.
24:47Italy's Prime Minister at the time, Arnaldo Fellani, was forced to resign over revelations that
24:53several prominent politicians were on the list of P2 members found in Gelli's home.
24:57Basically, what was going on was vast amounts of money were being laundered through Banco Ambrosiano,
25:05shipped overseas to Latin America and other offshore banking points, and then disappearing.
25:13By the time it was all done, somewhere around $1.4 billion was missing.
25:21Some of the money belonged to the Vatican. Roberto Calvi was held personally responsible,
25:27and arrested on embezzlement charges. He fled to London, and days later was found hanging under
25:33Blackfriars Bridge.
25:36Calvi was reputedly a member of the P2 Lodge, but there is no evidence at all that he was what we would
25:42regard as being a Freemason. He was simply a member of this clandestine P2.
25:48Like a plot line in Dan Brown's books, Calvi's death was full of symbolism. Clues that conspiracy
25:55theorists argue point the finger at the Freemasons. Bricks found in Roberto Calvi's pockets are considered
26:02a link to the society's origins as stonemasons. Calvi fled to London, where the idea of the secret
26:09brotherhood was born. And Blackfriars Bridge is close to the Grand Lodge of England, and within
26:21sight of St Paul's Cathedral, built by Masons under the supervision of the Freemasons' most famous
26:26architect, Sir Christopher Wren. It's beyond anything that Hollywood can dream up. Here you have
26:32a Masonic lodge, you have the Vatican, you have a huge money laundering and financial scandal.
26:38But the authorities recorded death by suicide. Roberto Calvi's son,
26:43Carlo, has his own theory about how his father died.
26:46He was taken to an area that was not far from the bridge, and then he was strangled,
26:52and then his body was taken by boat and hung by the bridge.
26:56He was taken to a place of the bridge.
26:58Unhappy with the London police findings, Carlo hired private investigators, who uncovered crucial
27:04evidence. To climb the bridge, Calvi needed to scale scaffolding erected for renovation,
27:11but there were no traces of rust or paint on the shoes Calvi was wearing.
27:15You look at what we've managed to establish now, with the best in sort of forensic scientific
27:21investigation of what happened on that night. He did not climb up that scaffolding. Calvi did not
27:30put the stones in his own pocket. He did not put the noose around his own neck. This was not a suicide,
27:36this was a murder. The results persuaded the Italian government to take the dramatic step of exhuming
27:43Roberto Calvi's body for further examination. Finally, in 2002, after 20 years, Calvi's son got the
27:53verdict he had so desperately been seeking. Forensic experts appointed by Italian judges ruled out
28:01suicide, meaning Calvi was murdered. Who killed him remains a mystery. There was speculation he had been
28:09involved with the mafia. In 1982, British journalist Rupert Cornwell was reporting on the case.
28:17His presumed killers were basically four of the people that were closely involved with his getaway,
28:23his escape from Rome to London, plus a mafioso who said to have ordered the killing.
28:32One of the main suspects is Pippo Carlo, a man known as the mafia's cashier. He allegedly
28:38masterminded Calvi's murder to prevent him from revealing information harmful to Italy's political
28:44and religious establishment. Defendants went on trial in June 2007, but were acquitted for
28:51insufficient or contradictory evidence. I do think this case was very much like a kaleidoscope.
28:58That's to say you had several little tiny bits of mosaic in the pattern. One was Italian politics,
29:03another was the Vatican, another was the mafia, another was Freemasonry. Did the people responsible
29:11for Roberto Calvi's death deliberately try and frame the Masons? Masons build with stones, not bricks,
29:20but it's just an inventive journalist saying, come on, who's likely to do this? Oh, let's have a go
29:25of the Freemasons again. And they think up this thing. But when you actually look at it and examine
29:30it, it fizzes away. The Masonic connection, in my opinion, has been overblown. Bad people can take
29:37over good ideas and good movements and subvert them and use them for bad purposes, but that's because
29:44for human beings. Licio Gelli could have started any other group. He could have taken over a chess club
29:50and maybe did the same thing. The suspicious death of Roberto Calvi continues to damage the Freemasons'
29:57reputation. The problem with Freemasonry is they will neither confirm nor deny anything,
30:03whether it be membership or various conspiratorial ideas. All of those elements
30:09certainly add into a conspiratorial sort of air around this group.
30:13Murder and kidnapping have featured heavily in Dan Brown's novels. A kidnapping takes place in the
30:23lost symbol, which mirrors a mysterious disappearance in Masonic history.
30:31In 1826, a novice mason in New York called William Morgan boasted that he was about to publish a book
30:38revealing the Brotherhood's deepest secrets. He was locked up for allegedly stealing another man's
30:46shirt and tie and for not paying a debt of $2.69. But he never got the chance to refute the charges
30:54and mysteriously disappeared after a gang of men paid his bail and smuggled him away.
31:01His abductors were Masons. He was forced into a carriage and driven off shouting, murder, murder.
31:08We don't know what happened after that. His body was never found. But as the event snowballed,
31:15it was, wait a minute, this is a group within a group, a government within a government,
31:21men operating behind the scenes, murdering whom they will. What are they doing? And so from this
31:29unauthorized event by local Masons in Batavia, New York,
31:33a wave of anti-Masonry swept the country. As the hysteria spread, New York's 228 Masonic lodges
31:44dwindled to only 45. You had newspapers established that were anti-Masonic newspapers,
31:52and their purpose was to expose the evil tentacles that Freemasonry had spread out into society.
31:59Freemasons have continually fought off conspiracy theories. But in Dan Brown's new book,
32:06The Lost Symbol, the Masons are portrayed in a positive light.
32:10In his earlier books, Dan Brown has featured secret societies. He's looked, for example,
32:15at the Opus Dei as an organization within the Roman Catholic Church, and he's been incredibly critical.
32:21Here we have an author who is returning to the idea of secret societies, but it's a different secret
32:28society, and this time he's almost entirely positive. I think that what happened after
32:34Da Vinci Code with the backlash, he got a real pasting. From reading this book, I get the feeling
32:40he's tried to avoid it this time. The controversy is not with the Freemasons here, and he's been very
32:46fair, very neutral with those. There is one thing in the book that is likely to upset the Freemasons.
32:52There's an initiation ceremony that is really nicely described, actually. You have the main
32:58sort of bad guy in the book. He takes part in this 33rd degree ceremony in which he drinks
33:07red wine or blood, as it's supposed to be, from a human skull. I think for that, he's going to get
33:13into a little bit of trouble because it's the one thing in there that isn't actually accurate.
33:20This myth was started by a notorious French anti-Mason who, under the pen name Leo Taxel,
33:26wrote lurid exposures of what he claimed to be Masonic rituals. He was one of the greatest suppliers
33:33of anti-Masonic propaganda. There have been some incredible hoaxes like the one done by Leo Taxel
33:39in the 19th century, where he fabricated this whole conspiracy theory about Masons working to take over
33:46the world and leak with the devil. In 1881, Taxel joined a Masonic lodge, but was soon expelled
33:54after being repeatedly accused of plagiarism. So he later turned his literary talents to condemning the
34:00Masons. Leo Taxel developed a whole literature claiming Freemasonry as being anti-clerical,
34:09claiming that the ceremonies were like satanic masses. Then when everybody started to investigate,
34:17it held a public meeting and said, sorry guys, I was having you on.
34:20That sort of rumour lives today, especially on places like the internet, where you can find just
34:30about any sort of variant of a conspiracy theory. So it fits well with the internet pension for
34:35exaggeration or misinformation. The rumours and scandal also continue in the press.
34:41At 8.40pm on the 8th of March 2004, the fatal shooting of Freemason William James in New York sparked
34:51another investigation and Freemasonry was back in the docks. The press reported how he was sitting
35:01in a chair blindfolded, surrounded by tin cans in the basement of a Masonic lodge. Blindfolds are often used
35:10used in Masonic rituals, but supposedly live ammunition is not.
35:21Stephen Bullock is an American historian and an author on Freemasonry.
35:26The Fellow Craft Club that William James was joining that night in March 2004
35:32is a kind of organisation which is connected to the lodge, made up of members of the lodge,
35:37but is not quite part of the lodge. James had gone through most of the initiation process,
35:44and he had come to the point where there's a mock shooting, in which a member of the club was going
35:49to pull out a gun, shoot blanks, and then some cans next to the initiate were to be knocked over by
35:57someone next to the cans. What happened tragically was that the person with the gun
36:02reached in his pocket, pulled out a loaded gun, rather than the actual gun with the blanks in it.
36:09He shot and killed William James.
36:13Was it a Masonic ritual gone wrong, or simply a tragic accident? The official line from the Grand
36:19Lodge of England is clear. Sadly there was a fatal shooting, but it wasn't actually at a lodge meeting.
36:26And somebody fired a gun, thinking it was a gun with blanks in it. And unfortunately it wasn't,
36:34it was live ammunition. But that went round the world as a Mason shot at initiation, because there's
36:42been so much outlandish stuff written and spoken about Freemasonry, the tendency was to immediately
36:47believe somebody was shot during an initiation ceremony. The head of the New York Lodge was quick
36:53to clarify that the incident did not involve a Masonic Lodge meeting, the use of a Masonic Lodge room,
37:00or any New York Masonic ritual.
37:06He also reminded his members that loaded firearms do not, and never have, played any role in any
37:12Masonic activity. I know of no ritual at all that involves a firearm. I can't think of anywhere in the
37:18world where anybody would be allowed into a Lodge room for a Masonic ceremony carrying a gun.
37:25With its connections to Freemasonry, the mysterious death of William James in 2004
37:30was another scandalous event that kept the Freemasons and their secretive society in the news.
37:39So will Dan Brown's book, The Lost Symbol, with its positive spin,
37:42play a part in changing popular perceptions of Freemasonry.
37:47Society, particularly modern society, needs to have a bogeyman. And if we live in a society,
37:54as we do now, where conspiracy theory is rampant, where people don't want to take responsibility for
38:01their own actions, then we become a natural whipping boy. It became a sort of knee-jerk reaction,
38:08that if something went wrong, it would be the Freemasons behind it.
38:14In 1998, the UK government encouraged the Freemasons to go public by asking them to take part in a survey.
38:23As a principle, we have no problem with that at all, because we would like our members to be proud
38:27of the fact they are Freemasons and to tell people. But to single out Freemasonry from all the many
38:33organisation individual, that you're subliminally saying to the public, there's something to worry about.
38:40This survey actually proved that very few high-ranking UK officials are Freemasons.
38:49When they did the statistics on it, the Lord Chancellor, who was in charge of the judicial system,
38:53he asked the judges and the magistrates, and less than 5% of judges were Freemasons,
39:03and less than 10% were the magistrates. And that rather knocked some of the conspiracy theory out a bit.
39:10Some Freemasons, who were growing tired of the constant slurs, took a radical new approach,
39:15and held a highly visible and very British ceremony. Their patron, the Queen's cousin,
39:20His Royal Highness, the Duke of Kent, Grand Master of the Order, made the keynote speech.
39:25If occasionally, say once in 25 years or so,
39:32people can see that our normal business is as we describe it, they may be persuaded to shed whatever
39:40unreasonable worries they still have about what in truth is only an inclination to privacy.
39:47Freemasons are now inviting the general public to see behind their closed doors.
39:56It's a good example of how secretive we are. I mean, this is our national headquarters in London.
40:02We get about 30,000 visitors through a year. Anybody can walk in off the street,
40:08come into the building, go around the library and museum, they'll be brought on a conductor tour
40:13and have it talked about. So how secretive is that? There may be other reasons why the Masons have
40:20now adopted an open door policy. Membership has been declining. We think we're bottoming out in this
40:26country. The United States, it's been falling. They've dropped from something like three and a half,
40:31four million 15, 20 years ago to just under two million. It's sad, but it's true, that Freemasonry is
40:39effectively in free fall. The membership is aging, the numbers are declining. And for me, the saddest thing,
40:46the history and traditions of Masonry are being lost as, as Mason's halls around the world,
40:53particularly in America, are being sold and Masons abandon their traditional communities.
41:00Dan Brown's new book may give Freemasonry the boost they so desperately need.
41:06There are bad bits and good bits in Freemasonry. Dan Brown is trying to direct our attention to the
41:13good bits and perhaps even explain away some of the bad bits. I think it probably is going to mean
41:19that more men will be banging on the door of their local lodge and saying, I'd like to join.
41:24Masons maintain the deepest secrets of the order can never be fully revealed,
41:31not only because they are protected by oath, but because their symbols are interpreted differently
41:37by individual Freemasons.
41:42No amount of recent spin doctrine can sort of counter that sense that they are a secret organization.
41:48And for a lot of people, we see on that blank space in the map, all sorts of monsters, all sorts of
41:53demons, all sorts of fears and paranoia is realized and people will continue to project because there are
41:58secrets at the heart of Freemasonry which are not revealed to the mass of the public.
42:02People are always going to believe what they want to believe and unfortunately,
42:08conspiracy theories have a great immunity from truth. You can point out the absurdity of them,
42:14you can present contrary evidence. Certain people often want to believe in that conspiracy theory
42:20and that's unfortunate. Everything they do is a metaphor for something else. It's not to be taken
42:26literally. The ceremonies and the initiations are not a literal initiation. They're not really killing
42:30anybody. Then die. There's none of those things that go on that famously have been said about Freemasons.
42:37It's a metaphorical society that isn't a secret society, but it is a society with secrets.
42:42It's one reason Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol has become an instant success. One of the surprises might
42:51be that we are the heroes rather than the villains that everyone is expecting us to be. And why the
42:56Freemasons may still take their secrets with them, to the grave.