A widely known voice of esoteric ideas, Mitch Horowitz is a writer-in-residence at the New York Public Library, and a PEN Award-winning author. He discussed his forthcoming book "Modern Occultism," which covers the sweeping history of the occult going back to ancient Egypt. Occult is a word that comes from Latin that means hidden or secret. During the Renaissance, when translators and, scholars, and religious authorities were rediscovering the spirituality of ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, they started referring to it as occult, and "It's a term that I've stuck with because I think it has historical integrity," he explained. Cleopatra, the ancient Egyptian ruler, did a lot to revive Egypt's mystery traditions, and in the wake of her death, "Greek scholars in the city of Alexandria, where she ruled, began to write down the esoteric philosophies, the secrets, the mysteries of Egyptian philosophy," and these became known as "hermetic" literature, Horowitz recounted.
In the more modern era, Madame Helena Blavatsky, a world traveler who came to America in the 1870s, did much to reinvigorate interest in the occult and alternative spirituality. He cited the historian Charles Fort as an inspirational figure in the field, who wrote about a variety of anomalous phenomena in the early 20th century before we had names like UFOs and Bigfoot to categorize them. Horowitz also talked about the development of parapsychology, which studies the paranormal or supernatural, and how the experiments of clinical laboratory psychologist Daryl Bem on precognition have been replicated and confirmed in the last decade. He also touched on the work of spirit medium Andrew Jackson Davis, psychiatrists Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, and occult practitioner and rocket scientist Jack Parsons.
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Forensic geologist Scott Wolter has participated in more than 7,000 material forensic investigations and is best known as the host of History Channel's "America Unearthed," which follows him on his quest to uncover the truth behind controversial historic artifacts. In the latter half, he talked about the Kensington Runes, possible treasure buried at Oak Island, and other mysteries he's investigated. Many artifacts suggest that North America was being visited far earlier than Columbus in 1492, he suggested. Regarding the Knights Templar, the Catholic Church wanted people to believe that they just disappeared into history, but the truth was the opposite, he stated. "They simply went underground and continued with their operations, and eventually, their ideological and biological descendants, who comprise the bulk of our Founding Fathers, finished the job of establishing that sanctuary, that new Jerusalem" as the United States of America, he remarked.
Wolter announced that he had been able to access a copy of the lost biblical text, the "Book of the Wars of the Lord." What he discovered was that it relates to the mysterious hooked X symbol of the runestones, which he interpreted as belief in a single God with balanced dualistic aspects. The lost book clearly indicates that "the feminine aspects of the Goddess are represented and on an equal level with the Lord, the male aspect," he revealed, and this is something that the patriarchal Church has tried to suppress. Wolter also discussed such topics as Masonic beliefs, the Rosicrucian Order, Atlantis, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Shroud of Turin (which he said was actually constructed by Leonardo da Vinci using a camera obscura).
News segment guests: John M. Curtis, Charles Coppes