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TTC - The Great Courses - The Real History of Secret Societies

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Course Overview
The first rule of this course is you don’t talk about this course. The second rule of this course is YOU DON’T TALK ABOUT THIS COURSE.Welcome to The Real History of Secret Societies, a historical look at the true-life groups which, if you believe the myths, are the unspoken power behind some of the world’s major turning points, from controlling the British crown to holding back the electric car and keeping Martians and Atlantis under wraps.

Prepare yourself. In this course, brought to you in partnership with HISTORY®, you will be visiting some of history’s deepest rabbit-holes, across centuries and continents, in search of secret societies in all their varieties. You will journey to some very dark places and, frankly, some odd and sometimes silly ones as well. During 24 eye-opening lectures, Dr. Richard B. Spence, professor of history at the University of Idaho, guides you through the always fascinating, often mystifying—and sometimes disturbing—world of brotherhoods, sisterhoods, orders, cults, and cabals that have influenced human culture from ancient times to the present.

Not-So-Secret Societies

Despite the name, “secret” societies have permeated popular culture and become symbols of wonder, mystique, and rumormongering. Thanks to phenomena like Dan Brown’s best-selling novels, hit movies such as Skull and Bones, or hit songs by Madonna, the idea of secret societies has become utterly mainstream, allowing the general population to think they know about the most important parts of this clandestine underworld.

However, the commonly known groups barely scratch the surface of the number of real-life secret societies that exist. In fact, if one didn’t know better, one might think the popularization of a few groups is a conspiracy, in of itself, to cover up for the many that are never acknowledged…

With help from the archives of HISTORY, Professor Spence leaves no society uncovered, and will open your eyes to the history and evolution of factions you think you know, introducing you to fascinating and illuminating stories and insights. Consider:

The Illuminati—A group so pervasive in popular culture that their name has become synonymous with any generic conspiratorial group—noted throughout literature in everything from Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein to Marvel comic books. There are a variety of global groups which considered themselves Illuminati—or at least affiliated with them—but the Illuminati initially took root with a young lawyer who was obsessed with secrecy, rank and order, and creating a New World Order that echoed the promises of communism.
The Shriners—Founded by a wealthy New York Freemason, named William Florence, who enlisted a group of well-heeled masons to establish Mecca Temple, the first lodge of the Mystic Shrine. Exclusivity added to the mystique, growing the membership of The Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine to hundreds of thousands over time. They adopted a motto of “Fun and Fellowship,” and they are known for wearing red fezzes and seen riding small bikes or cars in parades, though they also founded a number of children’s hospitals.
The Freemasons—A group known for secret rings and handshakes, subtle symbology, dangerous initiation rituals, and a complicated hierarchy. You’d think with all this secrecy and protection of the group, the last place you’d find them is being parodied on The Simpsons. But the truth is that they are a hard organization to keep hushed up because there has never been just a single school of Freemasonry; many variations exist and they don’t play by the same rules.
Professor Spence also looks at groups who have become so ubiquitous in our history that it’s impossible to think of them as being secret, such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Mafia, the IRA, or the Nazi Party. But as Professor Spence explains, these were the groups which began to organize behind closed doors, and their original, secret—or at least exclusive—status was likely an impetus in the group’s successfulness and omnipresence. After all, half the power and draw of a secret society stems from the fact that everyone (secretly) wants to join one.

Myth and Reality
The time period from 1890–1930 is known as a “golden age of fraternalism,” when hundreds of lodges, mystical orders, and fraternal organizations came into existence in the United States. During this time, America accounted for more than half of the world’s Freemasons. And, millions of Americans were affiliated with lesser-known, oath-bound orders such as Odd Fellows, Red Men, Woodmen of the World, Knights of Columbus, B’nai B’rith, Elks, Owls, Eagles, and the Moose.

Some groups were organized to promote fellowship, mutual aid, or political and social causes during a trying time for the U.S. economy. Other groups took advantage of desperate times to turn groups of humans against each other, encouraging supremacy or separatism. Still, others simply came into existence for solely self-serving reasons and were not considered legitimate, yet their stories and reputations endure. Consider these groups:

U. S. Secret and Civil Service Society, Self-Supporting Branch—Founded by Arthur Rochford Manby to “combat nameless evils that regular authorities couldn’t, or wouldn’t, handle.” This society was a cover for Manby to receive money, deeds, and mortgages from his followers in order to partake in bootlegging, extortion, fraud, robbery, and murder for hire. It also solidified the secret society mantra of “join or die,” as Manby preyed on well-to-do citizens and then showed the new initiates how broken oaths of silence or obedience would result in a beheading.
The Learned Elders of Zion—A super-secret group of Jewish leaders purported to be bent on world domination through subverting the morals of non-Jews and by taking control of the press and the economy. Henry Ford fueled the fire of the Elders by paying for 500,000 copies of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to be printed and distributed in the United States in a fit of anti-Semitism. This guide was also taught by German school teachers after the Nazi’s came to power. The real history? This group never existed and the Protocols were a hoax.
The Priory of Sion—An uber-secret society claiming to be the restoration of an order dating back to the First Crusade in the 11th century that was created to protect the bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The society’s objective was supposedly to restore a descendant as the ruler of a unified Europe. However, it was nothing more than the concoction of a career con man, who had developed a complete pseudo-history that was picked up and repurposed by the likes of Leonardo da Vinci; Victor Hugo; Claude Debussy; and most recently, Dan Brown.
Secret societies, real or not, were often a mirror of their times, in some cases, reflecting exclusionary practices with religious, racist, or classist overtones. In other cases, they could be considered America’s first social welfare system, as many groups established programs to bridge the very divides caused by others.

But as much as these societies echoed the consciousness of America, they were fundamentally un-American. As Professor Spence points out, John F. Kennedy said in 1961: “The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings.”

A Personal Connection to History

Professor Spence opens each lecture with a story—a specific glimpse at another time, another place, and a real person or group who is connected in some way to the secret society being examined. This approach introduces you to these societies from both the inside-out and on a personal level. You’ll also get unprecedented access to images, photographs, and more, provided by HISTORY, which give you a true picture of what these societies looked like and how they were organized.

As you uncover secret and often now-defunct societies from around the world—including Ancient Greece, Japan, Korea, Ireland, Russia, France, Germany, and more—you’ll feel like you are there with them, whispering in underground meeting rooms or conspiring around a table in Bavaria. You’ll get to know the founders, leaders, and famous and influential members associated with these groups. And you’ll follow many of the well-known clandestine conspiracies back to their roots, through their uprising, their unearthing, and into the new secret societies that almost always sprang up to take their place.

Secret societies have attracted some of history’s most brilliant, and some of its most evil, minds. Often demonized by their enemies, many secret societies have become the stuff of myths and conspiracy theories. Why do they exist? And when they are invented or imagined, why would someone pretend they exist? What do secret societies believe? Who do they recruit? Most important, what influence do they have? Buckle up and get ready to find out.

26 Lectures

Average 29 minutes each

1
Small-Town Secrets

2
Secret Societies: The Underworld of History

3
The Knights Templar

4
Masonic Revolutions in America and France

5
Bolsheviks, Masons, and Russian Revolution

6
Adolf Hitler and the Thule Society

7
Synarchy, Schemers, and Vichy France

8
Ancient Mystery Cults

9
The Islamic Assassins

10
The Medieval Cathars

11
The Rosicrucians

12
The Illuminati

13
The Freemasons

14
Ireland's Secret War for Independence

15
Debunking the Elders of Zion

16
Mafia! Criminal Secret Societies

17
Aleister Crowley, Occultism, and Espionage

18
Red Octopus: The Communist International

19
Japan's Black and Green Dragons

20
Italy's Secret Government: The P2 Lodge

21
From the KKK to the Black Shriners

22
Bohemian Grove, Bilderbergers, and Elites

23
Secret Societies for Aging Swingers

24
Terrorism's Long Trail of Secret Cells

25
Secret Societies: The Never-Ending Story

26
UFOs and the Elusive George Hunt Williamson

INCLUDES Course Guide PDF

Comments

with some tasty tid-bits to dive into

tnx for sharing

laneigile wrote:

tnx for sharing

np,. will be uploading a lot of TTC Great courses stuff over the next month or so ;)

Thanks for uploading and ripping this. I don't think it is available in other TTC collections online.

TheCorsair00 wrote:

Thanks for uploading and ripping this. I don't think it is available in other TTC collections online.

aye, hadn't seen it and thought it'd go down a treat here.
some nice little snippets to then to pay attention to in more detail. I quite enjoyed it.

I started out of order. I had to start with the Aleister Crowley one and how he was involved in espionage. Very interesting!

How was he involved with espionage? I have not listened to this one yet. Can you elaborate a bit? Thank you in advance

The lecture traces Crowley's various infiltrations of secret societies and starts with a quote of his "I was employed by the Secret Service. My main object being to bring America into the war."

I remember reading about his involvement in espionage in the book "Secret Agent 666: Aleister Crowley, British Intelligence and the Occult": https://concen.org/node/41729

TheCorsair00 wrote:

The lecture traces Crowley's various infiltrations of secret societies and starts with a quote of his "I was employed by the Secret Service. My main object being to bring America into the war."
I remember reading about his involvement in espionage in the book "Secret Agent 666: Aleister Crowley, British Intelligence and the Occult": https://concen.org/node/41729

If i remember correctly, that book is by the man giving the lectures!

Thanks for the download

If Robert Anton Wilson was alive he would have narrated this series of lectures. Thanks for the great upload!!!

You can find "UFOs and the Elusive George Hunt Williamson" here:
https://thepiratebay.org/description.php?id=35157692

laneigile wrote:

You can find "UFOs and the Elusive George Hunt Williamson" here:
https://thepiratebay.org/description.php?id=35157692

it's not listed at the source i ripped it from
realhistsecret

It's listed in the description. It's not your fault, it's their mistake. Thank you for the effort. If you weren't uploaded it, I would miss this series which is really, really good.

laneigile wrote:

It's listed in the description. It's not your fault, it's their mistake. Thank you for the effort. If you weren't uploaded it, I would miss this series which is really, really good.

that's weird.. i hadn't noticed it was in the ep list at all tbh. i just lined up the episodes listed in the ripper and let rip.
Will try to get that last episode from, somewhere.

Thank you, Laneigile. That was the one lecture that caught my eye initially, too. I have also downloaded it from the link you shared. cheers for that

The link you provided goes to an mp3 while Pax's collection is mp4. Here is a link to get the missing mp4:
https://www.limetorrents.info/TTC--The-Real-History-of-Secret-Societies-...

Still, it is pretty basic and broad and not what I was hoping for. I, myself, am researching the history of UFO religions and cults. It is a fascinating topic which likely reaches back to the centermost shrine of most faiths. Funny that we think the "other" is alien when, in fact, the "I" is just as alien! Funny, too, that the meeting of the I with the Other should be so monumental. It just goes to show how far we have fallen

15
Debunking the Elders of Zion

there is no way to read this & not see it being used around you. so anyone whos "debunking" this is a liar.

which means there will be no truth in the other videos slanted towards this lie.

Reeferman wrote:

15
Debunking the Elders of Zion
there is no way to read this & not see it being used around you. so anyone whos "debunking" this is a liar.
which means there will be no truth in the other videos slanted towards this lie.

so because that episode doesn't agree with your world view the whole thing has no objective value?

pax wrote:

Reeferman wrote:
15
Debunking the Elders of Zion
there is no way to read this & not see it being used around you. so anyone whos "debunking" this is a liar.
which means there will be no truth in the other videos slanted towards this lie.

so because that episode doesn't agree with your world view the whole thing has no objective value?

First, thanks, Pax, not only for sharing this series but for sparking a little discussion here.

On this particular topic, I think we have hit the pith essence that all of us come back to here on these boards again and again. TheCorsair put it best, namely, the “Balkanization of epistemologies”. Or maybe we could also think of it as the trench warfare of ideas. So I definitely agree with Pax that not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. At the same time, if you replace “elders of zion” with “myth” or “archetype” than reeferman is correct: once you adopt a motif or mode of seeing the world, it is certainly hard *not* to see it around you. But the important thing is to remember that it is just one mode of seeing among many possibilities.

I personally would never hold EoZ as my archetype but I certainly hold the trickster spirit, or the enimgatic origin of language, or even the hypnotic vapors of Delphic oracles, as repeating in time and place throughout history.

I wonder if we often appear mindless to one another because we are bodiless on the web.

euxconcen wrote:

pax wrote:

Reeferman wrote:
15
Debunking the Elders of Zion
there is no way to read this & not see it being used around you. so anyone whos "debunking" this is a liar.
which means there will be no truth in the other videos slanted towards this lie.

so because that episode doesn't agree with your world view the whole thing has no objective value?

First, thanks, Pax, not only for sharing this series but for sparking a little discussion here.
On this particular topic, I think we have hit the pith essence that all of us come back to here on these boards again and again. TheCorsair put it best, namely, the “Balkanization of epistemologies”. Or maybe we could also think of it as the trench warfare of ideas. So I definitely agree with Pax that not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. At the same time, if you replace “elders of zion” with “myth” or “archetype” than reeferman is correct: once you adopt a motif or mode of seeing the world, it is certainly hard *not* to see it around you. But the important thing is to remember that it is just one mode of seeing among many possibilities.
I personally would never hold EoZ as my archetype but I certainly hold the trickster spirit, or the enimgatic origin of language, or even the hypnotic vapors of Delphic oracles, as repeating in time and place throughout history.
I wonder if we often appear mindless to one another because we are bodiless on the web.

it's a fascinating subject with a myriad of connecting threads,stories, legends and mythologies

Reeferman wrote:

15
Debunking the Elders of Zion
there is no way to read this & not see it being used around you. so anyone whos "debunking" this is a liar.
which means there will be no truth in the other videos slanted towards this lie.

Find the Vadim Skurativsky The Authorship Problem of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and read it.

laneigile wrote:

Reeferman wrote:
15
Debunking the Elders of Zion
there is no way to read this & not see it being used around you. so anyone whos "debunking" this is a liar.
which means there will be no truth in the other videos slanted towards this lie.

Find the Vadim Skurativsky The Authorship Problem of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and read it.

I can't find it in English
http://judaicacenter.kiev.ua/en/book/skuratovsky-protocols/
i will keep trying though

There is no English translation. After OCR with Google Docs you can translate complete book chapter by chapter. Vadim Skurativsky is historian and expert in language and semantics, very competent to do analysis of the work.

There are some out of sync problems with some files, for instance :
The Real History of Secret Societies_S01E06_Adolf Hitler and the Thule Society
------
Also, there is an important rare mentioning component here: Jews.

ttsoares wrote:

There are some out of sync problems with some files, for instance :
The Real History of Secret Societies_S01E06_Adolf Hitler and the Thule Society
------
Also, there is an important rare mentioning component here: Jews.

I am trying to figure that out. i line up the series in the ripper. most are fine but some are out of sound sync.
one series i downloaded in surveillance were all without audio no matter what i tried.
the ripper is new to me and has it's foibles it seems.
I will work to improve on it