A little blatant self-promotion, and then I’ll go away.
This Monday, the History Channel series Decoding the Past will air the episode “Nazi Prophecies”. A look at the occult influences that swirled around the Third Reich like banshees on speed, this will be the first time many viewers will have the chance to see Professor Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke in action, among others. Goodrick-Clarke is the author of The Occult Roots of Nazism, a scholarly and academic work describing the weird philosophers behind the growth of German irrationalism at the end of the first World War. I myself will appear, in my persona as author of Unholy Alliance: A History of Nazi Involvement with the Occult. This will mark the second time in the last five years that I have appeared talking about Nazi occultism (the last was the TNT special, Faces of Evil that aired in 2000).
The entire subject is one that has been bedeviled by speculation and conspiracy theories. A number of earlier books on the subject, such as Trevor Ravenscroft’s Spear of Destiny and Pauwels and Bergier’s Morning of the Magicians, were based on rumors and “propinquity” rather than on primary sources; if the sources were there, they were not identified and researchers had a terrible time tracking down the references to see if any of these theories could be proved: Was Hitler an occultist? Did the Nazis practice occult rituals? Was the SS a Satanic organization… etc etc.
As it turns out, much of the speculation actually had a basis in reality. The SS did send scientists and medical men to Tibet in 1938 … the same men who would come back and authorize horrific experiments in the death camps. Himmler did send an SS officer to search for the Holy Grail. And Hitler did read a lot of occult literature while penniless and starving in Vienna.
Article comments
1 - Rich Powers
Thanks for this post. I've always been intrigued by Nazi occult influences and the irrationalism that consumed Nazi leaders toward the end of the war. I remember an interview with a former high-ranking soldier who believed in all his heart that the Allies would be struck down as they entered Berlin by some magic force. In fact, the entire last year of WWII has elements of a sci-fi novel, between these occult beliefs and the super-secret “advanced” weapons the Germans hoped to put in production.
2 - Peter Levenda
Thanks for your comments! I agree. The last days of the Third Reich were like the first scenes of Rocky Horror. Anyway, as I say in my own book, the Nazi Party was not a political party in any generally accepted sense of the term: it was a cult, pure and simple. Look at the uniforms, the swastikas, the Nuremberg rallies, the race laws, the skull and bones emblems on the SS caps (oops! did I say "skull and bones"? sorry, what was I thinking? forgive me, George, John) the death camps... This isn't politics anymore, Toto.
3 - sonny
peter,
i'll be watchin. 'ouch' is right for the radio interview, tho. i'm EST ;)
'sinister forces' is great. i'm takin my time with it and lookin forward to vol. 2.
4 - drew hempel
Hi Peter: Glad to see your amazing research -- especially the gutsy trip to the Nazi stronghold -- is getting on cable and talk radio.
I'm curious if you've come across my expose on Andrija Puharich as the collaborator for what I've dubbed "the actual plan for the matrix"
I had my masters thesis (2001) published online and then discovered prof. oliver l. reiser had proposed the same applied superstring theory for an elite theosophist thinktank created by L.B.J. and the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton. He doesn't credit Puharich on the title of the book but states in the book that he continually consulted Puharich while writing the book and that the two of them created this manifesto for "The World Institute" set up to oversee the direction of elite technology.
The book is "Cosmic Humanism and World Unity" (1975) and Reiser's work was given the nod by Einstein. It is truly stunning!
Another summary of this research that Puharich co-wroter with Reiser is "the Real Matrix" -- I sent it into David Icke's website and it was published.
Please let me know if you were aware of this research that Puharich delved into and also what you think of its implications since it calls for a total transformation of the consciousness on earth.
drew hempel, M.A.