Daniel Burstein - Secrets of The Lost Symbol: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind The Da Vinci Code Sequel

Secrets of

The Lost Symbol

The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind The Da Vinci Code Sequel

by Dan Burstein and Arne de Keijzer

Senior Contributing Editor
David A. Shugarts

Contributing Editors
Lou Aronica and Paul Berger

For Julie,

Who, for thirty-nine years, has been both my Aphrodite and

my Athena... and will always be so...

And for David,

Already so accomplished and so far down the road

of his unique heros journey...

Dan Burstein

For D,

A great and gentle man, sorely missed...

And, as ever, for Helen, and Hannah,

warvb loza ddd sysssrt fua xhe wagvet xr ql lika

Arne de Keijzer

Contents

by Dan Burstein

Chapter 1

by Dan Burstein

Chapter 2

by Arturo de Hoyos

by Mark E. Koltko-Rivera

by Mark A. Tabbert

by Warren Getler

by David D. Burstein

by Eamon Javers

Chapter 3

by Glenn W. Erickson

by Glenn W. Erickson

an interview with Ingrid Rowland

an interview with Thomas Levenson

Chapter 4

an interview with Steven Johnson

an interview with Jack Fruchtman Jr.

by Steven C. Bullock

by James Wasserman

an interview with Mitch Horowitz

Chapter 5

an interview with Rabbi Irwin Kula

an interview with Deirdre Good

by Marcelo Gleiser

commentary by Karen Armstrong and Richard Dawkins

an interview with George Johnson

Chapter 6

an interview with Lynne McTaggart

by Lou Aronica

by Marilyn Mandala Schlitz

an interview with William Arntz

by the Editors

Chapter 7

by David A. Shugarts

an interview with Heather Ewing

by the Editors

by the Editors

by David Plotz

Chapter 8

by Diane Apostolos-Capppadona

an interview with Michael Parkes

an interview with Jim Sanborn

by David A. Shugarts

by Mark E. Koltko-Rivera

by Elonka Dunin

Chapter 9

by David A. Shugarts

by Amir D. Aczel

Chapter 10

an interview with Michael Barkun

by Paul Berger

an interview with Jeff Sharlet

by David A. Shugarts

by Ron Hogan

by Hannah de Keijzer

Secrets of The Lost Symbol: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind The Da Vinci Code Sequel follows the same format as the earlier books in our Secrets series, Secrets of the Code, Secrets of Angels & Demons, and Secrets of Mary Magdalene .

Once again we have sought to provide a comprehensive readers guide to a fascinating and complex novel by carefully gathering original writing, extensive interviews with experts, and excerpts from books, publications, and Web sites. We are again intrigued by Dan Browns technique of weaving rich and historically important ideas into the heart of his action/adventure story. At the same time, Browns blending of real sources with the fictional needs of his plot sets off the question, what is fact and what is fiction in The Lost Symbol ? We have taken on the task of answering that question, exploring further the realm of history and ideas, and analyzing the plot points and devices used by the author.

We have taken care to distinguish our editors voices from the authors contributions by setting our introductory comments in bold. The text that follows is in the original voice of the author or interviewee. The attribution by the Editors means it was an original contribution by one of our contributing editors but written in the collective voice of the book. All material is copyrighted by Squibnocket Partners LLC unless otherwise indicated in the copyright notice that can be found at the bottom of the first page of the contribution.

Working with such a wide range of source materials, we have tended to regularize spelling and naming conventions in our own work, while leaving undisturbed the original spellings and conventions that appear in works that are excerpted here. For example, some experts refer to the Albrecht Drer etching used to provide a major clue to Robert Langdon as Melencolia I the intentionally misspelled name Drer himself gave it; others spell it more expectedly as Melancholia . We have tended to standardize on the former, which is also the spelling used by Dan Brown.

References to chapter numbers and cover artwork of The Lost Symbol often abbreviated as TLS refer to the U.S. edition published in September 2009. References to Dan Browns other works are sometimes shorthanded as DVC (The Da Vinci Code) and A&D (Angels & Demons) .

In giving readers a quick taste of the ideas and writings of a great many experts, we have inevitably had to leave things out we would have otherwise liked to use. We want to thank all the authors, interviewees, publishers, and experts who have so generously made their thoughts and materials available to us. In return, we urge our readers to buy the books written by our experts (often cited in our introductions as well as in the contributors section) and pursue the multitude of ideas referred to within these pages in their original sources.

by Dan Burstein

At precisely 3:01 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on September 15, 2009, my Kindle sprang to life soundlessly, unobtrusively. Two minutes later, it had downloaded Dan Browns new novel, The Lost Symbol. A few minutes after that, I was busy using the Kindles search function to ascertain if this was the book I had long thought it might be. I had a list and I started checking off the items... Freemasons? Check. Masonic rituals? Check. Washington, D.C.? Check.

Washington Monumentcheck.

George Washingtoncheck.

Benjamin Franklincheck.

Alchemycheck.

Isaac Newtoncheck.

Albrecht Drercheck.

Rosicrucianscheck.

Francis Baconcheck.

Invisible Collegecheck.

Capitol Rotundacheck.

The Apotheosis of Washington paintingcheck.

Hermes Trismegistuscheck.

House of the Temple headquarters of Scottish Rite Masonscheck.

Albert Pikecheck.

James Smithson and the Smithsoniancheck.

King Solomon and his templecheck.

The widows soncheck.

Thomas Jeffersoncheck.

Deismcheck.

Egypt, Greece, Sumercheck.

Kabbalah, Zohar, Old Testament, Gnostics, Buddhists, Hinduscheck.

Compasses, squares, magic squares, skulls, cornerstones, pyramids, pantheons, hieroglyphics, Zoroaster, codes, Kryptos, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Revelation, Apocalypsecheck.

So yes, this was, indeed, the book I had been expecting for more than five years... and now, in the late days of summer 2009, it was finally here.

My journey into the meaning of The Lost Symbol ( TLS )and the archaeology of this book that you now hold in your handsactually originated one night nearly seven years ago. Like many others, I came across The Da Vinci Code in the summer of 2003 when it dominated the bestseller lists. It was by a seemingly unknown author named Dan Brown. It sat by my bedside along with dozens of other unread books and all the other things typical of the competition for mind share in the complex, chaotic, information-intense world in which we all live.

Then one day I picked up The Da Vinci Code and started reading. I read all night, fascinated. I literally couldnt put it down. This kind of absorption in a book was an experience I used to have frequently in my younger years, but not so often in this season of my life, as I was then turning fifty. At one point, as I read the provocative assertion that there was a woman in Leonardo da Vincis The Last Supper and that the woman was Mary MagdaleneI got out of bed and pulled the art books down from our library shelves. I looked at the Leonardo painting that I had encountered, of course, hundreds of times previously. Yes, it really did look like a woman seated next to Jesus!