Parfrey Adam - Ritual America: Secret Brotherhoods and Their Influence on American Society, A Visual Guide

RITUAL AMERICA 2012 by Adam Parfrey and Craig Heimbichner

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Guess what Lodge I joined tonight?

Masonic Building at the 1964 Worlds Fair in New York

Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden.

Phaedrus (Roman fabulist, 15-50 B.C., the first writer to Latinize entire books of fables, retelling in iambic metre the Greek prose tales of Aesop.)

THE OVERT may hold keys to much of what has been programmed for our consumption, and hints to the covert exist right under our noses. Items hidden in plain sight are ignored by the general public, routinely.

Clichs all, yes, and this makes my point through the metaphor for how overused ideas and elements of communication eventually lose their effect. The numbing of the brain allows much to occur, nevertheless. All of what I have said above sounds like clichs, and you should not be surprised by hearing any of this. We have been conditioned, psychologically and intellectually, nevertheless, to understand much of the twilight language that is given to us in large doses daily, and then encouraged to move on mundanely in our work, play, and leisure lives, without being emotionally stirred. But an examination of what lies beneath the surfaces reveals through many techniques, such as the further explorations in onomatology (the study of names) and toponomy (the study of places), to note two of several areas that need to be mined and are utilized in this work.

America does not know much about the hidden landscape in which we live everyday. Buildings are built, cornerstones are laid, stadiums are constructed, ritualistic measurements are secured, and tomorrow comes. Streets are named, events are planned, and another new organization establishes itself in town. Most people are in a fog to such an extent that they hardly notice any of what is happening.

The book you hold in your hand is clearly the first comprehensive American treatment of the examination of the secrets subtly stored away for those who are on the inside and those looking in from the outside.

Dont you think it is time to wake up? Arent you curious about how and why certain things transpire in the way they have and do? Was the War Between the States begun because of a struggle between the northern and southern segments of a seemingly commonplace organization that has an overt presence in all communities in America? What is significant about the assassination of a President of the USA having occurred right across the street from the first site in Texas of the gathering of that organization? Why are there so many obelisks all over America, including one in our capital? What game played 162 times a year by hundreds of major league ball players has deeper hidden meanings? Americans have not been able to get the answers tied to the widespread covert reality because they hardly have realized they should be asking such questions.

This book is written to upset you, filled with specific examples you will not be able to ignore.

This tome shall make you think.

It is created to challenge every fiber of your critical thinking and wonder.

In the end, ponder the fact that even if one-fifth of what you read here is something you can consider as possible, what does that mean about what you really thought was happening, day to day?

Loren Coleman is a five-decades-long researcher, writer, and television personality, who holds degrees in anthropology-zoology and a MSW (Simmons, 1978). He is the author of 35 books, including