The Magic Lantern

The Technology of REM

The magic lantern, an invention which dates to the 1600s, was a precursor of the slide projector and thus, ultimately, of the cinema projector and even television, gaming console, smartphone, and more. The lantern was a device capable of projecting images painted on glass onto a wall or screen. Initially, it was illuminated by candle light, then by kerosene lamps, and eventually electricity. The magic lantern was also a mainstay of Freemasonic lodges. With the magic lantern, esoteric symbols were cast onto the wall as a means of instructing and indoctrinating initiates. We are today so inundated with media that we forget how powerful that original projected image really was. Hypnosis was inherent to the magic lantern, as it is with television, cinema, video games, and even books. The familiar image of hypnosis is the swaying lancet case; later it was a pocket watch, emblem, or pendulum. The subject is instructed to focus his attention for a sustained period of time on a designated bright object. Ideally, this object is placed above the forehead, producing the greatest possible strain upon the eyes and eyelids. This strain induces drowsiness and a state of surrender and suggestibility in the subject, as he obediently focuses solely on the object.

With the magic lantern, initiates were made to view particular symbols, the meanings of which were revealed only in stages, partially, as degrees were attained. The initiates were first given platitudinous interpretations of symbols; later, deeper ones. The intention, it appears, was to bring subjects “under the spell” of these symbols, while keeping them “mysterious.” This was necessary, after all, Freemasonry was, as Hilaire Belloc identified, a “bridge between [Jews] and their hosts.”¹ More so, it was, like Christianity, a Jewish invention developed for mobilizing Aryan energies and putting an Aryan face on a Jewish mission. Issac Mayer Wise, lauded in his New York Times obituaries as “the foremost rabbi in America” and “the Moses of America,” put it thusly:

Masonry is a Jewish institution whose history, degrees, charges, passwords, and explanations are Jewish from the beginning to the end, with the exception of only one by-degree and a few words in the obligation.”²

The rabbi was also a Mason.³ Thus Freemasonry remained mysterious out of necessity. An initiate would be lavishly enriched by the Lodge and invited to become friends with fellow participants. His character, carefully evaluated over decades, might be compromised by certain Lodge-encouraged activities. He could be corralled by implied threats. Then, perhaps, Master Masons or even revealed Jews might directly address him as servant, and with no feeling of contempt or hostility. After all, though he was beneath them, they had lifted him far above his peers, whom he had gained every right to despise.

Cinema, television, the internet, and video games made the magic lantern obsolete, with the advanced equivalency suddenly placed in everyone’s living room or even in his pocket. Yet the religion and its high priests remained, ethnically, the same. Indeed, experience since Sumer taught these men the power of the temple and its symbols and idols, in all of the chthonic cults they founded. This is power one does not relinquish, whatever the costs. One is happy to do business at a loss when bigger things are at stake.

Here we should not dwell too long on Freemasonry, so as not to leave the impression that this book is a study of secret cabals or conspiracies. To the contrary, one of the most remarkable things about JEM is that it is hiding in plain sight. At the core of Freemasonry, as well as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and any mystery religion, lies the element of entertainment. Mystery and deception are themselves entertainment. The audience watches the story to see what is revealed, yet underneath lie meanings never to be revealed, left to simmer in the unconscious mind. Plato was well aware of the power of the shadows on the wall of the cave, as we discuss below (III, §4). Here more than anywhere exists a profound instinct to be entertained, to be the “little child” (Matthew 18:3) or “sheep” (Matthew 25:32), and listen to the grinning, cryptic wise man. This lies at the core of the mystery religion and its success. We want to be entertained, and storytelling is the original form of knowledge transmission. We find assurance in believing that something is above us. We want to serve and listen to something higher. Naturally, this will be whatever we perceive as most powerful. Jews understand themselves as “above” and “chosen.” Aryans have for centuries failed to assume the active, adult responsibility. But at the heart of this instinct to be entertained lies weariness, laziness, cowardice, femininity, passivity, a vulnerability to flattery, and an insensibility to insult. The active rule the passive in every case. The magic of the lantern is for us to wield, not to receive.

1. Hilaire Belloc, The Jews (London: Constable & Company, 1922), 223.

2. “Sorrow in this City” and “Career of Rabbi Wise,” New York Times, March 27, 1900. Wise made this remark in the August 3, 1855 issue of The Israelite.

3. Rev. Dr. David Philipson, “Reminiscences of Isaac M. Wise,” Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, 19 (1910): 264.