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Cults and Secret Societies

Cults and Secret Societies

Forbidden Knowledge Network 45 Episodes Oct 9, 2026

Cults and Secret Societies explores hidden groups, secret societies, and controversial movements that have shaped history from the shadows. Hosted by Ben Carter, each episode investigates rituals, hierarchies, psychological manipulation, and the systems of power behind these organizations through a structured, documentary-style approach. Examining historical context, belief systems, and influence, the series uncovers how these groups have impacted religion, politics, and global events.

Episodes

The Ku Klux Klan’s Secret Rituals: How a Terror Group Built a Hidden Fraternal System
The Ku Klux Klan’s Secret Rituals: How a Terror Group Built a Hidden Fraternal System Oct 9, 2026 1533 This episode examines the first Ku Klux Klan of Reconstruction, not the later organization revived in nineteen fifteen. In Pulaski, Tennessee, around May or early June eighteen sixty-six, a small circle of former Confederate soldiers formed a private fraternity with comic titles, disguises, initiation customs, and secrecy pledges. Within a few years, local dens across parts of the South were linke
The Thule Society: The Occult Circle at the Edge of Early Nazism
The Thule Society: The Occult Circle at the Edge of Early Nazism Oct 2, 2026 1550 In Munich after the First World War, the Thule Society presented itself as a selective association for Germanic antiquity while promoting völkisch racial nationalism, antisemitism, and counterrevolutionary politics. Organized by Rudolf von Sebottendorff, officially chaired by Friedrich Knauf, and rooted in the older Germanenorden, Thule occupied rooms in the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten, gained influen
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn: The Occult Society That Shaped Modern Magic
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn: The Occult Society That Shaped Modern Magic Sep 25, 2026 1317 In Victorian Britain, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn offered a private path into occult study through graded initiation, ritual, symbolism, and restricted instruction. Founded in 1888 by William Wynn Westcott, William Robert Woodman, and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, it drew physicians, artists, actors, writers, and patrons, including Florence Farr, Annie Horniman, W. B. Yeats, Moina Ma
The OTO: The Occult Order Behind Aleister Crowley
The OTO: The Occult Order Behind Aleister Crowley Sep 18, 2026 1762 Ordo Templi Orientis, or OTO, is often remembered through Aleister Crowley, but it began before him in the early twentieth-century world of European occult fraternities, irregular Freemasonry, Rosicrucian systems, and competing claims to secret initiation. Its formative figures were Carl Kellner and Theodor Reuss. Crowley entered later, bringing Thelema, the religious and philosophical system base
The Knights Templar: The Secret Order That Became Too Powerful
The Knights Templar: The Secret Order That Became Too Powerful Sep 11, 2026 1690 In France, on Friday the thirteenth of October, thirteen hundred and seven, King Philip the Fourth ordered the mass arrest of the Knights Templar, one of medieval Christianity’s most privileged military-religious orders. Founded in Jerusalem in the early twelfth century to protect pilgrims and defend crusader territory, the Templars grew into a transnational institution of monks, warriors, estate
The Solar Lodge: The LSD Cult Linked to a Child Locked in a Box
The Solar Lodge: The LSD Cult Linked to a Child Locked in a Box Sep 3, 2026 1629 In nineteen sixty-nine, deputies entered a remote desert property near Vidal and Blythe, California, connected to Solar Lodge, a small occult initiatory group led by Georgina “Jean” Brayton. The group drew on Aleister Crowley-derived ritual systems, disputed O.T.O.-related claims, communal property, initiation, internal hierarchy, and, according to later insider accounts, LSD used as a sacrament i
The Unification Church: How the Moonies Built a Global Religious and Political Network
The Unification Church: How the Moonies Built a Global Religious and Political Network Aug 28, 2026 1763 On July eighth, twenty twenty-two, former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated during a campaign speech in Nara. The accused killer said his anger came from his family’s financial ruin after his mother donated vast sums to the Unification Church, and from Abe’s perceived connection to a Moon-linked peace organization. That killing forced Japan to examine decades of relationships bet
The Finders: The Cult Panic That Became a CIA Conspiracy
The Finders: The Cult Panic That Became a CIA Conspiracy Aug 21, 2026 1942 In February nineteen eighty-seven, police in Tallahassee, Florida, found two well-dressed men with six dirty, hungry children in Myers Park. The adults were linked to the Finders, a secretive Washington-area communal organization centered around Marion David Pettie, a former Air Force master sergeant known to followers by names including the Stroller and the Game Caller. Within days, investigators
The Secret Religion of the Elite: What They Actually Believe
The Secret Religion of the Elite: What They Actually Believe Aug 14, 2026 1933 For centuries, rumors have claimed that presidents, monarchs, bankers, aristocrats, and cultural elites secretly belong to one hidden religion. The historical record does not support that claim. But it does show something more complex: influential people have repeatedly entered initiatory fraternities, esoteric orders, private lodges, and ritual societies built around secrecy, graded knowledge, sy
The Illuminati: The Original Secret Society and Its Alleged Survival
The Illuminati: The Original Secret Society and Its Alleged Survival Aug 7, 2026 1667 Before the modern Illuminati became a symbol of hidden global power, there was a documented secret order in Bavaria. Founded on May first, seventeen seventy-six, by Adam Weishaupt, the Bavarian Illuminati recruited educated and influential men, used pseudonyms and hierarchical ranks, expanded through Masonic circles, and claimed to pursue Enlightenment reform through secrecy and indirect influence
The Order of Nine Angles: The Extremist Occult Network Authorities Fear
The Order of Nine Angles: The Extremist Occult Network Authorities Fear Jul 31, 2026 1569 The Order of Nine Angles, also known as ONA or O9A, is not a conventional secret society with a public leader, headquarters, or known membership list. It emerged from the United Kingdom in the late twentieth century through occult writings associated with the name Anton Long, whose identity has often been linked by researchers to British extremist David Myatt, a connection Myatt has disputed. O9A
Bohemian Grove: The Elite Ritual Hidden in the Redwoods
Bohemian Grove: The Elite Ritual Hidden in the Redwoods Jul 17, 2026 1908 Each July, the private Bohemian Club gathers at Bohemian Grove, a secluded redwood retreat near Monte Rio, California. Founded in San Francisco in eighteen seventy-two by journalists, artists, actors, and musicians, the club later became associated with presidents, cabinet officials, military leaders, financiers, media figures, corporate executives, university heads, and other prominent men. Its m

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