How Freemasons Work

we should apologize for cutting in like this. I know we're gonna we have some important information that we usually reserve for the end of our show, but we realize that some people tune out, so it's at the beginning this time. Yes, um, we have well we're going to south By Southwest. We're hoping to write. Yeah, we're we're up for an interactive panel and um, we need everybody's votes. The last chance to vote is today, the day this

comes out, actually tomorrow, it's Friday Friday. All you have to do is go to panel Picker dot s x s W dot com, slash ideas, slash views slash six eight one seven, I guess it's ours. Yeah, That like takes you directly to the page where you can vote on us, and when you try to vote, it'll say, oh wait, you got a register and it takes like forty seconds to register and they will not spam you. Right, So basically, please go register force because we'd love to

have a panel in south By Southwest. It's just cool. Want to go and chuck south By Southwest reminds me of something else that will conclude our national tour, which we're kicking off here in Atlanta on October. Yes, we are having like we did in New York, We're having an all star trivia event here in Atlanta oct then five or six other secret to be named later cities. Right. Yes, we're gonna be all over the place. We're gonna be touring the country playing people in trivia, having a good time.

It'll be fun. It'll be during the week kind of break up that that week day were not any kind of thing, probably Wednesdays or something. I think over the next well up until March. Between now and March, so keep an eye out, because um, we actually did spread it out geographically as much as we could to get as many people there as possible. Details will follow and it's gonna be a lot of fun. Okay, that's it, right. Uh yeah, back to our regularly scheduled program. Let's avoid

the whole conspiracy thing. I don't even think we should bring up any conspiracies. Sorry, it's gonna happen. Yeah, it's a little a little difficult to talk about Freemasons, which is what we're talking about today, without talking conspiracy, and for good reason too. Um. They are one of the more secretive orders ever created. What we just talked about, Like brick and stone work the whole time. You gotta get the proper mixture and you gotta get the trial

just right. I know how to make a mixed mud is what it's called mortar. Yeah, it's I can. I can whip up a pretty good batch of bit. Man, you built a fire pit, right I did. I've built um, walkways, walls, all sorts of stuff. I guess you could call me a mason, butt chuck. That would be a rough mason, not a Freemason, which is the big distinction that we'll get to eventually. Right, But first, let's talk about what's going down in Boise, Idaho. Right now, I have no

idea what's going on there. Well, I can tell you there's a guy named Crispin her Tongue, and he was summoned to Boise Lodge number two, ancient Free and accepted Masons of the Grand Lodge of Idaho, basically to explain himself for going ahead and founding another lodge called the Practice Lodge, which is considered a modern lodge, and the brothers at um the Boise Lodge number two wanted to know why he had done this because it basically flies in the face of the tenants of Freemasonry, at least

as far as the York or no Scottish right Mason rigos, which I guess is what most American lodges are, right, Yeah, because they were from England. The Scottish right is England and the other one is French, right, right, So this guy's this. The Practice Lodge is aligned with the Grand Orient of France and basically that they don't require that there be volume of sacred Law present as part of the indispensable part of the furniture of the lodge. On quoting. Uh,

this Practice Lodge allows discussion of religion in politics. Yeah, you're not supposed to do that. No, and um it. It doesn't require that members believe in a supreme being, so he just he's not a Mason. No, he was, and he went and founded a practice lodge, a secular lodge. The guy's a secular humanist. And he was excommunicated, expelled from the Boise Lodge number two. Did they burn his bowels?

They didn't because he didn't share any secrets. But this kind of stuff actually gives you a glimpse of you know, what the Masons are all about, Chuck so it. They are a very secret secret order, but they over time, like little things have come out. Um in this article will reveal the name of God. Um the secret word that gets you to like the next level after the

third degree. There's all sorts of like it's it's the least secret secretive order as far as you know, I would think they would have changed this stuff if you can, like read these secret passwords on our website. Wouldn't have changed it by now? Well, but think about it. I mean, like, are you going to change God's name? You can't. It's just kind of like and yeah, everything you've heard is true. This is this is God's names. You're glad you made it to the fourth degree. Now, so let's talk about

the history of the Mason's right. There's a lot of competing theories of where the Masons came from. Yeah, that they range from once we won't talk about as much, like ancient druids or the isis Osiris cult in ancient Egypt to um, my favorite story, and this one I think holds a little bit of credence for sure because they still part of their rituals involved the story. So it seems like it might be the way or else they just selected the story and they're sticking with it. Yeah.

Maybe so. Uh, way back in the day, King Solomon's Temple in nine seven b c. Was built in Jerusalem, and uh, there was a master builder, a master mason name here, I'm a beef who claimed to know the secret to the temple, because you've gotta have a secret if you're gonna build a temple or temple. And uh, three men kidnapped him one day, threaten to kill him if he didn't reveal the secret. He apparently said, no way, I'm not gonna do that, so he was promptly killed.

And then King Solomon heard about this and ordered some masons and these were Stonemasons at the time. You know, it's regular Stonemasons was before the whole Freemason thing, right, I don't know. Well, that's where I'm going with and uh, he said bring his body back here and bring back the secret of the temple. Did not work. So he says, well, you know what, I'm gonna establish a new secret. And here it is, and here it is. It is Maha bone. That's the secret. The secret is a word, and the

word mahabone means the grand Lodge door opened. The secret um is the password that they used to enter the third degree of masonry. So if you were thinking, I'd like to become a Mason, but I want to start out at the third level. I don't want to become an apprentice, right, just go ahead and go into a Masonic lodge and say maha bone and they'll be like I would say mahabon a and they would like, uh, yeah, you mispronounced it, or you just leave the h out.

It would be like, so, um, that is the that's the that's the party line of the Mason's um of where they came from. Uh. Probably the more likely explanation is the um boring. Right. I think it's kind of interesting though. I like it because most of the teas

are crossed and the eyes are dotted. But um, in the Middle Ages, masons were a well, there were two kinds, like we said, there were rough masons like me just jerk soon you how to mix mud together and could you know, work with stone that was pretty tough to screw up because they were so big. Or there were free craft mason's stonemasons or freemasons, um, that worked with intricate carvings and soft stone. Free stone is like the soft stone that that you can actually carved designs into.

And it took some serious skill, right, So to protect their wages, to make sure that they were differentiated in the minds of employers like the church or right, um, they they initiated trade guilds, right exactly. Um. These trade guilds founded lodges where they stored their tools, their secret tools,

and there they ate and basically hung out together. And then after a while they just went the extra mile and said, you know what, Um, I want to make sure that there's no rough masons at our at our lodge, so we're gonna come up with secret handshakes, passwords, that kind of stuff. Yeah, and there the Masons were born. Yeah, and that that one makes sense too. Uh, And then we can't talk about any of us without talking about the Knights Templar for a second, because we've gotten railed

about the Knights Templar with the Friday thirteenth show. Yeah, we have, so, for goodness sakes, the Knights Templar is another theory, and um, the deal there was the Knights Templar. There were monks that basically guarded a passage from Jaffa to Jerusalem to protect Christians on their way, and they were pretty rough apparently, and they at one point discovered King Solomon's uh witches in the temple. They're like, there's the real secret. Yeah, and it was apparently the biggest,

you know, stock of cash. It was probably just dollar bills, is my guests, and they took it all and King Philip, what is that the fourth of France said, arrest all those dudes so I can get their money that they just stole. And they were imprisoned and then it's a bit of a mystery of what happens. But one theory is that after they were released from prison, they went into hiding and emerged as freemasons later on. Right, That's

one theory that's just yet another theory. And um, King Philip the fourth may or may not have had them arrested on a Friday. Oh was that the deal? So chuck. Um, there's a couple of theories and probably the likeliest theory of where Freemasons came about. Um, we know that modern Freemasons, we can trace their history pretty pretty well. Yeah. Um. Over time, you know, we've got these miss Onic lodges and they're just kind of hanging out and it's really

like a trade guild. Um, and only what are called operative Masons could join. Yeah, that's literally people who were Stonemasons, right. Um. The thing was these these um free stone Masons or Freemasons kind of fancy themselves. Like I think they cultivated their intellectualism as if way to further separate themselves from rough Masons. And so they started like having discourse at these lodges and talking and they developed they're so smart,

they developed a philosophy, right. Um. And one of the one of the big I guess tenets of Freemasonry is religious tolerance. Right. Yeah. While being they were very liberal religiously speaking, they didn't like the hardcore Catholic rules and later on I think, well, a couple of things happened. Catholics were for forbidden to join Freemasons at one point by one of the popes, right, and then I think

that went away. And then at one point they were accused of not allowing Catholics and as a Freemason, but they said that's not true either, right um. And again we saw that in that thing that's going down in Boise right now that you um that to be like as a typical Masonic lodge, you have to have a sacred volume. But in keeping with that religious tolerance idea um. There it can be any thing like the Koran. It can be the the Jewish Old Testament, the Talmud right um,

or the New Testament, the Bible um. But you have to believe in a supreme being. That's that's another major tenant of freemasonry. Um. The thing is is it wasn't necessarily like the Christian God, and the idea of religious tolerance of believing in what's called the Grand architect um that definitely jibes with Enlightenment thoughts. So these Masonic lodges where like you had to be a Mason who could carve into stone, started attracting people who were basically tourists, yeah,

like artists and aristocrats. All of a sudden there was this cool club and they says, well, I want to be a Mason because you guys get together and you're all smart, and you talk about stuff that's neat and secret. And so they started letting in uh, speculative instead of operative Freemasons. They started letting in speculative Freemasons, and and speculative with as a word as a word yes, And it became basically like the fraternity gentleman's type of club

that it is today. Right, that was like the beginnings of that gentleman's club is a well, gentleman is the operative word, because, um, the Freemasons have never allowed women in except in some very very unique circumstances. Um. There was one, famously, a woman named Elizabeth Aldworth who was called eavesdropping on a Masonic um, I guess discussion or whatever, and um, they found her and said, okay, you can join,

so they inducted her. I think it was one of those deals where like, well, gosh, she knows the deal now, right, but the the I guess the I don't know if funny is the right word, but The reason that they gave for not um admitting women was they were afraid that women were going to distract the guys from their intellectualism. Sure's clearly a division of the higher self and the lower self, and they associated the lower self with women. And then secondly, um that women were too gossipy and

would reveal their secrets. Right, and apparently Elizabeth would like go around town after that wearing her her Masonic clothes, her apron, her apron. Really, that's what I heard. I just told me, like word on the street. Um, chuck, go ahead, Well, I was just I should mention officially. In seventy three, their constitution was written by a Scott Scott his freemason named James Anderson almost at Alexander and he uh. This was basically the first official set of

like laws and rituals and stuff. So that's in place in right, and five years prior to that, four Masonic lodges in London combined to form the first Grand Lodge,

and that tradition has been followed in the States. There's typically one Grand Lodge in a state, and you gotta answer to that lodge, right, especially if you start a secular lodge, right, we should mention quickly to though, since you mentioned the female member, there are a couple of sort of spinoffs that are all females called one's called the Order of the Amaranth and one's called the Order of the Eastern Star, and those are for the ladies. Do you want to get all of Masonic right? So, Chuck,

let's talk about American Freemasonry. Yeah, why not? So like we said that the whole Enlightenment movement really became fond of the um ideas of Freemasonry. And you know, there's there's a lot of um uh conspiracy theory about whether or not you know, America was founded by Mason's and yes, it indeed was, to which a large degree for sure. George Washington, you could make a case that he helped

found America. He was a Mason, Benjamin Franklin Mason UM and several other guys who signed the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and ten of them signed the articles officially. So it's some people say it's one of the miss that like everybody that was signed the Constitution was a Mason.

Not true, no, but enough where that you can't say they had a real hand in in shaping the United States and actually, um, like the dollar bill, the pyramid with the eye above it is about as Masonic as

it gets. The Mason's love their symbology. UM. And I read an explanation in um U S News and World Report, which means it's true by a guy who has written about UM well mysticism in America UH named Mitch Horowitz, right, and he basically explained that what this, what the unfinished pyramid with the eye floating over it means is you know, we are as humans are capable of great acts of of engineering and technology, and probably you could extend that

to you know, kindness and generosity, UM. But we couldn't finish anything unless um it's blessed by Providence, which is represented by this ie. So it's a hopeful symbol in that just pyramid will eventually be finished, We will eventually be successful because Providence winks upon us. That's one explanation. I'm sure there's like five million other explanations that include everything from like the Nazis to um caligula. But that's

that's what I understand. That means in Nazistic khaliyah. That's pretty wide range. The point is, though, is that there there is a Masonic symbol on our dollar bill. Yeah, which makes me wonder if the Knights Templar found the dollar bills at this Temple of Solomon. Maybe maybe they got that. That's so that all the singles, they're like, let's make it rain all it makes sense. Uh. There's also a theory that they were, um, some Masons were

had actually organized the Boston Tea Party and the French Revolution. Yeah, at the St. Andrew's Lodge in Boston. And there's a couple of reasons they point to. One is that they did not meet the night of the Boston Tea Party, and then there was some letter t on one of their scrolls, and that's sort of been called out as maybe there were some there, maybe there weren't. But amazingly, the Boston Tea Party has still remained a secret to this day, like all those dudes wore secrecy and with

a dent verification cannot happen at this time. It sounds pretty Masonic. Yeah, true. So Um, after the American Revolution, the successful Masonic overthrow of the British rule, Um, basically the American Mason said, hey, you know we were under your the purview of the provincial lodge. We gotta go there, we can't. We gotta make a clean break with everything here, including masonry. So they formed their own official lodges in in the United States and it kind of took off. Um.

In America. You've got the York right and the Scottish right, and the York like you said, is French, and the Scottish Rite follows the English traditions. Um. And apparently the French tradition is the one that's secular. Uh, Scottish tradition. You have to have that sacred volume and in a belief in a supreme being. Um. And you can't talk about religion or politics under the Scottish Rite, right. Yeah, and we had Scottish Rite hospital here too. I never

really thought about that until I read this. Yeah. I think in the Shriners as well. That's an other example of UM of their Mason's. Yeah, that was kind of an offshoot of Mason's that Shriners with their fun little cars that they drive around in. Um. So, Chuck, let's talk about religion, right, Okay. A lot of people think that it is a that that freemasonry is religion in and of itself. Probably not true. Yeah, I mean they say this is what I don't get. They say that

you have to believe in God under the Scottish Rite. Well, yeah, that's the first question they ask you when you get in, you know, in your little ceremony there. But if you're if you're following a Scottish rite exactly. But then they also, on the other hand say, but we're not even allowed to talk about religion in our meetings, right, So what's

going on there? Um? I don't know. I think it's probably like one of those things where they just figured out pretty early on after having held meetings for centuries that they're like, wow, you just can't bring up religion and politics. That ticks everybody off. Believe me, don't go

their friend right. They also, um, don't follow the traditional um Judeo Christian view of God as a supreme being necessarily because they call God the great architect of the universe, which actually sounds pretty day is to me a right good um. But again, you have to believe in God. You can't talk about it, but you have to swear an oath upon a sacred sacred volume right or book of the sacred Law, which could be a Koran at

the Townward or the New Testament. Yeah, they're kind of open minded to an extent, as long as you believe in God, as long as you tell any secrets, because we'll burn your bowels. Right. So, if you want to become a Mason, right, and you you have picked up that, you've said that your bowels maybe burned if you give away secrets. You've come to terms with that. You want to enter the brotherhood, what do you do? Well, you have to be sponsored. You have to fill out your application.

Basically you gotta get two sponsors from the same lodge to say, you know, to vouch for you. I guess. Then you're voted on, voted in by a secret ballot. Um you're asked whether or not you believe in God, and you have to answer yes. Imagine if you say no, then they'll just say it's probably isn't the place for you. Then they'll point you to the French Orient. And you

have to have a little bit of money. I mean, you don't have to be rich, but you have to pay the dues and keep your dues up like any club. And you're expected to be um philanthropic too. And if you don't take part in that stuff is probably frowned upon. So you gotta have a little bit of money, right, and um, once you are accepted, you start out as an inner apprentice and you're initiated, right, Yeah, this is

this is pretty fun. And they do they they have to you have to tell the story of the King Solomon's temple and um, Hiram abiff and and basically you acted out, you act out this tradition in blindfold, and then you are you are Hiram a brief or abe and you were murdered and you pretend like you're dead and you're reborn and you're a mason. Now, yeah, I'm really curious about this, you know, the artistically way they

give you there. Yeah. And and also I can't I can't get the image of slacks out of my head. Like there's some guys wearing the clothes that he's wearing at work, which is doctor's high Yes, slacks, right and and like a short sleeve button down, acting out that he's just died and is reborn. I'm hoping that there's like a robe involved or something. Just kind of sure dead in any any fashion choices. So that's kind of

you know, it's interesting ritualistic for sure. Uh. Then then you begin you're your you know, your rise to the top. Although they say that most Freemasons don't get above like what like three degrees right out of the thirty there's thirty three wells in the French tradition. Um, but the I guess the Scottish right is thirty three degrees of freemasonry. And as you graduate, you get more secrets told and more threats against telling those secrets. Well, go ahead and

tell them the threats. I know you're chumping at the bit for that. And the Masons, we should say, by the way, deny this. They this is this is speculation. But this has come out supposedly from other Masons, that this is the punishment for revealing secrets. Yes, so apparently if you're an apprentice, which is the first level, and you tell secrets, your tongue is torn out, uh free craft which uh what numbers that? That's is the second degree? Really wow? Uh they will actually tear your heart out,

which would probably end it for you. And then the master Mason is the famous bowel burning that I've been speaking up for fifteen minutes now, and one one has to imagine that they're burning your vowels a lot. It's not like they suffcate you with the pillow and then burn your vowel like you're probably alive while your bowels will be are being burned. Yeah. And the first time I read this, I thought, I said, your bowels are turned, and I thought that was some ancient like like being

drawn and quartered. I was like, oh my gosh, your bowels are turned them. That must be awful. But then I thought it was burned, which is even worse. They just go Joan Collins and you're like, oh, my bowels are turned. Uh. And then if you're a royal Arc, then you have the top of your skull sliced off, which is no fun for anyone. No, again, presumably you're alive, and we should say the Masons still say this is

not true. Um. But when you get to that third degree, the end of the third degree, the Master Mason degree, and you have kept the secrets, your bowels are intact, and your heart's fine and your tongue is fine. Um, you finally get the name of the Arc, great architect of the universe as part of your initiation to the um hot Holy Royal arch which is like the fourth degree. Right, So, Chuck, what is the name of the great architect of the universe? Are we going to reveal this? It's in the article. Uh.

It is yab Yabulan, That's what it is. And apparently that stands the j a H stands for Yahweh, which is the Hebrew god um or God for Hebrew in Hebrew. Right, and Yahweh meant I am in Hebrew? Oh? Really? Uh? And the b u L is for is for ball b a a l, which is the ancient Canaanite fertility god. And then honest now you don't want to mess with him, right, and honest for Osiris, Yeah, the Egyptian god of the underworld. Right.

So basically what you've got is like this, three different aspects you have like life, death, sex, existence, you know, embodied by these different gods and then all combined together, which is convenient. Yeah. So which degree is your favorite? Did you look these over? Yeah? My favorite is King of the Brazen Serpent. Yah. My second favorite was the Intimate Secretary. There's also the eighth degree is the Night of the Pelican an Eagle and Sovereign Prince Rose craw

of herod Um. Yeah, that's pretty good too. Yeah, there's so many Masons that are like, you guys are making fun of us jerks, We're not. I'm not Timothy Hutton's out there angry? Is Hutton? Amazon? Turk one two is a livid right now? He's Amazon? Wow, I gotta list. We'll go over that later, okay. And I'm sure that you have movie references too, I expect. No, not really crazy. So, Chuck flint Stones, what was that the Royal Order of Buffalo that was the littally forgot about? Yeah, they were

the big guh Yeah, buffalo hat. They had faces right with like horns coming out of him. Was it the water buffalo? It seems like water buffalo. Maybe it was water buffalo. Wow. Yeah, he just blew my mind. Man, I forgot all about that. I had too until just now. So, Chuck, you've entered a lodge. Let's say you're up to the third or fourth degree. You're not running around Idaho forming quote irregular lodges um and you are vying for office. Let's say, what are some of the um positions available

to you at a typical lodge. Well, it starts up top as the with a senior warden well I'm sorry. There's a master. That's the top, that's the guy who's running the show of the lodge making sure everything is abided by abode by. So you got the senior warden after that. In a junior warden, you've got a treasurer. Of course, there's always a treasurer. There's a secretary that writes down everything that's going on. You've got a senior and a junior deacon. Now I've met a senior or

junior deacon. I don't know which. I really got which one he was, but you mean, and I toured the George Washington Memorial Masonic Lodge and Alexandria, Virginia. It is awesome. Cool, I'll put that on my list. Yes, you should my bucket list. We we actually signed up Ben Bolan from um stuff. They don't want you to know to their email. That's awesome. Yeah, we'll talk about that in a second. To uh. And then it depends on where the lodge is and what's how their structure. But you can also

have an inner guard. It's like it's sort of like a bouncer um, a chat, a chaplain, director of ceremonies, and an organist. Yeah, just just just for flair. Then then then then then then then that you know, you know, I equate organists with slacks, do you all I think about his baseball. I used to think of church, Now I think of baseball. Let's let's talk quickly about the symbology.

There's so much to it, but the very standard. If you look at the Mason symbol, it's a it's a right angle ruler, a compass, and a G. Right, take it away, Chuck. Well, the g's stands for either God or geometry, which was obviously a pretty sacred thing to a Mason, a Stonemason. And they, you know, to either God or geometry. My money's on geometry. I would say geometry too. And uh, the square actually is means something and encourages you to be a a square dealer, essentially

like sling blade says. And then you have the compass, which stands for creating boundaries in life. Right, and there you have it. There you have that. That's their symbol and what it means. All right, I guess it is time for um conspiracy theory. Maybe, yeah, we gotta throw this in there. If you ever suspected the Masons of having in their past um uh, an allegiance or a confederacy with a group called the Illuminati, who has spent on throwing over the Church and government in a stab

wishing a new world order. You're actually right, let's hear it. Uh. There was a guy named Professor Adam Wis shouted, why shopped by shopped We'll go with that one who in the eighteenth century founded this group called the Illuminati. And the Illuminati basically said, we think that government's corrupt, we think that the church is corrupt, and we need to get rid of them. But this is not something that you can do in the open. So we're gonna form

a secret society. And speaking of secret societies, we like you Mason's in Bavaria, So let's hook up. Let's do this together. You're really doing it, right. So the Mason's in Bavaria and the Illuminati hung out for a while, uh, joined forces. And then the Mason's realized that these guys were going to get them all killed, and they they broke off their um engagement with the Illuminati, and their

date with destiny was postponed. Right, So, what I thought was nice was the government, but various said no, no, no, Illuminati, you need to disband, which they supposedly did and scene. But we since we're talking about conspiracies, we need to say some people still think that they're involved together and that they're trying to control. That was implied by my pregnant pause at the end. They think they're trying to like control the banks of the world and the governments

of the world, all secretly together. Right. One view of the Mason's is that the Masons that you see every day with like the stickers and the magnets on their cars or the Shriners and their little cars, um, are basically just distractions, and that they're these you know people at like the higher levels, the thirty third degrees, they're

actually running the show. Um. It's all a big front, right, and these are the people who like actually run Goldman Sacks, you know, decide that the euro is going to happen, or whether or not Greece is allowed to exist as

an economy, that kind of stuff. Uh. And I think now is when we should bring up our cohorts and stuff they don't want you to know, which if for those of you not in the now, it's our one of our video podcasts that a couple of our you know, video dudes do a great job and it's very Yeah, it's cool and it's you know, they have a lot of fun with it and they're not like they don't believe all this stuff necessarily, but it's fun to dig it up and do fun little videos about it. Fun.

And they did one on Mason's And one of the theories is that the layout of Washington d C was designed in such a way by freemasons to align with lay lines. And lay lines are these supposed energy forces like electum electro magnetic lines what it is supposedly, And they did a couple of cool shots of like aerial shots from Google Maps where they line up these pentagrams the streets and d C. You've been there, It's like, it's crazy. I've seen that. We saw that episode together,

remember the beaut it for us? Yeah, it's good. I just watch it again today. And if you if you line these streets up, supposedly they match up with ley lines in accordance with the Washington They call it the Washington Obelisk, not the Washington Monument. And um those connect to like other power points in the in the on Earth, like Stonehenge or Mr. Convenient Truth, or exactly, and they concentrate energy and they say that they can use this energy in d C to do everything from cause natural

disasters to hallucinations. And these are ley line theorious. And yet they can't come up with a decent left handed can opener. Crazy, So we we don't. I don't believe that stuff. It's all a bunch of bunk. If you ask me, it is. But I mean, you know, thinking about Freemasonry in the United States is kind of a national pastime among the sixteen to say thirty four year old set, right um. And it hasn't always been this way.

You know. We went from Mason's founding the United States to the point where at now, which is you know, hey, Mason's how's it going, You guys, just do your own thing, thanks for being philanthropic, right um, to somewhere in the middle there was a bump where there was a real movement that was anti Masonic, that was so strong and pronounced it had its own newspapers and a political party based on anti Freemasonry, right for good reason. Well that's

one case at least. Yeah, Well, there's a guy in eighty six who is named William Morgan, and he came out of the book called Freemasonry Exposed, and it basically laid out a lot of the secrets that we now know today about freemasonry. Um, and that kind of got the public sentiment whipped up, like who are these people? Why do they believe this stuff? This is kind of weird, right, Yeah. And I saw a couple of things that I saw one thing that said that he was tried to get

in and couldn't and that's why I wrote it. And then I read a thing that said that he was actually a Mason and couldn't. They didn't allow him above a certain level. So he got all ticked off and said, all right, I'm gonna expose all your secrets. Sure, I mean there's sour grapes written all over that book, I'm sure, but um, And probably I think some people may have taken that whole thing with a grain of salt had it not been for what happened to William Morrigan, Like

he disappeared. Yeah, he was abducted and taken to the Niagara River. Yeah, and that this is again there's varying accounts on what happened because they can't there's very little evidence in this case. But The story goes that he was arrested formally arrested for a a debt that he owed to an innkeeper, which this alleged debt was a very kinky thing, and they put him in jail, and the jail keeper took the night off and had his

wife stepped in for him. And these three Masons came to the wife and said, hey, can you give us this guy? Can we can go into our custody and she said sure, And then they stuffed him in a trunk, drove him to Canada, and either paid him to stay in Canada or drowned him in the river. We don't know what happened, depends on how much money they had. Yeah, I guess so, But I took it that they never

found William Morgan's body. Then if he conceivably lived his life out in Canada or he drowned, that would indicate that they never found him. But he disappeared right after he wrote this book. Yeah, and that whipped up a frenzy of anti Masonic sentiment, basically right and so uh that in New York State, Uh, the number of lodges went from four hundred and eighty in eighteen five to seventy five in eighteen thirty five. It's just a decade, right, So it went kind of, um, it went south, It

went parachape for him for a little while. And the Civil War was such a national horror that um, everybody kind of forgot about how much they hated the Masons, and the Masons were allowed to flourish again, and here we are today. Yeah, and some you know, there's other weird theories about bad things they've done, like they were in on the Kennedy plot, Uh, the Kennedy assassination plot, or the Jack the Ripper murders. But there's no water

that can be held with any of that. But if you really really want to learn about masonry, freemasonry, right, apparently the Freemasonry for Dummies and the Complete Idiots Guide to from Masonry are dead on because in the list of complaints against him, the a former master of a lodge in Boise who was basically calling out this guy and telling him he had to come to a Masonic trial,

UM cited specific page numbers in these two books. So if you if you really want to understand masonry, get the Complete Idiots Guide or UM The Mason's Guide to Dummies or Masonry for dummies, both of those. I have one, do you. I got it from Mattford really got are so into that. I do have a list, and you know, if you go, there's an official list on the internet of like hundreds and hundreds of famous men that have been Freemasons. But I just earmarked a few that I

thought were interesting. Um, but Abbott of Abbott and Costello, Mason, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, both Masons. Yeah. I'm sorry to interrupt, but we should say that the Masons were um, very much down with the abolition movement. There was um they had They allowed I guess that African Lodge number one to be established in Boston in seventeen seventy five. Very fourth thinking in a lot of ways, Yeah for sure. Yeah, and that became the Prince Hall Freemasonry, which is segregated

but like a huge part of the abolitionist movement. And we're talking a century before um, the real deal. Yeah wow. And you know I also read a thing I should mention that they were targeted, uh during the Holocaust as well, So you add them to the list of homosexuals and Jews and you know, anyone that cross eyes that the Nazis were like, let's kill him. You know, cross eye is called stravismus. Did you know that we're just throwing the knowledge out today. Uh So. Next on my list

is Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier. Henry Clay. How about that he was the Speaker of the House and he was hawkish, right, yeah, he was actually the grand Master of Kentucky. And our buddies, I guess, and the Henry Clay people that was enough for them? Are they from Kentucky? From l a weird? Uh Cecil B. De Mille, Arthur Conan Doyle, John Elway and Scottie Pippen Freemasons?

How about that Harry Hudini, Timothy Hutton, as I already said, Jesse Jackson, and Peter Seller's Harpo Marx and then of course for some reason, Mark Twain and John Wayne Just I was like, well, of course they're Freemasons. They just kind of fit. And that's just a few. I mean, j Edgar Hoover, Clark Gay. Well, there's tons and tons of these famous dudes back in the day were Freemason's. It was the hip thing back then. Well, it's Freemasonry. UM. Attention,

all Freemason's. If you're going to send guys to kill me and Chuck, please at least let it be Scottie Pippen and Timothy Hutton, Okay, to burn my bowels. What if Scottie Pippen burns your bowels this weekend or next week when this is released, I'd be upset. Would be quite a story. So listen. If you want to learn more, you want to see that all thirty three degrees of freemasonry. You can type in how Freemason's work in the search bar how stuff works dot Com and I guess then

it's time for listener. Mayl It is Josh. I'm gonna call this um one of a couple of prison emails that we're gonna be reading. I'm gonna stretch these out over a few weeks. We got some awesome email from former inmates that set us straight in a few ways. And also, uh, I'm gonna said we were dead on yeah, And I think what we learned, or what I learned from the email was it's hard to do a definitive prison podcast because they're all a little bit different, Like this.

One girl wrote in She's like they're not allowed to have cigarettes in prison, and I replied, oh, yes, they are with a link. And it just depends on what state and what prison it is. Each prison has its own personality. Uh this is from anonymous. She requested, or he requested, thank you for the prison podcast. Guys. I grew up in Attica, New York, not in the prison. My father was a correctional officer and he until he

retired just this year. I lived about a mile away from the prison, and when I was a kid, they used to tell me that it was a castle, uh the sort it is a way. Standing in my yard, you could hear the guards speaking to the prison prisoners in the yard, and we even went to an annual picnic for the guards and their families every year on

the prison grounds. It was always surreal to ride in a hay wagon around the prison grounds and see the prisoner behind razor wire razor wire, playing basketball and hanging out. No one had ever escaped at that, you know, during my stay there. But when I was in high school, a few prisoners did escape from the minimum security prisons behind Attica, and they were caught very soon after when their vowels were burned and they were burned by Scottie Pippen.

It is hard to feel any sympathy for these prisoners for me because I grew up in the shadow of this institution, and when you know families that are affected by the death of the guards during the riot, you know it changes your outlook. I think people want to root for the underdog and believe that there are so many wrongly convicted innocence in prison and the guards are evil, but in reality, most of the guys are pretty bad guys, and most of the guards are just trying to do

their job. In fact, no one mentions the stress that the guards go through working in a place like that every day. My dad used to have nightmares. He wants grabbed my mom while he was asleep and told her to lock in. So that's sort of like our sleep. Then its parasomnia, and he he said, it's almost like they have sort of like a post traumatic stress disorder. When my dad finally retired this year, it was as

if a huge burden was lifted. He was less irritated and he was less snappy with the people around him. So kudos to the men and women who go to work at these places day in and day out, working midnight shifts on holiday so we can all be safe. And that's from Anonymous, and that's a very good point. Thanks a lot for the email, Anonymous, appreciate that. Um, it's a weird name. It is unique. Yeah, if you want to send us an anonymous email, that's perfectly fine.

Just say anonymous because we'll be able to tell from your email address who you are. You can wrap it up and send it to us at stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff works dot com. Want more how stuff works, check out our blogs on the house stuff works dot com homepage. H brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you