Most people have heard the theory that it is the Jews who control the world and manipulate events. Since the consequences of Nazism, to embrace this view is now bad form, though a glimpse at the internet will show it still exists. Nowadays, it is the ‘Illuminati‘ who are often said to control things.

The Illuminati were a group that really did exist mainly in the German-speaking world for a short period in the late 18th century, but there is no evidence whatsoever that they continued to exist after that or that they still exist today. But who were they and why did some people distrust them so much?

One of the features of the 18th century was what in English is called the “Enlightenment”. It is mainly associated with French thinkers such as Voltaire, Diderot and Rousseau who used “reason” to try to dispel the superstitions of the Dark Ages as propagated in particular by the Catholic Church. The word “Illuminati” is the Latin word for the “Enlightened” and those who formed the secret society (masonic-type lodge) of this name in Bavaria in 1776 aimed to spread and implement the ideas of the Enlightenment in Germany and Austria.

The founder and chief of the Illuminati was Johann Adam Weishaupt, a professor of canon law at the University of Ingolstadt, a town to the north of Munich. No biography exists of him, but we do know that he was born in 1748 and that his father was a professor at the same university. What we know of the ideas and ceremonies of his organisation comes from the writings and correspondence of members who fell out with him and from his own writings justifying his actions after the group was banned by the King of Bavaria in 1786. These formed the basis of two books which were published in 1797, one in English, the other in French, and which argued that the French Revolution had been engineered by the Illuminati as part of their plan to overthrow all religion and all governments and establish a universal republic, or cosmopolis.

What they were accused of is well summed up in the full title of one of these books, by John Robison:

“Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments of Europe, carried on in the Secret Meetings of Free Masons, Illuminati, and Reading Societies, collected from Good Authorities, by John Robison, A. M., Professor of Natural Philosophy, and Secretary to the Royal Society of Edinburgh”.

This book and the other, by Abbé Barruel, which in English was called Memories illustrating the History of the Jacobins, are both on the internet in full but there’s a need to distinguish between what the Illuminati said they stood for and what they were accused of standing for.

What they said they stood for was the happiness of the whole human race, to be achieved by “enlightening” them by freeing them from “superstition” (i.e. supernatural religion and loyalty to dynastic rulers). This done, a world society of liberty and equality would come into being in which all men would be brothers and citizens of the world.

As to their methods, the form of organisation chosen was the hierarchical secret society and the tactic was to infiltrate and seek recruits from the freemasons. There were the usual oaths, ceremonies and degrees of membership that exist in freemasonry generally. Weishaupt called himself – and this must mean something – “Spartacus” after the leader of a slave revolt in Ancient Rome.

The aim seems to have been what they said it was, i.e. to dissipate “superstition”, by winning over people of influence, rather than by them seizing power and trying to impose this on people.
However, the secret and hierarchical nature of their organisation did lay them open to the charge and that they wanted to become new rulers through conspiratorial methods.

There is of course nothing wrong with the stated aim of achieving a world society – a cosmopolis – in which people would be politically free and morally equal (i.e. of equal worth). Nor with terms such as “Brotherhood of Man” and “Citizen of the World”. Socialists are in some ways the direct descendants of such ideas.

Barruel devoted Volume Three of his 5 volumes to the Illuminati and says that in it he is exposing “the conspiracy of the sophists of Impiety and Anarchy against all religion and all government without exception not even republics, and against all civil society and all property whatsoever”. Later, he summarised the views of the Illuminati as follows:

“Equality and Liberty are the essential rights which man, in his original and primitive perfection, received from nature; the first attack on this original Equality was brought about by property, and the first attack on Liberty was brought about by political societies and governments; the only supports of property and government are the religious and civil laws; so to re-establish man in in his original rights of equality and liberty, one must start by destroying all religion, all civil society, and end by abolishing all property”.

The Illuminati probably didn’t go this in reality. Barruel was trying to frighten his readers into opposing the French Revolution which he regarded as an antichristian plot.

Robison’s aim seems to have been to cleanse freemasonry from the taint of “illuminism” (though he was also a loyal supporter of the British monarchy and State against revolutionary France). He records what some former members told the King of Bavaria the Illuminati stood for:

“The Order was said to abjure Christianity, and to refuse admission into the higher degrees to all who adhered to any of the three confessions. Sensual pleasures were restored to the rank they held in the Epicurean philosophy. Self-murder was justified on Stoical principles. In the Lodges death was declared an eternal sleep; patriotism and loyalty were called narrow-minded prejudices, and incompatible with universal benevolence; continual declamations were made on liberty and equality as the unalienable rights of man. The baneful influence of accumulated property was declared an insurmountable obstacle to the happiness of any nation whose chief laws were framed for its protection and increase”.

Here again, the suspicion must be that this is something attributed to them in order to prejudice people against them. Robison and Barruel also questioned the motives of Weishaupt and the others, saying that the real aim was not the happiness of the human race but their own rule over them.

That the French Revolution was the result of a conspiracy organised by the Illuminati was the first conspiracy theory, and it should be noted whose interests it served. As we know, the French Revolution was an anti-feudal, bourgeois revolution and, as such and at the time, a progressive historical development. Those who sought to discredit it were supporters of feudal privilege and dynastic rule. In short, reactionaries trying to turn back the clock of history.

Of course the French Revolution was not a conspiracy, but the outcome of a class struggle, arising out of a clash of economic interests between the rising bourgeois of emergent capitalists and the privileged feudal aristocrats. The ideological reflection of this was the battle between the ideas of the Enlightenment and those of the Catholic Church.

To single out the Illuminati as Utopian plotters aiming to rule the world is to fight yesterday’s battles on behalf of the aristocracy and the Catholic Church against those of the bourgeoisie and the philosophers of the Enlightenment. It is a reactionary position.

Modern-day conspiracy theorists have invented a link between the Illuminati and the Jews. Thus, one conspiracy website has said that the Illuminati were set up and financed by “the House of Rothschild”. Another says that Weishaupt’s father was a rabbi. Another that he was a converted Jew. Even the Spanish-language Wikipedia article on him says his ancestors were of Jewish origin. There is not a shred of evidence for any of this.

Conspiracy theorists can’t offer an adequate explanation of what’s going on it the world. If we are going to change the world successfully we are going to need to understand it properly. And the only way we can do this is on the basis of verified evidence and logical thinking. This is what socialists do (or at least try to do). Using this method, we can see no evidence of world events being organised by a conspiracy. In fact, we can see that the world is not organised at all. We can see everywhere the anarchy of capitalism and its effects.

Competition is built-in to capitalism. This brings into being the World Market which ultimately determines what happens. But it’s an impersonal mechanism not a conspiracy. And it is the cause of wars, revolutions and other conflicts in that these are by-products of capitalist competition, not the machinations of some occult group. That’s the socialist analysis.

So the enemy is not the Illuminati (or the Jews, the Jesuits or Aliens from Outer Space). It’s not even the individual members of the capitalist class. It’s the capitalist system. What needs to be done, to put things right, is to move on to another system, one based on the common ownership of the world’s resources with production to meet people’s needs, not for profit. On that basis, all the things that the conspiracy theorists attribute to their chosen group of conspirators will no longer exist.

Who Were The Knights Templar?

Following the victory of the First Crusade a group of knights, led by Hugues de Payens, offered themselves to the Patriarch of Jerusalem as a military force.

This proposed military force had the mandate of protecting Christian pilgrims who were en route to the Holy Land In the year 1118 AD King Baldwin II granted the Templars quarters on the Temple Mount.

For the first nine years of their existence, the order consisted of nine knights. Speculations of treasure hunting aside, one of the reasons for the limited number of members may have been the reluctance to take Templar vows. Chastity, poverty and obedience were hardly a lifestyle greatly sought after.

In the year 1127 the Cistercian abbot, Bernard of Clairvaux, wrote a rule of order for the Templars that was based on his own Cistercian order’s rule of conduct. Additionally, Bernard did a great deal to promote the Templars.

Perhaps Bernard’s greatest contribution to the order was a letter that he wrote to Hugues de Payens, entitled De laude novae militae (In praise of the new knighthood.)

This letter swept throughout Christendom with the result being that many men, of noble birth, joined the ranks of the Templar Order. Those who were unable to join often gifted the Templars with land and other valuables.

While it is true that the Templars were not permitted, by their rule, to own much of anything personally, there was no such restriction on the order as a whole. As such the gifts of land were accepted and put to immediate use by the order.

From humble beginnings of poverty in 1118, when the order relied on alms from traveling pilgrims, the Order quickly grew to have the backing of the Holy See and the collective European monarchies.

In the process, the order became wealthy. Aside form the gifts showered upon them, they were experts in commerce and free from the taxation and tithes imposed on other orders.

However, in less than two centuries, the Templars would meet their demise perhaps because of their wealth or fear of their seemingly limitless powers. It is generally agreed that Philip IV was envious of the Templar’s wealth and sought to secure it for himself.

Regardless of the motivation, the order was taken down at the hands of Pope Clement V and the King of France in 1307.

On October 13, 1307 Philip had the Templars arrested on grounds of heresy; since this was the only charge that would allow the seizing of their money and assets.

The Templars were tortured and confessions were given. These confessions included:

* Trampling and spitting on the cross
* Homosexuality and Sodomy
* Worshipping of an idol named Baphomet

Philip was successful in ridding the Templars of their power and wealth and urged all fellow Christian leaders to do the same thing.

On March 19th, 1314 the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake.

De Molay is said to have cursed King Philip and Pope Clement as he burned, asking both men to join him in death within a year.

Whether the story is an apocryphal legend or a matter of historical fact depends largely on one’s point of view.

However, Pope Clement V died only one month later and Philip IV seven months after that.
The Grand Master

The Grand Master was the supreme authority of the Templar Order and answered to none save the pope. Once elected to the office, the Grand Master served for the remainder of his life. In several cases that lifetime was cut short. Several Grand Masters were killed in battle, showing that the position was far more than an administrative one.

While each country had its own Master, the Grand Master was above each of them. In addition to overseeing military operations, the Grand Master was also responsible for the business dealings of the Order.

Seneschal

The Seneschal was the right hand man to the Grand Master and in modern terms would be similar to a vice president of a corporation. The Seneschal also acted as a consigliare or advisor to the Grand Master and looked after a great deal of the administrative duties.

Along with the Grand Master, the Seneschal ruled over eight Templar provincial Masters. These provinces were chiefly Aragon, Apulia, England, France, Hungary, Poitiers, Portugal and Scotland.

Marshal

The Marshal of the Order was the Templar in charge of war and anything that was related to it. In this sense the Marshal could be viewed as the second most important member of the Order after the Grand Master.

His personal retinue was comprised of two squires, one turcoman, one turcopole and one sergeant. He also had four horses at his command.

Under Marshal

The Under Marshal was in charge of the footmen and the equipment.

Standard Bearer

The Standard Bearer was in charge of the squires and, despite the title of his office, never seemed to actually carry the Order’s standard himself.

Draper

The Draper was in charge of the Templar garments and linens and while this may seem like a menial task, the Templar Rule of Order states that after the Master and Marshal, the Draper was superior to all brethren.

The Templar Rule of Order said of the Draper’s responsibilities regarding the robe of the order, “and the Draper or the one who is in his place should studiously reflect and take care to have the reward of God in all the above-mentioned things, so that the eyes of the envious and evil-tongued cannot observe that the robes are too long or too short; but he should distribute them so that they fit those who must wear them, according to the size of each one.”

The Draper had in his personal retinue two squires, a number of tailors and one brother in charge of the pack animals who would carry supplies. In addition the Draper, like the Marshal, had four horses at his disposal.

Commanders of the Lands:
Jerusalem, Antioch and Tripoli

These Templar officers operated much like a Baillie and operated under the Masters. Commanders were responsible for all Templar houses, castles and farms in their jurisdiction.

The personal retinue of the Commanders consisted of two squires, two foot soldiers, one sergeant, one deacon and one Saracen scribe. Like others, the Commander had four horses at his command as well as one palfrey (riding horse).

Commanders of knights, houses and farms (Casals)

These Templars fell under the Commanders of Lands and were responsible for the day to day operations of the various estates under their care. Generally speaking, they were knights, but if no knight resided in the region, the position could go to a sergeant.

If the Commander was a knight he was permitted four horses, but if a sergeant he was allowed only two.

Provincial Masters

Provincial Masters, who governed the western districts, were similar to the Commanders of Lands, but seem to have largely been responsible for managing revenue and recruiting new men to the Order.

Knights and Sergeants

The bulk of the Templar’s military might was comprised of knights and sergeants. Although both classes of Templars were as likely to die in battle, the knight had a higher ranking within the Order.

Knights had to be men of noble birth and wore the white mantle that is the most familiar garment of the Order. Each knight was permitted one squire and three horses.

Sergeants did not have to be of noble birth and to show their lower rank, sergeants wore a black or brown mantle. They were given one horse and had no squires under their command.
Accusations Against The Templars
From Charles Addison’s History of the Knights Templar

On the 22nd of September, the archbishop of Canterbury transmitted letters apostolic to all his suffragans, enclosing copies of the bull faciens misericordiam, and also the articles of accusation to be exhibited against the Templars, which they are directed to copy and deliver again, under their seals, to the bearer, taking especial care not to reveal the contents thereof. At the same time the archbishop, acting in obedience to the papal commands, before a single witness had been examined in England, caused to be published in all churches and chapels a papal bull, wherein the Pope declares himself perfectly convinced of the guilt of the order, and solemnly denounces the penalty of excommunication against all persons, of whatever rank, station, or condition in life, whether clergy or laity, who should knowingly afford, either publicly or privately, assistance, counsel, or kindness to the Templars, or should dare to shelter them, or give them countenance or protection, and also laying under interdict all cities, castles, lands, and places, which should harbour any of the members of the proscribed order.

At the commencement of the month of October, the inquisitors arrived in England, and immediately published the bull appointing the commission, enjoining the citation of the criminals, and of witnesses, and denouncing the heaviest ecclesiastical censures against the disobedient, and against every person who should dare to impede the inquisitors in the exercise of their functions. Citations were made in St. Paul’s Cathedral, and in all the churches of the ecclesiastical province of Canterbury, at the end of high mass, requiring the Templars to appear before the inquisitors at a certain time and place, and the articles of accusation were transmitted to the constable of the Tower, in Latin, French, and English, to be read to all the Templars imprisoned in that fortress. On Monday, the 20th of October, after the Templars had been languishing in the English prisons for more than a year and eight months, the tribunal constituted by the Pope to take the inquisition in the province of Canterbury assembled in the Episcopal hall of London. It was composed of the bishop of London, Dieudonné, abbot of the monastery of Lagny, in the diocese of Paris, and Sicard de Vaur, canon of Narbonne, the Pope’s chaplain, and hearer of causes in the pontifical palace. They were assisted by several foreign notaries. After the reading of the papal bulls, and some preliminary proceedings, the monstrous and ridiculous articles of accusation, a monument of human folly, superstition, and credulity, were solemnly exhibited as follows:

Item. At the place, day, and hour aforesaid, in the presence of the aforesaid lords, and before us the above-mentioned notaries, the articles enclosed in the apostolic bull were exhibited and opened before us, the contents whereof are as underwritten.

These are the articles upon which inquisition shall be made against the brethren of the military order of the Temple, &c.

1. That at their first reception into the order, or at some time afterwards, or as soon as an opportunity occurred, they were induced or admonished by those who had received them within the bosom of the fraternity, to deny Christ or Jesus, or the crucifixion, or at one time God, and at another time the blessed virgin, and sometimes all the saints.

2. That the brothers jointly did this.

3. That the greater part of them did it.

4. That they did it sometimes after their reception.

5. That the receivers told and instructed those that were received, that Christ was not the true God, or sometimes Jesus, or sometimes the person crucified.

6. That they told those they received that he was a false prophet.

7. That they said he had not suffered for the redemption of mankind, nor been crucified but for his own sins.

8. That neither the receiver nor the person received had any hope of obtaining salvation through him, and this they said to those they received, or something equivalent, or like it.

9. That they made those they received into the order spit upon the cross, or upon the sign or figure of the cross, or the image of Christ, though they that were received did sometimes spit aside.

10. That they caused the cross itself to be trampled under foot.

11. That the brethren themselves did sometimes trample on the same cross.

12. Item quod mingebant interdum, et alios mingere faciebant, super ipsam crucem, et hoc fecerunt aliquotiens in die veneris sanctâ!!

13. Item quod nonnulli eorum ipsâ die, vel alia septimanæ sanctæ pro conculcatione et minctione prædictis consueverunt convenire!

14. That they worshipped a cat which was placed in the midst of the congregation.

15. That they did these things in contempt of Christ and the orthodox faith.

16. That they did not believe the sacrament of the altar.

17. That some of them did not.

18. That the greater part did not.

19. That they believed not the other sacraments of the church.

20. That the priests of the order did not utter the words by which the body of Christ is consecrated in the canon of the mass.

21. That some of them did not.

22. That the greater part did not.

23. That those who received them enjoined the same.

24. That they believed, and so it was told them, that the Grand Master of the order could absolve them from their sins.

25. That the visitor could do so.

26. That the preceptors, of whom many were laymen, could do it.

27. That they in fact did do so.

28. That some of them did.

29. That the Grand Master confessed these things of himself, even before he was taken, in the presence of great persons.

30. That in receiving brothers into the order, or when about to receive them, or some time after having received them, the receivers and the persons received kissed one another on the mouth, the navel.

36. That the receptions of the brethren were made clandestinely.

37. That none were present but the brothers of the said order.

38. That for this reason there has for a long time been a vehement suspicion against them.” The succeeding articles proceed to charge the Templars with crimes and abominations too horrible and disgusting to be named.

46. That the brothers themselves had idols in every province, viz. heads; some of which had three faces, and some one, and some a man’s skull.

47. That they adored that idol, or those idols, especially in their great chapters and assemblies.

48. That they worshipped it.

49. As their God.

50. As their Savior.

51. That some of them did so.

52. That the greater part did.

53. That they said that that head could save them.

54. That it could produce riches.

56. That it had given to the order all its wealth.

56. That it caused the earth to bring forth seed.

57. That it made the trees to flourish.

58. That they bound or touched the head of the said idols with cords, wherewith they bound themselves about their shirts, or next their skins.

59. That at their reception the aforesaid little cords, or others of the same length, were delivered to each of the brothers.

60. That they did this in worship of their idol.

61. That it was enjoined them to gird themselves with the said little cords, as before mentioned, and continually to wear them.

62. That the brethren of the order were generally received in that manner.

63. That they did these things out of devotion.

64. That they did them everywhere.

65. That the greater part did.

66. That those who refused the things above mentioned at their reception, or to observe them afterwards, were killed or cast into prison.

The remaining articles, twenty-one in number, are directed principally to the mode of confession practised amongst the fraternity, and to matters of heretical depravity.
Were They Innocent or Guilty?
Article © Judith Long
Author of The Last Mass of the Knights Templars

When one attempts to delve into and/or reconstruct history in order to prove or disprove an occurrence such as discovering whether the Knights Templars were guilty of the accusations that King Philip and the French government brought against them in the year 1307, one should consider all the aspects of world history at the time leading up to and during the actual activity. It is my belief, after such a search thoughtfulness and talking with other historians, that the Knights were innocent of the charges.

King Philip intended to devastate the Order by falsely accusing them of a variety of crimes that included the denial of Christ; sacrilegious acts upon the crucifix; obscene affection; disbelief in the sacraments; idolatrous practices; and arrogating unto themselves the power to absolve sin. All of these charges were discovered to be unfounded and disproved in a court of law.Significant factors revolving around the time of the Templar demise and potential results were:

1. King Philip wanted more money and power = dangerous.

2. The Church was in revolution and disorganized = non-supportive.

3. The Templar Knights were both wealthy and powerful = a perceived threat to some rulers.

4. Conflicts between educational standards in Paris and that of the Church = frictions.

5. King Philips desire to engage his country in the Flemish and other wars = greed.

Thus, a great wrong was done, the termination of a notable Holy Military Order, the Knights Templars. So we continue to delve into history, searching for reasons, rationale, justifications, and explanations to answer our questions. Hopefully our understanding is elevated as we analyze people of yesterday with the knowledge that we have today, and that we will strive to create a better world for mankind to live in.

The Order of Skull and Bones

1. The Secret Origins of Skull & Bones

The story begins at Yale, where three threads of American social history — espionage, drug smuggling and secret societies — intertwine into one.

Elihu Yale was born near Boston, educated in London, and served with the British East India Company, eventually becoming governor of Fort Saint George, Madras, in 1687. He amassed a great fortune from trade and returned to England in 1699. Yale became known as quite a philanthropist; upon receiving a request from the Collegiate School in Connecticut, he sent a donation and a gift of books. After subsequent bequests, Cotton Mather suggested the school be named Yale College, in 1718.

A statue of Nathan Hale stands on Old Campus at Yale University. There is a copy of that statue in front of the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Yet another stands in front of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts (where George H.W. Bush (’48) went to prep school and joined a secret society at age twelve).

Nathan Hale, along with three other Yale graduates, was a member of the “Culper Ring,” one of America’s first intelligence operations. Established by George Washington, it was successful throughout the Revolutionary War. Nathan was the only operative to be ferreted out by the British, and after speaking his famous regrets, he was hanged in 1776. Ever since the founding of the Republic, the relationship between Yale and the “Intelligence Community” has been unique.

In 1823, Samuel Russell established Russell and Company for the purpose of acquiring opium in Turkey and smuggling it to China. Russell and Company bought out the Perkins (Boston) syndicate in 1830 and moved the primary center of American opium smuggling to Connecticut. Many of the great American and European fortunes were built on the “China”(opium) trade.

One of Russell and Company’s Chief of Operations in Canton was Warren Delano, Jr., grandfather of Franklin Roosevelt. Other Russell partners included John Cleve Green (who financed Princeton), Abiel Low (who financed construction of Columbia), Joseph Coolidge and the Perkins, Sturgis and Forbes families. (Coolidge’s son organized the United Fruit company, and his grandson, Archibald C. Coolidge, was a co-founder of the Council on Foreign Relations.)

William Huntington Russell (’33), Samuel’s cousin, studied in Germany from 1831-32. Germany was a hotbed of new ideas. The “scientific method” was being applied to all forms of human endeavor. Prussia, which blamed the defeat of its forces by Napoleon in 1806 on soldiers only thinking about themselves in the stress of battle, took the principles set forth by John Locke and Jean Rosseau and created a new educational system. Johan Fitche, in his “Address to the German People,” declared that the children would be taken over by the State and told what to think and how to think it.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel took over Fitche’s chair at the University Of Berlin in 1817, and was a professor there until his death in 1831. Hegel was the culmination of the German idealistic philosophy school of Immanuel Kant.

To Hegel, our world is a world of reason. The state is Absolute Reason and the citizen can only become free by worship and obedience to the state. Hegel called the state the “march of God in the world” and the “final end”. This final end, Hegel said, “has supreme right against the individual, whose supreme duty is to be a member of the state.” Both fascism and communism have their philosophical roots in Hegellianism. Hegellian philosophy was very much in vogue during William Russell’s time in Germany.

When Russell returned to Yale in 1832, he formed a senior society with Alphonso Taft (’33). According to information acquired from a break-in to the “tomb” (the Skull and Bones meeting hall) in 1876, “Bones is a chapter of a corps in a German University…. General Russell, its founder, was in Germany before his Senior Year and formed a warm friendship with a leading member of a German society. He brought back with him to college, authority to found a chapter here.” So class valedictorian William H. Russell, along with fourteen others, became the founding members of “The Order of Scull and Bones,” later changed to “The Order of Skull and Bones”.

The secretive Order of Skull and Bones exists only at Yale. Fifteen juniors are “tapped” each year by the seniors to be initiated into next year’s group. Each initiate is given $15,000 and a grandfather clock. Far from being a campus fun-house, the group is geared more toward the success of its members in the post-collegiate world.

The family names on the Skull and Bones roster roll off the tongue like an elite party list — Lord, Whitney, Taft, Jay, Bundy, Harriman, Weyerhaeuser, Pinchot, Rockefeller, Goodyear, Sloane, Stimson, Phelps, Perkins, Pillsbury, Kellogg, Vanderbilt, Bush, Lovett and so on.

William Russell went on to become a general and a state legislator in Connecticut. Alphonso Taft was appointed U.S. Attorney General, Secretary of War (a post many “Bonesmen” have held), Ambassador to Austria, and Ambassador to Russia (another post held by many “Bonesmen”). His son, William Howard Taft (’87), is the only man to be both President of the United States and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
2. Secrets of the “Tomb”

The Order flourished from the very beginning in spite of occasional squalls of controversy. There was dissension from some professors, who didn’t like its secrecy and exclusiveness. And there was backlash from students, showing concern about the influence “Bones” was having over Yale finances and the favoritism shown to “Bonesmen.”

In October of 1873, Volume 1, Number 1, of The Iconoclast was published in New Haven. It was only published once and was one of very few openly published articles on the Order of Skull and Bones.

From The Iconoclast:

“We speak through a new publication. because the college press is closed to those who dare to openly mention ‘Bones’….

“Out of every class Skull and Bones takes its men. They have gone out into the world and have become, in many instances, leaders in society. They have obtained control of Yale. Its business is performed by them. Money paid to the college must pass into their hands, and be subject to their will. No doubt they are worthy men in themselves, but the many, whom they looked down upon while in college, cannot so far forget as to give money freely into their hands. Men in Wall Street complain that the college comes straight to them for help, instead of asking each graduate for his share. The reason is found in a remark made by one of Yale’s and America’s first men: ‘Few will give but Bones men and they care far more for their society than they do for the college….’

“Year by year the deadly evil is growing. The society was never as obnoxious to the college as it is today, and it is just this ill-feeling that shuts the pockets of non-members. Never before has it shown such arrogance and self-fancied superiority. It grasps the College Press and endeavors to rule it all. It does not deign to show its credentials, but clutches at power with the silence of conscious guilt.

“To tell the good which Yale College has done would be well nigh impossible. To tell the good she might do would be yet more difficult. The question, then, is reduced to this — on the one hand lies a source of incalculable good — on the other a society guilty of serious and far-reaching crimes. It is Yale College against Skull and Bones!! We ask all men, as a question of right, which should be allowed to live?”

At first, the society held its meetings in hired halls. Then in 1856, the “tomb”, a vine-covered, windowless, brown-stone hall was constructed, where to this day the “Bonesmen” hold their “strange, occultish” initiation rites and meet each Thursday and Sunday.

On September 29, 1876, a group calling itself “The Order of File and Claw” broke into the Skull and Bones’ holy of holies. In the “tomb” they found lodge-room 324 “fitted up in black velvet, even the walls being covered with the material.” Upstairs was lodge-room 322, “the ‘sanctum sanctorium’ of the temple… furnished in red velvet” with a pentagram on the wall. In the hall are “pictures of the founders of Bones at Yale, and of members of the Society in Germany, when the chapter was established here in 1832.” The raiding party found another interesting scene in the parlor next to room 322.

From “The Fall Of Skull And Bones”:

“On the west wall, hung among other pictures, an old engraving representing an open burial vault, in which, on a stone slab, rest four human skulls, grouped about a fools cap and bells, an open book, several mathematical instruments, a beggar’s scrip, and a royal crown. On the arched wall above the vault are the explanatory words, in Roman letters, ‘We War Der Thor, Wer Weiser, Wer Bettler Oder, Kaiser?’ and below the vault is engraved, in German characters, the sentence; ‘Ob Arm, Ob Beich, im Tode gleich.’

The picture is accompanied by a card on which is written, ‘From the German Chapter. Presented by D. C. Gilman of D. 50′.”

Daniel Coit Gilman (’52), along with two other “Bonesmen,” formed a troika which still influences American life today. Soon after their initiation in Skull and Bones, Daniel Gilman, Timothy Dwight (’49) and Andrew Dickinson White (’53) went to study philosophy in Europe at the University of Berlin. Gilman returned from Europe and incorporated Skull and Bones as Russell Trust, in 1856, with himself as Treasurer and William H. Russell as President. He spent the next fourteen years in New Haven consolidating the order’s power.

Gilman was appointed Librarian at Yale in 1858. Through shrewd political maneuvering, he acquired funding for Yale’s science departments (Sheffield Scientific School) and was able to get the Morrill Land Bill introduced in Congress, passed and finally signed by President Lincoln, after being vetoed by President Buchanan.

This bill, “donating public-lands for State College for agriculture and sciences”, is now known as the Land Grant College Act. Yale was the first school in America to get the federal land scrip and quickly grabbed all of Connecticut’s share at the time. Pleased by the acquisitions, Yale made Gilman a Professor of Physical Geography.

Daniel was the first President of the University of California. He also helped found, and was the first president of, John Hopkins.

Gilman was first president of the Carnegie Institution and involved in the founding of the Peabody, Slater and Russell Sage Foundations.

His buddy, Andrew D. White, was the first president of Cornell University (which received all of New York’s share of the Land Grant College Act), U.S. Minister to Russia, U.S. Ambassador to Berlin and first president of the American Historical Association. White was also Chairman of the American delegation to the first Hague Conference in 1899, which established an international judiciary.

Timothy Dwight, a professor at Yale Divinity School, was installed as president of Yale in 1886. All presidents since, have been either “Bonesmen” or directly tied to the Order and its interests.

The Daniel/Gilman/White trio was also responsible for the founding of the American Economic Association, the American Chemical Society and the American Psychological Association. Through their influences on Thomas Dewey and Horace Mann, this trio continues to have an enormous impact on education today.
3. Networks of Power

In his book “America’s Secret Establishment,” Antony Sutton outlined the Order of Skull and Bones’ ability to establish vertical and horizontal “chains of influence” that ensured the continuity of their conspiratorial schemes.

The Whitney-Stimson-Bundy links represent the “vertical chain”.

W. C. Whitney (’63), who married Flora Payne (of the Standard Oil Payne dynasty), was Secretary of the Navy. His attorney was a man named Elihu Root. Root hired Henry Stimson (’88), out of law school. Stimson took over from Root as Secretary of War in 1911, appointed by fellow Bonesman William Howard Taft. Stimson later became Coolidge’s Governor-General of the Philippine Islands, Hoover’s Secretary of State, and Secretary of War during the Roosevelt and Truman administrations.

Hollister Bundy (’09) was Stimson’s special assistant and point man in the Pentagon for the Manhattan Project. His two sons, also members of Skull and Bones, were William Bundy (’39) and McGeorge Bundy (’40) — both very active in governmental and foundation affairs.

The two brothers, from their positions in the CIA, the Department of Defense and the State Department, and as Special Assistants to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, exercised significant impact on the flow of information and intelligence during the Vietnam “War.”

William Bundy went on to be editor of Foreign Affairs, the influential quarterly of the Council on Foreign Affairs (CFR). McGeorge became president of the Ford Foundation.

Another interesting group of “Bonesmen” is the Harriman/Bush crowd. Averil Harriman (’13), “Elder Statesman” of the Democratic Party, and his brother Roland Harriman (’17) were very active members. In fact, four of Roland’s fellow “Bonesmen” from the class of 1917 were directors of Brown Brothers, Harriman, including Prescott Bush (’17), George Bush’s dad.

Since the turn of the century, two investment bank firms — Guaranty Trust and Brown Brothers, Harriman — were both dominated by members of Skull and Bones. These two firms were heavily involved in the financing of Communism and Hitler’s regime.

Bonesman share an affinity for the Hegellian ideas of the historical dialectic, which dictates the use of controlled conflict — thesis versus anti-thesis — to create a pre-determined synthesis. A synthesis of their making and design, where the state is absolute and individuals are granted their freedoms based on their obedience to the state — a New World Order.

Funding and political maneuvering on the part of “Bonesmen” and their allies helped the Bolsheviks prevail in Russia. In defiance of federal laws, the cabal financed industries, established banks and developed oil and mineral deposits in the fledgling U.S.S.R.

Later, Averil Harriman, as minister to Great Britain in charge of Lend-Lease for Britain and Russia, was responsible for shipping entire factories into Russia. According to some researchers, Harriman also oversaw the transfer of nuclear secrets, plutonium and U. S. dollar printing plates to the U.S.S.R.

In 1932, the Union Banking Corporation of New York City had enlisted four directors from the (’17) cell and two Nazi bankers associated with Fritz Thyssen, who had been financing Hitler since 1924.

From George Bush; The Unauthorized Biography:

“President Franklin Roosevelt’s Alien Property Custodian, Leo T. Crowley, signed Vesting Order Number 248 [11/17/42] seizing the property of Prescott Bush under the Trading with Enemy Act. The order, published in obscure government record books and kept out of the news, Note 4 explained nothing about the Nazis involved; only that the Union Banking Corporation was run for the ‘Thyssen family’ of ‘Germany and/or Hungary’ — ‘nationals … of a designated enemy country.’

“By deciding that Prescott Bush and the other directors of the Union Banking Corporation were legally ‘front men for the Nazis’, the government avoided the more important historical issue: In what way ‘were Hitler’s Nazis themselves hired, armed, and instructed by’ the New York and London clique of which Prescott Bush was an executive manager? …

“4. New York Times, December 16, 1944, ran a five-paragraph page 25 article on actions of the New York State Banking Department. Only the last sentence refers to the Nazi bank, as follows: ‘The Union Banking Corporation, 39 Broadway, New York, has received authority to change its principal place of business to 120 Broadway.’

“The Times omitted the fact that the Union Banking Corporation had been seized by the government for trading with the enemy, and the fact that 120 Broadway was the address of the government’s Alien Property Custodian.”

After the war, Prescott went on to become a U. S. Senator from Connecticut and favorite golfing partner of President Eisenhower. Prescott claims responsibility for getting Nixon into politics and takes personal credit for bringing Dick on board as Ike’s running mate in 1952.
4. Name Roster of the Secret Establishment

There were so many “Yalies” in the OSS that Yale’s drinking tune, the “Whiffenpoof Song”, became an “unofficial” song of the OSS. Many in the OSS were “Bonesmen” or belonged to the other Yale senior societies.

Robert Lovett (’18), Harriman’s childhood friend, had been tapped into Skull & Bones by Prescott Bush’s cell of ’17 and was a director at Brown Brothers, Harriman.

Again, from George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography:

“On October 22, 1945, Secretary of War Robert Patterson created the Lovett Committee, chaired by Robert A. Lovett, to advise the government on the post-World War II organization of U.S. intelligence activities…. The new agency would ‘consult’ with the armed forces, but it must be the sole collecting agency in the field of foreign espionage and counterespionage. The new agency should have an independent budget, and its appropriations should be granted by Congress without public hearings. Lovett appeared before the Secretaries of State, War, and Navy on November 14, 1945…. Lovett pressed for a virtual resumption of the wartime Office of Strategic Services (OSS)…. The CIA was established in 1947 according to the prescription of Robert Lovett, of Jupiter Island.”

Gaddis Smith, a history professor at Yale, said, “Yale has influenced the Central Intelligence Agency more than any other university, giving the CIA the atmosphere of a class reunion.” And “Bonesman” have been foremost among the “spooks” building the CIA’s “haunted house.”

F. Trubee Davison (’18) was Director of Personnel at the CIA in the early years. Some of the other “Bonesmen” connected with the intelligence community are:

* Sloane Coffin, Jr. (’49)
* V. Van Dine (’49)
* James Buckley (’44)
* Bill Buckley (’50)
* Hugh Cunnigham (’34)
* Hugh Wilson (‘??)
* Reuben Holden (‘??)
* Charles R. Walker (‘??)
* Yale’s ‘unofficial’ Secretary of War, Robert D. French (’10)
* Archibald MacLiesh (’15)
* Dino Pionzio (’50), CIA Deputy Chief of Station during Allende overthrow
* William and McGeorge Bundy
* Richard A. Moore (’3?)
* Senator David Boren (’63)
* Senator John Kerry (‘??)

…and, of course, George Herbert Walker Bush. Bush tapped Coffin, who tapped Buckley.

Some other prominent Bonesmen include:

* Henry Luce (’20), Time-Life
* John Thomas Daniels (‘??), founder Archer Daniels Midland
* Gifford Pinchot (’89), President Theodore Roosevelt’s chief forester
* Frederick E. Weyerhaeuser (’96)
* Harold Stanley (’08), founder of Morgan Stanley, investment banker
* Alfred Cowles (’13), Cowles Communication
* Henry P. Davison (’20), senior partner Morgan Guaranty Trust
* Thomas Cochran (’04) Morgan partner
* Senator John Heinz (‘??)
* Pierre Jay (’92), first chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
* George Herbert Walker, Jr. (’27), financier and co-founder of the NY Mets
* Artemus Gates (’18), President of New York Trust Company, Union Pacific, TIME, Boeing Company
* William Draper III (??), the Defense Department, UN and Import-Export Bank
* Dean Witter, Jr.(‘??), investment banker
* Senator Jonathan Bingham (‘??)
* Potter Stewart (’36), Supreme Court Justice
* Senator John Chaffe (‘??)
* Harry Payne Whitney (’94), husband of Gertrude Vanderbilt, investment banker
* Russell W. Davenport (’23), editor Fortune Magazine, created Fortune 500 list
* Evan G. Galbraith (‘??), Ambassador to France and Managing Director of Morgan Stanley
* Judge John Steadman (‘??), the Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia
* Richard Gow (’55), president Zapata Oil
* Amory Howe Bradford (’34), husband of Carol Warburg Rothschild and general manager for the New York Times
* C. E. Lord (’49), Comptroller of the Currency
* Winston Lord (’59), Chairman of CFR, Ambassador to China and assistant Secretary of State in the Clinton administration
* John Lilley (‘??), ambassador to China

Ever since Nixon re-established America’s political relationship with China, many of our ambassadors to that country have been Bonesmen, including George Bush, the first Chief U. S. Liaison Officer to the Peoples Republic of China.
5. China and the Opium Wars

Why all this interest in China? Well, China, among other things, is the largest producer and user of opiates in the world.

For a while, in the 1800s, the Yankee Clippers in Connecticut and Massachusetts were the fastest ships on the ocean. Speed was crucial to the opium trade; whoever made the trip from Turkey/India to Macao/Hong Kong/Shanghai first got the most for their goods.

During the Opium Wars, the U.S. chose to stand on the sidelines and cheer for the English and French, knowing that treaty obligations would bring the U.S. a share in the spoils. Russell and Company was at times the only trading house operating in Canton and used the opportunity to developed strong commercial ties and handsome profits.

Powerful national interests were behind the drug trade, because American traders were badly in need of some article the Chinese would buy, since by this time the seal breeding grounds had been nearly wiped out. If the Chinese had not bought opium from Americans, then United States imports of silk, porcelain and tea would have to paid in precious coin, which was in short supply. In 1843, when the Port of Shanghai was opened, Russell and Co. was one of its earliest traders.

In 1903, Yale Divinity School set up a program of schools and hospitals in China. Mao Zedong was among the staff. During the intrigues of China in the 1930s and ’40s, American intelligence called upon the resources of “Yale in China”, and George Bush’s cousin and fellow “Bonesman” Reuben Holden.

After stints as UN Ambassador and Chairman of the Republican National Committee for the beleaguered Richard Nixon, George Bush was sent to look after the “China trade”. The Bush family is still very much involved in the economic activities of “Red” China.

Many researchers contend that George Bush has been with CIA since the early 1950s, and that one of his jobs was to consolidate and co-ordinate the worldwide narcotics industry, the largest industry on Earth. Some say that one of the reasons behind the Vietnam “Police Action” was a cover for the consolidation of the “Golden Triangle”.
6. The War on Drugs: An “Intellectual Fraud”

Before the Vietnam “War”, the Golden Triangle was run by French Intelligence and Corsican mobsters. After the French bailed out and America moved in, the triangle was run by U.S. intelligence, with aid from Sicilian mobsters. This narcotics network is well documented in “The Politics of Heroin in S. E. Asia” by Alfred McCoy, “The Great Heroin Coup” by Henrik Kruger and “Double-Cross” by Sam and Chuck Giancana.

Vice-President George Bush, as Chairman of President Reagan’s cabinet-level working group and as Director of the National Narcotics Interdiction System, was the highest U. S. governmental official involved in the “war on drugs”.

Frances Mullen, Jr., former head of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), called Bush’s efforts “an intellectual fraud” and “a liability rather than an asset”. Soon after these statements, Mullen resigned and the resultant General Accounting Office (GAO) report was buried.

In July, 1985, the suppressed GAO paper reported that there were “no benefits from the National Narcotics Border Interdiction System, directed by George Bush. In fact, the overall effect was to encourage supply….”

Monika Jensen-Stevenson, a “60 Minutes” producer, quit her job after the CBS news program refused to air the story she had uncovered relating to the covert drug trade. Her book, “Kiss The Boys Goodbye”, details how our intelligence community used the apparatus of the POW/MIA governmental agencies as a cover for the trafficking of opiates from the “Golden Triangle”.

President Reagan appointed Reform Party founder and Texas billionaire Ross Perot to the President’s Advisory Council on Foreign Intelligence. Reagan made Perot a special presidential investigator, looking into America’s POW and MIAs from the Vietnam “War”.

Ross took the job to heart and spent considerable time and money in pursuit of the quest. He was given special clearance and access. He asked questions and interviewed everyone he could find.

From “Kiss The Boys Goodbye”:

“Relations between Bush and Perot had gone downhill ever since the Vice-President had asked Ross Perot how his POW/MIA investigations were going.

‘Well, George, I go in looking for prisoners,’ said Perot, ‘but I spend all my time discovering the government has been moving drugs around the world and is involved in illegal arms deals…. I can’t get at the prisoners because of the corruption among our own people.’

“This ended Perot’s official access to the highly classified files as a one-man presidential investigator. ‘I have been instructed to cease and desist,’ he had informed the families of missing men early in 1987.”

The wholesale importation of cocaine into the U.S. during “Iran/Contra” is also well documented. George Bush, is known “to be in the loop” with many of the players keeping in contact directly with his office.

Also, there has been much speculation as to the use of the off-shore rigs, pipelines and other assets of Zapata Offshore being used for narcotic trans-shipments.

Narcotics such as cocaine and heroin cannot be manufactured without the precursor chemicals. The largest maker of these precursor chemicals is the Eli Lilly Company of Indianapolis, Indiana. The Quayle family is a large stockholder, and George Bush has been on the Board of Directors. Eli Lilly is also the company that first synthesized LSD for the CIA.
7. George Bush, Skull & Bones and the JFK Assassination

Rodney Stich’s book “Defrauding America” tells of a “deep-cover CIA officer” assigned to a counter-intelligence unit, code-named Pegasus. This unit “had tape-recordings of plans to assassinate Kennedy” from a tap on the phone of J. Edgar Hoover. The people on the tapes were “[Nelson] Rockefeller, Allen Dulles, [Lyndon] Johnson of Texas, George Bush and J. Edgar Hoover.”

Could George Bush be involved in the JFK assassination?

In 1963, Bush was living in Houston, busily carrying out his duties as president of the Zapata Offshore oil company. He denied the existence of a note sent by the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover to “Mr. George Bush of the CIA.” When news of the note surfaced, the CIA first said they never commented on employment questions, but later relented said yes, a “George Bush” was mentioned in the note, but that it was “another” George Bush, not the man who took office in the White House in 1988.

Some intrepid reporters tracked down the “other” George Bush and discovered that he was just a lowly clerk who had shuffled papers for the CIA for about six months. He never received any interagency messages from anybody at the FBI, let alone the Queen Mary.

It is also worth noting that a CIA code word for Bay of Pigs was Operation Zapata, and that two of the support vessels were named Barbara and Houston.

Many say that George Bush was high up on the CIA ladder at the time, running proprietorial vehicles and placed in a position of command, responsible for many of the Cubans recruited into “service” at the time. All through the Iran-Contra affair, Felix Rodriguez, the man who captured and had Che Guevara killed for the CIA, always seemed to call Bush’s office first.

From The Realist (Summer, 1991):

“Bush was working with the now-famous CIA agent, Felix Rodriguez, recruiting right-wing Cuban exiles for the invasion of Cuba. It was Bush’s CIA job to organize the Cuban community in Miami for the invasion…. A newly discovered FBI document reveals that George Bush was directly involved in the 1963 murder of President John Kennedy. The document places marksmen by the CIA. Bush at that time lived in Texas. Hopping from Houston to Miami weekly, Bush spent 1960 and ’61 recruiting Cubans in Miami for the invasion….

“George Bush claims he never worked for the CIA until he was appointed Director by former Warren Commission director and then president Jerry Ford in 1976. Logic suggests that is highly unlikely. Of course, Bush has a company duty to deny being in the CIA. The CIA is a secret organization. No one ever admits to being a member. The truth is that Bush has been a top CIA official since before the 1961 invasion of Cuba, working with Felix Rodriguez. Bush may deny his actual role in the CIA in 1959, but there are records in the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba that expose Bush’s role…”

On the Watergate tapes, June 23, 1972, referred to in the media as the ‘smoking gun’ conversation, Nixon and his Chief of Staff, H.R. Haldeman, were discussing how to stop the FBI investigation into the CIA Watergate burglary. They were worried that the investigation would expose their connection to ‘the Bay of Pigs thing.’ Haldeman, in his book “The Ends of Power”, reveals that Nixon always used code words when talking about the 1963 murder of JFK. Haldeman said Nixon would always refer to the assassination as ‘the Bay of Pigs’.

On that transcript we find Nixon discussing the role of George Bush’s partner, Robert Mosbacher, as one of the Texas fundraisers for Nixon. On the tapes Nixon keeps referring to the ‘Cubans’ and the ‘Texans.’ The ‘Texans’ were Bush, Mosbacher and Baker. This is another direct link between Bush and evidence linking Nixon and Bush to the Kennedy assassination.”
8. Motives for the Conspiracy

So, why would an intelligence agency/secret society want to smuggle drugs and assassinate JFK?

Well, they make a lot of money, and they garner intelligence assets through their participation. There’s also the rationale that the world is a seamy and unseemly place, and if you’re going to be the ‘big boy’ on the block, you better know what’s going on. And what better way of knowing than by running it yourself? There are also some who theorize that the covert drug trade fits with plans to destabilize American families and society. Through demoralizing and fracturing the body politic, they can impose their will using psychological warfare and the political alchemy of the Hegellian dialectic.

James Shelby Downard’s article, “Sorcery, Sex, Assassination and the Science of Symbolism ,” an underground classic, links American historical events with a wild, numerological, grand occult plan “to turn us into cybernetic mystery zombies”. [Downard is a schizophrenic fruitcake, though this does not discount the following theory as such. -Ed.] The assassination of JFK, this article contends, was the performance of a public occult ritual called The Killing of the King, designed as a mass-trauma, mind-control assault against our U.S. national body-politic.

During Operation Sunrise, Operation Blowback, Operation Paperclip and others, thousands of Nazi scientists, researchers and administrators were brought to the United States after World War II. Many were “smuggled” into the country against direct, written, orders from President Harry S. Truman.

Project Monarch was the resumption of a mind-control project called Marionette Programming, which started in Nazi Germany. The basic component of the Monarch Program is the sophisticated manipulation of the mind, using extreme trauma to induce Multiple Personality Disorder.

Mr. Downward feels that the perpetrators purposefully murdered JFK in such a way as to affect our National identity and cohesiveness — to fracture America’s soul. Even the blatancy of their conspiracy was designed to show “their superiority” and “our futility”.

There have been studies that show a correlation between the JFK assassination and the rise in violence in society, distrust of government and other extensions of social ills.
9. The Illuminati: Subverting the Body Politic

Why this attack against our body politic?

In 1785, a bolt of lightning struck a courier en route to Paris from Frankfort-on-the-Main. A tract written by Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Illuminati, “Original Shift in Days of Illuminations,” was recovered from the dead messenger, containing the secret society’s long-range plan for “The New World Order through world revolution”.

The Bavarian Government outlawed the society and in 1787 published the details of The Illuminati conspiracy in “The Original Writings of the Order and Sect of the Illuminati.”

In Adam Weishaupt’s own words:

“By this plan, we shall direct all mankind in this manner. And, by the simplest means, we shall set all in motion and in flames. The occupations must be so allotted and contrived that we may, in secret, influence all political transactions.”

There is disagreement among scholars as to whether or not the Illuminati survived its banishment. Nevertheless, the group had been quite successful in attracting members and had allied itself with the extensive Masonic networks.

The Illuminati was publicly founded May 1, 1776 at the University of Ingolstadt by Weishaupt, Professor of Canon Law. It was a very “learned” society; Weishaupt drew the earliest members of his new order from among his students.

On December 5, 1776, students at William and Mary College founded a secret society, Phi Beta Kappa. A second chapter was formed, at Yale, in 1780. The anti-Masonic movement in the United States during the 1820s held groups such as Phi Beta Kappa in a bad light. Because of pressure, the society went public. This is noted by some researchers as the direct cause of the appearance of Yale’s Order of Skull and Bones.

In “The Cyclopedia Of Fraternities”, a genealogical chart of general Greek-Letter college fraternities in the United States, shows Phi Beta Kappa as “the parent of all the fraternal systems in [American] higher education.” There is only one “side” lineal descendant: the Yale chapter of 1780. The line then continues to Skull and Bones in 1832, and on through the other “only at Yale” senior societies, Scroll & Key and Wolf’s Head.

Phi Beta Kappa is the “first three Greek letters, for ‘Philosophia Biou Kubernetes’ or ‘Love of wisdom, the helmsman of life’.” A skull homophone is scull, a quick, gliding boat and part of Skull & Bones first nomenclature.

John Robison, a professor of natural philosophy at Edinburgh University in Scotland and a member of a Freemason Lodge, said that he was asked to join the Illuminati. After study, he concluded the purposes of the Illuminati were not for him.

In 1798, he published a book called “Proofs Of A Conspiracy”:

“An association has been formed for the express purpose of rooting out all the religious establishments and overturning all the existing governments…. the leaders would rule the World with uncontrollable power, while all the rest would be employed as tools of the ambition of their unknown superiors.”

“Proofs of A Conspiracy” was sent to George Washington. Responding to the sender of the book with a letter, the president said he was aware the Illuminati were in America. He felt that the Illuminati had “diabolical tenets” and that their object was “a separation of the People from their government.”

In “Proofs Of A Conspiracy”, Robison printed the ceremony of initiation of the “Regent degree” in Illuminism. In it “a skeleton is pointed out to him [the initiate], at the feet of which are laid a crown and a sword. He is asked ‘whether that is the skeleton of a king, nobleman or a beggar.’ As he cannot decide, the president of the meeting says to him, ‘The character of being a man is the only one that is importance’”.

This is, essentially, the same as the writing in the Skull & Bones “tomb”:

“Wer war der Thor, wer Weiser, Bettler oder Kaiser?
Ob Arm, ob Reich, im Tode gleich.”

Which reads:

“Who was the fool, who the wise man, beggar or king?
Whether poor or rich, all’s the same in death.”
10. Skull & B.. Illuminati?

Is the Order of the Skull & Bones part of the Illuminati?

When a person is initiated into Skull & Bones, they are given a new name, similar to the practice of the Illuminati. And many recorded Illuminati members can be shown to have contact and/or strong influences with many of the professors that taught “Bonesmen” in Berlin.

When a secret society conspires against the sovereignty of a king, they need to organize, raise funds, make their plans operational, and hopefully bring them to fruition.

Could we have in the United States a secret society that has used the “National Security State” as a cover for their nefarious plans?

From George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography:

“That September [1951], Robert Lovett replaced Marshall as secretary of defense. Meanwhile, Harriman was named director of the Mutual Security Agency, making him the U.S. chief of the Anglo-American military alliance. By now, Brown Brothers, Harriman was everything but commander-in-chief.

“A central focus of the Harriman security regime in Washington (1950-53) was the organization of covert operations and ‘psychological warfare.’ Harriman, together with his lawyers and business partners, Allen and John Foster Dulles, wanted the government’s secret services to conduct extensive propaganda campaigns and mass-psychology experiments within the U.S.A., and paramilitary campaigns abroad….

“The Harriman security regime created the Psychological Strategy Board (PSB) in 1951. The man appointed director of the PSB [was] Gordon Gray…. Gordon’s brother, R.J. Reynolds chairman Bowman Gray Jr., was also a naval intelligence officer, known around Washington as the ‘founder of operational intelligence.’ Gordon Gray became a close friend and political ally of Prescott Bush; and Gray’s son became for Prescott’s son, George, his lawyer and the shield of his covert policy.”

So you have the Whitney/Stimson/Bundy clan and the Harriman/Bush boys wielding a tremendous amount of influence on the political, economic and social affairs of America and the world. Then you have Prescott Bush’s buddy Richard Nixon as an activist vice-president. Then, a nation-chilling assassination, some time under LBJ with the Bundy boys keeping things in line, then Nixon as President with “Bonesmen” aides Ray Price (‘??) and Richard A. Moore. Some time out for a Trilateralist-Democrat-patsy president, followed by Prescott’s son as an activist vice-president under Reagan. Next, we get a Skull and Bones president who declares a “New World Order” while beating up on his business partner, Saddam Hussein.

After twelve years of Republican administrations, Bush passes the reins to his drug smuggling buddy from Arkansas, Bill Clinton, who studied at Yale Law School. According to some researchers, Clinton was recruited as a CIA operative while a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. Could this be the “old Hegallian historical dialectic process”?
11. World History: Plan or Accident?

Will we get another failed Democratic administration? A scandal as disgraceful as Nixon’s fall? When Robert P. Johnson (William Barr) told Clinton in a bunker in Arkansas that “you are our fair-haired boy, but you do have competition for the job you seek. We would never put all our eggs in one basket. You and your state have been our greatest asset…. Mr. Casey wanted me to pass on to you, that unless you fuck up and do something stupid, you are number one on our short list for shot at the job you always wanted.”

So, you have William Casey — CIA Director, George Bush’s campaign manager and Sovereign Knight of Malta — speaking through the proxy of George Bush’s last Attorney General to George’s rival in the 1992 federal elections. Is it all just a show and sham for the hoi polloi?

Perhaps so, if there exists the type of control over the electoral process as told by Mae Brussell and the suppressed book “VoteScam,” written by Jim and Ken Collier:

“…Your vote and mine may now be a meaningless bit of energy directed by preprogrammed computers-which can be fixed to select certain pre-ordained candidates and leave no footprints or paper trail.

“In short, computers are covertly stealing your vote.

“–For almost three decades the American vote has been subject to government-sponsored electronic theft.

“–The vote has been stolen from you by a cartel of federal “national security” bureaucrats, who include higher-ups in the Central Intelligence Agency, political party leaders, Congressmen, co-opted journalists — and the owners and managers — of the major Establishment news media, who have decided in concert that how America’s votes are counted, by whom they are counted and how the results are verified and delivered to the public is, as one of them put it, ‘Not a proper area of inquiry.’

“–By means of an unofficial private corporation named News Election Service (NES), the Establishment press has actual physical control of the counting and dissemination of the vote, and it refuses to let the public know how it is done.”

Is the American electorate subjected to cyclic propaganda, pre-selected candidates and winners, and psychological warfare to alienate Americans from the institutions established to serve them by the Constitution? Are the Democratic and Republican National Parties used for a Hegellian experiment in controlled conflict?

Pamela Churchill Harriman, Averil’s wife, is one of the Democratic Party’s biggest fund-raisers. She once gave Bill a job as director of her “PAM PAC” when he was defeated for governor in 1980. Bill paid her back by appointing her as Ambassador to France.

Another Harriman/Bush friend, Eugene Stetson (’34), was an assistant manager for Prescott Bush at Brown Brothers, Harriman’s New York office. He organized the H. Smith Richardson Foundation. The foundation, in the late 1950s, participated in the MKULTRA, the CIA’s domestic covert psychological warfare operation. The Richardson Foundation helped to finance the testing of psychotropic drugs, including LSD, at Bridgewater Hospital in Massachusetts, the center of some of the most brutal MK-ULTRA experiments.

During the Iran-Contra operations, the H. Smith Richardson Foundation was a “private donors steering committee,” working with the National Security Council to co-ordinate the Office of Public Diplomacy. This was an effort to propagandize in favor of and run cover for the Iran-Contra operations, and to coordinate published attacks on opponents of the program.

The H. Smith Richardson Foundation also runs the Center for Creative Leadership at Langley to “train leaders of the CIA,” as well as another center near Greensboro, North Carolina, that trains CIA and Secret Service Agents. Almost everyone who achieves the military rank of general also gets this training.

This is just the tip of an iceberg. You also have eugenics and population control, suppressed history and technology, yearly retreats, profitable partnerships with brutal dictators, deals with “terrorists”, the involvement of the Knights of Malta, war-mongering and profiteering, mind-control, secret societies for teens, ritual magic and more — all spinning the dark threads in the web of conspiracy that our spinning blue ball has gotten caught in.

We’ve got a whole new crop of “Bonesmen” coming up, including George H.W. Bush’s son George W. Bush (’68), Governor of Texas.

When Don Schollander (’68), the Olympic gold-medalist and only known Skull and Bones member living in Portland, was contacted by Willamette Week reporter John Schrang regarding his involvement in the Order, he said, “It’s really something I can’t talk about.”

Not wouldn’t, but “couldn’t”.

As I aim for that bright white day
Conflict serum is my aura
It seems that life’s so fragile
I guess I’ll fly some other time

I lack from superhighway thoughts
Won’t live as long as the city lights
Soaked by underwater times
Electric splash on a midnight drive

Wish I could rape the day,
just something radical
Lost the sense of sweet things
Who’s gonna take me widely?

Guided by the pinball map
The driver, still unknown to me
Who was sent to glorify?
Before we injected this common pride

Sometimes I don’t belong
Release me from your world
Pacified by the small things in life
I wait for earthquakes to rearrange

Never been able to use the force
I only have it read to me
Despite all the misguided faith
I’ll find a place in this mess

Wish I could rape the day,
just something radical
Lost the sense of sweet things
Who’s gonna take me widely?

Guided by the pinball map
The driver, still unknown to me
Who was sent to glorify?
Before we injected this common pride

Early morning moments
A glimpse of joy
But soon it’s over and I return to dust
As I try to be
Everything and everyone
I shrivel up and waste away

Wish I could rape the day,
just something radical
Lost the sense of sweet things
Who’s gonna take me widely?

Guided by the pinball map
The driver, still unknown to me
Who was sent to glorify?
Before we injected this common pride

Example of a Trojan horse

A simple example of a Trojan horse would be a program named “waterfalls.scr” which claimed to be a free waterfall screensaver. When run, it would instead open computer ports and allow hackers to access the user’s computer remotely.

Types of Trojan horse payloads

Trojan horse payloads are almost always designed to do various harmful things, but can also be harmless. They are broken down in classification based on how they breach and damage systems. The nine main types of Trojan horse payloads are:

* Remote Access.
* Email Sending
* Data Destruction
* Downloader
* Proxy Trojan (disguising others as the infected computer)
* FTP Trojan (adding or copying data from the infected computer)
* security software disabler
* denial-of-service attack (DoS)
* URL trojan (directing the infected computer to only connect to the internet via an expensive dial-up connection)

Some examples of damage are:

* erasing or overwriting data on a computer
* encrypting files in a cryptoviral extortion attack
* corrupting files in a subtle way
* upload and download files
* allowing remote access to the victim’s computer. This is called a RAT (remote administration tool)
* spreading other malware, such as viruses: this type of Trojan horse is called a ‘dropper’ or ‘vector’
* setting up networks of zombie computers in order to launch DDoS attacks or send spam.
* spying on the user of a computer and covertly reporting data like browsing habits to other people (see the article on spyware)
* making screenshots
* logging keystrokes to steal information such as passwords and credit card numbers
* phishing for bank or other account details, which can be used for criminal activities
* installing a backdoor on a computer system
* opening and closing CD-ROM tray
* harvesting e-mail addresses and using them for spam
* restarting the computer whenever the infected program is started
* deactivating or interfering with anti-virus and firewall programs
* deactivating or interfering with other competing forms of malware

Methods of infection

The majority of Trojan horse infections occur because the user was tricked into running an infected program. This is why it is advised to not open unexpected attachments on emails — the program is often a cute animation or an image, but behind the scenes it infects the computer with a Trojan or worm. The infected program doesn’t have to arrive via email; it can be sent in an Instant Message, downloaded from a Web site or by FTP, or even delivered on a CD or floppy disk. (Physical delivery is uncommon, but if one were the specific target of an attack, it would be a fairly reliable way to infect a computer.) Furthermore, an infected program could come from someone who sits down at a computer and loads it manually. However, receiving a Trojan in this manner is very rare. It is usually received through a download.

Since Trojan horses take a variety of forms, there is no single method for deleting them. The simplest responses involve clearing the temporary internet files on a computer, or finding the file and deleting it manually. In some cases, registry editing or other treatments are needed. In extreme cases, it may even be necessary to reset the computer back to its factory defaults.Well-known trojan horses

* Downloader-EV
* Dropper-EV
* Pest Trap
* NetBus
* flooder
* Tagasaurus
* Vundo trojan
* Gromozon Trojan
* Sub-7
* Cuteqq_Cn.exe

Sadness is a mood that displays feeling of disadvantage and loss. Deep immersion in this feeling may lead eventually to depression, which is a pathological state, requiring in most cases intervention by a qualified professional. During the sadness the person becomes quiet, less energetic and withdraws into oneself. He has neither the urge to go out and to activate nor to contact with others. Visually sighs of the sadness are head and look downcast, sloping body, stuck out lips and a slow and weak physical activity. Sadness considered as an opposite feeling to happiness. Synonyms to this feeling are sorrow, grief, unhappiness, misery, melancholy and gloom. According to the philosopher Baruch Spinoza there are three basic feelings: passion, happiness and sadness. Spinoza defined sadness as “transfer of a person from a large perfection to a smaller one”.

According to biblical verse sadness is sorrow or grief derives from a bad action by another person. Sadness diluted with anger.

Sadness and the accuracy of the evaluation

[Forgas, 1992, 1994] has found that there is an influence of mood on accuracy of the evaluation of people. This influence may originate from miss collecting information or from faulty information processing. The main argument regarding miss collecting information is that bias results derive from matching to the current mood. For instance: Forgas &Bower, 1987 have found that happy people were inclined to evaluate others in a positive way – they matched their positive evaluation to their positive mood. Hence, bias may occur when a person relates to his current mood as a source of information that in turn influences his evaluation.

As previously mentioned, accuracy of evaluation may effected by directly influencing information processing. It was found that happy people tend to process information in a short period of time and more accurately compared to sad people who process information logically, over extent period of time and less accurately ([Ambady & Gray, 2002]). Several explanations have been provided:
•Functional ([Forgas, 1998]) – Mood indicates a social situation that in turn enables specific behavior. Therefore, happiness indicates a positive social situation in which the behavior would be more freed. In contrast, sadness indicates a dangerous social situation that requires more intention and for that reason requires greater and more precise information processing.
•Motivational (Isen, 1984) – People in positive mood avoid deep information processing that may doubt the positive situation they’re in. In contrast, people in sad mood make a lot of effort in order to change the negative situation they’re in.
•The ability to process information is influenced by mood ([Isen, 1987]) – Happy people, as opposed to sad people have less cognitional resources required for deep and precise information processing. A study which tried to strengthen this argument showed that resource blocking using distractions, prevented from deep and precise information processing and raised the effectiveness among people in sad mood ([Ambady & Gray,2002]) .

Sadness and status position

Studies revealed that when people recognize the expressed emotion, they tend to attribute additional characteristics to the person expressing that emotion (Hallo effect). A happy person surrounds himself with affection characteristics, a sad person is perceived as weak and lacking ability but also as warm and nice ( Keltmher,et al.,1998 ) and an angry person is perceived as powerful, dominant but also as less warm and less social. (Kelthmer, 1997).

[Tiedens, 2001] study was trying to explore whether people provide power to people they like or to people they perceive as powerful. The study examined handing over social position in political, business and job interview situations. Its findings have revealed that people had preferred to give status position and power to an angry (anger) leader rather than to a sad one. This finding indicated that people tend to provide power to those perceived by them as powerful instead of to those whom they like. In the business situation a positive statistical correlation has been found between sadness and social contribution extent, but those who expressed anger have been perceived as people that can be learnt from and therefore deserve status and promotion. In the job interview situation it has been found that the angry person is perceived as more suitable for promotion and high salary compared to the sad one.

Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from the name of the coca plant in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is both a stimulant of the central nervous system and an appetite suppressant, giving rise to what has been described as a euphoric sense of happiness and increased energy. It is most often used recreationally for this effect. Nonetheless, cocaine is formally used in medicine as a topical anesthetic, specifically in eye, nose and throat surgery.

Its possession, cultivation, and distribution are illegal for non-medicinal and non-government sanctioned purposes in virtually all parts of the world. Although its free commercialization is illegal and has been severely penalized in virtually all countries, its use worldwide remains widespread in many social, cultural, and personal settings.

History

Originally consumed without any processing, the chewing of coca leaves was popular among South American natives long before the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century. The leaves were chewed in a manner consistent with modern use of coffee, chewed for a small burst of energy or stamina. The Spanish explorers noticed how the natives used the coca leaves and themselves partook in some cases, but the practice of chewing the raw leaves did not become especially popular among Europeans. Coca’s turning point in Europe came in 1860 when Albert Neiman extracted pure cocaine powder from coca leaves. This refinement allowed the use of cocaine in many different medicinal products and beverages, most notably Coca-Cola and Vin Mariani. Freud began experimenting with cocaine around this time, consuming small quantities to combat depression, sharing his experience with other European physicians who also found cocaine to be an effective topical anesthetic. Freud became a fervent supporter of the use of cocaine as an anti-depressant, even publishing a manuscript detailing its virtues. As cocaine’s popularity increased, health risks were noted and seized upon by American legislators, who made the substance all but illegal in 1916.

Prohibition currently

Main article: Legal status of cocaine

The production, distribution and sale of cocaine products is restricted (and illegal in most contexts) in most countries as regulated by the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. In the United States the manufacture, importation, possession, and distribution of cocaine is additionally regulated by the 1970 Controlled Substances Act.

Some countries, such as Peru and Bolivia permit the cultivation of coca leaf for traditional consumption by the local indigenous population, but nevertheless prohibit the production, sale and consumption of cocaine.

Some parts of Europe and Australia allow processed cocaine for medicinal uses only.

In certain countries in the Middle East and Asia, such as Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, being in possession of cocaine can be punishable by death.[30]

Interdiction

In 2004 , according to the United Nations, 589 metric tons of cocaine were seized globally by law enforcement authorities. Colombia seized 188 tons, the United States 166 tons, Europe 79 tons, Peru 14 tons, Bolivia 9 tons, and the rest of the world 133 tons

Illicit trade
Because of the extensive processing it undergoes during preparation, cocaine is generally treated as a ‘hard drug’, with severe penalties for possession and trafficking. Demand remains high, and consequently black market cocaine is quite expensive. Unprocessed cocaine, such as coca leaves, are occasionally purchased and sold, but this is exceedingly rare as it is much easier and more profitable to conceal and smuggle it in powdered form.

Production

By 1999, Colombia had become the world’s leading producer of cocaine. Three-quarters of the world’s annual yield of cocaine was produced there, both from cocaine base imported from Peru (primarily the Huallaga Valley) and Bolivia, and from locally grown coca. There was a 28% increase from the amount of potentially harvestable coca plants which were grown in Colombia in 1998 . This, combined with crop reductions in Bolivia and Peru, made Colombia the nation with the largest area of coca under cultivation after the mid-1990s. Coca grown for traditional purposes by indigenous communities, a use which is still present and is permitted by Colombian laws, only makes up a small fragment of total coca production, most of which is used for the illegal drug trade. Attempts to eradicate coca fields through the use of defoliants have devastated part of the farming economy in some coca growing regions of Colombia, and strains appear to have been developed that are more resistant or immune to their use. Whether these strains are natural mutations or the product of human tampering is unclear. These strains have also shown to be more potent than those previously grown, increasing profits for the drug cartels responsible for the exporting of cocaine. The cultivation of coca has become an attractive, and in some cases even necessary, economic decision on the part of many growers due to the combination of several factors, including the persistence of worldwide demand, the lack of other employment alternatives, the lower profitability of alternative crops in official crop substitution programs, the eradication-related damages to non-drug farms, and the spread of new strains of the coca plant.

Trafficking and distribution

Organized criminal gangs operating on a large scale dominate the cocaine trade. Most cocaine is grown and processed in South America, particularly in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, and smuggled into the United States and Europe, where it is sold at huge markups; usually in the US at $50-$75 for 1 gram(or a “fitty rock”), and $125-200 for 3.5 grams (1/8th of an ounce, or an “eight ball”).

Cocaine shipments from South America transported through Mexico or Central America are generally moved over land or by air to staging sites in northern Mexico. The cocaine is then broken down into smaller loads for smuggling across the U.S.–Mexico border. The primary cocaine importation points in the United States are in Arizona, southern California, southern Florida, and Texas. Typically, land vehicles are driven across the U.S.-Mexico border. Sixty Five percent of cocaine enters the United States through Mexico, and the vast majority of the rest enters through Florida.[32]

Cocaine is also carried in small, concealed, kilogram quantities across the border by couriers known as “mules” (or “burros”), who cross a border either legally, e.g. through a port or airport, or illegally through undesignated points along the border. The drugs may be strapped to the waist or legs or hidden in bags, or hidden in the body. If the mule gets through without being caught, the gangs will reap most of the profits. If he or she is caught however, gangs will sever all links and the mule will usually stand trial for trafficking by him/herself.

Cocaine traffickers from Colombia, and recently Mexico, have also established a labyrinth of smuggling routes throughout the Caribbean, the Bahama Island chain, and South Florida. They often hire traffickers from Mexico or the Dominican Republic to transport the drug. The traffickers use a variety of smuggling techniques to transfer their drug to U.S. markets. These include airdrops of 500–700 kg in the Bahama Islands or off the coast of Puerto Rico, mid-ocean boat-to-boat transfers of 500–2,000 kg, and the commercial shipment of tonnes of cocaine through the port of Miami.

Bulk cargo ships are also used to smuggle cocaine to staging sites in the western Caribbean–Gulf of Mexico area. These vessels are typically 150–250-foot (50–80 m) coastal freighters that carry an average cocaine load of approximately 2.5 tonnes. Commercial fishing vessels are also used for smuggling operations. In areas with a high volume of recreational traffic, smugglers use the same types of vessels, such as go-fast boats, as those used by the local populations.

Availability

Cocaine is readily available in all major countries’ metropolitan areas. According to the Summer 1998 Pulse Check, published by the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, cocaine use had stabilized across the country, with a few increases reported in San Diego, Bridgeport, Miami, and Boston. In the West, cocaine usage was lower, which was thought to be because some users were switching to methamphetamine, which was cheaper and provides a longer-lasting high. Numbers of cocaine users are still very large, with a concentration among city-dwelling youth.

Cocaine is typically sold to users by the gram ($30-$120US) or eight ball (3.5 grams, or roughly 1/8th oz; hence the term “eight ball”) ($100-$300) also can be sold in bill sizes such as $10 would be a dime bag purchasing a small amount (0.1 – 0.15 grams) most common amount would be $20 worth and would include .15-.3 grams this is very popular among youth because of it inexpensiveness and is easily concealed on one’s body at any time. Quality and price can vary dramatically depending on demand and supply and in different countries.

Consumption
World annual cocaine consumption currently stands at around 600 metric tons, with the United States consuming around 300 metric tons, 50% of the total, Europe about 150 metric tons, 25% of the total, and the rest of the world the remaining 150 metric tons or 25%. [2]

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 2006 World Drug Report, the United States has the world’s greatest rate of cocaine consumption by people aged 15 to 64, 2.8%. It is closely followed by Spain with 2.7%, and England & Wales with 2.4%. Most Western European countries have a consumption rate between 1% and 2%.

General usage

Cocaine has become the second most popular illegal recreational drug in the U.S.(behind marijuana)[35] Cocaine is commonly used in middle to upper class communities. It is also popular amongst college students, not just to aid in studying, but also as a party drug. Its users span over different ages, races, and professions. In the 1970s and 80′s, the drug became particularly popular in the disco culture as cocaine usage was very common and popular in many discos such as Studio 54.

The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) reported in 1999 that cocaine was used by 3.7 million Americans, or 1.7% of the household population age 12 and older. Estimates of the current number of those who use cocaine regularly (at least once per month) vary, but 1.5 million is a widely accepted figure within the research community.

Although cocaine use had not significantly changed over the six years prior to 1999, the number of first-time users went up from 574,000 in 1991, to 934,000 in 1998 — an increase of 63%. While these numbers indicated that cocaine is still widely present in the United States, cocaine use was significantly less prevalent than it was during the early 1980s. Cocaine use peaked in 1982 when 10.4 million Americans (5.6% of the population) reportedly used the drug[citation needed].

Usage among youth

The 1999 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey found the proportion of American students reporting use of powdered cocaine rose during the 1990s. In 1991 , 2.3% of eighth-graders stated that they had used cocaine in their lifetime. This figure rose to 4.7% in 1999. For the older grades, increases began in 1992 and continued through the beginning of 1999. Between those years, lifetime use of cocaine went from 3.3% to 7.7% for tenth-graders and from 6.1% to 9.8% for high school seniors. Lifetime use of crack cocaine, according to MTF, also increased among eighth-, tenth-, and twelfth-graders, from an average of 2% in 1991 to 3.9% in 1999.

Perceived risk and disapproval of cocaine and crack use both decreased during the 1990s at all three grade levels. The 1999 NHSDA found the highest rate of monthly cocaine use was for those aged 18–25 at 1.7%, an increase from 1.2% in 1997. Rates declined between 1996 and 1998 for ages 26–34, while rates slightly increased for the 12–17 and 35+ age groups. Studies also show people are experimenting with cocaine at younger ages. NHSDA found a steady decline in the mean age of first use from 23.6 years in 1992 to 20.6 years in 1998.
Cocaine addiction is physical and psychological dependency on the regular use of cocaine. It can result in physiological damage, lethargy, depression, or a potentially fatal overdose. The immediate craving of the addict for more soon after use is due the short-lived high that usually subsides within an hour, leading to prolonged, multi-dose binge use. When administration stops after binge use, it is followed by a “crash” (also known as a “come down”), the onset of severely dysphoric mood with escalating exhaustion until sleep is achieved, which is sometimes accomplished by taking sleeping medications, or sedatives,a popular one being Seroquel, or by combination use of alcohol and cannabis. Resumption of use may occur upon awakening or may not occur for several days, but the intense euphoria of such use can, as it has in many users, produce intense craving and develop rather quickly into addiction. The risk[36] of becoming cocaine-dependent within 2 years of first use(recent-onset) is 5-6%; after 10 years, it’s 15-16%. These are the aggregate rates for all types of use considered, i.e., smoking, snorting, injecting. Among recent-onset users, the relative rates are higher for smoking (3.4 times) and much higher for injecting. They also vary, based on other characteristics, such as gender: among recent-onset users, females are 3.3 times more likely to become addicted, compared to males; age: among recent-onset users, those who started using at ages 12 or 13 were 4 times as likely to become addicted, compared to those who started between ages 18 and 20; and race: among recent-onset users, non-Hispanic Blacks are 7 times as likely to become addicted, compared to non-Hispanic Whites. Many habitual abusers develop a transient manic-like condition similar to amphetamine psychosis and schizophrenia, whose symptoms include aggression, severe paranoia, and tactile hallucinations (including the feeling of insects under the skin, or “coke bugs”) during binges.[37]

Cocaine has positive reinforcement effects, which refers to the effect that certain stimuli have on behavior. Good feelings become associated with the drug, causing a frequent user to take the drug as a response to bad news or mild depression. This activation strengthens the response that was just made. If the drug was taken by a fast acting route such as injection or inhalation, the response will be the act of taking more cocaine, so the response will be reinforced. Powder cocaine, being a club drug is mostly consumed in the evening and night hours. Because cocaine is a stimulant, a user will often drink large amounts of alcohol during and after usage or smoke cannabis to dull “crash” or “come down” effects and hasten slumber. Benzodiazepines (e.g., xanax®, rohypnol®) are also used for this purpose. Other drugs such as heroin and various pharmaceuticals are often used to amplify reinforcement or to minimize such negative effects, further increasing addiction potential and harmfulness.

It has been shown in studies that rhesus monkeys, provided with a mechanism of cocaine self-administration, prefer the drug over food that is in the cage. This happens even when the monkeys are starving.[38]

It is speculated that cocaine’s addictive properties stem partially from its DAT-blocking effects (in particular, increasing the dopaminergic transmission from ventral tegmental area neurons). However, a study has shown that mice with no dopamine transporters still exhibit the rewarding effects of cocaine administration.[39] Later work demonstrated that a combined DAT/SERT knockout eliminated the rewarding effects.[40] The rewarding effects of cocaine are influenced by circadian rhythms,[41] possibly by involving a set of genes termed “clock genes”.[42] However, chronic cocaine addiction is not solely due to cocaine reward. Chronic repeated use is needed to produce cocaine-induced changes in brain reward centers and consequent chronic dysphoria (described above under “Effects and Health Issues – Chronic”). Dysphoria magnifies craving for cocaine because cocaine reward rapidly, albeit transiently, improves mood. This contributes to continued use and a self-perpetuating, worsening condition, since those addicted usually cannot appreciate that long-term effects are opposite those occurring immediately after use.

Treatment

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) proven to be effective to treat drug and alcohol addictions. Cocaine vaccines are on trial that will stop desirable effects from the drug. The National Institutes of Health of US, particularly National Institute on Drug Abuse NIDA is researching modafinil, a narcolepsy drug and mild stimulant, as a potential cocaine treatment. Twelve-step programs such as Cocaine Anonymous (modeled on Alcoholics Anonymous) are claimed by participants to be helpful in achieving long-term abstinence; however, the 12 step based programs have no statistically-measurable effect and does not release any quantifiable measure of its success rates.

The high

The state of intoxication due to cannabis consumption is colloquially known as a “high”; it is the state where mental and physical facilities are noticeably altered due to the consumption of cannabis. Each user experiences a different high, and the nature of it may vary upon factors such as potency, dose, chemical composition, method of consumption and set and setting.

Effects

Positive

• mood lift, euphoria
• laughter
• relaxation, stress reduction
• creative, philosophical or deep thinking : ideas “flow” more easily
• increased appreciation of music. More aware of, deeper connection to music.
• increased awareness of senses. (eating, drinking, smell)
• change in experience of muscle fatigue. Pleasant body feel. Increase in body/mind connection.
• pain relief (headaches, cramps)
• reduced nausea, increased appetite (used medically for this)
• boring tasks or entertainment can become more interesting or amusing

Neutral

• general change in consciousness (as with many psychoactives)
• increased appetite
• slowness (slow driving, talking)
• change in vision such as sharpened colors or lights
• closed-eye visuals (somewhat uncommon)
• tiredness, sleepiness, lethargy
• stimulation, inability to sleep (less common)
• blood shot eyes (more common with certain varieties of cannabis and inexperienced users)
• mouth dryness, sticky-mouth (varies with strain)
• interrupts linear memory. Difficulty following a train of thought.
• cheek, jaw, facial tension / numbness (less commonly reported)
• racing thoughts (especially at high doses)
• increased emotional impact of music
• Time sense altered: cars seem like they are moving too fast, time dilation and compression are common at higher doses

Negative

• nausea, especially in combination with alcohol, some pharmaceuticals, or other psychoactives
• coughing, asthma, upper respiratory problems
• difficulty with short term memory during effects and during periods of frequent use (Ranganathan M, D’Souza DC, Psychopharmacology, 2006)
• racing heart, agitation, feeling tense
• mild to severe anxiety
• panic attacks in sensitive users or with very high doses (oral use increases risk of getting too much)
• headaches
• dizziness, confusion
• lightheadedness or fainting (in cases of lowered blood pressure)
• paranoid & anxious thoughts more frequent
• irritability, anger and aggressive behavior
• possible psychological dependence on cannabis
• clumsiness, loss of coordination at high doses
• can precipitate or exacerbate latent or existing mental disorders

Hunger

The “Munchies” is a term that is often used to describe the increased appetite that comes from using cannabis. Research performed by the National Institutes of Health claimed that cannabis increases food enjoyment and the number of times a person eats each day. Recently, scientists have claimed to be able to explain what causes the increase in appetite, concluding that “endocannabinoids in the hypothalamus activate cannabinoid receptors that are responsible for maintaining food intake.”

Bumfights is an independent video series originally created by Indecline Films which features vagrants fighting and attempting amateur stunts in exchange for money, alcohol, and other incentives. Homeless people were actually hurt in the making of these videos (most notably, Rufus Hannah, who later filed charges), and had no stunt doubles. The first video in this series was called Bumfights: Cause for Concern The film was produced by Ryan McPherson, Zachary Bubeck, Daniel J. Tanner, and Michael Slyman, and has been distributed mainly over the Internet. In 2003, Indecline sold the rights to another company.

The US-based National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) has stated that Bumfight videos disseminate hate against the homeless and dehumanize them

In April 2006, the four filmmakers agreed to pay three men depicted in the videos and not to produce any more “Bumfights” videos or distribute videos already made, under a settlement announced as a lawsuit was to go to trial.

Bumfights 4: Return of Ruckus went on sale August 1, 2006. This installment in the series has a short running time and extremely little “bum” footage, instead relying on clips of suburban kids fighting and jumping off of things to fill time (much more so than previous installments).

Bumfights videos:

* Bumfights: Cause for Concern (2002)
* Bumfights 2: Bumlife (2003)
* Bumfights 3: The Felony Footage (2004)
* Bumfights 4:; Return Of Ruckus (2006)

Controversy

The videos have proven to be highly controversial. They have been banned in a number of countries including Great Britain, and most traditional retail outlets have refused their sale. The popular internet auction site eBay routinely cancels listings which contain copies of the video, citing their policy which prohibits the sale of materials which promote or glorify violence. In the state of California, both felony and misdemeanor charges were filed against the producers, as well as civil lawsuits; in 2005, the producers were sentenced to six months in prison for having failed to complete the community service to which they had previously been sentenced. The filmmakers maintain that the production of the video was a mutually beneficial arrangement and that the homeless people depicted freely chose to participate.

The films have likewise been blamed for inspiring a number of violent teenage attacks on the homeless, both in the United States and other countries.

In 2004, three teens from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, severely beat and killed a homeless man by the name of Rex Baum