Manly P. Hall: The Maestro of Esoteric Philosophy (IV)
Part 4: Initiation in the Modern Age
21. The Mystery Schools in the Modern Era
This article is the fourth in a multi-part series on the life and teachings of 20th century American philosopher Manly P. Hall. In particular, the goal of this series is to focus on Hall’s interpretation of contemporary challenges and opportunities facing mankind in the modern era.
In the previous article of this series (Part 3), we examined Hall’s body of teachings on the UFO mystery. As we discovered, he takes a multivariable approach to the topic, factoring in a wide-ranging number of views and perspectives, ranging from the practical geopolitical implications of the phenomenon, to the psychological principles involved with our interpretation of it, to the greater philosophical themes it directs our attention towards.
My analysis of Hall’s discussion of the UFO topic follows an earlier series of articles I presented on the history of the phenomenon, which I put out as part of a larger chapter on the “secret history” of the 20th century. In that series we delved into the historical backstory of the UFO mystery, discussing its largely unknown 19th century origins, when it first emerged in the form of what were then called “flying airships”.
To summarize the material presented in that previous chapter, we learned that, back during the 19th century, there were numerous reported sightings of early, crude prototypes of UFOs - then called “flying airships”.
The 19th-century sightings of these “flying airships” span across decades, with some reports dating back to even before the time of the Civil War. The vast majority of these early sightings came during the 1890s, however, with newspaper reports about them appearing across the Americas, from North to South.
In descriptions of these early UFOs given by onlookers, it is clear that these “flying airships” were utilizing an early form of antigravity propulsion technology. They appeared in a variety of makes and models, ones demonstrating a distinctly “steampunk-like” quality to their design. Meaning: the design they demonstrated was very much “of the time period”. Later, as the industrial age progressed and engineering capabilities advanced, these designs would change, eventually evolving into the metallic disc-shaped “flying saucer” design that became prominent during mid-20th century.
Here we come to an important point, one worth emphasizing: during the early, 19th-century phase of the UFO mystery, it was abundantly clear that secretive humans groups - and not aliens - were behind the operation of these technologies.
In fact, in a few of the 19th century “flying airship” sightings, bystanders reported directly encountering and conversing with the pilots of these strange vehicles. In every case, they were humans.
The idea that this technology is the product of humans is also evidenced in the fact that a clear pathway of technological development and innovation can be tracked from the more crude 19th century airship designs to the more advanced 20th century “flying saucer” models. Clearly, the UFO mystery originates with human groups here on Earth rather than with an extraterrestrial presence out in space.
Apparently, the main technology that makes them possible was discovered back during the formative days of science in the early 19th century, and has been iterated upon and fine-tuned over the decades, eventually evolving into the sleek models that modern observers report encountering today.
Furthermore, it is also clear that concepts like Etheric energy and telluric currents were behind their mode of operation, and not “reverse engineered” alien technology. That meme is a distinctly modern one, and has no corollary in the early, 19th century phase of the UFO story.
The meme about UFOs being the product of aliens or ETs is nowhere to be found during the 19th century; this story did not emerge until much later in the mid-20th century. Actually, we can trace the beginning of this meme specifically to the year 1947, this being the year of Roswell and the passing of the National Security Act.
In my view, Roswell, along with other events like it, were part of a larger strategic campaign, enacted on national security grounds, to sell an “alien” explanation for UFOs as a cover story to mask the activities of these secretive human groups who had been at work already for decades to develop these technologies.
By creating this cover story, curious onlookers would be distracted from probing into the truth of the matter, and as a result, this technology could continue to be developed and utilized free from outside interference.
According to my research, the campaign to conceal the science and technology behind UFOs began as early as the late 1890s. Around this time, several key synchronistic events came together which suggest that, during this period, there arose within America a secret, elite group with the ambition to consolidate the entire paradigm of Ether physics under its control, monopolizing it for itself.
As part of this process, the science and technology behind UFOs would go “classified” and disappear from public awareness. It would be written out of science and history books, and the entire topic would become publicly discredited, with the “alien” meme arising as part of this concealment campaign.
The first piece of evidence suggesting the onset of a conspiracy during this era was the sudden halting of the flying airship phenomenon. After hundreds of sightings were recorded over the course of 1896-7, the phenomenon suddenly ceased, not to reappear again until the mid-20th century. By this point, these craft no longer look like flying “airships”; now, they demonstrate the familiar flying saucer design.
Furthermore, not long after the original airship sightings cease, a number of important social, intellectual, political, and economic transformations begin taking place within American society. For one, the Federal Reserve banking system is formally installed, with the financial and economic sectors of society becoming privatized. At the same time, we see America adopt an imperialistic foreign policy agenda.
Meanwhile, the beginning of a deliberate campaign to establish a world energy cartel begins emerging. One of the benefits of this type of cartel system is that patent agreements can be standardized and enforced globally: if an entire paradigm of science and technology is to be centralized and kept secret, then this is the type of legal structure that would need to be created in order to enforce this policy on a global level.
Right around this same period, we begin discovering instances where blueprints and patents from inventors working in the area of Etheric energy and antigravity became deliberately interfered with and subjugated. One prominent example of this is with J.P. Morgan’s subjugation of Nikola Tesla’s work to develop a “world wireless” energy system. Clearly, a centralized, coordinated campaign was taking place behind the scenes to make this entire paradigm disappear from public view.
Manly Hall gives his own account of having once been presented with the blueprints for an Ether-based energy technology: one that was never allowed to make it to market. In the 1950s, he wrote: “many years ago the plans for a gyroscopic motor were shown to me by an inventor who was unable at that time to get any support for his ideas. His design was not essentially different from that suspected to be used to motivate the flying saucers.”
Looking back, we discover that, around the turn of the last century, mankind was on the cusp of a breakthrough in science and technology. And right at the point when the dam was about to break, a Hidden Hand stepped in and interfered with the trajectory of events, monopolizing these breakthroughs for itself and giving public society a terminally flawed paradigm of science and technology in its place, one based on materialism and fueled by the use of coal and oil.
So instead of a new era of “free energy” like Tesla envisioned coming about, we got Edison’s oligarch-friendly system, with all competition to it disappearing from record.
It was atop Edison’s closed-system energy model, and not Tesla’s open-system design, that the entire economic order of the 20th century was built. The question is: while this was happening, what happened to the Ether paradigm? Was it completely erased, or did it go deeply “black” (i.e. classified) at this early period? And if it did go classified, what can we infer about the secretive entity that took over monopoly possession of it?
While no formal documentation has emerged to clarify who exactly this mysterious group was that took over exclusive control of the Etheric paradigm of science and technology, we can infer certain attributes about it.
For one, there may have been two separate concealment campaigns happening at once: one at the level of the “flying airship” societies, the other at the level of oligarchs like J.P. Morgan.
This means that the inner organizational structure of the Hidden Hand that moved to take control of the Etheric energy paradigm may have been polarized into two camps: a higher scientific camp of “technocrats” who specialize in science, engineering, and technology development; and a lower oligarchical group, one related to figures like J.P. Morgan and focused on leveraging this technology in order to further their ambitions for world empire.
In addition to these two groups, I believe that a third party was also involved in these events: an apex secret society, one possibly connected to Francis Bacon’s “Rosicrucian Order”.
As we covered extensively in previously chapters, Bacon’s esoteric society, working through the outer vehicle of Freemasonry, was heavily involved in the circumstances surrounding the American Revolutionary War. After the War, however, this esoteric society disappears from view. Apparently, around this time it moved into a new institutional vehicle, one scientific and economic in focus and thus ideally suited for the age to come.
In my view, this new vehicle is within the unknown entity that, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, maneuvered to take control of the entire paradigm of Etheric physics. In time, as the 20th century progressed, this entity rose to become what I call the “technocratic superstate”, this being the organizational superstructure in charge of America’s highly classified research into Etheric energy and antigravity.
To summarize: in my view, in the modern age, the sacred institution of the Mystery Schools has positioned itself at the apex of the “technocratic superstate”, where it maintains its monopoly on the most prized occult secrets of Etheric energy.
Part of my thinking on this is influenced by the fact that Ether-physics is directly related to the sacred science of alchemy, and alchemy has always been contained within the protective umbrella of the Mystery Schools. This was true in the past, and it remains true to this day.
As the outer institutions of human society have evolved, these Mystery Schools have evolved alongside them, expressing themselves through a series of changing forms, ones custom-suited to the needs and dynamics of each age.
With the rise of the age of science, industry, capitalism, and democratic politics, it appears that the Mystery Schools relocated their base of operations into a new vehicle, one suitable to the challenges of the new age man was entering into.
In this way, I believe the Mystery Schools came to quietly over-soul and direct the secret societies behind the “flying airship” mysteries of the 19th century. When these societies were later consolidated to create the entity I call the “technocratic superstate”, the Mystery Schools then took up their abode within this new institutional structure, where they remain to this day.
22. The Adepts in a World at War
Looking back, it seems clear that, as world civilization moved en masse toward the new age of science and industry, the Mystery Schools would have transformed their base of operations as well, transitioning their activities into a new vehicle appropriate to the changing world circumstances of the time.
As the industrial age progressed and the institutions of capitalism grew to become dominant, the most powerful and influential leaders on the world stage shifted from being kings and popes to capitalists and scientists.
Keeping in mind the idea that the Mystery Schools’ primary function is to guide man’s evolution from age to age, is it realistic to assume that, in the new era of science and industry that was to come, the Mystery Schools would have made no plans to continue their influence over the trajectory mankind’s collective fate?
Manly Hall reminds us that, during the medieval era, “all the petty princes in Europe … had their Merlins, wise old men who in many instances were the actual rulers of the State.” If that was true then, would it not also continue to be true to this day?
Wouldn’t the Mystery Schools - the sacred institution of illuminated beings divinely ordained to bring about the ultimate evolutionary completion of humanity - have had a strong interest in directing their initiates and agents into those areas of world society most important to guiding the continued development of the collective race?
Building on this point, Hall tells us that “history is a record of crises and of the extraordinary circumstances by which men have survived them. … In each of these critical periods the required direction has been available. The world has received the assistance which it needed. … These opportune interventions are always associated with deep and secret philosophies and prophets who combined in themselves the attributes of the sage and the saint.”
Hall tells us that in the medieval era these prophets and sages worked quietly behind the scenes, working to move “the crowns of Europe as on a mighty chessboard.” In the modern era, they still fulfill the same duty, only the characters on the chessboard have changed, with capitalists, industrialists, and scientists now occupying the primary positions of influence.
In his 1942 article “The Adepts in a World at War”, Manly Hall expands on these ideas, writing that whenever in history a “big man” has done a “big thing”, “there has been someone standing like a ghost behind him. In physical history these people fade in and out of the pages for no known reason. Curious conferences are held. The men are seen in one place and then another. … But no one says who these men are, or where they came from.”
In the article, Hall recounts an anecdote about the time a researcher told him that he planned to one day write a history “of these ghostly people who have stood behind the great” leaders of history. Hall cautioned this researcher that such a book “would be getting awfully close to very dangerous ground. He probably does not know it, but that book is not going to be written; that book would be entirely too vital a document. For it is the ghostly ones who are responsible for building up the world.”
In truth, “many important changes that have taken place in the history of the world have come about through the ghosts who have, without credit, stood behind the great” leaders that our textbooks record. And this situation remains the case to this day: the initiates and Adepts of the Mystery Schools “are still functioning and still at work. … This protective mechanism (still) exists. Those who have the right to know, know where it is, and how it works. The School of Adepts is still functioning as it always has and always will: as the silent power behind the throne.”
Writing in 1942, right in the middle of WWII, Hall declared that "every government has ghostly personalities somewhere in the background, and day after day, as nations hurl themselves against each other, as this struggle of great continents goes on, the world is bound together by a strange network of interrelated forces working both physically and metaphysically all at the same time to make sure that the game cannot be played outside the rules.”
When we remember that Hall himself held direct connections to president FDR, Vice President Henry Wallace, and prominent internationalist Nicholas Roerich, we come to the realization that he himself may have served as one of these “ghostly personalities”, quietly working to shape the destiny of the nation.
Hall, an initiate of numerous esoteric orders, asks: “how does this power basically and primarily work? It works as a secret society - great, intangible. It cannot be captured or caught up in politics. It cannot in any way be brought under the dominion of any nation or state. … It remains … an intangible government over the whole Earth, … hidden completely from the gaze of the profane.”
Hall informs us that, today, “in every nation of the civilized world, great institutions of learning (i.e. Mystery Schools) have sprung up, richly endowed and fully equipped to meet the challenge of a new age.”
He declares that the “real Esoteric Schools still labor toward the goal of the World Commonwealth. … The old Secret Societies remain as they have always been, custodians of an over-conviction, (and their) Plan remains utopian.”
Their goals today are the same as they ever were: to preserve the sacred arts and sciences from abuse by the profane; to stimulate mankind toward the realization of a grand collective destiny; and to, as Manly Hall put it, “make sure that the game cannot be played outside the rules.” Ultimately, “universal enlightenment and universal fraternity are the natural ends which reward the social struggle.”
Given their predilection for secrecy, it makes sense that the Mystery Schools would set up shop within the concealed inner core of the US national security state, within the entity I call the “technocratic superstate”.
Like the secret societies of before, this is an institution that is also “hidden from the gaze” of outer, public society, this time for practical national security reasons. But unlike these earlier secret societies, who had to remain hidden from the state, this entity is formally enthroned at the heart of the American nation, where it can now explicitly direct the course of world events from “on high”.
Notably, the organizational culture institutionalized within the US national security state where the Mystery Schools now reside is characterized by many of the same attributes traditionally associated with the Mystery Schools, including: a preoccupation with secrecy; the practice of deliberately veiling knowledge from public view; the creation of a public mythology that conceals inner, occults truths; etc.
In the introduction to his famous 1944 work “The Secret Destiny of America”, Hall gave clear indication that it is indeed here, within the technocratic superstate and the world cartel system that it lords over, that the Mystery Schools are today to be found.
In this book, Hall declares that “the future of human society is intimately associated with the destinies of these vast enterprises which have inherited, along with physical success, the duty - or more correctly, the privilege - of world guardianship.” Thus, “there is every indication that the esoteric tradition will next function through that complex of vast interrelated organisms of production and distribution which now dominate the human imagination.”
At the time he was writing this, the foundations for a world cartel system, centered around an elite technological core, was already well-established. Given that, even then, this vast industrial and financial cartel system already functioned as the backbone of the entire economy of the West, in my eyes this is clearly the entity that Hall is referring to as the current home of the esoteric orders.
Hall further writes that these "vast organizations - industrial, political, social, and educational - have been made possible by the modern life-way. They have become the molders of public opinion, feared or respected according to the measure of integrity revealed in their management.” For this reason, the superstructure that contains them and brings them into organization represents “the largest and most powerful potential instrument for the advancement of mankind ever yet devised.”
In another one of his famous books from the period, one titled “Masonic Orders of Fraternity”, Manly Hall goes deeper into the backstory of how the Mystery Schools came to occupy their current position.
According to him, the transition of the Mystery Schools out of their previous home in the ancient pagan temples and into their current domicile in the world cartel system took place gradually, proceeding along a number of stages.
He explains that, after the fall of classical civilization, mankind fell into a Dark Ages, during which time the Mystery Schools disappeared from public view. But they did not disappear altogether: during this period of concealment, Hall informs us that “the descent of the program of the Esoteric Schools was entrusted to guilds, trade unions, and similar protective and benevolent Societies.”
As the medieval age gradually came to a close in the West, the esoteric tradition moved into the vehicle of secret societies such as the Freemasons and Rosicrucians. These societies in turn brought it over to America during the early stages of the colonization effort.
Once implanted here, these societies conspired to catalyze the American Revolution and establish the American nation. Afterwards, they embedded themselves within the fabric of elite sectors of American society, occupying this position from the very outset of the nation's birth and leaving traces of their presence in the symbolism and architecture of key national monuments, particularly those found in and around Washington DC.
Over time, as the world transitioned into the industrial age, the Mystery Schools moved their operations into a new institutional vehicle, one appropriate to the times. This new vehicle was the world cartel system, whose operations are centered within the mysterious inner realms of the US national security state.
Hall discusses the rationale behind the transition of the Mystery Schools into this new institutional form, noting that, after the success of the Revolutionary Wars of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, “the power of the Church and State to plague the destiny of the average man was broken.
Consequently, “it was no longer needful to struggle against the despotism of feudalism or the perversities of princes.” Instead, a new set of challenges was rising to confront mankind, ones associated with the transition of world civilization from a feudal, agrarian era to a democratic, industrial one.
The new challenges confronting mankind during this period include: a mass transformation of social institutions worldwide; the rise in importance of science, technology, and industry; the emergence of globalization, the internet, and the information control grid; the development of modern warfare technologies and strategies; and the growth of economics and finance as key components of human life.
In Hall’s view, while the modern world order that has brought us these challenges “may appear to the superficial-minded as heartless and soulless,” in truth this world system is still growing and developing and has not yet obtained its full maturity.
One of mankind’s primary tasks during the present age is to bring this economic, political, and technological superstructure into a state of enlightened management, one informed by the principles of philosophy. Only then, once philosophy is enthroned as the dominant institution of the technocratic superstate and its ruling elite, can the vast cartel system it lords over evolve itself into an instrument to advance the collective enlightenment of the race, as it is ultimately intended to do.
What will civilization look like once philosophy is brought into this entity and used to raise it into its ideal form? Francis Bacon gave us an inclination in his famous work, “New Atlantis.” Here, he “describes a philosophic empire, ruled over by enlightened men, which is someday to be established upon the Earth. In the midst of this empire is the City of Wisdom, and in the midst of this city a university of the arts and sciences named Solomon’s House.”
In Bacon’s novel, there is a passage where the master of this great university describes the purpose of his school, stating: “the end of our foundation is the knowledge of Causes, and the secret motions of things, and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible.”
Explaining the meaning of this passage, Bacon scholar Peter Dawkins (who I recently had on my podcast as a featured guest) writes that “the novel suggests a kind of morally decent and friendly utopian society, governed by a democratically elected parliament with a sovereign head of state, in which exists an organized body of science known as Salomon’s House, (which is) guided by divine Providence and dedicated to discovering the mysteries of heaven and earth, and to charitable purposes.”
Hall expands on these notions, writing that, in Bacon’s vision of a perfect civilization, at the center of world society "shall stand a mighty university wherein both the sacred and secular sciences concerning the mysteries of life will be freely taught to all who will assume the philosophic life.”
This gives a clue to the future that the Mystery Schools are slowly but surely drawing world civilization inevitably towards:
According to Hall, the Mystery Schools are currently working to reform the world-education concept. He declares: “the great universities and schools must fulfill the destiny which conceived them”, this destiny relating to the ideal university that Francis Bacon first envisioned back in the opening decades of the 17th century - the College of the Six Days Work, described above.
As Hall is here implying, this world university system, modeled after Bacon’s College of the Six Days Work and featuring a synthesis of religion, science, and philosophy within its curriculum, is the great need of our age. And this is what the Mystery Schools are laboring behind the scenes to create.
This university system cannot exist separately from the institutions of state, economy, or religion; all must be interlinked together within its structure. In its final form, this university will be enthroned at the center of the world cartel system and the world nation, with its initiates and disciples promoted to key leadership positions within each of the main sectors of global society. Here, they will function as the Philosophic Elect and take on the responsibility of guiding world civilization and collective humanity to the next phase of its evolutionary destiny.
It is only by means of this type of enlightened World University that the Mystery Schools will ever allow the esoteric secrets of Etheric Energy to be released into open public use. Until then, the rise of a new golden age will remain a dream, and the Great Work of the Mystery Schools must continue in secret.
23. The Necessity of Initiation
When considering the idea that human life is over-souled by a greater guiding spiritual intelligence - an Invisible Government of enlightened beings - it is normal and natural to ask: if this invisible spiritual government exists and is wise and benevolent, how could it allow the atrocities taking place on Earth to persist?
To answer this question, we must first remember that the enlightened sages governing the Mystery Schools look at life and death differently than we do. In their eyes, there is only one life, moving in various states of itself, seeking its own self-perfection through time.
Therefore, birth and death are two polarities existing within one greater cycle, with consciousness remaining throughout. Through the vehicle of soul or mind, this consciousness moves into and out of creative expression. At birth, the soul moves into an active phase; at death, it returns to a passive one. Death is therefore a transition, not an end, and rebirth for those who have departed is certain, at least until a final state of enlightenment is achieved.