After watching the good shepherd i started doing a little more research on the subjects (even after watching The Skulls and reading a little about some conspiracy stuff) i started to get back at it and so far I've found some very informative and interesting things about these 2 secret societies. While i don't take everything 100% serious, i still think some if not most of the stuff is still used today, including the rituals and the reunions and stuff. I think it's really interesting how secret this stuff is and much influence it has had over centuries. Some of this stuff is really fucked up, for example, how you have to commit a homosexual act before you join, you also have to stand naked and tell your "brotherhood" while inside a coffin, you sexual history.

Have any of you read about this stuff?
btw the good shepherd was a kickass 3hr movie.

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<--- Pennsylvania Free and Accepted Master Mason

movies make all of these groups out to be more than what they are. 90% of are fundraising benefits poor children and or families in need. our local lodge actually has a program that goes around to schools registering kids photos for police. If some scumbag ever abducts them the local authorities already have a updated photo to go by. 85% of the US presidents have all been Master Masons, including Benjemin Franklin. SUre there are secrets and stuff, its a selective group, but not any of the ZOMGZ lets take over the world shit lol. and also there is no gay shit in any ritual invovled in Masonry, i have no idea about any ritual those skull and bones queeros have.

The sexual act stuff is deff in skull and bones, but i read a book on freemasonry, and its not all peachy and fuzzy as you portrait it to be. Maybe you're not deep into it enough like hilary clinton, but i'll tell ya there are plentiful twisted things in freemasonry. Honestly i would be lying if i said i knew exactly how things went in freemasonry & skull and bones, but from what i read (including books) in history and recent history, there are plenty of things that would never be accepted by society and that's why they keep it in such secrecy. Call it conspiracy or not, i like being aware of these things sometimes.

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Yeah apparently its mostly charity work and the secret society stuff is just for shits and giggles. Or that's what I at least heard from a friend. I go to school in Greensboro and apparently there's a lodge there, so I heard about it from a friend who sang for them with a choral group for the knights templar and the masons in a lodge nearby. I dunno, I kinda wonder how these groups survive since I imagine its not like they have big recruiting drives or anything, haha

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Retired 8/21/06
Don't click this link.

eh. one of my good friends is a master freemason. and i think while there is a 'secret' mythos around it all, there really isnt all that much hush hush undercover business to it other than a bunch of rich and bored white men trying to get an evening away from the wife or girlfriend every now and then.
oh and the way you apply to join is by sending in an application ;p
i think it may be the stressful application process that causes so many weird rumors about the masons and other 'secret' groups. people who don't get in get jealous =/

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The lovers, the dreamers, and me.

My grandfather is a freemason and as far as I can tell and from what he's told me they're a lot of misconceptions about them. People make them, Shriners, and The Skulls out to be more than they really are. Think of this way, even if The Skulls never existed and a new club came out of a prominent university of already rich individuals from old money families then some conspiracy nut would make a ton of myths about that. Of course many of the people that belong to these clubs sit well financially but it never was the club in which they belong that really made them this way. Also there is really no way any one secret society can "rule the world" so to speak, it would be impossible and tobacco lobbyists have more power than these people in this area. The world is just too big.

oh thats close to me..

my dad is/was in the freemasonry. we don't talk about it a whole bunch.

lol, where do you apply for something like that? haha

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Retired 8/21/06
Don't click this link.

Only people in it can give you the application i hear.

Here's a propaganda video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPtvb3sgdRA

It seems like most of you took 0 time to do a little search. There might be more to it than you guys think. I got a hold of the book "Secret of the Tombs" by Alex Robbins and so far things aren't too too crazy, but certainly not your average fund raising society.

I also have gone to Barnes and Noble and half read both "Born in Blood" by John J. Robinson and "Freemasonry: Symbols, Secrets, Significance" by W. Kirk MacNulty and it's very safe to say that the hardcore mason (4th degree plus) isn't just some rich guy who wants to get away from his wife. I find hard to follow up on these things because what people talk about is what people can talk about, the secrecy, well, stays secret. Just because your daddy or uncle or friend say all they do is fund raisers and take pictures of kids, doesnt mean that its all they do. One of the books my gf started reading called "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" by Michael Baigent, Henry Lincoln, Richard Leigh -- talks about freemasonry being more of a religion, followers who are dedicated to hold outmost secrecy.

These things can get very easy to be mistaken with conspiracy, thus making the subject so much more vulnerable, but that's what its about imho, trying to find something's out with little knowledge and a bit of discussion.

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The Knights Templar were a key group in the Crusades lol.. thats pretty common knowledge I thought. I don't know about the other groups, but they seem more like old mens fraternities basically (but with ranking of some sort). I have heard there is some shady shit in a few of them at the higher levels that is kept secret from the lower ranks. Some of the accusations had merit, but it was years ago that I remember reading that.

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Eternus Ifrit Server Atariii LS member
75 BRD with a bunch of subjobs

eternus is right all the really good secret take over the world stuff was done pre civil war, pre crusades, and farther back. The masons actually were started in ancient egypt, thats how long the orginaztion has been around. There are too many watch dogs these days to do any really fun stuff lol. Basically its all Chicken bbq's and spagetthi dinner's lol.

I think it's also easy to get mistaken with bullshit and 'good' fiction.

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The lovers, the dreamers, and me.

Is anyone else trying hard not to think of metal gear solid 2?

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It's all I've been thinking of while reading this. haha

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

just saw the good shepherd aswell, and man, i love that kind of stuff. too bad FBI/CIA only take smart guys from the big schools, cuz i would LOVE to neglect my family and do shady shit 24/7

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