Throughout recorded history, humans have dreamed of a perfect society, an empire that would somehow meet everyone’s needs. An ancient legend casts a shadow over such a society that is said to have existed long ago. 2,500 years ago, the Greek philosopher Plato established a dialogue called Critias. He tells the story of an ancient Greek poet and statesman named Solon. Solon traveled to Egypt seeking wisdom to help his beloved Greek government.
The Greeks were beset by strife and upheaval, and Solon turned to the priests of Seth for advice. An old priest said to him: “Oh, Solon. Solon! You Greeks are only children forever.” The old priest then told him the story of the lost city of Atlantis. In the centuries that followed, Scholars and researchers debate whether Plato’s Atlantis should represent real history or just an allegorical myth. Some even doubt that Atlantis was really an antediluvian world, destroyed by God in Noah’s Great Flood. Evil society destroyed by rage.
In the 20th century, Plato’s account was further supported by the Masonic philosopher Manly P. Hall. Hall claims that Atlantis was once a vast and powerful empire, spanning the world, a philosophical community that would one day be rebuilt, but who will rebuild it, and who exactly is Manly P. Hall? Hall authored more than 200 books and is said to have given some 8,000 lectures on ancient philosophy. He may be remembered for his contributions to the mystical Masonic Brotherhood. After his death in 1990, the Masonic publication Scottish Etiquette Magazine noted that he was often referred to as “Masonry’s greatest philosopher”. Its teachings contain Masonic elements, and all secret orders are the ancient wisdom of lost Atlantis.
For more than 3,000 years, Hall writes, secret societies have worked to create the intellectual background necessary for the establishment of enlightened democracies in countries around the world. According to Hall, these societies date back to ancient Egypt, where people have known for centuries a secret place hidden from the eyes of ordinary people that will one day be revealed.
In the 17th century, as colonists established colonies in the New World, Sir Francis Bacon, leader of the British secret society, dropped his classic book “The New Atlantis,” while archaeologists and treasure hunters scoured the globe in search of lost mainland. 400 years ago, Bacon, like many of his contemporaries, believed that Atlantis was America itself.
Directed by Christian J. Pinto
