Share

cover art for New: Secret Societies I, Part 2 - Temple of Solomon and Other Ancient Secrets

The Paranoid Strain

New: Secret Societies I, Part 2 - Temple of Solomon and Other Ancient Secrets

Season 4, Ep. 2

When the new episode train starts runnin', you know you best get out of the way. And so we barrel down the tracks to episode 2, which is still technically part of the introduction to this monster of a topic, if you can believe it. Here, we cover a bit more of the Eleusinian mysteries, some additional weirdness involving Pythagoras, the ideas behind hermeticism, and of course the mysteries of Solomon's Temple. We learn some more about how ancient secret societies may have influenced, and been influenced by, Christianity, and how this intermingling of ideas would impact future secret societies. Plus, we've got some dumbfucks saying dumbfuck things about all of the above. Enjoy, and we'll see you in another couple of weeks. Oh--and please do check out our sister show, Bros and Brews, whose promo is at the end of this episode.


Great Courses: The Real History of Secret Societies, By Richard D. Spence

Historical Introduction to the New Testament and Lost Christianities by Bart D. Ehrman

All music copyright 2021 The Paranoid Strain Orchestra

More episodes

View all episodes

  • 15. New! Unidentified--The Roswell incident (as told by an expert UFO believer)

    43:26||Season 6, Ep. 15
    This time, we hear the full story of Roswell--or, at least, the full story as it's told by those who are convinced that a UFO crashed there. This is audio captured during the great 2017 Paranoid Strain road trip, and we heartily thank Dennis Balthaser for allowing us to record and share his expertise with you. While we may disagree with his conclusions, we deeply appreciate his knowledge and his presentation. Next time: The skeptics get their turn.
  • 14. New! Unidentified--The pre-UFOs that set the stage for Roswell

    30:26||Season 6, Ep. 14
    Roswell is right around the corner, but first let's consider the unidentified objects that appeared in the night skies before everybody decided they were shaped like saucers. To wit, we'll cover The War of the Worlds, the foo fighter phenomenon, a strange tale of crashed Martians in late-19th Century Texas, and much more. Next time--we go full Roswell, New Mexico.
  • 13. New! Unidentified--Where are all the aliens? (The Fermi Paradox and Drake's Equation)

    37:24||Season 6, Ep. 13
    We're fully on the UFO beat now, and addressing one of the most vexing questions asked by any scientist in the previous century--Enrico Fermi's question about aliens. That is, "Where is everybody"? We explore many solutions that have been proposed for this conundrum, and also investigate fellow scientist Frank Drake's equation that seeks to quantify exactly how likely it is that we will encounter alien life.
  • 12. New! Unidentified--The 66 trillion year-old Shabazz UFO, and the still-unidentified Oumuamua

    31:14||Season 6, Ep. 12
    As promised, we're finally talking about UFOs in the UFO series. This time, we cover the long-overdue return of the Mother Plane prophesied by the Nation of Islam, as well as the decidedly odd interstellar object discovered back in 2017, that seemed briefly as if it might be a sign of extraterrestrial intelligence, Oumuamua.
  • New! Unidentified--Wait, is Cthulhu just an Ancient Alien?

    32:25|
    On our way out of the ancient aliens door, we explore a few miscellaneous but still really interesting sub-topics, including out-of-place artifacts, the Ancient Aliens TV show and its discontents, and finally a book that suggests, convincingly, that HP Lovecraft's cosmic horrors were a major inspiration for Erich von Daniken's bullshit, and everything that came later. Next time, swear to god, we'll cover a topic that actually isn't ancient aliens. Weird, right?
  • 10. New! Unidentified--Graham Hancock, Ancient Aliens, and the Chad Rogaine Experience

    37:21||Season 6, Ep. 10
    We discuss the woe-is-me posturing of non-scientist Graham Hancock, and his ludicrous theories about an advanced civilization wiped out by the last ice age, which spread its knowledge far and wide, and thus is responsible for all of the ancient structures we normally credit to people like the Egyptians, the Mayans, etcetera. I should mention we had a strange interference pattern occur during the recording process, but I'm sure nothing untoward, or very Stupid, happened. See you in a couple of weeks.
  • 9. New! Unidentified, Episode 9: Nibiru needs gold--and sperm, for some reason

    37:25||Season 6, Ep. 9
    This is the end of the Zecharia Sitchin part of this very weird series. But there's still more Ancient Astronauts to come. This time, we learn more about the Annunaki, and how apparently they need human gametes. These Nibiru aliens are straight-up freaks, yo.
  • 8. New! Unidentified, Episode 7: Fear of a 12th planet--Nibiru and the Ancient Astronauts

    37:55||Season 6, Ep. 8
    We're continuing our tour through the life's work of Zecharia Sitchin, this time exploring in-depth his very strange rendition of the ancient Babylonian Creation myth. According to Zechy, an unknown 12th (Why 12th? It's weird) planet did a bunch of shit to our inner solar system, including creating the Earth and Moon, before retreating back on its 3600 year orbit. And the ancient Mesopotamians learned all about it from their alien, Annunaki overlords. It's a hoot!
  • 7. New! Unidentified, Episode 7: Zecharia Sitchin's made-up Ancient Aliens history

    36:08||Season 6, Ep. 7
    We finally introduce arguably the second-most-important ancient aliens conspiracy theorist, shipping executive, amateur researcher, and adorable little old man Zecharia Sitchin. He's just as wrong and bull-headed as von Daniken, but we find him both more imaginative and more pleasant than his Swiss rival. Plus, we have an expert, Dr. David Miano, who's ready to shed some much-needed knowledge over Sitchin's nonsense cavalcade. Enjoy!