Secret societies have shaped politics, revolutions, and institutions throughout history, often operating in plain sight while keeping their internal rituals and true purposes hidden. Dr. Richard Spence, a historian specializing in secret societies, espionage, and the occult, explains how these groups function, why people are drawn to them, and how their influence persists in modern America—from the Freemasons’ role in the founding era to the CIA’s culture of secrecy to the blurred line between cults, religions, and political movements today.
What Secret Societies Actually Are
The “secret” in secret society usually refers to what happens inside the group, not whether the group exists. Freemasons, for example, advertise their lodges publicly and put up signs—they are not hiding their existence.
The real mechanism is selective admission and oaths of secrecy. Members are chosen, sworn to silence, and made to feel they possess special knowledge outsiders cannot handle. This creates exclusivity, vanity, and loyalty.
A common Masonic defense is: “We are not a secret society; we are a society with secrets.” This framing is itself a recruitment tool—a teaser that invites curiosity.
Secret societies appeal to deep human needs: belonging, fraternity, protection from vulnerability, and the feeling of being special or chosen. Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Illuminati, explicitly said that “nothing so appeals to the human mind than a concealed mystery.”
The rituals—robes, torches, oaths, symbolic objects—add mysticism and aesthetic appeal that ordinary social clubs lack. They also function as tests of character: swearing an oath and keeping it demonstrates trustworthiness, even if the oath’s threatened penalties (death, torture) are never carried out.
Freemasons and the Founding of the United States
The claim that America was founded by Freemasons on Masonic principles is an overstatement, but not entirely false. George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were confirmed Freemasons. Thomas Jefferson expressed favorable views but cannot be definitively linked to a lodge. Alexander Hamilton likely was not a member.
Out of roughly 3 million people in the British colonies around 1776, fewer than 5,000 were Freemasons. These were disproportionately wealthy, educated, educated, literate men of property—the same class that dominated the Continental Congress.
Freemasonry in the 1700s functioned as a kind of rich men’s club that fostered fellowship among like-minded elites. The lodge was officially a space where politics and religion were not discussed during meetings, to avoid disagreement and maintain harmony.
However, once the formal lodge meeting ended, the same group of people could—and did—discuss politics, religion, and even plot revolutions. The lodge provided cover for political conspiracy because outsiders would dismiss the group as harmless ritualists.
The Young Turk Revolution (early 20th century), which overthrew the Ottoman Sultan, was plotted inside the Macedonia Resort Masonic Lodge in Salonica. This is a documented historical example, not conspiracy theory.
The Golden Age of Fraternal Orders and Their Decline
From roughly 1870 to 1940–1950, the United States experienced a “golden age of fraternal orders.” About 20% of the adult population belonged to groups like the Freemasons, Oddfellows, and Order of the Red Men.
Membership dropped sharply after World War II and has continued to decline, though there are recent signs of modest recovery. Many fraternal orders have disappeared entirely.
Women were not entirely excluded but were largely confined to auxiliary organizations: the Order of the Eastern Star (women’s auxiliary), Job’s Daughters (girls), and DeMolay (boys).
DeMolay is named after Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, who was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1314. The choice reflects a Masonic tradition of viewing de Molay as a martyr killed by the corrupt Catholic Church—and of claiming (without evidence) that Freemasonry is the heir to the medieval Knights Templar.
The Catholic Church condemned Freemasonry repeatedly from 1738 through the early 20th century. Popes argued that secrecy itself was suspicious: “the only reason you stay in the dark is because you’re afraid of the light.” The Church saw secret oaths as a sign of diabolical or rebellious activity.
The Bavarian Illuminati: A Case Study in Political Secret Societies
The Illuminati was a real organization founded by Adam Weishaupt, a professor of religious law at a Catholic university, on May 1, 1776. He initially called it the Order of Perfectibilists, then renamed it the Order of the Enlightened (Illuminati).
Weishaupt’s stated goal was unambiguous: world domination. The plan was to undermine and destroy all existing political and religious order and replace it with a new order led by an enlightened elite.
The method was to infiltrate existing institutions—especially Masonic lodges—and use them as recruitment pools and cover for political activity. The appeal to mystery and secrecy was deliberate and strategic.
The Illuminati was eventually suppressed by the Bavarian government in the 1780s, but its legend grew far beyond its actual existence, becoming a template for conspiracy theories about hidden elites controlling world events.
Hitler, the Thule Society, and the Nazi Party’s Occult Origins
Adolf Hitler was not part of the Bavarian Illuminati, but the Nazi Party has direct roots in a secret society: the Thule Society (Thule-Gesellschaft), founded in Munich in 1918.
The Thule Society was created by Rudolf von Sebottendorff (born Adam Glower), a mysterious figure who was a Freemason, a Sufi, a practitioner of astrology, numerology, and alchemy, and had been initiated into highly politicized Masonic lodges in the Balkans where revolutions were routinely plotted.
Sebottendorff renamed an existing German occult group the Thule Society and ran it as a mystical study group that met at the Four Seasons Hotel in Munich. Outwardly it appeared to be a harmless collection of occult enthusiasts.
The real guiding force behind the Thule Society was the German Army, which funded it as a tool to combat the spread of communism and Bolshevism among workers after World War I.
The strategy was counter-communism: create a movement that offered workers the same appeals as communism (economic grievance, solidarity) but under nationalist and mystical branding rather than Marxist ideology.
The Thule Society spun off the German Workers’ Party, which Hitler was sent by the army to infiltrate in 1919. The army had trained Hitler as a propagandist and spy. He was not sent to observe the party but to take it over.
The German Workers’ Party became the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi Party). Hitler quickly displaced Sebottendorff and the original Thule leadership.
The German Army continued to be the power behind the scenes, eventually backing Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor under the belief they could control him. They were wrong—the tool became the master, a pattern Spence compares to Frankenstein’s monster or AI that exceeds its creator’s control.
The CIA as a Bureaucratic Secret Society
The CIA functions as a secret society within the U.S. government. Its entire purpose revolves around secrecy: protecting the government’s secrets and acquiring the secrets of opposing governments.
Intelligence work requires deception as a core skill. Spence describes spies, secret societies, and occultism as a “trifecta of deception”—all involve hiding truth, manipulating perception, and constructing false realities.
The culture of secrecy in intelligence agencies creates an environment where lying is normalized, truth is compartmentalized, and outsiders have no way to verify claims. This mirrors the dynamics of secret societies more broadly.
Misinformation vs. Disinformation
Misinformation is false information shared by mistake—someone gives you wrong directions without realizing it.
Disinformation is deliberately constructed deception. It is designed to be mostly true so that the few false elements are accepted along with the verified truths. If nine out of ten data points check out, the tenth—the actual lie—is swallowed along with them.
The purpose of disinformation is to “lead the hounds away from the fox”: divert attention from the real issue or actor. It requires significant effort and skill to construct, and it is never accidental.
Spence notes that people are constantly lied to—advertising is a normalized form of lying—and that human beings lie frequently, often for no particular reason. His research has led him to encounter people who lie even when telling the truth would serve them better, making the truth almost indistinguishable from lies.
The Problem of Truth in the Age of AI and Social Media
One might assume that ubiquitous cameras and the internet would make truth more accessible, but the opposite may be true. Everyone has a camera, but everyone also has a platform to construct and disseminate their own version of events.
AI-generated content is rapidly approaching the point where it is indistinguishable from reality. Soon it may be impossible to determine whether a video depicts a real event or a fabrication.
From a historian’s perspective, there is no single objective truth about any event. Eyewitnesses to the same event give different accounts because they were looking in different directions, paid attention to different details, and their memories degrade and blend over time. Spence describes memory as “internal AI”—the brain constructs plausible but not always accurate reconstructions.
This has implications for justice: the legal standard of “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” exists precisely because certainty is unattainable. There is no “original unadulterated pure truth” outside the fallible framework of human perception.
Cults, Religions, and Secret Societies: Distinctions and Overlaps
The word cult comes from the Latin cultus, meaning to worship, adore, or cultivate. It originally had no negative connotation—it simply referred to a form of worship or religious practice.
In modern usage, “cult” is a pejorative applied to religious or spiritual groups that outsiders dislike or distrust. It functions the same way as calling someone a “fascist”—it is an insult more than an analytical category.
A key signifier of what people today call a cult is excessive devotion to a single leader who functions as a “little god” of the group—unquestioned authority, absolute control, followers who give up their possessions, relationships, and autonomy.
Spence’s example: two college-educated people he knew in the 1970s joined what began as a yoga class. Their instructor became their personal god. They sold all their belongings and gave him the money, which he used to buy a yacht. They worked in his businesses for free. When asked why, they were happy and could not see that they were being exploited.
The difference between a religion and a cult, according to one formulation Spence cites: “In a cult, there is always someone at or near the top that knows it’s a scam. In a religion, that person is dead.” In other words, religions are cults whose founding deceptions have been sanctified by time and death.
The Buddha quote Spence endorses (though its authenticity is debated) captures the appropriate response to all claims from secret societies, gurus, politicians, and media: “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and common sense.”
Secret Societies as Training Grounds for Leadership
Secret societies can function as leadership incubators that train members in influence, loyalty, and coordinated action. The German Army used the Thule Society to create and train Hitler as a propagandist, giving him skills and opportunities that served the army’s interests—until he escaped their control.
The tool itself is neutral; the danger lies in the guiding philosophy and intentions of those who control the organization. The same fraternity structure that produces charitable community leaders can also produce demagogues.
Spence argues that most secret societies are relatively innocuous—the secrets are less interesting than outsiders imagine. The danger arises when a group of like-minded people bound by secrecy and loyalty is turned toward political or ideological purposes by a guiding hand with a specific agenda.
Gender and Secret Societies
Secret societies have historically been male-dominated spaces. Freemasonry, the Illuminati, the Thule Society, the Bohemian Club—these are overwhelmingly men’s organizations.
Women’s participation has largely been confined to auxiliaries (Order of the Eastern Star) or excluded entirely. Sororities in the Greek system are one of the few parallel structures for women.
Spence acknowledges this is a significant pattern, though he notes exceptions: irregular Masonic lodges that admitted women, and historical witchcraft traditions where women predominated (though men often led as “the devil” or consort).
The broader historical pattern Spence and the hosts discuss is that spaces originally controlled by women (midwifery, women’s healthcare, organic spiritual communities) were systematically co-opted or suppressed by patriarchal institutions—a dynamic that mirrors how secret societies consolidate power by excluding others.
Modern Tribalism and the MAGA Movement
The hosts discuss whether the MAGA movement exhibits cult-like characteristics: a leader surrounded by excessive devotion, followers who accept claims that contradict observable reality, a vocabulary of vague but emotionally powerful slogans (“Make America Great Again,” “Project 2025”) that function like the “happy, free, good” promises of the Illuminati—words that sound meaningful but are deliberately undefined.
Spence is cautious about being overtly partisan but notes that people often try to rationalize nonsensical behavior by attributing hidden genius to the leader (“he’s playing five-dimensional chess”). The simpler explanation is sometimes that the behavior makes no sense.
The broader takeaway is that everyone is “crazy” about something—everyone has a topic or belief that triggers irrationality. The measure of a person is not whether they are sane or insane, but how widespread and dangerous their particular form of insanity is.
Spence’s advice: find like-minded people who share your “brand of insanity,” but maintain critical thinking. Be cautious around anyone amassing large amounts of power or receiving unquestioning praise. Be wary of anyone—guru, teacher, politician, or romantic partner—who tells you how amazing you are immediately, asks you to give up your money or rights, or demands you cut ties with people you love.
