Post Published on July 6, 2015.
Last Updated on April 23, 2016 by davemackey.
As a child I somehow acquired several books along the lines of Reader’s Digest’s Unsolved Mysteries of the Past and I always loved these sorts of books – learning about all the things that we can’t quite explain or understand. More recently I read (and reviewed) Man, Myth, & Magic (Vol. 1).
More recently I picked up Brad and Sherry Steiger’s Conspiracies and Secret Societies. This volume was an enjoyable read, unfortunately, it lacked the more detailed methodology I prefer when reading these sort of books.
Namely, there is a bibliography at the end of the work but no notes on which articles utilized which bibliographic resources – and the bibliographic resources are quite varied in quality. Additionally, while the Steiger’s indicate they are taking a neutral voice, they oftentimes state things as if they were true and it is unclear whether they are pronouncing known facts or simply explaining the position of those who believe in x conspiracy.
All said, I can’t recommend the book as a reliable reference work, but it does provide a nifty jumping off point to learn about various conspiracies. Just keep in mind that what you read may be fanciful imaginings.
What I really wanted to share in this post is my list of interesting topics from the work – the things I’ve found interesting or would like to research further in the future (this is something I do recreationally). The reasons I am interested in various topics varies just as much as the topics – sometimes I think the idea is plausible while at other times I find the idea so implausible I want to know more about those who dreamed up such and such. Others seem far-fetched but are interesting enough for further exploration…
| Topic | Note |
| AIDS/HIV | Origins of the disease. |
| Airship of 1897 | What was it? Mass delusion? |
| Alchemy | Predecessor to chemistry, attempted to turn base metals into gold. |
| Alien Abductions | |
| Al-Qaeda | Origins, relationships. |
| Alternative 3 | Was there a 1960’s secret space program that sent a group of our brightest to colonize the moon? |
| American Protective Association | Tried to keep Roman Catholics out of political office. |
| Anarchists | On the Steiners’ list: William Godwin, Max Stirner, Henry David Thoreau, Mother Jones, Lucy Parsons, Emma Goldman, Big Bill Haywood, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Nicola Sacco, Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Noam Chomsky. |
| Anthrosophy | Founded by Rudolf Steiner. |
| Apocalyptic Millennialism | Variety and history of beliefs about the end times. |
| Army of God | Anti-Abortionist Terrorists. |
| Aum Shinrikyo | Means “Supreme Truth” – a relatively recent (1987) cult responsible for terrorism in Japan. |
| B-25 Ghost Bomber | Where did this bomber disappear to after crashing into a river? |
| Dr. Fred Bell | Died after being on Jesse Ventura’s conspiracy show, invented the “X-1 Healing Machine”, etc. |
Okay that is enough for one day…I’ll add some more of the topics I found interesting another time.