Secrets of The Lost Symbol

by Daniel Burstein

  And last but far from least, we raise in thanks a glass, or perhaps a skull, to Dan Brown. His groundbreaking efforts to wrap some of the great ideas from the history of Western culture—complete with its controversies, “hidden history,” and ties to ancient wisdom—within the genre of the action-adventure story set us off on our quest to know more, and to share the results with our readers. It has been a rich intellectual journey for us, and deeply satisfying, no matter how much remains “buried out there.”

  Dan Burstein

  Arne de Keijzer

  December 2009

  Contributors

  Dan Burstein is the co-author and co-editor, with Arne de Keijzer, of Secrets of The Lost Symbol. This is the sixth title in the Secrets series, which was launched in 2004 with Burstein’s Secrets of the Code: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind The Da Vinci Code. On its way to becoming the world’s bestselling guidebook to The Da Vinci Code, Secrets of the Code spent more than twenty weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, appeared in more than thirty languages, and landed on more than a dozen notable bestseller lists around the world. The Secrets series, developed by Burstein and de Keijzer, includes Secrets of the Code, Secrets of Angels & Demons/Inside Angels & Demons, Secrets of the Widow’s Son, Secrets of Mary Magdalene, and Secrets of “24.” The series has led to two special collector’s editions of U.S. News & World Report and three documentary films now available on DVD, including Sony’s Secrets of the Code (narrated by Susan Sarandon). Currently, some four million copies of Secrets books are in print in more than fifty publishing markets around the world.

  An investor in innovative new technology companies since his first experiences in Silicon Valley in the 1980s, Burstein founded in 2000 Millennium Technology Ventures, a New York–based family of venture capital and private equity funds. Since then, Burstein has served on the boards of more than a dozen technology companies. Prior to Millennium, he served as senior adviser for more than a decade at the Blackstone Group, one of Wall Street’s leading private equity firms. He is also a prominent corporate strategy consultant and has served as an adviser to CEOs and senior management teams of Sony, Toyota, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems.

  Dan Burstein is an award-winning journalist and author of numerous books on global economics, politics, technology, and culture, including Blog! an in-depth analysis of the emergence of the blogosphere and new social media in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Burstein’s first bestseller, Yen!, focused on the rise of Japanese financial power in the late 1980s and was a bestseller in more than twenty countries, achieving recognition as the number one business book in Japan in 1989. His 1995 book, Road Warriors, was one of the first books to analyze the impact of the Internet and digital technology on business and society. Big Dragon, written with Arne de Keijzer in 1998, outlined a long-term view of China’s role in the twenty-first century. The book was read by both U.S. President Bill Clinton and Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji prior to their first summit. As a freelance journalist in the 1980s and early ’90s, Burstein wrote more than one thousand print articles for more than one hundred different global publications. His leading-edge journalism has been recognized with Sigma Delta Chi and Overseas Press Club awards. Burstein has appeared on talk shows that span the gamut from Oprah to Charlie Rose, with dozens of appearances on CNN, MSNBC, and CNBC.

  Arne de Keijzer is co-creator, with Dan Burstein, of the Secrets series. He has written or contributed to a wide variety of publications and books on topics ranging from international business guides to new technologies. Early in his career he was directly involved with the development of cultural, educational, and business exchanges with China, which led him to form his own business consultancy in the China trade. During that period he also wrote the bestselling China Guidebook and two editions of China: Business Strategies for the ’90s.

  He turned to writing full-time in the mid-1990s and, together with Dan Burstein, wrote Big Dragon, an innovative look at China’s economic and political future and its impact on the world. The team subsequently formed Squibnocket Partners LLC, a creative content development company whose first book was The Best Things Ever Said About the Rise, Fall, and Future of the Internet Economy (2002). Most recently, he helped launch the Secrets series, which now includes the bestselling Secrets of the Code, Secrets of Mary Magdalene, Secrets of the Widow’s Son, Secrets of “24,” and Inside Angels & Demons.

  Amir Aczel is a mathematician and historian of science known for numerous nontechnical books, including several New York Times and international bestsellers. Among his best-known works are Fermat’s Last Theorem, which was nominated for a Los Angeles Times Book Award, and The Jesuit and the Skull. Aczel is a frequent guest on television and radio programs for CNN, CNBC, NPR, and others. He is a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

  Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, adjunct professor of religious art and cultural history at Georgetown University, has been called the closest thing the academic world has to a real “symbologist.” Her research focuses on the interconnections of art, gender, and religion. Her books include the Encyclopedia of Women in Religious Art. She currently serves as a guest curator for the international exhibit The Seventh Veil: Salome Unveiled, Re-veiled, and Revealed.

  Karen Armstrong is an international bestselling author who writes and comments frequently on comparative religion and the search for religious traditions suited to modern times. She was awarded the TED prize in 2008 and is working on an international project to launch an online Charter of Compassion, crafted by leading thinkers in Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Her many books include The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions and, most recently, The Case for God.

  William Arntz is a physicist, software developer, and practicing Buddhist. As producer, writer, and director of the award-winning documentary What the Bleep Do We Know!? he explored the interconnectedness of all things, from quantum physics to New Age thinking. He has recently completed a new film on similar themes, GhettoPhysics. A Bleep study guide created with the Institute for Noetic Sciences can be found at www.whatthebleep.com/guide.

  Lou Aronica is a contributing editor to Secrets of The Lost Symbol. His successful career includes serving as head of several publishing houses, where he acquired notable bestsellers, as well as writing successful fiction and nonfiction himself. His latest book is The Element (written with Sir Ken Robinson), which is a New York Times bestseller.

  Michael Barkun has written widely on conspiracy theories, terrorism, and millennial and apocalyptic movements. A professor of political science at Syracuse University, he has served as a consultant to the FBI and has held grants and fellowships from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, among others. His books include A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary American Society and Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement.

  Paul Berger is a British freelance writer living in New York. He is the author/contributing editor of seven books, including All the Money in the World: How the Forbes 400 Make—and Spend—Their Fortunes, Secrets of the Code, and Secrets of The Lost Symbol. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, the London Times, Wired, and Forbes, among others. He is author of the blog Englishman in New York (www.pdberger.com).

  Steven C. Bullock is a specialist in American social and cultural history. His bestselling book, Revolutionary Brotherhood, is recognized as the classic work about Freemasonry and its connections to the Colonial period, the American Revolution, and the Founding Fathers. A professor of history at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Bullock has commented on Masonry in documentaries and is a frequent media guest.

  David D. Burstein is the founder and executive director of 18 in ’08, the nation’s largest youth-run nonpartisan not-for-profit young voter engagement organization. He is the winner of a 2009 Do Something Award and writes regu
lar commentaries on media, youth, and politics for the Huffington Post. He is currently a junior at New York University and at work on a book about the Millennial generation.

  Richard Dawkins, a British zoologist, neo-Darwinian evolutionary biologist, and outspoken atheist, established the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science to promote rationalism over religion. The Charles Simonyi Professor Emeritus for the Understanding of Science at Oxford University, he has authored numerous books, including The Greatest Show on Earth and the worldwide bestselling The God Delusion.

  Arturo de Hoyos is a 33° Mason and holder of the Grand Cross of the Court of Honor in the Supreme Council of Scottish Rite Masonry. Considered America’s leading Masonic scholar, his most popular book, Is It True What They Say About Freemasonry? The Methods of Anti-Masons, co-authored with S. Brent Morris, is now in its fourth enlarged edition. De Hoyos is also author of The Scottish Rite Ritual Monitor and Guide.

  Hannah de Keijzer is a writer, researcher, dancer, massage therapist, and paper artist living in Philadelphia. She was a contributing writer and editor for Secrets of Angels & Demons, and has worked as an editorial associate at the publisher David R. Godine. Hannah continues to explore the intersections of religion, cognitive science, and culture.

  Elonka Dunin is an expert on the CIA’s Kryptos sculpture and author of The Mammoth Book of Secret Codes and Cryptograms. She helped crack the ciphers on the Cyrillic Projector and maintains a popular cryptography-related Web site at www.elonka.com. She is a game developer at Simutronics, the developers of CyberStrike and HeroEngine, among others. She is cofounder and chairperson of the International Game Developers Association’s Online Games Group.

  Glenn W. Erickson, professor of philosophy at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, has written extensively on the interstices of philosophy, mathematics, and the arts. He is a prior contributor to Secrets of the Code and Secrets of Angels & Demons.

  Heather Ewing is a former curator and architectural historian at the Smithsonian Institution, and the author of a biography of its founding benefactor, The Lost World of James Smithson: Science, Revolution, and the Birth of the Smithsonian.

  Jack Fruchtman Jr., professor of political science at Towson University, is the author of, among other works, Atlantic Cousins, which traces the extraordinary influence of Enlightenment thinking on all areas—science, politics, faith, and the mystery traditions—for Ben Franklin and the other Founding Fathers. He is also author of Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom.

  Warren Getler, a Washington, D.C.–based former investigative reporter with the Wall Street Journal and the International Herald Tribune, is co-author of Rebel Gold. He served as historical consultant for Disney’s National Treasure: Book of Secrets and has given lectures on the theme of the Knights of the Golden Circle at the National Archives, Ford’s Theater, and other locations in the nation’s capital.

  Marcelo Gleiser is the Appleton Professor of Natural Philosophy and professor of physics and astronomy at Dartmouth College. He has written several popular science books, and is also author of more than eighty peer-reviewed papers in cosmology and astrobiology. Gleiser is the recipient of many awards, including the Faculty Fellows Awards from the White House. His forthcoming book is A Tear at the Edge of Creation: Searching for the Meaning of Life in an Imperfect Cosmos.

  Deirdre Good is professor of the New Testament at the General Theological Seminary in New York. A widely respected scholar of religion, her work centers on the Gospels, noncanonical writings, and the origins of Christianity. She has served as a consultant to A&E, the History Channel, and others for programs and publications relating to The Da Vinci Code.

  Ron Hogan is the founding curator of Beatrice.com, one of the Internet’s first literary Web sites, and the author of The Stewardess Is Flying the Plane!: American Films of the 1970s. The ideas in his article were first developed in posts to the publishing industry news blog GalleyCat.

  Mitch Horowitz is the editor in chief of Tarcher/Penguin and the author of Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation. A widely known proponent of metaphysical and esoteric ideas, Horowitz has written for U.S. News & World Report, Parabola, the Religion News Service, and the popular Weblog BoingBoing and has numerous media appearances to his credit. His Web site is: www.MitchHorowitz.com.

  Eamon Javers is a White House correspondent for Politico (www.politico.com). He has also served as a Washington correspondent for BusinessWeek and an on-air reporter for CNBC.

  George Johnson is winner of the AAAS Science Journalism Award and cofounder of the Santa Fe Science Writing Workshop. He writes about science for the New York Times, Scientific American, the Atlantic, and other publications. In addition to several books on science (including, most recently, The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments) he has also written Architects of Fear: Conspiracy Theories and Paranoia in American Politics.

  Steven Johnson has worked as a columnist for Discover magazine, Slate, and Wired, and founded the news-aggregator outside.in. He is an expert on the interconnection between technology and culture and author of Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter. His most recent book is The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America.

  Mark E. Koltko-Rivera is a 32° Freemason, Masonic Knight Templar, and Masonic scholar who holds awards for research in humanistic psychology and the psychology of religion. He is the author of Freemasonry: An Introduction and the forthcoming Discovering The Lost Symbol: Magic, Masons, Noetic Science, and the Idea That We Can Become Gods. Koltko-Rivera also maintains several blogs on Freemasonry at www.google.com/profiles/markkoltkorivera.

  Irwin Kula is a sought-after speaker, writer, and commentator. Rabbi Kula has inspired millions by using Jewish wisdom to speak to all aspects of modern life. Newsweek ranked him in the Top 10 of its “Top 50 Rabbis in America.” His book, Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life, won several awards, and he regularly blogs for the Huffington Post and the Washington Post and Newsweek’s On Faith section. Kula is president of CLAL, a leadership-training institute, think tank, and resource center in New York City.

  Thomas Levenson is a professor and the director of the graduate program in writing and humanistic studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The winner of a Peabody Award (shared), New York Chapter Emmy, and AAAS/Westinghouse Award, his articles and reviews have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, the Boston Globe, and Discover. His most recent book, Newton and the Counterfeiter, was published in 2009.

  Lynne McTaggart is a researcher, lecturer, and an authority on the science of spirituality. She publishes health newsletters and is editor of an online course called Living the Field. McTaggart has written five books, including the bestsellers The Intention Experiment and The Field. She is also the architect of the Intention Experiment, a Web-based “global laboratory” that tests the power of group intention to change the world.

  Michael Parkes studied graphic art and painting at the University of Kansas and then traveled for three years throughout Asia and Europe. An American, he settled in Spain in 1975, where he still lives. He has had numerous international exhibitions of his work, in which metaphysical and spiritual elements are joined to reality. His work evokes a mysterious atmosphere that can often only be deciphered with the help of ancient mythology and Eastern philosophy.

  David Plotz is editor of the online magazine Slate and author of Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible. The recipient of the National Press Club’s Hume Award for Political Reporting and other awards, Plotz has written for the New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, Rolling Stone, New Republic, Washington Post, GQ, and other publications.

  Ingrid Rowland is a professor at the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, based in Rome. An expert o
n the history of ideas, she is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books. She has written several books, including The Scarith of Scornello: A Tale of Renaissance Forgery, From Heaven to Arcadia: The Sacred and the Profane in the Renaissance, and, most recently, Giordano Bruno: Philosopher Heretic.

  Jim Sanborn is the Washington, D.C.–based sculptor of Kryptos. Noted for his science-based installations that illuminate hidden forces, he has created artwork for locations such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and major U.S. museums. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in art history and sociology from Randolph-Macon College, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from Pratt Institute in 1971.