Chilluminati Podcast - Episode 89 - Davis is Here

Episode Date: February 23, 2021

Last one with Mike moving. Back to normal next week!

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Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the Chaluminati Podcast, episode 89. As always, I am one of your hosts, Alex Fasiani, just not the one you expected. And you might notice that for the first time we are down a Mathis today. I'll get into exactly where he is in just a second. Don't worry, he's fine. He'll be back next week. They got him finally. I consumed him.

I ate him. And all his powers are mine. Satan finally came and granted his wish and took him away. Satan's here. Joined by Satan. He gave. Yeah. That's Satan there.

Actually, that's actually not too far off from where we're headed today. What? Not before. What? I'm just going to eat it. I'm going to introduce these two beautiful men who are joining me here today, as usual. He already had me and now you have me even more with that line. I love that.

I'm glad. Look, first of all, we have our widely loved and sexier version of doubting Thomas, the unreasonably reasonable Jesse Cox. Hello, Jesse. Oh, hey. Hi. They call me SDD. Hello.

The second. The second Nick, dude. That's what they call me as they call me the SDD here and joining us for the first time. He's like Marty McFly. If he never met Doc Brown and played World of Warcraft instead of guitar, our very special guest this week, Michael Davis. How's it going, Davis?

I mean, it was going fine. And then I found out that my favorite drink has super cancer. And it's thanks, Jesse. It's perfectly on brand for the two women on podcast and you already ruined my fucking worldview. It is. What's a swear? I'm not swear.

Sorry. No, it is so fine to swear. As a matter of fact, Davis is a friend of ours who's on a lot of other shows that Jesse and I do together around the world. We've done. We've done things together. And, you know, it's nice to have you on the show. You're like the second guess we've had.

Second or third guess we've had. Third. My God. Third guest. Yeah. Yeah. A great pantheon of guests, but anyway, Mathis isn't here because he is finally after months of searching, finally, finally, finally moving into a wonderful new house, this lovely GF.

So kudos to them for starting a new chapter in their lives. But that doesn't mean that just because he isn't here, I'm not going to take a minute to explain how wonderful it would be for you to support us over at Patreon.com where you can get access to our discord every episode behind the scenes digital art by Bell first crack at our dope to Luminati shirts and at least 15 more minutes of podcasts every time we post a new one. That guy's going to run on Reddit again. Our widely loved and adored Chilmini minisodes, which I've heard are just as good as the show

if you squint a little bit. No one. No one says that you can get access to all of this right now at patreon.com slash Luminati pod. We aren't. We have not even rolled for three minutes. This is great. Look at that.

This is so affordable to I'm on the website right now. It's great. Yeah. One dollar apprentice, two dollar act like five. That's so affordable. I did not ask Davis to do this and he's just caught up in the energy of it. Can't help but promote the the pod. It's too good.

Listen, game, recognize game, you know. So Davis, what is your level of of knowledge and immersion into this this world that this podcast sort of inhabits? I, you know, Oh God, so I knocked the mic in almost ruin it. I'll be upfront with you. I I'm like a pragmatic guy. I'm like a pretty no-nonsense when I'll think somebody has like conspiracy theories. When everyone's like, I'm a tourist, I'm like, shut, shut your mouth.

That's all made up. It's not even correct. You don't even have the correct number of signs. This 13 dumbass is not 12 and the nice guy changes. So everything you believe is wrong. So don't tell me that. So I'm that kind of guy. Well, I'm in the lines.

I'm in the lines. I'm in the lines this week. There's no ghosts. Ghost stories just shut up. Look, I'm in the lines. I'm in the lines this week. I'm in the lines. I'm in the lines.

I'm in the lines then actually, you know what, actually, I'm actually excited because I hold all the cards this week. I am I am in control of this entire boat. This is my show today. I mean, I love I love stories about like I love conspiracy theory movies. Like when it's not real because there's real world, like it happening in real life is sad to me, but like in movies, it always leads to like good stuff. And then you're like, was it Satan?

Is it Cthulhu monsters? Is it a moth? Man, I don't really know that one, but like, I know that it exists. Was it a moth, ma'am? It's very like it's very exciting to the mind. So I get it in like a litter like a story. Yeah, it's like the American it's the American folklore. But when people really do that kind of show, I'm just like, stop, don't do that to me in front of me.

It depends, right? It depends if it's really convincing, if there's a lot of evidence, if it really makes some sense sometimes. Have you ever been to a crystal trade show? I've been. Yeah. That's no good. I feel like I feel like we got we got a napalm. Those that just I feel like there's a lot of I feel like there's a lot of different

types of conspiracy theories and paranormal things. Well, hold on a question before we begin this. I mean, what are you telling me is a conspiracy theory? And that's got very real bad. Yeah, but like not every conspiracy theorist is an anti-vaxxer. That's what I mean. Yeah. Well, hold on.

So what you're saying is if we were to ever like believing an anti-vaxxing makes you a conspiracy theorist, if we were to stay like a haunted house overnight, you'd be cool with that, Davis. Oh, we put you in a room alone. Clip this chat because you don't believe it, right? You don't believe any of it. Oh, I don't believe that it's real, but that does not mean that I don't get like scared. I'm not like there's really a thing there would be scared of.

It'll hit. I don't like, you know, being alone in the dark and that kind of stuff. There's always just like, there's like a fear. And I know a lot of people, a lot of people. What are you afraid of? It's probably just weird animal through evolution bullshit that is part of my DNA that I just don't rational. Oh, and I can be right. I can be like, there's not a ghost there, but I don't want to go in that room alone.

Like, there's that. What do you be scared to see? Me? No, I want to know. I if you heard sounds and started creaking, wouldn't you be like, oh, my god, what the fuck? No, I'm that guy who will like, I will be like, what is that I need to know? Like, I'm the idiot who opens the door and gets stabbed immediately. I know what I know. You're the guy.

You're the guy in Prometheus, who like the thing went right in his mouth because he tried to pet it, right? Well, I'm not dumb. I wouldn't like take off my mask on a on a world that like literally we've never explored before. And who knows what like that was stupid to begin with. Let's be that's let's be honest. That's the least of that movie's problems. That's neither here nor there.

I will say it. Maybe I need to be more like that guy. I get like from scary games. There's a point where I hit when I'm too scared and nervous from like, now I'm invincible, now I'm just going to run straight into it. Like, I don't care anymore. Just like take me. But yeah, because, you know, you're not in actual danger.

Yeah, I guess on the flip side, if we were at a haunted mansion and there was really a ghost, then just yeah, kill me right there. Because I don't know that I can handle living in a world where ghosts. You're more like, why don't you feel empowered, though? Like, if I saw that a ghost was real, it would confirm all these paranormal supernatural things that I'd be like, maybe there is a heaven. All right, let's do this ghost.

Maybe my problem, my problem with like that and religion and everything else in general is like the natural world is so much bigger and so much more incredible than like a 2000 year old, like lazy fanfiction about the earth and its origin, like it's like very shit. Like, sure, I guess who ghosts. That's like kind of cool, but I'm like, have you like studied like the stars and galaxies and the nebula and the set like the real world is so much more interesting and way crazier than like these made up stories

about like semi corporeal looking humans that are like angry about shit that they didn't do in their life when they had probably had a chance to make something of it. I don't know. That's just where I fall in. And now today we talk about Satan. Is that what we're going to talk about? Oh, a little bit. Satan comes in, he's there for a little bit.

But I want to go, no, no, no. All right, a little bit. He's a he's a he's a he has a cameo. I but he's not he's not. No, by the way, like, I don't know. I don't even know what Satan doesn't exist. But if Satan does exist, he's probably the coolest dude. He's probably the chillest dude. OK.

So you don't even say what you're talking about. I'm saying like, but if he didn't exist, he would not be like this evil dude. He's like the guy that's like, no, the God in that whole system is is broken. So he's like making a cool place. Say it's not real. Say it's not about Hail Satan. But Satan's got a cool nightclub down below. Actually, if I'm being real, I actually knew you were like when I when I started working on this, I knew you were going to be the guest of the show.

So I targeted your your demographic. You were the demographic for this episode. So I feel like you have talked about this shit for years as friends. So you probably you're not surprised by my answers on things. No, no. But I think I think what I have for you guys today is something that having had this conversation just now, I feel like I'm still happy to bring to the table. I love it. You know what I mean?

It's like an old school conspiracy theory of the type that goes all the way to the top. OK. This is like those. This is one. Those are the best ones. This is the real deal. Today, we are talking about an extremely mysterious place where extremely mysterious people meet up and do extremely mysterious things. Coconut. And it all begins with a man called Richard McCaslin, who, on Wikipedia, is described as a former Marine

cosplayer, Batman stuntman at Six Flags Astro World and convicted felon. He grew up in a town called Zanesville, Ohio. I actually know Zanesville. I have been to Zanesville, Ohio. Yeah, I know exactly what kind of Billy Zane, right? Who? This is hometown, you know, what's that? What's the vibe in Zanesville? So for those of you who don't know Ohio, but let's say, you know, I don't know,

England or any. I'm sure the best way to describe it is it's it's every time I go to the UK, it's exact same. It is city, farmland, city, farmland, city, farmland going from north to south or south to north. And that's it. That's like an eventually ocean, eventually. It is. It is literally. It's Cincinnati, farmland, Columbus, farmland, Cleveland, farmland. And then the Great Lakes. That's like Zanesville's fairly rural.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. OK, so this guy grew up in Zanesville. He was so into superhero comic books that when he was finally discharged from Marines in 1985, he actually used lessons that he picked up in a book called How to Be a Superhero, which was written by a real life superhero called Knight Rider, which he supposedly mail ordered off the back of a Marvel comic and started patrolling Zanesville, Ohio by night as a real superhero.

He called the links and for a while, according to various sources in the real life superhero community, rolled with possibly the first ever IRL teenage sidekick who was a hero named Iron Claw. Nice. Is this didn't look like a documentary about one of these real life superheroes like a while ago? Yeah, I mean, it's a thing like it's been around. Like I looked up How to Be a Superhero by Knight Rider and that books published in that one. Be a billionaire.

Step two, lose your parents. Have a sad story. Yeah. No, 1980 is when it was published. So this guy was out on patrol as a Knight Rider in 1980. Right. And over the years, he developed a ton of other superhero personas for himself. The links did this guy, Richard. But it wasn't until the early 2000s when he created the conspiracy theory themed phantom patriot persona that he really made a name for himself.

OK, so first of all, here's a picture of how he looked back in the early days. I'm just going to drop this into the chat for you guys here. And you guys can have a look at it. And is this him in costume or is this him? Yeah, this is him. Oh, my God. Amazing. That guy would have marched on DC in January. Yeah, so give it a little break.

This is not what I was thinking. Give everybody a break. I was thinking like the question meets Captain America. And this is that's I mean, mentally, probably is what this guy is. The best way to describe this guy is full body genitorial suit. He's got a janitor suit with patches that read no phantom patriot, and then he's got a bandana on his head. That's the American flag, a skull mask and then a patch on the side

that says no donkeys, which I feel like busters, but a donkey in it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's got to be the Democrats, right? Yes, absolutely. And then he has two peas that are backwards for phantom patriots as his belt. He's got a great belt face. Yeah. And then he carries an American flag that is upside down as an SOS signal. Yeah, this is not cool.

It's serious business. Can I ask you a question? When did this happen? This was in the early 2000s. When I rebranded that he beat that he rebranded as as the fan of patriot. Can I ask you a question? Do you think this guy was really into freedom fries? Was that like his vibe?

Yeah, this seems like no doubt. This seems like the time period where he like post 9 11 found himself in an unhealthy way. Honestly, he was actually he was actually really like anti NWO in general. Like he just like didn't like any of that. Well, that's I mean, that's straight up like. Even early Alex Jones and listening to Coast to Coast to Am and stuff like that,

where it was like the NWO is out there at Bohemian Grove. I don't know why I called it coconut grove earlier, but one of those groves. It sounds delicious, though, groves. Yeah. But then something else happened with him that I'll get to in just a second. And now he is dead. But first here is a video from his YouTube channel. Oh, my God. He put out in 2013, which I'd love for you guys to just sort of like scrub through for a minute

and just let everybody know what's kind of going on with this YouTube video. I know. Wait, does he have a whole bunker of? Yo, is this the headquarters? Yes, like the dude from the season of Watchmen that we got. He really does look like him, right? Yes. Oh, wow. That's so it is. He really is kind of like a new he kind of is like an IRL Watchman character. Do you experience stress or have anxiety or chronic pain

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Just also, I don't think that's also I don't think that's what I was thinking about a semicolon in the title. Yikes. What's I? I will I will say I will say he's consistent in his hatred of government. I saw that he had so behind him in one of his shots. He has a bunch of like slogans and things. I saw one was about Obama and I was like, oh, no, is this about to get racist? But next to it is one about Cheney and they both are roughly saying the same thing.

Like the Obama attack is he's like, you know, wants no blue bloods in the White House. And then for Cheney, it says the real mastermind. And it says that Cheney was responsible for nine eleven. So you know what? He's universally critical of government, and I can respect that that level. It's just crazy. It's just you know, it's just, you know, that's his gimmick. Yeah. Right.

And you know, I want to say it. I would say that it has better production quality than I expected it to have. What's what I think is crazy is that he goes. It says costumes at one twenty five. It's costumes. The first thing he shows is a marine uniform. Which I'm not sure what that means. He was a marine first, man. Right. But but why is that listed under costumes?

Like, what is he? That's one of his heroes. Think of the Marines that he labels that he labels it a costume, though, right? Isn't it a uniform? Call it a costume. I think says something about how you've used the Marines. That's like the Watchmen TV shows, like central central little zone, right? Also, he's showing his face a lot for a guy who's trying to like be a superhero. I think he just doesn't have a lot of loved ones.

Also, also, he rejects all religion. Yeah, he also has a show on his channel. He also has a show on his channel that he does a couple episodes of where he does like an intro where he does a bit with this like weird alien like robot sidekick character that he has. And then he introduces like a movie, like an old public domain movie. And then the whole movie plays. And then at the end, he like does another bit and closes it out.

Like, it's like that's like one of the shows he does on this channel. Well, you know what? I don't know what this I would love to know where he is right now. And I'm sure we'll get to this because he has on his even though David even though David said this looks like a dude who would be at the Capitol. This behind him, it literally says when fascism for doing a raid. But like it says, when fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag carrying a cross that's behind him.

Yeah, well, we'll get into that right now. And so I wonder where this guy would stand on things. Interesting. This is exactly. This is exactly what's going to happen. Just watch that whole little video and scrub through it. I'm like, some of the things that he's saying are not true or are like true. But then it's like taking it's like what you do with like that little bit of truth to justify all the other kind of like wild things that you believe

is like, that's that's very much is a slippery. Yeah, he's also got a lot of Q things behind like pre-Q things behind him. Like it's very much that murdering children, reptiles, things like that. Interesting. All right. Well, yeah, I have no idea what this guy would be. So now I want to jump you back to 2001 when he would trot this guy out as a character touring around the East Coast at small, like weird protests against the New World Order.

Hand out pamphlets with weird theories about the White House and the ship from the Boston Tea Party. And just like weird stuff like that, the Minuteman statue. And this stuff was like basically his life for a year until 2002. Back home in Austin, when he saw a certain documentary on the Internet that changed his life. It told the story of a bizarre secret society of extremely wealthy men, mostly white, who would meet remotely together in the woods once a year

as equals and conduct satanic rituals and theatrical human sacrifices and have all kinds of weird sex together as they danced around drunk in the forest and decided the future of the world. Oh, this is for human growth. Oh, yes, it is. And to the Phantom Patriot, it seemed like he was fully equipped to get in there, rescue the victims and blow the whole thing wide open. So on January 20th, 2022, just out from under the shadow of 9 11,

he headed out west to a town called Montereo, California. And in the dead of night, he found the location of their secret meeting spot, slip past the guards with a rifle, a pistol, a knife, a sword, a bulletproof vest, and a homemade smoke bomb launcher. This is literally Watchmen in real life. However, he did not bring flashlight batteries. And after realizing it was literally so dark

that he couldn't fucking see in the woods, he decided he just have to break into a cabin on the grounds and sleep until dawn. And in the morning, when he woke up, he found the giant bird shaped altar that he saw in the video footage of their cult ceremonies. But when he discovered that he couldn't symbolically burn it down like he planned because it was made of concrete instead of wood like he thought it was going to be made out of, he tried to burn down a mess hall nearby instead,

but was eventually foiled by a crafty little device known as a fire alarm with a sprinkler system. Things got a little heated. He pointed his rifle at a caretaker who found him on the grounds. But then the sheriff showed up, arrested him, nobody got hurt, deescalated the situation. He was eventually convicted and imprisoned from 2002 to 2008 when he was released on parole.

And here is a picture of the calling card that he left on the scene, which was used as evidence in the case against him. Here's like a little guy's can read that. I just left that behind as like a sea of the coppers. But I thought he wasn't really just confused. I don't think he is, but he also seems to know the Bible because he quotes Levinicus 1821 on his little pamphlet there. He doesn't like donkeys and he doesn't like owls.

What is he? What does he like, I guess? Yeah, I mean, if he doesn't like those two, like, what the fuck? What is there to like? But yeah, so he was in jail and then for three years, he was on parole. He was not allowed to wear a costume while he was on parole. And in 2011, he reemerged again as another hero. Now he's called thought crime and he used to peacefully protest against Obama and the New World Order.

He traveled to all 48 states in the continental United States before returning to the Phantom Patriot persona the following year to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his raid. And the YouTube video started a little bit after that. However, sadly, according to a report filed by the Washington, D.C. Metro Police Department on October 25th, 2018, Mackaslin was found bleeding from the head after a suicide attempt outside of the House of the Temple, which is a Masonic Temple in Washington,

D.C., and he was pronounced dead the following day. Damn. Yeah. So what the fuck am I talking about here? Superheroes, great questions, great rituals in the forest, human sacrifice. Is this all just coming out of my ass again into sort of a miasma of truth and questions, possibly. But you know what? It's not actually me who's pulling the shit out of my ass this time.

That's actually another guy called Alex, who we're going to get into a little bit later in the story. But surprisingly, on a lot of the stuff, the Phantom Patriot wasn't too far off. And though the reality of the scenario is a little bit more plausible, it is not any less weird. You guys mentioned it briefly earlier, coconut grove. That's what we're talking about today. Not coconut grove.

I know I said coconut grove. But it's called the Bohemian Grove. I don't even know what the coconut about it. I've never. What is Bohemian Grove? That's what we're going to talk about. Well, yeah, we're going to get into it today, but that's what this is. I don't know why I said coconut. Is that a thing? Coconut Grove is something it has to be, because I can set it into my

kid for eight to coconut grove. Well, can I tell you? Can I tell you? So I want to have a great story. So, Alex, I know that we're going to move on to Bohemian Grove. But I want to add to the story of this dude, Richard. OK, because so I went to check out his YouTube channel and he has something called Phantom Patriot Episode 3, November 3rd, 2016. OK, in it, it is literally about the Illuminati or something

where there's like an election day and there's a yeah. And there's a guy who looks like Trump with like a Nazi T on his arm. But at the same time, like, I have no idea what's going on. Anyway, it doesn't matter because the video is is like it's out there. But the very first comment nine months ago is from a guy who says that he knew Richard from the 90s. And he goes on to say that, like, when he lived in Texas, we used to work at this place delivering food kind of like pre-Doordash.

We were friends back then. He said I was like the little brother he never had and his dad died when he was young and he had trouble making relationships with women. And it goes to this entire thing where he talks about all this different stuff. And he says, you know, Richard made several costumes for himself because he liked it. He was physically fit. He loved dressing up at Harkin, back to his days in Marine. And then he said he went on to go work in Hollywood as a stuntman, getting stunt jobs.

And he didn't get many, but he was at the Universal Studios Theme Park as one of the small soldiers and like from the movie Small Soldiers. Yes. And then he played two characters, Batman and a henchman, I guess. And then he did all these different stunts and the stunt show. And he says he was never really into conspiracy theories back then. And he was just kind of like solitary and he sort of just lived alone. And he liked to write things on a typewriter because he liked the old newspaper layout of things.

Dude, he is Rorschach. Yeah. And then when they like when he lived in Austin, he says I introduced him to Alex Jones public access show. And he's like he saw through everything he was saying and all the military stuff that he was talking about. He knew that wasn't true. But he now started to think about like wider world. And he started to think about like suspicions he had about other things.

And that's what people that's what people always say is like the thing about conspiracy theories is that it's just an endless sort of like regurgitation of information with like similar talking points. And then all of a sudden you have this like Eureka moment where you sort of just your your brain just sort of decides on a unifying theory of all of it. And it doesn't matter if there's stuff that contradicts it. It's just sort of like what happens.

And that's what you believe now. And it all comes together. It all it all connects. Like that sort of feeling is like key to the whole experience. Yeah, there's a great article about Q and on this guy did where he talks about how he researched. She's like been following it for a while. And he like really dug deep in research.

And he's like basically what he discovered is that the Q and on we have now, you know, four years ago, what was happening is like someone would post a thing that would be cryptic and then, you know, a thousand people respond. But of those a thousand people, one or two people would have something that everyone gravitated to and agreed were the truths. Yet everyone else responded with their own truths. But everyone just agreed.

These two things were great. And then another thing we posted. And then people will combine the previous truths with new truths. And then they would like change it. So by the time we get to where we are today, where people leave, that, you know, there are sex things in the basement of pizza parlors, like all that stuff and Hillary Clinton's eating babies and whatever. It's all things that people threw out there.

And then the group just decided were must be true. And so that's why it continues on. And it's sort of like a group think ARG project, basically. Yeah, I just want to jump in here, though, and be like, I of all those things, people having sex in the basement of a pizza pot, that actually doesn't sound that like I bet you that's happened. Well, it's not. Yeah. But you should see how they think it's happening.

You should see. OK. Yeah. I don't know anything about it. I just like the Clintons eating babies. That's crazy. But like people having sex, people have sex everywhere. So that's actually that kind of. Well, it's a man. There is no basement and imagine that they're eating kids

while they're having sex with them in that basement. Yeah, that's where they're at. Yeah, that's actually several bridges too far. That's yeah, yeah. But it's one of those things where, yeah. Yeah, I think that's my my together to create this reality. And that's it's the same thing here, where if you just like he saw things that he didn't believe, but then he picked up on little things

and it slowly like stuck in his head and he had to question them. And he dug deeper and they like picked and chose his own reality. And that's what I think happened to him is he seemed like a normal dude. And then he just like gateway drugged into this place where he felt more comfortable, like it goes back to human nature. And the idea that we as people always have to see sort of like, oh, that must mean something. Or they said there's a reason behind this or there's something bigger going on here.

Right. And it's just something that we in order to feel good about like our lack of control, the reason why we have no control is because there's something keeping us from having it. And like that's exactly that's human nature in like fundamental levels. And that I think is it's at least right now very unhealthy. It's like a memento where God, I haven't seen it in a while. But what's his face like creates the guy that he's after more than him being John G or whatever, like it gives you it gives you like a super villain

to constantly, I don't know, fight against or or battle against. Yeah, just in its own way, empowering. So it's it's it's a replacement. I was watching Hate Thy Neighbor on Vice and it's the same thing. Like he this guy goes with this like super racist guy down in like a very rural place where he has nothing and it's just like a place from to pour his anger, you know, it's kind of interesting. But, you know, that's all not real.

But the Bohemian Grove is very real. It's a place where once a year, very powerful members, members, members of an extremely exclusive club members of the coconut grove. Yes, they do meet in the coconut grove at their hidden campsite in the woods and engage in two weeks of bizarre rituals, performances and revelry. And well, as far as we know, they're not doing anything approaching sex trafficking or satanic human sacrifice. They are extremely secretive about what goes on behind the scenes.

And while I am about to give as close of an inside look as anyone can with just like the power of the Internet on my side, the most definitive information that I can find about exactly what happens there and who the members of this organization are comes from a book from 1974. But looking at how things are shaking out today in American politics in twenty twenty one, my guess is that not much has changed since then. But for now, just sit back, relax, keep your third eye open. And I'm going to give you my interpretation of the facts that I found

in a book readily available for free on Kindle Unlimited, which is how I read it or in an RTF form that you can weirdly get off CAA.gov. It was written by a research professor at UC Santa Cruz, a guy named G. William Domhoff, and it's called The Bohemian Grove and Other Retreats, a study in ruling class cohesiveness. And this first bit is just going to sort of be a play by play of what it's like to be a part of that ceremony. The Phantom Patriot saw online, which is called the cremation of care.

And Jesse and Davis, if I'll maybe call on you with some quotes to read from the chat from time to time to spice things up, OK? Sure. So keep one eye on the chat. OK, so you're out there. You're in the forest. It's a beautiful July night. It's NorCal vibe, so it's like giant redwoods. Everything's huge. It's beautiful. It's open. It's just after your dinner, which was like delicious, fancy dinner.

It's a mess hall sort of vibe, but it's open to air slash dining area. There's hundreds of tables around you in a circle, just like a sea of powerful older men. And you're all drinking these like big honking businessmen cigars. And you're listening to people give welcoming speeches and everybody's just having a gale time together, catching up in this like weird dinner. Oh, and by the way, even if you do actually happen to be an older white dude listening to this podcast, you're probably not yourself in the scenario.

You're probably somebody with way more power or influence, like an actor, like an A list actor or a billionaire CEO or the owner of a bank or a congressman or like a member of the president's cabinet for real like right now as you're there. We don't know how many would be there today at this meeting, but in 1974, there's about 1500 people there, give or take. Oh, the reason. Yeah, it's a huge group. It's not like six or seven. It's like it's like a no. No, no, no. No, this is a big fucking deal.

OK. And the reason that you're all here tonight together is because you're all about to witness an insanely complicated ritual which has started off the Bohemian Grove festivities every year since 1880, which initiates those present that into that year's camp. And more importantly, it's sort of symbolically meant to free them from the obligations of their job and the real world while they're chilling out for two weeks, getting weird with each other in the woods. Now, is this confirmed like this definitely happens?

This is exactly how it goes. Yes, this is from people who are in it. I know of broken in. People have done this. Yes. I know that things like this happen because I know somebody that like went to one of these things, but it's not this one, but something similar of like a rich person's would get away of. Is this going to be one of those things like everyone has or use an L.A.

and I'm never invited. Come on. The one I know that's in Washington, though. But what's what's that thing that everyone does every year? I'm blanking, but like there's no currency. But it seems like a lot of it has that kind of like vibe to like get away and weird, get primal, recent to that kind of that whole thing. Yeah, I mean, that's the vibe like that's that's on the surface.

That's the vibe sort of right. But that's that's what's going on here. Suddenly, you become aware that you can hear a sort of like ghostly funeral dirge drifting through the air from a nearby hill. And as you squint and you look, you can just make out a procession of even more men wearing red flowing robes with pointed hoods and some of whom who are actually playing the music that you're hearing with instruments, while others are carrying torches to light the way as they walk,

which adds a very ghostly feel to the whole zone, right? But then as they get a little closer to the circle where your tablets are, you notice that actually I'm not tablets, tables where your tables are, you notice that actually there's a few men that aren't doing either the music or the fire and instead seem to be carrying some sort of strange dark box, which should begin to recognize as a black like coffin. And at first, you have to do a double take because you think it's a real person in the coffin.

But if you've been here before, you know, it's really just black muslin wrapped around a skeleton made of really flammable wood. You also probably know that this body represents an entity known as care, just CRE like the word in English. Or sometimes they refer to him as dull care, who symbolizes all those real world concerns I mentioned earlier and who must now be burned away, right? Now, now as the procession passes through the dining area,

everybody around you also knows that they only just slowly get up and join this procession and follow it down a little road, which leads to a smallish lake about five minutes walk away. OK, once you arrive, the priests go around the lake one way. All the diners go around the other. So now they're sitting on opposite sides of the lake from each other. And now for the first time, you really notice this altar that they're coming to across the lake from you guys, which is big enough for you to see

all the way across the water that it's the form of this giant stone stylized owl, which looms over everything around it. And the little tiny lamp of fellowship sits at its base and illuminates it from a distance across the water. And you got to remember that lamp because it is important later. And this owl, could this be the owl in the no owl calling card? That's it's the owl. Yeah, it's absolutely the owl. So as you sit in this meadow across the lake,

you can see that the coffin is actually being carried even a little bit further past where they're meeting at the lake at the statue down to a landing on the water where it's loaded onto a little vessel, which is called the fairy of care, which will eventually take it across the water directly to the altar when the time comes. But first it's time to start scanning the trees near the owl. And suddenly, quote, unquote, woodland voices begin to sing all around you.

And a spotlight illuminates one of the trees and it reveals another man dressed as a type of ancient Greek tree spirit called a hamadryad and which begins to sing a song about trees of the grove and how they're a source of beauty and strength and peace as long as they're still there and that these forests are like a temple for you as long as you, quote, burn away the sorrows of yesterday and cast your grief to the fires and be strong with the holy trees and the spirit of the grove.

And then the lights go out and the singing ends and your focus is back on the giant stone owl and the light. And there's a high priest and his little red cloaked helpers gather around the base of the statue. And then he says something. And Jesse, if you could just give this to me in your best high priest voice, that would be killer Diller. The owl is in his leafy temple.

Let all within. Is this the right priest? Is that what you wanted? It's basically a priest. Let all within the grove be reverent before him. Weaving spiders come here. Come not here even.

So. It's beautiful. We so we need spiders come not here. What do you think that means? I think it means all of like the in my mind, if this is the most like trying to think the most logical, if this is the most powerful man in the world, right? And I would assume that that means like.

I don't want to say hangers on, but like all the other B.S. people that surround the most powerful people that are like in their lives that like if I had to envision what they're thinking, right? Like all the people that wrap them up in all the nonsense they have to deal with being so important, you know? Yeah, I mean. It's basically, yeah, it's a line from Midsummer Night's Dream. And it just means that like, don't if you're a busy body,

if you're a busy boy and you're going to be thinking about work, just get the fuck out. Yeah. Anyway, the priest then goes down three huge steps to the edge of the lake, makes a much longer speech about nature and how pretty doll is. And it just sort of underlines it with this another phrase that you can read. That's just another just similar bit of rhetoric. But it's part of the ceremony, you know, there you go.

Shake off your sorrows with the city's dust and scatter to the winds, the cares of life. Right. And then some more priests do a sort of like a weird giant owl ceremony version of that part of the Oscars where they show all the members that died in the past year, like that type of deal. Sure. Like I like and they like show and they talk about the people and all their great members. And then the high priest talks about nature

and leaving your life at home behind again. And then finally, he says the thing that kicks it all off. And this one, give this one some gas, Jesse. This is like the big. This is the big part is like the big like in phantasmic. It's like the big part where he's like, come on. All funeral power waits, the corpse of. Oh, by the way, I just want to say, if you're not aware,

this bit, I think, I think this is true, was originally for a long time read by either Tom Broca or Walter Cronkite. One of the like big news guys. It's actually it's actually even weirder than that. It's actually even weirder than that because so so. So this priest is a real person there present, right? He's he's like saying these things. Then you hear the horn and then it's like theatrics start.

And actually it was Walter Cronkite. And he actually he actually participates in the like part of it. That's like part of the like Disney show of it. Right. So like again, again, you can see how if someone came here and said this is all satanic right now. So far, nothing about seem satanic. It just seems like rich dudes having fun because they're like, you know, it's like frat boy crap. It's weird and weird.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's like weird and self important. But you can see how if you came here and you saw satanic stuff, now you're connecting dots to like everyone in Hollywood is a satanist because everyone's there. Like I can see the transition. It's like a thing that's really hard to explain to people that aren't into it. We could be like, listen, listen, I know that there's like much a weird ship, but we're like it's kind of part of the thing you have to get into it.

Then everyone else is like, why are you in red robes? Why are you wearing this thing? Who are you talking to? Why are you like, yeah, it's oh, it's a bad look from the outside. Not a great look from the inside, but we've all done, you know, we've done yoga. Like we all say weird shit. We all not stay at the end. Like there's some pageantry.

I mean, it's true. Most most frat stuff and sorority stuff. I mean, there's a reason why remember that video where the girls like, we welcome you to the sorority. They open the doors and all the girls are inside like, yeah, that kind of thing. That's what it always looks weird. It never doesn't look weird. So especially if you're like rich dudes who have the money to do anything

they want, they're like, all right, I'll statue. We all wear robes. We burn a fake like because they can do that. And it's weird. And more importantly, this dates back to like the 19th century. So even traditions from then where if you go back and look at things that people did or even Halloween back then is like, what the hell? What? Yeah.

So it's super. It's super bizarre. But it continues. The the horn blows out. Then like, boom, like it's the he says, our funeral pilot reached the courts of care. Here this horn. Here comes the ferry of care from earlier at the landing.

And now you see the little boat is actually like an intricate little beautiful boat, and suddenly you can hear the sound of a barcarole, which do you guys know what a barcarole is? No, no, a barcarole is actually the type of song that you might hear from like a gondolier in Venice as they like push you around the canals with their poles. Yeah, I don't know if they literally mean like a sound of a man singing. I scared my dog.

You're OK. Not a fan. Oh, that was a ghost. But a lot of the time, it can also just mean music composed in the like six, eight style of the rhythm of like, if you just imagine like rowing a boat with that pole through the canal. Here's an example of one from the Wikimedia Commons, if you want to hear one and give, I don't know, it works.

It works as like a if you can imagine this boat sort of like going across the water with this coffin like towards this little light with the bird. It's like, you know, it's kind of like a beautiful sort of slow piano song. Making me go listen to this weirdness. That's a barcarole. It's, you know, it's a it's a it's a classic type of music. I love you just saying it so casually like, yeah, it's a barcarole. It is. I mean, look.

I've never been to Venice, but I want to I want to get in. I want to get in one of these boats and be sung to sounds delightful. I have so great. So what you're so the song just to describe like the musical quality, it's not creepy sounding. It's not mysterious. It literally sounds like like you're describing. Yeah, not even like that was creepy, not even like that.

But like where you're just in a boat with you and a loved one. And then there's just some very sweet, beautiful music in the background that's light. It's like a light melody that is take your cares away. You're on a boat in Venice, that kind of vibe, drink some vino. That is the vibe of this music. And so again, I don't know if that makes it more creepy, right? That like, if you saw all these dudes in like dressed in red robes and it's dark and there's flames and stuff in a giant owl.

And it's like, but I guess it's positive. It's like a positive thing in their mind. That's very pleasant. Yes. Yeah, this is not bad at all. This is not what I was expecting. Yeah. So you so you're hearing this like delightful song and then the coffin finally gets to the altar and the priests on the shore grab it and lift the coffin over their heads.

And then the 18 torchbearers come ready to light it up. But then, boom, there's like a huge burst of wind. There's a clap of thunder and then like insane laughter echoes through the hills like dead ass like Fantasmic. And then a light hits a dead tree on a hill where everyone can see it. And the voice of care himself, which Davis, I'd love it if you gave this like a sort of like Rumpelstiltskin douchebag vibe comes.

And it's supposed to be emanating from from the tree. Fools, fools, fools. When will you learn that me cannot slay year after year? You burn me in this grove, lifting your puny shouts of triumph to the stars. But when again, you turn your feet toward the marketplace. Am I not waiting for you as of old fools, fools to dream? You conquer care. Is that what you were thinking?

That was beautiful. That's exactly like that's exactly what it's like. And then the priest kind of gets into how they know it's not forever, but he's definitely not going to be fucking up our chilled trip in the woods. But then Care fights back and he says this, Davis. I'm going to be honest. OK, I spit on your fire. Perfect. There is a literal explosion after that. All of the torches go out. And now all you can see is that tiny little light again at the base of the owl,

the lamp of fellowship. All hope appears lost. The priest seems desperate and he falls to his knees in agony. And Jesse, give it to me. Here he goes. Oh, the great symbol of all mortal wisdom. Out of Bohemia, we do besiege the grant us that council. Is this Walter Conkite? Yes. Yes, the fucking owl is Walter Cronkite.

That is amazing. This part of the show is called The Fire Finale, an aura of light emanates from the 30 foot tall owl's head. And I swear to God, I'm not lying. It is Walter Cronkite. He delivers a speech as the owl. He talks about how only the light from the lamp of fellowship can burn dull care and that it's the powerful like the power of fellowship in general.

That's the important thing and that the high priest takes the lamp, lights the coffin. Very soon becomes a raging fire. The orchestra is playing. The fire is burning. The chorus sings. Hail, fellow, hail, fellowship. Begone, dull care. Midsummer sets us free.

Then you can hear care screaming in pain as he burns and fireworks shoot into the sky and the band weirdly plays the old jazz standard. There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight and then which probably was like fucking Jay-Z coming out of the speakers at one point in time. Sure. In terms of like, now let's get down to business. You know, like a modern as Lerman did his version of this music. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And then it's party time.

Everybody's singing and dancing and hugging and laughing. And then the year's festivities have begun and it's barely just the tip of the iceberg as far as things that go down in this like two week festivities. Right. But what the hell is it? Right. How did it get started? So the Bohemian Grove is actually the property of a club in San Francisco called the Bohemian Club, which was founded in 1872. It's kind of like if you can imagine like the Shriners or the Elks.

Is it just like out on the street? It's a building. It's like a six story building, like the Ghostbusters or something. Oh, my God. It has a theater in the basement. It's a crazy building. It's like a sunroom on the top. It has like lodging for some club members. It's a it's a pretty nice place. And it was at the beginning,

it was all connected to this idea of the quote Bohemian, which exists in American culture, starting sometime in the 1850s, when American artists in Paris adopted the term because of its connection to the French folk belief that the quote unquote gypsies they knew around Europe had originated from the country of Bohemia, which is located, I think, in the Czech Republic nowadays, I think. And as a result, there are all these English speaking artists chilling out in Paris cafes all the time for like years and years,

like Hemingway was there and much before him, too. Like that kind of vibe where you had all these sort of dirty, sort of half starving artists who were being creative for creativity's sake in spite of their circumstances. And this idea came to America through New York just because it was so romantic and like idealistic, where students and artists were creating their own sort of Bohemian community in New York for art and criticism, and this sort of became

the cool hip thing among writers and artists and journalists. And so in San Francisco, which was like, you know, a bat, a babby city compared to New York, they were trying to do like, well, us two guys. Where are you going? And they they founded the club for, quote, the promotion of social and intellectual intercourse between journalists and other writers, artists, actors and musicians, professional or amateur and such others not included in this list

as made by a reason of knowledge and appreciation of polite literature and the fine arts be deemed worthy of membership. Right. I totally get why they have the Midsummer Night's Dream. Like having been in that play and I get it. The whole vibe of like the Faye people out in the woods, sort of like we don't deal with the BS of the humans. And I think I get I get where they're coming from, vibe wise, when they're like, dude, we're just all artists, man.

Like, yeah, exactly. Like that I don't understand. That's how it's that's how it's supposed to be. So at the beginning, right, the idea of like a super rich. Well, it seems like this just sort of follows the pattern that always happens where starving artists makes up the cool and then like the rich elites who aren't that at all. Like, sure, that does seem really cool. Let's do that. But our way, it's even it's even it's even sadder than that.

Going back to Burning Man. Wink, wink. But it's even it's even sadder than that because the idea that it's like some super old rich white normie dude is being a member would require them. You'd think it would require them to be in some way. Interested in art or skilled at art. But even from the beginning, they realized immediately when they started the club, like they needed.

Well, first of all, they wanted to be legit, right? So they wanted to be seen as like legit by like real Bohemians, quote unquote. So first, they tried to get all these people. I feel like you already you're already missing the point. If you're like, well, we want to be taken seriously about real Bohemians. I'm like, you already know it. You're not doing it right. They want to they want to be seen as equals, right? And and so, yeah, I would say it was misguided, right?

But they try the first thing is for status, they want to get people like Ambrose Beers, Mark Twain, Jack London, who didn't even really see himself as a Bohemian. He kind of called himself a vagabond. Sure. So we try to get them as members and they did get them as members. But pretty soon, they realized that the whole concept was kind of moot from the start, because they wanted all these nice things for their club and they wanted to be like this patronizing organization that could like create things. But talent without money doesn't really help with that goal.

So right away, they decided that they would just also start adding rich people to the bunch. So immediately it went from being like this like art club, even from inception to being like they still do the art, right? Like the artists still are there. But hence, hence the spectacle of the thing we just talked about. Right. But it immediately turned it into this like super exclusive thing and created like two kinds of members in the club, right? There's these like normal rich people, members, captains of industry,

presidents, bank, CEOs, influential people who loved the idea of the privacy and the pageantry and these like really exclusive people performing for them and sometimes about them and would happily pay their huge dues and participate slightly in all the pageantry, you know? But there was also these sort of more talent based people who did not have to pay to be there and who spent all year not only performing nightly for members for like a month out of the year, just to like sort of like like a residency or something. Yeah, exactly.

But also who regularly came and rehearsed for these bespoke plays and readings and stuff that they did at the Bohemian Grove that were called Jinx and these would take all year to prepare and write and create from scratch. And they were like expensive, right? So one and again, they're called Jinx, like J-I-N-K-S Jinx. First one was super highbrow classical, usually based on like the concepts of Bohemianism, characters important to the club's mythology.

This was called the hijink and then there was a more approachable musical comedy style performance that sort of lightly lampooned things. Members included inside jokes for people. And these were called low Jinx, right? Are we are we learning the the etymology of hijinks, the word? I don't know, but I I like to think they're just being cheeky. You know what I mean? I think they're just like, well, that's a hijink.

OK, or they yeah. Yeah, like this was just coined in a time when saying hijinks wasn't old timey. But they also had the Little Friday Night in the Big Saturday Night, which book in the second week, like the first weekend and the end weekend. And they're literally just like camp talent shows, like you see at all summer camps, right? Like I'm sure we've all been to at least one or seen one in a movie or something, right? But they're literally just talent shows, like you see at all these summer camps,

except everyone performing is like a huge star. So this is from 1974. But the people they mention are like arc link letter, Phil Harris, Ray Bolger, Bing Crosby, Milton Burrell, right? Probably some newer ones, too. But like I said, this is like 50 years ago. But imagine being like a super rich person and getting to see these people in this like really intimate atmosphere

and knowing that later you're all going to just be like walking around naked and like drinking and shit, too, right? And being able to chat with them. It's like exciting, right? For a rich person. And then on the flip side of this, for the more rich and powerful members and people who are more intellectually inclined, there were these lakeside talks, which are pretty much daily

at the same area where the cremation of care ceremony was going on, that little like grassy, grassy patch by the lake. And they can see some insane people give some extremely valuable off the record speeches, talking, frankly, about their job, answering questions. This is like people like Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon before they were president, Bobby Kennedy, while he was the attorney general. Dr. Vernevon Braun, the like rocket scientist, Earl Warren, the Supreme Court guy who made the Warren report.

Henry Kissinger, who I think was the attorney general also, eventually. Herbert Hoover after he was president, Neil Armstrong. One time, Nixon even tried to give one off the record speech to world leaders in the Bohemian Grove while he was president. But unlike today, where he probably would have just been fine to do it. At the time, the press actually pressured him to back out of it. So that's just to give an idea of like what type of people we're talking about here, like doing this aside from the kind of like perverse, the whole like

how it looks from the outside, like super rich, powerful people having like this weird retreat, just separate from that. It sounds kind of kickass, like like the pageant. This idea that you're like a pageantry, like poetically kicking off, like, listen, let's like try to get rid of the cares of the world, get back down to it. Like that's a beautiful idea. And then like getting to hear. I would love to just hear listen to Ted Talks.

I love to listen to just smartass people say things that I'm too dumb to have thought of. And like listen to great music. Like it's kind of kickass, right? Like I'm getting that. Yeah, I mean, they love they love this. You know what I mean? They love that they get to do this. I mean, it's like the Republican sort of like stuffy old version of like.

I mean, literally just summer camp. Like I don't know what else to say. It's literally like grown as man going to summer camp. It's just yeah, with power. Is this is this guys only or is this mixed? Yeah, yeah. So this is actually something that was a problem for them. So this the club is a men's club, which I think just goes back to the point

of like it being 1870 when it was invented. And they have had a few female members who have been invited specially just a few though, like four or something like that as of the 70s. But they also have they also have events for the wives to come that like women are allowed, which is still like pretty, you know, chauvinist in a way. But they're their excuse for a really long time for why they couldn't hire any women employees or have women around while you can't even work.

There's a woman that their excuse was, well, we like to like hold our dicks and like walk around and pee wherever we want in the woods. So it would maybe affect our ability to do that, to have women working there. But, you know, it's all horseshit. It doesn't matter. Normal like you make me feel uncomfortable so you can't be here. Yeah. At the point. The point is that there were all sorts of strange little things

for you to do with so many powerful people that it seemed super surreal. And it happens every year that they all have like a place to hang out, work together, bond, mingle, you know, it's it's it's super it's super weird. You know what I mean? Like it's it's not necessarily malicious what they're doing. But it enables them to do something together that it seems like they shouldn't be able to do like where they can like talk about stuff without anybody listening. You know what I mean?

But that's not even the end of it, because these are just the formal ways that all these people can hang out at the camp. Right. There's also even more private stuff. But actually, you know what? I want to I want to talk about something else really quick, because I just want to give you an idea of actually how surreal this is. Right. Like literally being a good bohemian is like to them is like a big part of like if you're going to fucking do this,

like there's like a 10 year waiting list to like pay to be in this club. You know what I mean? Like this is like a serious business, right? And to be a true good bohemian, right? It's not just that like if you're an if you're a talented person, that means that you're like in all these shows, you're doing everything. You're performing, you're lending your hand. You're if you're not talented in the way that the show requires,

you come to the show, you participate, right? But then there's also carrying a little spear for Bohemia, which is a thing that you are also expected to do, which is to like pitch in in a way, right? So like one year they had like Nelson Rockefeller and Henry Ford, the second doing like stage hand work, like during the jink, you know what I mean? And it's like these actors who, you know, they're not. Less famous, maybe, than these people,

but they are way less powerful because of the money. And so it just it's this way that it just it creates these circumstances for them all to just bond together. You know what I mean? Like doing like basic things as well as like high society things, like washing dishes next to the president of the United States. It's fucking bizarre, right? But that's just formal stuff.

Informally, there's even more private conversations on a personal level thanks to the way that the entire place is split up into a bunch of camps, which have slowly grown in form over the years from groups of people sleeping near each other to like full on these sort of like mini frat tribe clubs within the club, which each have names or and yes, they have names. They have like an area that's there as every time. Some of them have permanent buildings, emblems lower within the Bohemian Grove,

going back years and years and years. As of 1974, there were 129 camps with anywhere between 10 and 30 members, though one or two of the larger ones have like closer to like 125 members, and some have less than 10. But just as an example of how like weird these camps are, here's a few that are there. There was the jungle camp, which is famous for its mint juleps that you can go get from them and chill out at their little camp zone

or the Halcyon camp with their three foot tall martini maker built out of chemical glassware or the Owls Nest, which hosts an invite only gin, fizz, eggs, Benedict breakfast, one of the mornings. It's great. Or the super rich Mandalay camp, which was like the real rich people, like one, you know, one percent of the one percent camp that had actually a cable car that would take members up to the top of the hill

where it was and you're only allowed to enter if you're summoned. Or there was the super LA based camp Lost Angels, which was originally founded because they broke away from another camp and then they got in trouble because their fire was like bothering another camp. So they were like, fine, we're going to go up on a hill and we're going to make the best camp ever. And they spent like this just like already the idea of having sub camps. You're like, you already missed the point, guys.

Everybody you've all missed what this was supposed to be. They spent who was in it. I'm like, they clearly didn't take any of these lessons into the world and make it a better place like like it always does. Yeah. Yeah. Literally, these guys went onto this hill. They built permanent structures like a lodge that had bespoke mahogany furniture. Virgin lambs, wool blankets from the Isles of White.

Oh, my God. Lace from Ireland. And literally what happened was one night the legend goes that one night while they were away, people broken and like stole everything and were like equal, all of us equal good to like to like dunk on them. But it's like, you know, it's like all these weird traditional stories with lessons and like like like attitude to like that they all repeat to each other to like keep it one one mind, right? Like together there, they have like a culture together.

And that's kind of how it all goes. They set up shop and you can kind of wander around between them and intermingle, get into all these little like camp rivalries and traditions. And it's all kind of fun. And according to a former employee, it puts out a vibe that, quote, makes the Bohemian Grove seem like a college fraternity system transplanted from campus to the Redwoods like an overgrown Boy Scout camp, right? Though being super rich, old white dudes separated from their wives for two weeks,

there is one thing they're known to do that Boy Scouts typically don't do. And that is something that they like to call jumping the river. This does not mean literally swimming across the river. It means going into town to have sex with sex workers illegally. But as with everything related to the Bohemian Grove, there's a little more to it than that. It's a little flashier before 1971. All the action that was happening in these was happening in these two towns. One was called Monterey, which I talked about earlier, and another one's called

Guerreroville, I hope, each of which only had about a thousand people living in it. And these people would head into town to one of the seven or eight bars in town, some of which had private rooms, specifically for Bohemian Grove weekend. One of the bars, I forget what it was called. The thing's called like the gas lamp lounge or something like that would literally like collect. They had like paintings on the wall of people from the Grove and like they were trying to be like this weird like Grove spot, right?

And they would just do their like sex party thing for like a hundred bucks, one hundred and fifty bucks per person, just like prostitution in the classic way. This this basically trained prostitutes. This seems to be where all the sex cult legends come from, because like a lot of people say these guys are having orgies in the woods and stuff, but it's not like that at all. It's pretty tame. It's just like old dudes buying sex workers for the night.

But then the town kind of picked up on the vibe and it got a little harder for them to do. There was a new sheriff in 1971. There was an undercover sting where they got literally a new sheriff in town. They like literally they got they got one of the sex workers to like inform on everybody. And it was going to be a big whole thing where it like dragged out all their dirty laundry into the open at the Bohemian Grove, but they actually got off clean at the last second because the whole trial was declared a mistrial,

because the sex worker informant turned out to be a pimp herself, which was not disclosed and it like created a conflict of interest. So they just like got out by the skin of their teeth on a technicality. Jesus. Yeah. And, you know, I think it's just that the idea is that they really are there. They're really doing this. And I think that just freaks people out a little bit.

You know, they walk around in the woods, they're holding a beer, they have their dick out, they're peeing wherever they want. They're just like looking at each other's dicks, talking about their jobs, you know, and and that's like I said, they use that in a court to defend themselves when they didn't want to hire women. But other than that, other than those specific inner workings in the club and its memberships, not much else has happened since this book came out 47 years ago with a few key exceptions.

In the summer of 1980, a man called Rick Clogher teamed up with an employee there and was actually able to pose as a worker for two weekends. His findings were published in Mother Jones and on ABC and basically covered a lot of stuff. I just said, but with an emphasis on how the Bohemian Grove may have enabled these social connections to create both nuclear power and the atomic bomb and how at the Grove, off the record, Nixon and Reagan came to an agreement about how

how Reagan would not run for president against Nixon unless Nixon dropped the ball. So really, things are happening off the record behind the scenes. If you if you don't think that there are a million things that have impacted all of us because like if you just have the richest, most powerful people Bohemian down together, shit's going to happen. Like that just that just is going to like probably way crazier things that we've that's just that guy was able to find that out. Right. Imagine was like his weekend.

How many other weird household things have come about because of that? Yeah. In 1989, a writer for Spy Magazine called Philip Weiss snuck into the Grove for a full week posing as a guest. Doesn't really add a huge amount of new info either, but it is actually like really fun to read. And it like really like gives you the human angle a lot more of like how these shitty dudes are a lot of the time and how funny they are. Doesn't make it any less horrifying that it's happening.

But I liked it because it also shows how in 15 years, the culture has become a lot more like religious and fanatical and like like hazy, frat hazing in its vibe than it seemed in the 70s. And a lot of the quotes in there are like fucking crazy. But he was also it's also exciting because he fully snuck in and was actually eventually discovered and arrested. So it's a it's a pretty good read. And I have links to all this stuff for you guys.

I'll throw them on the subreddit, if you guys remind me. And most amazingly, on July 15th, one day after my birthday in the year 2000, a fledgling, young, far right radio show who's and conspiracy theorists called Alex Jones teamed up with a Welsh American documentarian with Channel 4 in the UK called John Ronson. Ronson was making a series called The Secret Rulers of the World, which was about conspiracy theorists in America. And he was sort of like embedding with them.

And basically what he did was he he met with Alex Jones and just wound him up and got him talking and let him talk and talk and talk until he finally broke and decided, you know what, I'm going to fucking break into the Bohemian Grove. And he did. And he got a bunch of footage of the robes and the owl. And he sort of like took that and word vomited out a theory around it, involving satanic murder rituals and sex slaves and orgies and all the shit.

And he made a documentary called Dark Secrets Inside Bohemian Grove, which you can see on YouTube. And yes, baby, if you didn't notice, we have come full circle because that's exactly the same movie that Phantom Patriot saw that sent him on his own rescue mission into the grove that we covered at the beginning of the episode. But I was clean as a bean. But now I want to circle back and ask you guys, these clearly ignorant

and twisted people aside, the book I based most of this episode off of is written in the context of like, sure, it's not a malicious conspiracy, at least not from what we've seen, but does something like the Bohemian Grove imply that there is, in fact, a secret elite group of super rich people ruling the world from behind the scenes? Like, isn't this the very definition of a secret organization of rich old white men that goes all the way to the top? Nobody is less powerful.

Like, nobody more powerful exists than the people in this organization. And without voting, without anything, no public record, they are making decisions that are shaping the history of the world. Right. Yeah. I mean, I I I think the big difference between people that think that and what really it is, is that people need it to be so premeditated, so malicious, so like intentional, whereas I think like,

yeah, rich people do have their own weird little conspiracy group or like weird little groups or there's even things like this. But I think that it's not as like Hydra-esque or like Specter-esque as they want it to be. It's just I think it's as simple as like basic human selfishness and everything else manifesting into things like this. Like they don't they don't do Bohemian Grove because they're like, ah, we belong like we're going to do this.

They probably in their heads rationalize it as a like great like way for them to reset to like get in touch with stuff. They see it as very romantic and the end result is probably the same. Like they nuclear power and others like a bunch of other weird stuff comes from it. But I think that like it's not nearly as purposefully malevolent as a lot of conspiracy theorists think, though the end result is the same. Yeah. Purposefully, purposefully or not.

Like if you think about it, right? The powerful people in this country because the way the book is right and maybe this is why it's on the CIA website. But the way the book is is it's like there is a ruling class in America that's different from the rest of America. And it's it's it's more dangerous because there's no system around it. It's just something that's happened.

That's like without a doubt is true. It's not even like a. Yeah, it's just facts. It's if you think about yeah, like if you think about like there's like maybe a dozen private schools that all these people's children go to together. And then you think about all the things like this, not just not just the Bohemian Grove, but there's other ones too. There's other societies like this, the Blue Book List or whatever.

There's all these things that are just like they mentioned. Oh, like they put all these people together over and over again. And they have like a cultural thing together. You know, they have like they have a consensus and they and they have people that come to a consensus because they have these groups that they have that are like the what is it called like the Council for the Business Council. Have you ever heard of the Business Council

or the Council for Foreign Affairs? Sure, one of those things. Yeah. Those are those are just like groups that exist that are just created by rich people together. And they like meet together and they like discuss like Jeff Bezos was the leader of the Business Council for a long time up till just now. And it's just all the business leaders together, meeting independently of the government, talking about stuff.

And then those are the people that like end up like Henry Kissinger was like heavily involved in the in the in the Council of Foreign Affairs. And it's just a bunch of rich people deciding what foreign things are important to them. And then sending somebody like him and he and then he becomes like the head of the, you know, like they install people in positions of power through social channels to to enact these on the like act on the principles that they are like putting into themselves at in a consensus in these councils.

You know what I mean? And, you know, malicious or not, like, is that something that we feel good about? And I'm not saying the Phantom Patriot is right, because obviously, like that's the thing that's frustrating, right? Like we perceive these things and we have to like just accept them as true because we can't really control them. Like there's just no way for us to do that. So we just do what we do all day and get into our lives and like go into our routine and stuff.

But then there's people like the Phantom Patriot who like go crazy and they get misguided and they have like weird tendencies and like weird social feelings about other people. And a lot of the times like bigotting and stuff like that comes into the picture because it's all fear motivated and they don't know how to deal with that information because they don't really understand it or how it's happening or what's going on. And it just seems like an evil plot, you know, and it's it's crazy. Like the Bohemian Grove should not make anybody feel anything but very, very weirded out. Right.

The problem is that it's not in the context of like the most powerful people doing this. It's like really scary, but everybody does the same thing. You like we're built for communities. We all rich, poor, powerful or not. We all like make little echo chambers, a little like buddy groups or little circles and you exchange information and you do stuff. And I think that the problem with like the Patriot, the Fanta Patriot public that is when you make them out to be more like intentional

and evil, you it makes you think that if only you stopped them, then the world would magically be fixed when it's like these are problems, but they're inherent in all humans and it's not like you can just be one group of them and it's fixed. It's like a problem that we as humans have to like get through and to make it small so that you feel more powerful or like it less powerless. Yeah. Is foolhardy to me.

It's it's not like the right way to go about it. So. But it is. But you should definitely feel weird about it. Yeah, absolutely. It's like a middle ground thing. Like it's bad, but it's like different than what you just just want to point out. Here I am in the lion's den among enemies, you know,

and we're all here sitting, talking seriously about the elite ruling class. Well, that's because you're not in the country. That's because you're not like, and they all are Satanists who are trying to all put on hoods and they all meet in the woods and they pray to a giant owl and they burn a spirit away, you're asking rational people to think that like the elite of the elite are normal. And anyway, you know, none of us here think that that if you're the top point one percent of the world, you're a normal person.

Yeah, I just think you live in a world that is not normal and everything about you is weird. And we look at you like, what? Yeah, I just think it's interesting to look at these concepts independently from the crazy people that often are connected to them. I will say this. It's just the same thing that I'm saying as what that guy was saying. It's just not his is just wrong.

He's is just factually incorrect and mine isn't. I was I was looking up more about Bohemian Bohemian Grove and the Bohemian Club and and all the background information. And I found maybe my favorite two bits of information. One, currently, and for some time, the Bohemian Grove, the whole group, they have it so at any point in time, there must be 10 percent of its membership being artists. Yeah, they said a hundred in in the 70s,

but I think they might have changed it since then. It's 10 percent must be artists trying to be like, no, really, this is for a good thing. And I mean, a hundred people, not a hundred percent. Yeah, right. A hundred people, not a hundred percent. Yeah, it's 10 percent must be artists. And then to follow up, which I think because of that, that's very funny. Oscar Wilde in 1882, when he visited the club, said and I quote,

I never saw so many well-dressed, well-fed, business looking Bohemians in my life. I feel like that's the perfect is the perfect way to summarize the entire thing. Good rest. Yes. I want to give a shout out to Tia Kruelos from Heroes in the Nightblog, who helped that writing help me with the Phantom Patriot element of this story. Ian McQuade, his article, View from the Side, Why Alex Jones Isn't Funny Anymore from Ransom Note,

gave me another perspective on this article and all right. So with that, before we leave, I just want to say, Davis, we love you. Thank you for joining us on the show. Let the people know where they can find you. Or if there's a podcast you want to suggest or something. This is your moment to shine. This is anything you want. Yeah, Warp Zone is my main gig.

It's me and the other boys. We do pop culture comedy sketches and music. So Warp Zone on all the different channels on YouTube is our main thing. You can follow me on Twitter at Team Davis. And then also I'm on Scary Game Squad with Jesse and well, and Alex and Gerard and Star Wars New Cannon Book Club with the rest of the guys in this thing. And yeah, I don't know.

Whatever. I don't know. That's basically it. So check that man out. Check us out. Check us all out. Yeah, right. And I'm Alex and that's Jesse. And we're going to go to a minisode now, which you can access over at patreon.com slash Illuminati pod right after this. I'm just looking at it. It's just such a good page.

It's a wonderful page. Thank you guys for listening. We love you and we'll see you next week. Goodbye. Anyway, me and my wife were sitting outside indulging on our porch one night enjoying ourselves. I needed to go to the bathroom, so I stepped back inside. And after a few moments, I hear my wife go,

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