The Why Files: Operation Podcast - 621: The Man Who Saw Christ Still Walks Among Us | Immortal Count of St Germain Revisited

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

In 1745, London authorities arrested a stranger who refused to give his name. His pockets were full of diamonds, and he played violin like a master. For the next two hundred years, this man appeared at every turning point in European history. He transformed lead into gold for Casanova, repaired the King's diamond to perfection, and described ancient Rome as if he'd lived there. He spoke twenty languages without accent and claimed to have witnessed the crucifixion. He warned Marie Antoinette before the guillotine and predicted both World Wars with eerie accuracy. The Count of Saint Germain died in 1784. But people kept seeing him—in Paris, New Orleans, and on Mount Shasta—always the same age, always one step ahead of history.

In 1745, English authorities arrested a man in a London coffee shop for espionage. His pockets were full of diamonds. He played the violin like a master. The interrogators finally let him go. The man only gave a name, the Count of Saint-Germain. And for 200 years, the count would appear at every turning point in European history, and American history. And in all that time, he never aged a day.

After disappearing from London, the count resurfaced 13 years later in France at the court of Versailles. He dressed in velvet with rings and diamonds on every finger. Nobody knew where he came from or how he got his money. He became the must-have guest at every day. dinner party. He played piano and violin so beautifully that people were moved to tears. And he was a brilliant conversationalist. He spoke 20 languages without an accent. He had immense knowledge about everything. He even impressed Voltaire. He is a man who never dies and who

knows everything. He is very singular and will probably have the honor of seeing your majesty in the course of 50 years. But where the Count really excelled was in history. He did a perfect impression of Henry VIII. He knew the details of conversations and relationships that didn't appear in any books. When asked how he can know so much about people

who'd been dead for years, the Count would simply smile and say, I was there. The Count also knew about alchemy. He claimed he discovered the philosopher's stone, the elixir of life. That's why he never aged. Even when served the finest wines and food, the Count never ate.

He sipped his special elixir, nothing else. Nothing tastes as good as skinny fields. But the Philosopher's Stone had another quality that interested the wealthy at court. It could change base metals into gold. And the Count of St. Germain said he can prove it. This year, I gave my brother-in-law something a little different for the holidays. Master class. Specifically, Aaron Franklin's course on Texas-style barbecue. The guy's a grill nut. So learning from Aaron Franklin made perfect sense. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

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Head over to Masterclass.com slash the Y files for the current offer. That's up to 50% off at Masterclass.com slash the Y files. Masterclass.com slash the Y Files One day the count met Giacomo Casanova Casanova knew a con man when he saw one.

He handed St. Germain a silver coin and challenged him to turn it to gold. The count accepted. He handed back the coin. It was pure gold. He took the coin, put a black substance on it, and placed it on the fire.

When it cooled, he said, Take your coin. I examined it, and it was pure gold. King Louis learned about this ability and wanted to know what the Count knew about precious stones. The Count claimed he could remove flaws from diamonds, and even create larger diamonds by melting smaller ones together. The king was skeptical. Your Majesty, I have witnessed Christ turn water into wine. Diamonds are a mere trifle. I spent five years in the sharp.

laboratory beneath the palace at Isfahan, learning a technique discovered long before Archimedes walked the earth. The king had a diamond that, without its flaw, would be worth twice as much. Give me your flawed stone. In 30 days, I will return it perfect. And if I fail, you may keep my laboratory and everything in it. A month later, the count returned with the diamond. The king's jeweler looked at it and valued the stone at 9,600 francs, almost double the flawed stone.

The king was so impressed that it gave the count a private laboratory in the palace. The count became a fixture at Versailles, working all day in his lab and spending all night dazzling the king's guests. Then the skeptics got another chance to test him. One evening, Countess von Georgi approached him. She recognized the count from Venice in 1710, about 50 years earlier. The Countess asked if his father had been in Venice at that time. No, madam.

It was I who had the honor of paying you court. You wore, yes. It was a gown of emerald silk that evening, I believe. Ah, yes. We danced the minuet in the Doge's palace. You asked me about my travels to Constantinople, and I told you about the Sultan's mechanical bird that sang without winding. You laughed and said, I told the most charming lies.

The Countess just stood there staring, and after a long moment she asked, what else happened that night? Your husband, the Count, was, um, gambling in the back room? Yes, that's it. He lost 3,000 ducats that night. You were, uh, hang on. You were worried he would lose the estate. and then, oh dear, two years later, he did. I'm so sorry. The Countess was stunned. She remembered the night perfectly, and so did the Count. The man she met 50 years earlier was about 45 years old. The man standing right in front of her was about 45 years old. He hadn't aged a day. The Countess said you must be 100 years old. The Count smiled and said,

that is not impossible. Entry to Chrome! I knew it! That's just a conspiracy. How many conspiracies that we talked about in this show that came true? All of them. Uh-huh. But the Count of St. Germain was lying about his age.

He wasn't 100 years old. That number was closer to 2000. quickly spread through Paris. The Count didn't learn history from books. He learned it because he was there. He described the court of Nero with casual specific details that no book contained. I remember the gardens of Babylon clearly. Nebuchadnezzar would walk those hanging gardens at dawn, muttering about his dreams. He thought God was speaking to him. Perhaps he was. I also remember the fire in Rome. Nero didn't started, despite what history claims. But he did play his liar while it burned. Quite beautifully,

actually. He spoke of the apostles as if they were old friends, and this led to a theory. Some believe the count was Cartophilus, the legendary wandering Jew. According to the legend, cartophilus was a porter for Pontius Pilate. When Jesus stopped to rest while carrying the cross, cartophilus struck him and told him to keep moving. Jesus looked at him and said, I shall go and I will rest, but you shall not rest until I return. Cartophilus was cursed with immortality, destined to wander the earth until the second coming. Immortality sounds pretty good until you realize you got to pay Alamoudi for 2,000 years.

Yeah, I don't think he was married. 2,000 years and no wife? This guy should do seminars. The legend of the wandering Jew matches the count's description perfectly, and now the wanderer was wandering west, but it wasn't just watching his history. he was shaping it. The Count of Saint Germain had charmed Versailles,

fixed the king's diamond, and convinced an eyewitness that he hadn't aged in 50 years. But he wasn't content to stay in France. He had work to do. He was in Russia helping bring Catherine the Great to the throne. British officers saw him in India speaking fluent Hindi. He traveled to the Hague to broker peace between Prussia and Austria. In Germany, he taught hypnosis to a young physician named Anton Mesmer,

who said the Count understood the workings of the human mind better than anyone alive. And some say this was how the Count talked his way out of that English prison back in 1745. Hmm, Jedi Mind Trick. Something like that. You're not the Count we're looking for. You're not the Count we're looking for. Move along. Move along.

Move along. Move along. Move along. But his most famous intervention happened in America in the summer of 1776. The debate about the Declaration of Independence wasn't going well. The delegates were terrified. Signing that document was treason against the British Crown. The penalty was death.

And just as the talks were breaking down, a stranger stood up in the back of the room and his voice thundered across the hall. We have petitioned, we have implored, and we have been spurned. If we sign this declaration, the rope awaits us all. We must hang together, or we shall surely hang separately. Gentlemen, you stand at the threshold of history. God has given America to be free. Your children will ask what you did in this hour.

Will you tell them you feared the rope more than you loved liberty? Prove them wrong. Sign that parchment. Men not yet born will read these words and find courage. So I ask you, will you sign? Or will you explain to your grandchildren why you chose chains over courage? The delegates were inspired. They rushed forward to sign the declaration. And when the frenzy died down, they turned to thank the stranger, but he was gone.

The doors were locked, and the guards saw nothing. It sounds like the same guards who was supposed to be watching Epstein. Let's not get into that. All we know is that the stranger was a man of average height, dressed in black, who appeared to be about 45 years old. And back in Europe, the count continued his work. In 1779, he befriended a German prince. He spent the next five years as a guest in the prince's castle. Then on February 27th, 1784, the Count of St. Germain died of pneumonia.

He was laid to rest at a local church, and his funeral was attended by royalty. It seemed the immortal man had finally met his end. But, less than a year later, the count was back. The Count of St. Germain died in 1784. His body was buried. And then in 1785, he started appearing again. The French Freemasons chose the Count as their representative. He appeared at diplomatic meetings across Europe. The British saw him in London.

The Prussians saw him in Berlin. Then in 1789, he returned to France with a warning. He told the Queen's closest friend that a conspiracy was underway to destroy the monarchy. The sun of France is setting. The Bastille will fall. The mob will storm Versailles. I have watched this pattern destroy Rome and Babylon. Marie Antoinette must flee immediately.

The people demand her blood. Your children face the same fate. The king finally demanded to see the count, but once again he was gone. A few weeks later, the French Revolution began. The Bastille fell. In her memoirs, Marie Antoinette wrote that she wished she had taken the count more seriously. Four years later, the Countess Dademar watched the guillotine blade come down on Maria Antoinette, and standing beside the Countess, watching silently was the Count of Saint-Germain.

Same face, same age, nine years after his funeral. He appeared to the Countess one last time in 1820. That's 36 years after his funeral. He told her he was tired of the chaos in Europe. I am leaving France. I must go to Constantinople, then to England. England, and finally, to the Himalayas. I will rest there. But people will see me again in 82 years. The count vanished again. But 82 years later, a man moved into a mansion in New Orleans.

He looked exactly like the count. But this time, he wasn't interested in politics. He was interested in blood. In 1902, a wealthy man named Jacques Saint-Germain threw expensive parties in the French quarter. He spoke flawless French. He was an expert historian and a master musician. And he looked exactly like the portraits of the count from 150 years earlier. He claimed to be a descendant. Jacques never ate at his own parties. He just stood by the window sipping liquid from a goblin.

liquid from a goblin. One night, the party stopped. A woman screamed. Then she fell from the second-story balcony onto the street below. Bystanders rushed to help her. She told the police she didn't fall. She jumped.

She pointed up at the balcony. Jacques Saint-Germain had cornered her. He grabbed her, held her down, and bit her neck. The police banged on the door. No answer. They broke it down. Jacques Saint-Germain was gone. They searched the kitchen.

No food, no silverware, but they found rows of wine bottles corked and sealed. When they opened them, the smell hit them instantly. It wasn't just wine. It was a mixture of red wine and raw human blood.

You told you! Jacques Saint-Germain was never seen in New Orleans again. But the count wasn't finished making appearances. I've always been pretty mindful with my money. But even with a solid budget, things slip through the cracks. That's where Rocket Money really impressed me. It found a few old subscriptions I hadn't used in months, and they made it easy to cancel them.

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Go to rocketmoney.com slash the Y files today. That's rocketmoney.com slash the Y files. Rocketmoney.com slash the Y files. The vampire of New Orleans vanished in 1902, but sightings of the count continued throughout the 20th century. During World War I, two Bavarian soldiers captured a man who spoke many languages but wouldn't give his name. He told them the war would end in 1918, and he was right.

And he also said a tyrant from the lower classes would wear an ancient symbol and lead Germany into another global war in 1939, and that Germany would be defeated in six years after committing unspeakable acts of violence. The soldiers thought the man was crazy until 1939, when history unfolded exactly as the count predicted. Then, in 1930, Guy Bauer met the Count of Saint-Germain on Mount Shasta in California.

Ballard founded the I-M Activity Movement, based on St. Germain's teachings. It still exists today. Oh, I should start a religion at a brotherhood of the golden scale. Donations are tax-deductible. Please, don't start a cult. It's not a cult, human.

It's a high-yield spiritual investment opportunity involving lizard people mugs. They're available now at the Wi-Files store, and they make great Christmas gifts. No plugs until the end, please. Worst salesman ever. In 1972, Richard Shanfrey appeared on French television. He claimed to be the Count of St. Germain.

He said he was immortal. And to prove it, he performed the Count's most famous trick, live on the air. He set up a simple camping stove. He took a lead bar. He melted it down into crucible and added a strange powder. When the metal cooled, it wasn't lead anymore. Oh, wow, did this guy make gold with a camping stove? Yep.

It was even tested. the guy made gold from lead. And Shanfrey never revealed his secret. He died in 1983, officially by suicide. But believers say the count simply moved on to his next identity. After all, he'd done it many times before. The Count of St. Germain was definitely a real person.

There's no debate about it. But the claims that he was supernatural, well, let's take a closer look. People have been telling the story of the Count of St. Germain for hundreds of years. But how much is true? Well, let's start with the languages. The legends claim he fooled native speakers. Not true. When English authorities arrested him in 1745, they noticed his English was broken. He spoke French with a Piedmont accent. That's somewhere near France, Italy, up that area. Now, King Louis was taken with him, but the king wasn't a deep thinker.

His own doctor called St. Germain a quack. Do doctors hate anyone who can cure things without a copay? The king's chief minister ordered the count's arrest. That's why he left France, not to go on some diplomatic mission, to avoid the law. When St. Germain turned Casanova's coin into gold, it wasn't alchemy. It was close-up magic, slight of hand. And Casanova admitted the count was brilliant, but he recognized a fellow con man when he saw one. Hey, game, recognized game.

St. Germain Ed's style. Cassanova just had a bunch of STDs. That's true, actually. St. Germain turned coins in the gold. Cassanova just turned relationships into awkward doctor visits. Now, the king's diamond repair was also likely a switch. Flawed stone in, different stone out. The king's mistress examined the Count's gems and laughed.

She said they were all very pretty, but they're all obviously fake. Even Voltaire's famous quote about the man who never dies was sarcasm. The Countess who recognized him from 50 years prior? Well, she was nearly 90 years old and senile. St. Germain himself pointed this out, but the legend stuck anyway. He was one to build on his own story. And Richard Chanfrey's television transmutation, that was also stage magic. Shanfrey was a professional entertainer.

He used a howled out piece of charcoal with golden side, and it was sealed with black wax. When the wax burned off, only the gold was left. The Count's final stop was Prince Charles's castle in Germany. And the prince noted that St. Germain wasn't a youthful adventurer, but a small, gray-haired man in his 90s. The post-death sightings come from anonymous theosophy writings. The Marie Antoinette accounts can't be verified. Jacques Saint-Germain in New Orleans is folklore.

There's no eyewitness accounts, no police records. Guy Ballard in Mount Shasta? Well, he's a convicted fraudster who plagiarized his teachings from science fiction novels. The best theory is simple. Saint-Germain was the illegitimate son of an Italian princess. This explains the specific accent and his familiarity with languages like Italian and French. He was a brilliant man who used charm to befriend wealthy patrons, but when the money ran out,

he died alone. But here's what bothers me about that neat little explanation. When Saint-Germain died, the important items were missing. He played the violin, but there was no violin, no personal letters, no trinkets from his adventures, no money, like he was covering his tracks. Now the Count's death is documented, but his grave was destroyed and his body never recovered. The church records still exist, and researchers have requested access over the years. Some requests are granted, but others aren't, and nobody really knows why.

Maybe it's just bureaucracy, or maybe someone decided that certain details about the Count of St. Germain are better. it left unexamined. Because that's what you do, isn't it? If you were immortal, if you'd learn that the only way to survive forever was to make sure that no one could ever prove you existed. You'd vanish completely. And then you'd start again and again. Somewhere else, someone new. The story of the Count of St. Germain is probably debunk. But I will admit, there's a part of me that hopes that he's out there somewhere, playing the violin, telling stories at dinner parties, sipping his elixir

and waiting for yet one more chance to step in and change the course of history. Thank you so much for hanging out today. My name is A.J., that's Acklefish. Game, recognize, game! If you had fun, learn anything, do him a favor,

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Yeah, you want to keep that secret close to your guilt, eh? Those are the plugs, and that's going to do it. Until next time, be safe, be kind, and know that you are appreciated. scenario 51 A secret code inside the Bible said I would I love my UFOs and paranormal fun as well

as music so I'm singing like I should But then another Peace theory see theory Becomes the truth My friends And it never ends No it never ends

I fear the crap cat and got stuck inside males' hole with M.K. Ultra being only two aware. Did Stanley Kubrick fake the moon landing alone on a film set were the shadow people there? The Roswell aliens just fought the smiling man. And his name was cold And I can't believe I'm dancing with the fishes Had no fish on Thursday nights With a J-2

And the webbed on to the night All I ever wanted was You just hear the truth So the one falls on her feet all through the night The Mouthman's sightings and the solar stones still come To have got the secret city underground Mysterious number stations, planets are both to Project Stargate and where the dark watchers found

In a simulation, don't you worry though The black night said a lot It told me so I can't believe I'm dancing with the fish Headful fish at Thursday nights when they chase And the wildfires have been off through the night All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth

So the white balls are repeat all through the night. Handful fish on Thursday next when they change you. And the wild ones have to be all through the night. All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth. So the world falls on the beat all through the night. Gertie loves to dance Gertie loves to dance Gertie loves to dance

Yeah, Gertie loves to dance on the dance because she is a camel And camels love to dance When the feeling is right on wasting time Gertie loves to dance Gertie loves to dance You know what I'm going to be. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.