This Paranormal Life - #232 The 9 Unknown Men: India's Mysterious Secret Society

Episode Date: September 28, 2021

On this week's episode, Rory and Kit investigate a secret society older than the Illuminati, the Free Masons AND EVEN the Paranormal Commune... We're talking about the 9 Unknown Men, a mysterious order from ancient India that was allegedly established over 2000 years ago.BUY OFFICIAL TPL MERCHwww.thisparanormallife.com/storePatreonpatreon.com/ThisParanormalLifeYouTubeyoutube.com/thisparanormallifeTwittertwitter.com/ThisParaLifeInstagraminstagram.com/thisparanormallifeSecret Society Facebook Pagewww.facebook.com/groups/thisparanormallife/Edited by Kami Tomanwww.tomanedits.comResearch by Amy GrisdaleIntro music: www.purple-planet.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do evil dogs still go to heaven? What happens if you plug an electric guitar into an acoustic guitar? All of these questions you can find the answer to on This Paranormal Life! Hello and welcome to this episode of This Paranormal Life, the comedy paranormal podcast where every- Are you drinking a beer? Yes. I didn't know you drinking a beer? Yes. I didn't know this was a beer podcast. I'm on an all-beer diet.

If I see beer, I drink it. That really threw me. I wasn't expecting that at all. Sorry, folks. This is the comedy podcast where apparently I drink a glass of water and Kit gets blasted just across from me on an ice cold beer i want to fight somebody okay you're already getting off topic which is i think why we don't drink on the podcast on this podcast what we do is we investigate a brand new paranormal

tale case claim or beast and come to a conclusion at the end as to whether or not it is paranormal. My name is Roy Powers. Across from me sits Kit Greer, my co-host and also professional paranormal enthusiast. Usually at the start, we would rattle a little bit, but I cannot stress how important it is that we get into this case immediately. More than usual? What I have in my possession, kid, may not just shatter your understanding of the universe,

but shatter your understanding of the history of mankind. Wow. This sounds time sensitive. We have been kept in the dark, folks. Lights off. And your nightlight, your Teletubby nightlight, has been smashed by a secret organization that we're going to find out about today. You remember we did the Illuminati already, right?

Like a year ago or two. We were. I think the evidence. Really? I think the evidence you provided for that case was a single American dollar bill. So we already did the... I see the shoebox beside you. Is there a dollar in there again? I seem to remember you presented the evidence in a shoebox.

F***. So, okay. So that's kind of throwing me a little bit because I kind of forgot that we had already done an episode on the Illuminati. You've seen this triangle shit? Yes, yes. You're going to want to hear about this, brother. Don't worry everyone listening because I'm not talking about the Illuminati. Oh?

I'm talking about an organization so secret, a lot of you may never have even heard of it before the freemasons already covered it already done it we've talked about it many times shit i'm talking about an organization that runs this world and nobody knows who they are i'm talking about gas station attendants everyone knows they are. Our story today takes place in India, way back around 260 BC. Wow, this is really winding the clock back. Before censorship, that's why I have access to this. The emperor on the throne was known as Ashoka the Great, an aggressive and fearless leader driven by conquest and power.

Even when he was eventually made emperor, his thirst for dominance wasn't quite quenched. Emperor Ashoka, why are you upset? You have it all. Land, mass, a powerful army, widespread education, everyone is flushed with cash. It's still not enough. How can I prove myself to be the great ruler that I am? Ashoka eventually found his answer. What does a man who wants to prove his worth do? He does what his previous family could not. You see, a long time ago, Ashoka's grandfather had attempted to conquer the region of Kalinga, but failed. A deadly mission that cost many lives. But peasant lives be damned, Ashoka was going to try to do what his grandfather could not.

That's it. I will conquer the province of Kalinga and annex them to the vast Maria Empire. Very good, Emperor. But is war really the best option? We could always... We will ride with our army, a sword in the hand of every man, woman, and baby. I just think if we use our words, we could talk. Many will die. Hundreds of thousands.

Shit, maybe even you, Jeremy. Please reconsider, Emperor. But his mind was made up. Jeremy be damned. It's pretty bad if, as the plan is formulating in your mind, you start damning the person you're talking to. Like, okay, it's 200 BCE or whatever. I can get on board with peasants be damned.

But Jeremy be damned kind of crosses crosses a line did he say he was gonna put a sword in the hand of every baby because he must know that isn't gonna do much it's not gonna do much for his reputation he could just say a sword in the hand of everyone i think uh i think putting it in the hand the babies might be it's actually a waste of swords waste of sword and endangers everyone but But his mind was made up. What would come next was one of the largest and deadliest battles in Indian history. Infantry, cavalry, and elephants clashed in absolute chaos, destroying and plundering the vast region of Kalinga. Wow. When the dust had settled, around over 150,000 people had died.

I don't know if you know a lot about old-timey wars, but that's quite a lot of people. Yeah. 150,000 people. I think it is, right? I mean, we kind of, I think as modern people, our minds get warped a little bit by the most recent world wars but going

back before that well you know battles didn't tend to be that big really were they i mean i think like even the famous ones battle of hastings things like that that was like six dudes like in a wendy's car park fist fighting it was a pub brawl yeah A lot of the great wars of the olden days were scraps. It was peasants fighting over potatoes. It was someone had a nicer burlap sack and another guy wanted it. You can't tell me that the guys at the front of the front lines who are fighting their enemies, that they're fighting for the same cause as the guys at the back of the 150,000 there's no way they know what's going on two miles the other way five minutes into the fight the front line are fighting the back line elephants are fighting tigers no one knows what's going on in these old timey

battles at the front of the line they're like we need to take over the vast kingdom of Kalinga to avenge our fallen fathers at the back back of the line, they're like, I think we want to marry our cousins or some shit. It's getting passed down. I think the guys at the front said they want to f*** a kangaroo. So we're going to fight for their right to do that. No, Kalinga. Right, Cowabunga.

Let's go, brother. Ashoka stood victorious over the battlefield, towering over the death and destruction that he had caused. We did it, Jeremy. Kalinga is ours. Well done, Emperor. Did you see when I cut that soldier in half? That was pretty messed up. Also, when that man fell down and was beaten to death with rocks. That was actually, that was kind of f***ed up actually. Kind of uncalled for. Yeah, also one of our elephants got loose and trampled an old folks home. Oh f***.

Was this, was this a bad idea? Ashoka had won the battle, but he was so disgusted at the death and bloodshed that he had caused that he decided to swear off his life of violence, repenting against his former ways. That's extremely convenient to do it the moment after you claim the kingdom of Kalinga. You're like, all right, that was too much. No more wars. From now on, no more wars. That's like swearing off gambling the day after you lose everything. It's pretty easy to say after you've already given it all.

Right. He swiftly adopted Buddhism and upheld a new policy that he called Conquest by Dharma, which basically means the principles of living right this dude witnessed such atrocities by his own hand that overnight he became a buddhist this must have been the gnarliest war that's ever existed i'm pretty sure like two elephants grabbing a man by the tusk and ripping him in half and And he's like, I'm good. I'm good for a lifetime of war now. Yeah, I don't want to do this anymore.

I'm pretty sure this is the plot of the Thor movies, is that Thor's dad is all peace, love, and happiness. Specifically after he's created the greatest kingdom the world has ever known. By like raping and pillaging. Built on the blood of all the innocents. Yeah, this is exactly what it is. Ashoka had now seen what war, death, and destruction could do.

And knew that in the wrong hands, that sort of power was dangerous. So how do you beat the power of war, death, and destruction, Kit? With the power of knowledge. The one true power. But there was a problem. I don't know. There was a lot of talk of elephants ripping people apart. I don't know how much knowledge has a bearing on that fight. But there were problems. First of all, he still had to run the country. His busy schedule meant he didn't have the time to dedicate to his new quest for knowledge. And even if he did, the burden was far too great for one man alone.

So Ashoka decided to assemble a team. A secret organization built up of nine individual men. Each one a highly skilled expert in their field. Tasked with standing guard over the most powerful knowledge the empire had access to. Their identity would remain a secret, not just to protect their wealth of ideas, but also to protect the men themselves. Because of course, the most intelligent men in the history of the world would be prime targets for kidnappersppers or extortion if anyone knew who they were. Also protection from the consequences of their actions. Yes, that was...

The peasants were pretty mad after their kingdom got taken over. But who are you going to be mad at? You don't know these men. It's like being ruled by a Twitter egg. They have no avatar. It's just the default user image it's kind of funny the idea of the world's most bloodthirsty man amassing um a council of nine uh super intelligent elders to run his kingdom yeah it's like genghis khan getting together the members of mensa uh to run his emperor and they like, you're a bad person. You're the problem.

And he's like, enough silence from you. You're ejected from the court of geniuses. Next, by the time they get enough, quote unquote, smart people who agree to work for this bloodthirsty emperor. I don't know. I think you're pretty far down the actual list of geniuses yeah a lot of people have passed up initially it's also kind of naive to get all these people together and be like i've assembled you because we need to protect the world from dangerous tyranny now like didn't you just initiate the most deadly war in indian history

it's like yeah have you seen what even a guy like me can do it? Right. We don't want that to happen again, obviously. So I need you to find out the craziest secrets of the world and write them in a book and give them to me. I need you to do it fast because there's a couple of kingdoms kind of threatening me. And I don't know if we don't get to it quick enough. I can't say I won't invade them.

Would that be so crazy? So if any of you could look into i don't know of course like the secrets of love and kindness and and the beginnings of the world and how we're all brothers and sisters that would be great if a couple of you guys could learn how to turn people into grass via spells that would also help me out one of the advisors to the throne walks up my liege the peasants are launching in a rebellion in the West. He's like, namaste, brother. Execute all of them, including the children.

Namaste, peace and love be with you. You can't just say namaste and it be okay. Even the children, my emperor? We gave them swords. We gave them swords at the start and they're actually pretty pissed because a lot of their parents died in that big war. Those children are vets.

Show some goddamn respect and execute those baby vets. Turned around, all the geniuses have fled. As I said, the primary purpose of the nine unknown men was to keep modern advancements of science safely out of the hands of the masses, believing them to be too stupid to bear the responsibility. Rude but fair? When the team of nine was assembled, they were given a very special task. They would write nine books, each on the topic that they specialize in. Each on the topic that they specialize in.

These nine books would hold the ultimate knowledge of mankind and would be constantly updated throughout the years, guarded by the nine unknown men with their lives. Wow. This is really cool. This is real history taking place before our eyes here on the podcast. It's cool stuff, isn't it? You know, I can see how a lot of leaders throughout the history of the world have been obsessed with gaining knowledge, ultimate knowledge, the secrets of the universe, whether it's just mystical powers

or an explanation as to the creation of the universe. So this is kind of a smart way to get around it. He's delegating work. Basically. He's like, I don't have time to do this. I want to know it all, but I need you guys to paraphrase it. Put it in a book. Maybe I'll take a peek at the books to see what we're working with here. And we can make this a collaborative project

to keep these dangerous secrets out of the hands of people who would use them for evil. I wouldn't do that. I did it once, sure, like a month ago, but I'm a changed man now i'm a buddhist namaste that's not even buddhist say cut off his head cut off his head absolutely right now turn him to grass do we know that spell yet the grass spell

no one said that was possible yeah it's very interesting because as we know, history was kind of written and ruled by these kind of dominator type emperors and kings and queens throughout history. But it's like we're seeing the first echoes of, I guess, secret societies, but maybe more importantly, like governments. It's like, all right, I can't do this by myself. I need people smarter than me. Totally. Councils of people to educate the leader. So what were these books about? I mean, what does ultimate knowledge even really mean?

Well, although we don't know the specific contents of the books, we do know the topics. And let me tell you, brother, each and every one of these sound right up our street. Okay. So here we go these are the titles of the books of forbidden knowledge written by the scholars of the secret society of the nine unknown men wow if that doesn't get your card i don't know what will i'll read through the books and what they have to offer at the end you can kind of say if you if you had to pick one in particular which one you would which one you would want if i had to be one At the end, you can kind of say if you had to pick one in particular, which one you would want.

If I had to be one of the wise men to write the book. Yeah. Listeners as well, follow along and make sure to pick your favorite book at the end. Okay. Book number one. Propaganda. What?

Pretty f***ed up for that to be the first book of the wise elders manipulation lies the first book was actually a fake and it had a hole carved in it to fit a handgun i literally can't think of a more contradictory topic it's something written written in more bad faith than the book of propaganda. Yeah. We should note, remember, these are books of secret knowledge that need to be kept out of the hands of people. That's so true. Okay. So even though they may be research into sort of dark or evil manipulation, it's to protect those secrets from getting into the hands of evildoers. Okay. To use a recent analogy, this is the defense against the dark arts. We're going to teach you how to kill someone using torture,

but only so that you don't do it and know how to protect yourself. Perfect analogy. The propaganda book, as you can imagine, was a manual for how to craft the most effective propaganda. imagine was a manual for how to craft the most effective propaganda. It covers psychological warfare and controlling the minds of the public. Dangerous information, obviously, as anyone who possesses these abilities could take over the country, if not the world. Book number two, Physiology. Now, I don't know much about the contents of this one, except for the fact that apparently it holds the secret of how to kill someone with a single touch. Whoa!

Yeah. Apparently the move involves, quote, the reversal of a nerve impulse. Whatever that means. Interesting. I can't believe this hasn't come up on the podcast sooner, but... The touch of death. The touch of death. The dim muck.

Seems to be a real recurring theme through these kind of Eastern traditions. And if you could teach that in a book, that's some ultimate knowledge you want to keep safe, out of the hands of the public. It would be even more terrifying if that book was just a pamphlet. To teach you in three easy steps. Like, we need to keep that out of the hands of the public absolutely book number three microbiology even though this text was written a long time ago it has detailed information about microbiology and biotechnology

it also includes the recipe for a divine nectar that makes the drinker immortal. Okay, skip to that chapter. Hello. Yeah, I feel like, I mean, the microbiology, the biotechnology is all cool, but if you have a divine nectar that I can put into a beer bong and live forever, I'm going to want that book, probably. I'm starting to wonder why this one is being kept out of the hands of the public. Is that so bad that people live forever? Maybe on the population of your country, with no threat of death,

would anyone listen to you as leader? You'd be challenged every day by like a hundred peasants. I might as well. I can't die. So I'll take a swing at the king. I still think this doesn't look good. If that's where your mindset is. If you have the technology to let none of your followers die

and you're like, I'm going to keep that one for myself. I guess you got to be careful because all it takes is for that recipe of the divine nectar to fall into the hands of a sith lord and all of a sudden you can't even kill the even the touch of death won't kill the bastard this is a good point what if hitler had had that book oh my game over mortality book number four alchemy this book is all about the transmutation of metals, specifically how to create gold. Allegedly, the nine, as they were sometimes referred to as, secretly sent gold to relief organizations when India was suffering financially.

Oh, so you think they were alchemizing it somehow? they were alchemizing it somehow. Using the book to help support their own country. Interesting stuff. Again, I can see why that is in high demand. A book that can convert any metal into gold. I don't know how the economy works, but I figure if anyone can make unlimited gold, it might tank it.

It's over. Yeah. You might as well make a golden gun to blow your brains out because the civilization is going to collapse pretty soon. You'll have more gun. You'll have more golden bread. Yeah, maybe at that point bread becomes pretty valuable and all the gold in the world couldn't buy you a slice. Book number five, communication.

Five, communication. Now that might sound a little like the first book, Propaganda, but all means of communication were covered in this one, including how to talk to extraterrestrials. What? So we're just glossing over the fact that extraterrestrials were considered real and we're skipping straight to how to talk to them. Yeah, this wasn't even a book of telling you about their history. It's like, this is how you set up an iMessage.

Yeah. Welcome to the kingdom. You're going to be inundated with messages from extraterrestrials. So here's all, here's the 30 alien languages you're going to encounter the most. That fifth book is actually a Kindle and it has Wi-Fi on it and WhatsApp because you're going to be in constant communication with these guys. Book number seven, Gravity. This book revealed the secrets of gravity and most interestingly, instructions for building an anti-gravity machine called the Vimana. Okay, this is all very interesting because as far as I thought, gravity wasn't understood until Isaac Newton,

probably over a thousand years later. So that's pretty cool that they understood it. They did. They didn't just understand it, but anti-understood it. How to reverse it, how to create flying ships. Is this real? How come over a thousand years later an apple fell on a guy's head and he's a genius we're gonna get to that kit we i'm not even joking we are going to address this specific qualm. All right. I'm sorry. I said I'd let you get through them. Let's go. Book number seven, Cosmology. Now, very little information about the exact content of this book

is known. All we know is that it's about the universe, presumably a whole lot of alien stuff. Jesus. I mean, we just had a book on how to communicate with aliens and we hadn't even got to the book on cosmology. Yeah. Well, as we said, you know, maybe communication is a whole thing. Maybe this book is like what they eat. How they f***. No, it's not.

It's not how they f***. This one had a lot of pictures. It's just not. Okay. It was basically a porno. It's an alien porn mag. You got to keep that shit locked up the public aren't ready we're barely ready to find out aliens exist let alone see their dongs and titties imagine books that are unsafe for human eyes and it's just a collection of alien

dongs it's like why have you censored this image? Is it top secret? Nah, it's just some pretty nasty alien porn. It'll just put you off your lunch. You don't want to see it, trust me. Book number eight was Light. This book concerned the property of light, specifically how fast it can travel

and how people can change the speed of light to weaponize it. Okay, well, this is f***ed because we only recently worked out the speed of light. I don't think anyone's yet worked out how to weaponize it. Well, why don't you ask the Jedi kids and their light sabers? I think they weaponized it pretty well. Again, I will encourage you to hold all your complaints to the very end of the podcast. Sorry. Sorry, sir. As in after I hit stop recording. And finally, book number nine, Sociology. The ninth and final book included information about how human societies evolve and how to predict their oncoming demise.

It was basically a manual for how to create, nurture, or destroy an entire civilization. I just feel like if you have the information of how to destroy a civilization and you don't want anyone else to know that, don't write it down. Just die with that secret. Don't write it down and now there's the potential for someone else to read that yeah because the only reason you would want it written down and to keep it is because you think at some point you're gonna need that secret you think at some point you and your allies are gonna need to know how to destroy in a civilization it's like you're the only person on earth who has the nuclear launch codes yeah They're like, Greg, it's great. You know the codes, but we need to make sure that these never see the light of day.

It'll end mankind. If one of those goes off, the nuclear particles will enter the earth's atmosphere and wipe out all life and vegetation within 24 hours. So what we need you to do is write them on these uh napkins and we'll just keep them in the office and with any luck they won't escape it's like oh why don't i just keep them up here in my in my head i'll probably forget them eventually no no no write them down no don't worry about that write them down just in case just in case it's a terrible idea it's a yeah the only reason you would want to hide these secrets but also write them down is the fact that i want to know them at any given point but no one else is allowed to do so once the books were written the task of the unknown nine was to continue to update

them while protecting them with their lives emperor ashoka sent them around the world disguised as Buddhist monks so that no two books could be found at the same location. Exactly. If someone finds one, you don't want them to then be right next to the other one. Cause then the guy who can bend light will blind the other dude, take that book. And now he can blind people and turn shit to gold which is already a dangerous combination wow this is fascinating the nine were also instructed to spread the message of peace and discourage violence their buddhist monk appearance was a ploy to keep the book safe as well as an opportunity for the nine men to continue their research and add to their writings that buddhist monk is a suspicious

amount of gold. A lot of his teachings are about collapsing societies. Is that a Buddhist thing? So what happened to these guys? Well, to start, the emperor died. Despite having the secret to eternal life, Ashoka passed away in 238 BC. That's actually pretty interesting because that makes us wonder, did he have the key for eternal life and just didn't use it? He instead chose to die immortal. He was that honest a man that he was like,

I want these secrets preserved, but I know how dangerous they are in the wrong hands. I don't trust myself with these secrets. So I'm out. I've trusted you, the nine, with this knowledge. Peace. I'm gone. That's how he goes.

So peace. Thank you so much for guarding the secrets. Of course, I'm a big enough man to say that I tried everything. I tried everything in the books and none of it worked. And that's why I'm dying. So work on that. Absolutely work on finding the real key to eternal life. It's either that or uh while he's

on his deathbed he's like got all his counsel with him and he's like choking out on his bed he's like where the did we send the guy with the book of life which when do we send him to somebody somebody get him back he's backpacking around thailand what it's like yeah all we could get is the uh the guy who could turn shit into gold. What the hell is he going to do for me? Good to see you, Emperor. Get the fuck out of here. Get out of here. I bring you gold.

I'm dying, asshole. Would you like to talk to some aliens? No. They say it looks like you're dying. I am dying. Another guy turns up. Master, please head towards the light light i will bend it in your direction did we get everyone except the eternal life guy so yeah he went awol we gave him the book he made

the nectar drank it burnt the book we haven't seen him in years we think he's in Tahiti. Ten minutes after the emperor dies, the light guy is like, Oh shit, I think I bent him towards hell. Bent him towards hell. On second thought, it would have been fine if I had not interfered. When Ashoka died, he took with him a lot of the knowledge about the Nine Unknown Men. So you're probably wondering, Kit, how does anyone even know they exist? Well, a book published in 1923 called Nine Unknown Men was written by a man called Tabit Mundi. Information about the Nine was gleaned by Mr. Mundi while working as a police officer in India.

In his book, he claims that he got his hands on documents personally penned by Emperor Ashoka himself. This is how we know about the nine books and all of their juicy content. Wow, what the hell? Yeah. So it wasn't come across by any historians or academics, but rather a guy? I mean, there may have been legends of a council of elders that had been collecting knowledge on behalf of the emperor,

but this specific information about the nine unknown men, I believe, has come from this book. But Mundy wasn't the only person to publish information about the nine unknown men. A book published in 1960 also hinted at the existence of the secret organization. It said that Pope Sylvester II had even met with the Nine around the year 1000. Oh, what? So over a thousand years after their creation? Yeah. So the Nine were replaced over time, obviously.

Yes, there is a couple different theories as to how the organization has continued to exist, which we will get onto a little bit later. Was it the secret to eternal life? Or just simply electing you guys? You know, it could be the nectar. It could be the nectar of the gods that makes people live forever.

Or it could be a committee decision. One or the other. One is sexier than the other. Sure. Now, I did a little research, obviously, into Pope Sylvester II to see if I could find any corroborating evidence. Just to be clear, I am picturing Sylvester Stallone in a pope's outfit. That's fair. I did the exact same. Sylvester Stallone in a Pope's outfit. That's fair. I did the exact same. It's quite crazy how, you know, as soon as you get back to around the year 1000, how little is known about the Popes of that time and how much of how much of it is based in like myth and legend and lore rather than like documented facts. I mean, we did a case a few weeks back about levitation that mentioned saints hovering

in the sky and that's documented only like a hundred years ago as well. Yeah. Which is insane. So obviously I was a little bit skeptical reading back about the history of Pope Sylvester to find out if there was any evidence that matched up with what I'd heard in these books. I always love that about ancient Egyptian pharaohs, because ancient Egypt stretches over so many thousands of years. There's like an official list of pharaohs, and they don't know at what point it just becomes bullshit. It'll be like a few guys they find the skeleton for,

and then like a time lord who can uh who can who controls the the path of the moon and then a couple more guys we have skeletons for uh it's pretty confusing yeah i kind of wish american history was more like that like you know you had like george washington thomas jefferson uh for a couple centuries we were ruled by the skeleton gods who commanded the army of the dead then james madison james monroe lincoln was in there at some point lincoln's ghost came back when he was assassinated to do a second term sonic the hedgehog george w senior tails with knuckles as vice prez yeah we it's all too it's too new a country to have any of that really exciting lore so it is interesting yeah to to hear these crazier stories when i looked into the myths

and legends of pope sylvester ii i couldn't believe what i found a lot of the stories of sylvester came from the writings of an English monk, William of Malmesbury. Apparently, while studying mathematics and astrology in the Muslim cities of Cordoba and Seville, Sylvester was accused of having learned sorcery. Apparently, he was said to be in possession of a book of spells, stolen from an Arab philosopher in spain a book a book containing forbidden knowledge stolen by a peaceful man hmm is that all you have to say i'm just saying the legend says that pope sylvester met with the nine around the year 1000 do these stories link up does the book that he have

containing alchemy and spells could that be the book of alchemy from the nine in the end pope sylvester the second died of a mysterious illness could the nine have come back for their book once they realized it had been stolen by pope sylvester did they come back and bonk him off oh shit so you're saying they killed him maybe in his travels he stole one of these books one of the books of the nine was taken by the pope and when they found out they hunted him down and killed him made it look like a mysterious illness these guys can turn shit to gold and bend light that's absolutely they could make the pope a little sick? They're out of pocket. They have departed from their mission as peaceful ambassadors for Earth.

If they are murdering Popes. I think if anyone poses a threat to the nine, they pose a threat to the world. It's like the Illuminati conspiracy images where they'll show like an image of, yeah, sure, like the pope with a black eye. And then they'll then they'll put it beside an image of Barack Obama when he had a black eye or something like who's above them. Who's given out the black eyes, black eyes to popes. Exactly. It's terrifying to think how many people throughout the years may have attempted to get their hands on one of these forbidden books and been put back in their place, either via mysterious illness or something more severe. that the same legends that talk about this book also say that Pope Sylvester II built a robotic head that can answer questions with a yes or a no. And he also made a pact at one point with a demon.

So why would he want a robotic head? Why would he make a pact with a demon? He was the pope. I don't know. There's so much. There was a lot of shit going on. For some reason, making a pact with a demon feels like less of a departure from being the Pope than creating a robot. Yeah, that can answer yes or no questions. Yeah, it was a little disheartening reading that because I thought I'd really got a hold of something there. I mean, the robotic head thing is a story in its own.

It was pretty wild. I'm not shutting it down i'm just saying that clearly the job of pope has changed over the years because i'm pretty sure the current pope just walks around telling people to go in peace peace be with you uh god bless you and god bless unto you as well um whereas back in the days, I think they made a Roomba at one point. They were inventing nanotechnology. Yes, the priorities of the Pope have changed from building robots and making packs with demons to just- Stealing spell books. Stealing spell books of alchemy to just kind of promoting the Bible, I think is accurate to say. So if this organization really does exist, then what happened to them? Where are they now?

Well, some people believe that the books have been lost over the years. Others believe that members have died out one by one. But some believe, Kit, that the nine unknown men still exist to this day, hiding in the shadows, guarding mankind's most powerful knowledge. Old members of the organization may have died out, but new members have risen to take their place. In fact, it's believed that some of history's smartest men, including Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, may have been recruited to replace members of the Nine. It can't be. It can be.

So you're saying someone like Isaac Newton simply turned to the other members of the Council of Nine and said, I think they're ready to hear about gravity. I'll be the one to break it to them. I like to think it's similar to the Avengers. Nick Fury shows up to your lecture hall one evening when all the students have left and he's like that's some pretty interesting theories you got there i'm putting together a team then once you accept the position you are handed your book which now you have to guard that knowledge and it could be at a point where the committee decide it's time to dispel some of this information

they choose when society is ready to accept some of this new knowledge and power it's a pretty interesting idea to think that okay they're essentially trying to keep all this information out of the hands of the public but it's almost as if right on the cusp of this information becoming discovered they're like all right we can't keep it a secret any longer we will dispel the knowledge yeah yeah yeah like i i do like that theory that you know maybe albert einstein was a smart guy they saw that and they were like you seem like the perfect person to help society understand this knowledge that we've had for thousands of years the theory of relativity here you go this is now your knowledge that we've had for thousands of years, the theory of relativity.

Here you go. This is now your knowledge that you can guide and dispel out to the public. It's kind of a cool theory. It's a pretty cool movie idea and we will be copywriting it. Of course. Yes. And I will be one of the nine. Sure. Maybe not one of those books. Maybe I'll have my own book. Why would you have a new book? How to kickflip or something. How to drink a beer in like seven seconds. That'll be like my knowledge that I can. Yeah, some shit that I'm good at. How to get laid.

Okay, well, that's not ancient knowledge, is it? Well, it is ancient knowledge. It's not new. It's ancient knowledge to me, brother, because it's been lost in the sands of time. It's been a dry season. So you need need the book you're not writing the book yeah i i would help if i could get a little pointers from some of the other brothers i need to know how to kickflip did the ancient brotherhood know to kickflip the dude who can make gold out of dirt he gets laid 24 7 he looks like a rapper i'm starting to think that one of the members of migos

might be the alchemist with gold um if you if you had a book it under your control what do you think it would be because bear in mind something to remember is the initial nine that were uh picked to write these books they were picked because they were already specialists in these areas. I don't know how you're a specialist in light or the cosmos, but they were apparently they were or the closest thing to it, I guess. I guess as podcasters, we could be kind of communication, maybe propaganda. Oh, sure. Yeah. I mean, i could have a i could have a uh special subject um is like coffee taken like how to make like a make like a a nice coffee i know no it wasn't it wasn't the priorities of the nine all right well i don't think that

just because there's a vacancy for a book doesn't mean that it would fit with the nine organizations. You asked me what my book would be and I'd be pretty passionate about that, actually. To see if it would be considered to be a part of the nine. I'm not sure how making a good coffee is a threat to like a secret knowledge that is a threat. All right. Yeah.

No, I see where you're coming from. okay a threat all right yeah no i see where it comes from um so if you know how to like i don't know control dark matter to disintegrate a human body i can control milk okay to a specific temperature to make it delicious and hot drinks with your mind or like using your eyes oh no just regular kind of kitchen stuff okay and i guess what you could sorry it's too similar to the coffee i'll think of something different yeah because we already said no to the coffee idea we don't want the coffee right no no yeah i think milk is obviously it's too thematically close it doesn't make any sense what about the ability to harness the power of beans? Okay.

Into energy. Don't say it. Coffee? Via coffee. All right. So it's coffee again. Well, no, it's like the people don't know how to harness beans and I can show them how, or rather not show them how. That is, that is knowledge that we are perfectly comfortable being in the

public domain how to harvest beans for energy specifically for energy um what if a super villain got the got the power of unlimited energy that'd be pretty bad via beans if hitler had been powered on frappuccinos i think that'd have been worse. That's a good point. To be fair, it would give him a little more energy, a couple more hours in the day to commit war crimes. I think he was on amphetamines, actually, so I take that back. I like to think you've pitched like four books on coffee. You've said no to all of them and you're like, all right, well, I tried my best. Hi-yah! You take off into the sky, flying like superman teach us that one teach

us that book where how did you do that y'all can't do that i'm starting to think we need to use the other nine books to kill him he's a loose he's the kind of person we're trying to keep the books away from now i assumed you would ask this at some point, but you haven't yet. Why are there nine? Why specifically nine? Why when one member drops out, must they be replaced immediately, but no more than nine? Well, apparently nine is a special number in Indian culture and many others. In Indian astrology, there are nine celestial influencers, as in heavenly bodies that influence life on Earth, not Instagrammers. Hindu philosophers also believe in nine universal elements. And throughout history, most rulers have had a court of nine wise men.

That's interesting. I always just assumed it was because plus the emperor makes 10, which is a nice round number. And if there's a 50-50 decision, the nine men will always be able to at least have a majority on one side. It's a smart number. I like nine. I can't fault it. And in fact, I too wonder if we should replace Britain's, frankly, shit government with a council of nine elders. I'd be into that. And I'd also be interested in being recruited onto that team. So, hell, if you are looking for a couple wise men to join the squad, look no further.

To lead the nation on getting laid and drinking beans. Well, look, here we are. After all of this information, it's up to us. You and I today kit to proclaim whether or not the nine unknown men truly did exist. And if so, whether they're still active today, what are your thoughts? I got to be honest. I think the bit I'm struggling with the most is, uh, the, is I got to be honest. I think the bit I'm struggling with the most is the is I got to be honest. I think the bit I'm struggling with the most is the leap from the year zero to then the year 1000, where there's a pretty tenuous connection with the then pope who died of a mysterious illness. Is it a regular illness

or is it magic? And then a leap of another thousand years until someone writes about it in a book. It's true. There's been some big gaps. Patchy, I would describe the evidence as patchy. I think I'm just most worried about where did that person who wrote that most recent book, where did they get it from? Yeah. well i specifically the book that was written i believe in i said in 1923 was the policeman who was stationed in india who got information about the nine that uh that's the book that really explained a lot of the lore and the history and the contents of these books but i haven't read that book that he wrote so i don't know necessarily where he claims he got these original transcripts from this emperor

all these years ago um that is really the key piece of information that ties all of this together it's the domino that's supporting the entire case that's right right. Because there is, sure, a lot of the world's most ancient scripts and texts have come from India from time periods like this and earlier, but they normally exist in academic research labs and museums. Yeah. Not in the hands of writers come policemen. The thing I really like about this story is that I think at its core, it's not that wild. It's very believable that an Indian emperor would recruit a council of wise men to amass as much knowledge in specific topics as they can. specific topics as they can. That's how a lot of societies did it in the olden days. I think it's a little bit of a stretch maybe to assume that that organization has stood the test of time and continues to guard these paranormal transcripts even in today's world. Recruiting the smartest men to join the organization and guard over a book of secrets. I like it.

I like the idea. As you said, maybe better as a movie because it's it's quite an unbelievable story. It is incredibly intriguing. What a what a cool and fun idea to think that there is people out there right now, maybe a little less intimidating and scary than the Illuminati, except for that bit where they hunted down and killed the pope. But a little bit more benevolent, perhaps. Yeah, he died of a mysterious illness where his body turned to solid gold in the night. Okay, well, I think we know exactly who did that.

Mr. F***ing Goldfinger. Whoever held the book at that moment in time. You were the lead investigator in this case. Where do you think he come down? Look, I think it's pretty clear where I'm headed. I love the story. It was amazing. Thank you to Amy for the incredible research. You know I'm a sucker for secret shady organizations. I did an episode a while ago on the Illuminati, which if you haven't heard, I definitely recommend going back and listening to because as I said in that story, a lot of these secret organizations, their origins come from fact. The Illuminati was a real organization at one point, which I think was

like a branch off of Freemasons. So there's a point where these stories are real and then you can see the clear moment where it transcends into fiction and fantasy and legend. And I think today there may be a real origin of these nine unknown men, but ultimately the paranormal side of it, I think is purely legend, I would say. Well, as big of you to admit, Rory, and I totally agree. Love those stories too. That's why I loved covering all that stuff recently on, say, King Arthur. It's a similarly gray and shady and murky past.

Yeah. But right here in Britain, gotta love that, where myth and reality overlap. Mm-hmm. I think, look, there's no point in dancing around it, folks. This week, it is unfortunately

a double no but wow what a story i think i think it's safe to say that if the nine unknown men did exist they would be nine of the galactic 12 there would be three other random dudes ryan gosling i think we said is one of them so it'll be ryan gosling nine indian guys with old books and two other hollywood a-listers i think ryan gosling kurt russell's in there somewhere ryan gosling sitting around the command console on the deck of the galactic 12 ship and he's like uh do you guys all know each other from somewhere they're just like oh right because we're all indian no no i just mean like you guys all seem to know each other yeah oh i bet you think we all have the same last name as well right all came from

the same town you're wearing matching robes and holding identical glowing you all did a secret handshake when you got on the ship. And said, Hail Emperor Ashoka. That is a great segue to let you know that if you want to join the Galactic 12 yourselves, for you to pick up along with a variety of other amazing this paranormal life merchandise if you want to check it out the link is right in the description of this podcast it is so easy it's mentioned on the page for the galactic 12 shirts that the shirt design even includes some even language written right in there in the design unfortunately the galactic 12 realized when they got to planet serpo that that was incredibly offensive what was written to the ebens yeah they had to trash the shirts on day one and that's why there is a surplus that we

have access to um and we couldn't be more excited to offer those to you our listeners as always if you want to support the show the best way to do so is over on patreon.com over there for as little as five bucks a month you can get access to an entire back catalog of this paranormal life episodes now i know i threw a lot of buzzwords at you there five bucks patreon bonus episodes what does that mean rory you're speaking an ancient language to me here. Well, if you hand us a $5 bill, you get immediate access to how many is it now? 40 episodes? Oh, 45.

Going on 46 this month. 45, 46 bonus episodes of This Paranormal Life. If you've caught up with the show, if you can't wait for next week to listen to a new episode, there's a whole catalog there ready for you to sample with just a little bit of support every month. And they are our wildest

and dumbest episodes to date. Yeah, this was nothing. This was a sensible story compared to those bonus episodes. In one of them, we actually just read one of these books start to finish. It's the one on

Hard to Get Laid. And we can't make head or tail of the son of a bitch. Again, thank you, Amy Grisdale, for researching this week's episode

and thank you to Cammie Toman for editing. We will be back next week with a brand new Paranormal Tale!