America has always been a magnet for those fleeing religious persecution, particularly those displaced by the Thirty Years War and the backlash against the religious liberalism of the Renaissance.

Question: What makes America such a fertile breeding ground for the occult?Mitch Horowitz: In many respects, America, from its earliest days, was and remains, the religious laboratory of the world.  The entire culture of alternative spirituality, new age spirituality, the rebirth of esoteric and occult spirituality in the modern age, springs from America—and for very decided reasons.  Even back in its colonial days, America developed a reputation as a safe harbor for people with unusual or radical religious beliefs.  The British Reformer and Quaker, William Penn, founded the City of Philadelphia in the early 1680’s—Philadelphia being the “City of Brotherly Love”—with the express ideal that Philly could be a place where people of different religions could live side-by-side successfully together.  So from very early on in its existence, Philly was home to Quakers, Mennonites, people from radical offshoots of the reformation, people with mystical ideas from the Lutheran Church relocated to Philly.  Eventually you had Catholics and Jews living there.  And surprisingly enough, this all happened fairly quickly.  Roughly at the same time, Europe was still going through these spasms of violence and famine that grew out of a war that had just devastated central Europe that we all the 30 Years War.  The 30 Years War was a complicated and very confounding conflict, but basically it pitted Protestant armies against Catholic armies.  To some extent, it was a reaction to some of the religious liberalism, and, to a degree, to the occult revival that had emerged during the Renaissance.  The 30 Years War just devastated the German-speaking portion of Europe roughly between the Rhine Valley in the West and Prague and Bohemia in the East.  And its aftereffects were felt for generations.  That area had been a unique laboratory of liberal spirituality and after the 30 Years War was supposedly finished, it was just devastated.  People who had mystical beliefs, who were interested in various strands of Christian mysticism, astrology, alchemy, number symbolism, the magical uses of hymn and song, those different groups and sects that had once been situated in that area, began to flee.  And by the 1690s, they were fleeing to Philadelphia.  They were fleeing to the New World.  Word trickled back across the Atlantic fairly quickly that Philadelphia was a place where you could practice a whole variety of religious ideas without harassment.  So from the late 1690s on, Philly not only became a magnet for people who were fleeing this kind of religious backlash that had swept through Central Europe, but people began to arrive in America and discovered you could found communes here, you could found experimental communities.  The earliest was on the Wissahickon Creek in what is now called the Germantown part of Philadelphia.  There were others that spread out to the countryside around Philadelphia, on of the most long-lived and successful was the commune at Ephrata, whose building still stands.  So from very early on, America became a magnet for people who were fleeing religious persecution.  And particularly people who were fleeing the backlash against the religious liberalism and the occult revival that occurred in the Renaissance.  And if you follow the family tree, right up through 1776 you have different groups coming to this country.  One of the best known is the “Shaking Quakers,” or the Shakers, who fled persecution in Manchester, England, came to New York City in 1775; scraped together some money; moved up to the Hudson Valley outside of Albany in 1776, and started the first Shaker village in a town called Niskayuna.  It’s still there.  It’s there as a museum and it’s dilapidated, you can go and see it.  And this was repeating itself again and again.  And so the fact is, America became a special source of attraction to people who were fleeing the aftereffects of the 30 Years War and the religious persecution that began to sweep through Europe in the period between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.  And when people got here, very often they succeeded.  They founded their communes and organizations and communities without harassment.  And America became this kind of laboratory for religious experiment.
Recorded on October 4, 2010Interviewed by Max Miller

From the TOP SECRET Sedan Project, to the mind melting Philadelphia Experiment. Did it really happen? These are the \r
10 STRANGEST GOVERNMENT EXPERIENCES \r
\r
Subscribe to American Eye \r
\r
6. CERN\r
Now cern isnt completely funded by the US government but many international governments have come together to fund this mysterious, and extremely expensive project. Each year this project eats up about 1 billion dollars and the total cost is estimated by about 13.25 billion. So what on earth are countries coming together to fund and costim this much money! They basically want to recreate the big bang as close as possible, which many people theorize, was what started the creation of our universe, so this project wont be cheap. This takes place in a suburb near Geneva Switzerland in the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. The construction of the supercollider is a great achievement for science but many, including Stephen Hawkings are sort of weary if this project could somehow bring on an apocalypse and destroy the entire universe! Stephen Hawking claims the power of CERN could easily and without warning destroy our universe or at least create an apocaplyse \r
\r
5. HAARP\r
The acronym HAARP stands for High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program and was an ionospheric research program funded by the Air Force, US Navy and University of Alaska as well as DARPA and built by BAE advanced technologies in Gakona, Alaska. But it was originally just a big oil companies who were experimenting with this until the government took over. Its a massive group of waves all linked to together, so they can work as one. Each can generate 10000 watts of electricity and theres 360 of them all linked together. This fires one massive electric beam into the ionosphere, which is the uppermost part of our atmosphere, which then send radio waves back to earth. The government claims to be using it for communication with deeply submerged submarines and to located underground enemy bases. Conspiracy Theorists believe that HAARP can be used to control the weather and create catastrophic earthquakes, hurricanes, and volcanic eruptions. \r
\r
4. US Infects Guatemalans\r
In new, the US government finally came forward and admitted that it conducted medical experiments on the people of Guatemala in the 1940s where people were infected with syphilis and other STDs. They used prostitutes, soldiers and prison inmates as their guinea pigs and eventually orphaned children. The projects were funded by the World Health Organization, Public Health Organization and even the Guatemalan government, just to name a few. 71 died from the syphilis and over 772 were purposely given and STD. This was done in order to find a cure for some of these STDs and if taking penicillin right afterwould prevent that transmission. \r
\r
3. Operation MK Ultra\r
We previously mentioned how France was exposed to LSD in the 1950s. This was apart of a larger project known as MK Ultra, where the CIA was experimenting with mind altering drugs that they hoped would control peoples minds as well as brainwashing. The main drug they experiment was of course LSD, which would cause mindblowing hallucinations. Other things they experiment with as apart of this project includes, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation, ual abuse, and/or psychological torture! They needed some way to extr information from someone as quickly from captured spies. One operation of MK Ultra was known as Midnight Climax, where the government would test LSD on unwilling participants in San Francisco, mainly prostitutes. \r
\r
2. The Philadelphia Experiment\r
During World War II, we certainly had some of the smartest scientists at the time to conduct this experiment. With the minds of Albert Einstein and Nikla Tesla, and the crews who created atomic bombs, capable of destroying entire cities, was it possible we had an experiment with teleportation and invisibility? Many claim yes and this experiment was tested on a US battleship, called the USS Eldridge in 1943 at a Philadelphia Naval Yard. The Navy acknowledged the theory in this document but didnt admit or deny the claims. According to Albert Einsteins Unified Field Theory to bend light and make it invisible with an electromagnetic fog. The ship is engaged in an electromagnetic field, witnesses say looked like it was consumed in an green fog, and then it disappeared! They werent expecting to teleport however and reappears 400 miles away in Norfolk, Virginia.\r
\r
1.\r
Project 112\r
Project 112 was a biological and chemical weapons experiment conducted by the US from 1961 to 1973, that was started under the Kennedy Administration. This shady project, wasnt declassified until 2000 and after investigations were launched. E

From the TOP SECRET Sedan Project, to the mind melting Philadelphia Experiment. Did it really happen? These are the \r
10 STRANGEST GOVERNMENT EXPERIENCES \r
\r
Subscribe to American Eye \r
\r
6. CERN\r
Now cern isnt completely funded by the US government but many international governments have come together to fund this mysterious, and extremely expensive project. Each year this project eats up about 1 billion dollars and the total cost is estimated by about 13.25 billion. So what on earth are countries coming together to fund and costim this much money! They basically want to recreate the big bang as close as possible, which many people theorize, was what started the creation of our universe, so this project wont be cheap. This takes place in a suburb near Geneva Switzerland in the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. The construction of the supercollider is a great achievement for science but many, including Stephen Hawkings are sort of weary if this project could somehow bring on an apocalypse and destroy the entire universe! Stephen Hawking claims the power of CERN could easily and without warning destroy our universe or at least create an apocaplyse \r
\r
5. HAARP\r
The acronym HAARP stands for High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program and was an ionospheric research program funded by the Air Force, US Navy and University of Alaska as well as DARPA and built by BAE advanced technologies in Gakona, Alaska. But it was originally just a big oil companies who were experimenting with this until the government took over. Its a massive group of waves all linked to together, so they can work as one. Each can generate 10000 watts of electricity and theres 360 of them all linked together. This fires one massive electric beam into the ionosphere, which is the uppermost part of our atmosphere, which then send radio waves back to earth. The government claims to be using it for communication with deeply submerged submarines and to located underground enemy bases. Conspiracy Theorists believe that HAARP can be used to control the weather and create catastrophic earthquakes, hurricanes, and volcanic eruptions. \r
\r
4. US Infects Guatemalans\r
In new, the US government finally came forward and admitted that it conducted medical experiments on the people of Guatemala in the 1940s where people were infected with syphilis and other STDs. They used prostitutes, soldiers and prison inmates as their guinea pigs and eventually orphaned children. The projects were funded by the World Health Organization, Public Health Organization and even the Guatemalan government, just to name a few. 71 died from the syphilis and over 772 were purposely given and STD. This was done in order to find a cure for some of these STDs and if taking penicillin right afterwould prevent that transmission. \r
\r
3. Operation MK Ultra\r
We previously mentioned how France was exposed to LSD in the 1950s. This was apart of a larger project known as MK Ultra, where the CIA was experimenting with mind altering drugs that they hoped would control peoples minds as well as brainwashing. The main drug they experiment was of course LSD, which would cause mindblowing hallucinations. Other things they experiment with as apart of this project includes, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation, ual abuse, and/or psychological torture! They needed some way to extr information from someone as quickly from captured spies. One operation of MK Ultra was known as Midnight Climax, where the government would test LSD on unwilling participants in San Francisco, mainly prostitutes. \r
\r
2. The Philadelphia Experiment\r
During World War II, we certainly had some of the smartest scientists at the time to conduct this experiment. With the minds of Albert Einstein and Nikla Tesla, and the crews who created atomic bombs, capable of destroying entire cities, was it possible we had an experiment with teleportation and invisibility? Many claim yes and this experiment was tested on a US battleship, called the USS Eldridge in 1943 at a Philadelphia Naval Yard. The Navy acknowledged the theory in this document but didnt admit or deny the claims. According to Albert Einsteins Unified Field Theory to bend light and make it invisible with an electromagnetic fog. The ship is engaged in an electromagnetic field, witnesses say looked like it was consumed in an green fog, and then it disappeared! They werent expecting to teleport however and reappears 400 miles away in Norfolk, Virginia.\r
\r
1.\r
Project 112\r
Project 112 was a biological and chemical weapons experiment conducted by the US from 1961 to 1973, that was started under the Kennedy Administration. This shady project, wasnt declassified until 2000 and after investigations were launched. E

From the TOP SECRET Sedan Project, to the mind melting Philadelphia Experiment. Did it really happen? These are the \r
10 STRANGEST GOVERNMENT EXPERIENCES \r
\r
Subscribe to American Eye \r
\r
6. CERN\r
Now cern isnt completely funded by the US government but many international governments have come together to fund this mysterious, and extremely expensive project. Each year this project eats up about 1 billion dollars and the total cost is estimated by about 13.25 billion. So what on earth are countries coming together to fund and costim this much money! They basically want to recreate the big bang as close as possible, which many people theorize, was what started the creation of our universe, so this project wont be cheap. This takes place in a suburb near Geneva Switzerland in the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. The construction of the supercollider is a great achievement for science but many, including Stephen Hawkings are sort of weary if this project could somehow bring on an apocalypse and destroy the entire universe! Stephen Hawking claims the power of CERN could easily and without warning destroy our universe or at least create an apocaplyse \r
\r
5. HAARP\r
The acronym HAARP stands for High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program and was an ionospheric research program funded by the Air Force, US Navy and University of Alaska as well as DARPA and built by BAE advanced technologies in Gakona, Alaska. But it was originally just a big oil companies who were experimenting with this until the government took over. Its a massive group of waves all linked to together, so they can work as one. Each can generate 10000 watts of electricity and theres 360 of them all linked together. This fires one massive electric beam into the ionosphere, which is the uppermost part of our atmosphere, which then send radio waves back to earth. The government claims to be using it for communication with deeply submerged submarines and to located underground enemy bases. Conspiracy Theorists believe that HAARP can be used to control the weather and create catastrophic earthquakes, hurricanes, and volcanic eruptions. \r
\r
4. US Infects Guatemalans\r
In new, the US government finally came forward and admitted that it conducted medical experiments on the people of Guatemala in the 1940s where people were infected with syphilis and other STDs. They used prostitutes, soldiers and prison inmates as their guinea pigs and eventually orphaned children. The projects were funded by the World Health Organization, Public Health Organization and even the Guatemalan government, just to name a few. 71 died from the syphilis and over 772 were purposely given and STD. This was done in order to find a cure for some of these STDs and if taking penicillin right afterwould prevent that transmission. \r
\r
3. Operation MK Ultra\r
We previously mentioned how France was exposed to LSD in the 1950s. This was apart of a larger project known as MK Ultra, where the CIA was experimenting with mind altering drugs that they hoped would control peoples minds as well as brainwashing. The main drug they experiment was of course LSD, which would cause mindblowing hallucinations. Other things they experiment with as apart of this project includes, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation, ual abuse, and/or psychological torture! They needed some way to extr information from someone as quickly from captured spies. One operation of MK Ultra was known as Midnight Climax, where the government would test LSD on unwilling participants in San Francisco, mainly prostitutes. \r
\r
2. The Philadelphia Experiment\r
During World War II, we certainly had some of the smartest scientists at the time to conduct this experiment. With the minds of Albert Einstein and Nikla Tesla, and the crews who created atomic bombs, capable of destroying entire cities, was it possible we had an experiment with teleportation and invisibility? Many claim yes and this experiment was tested on a US battleship, called the USS Eldridge in 1943 at a Philadelphia Naval Yard. The Navy acknowledged the theory in this document but didnt admit or deny the claims. According to Albert Einsteins Unified Field Theory to bend light and make it invisible with an electromagnetic fog. The ship is engaged in an electromagnetic field, witnesses say looked like it was consumed in an green fog, and then it disappeared! They werent expecting to teleport however and reappears 400 miles away in Norfolk, Virginia.\r
\r
1.\r
Project 112\r
Project 112 was a biological and chemical weapons experiment conducted by the US from 1961 to 1973, that was started under the Kennedy Administration. This shady project, wasnt declassified until 2000 and after investigations were launched. E