Gray Matters on Screen: Intelligence Agencies, Secret Societies, and Hollywood Movies

• Published date: 01 March 2017
• Date: 01 March 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12178

Gray Matters on Screen: Intelligence

Agencies, Secret Societies, and

Hollywood Movies

By AARON FRANZ

ABSTRACT. We normally think of government agencies as acting in a

purely rational and instrumental way. In the case of intelligence

agencies, we presume they rely on reason and science to protect the

national interest. By contrast, the general view of secret societies and

occult groups is that they engage in rituals and practices that have little

or nothing to do with normal social intercourse, or even with reality.

This article shows that these common assumptions are false, and that

secret societies and intelligence agencies share many important traits.

Our understanding of the CIA’s role in supporting the production of

Hollywood movies will be enhanced by taking these similarities into

account. Intelligence work and the operations of secret societies are

shown to overlap in five categories: religious underpinnings, occult

practices to control the mind, cryptography, violations of social

convention, and cryptic transparency—the ability to carry out secret

activities in plain sight. These affinities explain why the CIA can

promote movies that are actually quite candid in their revelation of the

dark underside of the Agency. In so doing, the CIA projects a

subliminal message that whatever questionable actions it takes are

justified by a higher good, which can only be knownby insiders.

Introduction

Secret societies, such as Freemasonic and Rosicrucian orders, share

many traits with intelligence agencies. A distinct and powerful mystique

surrounds both of these groups, and it is this mystique that is the first

subtle clue that we, as outsiders, have to be able to tell that there is any

*Digital filmmaker, podcaster, and self-published author. His research interests

include transhumanism, esoteric religion, and propaganda. He currently lives in

California.Visit his website http://theageoftransitions.com

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 76, No. 2 (March, 2017).

DOI: 10.1111/ajes.12178

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C2017 American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc.

similarity between the two. Both secret societies and intelligence agen-

cies utilize mystique in order to do their work while keeping it

shrouded in a peculiar sort of secrecy that both hides and reveals at the

same time. Labor that is well known to be done in secret, is none the

less well known. So is it secret at all? This is the perfect question to ask

regarding the following exploration.

In this article, we will look at some of the similarities between secret

societies and intelligence agencies regarding both their practices and

their image. Image, and the human imagination, exist in the realm of

the abstract, and as such are prime subjects of occult investigations and

practices. Practically speaking, it takes a lot of work to cultivate and

maintain an image thatis capable of gaining or restoring public approv-

al. This article will particularly highlight the work that the CIA’s Office

of Public Affairs does in Hollywood to do just this. The OPA helps pro-

duce major motion pictures that bolster the positive image of intelli-

gence work and covert operations.

The focus here will be to understand the nature of what it is that

secretive institutions do. That their work is not meant to be compre-

hended by the average person seems obvious at first glance, but seem-

ingly simple things should not be taken for granted in this endeavor.

Hopefully, the following short piece will be somewhat effective in

demystifying the practices of both secret societies and intelligence

agencies. Above all, storytelling lies at the heart of the work that they

do. Hollywood is an industrial center for storytelling, and so it is that

the CIA has had little problem working its way into the movie-making

business.

Some Characteristics of Secret Societies

There are a few traits that secret societies or occult orders share with

modern-day intelligence agencies that deserve to be noted here. First

we will outline them in terms of secret societies, and later return to how

intelligence agencies follow suit. It should be explained what a secret

society or occult order actually is. Here, I am referring to those societies

or groups that observe initiation rites, practices, and descent from the

so-called ancient Mystery Tradition of antiquity. Freemasons, Rosicru-

cian, and many other Gnostic and Hermetic orders fit this description.

The American Journal of Economics and Sociology312