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The Untold Story Of Bohemian Grove - The Fathers Of Darkness · Mystery Archives Episodes

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Hidden deep in the redwoods of Northern California lies a
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secret gathering place, 2700 acres of shadow and silence.
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For nearly a century and a half, the most powerful men in the
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world have met here. Away from press, away from law,
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away from the prying eyes of the world.
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They come cloaked in ritual and firelight beneath a 40 foot
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stone owl. To do what?
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Well, we may just uncover that in today's video.
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The Grove is not a myth. It is a real, and it's older
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than most empires of men. And just know that the ruling
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elite certainly do not want this information revealed.
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Before we begin, I want to let you know a few things.
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I wouldn't be surprised if this or eventually the Somerset
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Belinov and Mothers of Darkness videos are taken down, so be
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aware of that. With this video, however, I'm
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going to do my best to lay things out chronologically.
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But there is a lot of symbolism tucked within the lore of this
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place and really the organization that meets there.
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So follow me as we unweave the webs of the elite and delve into
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Bohemian Grove. The forest was not silent.
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In June of 1878, the redwoods of Marion County concealed A
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conspiracy. A band of men had wandered among
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them, with jugs of whiskey, lanterns that glowed like
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captured moons and poems folded into their coat pockets.
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They were journalists, actors, painters and writers, members of
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the fledgling Bohemian Club, founded six years earlier in San
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Francisco. Tonight was no ordinary
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gathering. It was a farewell party for
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their friend, actor Henry Harry Edwards, who is leaving the city
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to pursue new stages. The men unrolled blankets across
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the forest floor. They stacked wood and lit a
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bonfire that spat sparks into the branches beneath the dark
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canopies that stood for centuries before them.
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They sang songs, declaimed verses and toasted Edwards with
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laughter and drink. No one could have known that
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this improvisational celebration, half farewell, half
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woodland celebration, or so they say, would become ritual.
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The next summer they returned, and the next.
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And thus began a tradition rooted in firelight and alcohol
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that began to calcify into something larger.
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At first, the gatherings were a carnival of misfits, reporters
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seeking escape from headlines, actors eager to recite
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Shakespeare under the stars, painters who saw the redwoods as
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cathedral Spires. They called themselves bohemians
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with a sense of defiance, proud to be outsiders in the
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industrial rush of the Gilded Age in San Francisco.
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But as the years turned, money followed art.
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Wealthy patrons, the men who owned banks, railroads and
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newspapers, were invited in. They brought funds, comfort and
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a sense of permanence. They also brought with them
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control. The artists remained, but
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increasingly, as entertainment, their poems and plays performed
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for audiences of men who measured their worth and
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fortunes, not stanzas. By the early 20th century, the
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Bohemian Grove encampment had migrated to Monte Rio, CA, where
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the club purchased 27 acres of Redwood forest.
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Here, far from prying eyes, tents gave way to rustic cabins,
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and the summer retreat evolved into an institution.
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The Bohemians had created a stage.
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The financers and politicians, the ruling elite, had seized it.
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It was in the late 1920s that the Owl Shrine appeared.
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Constructed of concrete and steel, over 30 feet tall, the
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statue squatted at the edge of the Groves Lake.
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Its eyes were unblinking and hollow, it's feathered bulk
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modeled with Moss to disguise the artifice.
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Some said it looked ancient, as though it had always stood
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there, a monolith of watchful stone.
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Why an owl, though? The bird had been a part of the
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Bohemian Club's iconography since the beginning, supposedly
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standing for wisdom, secrecy, and nocturnal vengeance.
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Yet in this setting, framed by fire and shadow, the owl took on
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another resonance. It was no longer a symbol, but
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an idol, a backdrop against which rituals would unfold.
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Others say that the owl represents the ancient deity
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Moloch. Moloch was used in connection
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with Semitic, Babylonian and Canaanite cults that offered
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child sacrifices to the statue of their deity.
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One of the alleged symbols of the deity is a horned owl.
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This comes up often in conspiracy discussion circles,
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and especially now due to some strange references and the
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Podesta emails that were revealed by WikiLeaks.
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The ancient sacrifice ritual involved a gigantic bronze
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statue of the God, shown in various forms, into whose hands
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the bound first born children of the worshippers were placed upon
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an altar. The bound children would slide
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from the statues hands into a cauldron at the base of the
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statue, where raging fire would consume them.
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The statue was usually a bowl, sometimes an image of Kronos.
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However, some theorists suggest that an owl was used as well,
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though I can find no ancient use of an owl in connection with
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this practice. The owl connection to Moloch
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seems something belonging more to modern times.
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Yet, given the involvement of fire, the burning of an effigy,
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which we'll be more on that later, one can't help but draw
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similarities or believe that the owl could indeed be
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representative of the demonic idol of this demonic idol.
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Hidden inside the owl's body were loud speakers and lighting
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rigs. In later decades, the owl would
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speak with the booming recorded voice of CBS News anchor Walter
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Cronkite echoing in a God like register reverberating across
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the lake. The Idol was a theater, but
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theater in the dark has always been the oldest kind of magic.
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Weaving spiders come not here. The motto was borrowed from
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Shakespeare, inscribed on club banners and repeated in
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speeches. Many have speculated that it
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means to leave your business behind.
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Do not plot, do not scheme, do not weave webs within these
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woods. However, scheming seems to be
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exactly what these people do. Men of wealth and politics speak
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off the record. Shielded by Redwood trunks and
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guarded gates, the outside world is unable to hear just what goes
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on inside Each day. During the encampment, as mist
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clung to the surface of the artificial lake, prominent
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members and invited guests gave lectures.
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Astronauts, Secretaries of Defense, CEOs, judges, and
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future presidents would pledge their allegiance and stand where
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the owl could watch them. It was in these talks, and
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alliances were forged, and sometimes policy was quietly
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shaped. To the public, the Grove was a
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party. To those within, it was also a
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council. The spiders wove their webs
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anyway, and they simply did it in the shadows.
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On the first night of every encampment, fire light flickers
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across the trunks as men in hooded robes March toward the
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lake, torches raised, and the owl looms.
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The ritual that takes place is called the Cremation of Care.
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It dates back to the 1880s, devised by members who believed
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that to truly enjoy the retreat, they must symbolically shed
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their worries. They personified those burdens
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as dull care. A life sized effigy draped in
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black, often moaning through hidden speakers at the edge of
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the water. The effigy is condemned.
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Priests in robes chant in archaic tones.
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Trumpets blare. The giant owl speaks, its voice
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echoing like Thunder in the canopy.
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Finally, Charis set alight. Flames engulf the effigy.
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Screams and sparks rise against the night, all while men in
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business suits and silk camp robes cheer from the shadows.
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To the club, it is supposedly just an allegory, a burning of
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worldly worry, a collective exorcism of responsibility.
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To outsiders, when the first leaked footage surfaced, it
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looked like something else entirely different, a sacrifice,
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A satanic rite. But could it be just that?
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The feeling one receives when watching the leaked footage of
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what takes place within these darkened woods doesn't give
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unburdening vibes. Instead it instills within one a
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sense of anxiety, fear even. If you ask me, I'll be it.
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This is speculation on my part. If the truth of what the statue
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really represents is true, then the effigy is a pseudo sacrifice
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to try and seal or empower whatever their mission is.
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It could be the exorcism of their collective
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responsibilities, or it could be something very different,
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something much darker. In the late summer of 1942, the
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redwoods bore silent witness to something that would change
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history itself. The S1 Executive Committee, the
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select group overseeing America's atomic research during
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World War 2, convened at Bohemian Grove.
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Present or Ernest Lawrence, J Robert Oppenheimer, James Conant
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and others, men whose names would become synonymous with the
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Manhattan Project. A photograph survives from this
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meeting, scientists and administrators and ties and
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jackets standing stiffly against the backdrop of trunks that had
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lived since the Crusades. The photo looks benign, yet this
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is where discussions advanced on how theoretical physics could be
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weaponized into fire enough to in cities.
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The Bohemians later boasted that the atomic bomb was conceived
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here. That claim obviously is
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overstated, though, because the project had been brewing across
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universities and labs for quite some time by then.
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But it is true that on these grounds, beneath these canopies,
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the machinery of annihilation clicked 1 notch forward among
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many high profile guests. The Grove was no stranger to
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presidents. Herbert Hoover joined the
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Bohemian Club in 1913 and rarely missed a summer thereafter.
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He belonged to the Caveman Camp, a rusted cluster of cabins that
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became a hub for Stanford alumni and industrialists.
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Hoover would sit by the fire long after his presidency, his
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silhouette familiar among the flames.
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For him, the retreat was a sanctuary.
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He called it the place where the weary may find themselves and
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forget the world's turmoil. Yet even Hoover could not resist
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its political uses. In 1950, as a retired elder
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statesman, he brought along a young congressman named Richard
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Nixon. Nixon entered those woods as a
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rising politician, and he left with the beginnings of alliances
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that would shape his path to the White House.
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They're not the only ones, however.
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Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Ronald
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Reagan, and both George HW Bush and George W Bush have all spent
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time engaging in the rituals within Bohemian Grove.
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It truly makes you think, doesn't it?
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And these are just the ones that we know about.
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During the retreat, every encampment builds towards a
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climax of theater on the final weekend and an act known as
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hijinks, in which hundreds of members participate in costumes,
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glint and torchlight orchestras Thunder and fireworks crown the
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canopy. They say that the plays are
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original, sometimes mythic dramas, sometimes light hearted
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extravaganzas, CE OS and cabinet officials belting Arias in drag
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or toga. But within the Grove they seem
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to serve a deeper function. The theater binds the men
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together, recalls the club's artistic roots even as
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presidents and plutocrats dominate the audience, and it
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reinforces a message. Power here is cloaked in play.
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What is said seriously at the lake can be disguised as just
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upon the stage. Reading deeper into this, in my
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opinion these plays are magic rituals, attempts to conjure or
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alter one's world through will, perhaps through the power of
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their alleged deity Moloch. The costumes may serve as some
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kind of humiliation ritual, or perhaps it's just the members
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expressing their true selves or intentions.
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It's hard to say, but some very strange things certainly have
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taken place within the redwoods. Here.
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Near the water, a wooden carving watches over the lake.
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It's that of Saint John of Nepomuk, the medieval St. who
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was drowned in Prague. Rather than betray A confessor's
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secret, his lips are sealed beneath carved fingers.
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He is the Groves unofficial patron, but his presence is no
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accident. Every ritual, every toast, every
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lakeside whisper is bound by the same oath.
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Silence outside the trees. The owl may allegedly symbolize
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wisdom, but Saint John symbolizes secrecy.
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Together they create the code of Bohemian Grove.
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What happens here does not leave here.
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It is a code that is endured from Hoover to Nixon, Reagan to
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Bush and beyond. A code that cloaks.
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A code the Redwoods still keep. In my opinion, the silence of
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the St. and how he passed away is a warning to all who enter
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and participate within Bohemian Grove that what is said here
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stays here or else. By the 1980's the Grove's veil
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had finned. Mainstream outlets were
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beginning to sniff around. ABC News ran a special in 1981
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and Mother Jones dispatched correspondence in 1989.
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Philip Weiss of Spy magazine infiltrated the Grove for an
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entire week. His report was surreal.
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Cabinet members urinating on redwoods, Billionaires stumbling
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drunk by mid morning. Theatrical skits staged by men
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who could move markets with a single phone call.
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Weiss described it as a collision of debauchery and
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power, a place where nothing mattered and yet everything did.
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When he was caught, he was arrested for trespassing, but
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the piece had already been written and the Grove secrets
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had already spilled onto the page.
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The most famous breach came two decades later, in July 2000.
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Broadcaster Alex Jones and journalist Ron Johnson slipped
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into the Grove during the cremation of care, and
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thankfully Jones had brought a hidden camera.
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The resulting footage, although grainy, covered the infiltration
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to the shot from the tree line, showing the ritual in full.
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It would eventually spread like wildfire online torchlight,
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hooded robes, the owl shrine booming with a disembodied
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voice. To Jones, it was proof of a
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satanic ritual. The truth was that maybe it
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always had been, all along. For millions who had never heard
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of Bohemian Grove, the tape was their first glimpse.
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And once seen, it could not be unseen.
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Video segments of the expose have and will be shown
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throughout this video. This proof seemed to cement the
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belief in many of the existence of a powerful cabal that
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controlled the world from behind the scenes.
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In January 2002, a man named Richard Mccaslin armed himself
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with assault rifles, explosives and incendiaries, styling
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himself as the Phantom Patriot. He broke into Bohemian Grove at
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night, intent on exposing and destroying the satanic cabal he
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believed met there. He set fires, searched cabins
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and prepared for confrontation. He found nothing but silence and
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empty rooms. He was then arrested by Sonoma
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County deputies who were alerted by Titan security measures
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within the Grove. Mccaslin told authorities he had
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been inspired by Alex Jones's video.
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It's hard telling exactly what would have transpired if
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Mccaslin would have been able to make his way inside the gates
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when the area was occupied. Clearly, he must have thought
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that they were there 24/7 instead of meeting just once a
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year. Every summer.
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In due time, while infiltrators snuck through the woods,
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protesters marched openly at the gates.
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From the 1980s onward, activists organized the Bohemian Grove
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Action Network. Their signs accused the club of
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elitism, secrecy and undemocratic influence.
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Some carried banners to crying nuclear weapons.
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Others denounced corporate greed.
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Every July, the sleepy town of Monterio saw a clash between
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demonstrators and the convoys of limousines and buses ferrying
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members past. For locals, it was a carnival of
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tension, chants and bull horns outside, champagne and fire
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light. Inside, the protests dwindled by
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the 20 tens, but their message lingered.
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The Grove symbolized inequality, secrecy, and the arrogance of
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unaccountable power. Following the protests of the 20
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Tens, things seem to quiet down for a while.
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However, in 2023, the Redwoods became headlines once again.
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Investigative journalists revealed that Supreme Court
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Justice Clarence Thomas had for years been a guest at Bohemian
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Grove, hosted by his billionaire patron Arlen Crowe.
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There is no transcript of what Thomas heard or said under the
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canopy, but the facts are stark. Crowe and his circle of wealthy
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allies regularly flew him to elite gatherings, including the
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Grove and at The Grove. Crowe's camp was no ordinary
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circle. It included some of the
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wealthiest donors in America, men with direct interests in the
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court's rulings. No one can prove what was
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discussed, yet the symbolism was enough.
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The Grove, always a metaphor for secrecy, had become a flashpoint
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for judicial ethics. If the law itself was walking
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among the redwoods, whose justice did it serve, exactly?
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And why don't you read more about Bohemian Grove in the
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press? The answer, uncomfortable as it
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is, is because the press barons are inside.
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For decades, editors, owners and anchors, from Walter Cronkite to
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Rupert Murdoch's circle, Sumner Redstone and Associates and many
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more have been among the bohemians.
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The result perhaps contributes to a conspiracy of total control
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of the media, if, for example, you are a journalist looking to
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expose the secrets within. If your boss is in the redwoods,
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how sharp can your pen truly be? When the Grove does meet, it's
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interesting to see just who controls the security apparatus.
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Fences run for miles, guards patrol year round.
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Infrared sensors line the perimeters.
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Motion detectors are hidden in the brush.
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Surveillance cameras hang from Redwood trunks like unblinking
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eyes. And these are just the known
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measures. I'm sure since various
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infiltrations they've probably added additional means.
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During encampments, security swells, private contractors, off
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duty police, even Secret Service.
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If a sitting president is present, radios crackle with
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code names. Locals know the sight of
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helicopters overhead, the convoys of black limousines
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slipping down narrow Monte Rio roads.
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The Grove's theology is secrecy, and its liturgy is security.
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Every intruder caught, every protest dispersed, every fence
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mended is another affirmation that silence will be preserved.
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Every high profile individual that enters the gates, every
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spider that weaves a web, these said webs seem to be
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interconnected in one way or another.
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And of course, Bohemian Grove is not the only place that these
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individuals convene, at least that we know of.
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I've described other horrific rituals that have allegedly
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taken place at other locations, such as in my Mother's of
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Darkness Castle video. One of these supposed rituals
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that has been described as taking place in many places,
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including the United States, with alleged survivors
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describing tall trees surrounding the area, is a
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horrific display of barbarism known as the most dangerous game
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or the hunting game. At the hunting parties they
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would like, there would be, they'd have all these expendable
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children outside in the woods. And usually they have holding
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grounds, like a tunnel system or something underground where they
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hold the kids in cages until the time of the hunt.
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And the hunt usually happens later, you know, once it's dark
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outside. And So what they'll do is they
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kind of like they'll kind of make a parameter, which is
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pretty large of these woods, and they'll station the different
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elite people around the perimeter.
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And then when they give the go, you know, they released the kids
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and the kids are told just to, to run, to hide.
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And that's when the elite will go through the woods and start
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hunting for them. When they catch them, a lot of
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times they will first sexually abuse them and then they'll kill
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them. The game, if one can even call
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it that, involves numerous individuals, typically children,
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being released with a head start into the woods and then being
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systematically haunted down by attendees who are amassed to
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presume secrecy and devoid any infiltrators of knowing the true
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identity of the participants. Upon being haunted down, the
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blood and or adrenal clans are extracted and then consumed as a
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part of the closing ritual. Now of course one can't
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definitively prove that any of this is taking place, but given
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testimony and delving into various conspiracies, it
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certainly makes one think. And perhaps these very acts are
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disguised by or drowned out by the sounds of the previously
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mentioned hijinks towards the closing weekend.
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Again, we may never know the truth and there's endless
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speculation, but if people were hunting other people within a
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massive Grove of gigantic trees, perhaps fireworks plays and
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cheers may drown out the screams of the prey.
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The Grove does not end when the torch is dim.
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Each summer, the limousines roll away, the cabins are shuttered,
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and the river returns to silence.
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But silence is not absence. The echoes remain.
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Eels made in laughter ripple outward into policy.
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Friendships forged in fire light harden into alliances that shape
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wars, economies and courts. And still the owl watches, stone
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and silent as it has for nearly a century.
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We will probably never know all that has been whispered here.
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The transcripts are incomplete, if not typically non existent,
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the photographs partial, the testimonies fractured.
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Yet with what little information escapes, we get glimpses of
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power unmasked. The Bohemian Grove endures
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because its power lies not in what can be proved but in what
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can never be disproved. In shadows and silence and the
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space between myth and memory, its influence lingers.
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So is Bohemian Grove a gathering place for the elite to conduct
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satanic idol worship and unspeakable rituals?
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Or is it just a men's club that happens to have a very exclusive
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membership? Or is it a bit of both?
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The conclusion, ultimately, is up to you to decide.
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Thank you guys so much for watching this latest video.
30:24
I've always found conspiracies incredibly fascinating.
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The ones that could allegedly be true.
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To me, those are the scariest, and this one fits perfectly
30:34
among the others. But what do you think?
30:37
Let me know down in the comments below.
30:40
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Thank you all again and I'll see you very soon with another brand
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new video. This has been Cody here at
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Mystery Archives. Please stay safe out there from
31:25
creepy rituals and real life monsters and anything else I may
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go bump in the night and take care.
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I'll see you next time.