Episode Guide > MB05: The New World Order and Freemasonry

Episode Summary

Episode 5 aired on February 18, 1993, and marks a sharp turn in the series. After three nights in ancient Egypt, Cooper jumps to the twentieth century, reading from A. Ralph Epperson’s 1990 book The New World Order to argue that the phrase belongs to a long, documented lineage rather than to George H.W. Bush. The episode opens, unusually, with a song from The Simpsons and a long announcement of Cooper’s upcoming March 15, 1993 lecture in San Diego, where he promised to prove that John F. Kennedy was assassinated by the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.

The first half of the reading is a catalogue of new world order references with dates attached. Epperson’s text, with Cooper’s commentary, cites Nelson Rockefeller in an Associated Press dispatch of July 26, 1968; the Declaration of Interdependence introduced on January 30, 1976 and signed by 32 senators and 92 representatives, whom Cooper calls traitors; Henry Kissinger in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer of April 18, 1975; and Bush’s commencement address at Texas A&M on May 12, 1989. Reaching further back, the reading attributes to Colonel Edward Mandell House a hidden new world order motive for American entry into World War I, and quotes Adolf Hitler on national socialism as a will to create the superman. Cooper repeatedly hammers one refrain: the phrase predates Bush by decades.

The catalogue continues through the 1933 Humanist Manifesto, Richard Gardner’s 1974 Foreign Affairs article on an end run around national sovereignty, Communist Party voices including Angela Davis in 1989, and Karl Marx, whom Cooper dismisses as a hack writer hired by the Mystery Religion to produce the Communist Manifesto of 1848. On the other side of the ledger, the reading quotes critics and observers: Nesta Webster on a planned spiritual revolution, Pope Pius IX condemning communism in 1846, Pope Pius XI blaming occult forces in 1937, B.F. Skinner on control replacing freedom, Aldous Huxley’s 1958 prediction of twenty-first century World Controllers, Alvin Toffler, Carl Sagan, and Zbigniew Brzezinski, whose book Between Two Ages named 1976 or 1989 as suitable target dates. Epperson’s summary list closes the half: the old order dismantled piece by piece, with the full structure intended to be in place by 1999.

The second half turns to Freemasonry as the carrier of the project. Epperson dates the Illuminati’s founding to May 1, 1776 under Adam Weishaupt; Cooper interjects that Weishaupt neither created nor ended the order. The reading then centers on Albert Pike, Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite’s Southern Jurisdiction from 1850 to 1891 and author of Morals and Dogma, quoting his lines about the world coming to Masonry for its sovereigns and pontiffs. Cooper adds two of his most contested claims in passing: that Pike founded the Ku Klux Klan and B’nai B’rith, and that he was a friend of Giuseppe Mazzini, whom Cooper calls the ruler of the European branch of the Illuminati.

From Pike the reading moves to the New Age movement, which Cooper presents as a Masonic creation, noting that the Scottish Rite’s journal was titled The New Age. Epperson surveys Helena Blavatsky, who founded the Theosophical Society in 1875 with Pike among its early members, Alice Bailey and the Lucis Trust, Benjamin Creme on Masonry as the vehicle of the new religion, and the critics Texe Marrs and Constance Cumbey, whose six-point summary of the movement’s program Cooper reads in full. A short explainer of the Masonic degree structure follows, covering the Blue Lodge, the York Rite, and the Scottish Rite with its honorary 33rd degree, along with Manly P. Hall’s statements that peace will come only when the world is ruled by the fit. Cooper closes by identifying the fit with the illumined man, numbered 666, and by insisting, against Norman Cousins’ claim that world government is inevitable, that an armed citizenry can stop it. The themes introduced here carry directly into episode 6 on Maitreya.

Key Claims Made in This Episode

Documented from the broadcast. The site records these claims; it does not endorse them. Dated claims also appear in the series timeline.

• Cooper claims the phrase new world order long predates George H.W. Bush, citing Rockefeller in 1968, the Declaration of Interdependence in 1976, and Kissinger in 1975.
• Cooper claims John F. Kennedy was assassinated by the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, a thesis he promised to prove at a March 15, 1993 lecture in San Diego.
• Cooper claims Colonel Edward Mandell House maneuvered America into World War I in hope of establishing a new world order.
• Cooper claims Karl Marx was a hack writer hired by the Mystery Religion of Babylon to write the Communist Manifesto.
• Cooper claims the worshipers of Mystery Babylon are the original communists and the inventors of international socialism.
• Cooper claims the Illuminati was formally organized by Adam Weishaupt on May 1, 1776 but neither began nor ended with him.
• Cooper claims Albert Pike founded the Ku Klux Klan and B’nai B’rith and was a friend of Giuseppe Mazzini, whom he calls head of the European Illuminati.
• Cooper claims the New Age movement is a creation of Freemasonry, noting the Scottish Rite journal was titled The New Age.
• Cooper claims a member of the secret societies now sits on the throne of the Vatican and that bans on Catholics joining such societies have been lifted.
• Cooper claims the planners intend the full New World Order structure to be in place by 1999, possibly accelerated by famine, depression, or war.
• Cooper claims the Second Amendment exists to preserve freedom against precisely this plan, not for hunting or property defense.
• Cooper claims the goal of Freemasonry is the new man, the illumined man, whose number is 666.

Primary Sources Cited in This Episode

Source	Status	Where to read it
A. Ralph Epperson, The New World Order (1990)	Not public domain; quoted only	The main text Cooper reads on air; see the sources and bibliography hub
Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma (1871)	Public domain	Scans on archive.org
Helena Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine (1888)	Public domain	Scans on archive.org
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (1848)	Public domain	Scans on archive.org
Manly P. Hall, Lectures on Ancient Philosophy (1929)	Copyright status uncertain; quoted only	Quoted within Epperson’s text
Alice Bailey, Aldous Huxley, Alvin Toffler, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Constance Cumbey, Texe Marrs (20th century works)	Not public domain; quoted only	Quoted within Epperson’s text; details on the sources hub

From the Broadcast

“And you thought George Bush coined that phrase? Surprise, surprise.”

Cooper, MB05, February 18, 1993, after reading the 1968 Rockefeller dispatch

“You see, in the New World Order, only one man will be allowed to live – the new man, the illumined man, and the number of that man is 666.”

Cooper, MB05, February 18, 1993

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Mystery Babylon episode 5 about?

Episode 5 connects the ancient material of the first four broadcasts to modern politics. Cooper reads A. Ralph Epperson’s The New World Order, cataloguing dated uses of the phrase from 1846 to 1989, then turns to Freemasonry, Albert Pike, and the New Age movement. The Freemasonry hub collects the related episodes.

When did Mystery Babylon episode 5 air?

It aired Thursday, February 18, 1993, on The Hour of the Time over shortwave station WWCR, one week after the introductory Dawn of Man broadcast.

What book does Cooper read from in episode 5?

Most of the episode is read from A. Ralph Epperson’s The New World Order (1990), which itself quotes Albert Pike’s Morals and Dogma, Manly P. Hall, Alice Bailey, Aldous Huxley, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and others.

Where can I listen to Mystery Babylon episode 5?

The complete series audio is preserved at the archive.org Mystery Babylon collection. For the origin of the series title in Revelation 17, see Mystery Babylon in Revelation.

Continue the Series

• Previous episode: MB04: Osiris and Isis, Part II
• Next episode: MB06: Maitreya
• All 42 episodes: Mystery Babylon complete episode guide
• Topic hub: Freemasonry in the Mystery Babylon series
• Related hub: Secret Societies
• Every dated claim in the series: Mystery Babylon timeline
• Books Cooper read from: sources and bibliography