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Friday, August 07, 2009

Scotland's Bob Cooper Spills Dan Brown's Beans

Friend and brother, Scottish author Robert L. D. Cooper has been holding out on us. He claims to have an inside source on the story of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code sequel The Lost Symbol's story line. In an article from today's The Scotsman he rats out the plot:


'The Lost Symbol' looks set to create a huge uproar across the USA, with its allegations that far from being the country's 'founding father,' Washington was actually a traitor who had been secretly negotiating with the British during the American War of Independence.

His treachery – revealed in a deathbed confession – was apparently concealed by his fellow Freemasons.

Worse still, assertions that the original confession was concealed in George Washington's coffin is creating panic around the grounds of Mount Vernon where Washington is buried.

Historian Robert Cooper, curator of the Grand Lodge of Scotland and a world authority on Freemasonry says, "It seems they're planning security precautions to safeguard against what has become known as the 'Rosslyn effect,'" referring to the way that, after the publication of Brown's bestseller 'The Da Vinci Code,' Rosslyn Chapel in Midlothian was deluged by grail seekers and treasure hunters.

[snip]

"Of course I could be the victim of a double bluff but I don't believe so. My knowledge of the source convinces me of its reliability, and of course there is some conjecture on my own part, based on the comprehensive knowledge I have of the background to the story."

He claims his recent book 'Cracking the Freemason's Code – The Truth about Solomon's Key' caused Dan Brown to change the title of his new novel from 'The Solomon Key' to 'The Lost Symbol.'

[snip]

The facts about the American Revolution show that in the early days, in the mid 1770's, the colonialists suffered a series of defeats. Strategic secrets were being passed to the British. The facts also show that an American army general, Benedict Arnold, was a traitor who plotted to surrender the fort at West Point to the British and turn the tide of war against his own side. The facts link Washington with Arnold when it comes to Freemasonry and the facts show that the day the plot was discovered, Washington was due to meet Arnold at West Point. "The hard facts stop there." says Cooper

It seems that in 'The Lost Symbol' Washington has been working with Arnold and passing secrets to the British. But why on earth would Washington want to subvert the cause of American freedom?

"Ah, that I'm not clear about," admits Cooper. "I don't know what Brown has up his sleeve there, but I've been led to believe he's suggesting George Washington could be bought like anyone else, and the English Tories had made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

When Arnold was rumbled, Washington did a huge about-turn, covered his tracks and wholeheartedly embraced the cause of American independence."

The rest, as they say, is history – except that in the novel, it appears Washington has a crisis of conscience on his deathbed and writes a detailed confession to be published after his death. His personal physician and friend, Dr James Craik – also a Freemason – is known to have attended the dying president, whose sealed coffin is buried at Mount Vernon. In true Dan Brown tradition, details of the confession and the events surrounding it have been hidden somewhere, and veiled references to it are found a couple of centuries later by a researcher working at Mount Vernon.

He seems to think something highly secret and important has been buried in Washington's coffin. This secret – and the details surrounding it – have been concealed within Freemasonic codes of reference and the researcher can't make sense of the symbolism disguising what he knows is a significant find.

He contacts symbologist Robert Langdon but is murdered before he can explain his findings.

Langdon, the CIA and the FBI are now in a race to find the confession, which the secret services must destroy to safeguard the integrity of the country's founding father and the creation of the world's first democracy.

Langdon is the front runner since he's been contacted by a high ranking Freemason with knowledge of the symbolism of the Order. Apparently there's a surprise twist when it comes to the identity of this Freemason – a twist which has more orthodox members of the craft siding with the CIA and FBI in suppressing the truth.

"If this plotline is anywhere near accurate," says Cooper, who insists again that he has no reason to doubt his source, "then it's going to create a huge uproar across the USA."


I will simply add that the clues released by Brown's publisher on Twitter and Facebook so far don't seem to lead in this direction. But we'll all know soon enough.

6 comments:

  1. Maybe they'll make him a cannibal too

    The Washingtonians
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washingtonians

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  2. Never seems to be any end of conspiracy theories! Maybe it's a way to create jobs, if the plotline is indeed like the one described above I guess they will need to have a full time security force keeping the shovel bearing sheep away from Washingtons grave site! Dan Brown; Author and American economy stimulator!

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  3. Dear Chris and everyone else who knows me!
    The article in the Scotsman today was a bit of a surpise as I was due to speak with the journalist again and the piece was to be published on Monday. I guess they thought that they had enough from our 10 minute phone conversation! A wee bitty journalistic license here methinks!
    Please remember that I was asked for my opinion and based on background reading etc. this is what I came up with.
    The main point as far as I am concerned is that a Freemasons was asked to comment before the novel was published. That is encouraging.
    Dan Brown's publicity machine is now getting into top gear so this piece in the Scotsman can be seen as part of the process. I have been promised (for what that is worth!) a follow up article after the novel is published to comment on the book whether I guessed rightly or wrongly. You might also like to see:

    http://www.rosslyntemplars.org.uk/index.php/news/

    All the best to all,

    Bob Cooper

    ReplyDelete
  4. Noble Friend,

    As it happens, the idea that Washington was secretly an agent for the British during the Revolutionary War is entirely consistent with the clues that Doubleday is issuing on Twitter and Facebook about The Lost Symbol; details are available on http://lostsymboltweets.blogspot.com/2009/08/george-washington-traitor-to-revolution.html .

    However, I must quickly point out that such an idea is entirely at variance with absolutely everything we know about George Washington in real life.

    Thank you, Chris, for bringing this fascinating article in The Scotsman to our attention.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you for the article.

    Bob Cooper is a brilliant researcher and author I can imagine how they took his comments out of context to make the piece more sensational and conspiratorial in nature.

    I am happy to see Bob post on here and look forward to his follow up article on the book.

    On a side note I live 20 minutes from Mt. Vernon and go there a lot for work. Its a beautiful area and should be visited just cause its a cool place!!!

    I'm eagerly awaiting "The Lost Symbol" as it promises to be a fun read.

    S&F

    Bro. Cory Sigler

    ReplyDelete
  6. Brother Bob,
    I am ASTONISHED that the paper would tell you one thing and publish something else.

    Not.

    Good article. The Dan Brown effect will be enormous. Aprés Septembre, le deluge.

    ReplyDelete

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