Dan Brown's conspiracy theories

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/6198574/The-Last-Symbol-author-Dan-Browns-conspiracy-theories-six-of-the-best.html

The Last Symbol author Dan Brown's conspiracy theories: six of the best
Dan Brown’s novels The Lost Symbol, The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons are filled with conspiracy. But how much of it is based on fact?
By Tom Chivers
16 Sep 2009

The Lost Symbol, the new book by Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons author Dan Brown, takes us once again into a world of shadowy cabals, hidden messages and secret conspiracies.

They are works of fiction, but Brown tells us they are based on fact: "All organisations in this novel exist,” says a foreword to The Last Symbol, "including the Freemasons, the Invisible College, the Office of Security, the SMSC, and the Institute of Noetic Sciences”. Similarly, at the beginning of The Da Vinci Code, we learn that The Priory of Sion is a real secret society founded in 1099.

Da Vinci Code sequel criticised by Catholics But how much of Brown's work is fact, and how much is fiction? We take a look at six of his most prominent claims and see how closely they fit reality.

The Freemasons (from The Lost Symbol, 2009)

What Brown says

A secret society, the Freemasons, secretly run America, and the Founding Fathers have concealed a secret portal under Washington where the terrifying Secrets of the Universe are hidden.

In reality:

Rumours that Freemasons control society are widespread. They often overlap with conspiracy theories about the New World Order and the Illuminati.

Apparent Masonic symbols do appear regularly in American culture – most notably the pyramid and eye on the Great Seal of the United States, which appears on the dollar bill and is said to be the Eye of Providence. Furthermore, at least one member of the Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, was a Mason.

However, the Eye of Providence was not commonly used as a Masonic symbol until 1797, some years after the Great Seal was designed.

1733 Sixteenth Street, NW, Washington (from The Lost Symbol, 2009)

What Brown says:

Known as the House of the Temple, this Washington building is a replica of a pre-Christian temple to King Mausolus, and the world headquarters of Freemasonry

In reality:

Designed by John Russell Pope and finished in 1915, the House of the Temple is indeed a model of the Mausoleum of Mausolos. It holds the remains of the Confederate general Albert Pike, author of the 1871 book Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. It is home to the Supreme Council of Freemasonry.

The Priory of Sion (from The Da Vinci Code, 2003)

What Brown says:

An brotherhood founded in 1099, whose members have included Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Leonardo da Vinci, and who are the only ones who know that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and has a surviving heir. Mary Magdalene and her descendents are the real Holy Grail.

In reality:

The Priory of Sion was indeed said to be a monastic order formed in 1099. In 1982 Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln's book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail set forth the claim that it protected the knowledge of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. However, the existence of the Priory is now believed to be a hoax created in the 1950s by a Frenchman named Pierre Plantard.

Opus Dei (from The Da Vinci Code, 2003)

What Brown says:

A Vatican-sanctioned Catholic sect that plots to find the Priory's secret and kill the heir/Grail. They carry out a practice of self-flagellation called "corporal mortification". A major villain in the book is the Opus Dei monk Silas, who murders a Priory member.

In reality:

Opus Dei is a real Catholic organisation; the Labour Minister Ruth Kelly is one of its estimated 87,000 members worldwide. But none of those members are monks.

There is no evidence that it hopes to find the Holy Grail in any form. Its stated goal (on its website, www.opusdei.us) is "to spread the message that work and the circumstances of everyday life are occasions for growing closer to God, for serving others, and for improving society."

Rosslyn Chapel (from The Da Vinci Code, 2003)

What Brown says:

Rosslyn Chapel, near Edinburgh, was built by the Knights Templar as a perfect copy of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, complete with a subterranean vault which holds the secret of the Holy Grail. A message written in secret code on its ceiling reveals the entrance to the vault.

In reality:

While the Chapel was built 150 years after the dissolution of the Knights Templar, it does have some Templar and Masonic symbols. Links with the Knights and the alleged bloodline of Jesus and the Priory of Sion were put forward by the historian Andrew Sinclair. However, the Priory has now been shown to be a mid-20th century hoax.

The Illuminati (from Angels and Demons, 2000)

What Brown says:

A shadowy secret society sworn to bring down the Catholic Church in revenge for their crimes against scientists like Copernicus, "murdered by the church for revealing scientific truths," and Galileo, convicted of heresy for claiming the Earth moved around the Sun. The Illuminati are described as"a secret society dedicated to scientific truth" and "the most powerful underground organisation ever to walk the earth".

In reality:

The Illuminati were a real organisation. They were founded in 1776 in Bavaria, sworn to ideals of free-thinking and rationalism.

Nicolaus Copernicus was never attacked by the Church. On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres was dedicated to Pope Paul III, and the Church used his theories in their revising of the calendar. He died of a stroke in 1543 at the age of 70; there is no reason to believe that he was murdered.

Galileo Galilei certainly was mistreated – he was subjected to lifelong house arrest following the publication of his 1633 work Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which argued that the Earth moved round the Sun, although he was only suspected of heresy, never convicted. He died in 1642. The Bavarian Illuminati were dissolved in 1785, although various other groups have used their name since.

'Angels & Demons' tour illuminates Rome

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2009-05-14-rome-angels-and-demons-tour_N.htm

'Angels & Demons' tour illuminates the charms of Rome
By Chris Gray Faust, USA TODAY
5-14-9

VATICAN CITY — The faithful stream into St. Peter's Square on Christianity's holiest day, engulfing the Egyptian obelisk that centers the piazza so carefully planned by 17th-century sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Stern despite their colorful striped uniforms, members of the Swiss Guards direct those in the Easter crowd fortunate enough to procure free tickets to chairs, while others stand, waiting for a glimpse of papal pomp.

It's a scene that could be taken straight out of Angels & Demons, author Dan Brown's best-selling prequel to the hugely successful — and highly controversial — novel The Da Vinci Code. Just like that book, Angels & Demons has been made into a movie starring Tom Hanks as symbologist Robert Langdon, which opens today around the world.

Set in Vatican City and Rome, Angels & Demons pits Langdon (paired with an intelligent and attractive female sidekick, Vittoria Vetra) against a modern incarnation of an ancient foe of the Roman Catholic Church, the Illuminati. In the book, Catholics fill St. Peter's Square, awaiting the announcement of Il Conclave, the assembly of cardinals charged with selecting a new pope. Little do they know they are sitting atop a time bomb — and that four cardinals in line for the job are being murdered at sites around Rome.

It's not a tale you'd expect the Catholic Church to embrace. And indeed, several prominent religious leaders — including Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights president Bill Donohue— have come out against the film (although the church itself has not issued a boycott call).

No matter. Catholic indignation did nothing to stop The Da Vinci Code movie from grossing more than $758 million in 2006.

And it did nothing to stop Sony Pictures from shooting key scenes of the movie in Rome, which will only enhance the city's allure for Angels & Demons fans. Among the sites from the book that will be seen on film: the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Castel Sant'Angelo and its Pasetto di Borga, the secret passageway that connects the fortress with the Vatican.

The Vatican itself is not on film, nor are the interiors of two churches prominently featured in the book, Santa Maria del Popolo or Santa Maria della Vittoria; the Rome diocese said last summer that it had banned filming there because of the movie's themes. Reggia di Caserta, an 18th-century royal palace outside Naples and south of Rome, stood in for the Vatican in some scenes (and an elaborate replica was built on a Los Angeles studio lot).

Executive producer Todd Hallowell says the production didn't bother asking permission to film at the Vatican, as the church never grants it. He promises that viewers will feel as if they are within the Vatican, even if the church itself wasn't crazy about the filming.

Says Hallowell: "Given the fact that The Da Vinci Code was perhaps not their favorite movie, the concept of a sequel being shot in their backyard was not the best news they had all week."

Mapping out the book

On the steps outside Santa Maria del Popolo — the site of the book's first element-themed murder, Earth— about 30 people gather for Angels & Demons guided tours. While the operating company, Angelsanddemons.it, bills it as "the official Angels & Demons tour," several tour operators in Rome offer a similar version.

The group is split, and guide Graham Hannaford, 26, passes out a map of Rome, a replica of the one from Angels & Demons. Fewer than half the people on Hannaford's tour have read the book, but he carries it with him for reference (and occasionally, to debunk the poetic license that Brown sometimes took with Roman geography).

The first stop on the "Path of Illumination" that Brown has devised through Rome is the Chigi Chapel inside the church. Designed by Renaissance master Raphael and filled with sculptures by Bernini — the baroque wunderkind whom Brown cheekily portrays as a secret Illuminati mastermind — the Chapel is an artistic masterpiece, albeit one that might fall lower on a typical tourist itinerary.

Subsequent stops in the four-hour tour call at Roman sites both familiar and off-the-beaten-track: St. Peter's Square, the gloriously elaborate Santa Maria della Vittoria and the always-hopping Piazza Navona, sites of the book's Air, Fire and Water murders, respectively. It concludes at the imposing Castel Sant'Angelo, where the Hassassin in Brown's book keeps Vittoria captive in an alleged ancient Illuminati lair.

Jennifer Carroll, 32, of French Settlement, La., takes pictures at nearly every stop.

"My book club will kill me if I don't," she says.

Carroll and her husband, Basil, attended the papal Easter Mass and bought rosaries for family at the Vatican, including one for their daughter to use at her First Communion. Carroll had some friends who felt The Da Vinci Code was anti-Catholic and others who felt the murders in Angels & Demons were too violent. But the controversy has been overblown, she says.

"It's fiction, it's OK," she says. "You could get offended by just about anything if you wanted to."

Hannaford calls for a coffee break next to the Pantheon. With Roman tourism down, the Napa, Calif., native had questioned returning after Christmas, but he figured the release of Angels & Demons could trigger the same bump in visitors that Paris received from The Da Vinci Code.

The tour is not the company's best seller — visitors tend to hire guides to the immense Vatican Museum more often, Hannaford says. But he thinks that Angels & Demons provides a good road map to Rome's charms.

"The book does capture the spirit of Rome," he says. "There are a lot of chaotic things going on, but it all pulls together."

Seeing the story

Of course, visitors don't have to take a guided tour to see the parts of Rome explored in Angels & Demons. But some sites do require planning ahead.

Such is the case with the Vatican Scavi, the necropolis under St. Peter's Basilica said to contain the grave of Peter, the founder of the Christian church. In the book, Langdon chases the camerlengo (played by Ewan McGregor in the film) through the subterranean passages to find the hidden canister of dangerous antimatter.

In real life, the Vatican Excavations Office carefully controls the number of people allowed to walk through the Scavi. Only 12 people are allowed through at a time, with a limit of 250 visitors a day. Travel agents and tour guides are not allowed to buy tickets; visitors must petition through e-mail or fax months ahead of time to secure a spot.

The machinations are well worth it. Undertaken in 1939 through 1950, the excavations unearthed pagan and early Christian tombs from a cemetery that existed on the site before Constantine built the original St. Peter's Basilica around 322. The corridors between the tombs are narrow and uneven, and the air is slightly dank. But what you'll see are remarkably well-preserved frescoes and mosaics that provide a glimpse into the time when Christianity was a religious newcomer.

Back above ground, a Vatican trip is not complete without visiting the Sistine Chapel, although doing so requires negotiating the crowded Vatican Museums. With the masses of people snapping photos of Michelangelo's famed ceiling, it's hard to imagine the Sistine Chapel as a quiet place of deliberation. But this is where Il Conclave chooses papal succession, broadcasting their results through smoke from a chimney brought in for the occasion.

A better job of crowd control takes place at the Galleria Borghese, where visitors are limited to two-hour time blocks. While the museum — set amid leafy Villa Borghese, Rome's version of Central Park— is not referenced in Angels & Demons, it's a must-stop for readers who are curious about Bernini's other works. Some of his most famous pieces are here, including The Rape of Proserpina, his determined David and Truth Unveiled by Time, created for himself.

The latter sculpture was composed when Bernini — a papal darling who not only designed the colonnades of St. Peter's Square but also came up with the idea for the 10 angels guarding Ponte Sant'Angelo, the bridge between Rome and Vatican City — was out of favor. Could it be that during this time, as Brown suggests, Bernini joined disgruntled intellectuals such as Galileo in the Illuminati ranks?

Vatican tour guide Joseph Mancinelli dismisses such speculation. "It is just a story, it has nothing to do with Christianity," he says of Angels & Demons. "You must believe what is true, not what people say in a story."

Follow Chris Gray Faust at twitter.com/CAroundTheWorld.

IF YOU GO

Getting there: Rome's main airport, Leonardo da Vinci, is known by its old name, Fiumicino. The Leonardo Express runs shuttles to Rome's Termini rail station every 30 minutes ($15, trenitalia.com). Taxis or car service to and from the airport costs about $60.

Lodging: The Westin Excelsior Rome is offering a two-night Angels & Demons package that includes a private or group movie tour, as well as 20% off at the hotel's restaurants and bars. The promotion starts at $444 a night and runs through 2010 (westin.com/angelsanddemons.com). The venerable Hotel Hassler at the top of the Spanish Steps also has a three-night package that includes a tour starting at $2,323 (hotelhassler.com). Or live like the fictional Robert Langdon, who stayed at Hotel Bernini on Plaza Barberini (Bernini's Triton fountain is right in front). Rates start at $395 (berninibristol.com).

Generally, a cheaper way to stay in Rome is to rent an apartment through a service such as venere.com. The Beehive, with dorm beds starting at $34 and private rooms at $109, is the No. 1-ranked budget hotel on Trip Advisor (the-beehive.com).

Dining: Rome's better restaurants are in alleys away from main tourist streets. Near the Pantheon, try the pasta at Osteria del Sostegno (primi, $8-$11, secondi, $12-$20). Osteria dell'Angelo, about 10 minutes from the Vatican on Via G. Bettolo, has an outstanding version of the Roman classic spaghetti carbonara at similar prices. Do as the Romans do and enjoy an evening gelato; Gelataria della Palma, also near the Pantheon, has 100-plus flavors.

Tours: The "Official Angels & Demons Tour" is four hours and includes some bus transport, $76 (angelsanddemons.it). To book tickets to the Vatican Scavi, e-mail the Excavations Office several months in advance; the visit costs $14 (scavi@fsp.va). Advance tickets to Vatican Museums can be purchased online for $19 (mv.vatican.va); private companies such as Context Rome also have tours with art historians (contexttravel.com/rome). The Galleria Borghese requires advance reservations for its two-hour blocks for $12 (ticketeria.it).

Information: en.turismoroma.it

The Truth About Angels, Demons and Antimatter

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,520193,00.html

The Truth About Angels, Demons and Antimatter
Thursday, May 14, 2009
By Jeremy Hsu

An antimatter explosion threatens to level the Vatican in the movie adaptation of the thriller "Angels and Demons," but real-world physicists are unfazed by this plot.

The story features "Da Vinci Code" hero Robert Langdon racing to recover an antimatter capsule stolen from the CERN particle physics facility in Switzerland. Researchers first figured out how to create and trap antimatter particles at CERN, which gave author Dan Brown the inspiration for his story.

One physicist doesn't find CERN's unexpected publicity from the story upsetting. On the contrary, he's rather pleased.

"I always say that what Dan Brown did for the Roman Catholic Church in 'The Da Vinci Code,' he did for me and my research with 'Angels and Demons,'" said Gerald Gabrielse, a Harvard physicist who currently leads an international research team at CERN.

Antimatter is real, but it still represents a baffling presence in the universe – sub-atomic particles that are the opposite of normal matter. When a particle and antiparticle meet, they mutually annihilate each other and release their entire mass as energy.

This bizarre but intriguing reality has prompted plenty of science fiction writers to dream of antimatter engines powering future civilizations or starships, such as Star Trek's U.S.S. Enterprise.

"Angels and Demons" twists that dream of untapped energy into more of a nightmarish scenario, by suggesting what might happen if a relatively large amount of antimatter annihilated itself with matter all at once. A quarter of a gram of antimatter threatens to unleash the power of 5,000 tons of TNT and destroy everything within a half-mile radius – or so goes the fictional story.

The reality is that physicists can only wish they had so much of the stuff.

"If you take all the antimatter produced in the history of the world and annihilated it all at once, you wouldn't have enough energy to boil a cup of tea," Gabrielse told LiveScience.

Antimatter represents a rare entity in a universe dominated by matter, and scientists still struggle to understand why. What they do know is that creating antimatter requires tremendous effort, such as using particle accelerators at CERN to smash together particles at nearly the speed of light.

An occasional antimatter particle may arise naturally when a cosmic ray strikes Earth's upper atmosphere. But collecting man-made antimatter particles is much more practical for research.

Physicists have only slowed and trapped a small fraction of all the produced particles, in this case known as antiprotons. They use antimatter traps somewhat similar in concept to what "Angels and Demons" describes, with magnetic fields keeping the antimatter particles in a vacuum away from any matter.

"You need a container with no walls, that's the idea," Gabrielse noted. His former project, known as TRAP, successfully created and held charged antiprotons for months.

Now physicists face the more daunting challenge of capturing neutral antihydrogen atoms. The newer international effort, called ATRAP, has put together an antihydrogen trap and is working on a second.

"We are trying right now to trap neutral antihydrogen atoms which we have produced, but no one has succeeded in proving that they've been trapped yet," Gabrielse said.

Such neutral antihydrogen atoms could theoretically be clumped together, whereas charged antiprotons are repelled by each other. Whether an antimatter clump would annihilate with all the power of a small nuke without blowing itself apart remains an open question – and that still assumes physicists can create and collect anything close to a quarter of a gram of antimatter.

One part of "Angels and Demons" may have come true, although unrelated to antimatter. The fictional plot includes retinal scanners guarding a CERN lab, and the real-life CERN happened to adopt such eyeball security after the book came out, Gabrielse explained.

So the plot of "Angels and Demons" doesn't quite annihilate upon contact with reality, but the real-life mystery of antimatter may still trump fiction.

"Why the universe is made out of more matter than antimatter? We don't know the answer to that question at all," Gabrielse said.

Bible is America's favorite book

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080408/lf_nm_life/reading_survey_dc

Bible is America's favorite book: poll
Tue Apr 8, 2008

When it comes to literary pursuits in the United States most people agree on at least one thing -- the most popular book is the Bible, according to a new survey.

It came in first in a Harris Poll of nearly 2,513 adults but the second choice in the survey was not as clear cut.

"While the Bible is number one among each of the different demographic groups, there is a large difference in the number two favorite book," Harris said in a statement announcing the results.

Men chose J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" and women selected Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind" as their second-favorite book, according to the online poll.

But the second choice for 18- to 31-year-olds was J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, while 32- to 43-year-olds named Stephen King's "The Stand" and Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons."

Picks for second-favorite book also varied according to region. "Gone With the Wind" was number two in the southern and midwestern United States while easterners chose "The Lord of the Rings" and westerners opted for "The Stand."

Whites and Hispanics picked "Gone With the Wind" as their second-favorite book after the Bible, while African-Americans preferred "Angels and Demons."

"Finally, they may not agree on candidates, but one thing that brings together partisans is their favorite book. For Republicans, Democrats and Independents, the top two books are the same -- the Bible followed by "Gone With the Wind."

Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code," "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown, "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand and "Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger rounded out the top 10 favorites.

(Reporting by Julie Mollins; editing by Patricia Reaney)