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Sinister Forces #2
A Warm Gun
The roots of coincidence and conspiracy in American politics, crime, and culture are investigated in this analysis that exposes new connections between religion, political conspiracy, terrorism, and occultism. Readers are provided with strange parallels between supernatural forces such as shaminism, ritual magic, and cult practices, and contemporary interrogation techniques such as those used by the CIA under the general rubric of MK-ULTRA. Not a work of speculative history, this exposé is founded on primary source material and historical documents. Fascinating details on Nixon and the "Dark Tower," the Assassin cult and more recent Islamic terrorism, and the bizarre themes that run through American history from its discovery by Columbus to the political assassinations of the 1960s are revealed.
480 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2005
12 people are currently reading
540 people want to read
About the author
Peter Levenda
31 books224 followersAuthor who focuses primarily on occult history. He is best known for his book Unholy Alliance, which is about Esoteric Hitlerism and Nazi occultism, and is believed to be the author of the Simon Necronomicon, albeit without much evidence.
He was the president of the international division of Ortronics, Inc., a telecommunications company based in Asia.
He appeared in the TNT documentary Faces of Evil as an expert on Nazi history with special regard to occult and esoteric practices. He has also appeared on the History Channel special Nazi Prophecies. Levenda lives in Miami, Florida.
He was the president of the international division of Ortronics, Inc., a telecommunications company based in Asia.
He appeared in the TNT documentary Faces of Evil as an expert on Nazi history with special regard to occult and esoteric practices. He has also appeared on the History Channel special Nazi Prophecies. Levenda lives in Miami, Florida.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 31, 2017
Levenda has somehow managed to become simultaneously one of the most respected and least trusted writers in so-called "conspiracy" subjects. Despite its flaws, and questions hovering around Levenda as to his allegiances, connections, and intentions, the Sinister Forces trilogy is an impressive feat, and a classic in the field.
March 3, 2015
Peter Levenda continues his trilogy detailing deep politics and occult/intelligence community connections in some of the 20th Century's most infamous incidents. In this volume Levenda goes a little off track, and his own personal politics rear their head despite his best efforts to remain neutral.
It may very well be true that most occult and intelligence aspects are attached more firmly to Republicans and individuals on the right in American politics, and Levenda is simply following that individual thread. His bias becomes obvious by his omission of important events that happen on a Democratic president's watch. The final chapter is essentially an overtly stilted attempt to prove the validity of Hillary Clinton's claim in the 1990s that she and Bill were victims of a "vast right wing conspiracy". It's nauseatingly fawning and sympathetic towards the two of them, and Levenda only mentions once that Clinton was "not perfect" without ever addressing the events of Waco or the Oklahoma City Bombing (and there's a lot of high weirdness and intelligence fingerprints all over that one), in a series of books that is concerned with serial and mass murders.
Both Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman (Democrats) were known Freemasons and helped initiate the Atomic Era and the Arms Race (along with rampant nuclear testing) but Levenda never even mentions those aspects. I find it hard to believe that in all of his extensive research he didn't find one occult connection leading directly to either of those Democrats and have concluded he chose to ignore any negative aspects of that party. Lyndon Johnson is hardly mentioned even though he succeeded the murdered JFK and immediately escalated the war in Vietnam. Levenda lays that escalation firmly at the feet of Nixon. Not that he and the other Republicans don't deserve all the scrutiny and blame he lays on them--they certainly do--but he does his readers a disservice by completely ignoring the negative aspects of the left side of American politics. Jimmy Carter also staffed his administration with Trilateral members (Council on Foreign Relations, Bilderberg, etc) like Zbigniew Brzezinski (who was still a factor in the Obama administration), and even though that may be beyond the scope of Levenda's occult focus, it surely crosses into the intelligence community somewhere. But not a word from the author on that.
The bias becomes extremely obvious in the final chapter due to Levenda's exposure of Pat Robertson's shady, possibly treasonous business activities in Africa in the late 80s, early 90s. Robertson certainly deserves all of this scrutiny, but he is apparently outside of the occult/intelligence loop as well because Levenda never mentions any concrete connections, so that destroys the theory that he resisted criticism of the Clintons and other Democrats because they had no ties to those communities (and I'm fairly certain from my own extensive reading that the Clintons do have connections to them).
A final note about Levenda's ignorance or willful bias: in a blog post here on Goodreads from April 24, 2008 (https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...) Levenda expresses disbelief that "Richard Mellon Scaife has endorsed Hillary Clinton for President". Scaife is alleged by Levenda in this book to be the financial power behind the "vast right wing conspiracy" and the decade-long smear campaign against the poor, downtrodden Clintons. For someone who seems so in tune with The Big Picture I find it hard to believe Levenda is so naive to still be stuck in what I think is a phony left/right paradigm that plays the American voters like a good cop/bad cop scenario every election season--working both ends towards the middle. In fact, Levenda admits he's not stuck in that system in the same blog when on the subject of Red States vs. Blue States he says "This dualistic characterization should have been jettisoned a long time ago." Yet, he still basically fawns all over Hillary and Obama as if they are sent straight from Heaven to save Americans from the Republicans.
On a positive note, when Levenda sticks to his theses he is spot on and creates compelling reading. He talks extensively about the roots of the Muslim/Christian conflict going back to the Crusades, the history of the Knights Templar (which became, as Levenda suggests, the Freemasons), the Jonestown Massacre, and mixes in more of Charles Manson's story. The quality of the preceding chapters is undermined somewhat by the seemingly tacked-on Clinton/Democrat apologist chapter at the end, and he loses some credibility because of this inclusion since it reminds the reader what he has not included about other Democrats. It's almost as if nothing bad happens when a Democrat is in the White House, and if it does it's all the fault of the purely Republican occult/intelligence cabal and the President is completely ignorant and powerless to stop it. Of course, that's ridiculous, and Levenda surely knows full-well Democrats are, at the very least, guilty of complicity during these events. Maybe they are powerless to stop the "Sinister Forces" but that is never mentioned by the author, and his complete omission of that point of view belies his political bias.
None of that bias renders the work any less interesting or important, it just disappoints me that I have to activate a filter when reading what is otherwise a balanced account of Sinister Forces and high weirdness in the pivotal 20th Century. That inherent bias costs the book a review star, but it's still a solid recommendation as long as the caveat about the author's sins of omission is heeded. Hopefully, Levenda will get back on track in the final volume, Book Three: The Manson Secret.
It may very well be true that most occult and intelligence aspects are attached more firmly to Republicans and individuals on the right in American politics, and Levenda is simply following that individual thread. His bias becomes obvious by his omission of important events that happen on a Democratic president's watch. The final chapter is essentially an overtly stilted attempt to prove the validity of Hillary Clinton's claim in the 1990s that she and Bill were victims of a "vast right wing conspiracy". It's nauseatingly fawning and sympathetic towards the two of them, and Levenda only mentions once that Clinton was "not perfect" without ever addressing the events of Waco or the Oklahoma City Bombing (and there's a lot of high weirdness and intelligence fingerprints all over that one), in a series of books that is concerned with serial and mass murders.
Both Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman (Democrats) were known Freemasons and helped initiate the Atomic Era and the Arms Race (along with rampant nuclear testing) but Levenda never even mentions those aspects. I find it hard to believe that in all of his extensive research he didn't find one occult connection leading directly to either of those Democrats and have concluded he chose to ignore any negative aspects of that party. Lyndon Johnson is hardly mentioned even though he succeeded the murdered JFK and immediately escalated the war in Vietnam. Levenda lays that escalation firmly at the feet of Nixon. Not that he and the other Republicans don't deserve all the scrutiny and blame he lays on them--they certainly do--but he does his readers a disservice by completely ignoring the negative aspects of the left side of American politics. Jimmy Carter also staffed his administration with Trilateral members (Council on Foreign Relations, Bilderberg, etc) like Zbigniew Brzezinski (who was still a factor in the Obama administration), and even though that may be beyond the scope of Levenda's occult focus, it surely crosses into the intelligence community somewhere. But not a word from the author on that.
The bias becomes extremely obvious in the final chapter due to Levenda's exposure of Pat Robertson's shady, possibly treasonous business activities in Africa in the late 80s, early 90s. Robertson certainly deserves all of this scrutiny, but he is apparently outside of the occult/intelligence loop as well because Levenda never mentions any concrete connections, so that destroys the theory that he resisted criticism of the Clintons and other Democrats because they had no ties to those communities (and I'm fairly certain from my own extensive reading that the Clintons do have connections to them).
A final note about Levenda's ignorance or willful bias: in a blog post here on Goodreads from April 24, 2008 (https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...) Levenda expresses disbelief that "Richard Mellon Scaife has endorsed Hillary Clinton for President". Scaife is alleged by Levenda in this book to be the financial power behind the "vast right wing conspiracy" and the decade-long smear campaign against the poor, downtrodden Clintons. For someone who seems so in tune with The Big Picture I find it hard to believe Levenda is so naive to still be stuck in what I think is a phony left/right paradigm that plays the American voters like a good cop/bad cop scenario every election season--working both ends towards the middle. In fact, Levenda admits he's not stuck in that system in the same blog when on the subject of Red States vs. Blue States he says "This dualistic characterization should have been jettisoned a long time ago." Yet, he still basically fawns all over Hillary and Obama as if they are sent straight from Heaven to save Americans from the Republicans.
On a positive note, when Levenda sticks to his theses he is spot on and creates compelling reading. He talks extensively about the roots of the Muslim/Christian conflict going back to the Crusades, the history of the Knights Templar (which became, as Levenda suggests, the Freemasons), the Jonestown Massacre, and mixes in more of Charles Manson's story. The quality of the preceding chapters is undermined somewhat by the seemingly tacked-on Clinton/Democrat apologist chapter at the end, and he loses some credibility because of this inclusion since it reminds the reader what he has not included about other Democrats. It's almost as if nothing bad happens when a Democrat is in the White House, and if it does it's all the fault of the purely Republican occult/intelligence cabal and the President is completely ignorant and powerless to stop it. Of course, that's ridiculous, and Levenda surely knows full-well Democrats are, at the very least, guilty of complicity during these events. Maybe they are powerless to stop the "Sinister Forces" but that is never mentioned by the author, and his complete omission of that point of view belies his political bias.
None of that bias renders the work any less interesting or important, it just disappoints me that I have to activate a filter when reading what is otherwise a balanced account of Sinister Forces and high weirdness in the pivotal 20th Century. That inherent bias costs the book a review star, but it's still a solid recommendation as long as the caveat about the author's sins of omission is heeded. Hopefully, Levenda will get back on track in the final volume, Book Three: The Manson Secret.
November 26, 2016
See my review for Sinister Forces book one, The Nine.
May 12, 2014
As a Christian, I do not engage in occult activities. However, I do believe that we should keep ourselves informed about occult activities that have infiltrated and corrupted our political process.
This is the second volume in a three-volume work in which Peter Levenda continues his investigation of occult involvement in politics begun in Unholy Alliance: A History of Nazi Involvement With the Occult.
As with Levenda's other books, this one is well researched, and if I were rating the book on research alone, I would give it five stars. Unfortunately, Levenda is somewhat long-winded, and these books, like his others, could be better organized. Indeed, this three-volume set could be shortened into a powerful and more effective single volume.
If you have ever suspected that there is more to American politics than meets the eye, this book (and volumes 1 and 3) will certainly make you think about what is really happening behind the scenes.
This is the second volume in a three-volume work in which Peter Levenda continues his investigation of occult involvement in politics begun in Unholy Alliance: A History of Nazi Involvement With the Occult.
As with Levenda's other books, this one is well researched, and if I were rating the book on research alone, I would give it five stars. Unfortunately, Levenda is somewhat long-winded, and these books, like his others, could be better organized. Indeed, this three-volume set could be shortened into a powerful and more effective single volume.
If you have ever suspected that there is more to American politics than meets the eye, this book (and volumes 1 and 3) will certainly make you think about what is really happening behind the scenes.
April 26, 2010
The worst in the trilogy.
Not entirely convincing... (e.g. CIA and rev. Jones Kool-Aid connection)
Not entirely convincing... (e.g. CIA and rev. Jones Kool-Aid connection)
August 9, 2011
Some evil shit.
March 24, 2017
These 3 books need to be studied
June 29, 2024
3.5 stars (round up to 4)
picks up right where the first volume wrapped up. this one was a bit harder to follow for me, but i appreciated the same level of attention to detail.
big takeaways:
+ jonestown / jim jones was a LOT stranger of a story than i previously thought
+ interesting mental health connections with Hawaii… where the Manson Family attempted to depose of certain witnesses, and where John Lennon’s killer also spent extended time
+ John Lennon’s assassination was a lot weirder than i was aware of
+ Pat Robertson (of “The 700 Club”) was friends with quite a few war criminal dictators
+ corruption in American politics is absolutely nothing new / the Clintons were subject to a 40 million dollar government investigation that couldn’t prove any corruption sans the Monica Lewinsky case
picks up right where the first volume wrapped up. this one was a bit harder to follow for me, but i appreciated the same level of attention to detail.
big takeaways:
+ jonestown / jim jones was a LOT stranger of a story than i previously thought
+ interesting mental health connections with Hawaii… where the Manson Family attempted to depose of certain witnesses, and where John Lennon’s killer also spent extended time
+ John Lennon’s assassination was a lot weirder than i was aware of
+ Pat Robertson (of “The 700 Club”) was friends with quite a few war criminal dictators
+ corruption in American politics is absolutely nothing new / the Clintons were subject to a 40 million dollar government investigation that couldn’t prove any corruption sans the Monica Lewinsky case
July 20, 2020
This series is so juicy. Levenda has done a lot of research and turned over a lot of stones with wriggling things underneath. Believe what you want, but it's weird world and our government is and has been involved in some weird stuff. There's a lot of background propinquity between stories that individually make the news. All this crazy shit comes from somewhere and some of it is interrelated, but you don't hear much about that in scoop-driven news coverage.
December 29, 2019
Lots of interesting information, but he never quite ties it all together in any convincing way. He also really shits the bed in the final chapter, with a lot of misguided, sloppily argued, poorly grounded apologism for the Clintons. So much slop there that it's a waste of time trying to itemize all of the missteps.
November 26, 2020
It's as good as the first, but it gets more complex, gives more information, more references, more characters, more plots, more information...
And it's too much sometimes.
I truly admire Levenda for his work but... Holy sh*t it can be too much to swallow in one go.
And it's too much sometimes.
I truly admire Levenda for his work but... Holy sh*t it can be too much to swallow in one go.
October 1, 2020
Hard to follow!
February 27, 2012
This second book in Peter Levenda's 3-part series "Sinister Forces" took a little while to become interesting. As in the first book, a great amount of focus is paid to Charles Manson and Richard Nixon. In fact, despite the first book having quite a bit of information on Manson - and despite the fact that the third book seems to revolve around Manson, a good portion of this book also goes into his story.
After reading through all of this, I had the impression that perhaps the author (Levenda) had been working separately on a history of Charles Manson, but without a book dedicated to that subject matter, he decided to intertwine it into this Sinister Forces Trilogy. He manages to tie Manson into a number of different ideas and concepts, but in reality the "scarlet thread" tying many of these connections together is very loose.
That said, luckily the book drops the subject of Manson about half way in, and immediately picks up the pace - starting with the history of the Knights Templar, and tracing their lineage through history to include the Rosicrucians, the Freemasons, Illuminati, Council of the 300, and so many others.
As with the first book, there is also an impressive amount of detail included to cover all sorts of cults and religious groups across the world, from Arawaks, to Ancient Egyptians, to Vodoun, to the various sects of Tibetan Buddhism (Black Hat, Yellow Hat and Red Hat branches).
There is also a large section dedicated to Jim Jones and the people's temple, along with some new information I had not come across before.
In all, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in alternative history - specifically on the dark past behind America's foreign policy and American history in general. While I could have done without the heavy focus on Charles Manson (as in the previous book), the rest of this trilogy is well worth the read and cost of admission.
After reading through all of this, I had the impression that perhaps the author (Levenda) had been working separately on a history of Charles Manson, but without a book dedicated to that subject matter, he decided to intertwine it into this Sinister Forces Trilogy. He manages to tie Manson into a number of different ideas and concepts, but in reality the "scarlet thread" tying many of these connections together is very loose.
That said, luckily the book drops the subject of Manson about half way in, and immediately picks up the pace - starting with the history of the Knights Templar, and tracing their lineage through history to include the Rosicrucians, the Freemasons, Illuminati, Council of the 300, and so many others.
As with the first book, there is also an impressive amount of detail included to cover all sorts of cults and religious groups across the world, from Arawaks, to Ancient Egyptians, to Vodoun, to the various sects of Tibetan Buddhism (Black Hat, Yellow Hat and Red Hat branches).
There is also a large section dedicated to Jim Jones and the people's temple, along with some new information I had not come across before.
In all, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in alternative history - specifically on the dark past behind America's foreign policy and American history in general. While I could have done without the heavy focus on Charles Manson (as in the previous book), the rest of this trilogy is well worth the read and cost of admission.
February 10, 2012
Just started, hope I like it as much as the first book.
8/16/11 - This book is becoming tedious. He has a great deal of detail, all good information about Nixon, his backers and associates, but the copious detail about The Manson Family has slowed things down a great deal. He made the point in the first book "The Nine", that there is good reason to suspect Manson experienced institutional abuse, if not CIA mind-control experimentation that was occuring at the time in institutions across the country.
The author is making the case that Charlie was very effective at controlling people and possibly learned these techniques by having them used on him in his youth. So far the author has not suggested that Manson was a directe CIA operative who was "taught" to control people, but as we know from years of data, intellegence agencies would certainly use a guy like Manson if it served some purpose.
So far the author is scratching around the "purpose" of the Manson Family killings. He is suggesting that there were specific targets, if not "hits", but he hasn't gotten to any reason for the hits.
I hope he raps up this section on Manso soon.
Finished the book, it got better! But it was a long slog. Haven't gotten to the third book yet.
8/16/11 - This book is becoming tedious. He has a great deal of detail, all good information about Nixon, his backers and associates, but the copious detail about The Manson Family has slowed things down a great deal. He made the point in the first book "The Nine", that there is good reason to suspect Manson experienced institutional abuse, if not CIA mind-control experimentation that was occuring at the time in institutions across the country.
The author is making the case that Charlie was very effective at controlling people and possibly learned these techniques by having them used on him in his youth. So far the author has not suggested that Manson was a directe CIA operative who was "taught" to control people, but as we know from years of data, intellegence agencies would certainly use a guy like Manson if it served some purpose.
So far the author is scratching around the "purpose" of the Manson Family killings. He is suggesting that there were specific targets, if not "hits", but he hasn't gotten to any reason for the hits.
I hope he raps up this section on Manso soon.
Finished the book, it got better! But it was a long slog. Haven't gotten to the third book yet.
July 16, 2023
Chapters on The Tate-LaBianca Murders, John Mark Chapman and particularly the haunting, informative Jonestown chapter are some of the best pieces of writing I have ever read.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews