I Love Peter Levenda. The man has a practical working knowledge of the occult yet shows no signs of gullibility or touchy feely mysticism. He understands that occult conspiracies are really not important until you understand the players who believe in them. Great book. ( )

This book presents a very different view of American history, based on years of original research, not fantasy or speculation.

Some say that mankind came to North America by walking across the Bering Straits, when it was frozen, and heading south. Others say that mankind traveled across the Pacific from China or Polynesia, and across the Atlantic from Europe and the Mediterranean. If the Bering Straits point of view is "correct," then some questions come to mind. How could an Egyptian mummy, tested in 1992, test positive for cocaine and tobacco, both supposedly indigenous to America? How could the sweet potato be known throughout the Pacific Basin as early as 400 AD, when it too is supposedly indigenous to America? There are documented reports of stones found all over America, written in languages that pre-date Native Americans.

Think of "wandering bishops" as the religious equivalent of "diploma mills," schools that give diplomas to anyone. If a person can prove that their consecration as a bishop of the American Orthodox Catholic Church, or the Old Roman Catholic Church, for instance, is valid, then any rituals they perform will have just as much weight as that of a Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox bishop. These "churches" have few, if any, parishioners; what they have a lot of are American intelligence agents.

Many other questions come to mind while reading this book. Why are there no Native American tribes indigenous to the state of West Virginia? Did you know that "Kentucky" means "dark and bloody place," and that the original name for Kentucky was going to be Transylvania? Was Sirhan Sirhan the world’s first programmed assassin? Did you know that there is a section of Appalachia that is home to more than the normal number of serial killers, a sort of Bermuda Triangle for serial killers?

I really enjoyed this book (first of a series). Anyone who likes hidden history, or things that will not be found in regular history books, should read this book. It does a fine job of showing that American history has a pretty strong occult streak running through it. Very highly recommended. ( )