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Share: by Dan Eden And so it begins... It started in England, back in 1589. A bright, young man of 19 years, William Lee, was in love with a girl who was preoccupied with knitting socks. Socks were an important item of clothing in the 16th Century and knitting them by hand was a slow but necessary process. When he was just 16, Lee was a prodigy who attended college at Cambridge on a full scholarship. He was a "discoverer" waiting to happen. Two years after graduation, Lee was an official of his home town when he met his love. He had not yet taken up his destiny and redirected history. But that would soon change. Frustrated libido is a powerful motivator. Lee applied his intellect. He designed and built a machine that imitated his lover's hand movements, producing the world's first sock machine. This way, he could both impress her and liberate her. When Lee presented his sock machine to Queen Elizabeth I, requesting a patent, she refused. She saw the potential for social disruption and expressed her concern for the country's hand knitters. She also perhaps foresaw a frightening premonition of what a mechanized world would be like. Lee eventually moved his machines to France with only limited success. He died in poverty -- much like Nickola Tesla. And like Tesla, his invention did eventually change history. After Lee's death, his brother James returned to England and started the first mechanized factories producing socks made from wool, cotton an silk. This was the time-thread that began the Industrial Revolution. [1] Unrest and gloom covered the land. Sixteenth Century life was simple but harsh. Most people were farmers, most likely working the fields of some elite. The average life expectancy was 35 years and half the population lived on the very edge of survival. The appearance of factories, urbanization and cheaply produced goods was an improvement for most people. But it didn't last. The move from hand power to the steam engine changed urban areas to a filthy environment with a stench. Individuals worked long shifts doing repetitive tasks, in unhealthy conditions. Although their life expectancy nearly doubled and material produced in the factories was abundant, people were not happy. Periodic plagues and disease took their toll on the new centralized culture. [3] At the height of discontent, "anti-machine" and worker's riots erupted in many countries as the consequences of an industrialized society were realized. Although most groups moaned about the direction that our civilization had chosen, some groups became more pro-active. Karl Marx (1840) introduced the idea of common ownership -- Marxism -- where the workers were empowered as participants in the state. The profit-motive of the factory owner was replaced with new raison d'etre "for the good of the people." This revolution against a miserable lifestyle and disparity of wealth eventually won acceptance as Communism replaced the elite Tsar in Russia and was creeping west across Europe. The Germans suffered these same misgivings with the Industrial Revolution, but they chose a different solution. Rather than endure the nationalization of Germany's industry through a Communist government, the National Socialists (Nationalsozialismus) designed a solution where privately owned industry would play a major role. Germany would reinvent itself -- rise like the Phoenix -- and citizens would serve the state with pride. Modeled after the Greek city-state of Sparta, the ideology captured the support of the industrialists and anti-Communists. As it is true today, social stress sometimes leads people to become interested in religion or the occult as a means of escape. There was a fascination in pre-WWII Germany with archaeological reports about ancient Sumeria, the Ark of the Covenant, Oden and Wotan, Astarte, etc. People wanted to feel a connection to a time when Germany was stronger and prouder. There was great interest in knowing about our "spirit life" and learning how they could get back on the path to Utopia. Helena Blavatsky's Theosophical Society and the Thule Society were the most influential occult groups. At some point, the public became fixated on an old book called, The Coming Race. It was written in 1871 by "Anonymous," but many believed the author to be Edward Bulwer-Lyttona. Originally considered as "science fiction", many later readers believed that its account of a superior subterranean master race and the energy-form called "Vril" was real and accurate. Many Theosophists accepted the book as truth. Then something really strange happened. Contact With Extraterrestrials It was December of 1919. The head of the Thule Society, Karl Haushofer, had invited a handful of the most respected occultists to meet at a secluded cabin in the forest foothills of tha Alps, near Berchtesgaden. The guests included a representative of the Knights Templar and a specialist in Asian artifacts. As they gathered together, Haushofer revealed a surprise. Two young and exc...