and Persia. On the one hand Eastern mysticism, on the other Oriental love of intrigue, framed the systems later to be transported to the West with results so tremendous and far-reaching. ! Much of the suffering of the human race has come about as a result of those secret societies and their successors. The "results so tremendous and far reaching" referred to by Webster have been a disaster for the well- being of the inhabitants of planet earth, and have repeatedly blocked spiritual and material progress. The British historian, John Robison, (1798) had this But not only are secret societies dangerous, but all societies whose object is mysterious. The whole history of man is a proof of this position. In no age or country has there ever appeared a mysterious association which did not in time become a public nuisance” existing during the middle ages gives an insight into the general duplicity and propensity for evil common to secret societies. One of the prominent secret societies of this period was an order know as The Assassins. In this order drugs were used to recruit young men to become professional assassins in order to forward the designs of their masters. The young man whom the Assassins desired to recruit was introduced to the Grand Master of the Order and 20 The Secret Side of History to say about secret societies: An examination of a few of the secret societies drugged. While unconscious, he was carried into a