[MUSIC PLAYING]
>>GEORGE NOORY: Welcome back to "Beyond Belief."
We have heard a lot about the Knights Templar,
the custodians of the Shroud of Turin,
the custodians of the Ark of the Covenant.
But who were they?
How did they get established?
And what happened to them?
With us is renowned historian Freddy Silva.
Freddy, welcome back to "Beyond Belief."
>>FREDDY SILVA: Thank you, George.
>>NOORY: You have a book dedicated to the Knights
Templar, don't you?
>>SILVA: I do.
And it was going to be a very small book.
And then it became a really, really big book.
And it was really about the origins
of my country of birth, which, believe it or not, is Portugal.
>>NOORY: Aha.
>>SILVA: Of course I sound Portuguese.
And I wanted to find out what was the relationship
between the two.
And I had no idea that this story
was going to take me down a long rabbit
hole of why the Templars would create
Europe's first nation-state, which is Portugal.
And also why would they go as far from Rome as possible
to basically instill something there
that I had no idea what it would be.
And it turns out, it was all related to the Grail.
>>NOORY: Really.
>>SILVA: Absolutely.
>>NOORY: We'll get into that.
What's the name of this book?
>>SILVA: First Templar Nation.
>>NOORY: First Templar Nation.
Now, the Knights Templar, of course, established by whom?
>>SILVA: Well, this is the fun part.
Most people consider them to be part of the Crusades.
They were not.
They were a group of fellows who basically
went into Jerusalem on the back of the Crusades
and used the opportunity to go and look for something
which is already prearranged.
And I had no idea that the person--
the linchpin of the whole organization
was a man called Bernard of Clairvaux,
who was the head of the Cistercian Order of monks.
>>NOORY: And what time period are we talking about?
>>SILVA: We're talking about early 12th century
now, 1100 A.D. And basically there
was a small band of men who worked
their way into Jerusalem.
And they stayed at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher
for a short while.
Hugues de Payens was one of them.
And Godfrey de Saint-Omer was the second one.
And then something happened where they decided,
we really don't want to hang out here much more.
We want to go and look for something very, very specific.
And we need someone to really help
us understand what it is that we're looking for.
And that's where Bernard comes in.
He hand-picks most of the original Templar
Knights, two of which it turns out were actually Portuguese.
But there's a third portion of the story, which
is a group of people who were very, very mysterious
and which very little is known about called the Order of Sion,
who actually were fundamental to the creation of the Templars--
along with the Cistercian monks--
who then allowed the Templars to go on this secret mission
to Temple Mount and eventually create
the first country of Europe.
>>NOORY: What were they looking for?
Why Jerusalem, first of all?
>>SILVA: Well, when you start looking at the Templars
and how they behaved, they behave much more
or less like a magisterial college,
as though they had a very spiritual intent.
There is no doubt that people had to sort of protect
themselves back in the day.
There's a lot of fighting going on.
The economy was basically an economy of plunder.
Even monks had to learn how to fight rather than write.
And it turns out that they simply
were guided by a very spiritual principle.
They were looking for something very specific.
Now, we have to understand, first of all, that these people
were very rich.
They were nobles in Europe.
And yet, they gave up all of their wealth
to go traveling 2000 miles to the Middle East,
to labor in really hot and dusty conditions,
to dig tunnels on the Temple Mount to find treasure.
It doesn't make sense.
Why not sit at home, keep your money,
and avoid all the problems?
>>NOORY: How many were there?
>>SILVA: There were actually 11.
Most people claim that there were nine.
There were actually--
>>NOORY: That's it?
>>SILVA: That it.
>>NOORY: The Knights Templar started at 11?
>>SILVA: It's amazing, isn't it?
>>NOORY: I thought it was like an army of people.
>>SILVA: Oh, no, no.
Those were the Crusaders.
It took me about two years to finally sort out
all of these different factions and figure out who was who.
It's very, very confusing.
They all seem to get lumped into the Crusaders.
But there was actually other factions
like the Knights Hospitallers, who were actually
the people who were actually protecting
the pilgrims in Jerusalem.
And they're already 40 years ahead of the Templars.
The Templars really didn't do any protecting at all.
They actually were sequestered inside Temple Mount.
And they literally spent most of their time digging tunnels
towards a central location, which was recently
validated by archeology.
So they were looking for something very specific
that was hidden there.
And yes, they eventually discovered
quite a bit of gold bullion.
>>NOORY: Sure.
>>SILVA: That is validated.
But the one thing that they were very much looking for
was scrolls.
>>NOORY: Scrolls of what?
>>SILVA: Scrolls written by the Essenes--
>>NOORY: Aha.
>>SILVA: --that they had buried there.
Because the Essenes and the Templars--
>>NOORY: Some of which we found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
>>SILVA: Absolutely.
And it makes you wonder why were they buried there
in the first place?
It seems to-- and to understand that, you
have to first of all get under the skin of Bernard
of Clairvaux.
Why was he behind the Templars?
What was the fundamental drive?
And the drive was to create a pure state of Christianity.
And I'm talking about a concept that has nothing
to do with the Catholic Church.
This is something-- a frame of mind
that is much more a Buddhist construct.
>>NOORY: Powerful people.
>>SILVA: Very much so.
But they wanted a very pure understanding of Christianity
and a spiritual value.
Because they recognized that no matter
how much wealth you gather, unless you take care of this
and this, you've got nothing.
You're just basically a dead body walking through life
and having a very hard experience.
They wanted a spiritual understanding, a bigger picture
of what it means to be human.
And it's almost like a new age ideal that they were following.
And in the end, yes, they did find a lot of scrolls.
They came back to Europe under secret guidance.
And they employed cryptographers to actually unravel
what was in the scrolls, which tells me they
had nothing to do with money.
It had something to do with a spiritual treasure.
>>NOORY: They needed to find that out.
Let's look at more about the Dead Sea Scrolls.
>>STEPHEN FRY: Well, here in Jerusalem
there's the aptly named Shrine of the Book, where
some of the most precious religious writings
are on display.
But even in these special and carefully climate-controlled
conditions, some of the older texts
are in danger of being lost to us forever.
The most famous documents displayed here
are the Dead Sea Scrolls, fragments of biblical texts
and religious writings from the time of Christ.
The Scrolls lay hidden for nearly two millennia
until a Bedouin shepherd stumbled upon them in 1946.
>>PNINA SHOR: They are believed to be the discovery
of the 20th century.
We're talking about a corpus of over 900 manuscripts,
comprising all of the books of the Bible.
>>FRY: Right.
>>SHOR: And these are the oldest copies of the Bible
that we have, 2000 years old.
>>FRY: Wow.
>>SHOR: We have--
>>FRY: These ancient texts are so fragile,
that only four highly trained researchers from the Israel
Antiquities Authority are allowed actually
to handle them.
>>NOORY: Was the Bible based on the Dead Sea Scrolls?
>>SILVA: Far from it, actually.
In fact, they seem to have actually sidelined
everything that seemed to be of spiritual value,
true spiritual value.
And they created almost like a shadow Bible--
or shall I say a selective Bible--
based on the ideas and ideals of a group of men
who wanted to take over the power vacuum
that, at that time in Europe, had been left
by the imploding Roman Empire.
So the more important scrolls and the more important gospels
of the more spiritual aspects about the empowerment
of the self, the finding of God within the person,
not asking a bishop or a priest to find
God outside of oneself--
so these are very Buddhist ideals.
And that's what the Gospel of Thomas deals with,
the Gospel of Philip.
And these are all the gnostic gospels
that were found hidden away by the Essenes, and also in Egypt.
So these people obviously were trying
to maintain a very spiritual lineage going back
at least 6,000 years.
And that's what the Templars were actually
trying to create and bring back to Europe.
>>NOORY: Freddy, weren't the Templars eventually
attacked and murdered on Friday the 13th?
That's why we have this bad luck day all the time.
Didn't something happen to them?
>>SILVA: It was not fun, that's for sure.
>>NOORY: Who expunged them?
>>SILVA: Well, basically what happened was the Templars
had grown very-- over the course of about 150 years,
the Templars were loved in Europe by the people.
Because they said, well, we'll give you
protection from the church.
We're going to teach you a spiritual ideal about the self.
We're going to nurture your sense of community, education,
looking after the poor, hospitals.
And the peasants--
>>NOORY: Sounds good to me.
>>SILVA: Absolutely.
This was like nothing what the church
was preaching at the time.
We'll give you anything that we have.
And that's how they grew rich, by people literally donating
money, and wealth, and land.
And then they basically gave them back.
So they create these sort of new age communities in a sense.
So the church was getting a little bit
concerned about this.
>>NOORY: Ah.
>>SILVA: But here's the big part.
>>NOORY: They didn't like this.
>>SILVA: Philip of France was also
very keen to join the inner Templar brotherhood, who
were practicing a very secret spiritual doctrine called
the raising of the dead, which really goes back
to the concept of Resurrection.
But not in the way that we think it is.
It has nothing to do with dead people.
So he wanted to know more about this concept
of self-empowerment.
Now, the Templars realized that Philip was about as honest
as a $15 note.
So basically they said, no, I'm sorry.
You can't join the inner brotherhood.
So basically Philip said, OK.
I'm going to basically tell the church that you've
been honoring a devil called Baphomet,
that you practice all kinds of perverse sexual acts.
And also, because I owe you phenomenal amounts of money,
it means I don't have to pay you back
if the church comes by and takes you all out.
And that's how the pope became embroiled in this whole drama.
The pope really was just concerned
that the Templars were taking power away from the church.
But Philip basically made it out to be
much, much deeper than this.
It was more like a complete contradiction
of Catholic values.
So they basically concocted this between them
to get rid of the Templar order on Friday the 13th.
And many of them already had full knowledge.
Most of them escaped to Portugal and Scotland,
and then created Scottish Rite Freemasonry.
So they're still around.
>>NOORY: How did they end up being the protectors
of the Shroud of Turin?
>>SILVA: Now, that I'm not so sure.
Because one of the [INAUDIBLE] pieces of evidence
I've found for the Shroud of Turin
was the fact that it's actually the image,
not of Christ, but of Jacques de Maille, who
was the Templar master at the time of Friday the 13th.
And if you actually look at the visage on the actual shroud,
the features are very modern European.
>>NOORY: They are.
>>SILVA: They are not Semitic at all.
>>NOORY: They don't look Semitic.
>>SILVA: And that's your first clue that obviously there's
something wrong with the perceived idea
that it is the shroud of Christ.
The Templars didn't give much about Christ.
Their person that they revered was John the Baptist
and Mary Magdalene.
And you can see this--
>>NOORY: Really?
>>SILVA: Oh, absolutely.
You look at all the churches that they erected.
They are all dedicated to John the Baptist or Mary Magdalene.
Because they were following and protecting
the actual holy bloodline, the true holy bloodline,
which is a matriarchal bloodline.
And when I was doing some research into this project--
and again, I wasn't trying to find the work
to fill a certain idea that I had.
I let the research guide me.
And I followed the doors where they led me.
And one of the things that I found in this-- and there's
only two copies of this book available in the world,
written on animal skin.
One of them is at Harvard.
I had to beg them to go in and let
me read this in medieval Portuguese, which
took a long time.
And there's no index.
And somewhere on page 700, suddenly there's
a swearing-in ceremony of the Templar master in Portugal
that says within the swearing-in ceremony,
I vow to protect the bloodline of David.
>>NOORY: Interesting take.
>>SILVA: Now, why would you have a swearing ceremony in Portugal
unless there was a bloodline to protect?
So that was their motive.
It was to maintain the spiritual tradition that goes back
thousands of years, well before Christianity,
to bring back the sense of spirituality at a time
when Europe had a complete lack of it.
>>NOORY: Freddy, let's look more about the Templars
and their existence.
>>EDWARD COLEMAN: The Templars come into existence
in the wake of the aftermath of the Crusades.
There is a perceived problem about the protection
of pilgrims who were coming in greater numbers to Jerusalem
in the wake of the success of the First Crusade.
And the Templars are organized effectively
to provide that escort.
>>NARRATOR: They set up their headquarters here
at the Al-Aqsa mosque on Temple Mount.
For over 60 years, this would be the knights' center
of power, their military and religious headquarters.
Many believe this to be the original site
of Solomon's temple.
For centuries, Christian scholars
had speculated about its mystical purpose.
The Knights were fascinated by this place.
So much so that they called themselves
the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ
and the Temple of Solomon, a title eventually
shortened the Knights Templar.
>>NOORY: Are there still Templars today like that,
that we just saw?
>>SILVA: Oh, I think so.
I think these people were clever enough
to understand that it's one thing to stand up
for your belief systems and die for them.
It's another thing if you just basically give lip service,
and then change your name with a bit of public relations,
and continue living and telling people the bigger picture.
So they essentially became Scottish Rite Freemasons
or Rosicrucians.
>>NOORY: Aha.
What an evolution.
>>SILVA: Exactly.
So they're still around today.
Just under a different guise.
In fact, one of the biggest practical jokes
that was played in history goes back to--
I think it was the 1500s.
No, actually just before that.
And it was when the pope was trying to extinguish
the Templar order in Portugal.
So the Templars created this entire country from scratch.
And the pope didn't have any idea
what was going on in there.
He sends a letter out.
And it says, the Templars need to be exterminated.
They're a big problem.
There worshipping devils--
>>NOORY: Nice of the pope to say that, right.
>>SILVA: Exactly.
And he didn't realize that the king of Portugal
was himself a Templar Knight.
And eventually the king said, well,
we can't keep fighting the pope and the Spanish army.
I'll tell you what.
Why don't you go away on vacation?
Go to the Algarve.
It's a nice place.
Go away for a few years.
Let me have the money and the lands that belong to you.
And I will write to the pope, and I'll say,
pope, the Knights Templar no longer exist,
you'll be glad to know.
But incredibly enough, there's a brand new order of knights
that's just appeared here--
>>NOORY: Another group has popped up.
>>SILVA: --called the Order of the Knights of Christ.
And the pope said, thank you, my son.
Well done.
The Templars come back from the Algarve
after a six year vacation.
They go see the king.
And the king says, right.
You are no longer the Knights Templar.
We're not?
No, you are now to be called the Order of the Knights of Christ,
savvy?
And they went, OK.
And here's your money.
And here's your land.
And let's get back to the project
that we started here, which includes
discovering the New World called Newfoundland in Nova Scotia.
>>NOORY: Were these good people?
>>SILVA: They were very good people.
They were very spiritual.
The original core, absolutely, when it was still manageable.
They grew so big, so fast, that all the checks and balances
began to break down.
And then of course, a lot of nefarious people
began to be attracted by the concept
that, perhaps, they were very, very wealthy.
They were wealthy.
But that wasn't the point why they existed.
The wealth was really generated from the fact
that they were great traders.
And they were able to actually promote good things to people,
including looking after the sick, the infirm,
educating the children of peasants, of course.
>>NOORY: They were caring people.
>>SILVA: They were loved by people.
They were absolutely loved.
And yes, they also proposed equality with women.
And they also validated Muslims and other people.
>>NOORY: Why, Freddy, were they so controversial then?
>>SILVA: Because of the politics of the period.
They were practicing a spirituality
where God is an inner concept.
It's an inner experience of the individual.
And that individual should decide their own fate.
So it's a very spiritual doctrine.
At the time, the church couldn't allow that.
Because for God to exist, they have to be in power.
They have to be talked to.
They have to be approached.
They act as an intermediary between you and your salvation.
They weren't offering salvation.
If you didn't believe in what the church was selling,
you'd basically be, well, crucified or tortured to death,
as a lot of women discovered during the witch hunt trials
and during the Inquisition.
So these were people who were not practicing
a true Christian value.
The Templars were actually more Christians than the Christians.
>>NOORY: There has always been rumors
that the Templars had possession of the Ark
of the Covenant, that incredible box that
held the Ten Commandments.
Did they?
Did they have it?
>>SILVA: I don't know.
>>NOORY: Is it in a church in Ethiopia?
>>SILVA: I actually do believe Graham Hancock's research
in this.
I read his book.
And I found it very compelling that the Ark is actually there.
But I also discovered that there's also various elements
of the Ark around the world.
For example, if you happen to understand Portuguese,
as I do, and you go to the most famous site in Portugal,
which is the town of Tomar--
which is actually named for one of the daughters of Jesus
and Mary Magdalene, by the way-- which means palm tree.
There are no palm trees in that part of the world.
At least back then.
It was too cold.
They basically have a tradition, have a festival
that happens once every four years
around the summer solstice.
It doesn't honor the solstice, because that
happens every year.
So why have it every four years?
And it's the Feast of the Tabuleiros.
Now, unless you're Portuguese, you don't know what that means.
It's actually a tray.
The Feast of the Tray, where women
wear a tray on their heads with these loaves.
And when I read Graham Hancock's book, The Sign and the Seal,
they have exactly the same thing happening in Ethiopia
around the churches where they say
that the true Ark of the Covenant is actually held.
>>NADIA BILCHIK: And where is the Ark of the Covenant?
Well, the Ethiopians, both Christians
and Jewish Ethiopians, believe that's in a church in Ethiopia.
Now, interestingly enough, the story and the mystery
has revived because this particular church developed
a leak.
Which means that the famous Ark will have to be moved.
Now, why this is a problem is that the only person
who can actually watch it is one guardian.
He is the only person who is allowed to see
this Ark of the Covenant.
>>NEWSCASTER: OK, let me make sure I've got this right.
They sprung a leak.
So they need to--
>>BILCHIK: To move it.
>>NEWSCASTER: --do some repairs.
>>BILCHIK: Of course.
>>NEWSCASTER: It needs to be moved.
>>BILCHIK: And he can't move it alone.
So it may be the first time in thousands of years
that people get to see it.
>>NEWSCASTER: OK, are we sure it's there?
Have they been playing a hoax--
>>BILCHIK: Well, can you ever--
>>NEWSCASTER: --on us for years?
>>BILCHIK: What popular belief is
is that there is some ancient relic there.
And that they really believe it is the Ark.
>>NOORY: Now, the Ark of the Covenant
is a very physical apparatus.
Yet some people have thought, maybe it's not physical.
It's more spiritual.
What do you think?
>>SILVA: I think it's both.
I think it has components of--
and again, the writer Graham Hancock
has made a very good and lucid argument for its location.
There is also a lucid argument that exists in Portugal,
as well, in the town of Tomar.
And also the fact that what it contains and what it represents
is a spiritual component.
So I think it's both.
I think we tend to sort of get very confused whether it's
either-or.
I think there's a lot of gray areas in between.
In the metaphysical world, and the world of spirituality,
everything has a metaphorical component.
And it's all based on the meeting of matter and spirit.
So the more latitude you give this question,
the more you understand what it really means.
>>NOORY: It's been reported, Freddy,
that those who would come upon the Ark of the Covenant
would die instantly, like it had some kind of radiation emitting
from it.
>>SILVA: It sounds like what they
talk about the entrance halls to the Hall of Records in Egypt.
It was the same thing with statues
that had a certain electromagnetic property
that unless you have the right incantation or spell, yes,
it would do something to you.
So it obviously was protecting something very, very important.
I, for one, believe that.
>>NOORY: The Knights Templar--
again, dealing with the Ark of the Covenant
and possibly the Shroud of Turin, which you say
was somebody else--
the point here is they seem to have been a very powerful group
of people.
>>SILVA: They were amazingly influential.
There was a sort of moral vacuum in Europe in the Middle Ages.
And they filled that vacuum.
Again, if you look at the origin of the Templars
and where these people came from,
they came from some of the finest noble people
in Europe, in Burgundy.
And Burgundy's the key to everything.
And basically these were intellectuals.
These were people who actually worked--
there were Jews working with Muslims.
Heaven forbid!
They actually worked together and shared--
>>NOORY: They were people who cared about other people.
>>SILVA: Exactly.
It's like, how can we do things for the common good?
Because everybody-- the reason why Europe is falling apart
is because they're all fighting for possession of resources.
>>NOORY: We need them today.
>>SILVA: Exactly.
It's like we're reliving history all over again.
And so when this group of intellectuals says,
well, wait a minute.
Let's agree to disagree.
We have our differences.
We have different opinions.
But why not accept our differences
and find commonalities where we can work together and grow
together?
If we all prosper, then we can basically
get on with our belief system and still get along.
It's not really a very difficult concept to understand.
And they practiced what they preached.
And that's why they were loved.
>>NOORY: Why is the perception of the Templars today somewhat
jaded?
It's not quite as good as you've just described.
>>SILVA: Because eventually the organization
grew so fast, so quickly that the usual checks and balances
that they were using to allow administration
to the inner brotherhood fell by the wayside.
I mean, they literally were outgrowing
their resources and their ability to manage themselves.
So eventually they had to just accept
anybody who basically maintained little kingdoms around Europe.
And I think that's where the corruption came in.
And yes, there was corruption towards the 14th century.
>>NOORY: There was.
>>SILVA: There were people who were using
the Templars for personal gain.
But that's not what the original mandate was all about.
It's like any organization.
It starts off quite small and manageable.
As it grows too big, it's out of control.
The core spiritual concept is still there.
But there are all of these pods on the outside that
were totally out of control.
And they were used for making lots of money
and basically creating little fiefdoms by themselves.
But that's not what the original mandate was about.
And we're left with that perception,
because that's where it ended.
>>NOORY: Could the Knight Templars exist today
in this environment?
>>SILVA: Oh, absolutely.
They're everywhere.
They're absolutely everywhere.
You'll find them--
>>NOORY: Do they know they are who they are?
>>SILVA: Oh, I think so.
I think there are pods of people who still understand
the original principles.
For example, the Shriners, who were
the sort of public version.
>>NOORY: And they're good people.
>>SILVA: And they're very good people.
10% tithing, for example.
Doing charitable works.
The Knights Hospitallers are still around in Malta,
by the way.
>>NOORY: So there are offshoots of the Knights Templar.
>>SILVA: They're all sister--
connection groups.
They all basically work together to create this bigger picture.
Because they recognize they have things in common.
And if you work together with the things you have in common,
it means that everybody benefits.
>>NOORY: The Knights Templar protected
bloodlines in the past.
Are they still protecting bloodlines today?
And if so, what are they?
>>SILVA: Oh, I think so.
But I'm not sure that the people who are part of the bloodline
actually know that they're part of that bloodline
to protect their identities.
>>NOORY: Their assets.
>>SILVA: Again, politics here.
Waiting for the right moment.
The Order of Sion, which eventually
became the Priory of Sion--
which of course, became the focus of Holy Blood, Holy
Grail--
even though that wasn't the original mandate
that they were looking for.
They found it-- stumbled upon it by accident.
These people were very keen on trying to basically protect
the bloodline of David, which is such an old bloodline that
goes back to Sumeria and the priestesses of the temple.
It's a matriarchal bloodline.
And basically it was the understanding
that these people maintain the true secrets
of the temple, which is the understanding
of the spiritual development of the soul
while it's entrapped in a human body.
So again, it's a spiritual development.
So because of politics, because the way the church
won the argument, because of the way
the church undermined the Merovingian dynasty, which
was the continuation of the bloodline in Europe,
in France--
the Carolingians, who were supported by the church,
won the argument.
They basically exterminated the Merovingians.
Drove them underground.
And it's still that way today.
So it's looking at the sort of scenario,
this chess game essentially playing itself out over,
what, 900 years now?
And I think that the people who do--
there's a part of Priory of Sion which
is doing things for very strange ideals.
But there's another part of it, which
has a spiritual component.
And it's that along with the Cistercian group,
and the Templars, and the Scottish Rite freemasons,
which I believe still know the location
of the people of the bloodline and are still trying
to protect their identities.
So it's a very serious thing as far as they're concerned.
Because it protects a very deep spiritual concept.
>>NOORY: Could there be a danger with these individuals who
have this kind of power?
>>SILVA: If the ego is left unchecked, absolutely.
Because that's what it comes down to.
Any spiritual teaching is about the seduction of the ego.
It's about maintaining your physical impulses
under control.
The first teaching you'll ever learn.
So the whole concept of the spiritual teaching
is to actually make sure that you understand your position
in the bigger scheme of things.
It's not about you.
It's about the bigger picture.
So yes, it's about understanding how their role plays out
in the current perception and the paradigm of politics
and religion, and waiting for the right moment when
that opportunity arises where everybody
will get that message.
>>NOORY: Could we have any Knights Templar
involved in politics today?
>>SILVA: Oh, I believe so.
And I think I've already met a couple of them.
Of course, I can't tell you who they are.
But yes, I have met a couple of them.
There are Templar groups all around the world.
Some of them just dress up because it's
fun to be in regalia.
But then there are also other people
who are doing it very much for real.
And they keep themselves under the radar.
>>NOORY: They're very serious.
>>SILVA: They're very serious.
They have a good sense of humor, as well.
But they know exactly what they're doing.
They know not to raise their heads
a bit too above the parapet to make sure they
don't get knocked down again.
>>NOORY: Would we know their names?
>>SILVA: Not really.
They keep themselves to themselves.
Again--
>>NOORY: Private people.
>>SILVA: They're humble.
They're very humble people.
Some of them work for charitable organizations.
Some do a lot of works for children.
And again, they keep themselves under the radar.
You know, really, really humble.
>>NOORY: Just enough.
>>SILVA: But some of them are actually captains of industry.
>>NOORY: If you met a Knights Templar directly,
what would you ask them today?
>>SILVA: Am I telling the truth?
Yeah, because-- yeah, I mean, for me, as a researcher--
I mean, I spend a lot of time making sure
that all my facts are checked.
Which means that it takes a long time
to write a book on this stuff.
I would find out how close am I to the real truth.
Because eventually only the people
directly involved in anything know the actual truth.
I hope I'm pretty close to it.
And so far, meeting some of the Scottish Rite
Freemasons and the lectures I've given for them,
they're saying I'm pretty damn close to the truth.
>>NOORY: Would they be frustrated
with what's happening today?
>>SILVA: I think they recognize the earth for what
it is and the human condition for what it is.
It's always going to be frustrating.
And sometimes you have opportunities
where you can do the things that you really want to do.
And you accept that for what it is.
And acceptance is the key to survival.
So as long as you're in control of yourself
and your own emotions, and you are in control of what you do
and what you say, you do the best you can.
You learn to live and survive for another day
when the opportunity arises where
you can do exactly what you want to do without having
to hide behind the shell.
So I think that they actually are in control.
Yes, I believe they're doing the right thing.
>>NOORY: And they were good people.
>>SILVA: I totally believe so, yes.
Because everything they did always had
a spiritual component to it.
And everybody benefits from it.
And from all the examples that survive
that have been written about them, from the early days
of the 11th century and the 12th century,
everybody seems to have benefited all the time.
>>NOORY: Freddy, thanks for being on "Beyond Belief."
>>SILVA: Oh, my pleasure.
>>NOORY: The Knights Templar.
I always believed that they were a group of warring type people.
Obviously not.
They were here for the betterment of mankind.
And according to Freddy Silva, they're still here.
I'm George Noory.
And thanks for watching "Beyond Belief."
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