Work
In 1954 Bergier met Louis Pauwels, a writer and editor, in Paris. They would later collaborate on the book, Le Matin des Magiciens which was published in France in 1960. This book takes the reader on a neo-surrealistic tour of modern European history focusing on the purported influence of the occult and secret societies on politics. It also attempts to connect alchemy with nuclear physics, hinting that early alchemists understood more about the actual function of atoms than they are credited.
Le Matin des Magiciens was very popular with the youth culture in France through the 1960s and 1970s. It was translated into English by Rollo May in 1963 under the title The Dawn of Magic. It first appeared in the USA in paperback form in 1968 as The Morning of the Magicians. This book spawned an entire genre of explorations into many of the ideas it raised, such as connections between Nazism and the occult. It has become a cult classic, often referenced by conspiracy theory enthusiasts and those interested in ideas of forbidden history and occult studies. The question remains: how much inside knowledge did Pauwels and Bergier really have, or how much of their thesis was merely imaginative invention? Either way, their magical mystery tour of the dialectic between materialism and metaphysics continues to influence researchers in this field today.
Pauwels and Bergier collaborated on two later books of essays, Impossible Possibilities and The Eternal Man. They also co-produced a journal called Planète which explored esoteric ideas. Bergier was interested in the possibilities of extraterrestrial life and explored reported sightings of UFOs.
Jacques Bergier died in November, 1978 saying of himself: "I am not a legend."
Read more about this topic: Jacques Bergier
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