Robert Lomas
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Robert Lomas is a British writer, Business studies academic and amateur historian. His books include those in The Hiram Key series, a biography of Nikola Tesla entitled The Man Who Invented The Twentieth Century, and The Invisible College: The Royal Society, Freemasonry and the Birth of Modern Science. He is a best-selling author on the subject of the history of Freemasonry.
More recently, in April 2005, Lomas released his latest book Turning The Hiram Key: Making Darkness Visible, extending his research further on from that presented in The Hiram Key series that was co-authored with Christopher Knight. Turning The Hiram Key is published by Lewis Masonic, a long established firm, founded in 1886, specialising in the publication of Masonic texts.
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[edit] Biography of Nikola Tesla
Lomas wrote a biography of a Serbian-American scientist named Nikolas Tesla (1856-1943) entitled The Man Who Invented the Twentieth Century:Nikola Tesla, Forgotten Genius of Electricity, that was published in 1999. In it he argued that Tesla was the person who actually discovered electricity and that others, in particular Thomas Edison, falsely took credit for his work and some of Tesla's business asocciates, including J. Pierpont Morgan, took advantage of him and exploited and ruined him. He argues that Tesla's electrical inventions, such as the AC current and the Tesla coil, are what made our society what it is like today and that he is therefore, in Lomas's phrase, "the man who invented the twentieth century". Lomas points out in the biography that Tesla was born on July 10 or 11, 1856 on midnight during an electrical storm. He mentions that because Tesla was born at midnight, for a long time he never celebrated his birthday because he could never know which day he was born on. He mentions that the midwife said to Tesla's mother after he was born that he was the son of the storm and notes that it is ironic that the midwife proved to right in a way. He mentions that Tesla was the son of an Orthodox Christian priest named Milutin Tesla and that this caused Tesla to be deeply religious. And he mentions that Tesla's mother came from a long line of inventors, which caused him to be fascinated by science and to want to invent new things himself. Lomas discusses that Tesla had an older brother named Dane who was very gifted in literary fields. And the family were planning on Dane becoming a priest. Dane was a childhood prodigy. And he was his parents's favorite child. They had all their hopes set on him. And his younger brother Nikola looked up to him. And so did his three sisters. But, unfortunately, he died in an accident at a young age. This caused the family to be very sad. The parents had all their hopes set on Dane. This also made Nikola sad, and he determined that he must equal his brother in worth to the family and take his brother's place. Nikola was also a childhood prodigy. But in a different way. His brother was gifted with literature, but Nikola was gifted with mathematics and science. Tesla was already making his own inventions as a child. Tesla had a photographic memory. Later on he discusses how Tesla eventually came to work for Edison's company. Edison promised Tesla 50,000 dollars, which is about one million dollars in today's term, if he would make inventions for him. Tesla did, and then when he asked for his payment Edison laughed and told him that he "did not understand our American sense of humor". Thus Edison lied and broke his promise. Later on in the book he points out that Tesla was a vegetarian. He mentions once that Tesla, who was a very religious man, read the entire Bible once because he felt guilty that he had not visited his mother, and that he found a passage in the book of Revelation that helped with one of his inventions. Lomas's assessment of Tesla is that he was a brilliant scientist, electrician, and engineer, but a bad businessman and a bad marketer. Today, Tesla's name is all but forgotten, even though Lomas argues that he was "the man who invented the twentieth century". Lomas says that is because of the fact that Tesla was bad at marketing himself and at business. He was not interested in money, but ideas. He did not know how to operate with ruthless businessmen like Thomas Edison and J. Pierpont Morgan. And he also wrote magazine articles advocated very far fetched ideas, ideas that eventually turned out to be correct, but that he should have phrased much more carefully, because his failing to do so cause people to dismiss him as a madman. He mentions that Tesla died in his hotel room in seclusion in January 1943 and that his body was not recovered until about two days later so that his death date was uncertain just as his birthday had been. He mentions that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972) was involved in the suppression of Tesla's work right after his death. In the book the main villain initially is Thomas Edison. But J. Pierpont Morgan is portrayed as being worse. The other main villain is J. Edgar Hoover.
[edit] Books about Masonry
In the beginning of The Hiram Key Knight and Lomas quote from Jesus in the Book of Matthew "Nothing is hidden that will not be made known,or secret that will not come to light, what I tell you on the roof proclaim on the housetops, what I tell you in the dark proclaim in the light". In "The Hiram Key" Knight and Lomas claimed that they had used a Masonic folktale about a man called Hiram Abiff to create a new key to the origins of civilization and of Christianity. Hiram Abif is a character in the first degree initiation ceremony for the Masons. He built King Solomon's Temple. He was murdered by three ruffians, or Juwes, named Jubelo, Jubela, and Jubelum, because he would not tell them a secret. His name has never been recorded historically, although a similar character appears in the book of Kings in the Bible. Knight and Lomas claimed that he and that character were one and the same. And they claim that the story of Hiram Abiff is based on an ancient Egyptian pharao who was murdered under similar circumstances. They claimed to have discovered that the ancient Egyptian pharaos had living and dying resurrection ceremonies and that this and their belief system, which was called Ma'at were copied by Jesus and his followers. Knight and Lomas claimed that they had discovered that the Roman Catholic Church had distorted the true story of Jesus, which the Gnostics, the Knights Templar, and the Masons all knew, and that this is why the Catholic Church so passionately opposed these groups. They claim that Jesus did not actually resurrect people from the dead, but that it was an initiation ceremony for his Jewish religion, and that it was a common practice for Jewish religions at the time to call their members the living, and the uninitiated the dead. And Knight and Lomas claimed that the term messiah originally merely meant a Jewish patriot who would liberate his people, not a god, and that the Christian understanding of the term is completely alien to the Old Testament.
They came to the conclusion that the story of Jesus was partially based on pagan stories such as that of Osiris. They said that Jesus organized his Jewish religion, the Jerusalem Church, into a secret society and had secret initiation ceremonies. They claim that Nazareth did not exist at the time and that Jesus of Nazareth is a mistranslation of Jesus the Nazarene. And that at the time the term Nazarene referred to Jesus and his followers the Jerusalem Church, rather than having anything to do with a city.
They said that they believed Masonry evolved out of the Knights Templar, a Roman Catholic military religious order. They said that the Knights Templar developed heretical beliefs because they were developed by Jews descended from the leaders of the Jerusalem Church who knew the true teachings of Jesus. This was why the Roman Catholic Church suppressed the Knights Templar. The Knights Templar then escaped from France to England, Scotland, and Ireland and became a secret society called the Masons.
The Masons continued to hold this secret knowledge about the true Jesus, according to the authors, and that was why Roman Catholic Pope Clement XII (reigned 1730-1740) condemned Masonry in a papal encyclical called In Eminti on April 28, 1738.
Knight and Lomas claimed in their books that Masonry had roots in Gnosticism, which was an ancient Christian heresy that taught that everything was either good or evil and that there was no in between. It taught that the spiritual world was good and the material world was evil. Gnosticism was opposed bitterly by the Roman Catholic Church, and the authors claim that Masonry's Gnostic roots are one of the reasons the Roman Catholic Church opposes it.
In the Hiram Key the authors describe Masonic Temples as having black and white squares and say that this is because the Masons share the Gnostic belief that everything is either good or evil and that there is no in between and that this is what the black and white squares symbolise, the white squares symbolizing the good spiritual world, the black the evil materialistic world.
In the book the authors said that Christians should not find their conclusion to be threatening to their religion. Because if Christianity is dependant on miracles for it to be valid, then its message is hollow. To believe that Jesus would bring rotting corpses back to life, according to them, is as absurd as believing "that magic carpets really were once the mode of transportation in Bagdad". The important thing about Christianity is Jesus's worldview and philosophy, not his supposed miracles. They said they found Jesus to be a wonderful role model, he said "Listen to the word,understand knowledge,love life, and none will persecute you, nor any oppress you, other than yourselves". They said they thought was one of the greatest truths that was ever spoken.
In a sequel called The Second Messiah the authors claim to have discovered that the Turin Shroud is actually an image of Jacques de Molay, not of Jesus Christ. They claimed that the Knights Templar denied that Jesus was god in their initiation ceremonies because they were descended from the original Jewish followers of Jesus and therefore knew that he was a Jewish freedom fighter not a god. And they claimed that while the Roman Catholic Church chose St. Peter as its first pope there was another branch of Christianity that remained Jewish that chose St. Mary Magdalene as its first pope. They claim that this secret truth is encoded in tarot cards, which is why one of them has a female pope on it, according to the authors.
The authors eventually came with another book called The Book of Hiram: Freemasonry,Venus, and the Secret Key to the Life of Jesus . In the introduction the authors talked about a speech they were about to give in Italy about The Hiram Key and said that a prominent official in the Roman Catholic Church had heard about it and said that he had read it but wanted them to stop talking about it, he said "It is an excellent book but there are certain things which should not be said". In The Book of Hiram the authors go further about Hiram. Although Hiram Abiff's name has never been recorded historically, there is a reference in a new translation in the Bible in the book of Kings to a person who a similar name and might be the same person, the authors point out. They then investigate the story further and say that Hiram Abiff who built King Solomon's Temple was involved in astrology. Because the ancient Jews believed in astrology and this was connected with the way King Solomon's Temple was specifically constructed.
They claim that King Solomon and the stonemasons who built his temple were devoted to the planet Venus. Venus is the bright morning star. In Masonic ritual it is said that the Masons will "Lift their eyes to that bright morning star in the east whose rising brings peace and tranquility to the human race."
Later on Lomas continued his research into Masonic history separately from Knight. He wrote a book called Turning the Hiram Key. In the Hiram Key he and Knight claimed to have found a key to the origins of Christianity, religion, and civilization. Now Lomas in Turning the Hiram Key claimed that he had found a way to use that key to unlock the door of the secrets. In the book Lomas, who is also a scientific historian, connects Masonry with neurological science and expressed his belief that what Masonry is about is what is inside human souls individually and collectively. He talks about how Masonic ritual appeal's to a belief system that is inside a person's mind and soul. And he talks about what this reveals about religion and society in general. A very interesting observation he makes is that church services and religious rituals lower one's blood pressure. He talks about how the individual Masons sometimes make painting called tracing boards that depict the moral qualities of their souls. He talks about how Masonry says that it "makes good men better". He mentions that people who are not Masons are called cowans. In the beginning of the book he talks about an experience he had when he saw an electrical storm and this caused him to have a peak experience. He also talks about cosmic consciousness and tries to draw from the writing of W.L. Wilmhurst to uncover more about the spiritual and religious side of Masonry.
[edit] Other Interests
Although Lomas' chief area of research is on the subject of Freemasonry and science, as a historian he writes also at a professional level on the Neolithic period and archaeoastronomy, ancient mysteries, stone monuments and megaliths, and on both astronomical and astrological data.
According to an interview with Martin Faulks of Lewis Masonic, it is thought by some Brethren that Dr Robert Lomas might be the inspiration for the character of Dr Robert Langdon, in Dan Brown's thriller, The Da Vinci Code. The book makes reference to Rosslyn Chapel, which is a place long been famous for its possible connections to Freemasonry and its attendant rituals, as publicised by Knight and Lomas in their international best-selling book The Hiram Key.
Whilst writing The Book Of Hiram and as part of his on-going research into the cultural origin of scientific ideas, Lomas established an electronic database of Masonic material named The Web of Hiram, as part of the University of Bradford's Special Collections Library. Lomas has also made available an online version of William Preston's Illustrations of Masonry at his official website.
In the past, Lomas has worked on electronic weapons systems and emergency services command and control systems. He has now established himself as one of the worlds leading authors on the history of Freemasonry and currently lectures on Information Systems at the University of Bradford's School of Management, one of the UK's leading business schools.
Lomas is said to be a regular speaker on the Masonic lecture circuit and is a regular supporter of the Orkney International Science Festival.
[edit] Education
Lomas gained a First Class Honours degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Salford before being awarded a PhD for his research into solid state physics and crystalline structures.
[edit] Controversy
Lomas's theories about the origins of Freemasonry have caused controversy among Masonic historians. The romantic nature of his writings are reminiscent of other famous masonic authors such as the late J. S. Ward and Arthur Edward Waite. The Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon is particularly critical of Lomas's work, as is Quatuor Coronati Lodge (The lodge of research attached to the United Grand Lodge of England), dubbing it "pseudo-history" and even "fiction". On the other hand, many Masons find Lomas's work interesting and worthy of further study. For example, the Grand Lodge of Queensland, Austrialia asked him to write a history of Freemasonry for its Masonic Training Module.
[edit] Jewellery Designer
Robert Lomas is also a masonic jewellery designer. Working with his daughter Delyth, he produces a range of sterling silver, hand finished Masonic jewellery, using the designs she first made for Bro. Robert to wear. The symbols which attracted him are not only the standard square and compasses but also more subtle Masonic symbols, such as the pillars and centre.
[edit] Works
- The Secrets of Freemasonry: A Suppressed Tradition Revealed, May 2006
- Turning The Hiram Key: Making Darkness Visible, April 2005
- Freemasonry and the Birth of Modern Science, June 2003
- The Invisible College: The Royal Society, Freemasonry and the Birth of Modern Science, Mar 2002
- The Man Who Invented The Twentieth Century: Nikola Tesla, Forgotten Genius of Electricity, May 1999
- Forecasting for Sales and Materials Management, April 1988
With Christopher Knight
- The Book Of Hiram: Freemasonry, Venus and the Secret Key to the Life of Jesus, April 2003
- Uriel's Machine: The Ancient Origins of Science, March 1999
- The Holy Grail, part of Mysteries Of The Ancient World: The Mysteries of the Ancient World Explored and Explained, June 1998
- The Second Messiah: Templars, The Turin Shroud and the Great Secret of Freemasonry, April 1997
- The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus, March 1996
[edit] See also
- Freemasonry
- Rosslyn Chapel
- Dan Brown
- Archaeoastronomy
- Astronomy
- Astrology
- Neolithic
- Christianity
- Lewis Masonic
