What Does Reynolds's Secret Societies: When Does Paranoia Make Sense?

As the author of both fiction and nonfiction books, John Lawrence Reynolds has published more than twenty books, including the book Secret Societies: Inside The Freemasons, The Yakuza, Skull and Bones, and the World’s Most Notorious Secret Organizations. In Secret Societies, Reynolds explores the information and speculation about societies such as the Assassins in ancient Middle East, the Knights Templar, Freemasons, the Priory of Sion, Druids, Gnostics, Kabbalah, Rosicrucians, Wicca, and Skull & Bones. Secret Societies also includes criminal organizations such as triads, the Mafia, Cosa Nostra, and Yakuza. Reynolds uses multiple sources to form the general idea of each secret society, and attempts to divide the rumor from the truth. Secret Societies tells the stories of some of the most notorious societies in history without the conspiracy theories made purely for the entertainment value. Reynolds explains how the rumors about a

Reynolds says the secret societies’ “activities, no matter how much or how little we subscribe to their tenets, should remain entirely their concern”(Reynolds 271). However, Reynolds admits some instances of secret societies that became harmful. The chapter Critics, Alarmists, and Conspiracy Theorists: When Does Paranoia Make Sense? gives the example of the Order of the Solar Temple, which caused the murder of all of the society's members. Reynolds declares that the Order’s “impact may have been minimal and limited, but the lesson of its birth and demise is important if only because it determines the transition point between a cult and a secret society”(Reynolds 272). If the society becomes harmful, then the society does not have the right to secrecy anymore. Nonetheless, most secret societies do not become dangerous, and Reynolds does not think that people should violate the society's rights only based on speculation and fear from the