The Lost Symbol - Book Review

The Lost Symbol
Dan Brown
Doubleday September 2009

Well I purchased my copy this week - I got 40% off the original retail price which I thought is was very a good deal. I stayed up to 2 oclock this morning reading this latest Robert Langdon adventure. This novel takes place in Washington DC.



Peter Solomon is the director of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. He is an old friend of Robert Langdons and on this day he calls his old friend Robert Langdon (who lives in Boston) and asks him to come to DC to deliver a lecture for a function, because the original speaker has fallen ill. Robert is also asked to bring the package with him that Solomon had asked him to look after many years earlier.

When Robert arrives in DC he is taken to the Capitol Building and manages to arrives at the National Statuary Hall right on 7 pm. Instead of finding a crowd gathered to hear his lecture, there is noone there. Robert then receives a mysterious phone call from the man who claims to have kidnapped Peter Solomon. Shortly after, a scream is heard from the Capitol Rotunda.

On the floor in the middle of the Rotunda is a ghastly item. A bloody hand and forearm, wearing a masonic ring, stuck on a wooden stake so that the hand is pointing upward. On the fingers are tattoed some small symbols.

Robert recognises the symbol and the meaning of the hand. The Hand of the Mysteries is an invitation to take a journey to discover the sacred wisdom and greatest secrets of the ages.

And so the journey begins. Robert has 12 hours to find Peter Solomon before the madman kills him. In return the madman wants to know the answers - what are the greatest secrets of the freemasons. Robert has help and hindrance from the CIA in the form of the Director of the Office of Security. He must travel around the city of washington DC to find the clues. Robert's visits take him down into the depths of the Capitol, to the George Washington Masonic Memorial, to the Botanic Gardens, to the Washington National Cathedral and to the House of the Temple.

The gist of the novel is that the mind is much more powerful than we think.
Everyone has heard the saying that we only use 10% of our brains.
So what is the other 90% used for?
Well this book will answer that question. I guarantee it!!!

I thoughly enjoyed this novel for the new knowledge I learned - both of freemason history and what the human brain is truely capable of doing - if we just believe.

The main and official book website
The Lost Symbol in Australia
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The Lost Symbol map of Washington DC
Dan Brown Video Interviews
Noetic science
Freemasonry and The Lost Symbol

The Key of Solomon was supposed to be the original title of the next book according to Dan Brown himself. So why is the story now completely different?

Sighs of relief are likely still rising from Vatican City (this month). Masonic lodges in Europe and North America, on the other hand, could be excused for feeling a little twitchy. They’ve just been caught in the eye of a literary storm by bestselling storyteller Dan Brown. Book Review - Canada

Noetic sciences are explorations into the nature and potentials of consciousness using multiple ways of knowing—including intuition, feeling, reason, and the senses. Noetic sciences explore the "inner cosmos" of the mind (consciousness, soul, spirit) and how it relates to the "outer cosmos" of the physical world. (see noetic link above)