Jacques Bergier

By Emily Westfall

Biography

Early Life

Jacques Bergier was born Yakov Bergier in 1912 to a Jewish family in Odessa. His family fled the Russian Civil War to France in 1920.

Scientific Pioneer

Bergier studied physics, chemistry and engineering in Paris in the early 1930s. He created a laboratory with fellow student Alfred Eskenazi in France to study chemical and nuclear reactions spreading the release of nuclear energy from lighter elements. His scientific team spearheaded research into the element polonium and “registered the first patent for electronic cooling of nuclear batteries”.

Military

Bergier served in the military as a member of the French Underground during WWII. During his service, was the only survivor of the Free Zone Frenchmen who located and informed London intelligence of V-2 rocket construction sites in the Lyons area, specifically Peenemunde, which was later destroyed by the Royal Air Force in 1943. These actions led to the possibility of death from the ‘’Abwehr’’, Gestapo and, ironically, other members of the Resistance. This led to his capture by the German Gestapo and transportation to a concentration camp. While at the camp, Bergier refused to cooperate and was severely tortured. He documented his experiences in his book, ‘’Secret Weapons-Secret Agents’’ and detailed that he was glad that the intelligence he managed to gather was used by the Allies to save lives. After being liberated in 1945 he received various French military awards including the Legion of Honor, Croix de Guerre(Military Cross), and Rosette de la Resistance(Rosette of Resistance).

Marco Polo in WWII

In an effort to fight the Vichy regime, he founded the Marco Polo network and worked with Nazi occupiers for his radio network and “gadgets for sabotage and guerilla operations”. These inventions included the first letter bomb, which could easily be put in tight spaces due to its thin design, and a blowpipe for projectile poison needles. He was also a part time consultant for French Intelligence while he began writing his books, some appropriately on the topic of espionage.

Writing

Jacques Bergier was a writer for a French Communist newspaper even though his abandonment of the USSR, even though he fled when he was a child, led the Communists to question his ideology. After the war, he also co-founded the Planete which had French, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian, and German editions. He also wrote a wide array of novels on espionage, science and science fiction/the paranormal. His most famous book was Le Matin des magiciens or Morning of the Magicians written with Louis Pauwels, a journalist and alchemist, in 1960 which was awarded the title of bestseller. The team did 5 years of research to complete the book on a variety of topics including, but not limited to, treatment of magic and black magic in history as well as claims that Hitler was a black magic occultist. Its message led to a revival of the practice of magic in Europe. He also wrote 40 other works with various different co-authors. The majority are in French but there are some that are in English or have been translated to English, as well as Spanish, and Italian.

Death

He died at the age of 66 on November 24, 1978 in Paris of a cerebral hemorrhage. He left behind his wife Jacqueline Bernadeau.

Contributions to Pseudoarchaeology

In general, the book ‘’The Morning of the Magicians’’ was the defining volume of his career, despite his other books on various topics. However, there is a common belief that Bergier’s partner, Louis Pauwels, is the main or only contributor to the book material. Pauwel’s structure of the book relies on evolutionary dialectic proof, rather than logic by setting facts and events against each other to come to a conclusion. They also support their arguments using examples of groups from the past(Rosecrucians, the “Nine Unknown”) and fiction, to “see through the veil of reality”. This text acts, thoroughly, as a precursor to esoteric conspiracy theories through the complete compilation of pseudoarchaeological topics in one place.

The Perfected Man

The idea of the “perfected man” is presented in ‘’The Morning of the Magicians’’ through the utilization of the book’s structure itself. Bergier and Pauwels juxtapose long quotes and synopsis blocks to emphasize the issues involved in man’s potential for the future. The main section of the book that describes this topic is the chapter, “Some Reflection on Mutants” and it also suggests the idea that mankind is mutating, especially in their brains, to become the “perfected man” in and “awakened state”. This idea is similar to that of Neitzsche who posited the “new man” using a dialectic structure in his work, however, his work was heavily, negatively stigmatized by Hitler who interpreted Neitzsche’s ideas literally. The authors also included Gurdjieff’s main principle of an “awakened state”, that man is currently asleep and needs to be shocked awake to truly appreciate the depth of reality. Bergier and Pauwels added to these ideas with some of their own various “theories” such as the involvement of magicians and alchemists in a quest for the state of perfection to discover new insight into modern mankind. Another claim involved H.G. Wells’s concept of “open conspiracy” to change society in a positive global way drawing from the best scientific minds of the time. This was connected to groups like the Rosecrucians, and secret societies with clues and possible planned agendas for the way to the “perfected man”. This concept pervades different levels of literature for the next 20 years after ‘The Morning of the Magicians” was published under a variety of different names. Overall, this topic is the authors area of greatest impact, amplified by all of the other topics mentioned in the book and eventually leading to acceptance of “open conspiracy” of the world.

Inspiration

There were two instrumental sources of inspiration for ‘’The Morning of the Magicians’’: Charles Fort and George Gurdjieff. Fort was the main source of the writing structure utilized by Bergier and Pauwels to the effect that their central argument is made up of quixotic dialect allowing for the Hegelian claim that reality can be expressed in different categories. The first chapter of ‘’The Morning of the Magicians’’ is also about Charles Fort and his ideas: anomalous events manipulated as part of a dialectical progression and the definition of the universe as a unified, totality of the universe directed by an intellectual being. Another follower of Fort is obvious in the works of Frank Edwards which are essentially lists of unexpected and impossible events that defy logical explanation, like steel nails in rock or spontaneous human combustion. George Gurdjieff also impacted the structure of the book, especially in Part 3 through the varied structure and musical forms involved in the different chapters. Pauwels utilized Hinduism and Gurdjieff’s work to help realize new ideas outside current intellectualism, however Gurdjieff and his circle of followers are heavily criticized by Pauwels as well. In the end, Gurdjieff was only rediscovered due to the publication of ‘’The Morning of the Magicians’’ and his involvement, even though it was only an inspirational one.

Ancient Astronauts

In ‘’The Morning of the Magicians’’, Bergier and Pauwels compiled historical and scientific data in an attempt to increase the plausibility of the ancient astronauts “theory”. This is an effort to hypothesize “to the limits of the imagination” to find relationships between unexplainable events and the destiny of mankind, in the form of the meaning of life itself. The main topics explored are Telepathy, ESP, authenticated sightings of UFOS, and photographs of Loch Ness Monster. Bergier and Pauwels originally faced Soviet ancient astronaut propaganda but they created their own version meant to undermine religion and the occult by attributing religion and magic to the work of aliens as a less anti-religious claim. Finally, Bergier included the topic of “extraterrestrial genesis” which is continually described in some of his other works, as well.