I'm making a list of historical (non-fictional) individuals involved with espionage (or espionage techniques) and the occult or ESP. So far, I've only found four, not including people mentioned in The Men Who Stare at Goats and Behind the Iron Curtain. So I'm looking for any other suggestions, particularly from 20th and 21st centuries. #espionage #occult #askmastodon
So far I have these 4:
Johannes Trithemius (1462 — 1516) Wrote extensively on the occult, but his books were encoded texts on cryptography and steganography, a practice he invented of concealing a message inside another message.
Aleister Crowley (1875 — 1947) Either a lifelong con-man, opportunist and traitor who campaigned against US involvement in WWI to Germany's benefit. Or he was a life-long agent of British intelligence, recruited while a student in Cambridge, whose most successful operation was to make German sympathizers in the US look ridiculous by declaring Ireland's independence while standing in front of the Statue of Liberty-
-Either way, the British Naval Intelligence Division rejected his request to aid in the war effort during WWII.
Uri Geller (1968 — present) Israeli-British illusionist, magician, television personality, and self-proclaimed psychic. Psychic consultant for the CIA.
John Dee (1527 — 1608) Queen Elizabeth I's spymaster was also obsessed with angels. He spent most of the back half of his life attempting to commune with them to bring about a pre-apocalyptic unity of humanity.