Today we are taking a trip down the rabbit hole to look into the dark and mysterious side
of physics that often gets ignored sometimes those with scientific Minds get sidetracked
down a different path s when one of the best scientists the world has ever known decides
to mix their love of science with magic and the occult find out today on matter [Music]
Jack Parsons was born Marvel Whiteside Parsons in October of 1914 and would spend much of his
formative years in the areas around Los Angeles from an early age he suffered with a number of
difficulties including dyslexia which made his time at school very difficult and was on the
receiving end of much bullying but his love of Science and specifically explosives and
their applications began to grow from an early age, and he quickly developed a knack for them,
he eventually dropped out of college when he got his first job working at
the Hercules powder company where he began his work with various types of chemicals and
explosives in order to discover new ways of combining them to increase their power
Parsons was the first person to develop a castable composite rocket propellant and his contributions
would greatly Advance the fields of solid fuel as well as liquid fuel Rockets he would eventually
go on to co-found one of the biggest names in rocketry that is still in operation today if you
were to just hear about these parts of his life he would seem much like many of the other scientists
at the time but Jack was leading another life as well one with a deep respect for the current day
occult leaders like Aleister Crowley and filled with magic rituals and practices that would help
fuel his dream of building a rocket strong enough to reach the moon at a time when much
of the current scientific Community thought that achievement still in the realm of Science Fiction
From his early career Jack set himself apart from his peers with an unparalleled understanding of
explosives and how he could mix them together to create new compounds with far more Firepower
throughout his life his work has paved the way for the modern field of rocketry and before Parson's
time there was really no such thing as Rockets as we think of them today he was the first scientist
to invent a new type of solid fuel that could be loaded into a specially designed engine that will
burn and produce an enormous amount of thrust this work quickly got him noticed by many of the big
names in science which led him into positions at some of the top research companies of the time as
well as work on top secret government projects but many of the people who supported his professional
career didn't have any clue at that time about the other major passion in his life, Magic
From his time as a teenager Parsons had maintained an interest in the occult
specifically the group Ordo Templis Orientis run by Aleister Crowley and everything else
that was included in his magical practice of Thalema rituals to summon Spirits, Elementals,
and other otherworldly beings became a regular thing for Parsons as he attempted to gain more
knowledge and power from the supernatural in order to further his work he spent a couple of
years with Crowley which brought him further into occult teachings which would eventually
lead him to the point he wanted to perform his own massive ritual towards the end of his life
this ritual would go on to be called The Babalon Working (1946) and would aim to end the current
age of the world and begin the dawn of the new one by calling forth a Divine archetypal named Babalon
During his time deepening his understandings and workings in Magic he was also continuing
to advance his career in rocketry and in the year 1942 he founded a new company. Jack along with a
number of other big names in early rocketry at the time founded a company that still remains
one of the top institutions for rocketry in the world today, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory or JPL
in Pasadena California. Here they set out with a goal to improve on the rocket engines they
had already designed in an attempt to make them strong enough to take a rocket out through the
layers of the atmosphere and into space the new laboratory soon got noticed by NASA and the U.S
government and began working with them to develop new technologies. JPL has always maintained a good
working relationship with NASA, but their feelings on Parsons were not so comfortable
Many of the scientists and higher-ups working at NASA had their own thoughts on Jack Parsons,
his interest in Magic, and his willingness to merge it with his scientific endeavors While Jack
maintained that the magic he was practicing was real and would eventually be understood
through the workings of quantum mechanics most others at this time did not share this belief
and looked at him with a cautious gaze Parsons also continued to have a working relationship
with many academics who were caught up in the anti-communist times of the Cold War which also
caused a bit of negative attention to be cast out on him from people within the government
eventually this led to NASA ending all forms of their relationship with Parsons essentially
blocking him from ever gaining a security clearance to work on government projects again
after his expulsion from the professional world of rocketry. Jack would go on to work
at other explosive companies as well as building pyrotechnics for Hollywood movies sadly this time
would not last long and the world would lose the genius scientist that was Jack Parsons when he
was just 37 years old. As he was getting ready to go on a vacation one day he got a rush order
for explosives to be used in a new movie. While he was mixing the compounds something went wrong
which sent off a chain reaction with the copious piles of explosive materials he kept at his house.
This ultimately resulted in a powerful explosion that left him with injuries that would quickly
lead to his death on route to the hospital. The world was left wondering what else he could have
achieved if fate had turned out different that day, but the legacy of Jack Parsons lives on
in his development of the modern field of rocketry and his controversial partnership with many occult
practitioners at that time He has joined the group of physicists who dedicated their lives
not only to science but also to practices that try to shape the natural world through different means
He was not alone and did you know that there have been quite a few famous scientists who
also dabbled in more magical practices you may be surprised to learn about some of them the father
of physicists and calculus Isaac Newton was an avid Alchemist he tried for many years to produce
the fabled 'Philosopher Stone' which he thought would help him to find the way of turning base
metals into precious gold. A German physicist by the name of Johann Zöllner, whose work is often
credited as given many of the key ideas to higher dimensional physics. He believed in spiritualism
and performed many experiments trying to prove the supernatural abilities of magicians and psychics
of the time. Another famous scientist you may have heard of , J Robert Oppenheimer one of
Parsons contemporaries was also a practicing occultist. Even going as far to perform a
magical ritual with some of the atomic bomb tests during his time with the Manhattan Project. These
scientists and many more were able to be held in high regard in the scientific community
while also engaging in practices that were not supported by many scientists of the time.
Looking through the scientists of the past you don't have to go far to find one who believed in
practices that we now consider to be fantasy. Could they have been RIGHT? Is there MORE to
our universe than modern science has been able to uncover thus far? Could it be possible that
they were tapping into a different realm of the universe that allowed them to see our reality
as it REALLY is? Only time will tell.. Thanks for watching! Leave us a comment down below and let us
know what you think of the meshing of Science and Magic! See you next time on Matter!
To this day, there’s a joke in the aerospace community that JPL stands for “Jack Parsons Lives.” The Crater Parsons, named in his honor, happens to be on the moon’s dark side.