58: THE LEGEND of the Immortal: The Count of Saint Germain
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Hey, it's your buddy AJ from the Y-Files. And Hecklefish. Right, and Hecklefish. We just wanted to tell you that if you want to start a podcast, Spotify makes it easy. It'd have to be easy for humans to understand it. Will you stop that? I'm just saying. Spotify for Podcasters lets you record and edit podcasts from your computer. I don't have a computer. Do you have a phone? Of course I have a phone. I'm not a savage. Well, with Spotify, you can record podcasts from your phone, too.

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In 1745, a mysterious man was arrested in London and charged with spying. He called himself the Count of Saint Germain. And for almost 200 years, the Count of Saint Germain was present at every significant political event in the world and always looked the same age. Some say he walked the earth during the time of Christ. Some say he walks the earth still. This is his story. 1745 was a difficult time in England.

The Jacobites, propped up by the French monarchy, had seized Edinburgh that summer. England was capturing, imprisoning, and executing spies everywhere. The man who called himself the Count of Saint-Germain was arrested in a coffee shop under suspicion of espionage and was taken in for questioning.

The Count's captors quickly learned that he was fluent in every European language and other languages from around the world. Still, he wouldn't tell them where he was from or what his name was. Boris Walpole, the prime minister's son, wrote that Saint-Germain could sing, compose and play the violin so well that one would have thought he was a famous musician. Though he appeared about 45 years old, nobody had seen him before.

While in custody, he gave details about historical events that only an eyewitness would know. St. Germain's jailers found him extremely odd. And during this time of rebellion, foreigners in England were imprisoned simply for being foreign.

Yet somehow, without giving his real name, age or place of birth, the Count of St. Germain was set free. Word quickly got around about this strange man who could speak every language, compose music and spoke of history as if he lived it. When the Prince of Wales heard the stories, he wanted to know more. So he sent for the count. But it didn't matter. The Count of St. Germain was gone.

When Western soldiers returned from the Crusades, they brought with them legends from the East. And one of those was the story of Cartophilus, also known as the Wandering Jew. As Jesus dragged his cross on the way to cavalry, he stopped to catch his breath. Cartophilus stepped into the street and told Jesus to stop resting and move along. Jesus said to Cartophilus, I shall go and I will rest, but you shall not rest until I return. Cartophilus didn't know what Jesus meant by this.

But as the years passed, Kartopoulos' friends and family grew old and died, though he never aged. He was destined to walk the earth immortal until Christ's return. Now, this was taken to be nothing more than a story until 1228, when an Armenian bishop spoke of having dinner with a strange man who spoke of history as if he was there. The man called himself Kartopoulos.

For centuries after, Kartopoulos was seen in the Middle East, then Europe. It seemed as if the wandering Jew was wandering West. Then one day, a mysterious stranger arrived in Paris. He dressed simply but elegantly in all black. He wore diamonds from head to toe. He had rings on every finger and even had diamond buckles on his shoes. He appeared to be about 45 years old, and he called himself the Count of Saint-Germain.

When the Count of Saint-Germain arrived in Paris, he appeared out of nowhere, but he made an instant impression on the social class. He was obviously a man of significant means, but nobody knew where he came from or where he got his money. He became the must-have guest at any dinner party. He was a talented pianist, a singer, and he could play the violin so beautifully that people were moved to tears. And he was a brilliant conversationalist who would dazzle anyone, no matter where they were from.

He was fluent in French, English, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Dutch, German, and Portuguese. And native speakers couldn't detect an accent. The Count could also speak conversational Polish, Chinese, Arabic, Ancient Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit. He had immense knowledge about everything—science, art, philosophy, politics—

But where he really excelled? History. He would give accounts of the lives of Henry VIII, Nero, Cleopatra, and famous historical figures. And when asked how he could know so much about people that had been dead for hundreds of years, the Count would simply smile and say, I was there. He even claimed to have met Jesus Christ personally. The wandering Jew...

Right. This would make the count well over a thousand years old, which brought challenges from Parisian skeptics. But whenever another historian would try to stump the count on obscure details, the count always knew the answers. In addition to being a talented musician, artist and historian, he was also a gifted alchemist.

He claimed he discovered the secret of the philosopher's stone, a process that can change base metals into gold. He said he had discovered the elixir for life, which is how he accounted for his youthful appearance. Saint Germain even impressed the famous philosopher Voltaire, one of the keenest minds at the time. And Voltaire said of Saint Germain, he is the man who knows everything and never dies. Now, I

Now, I admit the story of the Count of St. Germain sounds fantastic and supernatural, but everything we know about him comes from eyewitness accounts. But the only way to really know if the count was telling the truth about his age is to find someone who knew him in the past and could identify him in the present. Turns out there was such a person.

One evening, the Count of Saint-Germain was mingling with the elites in Paris, and Countess von Giorgi recognized him from when he was in Venice in 1710, about 50 years earlier. The Countess asked Saint-Germain if he perhaps had a father or grandfather who was in Venice at the time. He said, no, madam, it was I who had the honor of paying you court.

The countess couldn't believe it. She said the man she had met 50 years ago wasn't more than 45 years old. And here was Saint Germain who looked the same age. In fact, she thought he might have even looked a few years younger. He said, Madam, I am very old. And he went on to give her details of their meeting. And she was stunned and said, that must make you over 100 years old. The count smiled and said, this is not impossible. Soon after that, word reached King Louis who found the story as entertaining, but he didn't give it much thought.

But when the king learned that the count had a process for removing the flaws from gems and turning lead into gold, the king said, bring this man to me at once. The count of Saint Germain accepted the king's invitation and immediately left for the palace at Versailles.

When the Count of Saint Germain arrived at the Royal Palace in Versailles, he was an instant sensation. Casanova himself wrote about their first meeting. He said the Count of Saint Germain was a scholar, linguist, musician and chemist, and as a conversationalist was unequaled. And Casanova noted the count never ate.

He would sip mineral water and occasionally drink herbal tea, but he never saw him consume food of any kind. He's a vampire! Well, that's one of the theories. The Count had traveled to the palace with an assortment of equipment and substances that he used for his alchemy experiments. He created makeup and special face wash for the ladies of the court, which they swore made them look years younger. And he told the king of a process he invented for colors and dyes that would increase the value of French fabrics. But the king wasn't interested in fabric.

He wanted to know about the count's abilities with precious stones. The count said he had just spent five years with the Shah of Persia, who taught him an ancient and closely guarded technique for removing flaws from diamonds and even creating larger diamonds by melting smaller ones together. Now, the king was skeptical of this claim, to which the count replied, Your Majesty, I have witnessed Christ turn water into wine. Diamonds are a mere trifle. The king proposed a test.

King Louis had a diamond that was valued at 6,000 francs, but without its flaw, it would be worth 10,000 francs or more. The Count said he could remove the flaw in a month. A month later, he returned with the diamond. Flawless. King Louis' jeweler examined it and valued the stone at 9,600 francs.

The king was impressed and set the count up with his own laboratory right there in the palace. The Count of St. Germain became a fixture at Versailles. For the next couple of years, the count worked all day in his private lab and spent all night dazzling the king's guests. But one day the king went to pay the count a visit. And once again, the Count of St. Germain was gone.

Throughout the 18th century, the Count of Saint-Germain would pop up all over the world. He was seen by Sir Robert Clive in India. He was at The Hague trying to broker peace between Prussia and Austria. Anton Mesmer, namesake of the word mesmerize, received the count when Mesmer was a young physicist in Germany. He said Saint-Germain possessed a vast understanding of the workings of the human mind and had been directly responsible for teaching Mesmer the art of hypnosis.

Some say this was how the Count was able to talk his way out of the English prison. Jedi mind trick? Yep. I'm not the Count you're looking for. You're not the Count we're looking for. Move along. Move along. Move along. Move along. The Count was in Russia and helped bring Catherine the Great to the throne.

He was in Holland attempting to end the Seven Years' War. He met up with Casanova again in the north of France, where he, according to Casanova's own memoirs, turned a pocket coin into gold. In all of these accounts, Saint-Germain appears 45 years old. After the death of Louis XV, the Count of Saint-Germain suddenly reappeared at Versailles, and he warned King Louis XVI...

and Marie Antoinette of the coming revolution. He said a giant conspiracy would disrupt the entire nation and the king was in danger. Now, the royal couple dismissed him. But in her memoirs, Marie Antoinette wrote that she wished she had taken the count more seriously. In the summer of seventeen seventy six, the Second Continental Congress gathered in Philadelphia to sign the Declaration of Independence. But the meeting wasn't going smoothly. Some delegates feared war with England, the most powerful country on the planet.

Then, just as talks were breaking down, a voice thundered from the back of the room and gave a rousing speech about courage, commitment and freedom. Inspired by these words, the delegates immediately rushed forward. John Hancock had barely finished signing when another took up his quill. America would be free.

When the men looked up to thank this gentleman, he was gone. His name was never recorded. And though the room was locked and guarded, he was able to enter and leave without anyone seeing him. All that's known is that he was a man of average height and build, dressed all in black, who appeared about 45 years old.

In 1779, Saint Germain befriended Prince Charles of Germany and spent the next five years as a guest in the prince's castle. Then, on February 27th, 1784, the Count of Saint Germain died of pneumonia. He was laid to rest at a local church, and his funeral service was attended by many of the people whose lives the Count had affected. Oh, that's it? But, in 1785, a year after his death, the Count of Saint Germain had returned. Human!

In 1785, a year after the Count of Saint-Germain supposedly died, he was seen once again with Anton Mesmer in Germany. Later that year, the French Freemasons had chosen as their representative the Count of Saint-Germain. He was seen at the taking of the Bastille in 1789.

Suspicious!

It is. In 1877, Saint Germain was seen again at a Freemason lodge in Venice. In 1896, theosophists Annie Besant and Madame Blavatsky said the Count had been in contact with them. He claimed to be of an immortal race who come from a civilization hidden beneath the Himalayas. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

What's a theosophist? A theosophy is a religion that claims there's an ancient and secretive brotherhood of spiritual beings known as the masters. And these masters are said to have great wisdom and supernatural powers. In 1914, during World War I, the count was captured by two Bavarian soldiers. They said he spoke many languages and wouldn't tell them where he was from.

But he did say the war would end in 1918. The soldiers thought he was crazy, but they let the man ramble. The count said that a tyrant from the lower classes would wear an ancient symbol and lead Germany into another global war in 1939 and that Germany would be defeated in six years, but not before committing unspeakable acts of violence. The soldiers were so unsettled by the strange man that they let him go. I'm not the count you're looking for. Right.

In 1930, Guy Ballard met the Count of Saint Germain on Mount Shasta in California. And Ballard claimed Saint Germain was one of several ascended masters like Jesus Christ. And Ballard formed an entire religion called the I Am Activity Movement around Saint Germain's teachings. At one point, the I Am religion had over a million members and it still exists today. And there are many other sightings of the count throughout history, but these are the most well-known and best documented. So that leaves us to two big questions. First,

Was the Count of St. Germain a real person? Well, he most definitely was. There's no debate about it. But was he immortal? Well, we'll address that in part two. Wait, what? You're not going to tell us now? Nope. That's a bunch of bulls**t. I have a reason for doing this. In part two, we'll see if we can separate the myths from the facts and figure out who the Count of St. Germain really was. I still say bulls**t.

Thanks for hanging out with me today. My name is AJ. That's Hecklefish. This has been the Y-Files. If you had fun or learned anything, do me a favor and like, subscribe, comment, share. That stuff really helps the channel. And until part two, be safe, be kind, and know that you are appreciated.