10.06
The secret society was first described in 19th century works by Louis Jacolliot, and in the 20th century by the fantasy writer and Theosophist Talbot Mundy. In 1960, Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier wrote about the Nine Unknown Men in their Morning of the Magicians. In their works, they claimed that the society occasionally revealed itself to wise outsiders such as Pope Sylvester II who was said to have received, among other things, training in supernatural powers and a robotic talking head from the group. In more recent times, according to this circle, the Nine assisted humanity by revealing the secret of the cholera vaccine.
Among independent researchers, the Nine Unknown is often cited as one of the oldest and most powerful secret societies in the world. Unusually for “conspiracy theorists”, the image of the group is largely, though not entirely, benign. Theosophists also believe the Nine to be a real organization that is working for the good of the world.
Some modern Indian scientists such as Jagdish Chandra Bose were said to believe in or even to be members of the Nine although documentation on this issue is predictably scant. Believers in the Nine also point to the mysterious iron pillar of Delhi, which they claim to have been constructed at a time before the technology to create it existed in common circulation. However, this is disputed by other scholars and researchers.