These ancient secrets were kept alive in what modern scholars call the ancient “Mystery Schools.†Held in the highest secrecy and reverence, the teachings of the Mystery Schools were said to contain the secrets of the universe and the keys to great and magical practices. Members of the Mystery Schools were endowed with extraordinary insight and superhuman qualities and abilities. Forefathers of modern western thought—Homer, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle—were initiates of the Mysteries, who changed history with their philosophies and advanced knowledge. With the dawn of Christianity came a period of great change. In a quest to gain authority over the masses, the Church began to root out all traces of the wisdom of the Mystery Schools. Even Plato’s famous Academy, which flourished for over 900 years from 387 BC until 529 AD, was closed down by Emperor Justinian, who claimed the Academy was Pagan. As a result, students of the Mystery Schools went into hiding. To safeguard the wisdom, they shrouded their ancient secrets in allegories and symbols and placed it all under the guardianship of various streams of “esoteric†societies, the members of which have included Galileo, Copernicus, Da Vinci, Kepler, Isaac Newton, and Napoleon.