Scanners, or something

About 17 years ago, must be around 1993 or 94, my sister and I where very much into the occult. At the time I was reading the work of Eliphas Levy and I found that he often refers to a grand grimmoire called " le dragon rouge". Back then there where a few occult bookstores in the city of Antwerp and since I suddenly had my mind set on getting a glimpse of a copy of this book we went to Antwerp and started to ask around, something that was not very appreciated by a lot of people. One owner threw us out of his store just for asking about it. Another said that if I wanted a copy of the book I had to go to Paris with enough money. And yet another person told us that the actual Dragon rouge was not a book, but more like a medieval occult magazine passed around 'under the counter' in France. I was very young at the time and it didn't take long for me to be discouraged and abandon my search. Next to the bookstores, Antwerp also had a few witches-cafes', or back rooms where witches and occult practitioners gathered, during our search we often ended up in some of those where we met a lot of 'interesting' persons.
Take in mind that this was the pre-internet age for us common folks, so you actually needed to gather with people if you wanted to be social ... and the only source for knowledge was either the library or other people.

It was in one of those places that we met with an elder man, who first of all warned us about how searching for certain occult books was not a good idea, bla bla bla...
But one day he started rambling on about what he called "scanners".
---Just to be clear, he was not talking about the movie or the novel but about something entirely different.--
Now he didn't tell much about it because according to him, knowing to much was dangerous. He just went on about how they control the world and how you did not want to meet any of them, how dangerous they where, etc... and how looking for certain information could draw to much attention to yourself. he said " believe me, when you meet a scanner, you will not have a doubt about it and you'll regret ever meeting one of them pretty soon". He was very serious about it and also very scared talking about it... he kind off left us in the dark with the rest of the story...
I have never seen the man again after that but needles to say that my curiosity was sparked. (tell me not to search for something and I will do exactly the opposite)

anyway, after searching and asking many questions I never found an answer. There was an RPG named "scanners" on the early internet, a White Wolf production. I often wondered if he was referring to that.. maybe he had read it already and confused RPG with truth, like so many did back then.

So, my question here is obvious: Scanners,
(not the movie scanners,not the RPG scanners, not the hardware you connect to your computer)
but another kind of "scanners" people,

Has anyone ever heard of anything like this? If so, this curious mind really wants to know about it, even after 17 years.

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On a side note, I haven't thought of that book "le dragon rouge" in years. Chances are that by now a copy is republished somewhere and available to the public. If anyone knows, pls let me know.
and just to make sure, I don't mean the book "red dragon" about Hannibal lector, thats a different kind of dragon.

edit: mods, I really didnt have a clue where to put this so if I posted in the wrong forum, pls move it to the right one, thanks

ah come on,
it's been over 3 hours since I posted this, unless the old man was full of bs, someone must have heard about this in one way or another?

Just another delusional way of thinking as they are all man made just like Islam, Christian or Wiccan. I am not trying to made anyone upset but people are willing to die for a idea rather than the truth.

Personally I believe of a creator of some sort but I have no of proving that either. Religions have been used for years to control people and their way of thinking or win a election but yet I have never seen a angle or a demon after 60 plus years.

reply to post by truskeptic


I'm not sure what your refering to, the book or the story of the old man.
If your refering to the book then I assure you , it exists. There are publishers who made translations, these are for sale on the internet, prices go from 50 to 400, depending on how good the translations are.(did some homework since my op)
If your refering to the old man, I don't know if there is truth in his story either, that's why I asked

That is why I replied the way I did, he perceived it to have some power greater that his own from the writing and it was some "shared secret" that only a few would understand about the occult. Other perfections of faith do the exact same thing whether be from Islam to being Christian to Wiccan it doesn't make make any difference which one as they all wanting to share a secret with you if you willing to believe.

The old man basically was delusional on what he had taught himself about being what was true. You will always hear stories but in proof, there never is any. Alway do research yourself with any of these "so called" truths, then you will know.

Hope this helps

Is this the first time you post a question regarding the "Scanners"?
I think I've seen a post with the same question somewhere in the forums,
and as a matter of fact I was intrigued & also googled it up but nothing turned up.

Originally posted by normalhuman
Is this the first time you post a question regarding the "Scanners"?

I think I've seen a post with the same question somewhere in the forums,
and as a matter of fact I was intrigued & also googled it up but nothing turned up.

I don't think I ever mentioned this before on ats, hadn't even thougth about it in years till recently. I did an ats search and about 10 pages showed up about airport body scanners,lol, but nothing like I meant (unless I missed it). Google didn't give me anything either...

thanks for searching though

reply to post by truskeptic


Your name already explains that you are a skeptic and all my respect for that.

Personally I feel that I had certain experiences that led me to believe that not everything is make-belief and fairytales, a lot is, but not all of it.
oh well, good thing we don't all think alike or the world would be a boring place

Sorry I can't help with your book search...but your thread reminds me of The Ninth Gate...

Great movie about occult books.

reply to post by Signals


haha I know what you mean, when that movie came out I think I saw it 10 times in a year I'm a sucker for old books...

I used to have a few books in latin en Italian dating from the late 15th century. They where hidden in a safebox in the back of my dresser. Then one day we had a break in and all they took where the books. It's a mystery on its own because 1, there where far more valuable items in the house and 2. no one knew I even had those books (besides close family but I doubt that they took it), let alone where I had hidden them.
I think the Italian one was an opera guide of some sort and probably not worth much, there are to many of them around. The other two in Latin I had no clue what they where about and couldn't find them on the Net or in catologues either. A few weeks previous to that I had sold other 17th century books with original pen drawings in them to an antique dealer, he payed me 2000 euro's for them and I'm sure they where worth more. That guy also knew I had the other books but I didnt want to sell them at the time because I didnt know their value. (maybe he had somthing to do with the break in.... who knows)

How's that story for reminding you about "the ninth gate" lol

About the 'scanners'
I met with my sister yesteday and asked her if she remembered more about the old man who told us about it.
She said that the old man visited those occult gatherings in his own search for the scanners. He had met one years before and since then became obsessed with them.
According to him, a scanner is a person who only needs to take one look at you and in a second can 'scan' you, meaning, they just know everything about you from the moment you where born. He said they had like an 'x-ray mind'.
I don't remember if that where his exact words, but according to my sis that's how he told it.
so anyway
info is still welcome on this one

I vaguely remember the days you are speaking of where the internet actually had good info but most info you needed to meet with people and gain their trust to get to "the good stuff"

I have looked dozens of times for my own conspiracy white elephant after having a brush with it years and years ago (late 90's early part of 2000 was the last time I found the site)
Anyway this site was on alchemy and alchemists and other odd stuff.... and in one part of the site there was a conversation published by a "whistleblower" type purporting to be between several alchemists gloating about how they had sabotaged the pons and fleischmann demo and various alchemists had infiltrated/subverted Everything from Los alamos to the hot fusion projects (euro american and Indian I believe) and major universities.

It went on to detail lots of odd and interesting stuff... and to this day I cannot find ANY MENTION of it anywhere!

Along with a few other things that have just "vaporized" off the internet.