Hugh McFarland

Hugh McFarland (born 1950, Carlisle, Cumbria, UK) is the author of the controversial work ' [http://www.freemasonry-inside-out.com Freemasonry Inside Out] '.

Although listed as an 'anti-Mason' on the authoritativeFact|date=September 2008 Masonicinfo website, McFarland claims on his own website [ [http://www.mcfarland.icom43.net] ] that he is not actually anti-masonic in the usual sense of the word but has rather undertaken a sociological and psychological study of Freemasonry based on his personal observations of over 20 years membership, academic background in behavioral sciences and knowledge of hypnosis gained from a tutor of Paul McKenna.

He claims his initial motivation was not to reveal any of the so-called secrets or to criticize individual masons but to understand why, after leaving Freemasonry following a near-fatal accident, the Masonic Oath still had such a hold on him. As the Oath forbade writing about the ritual, putting pen to paper helped break its spell. In reflecting on his previous membership and following new avenues of research, he became concerned that the ritual cleverly concealed aspects of manipulation and conditioning and that it was masons themselves that were the victims and not the unsuspecting general public as is commonly believed.

Initially he published his observations in an eBook called 'Hoodwinked - How I Slipped the Freemason's Grip' which received mainly negative comments from contributors to the newsgroup 'alt.freemasonry' [ [http://groups.google.com/group/alt.freemasonry/topics] ] almost all of which stated that they didn't need to read it in order to know what it said and be qualified to warn others off!

McFarland claimsFact|date=September 2008 that criticism of his hostility towards Freemasonry [For an example see the [http://www.masonicinfo.com/others_pg2.htm#McFarland anti-mason page] on masonicinfo.com] is not related at all to what he has written about freemasonry but mainly attacks him for writing a free guide for other eBook authors on the benefits of using the US library system as a way of promoting their work.

In 2007, together with John Hamill, Curator and Librarian of the Grand Lodge of England, and others, he featured on a DVD called 'Freemasons: Behind the Craft'. [ [http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1230427/ IMDB entry] ] Following the success of the DVD, it is anticipated that a hard copy print version of 'Freemasonry Inside Out' will be published soon.Fact|date=September 2008

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