Jack Parsons: Brilliant Scientist or Dangerous Occultist? episode artwork

EPISODE · Mar 21, 2026 · 46 MIN

Jack Parsons: Brilliant Scientist or Dangerous Occultist?

from Divergent Files Podcast · host Divergent Files Podcast

Jack Parsons helped ignite the American rocket age.He helped build the foundations of JPL and Aerojet. He pushed propulsion science forward. He helped drag humanity toward the stars.Then, in 1946, he and L. Ron Hubbard locked themselves inside one of the strangest ritual experiments in modern American history: the Babalon Working.In this episode of Divergent Files, we follow the real paper trail behind Jack Parsons: rocket engineer, occult practitioner, student of Aleister Crowley, federal person of interest, and one of the most unsettling forgotten architects of the modern world.Using journals, letters, biographies, FBI files, and historical records, we investigate the overlap between rocket science, Thelema, occult ritual, Cold War secrecy, and the violent 1952 explosion that ended Parsons’ life.This is not about proving the supernatural.It’s about confronting a historical fact most people were never taught:One of the men who helped launch the space age also believed ritual could change reality.And if that sounds absurd……history gets worse.Divergent Files explores hidden history, scientific anomalies, declassified records, and the moments where belief, power, and reality stop staying in their lanes.

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Jack Parsons helped launch modern rocketry. In 1946, he also took part in one of the strangest occult rituals in American history. This episode follows the paper trail where science, ritual, and power collide.

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Jack Parsons: Brilliant Scientist or Dangerous Occultist?

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