The great German poet Friedrich Schiller is known for many things, but his little known short story The Ghost Seer is not typically one of them. As little known as this story is by western audiences however, its importance not only as demonstration into the methodology of empire, human psychology and the nature of mankind make this profound document one for the ages and necessary reading for anyone engaged in any form of political intelligence or cultural warfare. In this lecture, Cynthia Chung (director of the Rising Tide Foundation) introduces the Venetian Empire and the leading epistemological warfare of the day run out of Padua University by intelligence agents such as Paolo Sarpi, and Antonio Contarini who reacted to the humanist League of Cambrai of 1508 which nearly wiped Venice off the map with a counter offensive that splintered Christianity and sent Europe into centuries of irrational warfare as a divide to conquer tactic more sophisticated than is often realized today.

Cynthia then takes the viewer through an introduction to Schiller’s story the Ghost seer and the great poet/historian’s intent to inoculate all future leaders from this evil that he knew would continue to plague mankind until the light of understanding could finally be imposed onto this shadowy world. Supplementary material to the class:

Schiller’s The Ghost Seer (or the Apparitionist)

A Study of Schiller’s Ghost Seer (written article supplementary to the above lecture)

Part one

Part two