The Deeper Secret of the Holy Grail. From The Grail Conspiracies

Augustus said, “The deeper question is why the establishments of the
time attacked the Templars. Do you know why?”

The Templars had been wiped out almost a thousand years ago. Why
was he asking me this? “I suppose it was because they’d been declared
heretics.”

“But those same Templars had long been the primary protectors of the
Vatican. Now, rather suddenly, they were considered heretics. Why?
What caused the change?,” Theo asked.

I shrugged. If there was something I was missing, then let these monks
tell me.

“In truth, the charge of heresy was only a cover. First the Cathars, and
later the Templars were attacked through a combination of greed for
their material wealth, as well as fear of a mysterious power they had
supposedly learned to tap.”

Mysterious power. Was that, I wondered, that rumored ability to create
unlimited wealth?

“There is nothing mysterious about the power,” Augustus broke in. “It’s
nothing more than a basic human potential that we all have, but one
that most of us have been conditioned to overlook. The Templars
learned to tap this power, and that, of course, was extremely
threatening to the establishment, just as it would be—as it is—today.”

The old man paused to sip coffee, then continued: “The established
powers couldn’t afford to let that knowledge leak out into the general
population.”

“Why?”

“Because if it were widely spread, that would destroy the basis of their
own power.”

“What is that power? Do you have any idea?,” I asked.

“The established powers of the day, of whatever day, find that the more
we ordinary people believe in our own limitations, the more their control
is enhanced,” Brother Theo said. “Why? Because if we believe we are
limited, if we believe that our problems are beyond our control, then our
own sense of limitations bestows power on them.”

Brother Augustus cut in: “That is the great secret, the deeper secret
that the establishments of every age don’t want us to know: that we are
not dependent on them, that we have within ourselves the power to
change the flow of events, even—especially—those outside our direct
physical control.”

The room went silent as the old monk spoke. From the glances that
passed between Theo and Jack, I got the sense that Brother Augustus
had said something that outsiders weren’t supposed to hear.