Esoteric intelligence involves the study and use of unconventional methods to gather information and disrupt state-level adversaries.

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Historically, it also focused on the physical and psychological conditioning of operatives in the field, as well as those operating from afar.

During the twentieth century, states allocated black budgets to clandestine units researching altered states of awareness, the use of hypnosis and enhanced persuasion. Naturally, conventional tradecraft, such as exploiting human vices and material vulnerabilities, still played the leading role in influencing foreign targets.

Mentioning esoteric operations often conjures images of the occult and psychic phenomena. That reputation has its roots in the Second World War, when Heinrich Himmler's Ahnenerbe Institute pursued dark occult and mystical theories within the SS. The Soviets took a different route, wrapping their unconventional research in the rigorous scientific language of bio-energetics and parapsychology.

Cold War rivalry soon accelerated this work. Both Moscow and Washington invested heavily in programmes assessing whether extrasensory perception could yield actionable intelligence. The craft became known as Remote Viewing. While viewed with scepticism across today's intelligence community, the US military and CIA formally established Project Stargate to track Soviet submarines, hidden bunkers, and secret facilities from afar.

Technological advances eventually rendered Remote Viewing obsolete, offering more reliable ways to gather data. Yet esoteric warfare was never solely about intelligence collection. At its core, it exploits psychological, cultural, and metaphysical levers to destabilise and disorient an adversary from within.

What occurs today in terms of the use of State-backed disinformation campaigns to foster division, instigate proxy attacks and usurp social harmony is very much in the playbook of the exponents of esoteric warfare. In modern security circles, they simply got rebranded as Psy-ops and cognitive warfare.

The advantages of understanding esoteric warfare:

Historically, British intelligence has shown an aptitude and curiosity that's proven helpful in understanding the cultures of foreign nations. Consider here T.E Lawrence's immersion in Arabic culture or members of Special Operations Executive (SOE) who had studied Classics or languages and would use this knowledge, during the war, to better integrate into foreign lands- whether fighting alongside the Greek resistance in Crete, or blending seamlessly into occupied France. This cultural awareness extended into the more esoteric terrain.

Exploiting esoteric beliefs for strategic advantage is an enduring British tradition. During the Second World War, naval intelligence officer Ian Fleming and propagandists within the Political Warfare Executive (PWE) mapped the astrological obsessions of senior Nazi leaders, feeding targeted deception into German command circles to paralyse decision-making.

That playbook stretched back to the seventeenth century. Under King James I, whose intense hostility to the occult was well documented, the Earl of Salisbury, Robert Cecil, ran the royal intelligence apparatus. As Secretary of State, this tenacious........

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