Edward VIII: “Black Magic and Sexual Yogic Activities”

The BBC dusts off an archive recording of war-time British fascist John Gaster, who explains the real reason why Edward VIII was forced to abdicate in 1936:

he had been entrapped and ensnared by the king watchers, who knew he was dangerous, and their instrument was one of a group of black magical osteopaths. The head of it was a quack doctor called Doctor Alexander Cannon. Original arrangements with Cannon had been established in Austria because [Edward] needed a dry out cure for addictive drinking. But bit by bit he had become immersed in a world of black magic and sexual yogic activities… Like a sling round the throat of Edward VIII and which in fact was the mechanism which made it possible for the establishment to dethrone him.

Alexander Cannon’s influence over Edward VIII is examined in a fascinating documentary on BBC Radio 4, which should be available online until Sunday. There’s also a summary here (Gaster, who from what little can be gleaned on-line was an unsavoury character, is misspelt by the BBC as “John Gastor”).