Transcript

DTN Podcast Ep 49 The Code We Live By: LAPD Stories, Freemasonry & Music with Raymond Foster

From The Drop the Needle Podcast · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 57 min · 10,108 words · 138 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "DTN Podcast Ep 49 The Code We Live By: LAPD Stories, Freemasonry & Music with Raymond Foster", an episode of The Drop the Needle Podcast published December 18, 2025 (57 min, about 10,108 words). It mentions 32 people, works and ideas, including Drop the Needle podcast, Raymond Foster, John Philip Sousa, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Baroque music.

What this episode is about

The discussion centers on Raymond Foster, a retired LAPD lieutenant and author, who shares insights from his extensive career in law enforcement, his connections to Freemasonry, and his latest book, *The Temple Within*. Foster's journey highlights the intertwining of personal and professional experiences, shedding light on themes of spirituality and enlightenment.

Key takeaways

  • Podcasting: Where nostalgia meets the future; listening is the new meditation.
  • Retired LAPD and Masonic wisdom—a double shot of intrigue served with truth and ritual.
  • Raymond's journey: From surfing crime waves to catching the spiritual tide.
  • Teaching recruits and Freemasons: Raymond crafts minds—newbies and old souls alike.
  • 104-mile pursuit proves: Sometimes, life needs no soundtracks, just gas and grit.

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Drop the Needle podcast, Raymond Foster
  2. – 20:00: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  3. – 45:00: Philadelphia Freedom
  4. – 50:00: Baroque music, I Heard It Through the Grapevine, Knights Templar, Money for Nothing
  5. – 55:00: Code (to live by), Girl on Fire, Highwayman, I Heard It Through the Grapevine
  6. – 57:00: Drop the Needle podcast, Raymond Foster

Notable quotes from "DTN Podcast Ep 49 The Code We Live By: LAPD Stories, Freemasonry & Music with Raymond Foster"

  • Welcome to the Drop the Needle podcast, your backstage path to the mystical realm. I'm your host, Jim Alott, and here, gifted souls step up to the mic, sharing their spiritual journey. We're.
    about Drop the Needle podcast · at
  • Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Douglas MacArthur, you can go through a Mozart, Decar, there's lots of men in history, who have been Freemasons. So, I'm just one in a long line of men who've joined the fraternity.
    about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart · at
  • We were I went over a friend's house with a sax player. We were he was scoring Elton John's Philadelphia Freedom.
    about Philadelphia Freedom · at
  • What's the other kid? I can't think of his name. so my music, I love Baroque music. which is, yeah, I love Baroque music. The instrument, the, it's just beautiful music. the in because Baroque is probably the closest we have.
    about Baroque music · at
  • Wrote a couple of work pieces of work specifically for Masonic lodges actually for the Knights Templar for their grand assemblies and their grand encampments.
    about Knights Templar · at
  • And you know and so that used to be you know really the song I think CCRs I heard it through the grapevine for a lot of reasons number one is it's such a long track and so you…
    about I Heard It Through the Grapevine · at
  • So, we Yeah. Music and I've had satellite radio for 20 years. since it came out because I just I like my I like the music I want to hear, right?
    about Satellite radio · at
  • And that's because central to that song is the idea of having a code to live by. and I think every human being has to have a code.
    about Code (to live by) · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

Companies & orgs

  • Drop the Needle podcast — Company · 3 mentions · first at
  • hi-techcj.com — Company · 2 mentions
  • The Moody Blues — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Period of time, anything that sounded really, really musical, if you listen to Mood, the Moody Blues or you listen to the nitty-gritty Dirt Band or you listen to things like…
  • Nitty Gritty Dirt Band — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Really, really musical, if you listen to Mood, the Moody Blues or you listen to the nitty-gritty Dirt Band or you listen to things like that where there is a there's some they've got good strings and they've got Yeah,.
  • Knights Templar — Company · 1 mention · first at
  • The Wire — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Have you ever seen the picture of The Wire, the series, The Wire on HBO?
  • Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young — Company · 1 mention
  • Three Dog Night — Company · 1 mention

Products & tech

  • I Heard It Through the Grapevine — Product · 2 mentions · first at
  • Philadelphia Freedom — Product · 1 mention · first at
  • Will I Ever See You Again — Product · 1 mention · first at
    So we could play it. and we had a jazz band and but we always ended with Will I Ever See You Again.
  • Money for Nothing — Product · 1 mention · first at
    It used to be money for nothing.
  • Shake It Off — Product · 1 mention · first at
    Had and it was the only place to have an American style breakfast damn place. And that was Shake It Off and Girl on Fire.
  • Girl on Fire — Product · 1 mention · first at
    American style breakfast damn place. And that was Shake It Off and Girl on Fire.
  • Highwayman — Product · 1 mention · first at
    I got to go with there's two. The first one I think would be more personal to me would be the highwayman.
  • Teach Your Children — Product · 1 mention · first at
    Attractive to me. So, I think that song speaks to me. the other one that I like is Teach Your Children Well, by Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young.
  • Funkytown — Product · 1 mention
  • Reel-to-reel tape recorder — Product · 1 mention
  • The Imperial March — Product · 1 mention

Concepts & topics

Places & events

Full transcript with timestamps

Welcome to the Drop the Needle podcast, your backstage path to the mystical realm. I'm your host, Jim Alott, and here, gifted souls step up to the mic, sharing their spiritual journey. We're hitting the high notes and the low notes of their awakening, creating a symphony of enlightenment. This isn't just another interview show. This is where divine insights are channeled and universal truths are revealed. So, crank up your stereo and sit back because who knows, this just might help you compose the next transformative chapter of your soul's purpose. Are you ready? Let's go.

Hi everyone, welcome to the Drop the Needle podcast. I'm your host Jim Allstat and I'm so happy you all decided to join us. Today we have a truly fascinating guest with us. Joining the show is Raymond Foster. Raymond's a retired LAPD lieutenant and seasoned criminal justice consultant. But beyond his notable career in law enforcement, Raymond's an accomplished author of several books, including the latest, The Temple Within. Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, please welcome Raymond Foster. Welcome Raymond.

Thank you, Jim. I'm s I'm seriously pleased to be here. Oh, I am so happy you were able to make this work with your schedule because I know it's kind of a crazy schedule. And one of the things that in our pre-show meeting we talked about was your ties to the Masonic Temple, right? So, I want to go into that a little bit, but before we do, if you could please tell everyone a little bit about your background. I know I mentioned some of those things, but I I want uh I want folks to hear it from you.

So, uh I'm a native Californian and I was born in Long Beach and uh I went to the Coast Guard. I enlisted when I was 16 years old, went to boot camp when I was 17. Uh at the age of 21, I joined the police department. In fact, I got an academy class and uh they called in February of 1980 and they called me the night before on a Sunday and they said, "Hey, uh we're looking at our records. Is it true that you're not 21 yet?" And I go, "Well, no, I'm not 21 till next month." And they said, "Well, you can't be a police officer." So, I actually had to I had to be delayed six weeks. And uh I got a call Friday night, Friday night before the Monday the 20th in April. And the guy says, you know, he says, "We don't have a place for you." in the police academy. He was just show up.

Somebody will quit that first day and you can have their job. And so I showed up and I was number 101. And the drill instructor said, "Well, who are you?" And I said, "Well, I've been told to show up because somebody's going to quit." He just looked at me. He goes, "Okay." And at noon, I hear the loudspeaker calling my name cuz somebody quit at lunch. And I was in.

So that's uh that began at a nearly 25 year career. I retired from the police department when about the same time my first textbook came out. and I went to teach at university. Uh I spent some time teaching and continued to write uh and then I got into consulting and I did some overseas consulting and a lot with the federal government and small municipal agencies around the country and continued to write and ultimately would retire really a third time. Uh and so I find myself now in a virtual worldwide book tour for my last two books. uh the one that we're we're focused on, the temple within is my eighth book released in August. So, uh I am a Freemason. Uh I am also the chair of the board of directors for our chamber of commerce, uh president of our Rotary Foundation, executive secretary of our Rotary Club, uh the uh past master of the Masonic Lodge, the current officers coach. I teach the ritual, and

my wife says if I join anything else, it better be the French Foreign Legion. I I was like going, "How in the world do you have all the time to do those things?" I bet you're busy as I'll get out.

I have five children and uh six grandchildren. Um so yeah. Um yeah, busy. It sounds like it. It sounds like it. So if you're okay with this, I'd like to dive into a couple of the different things that you mentioned. Number one, let's start with the LAPD.

Yeah. I'd like to know if you have any strange stories or memorable stories that that you're free to talk about that you might be able to share with us.

Well, you know, it's it's so hard to go back. The reason it's hard to go back is that number one, I retired 22 years ago. So, policing has changed significantly over two decades. And so some of the things that I talk about, it really was more of the wild west and we were coming out of a a different time in law enforcement. Uh I was a police officer in the in the height of the crack cocaine wars. And so this is when there was in Los Angeles there was a homicide every night. Uh there were shoot multiple shootings. Uh my last night I was the watch commander in 77th division and right out of roll call in the graveyard shift I had to was on my way to a homicide and then I got diverted to a pursuit that ended with an officer involved shooting and then I had to go back to another driveby shooting where there was another homicide. So within two hours I had been to three shootings and uh just as the watch

commander holy and seen two and a half dead bodies. So, uh, it was a different time than it is now. Uh, it's nowhere near the violent level of violence is nowhere near what it was. So, uh, the one story I do tell though is, uh, I probably still hold the record, and I'm not certain, but I and I don't know, but we we had a a a car chase, and as the primary unit, the guy in the chase right behind the suspect the entire time, it went uh it went um 104 miles and 57 minutes. So,

holy cow, a little bit of math there. And uh tells you the the average land speed was pretty fast. Uh and the my partner that night, I was what was called a primary trainer. So, I got the the recruits their first two two months out of the academy. It was his second day.

Holy. And uh at the time, he had a new kind of vest uh that was ceramic, so it was big and bulky. He was before there the technology caught up with it. His wife made him wear it and it was huge on him and he and we called him the turtle. Uh and he know within 24 hours he earned a nickname the turtle and I told him don't fall down backwards in some water because you'll you'll drown. Right.

Right. And awesome. So we're standing at the corner of 39th and Western and and and this lady is screaming at me. She's screaming at me in a foot at the scene of some kind of domestic dispute. And I'm she I'm listening as she screams and she's not angry at me. Uh but she's angry. So her voice is up and it's like 2:30 in the morning. And I look over my shoulder and I can hear the radio on my hip talking about a 211 GTA. Now 211's the penal code section for robbery in GTA's Grand Theft Auto. You'd call that today a carjacking. And it says two male blacks with baseball caps. And they look at there's this car stop that they waiting for the light. And what's unusual is they got the windows down and she's screaming at me, but these two guys are looking straight ahead. They're not looking at me. And they're base got baseball caps on

and it says uh red Ford Taurus. And I go, "Well, that's a red Ford Taurus." It says with paper plates from Coley Ford. And I look down. Yeah. Yep. That's got And they had they'd use a shotgun. And I tell her, I said, "Hey, man. We're going to be back." I never did go back. We get in behind him off. We're off to the races. And this goes all the way down the five freeway to Camp Pendleton, the Marine Corps base. So far down that the military police got alongside me on the way back north and were waving at us.

It went so far that the helicopter actually had to divert to another airport cuz it ran out of fuel.

Oh my gosh. And then at one time at some point we get off the freeway on the way back and uh we're the only ones behind this guy and um they're saying on the radio that the sheriffs are going to terminate the pursuit at something like Imperial Alamid and I don't even I I I'm thinking I don't even know what that means. Um and they say that about the time that I go flying through the literally flying through the intersection and I see all these sheriffs leaned over their cars with shotguns. I think they were going to shoot the cars and everything went by too fast. Uh, and so we're finally going down Alamita real fast and he makes a left turn onto side street and I go to make that left turn and I lose control of the car and I go into a four-wheel lock skid and all I can see is this telephone pole getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

And I said to myself, the only thing I remember from driver training is you can't break and steer at the same time because once you lose traction, you're not steering any longer,

right? So, I got my foot off the brake and I steered through uh up onto the through a a up a parking up a driveway into a dirt lot, down the dirt lot, back onto the side street. And I was so far ahead of everyone else, one of the cops at the end of the thing comes up behind me, goes, "Hey, why'd we go through that dirt lot? All they saw was the dirt, you know, the air, the dirt, dust in the air." So, they all went, they all turned in that dirt.

Yeah. Uh because they didn't know what had happened. And when we got up to the next intersection, they were gone. And I looked and I go, "Well, I I remember when we got up the freeway the first time, this is before this the dirt lot thing. I turned to the probationer and I said, "Hey, look, we've been chasing these guys 50 minutes, man. I'm going to catch them and whatever they're going to do, I'm going to do. So, if you got a maker you want to get right with, now's the time because I'm not going to stop."

Oh my gosh. Scared the crap out of them. It did. I'm sure. And at any rate, I as we come to this intersection, they're gone. I look both ways. I go, man, I don't know which way they went. I went south and I saw them at the I saw their tail lights at the next intersection. Caught up with them. They pulled over in front of their grandmother's house.

Oh my. And I I was talking to them later and one kid said, "Look, officer, we got down there to the middle of nowhere and we knew you were going to kill us." So we went home where there was witnesses. So they went the last the last half of the trip, they were just trying to get home. Um, and so that was uh the next day my uh right leg, my my quad hurt because I'd been pushed on the gas pedal so long in that extended position. I talked to a couple of race car drivers and later and they said, "Oh yeah, you just were you were pressing on the gas for an hour. What do you expect?"

Oh my god. So that's a long time ago. That's almost probably 40 years ago now. Long time.

Holy cow. That story that's bananas. I mean, that is totally crazy. Yeah. And that's a mild story, by the way.

Oh, uh, you know what? I'm sure it is. But that was a good one. Thank you for sharing that. That's awesome. I appreciate that. Well, I I'd like to to move on to something that's obviously more recent for you, and that's the Masonic um well, fraternity or clandestine organization. And I don't know which you you call that.

That's our fault. You know, we're the Masonic Lodge is a is a the Freemasons is a secret society. And we think of ourselves more of a a fraternity with secrets rather than a secret society because there's no secret about it. We got these huge buildings everywhere, right? Uh we have if you look on the internet, man, there's books everywhere. There's like a million billion YouTube videos. Most of them are wrong, but uh that's what secrecy breeds. Secrecy breeds right?

Um misinformation. Gives you gives people a space that they can make whatever up they want to. Uh and that's really part of the temple within. And when I wrote this book, that's one of the things I struggled with, you know, and I and I talk about this in the introduction is that I have an obligation. I took an oath not to divulge secrets.

And so, um, what I decided to do was that anything that had been previously discussed by a Masonic scholar, and I think you can and Miss Mason, we can define those those couple of dozen men who were Masonic scholars. If it's been printed and talked about before, then it talking about it's open source already. If it was because much of our ritual derives itself from uh biblical passages, the Bible of course is open source. So you'll, you know, there's a chapter on the book of Ruth and it begins by telling you if you're non-Mason, you're not going to know why we're talking about this specifically, but you can still get a lot from the lessons within this chapter that I'm going to talk about. And so um we are a society with secrets and I will tell you that really the only things that are secret are our modes of recognition. We have we have handshakes and passwords,

right? And the words the ritual themselves and there's again there's a chapter in the book where I talk about why secrecy is important to us. Um so we are a society with secrets. Um but I think we're Freemasons. Um and we are fraternity I don't know what else I don't know how else to describe us. H

So I was reading somewhere when I was researching for the show about is it Yale University that has the skull and crossbones? Is that the the university where there is some correlation?

I'm sorry. Well, it's whichever one that that the Bushes went to. I know that they're a member of Skull and Crossbones. It could I think it could be Yale or Harvard. I'm not certain which it is.

I thought it was there are Yale. It could be Yale. Yeah, there are great many um secret societies in Ma with Freemasonry. Um we have what we call appendent and concordant bodies and these are officially recognized bodies such as uh Scottish right, the York right, the Shriners, Eastern Star, Demo, Rainbow Girls,

uh younger men, right? Okay. Yeah. And people like Bill Clinton, uh Walt Disney, um Neil Armstrong, um they were all members of Dalay. Uh, and by the way, there those are members of dem who did not go on to be Freemasons. There are lots of members of Demle who go on to be Freemasons. Uh, and yeah, the two men that landed on the moon, Buzz Aldrin was a Freemason. And as a matter of fact, he drew the square and compass in the lunar dust and had permission from the from the Grand Lodge of Texas to open lodge on the moon. And Buzz Aldrin, I bet that's Buzz Aldrin was a Mason. Neil Armstrong was a senior de mole. was not a a Mason.

Okay. Uh so, you know, lots of men, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, you know, Douglas MacArthur, you can go through a Mozart, Decar, there's lots of men in history, uh who have been Freemasons. So, I'm just one in a long line of men who've joined the fraternity.

That's very cool. I I so what I was the reason I brought up the skull and crossbones is that in so believe me I was digging around a little bit because knowing that we were going to be able to talk about this I thought it was important because you're right when it comes to secret organizations and I myself am a uh in a fraternity still and I I consider myself to be still a a part of that fraternity organization even though I'm not an an active member any longer I because I don't attend the university but with that there is a lot of misinformation that's out there so I guess hopefully in in our time together we'll be able to dispel some of that and one of them was the skull and crossbones because there was what I had read was there was a correlation between the Masonic right and the skull and crossbones like how it started did. And then the other thing that I picked up was the skull and crossbones

insignia or emblem is also the same that is the Jolly Rodger from pirating. And so some I forget where well it was on all online right because there's so much out there but there was a discussion about pirates being Masons too and how that's how they they came up with that because it was the skull and crossbones and they put it on their flag and they raised the flag and um uh black members or African-American members you different societies that's sprung off of that But what about the pirate thing? I guess I'm I'm curious about that. Having seen that, I was like, you got to be kidding me.

So, you know, here's I was going to I want to make sure I got the facts right on this. I'm pretty sure I do. You know, the Hawen cross, the hooked cross, the Nazi emblem, the swastika,

uh, is an ancient Hindu symbol. Um, but the Hindus, they were Nazis, right? It's a co-opted symbol.

And so yeah, the skull and crossbones um I can't speak to their secret society. I will tell you that in the current Freemasonry has been around since 1717 in its current form as a formal organization. We can trace its its history as it transitions from operative g guilds of stonemasons back as far as the 14th century pretty clearly with documents. Um, and we can see that they were allowing non-masons into their groups and there was reasons for that. Um, and so this is we've got a this society is is pretty old. It is to say it's ancient is not too too far off.

And so lots of people have copied it. They've copied some of the ritual, the ideas, um, and they've co-apted symbols. Um, you know, the Masons don't use the skull and crossbones necessarily, but we do use some some versions in some degrees use the skull uh in what's called for reflection, for a man to reflect. Um, and you know, that's actually some ancient uh Catholic writings too. Um, because if you look at a skull, you ever looked at a skull, it looks like it's smiling.

Yes. Uh, and you know, that's, you know, it's happy in death. It's happy in what it's done. It's happy where it is. It's happy in eternity. And this is one of the things. It's just a symbol that's been co-opted. So there is no connection between Freemasons and pirates.

Yeah. I wish there was. Back to Blackbeard, Long John Silver, you know. Well, now that doesn't mean that some pirates weren't Freemasons. They could have been. I mean I mean it's very you know and when you the the the idea now I will say I could say

almost definitively that there were privateeers who were Freemasons. Okay? Because privateeers uh especially during the the what the 15 18 years that the French and the English were going at it during the what we call the Napoleonic wars, privateeers on both sides of the channel and masonry was on both sides of the channel. And so the fact that they were privateeers, masons who became private, sure of course that just makes sense.

Yeah, it stands to reason, right? Um so but no there's and the skull and crossbones I don't know of we would call that a uh in masonry we would call that a clandestine organization not one where we're related to

um and and we're not allowed we are prohibited by our grand lodge from talking there's a big book that says who you can talk to who you can't talk to because there are people who call themselves Freemasons that we don't recognize as truly being freemasons. Um,

well, what's the differentiating factor between if someone were to say, "Hey, I'm a Freemason." versus, "No, you're not." type of thing.

Well, I think a Freemason would just walk away from them, wouldn't say, "No, you're not." But okay. Um,

well, right for our our discussion. We have Sure. We have a lineage. So, uh, the Grand Lodge of, uh, York and the Grand Lodge of London in the early part of the 18th century, uh, the English are colonizing around the world. And in around 1730 when they're colonizing the United States, what will become the United States, uh, some men in Philadelphia uh, petitioned the Grand Lodge, I believe, of York to form the Grand Lodge of Philadelphia, which Benjamin Franklin become the Grandmaster. Along the way, the Grand Lodge of Philadelphia would give what's called a dispensation to other lodges. Like I think it gave one to Missouri. You could you could trans these you could trace these right back.

Missouri will give one to California when it's forming up as a state. California will form a grand lodge. It gives a dispensation to my lodge to form a lodge. So there's a there's a lineage that traces them back all the way to the formation of the first Grand Lodge in London in 1717. And so we recognize those. Now there are every once in a while a lodge will go sideways and do something that we don't recognize whether it's hazing or

um something like that. Um one of the biggest controversies that was in Freemasonry was um homosexuality. Um so there are two lodges in the United States that two grand lodges that won't allow gay men. Uh and so because of that for I don't know if we still don't have communic we call it not having communication. We don't have communication the California Grand Lodge with those two lodges because of that issue.

Uh and so um there are uh lots of openly gay men in California. Uh I don't know about other states. I really can't speak to them. So there there are other groups out there that claim to be Masonic. There was a guy going around. when he was the he called himself the Masonic Chief of Police and he actually was in a uniform with a badge and a gun. He would show up he would show up at police agencies and get interviews with the chief of police because he was so convincing.

Um so there are lots of and never arrested for impersonating. He never was. Wow. I think he died of a heart attack or something. It was really f a fantastic story of of bluff I guess. Um but yeah, so there are organizations that I wouldn't recognize as Freemasons.

Gotcha. You know, you were talking about hazing and that was one of the things that they had brought up um in some of the things that I was reading. They were talking about goats and and I'm like what? like they're bringing in well like a a goat being part of the the process. And here's the reason why some of it I give a side eye. Uh I think I even mentioned when we were on our pre-show call, my family was involved with Eastern Star, um the Masonic Temple, Scottish Wright, uh Oriental Shrine. So, uh, like my grandfather went through to the 33rd degree. Is it 33rd degree? Is that what it's 32nd degree?

That's an honor. 32 33rd is honorary. He could have been a 33rd degree Mason. Sure.

Yeah. So, and that was one of the things that they were talking about too where there was some statue or something that they it was almost like a Bakus statue that they had to kiss the rump of a backus statue or something like I went for I can't see my grandfather doing that first of all you know but and then again I'll circle back to the Yeah, when you're not talking about something all of a sudden everything's free game, right? You know, I can Yeah, they bring down aliens and, you know, all this other stuff. But um yeah, it was it was very interesting too that so with those different levels, as I understand it, there are really only three levels of the Masonic graduation steps or something ascending.

Yeah, there's only three degrees in masonry. First, second, third, entered apprentice, entered apprentice, fellowcraft, and master mason. Now these other degrees given to the by these other bodies both Scottish rightight and Yorkright are efforts to further explain the the third degree of masonry in reality. They give other moral lessons to the men u but they are not every mason every member of the Yorkright and the um Scottish right is a master mason with three degrees from a blue lodge. So you can't get into short York right or Scottish Wright or the Shriners unless you are a master mason. Um so there and it used to be that the it used to be that you had to do what was called a master mason's proficiency which is to memorize a very pretty long passage of the third degree before you could apply to either the Scottish right or York right. They dropped that requirement and now we see in many lodges the day a man

is raised to the master mason somebody puts an application in his hand. I think that that deludes the whole thing, but that's just my opinion.

Um, and the same with the Shriners. In fact, you used to have to be part of Scottish right to become a Shriner. I know a guy who just joined the shrine and he's not a member of the Scottish right at all. So, these rules change um for these other organizations, but

then or no, Josh. Yeah, they're well, yeah, they're appended and concordant bodies. They're what we call Yes, they are recognized by us, but um you know, there are three degrees of masonry. That's it.

These are other these are extra uh degrees um that where a man's learned something. I'm a York right mason. Now the difference between Scottish right and York right York right is probably more um more properly called the American right but the the Scottish right is non sectarian. The the York right is a Christian degree.

Okay. And that that has been watered down in the last decade or so a little bit. Um it used to be that a man would uh would uh swear that he would defend Christianity. Now I think it's the right you would defend a man's right to be a Christian or something like that. So it's changed a little bit in his nature to attract more men because as organizations shrink

um they do things to try to survive. Um, and so personally, I think if they shrink to where they're no longer useful, they should be gotten rid of.

Yeah, that's what I think. Well, I mean, I guess there's some truth to that, but there's also that that history and that lineage that, you know, 1717 and that that's a while, you know, been around a while. though I get I let's put it this way. I understand exactly why there would be the effort that would be put into that to to salvage it or to save it to keep it going after that that amount of time. You would have to feel an obligation to do that on some level.

I think it survives and it will continue to survive because it's useful uh because it's valuable. the men who become Freemasons. Um, and even if you don't delve into the more esoteric parts of it and you don't explore the wisdom as much as you could, just living by the principal tenants of the organization and belonging to it uh will make you a better man and therefore probably more effective in society. And as long as last night it was a Thursday night at our lodge was a social night and there were three men there who who are interested in joining masonry because we we do is we have a social every Thursday and we give tours a lodge and um we don't we don't invite men. We don't ask them to become masons but we open the door and allow them to ask questions.

And so we still see men and they're all two of the three were younger. They were in their uh they were in their late 20s early 30s. That's good. That's what we want to see, right? Um, and so I think that I think that masonry is going to become more relevant. Part of the temple within, part of the reason I wrote the book and I and I thought the timing is good. I think that there's going to be a a renaissance in masonry. I think that young men under the age of 35 or so uh are seeking uh belonging. They are seeking guidance. They are seeking a place where they can um fulfill uh who they should be. And I think Freemasonry is a good path for them. And I think that it's it's it's ready for a renaissance.

Okay. No, I can see that. But, you know, times do change and you either change with it or sometimes you just go away uh or it dissolves because it's no longer relevant. But I I think what you're talking about with leadership, mentorship, different things of that nature, that's that's always there. And and I would agree with you in terms of um the timing, right? Especially today, it seems like there is a need for something like that, some mentorship, some sense of belonging that, you know, more so for whatever reason in society. And that could be a whole other podcast as to what's going on around us.

But um if if we could I I I want to ask a couple more questions on this and then I I do want to talk about music because I know you're a musician. So I want to want to talk a little bit about that. Um the symbols that are used now often times the eastern star because I remember seeing this in the middle of the floor. It looks like a pentagram. I I didn't even know what a pentagram was when I was, you know, following along with my parents that would go to this. I go, "Oh, look, there's the star. Cool colors." You know, that sort of thing.

And then, of course, the compass and square that makes it like an a type of thing. Can can we talk about those a little bit in the misinformation, I suppose, that's out there? Yeah, these are the compass and square are the real traditional things everybody knows about Freemasonry. They see that symbol uh that uh looks like kind of like two triangles uh on each other um upside down, one pointy with a point down and one with a point up. And so that's a very ancient symbol itself. It's an alchemal from alchemy. We see that most prevalent in alchemy. Uh and it refers to as above so below or as in the spiritual word. So in the physical world uh it tells us to as we look up it also tells us as we look up to the great architect of the universe uh he is looking down at us and so there is a continuous communication between the spiritual and the physical realms. Um, it also these are two tools, the square

and the compass that teach moral lessons um that a man can use. And the funny thing about these lessons is that they're like all parables. You there's a surface lesson and then if you scrape it off and you you scrape the surface, you see something deeper and deeper and deeper. Um, and um, the square is a both the square. I I read an article the other day, last night, people talking about the circle and how the circle is. In fact, I wrote it. I did a series of uh seven videos on the ancient symbolism of the circle. I've done four been released. I got three sitting here in the box. Um because the circle is such an ancient thing.

Mhm. And I read this article where somebody said, "Well, the compass, which draws circles, is a divine instrument whereas the square is a physical instrument." Well, I mean, if you think of it that way, because the the compass is the one that's on top of the square. I suppose the divine could be on top, but you know, the cir the compass can draw the circumference of all circles. It's it has an infinite nature to it that way. But the square, which judges right angles or tells us what a right angle is, it can it can judge all right angles. It can infinite number of right angles that it can produce. Therefore, it too is infinite. Um and so they're both divine instruments, right? In in that instance, right? And the square a Mason's told is to square his actions by the square virtue. And and so what that means is if you were to take the four cardinal virtues and if any of your action falls can be supported by two,

you know, like a right angle, it's probably a virtuous action. If it's both if it's both prudent and expresses fortitude, that's probably a good thing to do. Um the most important thing is we now if you you layer it away or it takes another layer they seem all practical right

but if you just sit and you think about the nature of the infinite and does a circle represent the infinite has no beginning and has no end. How is that possible? Now it helps us with contemplation. And so contemplation on these questions is the most important part. um you know thinking through what we actually believe and what we stand for. That's what inculcates it into us. So that's that's a number of ways that these things can be used.

Mhm. Um does that help you? Absolutely. And and I appreciate you sharing that. So now I do know this the story. You're a brass player, correct? I do.

Okay. Yes, I have. Okay. So, you had mentioned a story about when you were in the in basic training. Can can you uh can you share that one because it's a great story.

So, in the third the third day of boot camp and uh there chief petty officer, it might have been a first class petty. I don't know. He's walking down the line. He's the DI. He says, "Anybody here play a musical instrument?" Look. And my dad told me not to volunteer for anything, but this sounds all right. So I put my hand up and he goes, "We'll go with this guy." So this other petty officer takes me down to a band room and there is a chief petty officer in the band room and he goes, "Are you what do you play?" I go, "Well, most anything brass, mostly a trumpet." And he said, "Well, here's a trumpet. Here's music.

Play it." I said, "Okay." I play it. He goes, "You're in the band." I go, "Okay, go with this guy." Sends me with another guy to a tailor. That's the third day of boot camp. This tailor tailor, sews, and puts on me a a class A uniform, a dress uniform. He goes, then they take me down to the band room where there's a bunch of other guys there. They hand me a horn and put me on a bus and take me to Candlestick Park where I play the Star Spangled Banner in a Giants game.

Wow. So cool. It's like the third day of boot camp. And then every weekend, um, we would go Oh my god. We would go uh up and down the the all as far as Seattle, Washington from San Francisco and then all throughout the state by bus uh and be at parades or at uh opening ceremonies or and we did we basically had three songs. We had the Star Spangled Banner uh Seer Paradus which is the Coast Guard uh hymn and um God Bless America and that was it. Three songs we played.

You play the hell out of those. Yeah. It's like idiot. It's like you're like any other musician. And so, and we did funerals as a trumpet player. I did lots of funerals. Um, and that's when I would go out the honor garden. They'd have the six guys with the rifles, the guys with the flags, and I be the horn player.

And we'd be sitting in the waiting and waiting and somebody would infinitely go ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Let's bury this sucker and get on the bus. We are pretty. Well, you know, you're what, eight, 17, 18 years old, and you're you're immortal at that point. So, right, you know, that's just some unlucky sob, right? That's not going to happen to you.

Yeah. Some 40year-old guy. That's right. He's ancient. Yeah. Now, you look back on it. I told my wife, I said, you know, I'm transitioning from uh wow, he, you know, he lived a long life to God, that's not No, that's not that's not enough.

Right. Right. It it just seems like uh well, you know, I think no truer words were said. Whoever came up with if I would have known I was going to live this long, I would have treated myself better.

I was at I was at the m we have two Masonic homes. These are where the brothers and widows live, one here locally. And uh I was in one of the lounges where they have coffee and cookies. We were waiting for an event to start and one of the all the men were upset. They were all upset that Bob had died. Bob had died and they were just talking about what a good guy Bob was. Bob had died. So finally I turned him. So how old was Bob? And he goes he was 98.

Oh my gosh. Yeah. Bob said, "Yeah." I said, "What?" You know, when you're 98, it's like when you wake up and go, "Hey, Bob's still here." You know, that's the surprising part, right?

You have a parade. But yeah, you know, their perspective of being in their 80s and late 80s and 90s is that, you know, Bob is their peer. And so as you old, as you age, your perspective definitely changes.

Um, and so that's Bob had died. I thought that was funny. Oh, that's uh Yeah, that 98. How old was Bob? 98. Okay, moving on. That's good stuff, man. That is really good stuff. So, do you still play or No?

Uh, you know, I during the pandemic, I picked it back up again. I actually taught myself jazz. I was a more of a classical treble player and I bought I have a bunch of Music Minus one. Uh,

it used to come out. I remember I bought my first Music Minus one on an album. And for anybody listening, Music Minus one is all the I I bought the Humble Cher uh the trumpet trumpet concerto. And so on one side of the the the album is the concerto with the trumpet and the other side is the concerto without the trumpet. You play along and they provide you with the music and in the right key and then it went to cassette and then it went to CD and now you just download the music and you can download anything. So, I downloaded a bunch of I started with really um pretty simple jazz and then I went to all the blues and jazz what we call blues and jazz scales and I memorized those and I played around with those. I pulled my arvin back out and I got pretty good. I'm not, you know, I don't really claim to be a musician, Jim. I compl I I I I claim to be a mechanic.

Uh and if I play the notes Yeah. practice, pract I'm an excellent site reader because

uh I pra it's what I do. I read music. Um as a matter of fact, my wife thinks it's so funny because she is a musician. I can't sing along to something unless I can once I see the music.

I sing along perfectly because I got my I can see the music. I don't I can't I can't do it in my head like like a musician can. I can't play by ear as they say. I just can't. And and I when I say can't, it's probably a mental block, but I tell you the music,

you know, it's interesting that uh so that's like karaoke for for brass players minus one. Yeah, that's uh

Wow, that's very cool though. Um I like that. And you know, interesting. So I went to school for music. So I have a an affinity towards that which is why we we talk about music being the third pillar of the show

and which I think is a a wonderful segue into our musical questions. Okay. Are you ready for that?

I am. Go. Okay. Fantastic. And this is the part of the show when I have a chance to ask the guests some musical questions. And as I always say, I truly believe that music is the tie that binds and each of us has a soundtrack that accompanies their life if they just take a moment to think about it. So here's question number one. What was the first song you fell in love with from the radio?

I think I love you with the Partridge family. And I remember right had to been I had to been 10 or 11 years old, maybe 12, I don't know. But I was thinking about this the other day. It was at the same time that I was becoming I was going from pre-teen to teen. So, it was the same time that I was beginning to uh try to understand the ideas of love, right? And so, I think I love you and keeping me up all night. I didn't know what to do about it. Um uh I just thought it as a kid that was a snappy tune, but I think also subconsciously is probably speaking to the transition point I was as a human being.

I love that. That's great. The connection there, too. So, did your family have a song that everyone would belt out on road trips or vacations when you were growing up?

Um, yeah, but like John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt and my mother used to sing Willamina and Mildew and I've never even found that anywhere. But she they had a My dad hated it. They had it she had an eight track tape and eight track tape of uh Oh, yeah.

of Three Dog Knight. And uh Jeremiah was a bullfrog uh and uh at a talent show. It was some kind of talent show or something. I think my sister and my brother sang that at my mother's um uh my mother's suggestion for that. She liked them and she liked the mamas and the papas. Um uh that's probably why, you know, I like the seekers and anything for that folk rock era. Yeah.

I think is beautiful music as far as I'm concerned. That's very cool. Three Dog Knight is is really they were an incredible band in my opinion, too. I I I um I I would say that they're probably the band for me in that that genre, that that era, for sure. So, when you were in high school, did you and your friends have a song that you would belt out when you were driving around with the windows down in California? I mean, you'd have their windows down all the time, right?

Yeah. Well, you know, um, most of my friends were in the band and I remember, uh, we were I went over a friend's house with a sax player. We were he was scoring Elton John's Philadelphia Freedom.

Oo. Um, so we could play it. Uh, and we had a jazz band and but we always ended with Will I Ever See You Again. So that um and I mean just get you know you just get terribly bored of playing that um and that and the high school fight song because I was in the traveling band right? So, uh, my musical experience, you know, um, from that period of time, anything that sounded really, really musical, I mean, if you listen to Mood, the Moody Blues or you listen to the nitty-gritty Dirt Band or you listen to things like that where there is a there's some they've got good strings and they've got

Yeah, there's a lot of good music that came out then. So, it's hard to settle in one that we would sing. Um, and I'm not much of a singer anyway. So

So did your musical taste change after high school and then going into the Coast Guard and so on so forth.

Okay. I have a I have a seriously eclectic taste in music. Okay. I love uh Merl Haggard and Willie Nelson and there are some country western songs I think are fabulous. Um, there are some early rap music that I could, you know, anything Eminem did some really interesting work. I think some of the early rap music was was just fascinating to me. In fact, I think that rap's been around in the form of scat or something else for a very very long time.

Um, I am I love jazz. In fact, I have to turn it off. My my wife says it whenever they get to the sounds like elephants. Um, but I also, you know, I have all of Muller's symphonies.

Oh, wow. Okay. In albums. Um, uh, I have all three of the Bach CPE, Johannes Bach, and, um, what's the other kid? I can't think of his name. Um, so I mean, my music, I love Baroque music. Um, which is, um, yeah, I love Baroque music. The instrument, the uh, the, um, it's just beautiful music. the the in because Baroque is probably the closest we have to jazz. It has continuous basso continuum. It has imple it has not they don't they don't um improvise but it has flourishes on it. What's the word I'm thinking?

So it's very decorative music. That's what the word paro means. Decorative essentially.

Uh so I love baroque music. Um I have a very eclectic taste. I love marches. John Philips Soua marches. Uh I mean yeah and you know Souza like like Mozart they were both Masons. In fact Souza wrote uh a couple of um work pieces of work specifically for Masonic lodges actually for the Knights Templar for their grand assemblies and their grand encampments.

And his music expresses uh if you listen to I think it's a a bcc it's his is melody counter melody.

Mhm. And if you listen uh you'll hear you'll hear the melody, but you'll hear the counter melodies underneath it. And you'll hear the two begin to struggle. The melody and the counter melody will struggle. And the counter melody will come out and it will take over and it'll become the melody and then it will be subsumed again by the So this is life's struggle between the conscious and the unconscious that he's trying to reflect. You know that there's a counter melody within all of us. And it's actually the stronger the more driving of the melodies. Uh, and so if we listen to our counter melody, how beautiful it can be.

That's one of the lessons I think you can get out of listening to John Phillips.

That's awesome. That's awesome. I My exposure to John Philips Souza was uh in middle school and high school marching bands having to and the monkey wrapped his tail around the flag pole. Yeah, that's what I remember. my band director used to say that all the time when it was uh it was time to play that. But um so is there a song that gets your positive juices flowing that makes you want to go out and crush your day?

It used to be money for nothing. Oo yeah. Uh because that's what police work felt like.

Chicks for free. Exactly. uh and you know and so that used to be you know really uh the song I think CCRs I heard it through the grapevine um for a lot of reasons number one is it's such a long track and so you you can get into it and stay into it I think it goes on for 13 minutes or something like that the long play

holy cow u yeah it's a long long play and then they really get into it and they really explore the whole thing but un unlike the Marvin Gay one it's not a it's not It's it's it's driven, you know, uh I hate rumor mongers personally. I hate uh anyone who would be a traitor, uh betrayal, and I think I heard it through the grapevine. It just speaks to me. I just don't like that. Something the epitome of that

to the core. Um when I was in the late 70s, I stole sold stereos. I didn't steal stereos, I sold them. And we played uh we had well actually what was big at then was Realtore tape recorders.

Oh yeah. And uh Oh man, I tell you what, Funky Town uh and uh the Stormtrooper March. You we had those two on real crank those over with the giant speakers and sell somebody a $2,000 stereo system every time.

Wow. So yeah, real to real. I haven't that in forever. You know, we my wife's probably got a collection of 500 albums um which she's constantly putting on some She put them on all CD and now she's putting them all on in the in the in on the on some kind of stick or something.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, we Yeah. Music and And I've had uh satellite radio for 20 years. Um since it came out because I just I like my I like the music I want to hear,

right? Um so, yeah. at a moment's notice, too. I mean, you can just flip from genre to genre to genre. Yeah, it's very cool.

I I I go back at I I I stay at the 70s and then I'll get bored hit up to the 80s and if it's an early 80s tune, I'm I'm into it. Anything about 85 or then I'm really into work, so I'm not listening to the radio. Uh but yeah, so yeah, I and I go to the jazz station, you know, back and forth.

Yeah, I I like that. Do you have a a guilty pleasure song? Um, one that you don't want anybody else to know is on your playlist.

No, but I tell you, I lived in St. Kits for about a year in the Caribbean and I would go to breakfast every morning and they had they only had two songs they would play every day and they played them constantly every day. It's all they had and it was the only place to have an American style breakfast damn place. And that was Shake It Off

and Girl and Girl on Fire. Get out of here. Yeah. And so that's all I heard on and on for and I used to And so it got into my head for a long long time, you know, the lyrics, the whole thing. And so, um, not a guilty pleasure so much as they were in my head for so long that I could have charged rent for the space.

I love that. Um, what I'm going to do is I'm going to fast forward and go to my favorite question and then we'll wrap everything up.

Okay. Okay. And here it is. So, sometimes there are songs you hear that ring so true that they can stop you in your tracks. The song lyrics sound like they were written specifically for you or by you. What's that song?

I got to go with there's two. The first one I think would be more personal to me um would be the highwayman.

Okay. Um and just the fact that that you I believe I've led multiple lifetimes in this life, right? I I I constantly amu and people will tell you that. I mean, I'm a different human being. There's a

in fact the mayor of our town, he he he goes, "No, no, it was a was another Mason and he stood up in an assembly. He was my sergeant when I was on the job, man. And he stood up and he goes, "I don't know what happened to that Ray Foster guy, but he's disappeared. This new guy's appeared over here."

Oh my gosh. Yeah. Uh and so this idea of transformation even within one lifetime uh is doable uh given how we live and when we live. And so that's exciting to me. I don't know what the next transformation will be. Doesn't feel like I'm done. and the idea that you might be able to come back and do this again, the idea of reincarnation is very attractive to me. So, I think that that song speaks to me. Um, the other one that I like is Teach Your Children Well, uh, by Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young.

Uh, and that's because central to that song is the idea of having a code to live by. Um, and I think every human being has to have a code.

Uh, have you ever seen the the picture of The Wire, the series, The Wire on HBO?

Yeah. The crime drama. Yes. The most the most the most righteous character is Omar the dope the guy that rips off the dope dealers.

Right. Because he's got a code and he lives by it and he doesn't violate his own code. Uh, and that code makes him predictable to us. um that makes him predictable to the universe and I think that a human being has to have a code to live by. Doesn't matter what it is.

That's awesome. Consistent. No, I love So that's Yeah, there'll be those. There you go.

I appreciate that. And thank you for sharing your songs with me. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us and your stories, which were fantastic. Just absolutely. I I love the high-speed chase. That was wow. That was very cool. I I definitely appreciate that. Well, it's just about time to cue the music for today's episode. But don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe to the Drop the Needle podcast to stay up todate on our latest episodes. I'd also like to take a moment to thank everyone again for tuning in today, and I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Drop the Needle podcast. I would also like to thank our very special guest, Mr. Raymond Foster, for joining us today. Raymond, how can folks get in touch with you or get your books or blogs? What would be the best way?

So, my old consulting website, we we've ramped over to a writer's website. So, it's hightechc.com. hi tc hcj used to be high-tech criminal justice. So, hi-tech cj.com. My most popular books are highlighted there. and everything from a PO box to an email address, telephone number. Uh I certain smoke signals I will reply to. So that's way to get to me.

Fantastic. I appreciate that. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to invite you all to head on over to the show notes where there's going to be a link to the playlist from today's episode. There's also going to be a link to Raymond's website. So you can definitely take advantage of purchasing one or all of his books for that matter. All right, my drop the needle posy like Billy Joel says from the highs to the lows to the end of the show. This is the end of our show. Until next time, this is Jamal Stop wishing you infinite health and happiness and the perfect playlist for your life. Thank you again for being the best part of us. Catch you next time.

Questions about this episode

What is "DTN Podcast Ep 49 The Code We Live By: LAPD Stories, Freemasonry & Music with Raymond Foster" about?

The discussion centers on Raymond Foster, a retired LAPD lieutenant and author, who shares insights from his extensive career in law enforcement, his connections to Freemasonry, and his latest book, *The Temple Within*. Foster's journey highlights the intertwining of personal and professional experiences, shedding light on themes of spirituality and enlightenment.

What is mentioned in this The Drop the Needle Podcast episode?

32 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Drop the Needle podcast, Raymond Foster, John Philip Sousa, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Baroque music, I Heard It Through the Grapevine. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "DTN Podcast Ep 49 The Code We Live By: LAPD Stories, Freemasonry & Music with Raymond Foster"?

The episode runs 57 min; the transcript is about 10,108 words in 138 timestamped sections.

More from The Drop the Needle Podcast

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated December 18, 2025.