But the decline of newsprint trumpeted by everyone from reporters to media barons has another potential victim — the software companies like Quark and Adobe who’ve spent the past 30 years investing billions in desktop publishing, graphic design and publications management applications.

There are many well-investigated cases where the brain has been able to compensate for such loss and gain some sort of normal functioning. Intact parts of the brain can take over functions of the lost parts and reconstitute the lost function.

“[The Lost Symbol] was bound to stir public interest in Freemasonry,” Levenston told The West. “Instead of taking a defensive position we saw the book as the opportunity to go public. It let us show Freemasonry as open, ethical and keen to engage. The dark conspiracies have only been allowed to flourish because we’ve always been reluctant to talk about the Craft.”