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It's not every day you meet someone who tells you they have attended their own funeral but that's precisely what Dr Robert Lomas has just told me – and without even a glimmer of humour.

And it was not even his most bizarre revelation.

As a freemason and Knight Templar he admits to having been part of some "seriously weird" ceremonies, not least of which was the freemason initiation ritual.

This involved him baring his left breast, right arm and left knee, standing blindfolded with a noose round his neck and a dagger at his chest.

"The noose is so they can drag you back if you try to run, the knife is to teach you patience. The reason people do not talk about it is because it's seriously weird. It uses ritual myth and symbolism to teach you about yourself, society and your place in the world. You have to face up to fear and learn trust."

By day, the 62-year-old is a lecturer in technological management at Bradford University. In his own time, he is a long-standing member of the Masonic Lodge in Headingley, Leeds and has written widely on freemasonry, its origins and meaning.

The son of a Welsh mother and English father, he failed his 11-plus and was diagnosed with dyslexia and so opted for a career in maths – he says: "because it meant I didn't have to spell". He gained a first class honours degree in electronics, followed by a phD in physics.

He became a freemason when he was 40.

The father-of-three and grandfather to one said: "Leeds is one of the areas where freemasonry took root in Yorkshire. It started in Scotland and quickly spread to York, then here, and Yorkshiremen took it to their hearts.

"Stone masons carving myths into stone realised it might be possible to shape personality in the same way. Myth could inspire people to become better. The very first temple of King Solomon is a metaphor for forming a good society. Individual masons described themselves as 'living stones', part of a larger building. It teaches you to face up to fear of death – one of the rituals you literally attend your own funeral. Ultimately, it's about becoming a more productive member of society."

He is also a Knight Templar, one of the highest orders in freemasonry, an order which is based on the original Knights Templar and teaches initiates about self-sacrifice.

Freemasonry has almost made Dr Lomas something of a star. The organisation is the subject of The Lost Symbol, the latest page turner from bestselling author Dan Brown, of Da Vinci Code fame.

Like other Brown novels, the central character is puzzle-solving symbologist Dr Robert Langdon, a character played by Tom Hanks in the film versions – and based largely on Dr Lomas.

"It was during the (copyright] trial of 2006 that Dan Brown revealed he had based Dr Robert Langdon on me. There are references in The Lost Symbol which indicate as much. The opening of my book The Hiram Key is spoken by one of the characters.

Theorise

"After The Da Vinci Code, I got a lot of fan mail asking about things in the book. When I read it I realised why, but my life is not as exciting as Robert Langon's. Where I theorise about things like hidden chambers under Scottish churches, Langdon finds them!"

The 2006 copyright trial is now part of the mythology surrounding the phenomenon of The Da Vinci Code. It was brought by Michael Baigentand Richard Leigh, both of whom claimed Dan Brown had plagiarised parts of their 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, but they lost the case.

Dr Lomas said: "I became friends with Dan Brown because I offered to support him in court. I was fascinated by the concept of studying order long before I became a freemason. As a physicist I have to believe there's a plan to find, otherwise what are you looking for?"

Turning the Solomon Key is published by Corgi, priced £7.99.


Dr Robert Lomas's astronomical ideas

Dr Lomas is a best-selling author in his own right. His latest book, Turning the Solomon Key, discusses the impact of freemasonry on the design of Washington DC , which also involves his theories on astrology and physics.

The book describes how he believes the White House was positioned so that once every eight years Venus rises directly above its dome.

"In masonic astrology, individuals born when the Bright Morning Star (Venus) rises tend to be high achievers. My theory is that ionised particles in the upper atmosphere cause changes in the development of the brain, making it more creative."

He goes further and suggests that the same ionic turbulence could have been affecting the humans species for millennia. He is the first scientist to put forward a theory which he believes explains World Bank statistics which show the further away from the tropics a society is, the more productive it becomes.

"The tropics are covered by something called the D-layer, which absorbs ions. My theory is humans only began to evolve into complex societies after they moved out from under the D-layer."


Freemasonry factfile

Freemasonry was started by stone masons working on St Nicholas's Kirk, Aberdeen circa 1498. It spread to Edinburgh, then York, then Leeds.

There are around 12,000 masonic lodges in the UK and at least 40 in Leeds. Typically, lodges have about 50 members. One in 10 people belong to the freemason movement in the UK.

During the Second World War, freemasons went into hiding in what has been termed 'the 40 years silence' – Hitler murdered some 300,000 German freemasons during the Holocaust. When Nazis invaded Jersey, one of their first tasks was to destroy the masonic temple there.

Freemasonry is the largest spiritual organisation after Catholicism and has members in every country around the globe. You are never asked to join freemasonry, you must ask if you want to join.

The Masonic Knights Templar formed as a Jacobite support group in the 1600s for exiled freemason king James II and drew on the rituals of the original Templar Knights. The Masonic Knights Templar still exists today and has actually survived longer than the original organisation upon which it is based.

Headingley Masonic Lodge was founded by the late William Lesley Wilmshurst, a man of near-legendary status among freemasons and one of the most prominent thinkers in the world about ritual and its effect on the human mind.