The “illuminati” is a group that has been greatly debated and spoken about in current culture. Interestingly, this group dates back to the 1700’s when the idea was first formed. Weisnaupt was a Baverian man that decided to form a group in hopes of some illumination. The group started off small and decided members should consent to membership, have strong reputations, have a well-established family, good social connections, and be wealthy. This group grew and pulled in many influential members and was thought to have impactful contributions. The group came to some disagreements within power and people spilling secrets about the group. This led to the downfall of the society. Conspiracy theories blamed the group for various crimes and in turn was seen by the government as conspiring against religion. Membership within the group was said to earn one the death penalty after these accusations. The belief now is whether this group remained underground and is secretly controlling our society as we speak. Some believers believe the illuminati is still real and very powerful. Believers think influential members of society have secretly banned together to create a new world order, including totalitarianism and brainwashing. Members of this alleged society include politicians, celebrities, and other powerful and influential people. This is an extraordinary belief because it would go against all we believe in the order of society. It would be extraordinary to find out a secret society was carefully and strategically controlling the order of life as we know it. It is an important belief to note because if it were to be true, we could assume many inside jobs and secret motives were behind events from the past. It may be important as well because it may be scary to individuals who do not trust why things happen and the order of society. Additionally, information can be found on the internet regarding the history of this group to articles now trying to explain and give proof that the group exists. The internet can spread information very rapidly, especially about this conspiracy. This spread of information can lead to greater growth of evidence or support and in turn more fears and skepticism about world order.
This belief is still popular today but has had some peak time periods for its believers. There is said that there is an LSD influence for the 60’s on the beliefs regarding the illuminati. During this drug revolution, the book “Principia Discordia” came out and made an influence on people’s beliefs. The book spoke on concepts of anarchism, disordianism, and civil disobedience. Some believe these themes in society may have been the reason for suspicion in secret societies that were controlling and brainwashing citizens. A peak in the popularity for the concept of illuminati like groups connects to the political situations in present day as well. Both political parties have conspired theories that underground groups from apposing parties are the blame for negative outcomes and situations within the political world. Many claims have been made that can worry citizens where inside jobs are occurring and it the world’s order is really what we think.
Facts that prove the existence of this secret society lie within the symbols assumed members use and represent. The first symbol is the triangle and has come up numerous times by suspected members of the illuminati. A great example is Beyoncé and her use of this symbol. Costumes and hand signs have sported this triangle which connects back to the original illuminati group. Her husband Jay-Z has a record label whose symbol is a triangle as well. The triangle symbol can also contain an eye within it, again another symbol connecting back to the illuminati. One strange connection is the fact that the dollar bill has this mysterious symbol on it. Some people believe that this is proof that even long ago, there were secret groups controlling society. Additionally, some influential people have spoken out saying it is indeed real. Some people also connect the illuminati to major events such as 9/11. When facts don’t exactly make sense to some, the perception may be that events such as 9/11 was an inside job and that the illuminati designed this to happen. The presence of the illuminati fills in blanks for some and gives reason to certain events. Some evidence against this belief is that if one go around of the illuminati failed, why wouldn’t it again? The smaller group in the 1700’s fought over disagreements of power and struggled with keeping secrets. If the illuminati is as large and powerful as we think, wouldn’t the same issue potentially arise? Why is there not a tell all book about it that would make someone millions to learn about. Like many extraordinary beliefs and conspiracies, secrets like these are almost impossible not to leak. This belief extremely challenges the order of the world as we know it and it interesting to think we maybe have never picked up on it.
Some cognitive contributions have been written about regarding this specific belief and are quite interesting. It is thought that in the crazy would around us, our brains try to piece together order. People want to give meaning to things we are not sure of or people to blame for negative things occurring in society. An insider group that controls society secretly can give some the understanding of “why”. It can confirm skepticism, when allowing confirmation biases to occur. Going along with celebrities and the elite using symbols, there is a chance people are misinterpreting things. There may be no real connection to these symbols being used and may be coincidental. Additionally, celebrities may find it fun to poke at the idea that they are a part of this secret cult and purposely wearing symbols to get a rise out of fans. Many music videos have explicitly used the word “illuminati” which seems odd to advertise if the group is so secret.
The social context of this belief ties into social medias growth in today’s world. Before social media, it was harder to blast out information to many people but now information from anyone is accessible to almost everyone. People can share opinions, beliefs, and experience that can sway others to think similarly. Social media definitely has played a role with how many articles are available on this topic and how much evidence people put forth to persuade others. The community of believers I see as coming from anywhere. Any individual who is skeptical and suspicious can we drawn into this belief because it confirms something more is going on that we are not told. The ongoing social media growth is giving skeptics more and more fuel to keep this belief alive.
All in all, this belief ties into psychological explanations for its existence. Anxiety and fear are normal emotions that are felt by many. These emotions can lead an individual to become skeptical and look for explanations for what we do not understand. We may seek information to confirm our beliefs (confirmation bias) to comfort ourselves that we are not puppets being controlled by higher powers. As humans we seek to understand what we don’t know and the illuminati may serve the purpose of giving reason to just that.
Works Cited:
Baggini, Julian. “Does the Illuminati Control the World? Maybe It’s Not Such a Mad Idea |
Julian Baggini.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 14 Feb. 2018, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/14/illuminati-running-world-not-mad-idea-questioning-hidden-power-elites-sane.
Fotostock, Maria Breuer/ImageBroker/Age, and Karger-Decker/Age Fotostock. “Meet the Man
Who Started the Illuminati.” National Geographic, 1 Nov. 2016, www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/magazine/2016/07-08/profile-adam-weishaupt-illuminati-secret-society/.
“The Illuminati: Who Are They and What Do They Control?” The Week UK,
www.theweek.co.uk/62399/what-is-the-illuminati-and-what-does-it-control.
Waldman, Paul. “Republicans Go Full Illuminati.” Image, The Week, 24 Jan. 2018,
theweek.com/articles/750337/republicans-full-illuminati.
I think it is amazing how far the theory of the illuminate has come in our society. So many people believe that there is a secret organization of famous individuals who control our society. I like how you mentioned that people tend to piece together information to understand what is happening in our nation, and in particular with the negative events. I personally do not believe the illuminate exists in our society. However, I do feel that famous people hold more influence than they will ever understand. Furthermore, celebrities contribute to political campaigns and with this contribution comes to promise to write laws that will benefit them. If we look at celebrities in this manor, some may argue that they are indeed involved in a secret society that controls our everyday lives.
I agree with your comment about celebrities. I don’t necessarily think they are all members of a secret cult, but I think that they have more power and influence than they realize. Just think about how many times you have used a certain product become some celebrity you like uses it. It’s kind of scary to think that we will make decisions about stuff just based on that fact that some celebrity claims to use it.
This claim about celebrities reminds me of a conspiracy theory video I was watching on the Illuminati–apparently Beyoncé and Jay-Z named their daughter ‘Blue Ivy’ for a reason other than it being rather unique. Some believe that Blue Ivy stands for : Born Living Under Evil, Illuminati’s Very Youngest….and yes, I had to pause the video to laugh.
Hearing someone saying illuminati always makes me listen a bit closer. Today, people make it seem like the illuminati is in control of literally everything, which in no way is possible. This conspiracy itself, have seemed to grow larger and larger with every year. People constantly add new details about it and it just continues to expand. Did you ever find yourself believing in the illuminati before you wrote this blog post?
I find it surprising that the Illuminati was actually real at some point. I always believed that the illuminati society was kind of like how vampires or bigfoot came to be. Just story that was passed along with some people claiming that they had “proof” which is kinda, at least with how you described, what it has become today. I think the reason most people believe that politicians or celebrities are tied to the illuminati is because their faces are plastered everywhere. You never really hear stories about a neighbor or a friend being part of the illuminati but people that already have influence. In the aspect of arts, I think it’s a bit bizarre to believe that just people make their hands into the shape triangle it makes them part of something bigger. It could just be the style of the video or they could think it makes them look cool. I also liked how you mentioned that they just be poking fun of conspiracy people since that is also a likely explanation for why they do things that seemed connected to the illuminati. Lastly, I agree on your point on how the illuminate could stay hidden for so long when today we film everything and put it on social media.
The term “Illuminati” has become such a mainstream idea because so many people think that our government consists of a bunch of puppets while there are more powerful people influencing them. I wonder why the use of a triangle is associated with the group instead of some other symbol. I believe people use the idea of the Illuminati as someone to blame and as a blanket statement for anything they believe seems suspicious and out of the ordinary, like 9/11.
I also did not know that the Illuminati was an actual group at some point. However, there are certainly people who still perpetuate the theory very deliberately- I once received a message on Instagram from a random account asking if I would join the Illuminati. I laughed with my friends about it, but it is interesting that people still take the time to do that.
I think our society is controlled by some groups of individuals, but I don’t believe Illuminati still exist and they still control our society. Famous individuals definitely have a bigger influence, but they are still are under the control of law. I believe it’s only a rumor that some people want to use it to let us get into a panic. What makes the conspiracy grow is the fear of people.
Hello! While reading your post and some of the comments attached, I started to really become enlightened on this topic. Every once in a blue moon i’ll here about the Illuminati in the news or from a friend, but until your post I had never really looked into the history of the group. To be honest, I didn’t even think it was a “group” before reading your post. I thought the illuminati was just someone putting emphasis on some kind of natural occurring thing, and providing extraordinary reasoning as to why that certain thing is there. Like the example of the pyramid with the eye centered in the very middle of it on a dollar bill. I do believe–like some of the others above–that there IS in fact specific groups of people who run things in this world. But I don’t believe that every single action you make is based on what someone unconsciously told you/what you saw in advertisement etc. It’s also true that most of the time, the illuminati gets brought up when celebrities are involved. I know that there is some example out there that analyzes Rihanna’s tattoos which somehow links her to having membership within the group. Overall I personally don’t think the Illuminati is hiding underground and still running the show. Thank you so much for your post! Really interesting!
A lot of the belief in clandestine governments/new world order is hard for me to grasp. Do you think it has increased as people have become more partisan? For instance, do people think that the celebrities and politicians who are allegedly involved in the Illuminati are all colluding together at once, or are there factions even within that? I feel like there is some through-line or parallelism between the belief in the Illuminati and hyper-partisanship, either in membership or at least concept.
Super random question: If the Illuminati were real, and you were invited to join, would you? On one hand, it would be SUPER awesome to be part of the “New World Order” or whatever they like to call themselves, but I would kinda feel like a monster for it, y’know?
The Illuminati theory has always been fascinating to me because I first heard about it when people told me Beyonce was a part of it and other celebrities. In addition to celebrities, when politicians were added it made the belief easier to believe because they truly do control society. I think the idea behind Illuminati is so bizarre though, to think this group of people is deciding what happens with some theories I’ve heard also saying they are part of devil worshipping which is probably pushing it way too far.
It seems that illuminati has a plan to construct a set of New World Order by placing their members into some important government organization. However, if there really is some kind of groups has so much influence and power that could set the agenda for world regulation. Maybe declare their power to the whole world could give them more chance to really achieve their goal of future, if it really exist.
I don’t believe It still exists. With the development of our society, People get more educated and now is a Internet period which fake facts or beliefs can be easily recognized. It probably has some slight influence for older generation though.
In my opinion the illuminati is one of the greatest conspiracies out there. I personally enjoy reading some conspiracies to understand where the believers are coming from, but somehow this one has always been one I can not relate to or am troubling to understand how someone started with this in the first place. But great job in explaining all of the concept and cognitions behind it.
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