The original Illuminati group was founded in Bavaria within the 18th century by Adam Weishaupt, an anti-clerical professor who wanted to limit the interference of the Church publicly life.
Convinced that religious ideas were not an adequate belief system to control modern societies, “he decided to seek out another sort of ‘illumination’; a group of ideas and practices that would be applied to transform the way European states were run”, reports National Geographic. He based his association on the Freemasons, with a hierarchy and mysterious rituals, and named it the Order of Illuminati to reflect the enlightened ideals of its educated members.
Chris Hodapp, the co-author of Conspiracy Theories and Secret Societies for Dummies, says a defining feature of early Illuminati members is that they didn't trust anyone over 30, because they were too set in their ways.
In terms of their legacy, historians tend to think the first Illuminati was only “mildly successful — at the best — in becoming influential”, says Vox. The order did boast some influential members, with the foremost famous of those imagined to are the German thinker Johann Goethe.
The Illuminati was stamped out by a government crackdown on secret societies within the late 1780s, but rumours that it continued to survive as an underground organisation have persisted into the fashionable day.
Among the alleged members of the key society aren't just politicians and non secular leaders, but also actors and pop stars.
The Illuminati theory has no small number of committed adherents, particularly within the US - consistent with a poll by Insider, around 15% of the American electorate believe that the Illuminati exists.
The news site says the age groups presumably to believe were Gen X-ers and older millennials, and “Republicans were more likely to believe the key society than Democrats”.
“An estimated 200 million Americans were registered to choose the 2016 presidential election,” the location notes. “If Insider's poll is an accurate picture of the whole US population, 30 million of these voters would be people that believe the Illuminati.”
How did the modern-day myth develop?
In a 2017 interview with the BBC, David Bramwell, "a man who has dedicated himself to documenting the origins of the myth", said the modern-day Illuminati legend was influenced not by Weishaupt but rather by LSD, the 1960s counter-culture, and specifically a text called Principia Discordia.
The book extolled an alternate belief system – Discordianism – which preached a sort of anarchism and gave birth to the Discordian movement which ultimately wished to cause direct action through practical jokes and hoaxes.
One of the most proponents of this new ideology was a writer called Robert Anton Wilson who wanted to bring chaos back to society by "disseminating misinformation through all portals – through counter culture, through the mainstream media," claims Bramwell.
He did this by sending fake letters to the men's magazine Playboy, where he worked, attributing cover-ups and conspiracy theories, like the JFK assassination, to a secret elite organisation called the Illuminati.
Wilson went on to show these theories into a book, The Illuminatus Trilogy, which became a surprise cult success and were even made into a stage play in Liverpool, launching the careers of British actors Bill Nighy and Jim Broadbent.
What is the New World Order?
The idea of a strong modern Illuminati conspiring to rule the planet remained a distinct segment belief upheld by a couple of enthusiasts until the 1990s.
The internet changed all that, giving conspiracy theorists a worldwide platform to expound their beliefs and present their evidence to a huge audience.
Theories about how the New World Order operates run from relatively straightforward ideas to the outright bizarre.
Conspiracy theorists obsessively analyse public events for "evidence" of Illuminati influence. The symbols most related to the Illuminati include triangles, pentagrams, goats, the all-seeing eye – like the one that appears on US bank notes - and therefore the number 666.
This has led to claims a number of the American Founding Fathers were members, with Jefferson accused within the aftermath of the War of Independence.
Another commonly cited Illuminati symbol, which appears on US currency, is that the so-called Eye of Providence, which is claimed to represent the omniscience of God watching over humanity.
According to a 2013 survey by Public Policy Polling, 28% folks voters believe that a secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually rule the planet through an authoritarian global government. It found that 34% of Republicans and 35% of independents believe the New World Order threat compared to only 15% of Democrats.
Who is supposedly a member?
As well as being king and queen of the charts, Beyonce and Jay-Z are frequently depicted as lords of the New World Order. Beyonce's immense fame and recognition have long made her a favorite target for conspiracy theorists.
Illuminati “experts” seized upon her half-time performance at the 2013 Super Bowl as an example of her “devil-worshipping” choreography, even accusing her on-stage friend Sasha Fierce of being a “demonic entity”.
However, some musicians seem to enjoy deliberately twiddling with symbols connected to secret societies.
For instance, Rihanna frequently incorporates Illuminati images into her music videos, and even joked about the theories within the video for S&M, which featured a fake newspaper with a headline declaring her “Princess of the Illuminati”.
Jay Z has also been accused of hiding secret symbols like goat imagery and devil horns in his music videos. Most damningly, the brand for his own music label, Roc-A-Fella Records, may be a pyramid – one among the foremost well-known Illuminati logos.
Rob Brotherton, a professor at Barnard College and author of Suspicious Minds: Why We believe Conspiracy Theories, explains that real-life government conspiracies targeting black people in America, like FBI infiltration of the Civil Rights movement within the 1950s and 60s, planted the seeds for Illuminati theory's popularity among hip-hop artists and fans.
