Rax Everything: Conspiracy Theories- Illuminati

WHAT IS ILLUMINATI?

Conspiracy theories concerning the Illuminati, a short-lived 18th-century Enlightenment society, appear to have originated in the late 19th century, when some conservatives in Europe came to believe that the group had been responsible for the French Revolution of 1789–1799.Hoaxes about the Illuminati were later spread in the 1960s by a group of American practical jokers known as the Discordians, who, for example, wrote a series of fake letters about the Illuminati to Playboy.

Or in other words today according to many it is believed that illuminati is a group of people or association that controls evrything.Many celebrities and people are considered to be connected with illuminati

Chris Hodapp, the co-author of Conspiracy Theories and Secret Societies for Dummies, says a defining feature of early Illuminati members is that they did not trust anyone over 30, because they were too set in their ways.

In terms of their legacy, historians tend to think the original Illuminati was only “mildly successful — at best — in becoming influential”, says Vox. The order did boast some influential members, with the most famous of these alleged to have been the German thinker Johann Goethe.

The Illuminati was stamped out by a government crackdown on secret societies in the late 1780s, but rumours that it continued to survive as an underground organisation have persisted into the modern day.

How did the modern-day myth develop?

In a recent interview with the BBC, David Bramwell, "a man who has dedicated himself to documenting the origins of the myth", claims 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 alternative belief system – Discordianism – which preached a form of anarchism and gave birth to the Discordian movement which ultimately wished to cause civil disobedience through practical jokes and hoaxes.

One of the main proponents of this new ideology was a writer called Robert Anton Wilson who wanted to bring chaos back into 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, such as the JFK assassination, to a secret elite organisation called the Illuminati.

Wilson went on to turn 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.

According to some many celebs and political leaders are also involved in illuminati

Does the Illuminati control the music industry?

As a symbol of the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll counterculture of the 1960s, The Beatles were loathed by many conservatives. When John Lennon claimed the band were “bigger than Jesus” in 1966, US evangelicals responded by destroying their records in mass burnings.

However, were the band deliberately planted in order to undermine western society? That's the premise of the Aquarian Conspiracy, which was started in the 1990s by former MI6 agent John Coleman.

A MI6 insider might ordinarily seem like a reliable source for a juicy scoop about shadowy organisations, but the Aquarian Conspiracy strains the credulousness of even the most ardent conspiracy theorist.

Coleman claimed the Beatles' overwhelming transatlantic success was engineered by the Tavistock Institute for Human Relations, a London-based social research group - or, as theorists would have it, a nefarious organisation dedicated to eroding the bedrock of US society.

To that end, argues the former special agent, the institute's Illuminati connections used the Fab Four to further its plan to promote “rock music and drugs” with the aim of “undermining and eventually destroying the family unit”, The Sun reports.

Internet theorists say they picked up signs of so-called Aquarian Conspiracy after poring over song lyrics and album covers to find hidden messages and supposed Illuminati signs.

Earlier this year, Paul McCartney set tongues wagging again, after posting a mystical-looking drawing on his twitter account.