How the Illuminati conspiracy theory started?

Many people believe that Jay-Z, Donald Trump, and Katy Perry are all part of the Illuminati - a secret group said to comprise of the world's most powerful people. Even if you haven't heard of the Illuminati, chances are you've probably seen one of their symbols. For example, pentagrams, goats, or even the all-seeing eye that's on US banknotes. References to the Illuminati have also cropped up in music videos, such as Rihanna's S&M video which featured a fake newspaper with a headline declaring her part of the group.

The Illuminati were, to the best of our knowledge, a Bavarian secret society formed in the 18th Century. It opposed superstition, religious influence and state authority. They even created a rule book which stated that "everything which is not forbidden by this constitution is permitted." % Although they no longer exist, their legacy lives on in popular culture.

Eventually, the Bavarian group faded into obscurity and has no connection to modern theories about the Illuminati. The Discordian movement is the origin of the conspiracy theory we know today. The Discordian movement began in 1965 in the office of the Texas drug attorney, where two schoolmates used the photocopier in the office to publish copies of the founding text of the Discordia. The book promoted the theory that...Discordianism grew in popularity during the 1960s and 1970s, with Hill & Thornley actively promoting it and spreading disinformation.

In the late 1960s, two other Americans, a writer named Robert Anton Wilson, and a friend, Robert Shea, editor at the magazine "Playboy", decided to write a novel in which they would incorporate all of the major conspiracy theories into it and call it "Illuminatus".

They loved it so much that they made it a trilogy. They wanted to spread a little chaos and disinformation deliberately about the Illuminati, so they wrote letters to mainstream press, fanzines (which were very popular at the time) and even the letters page of Playboy. They also wrote letters to imaginary readers saying that the Illuminati weren’t real at all, or that they were kind of on the fence. It didn’t matter, what mattered was that all these people seemed to be creating a conversation about the Illuminati, and the idea was that as the reader, you were supposed to question it, question it, ask, “Are they real?” The myth spread far and wide. Wilson and Shea’s The Illuminatus trilogy attributed some of the greatest mysteries of the time to the Illuminati, such as “Who Shot John F. Kennedy?” While many of the conspiracy theories in the trilogy are imagined, they’re mixed with enough truth to seem credible.

Perhaps the strangest theory was that it was invented by the founder of Bavarian Illuminati. This theory was that weishaupt murdered George Washington and took his place as President of the United States. This theory is supported by Washington's portrait on the U.S. dollar bill, which is believed to be the face of the founder.

Although the trilogy did not sell well in the general public, it became a cult classic. It was also made into a full-scale eight-hour play in Liverpool. The play was a major success, launching the careers of the British actors Bill nighy, Jim Broadbent, and others.

The 70s-style print magazine culture may seem far-fetched in today’s globalised, hyper-connected world, but Illuminati conspiracy theories continue to circulate on websites like 4chan, Reddit, and elsewhere, where believers share their preferred variants of the conspiracy and promote evidence to suggest that it still exists.

In the end, it’s not up to a mysterious group of people to decide whether or not you believe in the Illuminati conspiracy.