So I think someone mentioned Illuminati Conspiracy mythology in the last webinar, and Craig mentioned that he didn't really know anything about it, but would like to hear more. Through social networks, I've been connected to people that promote this idea strongly, and I've researched for some time now to better understand it.

Like any mythology, there are several flavors of the Illuminati Conspiracy story. However, this is a core framework to this mythology: there is a cabal of psychopathic rulers intent on global domination, and they rule our governments, social institutions, academia, corporations, and basically all positions of power and influence. A common feature of the different flavors is that their domination is organized and rooted in a magickal influence of some kind (in some variants, extraterrestrial influence). They believe the single All-Seeing-Eye (like the one found on the Dollar Bill) is the primary symbol of the Illuminati, as a symbol for the nearly omnipotent psychical reach and power of the Illuminati. Often, secret societies are implicated in involvement with the Illuminati Conspiracy, such as the Free Masons, Rosicrucians, Skull and Bones club of Yale, the Bohemian Grove (Elite meeting, worshippers of Molloch in Sebastapol, CA), etc.

In some variants, the Illuminati are reptillian aliens, disguised in suits as humans. According to several youtube videos and blogs, occasionally the human suits fail, and the reptillian anatomy emerges, sometimes on live TV or public events. David Eick writes extensively about this idea of Reptillian Aliens, but as far as I know, he never actually says that it's more than a metaphor referring to people consumed by the survival-brain, reptilian consciousness. Other writers, have equated the Reptillian, Alien Illuminati with the Anunnaki of Sumerian mythology (this is a very popular variant).

A major premise of the story is that the Illuminati have constructed a holding pen for all of humanity, a cage that psychically siphons off power from the masses, and keeps the population in check with psychical/energetic attacks against those who disturb the system. It's actually kind of similar to the Matrix, except instead of virtual computer worlds, a virtual psychical world has been imposed upon humanity by the Illuminati overlords. 

Something I have noticed is that people who buy strongly into the Illuminati Conspiracy are very immersed in a paranoid and suspicious state of mind. In my seeking of these people out to understand this mythology, I have found many adherents of the Illuminati Conspiracy are on the edge of consensual reality, sometimes diagnosed as schizophrenic (not to discount schizophrenia as something completely invalid). As such, they report intense dreams in which they are constantly besieged by the psychic attacks of the Illuminati and their minions.

The most intense group I became involved with, through a Facebook group, had many people who claimed to be involved with genetic, medical, and psychic experiments that scarred them for life. The basic narrative was that the Illuminati are cultivating a "crop" of powerful psychic humans that can be programmed to do their bidding. Those who resist or break free invoke the wrath of the Illuminati through psychical harassment and overload, manifested as schizophenic psychosis.

The mythology of the X-Men mutants resonates with many of them. The image of the "Cerebro" mutant-finder-machine that Professor X uses to find new students for his academy of Mutants is purported to be a real device, represented by the Eye at the top of the pyramid, now completely constructed via the NSA's panopticon complex in Utah. Unlike the benevolent intentions Professor X has with Cerebro, this device, or all-seeing psychical eye, searches for these "mutants" so that they can be subjugated and controlled, or destroyed if they resist their influence. 

I'd like to take a moment here to say that I do not necessarily believe everything in the Illuminati Conspiracy is necessarily real, because it's extremely out-there (I have so much fear of being labled Woo-Woo), but I think there are some things that I've found and experienced and heard about that make me believe some parts. I also believe that the mythology itself expresses a lot about our society and the experiences of people on the edges of consensual reality. 

I had a client in my practicum training who will probably be diagnosed as schizophrenic by the time he is out of high school (didn't fit all of the diagnostic criteria at the time), who described a similar mythology, but had no knowledge of the Illuminati Conspiracy ideas. He basically described the "Illuminati" of this mythology in terms of the oppressive and cruel hierarchies of students and teachers at his school. It's lead me to conclude that this mythology is strongly rooted in the experience of latent and diagnosed schizophrenics in our society. The idea of the "mutant" schizophrenic gene, which is passed down family lines, ties in with this mythology in an uncanny way. 

Determining exactly how much of these stories is myth and how much is reality is difficult. I am personally inclined to believe the part of the story that many of the powerful figures in today's society have some kind of strong psychic influence is true. Having become personally involved with occult studies and practical magick, I have seen that there is something real in Tarot, Kaballah, John Dee's vision magick, and other practices which are promoted by at least some of these secret societies mentioned by the Illuminati Conspiracy, such as the Free Masons (I found a book on Free Mason magick a few months back, their teachings aren't that secret if you look for them). The fact that many of the Founding Fathers of the USA and current day movers and shakers of the plutocracy are part of the Free Masons is interesting, to say the least.

Speaking from a standpoint of mythological influence, the most powerful mythological institutions (print, music, movies) are often associated with Illuminati infiltration. The "all seeing eye", or "one eye covered, on eye visible" is a motif that is repeated, often quite obviously, in Hollywood-based media, which dominates the planet's focus and attention. The video for Katy Perry's "Dark Horse" is media-fied ritual, complete with pyramid, eye symbology, domination ideations, AND the lyrics are about delving into Black Magic and dealing with the Karma that it evokes. Watch it to see what I mean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KSOMA3QBU0. Another example of Hollywood involvement in this conspiracy: one of the main concert/events venues in LA is "The Shrine", a center of mythological emanations and media ritual - it's owned by a side branch of the Free Masons, the Shriners. In reference to my previous post about Cthulu at the beginning of the course, H.P. Lovecraft, the author of the popular Cthulu mythos, was descended from a line of Free Masons, but denied being one himself. The "Silver Twilight Lodge" of the mythos is an obvious reference to the "Golden Dawn" and the Free Masons (who meet at a Masonic "lodge")

Occult groups, such as the Golden Dawn (often associated with the Illuminati), openly discuss the power of myth and archetypes, and how to use them. Is it possible that an organization or group of people has consciously realized that they can control society simply by controlling the mythmaking institutions, and has been consciously wielding this power for decades, centuries, millenia? Perhaps we are simply another iteration here in this group, but with more benevolent goals?