Yes, the Illuminati are real… or, they were anyway. According to senior Chris Sullivan, the Illuminati are “a secret group of people, which most conspiracy theorists think run the world.”

However, most people are unaware that this mysterious, shadow organization has basis in historical fact. The Illuminati was a secret society, formed by a small group of Bavarian intellectuals in southern Germany on May 1, 1776.  Founder Johann Adam Weishaupt formed the organization to spread enlightenment thinking across Europe as well as to combat the influences of monarchy, superstition, and church involvement in public life.

Weishaupt was born on February 6, 1748 in Ingolstadt, Germany. He was schooled in the Jesuit sect of Christianity and grew up learning philosophy from his grandfather. Upon reaching adulthood, Weishaupt was drawn to enlightenment ideas. In the early 1770’s, Pope Clement XIV attempted to suppress the society of Jesus (the Jesuits), resulting in the forced appointment of Weishaupt to the position of professor of canon law at the University of Ingolstadt, which was specifically held by Jesuits at that time. Around the same time, Weishaupt attempted to join the order of the freemasons, but was turned away due to his radical philosophical ideas.

Finding The Society of the Freemasons impervious, Weishaupt formed his own society based on his personal philosophies. In the beginning, membership grew slowly. In 1780, Baron Adolph Francois Frederic Knigge; a freemason, joined the Bavarian Illuminati and used his masonic knowledge to model an internal system of rankings within the group. In the late 1770’s and early 1780’s membership expanded at an exponential rate and subgroups sprang up all over Western Europe. The Illuminati’s influence reached its peak in 1783, when they helped print and distribute enlightenment literature in France, thus helping spur the French revolution. In 1784, word spread that the Illuminati was intent on changing the government in Germany. Duke Karl Theodor of Bavaria issued edicts banning association or interaction with any and all secret societies, especially the Bavarian Illuminati. Weishaupt fled the Bavarian region of Germany, and died in 1830.

Although the society was never officially disbanded, there was internal strife within the Illuminati which helped lead to its decline. It is widely believed that the Duke’s edicts were the final nail in the coffin for the Illuminati and the final gasps of life for the once influential society echoed across Europe in 1787. However, some theorists claim the Illuminati went into hiding, rather than disbanding and rose again in the twentieth century to an even more authoritative status. However, this is all speculation and has yet to be proven. The Illuminati certainly was real and, at one point did achieve great influence, but whether or not they have returned… is merely a conspiracy theory.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminati

http://www.bavarianilluminati.com