timboucher

Those Poor Misunderstood Illuminati

The Illuminati, I’m prepared to say, are woefully misunderstood. How exactly it all happened, I’m not sure. But somewhere along the line, public perception of the mysterious group and Illuminism, the philosophical ideal behind it, got ridiculously entangled with just about every kind of conspiracy theory out there. Untangling all those strands is a project for another time, but what I’d like to do here is offer my own unique perspective on what the Illuminati were/are all about.

I’ve only recently come to this theoretical explanation of Illuminism, and I’m more than open to being corrected and further “enlightened” on the subject, but here goes. The points which fired off these connections for me come from the Wikipedia description of Minsky’s Society of Mind:

Society of Mind

The society of mind theory views the human mind and any other naturally evolved cognitive systems as a vast society of individually simple processes known as agents. These processes are the fundamental thinking entities from which minds are built, and together produce the many abilities we attribute to minds.

Compare to Jane Robert’s ‘Seth teachings’ about the mind:

“Each personality contains an inner civilization of the self which he yearns to govern … The ego rises from the civilization of the psyche just as a leader rises from the masses of the people; appointed, chosen, or taking control according to an inner politics first existing within the greater inner mind.”

Of Gods, Demons & Men

Mix into that some Jungian psychology, by way of Erich Von Neumann:

Originally, consciousness did not possess enough free libido to perform any activity - plowing, harvesting, hunting, waging war, etc - of its own “free will,” and was obliged to invoke the help of the god who “understood” these things. By means of ceremonial invocation, the ego activated the “help of the god” and thus conducted the flow of libido from the unconscious to the conscious system. The progressive development of consciousness assimilates the functional gods, who go on living as qualities and capacities of the conscious individual who plows, harvests, hunts and wages war as and when he pleases.

Throw in some Aleister Crowley for good measure:

The spirits of the Goetia are portions of the human brain.

Their seals therefore represent … methods of stimulating or regulating those particular spots, (through the eye).

And then there’s the Gurdjieff parable of The Horse, Carriage and Driver, of which this is a depiction of the disharmonious state of the ordinary mind {See also: Ruiz’ mitote mind}:

The state of drunkenness depicts the typical condition of our human minds. It stands for kind of imagining perception, which is based on sensory perception, past trauma, future expectations, the constant flow of mental images and how we identify ourselves by our job, relationships, possessions, monetary value etc. In our “drunkenness” we mechanically shift from one sub-personality to the next, reacting to perceived influence that affect the image of our personal sovereignty. We are under the illusion that we are masters of ourselves and of our destiny, when in fact these three basic components of our being are not at all in harmonious relationship with each other. Body, emotion, and mind are kept out of balance and unsynchronized as the illusion of control flip-flops form one component to another.

Multi-Agent Mind

So what trends are we seeing across these traditions? We are seeing a depiction of the human mind as being composed of a multitude of components, agents, segments, gods, sub-personalities, demons, drives, etc. In just about all the esoteric systems referenced above, the individual is lead through a process - usually symbolic - which enables them to gain control over these many - often conflicting - voices and impulses within the mind. Jung directly talked about this as well with a practice he called active imagination, wherein he would identify these individual impulses within his own mind, objectify them as character/entities, and then intentionally interact with them as though they were external to him.

The Jane Roberts quote is, I think, one of the best in this group for explaining how that concept bridges into the Illuminati. Again: “The ego rises from the civilization of the psyche just as a leader rises from the masses of the people; appointed, chosen, or taking control according to an inner politics first existing within the greater inner mind.”

Inner Union

From what I have read of Illuminati philosophy and writings, they *seem* to be pointing to the same thing: an inner process whereby the individual’s mind is liberated from disharmony through the yoking (yoga) together of these warring groups. For the Illuminati, their symbolic container for this process was a striving against the control of centralized religion over the lives of men. The flowering of this trend among learned individuals who went through the process of Self-Actualization within approximately the context outlined above brought to us nothing less than the Age of Enlightenment, Natural Law, the Industrial Revolution, the Modern Age, and the founding of the United States of America {See also: Freemasonry}.

As a result, they actually seem to have set the clock back to principles which flourished in Ancient Greece, Rome and the Near East. From writings connected to the Illuminati (supposedly):

Natural Law Restored (Dr. Bronner’s Moral ABC)

Jesus Christ established no new religion; he would only set religion and reason in their ancient rights. For this purpose he would unite men in a common bond. He would fit them for this by spreading a just morality, by enlightening the understanding, and by assisting the mind to shake off all prejudices. He would teach all men, in the first place, to govern themselves. Rulers would then be needless, and equality and liberty would take place without any revolution, by the natural and gentle operation of reason and expediency.

It’s actually quite a beautiful, elegant philosophy - as I understand it, anyway. What I see as happening is something like this - and this is based solely on my own experiences and corresponding research I have done:

How It Works (Tentative Explanation)

1. On account of cultural conditioning, the natural mind is thrown out of balance by growing up and “learning” and conforming to societal standards. Cultures whitewash authentic sense data with mental, physical and emotional habits which promote the healthy functioning of the social order, and bend the individual to fit within that particular system.
2. In most (many? These are all just estimates…) cases, this results in a personality which is easily manipulable by whatever the dominant power is culturally. Cultural leaders can use symbols which human nervous systems have been imprinted with in order to motivate specific types of behavior. Depending on how well and judiciously that’s done, there may arise a conflict: the individual is not a happy, healthy, functioning member of society. They become alienated, listless, confused, disoriented, thrown out of intent/action harmony. Their mind enters into a state of chaos.
3. The chaos and pain becomes so great or overwhelming that it must be beaten, or death may ensue {See: rockstar suicides}. Various esoteric systems exist to overcome this chaos. The simplest, most direct, and effective one I’ve seen is Miguel Ruiz’s Four Agreements. His system is all about analyzing the agreements and assumptions which govern our behavior, and seeing how they bring conflict into our lives, and writing with ourselves new agreements about how we can be {See also: Gathertogetherin musical, script-writing}
4. As this process begins to work, the individual feels an extraordinary burst or explosion of creative energy. This has to do with the fact that much of our psychic energy is used to build and maintain walls between ourselves, our experiences, emotions, etc. When those walls are removed, the authentic human is revealed - illuminated, enlightened, whatever you want to call it.
5. This state seems to be characterized by a higher-order functioning of the mind, organization and creative ability. This is where “genius” comes from: people who are able to make super-human leaps in knowledge and understanding, because the habitual routines of culture have been stripped away from their perceptions, so that they can see things as they actually are, and envision how they could become. This is also where prophets seem to come from - people who have a direct hotline to “God”.
6. Also typical to this state of mind seems to be a leap to another level of interacting with people: you begin to withdraw your projections of what other people seem to be and allow them to simply be as they really are. You become 100x more honest, more effective, and better able to communicate. This makes you become completely up front about your expectations with other people, and leads you into areas like social contracts, agreements governing interactions between people, voluntary associations, etc. In other words, all the things that the United States was actually founded on: Illuminati and Freemasonic ideals that men can and should govern themselves, that they have the right to do that and that society exists as an agreement which we can amend as needed. Like I said, I think it’s a beautiful philosophy and I frankly don’t see what is supposed to be so damned scary and conspiratorial about it.

The take-away point I’m trying to make with all that: that one who has mastered oneself has achieved a harmonious union within their mind and inner experience, which they then bring to bear on their interactions with other people. The “virus” spreads from person to person by example, by effective and authentic communication, by teaching and by agreement. And before you know it, you have a whole bunch of sovereign individuals running around, making agreements with one another, creating cool projects and enhancing the experience of everyone their shared value community.

And if that’s what it means to be a member of the Illuminati, then totally sign me up - because that’s the way life should be as far as I can tell!

PS. While we’re at it, here’s an ad for a nice Illuminati-influence media adventure franchise, which is so overt and corny in its symbolism that it actually makes me a feel a little swell of ridiculous national pride:

• Are the Illuminati Gnostics?
• Hermetic Order of the Silver Twilight
• Tips for Nomads
• Your New Motto
• SOCIAL ISOLATION NETWORK