Mystery

Illuminati: Fact or Fiction?

February 24, 2022 by Madeline Guerra

The concept of secret societies has been around longer than we can imagine. The idea that powerful figures in the shadows are controlling the world around us, has been popular in all corners of the world.

From the Knights’ Templar, a military order that made it their duty to protect Christians during the crusades, to the Freemasons, who seem to sneak their way into every corner of American history, there is just no other group that seems to pique the interest of others, quite as well as a secret society.

But out of all of the secret societies out there, there is one that is so sinister, yet so intriguing, that it continues to be the subject of conversation on almost every conspiracy site out there. Have you heard of the Illuminati?

Who was the Illuminati?

Most widely associated with the all-seeing eye at the top of the pyramid, the symbol for the Illuminati has taken many forms over the years. But what many people do not know, is that the original group used the Owl of Minerva as its symbol. As a symbol of wisdom and knowledge, as was the Roman goddess of wisdom, Minerva.

Of course, other than the symbol, there are also many things that most of us probably don’t realize about the Illuminati such as, it was a real group, less than five hundred years ago.

During the time of the monarchy, royalty often abused their power and used their religion as an excuse to persecute those that did not share their same beliefs. Especially in Europe, where Royalty was very common during the 1700s.

Therefore on May 1, 1776, a man named Adam Weishaupt decided enough was enough, and he created a secret group called The Order of the Illuminati. The group was born in an area called Bavaria, which is now a part of Germany.

Due to the abuse of power that was rampant in the state and church, Adam created the group as an opposition to government and religion’s influence on society and culture.

He wanted to create a safe space for people to openly criticize the government, debate with others, and express their god-given right to free speech.

Seeking to expand his way of thinking, Adam went on to recruit five law students at the school he taught at, the University of Ingolstadt. With the names of the students and every other official member being unknown, most of the public’s focus was on the professor himself.

Being a professor of canon law at the college, it made sense that he was not fond of religion having such a large hold over people and their minds. He wanted to infiltrate the powerful institutions of his state so people could live in a world of equality and freedom.

However, the more people he recruited, the harder it became for him to control his group. And soon, much more radical ideas made their way into the group.

What Happened to Them?

While the central idea of the Illuminati remained mostly the same, the methods it used became more controversial for that time period. With many members now encouraging the group to overthrow the government and abolish the church, it didn’t take long for them to establish a system of informants and spies.

These members were used to gain information on influential members of society and use it to exploit them.

The true number of members is unknown since the Illuminati was never supposed to be discovered. It is estimated that more than 2,000 people joined the group across multiple different countries.

But just as soon as it spread to France, the group was shut down. Authorities had managed to crack down on them and even discovered that Adam Weishaupt was the creator. After his untimely reveal, he was banished from Bavaria, and not much is known about him or his life after this.

It really is hard to believe that they were discovered, with how paranoid and careful they seemed to be. For example, the group initially did not trust anyone over the age of thirty, and even refused to recruit them at first.

Then when someone did join, there was a lot of information they were required to produce about themselves that included; the names of their ancestors, their family and friends’ names, and the names of those they considered their enemies.

As mentioned earlier, the members never used their own real names though, despite providing literally everything else about their lives. The leader, Adam, was only referred to as Brother Spartacus, and the rest of the members were divided into groups. These groups were the novices, minervals, and illuminated minervals.

Other Secret Societies

The Illuminati isn’t the only group that planned to overthrow the government and spread out among members of society. The first one is the New World Order, an extension of the Illuminati group.

However, unlike the Illuminati, there is no evidence that this group has ever existed. The New World Order is the name for a supposedly secret emerging totalitarian world government, with all of the power in the hands of Illuminati members.

Another one similar to this group, with hardly any evidence to prove its existence as well, is the Bilderberg Group. A secret group of elites from all around the world is believed to be the most powerful society to have ever existed.

Unlike the New World Order, this theory emerged from actual meetings between powerful people that have happened many times in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

The group that we saved for last is the one most similar to the Illuminati since there lies the evidence that it existed at one point, and actually, you may just recognize this particular one. Do you remember Cicada 3301?

If the name sounds at all familiar, then you’re on the right track, as it isn’t the first time they were discussed on this podcast. Many episodes ago, we dove deep into who this group was and their impact on modern culture.

As a brief reminder, Cicada 3301 was an anonymous group that took the internet by storm a while ago with their mysterious and mind-bending puzzles that seemed to lead all over the world.

Those that managed to finish were supposedly asked to join their group, but there were many clashing stories on what happened if you managed to finish the puzzle. Theorists out there then proposed the idea that it was a recruitment project used by secret international intelligence agencies.

Evidence and Theories

There are many people today who believe that the Illuminati never truly disbanded and that many members continued to meet in secret and have spread across the entire world today.

The people that believe this, also believe that they were responsible for many large-scale events that have happened throughout history. Some of these include the French Revolution, the assassination of American President John F. Kennedy, and even the terrorist attack of 9/11 that killed thousands of people in New York City in September of 2001.

Even minuscule things, such as President Thomas Jefferson was once accused of being a member of the group, even though there was no evidence whatsoever. So, is there any proof?

Well, it just so happens that a recovered letter from 1789 may be the answer. It was written by President George Washington, and in it, he described the Illuminati in detail and addressed them as a threat. Then, there are some more modern incidents that theorists like to use as hard evidence as well.

Take, for example, celebrities. One of the biggest theories is that many of them are members of the Illuminati, and were replaced with clones. It is a bit out there, but there are some videos that do make the idea seem a little less crazy.

Searching youtube, you can find clips of celebrities all of a sudden just zoning out, and having seemingly robotic smiles on their faces. While there are most likely logical explanations for these occurrences, it definitely sends chills down your spine.

The Effect on Modern Culture

With a subject as popular as the Illuminati, it’s no surprise that it has taken the media by storm. With books and movies about it coming out left and right, the subject has quickly turned into one of entertainment.

For example, one of the most famous thrillers out there is The Da Vinci Code. This story mirrors the purpose and the effect the Illuminati had on society. It describes an underground group that guards an important secret, and if it came out the world would never be the same.

However with all of these adaptations out there, many people quickly forget that it was once a real group, with real people, and it involved real consequences.

While it may be thrilling, we must remember that it originally stemmed from people feeling so oppressed by their government, that they felt the need to meet in secret in order to express their opinions.

The Tragedy of the Burari Deaths

November 11, 2021 by Madeline Guerra

By: Madeline Guerra

At 7am on July 1, 2018, the eleven bodies of the Chumbawat family were discovered by a man named Gurcharan Singh. He was a neighbor to the family, and usually enjoyed an early morning walk with one of the family members. Only no one showed up this morning, and their family shop was already a couple hours late in opening.

When he returned home, he noticed that his neighbor’s door was wide open. Confused, he slowly started to enter the house, and confusion soon turned to fear. . Inside the house, he came across a scene that looked like the hanging roots of a banyan tree descended from the ceiling of the house, only they weren’t roots.

He fled and called the police when he realized that what he saw were not tree roots at all, but bodies, blindfolded, wrists and feet bound, hanging one by one next to each other, adding up to a total of ten people.

Another body was later discovered sprawled out on the floor of another room. What happened to these people? How do this many people die in broad daylight? The death of these eleven people, an entire family spread out over generations, shook the district of Burari, in the city of Delhi, India. What was once a quiet peaceful town, was now the sight of one of the world’s deadliest mysteries.

The Chundawat Family

Sometimes referred to as the Bhatia family, they were a seemingly normal middle-class family. There were eleven of them living in their house together, which may seem crowded to some people.

But this custom is actually very common there, for entire families to live together under one roof, even cousins and grandparents. Their culture highly values family and practicality, so the Chundawats were definitely considered a normal family in their community.

They would enjoy many different types of food together, and the head of the household, Lalit, would regularly enjoy a drink with his friends.

However, their seemingly perfect life was shattered when the family patriarch, Bhopal Singh died in 2007 from natural causes. After Bhopal’s death, there were some major changes in the Chundawat family.

First, they became vegetarians, and Lalit stopped drinking. They believed that cleansing their diets would help them become pure and ensure their chances of a good afterlife. However, the son and new family patriarch, Lalit, started to go down a very dangerous path.

The Death of the Family

When the bodies of the Chundawat family were discovered, ten of them were found hanging from their ceiling all in a row next to each other. They had their hands tied behind their backs, their feet tied together, and their mouths taped shut.

Under their feet, there were five stools on the floor. This means that there had to have been two people sharing each stool when they went through with hanging themselves.

Unfortunately, two of the members that hung themselves were only teenagers, with the youngest being thirteen years old. They were described like the hanging branches of a banyan tree, which is something that is held sacred in their culture.

The oldest member of the family, Narayani Devi, who was eighty years old at the time, was noticeably absent from the trail of bodies. When the house was searched, they found her body laying down on the bed in a neighboring room. Based on the coroner’s report, she had died from a lack of oxygen.

You would think that she may have died from natural causes based on her age, but her body said otherwise.

There was bruising on her neck, leading authorities to believe that she had been strangled to death. But who could find it in their heart to take the life of an innocent woman?

Even authorities were shocked by the scene, that the very first police officer that arrived when called by the neighbor, had this to say:

“It was shocking. I stayed only for 10-15 seconds before rushing downstairs to call my seniors. At the time I did not see whose hands were tied and whose eyes were covered. I just saw a lot of bodies hanging, just like branches of a tree”.

What happened to the Chundawats, shocked their community, as many people could not believe that they would commit the ultimate sin and end their own lives, and other people thought that foul play was involved.

Slowly, because of all the questions about what really happened and the graphic details of the case, it slowly started to spread across the country, and then across the world.

Much like the Burari case, this is not the first time that the media has run stories like this. For example, 1978 People’s Temple Mass-Suicide was fueled by a religious cult and resulted in the death of nearly 900 innocent people. Unfortunately, this list could go on for a while, which is honestly quite scary.

Lalit Chundawat

One of the reasons it can be quite scary is because it shows the unnerving influence that a person could have over others, and it shines a bright light on mental health. If this was addressed in the Chundawat family, then perhaps they may not have met their tragic demise.

As mentioned earlier, the family was shaken in 2007 when their patriarch died, but no one else took it harder than his son, Lalit.

Not only was he thrown into the position of patriarch, which can be a lot on someone’s shoulders, but he had also been struggling with his mental health even before his father’s death.

Not only did he suffer a major head injury from an accident years prior, but he was also the victim of a violent crime. Someone had attempted to murder him and it ultimately ended up in him losing his voice.

Lalit began to feel that he was losing control of his own life. So after his father’s death, he started to claim that the spirit of his father was possessing his body, and was giving him instructions on how he and his family should live in order to prosper.

This never rose to the surface until the investigators found eleven different diaries, all written by Lalit, over the span of years, ever since Bhopal died.

In these diaries, the police read some disturbing things. Throughout them, Lalit would describe rituals that his father’s spirit supposedly was telling him and his family to perform in order for them to lead a prosperous life.

However, the worst part comes in the last diary where he describes the deaths of him and his family. It was a ritual that they were planning to do in order to give thanks to the father’s spirit for their good luck, but he really believed that they would all be able to live through the ritual, as he wrote about how they would help untie each other after they completed it.

He even wrote that his mother was too old, so she would be “made to sleep” in the other room. Overall, the diaries were a great glimpse into the mind of Lalit, which ended up helping investigators determine what happened to the family.

Popular Theories

Once the diaries were found, theories started to spread. Especially ones that revolved around Lalit, as he was the main subject of the diaries.

One of the most twisted theories out there is the one that Lalit maliciously killed his entire family as a way to take them out when ending his own life.

Some believe that he pretended to have lost his voice, and was silently planning their deaths for years, as a way to relieve himself of being the family patriarch. According to this theory, he would have been the one to strangle his mother and cause everyone else to go along with his plan.

Another popular theory is that the entire family was murdered by an outsider. This theory emerged once people discovered that the family’s wrists and feet were bound, they were blindfolded and gagged.

The house was also unlocked with the door wide open and there were no suicide notes found anywhere. However, this theory was quickly debunked for several reasons.

The first one was that the family dog had not barked at all, but the most important one was the fact that the CCTV footage showed no one entering the home the entire night or early the next morning. The only ones on camera were a few family members seen carrying stools and wire.

Throughout the entire house, the investigators saw signs of a ritualistic practice that the family may have been trying to complete when they died. There were eleven pipes protruding from the walls inside the house, the exact number of people that died.

Seven of them were downwards matching the number of women, and four were upwards, matching the number of men. They were also in the same sequence as the hanging bodies.

An Explanation

After investigating, no one was able to come up with a definite answer about the Chundawat family, but they are positive that whatever happened, they did it to themselves, nor murderers or ghosts. The fact is, the family was left alone with their own minds.

Perhaps the most logical explanation about what happened to this family lies inside the human mind. Lalit clearly had mental health issues that he never dealt with, and once his father died, they spun completely out of control which resulted in psychosis, because he believed that he was hearing his father’s spirit and he had possessed his body.

In order for the family to have gone through with Lalit’s plan, they could have all been suffering from mass psychosis because Lalit was an influential and powerful person in all of their lives. Once the family coincidentally started prospering after the father’s death, they all attributed to Lalit’s delusions.

Moving Forward

Now, the house is currently being inhabited by another family, who claim that the previous owners never really left. The only surviving member of the Chundawat family, Lalit’s brother, Dinesh Singh, still pleads with officials to continue to look into what happened to his family.

He does not believe that they would practice rituals that Lalit described in his diary. Honestly, he may not have known them as well as he thinks, since he wasn’t living with the family for a while, which is why he is the only surviving family member.

Death has a way of changing people, and for this family, it ultimately ended up leading to their own demise. Is the scariest part about this case the fact that we may never get a real and definite answer about what happened to the family, or why they did what they did?

Perhaps. Or maybe, it’s that what happened to them forces us to face the fact that the human mind is possibly the scariest part of being human. May the community of Burari and the surviving family find peace after this tragic event.