The Secret Society Of The Illuminati

**The Secret Society of the Illuminati** is a video made by Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej, uploaded onto YouTube on July 29, 2016.It was the second episode of the first season of BuzzFeed Unsolved: Supernatural, and was the tenth episode overall. You can watch it here.

## Notable Events

This is the first Supernatural episode where Shane appears as the co-host instead of Brent. It is also the first ever episode where he appears instead of Brent. Shane and Ryan interview with a Professor of History at the University of California, Davis, Kathryn Olmsted.

## Background

In 1776, Bavaria, Germany, Adam Weishaupt, a professor, founded the Illuminati. He was inspired by French philosophy and decided to protect the beliefs.

The Illuminati's goals were to specifically preserve self-knowledge, self-improvement, social reform, and free thought. But by the mid-to-late 1780s, the Illuminati was brought down by conservatives from the Christian church. Weishaupt would continue to recruit members secretly, even moving into France before "disappearing into obscurity." Despite this, conspiracies have developed believing that the Illuminati has persisted on secretly.

Shane and Ryan interview with Professor Kathryn Olmsted to learn more about the Illuminati, to which she gives the information below. She also says, that "one hundred percent," the Illuminati is not a real thing anymore.

In the 1920s, some fascists believed the Illuminati were made up of Jewish people, and after World War II, extreme anti-communists believed that the Illuminati were communists, both groups believing that the society controlled the world. Presently, however, it is believed that the Illuminati are part of the "New World Order," a supposed dominant, global, totalitarian government, by a group made up of the most powerful people in the world, such as world leaders, that works to control Earth.

## Theories

* The New World Order is made up of the U.S. government, the UN, and other organizations "pushing an international agenda ... to take away Americans' rights, form an all-powerful government, and put non-Illuminati members in camps run by F.E.M.A," the Federal Emergency Management Agency. This theory was spread by Mark Koernke, or "Mark from Michigan."
	+ The "New World Order" theory was popularized by a clip of President George H.W. Bush giving a statement in 1991, saying that "we have before us the opportunity, for ourselves and for future generations, to forge a *new world order.* A world where the rule of law, not the law of the jungle, governs the conduct of nations. When we are successful―and we will be―we have a real chance at this new world order."
* World leaders, including Queen Elizabeth, Barack Obama, and the Clintons, are actually shapeshifting lizards, are are behind both the Freemasons and the Illuminati. This "lizard race" feeds off of the human race and demands human sacrifices. This was popularized by David Icke.
* The New World Order is actually connected to the Antichrist, and the Illuminati are Satanists. Pat Robertson declared in his book *The New World Order* that the NWO and the Illuminati are responsible for the French Revolution, the Communist Manifesto, and the Federal Reserve.
* The Illuminati is killing celebrities and replacing them with clones, using them to brainwash society. Some of these celebrity clones include Beyoncé, Eminem, and Al Roker. Some believe that these clones are sometimes activated or deactivated by "trigger words." This was claimed by Donald Marshall and "internet sleuths."
	+ Evidence for this theory is present in bizarre behavior of the mentioned celebrities in interview footage, etc.

## Quotes

* Ryan, narrating: "However, Weishaupt and the Illuminati would go 'Kobe in the fourth quarter,' and continue―"
	+ Shane: (over Ryan's laughter) "Okay, all right―keep goin'!"
* Ryan: "You know that part where he was like... 'if this New World Order could be successful,' and then he looks, 'and it will be,' that's not creepy? That didn't make your spine tingle a little bit?"
	+ Shane: "Look, he's the President of the United States, he has to be forthright, he has to be confident―what do y―wh―what kind of message would it send if he was like 'if this is successful... let's hope so!'"
* Ryan: "Purported celebrity clones outed by internet sleuths include Beyoncé, Eminem, Al Roker―"
	+ Shane: "Al Roker! Hang on―"
	+ Ryan: "Yeah, who could he possibly influence? Even when he tells the weather―"
	+ Shane: "I don't believe a... *word* he says."
* Ryan: "By the way, if the Illuminati is a real thing... the fact that they have a PR director... fuckin' amazing, right? That's super funny to me... that there's someone sitting in a cubicle going 'Th-That's not the right move.'
	+ Shane: "Yeah!"
	+ Ryan: "'Too many triangles on the last dress...'"
	+ Shane: (over Ryan's laughter) "'Roker's staring at the camera again! We gotta―we gotta make a new Roker! God damn it, that's our fourth Roker!'"

## Trivia

* This is one of the few episodes that was part of the BuzzFeed IRL series instead of having its own show separate from BuzzFeed Multiplayer.
* At the end, Ryan informs the viewer that he and Shane will be returning "next season," even though this episode is technically the second of the first season of Supernatural. This is due to the fact that *BuzzFeed Unsolved* episodes were not originally split into the two sub-series, True Crime and Supernatural, and that the first eight episodes of the official first season of True Crime, and the first two episodes of the official first season of Supernatural (including this one) compiled the original "first season" of BuzzFeed Unsolved.
* In chat, Shane remarked that "One morning [he] was watching the Today show and Roker malfunctioned, so [Shane] tweeted to him about it and he responded back about needing to be serviced or something."
* This is one of the only episodes in which the case considered is (and was) a meme.