This unpublished essay by historian and SAJ contributor Mike Jay examines the origins of the Illuminati mythos in the imagination of establishment scientist and mathematician John Robison.
The unrestrained outpourings of a once brilliant mind, Robison’s paranoid epic seems to have been fuelled by physical torment – eased only by heavy-duty opium use – and the fear that the brutal horrors of Revolution would expand from France to overrun all of Europe.
Robison’s Proofs of a Conspiracy was a runaway best seller in the tense climate of the late 18th century and would become the blueprint for all future conspiracy literature.
Fascinating stuff as always, from Mr Jay.
‘Darkness Over All:
John Robison and the birth of the Illuminati Conspiracy
read Robison’s Proofs of a Conspiracy