> If people are brought up as members, this would mean that membership is based on bloodline rather than on merit. That lets out the Argentum Astarum, the Ancient Illuminated Seers of Bavaria, the Invisible Hand, and the Golden Dawn.

Why? One can be brought up as a Christian, or one can join. Is it not possible that these could have joined?

> In addition, you say he is a "former" member. So far as my woefully inadaquate research has been able to uncover, any group that recruits from birth recruits for life: you are illuminated because of who your ancestors are and you cannot choose to be unilluminated. Then, of course, I would be wary of anyone who claims to be a member (or a former member) of "the Illuminati" without specifing which group he means by that.

I assumed he meant that, while retaining information gathered, he either left or was booted due to some kind of core difference... It's been a long time since I saw the video, so...

> Or making that statement on TV without worrying about the dire consequences that are rumoured to be meted out to people who break silence.

Eh, I don't know about TV; I know it was on video...

> Then again, of course, as he says the facts are out there and you only need to look for them. Did you check these facts yourself, or just accept that he must be an authority, because he claimed to be?

Mom's been checking similar things from a neutral authority... a set of books called Man, Myth, and Magic. It traces many such things without obviously* saying whether the source of the practice is good or bad.

> winter"Allways on the lookout for information about Illuminated groups"mute

*"obviously saying", not "obviously without". That is, if they say it's good or bad, they don't make it obvious.

Nyperold