There is no question, in our time, that a spirit moves to unite the countries of the world. We are seeing it all around us. There are global economic conferences. There are talks over global climate. There is -- most importantly -- global banking. For the first time, the President of the United States agreed to preside at the U.N.

No question: most nations are orienting toward international unification, which can be dangerous.

Events are shaping around us -- in society as well as nature.

The question is how orchestrated that move -- call it globalization, or a new world order -- has been, and who or what has organized it. It appears to us that so many different facets of society, government, finance, industry, and media are involved that no single human agency could control it all. That's why it seems more of a "spirit." To focus on any one group of humans as orchestrating such unification seems like focusing on a square inch of an elephant.

But that is only an opinion. There are those who for decades have seen a tight little cabal they call the "illuminati" as the controllers behind the situation. Their premise: that starting in 1770, banking interests integrating their financial quests with age-old occultism formed a secret cabal known as the enlightened ones or "illuminati" that hid in organizations like Freemasonry in a quest to bring the world into central control.

This alleged group of elitists, it is said, was founded under the direction of mega-banker Amschel Mayer Rothschild, who hired a 22-year-old Catholic named Adam Weishaupt to attract the cream of European society into the hidden organization -- which was designed to reverse the course of Western (or Christian) civilization. Actually, it may be rooted in ancient Babylonian and Judaic times.

Groups they supposedly have spawned, controlled, or influenced include the notorious Bilderberg Group (which annually meets as a secretive conclave of world leaders and businessmen), the Council on Foreign Relations, which has great pull in Western foreign affairs, the Trilateral Commission, which includes Asia, the United Nations, the Skull and Crossbones Club, and a myriad of other globally-oriented enterprises -- especially in the way of banking, pharmaceutical, oil, chemicals, minerals, and media corporations. The American branch, it seems, has been controlled by the Rockefellers.

And while there is little doubt that such interests have been attempting to unite the world economy behind the scenes (and these days, not even so much behind the scenes), and no doubt that secretive groups have had alarming influence, the question is how far one can go with conspiracy theories.

There are those who would blame the "illuminati" for everything from the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the U.S. Civil War, the Russian Revolution, World Wars I and II, and the Holocaust to September 11, the recent financial collapse, the Lincoln, McKinley, and Kennedy assassinations, the Iraq war, and the Great Depression (to name a few).

The very terms "reds," as in Communism, comes from "Red Shield," the Rothschild name.

Or so it is posited.

It is a romantic, exciting theory. But could a single group of men -- however ingenious, and however wealthy -- really orchestrate everything, with such programmed results?

The question is also how much should be relegated as fiction. For example: there are illuminati theorists who throw St. Ignatius of Loyola, Pope Pius XII, and C. S. Lewis in with illuminati kings and queens!

Yet, it has been the Catholic Church, they also say, that once stood as the greatest opponent of the secret "enlightened" ones.

Presidents? One theorist names just about every one but Nixon, Carter, and Kennedy.

And in fact there is no doubt that many prominent Americans -- including founders of the United States -- belonged to Masonic Lodges, as did Benjamin Franklin.

The influence is seen even in Washington, D.C. architecture.

At the root, say some, is not so much material greed as an obsessed mission to make the world ready for an anti-christ. While many may wonder how men could have dedicated their lives to a project that has no chance of reaching fruition in their lifetimes (remember, this goes back to 1770, and perhaps even before, and has not yet culminated), the explanation begins to take on occult tones.

"The Illuminati are the powers and the shakers of the world," claimed one prominent conspiracist, Fritz Springmeier. "They are an elite group of bloodlines -- I call the tribes or families; there are thirteen major bloodlines. They are what are called 'generational satanists.' That means they have practiced their secret witchcraft for many centuries and they have passed their religion down from one generation to the next. They lead double lives. They have one life that the world sees and then they have a hidden life that the world doesn't see." The very name "illuminati" has been linked to Lucifer, the "light-bearer."

These men have engineered sexual liberation, secular humanism, the current education system, Hollywood, gay rights, and other trends, as a means of breaking us down, is the theory -- and no one can doubt the orchestrated break down of society. The question is whether one can place it all on a single group.

At the inner circle have been occult "sabbatean" Jews, is one allegation.

Indeed, the illuminati may be based in the mystical practice of Cabala (or Kabbalah) from ancient Israel, which theorists see as having inspired everything from Hitler's occultism to the rituals of Masonry.

Back in the 1780s, it is asserted, the illuminati began to disguise themselves as Masons (in the hierarchy of the first three degrees). "From Bavaria, the Order of the Illuminati spread like wildfire," writes another proponent of the theory, Henry Makow of Winnipeg, Canada. "Soon they had over three hundred members from all walks of life, including students, merchants, doctors, lawyers, judges, professors, civil officers, bankers, and even church ministers."

Were Darwin, Nietzsche, and Marx too illuminati pawns or agents?

Perhaps what we see is a way of trying to understand a comprehensive supernatural plot in human terms (when in fact, again, it is orchestrated at spiritual levels) -- an attempt to put a human face on something that is not human. After all, one could ask, is everyone who has negatively affected society a member? Is Hugh Hefner? Was Betty Friedan? Or was and is it a spirit moving?

"The Rothschilds lead the illuminati and in every country they have a family," Dr. Makow quotes one alleged former member of stating in The Illuminati. "On the top of each pyramid you will see a capstone with an eye in it. The capstone is the Rothschild family or tribunal that rules the illuminati; they were the creators of it. The eye of Lucifer, their God and their voice. The first three top blocks are on every pyramid. The top block is what I was initiated into, the council of thirteen called the Grand Druid Council. They only take orders from the Rothschilds and nobody else. They're their private priesthood. The Council of 33 is directly under them, that is, the 33 highest Masons in the world. Next is the Council of 500, some of the richest people and conglomerates in the world."

Among the families listed, besides the Rothschilds, Windsors, and Rockefellers, are the Duponts and Kennedys.

Yet elsewhere it is claimed the Kennedy brothers were killed for trying to halt the spread of "illuminati" influence in America.

There is no doubt that families like the Rockefellers have had an intriguing, powerful, and disturbing influence on moves to unite the global economy, and even to reduce the population. There is no doubt that more investigation is warranted -- sooner, rather than later -- into the Bilderbergers. There is also little doubt that the world is moving inexorably to a single governing entity.

The question is whether anyone can pin quite so much on a relative handful of people -- or rather whether it should be seen, again, as the movement of a spirit.

Could it also encompass Scientology and the Golden Dawn and -- well, every other nefarious or occult-like group?

Can something really be so organized (and hidden)?

The illuminati, says an alleged defector (a "witch high priest"), are "thousands of conspiracies operating in parallel."

We will say this: something is afoot, and it probably traces back to bankers. A London-based banking cartel from back before the American Revolution may well have spawned hidden influence.

"According to the American Almanac, the bankers are part of a network called the 'Club of the Isles' which is an informal association of predominantly European-based royal households including the Queen," asserts Makow. "The Club of Isles 'commands an estimate $10 trillion in assets. It controls such corporate giants as Royal Dutch Company, Imperial Chemical Industries, Lloyds of London, Unilever, Lonrho, Rio Tinto Zinc, and Anglo-American DeBeers. It dominates the world supply of petroleum, gold, diamonds, and many other vital raw materials. These assets serve its geopolitical agenda. Its goal is to reduce the human population from over [six] billion people to below one billion people within the next two to three generations, to literally 'cull the human herd' in the interest of retaining their own global power and the feudal system upon which it is based."

Admittedly, it seemed peculiar, why the rush to Iraq; admittedly, it was curious that after skyrocketing for no reason, oil prices reversed the very hour President George Bush said in a press conference that they were too high (and have remained trending lower since that very moment). There are some things that do seem peculiar. In Georgia are strange stone monuments that mention a reduction of world population below a billion. Every year, movers and shakers secretly meet at what is called the Bohemian Grove in California, where there is a mock human sacrifice as presidents, prime ministers, cabinet officials, magnates, defense contractors, and media moguls watch in amusement. Here, the Manhattan Project was first discussed. Some link this group with the Bilderbergers -- who annually draw attendance of the world's most powerful (and refuse to allow media coverage). There is reason for tying some of it together.

But can they pull every string?

If so, how has Christianity -- which they are said to intensely oppose-- remained such a force?

Why is there such sincere competition and animosity between political parties (which illuminati conspiracists see as controlled on both sides by the same hidden powers)?

"The City of London dominates the world's speculative markets," stated an historian named Jeffrey Steinberg. "A tightly interlocking group of corporations, involved in raw materials extraction, finance, insurance, transportation, and food production controls the lion's share of the world's market, and exerts virtual 'choke point' control over world industry."

There is some truth to that. The task is to discern the extent. The devil also makes us see things where they are not and leads us on wild-goose chases.

Barack Obama? The Bushes? Clinton? Churchill? Even Reagan?

And Ahmadinejad?

When is far too far?

Throw in too Lincoln.

"Sooner or later we will recognize that we are witnessing the culmination of a diabolical conspiracy against mankind," claims Makow. "Human events only make sense when we realize disciples of Satan are establishing a global regime dedicated to their evil god. I know this sounds too bizarre to be true. They count on that."

Perhaps. More likely is that Satan indeed uses folks of all walks -- all of us -- but usually without our knowing, whether banker or janitor or president, as he designs matters in a place far beyond Bavaria.

[see also: Blog: Bilderbergers want global currency and American stonehenge]

[resources: Evidence of Satan in the Modern World]

[Announcing retreat in Arizona and Michael Brown retreat in New Jersey]