Illuminati meaning
An example of an illuminati is someone who says they know the secrets of a specific religion.
- Persons in the early church who had received baptism and been given a lighted taper as a symbol of the spiritual illumination they had received.
- Members of a Spanish sect of the sixteenth century, who believed that, by means of prayer, they had attained so perfect a state as to have no need of ordinances, sacraments, good works, etc.; the Alumbrados or Perfectibilists.
- The Rosicrucians.
The methods of control used by "Ming the Merciless, Rules of the Universe" in the 1980 film Flash Gordon are a metaphor for what some perceive to be the influence of the Illuminati on the real world.