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Illustrations of Madness: James Tilly Matthews and the Air Loom

- November 12, 2014 in Art & Illustrations, conspiracy theories, Culture & History, Featured Articles, influencing machine, james tilly matthews, napoleonic wars, paranoid schizophrenia, Science & Medicine

Mike Jay recounts the tragic story of James Tilly Matthews, a former peace activist of the Napoleonic Wars who was confined to London's notorious Bedlam asylum in 1797 for believing that his mind was under the control of the "Air Loom" - a terrifying machine whose mesmeric rays and mysterious gases were brainwashing politicians and plunging Europe into revolution, terror, and war.

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Darkness Over All: John Robison and the Birth of the Illuminati Conspiracy

- April 2, 2014 in conspiracy theories, Culture & History, freemasonry, french revolution, illuminati, john robison, Religion, Myth & Legend

Conspiracy theories of a secretive power elite seeking global domination have long held a place in the modern imagination. Mike Jay explores the idea’s beginnings in the writings of John Robison, a Scottish scientist who maintained that the French revolution was the work of a covert Masonic cell known as the Illuminati.

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