A few years ago, my cousin @vedicsamurai told me about this highly secretive online group of people calling themselves Cicada 3301 and as soon as I read about them, I was left highly fascinated.
We all love a great mystery, that’s why we all love those detective stories. Well most of us anyways. But when a real life mystery surfaces, it is hundred times as exciting.
The mystery of Cicada 3301 is another one such mystery and something that still remains unsolved but the interesting part is that there are some people who claim to have been in contact with the organisation but still the purpose of the group remains a mystery.
Cicada 3301
The story of Cicada 3301 begins on 4th January, 2012 when someone posted a puzzle on an internet forum stating that they were looking for ‘highly intelligent individuals’ and that solving the puzzle would lead them to the secretive group.
The puzzle consisted of several hidden messages in photos, metadata of photos, a book and required people to decipher codes, solve riddles, recognise patterns, and also to travel to actual physical locations around the world to retrieve further clues.
After about a month, the Cicada group posted yet another image to announce that they had found who they were looking for and that there would be future chances for people who didn’t make it all the way through.
Then after a year, they came back with a second puzzle and kickstarted another wild chase among enthusiasts. This time too, it was much of the same as last year. But this time around, they didn’t announce that they had got who they were looking for. They simply vanished.
After a year, on January 4, 2014, it was time for a third round of puzzles, again stating that they wanted to recruit ‘intelligent individuals’ and so, another quest began among those who wanted to join the group.
This time, the puzzles led to a strange book called the Liber Primus which had encrypted Runic texts that needed to be decrypted to go further onto the next steps. But out of the 74 pages, only 19 were successfully translated.
This time too, there was no final announcement from Cicada that they had found who they were looking for. People expected a fourth round as 2015 began but Cicada didn’t return and in 2016, a fresh clue from Cicada stated that “Liber Primus is the way”, probably meaning that the book needs to be decrypted in full first.
Now it has been over four years that we’ve got any more rounds of puzzles leading some people to believe that maybe they were done for good. Some others think that the book still hasn’t been decrypted fully and they won’t return until it is.
Questions, Questions, Questions
Whenever there is something shrouded in mystery, it is obvious that there will be questions. And a lot of them at that. The same goes for Cicada 3301.
No one knows what exactly this group is, who are involved, how many of them and most importantly, what is their purpose. Yes, their purpose is to recruit ‘intelligent people’ but to what end?
Many have speculated that based on the nature of the puzzles, the group could be looking for codebreakers, cryptographers, linguists, steganographers and individuals who are highly concerned with data privacy.
Many also think that this could simply be a fancy of recruitment by government intelligent agencies like NSA, CIA, FBI or even agencies of other countries like MI6. Still, no one can be sure. It’s no wonder that Cicada 3301 has been listed as one of the top 5 eeriest, unsolved mysteries on the internet.
Ah! That's quipped my interest. Thank you for pointing me towards an hour of google search to find out more :)
Yeah, it's a very interesting topic. I love mysteries. Most of us do. :D
Yeah, I too heard of Cicada many a times now, but no recent news on cicada. If they were recruiting people then I believe this is the best to recruit smart people with critical thinking.
It sure is 'different' and I think they can really get some smart people by this method.
I love puzzles and finding patterns but I loath belonging to a group....hahaha🖖🏻
3301=7 year cycle a group will rise up to get together, breed and die while singing their life away, here in North America our Cicada go through 13 to 17 years underground before emerging to start the cycle of the next generation.
If that is so, we will probably hear some news about them in 2019, as that will mark the end of the 7 year cycle which they started in 2012.
Did anyone recruited speak to the public after being recruited or is it these images shared by Cicada that represent everything known about the group? I don't think though that the game was played by NSA, CIA or FBI if it was real. I would definitely bet on an anonymous group of people or maybe just one.
Many people claim to have reached even the final stages of the recruitment process but nothing can be confirmed. Cicada, of course, hasn't confirmed anything on their part too. So, at this point we just didn't know, how many people made it to the end and what became of them.
"Online Intelligence Group" does seem like a bit of an oxymoron ;)
How so?
because most online groups are so stupid. ;)
LOL, that's right!!
LOL!!!
Great post!, If the group does exist I hope they are the good guys
Thank you! Yeah, same here. They seem to have some resources too to be able to pull off such a hunt!
I wonder how does the word cicada came?
Their first message only had 3301 at the bottom.
In one of the stages of the puzzle users were taken to a website that belonged to the group that had an image of a Cicada or so I have read.
Ok! Interesting post btw.
seems pretty clear to me it was the CIA. From watching Michael Tsarion and Jordan Maxwell, its known the elites like to reveal secrets to who they are and how they operate through their language. Double speak is often a factor. You can't spell cicada without CIA. And 3301 is an obvious reference to the Masons as 33 is the highest order that a mason can achieve. I aIso think there is something to the choosing of the cicada as the anthropomorphic symbol as Reddust said. The cicada comes out of hibernation of every 7 years or something---maybe they are being recruited for deep cover ops for the CIA and their jobs in each deep cover assignment only last 7 years at a time before moving on to the next assignment. Who knows about that part. It requires more research.
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I think we can never be sure. It could be anyone. Even the NSA or some other secret agency that the world doesn't even know about. Like in the movies Kingsman. But I do find it really interesting.
Thanks for this :)