A bizarre conspiracy theory has emerged suggesting that celebrities seen sporting a black left eye are part of the Illuminati.

Elizabeth Hurley, Boy George and Robert Downey Jnr are among the A-listers who have been photographed with bruising in the eye area in recent years.

Former US President George W. Bush, along with the Pope, Prince Philip and Prince Andrew, have all also been photographed with black eyes.

According to some conspiracy theorists, the black left eye is part of a cult or ‘Illuminati’ high-level initiation ritual during which the pledger is said to be forced to ‘eat pain’ in a quest to become more powerful.

Author and internet radio show host Sherry Shriner –  who wrote the book Interview With The Devil, in which she claimed to converse with Lucifer – has spoken of the link between these black eyes and ‘soul scalping’.

According to Shriner, government leaders, people on TV with their own shows and hundreds of popular entertainers have sold their souls to Satan.

‘You cannot be on TV now, without signing on the dotted line. The bizarre recurrence of facial bruises on Illuminati politicians and entertainers has resulted in speculation that their souls have been replaced in a satanic ritual called “soul scalping”,’ she said.

Some researchers suggest a link between the bearers of black eyes to the worship of the Egyptian sun god Horus, whose left eye was black and represented the moon and whose right eye was white and represented the sun.

The story goes that he lost his left eye in a fight with his brother Set. Could the bruising of the left eye be a nod to this perhaps?

In the past, it was believed that  a black eye was the ‘devil’s mark’, as noted in the 1879 Freeman’s Journal ‘a black eye’.