I don't know if any members of Mumsnet have ever studied secret societies, but you can't really understand how 'MLM' cults function without knowing certain basic facts. 'MLM' cults are neither original nor unique and, consequently, it is a mistake to try to understand them in isolation.
_
The leaders of the traditional 'fraternal, secret society' known as the ‘Free and Accepted Masons,’ or 'Freemasons,' have promoted the concepts of religious tolerance, democracy and respect for the rule of law. In fact, the movement has played a significant role in history (particularly, during the American, and French, revolutions, when it was a secret forum for debate). The founding, democratic values of the (current) 5th French Republic are embodied in the originally-'Masonic' slogan 'Liberty, Fraternity, Egality,' and the American dollar bill carries the 'Masonic' symbols of a pyramid and an all-seeing eye. The original signatories of the American ‘Declaration of Independence' were all white male Protestants or 'Deists' (i.e. 'persons believing in the existence of a supreme being arising from reason rather than revelation'). The overwhelming majority were also 'Freemasons.'
That said, 'Freemasonry' is a self-perpetuating, non-rational, esoteric, ritual belief system, based on an essentially-fictional, closed-logic narrative, presented as fact using a constant repetition of reality-inverting key-words and images combined with pseudo-scientific mystification. Unfortunately, like all non-rational belief systems, in the wrong hands, 'Freemasonry' can be easily perverted for the purpose of human exploitation. Indeed, in certain countries (like Italy), a form of major organized-crime linked to so-called 'Black Masonic Lodges,' has been identified and (in theory) outlawed. It is also interesting to note that, although 'Freemasons' were high on the list of Adolf Hitler's imagined enemies, and were persecuted by the 'Nazi' regime, the 'Nazi Party' itself evolved out of the unification of various perverted secret societies.
Possibly the simplest way to describe 'Freemasonry' is to say that, internally, it exhibits the essential identifying characteristics of a traditional, dualistic religion, but externally the movement has been presented using non-religious terminology. Interestingly, the organization insists that it is not a religion, and 'Freemasons' now tend to make the nonsensical claim to be the members of 'society with secrets: rather than a secret society.'
Traditionally, Freemasons have claimed to be the guardians of a secret knowlege, and related power, derived from mathematics and geometry.
By process of deduction, it has been assumed that 'Freemasonry' evolved from medieval trade guilds of stonemasons and carpenters, responsible for the construction of Cathedrals in Britain, but the first evidence of 'Freemasonry' as a 'secret society,' appeared in Scotland in the early 17th century. The earliest known text which can be directly linked to the 'Masonic secret society' rather than to the actual craft of masonry, or to the mathematical science of geometry, is James Anderson's 'Masonic Rules.' This was published in 1723. Although the inspiration for the symbology of 'Freemasonry' probably came from mysterious, geometric inscriptions on churches built for 'Templars' in Scotland, the origins of the 'secret' at the heart of the organization are not that difficult to deduce.
Core-adherents of 'Freemasonry' are the product of co-ordinated, devious techniques of social, psychological and physical persuasion designed to shut down their critical, and evaluative, faculties and convince them that their leadership has exclusive access to a super-human knowledge derived from the Great/Supreme Architect of the Universe, via ancient Egypt and Euclidean geometry. Initiates are arbitrarily categorized as the ‘Sacred', and non-initiates as the ‘Profane'. Belief in the self-gratifying 'Masonic' myth spread throughout Europe, and then all over the globe with the British Empire. Although its adherents currently number several millions, 'Freemasonry' is generally in decline. It is still most popular in the USA where allied social groups (dedicated to charitable work and with no official standing) also developed. In practise, in Britain and the USA, the official membership has been drawn mainly from amongst white, male Anglo-Saxon Protestants, but 'Freemasonry' is fundamentally 'Deist' and, therefore, in theory, is open to anyone.
In Catholic France, 'Freemasonry' was influenced by 'Rosicrucianism' and since the 19th century, the requirements of francophone 'Freemasons' have been slightly different to those of their anglophone counterparts.
Officially (outside of France), 'Freemasonry' has been perpetuated by initiating 'free-born, sane, adult males of good moral standing, who already believe in the existence of one supreme being and in the immortality of the human soul.' Recruitment has worked solely by invitation (through personal relationships) into a wheel of (apparently autonomous) sub-groups. In reality, these are unified by the same narrative. The sub-groups operate in geographically-defined enclaves. 'Freemasonry' is a vast pyramid of humans, which itself comprises ever-smaller pyramids known as 'Orders', 'Lodges', etc. The movement can, therefore, also be described as a mind-numbing game of construction played to strict, geometric rules using human building-blocks. The alleged object of 'Freemasonry' is to climb through its hierarchical levels in a system of 'obedience', and through parallel levels of 'initiation' in a system of 'outer and inner hermetic circles of secret knowledge'. Adherents are graded by 'degrees' - 'Entered Apprentices, Fellows of the Craft, and Master Masons' - which themselves are also graded by 'degrees'. These can number as many as 1000 in certain 'Lodges', but 33 is the traditional number. At the top of the pyramid, is a tiny minority of elite initiates known as 'Grand Masters' whose beliefs and behaviour are to be duplicated. Their 'ultimate, secret knowledge', derived from the ‘Great/Supreme Architect of the Universe,’ must not be written down or passed to the uninitiated.
Thus, classically of an non-rational, esoteric, ritual belief system, the further an initiate progresses into the mental labyrinth of 'Freemasonry': the more absurd, mystifying and ultimately incomprehensible the closed-logic scenario overwhelming the critical and evaluative faculties of the core- adherents of the organization, becomes. Indeed, it is a very revealing exercise to ask a committed 'Freemason' to explain his activities using only accurate, deconstructed language.
The following, thought stopping, anonymous statement was sent to Blog (presumeably, by a 'Freemason'):
'Freemasonry is a society of men concerned with moral and spiritual values. Its members are taught its precepts by a series of ritual dramas which follow ancient forms and use stonemasons customs and tools as allegorical guides. The fundamental ritual consists of a drama of building King Solomon's Temple and the fate of its master architect. Using this allegory, moral lessons are taught. Since the story concerns building of a temple, Masonic rituals are replete with tools of masons, like level, plumb rule, square, compasses and so on.'
From its beginning, 'Freemasonry' has been frowned-on by the leaders of traditional religions and banned in many countries. It is not difficult to see why so many observers have ridiculed, and/or feared, the organization. Mystifying 'secret' rituals are performed in a 'Temple', within a 'Temple', within a 'Temple' (i.e. a building, containing a locked-room, containing an arrangement of 3 columns set facing to the East on a 'mosaic' of black and white squares resembling a chess board). The innermost 'Temple' is lit by candles surveyed by a ritual image of an 'all-seeing eye' and bordered by a rope tied in a symbolic knot. During rituals, adherents wear ceremonial aprons, gloves and sashes, and they carry ceremonial swords or building tools. Adherents are obliged to visualise themselves not as individuals, but as rough-hewn stones being crafted into the regular building-blocks of one universal Temple. Outside the 'Temple', 'Freemasons' recognise one another by the use of 'secret' words and physical salutations; they also wear badges and rings (often decorated with the symbol of a pair of compasses and set-square) etc.