Conspiracy theories, cults and religions all have something in common

Religions, cults, conspiracy theories, ufology, alternative history and politics even, all share one thing because all of them mix common sense and fact with lies and disinformation. All of them hook you in some way but then ask you to accept various untruths or very dubious material on face value with no evidence. All of them are looking to convert you to a belief system!

Disinformation works by mixing false information with truthful facts and observations. It seeks to get you to accept untruths and lies as truth. Unfortunately if you go looking for the truth you are bound to run into, and very likely get led astray, by this manipulated reality. Not only the mainstream world but the alternative society and counter-culture are full of it!

There are so many untrue statements being made by so many people it is very hard to know what to believe. Bob Dylan sings in Not Dark Yet : "I've been down on the bottom of a world full of lies, I ain't looking for nothing in anyone's eyes..."

A major religion like Christianity presents good ethical codes for living such as those found in the Ten Commandments. We are all going to probably agree that killing and thieving are not right and so will think that being commanded "Thou shalt not " kill or steal makes good sense. That is all well and good but other parts of the scriptures ask us to believe incredible stories such as that of Noah and his Ark.

It is obvious that there was no possible way that Noah and his family and a pair of every animal on the planet could have lived cooped up in a boat for 40 days and 40 nights. However, believers in the truth of the Bible accept that this fantastic story is the truth and if questioned will say it is "the word of God."

There is little or no historical evidence for many of the main characters in the Bible too so why should we believe in their reality? The answer again is because it is God's word. The book attempts to scare us with threats and dire warnings. The Old Testament is full of statements about what God regarded as an "abomination" and often handed out the death penalty for.

Believers in this religion are encouraged to convert others to their belief which in reality is a mental control system but an incredibly successful one! It is how a meme gets spread. It is information (not necessarily true) that others are told to pass along and often there is a supposed reward or punishment for doing so or failing to. In the case of the Bible we are led to believe we may go to Heaven or get punished by going to Hell.

Founders of modern cults mix in logical common sense with very bizarre material we are asked to accept as the truth. In Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard gives a perfectly logical piece of information like "outflow equals inflow" when explaining how to get results from promoting something, and no one can argue with that because it is obvious and can be tested and proven.

He can also talk about implant stations on Mars and Venus and interplanetary civilisations such as Helatrobus and Marcab Confederacy, the latter of which he claimed used to rule Earth but now uses it as a prison planet. These are examples of 'Advanced' material and 'Space Opera' in Scientology teachings. With information like this we can only trust what he saying is the truth, not believe him or adopt a sceptical viewpoint. Scientologists choose to believe. Hubbard actually covers himself by saying only to believe what he says "if it is true for you."

The Hare Krishna Temple devotees shun alcohol and drugs, and that makes a lot of sense for health reasons but at the same time they will not eat garlic or onions or mushrooms because they say these foods cause modes of "ignorance" and "passion." Eating plenty of sweet desert foods is OK though even though it is full of white sugar. I once questioned a devotee about this and he told me their spiritual master His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada liked to eat sweet food. So basically that made it all right to eat sugary foods!

Ufology, the study of unidentified flying objects, starts off with the fact that all around the world for very many years there have been sightings of lights in the sky and of objects that are thought to be spacecraft. The problem is that all photographic evidence for these sightings is usually very debatable.

Not only that but there are no sightings or meetings with aliens that can be verified and are accepted by mainstream science despite thousands of reports by people who claim to have been abducted by extraterrestrial visitors and to have seen landed craft.

Ufology feeds easily into the area of conspiracy theory because it is claimed that governments are deliberately covering up the truth about aliens and their craft which have been called flying saucers. All sorts of bizarre claims are made that explain that the craft are from other dimensions, that they can travel through time and space, that they are manufactured on Earth as part of the secret military technology devised by the Nazis and/or back engineered from crashed saucers like the one in the famous Roswell incident. It has been suggested that the craft come from inside this planet and that the Earth is hollow. Whether these claims are true or not it is impossible to say. It is a matter of belief and faith if we accept them.

There are many that claim that alien races have contacted governments here and that secret deals have been made. Many ufologists and conspiracy theorists believe that there are many races of alien beings visiting this planet and that of these a lot of them are in touch with our governments and are known about.

Then there are all the alien contactees who are people who claim to have been in touch with aliens at various points in their lives, sometimes after being abducted and often by telepathic contact. There is usually very little evidence that can be shown so we are asked to accept whatever a contactee says as the truth on their word alone. There is a tremendous amount of material that is said to have been 'channelled' from ET or alien beings that communicate by telepathy. Much of this material gets passed along as 'truths.' Notable contactees include Billy Meier and Alex Collier, both of who talk about ET civilisations, interplanetary wars, colonisation of planets etc.

Author and researcher Jacques Vallée suggested in his books Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers (1969) and Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults (1979) that perhaps these alien beings were not as it was being claimed anyway even if they did exist. Vallée put forward the idea that they were not so much from other planets but were from other dimensions and that they could not be trusted.

Conspiracy theories and ufology work hand in hand so to speak. Both have the belief that there is a sinister and secretive organisation in control of the Earth. It is referred to as the "Secret Government", the "Shadow Government", the "Hidden Hand" and the "Cabal". It is believed that aliens are at the top of it all and all secret societies and all religions and cults are controlled by those at the top of a pyramid of power. Because it is secretive the public gets denied access to what is really going on.

Often material that has come from alien abductees and contactees ends up as part of some conspiracy theory and passed along as fact. David Icke is a leading conspiracy theorist and author. Two of his most bizarre claims are that the world is run by shape-shifting alien Reptilians who can appear as humans. These lizard beings are also known as the Draco. The idea is that these aliens hybridised with humans many thousands of years ago and that purest of the bloodlines are maintained in the elite families of Earth. All the royalty and main banking families are are said to be of this nature. US presidents and British prime ministers are said to be pre-selected for their positions because they are from bloodline Reptilian extraction.

Did Icke have direct experience of this strange theory? No, but he got told about it by several different people including author Stewart Swerdlow. They both could have read about the Alpha Draconis Reptilians in the works of Alex Collier. In Collier's work too is the idea that the Moon is actually hollow and was brought here as an immense spacecraft. It is used as a secret headquarters for the Reptilians. Icke is now circulating the idea that the Moon is hollow.

These fantastic theories become accept as beliefs of many people who study the works of an author like David Icke. The YouTube website has hundreds of videos posted about Reptilians and showing famous people said to be shape-shifters.

Chemtrails is another conspiracy theory that has spawned hundreds of videos on YouTube and a growing army of believers who have the belief that the contrails we see across the skies are actually composed of aluminium/aluminum, barium and other pathogens and are part of a secret plan to cull the world's populations as well as being used for weather modification and military purposes. The scientific evidence for this theory is severely lacking but all manner of patents and military documents are held up as evidence, as are reports of aluminium in water and soil samples, which actually could be expected seeing as in the form of aluminium silicate it is clay, one of the most widely distributed substances on the planet. That the authorities and mainstream news is very quiet about the existence of chemtrails is said to be proof of how covert the operation actually is.

Very many people no longer trust politicians and this has led to a serious decline in the number voting in elections. This is not surprising though because leading politicians make public statements which are subsequently found to be false. A prime example being when then UK PM Tony Blair was saying that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and that was given as a reason to make war on the nation.

Politicians often make promises when standing for election and then when they get in fail to keep them. The public are tired of hearing political lies.

Singer-songwriter Neil Young made a powerful statement in his song Let's Impeach the President taken from his album Living With War. Here Young was addressing the subject of President Bush's lies about Iraq and its WMDs.

The people of the US and the UK both had their political leaders going on about how Iraq had WMDs and that was justification for invading the country. Bush and Blair were subsequently seen to be lying and British peace campaigner the now late Brian Haw began to call Tony Blair "BLiar."

This has just been a short look into the areas in which deception and disinformation affect us all. There are so many lies being told in the world today.

I am sure you too have had to deal with people who have caused problems in your own lives because of their lies and underhand ways.

I personally feel that all this dishonesty is one of the main reasons the world is in such a terrible mess. We have to be constantly asking what is the truth? I will leave you to decide on yours!

Copyright © 2012 Steve Andrews. All Rights Reserved.