How Do Conspiracy Theories Arise?

Posted on January 7, 2022 by George Boyd

Q: How do we explain the prevalence of conspiracy theories?

A: We can look at this phenomenon from different perspectives:

Targeted information triggers an innate tendency in the mind – this standpoint believes an “informational stimulus” interfaces with people’s karmic substrate and triggers an unconscious pattern. This position posits a stimulus-response mindset; if the tendency is already in the mind, the information will trigger it.
Intentional influence – In this point of view, influencers manipulate people’s unconscious mind through specific words or images: they prey upon people’s desires, fears, hatred, guilt and shame to evoke emotions and to stir them to take action. You see this used in advertising; those with a political or religious agenda also utilize this strategy.
Awakening negative character traits – This view holds that certain individuals only respond to the message of the conspiracy theory because it stirs innate character traits in them. The message draws out the mental aberrations of people with dark triad personality patterns—paranoia, antisocial, and Machiavellian traits—or borderline personality disorder. This perspective suggests that those who believe in conspiracy theories would have high levels of these associated personality disorders.
Genetic substrate – This position holds that people’s response to a conspiracy theory is an inborn predisposition to process information in a non-linear, irrational way. In this perspective, people who believe in conspiracy theories potentially have different neurological wiring.
Learned beliefs – This perspective holds that conspiracy theories are constructed. What people learn about a conspiracy theory consists of an array of beliefs that conform to their unconscious fears and desires. These irrational beliefs, with skilled intervention, can be deconstructed through psychotherapy or deprogramming.
Splitting – In this stance, conspiracy theories evoke psychological splitting of people’s worldview into black and white, good and evil—and those who hold this mindset cannot reconstruct the whole picture of those they demonize. We see these dualistic mindsets in Zoroastrian, Manichean, Christian, and Islamic sects. These world views demonize those who are labeled alien, or non-believers; those who engage in religiously proscribed behavior; or those who support views different than their own. This same dualistic polarization and demonization of opponents can similarly be found in political ideology.
Immersion in thought streams – In this outlook, conspiracy theories arise from listening to the thought streams of Occult Adepts, the purveyors of nonsense from the Psychic Realm, and those who misinterpret scripture in various religious groups. This same dynamics operate in religious cults, radical political organizations, and terrorist groups. This outlook perceives that people tune into a particular inner channel of information through intuition or outer information through the media—and this message resonates with what they have come to believe is true. This information stream (a) defines what is true, (b) gives people a rationale to believe it, (c) rewards them for believing it, and (d) it urges people to take action on these new beliefs.

People are exposed to the information from proponents of a conspiracy theory. Through whatever internal processing takes place for this information—through whichever explanatory perspective among one to seven—it changes their beliefs, reframes their perspective, and leads to new behavior. We can point to certain mental operations of the unconscious mind as contributing to the adoption of conspiracy theories; the cognitive behavioral approach (perspective five — learned beliefs) gives us hope that people who become enmeshed in these delusional frames can regain their rationality again.

Those who are interested in the dynamics underlying religious influence systems may find our book, Religions, Cults, and Terrorism: What the Heck Are Doing? helpful.

We take on these layers of false beliefs in our Cult Recovery Coaching Program, which is designed for those who have been involved in religious or political cults, and want to find their authentic inner compass again. We have several articles we have written about conspiracy theories in our web log: we invite those are interested in this topic to search for these articles.

play youtube,

Proximo Juego De Cuba En El Clasico Mundial De Beisbol,

Kk Meaning,

When Your Intuition and the Internet Lead You Astray

Posted on January 1, 2022 by George Boyd

Q: What if your intuition tells you gonzo stuff?

A: What your intuition tells you is information. This information may be true or false. Where this changes you is if:

You believe it
You emotionally react to it
You act on the basis of the belief

If my intuition tells me there is an abominable snowman that lives in the thicket outside my house, I might consider that my intuition is playing with me.

But if I believe this is true, it affects my emotions and my behavior:

I might be afraid to go outside because I fear the yeti might kill me and eat me, injure me so I need to go to a hospital, or drag me off to its lair so its children can eat me.
I might walk out the back door, so I avoid the thicket where the yeti lives.

At issue, I have not verified the statement is true—that an abominable snowman actually lives in the thicket. If I do an exhaustive search of the thicket, and there is no trace of Mr. Yeti or his offspring, I might conclude my intuition is tripping, and I might laugh at myself for my gullibility.

When people believe something that isn’t true, it engages their emotions, and may also change their behavior.

If someone is lying to them, they may carry out what the person who is sowing this false narrative wants them to do. We see people manipulated through this means through government propaganda; misleading advertising; the speeches and writing of demagogues, cult leaders, and leaders of hate and terrorist groups. This dissemination of misinformation is rampant on the internet: one “thought leader” can introduce these falsehoods and compromise hundreds—even thousands of people—with a tweet or social media post.

Finding Out What Is True

There are four positions I can take regarding a statement is true, whether I receive it internally from my intuition, or externally through others’ communication:

The statement is true – I have verified its veracity. I conclude the information is reliable.
The statement is false – I have analyzed its message and I have found logical errors, or attempts to deceive me. I conclude the information is not reliable.
The statements truth is unknown – I cannot verify the truth of the statement as the evidence I need to verify it is not available to me. The information may be based on the statements, opinions, testimonials, or beliefs of others, but I cannot independently verify their claims. I conclude the information is not verifiable, and withhold my belief.
The statement is non-sensible and clearly false – The information appears to be the product of fantasy, delusion, or irrationality. I conclude this information is not reliable, and I reject it outright.

Let’s review these four conditions:

In condition A, I am able to prove the statement is true. If I suspect that I have termites in my house, and I find an insect that looks like a termite, I can verify that I do have termites.

In condition B, I am able to prove the statement is false. If a politician tells me that he had the largest crowd size “ever recorded” for his inauguration, and historical records and actual photos of the crowd show that it wasn’t the largest crowd, I reject his statement.

In condition C, there is not enough verifiable information to prove the statement, so I hold it as an unverifiable hypothesis. If someone tells me that there are extraterrestrial bodies in a freezer locker in a secret air force base in the Nevada desert, I have no way of verifying this is true. Maybe this is possible, but I have no way to prove it.

I rather doubt if I ask the guard at the gate of the facility is going to let me in to view them if they were there. For example, if I showed up at the west gate of the base, and told the security officer, who is armed with a high-powered, deadly-accurate automatic weapon, “Oh hi! Hey, I’ve heard that you’ve got ETs in the freezer in here? Mind if I have a look? I promise I won’t take any souvenirs!”

In condition D, the statement is so clearly a statement of fantasy that I can reject it outright. For example, if I told you, “I am Spiderman and I’m actually from the planet Venus,” you would know that I sho’ be trippin’—and you wouldn’t believe me.

Sowing of the Seed

To set up misinformation, the one seeking to disseminate it must make you believe that condition B, a false statement, is actually condition A, a true statement—that something false is true.

This commonly occurs through giving you false proof based on spurious or distorted facts—what one of the press secretaries of the Trump administration famously referred to as “alternative facts.”

Sometimes in my leisure time, I watch UFO conspiracy shows on Netflix. I listen to these reports, and I conclude, “I cannot verify this hypothesis and I suspend my belief that it is true. This is condition C.

However, if the scout ship with the grey aliens—the ones with the large heads and prominent black eyes—lands on my lawn… Three aliens come out of their vessel… they come towards me and one of them gives me a high five—or in their case, a high four, as they only have four fingers—my belief that there are space aliens has been validated. I then can say, “yes, there are space aliens: they are parked on my lawn.” This is condition A.

When people get seduced by conspiracy theories; entrapped in cults, hate and terrorist groups; or deceived by propaganda—they believe something that is false is true—and this conditions their emotions and behavior. They believe the false statement, which should be recognized as false—condition B—is actually A, verified as true.

To bring people back from this alternate reality, these false beliefs that appear to them to be true must be shown to be false. The challenge of this is that they tenaciously defend these false beliefs as “the truth.”

The “Aha Moment”

The sudden insight or realization—the “aha moment”—that makes someone realize that something they believe is false and reject it, is the catalyst that enables someone to escape their alternate reality. For them to change, they must have this realization.

For a person who is committed to a false belief:

You cannot argue with them. They will not listen.
You cannot convince them through showing them other information. They will not believe what you show them.

They must discover that it is false. Then they emerge, and awaken from the dream.

To the degree that you can catalyze this realization, you can assist them to break the spell. Our best psychotherapists and coaches can do this, once in a while.

Going back to your original question, you must verify what intuition tells you, the same way you might check out something another person tells you, or something you view on social media.

If you can’t verify it, it’s conditional—an unverified hypothesis. Perhaps if people could learn to hold more things as an unverified hypothesis, instead of wildly believing them, we would have fewer people getting lost in conspiracy theories and cults.

Those interested in learning more about the dynamics that underlie religious and political cults, you may enjoy reading our book, Religions, Cults, and Terrorism: What the Heck Are We Doing?

play youtube,

Proximo Juego De Cuba En El Clasico Mundial De Beisbol,

Kk Meaning,

Preaching and Satsang

Posted on December 3, 2021 by George Boyd

Q: What is the difference between preaching and satsang?

A: Preaching is communicated from the Moon Soul nucleus of identity. Satsang comes from the attentional principle, the spirit, or the ensouling entity.

The spectrum of preaching spans a range of communication: from material contaminated with human paranoia and ignorance to the channeling of the Holy Spirit and the Divine directly. We can sketch out seven levels of preaching:

Dissemination of conspiracy theories and superstition – at this level, material from the preacher’s unconscious mind contaminates the message.
Conversion message – the message attempts to instill fear, guilt, shame, or self-loathing to make someone become a member of a religious group. This messaging may point out sinful or adharmic behavior, describe its dire consequences, and then offer faith, prayer, or some type of contemplative practice as a solution. Those who play an evangelistic or “soul winner” role in an organization use this type of preaching.
Practical advisement – in this aspect of preaching, the message communicates keys to success, prosperity, and happiness. The strategies advocated in this type of preaching include using scriptures to claim what people desire “by faith,” employing affirmations, or performing tithing to bring about personal rewards. New Thought ministers and those who preach the “prosperity gospel” adopt this approach. Pastoral counselors who utilize scriptural passages to give solutions to the problems of life also tap this dimension of preaching.
Moral guidance – in this level of preaching, the message attempts to instill moral values and character change through metaphors, parables, stories, or testimonials. The homily of the Catholic priest and the testimonial of one who has been saved in Evangelical churches draw on this type of preaching.
Exhortation – this type of preaching exhorts people to take urgent action. Some preaching makes use of this type of message to raise funds. Some clergy may exhort their parishioners to vote for a political candidate that shares the religious institution’s values.
Revelation – This type of preaching explains the layers of meaning of scriptures. It may attempt to interpret the symbols and archetypes found in prophetic and mystical passages of scripture. It may attempt to use analytical strategies like Gematria or analysis of historical word meanings to tease out meaning from religious texts. Those who play a teaching role in the religious organization commonly exercise this communication style.
Transmission of the gifts of the Spirit – In the core of the Moon Soul, where the Holy Spirit comes to dwell, in response to the believer’s fervent invocation and prayer, the Living Flame speaks directly through the individual. This can take the form of inspired preaching, prophecy, speaking in an unknown tongue (glossolalia), and anathema.

In inspired preaching, the Holy Spirit speaks through the individual, who takes no thought as to what he or she will say—it is revealed in the moment; the preacher gives voice to what the Spirit whispers within.
In prophecy, the Divine Spirit reveals what is to be in the future.
In glossolalia, the Spirit bestows a mantramic language upon the believer, which enables the believer to enter into union with the Holy Spirit in the core of the Moon Soul.
In anathema, the Divine commandment executes the karmic law.

Those who wish to study more about religious conversion and the dynamics underlying religion may value from reading our book, Religion, Cults, and Terrorism: What the Heck Are We Doing?

play youtube,

Proximo Juego De Cuba En El Clasico Mundial De Beisbol,

Kk Meaning,

The Gentle Art of Creating an Alternate Reality

Posted on July 9, 2021 by George Boyd

Q: How do political and religious leaders move their followers into an alternate reality, so they believe lies and conspiracy theories?

A: This hypnotic co-option of the follower’s reality testing and judgment appears to come from both the behavior of the leader and the response from his or her followers.

When you look at the behavior of the leader, you see:

The leader will modify and distort perception by magnifying certain elements and minimizing others
The leader will change beliefs about events and other people, so that people will only get information about the world the way the leader sees it
The leader will declare the world your senses perceive is unreal
The leader will lie to people incessantly, so followers begin to doubt their own beliefs and perceptions

When you observe the behavior of the leader’s believers, you commonly see

They proclaim the leader is the only source of truth, and tell other people to only listen to their leader
They cast the leader as a savior, someone who can alone solve the problems of the people and the nation
They make the leader appear as larger than life, as super-human
They believe the leader has charisma, or God has chosen him or her
They pledge fealty or allegiance to the leader, and obey his or her commands as infallible
They dedicate their life to the leader, and are willing to fight and die for him or her
They listen to the leader’s advice, abandoning their own judgment
They do anything the leader wishes, leaving aside their life’s goals
They live in fear that the leader will withdraw his or her approval and support, and they believe terrible consequences will ensue if the leader does not support them—in religious groups, this may be framed as going into eternal damnation or losing their chance for salvation
They create a larger-than-life myth about the leader, inflating his or her deeds, so they appear heroic or superhuman
They want to see and be in the presence of the leader, so they will receive his or her supernatural force (mana)
They believe the leader, no matter what, even when he or she blatantly lies to them
They are loyal to the leader, even if he or she uses them and betrays them

While not an exhaustive list, these are several of the features you see in political and religious cults that authoritarian leaders control. A common theme in these groups is that followers are swept up into an alternate perception of reality. In this state of heightened suggestibility, it is very easy for them to believe in the most absurd conspiracy theories their leader promulgates. We certainly see this occurring in nations where authoritarian leaders have seduced a large portion of the populace in believing his or her lies.

Co-opt reason, and you create an alternate world where anything can be true. Suppress judgment and you can believe the most absurd conspiracies. Control others through fear and guilt, and you create a group of obsequious myrmidons.

Those who have been drawn into this vortex of delusion no longer realize they have become unmoored from reality; they become hypnotized to believe the alternate reality the leader disseminates, in which he or she controls them.

play youtube,

Proximo Juego De Cuba En El Clasico Mundial De Beisbol,

Kk Meaning,

Conspiracy Theories and Fear

Posted on February 6, 2021 by George Boyd

I once attended a workshop, where the group leader gave a talk about fear. He said if you create an acronym for each of the four letters of “fear,” it would spell out:

F – False

E – Evidence

A – Appearing

R – Real

When I reflect upon “False evidence appearing real,” I am struck by how conspiracy theories are founded upon false evidence—or sometimes, on no evidence at all—yet those who believe in conspiracy theories have a tenacious conviction that what they believe in is true beyond a shadow of a doubt.

If I desperately want something to be real, even when it is not—the unconscious mechanisms of projection will kick in and they will shape my perception so other people and events appear the way I want them to be. For example:

I desperately want the candidate I voted for president to win. Even though the votes received were accounted for during each step of the mail-in or in-person voting process; all legal procedures were followed; and the votes were counted and verified—sometimes even more than once—I will falsely perceive a fraudulent process took place. I am in denial that my candidate could lose.

So my belief that fraud occurred is false, yet I continue to embrace this belief, because I don’t want to admit to myself that I will lose the person I want to be “my president.” I’m afraid I will lose him, and all that I believe he did on my behalf will be uprooted and swept away.

I will therefore manufacture false evidence through perceiving innocent events as sinister ones, and these will appear as real to me. For example, in a video, an elections official places a box of mailed ballots on a table: I see this as false evidence that illegal ballots are being dumped to fraudulently ensure the candidate of the other side wins.

The same thing happens when fear colors your perception. For example:

I’m camping in a forest. I see a large male grizzly bear. My fearful imagination kicks in: I’m visualizing the bear is going to run towards me, maul me, kill me, and eat me.

The truth is, the bear doesn’t want to mess with me anymore than I want to mess with him. As long as I don’t threaten his mate or his cubs, or make him feel I am going to attack him, he’s going to leave me alone—as long as I leave him alone.

But fear turns this situation into a vision of danger. There is a risk of course:

The bear might have rabies, and will act unpredictably.
It might be a bear that is a “man-killer,” who has gotten the taste for human blood. He is hungry… and I’m a man.

But the odds of these events are low. It’s unlikely they will happen.

So I do my thing; the bear does its thing. The bear and I experience “peaceful co-existence,” to borrow a popular phrase of the cold war era. I don’t harm him; he doesn’t harm me.

These same dynamics are operating beneath many of the popular, contemporary conspiracy theories, such as:

Q-Anon – Your president is working to save you and your children from a group of blood-drinking, Satanic pedophiles in government and the media
Joe Biden, Jr. won the election through fraud
The government is trying to take away your guns
Secret cabals of [Jews, wealthy industrialists, bankers, members of a secret world government, the Masons… insert your favorite perpetrator of evil here] are plotting to take over the world and control your life
Other ethnic or racial groups are coming by the millions to take away your food and your jobs… and ultimately replace you
The world is flat
The United States faked the moon landing
The government planned and conducted the events of 9/11, so they could get a hold of Iraq’s oil
Vaccines will implant tiny tracking chips in you
The government is actively persecuting members of your religion
Space aliens are consulting with top secret cells within the government to transfer alien technology; they have been given permission to abduct people and perform experiments on them
A demagogue, cult leader, or dictator is your savior—despite of the evil deeds and atrocities that he or she condones, directs, or personally commits]

Might I ask those of you who believe in conspiracy theories like this to answer some questions? Here are four questions that will help you get to the core of the fear that locks this conspiracy theory in place in your mind, which acts like a filter that colors the appearance of anything you perceive.

What about this person or group—or about an event, or a potential outcome if what is described in the conspiracy theory comes true—makes you feel afraid?
What do you catastrophize might happen?
What would you perceive if none of what you believe about this is true—if this is just false evidence appearing real?
What would it be like for you to live your life without believing this? How would you act differently than you do now?

I think we would get along much better if we stopped believing in conspiracy theories… if we stopped demonizing each other… if we tried to work together on our common goals…

We share many things in common; we have common needs:

We need to eat and have clean water to drink
We need a safe and decent place to live
We need to have an education to acquire the skills and the knowledge to contribute to our community
We need a legal means to provide for our livelihood
We need to be treated with dignity and respect
We need the opportunity to pursue our worthy goals and dreams
We need to be able to embrace and practice the faith or philosophy of our choice, provided that we don’t impose it on others against their will

Perhaps if we could stop embracing conspiracy theories that distort out perception of the world and other people, we could support one another in achieving these needs. You might ask, “How do I provide solutions that get results—and that don’t cause harm?” If we each can do this, we can contribute to a better world for all of us.

play youtube,

Proximo Juego De Cuba En El Clasico Mundial De Beisbol,

Kk Meaning,