conspiracy theories are a decoy
I came across a video on Insta and my mood shifted into reflective mode (aka I’ve got a lot to say about this). It’s time to get it off my chest. I don’t use that social media a lot (or socials in general), but I like to keep up with some of my fave content creators and artists (to mention a few: annalauraart, __we_love_you_, lucidrenditionsart, plus a recently discovered one, danielbarretoes). This whole thing taught me to use it in a “smarter” way (it’s incredible how I never considered this before)… from now on, I will only check the following feed, instead of checking the regular home.
So, this reel was the flashy type of video, it catches your attention with the “quickly bombard with info every second” strategy, and the images on top of the unrelated background video. In the meantime, it’s trying to convince you with every bit of info shooting at you, hints here and there and that’s when people forget they are THEORIES – of course they don’t reveal themselves to you as conspiracy theories but deep down, that’s what they are. Now, the question is: Is this the truth or are you just trying to make an attention-grabbing video? Because conspiracies have a tendency to get “views”. I know sometimes people who do it mean well or they wanna share all the clever ways in which they see right through the “system” but when you give in to theories, you just fuel that very system you wanna denounce. They’re called rabbit holes for a reason...how do you get out once you’re in? Do you spiral? Rabbits are prey animals and the famous character who followed the white rabbit in the famous tale was Alice, a child. This means that oftentimes it’s curiosity and naivety luring you into dark holes and once you get there, everyone looks mad. What’s the consequence? You lose touch with reality. I’m not saying we shouldn’t question a system that dehumanizes us, I’m just saying we’ve got to train our discernment and choose what is truly worth our energy, attention, focus.
So here’s what I think are the major side effects: brainwashing (you consider them to be reasonable), distraction (they disconnect you from yourself and your life with paranoid thinking), fear installers (you start doubting everything around you).
The problem is that they look like they’re giving you the truth you’re thirsty for, but you’re just running in circles and before you know it, you’re in a maze of confusion, where lies and truth feel indistinguishable.
I definitely see these theories as the alluring decoy, seducing your mind and letting you think you’re finally discovering something, but it’s a distraction itself from your path. The etymology of the word “seducing” speaks volumes: Seducere is the Latin verb (meaning "to lead aside/away" or "astray"). It breaks down into the prefix se- ("aside", "away") and the verb ducere ("to lead"), combined to describe moving someone away from duty, rectitude, or propriety. And that’s what these theories do.
One of my favorite chapters from the Bible contains a powerful teaching to keep in mind as we go through our day to day life, and avoid these baits. It is found in Proverbs 4, verses 23-27: 23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. 24 Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. 25 Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. 26 Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. 27 Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.
Guard your heart (a word also used to represent mind) means don’t allow anything you see in the world to come so easily into your heart. Don’t give your focus to everything around you, some things are meant to be left aside. Don’t allow your attention to be drained by everything out there. Not everything is how it looks, follow your heart’s compass and understand how sometimes the biggest suffering comes from directing your energy at the wrong things. Keep looking straight ahead, your gaze may hesitate too much on your right or left, making you forget what’s waiting for you, ahead of you: your own path. When we look too much at others’ paths, we may get influenced or interfered with. Then you get lost and you have to find your way back to yourself. All we need to do is truly focus on ourselves, what we love and do that. Each path is unique. And this is why conspiracy theories look so seducing, because they come with the false pretense to “uncover truth” but then tell me, is it really worth listening to if it’s a theory? The truth within your heart is far more important than the truths the world can give. Find answers within yourself. That’s the real place you can trust.
These theories are but assumptions dressed as logical thinking and last thing you know is you bought it and forgot it is built on a sandcastle of speculation but sure it’s flashy and entertaining as long as you don’t let yourself be walked down the valley of darkness and can recognize the psychology behind it. Even if they can prove it logically, it doesn’t mean it is true, it only means they’re goddamn good at doing that. Think of people who are good at selling stuff, same exact thing. How easily influenced are you? Once you watch all this stuff you easily give in to negative feelings of distrust, loss of faith and fear mongering which really disconnect you from yourself and keep you in a paralyzing, paranoid state of doom and gloom.
As I said, they’re just as bad as what they wanna denounce – they fuel the system because they are a (click)BAIT, it can instill a sense of fear and anxiety. That’s what the system wants too, anxious people with little faith, distracted from their purpose, willing to buy anything to numb their feelings or avoid discomfort, any shortcut to evade the “horrible” world, too fearful to even focus on their own life, joys and people they love because that’s the kind of people that are easy to control. In this way you feel like you’re walking on a shaky ground… but it’s feeling safe and having trust in yourself and God that truly frees you from bracing for a sudden shock. Master the ability to stay present and grounded in your truth, no matter what happens around you, then you’ll know what to do. Giving in to fear won’t make you live, but only survive.
When I think of conspiracy theories, I think of the Gmork creature from the Neverending story, and that’s probably because it gave “half truths”.
I’d like to share some awesome quotes from the book, without context, food for thought:
“When it comes to controlling human beings, there is no better instrument than lies. Because, you humans live by beliefs. And beliefs can be manipulated.”
“It was these lies and delusions that made people blind.”
“Because they had given up hope. That makes you beings weak. The Nothing pulls at you, and none of you has the strength to resist it for long.”
“My will,” said Xayide with a smile. “It’s because they’re empty that they do my will. My will can control anything that’s empty.”
Also, why waste time with theories when we have history, right? There is also progress and we’re getting somewhere, things are not perfect but will they ever be, here? We can only try our best. We’re not here to get distracted but to assess the situation and ask ourselves what can we do about it? Who are you gonna choose to be in a world like this? Are we going to give in to these feelings of helplessness and powerlessness so easily? As if we can’t change the world, as if everything is lost?
Imagine the change that would happen if we all individually choose to show up as our authentic selves and with integrity...this won’t happen overnight because so many of us are still recovering from the society that we inherited, rediscovering who we are beyond our identities and remembering to build a world from values that those before us have forgotten in the midst of chaos, war, trauma and immaturity. We are not as powerless or helpless as we think ourselves to be, we are far from that, every choice we make has an impact on the universe.
It took me a while to write this post. I may look frantic in my words as I try to get my perspective across but that's just because I'm very passionate about it. It's a love for truth. And I also realize now that maybe I'm writing this for that young part of me that got into conspiracy theories many years ago. I was looking for truth but when you look for truth outside yourself, you may stumble upon many false and deceptive things before. So I'm not here to criticize at all, it's more of a warning; at best we may only allow it to be revealed instead of trying to guess it at all costs. Reveal the truth from within.