by Carissa Conti
© February 29, 2016
Books and articles have been written on being able to read body language to detect deception, and it’s a line of research that law enforcement and forensic psychologists employ when questioning people. But how can the average person who lacks training in such matters tell when they are being deceived, and/or dealing with person suffering from delusions, especially via the written word?
This is especially relevant for the “woo-woo” weird material. In recent years there’s been an explosion of awareness in the population into all subjects fringe, courtesy of the internet. Whether it’s government/world political conspiracies, mind control and experimentation on the unknowing masses, the alien/non human presence in this world and the related UFOs/MILABs/abductions subjects, or outright questioning how much of our reality is fully real in the way that things have been presented. It makes it possible for people to not only find material on these subjects, but to contribute their own thoughts and experiences, while asking questions and networking with each other. And mixed up with the genuine people seeking answers and writing or speaking about their experiences are those who are faking things for a variety of reasons. Either for the ego wank attention it provides, or to be a troll for personal amusement to see how many people they can dupe, or ($$) attempting to ($$) capitalize ($$) on these newfound popular subjects, or because they’re serving an agenda to deliberately spread disinformation into the works, leading people towards red herrings and away from certain lines of thought.
A big one you see a lot of in woo-woo and conspiracy material in particular are the “whistle blowers.” Those who claim to have insider knowledge about some nefarious aspect of our reality, maybe because they’re supposedly a former employee who witnessed things firsthand, or government contractor of sorts. But are they really who they claim to be? Some are also outright delusional and suffering from mental illness where reality and fantasy get mixed up and blurred in their minds.
In my time researching and communicating with people online I’ve crossed paths with most all of the above types. And I’ve also crossed paths with many a person who fell for various sources out there who were engaging in deception, and/or where the sources came across as mentally ill and delusional. Several readers have emailed me over the years recommending material and/or asking my opinion about various sources, requiring me to read over the material and give them my personal assessment. However, very few of the more hardcore fringe-y conspiracy/metaphysics sources that were recommended came across as fully legit and unquestioningly sincere. But these sources duped the people who were emailing me about them. There were things they didn’t notice or catch, red flags that should have immediately jumped out at them, yet didn’t. So what may be obvious to one person isn’t always the case for others.
For somebody with personal experience and/or training it can often be quite easy to detect when somebody is verbally lying and spinning wild yarns, based on eye movements (the direction that the eyes are looking, whether left or right, and up, mid level or down, indicates whether one is recounting actual experienced memories or constructing a story on the spot, as well as whether a genuine recounted memory involved audio, visual, or both, among other things…) tone of voice, revealing word choices (use of non-committal “sure” instead of definitive “yes,” which puts the burden back on the other person in a “you’re the one who said it, I’ll just go along with it” kind of way; the need to always stress “to be perfectly honest,” “truthfully speaking” etc. in an effort to convince the listener of just how honest/truthful they supposedly are, usually because they’re not); speed of speech (stilted speech, as well as continued pauses before every response/answer with fixed, glazed over stare often indicate somebody making something up as they go along; “fast talking” all around a subject and launching into hyped up long winded stories to distract/deflect as a nervous defense mechanism, etc.), and body language and tics/movements (hand rubbing the back of the neck or head, covering the throat while speaking, head shakes or nods contradicting yes/no answers, dodgy eye contact, etc.) These are all things I’ve witnessed and experienced with so many people over the years, only to have it confirmed in sources that discuss the art of reading people’s body language.
It’s harder to gauge things via the written word though, because you have none of that to go on. But there are still many ways to figure out what’s going on with people even without the verbal and visual cues. The following is a compilation overview of the major “broad stroke” sorts of things to be aware of when encountering material from people falsely claiming to have gone through some things, especially of the woo-woo nature. And most notably when it comes to the written word. It’s also important to keep in mind that when deciphering whether material is truthful or deceptive, you’ll usually see more than one of the following behaviors/traits on display. Each one taken individually doesn’t necessarily prove anything (though they still can serve as major tip offs) but when you have multiple red flags pooled together, then there’s a problem.
1. Lack of conviction/sense of detachment when recounting stories that didn’t actually happen. When a person is writing about events that truly occurred to them you should be able to tell because they’ll usually write with conviction and passion in their voice. It comes through even through the written word. When a person is recounting something that didn’t happen, or which they themselves didn’t actually experience (in other words, they’re “borrowing” somebody else’s story….) they will often write in a vague sort of way, and/or seem oddly detached emotionally from the events they’re recounting. A good, though non woo-woo source that illustrates this is the novel “The Long Walk,” by Slavomir Rawicz. Back in 2007 I came across a free copy of this supposed true story of “The harrowing true tale of seven escaped Soviet prisoners who desperately marched out of Siberia through China, the Gobi Desert, Tibet, and over the Himalayas to British India” as it’s described on Amazon, and knowing nothing about the book at the time I was excited to dig in. I was doing fine………..until I got to the actual prison break scene itself, the end-all, be-all moment of truth in the book. And that’s where I put the book down, frowning, suspecting that I was reading a pile of b.s. Just something about the vague, emotionally detached way the author wrote the scene, and the lack of nitty gritty details and conviction said to me that he was writing about something he never actually experienced. If he had, there would have been more emotion and conviction happening in the words and tone, way more specific details, and it wouldn’t seem so vague and anti-climatic. Sure enough, after I got home and hopped online to research the book I came to discover it’s notoriously controversial, and that the author was outed as having made up the whole thing. Didn’t stop Hollywood from eventually making a movie about it though. ;)
This point is true for woo-woo material as well. In an older version of my ”Gangstalking vs. Hyperdimensional Attacks” article I had dissected a supposed “insider’s” revelations about gangstalking that’s floating around on the internet. The newer version of my article no longer includes this excerpt, as I had to make room for more relevant information when I did the rewrite a couple of years ago. But I’ll still quote several of the issues I had noted about the “insider’s” revelations, since they bring up important things for people to consider:
“The tone. It’s too forced and fake for starters. It tries way too hard to be nonchalant and friendly throughout the entire piece. Two small examples: “I suppose I should introduce the syndicate in a little more detail.” They “suppose”? Uh, okay. “Anyway, I should introduce the main branches of the syndicate.” “Anyway”? “Should”? Feigned casual, conversational nonchalance. Considering what they’re supposedly involved in and what they supposedly do to the lives of innocent people, this tone is a stark 180 contrast. They’re trying too hard to sound harmless, passive, likable and thus, lure the reader in. The description of the workings of the syndicate may be accurate for what’s really going on in the world, but it doesn’t feel to me as if the author themselves is actually truly involved in it as a member. There’s a level of disconnect happening within the tone and descriptions.”
This forced, feigned, casual and nonchalant style is something I noticed a few years ago when reading a particular Project Camelot interview with a supposed “insider whistle blower” guy whose entire demeanor as described by the PC interviewers was fishy and reticent, and who answered questions with the noncommittal “Sure” instead of the definitive “Yes,” and in general tried too hard to come off as nonchalant and casual, in my opinion. Same as the gangstalking insider piece I dissected above, the author used super casual language that didn’t gel with the subject matter at hand.
Another aspect where the vague/evasiveness comes into play are any of the metaphysical types out there who are engaging in selling their supposedly psychic/intuitive/metaphysical services. Beware the vague and general readings, that’s all I can say. It’s one of those “almost too obvious” things to mention, but being that charlatan intuitives run rampant in this world it still needs to be said. When supposed psychics not only get things majorly wrong but also speak in vagueries then straight up, they’re not psychic. They manage to get as far as they do though because there actually is such a thing as psychic abilities, which many people have experienced and know to be true, and so since it is a valid phenomenon it means it presents itself as another way for people to seek out answers and insights into this reality and our existences. Especially when people are trying to find answers regarding their abductions and possible mind control situations.
A perfect example to illustrate this would be from an email I’ve received, referencing two of the faker characters I describe later on in this write up: One being the costume wearing, role playing, New Age/“Native American” white boy “psychic” shaman with overpriced nonsense for sale on his website, who I mention in point #9, and then a guy who goes around claiming to be a psychic victim of the Montauk mind control experiments on the now defunct military base of Montauk, Long Island, and who, along with a cohort, charges people for metaphysical readings and such that I mention in point #4. The emailer said, “I might ask [role playing costume wearing “shaman”] for a scan as he helped someone I know who’s a monarch [Monarch Mind Kontrol/MK Ultra programming) but she had some terrible experiences with the [“psychic Montauk Boy” wanna-be and his cohort] so I definitely won’t talk to them, even tho’ a scan by him might be accurate.” It shows the way in which somebody desperate for answers into their woo-woo situation would knowingly overlook a friend’s negative experience with an obvious charlatan and still pay them good money for a psychic “scan”…trusting that on some level they must have some sort of psychic abilities if they’re putting themselves out there…………right?! This same “Montauk boy” from what I’ve seen is fond of writing in short, clipped vagueries and generic assessments of people and situations, but due to his apparent charismatic, authoritative magnetism (point #5) and confident, brash claims about his supposed abilities, has still managed to make quite the name for himself.
The bottom line when it comes to recognizing the problems with so much material out there is an understanding of basic human psychology. That ability to recognize that what you’re reading or hearing doesn’t align with what is normal in terms of human reactions/behavior/speech. And it appears so many everyday people are just lacking this, unable to recognize other people’s off kilter, or downright red flag level of speech, behaviors, reactions, etc. Like, “Really? That sounded to you like a perfectly normal response considering the circumstances?? That registered to you as a reasonable answer?? Nothing at all strange about any of what that person is doing or saying?? Seriously??” I’ll be touching on this increasingly shocking level of “inability to read people” and loss of psychological awareness within the general population at the end of this piece.
Then you have the woo-woo hoaxers who go 180 degrees the opposite direction….
2. Their story is ridiculously over the top, far fetched, flamboyant, or downright implausible in many parts. So instead of the detached emotional disconnect and vagueries we have the total overkill approach. There’s details, but it reads like fiction, or some crazy dream. Most important to note is the way the author always seems to be at the center of some flamboyant, crazy adventure, where they’re the hero, or the “specially selected chosen one” getting to experience far fetched happenings that rival a movie, and being made privy to things that the rest of the population doesn’t get to see or know about. Be it MILABS, mind control experimentation, alien abduction, or the new go-to favorite story of being a “black ops trained super soldier.” The difference between somebody who genuinely experiences these things (or those who have been programmed to believe it, so they mistakenly truly believe it’s something that’s happened to them) and those who are knowingly lying or are just downright delusional is that the latter is literally the “center of the sphere” you could say. Everything revolves around them. It’s just all about them, all the time, in every instance, to the point of over the top madness. And after awhile you come away from it all thinking, “yeah, right……(eye roll).”
A great example of this concerns a prolific member of Tom’s old message board forum. She was somebody who, for the longest time, ran her own website/blogs to make a living for herself being supposedly psychic and in-the-know, and also contributed many posts about metaphysics, spirituality and conspiracy coming from her supposed own – endless – personal experiences. She was extremely charismatic and very well written, with a writing voice full of manic level, perpetually sassy/smart ass energy, passion and conviction that totally sucked everybody on the forum in. (While simultaneously using the forum to try to peddle her over priced wares and engage in shameless self promotion. ;) Of course.) So at first glance she seems to pass the “lie detector/not mentally crazy/schizo” test because the conviction and intelligent, coherent writing is totally there. In a forum full of so many flat, personality-less people she really stood out, with fun, colorful stories that many wanted to believe because it made life more interesting.
The only problem was, she had so many of these over-the-top adventures that after awhile even the most gullible person had to start questioning it. An endless litany of claims involving “government black ops psychic wars” where the government was always after her…..because they’d also tried to recruit her into the CIA but which she refused…..of course……(nevermind that it made no sense for a nobody like her whose then-primary focus in life was community theater/local acting to even get on the CIA’s radar in the first place); palling around with dragons in the dragon realms, having a herd of Elves pop into her living room one night because they were taking the Elven youngins’ on a field trip and wanted to visit her, psychically projecting herself into government underground bases and being detected and narrowly making it out in one piece and back to her body, the nice “good guy” Reptilian alien that just beamed himself into her living room one night unexpectedly to shoot the breeze, selecting her out of everybody on planet Earth to do that with…….I mean, it was endless. It was always something with her (including the way O.J. Simpson had even once hit on her at some party years ago, implying the way she narrowly escaped becoming the next Nicole Brown Simpson). It was so confusing because there was so much passion and conviction in her voice, as if she truly believed what she was writing, and she wrote so intelligently and coherently. Everybody wanted to believe her, but after awhile you just had to seriously wonder.
Eventually she left Tom’s forum – for the second and final time. Both times she left she did so in a literal temper tantrum huff, throwing childish and histrionic hissy fits because somebody had dared to question the overpriced wares she was always trying to peddle. The overkill reaction was truly a case of “thou doth protest too much.” Narcissists, of which she was one, as I would eventually figure out, can NEVER handle being questioned, contradicted or called out at any point. But soon after leaving, one of the other members found posts she was writing on other forums under a different handle name. (She wasn’t hiding her real life identity though, to be fair, it was just the handle itself that was different) but the stories she was posting in other places differed in their details. !! So which version of the stories were true? Were any of them? Her entire persona as a whole was questionable though. That aforementioned perpetual manic sassy way she was always writing/speaking was an affected/crafted persona, something she thought sounded cool and fun and which would suck in readers/potential $$$. Nothing about her from top to bottom was real or sincere.
What her stories had in common though was what I mentioned earlier – the way in which she was always the hero at the center of the sphere, the “specially selected chosen one” who was always finding herself involved in an endless litany of completely over the top magical adventures. That was the giveaway, and it’s something you’ll see out there a lot of supposed woo-woo revelatory insider material. (The other thing they had in common is that her stories were touching on all the “hot button” subjects of the moment. As if she was trolling around on the ‘net, seeing what people were interested in and then making sure to make money by writing about those subjects.)
Another aspect that ties into this is how in some of these supposed “conspiracy insider revelations” you see on the internet the author is again, not only the hero at the center of the sphere where everything revolves around them, but famous people are also involved. Celebs, high up politicians, royalty, you name it, they’re in on it, and they know the author personally and participated in whatever conspiracy is going on against them. To the point where when you’re reading it it’s just absolutely ridiculous. There was a website brought to my attention by a reader that had this particular aspect on display very loudly, and is a really good example. The author was claiming to be a clone that’s been used and abused by all these Hollywood stars and royalty, who all knew him personally, as well as claiming that his image was even used on a very famous heavy metal band’s album cover, and proceeded to name check multiple celebs and royal family members in his hysteria toned “revelation.” While cloning may very well be real in the government black ops projects, it doesn’t mean I believe this guy’s story.
And a good anecdote that combines several of the above behaviors and traits all rolled into one involves another female from Tom’s old message board forum, whose real name I’ll abbreviate as S___ P___. Back in 2007 S___ P___ sent me a Word document of her supposed real life adventures from back when she found herself mixed up in the nefarious mind control underbelly of San Francisco when living on the streets. I didn’t ask for the document, nor did I have prior off-forum interactions with her, so it was both unexpected and unsolicited. But she figured this would be a subject of interest to me, based on my website and book. So I started reading it since it sounded interesting….only to stop reading it by page three, knowing that I was reading a bunch of bullshit. I clicked off of it and never looked at it again.
What tipped me off? It was several things. One was the way in which the plot read like a series of bizarrely disjointed dream sequences, just one weird and crazy, implausible thing after another, like one of those “too much cheese before bed” dreams. It was also the disconnected/detached and impassive voice, as if she was recounting something that happened to somebody else, or again, a dream sequence, or something that was just entirely made up. And it was something else beyond that, which may just border on outright “intuition.” Because you can’t discount that either when reading people’s stories and claims. That’s very important to note. Sometimes you just can’t put it into words why you know something isn’t true or real… you just know. You feel it. In this case her story felt completely inauthentic. And I’d also say it was that I detected a cunning intelligence behind her words, somebody who knew she was crafting a yarn. I never told her what I thought of her unsolicited write up, and just didn’t respond to it at all.
Flash forward to a few years later when S___ P___ reached out to me again via email, wanting to discuss other topics. I decided this time to engage in a back and forth with her, and that’s when I was able to confirm for myself that I’d been completely right in my original assessment………and then some. She was well written and very coherent in her initial emails, indicating mid level intelligence and a solid middle to upper class background. Somebody who clearly did well in school, if not actually going to college. But again, call it intuition, but I felt that her voice did not match at all what she claims has gone on in her life. She sounded too cunning, and like she was getting a total kick out of telling it.
This cunning manipulation was loudly on display throughout our back and forth email exchange. She used the opportunity to try to go after me about the subject of “organic portals,” (a subject/term I myself did not coin, but which I feel has a strong possibility) and which is something I touch on in my website, but which my boyfriend Tom in particular has written about more in depth on his own website. Basically trying to get me to “answer” for stuff he wrote, and recant for the both of us I guess, telling me how people out there were going to misapply their awareness of the organic portals theory (i.e…..they’re going to try to kill people whom the believe to be O.P’s…??) and that when they do, “there will be blood on your hands!!” O.o
Talk about immature, illogical and histrionic. This indicates somebody who gets off on (trying to) emotionally manipulate and affect others in a negative way with her own words, having that power to puppet other people’s reactions, as well as somebody who likes standing on her soapbox and “being heard.” Look at me, give me attention….listen to me. Didn’t work with me though, I made a face and shook my head as I read it and called her out in my response. As the exchange wore on (and progressively went off the rails…) I could practically see the smirk and glint in her eyes just based on her words alone, if such a thing is possible, because she sounded like she was taking pleasure in what she was trying to turn into a “cat and mouse” back and forth. Thinking she was the cat, but while actually being the mouse who wasn’t as smart as she thought she was.
Not only that, but she began applying what could be considered neuro linguistic programming techniques, one of which involves mirroring the speech pattern and word choices of the person you’re talking/writing to, in an effort to manipulate them into getting in line with your way of thinking. In this case, attempting to “match/mirror” me as the exchange wore on by using more and more of my own specific phrasings and speech patterns when repeatedly trying to convince me to recant my stance on agreeing with the organic portals theory, and other such things. Again, implying somebody who knew exactly what she was doing. My line of thinking is, if somebody so overtly behaves like that in an email exchange, pushing themselves on somebody with their unsolicited, manipulative, devious, controlling, attention seeking histrionics, then what does it say about who they are in general……and thus, the “I’m a victim of mind control in the underbelly of San Francisco” tale they’re peddling? By the end of the exchange I had to block her address to get her to leave me alone, because she also wouldn’t accept my several requests to end the exchange. Just kept coming at me. Another sign of a disturbed personality.
Despite how transparent her obnoxious behavior was to me, she was engaging in it because she’d obviously learned somehow that it does work. Somebody somewhere has fallen for her behavior, probably multiple times, and it’s why she employs it in the first place. Same goes for any of the charlatan tricksters.
By that point in time though S__ P__ was already trying to make a name for herself out in Internet Land with a blog about mind control under a secondary handle name, V__ i__ P___, posting on multiple message boards and other people’s blogs, with what I believe is a made up tale of her own supposed mind control, getting attention and adoration and people looking to her for answers. Oddly enough, last I saw she was still linking to my material, promoting it, despite our exchange going off the rails. The reason for this though is coming up in one of the upcoming categories.
My tentative theory, based on what I’ve been able to detect of her intelligence and coherency, is that she’s not some poor, lost crazy person who isn’t in control of their mental delusions. She’s either knowingly lying for the attention/adoration, wanting to be a mind control go-to source for the ego wank it provides, or, she’s knowingly lying because that’s her job to. Go out there and pretend to be one of these people, for whatever particular agenda. I tend to think it’s the former though because from the bits I have seen of what she’s written I can’t detect what exactly the disinformation agenda/angle would be. (A reader later emailed me saying he recognized who I was describing in the above tale, kind of smiling and shaking his head about it since he knew exactly what I was talking about. He clued me in to the…..disturbing artwork that she posts online, giving me a link so I could see, and which further corroborated for me her unstable mental state.)
3. Bombardment, distraction, and/or empty filler. Another tactic relating to details involves bombarding readers with crazy sounding details that aren’t necessarily related to the main claims being made, in order to make up for the total lack of proof for what they’re saying. You know……just bury readers with so much other information that readers become overwhelmed, and hopefully go along with whatever main point is being claimed. But when you look closer you can’t find the nitty gritty details that directly show that what they’re saying has any merit. They’re talking/writing all around the subject, focusing on all this other stuff instead of the main point.
Another biggie involves the use of empty filler, with words filling up the book but in the end not much has really been said or convincingly presented. I’ve definitely seen this one on display in multiple metaphysical and “woo-woo” based books. And the reason it works so well in my opinion is that society in general is getting increasingly more shallow and superficial. People have been trained not to think too much, question things too much, or drill down on a subject in depth. Attention spans are shortened, and people now feel like their brains hurt when faced with too much information and details. And too many sketchy authors are more than happy to oblige with their shallow writings that say almost nothing. :/ A lifetime of one-sided TV and entertainment can largely be thanked for this, where you just sit there zoning out in a light trance state, passively accepting what you’re being told/shown but not actively interacting back, or questioning anything. What can also be thanked is mainstream “education,” which relies on unquestioning obedience and memorization/regurgitation of whatever material you’re presented, not promoting critical thinking skills. If an author has something to say then they should say it, get to the point, provide real details, and be clear and straightforward. No shenanigans. And if they can’t, then that’s a telling sign.
An example that relates to this involves the woo-woo new age/metaphysics arena, and even though it isn’t about the written word I still think it’s worth mentioning. But there’s a prominent new agey/metaphysics researcher who has a website, gives presentations and writes books, and whose main claim to fame is purporting to be the reincarnation of a former very well known man in the metaphysics arena. Tom and I were watching one of his presentations online several years ago where he started out employing the “bombardment” tactic. It was 14 minutes of boom!boom!boom!boom! bombardment of nonstop details about tons of random things, some of which were flat out incorrect (including things that were physics based; Tom went to university for four years, full scholarship, majoring in physics and electrical engineering, and knew off the top of his head that a couple of the presenter’s factoids were incorrect) leading up to the “I’m the reincarnation of so-and-so.” I felt like I was slipping into a light trance as all this information flooded at me in rapid succession, my mind kind of numbing out. After Tom pointed out several facts that were clearly incorrect, and after realizing what was happening here with the rapid bombardment I was done watching. That’s why I mention “14 minutes” specifically. The boom!boom!boom!boom!probably went on longer, but, I didn’t stick around to find out. And I never watched nor listened to anything else this guy has said after that.
Basically this guy was bombarding people in the audience with all this random information in order to get them into an overwhelmed/tranced out state where, once he segued into his “I’m the reincarnation of so-and so-“ schtick, they would just accept it…..which would then give him the supposed “credibility” so that the audience then further accepts, no questions asked, all the rest of whatever metaphysics/spirituality/conspiracy nonsense he wanted to lay on them. So it was a multi step manipulation. He obviously believed on some level that standing on his own two feet, trying to get people to believe whatever metaphysics ideas he has, without riding on the coattails of this other long dead metaphysics guy, and without using the bombardment trance induction technique would never fly. (Nor lead to the fame and $$$.) Kind of sickening, and so annoying. People eat his stuff up though in droves, and it’s why he’s so famous in the new age/metaphysics arena. :/
4. Absolutely zero proof provided for any of what they say or claim. Can’t forget to state one of the most obvious things to look for. But the reader is expected to believe their (often times over the top) story merely because the person claims it. I understand that people with woo-woo and/or nefarious conspiracies happening to them often can’t get conclusive proof, but these people don’t even try to get any, ever, for any part of what they’re saying. Not one photo, not one recording, not one document, not anybody else out there who’s also known and who can vouch for them, not one shred of anything.
One major way in which you’ll see this one on display in Internet Land is with websites who promote people’s wild stories and claims about being “Illuminati Sex Slave/Mind Control Victims” and such. There’s a particular (older) guy on the ‘net with a longstanding website devoted to all things physical-conspiracy based, with a special emphasis on Zionism, Feminism and the Illuminati, and he just loooooves to prominently feature emails/write ups from readers claiming to be victims of this sort of nefarious activity. All they have to do is say these things have happened to them, they don’t need to offer a single shred of proof, and he’ll put their story up. When the story is sordid and involves sex abuse/sex slavery, even better. And when royalty and celebs are name checked in the accusations, even more better. So why would this guy, and others like him who run websites similar to his, promote wild yarns that offer zero validation? Is it naivete? Stupidity? Is it because there’s an agenda of sorts? In my opinion it’s the latter, and we’ll get back to that at the end of this piece.
Another great example are the guys running around in the world claiming to be “Montauk Boys,” mentioned earlier, used in mind control experimentation on the now defunct Montauk military base on Long Island, as well as the “Black Ops Psychic Warfare” guys who were supposedly trained to be human weapons, able to kill mass amounts of people by blasting energy out of their minds. While I truly believe anything is possible in this world based on things I’ve experienced, I don’t believe many of these types of stories that I’ve come across. Not only because the people that were supposedly involved can’t generate a shred of proof for any of what they’re saying, but also because they act fishy and sketchy, plain and simple. (And I also happen to know that one very famous and prominent “Montauk Boy,” mention in point #1, who’s been on the scene for many years, who claims to have metaphysical abilities as well and is using these claims in order to make quite $$ the $$ racket $$ for himself with psychic sessions and books for sale and such is not the real deal. I’ve personally spoken with the psychic blind woman who mentored him on the psychic/metaphysical concepts he now peddles, back when he was locked up in prison [hello – red flag…..] whom he then basically stole his schtick from and capitalized on once released.) But you’ll never see a shred of proof for what he claims…because it doesn’t exist. Because he flagrantly stole everything he does from somebody else. The Montauk story was supposedly something he stole from one of his cellmates. But that’s never stopped any of his fan base from forking over big bucks for his services, naively trusting that because he claims to have abilities and certain experiences, despite the lack of proof, then he must.
But as far as how these pathologicals are able to convince mass amounts of people who read either their personal websites, or other websites who avidly promote their yarns, despite a complete and total lack of proof for any of what they’re saying, is often times based on their ability for……
5. Authoritative, commanding presence and conviction. It’s amazing how susceptible humans are to people who speak and carry themselves in a commanding, self assured way. The majority of people are looking to be led and taken care of, for somebody else to make the rules and think for them (hence, exactly why we find ourselves in the societal set up that we’re in. :/ It seems to be an ingrained primitive genetic behavior, one that humans share with many other primates, that need for the “alpha leader” ruling over the weak group/tribe) and they will gladly submit to those who display this trait. Same goes for how the charlatan tricksters gain their foothold with people, getting them to believe in their wild yarns and claims in order to fleece them out of their money for books, speeches, consultations and various services.
6. Contradict themselves, holes in the story, things don’t line up. This is another almost too obvious one, but which apparently still needs to be mentioned because people often aren’t noticing it. But yes, pay close attention to the details of what people are saying and claiming, because in doing so you may start to notice glaring contradictions or serious plot holes. The previously mentioned supposed psychic who used to post prolifically on Tom’s message board forum back in the day has been notorious for this, even long after she stopped posting there. She’ll go on and on and on about all her supposed psychic talents and abilities…..while saying things that clearly show she’s anything but psychic. Stuff that, were she truly psychic, she should have known about. And she’s so far gone mentally and delusions-wise that she doesn’t/can’t even see how she’s constantly outing herself. Another one she engages in are sweeping, exaggerated statements and claims that are simply not possible. There’s just zero shame going on with her, no self awareness. Typically these sweeping/exaggerated and impossible claim and statements are sandwiched in amongst a blog that’s filled with very commanding, authoritative, charismatically written pieces full of conviction and passion. So the diehard fans who don’t want to see therefore tend not to notice. There’s blinders on. But it’s so glaringly obvious to anybody who’s paying attention, or to readers who aren’t too close to the situation, with no emotional or financial investment.
Something worth mentioning too at this point, since it ties in, is that if one feels that a woo-woo/new age person’s story doesn’t line up you should always try to ask them first, go straight to the source to see what they have to say, and how they respond. It helps to rule out things that maybe just weren’t accurately conveyed, i.e., flubs in communication, which does happen and is totally understandable. This is true of any situation in the world, not just when reading material about the fringe subjects. If you approach them respectfully but yet they flip out and start throwing an indignant temper tantrum anyway, merely because you questioned something they said/wrote, then that’s a huge red flag. Somebody who can’t handle being asked a few clarification questions in a respectful way is somebody with something to hide, period. Again, the whole “thou doth protest too much…” thing mentioned earlier. It’s the same thing narcissistic abusers often due in their personal relationships when caught or called out – immediately flip out indignantly, lie, deny, launch into attack mode and turn everything back around onto the victim/accuser, and just start gaslighting until the other person hopefully doubts their own judgment/sanity, shuts up and goes away. :/
The other thing to keep in mind if one feels they need to ask one these conspiracy/metaphysical authors/researchers some clarification questions is that good liars always have an answer for everything it seems, so that can open up a whole can of worms. !! At that point you have to be good at discerning the answers you’re being given.
7. Websites are often full of “overpriced stuff for sale.” Key word being “overpriced.” To me this is always a red flag because it reveals where the person’s real intentions lie. They don’t truly care about trying to help you. It’s ultimately about getting their mitts on your wallet. Knowledge and information isn’t free with them. It’s going to cost you a pretty penny. DVD sets for $165, e-books for $25-$50+ (really? $50+ for an electronic/virtual book?? They don’t bat an eye though when charging these rates and have a litany of indignant, self righteous reasons they’ll spout off to justify it…..) webinars, courses, classes, programs, you name it, it’s for sale. They may also crank out books on a regular basis where much of the material overlaps stuff they’ve already written. “Rent’s due…..better cook up another book and dupe the gullible fans for more of their hard earned money….” Or, even better, they lure you in with teaser carrots, then tell you that if you want the rest you have to buy their book, or DVD, or what have you. ;) Of course. More devious manipulations.
8. Loudly linking themselves to other sources, whether credible or non. The way I look at it is, if you have a truly genuine story then it will be able stand on its own two feet. And it won’t matter that you’re not well known because the details/information and genuineness will speak for themselves and be the true star of the show. Somebody with something interesting and genuine to say only needs to put it out there. The rest takes care of itself, thanks to the way the internet works with search engines. But something you’ll sometimes see charlatans do is to loudly link themselves up to other known and popular sources, whether credible or non, and this is done for several reasons: 1) Boost their own credibility “by proxy,” because their own story is lacking and/or outright false. They’re hiding behind somebody else and relying on/using that other person to make themselves look better; 2) For sleight-of-hand reasons, because this is closely related to the tactic of using bombardment, distraction and empty fluff filler. They’re trying to distract the reader away from realizing that there’s a total lack of substance and details happening in their own story, and so therefore are loudly pointing to some other source and sidetracking attention onto them.
It’s one thing to reference the work of another in order to bring attention to it so people will seek it out as a further source of research (regardless of whether the other person/source is valid or not, because what I’m referring to here is motive/intent. ) But it’s another thing entirely when you’re actually using that person to gain credibility by-proxy, or as a sleight-of-hand distraction tactic. A lot of people fall for this though. They get impressed and taken in by the fact that whoever they’re reading knows and/or is linked to this other source. The naïve reader sees the other well known “researcher” (whether legitimate or liar/charlatan as well) being casually name dropped within the writing and automatically applies the other person’s power onto the lesser known trickster.
There’s a third reason this could be employed as well, which ties into a known negative agendas, whereas a flagrant liar or crazy person loudly links themselves to somebody credible in order to make the credible person look bad. So the credible person has to defend to others that No, they don’t know this other person, nor do they endorse their work, and no they’re not affiliated in any way with them. !!! I’ve experienced people doing this with me on several occasions, including the “San Francisco mind control” chick who was linking to my work on the web either to boost her own credibility and/or distract with the red herring sleight of hand. I’ve also witnessed it with a charlatan liar guy who emailed me (coming up) trying to distract attention onto MILABs researcher James Bartley when my questions were cornering him.
9. Seeming to be “playing a character.” Another thing I’ve noticed about some of the fakers out there is that in some instances they seem to be playing a character of sorts, with the full on “character name” and the whole “image” of sorts, complete with the special way of dressing. You see this a lot within the New Age scene, where somebody is out there with the website full of overpriced nonsense for sale, playing dress up with the character name, pretending to have knowledge, insight and abilities they don’t really have in order to try to get a hold of people’s wallets. Instead of you know, just getting a real job and living respectably. :/ There’s one particular guy out there in Internet Land whom several readers have recommended to me who fits this description to a T. New Age/“Native American” shaman character name? Check. Even though he’s white. < cough > Playing dress up with the outfits? Check. WAAAAY overpriced nonsense for sale on his website? Check. Claiming to have knowledge, abilities and insights into the world as well as the people who pay him for readings? Check. Doesn’t mean nothing of what this guy says has any validity. From what I’ve seen, a lot of it does. HOWEVER……the problem lies with the parts that may not be true (especially when it concerns individual intuitive readings, of which an emailer who paid for one of these guy’s readings showed me when quoting what he was told), as well as the validity of the quite obviously fake persona, and the sincerity of the intent, of which the grossly overpriced stuff indicates.
Bottom line is, why would you want to patronize somebody who’s pretending to be a different race than what they are, adopting a fake ethnic/racial name to go along with it, and who clearly only seems to care about getting your money? Somebody who can’t just be who they really are? Either due to insecurity, being empty at the core, or because they believe it will be better manipulate the public into giving them money? :/ (Apparently the above guy feels that “Native American Shaman” is way more respectable and interesting than “Everyday White Guy.”) None of this bodes well in terms of their character…..no pun intended with regards to them playing a character.
10. Evades/dodges direct questions, and may even keep referring you to purchase their latest book if you want answers. Ah, how I’ve definitely encountered this one first hand. :/ It’s such a dead giveaway it should actually be at the top of the list.
Back in March of 2013 a supposed “super soldier” victim emailed me pulling this nonsense. The exchange I had with him is the ultimate anecdotal illustration of shenanigan liars. I’m going to post our exchange, anonymously, because I truly believe this guy was/is lying and is full of crap, and my end conclusion was that he was mass emailing various people out there in Internet Land doing pre-emptive marketing for his upcoming book on Amazon. It annoys me to know he’s now got a book full of lies and crap, and is charging people for it, and is knowingly deceiving people with his wild yarns.
So here’s the back and forth exchange, so people can see exactly what I’m talking about when it comes to these types, and what to be on the look out for, along with my commentary for the reader interspersed throughout:
______
“Hello Carissa, I like you [sic] milab site. I’m unfortunately a milab / mk-ultra torture victim and suffering greatly. I’m desperate to get out. Please visit my site www.s_________.com If you know of anyway to stop the abductions (teleportation type) please let me know. The SEALs black ops group that has me uses my soul to do sick experiments. They’re beyond evil.
Thanks,
S___”
_______
There were several things that tipped me off from the get-go about this initial email. 1) “I like you milab site.” Very generic, and not even necessarily correct. My website covers a wide variety of subjects, only one of which happens to be MILABs. And actually, I mainly talk about MILABs in my book. Not so much on the actual website. So that was telling me he hadn’t really read my website at all. Just glimpsed/scanned it and made a quick – and incorrect – conclusion about what it was all about, with the overall agenda of trying to size up websites that he believes are on the same page as him in order to reach out with his self promotion. Further proved by the fact he immediately referred me back to his own website. 2) People who’ve truly read my website in any capacity and are coming from a genuine place either elaborate on what parts of the site stood out for them, and what they related to and why, or else there’s some sort of commentary and thank you. It’s always one or both of those from genuine readers. This guy did none of that. Just tossed out the generic “I like you milab site”…….and quickly moved on. These two points alone were enough to send up my red flags about this email in the first five seconds. 3) Just something about the cursory description he provided of his own situation struck me as being fake. Though that alone isn’t enough to be a red flag, since many people will send an initial “testing the waters” email, which I think is actually preferable to just sending a super long novel as their first email that dumps on me. However, it wasn’t just that it was cursory……it was also the melodramatic, i.e., manipulative, language. “Torture” “suffering” “sick” “desperate” “evil.” Something about it was trying too hard, manipulative, and also smacks of somebody who is histrionic and attention seeking. Though that alone still isn’t enough. But combine all the points together and it’s loudly indicating something to me.
Despite all this I wrote him back after perusing his website, out of curiosity, to see how he would respond to direct questioning about his situation:
_____
“Hi there,
I’ve been reading through the website you linked to. So, that’s your personal site then, with things you’ve experienced? (The voice of it sounds different from the email.)
I had a few questions that I came up with as I read, and was wondering if you could answer them:
- You say you were “inducted” into the MILABs thing in 2011. What do you mean by that? What did “induction” involve?
- Tying into the above question – I don’t see where you mention how you were selected to be a target. Do you know how you came to their attention? Why they decided to go after you? How you got on their radar?
Thanks,
Carissa”
______
Those are pretty straight forward questions. So, this was chance #1 to prove himself to me. Keeping in mind once again that he was the one who reached out to me, wanting me to know his supposed story, and not the other way around. So it’s totally reasonable to ask these questions. If you’re going to reach out to somebody on the ‘net and tell them you have a story then you best be prepared to explain what that story is, with details that make sense, is how I look at it. His response was the following:
_______
“I will have a book coming out on Amazon in a couple months called “_________”.
This tells the whole story.
The military was interested in me for psychic stuff and they pulled me into the super soldier program – that’s what I mean by inducted.
How did they learn about me?
they totally monitor the internet like you wouldn’t believe. They can identify who’s into the occult, who might have had real alien contact or similar phenomena. They also can read theta waves and abnormal frequency signatures which can be generated by aliens. The whole planet is in a kind of electro-magnetic network prison now. Everything is tracked.
I’m trying to figure out how to stop the abductions. As you know they use some kind of teleportation.”
______
1) This response has details – enough to sound “legit” at first glance – but while not really explaining much at all. So they found out about him because they monitor the internet for people interested in woo-woo stuff. What stuff was he reading on the internet that got their interest? Who is it that targeted him, what part of the government exactly? How did they approach him? What was that first meeting like? Where did it take place? And when? How long ago? What kind of “psychic stuff” were they interested in? “Psychic stuff” is a broad, huge subject, after all. And how exactly does one get “pulled in” and “inducted” into a “super soldier program”?? What’s the actual story of how it all went down?? I wouldn’t expect every one of these questions to be answered, or even half of them, but at least some of them should have been if one is trying to sound even sound halfway legit. There’s a huge chunk of the story missing here, including you know…..who, what, where, when and how. Though he sort of explains the why…..sort of…..annnnnd…..that’s about it. 2) Then there’s the “marketing campaign” about how he’s got a book coming out on Amazon, so, that’s where you can find the details. (For a price.) Of course!!!!!!!! ;) ;) ;)
At this point I knew for sure and was ready to go off on him, since he seemed unable to provide solid details and was so quick to direct me to his upcoming book. But, I held myself in and decided to give him one more chance to prove himself. Otherwise I’m jumping the gun and possibly shooting myself in the foot.
My response:
______
“Okay. That’s great but you didn’t really answer my question. Instead you evaded most of it by referring me to an as—yet-unreleased book.
You’re the one who emailed me, reaching out to me. Not the other way around. If you want to have a real dialogue then you need to be a little more forthright. You used the word “induction” to describe how you came to be involved with them. I wanted to know what that means exactly. I’ve never in all my MILABs research seen that word used before to describe the process by which somebody comes to be used by “them.”
“How did they learn about me? they totally monitor the internet like you wouldn’t believe. They can identify who’s into the occult, who might have had real alien contact or similar phenomena.”
Okay, so what does this mean? You were writing about stuff on the internet, and that got “stuff’s” attention? If so, then what were you writing exactly, and for what website(s)?
“The military was interested in me for psychic stuff and they pulled me into the super soldier program – that’s what I mean by inducted.”
Do you have any sort of proof for this? What are the details surrounding this “super soldier program”? What branch of the military? What did it involve? Where was it held? For how long? What specifically was done to you to get you up to par for this program? If “the military” is going to take a normal guy and turn him into a super soldier, then what does that involve? How is that done? How did they reach out to you? Did they email you? Call you? Knock on your door? Did you have to sign anything?
Being that nobody’s ever emailed me before making this level of claims I’m just really curious. Thanks….
Carissa
_______
His response:
“Induction means military impressment. I was forced to become one of them. It’s a black ops group of the SEALs.
A good reference on civilians being impressed into these groups is James Bartley’s writings.
It didn’t work out. I refuse to help them to put it mildly.”
______
That’s it. That was his entire response. Not even a sign off. Answered almost nothing of what I asked and then side tracked onto pointing out James Bartley. As mentioned previously, this was a case of linking himself to a known source (in the MILABS research community) for sleight of hand/distraction purposes. I know James Bartley’s work, and in fact I recommend it in my book “Chasing Phantoms,” and have participated in roundtable discussions with him and communicated with him via email. (And have since been invited on his internet show for a one-on-one interview.) So I know who he is…but that doesn’t explain or prove anything about this guy’s personal story.
In addition, as the exchange wore on I saw nothing in the way of his writing voice that showed that he truly was “suffering greatly” from all this “evil torture” that he supposedly had going on in his life from the “sick” Black Ops group. There was no real emotion being conveyed at all. Just flat and detached. Then turning around and trying to sell me on his book? Really? Yeah, I can tell he’s really “suffering” so much. (eye roll.) If somebody is truly going through something that has them genuinely distraught, trust me, you’ll feel it as you read. And trust me, they’re usually pretty eager for a willing ear.
My last response let him know what I really felt about him, highlights of which included:
______
“Okey dokey. Since you emailed me first, coming to me with these claims, and not the other way around, I’m going to let you know what I truly think. I gave you several chances to answer some very simple questions and provide even the most basic of details that would better flesh out your story, and each time you dodged and evaded. I’m good at reading people, both in terms of common sense/what’s in front of one’s eyes, as well as intuitively. And to me it’s plain as day that you’re somebody who’s read a whole lotta stuff about a whole lotta stuff, and is pretending to be involved in things you’re not. Legit targets who’ve emailed me over the past seven years are often over eager to spill details, sometimes to the point of going on and on because they’re so frazzled. You can’t/won’t provide details, period. Also, it’s amazingly coincidental that you reached out to me just prior to your book coming out on Amazon. You’re churning out emails to people who you’ve seen on the ‘net talking about MILABs in order to generate publicity about your book.”
“…says to me you’re a well educated and well read/researched poser who, for whatever reason, is trying to pretend you’re involved with something you’re not either for the attention, sympathy and money, or, because you’re a knowing disinformation agent. I’ve encountered a few of you types before. Common sense says that if you really had half of what you claim is going on to you, then you wouldn’t be releasing a book on Amazon.”
“….anybody who asks me for details gets them. I don’t dodge, I don’t evade. And I don’t refer people to just you know……..read the writings of somebody else, you know, because apparently my own story is a bunch of bullshit so I have to hide behind what other people say and uh, hope nobody notices.”
“There’s a lot of truth to the things you discuss on your site, but that doesn’t mean that the things you claim have happened to you really did. One could have obtained the information you discuss quite easily by doing even the most basic conspiracy research on the ‘net. One doesn’t need to have been “inducted” into a military black ops program to have created the claims about reality that you’re making. What’s interesting is the complete and total nihilistic conclusion you draw from it all. It’s the most negative, pessimistic to the point of being utterly over the top and ridiculous website I’ve ever read. If you’ve really read my “milab site” you wouldn’t “like” it as you’ve claimed, trust me, because my message is so ultimately different from the one you’re pushing. It’s apples and oranges.”
______
Then I blocked his address. I also told him I’d be using his emails in an article where I discuss liar charlatan tricksters. Yes, a little blunt, but I was glad I said it. Months later Tom received an email from one of his website readers, with the reader mentioning some book he’d come across from a guy claiming to have been used as a black ops “super soldier” and wanting Tom’s opinion on it. Something about the story was putting up Tom’s red flags, but he was unsure of his own judgment and wanted another, trusted opinion. Well, guess what. Turns out the “super soldier” book author was this same guy who had emailed me. Go figure. If at least one person out there was frowning to themselves while reading his book then hopefully there’s more. I was frowning just in reading his b.s. ridden, manipulative, evasive and transparently promotional emails. Can’t imagine my reaction if I were to ever actually read his book.
*****
An important thing to keep in mind is that many of the fakers out there in the world get as far as they do because a good chunk of what they’re saying and peddling does have truth to it. There obviously has to be enough right things about what they’re doing, saying, and how they’re presenting things to pull so many people in and to get as far as they have. But that’s where the problem lies. People see and focus on the parts that are valid and make sense, and ignore the red flags that indicate a problem. They get pulled in by the charismatic, commanding writing voice making authoritative declarations, the many bits of truth that often can be found in the material, the snazzy blog/website design and presentation, any possible “Hollywood” type connections the writer may have which plays on the whole unfortunate “celeb culture” programming, meanwhile, ignoring the total lack of proof for anything, gross contradictions in things being said, the manner of speech that’s either evasive and vague or total overkill “specially selected hero,” the obvious indicators of a goofy, childish narcissist doing role play dress up, and mistakenly believing that all the pricey shit for sale is a good thing and indicates somebody who obviously knows what they’re doing and has it together, instead of realizing it indicates insincere intents and somebody who’s only in it for the money.
So, why are so many people susceptible to the above trickster tactics, whether it concerns people who write lies on the web or run entire groups based on their lies? Plain old naïvete is one, for starters. A lot of people just don’t have any real experience with sociopaths/psychopaths, pathological liars, and people with severe personality disorders. They were maybe raised in well adjusted families and had good lives and uneventful upbringings in general. So when they cross paths with pathological types for the first time they’re unable to question things from the get-go or recognize the signs. (That’s why I’ve “joked” that having an f’d up family, and/or screwed up childhood due to factors that extend outside of your family [like years of severe, never ending bullying, etc.] can be a strange secret blessing in disguise; at a young age you’re exposed to a level of nastiness that many others aren’t. That early need to pay close attention to abusers and read their signs in order to be on top of a developing “situation,” as well as years-long exposure to pathological personality disorders comes in handy out in the world later on, when crossing paths with liars and con artists. Means you recognize what you’re looking at in two seconds flat, in a way that naïve types from nice families and communities full of nice people often times don’t. It teaches you how to hone your people reading skills, from eyes, to voices, to body language as well as what’s being said and how it’s being said, as a means of self defense/protection.) So lack of hands-on real life experience or street smarts is one major contributing factor.
There’s also the idea of “being past the point of no return.” Where a naïve and trusting follower has gotten so far into a group or so far along in their worship/fanship of somebody that when they finally start to notice issues they feel like they’ve invested too much time, energy and money into it all to turn back. To admit that they were duped and/or used is a huge blow to their ego, and maybe very embarrassing. Especially when it involves investing money. Parting with one’s hard earned money is a very big deal, and a lot of people don’t want to admit that they may as well have thrown that money out the window, as it was wasted on somebody who was just a fraud. (Take note, Scientologists. !!) Or they feel like they’d be lost without the group or ideas they’ve latched onto, like they have nothing else to give them meaning. So they put on rose colored blinders and keep pressing forward.
Another big reason is that as time goes on and the generations continue, people overall seem to be losing the ability to be able to read people, and it’s beyond just “coming from a nice upbringing and being naïve.” I found myself conversing with a group of very aware, like-minded people when this subject came up in a big way, because we had all noticed this going on with people. Several theories came up, one of which involved the disintegration of face-to-face contact, as technology continues to keep everybody glued to screens, conversing through typed text, getting caught up in their own heads, and becoming increasingly narcissistic/self obsessed. This downward spiral of decreased interpersonal contact is having devastating effects on society in multiple ways, but one which includes the loss of ability to read people anymore.
Another reason that I put forth in our conversation was the explosion of people being diagnosed as autistic, Asperger’s, or the generic “spectrum disorder” over the past couple of decades. With those disorders comes the inability to understand facial expressions, emotions, nuances in word usage/figures of speech, and any type of normal social cues.
There’s also the overall dumbing down of society, where people are being poisoned through food/drink/product chemicals that probably affect cognitive function; toxic vaccinations that contain many things they shouldn’t and which have been strongly linked to the autism epidemic, as well as the mind control indoctrination courtesy of school, the all pervasive media, and society as a whole that trains people what they can and cannot think about while reshaping their belief structures and perceptions. Many people no longer possess the ability for critical thinking, because they’re not allowed to exercise it anymore…..and may not even be capable of it anymore. Common sense is disappearing as time goes on. I can’t tell you how many times I see comments on the ‘net, usually pertaining to movie clips or trailers, where a person genuinely wants to know why a character did such-and-such thing, or where they didn’t get why a movie took a turn at a particular point when a character did something. And you can tell they’re serious, not trolling. So then somebody else has to jump in and explain something to them that’s REALLY freaking obvious to others. I’ve read those comments in disbelief, wondering why people are getting like this. Why can’t people understand basic human motivations anymore? Facial expressions, particular tones of voice and behaviors?? Forget being able to detect things via the written word, that’s not going to happen. (And that’s if they can even maintain the attention span to read through a supposed “wall of text,” because that’s going the way of the dinosaur. Between Twitter, with its character limitations, and TikTok, providing users with only a minute and a half, we’ve officially arrived at “NO MORE ATTENTION SPAN” level of our (de)-evolution.)
So now we have a world increasingly populated by people who can be easily duped, unable to notice or spot red flags, in any situation, and unable and unwilling to apply critical thinking, whether face-to-face or via the written word, due to a mix of all the above presented reasons. Falling for psychopath politicians/political candidates, duped by scams and hoaxes and liars and frauds, with a total lack of discernment.
Another problem is that so many people don’t trust their own judgment, and I’m not really sure why that is, could be a number of reasons. But people really need to learn how to believe in themselves, and get in touch with their own inner gut feeling/voice, and trust what it’s telling you. Get in the habit of questioning things, “thinking too much” and drilling down, despite how much society tries to convince you to do otherwise. When things don’t add up, or make sense, and when there are contradictions and fishy behaviors, notice it, question it, and don’t back down from it. Stick to your guns. Society no longer encourages critical thinking and drilling down on anything…..but that’s all the more reason to do it. This segues into a whole huge subject involving those who get mixed up in abusive relationships where they’re pounded down and “gaslighted” over a long period of time, and lose the ability to believe in themselves, see the behavior of the abuser for what it is, all those red flags, and question the entire situation. Too much to sidetrack onto here, but hopefully readers get the drift.
But even people with good intuition, critical thinking skills, street smarts and acquired real life experience in dealing with pathologicals can still fall prey, if the charlatan trickster is convincing enough. We’ve all been there and had it happen to us, myself included. But, that’s how you learn, and can add one more thing to your list to be on the lookout for in any future interactions.
As far as the websites out there in Internet Land that loudly and avidly promote the works of any old random person with a far fetched conspiracy yarn (and in particular that one longstanding conspiracy website mentioned earlier that loves to feature stories of people claiming to be Illuminati mind control sex slaves even when there’s not a shred of proof), I do tend to think there’s a knowing agenda going on with that. Even if it’s ultimately for silly, petty reasons, such as trying to have the most sensational material possible in order to drive maximum amount of traffic to the website either to generate $$ money $$, or to achieve fame.
But there’s also the more sinister possibility that many of these big name, longstanding conspiracy websites are out there doing what they do because they’re knowing disinformation agents. They likely may be very much aware of the fact they’re posting bogus nonsense, serving as a “tool” of sorts, because they’re trying to insert as much noise and red herrings into the works as possible. Create confusion, lead people astray by distracting them with a bunch of “pointless nonsense-disguised-as-supposed-meaningful-conspiracy,” drown out anybody who may pop up who actually is telling a true woo-woo/conspiracy story, and in general make all people who have a legit story get lumped in to the same category with the crazy disinfo nonsense…..and thus tossed out/disregarded. :/ And you can tell which of the big name conspiracy websites are what by the way in which they don’t promote/post/link to genuine material with a ten foot pole. Just… < chirping crickets > when it comes to any of the true and legit material, meanwhile aggressively promoting stuff that is just so obviously bunk to anybody with a working brain. Thus revealing what’s really going on there. :/ So, some food for thought.
On a closing note I want to say that I originally started compiling this article back in 2012. However, I put it aside because let’s face it, this is considered some seriously negative/inflammatory finger pointing material, and in general my site has, for the most part, stuck to just putting out informative stuff and staying away from conflict with others. But over the last 3 ½ or so years I’ve intermittently gone into the work-in-progress doc on my computer and tinkered with it, inspired by yet another email I’ve received from somebody recommending yet another dubious source, or something I was hearing about going on out there in the world. Finally I decided you know what…why not. If I died tomorrow then whatever I’ve compiled would go to waste. So just finish it and put it out there, because this could be a useful topic to get into, especially in light of the aforementioned explosion of interest in the mainstream with regards to these sorts of subjects. So, here we are….