No, I Don't Believe in Lizard People, Crystal Children or a Hollow Earth!

Image by Android Cat, Public Domain

This planet is teeming with great eccentrics, individualistic types who do their own thing and express themselves freely, a wonderful, liberating, non-judgemental society.  

That ought to be good.

Except - if I meet another psychic I am going to go crazy. I feel inundated with psychics, new agers, conspiracy theorists, followers of mad, mad theories. Mature, apparently reasonable and articulate people, will tell you, quite matter-of-factly, about vampyres and evil spirits and "lower levels of being" and travelling to the "Fourth Level" (Whatever that is.)

That's the worst part of it - that everything seems to veer towards negativity, misery and forthcoming destruction. It's as though life is such crap that some people need something else to fasten onto, or to blame.

Fifteen Foot High Men in the Pale Sunlight!

Conversations take place over breakfast about a hollow earth filled with great cities and fifteen foot high men. And, although one theorist agreed it's unlikely the earth is hollow, he qualified that it was, in fact, a honeycomb. I asked, wearily, how he can base his entire life's purpose around theories that are not only unlikely, but for which there is no evidence whatsoever.  Apparently he can. Apparently physics can help to explain this weird phenomenon.

And if you're wondering how a great city thrives inside the earth, it's because sunlight filters through, palely. Good word that, palely!  Words are the conspiracy theorists' most important tools, especially ambiguous, loose, non-specific words that are flexible enough to be moulded to the theory.

Spare me from the following:

• People whose conversation is peppered with the following terms of reference: healing ~ demonic possession ~ new world order ~ aliens ~ lizard people ~ higher levels ~ lower levels ~ the other side.
• People who think it's okay to try to foist their belief systems on me without ever asking me what I think, which is a typical problem with these overtly alternative types. You can become quite good friends with them without them ever knowing what sort of music you like best.
• People who believe that superchildren (crystal children) are being born. When we start talking about an elite among little kids, it starts to get really sinister. Preserve us from any of these misguided adults from becoming teachers, nurses or nursery school staff.

Weird Belief Rituals

I accept that these theories are genuine religion beliefs, and in some ways are no more bizarre than some orthodox religions. What I do observe is that they almost always lead to stress, anxiety, negativity, obsession, compulsion, confrontation among themselves and with society in general. This is just observation, but in my life I have seen more screwed-up people among the "Weird Belief" community than in any other area of life. I'm not sure if this is a chicken and egg situation, since we could ask what came first, the neurosis and then the religion, or the religion and then the neurosis.

Tell me that energy has just flown out of the top of my head  indicating my - you choose the word: anger, stress, negativity - and that my soul is fragmented and needs putting together again, then I am defriending you, not just from my Facebook page but from my life. There's enough to contend with of a practical and an emotional nature in this life, and plenty of opportunity for rational, gentle speculation, without resorting to these obsessive, attention-seeking rituals that seem, almost inevitably, to lead to disaster, depression and negativity.