The Conspiracy Theory Thread

As suggested by beautiful Night Eyes, let's start a discussion thread on conspiracy theories

So anything from UFOs to New World order, feel free to drop it down here.

Obviously I'm looking at you Lotus and I can hear that sigh, because I know that you are thinking that's such a wide subject, where do you even begin? And yes I know that you could write a book on every single question/subtopic for how deep these things go.  
So let me start with couple questions to narrow it down somewhat, which ehemm will probably be too long

First of all, do tell us what do you believe IS going on in the world, tell us more about that evil cabal and the children of light Who are they? Where are they?

Adi's guru K-win from PLOA says what media tells us, even regarding LOA and the existing conspiracy theories are exactly what they want us to believe and it is only designed to give us nothing else but yellow butterflies and very simple stuff.. Is this true and if it is, then what IS being hidden from us?

Do you believe there is an Antichrist and if so, then what or who do you think it is? And by what, I mean- since Neville says Christ is your imagination, then what is antichrist?

Ok, that should get the ball rolling for now
Everyone else obviously welcome to answer with your opinions and new theories to add to the previously mentioned

Lunar, in one word, " Illuminati ". I think there is something to the subject of the Illuminati.

If we believe in an evil secret society, then won't we attract more events, people, and circumstances in our life that make this evil secret society seem more evident? Even if it's all really just a figment of our imagination becoming reality?

Back in 2005, when I was really, really, really depressed and border-line suicidal, I was very much into conspiracy theories, the Apocalypse, Nostradamus, and Bible codes. Remember all those doomsday shows on History Channel? That was all I ever watched. I was so sure that the final battle of Armageddon would begin in 2006 and it did. Not for our world, but for my peace of mind. Sure, Israel and Lebanon (Hamas) had their July War that year, and to my depressed mind that would have seemed like the beginning of the end. Why live on this stupid planet where people kill each other over a tiny piece of land? But... I took actions to heal my depression and it was starting to go away that July. I didn't believe in these Bible codes and prophecies anymore. Supposedly, a code said that a comet would hit earth in 2012. To my new state of mind, it was unrealistic. I had a new life to live. Sure, I still thought the Arab-Israeli conflict was still stupid, as was the war in Iraq and Sudan, but I started to understand better why they fought each other. Every thought, every emotion that was driving them to kill, was the same emotion I had at some time in my life. They're just people like me doing what they think is the right thing to do, there's no evil demon or secret society pushing this, this is just part of being human, and when humans don't want to take responsibility, they find a God or a Devil to take the blame, to be our scapegoat. That summer, when I realized I was stronger than my depression, I realized that I couldn't blame my problems on God, the Devil, the government, or the world, or a secret society. Maybe these things do exist and assert their own influence, but I'm here too and I was able to make my life better. No one can take that away, humans can chart their own destiny.

My brother is a big believer in conspiracy stories involving the Rothschilds, shadow-banking systems, and the Federal Reserve. He thought that Ben Bernanke's QE program would create a 30-year long second Great Depression, in which the world would be pretty much enslaved by the surviving shadow businesses owned by the elite thanks to job competition and low income.
I couldn't stomach this idea because I read about Ben Bernanke and I really liked him as well as Hank Paulson and Tim Geithner. Back in 2008 when the U.S. financial system was melting down, Hank Paulson was the head of the U.S. Treasury, a Republican, and tried to find a free market solution to fix the problem. When that wasn't working out, he went against both Republicans and Democrats to begin the "bail-out" program to save the banks and the economy. Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, who studied the Great Depression a lot as an economics professor, pushed the interest rate down to increase lending and revive the economy again. Tim Geithner, then the head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, basically cursed out a bunch of bankers and worked out a plan for the banks to reluctantly take in more capital. When Tim became head of the U.S. Treasury in the Obama Administration, he and Ben would devise the Troubled Asset Relief Program which would buy out the toxic assets in the big banks and flood it with capital. Two things happened thanks to this: 1) Americans gained in tax revenue and 2) bank balance sheets were stronger to protect against crisis and the stronger bank balance sheet would help restore investor confidence, in other words, revive the stock market. Ben Bernanke started QE (Quantitative Easing) which is basically increasing an electronic supply of money reserves in the system for banks to compete over while buying off toxic assets. This is another reason for the stock market getting a good pulse and for the unemployment rate to fall (even though that statistic is still murky by design). Still, the economy is better than in 2008, and I think those three men and their leadership had something to do with it. They're my heroes, so it's hard for me to think that this was all a conspiracy theory to create an even bigger depression to subjugate mankind to a new form of slave labor. It's easy to think that when Wall Street CEOs make tons of money and so many people lost their jobs and suffered reduced hours and reduced paychecks. But after reading into all of this, I can really see now how in a crisis you have to act fast, be decisive, and sometimes do the unpopular thing to save the economy. In 2008, that meant injecting money into the big banks, because if the financial system failed, regular people would lose much more and the risk would expand. In a climate of fear, it's easy to blame those in power. Some people thought the same thing when Franklin D. Roosevelt was President. Social Security was supposed to help Americans have money to fall back on in later life, so that they no longer had to face the same hardships and loss of savings from the Great Depression. But at the time, Republicans and religious conservatives tried to sell the idea of Social Security being the mark of the beast, Roosevelt is the Antichrist and Social Security is what will keep you under his tyranny. In 2008, religious conservatives and several Republicans did the same to Obama, calling him the Antichrist. When we become insecure, we project our fears onto other people and archetypes, especially other institutions, real or mythic, because anger at an outside force feels better than facing our own fear or challenging our own sense of "self". As Neil Gaiman eloquently wrote in The Sandman:



We belong to ourselves, not to an Antichrist, great demon, aliens in the sky, or the Illuminati. The only demons we have to answer to are the ones in our own head, the ones we create. (OK, there probably are real demons out there possessing people too, and aliens too, but they can also be dealt with if you've got Holy Water, right?). When I was a kid, I played this amazing video game called Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. None of you will most likely play it so I'll just spoil the story. A former Navy Seal unit called Dead Cell has teamed up with Russian mercenaries at the Big Shell, an environmental clean-up facility in New York's harbor. They have kidnapped the President and other hostages and want $30 billion. The government sends in Seal Team 10 but they're wiped out. So they send in secret FOXHOUND agent, Raiden, to sneak in. Raiden fights the terrorists and meets the President, only to find out that there's more going on behind the scenes. The President actually betrayed the U.S. government, which is being controlled by the Patriots, a secret society that controls everything from politics, the economy, and the military. The Big Shell is really just a front, underneath it is Arsenal Gear, a battle ship filled with Metal Gears (walking tanks) and skilled soldiers. Inside this ship is an A.I. the Patriots created to control the flow of information. The terrorists kill the President and Raiden meets up with Solid Snake, a legendary hero who everyone thought was the leader of the terrorists. Raiden asks Solid Snake why he's back. Solid Snake says "There's something my best friend said to me once: we're not tools of the government or anyone else, fighting was the only thing I was ever good at but at least I always fought for what I believed in." Solid Snake retired from the U.S. special forces to form his own group that destroys Metal Gears around the world, to prevent nuclear proliferation, but the Patriots want Solid Snake dead so they can keep their own Metal Gears. Since it's hard to kill him, they want to use their own digital censorship to destroy his legacy and call him a terrorist. The real leader of the terrorists is Solidus Snake, also known as George Sears. (In the 1970s, Big Boss, a legendary U.S. soldier, was cloned in a top secret project for military purposes. The clones were Solid Snake, Liquid Snake, and Solidus Snake.) Solidus Snake was Raiden's adoptive father and trained him as a child soldier in the Liberian Civil war. In the end, Raiden kills him but not before the truth is revealed. Solidus wanted to use a nuclear bomb to kill people, to damage the Patriot's "mindless masses", their power source, but also to emit electromagnetic waves that can disrupt the A.I. In other words, launching the nuke can disrupt their digital censorship and make Manhattan an island free from the Patriots network. Good ends, evil means. Solid Snake (the hero) uses a computer program from a hostage to disrupt the A.I. so there's no need to launch a nuke. Guess what? FOXHOUND doesn't exist. Raiden's superiors don't exist. He was given artificial memories and can't tell the difference between what's real or not. The whole terrorist plot was orchestrated behind the scenes by the Patriots to determine how successfully they can control the flow of information. But here's the kicker, the only reason they were able to control Raiden was because he refused to acknowledge his past. They took him in and trained him in the U.S. Army after he was a child soldier in Africa, but his memories of war were too traumatic so he repressed them, never wanting to face them, always hiding his fears. Apparently, the Patriots told him that this made him the perfect test subject because he decided to shut down his own free-will and power of choice the moment he ran from his own fears and denied his life as a child soldier in Africa. As a metaphor, facing Solidus Snake and getting justice for what he did to him in Africa was Raiden consciously facing up to his past and his choices, asserting his right to freedom by virtue of finally acknowledging all of who he is. In the end, Solid Snake tells Raiden: "Find something to believe in, and find it for yourself. And when you do, pass it on to the future." Here are some interesting cutscenes that explain more of these themes; they opened my mind when I first played the game at 8 years old.









In the end, Solid Snake tells Raiden that whether the Patriots exist or not is irrelevant, what we think, feel, what we choose to act on, what we choose to have faith in, are what decide our futures. And maybe that's the best way to live. For Raiden to realize that, he had to face his past and his fearful memories of being a child soldier and make peace with that. In other words, there can be no freedom without accepting and taking responsibility for our life. Maybe there is a conspiracy out there, maybe we are the mercy of forces we don't understand, and maybe we what we once thought was free-will is actually something very different. But I look at this from a risk-management perspective: I can believe that my life is subjugated to the will of an outside force (and it probably is, who can say say for sure?), but does that mean I should play the victim and give up just because the Illuminati is more powerful than I am? It feels better to live doing what you believe is the right thing to do, doing whatever is in your power to do that thing, not taking "No" for an answer or believing yourself to be a victim as an excuse not to go after that goal. It feels better to chart your own destiny and at least do you what you believe is best to follow it. Most of our obstacles in the modern age are just memes (thoughts) anyway. Don't follow your dreams, the Illuminati will crush you. Have you ever seen or met this Illuminati? How do you know it is real? Likewise, how do you know any of the so-called obstacles in your mind are real? Don't ask out that girl, she wants someone else and that someone isn't you. Don't go after that career, at the end of the day you don't have the skills to stay there. Don't follow your passion, you'll never find the time. Now, how do we really know any of this? How do we truly know a secret society exists that controls us? So that's why I say maybe we are slaves, maybe we're not, but we can still decide for ourselves what we choose to think, what we want to feel, what we choose to act on, and what we choose to have faith in, so why let ourselves be a slave when we can choose how we want to live our life? Maybe the paradox here is that there is no such thing as "choice"...but try telling that to someone who doesn't know any better (like me).

P.S. I do have some thoughts on the Book of Revelations and the Antichrist. I wrote them down in a notebook a year ago but I forgot where it is. Basically, my idea is that the God in the Bible is really a character, a metaphor for human consciousness expanding through experiences on earth. God at first is vengeful and jealous, we are moving through the excesses of the first three chakras. And then boom - there's Jesus who's nice and compassionate. His temptations were him "balancing the lower chakras" (as a metaphor). Jesus represents humanity opening up at the heart chakra, humanity opens up to God, God opens up to humanity. St. Paul and others spreading his message is the Throat Chakra. The Book of Revelations is about humans realizing the God within them (Third Eye and Crown Chakra). The big battle of Armageddon is about facing the demons of the "unbalanced chakras" (or the demons of the subconscious) to assert our at-one-ment with God. I can't explain much 'cause I can't find my notes, but I wrote a lot on this. I know this is strange and a little radical, so no offense meant my Christian friends.

If the Illuminati wants to control me, then this is how I wish to deal with it:

Phantasm wrote:

I know another cool story...

President Roosevelt wrote:If we believe in an evil secret society, then won't we attract more events, people, and circumstances in our life that make this evil secret society seem more evident?

I believe this. Reminds me of an old Taoist story:

A man, having lost his axe, suspected his neighbour's son of having taken it. Certain peculiarities in the boy's gait, countenance and speech marked him out as the thief. In his actions, his movements, and in fact his whole demeanour, it was plainly written that he and no other had stolen the axe. By and by, however, while digging in a dell, the owner came across the missing implement. The next day, when he saw his neighbour's son again, he found no trace of guilt in the boy's movements, actions, or general demeanour.

'The man in whose mind suspicion is at work will let himself be carried away by utterly distorted fancies, until at last he sees white as black, and detects squareness in a circle.'


It's happened to me, and often. These are just cognitive distortions, however, and not the truth.

President Roosevelt wrote:
Even if it's all really just a figment of our imagination becoming reality?

In our LOAworld of thoughts create reality and all that metaphysics jazz we all know and love, this is a snag, to me. No one yet has quite been able to talk me out of it. I remember Lotus' point: that some beliefs are simply counter to the collective consciousness/higher self and these don't manifest. But what about mass hysteria? These things happen. If millions decided that Lord Voldemort is real, would that alter reality? In a certain sense yes, but in an objective sense...    Of course I know it will be argued that there is no true "objective" sense, the world is all in our heads, and so on.

President Roosevelt wrote:So that's why I say maybe we are slaves, maybe we're not, but we can still decide for ourselves what we choose to think, what we want to feel, what we choose to act on, and what we choose to have faith in, so why let ourselves be a slave when we can choose how we want to live our life? Maybe the paradox here is that there is no such thing as "choice"...but try telling that to someone who doesn't know any better (like me).

Big can of big worms here. No one cared less about my free will post   in fact the overwhelming silence suggests to me more than apathy. I'd say people don't even want to go there because they have subconscious blocks preventing them from believing they have no free will.
Ironically.

As Sam Harris puts it. "You can do what you decide to do — but you cannot decide what you will decide to do."

I don't think people who believe in secret societies and shit choose to believe. I mean, heck, yeah of course they choose, but why? Because their environments and genes and thought processes dictate that they choose that.

This actually reminds me of Lunar's Lucid Dreaming thread though. Overriding reality. I like that. Your mind can guide you into a different reality.

President Roosevelt wrote:
I know another cool story...

Maybe you can work V for Vendetta and Oscar Wilde into your next conspiracy post, President. I'd be honoured. (A lot of interesting stuff in V for Vendetta. I think it's no coincidence that it was produced by the Wachowski brothers...like The Matrix)

There's a lot related to "the truth", a subject that seems to be cropping up in different threads across the board(s).





Also go to sleep lol.

UFO's:
The world has pretty much accepted the belief we are being visited. About half of the adult population, of the USA, believes so. I think it works out about the same odds, everywhere.

Now, the question. Where do they come from? Planets from other star systems, other galaxies? Not likely, because of the tremendous distances even the closest planets are to Earth. But, wait! Go back in time, to the early 1800's. People living at that time would never have thought of flying. One hundred years later, it happens. On a small scale. Two hundred years later, you can not only fly somewhere, you can do it quickly. And, a few even went to the moon! All considered impossible two hundred years prior.

So, maybe these UFO's are from other planets. We just don't know how they do it. Or, they could be from other dimensions, that's another theory. After all, they do seem to just appear out of nowhere, instead of flying in from deep space.

Or, maybe they really don't exist! Can all the sightings be explained away, maybe?

So much here.

Personally I don't think we're important enough to be visited. Sure there are "sightings" of UFOs. There are also sightings of ghosts. I think these things are imagination, not reality.

Aliens exist, it would be ridiculous if in our vast, possibly infinite, cosmos we were the only planet with life. And yeah I'm sure some super-advanced civilization could find wormholes and do crazy stuff. No problem. But I doubt they'd care to visit us. Why would they? I think we're more likely to be visited by future humans than little green guys.

More On Conspiracy Theories From Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

In MGSV (a very good video game) we go back to 1984. The Cold War rages on and comes closer to its end as the Soviets continue to fight in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, regional and ethnic conflicts all over the world are brewing beneath the surface of the Cold War.

This installment in the series is about three men:

1. Big Boss, a legendary U.S. soldier now mercenary who has turned his back on the U.S. and wants to build a nation of soldiers for soldiers, where governments can no longer discard soldiers like tools.

2. Major Zero, the leader of the Patriots. He was once a friend of Big Boss but now Zero wants America to rule the world. Actually, he wants the world to be one, to create true peace. To do that, he aims to control the flow of information by connecting the finances of military research, spy networks, and information manipulation on a global scale.

3. Skull Face, the leader of XOF. XOF was Zero's strike force, the paramilitary wing of the Patriots. But Skull Face wants to destroy Zero and take over the Patriots in his place. A long time ago, Zero saved Skull Face from a fire when his country was invaded. But Skull Face had to live as a skeleton, his skin ruined, his culture, language, and childhood lost....he hated Zero for saving his life only to live as a phantom of what he once was.

All three men become enemies of each other.

Since most of you will never play the game, I'll go ahead and spoil the story for you.

In the following trailer, the first speaker is Skull Face. The speaker with the English accent is Zero who plans to "make the world whole again."



Big Boss and Zero were once friends but Zero lusted for more power as he designed the Patriots and sought to control the intelligence networks between the military and politics to take over America and later on the world, to make it one. Zero wanted Big Boss to lead his private army, to enforce the Patriot's will. Big Boss wanted a nation of soldiers for soldiers instead, free from that chokehold. Skull-face wanted to destroy Zero and kill his friend, Big Boss, to get his revenge and take over the Patriots.

So Skull-Face destroyed Big Boss's mercenary company and put Zero into a coma using a special strain of parasites. The Patriots have been working on a top-secret project throughout the 1970s, a secret weapon of mass destruction to surpass nuclear weapons. Eventually, the Soviet Union would fall apart and as civil wars and ethnic conflicts rage throughout the world, a new weapon would be needed to assert the Patriots reign. That weapon is an ethnic cleansing parasite. How do we make the world one, as Zero mentioned in the trailer? Language. Specifically English. Race, nations, tribal affiliations, religion, ethnicity, borders....all will become meaningless under the Patriots rule, the world will be whole again, as long as English dominates the world. Words will control the world's subconscious, guiding individuals under a single will. The new weapon of mass destruction is an ethnic cleansing parasite which reacts to specific languages. If you speak a certain language, the parasite can activate and spread, killing anyone who speaks that specific language. If the existence of this weapon were to come to light, the Patriots could subjugate the whole world into making English the mother tongue. But Skull Face put Zero into a coma before this plan could begin.

In 1984, Big Boss builds a new mercenary company, Diamond Dogs, and hunts down Skull Face in Afghanistan and the Angola-Zaire border region in Africa. We learn that Skull Face intends to bring the world back to its original state, to reverse the Patriots rule, and to do this - Skull Face wants to infect the world with a parasite to wipe out English. With the Soviets falling apart in Afghanistan, the West (and the Patriots) will lose power if they can't make the world one. Their entire population will either be wiped out or split apart if English disappears. With English gone, Zero's codes for world supremacy are gone too. Other nations will fight and bleed, and the demand for nuclear weapons will grow. To restore peace among nations, every state, terrorist cell, and paramilitary force will be able to buy nuclear weapons in freedom. With everyone having nukes, they're not going to attack each other (right?). Deterrence all over the world will bring peace. Big Boss sees right through this and kills Skull Face.

But I think the theme of language as a weapon of control and manipulation is very relevant to the age we live in. Listen to these "cassette tapes" from the game:







English is the lingua franca of America, the common tongue through which different ethnic groups, skin colors, classes, and religions understand each other and get closer to one. But there are moments when I think that English in the West can challenge the perception of "self" in our community. And isn't that what a secret society that rules the world, like our Illuminati or the fictional Patriots, would want? What could be more damaging to individual self-determination than taking away the concept of a "self"? And without freedom of words, how can a "self" even begin to define itself or express itself?

Every single one of my Asian friends have two names: an American (English) name and an Asian name. When we first met they introduced themselves by their American name, common names that are easy to pronounce, familiar to our minds and tongues, subconsciously we like these names in America because we're used to them. If a teacher read the attendance sheet and called out their Asian name, they would ask to be called by their American name. My friends told me that they did this because they didn't want to go through the humiliation of anyone mispronouncing their real name, they didn't want anyone to make fun of their name, they just wanted to fit in and live a normal American life. I didn't realize how powerful an impact a name could have. My real name, like Adi's, is completely Indian. Some people have trouble pronouncing it even if it is just two syllables, actually a combination of two very common words in the English language, but I never felt a need to hide it. Maybe my perception of "self" was different. To me, my "self" couldn't be stopped by my name, but the opposite was true to my friends.

My friends are so scared that someone will get their name wrong, make fun of it, or that their name itself will hinder them from a normal American life. So English becomes the medium to achieve true assimilation, not just in the tongue we speak, but in the names we bear. But imagine if every immigrant chose an American name and hid their real name in fear. Sure, we would become one in terms of name commonality, a Tower of Babel. With that, other aspects of different people will then feel the pull to bind and become whole. For example, subconsciously it may be easier to be attracted to someone with a common name (or easier to connect), so then inter-cultural marriages increase if both cultures have common names from a common language. A lot of this is theory and sounds radical, but just imagine if our own individual choices have been guided by words and language and we didn't even realize it. It's a nice weapon for the Illuminati to have.

The problem is that the more common we get, the more "whole" the world becomes, the more we lose something special to the "self". My name, derived from an ancient language, is one of the names of Lord Krishna. I'm not a devout Hindu, but I can't deny that my name has made me feel very connected to the idea of Krishna, connected to something greater than myself. My Mom almost named me Charles thanks to a fascination with British monarchy. Then Dylan because she's a big fan of Bob Dylan (which isn't even his real name). Would my sense of "self" be different if I went by these names? My Asian friends never researched the meaning behind their Asian names, they just want to forget about that, but if only they knew what meaning the name carries maybe they would think differently about it. The way I see it, we should go by our real names, no matter how awkward it is, it's the only way we'll open up to accepting different names and getting the pronunciation right. After all, there were times when Irish, Italian, and other European names were unpopular in America, but through repetition, gained acceptance and popularity. Plus, our actions - our legacy - can change the meaning behind the names. But if we take on only English names and forget the meaning behind the old names, behind the old languages, we lose the special nuances that make up our identity, our cultures, our life experiences, the "self" loses flavor.

In The Namesake, Gogol resents that his Dad named him Gogol, so he takes up his other name, Nikhil, and assimilates pretty well into America. Everyone knows him as Nik. His name is no longer weird, he's no longer the outcast, he can fit in. Later on in life, when things turn sour, Gogol comes to appreciate why his Indian dad gave him the strange name of a Russian author. The namesake was a symbol, a promise. Gogol's dad held a book written by the real Nikolai Gogol when he was hurt in a train accident. He was found because of that book, given new life, and thus the whole family came "out of Gogol's overcoat".

Now imagine if the Illuminati wanted to use words and language to guide society, and the pressure of commonality influenced individual wills into abandoning names of other cultures strictly for the mother tongue, to fit in. Not only would the Illuminati have the power to influence people's identities and their information flow, but they could also rob them of the experiences that make the "self" grow. A spiritual threat. If Gogol began with the more American "Nik", denying the mystery and weirdness of "Gogol", he would have never realized the truth, and never experienced a "rebirth" or "self-realization" in his story. That is how I think the Illuminati could guide words and language, through real or perceived social pressure, to "lock" the "self" from the truth, and we are guided to "lock" ourselves. Our sense of "self" can be trapped in a bubble structured by words and language and outside of this bubble are experiences and truths we may never get to know. Trapped in its bubble, the "self" cannot grow, and the Illuminati keeps control. We could very well be living inside this bubble right now. And maybe it's not an Illuminati causing it, but ourselves alone - our fears of fitting in or our need for commonality in the age of information overload.

Some of you believe in a Self beyond the "self", that which we call the "self" or "ego" is just an illusion, there is only the Self ("the Son and the Father are one" or "I and the Father are one"). The Illuminati, if it exists, could use language and words to keep the "self" bounded and guided, denying it certain experiences that can open the "self" up to the Self. Hell, we can probably do this without an Illuminati. Basically, our ideas of words and language can keep us trapped in illusion, if we let them. For example, a child growing up with Ku Klux Klan parents would be surrounded by words and language that guide his "self". Characteristic of the KKK, the "self" existing in this sea of words and language cannot digest our Rumi Treasure thread. The name Rumi sounds too strange, too foreign, too alien to be a part of the acceptable language of the "self", bounded by the KKK's culture. So the "self" rejects Rumi the enemy, Rumi the invader, Rumi the terrorist, but also rejects another experience to grow beyond the "self" and open up to a greater experience where we can feel closer to the Self. This can happen all over the world, from things as vast as institutions, religions, and terrorist cells to things as small as households and our computer screen. Language and words can be great weapons to "lock" the "self". Perhaps Rumi was on to something when he wrote that "Silence is the language of God."

If the Illuminati tried to control society with words or language, to confine the "self" to its limited space, I think our rebellion would be about passing on the experiences that open the "self" to the Self, to keep journeying to our own personal truth. And this ties back to MGS2, when Solid Snake tells Raiden to choose his own life. We can't call ourselves free if we ourselves are hiding or censoring information and experiences to suit our "likes" yet denying the things we dislike, like the way Raiden refused to accept his past as a child soldier. That's fear in command. Solid Snake explained a good way to navigate this: pass the torch. The more we can know our experiences as humans, the more we can be honest about it, to "let our children read our messy and sad history by its light", then a "self" can become closer to the Self.

President Roosevelt wrote:Would my sense of "self" be different if I went by these names?

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet

/

Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose

?

The President wrote: " If we believe in an evil secret society, then won't we attract more events, people, and circumstances in our life that make this evil secret society seem more evident? Even if it's all really just a figment of our imagination becoming reality? "

In a word, yes.  And, that applies to any subject, be it Illuminati, UFO's, Annunaki,  Antichrist, Satanic Worship, World War 3, Economic Collapse, you name it. It all exists in someone's imagination, and reality.
Take any subject and dwell on it. It can become reality, in your world. But, then, isn't that what counts? Our own individual worlds, realities.

When we share what we believe, others pick up on it, and, it becomes their world, their reality.

And, in today's world, because of the internet, the world wide web, smart phone technology, it can happen even quicker than it did in the past.

The bank bailout of 2008/2009 prevented a repeat of the Great Depression of the 1930's.  Had  Ben Bernanke and the others involved not done what they did, the whole world would have went into a very major economic collapse. It still might. They at least postponed it.

If and when it happens, that could lead into the " conspiracy theory " subject of the antichrist, and the mark of the beast.  " no man may buy or sell, lest he has the mark, either in his forehead, his hand, or an image of the beast. "
 
If the current economic system breaks down, the world leaders will have to come up with another way to " trade ", another monetary system of sort.

A cashless society would be ideal. Cash is being used less and less, anyway. Credit and debit cards are stolen all the time.  Why not take a " mark " your own unique ID number, on your forehead or hand, so you can buy or sell, with anyone and anywhere, thieves can't steal it from you, and there is no fraud.  The perfect economic way to trade. No wallet to carry around. No debit or credit card to lose.

Phantasm wrote:So much here.

Personally I don't think we're important enough to be visited. Sure there are "sightings" of UFOs. There are also sightings of ghosts. I think these things are imagination, not reality.

Aliens exist, it would be ridiculous if in our vast, possibly infinite, cosmos we were the only planet with life. And yeah I'm sure some super-advanced civilization could find wormholes and do crazy stuff. No problem. But I doubt they'd care to visit us. Why would they? I think we're more likely to be visited by future humans than little green guys.

They exist in my reality, but, then, in a way, I guess I asked for it. From all the news reports since 1947, I think they exist in a vast number of the population's reality.

When you have trained airforce and airline pilots from many countries, policemen, politicians,( well, maybe we shouldn't count politicians, they've been known to lie ) see UFO's, and report them to the authorities, you really can't discount the sightings as made up.

When the subject of UFO's evolved into people saying they've been abducted by aliens, I had a good laugh. It's one thing to say you saw a UFO, but, then you are going to tell me you were abducted, taken aboard a spacecraft, examined, probed, inserted with some sort of a chip, a monitoring device, like cattle?

Then, they started finding these small " alien implants " , in people, and, can't figure out what they are.

The alien abductions started becoming popular with the Betty and Barney Hill 1961 abduction, in New Hampshire, USA.

The alien implants I think started in the mid 1980's. Whitney Streiber. I remember when I first picked up his book, " Communion " and saw the face on the cover. It gave me the shivers. I knew that face, from somewhere.

great topic, thanks for starting it Lunar, i will be back when i've caught up and i have something intelligent to say hehe x

rodan wrote:
If the current economic system breaks down, the world leaders will have to come up with another way to " trade ", another monetary system of sort.

A cashless society would be ideal. Cash is being used less and less, anyway. Credit and debit cards are stolen all the time.  Why not take a " mark " your own unique ID number, on your forehead or hand, so you can buy or sell, with anyone and anywhere, thieves can't steal it from you, and there is no fraud.  The perfect economic way to trade.  No wallet to carry around.  No debit or credit card to lose.  

Sorry, I'm pretty busy these 2 days and have to come back and read through this thread and Colonel's essays properly, but I just wanted to comment on this.

I have long wondered how are they going to replace the monetary system.
Unique ID number is the thing they have been speculating about in conspiracy theory documentaries like The Zeitgeist (the first one, not the follow ups) and that's exactly what they want to do to control everyone. To plant a chip with a number to every person and newborn so that all you need to do is get scanned and all the info you have ever had regarding anything, medical, criminal, financial, education, work etc will automatically come up. They will convince all the parents that this is necessary because this way if your child gets kidnapped they can be traced. It can reduce the crime, say if a criminal would go past checking post somewhere it would alarm the police immediately where the person is. Actually what am I saying- there'll be no need for checking posts, they could automatically trace any location of any chip anyway.  If somebody's house gets robbed, they can check whose chip was in that location in that certain time.  If a man is found unconscious, a medical person can automatically look up the medical history, allergies and all that.
On the downside however they have a complete control over you. If you do not obey in any way or threaten the elite, you will be cut off of all the finances. You can't work illegally cause there is no cash. So you will be a good slave from the moment you are born.

The later Zeitgeist movies get too hippy treehuggerish. They have this scene of how people rebel against the monetary system by all taking their money and leaving it front of the bank. Well- good luck with that! Like that is ever going to happen! In fact please let me know when it will happen cause I'll be there picking it up

But the thing is- they always talk about the whole monetary system replacement, that in the future it will disappear and everything is based on people's talents. Well how the heck is that going to work without becoming the monetary system again? How is it different from going to work as it is now and getting a certain valued number that you can spend? Are they talking about communism that everyone will get an equal number, regardless of your talent? Say my talent is playing violin, does that mean if I want a sandwich, I will go to Subway and play violin for a few minutes? Then I need to go to get my car oil changed, go play a bit of violin for the mechanics and so on??

Colonel writes brilliant essays. I wish I had enough brain to respond properly. These days I'm kinda a cracked egg though. Someday hopefully I'll have more energy. If I posted now I'd write something über silly so...no point.

Better late than stupid. So sorry to PR and anybody else to whom I'm not responding at all or at the deserved length.

argh that would be awful... chips are for pets not people!

its funny i was talking about communism yesterday, but more on the topic of equal pay regardless of what job you have... so basically a doctor would be paid the same as someone working in mcdonalds.

A taxi driver we had in Cuba told us that his wife is an architect, but works as a cashier at a local store cause she gets more money like that.

half the people coming out of uni these days end up working in fast food places and supermarkets... it's just too difficult to get work.

Communism sucks!

I have lived under communism. It is not fun.

i dont think any government is fun to live under these days

The Communists were worse. In theory their ideals are beautiful, on paper they work, but in practice...and with all the corruption...

My mum left the Czech Republic because she had to, they took away her passport and everything, forced her out because she was involved with the anti-Communist intelligentsia. She went to Vienna and then eventually Australia.... couldn't go home.

On the upside, if it hadn't been for the Communists she would have never met my dad, and I wouldn't be here today.

I like being my own President lol

And also we wouldn't have the film or novel Doctor Zhivago without the Communists. I still haven't finished the novel - I have it somewhere, had to stop reading for some reason, and never got back to it...these days I don't really have time for fiction...  but...

Absolutely adore the film.

I'll have to watch those "  Zeitgeist " documentaries again. ( Three of them now, the first was probably the most interesting )

A cashless society is just around the corner.  You can't stop it any more than you could stop the internet.  Even if they do not force it, you will gradually not use cash anymore, if for no other reason, than convenience.

My payroll "check" is deposited every Thursday by the company I work for. I never see it. If I want to, I log onto the internet, to a website that lists my check stub so I can see all the deductions from the gross pay.   .  

I go to a website to pay my phone, gas, electric, etc. bills.   I pay my homeowners and car insurance online. I still do have to go to the local courthouse to pay my property taxes, and, I do have to write out a personal check for that ( they still don't take credit cards for that )

I rarely, I mean rarely, ever use cash. I always use my credit card for purchases, even minor ones like buying a hamburger, coke, and fries.  
Heck, the fast food places are even starting to let you pay with your smart phone.

Like I said, in a word, " cashless ".  

Banks don't even keep much cash in them anymore.  If Jesse James and the Younger brothers gang, notorious outlaws for robbing banks and trains,  from the post Civil War era, ( 1865 - 1875 ), were alive today, and they went into a Missouri bank and told the bank manager to open the vault, they'd hardly get anything worth stealing.

I think one of those  Zeitgeist films hit on the subject of the " fractional reserve system " the banks here in the USA use, probably in most other countries, too.  If anyone watches it, listen very carefully to how that works. It will make you wonder why anyone would deposit cash into any bank that participates in that system.

IF there ever is an economic collapse, it won't be too difficult to get the citizens of even free countries to take an implanted chip.  

Say you become unemployed, and have to go to your government for assistance ( if your country has that )  

Example:  A young unmarried woman, with two small children, loses her job.  She is forced to go on government assistance.   She applies and finds out they have a new rule that to get any assistance, instead of using a " card ", you have to take a microchip, which will be implanted in your hand.  

Don't want it? Sorry, then. You cannot get any government assistance.  No Section 8 housing, utilities, no phone, no electric, no............FOOD!  There are no food stamps or food cards anymore, you HAVE to take the chip! IF you want to eat or feed your children!  No chip, no FOOD!

No matter how much you fight not getting it, you give in, and take it, and, your two small children, you all get the chips implanted.  You have to eat, you have to have a place to live.

You do it, not because you want to, you do it because you have to.