ANY HELP APPRECIATED - Conspiracy Theories I spent some time this last week with a person who believes in everything from government chemtrails of nuclear waste, mind control through vaccines, to no planes being involved in the 9-11 attacks. This person no longer believes in the devil, but are convinced that Illuminati control the New World Order through systematic ebola outbreaks, food preservatives, and the carbon used in receipt paper. This is someone that I care about deeply, and Ive lost a lot of sleep over the last few days, researching what is really at the heart of the matter... QUESTION: What would you do? How can I help? Where is the fine line between being a harmless conspiracy theorist and delusional mental illness? How do you help someone who is convinced that they have some sort of gift or secret knowledge and think everyone else is just a brainwashed drones? I asked my friend many simple follow-up questions about their theories (Who, what where, why, etc...) and never got a SINGLE answer. No attempt at response, actually - the details arent important, just that they KNOW what is he truth... Obviously, this parallels much of my work with Christians as well, but this is somehow more insidious to me because it is all based around looking for conspiracies in real life events, not interpretations of ancient books. Are there ways to help break the cycle of conspiracies with someone like this? If it were a family member, Id be encouraging counseling (psych evaluations), but - I dont really have any leverage to help make that happen and their family is at a loss as well. Long story short, I love my friend very much and want to help but feel quite powerless... Afraid, really... Any ideas? Im open... - Horus G.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 21:47:12 +0000