The Dangerous Bridge Between Paranormal And Conspiracy

Alright, this article may be contentious so right off the bat, I want to put a disclaimer here. The contents of this are not meant to be antagonizing. I’m simply trying to address what I feel can be problematic when it comes to the horror and paranormal spectrum. With that said,  paranormal is a weird word because it implies something existing outside of nature. The problem with this is if something exists it is by default part of nature.

Therefore, things such as ghosts, aliens, fae even angels, deities, and the afterlife would all be part of the natural world. That is if concrete evidence of these things existed.  I consider myself a casual true paranormal fan. I’m not neck-deep in it, but I do follow some channels on TikTok and YouTube that are. For the former, it’s users that post clip compilations of people’s supernatural experiences. 

This varies. It could be someone hearing a noise in their house or seeing a moving shape. However, when they check it out there’s nothing there which is a repeating theme for a lot of those videos. Others involve people going into the woods and seeing signs of fae, but to be fair, only two fae videos have popped up on my feed so far. Imagine if Arthur Conan Doyle were still alive. He’d be all over this.

Anyway, skinwalkers and wendigos are popular when it comes to the paranormal in the great outdoors. This can either be someone hearing a noise they claim is one of the two or even being chased by them. Addressing the latter, for me, it’s listening to people’s stories. These usually come from different subreddits, r/Paranormal, r/GlitchInTheMatrix, and ones such as those. Otherwise, they’ll be viewer-submitted. 

Between the two platforms, I tend to find TikTok more entertaining because that’s visual.  While I am a big fan of listening to stories, for this particular subject matter, the enjoyment gets lessened when I feel like I have to go into them with the set bias that everything I’m hearing in them is factual. I’m not saying this is true of everyone who reads or listens to this sort of stuff.

It’s entertainment for a lot of people. Hell, that’s why I watch it on TikTok. I understand it’s performative and nothing more. The problem is that there are people who either seem unable or unwilling to grasp this. What tends to indicate this are the comment sections of these videos.  Now, I get that plenty of them are just playing along.

 It’s similar to the NoSleep subreddit. People don’t want to break the immersion. With it, though, there are clear-cut (mostly) rules explaining that it’s a place of fiction that keeps everything in character. That’s not the case for these channels. Not to mention, by the very nature of social media, it’s difficult to tell when someone is genuinely serious.  I know what some of you may be thinking at this point.

“Rosé, how is this a problem? It’s not like people believe this stuff is hurting anybody.”

To that, I say, you are correct, hypothetical person or people. I don’t think there’s harm in believing in these things so long as that’s the extent of it. Do you hear that? A shoe dropped. Yeah, the main concern I have is that for some reason this stuff tends to overlap with objectively harmful conspiracies.

Take the pyramids, an amazing architectural achievement of ancient Egyptian culture, right? Not according to some because there are people out there who believe that either aliens instructed humans in how to build them or just built them instead.  They also insist there’s no way those societies would have had the means to tackle such a project with what was available.

This is despite it being demonstrated numerous times how people back then would have been able to build such structures. This is why I take issue.

Some people get so caught up in this subject matter, they flat-out deny reality. For the record, I do believe in the far reaches of the universe some kind of sentient life exists. I just don’t believe any have been to Earth. I mean, I know the government confirmed UFOs, but that doesn’t automatically mean something extraterrestrial.  These same people can also never come up with a good explanation as to why aliens would do this.

Why would life forms way far ahead of us technologically bother with a less intelligent species even now, let alone in ancient times? Not to mention, what exactly was the plan? 

“Alright, we’re going to help these human  apes build some giant blocky triangles and then we’re going to leave.”

The answer to this may be that they wanted to help advance human evolution. If that were the case, why not let humans back then use their tech?  Some might say it was because people couldn’t handle it. Again, this is dubious. If they can handle seeing literal aliens and spaceships, it seems ludicrous that at least some people back then wouldn’t have been able to comprehend it. 

There is an archeologist online named Milo Rossi aka Miniminuteman on TikTok and YouTube. What he does is debunk a lot of these conspiracy videos since they are so prevalent. I’m going to paraphrase a quote from him as to why he feels the need to tear these kinds of things down.

“When you chalk up all human achievement to aliens you lessen progress as a result.”

I agree. It also reminds me of something I think Neil deGrasse Tyson said regarding belief in God.  Again, paraphrasing here.  That was he doesn’t care if people believe in something like that. It’s when they accept that answer at face value and don’t wonder about the process of how things came about that bothers him. 

Speaking of God, that brings me to another category, religion. Now, I know someone having religious beliefs doesn’t automatically mean they buy into the things this article is about. In fact, I’m sure some nonreligious people do. Unfortunately, it’s just a fact that hyper-religious types are more likely to fall into these rabbit holes.  I don’t mean just aliens either.

I’m talking about things akin to ghosts or demonic spirits. In extreme cases, a family may think a member is legit possessed when what’s causing their ailment is something mental or physical. This is assuming, the whole thing isn’t a ruse for attention. Instead of using modern medicine, they turn to prayer. That’s something kids have died from because their parents thought calling upon the power of God would negate their child’s need for insulin. 

Spoiler, it didn’t work.  I’m going to break the civility rule I set for this article. Fuck you if you’re a parent who does this or if you think parents should have a right to do this. The former needs to rot in prison and the latter should seriously consider getting their head examined.  Imagine being so far gone you believe a gay person is possessed. 

I wish I could say this is a sad relic of the past caused by limited scientific knowledge. The fact there are people in modern times who think this proves me wrong. Can you see why I’m writing this yet?  An unintended consequence of the subject of the paranormal is that it eggs on people with dangerous views, ones like thinking everyone around you is secretly humanoid lizards or that Hitler is still alive.

Also, even if he did somehow escape, it’s unlikely he would still be alive at 135. The record for the longest lifespan so far is 122 years and yet this misconception persists.  What causes this in the first place? Is it a lack of education or mental illness? I think it’s both. 

So, how do we combat this then in paranormal spaces? I think the best we can do is try to weed out people in these communities who aren’t well. Things like Bigfoot and ghosts are fine, but when that crosses into secret societies controlling the world or certain races or the Earth being flat, that needs to be ejected. I also get why people want these things to be true. It’s because I do as well.

Life is somehow equal parts chaotic and boring. This adds a layer of fantasy and mystery to it. The thing is, I would find it much more satisfying to have concrete proof than to delude myself. This is coming from someone who’s had experiences or seen things that can be considered paranormal. Growing up, when it was late at night and I was all alone in my room with the lights out, I would hear a tapping on my window.

Keep in mind, my bedroom was on the upper floor. No trees were near my window either which means it couldn’t have been a branch. To this day, I couldn’t tell you what was causing it. Just these past few years, I’ve witnessed strange things on my walks. Once, late at night, I thought I saw a pair of shadow stick legs sticking out from behind a handicap sign.

I go to check it out and of course, nothing is there. Several times I’ve seen what I’ll call fairies. They were little flying things that vanished midair in orbs of light. I’ve even witnessed strange things looking up at the night sky. The first was a spec by the Moon. 

I assumed it was a star initially. Then the more I stared, it dawned on me it appeared too close to it to be something like that. My most plausible theory is some kind of rock or a satellite. Another time, I glanced up to see a column of five or six objects flying across the night sky. Were these planes or maybe stars? 

While I can’t concretely say, I lean more toward the latter. Was I amazed or freaked out by these things at the time? Who wouldn’t be? Right after those moments, however, I remember that even when firing on all cylinders, the mind is a fallible thing. It’s why eyewitness testimony isn’t reliable in figuring out crimes without something else backing it.

To conclude, I don’t think there’s an issue with superstition as long as it’s not detrimental to progress. If the ones you have are not, more power to you. Aside from that one part, I hope I got everything across in a civil way. Let me know your thoughts as well. The last thing I’ll say is I think the more we try to convince ourselves these things are already real, the less chance there is that they or something similar will one day become a reality.