I quite like watching scary videos on YouTube. Whether that be outrageous conspiracy plots, aliens from other planets, or my personal favorite demons from hell. I can’t quite pin-point my fascination with such material and no I do not actually believe in any of it but I do feel there are very real lessons to be learned from exploring such material.
For example, when it comes to conspiracy theory, I do not take that term lightly. I adhere to the strict definition of the word so in my world view, yes, conspiracies are indeed very real. The theories however are often so outlandish they cannot be believed. Then again some of the best lies on the planet are those told by using grains of truth. My personal feeling on the matter is to take everything you hear and question the hell out of it until you’re positive you know what you’re talking about. Until then, it’s best to remain stoic and open-minded.
Aliens from other planets to me as a topic unto itself is a little more complicated of a matter because personally I believe it’s possible there are other life forms in the universe, perhaps intelligent, perhaps not. The material we often see on the internet though is usually accompanied by grainy photos, videos, and questionable eye-witness accounts that the listener can choose to believe or not. My biggest concern is that if there is a hyper evolved alien species visiting the planet why have they not made themselves known? That to me is the smoking gun that proves that this has yet to happen and an argument can be made that it never will. At least not until humanity has evolved to a specific point where we are actually equipped with the knowledge it requires to deal with such matters. Imagine being an ant among giants. It would be impossible to relate to them.
And finally, Demons. Oh yes, creatures from the lowest pits of the Devil’s own playground. I’m referring to the demonic possession videos, caught on tape videos, and eye-witness accounts of these creatures. What fascinates me most about this phenomena is just how believable some of these videos can be. More often than not they are deeply edited and are indeed creative endeavors but often times I see one that leaves me stunted even though I tell myself it can’t possibly be real. Of course I recover to a more reasonable state and realize that it’s just a YouTube video and there is no reason to believe in such a fantastic thing. Yet, when I walk down a dark hall, go out to my car at night, or wake up in the middle of the night after a night mare I can’t help but feel there isn’t something having an effect on me. I realize that it’s my mind trying to work things out and failing as it recoils in horror into an introspective mind terror. Perhaps this is what fascinates me and gets my blood flowing. The idea that there is probably much more than meets the human eye in reality. That I am not equipped to understand all and everything really puts me in my place and I find it bizarre that it’s the fictional realm that makes me an even more objective person.
The one things that ties all of these topics together is the human mind. That which we do not understand is often the most terrifying and eye-opening. It’s easy to roll your eyes when you hear a rant on a massive conspiracy to take over the planet, alien abduction stories, or demonic possession tales but you have to face one cold hard fact about these topics, you do not have to believe them for them to be true. That does not mean you have to accept them to be true but it does mean you all on your own cannot prove these things do not exist. Of course, this is not proof that they do either. It’s a perplexing question is it not? Atheist like myself, like to point out that Unicorns don’t exist but we cannot prove they don’t exist as a way to show theist that they cannot simply say, “You can’t prove God doesn’t exist.” I agree with that sentiment but sometimes I cannot help but have an open mind and ponder on that statement.
I really can’t prove a mythical being doesn’t exist which makes my mind race at times. How can this be? How is it that no matter how hard we try we cannot truly prove Santa isn’t real? Of course we can realize that mythical beings come from stories we learn as children and that religions are based on these and other mythologies. But why is it that when someone believes something so strongly it is impossible to show them undeniable proof that their belief is wrong? Is it because they are just too stubborn? Well yes, that is true about belief, but that’s not really my point.
That last sentence wasn’t to suggest that they are indeed real. Think of it as more of an invitation to explore what on earth is possible in the realm of this reality. If you are fully skeptical of such tales, believe me, I understand but what reason other than complete lunacy do others who claim such tales to be true have to believe in them? Money? Fame? Infamy? Or is it something else entirely?
You cannot deny that people sometimes make a lot of money and make friends who have a lot of money who get together and make plans to make even more money, start wars, gain political power via conspiracy. You also cannot deny the possibility of life on other planets in our vast and expansive universe. The chances of this planet being the only among a near infinity of other planets being the only to harbor life are so infinitesimal that I believe it is safe to assume that some where out there is another species of intelligent life forms.
Now we approach the most unbelievable and unlikely of these three topics. Demons from hell. Why, in the information age with ever evolving and expanding technological advances are we still hearing these stories? Why on earth am I still haunted by the possibility of a creature from the ether of our multi-dimensional reality having some kind of physical manifestation here on our little blue planet? Even though I can fully admit that I do not believe in it, knowing full well there is no actual definitive proof to suggest there are such creatures, and enjoying the creature comforts of modern society I still wake up in a fever pitch of sweat and worry having seen visions of a vicious creature from what to me would be hell. I know why.
We now have the capacity to fully explore these haunting tales and get a true look into the depths of our psychology. It’s not that there are just a small minority of people exploring this material in their own ways. It’s droves and droves of us and this is my message to all of you out there who share this fascination.
That feeling of terror that our ancestors would feel in the depths of whatever wilderness they survived in when a predator would snatch up one of their primitive tribe members and fleeing from the scene and go into hiding. The terror of hearing such a creature hunting them and not understanding even a single solitary thing about that predator. The adrenaline rush from such an encounter would have been traumatizing if not down right debilitating back then when there were no truly safe refuges from the wild. However, to us modern folk it is reduced to the level of entertainment, thrill seeking, ghost hunting, and creepy pastas.
We all seek our own agency in life and when we go through periods of drought in that respect we look to external sources for inspiration. We see someone else’s success and often feel a sense of jealousy so instead of facing our own life and fixing our own problems we create a scenario in our mind that everyone is out to get us. Granted, I do believe conspiracies do happen and should be explored in a literal sense, there is a difference between pulling things out of our collective butts and actually investigating a situation and seeking the truth.
I feel nearly the same can be said for alien life from outer space. The biggest difference is that while difficult to prove, human beings definitely conspire to in order to gain power in the world and there is historical precedence to prove such actions taking place in the world. To deny it is to me an embarrassment. In the case of extraterrestrials though, there is nothing anyone can point to that truly suggest there are indeed aliens here on Earth, though I still maintain that there is enough room in the universe and reason to believe there are other intelligent life forms somewhere beyond the stars.
The reasons we look to the stars and wonder nearly mirror those reasons we believe there’s a shadowy elite trying to rule the planet. We want to believe in something more powerful than us in order to explain away our own short comings. Also, there is so much about reality that we are left in the dark about and our own mind will create elaborate and often terrifying constructs in order to teach us. Often we are left still blinded to reality simply because we are to afraid to peak through our fingers at what truly is in favor of the comfort and familiarity of modern civilization.
I am not suggesting you flat-out believe in anything I talked about in this article. On the contrary, I am demanding you do much more than that. I am suggesting to you to have a good time scaring the crap out of yourself. Keep and open mind and respect others no matter how outlandish their theories are. Even if you know they are completely mad do not judge them for if there is even an iota of misunderstanding in your own mind you are in at least in small part like them as well. It’s a matter of degree and severity and not at all a matter of us vs them.
Stay frosty folks. Thanks for the read!
Ampersand Quest 