My boyfriend thought it would be funny to get me to watch a show called Ancient Aliens. I told him I should never watch conspiracy shows, but he insisted it was just really funny. Well, now I haven’t been able to sleep at night for three days. Unlike, my boyfriend, I totally believe aliens could have visited Earth, so instead of mocking it with him, I was thinking, “Hey, this is really neat stuff!” I was really enjoying seeing all the evidence fit together, (and laughing at the parts that seemed a bit too out there even for me). I think it’s totally conceivable that aliens could have helped us get to where we are as a society.
But then, they talked about how in the time of the plague, there were reports of figures in black cloaks with scythe-shaped objects that emitted a mist, and this happened right before people got sick. Apparently this is where the image of the grim reaper comes from. So suddenly, it goes from, “Hey, look at how these aliens have helped us advance as a society!” to, “HOLY EFF! They are committing acts of terrorism!” Now I can’t get it out of my head. Has anyone else watched this show or heard of this theory? I need help to stop dwelling on it. Maybe help debunking it.
Omg I get so caught up in conspiracy theories that it annoys my mother. My latest was “crisis actors”, I still to this day believe something corrupt transpired.
Anyway yeah Ancient aliens are totally conceivable, I believe in them too. Sorry I can’t debunk it for you.
The most popular theory right now is we as a species have been in contact with a nonhuman element for a long time now, but the explanation is that it is of spiritual origin and not necessarily something from another planet.
It really doesn’t make a difference to me where they come from. They could even be us from the future, going back in time and changing things. Mass murder is still mass murder, and it freaks me out. I know there is a clearly documented case of actual humans doing this to other actual humans with small pox, so I don’t know why this particular theory has stuck in my head so much.
I think my voices are just a result of my brain trying to cope with traumatic experiences in my life. When I’m unmedicated, I hear my family members getting tortured. When I’m medicated, I hear unknown voices singing about the things I’m doing. It really seems more psychological than spiritual in my case. I can’t speak for everyone here, because I absolutely do believe spiritual beings/aliens/whatever exist, and I’m sure for some people they might be in tune with something more. But for me, it seems like a pretty clear case of abused brain trying to cope with the resulting malformations.
It really is. Sometimes I sing along and everyone just looks at me like I’m crazy, which, of course, I am. The only really annoying part is when I’m trying to sleep and they start singing about raising my head and not slipping away. And then my phone alarm goes off, for hours, even though I am looking at my phone and I can clearly see that the alarm isn’t actually going off.
I’m glad to have put a smile on your face… but it might actually hold!
This is a heavily debated topic in philosophy and many people think real possibility requires more than mere conceivability. In fact I went to a lecture yesterday of a philosopher who argues this. One step in the argument is that in conceiving of something, we do not and can not see all the consequences of that particular view. We have fallible minds, it is for this reason that for instance mathematics is not a completely finished field of research. Some statements of mathematics are unknown to be true or false, while it is conceivable that either holds. Yet the nature of mathematics is such that once something is proven to be either true or false, it is necessarily so and thus impossible to be otherwise. This shows there is at least in this field a gap between possibility and conceivability. This gives a foothold to think it might apply in other cases as well. Bottomline is that conceivability is limited and fallible, while possibility is not. For something to be possible, all its consequences have to line up, whereas for something to be conceivable, we do not and cannot oversee all its consequences such that even when not all the consequencse line up, we might fail to see that and conceive of the thing anyway.
As for the aliens, maybe a strategy can be to think of the ‘price’ you have to pay for thinking that as a possibility. It really is a big thing to distrust all the excellenct minds who have established again and again the common picture of our history. All these people, many of which are very bright, have devoted their lives to study our history. All their work needs to be revised for this conception to be possible. They all have to be wrong! Just because you have been able to (partially!) imagine an alternative story. A healthy dose of humility and faith in others is at its place here
Yes, that did help a lot. I am prone to suggestibility, and when I am presented with one viewpoint, I have a tendency to be taken in, at least until I can step back and think about it rationally. That also helps me with something I’ve never liked about the multiverse theory. Supposedly there are an infinite number of universes in which every conceivable thing has happened. Other universes might have different laws of physics than our own. But that seems weird to me. Our laws of physics just make so much sense, and if every universe is born from the black hole of another universe, it would seem to follow that the new universe would also have the same laws of physics, because the matter that started it came from a universe with those laws. So even with an infinite number of universes, only possible things can happen. There isn’t, for example, a universe where everything is made out of candy and shoelaces. Just because I can think it up doesn’t necessarily mean the math supports the possibility. I’m sure scientists thought this was the kind of thing that just goes without saying. Thank you for introducing this distinction into my life! A lot of things make way more sense now. I guess it should have been one of those obvious things, but for some reason I needed it explained to me.
Keep in mind that these reports of ancient alien sightings come from an era where people literally believed in everything said in religious texts, even the really silly parts. These people believed that the entire earth was flooded, even though there is not nearly enough water on the planet for such an event to have ever occurred. They believed that the alignment of the stars effected events on earth and that the sun revolved around the earth. It’s silly superstition that should be taken as a grain of salt.
And even if it was true, what could you do about it? Absolutely nothing, so worrying about it does no good, it just makes you miserable.
Take this reminder of your own mortality to remember how short life is and love your friends and family. One day they’ll die and you’ll be filled with regret if you don’t spend your time that you have with them to the fullest. As they die and their life flashes before their eyes, do you want to be remembered as a person who gave them great joy? Or a person that gave them great misery?
Gosh, you guys just…get me! When I babbled to all my neurotrophic all friends about this, they just kind of chuckled and shrugged. Ah, that CJ! With her delusions and her crazy voices! I have never had anyone take me seriously before, other than a few sympathetic nods and awkward silences. Thank you guys so much!
