Beyond Belief!

I have often thought just how much obsessive belief systems are no different from nearly any other form of addiction. I think, with the exception of smokers, there are many similarities. Take obsessive gambling, for instance, just to prove they are so similar.

Most people, myself included, like a little flutter now and then. Whether it is a quid on the lottery or a night at the bingo or, in my case, meeting up with my son on a Saturday morning for a breakfast followed by a small bet on the horses. All these little flutters are not only harmless but in some way enhance your life as ways of social interaction, and can give a little bit of hope.

Most belief systems for me are the same, whether it is one of the many gods or religions or if it’s the devout belief that aliens have landed and walk amongst us, if it brings people together, and as long as it helps enhance the life of the believer, and gives them a little bit of hope, then it can only be a good thing.

However we all know only to well that this is now always the case. There are people who can’t just have a flutter and leave it at that, they must take it to the next level. Their whole world is consumed with betting in any form, it’s not really about the money in the end, it’s about winning. And like all addicts they tend to surround themselves with people with a similar ideology so there’s no one to disagree with what they are doing. When you live your life in denial and refuse to listen to an opposing ideology, most end up losing everything; their homes, business, family. I know of gamblers who have previously been of good character who have ended up holding up post offices in their desperate need for money. And when total desperation sets in some even go as far as killing their loved ones just to claim insurances. This is not as uncommon as you may think.

Likewise with people with obsessive beliefs; like gamblers, they eat, sleep and breathe their belief system. They also surround themselves with like-minded people who re-enforce their own beliefs never questioning their validity. Once consumed with what ever their belief is, it is not long before they find themselves being isolated from the people who love and care about them. Often turning their back on loved ones who don’t share their beliefs. Lots of people with these obsessions give away all their wealth to unscrupulous people who prey on their vulnerability and in some extreme cases some poor gullible young person walks into a crowd of innocent people with a bomb strapped around their waist to inflict terrible damage to people going about their business. This also is not as uncommon as you might think.

Years ago both afflictions had their limits, as betting shops shut at 5 pm and only stayed open six days a week. Likewise with beliefs, people were limited to others with the same beliefs and tended to stay in and around their own communities where people knew them and usually ignored them. But things are now different.

You can gamble twenty four hours a day online, on your phone, casinos, and betting shops open all hours.

And if you have an obsessive belief you have access to millions with one click of the mouse, on the internet.

It is the internet that has a massive effect on both obsessions. The internet has to go down as one of the greatest inventions in history and has in no small way changed the way the world lives and communicates, just ask the post office!
It was originally designed for scientists to send information to each other, and still has the power to inform and entertain billions of people. But like with all good things it has quickly become the domain of the mad and the bad.

The problem is that most people turn their computers on and their brains off! If you look down the right hand side of this screen you can see some of the books that I have written. Most of them are children’s books which required no need for me to do any research. However I now write books for adults, plays, and films and these do require a certain amount of research; I too tend to reach for the internet as my first port of call, but then I cross -heck the information I glean with other sources. I once set about writing a story about a transgender woman and because I didn‘t know anyone who was transgender I turned to the internet, big mistake. I now seem to be an expert on transsexual porn! (I hope this excuse holds up in court!)

So we now let into our lives people we don’t know, and have no way of checking who they are, but most people don’t seem to mind.

Some are obvious nut-jobs who prey on the young, old and vulnerable, these sleazebags have no morals or they too are living hand to mouth in some third world country because others have no morals.

So now if you want to be cured of cancer with crystals or grow a huge penis the internet has the answer (the penis one doesn’t work… a friend told me!)

I’m going on about all this because today I have just bumped into a friend who, although he is a good close friend, I haven’t seen him for a while, because I tend to travel visiting schools and theatres etc all over the UK and abroad.

My friend who we shall call Dave (not his real name, his real name is David) was reminding me about the last time we all met up for a few drinks.

It’s often said that people surround themselves with like-minded people; I didn’t read this fact until it was too late. All my close friends have on the face of it nothing in common at all with me, this can and often does lead to, shall we say, lively debates when we meet up. The only thing I can say that we all have in common is that we are all non-conformists (I’m probably the most conformist of the group). They tend not to care what others think about them but they are all very intelligent and have taught me lots about life and myself over the many years that I have known them all. Some might say that a few of them are quite odd but I love them even more for their strange quirks.

This particular evening four of us had got together for a long over due catch up and drinks. There was Dave, Mick (not his real name, his real name is Michael!) Boris (unfortunately that is his real name!) and myself.

The night had got off to a good start with each one of us taking the Mickey out of each other as usual. Dave has a way of dispensing information without you not being able to work out if it’s true or not. He always has a thoughtful look on his face and starts the conversation with, “You know I once read somewhere…” This is usually followed by a choice piece of bullshit.

The beer and wine flowed and the night was going well until Mick started to go on about his brush with an alien space ship (I told you they were odd) we all gave a sigh and pretended to listen as usual. Then as if from nowhere a man appeared. Not in the ‘Ta da!’ way of the stage magician, he sort of just sauntered over and stood next to us.

“I’m sorry to but in but I just heard you going on about seeing a spaceship? Do you believe that man has landed on the moon? I don‘t!” You see nutters attract nutters!

We all eyed him with distrust; he was seconds away from being told to ‘go forth and multiply’ by my good self when Dave looked at this young man, who looked quite normal, and said,

“You’re right the moon landings were just a load of bollocks!”

This took the rest of our group back a little. I have known Dave for over thirty years and he has never expressed this belief before. In fact Dave who happens to be a good ten years older than the rest of our group had always had a very keen interest in space travel.

The young man who was tall and thin and probably in his mid-thirties and I would hazard a guess there wasn’t a “Mrs no moon landings” at home waiting for him. His face beamed with a huge grin at the fact he thought he had just met another conspiracy theorist.

“So why don’t you think they’ve landed on the moon then?” asked a slightly wary young nutter.

“I worked on the project”

“What you worked on the moon project?”

“Sort of we helped to make the cloth for the space suits”

“Oh my god, I’ve waited years to meet someone like you! The suits wouldn’t have taken the pressure, would they? I’ve heard this before!”

“Look, buy myself and my friends here a drink and I’ll tell you what I know.” With that he gave the rest of our group a look that said, ‘FREE DRINKS!’

The young man came back with our drinks and sat with us. We found out his name was Adam, (don’t know if it’s his real name?) Boris kept on shouting, “Space ship for Adam!” every time he came back from having a smoke.

Dave explained to a now drunk group what he knew.

“You see I used to work at a factory in Barnsley that made shirts. We were asked to design a material that looked space age.” The lying bastard, he’s been a bricklayer since leaving school.

“Well the material that we used was the stuff you make cross your heart bras from!”

Adam gasped, “So they couldn’t have gone into space with those suits, they would have all died?”

“Exactly, not only that but when our foreman, Keith pointed this out, he was told to keep his mouth shut. Six months later, Keith was coming home after a night of drinking and he took a corner at sixty miles an hour and crashed his car and was killed!”

“So you think they got rid of him for speaking out?” (They?)

“Well it is strange that he should crash on that corner; he was only doing sixty and he’d only had ten pints!” We all laughed at this point. To any normal person, they would now realise that they were, to put it mildly, ‘having their leg pulled’, but not Adam.

“I need to get this info out there, do you have an e-mail address I can reach you on?”

“No I have to lay low, you understand?”

Adam agreed and gave the lying bastard known as Dave his phone number, telling him if he needed a safe house to phone him. With that he left. We thought that was the end of it. How wrong we were.

Today, when I bumped into Dave, he told me how Adam had tracked him down and turned up at his home. Dave came clean and told him that he had been just messing with him but Adam said he realised that Dave had to cover himself in case (they) found him.

Conspiracy theorists always have a ‘They’. No-one knows who ‘They’ are. It is always hinted that it is some sinister part of the government who regularly hunt down people who have seen aliens and kill them.

Adam also posted messages on the internet about how he had proof about the moon landings. He also wrote letters to NASA and the US government giving Dave as his proof that the landings were all just a con!

Like all people with obsessive belief systems, he chose to ignore the over whelming proof “against” and clutch at the dodgy evidence “for”.

Adam even turned up to the building site where Dave was working. It seems that the only reason that Dave knew about the shirt factory in Barnsley was that it had been pulled down to make way for a new school to be built. Dave was actually working on the building. Adam had somehow got past security and bumped into Dave on the site. In Adam’s mind, the fact the factory had been pulled down proved a cover-up and the fact he found Dave working on it enforced the belief that Dave too was looking for answers! Dave warned him that things had gone to far, but all Adam said was, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to blow your cover mate”.

It ended up with Adam turning up with a group of other mad men at a bar where Dave was having a meal and a drink with his wife and her friend and husband. This for Dave was the final straw; he took Adam outside and explained to him that if he ever saw him again he would not be so nice. When Dave explains something like this to you its fair to say it sticks in your mind, as he is a six foot seven inch tall former heavyweight boxer, and has a tactile way of showing his disapproval. He’s not one to mess around with, unless you fancy having reconstructive surgery.

You could say that Dave brought this on himself and he deserved what he got. And to be honest it would be hard to argue against that. But it’s amazing how blind people can be in their pursuit of a belief. Just one little bit of information can be enough to give some people all the hope they need. So let this be a warning: be careful who you choose to wind up.

Now I must be going, I have to send an email to a Nigerian businessman who I’ve spoken to online. He’s having a few problems at the moment and I’m sending him some money over to help tide him over, between me and you this could be quite lucrative for me…