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The Strangest Conspiracy Theories 67

The strangest conspiracy

theories: from Diana and

Elvis to Meghan Markle

The Week

People have long been puzzled why, in the face
overwhelming evidence to the contrary, a small
minority choose to believe in an alternative
truth.
Developmental psychologists from the
University of California, Berkeley, have found
that feedback, rather than hard evidence, boosts
people’s sense of certainty when learning new
things or trying to tell right from wrong.
According to the findings, published in
the journal Open Mind earlier this year, people’s
beliefs are more likely to be reinforced by the
positive or negative reactions they receive in
response to an opinion, task or interaction, than
by logic, reasoning and scientific data. George in jeans representing a grave digger. connection was, in fact, created by the KGB as
In practice, this means that “if you think Paul McCartney walks out of step with the rest part of a Cold War disinformation campaign to
you know a lot about something, even though of band and barefoot as, some had it, he would discredit the US.
you don’t, you’re less likely to be curious have no need of shoes in the afterlife. Dubbed Operation Infektion, the USSR
enough to explore the topic further, and will fail published letters from ”anonymous US official
to learn how little you know”, says the study’s Elvis is alive sources“ in scientific journals and newspapers
lead author Louis Marti. throughout the 1980s claiming that virus was a
“This cognitive dynamic can play out in Music legend Elvis Presley died on 16 August CIA experiment gone wrong. This initially
all walks of actual and virtual life, including 1977 - or did he? If the latest conspiracy theory remained within the medical community but as
social media and cable-news echo chambers, is to be believed, the King of Rock and Roll the epidemic grew, the theory took hold and
and may explain why some people are easily faked his own death and now works as a persists to this day.
duped by charlatans,” says Berkeley News. groundsman in Graceland. Despite this, most scientist and doctors
Here are some of the most intriguing and Grainy footage of a bearded man has agree that the virus jumped from monkeys to
bizarre conspiracy theories: been posted on YouTube by ”The Shadow“, who humans somewhere in the Congo during the
claims the figure is an 81-year-old Elvis. 1930s.
Paul McCartney is dead In the caption for the video, which has
been viewed nearly 700,000 times, The Shadow Chemtrails
One of the most unusual pop-culture conspiracy writes: ”He raises his 2 fingers to the top of his
theories concerns a member of the Fab Four. left head as a proof of life signal. In Chaldean Chemtrails, which have gripped the internet of
Beatles legend has it that Paul McCartney Numerology the numerical value of V sign in late, regularly feature high in any list of the top
secretly died in 1966, at the height of the band’s Numerology is: 9. Proof of life!!!....he told us he conspiracy theories.
fame, and that the other three members covered is alive with the simple V sign. Number 9 ,‘I’m Chemtrail conspiracy theorists “vary in
it up by hiring someone who looked and sang Alive’ He is giving us a clue that he knows we their claims”, says the BBC. But some of the
like him. are all there watching him and to his most loyal most popular include the belief that the white
Beatlemaniacs point to numerous clues fans that he is indeed with us.“ lines in the sky trailing planes are actually some
in the band’s later albums as proof of this. The While some say the claims are ”idiotic“ kind of chemical sprayed by the government to
Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album and Elvis should be left to ”rest in peace“, the control the weather; that scientists carrying out
is, they claim, awash with “Paul is dead” clues belief that the King is out there looks unlikely to research about how to counteract climate change
such as the lyrics to A Day in the Life, which fade away. through a process called geo-engineering are
featured the line “He blew his mind out in a car” secretly poisoning us; or even that secret
and the recorded phrase “Paul is dead, miss him, The CIA and Aids powerful groups are spraying us with chemicals
miss him,” which becomes evident only when to make us pliant and easy to control.
the song is played backward. Lennon also Ever since HIV/Aids was first identified in the Suzanne Maher, the founder of Bye Bye
mumbled, “I buried Paul” at the end of US in 1981, rumours have persisted as to its Blue Sky - a group established to raise
“Strawberry Fields Forever” although he later cause and origin. awareness of chemtrails – dismissed suggestions
denied there was any hidden meaning in the One of the most outlandish theories that they were a conspiracy theory. She claims the
lyrics and what he was actually saying was has nevertheless captured the imagination of trails from planes have only existed for 20 or 30
“cranberry sauce”. conspiracists is that the deadly virus was created years, a claim rubbished by the BBC, which says
Much is also made of The Beatles’ use by the CIA to wipe out homosexuals and African you can clearly see condensation trails left
of imagery after 1966. The original cover of Americans on the orders of US president behind aircraft in images from the Battle of
1966’s Yesterday and Today album featured the Richard Nixon. Britain during the Second World War.
Beatles posed amid raw meat and dismembered It boasts a number of high-profile So if they are not mind-controlling spray
doll parts - “symbolising McCartney’s supporters including former South African trails, what are they really? Cosmopolitan says
gruesome accident” says Time Magazine. The president Thabo Mbeki who once touted the they are just condensation trails, or ”contrails“,
magazine also claims that “if fans placed a theory, ”disputing scientific claims that the virus the result of what happens when the chemistry
mirror in front of the Sgt Pepper album cover, originated in Africa and accusing the US of burning jet fuel meets the chemistry of air.
the words Lonely Hearts on the drum logo could government of manufacturing the disease in Scientists from the University of
be read as ”1 ONE 1 X HE DIE 1 ONE 1.“ military labs“ says Times magazine. Meanwhile, California, Irvine, and the Carnegie Institute
Most famously, there is the Abbey Road a number of prominent scientists, including have even got together and researched the topic,
album cover in which John Lennon, dressed in former Nobel Peace Prize Kenyan ecologist in an effort to debunk the myth.
white, leads a ”funeral“ procession across the Wangari Maathai, have also backed the theory.
street. Ringo follows in black as a mourner with There is evidence that the CIA (Continued on Page 69)