It Was a Dark and Gloomy Night in Michigan...

between conspiracy theories and mysteries is blurred.

Conspiracy theories usually start with an event or mystery.

It’s cold. The days are short. It’s dark and it’s gloomy. Winter in Michigan is a good time to learn new things, read, practice pickleball moves, and keep the mind occupied.

Here›s one way I›ve kept my gray matter busy this winter. I›m captivated by some, not all, conspiracy theories. The world is full of mysteries and indeed there is more going on behind the scenes than in front of the curtain. I searched «conspiracy theories» in dictionaries and here is a consolidation of how they define them: Conspiracy: Usually involves more than one person and involves planning, most often for nefarious or mysterious purposes. Theories: Thoughtful suppositions about something unknown. Mysteries: Something that is hard to find the answer to or hard to understand. The line

A few of the many conspiracy theories and their mysteries that I found are: Big Foot (Sasquatch/Yeti), the Voynich Manuscript, Roswell UFO incident, the Lincoln Assassination, the September 11, 2001 attack, and Area 51.* These and others make for interesting reading on a cold dark night. There›s seems to be an endless list of them!

Looking at conspiracy theories as a negative is unfortunate. In my very long life on this planet, I›ve come to believe that in many conspiracy theories and mysteries there is usually a kernel of truth at their beginning. Just like a child›s game of broken telephone, the original event can be buried deeply or so badly distorted that the current theory may not look at all like what caused it in the first place. Solving a conspiracy theory or mystery, requires thinking outside the box, and sometimes way outside the box. Here are a few «conspiracy theory» questions that might pique your interest to delve in further: 1. Have we been visited by aliens or UFOs, and where are they from? 2. What really is the Big Foot/Sasquatch/Yeti that reliable people keep seeing? 3. What is the Voynich Manuscript, dubbed the world’s most mysterious manuscript, really about? 4. Was there a cabal of participants involved in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln? And was Mary Jenkins Surratt, who knew Booth, an innocent bystander or just in the wrong place at the wrong time? 5. Where is D. B. Cooper? Personally, after reading the book in the photo, I really think Cooper was from Michigan. 6. Was the moon landing a hoax? 7. Who may have been conspirators and shooters who assassinated President Kennedy?

As you begin reading about conspiracy theories, some of them will make you laugh. For example, one of them suggests that the US government controls the weather and has manipulated the temperature to create natural disasters. (!) However some conspiracy theories are deadly serious. I›ve only dug deeply into two, the Voynich Manuscript and the assassination of JFK. But there›s enough information out there about these theories to keep us interested for a very long time.

So, take a ride on the information highway and do a basic search. Maybe you or I will find the kernel of truth at the heart of one of the many conspiracy theories. Or maybe we can find clues to help solve some of the world›s great mysteries. It could happen!

«...Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tried merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.» ~ Einstein

Ann Murray is an award-winning commercial illustrator and author. Her latest story is in the anthology “Extinction Notice: Tales from a Warming Earth.” A copy of this book was recently presented to Mr. Csaba Kőrösi, President of the United Nations General Assembly, a leader in the climate crisis field.