My Facebook feed is getting wackier every day.

It was the epidemic that has prompted me to start this thread, but the topic is not limited to this context.

Today I saw this post shared by a friend and liked by other friends:



What can we, scientifically-minded, critical-thinking people do to help the cause?

Clearly this stuff can be harmful; for example, if someone says it's not a virus but 5G and it's in the air anyway, that implies there is no need to wash your hands.
Something needs to be done about this strange phenomenon of the age of information freedom.

Who is producing this kind of stuff, what is their intention? What kind of thought process is it that makes adults believe it and share it?

Admittedly most of my friends use psychedelics. Is there a connection? Are psychedelics bad for critical thinking in some individuals?

So much research is going on about the virus, so many bright scientists doing amazing work. I feel posts like the one quoted are insulting to the human intellect. To the tremendous effort to try to save lives. To the centuries of mankind's quest for knowledge, of trying to understanding things, of education and spreading awareness.

I think the association between psychedelics and loonies comes from the fact that loonies tend to be the ones readily willing to break the law to trip on drugs. Not a heavy user myself, but I have not felt any reduction in my ability for logic—if anything, it's been augmented.

That post you quoted is so insane I feel it has to be ironic. If not, well... just let natural selection do its thing, I suppose. It's not worth the energy of being angry over; there's nothing anyone can do to educate such a person. It has to come from the inside.

Let it be There is a reason people are not gifted in certain areas, just as there is a reason you and I are not gifted in certain areas (I am no Beethoven myself.) You have a certain level of understandind and a person has theirs. To even think of changing their views breeds stress, is not fruitful. This is for a good reason; one should see in the short comings of another one's own short comings (all is one, all is but a miroir.) Thus the shortcomings of another become a lesson for one. Now one has turned the tables; the person with shortcomings is the teacher, and the judge becomes pupil. The gift of humility arises and in that purity the thought arises 'this is fruitful, this is efficient, this does not breed stress.'

I think what you often see is, that when society in a way rejects people (like for instance users of psychedelics), or when they FEEL they are being rejected, they in turn start to reject society.

And that is essentially what conspiracy theories do: they enforce distrust, they enforce or reinforce psychological rejection.
And in doing that, they seek to undermine society.

Most conspiracy theories, though not all, are therefore malicious. Malicious in their intent, wich is to destroy society, and in the psychological effect they actually have on people.

There are a lot of things wrong with society. But you have the choice to either accept that you are a part of society, that you are connected with the people in it, and that you therefore have a duty to try to make it better, or to deny all of that, and wallow in selfpity. The second choice is by far the essiest. But it is also a dead-end street. It offers no solutions, it freezes the situation that is bad.

Conspiracy theories are mental virusses that will guide you towards making that second choice and keep you locked in that situation.

I think most people, somewhere deep down, KNOW that they are bullshit. It just feels so good to wallow in that negative energy.

Social media play a very negative role in the spreading of conspiracy theories.
This is because they grab people's attention. If you say the earth is flat, you will get more attention than if you say it isn't. And social media want your attention.

You probably, like me, don't want to quit all social media, because then you would also miss out on the quality content. But you have to be aware of this dark side of them.

We are probably still in the process of learning to deal with the social media. I think it is likely that many of them will lose credibility over time. People will at some point realise that it is quantity over quality on most of these platforms, and that most of the content there is simply junk.

Try being a positive and strong person. Most people are eventually drawn more towards the light, than to the dark.

woaw! the coincidence, I've just received a video saying something like this, and I was like "hmmm wtf", and then boum, your message.

Conspiracies are another kind of virus. I feel your despair. It is hard to deal with this kind of thing. I could talk to you for hours about it, it's my "job", I'm a philosophy teacher – kids have their mind made up, and it's incredibly hard to make them see things differently no matter how clear and right you are.

But that's also what the spice taught me: it doesn't matter how right you are. What matters is the love. And by that, I do not mean that we shouldn't try to convince people who believe that they are wrong, but that we should do it with love and compassion because 1) it makes us more patient ; 2) it asks less energy of us (it can get VERY frustrating) and mostly 3° because it's the only way to convince someone! People are convinced by ones who love them. Because they feel the benevolent look, they start to feel at ease and they start to trust. Then they are ready to welcome a new thought.
If they don't feel the love, it doesn't matter that you show them that 2+2=4 and not 5, they will hold on to their previous beliefs.

It is absolutely disgusting, btw, that facebook is actively pushing these false beliefs onto people. Wich i think is what they are doing. They are not merely a platform. They are pushing sensationalist nonsense onto people, because it generates more clicks than "boring" facts.

They are filterbubbling people into believing paranoid bullshit, and with that they are knowingly helping this virus to spread. While at the same time, mark zuckerberg is traveling the world to convince everybody that facebook wants to "take responsibility".

Youtube is equally disgusting in recommending people to watch utter bullshit. They are literally recommending me to watch david icke "tell the truth" about corona. While i have never ever, in my whole life, done anything that would somehow suggest i am even a tiny bit interested in what someone who literally lies for a living, has to say on the coronavirus.

No words can describe how sad this is. Lying on an industrial scale has become a billiondollar industry. It is just too sad.

It's extremely upsetting. Social media is a virus in and of itself, and I really think when you weigh out all the checks and balances, it's a hugely destructive force; to discourse, to Democracy, to attention spans, you name it...

Unfortunately, I will also say that yes, I believe users of psychedelics to be for the most part severely lacking in critical thinking - although I don't necessarily believe that psychedelics themselves cause this to occur. Rather, I think that a large percentage of psychedelics users are marginalized to begin with, and they use these experiences as confirmation bias for their ludicrous belief systems.

These experiences are so abstract that you can read almost anything into them. If you are predisposed to believe in faeries (or all manner of esoteric nonsense), what tool could be better than DMT (and psychedelics in general) to confirm your deepest suspicions? If your world view runs toward paranoia, xenophobia and conspiracy, AND you're already a marginalized outsider whose voice the world doesn't much respect to begin with, what better tool to convince yourself that these boogie men were there all along?

Maybe some friends are to be lost and that's ok... Maybe friends can be regained if it's meant to be..

Maybe also you need to pick your battles and not waste energy in certain discussions on social media and similar. But at times it can be also good to call people out on their BS.

Each person has their own communication style, not sure there is a right way for all. I've personally found that it works best to try and be tactful, start by finding some kind of common ground and then suggesting some kind of improvement to what's being said, linking to good trustable sources. Wording it as a constructive criticism has potential to make people change or at least question things a bit more. If one mocks, ridicules or talks in an overly aggressive/combative way, I've found it tends to just further polarize and people don't seem to want to change.

I am (was) active on FB for the main purpose of staying connected with groups connected to the psychedelic community and to engage with people local to me who are interested in mostly nature oriented hobbies. I try my best to steer away from and avoid getting involved with any political content, however to some extent it is unavoidable. I have been staying away completely since the outbreak began because frankly I don not want to even hear the BS.


Yes, but if a friend spreads a deadly pathogen out of ignorance or misguided belief, it is not OK.

Very true and that is why I am actively disengaging from SM. { (NOT S&M to be clear )
However I will still engage conversation when I can do so effectively, and non-aggressively assert facts from a position of reason and critical thinking.


You have some great comments all over the board, speaking from an experienced level of spiritual awareness, but this is not one of them. I am sorry Fran, but, Uh, no.
Yes, there are some very big exo- and esoteric lessons being forced upon us right now, but in the words of the immortal Glenn Danzig- " This ain't no Love-In"


It has proven to be a poison rotting out our culture ans society from within, using the very members of that society to do so. I think this is going to be very different world when we come out of this, and we will see what does and doesn't work. If I had something to pray to, I'd be begging that the same arrogant stupidity that got us here doesn't lead us as a whole into a whole new kind of State, but rather that intelligence, compassion and reason will lead the people to a new day and a whole new kind of power.


Holy crap, it must be the apocalypse if I'm defending these egregious corporate ###ksticks that would just as soon livestream my agonizing death by fire for a dollar to wipe their ass with, but isn't it their customers who are doing this?

It's like the heroin/meth "problem" in the US. They don't make it if you don't buy it. I'm sorry, people suck.
Ha ha ha, good one, right? I've been alive too long to believe it.

Wash your everloving hands, stay home and if you go out, for Santa's sake don't be an idiot. I #@*&ing every last one of you people and need every last one of you here when we get through this.

Yesterday a friend forced me to watch David icke , my friend said he would never speak to me if I did not watch it , so I had to watch that crap

Where David icke not only downplayed the seriousness of this situation but went on to say that global warming is a hoax

what nonsense

David Icke is also a holocaust denier and purveyor of disgusting anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. That's who your friend is promoting.

word. 100% agree

As far as conspiracy theories go, when given the choice between conspiracy and incompetence, always choose the latter.

Speak your mind calm to your friend(s), not pushing. It's not the same as dumping them. If they dump you for it then it's their call. Perhaps they are not ready now to accept what you say but maybe later they do, maybe you'll never see the fruits of the seeds you planted but you've sowed. Maybe your seed will come out 15 years later, then that's okay too.
If they expect you to be on their frequency as a condition for friendship then I think the friendship would strand later on over other stuff. My 2 cents.

Thanks guys for your input.

I can be tactful, kind and understanding, but only where there is hope. Once it exceeds a certain threshold, it's probably a losing battle and not worth my time. I wouldn't know where to start and I don't want to drop seeds on infertile ground.

This phenomenon is on the rise, perhaps due to the self-isolation and people being bored and spending more time on social media.

I guess what I can do now is add filters to my FB Purity and unfollow the worst offenders, because while I'm immune to the CT/fake news virus, I don't want to be in a constant inflammation state.

I suggest to stop wanting to see results, all you can do is initiate a process that might take time.

Maybe they say to others: Well that Jagube dude told us we're wrong as hell, and maybe this other person you never met starts a process of change, all outside of your scope.

a friend who says "do that or I would never speak to you again" ... if they're not 13yo, it's a red flag imho

He who is without sin cast the first stone.

There's plenty of people on this forum and in the wider psychedelic community who believe all sorts of things as equally as wacky as conspiracy theories, and of course neither side has the humility to admit they may be snowing themselves.

No point in wasting energy trying to reason with these people, because it's a state of mind and not an intellectual position that can be negotiated with. Either don't pay attention to it, remove them, or just say this is ridiculous.. or all all three.

its so funny how we become absorbed with such worldly things. It never ceases to amaze me how we fool ourselves enough to convince ourselves its good to waste our mental energy on things that mean nothing, that dont threaten our well being, that we build up as threats (to our ego) in our mind and at the end it becomes our deluded self righteousness which most hurts us, in time, effort, life. So perfect is Karma, the equalizer, that we shall hurt ourselves until we learn the lesson.

The lesson is; if someone is mean why should I put that meaness near to my heart? If someone is stupid, why should I put the stupidity near to my intellect? You bring these things near and you defile yourself. Let nothing change the fact of your purity, your friendliness. No storm can tumble the well rooted tree. Be well rooted in Peace. Live peacefully. Only have nice thoughts for everyone or have no thought at all. See suffering to the end of the way, leave stress behind, focus on the one and only eternal Purusha, purity, spaciousness, silence. All answers are found there! Not in changing peoples views. (Everything in its rightful context.) Its good to laugh. To remember that we have all been that person. I declare that I have been the stupidest person in the world at times. Sometimes in the shower I remember something I said in 9th grade and cringe HARD! But that is not me. Neither is anyone a self. It is all conditioned. Its empty. Everyone is just yourself, the one and only. Dont see the world as him, her, them, it. Just like when you awaken from a dream you know that this is the real life, awaken from the sleep of Differentiation and see the world all as one, as it is. In this manner, we deal differently with the matter at hand. How would you talk to yourself? Should you talk to youself? What is the perfect hint, the perfect message to drop to your deluded self, that is both kind and enlightening? Sometimes its also kind to let yourself be. Sometimes yourself could use a loving talk. Yes, thats sweet isnt it? hahahaha. its nice, its warm and cozy, invincible. its all about love. Its an amazing body of knowledge ! ^_^ its so beautiful, its so marvelous...all animals fear hunger and crave food, fear rejection and crave acceptance, fear danger and crave safety, fear pain and crave happiness...confusion makes us not understand our true needs and thus we lose the way. Following this basic premise, its easy to see how one should approach the issue. Everything should be for the well being of the other.

Definitely but I've got only 2 or 3 friends left I had to drive the rest away otherwise i would be dead by now , friends have got me into all sorts of troubles over the years and I had to push everyone away to have some peace ,