Why is “conspiracy theory” such a bad thing? Especially since COVID-19 started, people throw the term around like it’s bad. Anything people don’t like or don’t agree with suddenly becomes a “conspiracy theory.” But is it? Crazy things happen. Haven’t we all read something that sounded so weird and crazy that if we had heard of the possibility of it happening we would have chalked it up to conspiracy theory? I have. I read a lot of true crime books, so I see what people are capable of doing.

I’ve been following the disappearance of a local young man for over a year. His car was found with the headlights still on, but he left everything behind, even his clothes, shoes, and watch. I belong to a couple of communities of people who toss around ideas of what could have happened to this young man. One guy posted that he didn’t want to hear anything about alien abductions or cults. I’m not entertaining the thought that aliens abducted him for a year and never brought him back, but in my head cults are not out of the realm of possibility.

Cults are a real thing. They do exist. They also use unscrupulous methods to attract – or force – new members into the cult. Another young man was kidnapped by some cult members about 50 miles from where this young man disappeared close to the same time, but he managed to escape. Why do some people think cult abductions are so far-fetched that they don’t even want to consider the possibility?

Some may think I’m too open-minded, but I like to consider all possibilities in any situation. I’ve seen some weird stuff. It seems like the majority of people can only consider simple explanations. I do realize that it usually is just the simple explanation, but sometimes it’s not. An hour before this young man disappeared, he was talking about spiritual enlightenment and a couple of extreme ways to reach it. Maybe he wasn’t kidnapped by a cult. Maybe he joined one of his own accord. Maybe he started his own cult. His father is the pastor of a church, so he has seen people invited into a religious organization before and all the effort that goes into keeping parishioners. Just a thought.

I’m going to put on my little tin foil hat and see what other ideas come to me.