Example One: Heaven’s Gate (Nico)

Cult groups are prime examples of conspiracy theory as community, as members of a cult are joined together by a common belief in something otherwise considered taboo or outright ridiculous by the majority of society. Within a cult, the group members and their daily practices tend to reinforce what they believe to be true, with more members joining the cult as it grows in popularity. One such example is Heaven’s Gate.

In the American 1970s, Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles began recruiting members of their community in San Diego (though some recruits came from all over the country simply to join the cult). The central idea, the conspiracy theory at the core of Heaven’s Gate, was that “a UFO would descend to Earth and, in a technological reenactment of the dispensationalist belief in the rapture of the faithful, bodily save the select few true believers” (Metraux, 2022). As for those who left the cult, they were told that the rapture would claim them as well.

This conspiracy theory became so popular and prominent due to the rising number of alleged UFO sightings across the United States from the 70s all the way to the 90s. What separated Heaven’s Gate from a more modern conspiracy theory was the price members wound up paying. Devout followers of Applewhite and Nettles truly believed every word of their conspiracy theory, and as a result, followed every command that the conspiracy ordered of them.

The result? The largest mass suicide in the United States, as the members of the cult drank a poison together that supposedly saved them from a future rapture and allowed their souls to board the incoming UFO. In this infamous example of a conspiracy theory, stakes were high and people died for what their conspiracy theory deemed was necessary. In that sense, it is markedly different from the vast majority of other conspiracy theories.

References

Metraux, J. (2022, March 25). Behind the curtain of the heaven’s gate cult. JSTOR Daily. https://daily.jstor.org/behind-the-curtain-  of-the-heavens-gate-cult/

There’s been this conspiracy for a while about Disney and the production of their animated movie Frozen. This theory is kind of a conspiracy theory based off a conspiracy theory. The theory started from the theory that when Walt Disney died, his body was preserved and kept frozen, and people believed he thought one day modern medicine/ modern science will be able to revive him and bring him back to life. This is a process called cryonics; “the practice of preserving humans and animals at cryogenic temperatures in hope that future science can restore them to a healthy living condition as well as rejuvenate them.” (Best, 2008). Basically, the way the body is frozen and stored can preserve the body for future science to bring back to life. People, specifically big conspiracy theorists and big adult Disney fans, believe that Disney’s body is in a deep-freeze chamber somewhere directly under the Pirate of the Caribbean attraction. Many believe that Disney had no way of knowing about cryonics as he died in 1966, however there were books about immortality that were published at the time that talked about cryonics.

This entire conspiracy stems from a reporter who basically broke into the hospital that Walt Disney died at following his death. The reporter pretended to be a hospital staff member and was snooping around the hospital to find information when he ended up in a storage room that had Walt Disney’s body in a cryonic metal cylinder. While this was never really confirmed and Walt Disney’s body was reported as having been cremated, people still believe the reporter’s story.

This all relates to the movie Frozen because of its name. The main theory that bases off Disney’s body being frozen, is that the company created and produced a movie with the name “Frozen”, so that when you google “Walt Disney Frozen”, you get results only about the movie, and not about Disney’s body being frozen. The theory believes that they only created the movie for this purpose, not because they had a good movie idea, and the name was fitting for it.

References:

Best, B. (April 1, 2008). Scientific Justification of Cryonics Practice. National Library of Medicine. 11(2), 493-503. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4733321/#:~:text=Cryonics%20is%20the%20practice,death%20of%20the%20cryonics%20subject.

Markel, H. (December 17, 2018). How A Strange Rumor of Walt Disney’s Death Became Legend. PBS News Hour. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/how-a-strange-rumor-of-walt-disneys-death-became-legend

Mikkelson, D. (October 19, 1995). Was Walt Disney Frozen?. Snopes. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/suspended-animation/

Reid, L. (November 30, 2021). Rumor Has It: Disney Picked The Title ‘Frozen’ as a Distraction. The Daily Beacon. https://www.utdailybeacon.com/opinion/columns/rumor-has-it-disney-picked-the-title-frozen-as-a-distraction/article_101f141a-520d-11ec-a163-6f5943ceefbf.html

The New World Order

There are many different definitions of what a conspiracy theory is, but one simple way of viewing a conspiracy theory is seeing people that believe in secret plots or schemes and think that others are up to something sneaky or fishy behind the scenes. “In several places across the globe, societal division is on the rise and worldviews that center around an us-versus-them mentality are gaining traction” (Thielmann & Hilbig, 2023). This idea that a higher-power or government is in control of world events is where the term “New World Order” was brought to life. Conspiracy theorists believe that this New World Order runs the world and the conspiracy theories surrounding this organization often involve allegations of manipulation, secrecy, and the concentration of power.

Many conspiracy theorists use the New World Order conspiracy to explain COVID-19 as a man-made attempt to exert control of people, but this theory has existed long before COVID-19 was a thing.  “Anti-Masonic, anti-Illuminati and other theories that similarly posited the existence of an elite, “shadow” establishment date back to the 1800s” (Institute for Strategic Dialogue, 2024). This theory has been connected to extremists, militia movements, and antisemitism. Present day though, while there are still people who theorize the New World Order with the three tropes just mentioned, there is also the understanding that people do not trust the government and/or believe there is a higher power controlling the world.

The New World Order can be seen as a conspiracy theory that can explain other conspiracy theories. Conspiracists believe that the New World Order is being implemented through a mix of other conspiracies. One is that this higher power is, or already has, implemented chips in the minds of humans to control them. Another is that Jewish people, such as the Rothschild family, control global agendas.

These theories and the general belief of a New World Order can seem crazy to some at first glance, but when you understand where these theorists are coming from, it is understandable why they may believe in these things. [B.R]