What Lies Below: Part 45
Exploring the Depths of the Conspiracy Iceberg
We’re into the 9th Tier, folks! That means we’re close to the halfway point of the Iceberg. More noteworthy: we’re probably at or past the halfway point for actual items. For some reason, the last six or seven tiers of this thing get very sparse.
Oh and I’m sorry about the drawing of you, Mister Murray. I tried.
ENCHANTED WEBSITES — I’m guessing this is just the old idea that some websites have some sort of magic infused into them. This was a way bigger thing back when there were more than 5 websites, of course. It was fairly common to come across a page with inscrutable creepy images and nothing else, or one that worked like a Ouija board, or ones that allegedly placed curses or blessings on their viewers. A lot of times it was just someone goofing around or part of a game, but the idea stuck. Late 90’s/Early 00’s Internet had a lot of branches of fledgling occultists, and some got really into the idea of blending magic with tech. There were some pretty sizable sub-communities of pagans who got really into cyber-magic. Offhand, I don’t know of any still functional today and haven’t heard anyone talk about this stuff in a long time. Which is a shame. The Internet isn’t fun anymore.
WEBDRIVER TORSO CODES — A few years ago people discovered this weird YouTube account posting very simple image-based videos that would be accompanied by beeps and noises. Here and there, a video of jokes would also appear. No one could figure it out, and the initial response was to dig into it like it was an ARG(Alternate Reality Game). Eventually, Google said it was an internal testing apparatus and that was that.
That didn’t completely explain everything, though. There’s a lot of weird images and references and things in the videos, and people still think there may be hidden codes in there(others dismiss it as the YouTube staff just goofing with one another). There is a similar phenomenon on Reddit, with weird subreddits popping up filled with seemingly nonsensical posts.
DAY THE EARTH SCREAMED — This feels like it should be some weird historic event, but I know of no such thing and can’t find anything. The closest thing I’m aware of that matches this wording is when a guy recorded the seismographical data from 9/11 and enhanced the vibrations into something we can hear. I don’t think that’s what this item is talking about, though.
FLAT ONTOLOGY — Ontology, roughly, is the division of things into categories. It looks at things in the world and classifies them to figure out how they work together. Flat ontology says that everything is just what it is, equal in all ways. A video game character you have a crush on is as real as the person at school you have a crush on, as is the crush. If you imagine a rainbow, that rainbow is real. And so on.
DEEP SEA LAB TECHS — This is pretty vague. There have been deep sea habitats called SEALABS(yes like the cartoon), with the first two being unremarkable but the third ending in some controversy. There were technical issues, someone died, and someone attempted to sabotage the decompression process of the survivors as they were being recovered. The lab got scrapped and project abruptly ended, leading to some conjecture about what happened and why. Honestly, there isn’t much to be found. But the deep sea definitely harbors a lot of very weird things that will absolutely mess us up.
THE 66 BOOKS OF THE BIBLE(BINDING NUMBERS) — I think this has to do with the differences between the Catholic and Protestant version of the bible? Christians love quibbling over this stuff and there’s a LOT of conspiracy banter regarding the Bible, what is in, what is out, what was censored, and so on. Anyway, the Catholic version has 73 Books as opposed to the 66 in the Protestant version. All of these differences are found in the Old Testament.
As for what this means, you’ll hear all kinds of things. Numerology, Bible Code, all sorts of various conspiracies about Church leaders hiding or making up or altering things, etc. Most Christian sects are hemorrhaging followers these days and I suggest they start leaning into all the weird conspiracies they have built into their roots. Spice things up a little.
‘GROUNDHOG DAY’ WAS INVENTED FOR THE MOVIE — This is a “Theory” suggesting that the holiday, Groundhog Day, did not exist until it was generated as a marketing stunt for the film of the same named released in 1993. This isn’t really a thing. No one is saying this. It’s not one of those “only a handful believe it but have put tons of work into it” things, either. It’s more like the “Denmark doesn’t exist” memes that people will jokingly repeat and even act as if they really believe as some sort of online bit. Sorry! They can’t all be true!
TORSION FIELDS — This is a very complicated mash-up of metaphysics, normal physics, and pseudoscience. It has to do with the way things spin at a quantum level allowing, supposedly, for transmission at faster than light speeds. Now and then “torsion field generators” are claimed to be invented that can do everything from time travel to cure disease. In one way or another, torsion fields can be used to explain most supernatural phenomenon and also cases of human abilities like ESP. It is rooted in genuine science to some extent, but far from proven or accepted.
BETHNAL GREEN SCREAMS — Finally, some good old fashioned haunted stuff! Bethnal Green is a subway station in London that was used as a shelter during World War 2. One day, sirens went off warning of a strike(that never wound up happening), and the resulting panic caused a stampede in which 173 people wound up dead(and hundreds more injured). You can guess the rest: ever since, people have reported hearing ghostly screams and crying down there.
L’ENFANT — I have to guess that this refers to Charles L’Enfant, the city designer for Washington D.C. If you’re not aware, there are “alleged” Masonic symbols hidden in the layout of the city — which dovetails nicely with a lot of founding fathers being tied to the Masons. There’s debate over whether or not L’Enfant himself was a Mason, though. Some people think the design was just a sort of cutesy nudge-nudge wink-wink thing or a self congratulatory move, others think it was meant to turn the whole city into some sort of occult temple/symbol to whatever scary named deity or demon you want to attach(Moloch is popular these days).
‘RATIONAL GRAVITY’ — This refers to something I’ve seen talked about, but never actually seen given this term before. I can only find it discussed as “rational gravity” in a single blog post talking about an author who would be giving a seminar about it.
Anyway, the term has to do with we as individuals and a society retreating from the irrational and bizarre to normalize events and make them more comfortable. UFOs, cryptids, supernatural phenomenon, hauntings, etc are all jarring and create a reflex in many to pull back toward the mundane and understood. So there is a sort of non-physical ‘gravity’ at work that keeps our collective mindset anchored to the norm.
BOHR THEORY DREAM ORIGINS — Niels Bohr, a physicist considered the father of quantum mechanics, has stated that his realization about the nature of the atom came from a dream. It’s up to you if you want to believe it was just his subconscious working out things he already knew, divine inspiration, alien or mystical communication, or even a time-traveling message. I bet you can guess what a lot of theorists think.
DNA FORMED IN BIG BANG — Just what it sounds like. Not widely accepted by scientists, but a theory that DNA has been here from the start along with everything else — and that bits have been drifting around in space forever. Ties in with the Panspermia ideas of life origins, I suppose.
That’s it! Tier 9 is not a firecracker to start, to be honest, but we’ve got a long way to go!