Conspiracy theories, while not unique to the Middle East, are a salient feature of the political discourses of the region. Strongly reflecting and impacting on state-society relations and indigenous impressions of the world beyond the region, they affect how political behaviour within and among the states of the region is situated, structured, and controlled.

Discounting the common pathological explanation for conspiracism, the author argues that a complex mix of political factors account for most conspiracy theories in the contemporary Arab world. The author argues that the region's modern history, genuine conspiracies, the complex and oftentimes strained relationship between state and society, the role of the state and the mass media as conspiracy theorists, and the impacts of new technologies have all helped to develop and sustain conspiracist narratives. Drawing on a range of examples and cases, including the impacts of globalization, economic reform, weak state legitimacy, the war in Iraq, the Arab-Israeli issue, the rise of political Islamism, and internet and satellite television, the book illuminates the complex sources of conspiracy theories.

Providing a comprehensive overview of this controversial topic, this book will appeal not only to students and scholars interested in Middle East studies, political science, globalization and conspiracy theories, but to anyone seeking an understanding of the region's complex economic, social, and cultural dynamics.

The vast majority of us unknowingly suffer from a slave mentality. We constantly experience the psychological phenomena of cognitive dissonance, where our beliefs and behaviour are in conflict, and Stockholm syndrome - the traumatic bonding with a captor. Our ability to decode reality is linked to what we are able to perceive. Icke believes our reality has been hijacked by an invisible force the Gnostics used to call Archons. He maintains that we are headed towards a cashless world and human settlements which are projected as local community initiatives but are actually centralized systems of control. Our health is being systematically weakened: if you are sick, you are easier to control. Ickes dystopian view of the future assumes that the masses will stay glued to their TVs, locked forever into the hive mind of the Matrix, which says "I have no power." Can humanity break free? Through truth and love we can become who and what we really are.

Why do people accept ideas that are contradicted by science or logic? In Implausible Beliefs, Allan Mazur offers a comparative look at the nature of irrational belief systems, their social roots, and their cultural and political impact. He begins by providing standards for judging beliefs implausible and assessing the impact of such belief systems onpolitics and social policy in the US. Mazur describes and defends commonsense criteria for establishing that certain views should not be sustained in the face of present-day understanding. He presents a statistical portrait of implausible beliefs rampant in the US, and who tends to accept them.

Mazur applies criteria for implausibility to the Bible, astrology, and visitation to Earth of intelligent beings from other worlds. Pointing out that everyone "knows" the Bible but few actually read it, the author scrolls through the first five books of the text, noting points that undermine the scripture's natural history and moral guidance. Working on the assumption that implausible religious views are fundamentally no different from implausible secular views, he critiques secular beliefs in astrology and UFOs. Mazur concludes the volume with an attempt to explain why most people accept implausibility--some more than others--despite evidence and logic that refute them.

Looking to mainstream sociology and psychology, Mazur shows how children are socialized into such beliefs, and how adults are influenced by spouses and friends. Personality is also a factor, sometimes abetted by stressful or lonely life situations. Lucidly written, this is a provocative and informative contribution to social psychology, sociology, religion, political science, and American studies.

Mary Celeste is an iconic mystery - a perfectly seaworthy ship found wandering aimlessly at sea, her crew strangely and inexplicably missing. Paul Begg tells the story of the discovery of Mary Celeste and the people who vanished, and investigates over a century's worth of speculation and survivors' tales, searching for the facts behind one of the world's great mysteries.

Drawing on his own extraordinary Life Readings, Cayce sheds light on the legendary Lost Continent of Atlantis and predicts its reemergence. Within the context of reincarnation, he offers astonishing evidence of an Atlantean civilization, providing us with empowering insights as we enter the new age, as well as startling revelations that can help you resolve current problems and redirect your future.

EDGAR CAYCE ON ATLANTIS was interpreted by Edgar Evans Cayce and edited by Hugh Lynn Cayce, both Mr. Cayce's sons. Hugh Lynn Cayce also served as director of the Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.), a nonprofit organization dedicated to the practical employment of his father's findings.

Unvaxxed is a nuanced, timely look at vaccine hesitancy and how uncertainty and misinformation have influenced the Australian experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. Written by award-winning science journalist Dyani Lewis, this is the second book in The Crikey Read series by Crikey and Hardie Grant Books. Anti-vax protests, the 'scamdemic', disproven home remedies: how did we get here? The realities of lockdowns and the erosion of trust in government and authority have fed into a small but significant history of anti-vaxxing in Australia that has found unlikely bedfellows in the QAnon conspiracy cult, white supremacy movements and the wellness community. The genie is out of the bottle - what do we do now? Do vaccine mandates work, or do they simply hasten the erosion of trust and the spread of different kinds of 'truth' on the subject of vaccines? And what is the actual first-hand human fallout from vaccine refusal for families split over the issue? Interweaving personal experience and first-hand narratives from those on the frontlines alongside smart, perceptive and compassionate commentary on the scientific and sociocultural effects of vaccine misinformation, Unvaxxed plots a sorely needed way forward for Australia in 2022. From Crikey and Hardie Grant Books, The Crikey Read is a series that brings an unflinching and truly independent eye to the issues of the day in Australia and the world.

We are healthier, longer lived, better fed, watered, educated and entertained than any generation in history. But we are not happier. We enjoy access to a virtual world of information at our fingertips, yet we are increasingly ignorant of the real world we live in. Given the countless products and lifestyles we have to choose from, why do most of us live out virtually identical lives? Everything Now - where we can have whatever we want, whenever we want it - has infiltrated almost every area of our lives. The constant drive to invent products we don't actually need is not only an unsustainable waste of dwindling natural resources, but also demands that we are kept in a permanent state of dissatisfaction. In this book, Steve McKevitt reveals how the Everything Now culture is preventing us from addressing the biggest issues of our time and how having less really can make us happier.

Storytelling is both an art form and a means of passing on significant elements of a culture--the history, the traditions, the humor, the pathos. It is a way of entertaining and being entertained. With this compilation of Texas--and Texanized--favorite myths and legends, award-winning tale teller Donna Ingham applies her own unmistakable voice to traverse her home state through such stories as:>"The Coming of the Bluebonnet"--an oft-collected Commanche myth about love and sacrifice and the origin of the Texas state flower>"The Story Behind the Story"--about two early cattlemen and the basis for an episode in Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove">"The Life and Times of Pecos Bill"--a selection of tales about this legendary folk hero>"Diamond Bill"--about an east Texas rattlesnake who fought in the Civil War>"Cupid Was a Mama's Boy"--a Texanized classic Greek myth >And much more!

America's favorite cultural historian and author of Ghostland takes a "thought-provoking and delicoiusly unsettling" (Publisher's Weekly) tour of the country's most persistent "unexplained" phenomena In a world where rational, scientific explanations are more available than ever, belief in the unprovable and irrational--in fringe--is on the rise: from Atlantis to aliens, from Flat Earth to the Loch Ness monster, the list goes on. It seems the more our maps of the known world get filled in, the more we crave mysterious locations full of strange creatures. Enter Colin Dickey, Cultural Historian and Tour Guide of the Weird. With the same curiosity and insight that made Ghostland a hit with readers and critics, Colin looks at what all fringe beliefs have in common, explaining that today's Illuminati is yesterday's Flat Earth: the attempt to find meaning in a world stripped of wonder. Dickey visits the wacky sites of America's wildest fringe beliefs--from the famed Mount Shasta where the ancient race (or extra-terrestrials, or possibly both, depending on who you ask) called Lemurians are said to roam, to the museum containing the last remaining "evidence" of the great Kentucky Meat Shower--investigating how these theories come about, why they take hold, and why as Americans we keep inventing and re-inventing them decade after decade. The Unidentified is Colin Dickey at his best: curious, wry, brilliant in his analysis, yet eminently readable.

The Inventive Peasant Arnaud du Tilh had almost persuaded the learned judges at the Parlement of Toulouse, when on a summer's day in 1560 a man swaggered into the court on a wooden leg, denounced Arnaud, and reestablished his claim to the identity, property, and wife of Martin Guerre. The astonishing case captured the imagination of the Continent. Told and retold over the centuries, the story of Martin Guerre became a legend, still remembered in the Pyrenean village where the impostor was executed more than 400 years ago.

Now a noted historian, who served as consultant for a new French film on Martin Guerre, has searched archives and lawbooks to add new dimensions to a tale already abundant in mysteries: we are led to ponder how a common man could become an impostor in the sixteenth century, why Bertrande de Rols, an honorable peasant woman, would accept such a man as her husband, and why lawyers, poets, and men of letters like Montaigne became so fascinated with the episode.

Natalie Zemon Davis reconstructs the lives of ordinary people, in a sparkling way that reveals the hidden attachments and sensibilities of nonliterate sixteenth-century villagers. Here we see men and women trying to fashion their identities within a world of traditional ideas about property and family and of changing ideas about religion. We learn what happens when common people get involved in the workings of the criminal courts in the "ancien regime," and how judges struggle to decide who a man was in the days before fingerprints and photographs. We sense the secret affinity between the eloquent men of law and the honey-tongued village impostor, a rare identification across class lines.

Deftlywritten to please both the general public and specialists, "The Return of Martin Guerre" will interest those who want to know more about ordinary families and especially women of the past, and about the creation of literary legends. It is also a remarkable psychological narrative about where self-fashioning stops and lying begins.

Ohio has seen countless true crimes committed, but the cases presented here are uniquely fascinating as they have left ghosts behind in their wake. Join paranormal author and radio host Kat Klockow on an exploration of ten haunted crime scenes across Ohio. With interviews of paranormal investigators and property owners, discover the tumultuous history of the Ohio State Reformatory, where hundreds of men died and have come back so that visitors can have a brush with the paranormal, too! Ghost hunt at the Old Licking County Jail where over twenty people died by suicide, mob killing, or by setting themselves on fire-their ghosts now roam the halls at night. Visit Ryan's Tavern where spirits of bootleggers still dart through rum-running tunnels that were closed decades ago. These ghosts and more have survived, living on in Ohio's ghostly crime tales.

Were the famous moon landings simulated by NASA? From the very first manned flight into orbit right up to the present day there have been serious anomalies in the official narrative of the conquest of space. Bestselling author Gerhard Wisnewski dissects the history of space travel in minute detail, beginning with the first Russian missions in the early 1960s, to the final American moon project of Apollo 17 in 1972, and onwards to the American landings planned in future. Using forensic methods of investigation, he pieces together a complex jigsaw to reveal a disturbing picture of lies, falsifications and simulations. Not only does he cast serious doubt on the possibility of humans ever having landed on the moon, but he also reveals a catalogue of untruths and propaganda in the Cold War struggle for supremacy between the Soviet Union and the USA.Wisnewski produces reams of scientific evidence that calls for a reassessment of the received wisdom regarding the history of space exploration. The true story, he suggests, has a more sinister undertone. Beneath the guise of civilian space travel the US military has been developing fearsome new equipment and weapons which are being secretly stationed in space. The aim is to militarize the orbit around the earth, with our planet and each one of us as the potential targets. It is provided with over 200 illustrations.

Delving into the complex and intertwined world of the CIA, Lee Harvey Oswald, and the assassination of President John F Kennedy, this book takes on the angle of those who knew and associated with Kennedy's alleged assassin. Profiling George de Mohrenschildt, a petroleum geologist based in Dallas and Haiti, this examination explores the relationship between Oswald, the CIA, and de Mohrenschildt. This book also investigates the CIA's involvement in the Haitian government during the 1960s, and seeks to connect each entity to each other in the jigsaw puzzle that is the Kennedy assassination.

Conspiracy theories seem to be proliferating today. Long relegated to a niche existence, conspiracy theories are now pervasive, and older conspiracy theories have been joined by a constant stream of new ones - that the USA carried out the 9/11 attacks itself, that the Ukrainian crisis was orchestrated by NATO, that we are being secretly controlled by a New World Order that keep us docile via chemtrails and vaccinations. Not to mention the moon landing that never happened. But what are conspiracy theories and why do people believe them? Have they always existed or are they something new, a feature of our modern world? In this book Michael Butter provides a clear and comprehensive introduction to the nature and development of conspiracy theories. Contrary to popular belief, he shows that conspiracy theories are less popular and influential today than they were in the past. Up to the 1950s, the Western world regarded conspiracy theories as a legitimate form of knowledge and it was therefore normal to believe in them. It was only after the Second World War that this knowledge was delegitimized, causing conspiracy theories to be banished from public discourse and relegated to subcultures. The recent renaissance of conspiracy theories is linked to internet which gives them wider exposure and contributes to the fragmentation of the public sphere. Conspiracy theories are still stigmatized today in many sections of mainstream culture but are being accepted once again as legitimate knowledge in others. It is the clash between these domains and their different conceptions of truth that is fuelling the current debate over conspiracy theories.

After in-depth research of the circumstances of that fateful night, investigative writer and former journalist Noel Botham finally reveals what he alleges to be the truth - Princess Diana fell victim to a ruthlessly executed assassination. Twenty years later, the tragedy still shapes Britain as we know it today. How could the Establishment betray the trust of a whole nation? How was the killing executed? Was there really another car in the tunnel at the time of the crash? Reporting from the innermost sanctums of British intelligence and royalty, Botham reveals shocking answers to what he claims is one of the UK's most successfully kept secrets. As Botham affirms, The Murder of Princess Diana firmly lays to rest the outdated theory that Diana's death was a mere accident, and finally gives the people of Britain the explanation they deserve.

-- Over 2,100 shipwrecks from the 16th century to the present; the most comprehensive listing now available
-- Arranged primarily by geographical section of the state. Within sections, wrecks are arranged chronologically
-- Extensive and heavily illustrated appendices offer a wealth of information on topics of interest to divers and researchers

Who believes in conspiracy theories, and why are some people more susceptible to them than others? What are the consequences of such beliefs? Has a conspiracy theory ever turned out to be true? The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories debunks the myth that conspiracy theories are a modern phenomenon, exploring their broad social contexts, from politics to the workplace. The book explains why some people are more susceptible to these beliefs than others and how they are produced by recognizable and predictable psychological processes. Featuring examples such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks and climate change, The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories shows us that while such beliefs are not always irrational and are not a pathological trait, they can be harmful to individuals and society.

The Men in Black were elevated to superstar status in 1997 in the hit movie of the same name. Although the Hollywood blockbuster was fiction, the real Men in Black have consistently attempted to silence the witnesses of UFO and paranormal phenomena since the 1950s.
In "The Real Men in Black," author Nick Redfern delves deep into the mysterious world of these mysterious operatives. He reveals their origins and discusses classic cases, previously unknown reports, secret government files, and the many theories that have been presented to explain the mystery.
Highlights of "The Real Men in Black" include:

-The story of Albert Bender, the first man to claim an encounter with the Men in Black

-The involvement of the MIB in the Mothman saga that dominated the town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia in the 1960s

-Encounters with the MIB at the site of one of the world's most famous monsters: Loch Ness

-Exclusive interviews with leading researchers of the MIB phenomenon

This book examines a wide array of phenomena that arguably constitute the most noxious, extreme, terrifying, murderous, secretive, authoritarian, and/or anti-democratic aspects of national and international politics. Scholars should not ignore these "dark sides" of politics, however unpleasant they may be, since they influence the world in a multitude of harmful ways. The first volume in this two-volume collection focuses on the history of underground neo-fascist networks in the post-World War II era; neo-fascist paramilitary and terrorist groups operating in Europe and Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s; and the manipulation of those and other terrorist organizations by the security forces of various states, both authoritarian and democratic. A range of global case studies are included, all of which focus on the lesser known activities of certain secular extremist milieus. This collection should prove to be essential reading for students and researchers interested in understanding seemingly arcane but nonetheless important dimensions of recent historical and contemporary politics.