{"id":342440,"date":"2025-08-13T23:56:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T23:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/342440\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T23:56:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T23:56:14","slug":"womans-quantum-immortality-theory-is-blowing-peoples-minds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/342440\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman&#8217;s &#8216;quantum immortality&#8217; theory is blowing people&#8217;s minds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Several years ago, you wouldn&#8217;t have known what <a data-linked-post=\"2647088485\" href=\"https:\/\/www.upworthy.com\/trevor-noah-sheds-light-on-qanon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">QAnon<\/a> was unless you spent a lot of time reading through comments on <a data-linked-post=\"2658960797\" href=\"https:\/\/www.upworthy.com\/twitter-isn-t-a-real-place\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a> or frequented internet chat rooms. Now, with prominent Q adherents making headlines for storming the <a data-linked-post=\"2649876278\" href=\"https:\/\/www.upworthy.com\/capitol-riot-hero-eugene-goodman\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U.S. Capitol<\/a> and elements of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upworthy.com\/qanon-cult-deprogramming\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">the QAnon worldview<\/a> spilling into mainstream politics, the conspiracy theory\/doomsday cult has become a household topic of conversation.<\/p>\n<p>Many of us have watched helplessly as friends and family members fall down the<a data-linked-post=\"2649543742\" href=\"https:\/\/www.upworthy.com\/vaccine-skeptics-are-my-people\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> rabbit hole<\/a>, spewing strange ideas about Democrats and celebrities being pedophiles who torture children while Donald Trump leads a behind-the-scenes roundup of these evil Deep State actors. Perfectly intelligent people can be susceptible to conspiracy theories, no matter how insane, which makes it all the more frustrating.<\/p>\n<p>A person who was a true believer in QAnon mythology (which you can read more about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upworthy.com\/qanon-cult-deprogramming\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>) recently participated in an &#8220;Ask Me Anything&#8221; thread on Reddit, and what they shared about their experiences was eye-opening. The writer&#8217;s Reddit handle is &#8220;diceblue,&#8221; but for simplicity&#8217;s sake we&#8217;ll call them &#8220;DB.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"cee53\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"ac3df2d99d8aef1b221cbb128a8f6120\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20711%20439'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755129372_738_img.png\" width=\"711\" height=\"439\" alt=\"qanon, qanon rally, conspiracy theorists, qanon couple, qanon rally, q, \"\/> A couple at a QAnon rally.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/kenfagerdotcom\/51246452990\/in\/photolist-2mXc2Ug-2m5tt5j-2m5rXAF-2m5rX1Y-2mktyqB-2mkCqR8-2mktyqr-2k6tVdr-2qrYk8d-2qs5s11-2gYFVaM-2qrYk7B-2nUiTFM-2gYFUWf-2qs5rZe-2kQ95UT-2m3cHGk-DYbPNS-2kUPE8S-2o8B3Xw-2kujXNA-2kWwJRW-2kqDV2P-2gYFe3X-2kpVF1c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">via Ken Fager\/Flickr <\/a><\/p>\n<p>DB explained that they weren&#8217;t new to conspiracy theories when QAnon came on the scene. &#8220;I had been DEEP into conspiracy for about 8 years,&#8221; they wrote. &#8220;Had very recently been down the ufo paranormal rabbit hole so when Q really took off midterm for trump I &#8216;did my research&#8217; and fell right into it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>DB says they were a true believer until a couple of years ago, when they had an experience that snapped them out of it:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was a couple of posts made by Q on the chans that seemed highly suspicious because of how ignorant they were of technology. Q posts often had weird syntax as a kind of code<\/p>\n<ul class=\"ee-ul\">\n<li>\n<ul class=\"ee-ul\">\n<li>Kind Of [writing like this] as if there was [a secret] in using brackets To Tell The Truth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>One morning Q claimed to have shut down 7 FBI super computers (named after the seven dwarves no less) via satellite hacking and all the rabid fans ate it up, claiming that their internet was running a little bit faster)<\/p>\n<p>Alarm bells went off in my head because, come on, that&#8217;s not how any of this works. Using elementary school syntax form To SpeLl a [[Secret Code ]] felt fishy, and claiming your email in rural Montana loaded faster because seven super computers got shut down by remote hacking was a bridge too far for me. I realized that most of the Q believers I had seen were Boomers with no idea how technology works or people my age with no idea how computers operate. That day, I Googled Q Anon Debunked and got out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If simply Googling &#8220;QAnon Debunked&#8221; were enough to get QAnoners to deprogram themselves, why don&#8217;t more of them do it? That&#8217;s the tricky part. DB explains several elements to Q belief that keeps people in it. A big part of what primed DB to accept conspiracy thinking was a fundamentalist Christian upbringing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Theories about evil evolution, science denial and The End of The world rapture return of Christ stuff is all pretty crazy too,&#8221; wrote DB, who moved to a more progressive version of Christianity after leaving QAnon behind. There&#8217;s a strong link between the two.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s also some &#8220;perverse comfort &#8220;in conspiracy theories like QAnon, DB wrote, &#8220;because of the false sense of order and purpose it brings to the world. Either the world is a boardgame chess match between Good and Evil forces working behind the scenes, and you might be a pawn but at least you are on The Right Side or you admit that the world is a mess, nobody is in charge, there is no grand battle of good and evil behind the scenes and your life has less purpose and order than you hoped.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>They also said overconfidence and arrogance play a big role in people staying in the QAnon world, as well as the belief that you are the one engaging in critical thinking while everyone else is a mindless sheep.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At this point, the problem isn&#8217;t Q, it&#8217;s gullible people who lack critical thinking skills and gain a massive ego boost in thinking they have a secret that the sheeple don&#8217;t know,&#8221; DB wrote.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Worth noting, conspiracy thinking hooks the brain because it feels like critical thinking. Even though it isn&#8217;t.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That piece right there really is key.<\/p>\n<p class=\"shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"0e1f1\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"5e32da6ee97d8b4be5e4b52f8f75226d\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20801%20407'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755129373_330_img.png\" width=\"801\" height=\"407\" alt=\"qanon, qanon rally, trump rally, conspiracy theories, maga, maga qanon, \"\/> A QAnaon rally.via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/geoliv\/50601500653\/in\/photolist-2mXc2Ug-2m5tt5j-2m5rXAF-2m5rX1Y-2mktyqB-2mkCqR8-2mktyqr-2k6tVdr-2qrYk8d-2qs5s11-2gYFVaM-2qrYk7B-2nUiTFM-2gYFUWf-2qs5rZe-2kQ95UT-2m3cHGk-DYbPNS-2kUPE8S-2o8B3Xw-2kujXNA-2kWwJRW-2kqDV2P-2gYFe3X-2kpVF1c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Geoff Livingston\/Flickr <\/a><\/p>\n<p>As another user explained, the &#8220;do your own research&#8221; concept works to reinforce conspiracy theories while making people think they&#8217;re coming to conclusions on their own, thanks to the way search engines and social media algorithms work:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The idea behind the &#8216;research&#8217; is that you are more likely to believe a source if YOU stumble upon it yourself vs if I tell you -go watch this video. So if I tell you Hillary is a lizard person, watch this video &#8230; It&#8217;s easy to watch and dismiss me as a crazy that saw a dumb video. BUT &#8230; if I tell you Hillary is a lizard person, but don&#8217;t take my word for it &#8211; google it yourself&#8230;. and you come across hundreds of videos and articles about Hillary being a lizard person &#8211; that makes it all the more believable. Especially since there&#8217;s so many articles saying Hillary is NOT a lizard person. If it wasn&#8217;t true, why would people be making videos and articles &#8216;debunking&#8217; it?<\/p>\n<p>And the debunk articles are appearing higher in searches than the articles saying she is. Why is that? Is big tech in on it to &#8230;.and you see where this is going.<\/p>\n<p>So their &#8216;research&#8217; is just a way of manipulating people.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"5ed75\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"a0ca0d842f5517dc5f5a3eb3718d3b1a\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20530%20241'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755129374_310_img.png\" width=\"530\" height=\"241\" alt=\"qanon, qanon rally, trump rally, conspiracy theories, maga, maga qanon, \"\/> A QAnon supporter.via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/marcn\/48555556067\/in\/photolist-2mXc2Ug-2m5tt5j-2m5rXAF-2m5rX1Y-2mktyqB-2mkCqR8-2mktyqr-2k6tVdr-2qrYk8d-2qs5s11-2gYFVaM-2qrYk7B-2nUiTFM-2gYFUWf-2qs5rZe-2kQ95UT-2m3cHGk-DYbPNS-2kUPE8S-2o8B3Xw-2kujXNA-2kWwJRW-2kqDV2P-2gYFe3X-2kpVF1c\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Marc Nozell\/Flickr<\/a><\/p>\n<p>DB shared that it was hard to admit that they&#8217;d been played by a baseless conspiracy theory. &#8220;It&#8217;s NOT easy realizing you&#8217;ve been conned, been a rube, been taken in,&#8221; they wrote. &#8220;It was massively humbling to realize I&#8217;d been a sucker.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>However, they are also surprised to see how much &#8220;crazier&#8221; QAnon has gotten, as when they left a couple of years ago they were &#8220;certain it would all be over soon.&#8221; They weren&#8217;t a &#8220;storm the Capitol&#8221; kind of believer, but rather a &#8220;snicker quietly to myself in my bedroom because those sheeple don&#8217;t know the truth&#8221; type.<\/p>\n<p>DB explained that they keep themselves away from the edge of the rabbit hole now by embracing doubt and different ideas and have added &#8220;some fucking worldview humility&#8221; to their life.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The problem with fundamentalist religions, cults, and conspiracy theories is they all demonize doubt and are all so absolutely certain that they have the total truth of reality figured out. I hold my beliefs much more humbly now, I acknowledge that I could be wrong,&#8221; they wrote.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I read more widely and expose myself to the ideas of others, so that I don&#8217;t end up in an echo chamber.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As for how to help others get out? DB said that arguing with a QAnon adherent, especially online, is a waste of time\u2014and their simple explanation for why makes perfect sense:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think they can be reasoned out of beliefs they were not reasoned into.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s no way to rationalize with irrational beliefs, unfortunately. DB suggests if you have loved ones who&#8217;ve fallen down the rabbit hole that you maybe try asking them questions using Street Epistemology techniques (which you can read about <a href=\"https:\/\/streetepistemology.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>), avoid confronting and trying to reason with them (because it&#8217;s simply not effective), and continue loving them (while setting boundaries about what you&#8217;re willing to listen to) so they have a stable place to land if and when they are able to extricate themselves.<\/p>\n<p>You can read the entire Reddit thread of Q and A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/QAnonCasualties\/comments\/l3yhqc\/im_an_ex_q_former_conspiracy_theorist_ama\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As frustrating as it is to see people we know fall for kooky conspiracy theories, seeing that it&#8217;s possible for someone to get out offers a ray of hope that they aren&#8217;t necessarily gone for good.<\/p>\n<p>Things have changed since this article was originally published in 2021, with some QAnon beliefs evolving as America&#8217;s political narrative has changed. However, <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/how-the-qanon-movement-entered-mainstream-politics-and-why-the-silence-on-epstein-files-matters-261316\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">surveys by groups<\/a> like the Associated Press and the 2024 Public Religion Research Institute have found that 15\u201320% of Americans believe in some of QAnon\u2019s core claims, including the existence of a secret group of Satan-worshipping elites controlling the United States government.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared four years ago and has been updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Several years ago, you wouldn&#8217;t have known what QAnon was unless you spent a lot of time reading&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3845],"tags":[43254,10957,80977,121833,46699,121835,121830,121834,109107,121831,74,121832,23225,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-342440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-physics","8":"tag-conspiracy-theories","9":"tag-death","10":"tag-dying","11":"tag-eternal-life","12":"tag-existential-crisis","13":"tag-existential-questions","14":"tag-mandela-effects","15":"tag-multiple-dimensions","16":"tag-multiverse","17":"tag-parallel-universe","18":"tag-physics","19":"tag-quantum-immortality","20":"tag-quantum-theory","21":"tag-science","22":"tag-uk","23":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115024166407269422","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}