The Disorientation

Down the Rabbit Hole

"Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit," said the frog

One of my favorite past-times is reading strange, weird, and eerie mysteries and "going down the rabbit hole," so to speak.

I've spent countless hours trawling articles and research papers on a wide array of weird and esoteric topics. I think it's fun. The world is often a strange place and countless people have documented it.

As someone with an interest in conspiracy theories / conspiracy culture and mis-and-disinformation, I feel this constellation of the unreal is right up my alley.

Here are a few of my favorite rabbit holes.

Danny Casolaro and The Octopus

Casolaro was a freelance writer / journalist who claimed to have uncovered an international ring behind large-scale government corruption and operations he dubbed "The Octopus". He was found dead in a hotel bathtub that was ruled a suicide.

His claims were quite interesting as they claimed a large network of everything ranging from CIA spooks, drug running, organized crime, and large-scale cyber crime and surveillance.

I think one of the more interesting aspects of this was his reliance one on Michael Riconosciuto (another rabbit hole individual), who has connections to secret software, murders, and even UFOs.

Additional Reading

Fred Crisman, JFK, and UFOs

If there was a real-life equivalent to the "Cigarette Smoking Man" from the X-Files, it'd probably be this guy.

Crisman is someone who pops up in a lot of real-world mysteries and conspiracies. He was one of the main suspects for the "Three Tramps" at Dealey Plaza during the JFK assassination, though he wasn't at the location.

He was also a figure in the Shaver Mystery, which saw the popularization and eventual upstream influence in UFO lore and the wider science-fiction world. Likewise, he was a key player in the Maury Island UFO hoax.

Funnily enough, he was also a family friend of the same Michael Riconosciuto mentioned above in The Octopus.

Jack Parsons, Rockets, and the Occult

Parsons was an interesting individual.

A brilliant engineer, he was instrumental in advancing the field of rocketry. He was a member of a group called the "Suicide Squad," known for their dangerous experiments. This group would eventually, over time, morph into NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

He was also a devout occultist, with a particular penchant for Thelema, founded by Aleister Crowley (who is another rabbit hole himself). He was also friends with L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, who eventually ran off with his wife and scammed him of his money.

Additional Reading

Mind Control Mind Control Mind Control

For a history assignment, I was interested in writing a paper on the 60s counterculture movement and its downstream influences when I came across weird CIA shenanigans.

I was already somewhat familiar with CIA mind control programs, but I wasn't aware of how deep it went. I bought Stephen Kinzer's Poisoner in Chief and was fascinated by the detail, depth, and brutality of the CIA (which I supposed shouldn't have come as a surprise). The book was an amazing assortment of Cold War paranoia.

The most famous of the programs was of course MKUltra. However, there were several other projects (of various aims, similar or otherwise) both before and after this one, such as Project CHATTER, Project Artichoke, MKNAOMI, and so on.

The Stargate Project was another interesting CIA project wherein they tried to create "psychic spies" based on New-Age beliefs. Again, another rabbit hole.

Additional Reading

This is the Zodiac Speaking

I think the Zodiac Killer is a class rabbit hole that many are familiar with.

They're one of the most popularized serial killers in American history, with a deluge of written and visual media. The fact that they have never been uncovered (yet) has certainly helped.