My mom is getting into some weird things and it's scaring me

Status
Not open for further replies.
P

Poltergust

Member
To start this off, I usually consider my mom to be a rational person. She has her moments (for example, she actually believed that bogus "documentary" about mermaids that aired a couple of years ago until I proved it was all a lie), but she's always been grounded in reality. That apparently changed a little over a month ago.

I was moving away from my college apartment to head back to my hometown, and I had my family come over to help me. The first day they were there, I heard my mom make a one-off comment about Satan. My mom and most of my immediate family are Catholic (although not really all that active anymore), so I didn't think anything of it. Then she talked a little more about Satan the next day, and once again the following day on the car trip home from the airport. At that point, I asked her why she was talking so much about Satan all of a sudden.

I don't remember much of the details, but long story short, some other members of my family told her about some "uncanonical" book from the Bible called the Book of Enoch. Part of that book tells a story about fallen angels, which is where the whole Satan thing comes from, I guess. For whatever reason, she has been totally into it, with a fervor that seems to eclipse the actual Bible.

I decided to let that topic go, since I figured that it'll just be a passing thing like most of the other things she gets into. However, over the next few days, she doubled down on it. Then through some leap of logic I can't explain, she basically connected the stories of the Book of Enoch to aliens. Yes, aliens.

Now, I'm not into religion whatsoever and would rather not get into debates about that sort of thing, so I let her have her fun. It wasn't really my place to tell her not to believe in something, even if it makes me uncomfortable to know how weird those beliefs are. What happened next made me realize how dire the situation is, though.

Recently, she has been watching a certain little show on the History channel: Ancient Aliens. And let me tell you, she has been eating it all up. For example, according to that show, the ancient Egyptians created nuclear power through their pyramids to power up alien ships. Oh, and Leonardo Da Vinci was abducted for two years, which apparently gave him the ideas he had for his contraptions such as the flying machine. She also thinks that people from 2000+ years ago were too idiotic to build any of their cities without "outside help". When I question these, she tells me that they are indisputable facts.

One more thing, you know who is on this show?

This guy.
rt77f32.png


MY MOM IS TAKING THIS FREAKING GUY SERIOUSLY.
1LFy47y.gif


I told my mom how much of a joke this guy is to pretty much every normal human being on the planet, but she dismisses it by saying that people only make fun of him because of his hair (you can pretty much hear me facepalm hard at this point).

So GAF, how on earth can I bring her, well, down to earth? It seems that telling her to use her common sense isn't enough here, and I'm afraid that this will lead to more BS conspiracy stuff later down the road if she can be this easily manipulated. This needs to stop before it gets out of hand, because at this point she is still relatively normal.
 
Dilly said:
http://ancientaliensdebunked.com/

3 hours of fun.
Click to expand...

Just to make sure, this video will absolutely destroy the show, right? I don't want any sort of doubt left in her mind by the end of it.

I mean, when I mentioned that I had to prove to her that the mermaid "documentary" was fake, I had to link to like half a dozen articles to convince her. She actually seemed to be a bit distraught afterwards, too.
 
Well Leonardo Da Vinci was way too clever and inventing things that just don't fit the time, so....Satan...I mean aliens.
 
In all seriousness OP, I too know that feeling when your parents start to lose it and latch on to wacky shit. It kind of sucks because the person you knew growing up is kind of gone now, forever, and this person is there that you don't know and don't respect. It sucks.
 
Welcome to the club man. I think most everyone has an 'out there' family member or two. I have an aunt that I have to nearly force to go get a mammogram when its time because she believes in that natural medicine/fake doctor crap, but breast cancer runs in our family. Shit breaks my heart, but no one else will see that she does it so we make sure she does.
 
Dalek said:
In all seriousness OP, I too know that feeling when your parents start to lose it and latch on to wacky shit. It kind of sucks because the person you nene growing up is kind of gone now, forever, and this person is there that you don't know and don't respect. It sucks.
Click to expand...

I already went through that with my grandmother during my teenage years (Alzheimer's). I am not gonna let this kind of thing happen to my mom when she's not even 60.
 
Not saying I believe in the ancient aliens theory but I do find the concept of biblical/religious stories being based off of aliens interesting. In my opinion, I think aliens is a more plausible explanation than the miraculous stories of the bible.
 
That's pretty strange, man. On an unrelated note, if you've played Bayonetta the Angels in that speak a language made by English mystic John Dee called Enochian. It's pretty legit.

Maybe I missed it but how old is your mom? My dad is nearly 70 and he's way into this shit too and it's got me scared as hell for him but also for the grim specter of age-based dementia stalking me. Now, of course not every old person falls prey to "eccentricity", but it's pretty common.

Of course irrational beliefs are very common all over the species and, as gross as I find that personally, it's common across age barriers. The last woman I dated was really into that Ancient Aliens show, too.
 
People get a lot of weird ideas in their head, if it's mostly harmless, it might just be best to let her be. Otherwise try and actually discuss it with her. Engage in the conversation, debate the facts of what she believes (you may have to do some research), but don't get into a heated argument over this rubbish. Just telling her that nobody rational takes this stuff seriously won't achieve anything.
 
Horseticuffs said:
That's pretty strange, man. On an unrelated note, if you've played Bayonetta the Angels in that speak a language made by English mystic John Dee called Enochian. It's pretty legit.

Maybe I missed it but how old is your mom? My dad is nearly 70 and he's way into this shit too and it's got me scared as hell for him but also for the grim specter of age-based dementia stalking me. Now, of course not every old person falls prey to "eccentricity", but it's pretty common.

Of course irrational beliefs are very common all over the species and, as gross as I find that personally, it's common across age barriers. The last woman I dated was really into that Ancient Aliens show, too.
Click to expand...

She's 54-55 (I forget which, I'm so awful...). She's not nearly old enough for any kind of dementia to kick in, but she is probably in the age range where she can be easily influenced by these sort of things.

Sojgat said:
People get a lot of weird ideas in their head, if it's mostly harmless, it might just be best to let her be. Otherwise try and actually discuss it with her. Engage in the conversation, debate the facts of what she believes (you may have to do some research), but don't get into a heated argument over this rubbish. Just telling her that nobody rational takes this stuff seriously won't achieve anything.
Click to expand...

Well, it's physically impossible for me to get into a heated argument lol. I'm pretty sure she'll take me seriously if I show that I'm genuinely concerned for her.
 
I should also mention that the Discovery Channel, the same bastards behind that Mermaid show, did a similar Dragon show many years ago and I had to break some sad shit about reality down to my dad that Dragons weren't real.

Also, that show on Animal Planet called "Lost Tapes". My buddy is a pretty severe schizophrenic and he believed that show was 100% legitimate and when he first came out was like "Dude, you need to see this. They've got conclusive proof of all sorts of supernatural beings like vampires and werewolves!". I was like "Dude, I've never seen that show but I guarantee that there are like warnings at the beginning and after every commercial that it's all bullshit for entertainment". He swore up and down that there were NO disclaimers so I'm like "I gotta check this shit out then because something is rotten in the state of Denmark".

That show was covered with disclaimers that it was all bullshit. There's no accounting for people's density.

Poltergust said:
She's 54-55 (I forget which, I'm so awful...). She's not nearly old enough for any kind of dementia to kick in, but she is probably in the age range where she can be easily influenced by these sort of things.
Click to expand...

Listen, I'm not trying to cause undue concern but you can absolutely start either getting dementia early or some other mental illness late in life. Heck, my aforementioned buddy didn't start showing his schizophrenia until his early twenties. Probably it's nothing to be worried about and she's just easily influenced but you should just keep an eye out because my dad started scaring me due to that Dragon show incident and I've kind of seen him believe weirder and weirder shit since then. It IS frightening.
 
I love Ancient Aliens. Sure some of the ideas are crazy, but they do raise a lot of questions about how a lot of stuff was achieved when it comes to moving huge rocks and the precise cutting off rocks.
 
Shanks D Zoro said:
I love Ancient Aliens. Sure some of the ideas are crazy, but they do raise a lot of questions about how a lot of stuff was achieved when it comes to moving huge rocks and the precise cutting off rocks.
Click to expand...

They might raise a lot of questions, but it'd be a lot more useful if they actually gave real answers rather than making up more sensational ones.

As for the OP, it can really suck to have someone believe so strongly in things like these and not listening to reason, but try not to go against it too hard. When people are confronted in such a fashion they generally only go on the defensive, and retreat deeper into these beliefs, not to mention that your relationship with your mother will deteriorate.
 
Shanks D Zoro said:
I love Ancient Aliens. Sure some of the ideas are crazy, but they do raise a lot of questions about how a lot of stuff was achieved when it comes to moving huge rocks and the precise cutting off rocks.
Click to expand...

No they do not.

Do you know how, after hundreds of years, archeologists figured out how the pyramids where built?

THEY FUCKING ASKED EGYPTIANS. Seriously. They asked rural Egyptians who generally gave them the response of "with lots of manpower and big fucking ramps brah, duh".

Up until that point the whole profession assumed the brown people descended from the architects of some of the world's most impressive feats of construction didn't know shit. Because, you know, they're brown.

Same with raising large obelisks, moving large blocks, etc.. This has happened all over the world with dozens of other historic "mysteries" by the way.

We as a society like to think we're somehow more intelligent than our predecessors. We are not. Biologically if you plucked a a human out of 5000 BC and raised them from birth within contemporary society you would basically be unable to distinguish them from the rest of us in any real way.

We stand on the shoulders of giants, but not just the pantheon of western European inventors and thinkers of the last several hundred years. We, like them, rely on discoveries earned with each passing millennium.

Ancient alien theories are an insult to people who literally built the foundation for all knowledge today. It's on par with saying that Albert Einstein obviously got help from aliens because no person could understand physics as well as he did without outside help. It comes from people not being able to handle their own inferiority and lack of skill development. If they aren't exceptional at anything why should anyone else be? Therefore all great inspiration and invention must have been produced by an outside source. Makes just about as much sense as creationism.
 
Try getting her into Cosmos. That black hole episode had equal parts sound science and off the wall 'guesses' about what happens on the event horizon. Maybe it'll catch her interest?
 
Drek said:
No they do not.

Do you know how, after hundreds of years, archeologists figured out how the pyramids where built?

THEY FUCKING ASKED EGYPTIANS. Seriously. They asked rural Egyptians who generally gave them the response of "with lots of manpower and big fucking ramps brah, duh".

Up until that point the whole profession assumed the brown people descended from the architects of some of the world's most impressive feats of construction didn't know shit. Because, you know, they're brown.

Same with raising large obelisks, moving large blocks, etc.. This has happened all over the world with dozens of other historic "mysteries" by the way.

We as a society like to think we're somehow more intelligent than our predecessors. We are not. Biologically if you plucked a a human out of 5000 BC and raised them from birth within contemporary society you would basically be unable to distinguish them from the rest of us in any real way.

We stand on the shoulders of giants, but not just the pantheon of western European inventors and thinkers of the last several hundred years. We, like them, rely on discoveries earned with each passing millennium.

Ancient alien theories are an insult to people who literally built the foundation for all knowledge today. It's on par with saying that Albert Einstein obviously got help from aliens because no person could understand physics as well as he did without outside help. It comes from people not being able to handle their own inferiority and lack of skill development. If they aren't exceptional at anything why should anyone else be? Therefore all great inspiration and invention must have been produced by an outside source. Makes just about as much sense as creationism.
Click to expand...
ogdgSjW.gif

Very well said.
 
billeh said:
Try getting her into Cosmos. That black hole episode had equal parts sound science and off the wall 'guesses' about what happens on the event horizon. Maybe it'll catch her interest?
Click to expand...

I was just thinking about that. I created the following plan to bring her back to normal:

1. Watch one Ancient Aliens episode with her. This is because A) I'd like a bit more context for the debunking video, B) she has been imploring me to watch at least one episode with her, and C) it'll show that I am serious about debating this issue with her.

2. Show her the debunk video afterwards. It may require two sittings, but I think it'll hold her interest.

3. Tell her to drop Ancient Aliens and instead watch Cosmos. Considering how similar the subject matter is, it should be an easy switch.

I'll execute my plan tomorrow (or rather, today lol). Hopefully all goes well.
 
Poltergust said:
I was just thinking about that. I created the following plan to bring her back to normal:

1. Watch one Ancient Aliens episode with her. This is because A) I'd like a bit more context for the debunking video, B) she has been imploring me to watch at least one episode with her, and C) it'll show that I am serious about debating this issue with her.

2. Show her the debunk video afterwards. It may require two sittings, but I think it'll hold her interest.

3. Tell her to drop Ancient Aliens and instead watch Cosmos. Considering how similar the subject matter is, it should be an easy switch.

I'll execute my plan tomorrow (or rather, today lol). Hopefully all goes well.
Click to expand...

I feel like you may be underestimating step 3
 
Drek said:
No they do not.

Do you know how, after hundreds of years, archeologists figured out how the pyramids where built?

THEY FUCKING ASKED EGYPTIANS. Seriously. They asked rural Egyptians who generally gave them the response of "with lots of manpower and big fucking ramps brah, duh".

Up until that point the whole profession assumed the brown people descended from the architects of some of the world's most impressive feats of construction didn't know shit. Because, you know, they're brown.

Same with raising large obelisks, moving large blocks, etc.. This has happened all over the world with dozens of other historic "mysteries" by the way.

We as a society like to think we're somehow more intelligent than our predecessors. We are not. Biologically if you plucked a a human out of 5000 BC and raised them from birth within contemporary society you would basically be unable to distinguish them from the rest of us in any real way.

We stand on the shoulders of giants, but not just the pantheon of western European inventors and thinkers of the last several hundred years. We, like them, rely on discoveries earned with each passing millennium.

Ancient alien theories are an insult to people who literally built the foundation for all knowledge today. It's on par with saying that Albert Einstein obviously got help from aliens because no person could understand physics as well as he did without outside help. It comes from people not being able to handle their own inferiority and lack of skill development. If they aren't exceptional at anything why should anyone else be? Therefore all great inspiration and invention must have been produced by an outside source. Makes just about as much sense as creationism.
Click to expand...

RG0BS1U.gif
 
Drek said:
No they do not.

Do you know how, after hundreds of years, archeologists figured out how the pyramids where built?

THEY FUCKING ASKED EGYPTIANS. Seriously. They asked rural Egyptians who generally gave them the response of "with lots of manpower and big fucking ramps brah, duh".

Up until that point the whole profession assumed the brown people descended from the architects of some of the world's most impressive feats of construction didn't know shit. Because, you know, they're brown.

Same with raising large obelisks, moving large blocks, etc.. This has happened all over the world with dozens of other historic "mysteries" by the way.

We as a society like to think we're somehow more intelligent than our predecessors. We are not. Biologically if you plucked a a human out of 5000 BC and raised them from birth within contemporary society you would basically be unable to distinguish them from the rest of us in any real way.

We stand on the shoulders of giants, but not just the pantheon of western European inventors and thinkers of the last several hundred years. We, like them, rely on discoveries earned with each passing millennium.

Ancient alien theories are an insult to people who literally built the foundation for all knowledge today. It's on par with saying that Albert Einstein obviously got help from aliens because no person could understand physics as well as he did without outside help. It comes from people not being able to handle their own inferiority and lack of skill development. If they aren't exceptional at anything why should anyone else be? Therefore all great inspiration and invention must have been produced by an outside source. Makes just about as much sense as creationism.
Click to expand...

Some of the huge monolithic rocks require tons of machinery to lift even today. How the fuck did people use to do it up the side of a mountain. Easier for me to believe aliens
:)
 
Lol at that guys hair!

What he is actually saying makes sense though.

On topic, my dad has started saying things like "This is how the world has become" really often which kind of worries me.
 
None of us can do more than speculate about what's going on with your mother, or the extent of its severity.

I suggest making an appointment with a psychiatrist for yourself. You'll be able to discuss the changes you've observed in her, and your doctor might be able to get a sense of the problem, if there is one. Whatever the case, you'll be taught coping strategies. This is about you figuring out how serious the situations is, and how best to deal with it. I've been where you are, and seeking professional help for myself was invaluable. Of course it would be even better if you can get your mother to have a chat with a doctor, but that's often not a realistic goal.

Best of luck in dealing with this - I hope it's just a passing phase or an isolated eccentricity rather than something more serious.

Edit: Your plan seems very solid. I'd suggest encouraging she start watching Cosmos in addition to Ancient Aliens, and see if she drops the latter herself without encouragement to switch one for the other.
 
Poltergust said:
I was just thinking about that. I created the following plan to bring her back to normal:

1. Watch one Ancient Aliens episode with her. This is because A) I'd like a bit more context for the debunking video, B) she has been imploring me to watch at least one episode with her, and C) it'll show that I am serious about debating this issue with her.

2. Show her the debunk video afterwards. It may require two sittings, but I think it'll hold her interest.

3. Tell her to drop Ancient Aliens and instead watch Cosmos. Considering how similar the subject matter is, it should be an easy switch.

I'll execute my plan tomorrow (or rather, today lol). Hopefully all goes well.
Click to expand...

Good plan OP! I hope it goes well.

Probably the most ridicilus thing I ever saw on Ancient Aliens was the episode about the black plague. There wasn't enough rats living in that time to spread the decease lol.
 
I feel like linking this video every time someone is concerned with debating a person over some delusions by using facts:

Why facts won't help you win arguments

People don't like being attacked on their beliefs, and most of the time will try to build a stronger fort around themselves. That's pretty much how conspiracy people come to be. No matter how irrefutable the evidence, they always have the "they were paid, man" out.

Don't know a solution to this as I have a few relatives who are like that too, but I wait until they're serious about a debate and want to hear the other side rather than me going towards them with the evidence. Recently, I had to give my mom a lot of evidence to assail her fears about Romanian/Bulgarian/etc immigrants taking natives' jobs and sucking off benefits because UKIP said so (a bigoted party here in UK), and she's an immigrant too as we all are but thinks it was more legitimate in her time. She didn't take kindly to it, so I have all the evidence saved in case she wants to get serious about it again.

Real stuff is surprisingly harder to debate than disavowing the supernatural. If you make the person really think about the logistics and mechanics of how the supernatural would work if they really existed, it's not that hard to make them realise they were in the wrong.
 
When my grandmother died, my mother went from being a rational atheist to a regular attendee at Spiritual Church and would visit a medium a couple of times a month.
I guess she just needed something to hold onto in the face of such loss, her old belief mean that my grandmother was gone. lights out. nothing else..and she clearly wasn't prepared to deal with that.
Her friends from there are certainly a strange bunch, but they've always seemed harmless and i can deal with it. Although at 1st I thought she was joining a cult.
 
Poltergust said:
Just to make sure, this video will absolutely destroy the show, right? I don't want any sort of doubt left in her mind by the end of it.

I mean, when I mentioned that I had to prove to her that the mermaid "documentary" was fake, I had to link to like half a dozen articles to convince her. She actually seemed to be a bit distraught afterwards, too.
Click to expand...

I have no idea, I've never seen it because I already know Ancient Aliens is amusing sci-fi and nothing more.
 
Poltergust said:
I already went through that with my grandmother during my teenage years (Alzheimer's). I am not gonna let this kind of thing happen to my mom when she's not even 60.
Click to expand...
Best of luck to you. My mother is beyond repair on this sort of thing. Any kind of conversation, and I mean any, that provides conflicting evidence for her beliefs results in her breaking down crying and running out of the room. The relationship is impossible to maintain at all but the most superficial level.

If you have the means to rectify this, do so. I know I would.
 
I would love it if you get all serious showing her a debunking video and all that and it turns out she was just messing with you and having a bit of fun.
 
Horseticuffs said:
I should also mention that the Discovery Channel, the same bastards behind that Mermaid show, did a similar Dragon show many years ago and I had to break some sad shit about reality down to my dad that Dragons weren't real.

Also, that show on Animal Planet called "Lost Tapes". My buddy is a pretty severe schizophrenic and he believed that show was 100% legitimate and when he first came out was like "Dude, you need to see this. They've got conclusive proof of all sorts of supernatural beings like vampires and werewolves!". I was like "Dude, I've never seen that show but I guarantee that there are like warnings at the beginning and after every commercial that it's all bullshit for entertainment". He swore up and down that there were NO disclaimers so I'm like "I gotta check this shit out then because something is rotten in the state of Denmark".

That show was covered with disclaimers that it was all bullshit. There's no accounting for people's density.



Listen, I'm not trying to cause undue concern but you can absolutely start either getting dementia early or some other mental illness late in life. Heck, my aforementioned buddy didn't start showing his schizophrenia until his early twenties. Probably it's nothing to be worried about and she's just easily influenced but you should just keep an eye out because my dad started scaring me due to that Dragon show incident and I've kind of seen him believe weirder and weirder shit since then. It IS frightening.
Click to expand...

I just wanted to mention that the bold part is actually common. Excerpt from wikipedia:
"In 40% of men and 23% of women diagnosed with schizophrenia, the condition manifested itself before the age of 19." Reading more about it, it appears that around between age 20-30 is when you're starting to see the symptoms.
Again, from wikipedia:
"the peak ages of onset are 25 years for males and 27 years for females."

Best of luck to you OP, i hope its not anything serious and that the video linked earlier might help your mother come to her senses, although it looks like she's prone to believing in "eccentric" stuff.
My mother hooked up with this dude that got more and more into white supremacist shit and talked about it for so much that my mother almost started believing in it. Luckily i could talk some sense in her and she eventually left him.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

My Daughter's Mom Passed Away Last Night
2
50
2K
RJMacready73 replied
'Doomsday mom' Lori Vallow
14
978
Chuck Berry replied
  • Poll
sorta weird that self driving cars are a thing all of a sudden
45
1K
rm082e replied
It's my birthday
Cringe 
25
1K
chokotoureiki replied
Today is my birthday
42
1K
Heimdall_Xtreme replied
Top Bottom