25 conspiracy theories that turned out to be not so absurd (26 photos)

We've all heard many conspiracy theories about everything. Some of them once seemed like the ravings of a madman, but then turned out to be close to the truth. But we may never know the whole truth. And even if you know most of the theories on this list, you may learn something new.





1. The government could send signals to people's brains



This is one of the oldest and most controversial conspiracy theories. In 2003, Donald Friedman made the claim that the government could transmit secret messages into people's brains to control their thinking. Then psychiatrists and the government declared him mentally ill. However, a declassified 2006 Pentagon report, "Bioeffects of Non-Lethal Weapons," describes the phenomenon of microwave hearing and how technology can be used to transmit signals to individuals using Morse code. After this, Friedman’s ideas seemed to many not so absurd.

2. The government can control the news.





In the 1950s, the CIA launched Operation Mockingbird, aimed at controlling the media. The organization engaged journalists, cultural and student publications to promote its views. As part of the operation, journalists' calls were monitored, their workplaces were monitored, and their daily activities were monitored. In the 70s, the operation was exposed.

3. The Dalai Lama worked for the CIA



In the 1960s, the 14th Dalai Lama received about $150,000 a month from the CIA to support the Tibetan resistance - this interfered with China's economic growth. In 1998, the Dalai Lama's administration confirmed this fact.

4. People with syphilis were experimented on



And again the USA. In 1932, a program to study syphilis and its treatment began there in collaboration with the Tuskegee Institute. The program, which involved more than 400 African-American men with syphilis, was supposed to last only six months - and lasted until 1972. For 40 years, these 400 men were given only a placebo, simulating the treatment. With the advent of penicillin, syphilis began to be successfully treated - but the program participants were not informed about this, but the experiment continued. He was stopped only when the information reached the public.

5. The US government used corpses for experiments.



After the nuclear explosions in Japan, the United States began a large-scale study to assess the effects of radioactive fallout on the human body. To do this, they stole dead bodies, mostly small children. All this was done without obtaining the consent of hundreds of grief-stricken families.

6. The Poisoned Alcohol Theory



From 1926 to 1933, the US federal government forced alcohol producers to add high doses of chemicals to their products. This was done to prevent bootleggers (illegal alcohol producers) from making moonshine. But this did not particularly affect the bootleggers - however, about 10 thousand Americans died due to poisoned alcohol.

7. Secret world community and "Bohemian Grove"



Since the 19th century, the most influential people in the United States have gathered at Bohemian Grove, a place in California. Among them were famous corporate leaders, presidents, celebrities and oil tycoons. There they gathered for a two-week summer vacation, where they had fun, had feasts, discussed pressing matters, and also held rituals near the symbol of the grove, a huge stone owl. It later became known that it was in the grove that the Manhattan Project was invented, a program to develop nuclear weapons that began in 1942.

8. The States were ruled by the wife of President Woodrow Wilson



After the 28th US President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke, he was unable to work. It is believed that at this time his wife Edith was responsible for making executive decisions. Even though the First Lady referred to herself only as an “assistant,” historians agree that she essentially served as president for more than a year—and did a pretty good job at it.

9. Mind manipulation



In the 50s, the CIA conducted a secret project MKULTRA, the purpose of which was to study means of manipulating people's consciousness, methods of erasing memory and altering personality. As part of the program, unsuspecting citizens were injected with psychotropic substances and LSD, and then interrogated and tortured. Hospitals, prisons and colleges were paid compensation for silence and cooperation. In 1973, when the project was exposed, CIA Director Richard Helms ordered the destruction of all documents related to it.

10. The FBI suppressed the "wrong" political groups.



COINTELPRO is another US secret program, this time to suppress the activities of certain political organizations. As part of the program, the FBI wiretapped conversations, spread slander, carried out provocations and illegal arrests. First, these actions were directed against the Communist Party, and then against supporters of Martin Luther King, against anti-war movements and socialist groups. Agents bugged Martin Luther King's hotel rooms, stalked him, tried to destroy his marriage, and wrote an anonymous letter calling for his suicide.

11. The government spied on John Lennon



John Lennon was perceived by the government as a threat - given his anti-war stance and pacifist songs. In 1971, the FBI decided to put Lennon under surveillance, and a year later they even tried to deport him.

12. Use of assassins



In 1975, Senator Frank Church created a commission to study government intelligence operations. She checked whether the CIA and FBI were actually working within the law. The commission allegedly found that the CIA used assassins to eliminate revolutionaries, rebel leaders and other foreign leaders in Central and South America, the Middle East and Africa. Murders were “disguised” as car accidents, suicides, illnesses and heart attacks.

13. Oh my god, we're being followed on social media.



The nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation reports how many requests for user data government agencies send to the most prominent platforms each year. In 2016, for example, government agencies sent more than 49,868 data requests to Facebook, 9,076 to Apple, and 27,850 to Google.

14. Tobacco companies have always known that smoking causes cancer.



Research has shown an undeniable link between lung cancer and smoking since the 1950s. But it was only in the late 1990s that Philip Morris, one of the largest cigarette manufacturers, officially confirmed that smoking can cause cancer.

15. The United States may have provided distorted information about the beginning of the Vietnam War



On August 2 and 4, 1964, US destroyers were allegedly attacked by Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. The US Congress immediately passed a resolution that provided President Lyndon Johnson with grounds to conduct open military action against Vietnam without a formal declaration of war. This became the reason for the Vietnam War, which killed up to three million people. Even during the war, it was suggested that the attack by the destroyers did not actually happen, and there is no direct evidence of an attack by Vietnamese boats. In 2005, the National Security Agency declassified a number of documents that also proved the presence of distorted data from American radars.

16. The Canadian government identified homosexuality in the workforce.



In the 1960s, the Canadian government tried to create a method to detect homosexuality among the federal workforce. It was a device that determined how much a man's pupils dilated when viewing erotic photographs of that nature. As a result, more than 400 employees were dismissed from the civil service, police and armed forces.

17. Operation Northwoods



In 1962, the US Department of Defense planned Operation Northwoods to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro in Cuba and create a false casus belli. It was a planned strategy to carry out terrorist attacks on US soil, approved by the CIA, the Department of Defense, and the Pentagon leadership. Hundreds of innocent people could have died as a result of this program. Then-President John Kennedy stopped the program just in time.

18. Naira's testimony



In 1990, a few months before the Gulf War, a 15-year-old girl known as Naira testified about Iraqi crimes before the Human Rights Commission. She spoke emotionally about how the Kuwaitis were treated harshly by the invading Iraqis. It was later revealed that she was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States - and her testimony was completely fictitious. Naira's data was recognized as perjury and a classic example of falsification.

19. Ten people planned the assassination of Abraham Lincoln



According to popular belief, actor John Wilkes Booth personally assassinated the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. However, as it turned out, before the murder, Bout entered into a conspiracy with at least nine accomplices. Among them: boarding house owner Mary Surratt, George Azterodt, who failed to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Lewis Powell, who tried to assassinate Secretary of State William Seward.

20. After World War II, the US government hired Nazi scientists



After Germany's surrender during World War II, more than 1,600 Nazi scientists were sent to work in the United States. This was the "Paperclip" scheme, which was exposed in 1946. Some of these researchers, by the way, worked on the MKUltra project. One of them, Wernher von Braun, took part in the moon landing, developing the Jupiter-S rocket, and also created the first ballistic missiles.

21. "Heart Attack Gun"



In 1975, the CIA revealed its secret weapon capable of causing fatal heart attacks. The gun could fire a dart of ice mixed with shellfish poison, causing respiratory and cardiac arrest. At the same time, it would be impossible to identify the toxin at autopsy, since it decomposes too quickly.

22. "Unconventional" bomb



In 1994, the US Air Force laboratory was preparing a project for non-lethal chemical weapons. One of the projects is aphrodisiac bombs, which should cause sexual arousal in enemy soldiers and stimulate homosexual behavior, reducing their combat effectiveness. The project was never brought to life. At least that's what they say.

23. The government can control the weather



At least to some extent. But no one will still know the whole truth. During the Vietnam War, the CIA is believed to have seeded clouds to increase rainfall, wash out roads and cause landslides - to prevent North Korean troops from moving weapons and supplies. According to the CIA, this method was used between 1967 and 1972.

24. "Hitler's Skull" Actually Belonged to a Woman



For decades, many assumed that Hitler committed suicide after World War II. Others believed that he had managed to escape to Argentina. And in 1962, a fragment of the Fuhrer’s skull, obtained from the bunker where he supposedly died, ended up in the State Archives - and another theory about his death appeared. However, in 2009, authorities examined the skull and suggested that it actually belonged to a woman.

25. America and UFOs



There is no country that has been as interested in UFOs as the United States. The American government even launched a UFO search program in 2011. The five-year program collected video and audio evidence of UFOs and built storage facilities for alien objects. The Pentagon insists that such research is no longer being conducted - however, program director Luis Elizondo claims that it is still relevant.