Nociones del desarrollo

2.5.1. Sample Selection: Field Sites

The traditional mode of conducting ethnography involves studying a single site or locale, typically within a cultural formation that is separate from the researcher’s native culture.¹⁰⁵ This version of ethnography has been rendered problematic for research directed upon cultures that exist within/alongside the latter’s own society, and for those forms that spread across multiple locales.

New Horizons

New Horizons claims to be the longest-running group of ‘free-thinking’ in the UK, now entering its sixteenth year. Its topics reflect the breadth of a cultic milieu, advertised as including the following: ‘“conspiracy theories”…true or not; the global economy; hidden news; complementary health; alternative history; self-empowerment; alternative science & technology; the paranormal;

ancient mysteries; the legal rights of the individual’; and many, many more!.’. Again, we see that conspiracy theories are discussed within a programme inclusive of many themes not immediately of a conspiratorial nature. Running weekly its format remains relatively unchanged: there is a guest speaker who has a two-hour slot with a fifteen-minute break for tea and coffee, included in the £3 entrance fee. There is room for socialising conversationally before and after the talk. There is a chance for questions at the end if time allows.

The current organisers are the fourth set of leaders taking charge of booking speakers and maintaining the group in a pragmatic sense. Different leaders have brought the group into different directions resulting in different emphases within the field of alternative knowledges. The current leaders moved away from an increasingly exclusive focus on “spiritual” topics (examples include

104 Ward and Voas, ‘Conspirituality’.

105 Malinowski, Argonauts, pp. 6ff.

38 more weeks devoted to healings and channellings) and onto more this-worldly topics such as the legal rights of the individual. This apparently saved the number of attendees from a dwindling dozen to anything from forty to over one hundred depending on the topic. Studying this site over time will allow me to see which topics attract the largest audiences; how different topics are received by individuals with different interests in the milieu.

Conferences by other organisations within the ‘cultic milieu’ are advertised during the break, such as the Alternative View Conference, the British Constitution Group, or exo-politics/paranormal conferences such as Probe. This group is also connected with another New Horizons group in Preston, sharing speakers and attendees for some talks. The alternative media is represented by distributors of the UK Column. There are also DVDs sold for non-profit (proceeds are put back into the group’s kitty), arranged thematically in a way reflecting the variety of themes in the programme (New World Order, alternative money, alternative health, free energy, etc.), which represents just one link between the private and public dimension of truth-seeking for free-thinkers visiting that site. These communication links show this group to be connected to a larger and wider non-institutional collectivity, forming the focus of the project.

Truthjuice Birmingham

Truthjuice Birmingham is ‘a fortnightly event bringing you the very best in esoteric knowledge’.

The organisation “Truthjuice” has cells all over the country, from Todmorden to London to Gloucestershire to Glasgow. Allegedly, its founders attended New Horizons in St-Anne’s and this actually inspired them to set up a means for other groups to emerge nationally, all devoted to forms of ‘free-thinking’ that disseminated truths for local communities. In previous years they had come together for summer gatherings lasting a whole weekend, although this did not run in 2014 due to financial issues. Some of the groups appearing on their umbrella website no longer meet up regularly, and one group Truthjuice Liverpool, came to reject the name and reform with a much greater emphasis on more outwardly “spiritual” concerns. On the other hand, a new Truthjuice cell started in East Anglia during my fieldwork. Birmingham represents the strongest cell of Truthjuice in the UK running today, attracting audiences of thirty to one hundred people (averaging at around forty).

The format is similar to that of New Horizons, having bi-weekly speakers whose presentations are centred within much longer periods of socialising. Its webpage features this description:

‘From a plethora of inspirational speakers. We are actively building a community of like minded “Freethinkers” to share ideas and resources. The central theme of all our talks is greater financial, spiritual, mental and physical health for all our visitors. This is not just a great opportunity to hear respected speakers who are experts in their field, but also a great chance to interact with like minded people!!!’.

39 The communications network again features UK Column, Nexus Magazine, and advertises some same, some different, events from New Horizons. There are also many leaflets produced by religious groups including the Aetherius Society and Theosophical Society available on the front desk. Besides the talk given by a visiting speaker, there are venders selling assorted local, organic produce; colloidal silver and magnesium supplements; crystals; and an anti-oxidizing green tea called kombucha. These features taken together support the claim that this group belongs to a

‘cultic milieu’. Visiting this group over time benefited the project by introducing a comparative dimension in terms of how topics were received by different groups.

Truthjuice Hull

The third group I visited regularly is a Truthjuice cell meeting fortnightly in Hull. This was also well-attended. The format is the same as the other two groups, and it hosts speakers in a similar range of topics. They too advertise UK Column, Nexus Magazine, and distribute DVDs, but do not have the health-related things available at Birmingham.

2.5.2. Data Analysis

The data that I produced through my combined practices of participant observation and interviews is the raw matter out of which I describe the Truth Movement and answer my research questions.

I used the computer programme NVIVO to digitise my fieldnotes, and to transcribe my interviews, mostly during the period of fieldwork in which I produced more data. I engaged in content analysis of both a manifest and latent type.¹⁰⁶ Manifest content refers to specific ideas and words as expressed in the data-as-text. Latent content analysis looks at the underlying meanings behind passages and excerpts; ‘it allows coding of participants’ intent within context’.¹⁰⁷ ‘Coding’

is a technique of arranging data in a meaningful way, out of which categories begin to form. I used the constant comparative method as a way of continually thinking about these categories, and allowing themes to arise from the data, which I would then have in mind when reviewing the data subsequently.

2.5.3. Ethical considerations

Studying human beings requires an ethical sensitivity to ensure that research participants are protected, and any concerns are dealt with sensitively. I was careful to stick to the principle of informed consent and ensure that participants fully understood the nature of my project as a social scientific piece of research.¹⁰⁸ I gave each interviewee an information/consent form (Appendix A) and gave them opportunity to ask any questions. I tried to be as open with attendees I met during meeting as possible and made no attempt to conceal my role as a researcher but did so sensitively so as not to disrupt group conversations. I openly took fieldnotes. I approached the

106 Mayan Qualitative, pp. 93-94.

107 Ibid.

108 Hammersley and Atkinson, pp. 264-266.

40 organisers of the groups in person before including any ethnographic data in this study. I sought permission to record talks although many were already posted on YouTube. I quickly became well-known among regular attendees who took warmly to the project. Some truth-seekers became

“friends” on Facebook, but I decided against using data gathered online because information there seemed private in a sense.

The worldview of many truth-seekers included beliefs about powerful and malevolent forces that wish to harm humanity and remain hidden. I therefore anticipated that most would prefer to hide their identity; it was surprising how few interviewees asked to be anonymised in the write-up when asked. I have been careful not to include surnames of any informants except for those truth-seekers who publish books or do public presentations under their full name. The groups, events, and organisations that I have mentioned by name are all advertised publicly. I decided not to profile interviewees or attendees at the groups, or seek to gather survey data, early on in my project after one truth-seeker expressed concerns that this might be valuable to would-be infiltrators; this resonated with the qualitative focus of my study design which was concerned with truth-seeker culture rather than more quantitative demographics.

I stored data as responsibly as possible by using private field-journals and a password-protected computer. I specifically asked for permission to store interview data for the duration of the project, and whether I could store anonymised data for further research.

41 Chapter Three: A “Conspiracy Theories” Primer

‘Research these subjects at any length and to any depth and you will know that there are two worlds, the seen and the unseen, operating in the same ‘space’ while masquerading as one. First

there is the world that humanity in general experiences as the seen. […] This world doesn’t really exist in any form except in theory and the structure of government and ‘democracy’ in all

its expressions is there to control the population, not to hold itself to account.’ David Icke.¹⁰⁹ 3.1. Introduction

In this chapter I want to introduce readers to the “conspiracy theory” genre of discourse, in order to supply those who are unfamiliar a base level of understanding. I will not here refer to my ethnographic data but to secondary sources which represent a range of both an emic and etic perspectives. In Chapter One, I already reviewed the different approaches taken by etic

treatments, paying particular attention to analyses of “conspiracy theory” that strike a decisively pejorative tone. In this chapter, I will unpack the essential characteristics of a conspiracist worldview by paying close attention to Michael Barkun, a sociologist who, in many ways, represents the social scientific or symbolic interactionist answer to the Richard Hofstadter school of thought which approaches conspiracy theorists primarily as a threat to society.

This work refers also to my earlier MA thesis entitled The Religious Phenomenon of

“Conspiracism”: Conspiracy Theorists and Theories in Contemporary Britain.¹¹⁰ This earlier study supplied me with important background knowledge which I brought with me, cognitively speaking, to my fieldwork. In order that the reader might be better equipped to read my

ethnography, I will use independent researcher David Icke as a case study on the basis that his work was well-known among the seekers who feature in this ethnography. One truth-seeker tellingly referred to him as the “kindergarten of the occult” – that is, a common early step in a truth-seeker’s programme of personal research. In Chapter Four we meet truth-seekers for whom Icke played a pivotal, foundational role in them “waking up” to the existence of a superconspiracy. On the other hand, Icke’s writings in no way represent dogma. They are often subject to scrutiny, with certain aspects openly rejected by truth-seekers on an individual basis.

Some ideas, such as his “Reptilian thesis” – holding that the ruling elites are secretly extra-dimensional shape-shifting entities, sometimes assuming a reptile-like form – seemed to be rejected by every truth-seeker I met with during my fieldwork period.¹¹¹

109 David Icke, The Perception Deception: Or…It’s ALL bollocks – yes, ALL of it (Isle of Wight: David Icke Books Ltd, 2013)

110 Nicholas R. E. Toseland, ‘The Religious Phenomenon of ‘Conspiracism’: Conspiracy Theories and Theorists in Contemporary Britain’ (unpublished MA thesis. Durham University, 2012).

111 Some of Icke’s sympathisers argue that he consciously includes some erroneous and incredulous ideas in order to make himself seem less of a threat to the powers-that-be, a mixture of self-preservation and strategic thinking to enable him to impart some truth to the disbelieving masses. At the other end of the spectrum are those who take the opposite perspective, and view Icke as an agent working on behalf of the

42 Despite these emic criticisms, Icke’s vision of the world is a good example of Barkun’s large-scale ‘superconspiracy’ type of “conspiracy theory”, or the worldview I previously labelled as

‘conspiracism’.¹¹² Such a worldview rests upon a distinctive set of assumptions about the nature of reality that most people recognise in (so-called) “conspiracy theory”. Barkun identifies three principles ‘found in virtually every conspiracy theory’: ‘nothing happens by accident’; ‘nothing is as it seems’; and ‘everything is connected’.¹¹³ I will first outline the underlying plot behind Icke’s thought, before looking at each principle in turn. I will add to these the overarching moral dimension whereby the conspiratorial melodrama is understood as a battle between good and evil.