I spent too much time this past weekend revisiting 9-11, including truther topics and watching documentaries on the History channel. I'm shedding some of my trutherism, mostly because there are as many arguments for as against. Reading David Ray Griffin is persuasive, until you hear the Popular Mechanics arguments, which also make some sense. Like many a conspiracy, it's unanswerable. I'm glad some are
taking up the mantle because questioning the government is good, on balance. But believing — with certainty — that 9-11 was an inside job doesn't make more sense than other certainties based on only partial information. In a way, it almost doesn't matter if 9-11 was government-made, as Cheney and the cabal expressed that it was necessary in the Project for a New American Century.
One thing I don't see expressed very often is: why? Why even bother putting explosives in the towers? The effects of two planes hitting the World Trade Center would have sparked outrage and the desire for war. Maybe not the same as watching the towers fall, which was like watching reality itself dissolve away, but still this would have been an act of war that could have equally justified a war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And so my head is going in another direction. I'm not saying I believe this theory, but I do believe it's possible at some stage in human history. There are two basic esoteric components: collective consciousness and the idea that the mind constructs reality:
Idealism is the notion that the mind produces the world. Bishop Berkeley is the philosopher most associated with this idea, which is similar to Hindu beliefs. Positivism is the similar notion that the mind constructs our reality. The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics is basically positivist.
Maybe (an extreme maybe) what we saw on 9-11 was an example of that. If nothing else, this provides a way to explore ideas about what collective consciousness is capable of doing — namely that collective human fear was what brought down the towers. Look at this report from the Global Consciousness
About the GCP:
The Global Consciousness Project (GCP) is an international effort involving researchers from several institutions and countries, designed to explore whether the construct of interconnected consciousness can be scientifically validated through objective measurement. The project builds on excellent experiments conducted over the past 35 years at a number of laboratories, demonstrating that human consciousness interacts with random event generators (REGs), apparently "causing" them to produce non-random patterns. A description of the technical implementation is given under procedures.
The experimental results clearly show that a broader examination of this phenomenon is warranted. In recent work, prior to the Global Consciousness Project, an array of REG devices in Europe and the US showed non-random activity during widely shared experiences of deeply engaging events.
So there is some "proof" that 9-11 affected people's"connected consciousness." Millions of people's minds were focused onthose two towers. What's interesting is that the tower that was hit second fell first. To theorize — it's at this point that people realized it wasn't a terrible accident with one plane, but it was a coordinated act of murder. So sociologically and psychologically, the second plane had a much bigger effect. What's also interesting is that the two buildings fell in an identical matter, even though they were hit in different places. It was as if the reality of all past history was dissolved. My God, everyone thought at once, the world as we know it is over. This collective thought then manifested in the towers dissolving before everyone's eyes. It gives new meaning to "9-11 was an inside job." Not inside the government, but inside the mind.
Interestingly, David Ray Griffin — the main proponent of engineering-based trutherism — actually has a spiritual explanation for 9-11 as well (which could cause some to doubt his other theories):
"My thesis is that the attacks of 9/11 were products of demonic consciousness, with 'the demonic' understood as an emergent reality that is diametrically opposed to the creative power of the universe and strong enough to threaten its purposes. To explain how demonic power can arise in a monotheistic universe. I use the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, with some help from Carl Jung. Then to explain how demonic evil arose historically, I employ ideas from Andrew Bard Schmookler's Parable of the Tribes. Finally, arguing that this demonic consciousness now exists most powerfully in the USA, I suggest that a preeminent manifestation of it in our time was 9/11, orchestrated by the Bush-Cheney administration. In making this latter argument, I will draw on my two books on the subject: The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11 and The 9/11 Commission
Report: Omissions and Distortions."
This would "explain" how the fires in the twin towers burned for weeks after the event. Not because of thermite, because this was literally hell on earth. The collective consciousness theory also "explains" the fires — the collective fear was palpable for months afterward. One thing I also don't see mentioned very often is that on the night following 9-11 there was a massive thunderstorm. Already reeling with stress from seeing the planes hit and witnessing the massive explosions, I was sleepless as the thunder pounded over and over again in a torrential rain. It had an almost Biblical quality — a merciful rain to wash away the dust, but also a kind of judgment.
Do I believe any of this is what happened? No. Do I believe that — at some point — we may be self-aware of collective consciousness? Yes, at least to a larger degree than I believe the first proposition. And 9-11 was the biggest event in human history during the media age when an event was witnessed all around the world in real time, so it's the best starting point for investigation into this phenomenon.
All told, 9-11 was shocking and mysterious, which is why it inspires so much anger and conspiracy theorizing. Those buildings really did seem to fall in a way that defies rational explanation. The whole day defies rational explanation – it's so beyond everyday experience. This theory doesn't explain other anomalies, like the absence of a plane at the Pentagon, Building 7, etc. But regardless of what you think of this theory being literally true, there's no denying that 9-11 began a major shift in consciousness, and whether or not this consciousness can bend matter is only part of the story, as it changed people's conception of the world in a way that's not fully complete.
Photo by DVIDSHUB, courtesy of Creative Commons license.