Conspiracy Theories and the Cost of Fixation

 

When Seeking Hidden Truths Starts to Cost Us Our Peace

Scripture does not ask us to pretend that conspiracies do not exist. In fact, it does the opposite. Again and again, the record acknowledges secret works, secret combinations, hidden oaths, and deeds done in darkness.

Helaman is blunt. Secret works exist. They corrupt societies. They destabilize communities. They thrive where ambition, fear, and pride are left unchecked. Nephi warns of secret oaths and hidden power structures. Ether records that secret combinations existed from the beginning and will continue until the end. Scripture is not naive.

But scripture is also not fascinated.

When the Book of Mormon exposes secret works, it never does so to invite endless investigation. The record does not linger on details. It does not encourage the reader to chase every thread or decode every shadow. Instead, it shows patterns, consequences, and outcomes. Darkness is acknowledged so it can be recognized and resisted, not so it can become an object of study, entertainment, or identity.

Recognize, Don’t Dwell

In Helaman 2:33, secret murders and covert power grabs are revealed, but the focus quickly shifts to what secrecy produces. Trust collapses. Governance decays. Violence multiplies. The warning is not, “Study this more closely.” The warning is, “This is where secrecy leads.”

Helaman 3:6 continues the same theme. Pride grows. Division deepens. People become hardened. The record is not interested in cataloging villains. It is interested in showing how quickly a society corrodes when people are drawn toward darkness rather than light.

Nephi sharpens the contrast even further. He repeatedly distinguishes between the way God works and the way darkness works. Darkness hides because it cannot survive exposure. Christ is lifted up openly. Truth invites examination. God’s work does not require secrecy to maintain power. It relies on light, repentance, and voluntary covenant.

That does not mean the faithful response is to obsessively unmask every hidden thing. Scripture never teaches that vigilance means fixation. There is a difference between discernment and dwelling.

Discernment notices. Dwelling consumes.
Discernment says, “This exists, and I will not be naive.”
Dwelling says, “I must keep searching until I feel awake, special, or in control.”

This danger of emotional framing is not new, and others have warned about it directly:

Rhetoric, Reality, and the Cost of Fixation

In his post Rhetoric and Reality , Denver draws an important distinction between what is actually happening and how events are framed emotionally.

He warns that rhetoric fueled by fear, outrage, and moral panic can disconnect people from reality rather than clarify it. When emotion replaces careful thought, discernment erodes. People become reactive, easily manipulated, and increasingly certain of things they have not actually examined.

The danger is not merely being wrong. The danger is losing the ability to reason, listen, and see clearly. When language is designed to provoke rather than illuminate, it reshapes perception itself.

This applies far beyond politics. Any habit of mind that feeds on alarm, suspicion, or constant exposure to darkness carries the same risk. Recognizing problems is necessary. Living in a state of continual agitation is not.

Discernment requires steadiness. Truth survives calm examination. Light does not need panic to defend it.

When Secrets Become a Spiritual Diet

Ether provides one of the most important correctives to modern conspiracy culture. In Ether 3:18, the Lord explicitly commands that some things not be written or shared. This is not because truth is dangerous, but because people are not prepared to hold it without corruption. That alone dismantles the assumption that pursuing hidden knowledge is always virtuous. Scripture teaches the opposite. Knowledge without humility, charity, and spiritual maturity does not liberate. It distorts.

Moroni tells us enough to recognize the danger, but not enough to become enthralled by it. He warns us without feeding our curiosity. He exposes the fruit while refusing to glorify the tree. The instruction is not “learn their secrets,” but “do not let them rule your heart.” The remedy he points us toward is not obsession, but repentance, steadiness, and a heart so anchored in good that darkness loses its power to persuade.

This is where Moroni’s warning and Christ’s teaching meet.

Christ teaches that light enters the body through the eye. What the mind seeks becomes its nourishment. A mind trained to hunt darkness will eventually see darkness everywhere. Suspicion begins to replace trust. Fear masquerades as insight. The nervous system never rests. Scripture describes this not as enlightenment, but as being darkened in understanding.

Nephi’s warnings about darkness are not abstract. They are practical. If our eyes are trained on darkness, then darkness becomes our inner environment. If our eyes are trained on God, then we gain light, steadiness, and clarity.

For anyone who wants more on that specific “vision” theme, I recently wrote about it here: Be Thou My Vision. That post overlaps with this one in a personal way, because it is hard to talk about what we fix our gaze on without realizing how much it shapes us.

Open Minds Require Guardrails

A cherished friend of mine, John Pratt, used to say we should be open minded, just not so open minded that our brains fall out. I have always loved that line because it is playful and it is true. Scripture would agree, and then add something more demanding. We are accountable not only for what we believe, but for what we feed our minds, what we rehearse in our thoughts, and what kind of people those habits shape us into.

What Faithful Watchfulness Looks Like

Balance is required.

We are not commanded to deny darkness.
We are also not commanded to enthrone it.

Faithful watchfulness acknowledges reality without surrendering peace. It recognizes corruption without becoming consumed by it. It trusts that God exposes what needs exposing, in His time, without requiring His people to sacrifice their mental health, their relationships, or their charity chasing shadows.

We do not find light by staring harder into darkness. Light is found by turning toward God and letting everything else be seen in that illumination.

That posture prevents blindness.
It makes us whole.

A song that captures this dynamic of distraction especially well is In the Words of Satan. It does not glorify darkness but exposes how easily and effectively attention can be diverted away from the work of seeking light. I dislike the term "trigger warning" but this song may need one. It's heavy!