Hurricanes, Lithium, and Laser Beams—Oh My! Down a Rabbit Hole of Rumor & Devastation in NC
Activating "suspended animation" of the judging mind that's often "certain" around things that make you go hmmm...
Story-at-a-glance
This essay explores the overwhelming amount of information in today's world and the difficulty in discerning fact from fiction, especially in light of recent events like natural disasters and covid.
Through personal reflections and spiritual teachings, I advocate for a mindset of suspended judgment, where crazy thoughts are held in suspended animation and considered without necessarily coming to immediate conclusions.
This essay encourages readers to remain curious, question accepted narratives, and embrace the journey of exploration rather than clinging to certainty.
Down the rabbit hole
For days, I’ve been seeing pictures and videos in my Facebook feed of the complete devastation in North Carolina. While other states are suffering as well, the devastation in Asheville and western North Carolina (WNC) is bringing up flashbacks of so many things that I’ve learned during covid since 2020.
Practicing non-attachment
In my spiritual meanderings over these last 4 decades, I’ve learned a lot about “non-attachment” from the Buddhist teachings of the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path which has brought me much internal peace over the years.
These teachings taught me a lot about the “suffering” that happens from being “attached” to material things, thoughts, and judgments.
I began playing a suspended animation of the mind game with myself a long time ago, as the shifting sands of information sped up while fact, scam, and rumor started blurring together, especially in the earliest hours/days after disasters. It’s a personal concept where I place things in my psyche without the need to judge them as right or wrong, letting them “idle in neutral” until clarity emerges
To do so properly though, one has to know oneself so well, mentally and emotionally, that one understands how to “open up” with awareness to bypass fundamental biases and fears which the ego sets up a protective fortress around. I use this approach to process everything now, especially with so many crazy events surrounded in rumor and speculation.
I probably have more things placed in suspended animation than not because everything is happening everywhere all at once these days and it’s so hard to sort things out sometimes.
Mental health challenges
Since covid, I’ve realized the importance of considering things thoughtfully, rather than lazily dismissing ideas just because they don’t fit the mainstream narrative that most believe.
We’re learning that many things aren’t what we once believed, which is causing many of our current mental health struggles. We simply can’t take in ALL of the changes from information and technology, combined with deep fakes and rumors, to process them quickly enough for personal balance, especially when they challenge core beliefs that have shaped individuals and cultures for generations.
Humans don’t handle long-term uncertainty well—our nervous systems need stability for good mental health. It’s hard to recover when core beliefs are shattered, especially when uncertainty fills the void.
My Substack posts come from a place of open curiosity. I don’t know what’s true or not and I won’t stop exploring weird things just because people think something is crazy. I have no idea where I’ll eventually end up with topics and issues, but for me, it’s more about the journey than the destination. The journey is where I learn the most, so feel free to join me on this wild Alice in Wonderland ride—it’s dizzying and the pieces may or may not connect, and you’re welcome to hop off anytime.
If you know someone who is flexible of mind and also likes taking journeys to find what’s true for them, please consider sharing MindShift Musings with them.
Playing the suspended animation game of “What if it’s true?”
This is a simple game of mind expansion—no judgment, no right or wrong answers. It's merely a game of curiosity, where we try on new thoughts and play in a suspended reality of judgment. If nothing sticks, we're free to return to our usual way of thinking. We’re just trying on different "costumes" of thought and can always put the old ones back on—or, if we experience a ✨mindshift✨, we can switch to a new cloak.
Let’s play!
Things that make me go Hmmmm…
The rumors/stories/conspiracies/truths begin…
Please join me as I weave back and forth through sometimes seemingly disconnected topics with observations, resources, and questions that hopefully will coalesce for you by the end of the writings.
Like everything these days, the stories about North Carolina quickly became a swirl of contrasting information. That’s where the inspiration for this post came from.
Watching it unfold has felt like a smaller-scale version of covid events, with the constant whiplash of conflicting information. I don't know what to believe, so I just observe the process, trying to bear witness to it all while trying to stay unattached emotionally and mentally to the information I run across which I’m sharing here.
The stories are heartbreaking, like a war zone where literally everything has been obliterated. So many have died or are missing, and much of the area is only accessible by air, horseback, or mule trains. I even saw a video of a goat train with large packs on their backs bringing supplies into remote areas. Humans are so amazing in their compassion and ingenuity to try to work around problems to help people.
But then came the conspiracy-sounding stories—most probably untrue, although some deserve a closer look for the kernels of truth that might lie within.
Remember, we’re still playing the “What if it’s true?” game.
This isn’t my first rodeo. We’ve been down this path before with covid which taught me well how not to jump to immediate conclusions. I’ve learned that this is an art that most people don’t seem to have the capacity for…but it can be learned with intention and practice over time, for which I am living proof.
Getting schooled
My most recent education started by me coming across stories that said that this particular area of NC is home to two of the worlds most sought after minerals - lithium aka spodumene ((Kings Mountain Mine) and the highest purity quartz crystal deposits (Spruce Pine, NC) in the world. I also learned in the 1800’s that NC was the heart of gold-panning in the U.S.
I asked AI about the quartz deposits and this was the response:
The lithium and quartz deposits blew my mind, especially knowing there's a looming lithium shortage. People like Elon Musk and corporations have been racing to secure mines for electric car batteries, semiconductors, and more. I was surprised to learn just how rich in lithium and quartz the devastated area is.
Weather modification. Stay with the What if it was true? game
Then I started seeing stories that I’ve seen before musing about weather modification using lasers to potentially steer storms. At first glance, most of us, including me, would say that sounds crazy, but is it really? Let’s explore.
Cloud-seeding and laser speculations
What I have known for decades now is that we’ve been cloud-seeding since the 1940’s, but I’m not sure how effective it is. Then I ran into this video where CBS did a segment highlighting renown physicist, scientist, and author Michio Kaku, as he talks about potential weather modification using lasers. This clip was from 11 long years ago which makes me question what advances might have been made since that us civilians might not yet be privy to?
It’s a delicate balance between acknowledging the possibility of hidden developments and relying on verifiable information. We can remain curious and open to new revelations while grounding our understanding in what we know and the information that’s been made available so far.
Covid lessons
Covid and the Buddhist paths have taught me not to cling too tightly to what I think I know, as "truths" can unravel when new revelations expand—or pry open—our understanding from a bird’s eye view.
Political-media complex on our screens
For decades, I’ve been watching the evolution of the distribution of entertainment and news. Corporations have been given carte-blanche by our government to grow into monopolies that provide centralized control over the selling of goods and information.
Covid was a lesson in how clinging to certainty can backfire, reinforcing my practice of keeping an open mind. This became even clearer to me when these corporations -and many world governments- supported a narrative that wasn’t allowed to be questioned publicly, even by some of the world’s most published and respected doctors and scientists. Those who did were smeared with rumors and lies, had their platforms shadow-banned, down-throttled, and even deleted without notice which negatively impacted their careers and livelihoods.
Science is about asking questions to verify and clarify but that wasn’t allowed during covid and the questions were silenced.
Information overseers
In the U.S., a mere few corporations control much of our media (television, streaming, print, and radio), shaping the narratives we consume. This means that we fairly well are fed just a few narratives that we are supposed to fall into lockstep with. Step outside those bounds and you’re often smeared as a conspiracy theorist or kook.
Search engines
This centralized control extends into search engines, shaping the narratives we encounter online. During covid, I learned how, when we do internet searches, a blanket narrative can be immediately rolled out all at once in our search results by some of our most trusted institutions, people, publications, and corporations which makes the narrative appear to be validated by most.
Why dig deeper for information? Because so many platforms are owned by monopolies that control SEO (Search Engine Optimization) rankings, filling the first several pages of search results with narratives we’re more likely to accept as truth because they ALL seem to agree, thereby controlling virtually all the acceptable narratives. Most of us don’t realize how simply seeing search results or headlines shape our subconscious impressions which can turn into beliefs over time.
I, personally, use Duck Duck Go to try to avoid Google tracking, although I’m now considering Brave.
During covid, I watched the political-media machine in action as it blanketed print and media airwaves. For me, it was like getting a glimpse behind the curtain of the matrix as behemoth corporations and governments tried to control the narrative side-lining information and questions that didn’t perfectly align with it.
Why would they do that? Follow the money…and the media’s largest advertisers “Brought to you by Pfizer” might offer some clues.
Some other reasons that we might believe what’s served up, is because e.v.e.r.y.o.n.e. seems to believe the same thing so it MUST be true. Only two narratives are generally considered these days, the one from “this side” and the one from “that side”, but often the answers are usually bridged in the middle of both. We can’t break rank with either of these narratives though unless we want to find ourselves banished from “the tribes” that are so important to us.
The game of illusion
The search engine results are similar to visiting the dairy aisle seeing different brands on the shelves that seem independent, but have actually been bought up by mega-corporations who keep selling under the old trusted brand names leaving us with the illusion of a multitude of companies.
FEMA stories
In the rush to assess catastrophic situations, truths and rumors fly, often without having complete information. I’ve repeatedly heard early stories of FEMA delaying or obstructing local relief efforts, as was the case in both North Carolina and the Maui fires. The locals in Maui said that people were suffering and dying from not having the supplies they needed as FEMA held them back. I’ve seen how it hurts locals and makes them furious.
Truckers in NC (often local) were delivering supplies to small towns and backcountry houses that had been cut off where people were poor and already struggling while FEMA interrupted their efforts too.
We need more balance in situations like this between government and locals instead of making things worse for people are have been devastatingly impacted by natural disasters.
On the ground locally in NC
That said, I continued digging and ran into these two videos from NC that were very informative.
In the video below, made by the U.S. Men’s Academy on Saturday Oct 5, they discuss FEMA’s actions and explain the desperate need for professional logistics experts to organize the supplies and volunteers, as well as needing communications gear that doesn’t rely on Wi-Fi.
The video below was created by a NC local on Oct 5th who gives all manner of on the ground information about the circumstances there, much of which is very difficult to hear.
Staying skeptical and yet open
I’m not sure about many of these things and what I think doesn’t really change any of it. What it does influence is how I think about things in the future. It also potentially influences the future actions that I take, who I support, and how I choose to support them.
Tin foil hat time playing “What if it’s true?”
I’ve definitely seen the destruction in NC from friends who live down there so I know that’s true. I’ve also shown that the most devastated sections of NC have mines below ground worth hundreds of billions of dollars, resources that the progressive world desperately needs moving forward.
I’ve shown evidence that governments/corporations may be developing or already have the ability to guide or manipulate the weather. I’m holding off conclusions about that, but I’ll keep the phrase ‘follow the money’ in mind as a potential motivation for entities to say and do some of the most egregious things that most of us absolutely can’t fathom.
Do I believe that the weather was intentionally steered towards that area to completely devastate it? I doubt it but truly can’t know - suspended animation. I don’t know that we have the technology that makes that possible…yet, but it could also be held in secrecy by the government.
What I do know is that if this technology has been developed when immense power and literally hundreds of billions of dollars are at stake, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least.
What’s true?
Hurricanes don’t typically hit this hard 300 miles inland so the majority of these people have no flood insurance to rebuild.
I have heard that entities have already swooped in offering many people small amounts of money for their destroyed land which most will have to take, as it’s going to be a very long time, if ever, for housing and services to be back online in those smaller mountain towns.
Is that a good or a bad thing? I can’t say. I’m sure some people just want to take the money that they desperately need to start over after losing everything.
I also know that this will likely leave much raw land vacant now for underground mining with ease because now there is no population to speak for the land to keep them from doing so.
I can’t necessarily know what’s true about many things related to this hurricane, but I can say that I’m wiser for taking this journey that stemmed from one crazy video that started me down this Alice and Wonderland rabbit hole of curiosity.
Returning you to your regular programming
Thank you for going on the journey and playing the “What if it was true?” curiosity game with me. You are welcome to return to your regularly scheduled programming or even pick another channel if you’ve felt some sort of internal shift within yourself regarding anything you’ve read here today.
Meanwhile, I hope you’ll hold this information in neutral for future connections. I’d like to encourage you try to use suspended animation as tool to help keep you detached from the “certainty” that often has us judging others harshly and arguing with them.
Meanwhile, if you’re a praying person, please remember our North Carolinian brothers and sisters, and all the others affected by this hurricane Helene, in your prayers. Hold space for grace in their circumstances to curtail their suffering. You might also consider making a donation to the efforts to support them. I’ve provided some local options to do that below.
P.S. This piece was a real struggle for me to write, as I did so much research and kept wrestling with the skeptical and conspiratorial sides of myself while trying to stay open to what might be possible. It would’ve been so much easier to just stay in the mainstream narrative of things. Why do I do this to myself? lol
Community Questions
How do you personally navigate the overwhelming amount of information we encounter daily, especially when it’s hard to discern fact from fiction?
What are your thoughts on the balance between skepticism and openness when it comes to unconventional or fringe ideas—do you find yourself leaning more toward dismissal or curiosity?
In what ways have you found your core beliefs challenged or shifted by new information or experiences over the past few years, and how have you handled that mentally and emotionally?
Organizations helping in NC
I’ve heard the suggestion by locals that we should consider giving to the local organizations working on the ground in these areas where they know the people and the community.
Samaritan’s purse - Known for their rapid disaster response, they bring essential services like desalination plants and hospitals within hours.
BeLovedAshville.com - I have friends local to Asheville that are working with them.
Pinnacle Sar (Search And Rescue aka The Cajun Navy) - This grassroots group is making a direct difference by bringing supplies to those who need them most.
Mountain Mule Packers Ranch - I’ve seen many videos of these people. This incredible team is delivering much-needed supplies to remote areas using pack mules where roads are inaccessible.
P.S. Here’s a comprehensive overview Substack that came out after my post
Good article. Had we not had two days of heavy rain, prompted by some freaky front, ahead of Helene, it would have been a different outcome as we have easily handled hurricane remnants in the past up here in the mountains of Boone. But creeks and streams were already overflowing so the ground was saturated when Helene arrived. The outpouring of love and help from many regions has been phenomenal.
Great read. A new suspended thought for me came about during my process of watching Appalachia in this disaster. I’m still playing with it and how I can show up differently in the world.
The thought… We are much more interested in being a hero than in helping with sustained care and equity for all people. I think it is wonderful that kindness showed up and people took care of one another and I wonder where care for those devastated comes in to play in the years after and even more in the years before when impoverished people are just left to figure it out. I wonder why we are this way? I’m holding myself in that category too because it is the first time I’ve considered it in this way. I wonder if this is an American trait?
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