Written By: Anton Sawyer
Warning: This article will immediately delve into the matter of mental illness and carry that subject throughout. There are going to be open discussions about drug addiction, suicide, and clinical depression among other topics in this realm. If this easily offends you, then you might want to check out another article. This one perhaps? If you are still present, then here we go.
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In the fall of 2021, a conservative radio/podcast pundit for the GOP named Jesse Kelly made a couple of comments that initially made my blood boil. In October, he tweeted “You have a mental illness and it doesn’t cease being a mental illness just because our society is too weak, rotted, and depraved to tell you the truth. #InternationalPronounsDay.” The other came from his radio show/podcast where he said, “young impressionable people are looking at the mental illness we are celebrating in this country,” when discussing the current levels of mental health awareness showed en masse by the younger generations. Off-topic, but thankfully he is a republican. This means we know that whenever he says these disdainful statements towards the country of his birth, he does so because he loves his country, and not because he hates it like every democrat does who may say the same kinds of things.
As someone who has suffered from mental health issues for many, many years along with the glorious side effects that can stem from such issues, I was livid. Drug and alcohol abuse, two suicide attempts, and a slew of horrible choices had defined my life for a long time. Through thorough self-examination and reconstruction in an attempt to help better my existence by curbing a lot of those behaviors, it was easy to see why these statements made by Kelly could set me off.
I know what it is like to open your eyes in the morning and think to yourself, "this is as good as it's going to be all day." Then a single tear runs down your cheek. And when you question why it is only a single tear, you remember the answer: it's because you simply aren't worth the effort.
For some, this fear can be crippling, leading to utter terror embracing the soul at even the thought of getting out of bed—thereby perpetuating the self-sabotaging. Because I was considered “high-functioning”, at this point I would get up, kill off either whatever was left in my bottle of Wild Turkey 101, or start consuming whatever drug I happened to be involved with at the time. Afterward, I was ready to start my day.
After taking a while to cool off and think about what Kelly was saying, there is actually a nugget of truth to it now that we live in a world where the concept of perception being reality has increased to such a frightening degree.
Enter Demi Lovato.
Lovato has announced they are non-binary, the pronouns of “they/them” will be used when referring to them from here on.
In the same time frame during 2021, Lovato announced their new Peacock Original Series “Unidentified With Demi Lovato.” The show is Lovato attempting to re-create an experience they had involving alien life forms.
Because I’m not attempting to bully or weaponize mental illness as an attack, I want to make it clear that I do agree with Lovato in the thought that there is the potential for intelligent life forms out in the cosmos. As a science and numbers guy, along with astronomy being a passionate hobby, it’s incredibly difficult to believe there isn’t anything out there. For example, our own Milky Way is part of the “Local Group” of galaxies. The Local Group contains about 50 galaxies, yet this is considered a smaller cluster of galaxies. There are still even larger clusters out there called “Superclusters” which contain thousands of galaxies. It’s almost unfathomable with how large—and ever-expanding—the universe is, to completely ignore the concept of the law of averages and say that humankind is the only intelligent life form to exist anywhere.
Having written about Lovato previously, I’ve made it clear that though I am no fan of them or their antics (i.e. the “Fro-Yo Debacle”), they have been right before when it comes to the perception of certain things like drug addiction and different methods of harm reduction worth investigating. I will give them credit where it’s due, but I will also try to bring to light those things Lovato does which could be incredibly detrimental if believed as fact by their millions of young fans.
During the interviews/general press surrounding the release of her new show, Lovato made some statements that were seen by some to be incredibly questionable. During an interview with Entertainment Weekly about what inspired them to want to do a show about potential life-forms in space, they shared an event that happened on their 28th birthday, which they claimed, changed everything. “I made [alien] contact, and it was a pretty mind-blowing experience. Ever since then, I started to look into this more and I wanted to do a show about it.” When asked to give more detail, she continued. “We were stargazing, and we tried to do this protocol where you make contact, and all of a sudden something showed up directly above us in the sky. It was huge lights that made a question mark, almost, in the sky—and then it just like backed out. I realized [then] that my life was probably going to change in a spiritual way, because I have a spiritual connection to this journey as well. You would think that I would be freaked out, but what I have found in these experiences is the love, and there's no fear. The feeling that you get from these beings is so warm and loving and accepting that it's just overwhelming joy that happens when you're able to make contact. When I say make contact, I just mean intentionally try to meditate and try to manifest sightings. It's not that I'm actually, like, shaking hands with these beings—although I would love that. I think these beings are extremely peaceful and loving and when they show up, you can absolutely feel that concept.”
In another interview with Pedestrian—the one that dominated the headlines upon its release—Lovato expounded on her experiences with these beings and helped to make their (aliens) identity clearer. "I really think that if there was anything out there that would want to [harm] us, it would have happened by now," they said. "But I think that we have to stop calling them aliens because aliens is a derogatory term for anything. That's why I like to call them E.T.s!"
Though some of her detractors have conflated this with the liberal stance that the word "alien," when used in reference to immigrants or those who come from other countries, has become controversial and considered dehumanizing, I don’t see this as being the primary concern to the entire situation. Lovato has shown us time and time again that she lacks a lot of self-awareness and wherewithal to construct such a multi-layered equation into her thought process. The real problem comes from how consistently she uses human mental health issues when trying to communicate with what isn’t there.
This stems from one of the clips of the show that was released on YouTube titled “Demi Sings Skyscraper to an Extraterrestrial Entity.” In it, she starts throwing around words that have been ingrained in American society as having a direct correlation to mental illness. Words like “triggered” and “trauma” are used at different points during the séance-style setup that Lovato and her two male cohorts have set up to speak with the E.T.’s. At one point, Lovato asks an electronic meter if the E.T. is female and if she’s triggered because of trauma she’d suffered at the hands of men. When some form of static comes across the airwaves, Lovato is utterly convinced this is the reason and sends the men out of the room. After singing “Skyscraper,” the E.T. is less triggered and has allowed the men back into the room as the melody soothed the anxiety of the being. The part that was nausea-inducing came in a moment of silence when Lovato opened up to the being about their own issues with mental health by telling the E.T., “I have trauma too.”
Perception is reality: that invisible aliens and their mental health issues are just as devastating to those who are real and living, thereby diluting the overall message of those who are actively suffering and making those who suffer daily no better than a phantom.
There will be people who see this as a stretch, and that’s their right. Keep in mind though that we have heard Lovato over the years espousing the needs of the “Black Lives Matter” (BLM) movement. One of the main opponents to the BLM movement is the “All Lives Matter” (ALM) movement. Rapper Ice-T and many other black public figures have come out and openly stated, the ALM movement does nothing but dilute the message of the BLM message by removing the focus off of the travesties happening in black communities and the systemic causes which helps perpetuate these discrepancies. This is what Lovato is doing by diluting the message of the importance of taking care of REAL mental health issues with those living on Earth currently. If she is able to so easily use the same soothing tone and manner towards a beeping box as she is to a living, breathing being that comes within the sphere of her influence, it can be incredibly minimizing.
I know there are going to be those who read this as a bunch of conspiracy theory gobbledygook. That her millions of followers couldn’t be duped and hold the perception I’ve written about. As I have tried to point out before, when it comes to depression, addiction, or other mental health issues, you often perceive the world in an incredibly warped fashion. Self-sabotage and other activities which would be unheard of by someone whose mental well-being is taken care of become the order of the day. You tend to see things in the way you want to.
Keeping this in mind, to the naysayers I close with this: we are talking about a multi-millionaire who has influence over society at large and has been incredibly vocal in their mental health journey. This person is using electronic waves to communicate with alien life forms but is also so in touch with them as a species that this person not only knows what these extra-terrestrial beings want but is able to be an empath to the emotional core of this unknown entity.
To say that my theories are completely outside of the realm of possibility and there’s zero chance that anyone will take the perceptions I’ve written about seriously needs to start back at the beginning—but this time, follow all the extra links. You’ll see I’ve got a winning batting average.
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