Curiosity killed the cat…

It’s a saying you likely hear when you start looking into details. You become curious about an event or popular idea, and you want to search for answers. You may come across conspiracy theories or ideas that just don’t work with the norm, but nonetheless, they spark something deep inside you.

In short, your journey challenges conventional thinking. And many people just don’t like it. When challenging conventional thinking, you’re creating a new line of thinking and that gets tongues wagging.

But it isn’t a bad thing. In fact, anything that challenges conventional thinking and pushes the boundaries can be good (unless it goes too far). Just think about how unconventional thinking helped in the past. Newton, the Wright brothers, Marconi and Edison all challenged conventional thinking and look where we are as a result. Indeed, we once believed the earth was flat, until ancient Greek mathematicians challenged that thought and found out the truth: the world is round!

Breaking from convention is a scary thing!

I’m not going to lie. Challenging conventional thinkers and getting curious is scary. You push boundaries that many believe are there for a reason. You get into truths that can hurt, both physically and emotionally.

But none of that means you should stop. Dark Awakening challenges religious convention, and dives more deeply into the idea of a New World Order, both ideas that are contrary to mainstream group think. Of course, there’s huge risk in highlighting an unconventional thought. However, challenging the norm, pushing boundaries and diving headlong into conspiracy theories has also helped to leak truths. There are still many things that we don’t know, and we’re not going to find them out unless someone is brave enough to challenge current sentiment and what we are told through the media.

“This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

— Lewis Carroll

Don’t think big, think differently

When someone challenges conventional thinking, they’re not necessarily thinking big. All they’re doing is thinking differently, and that’s what you need to do.

Some experts consider it as “curious learning” and that’s a really good name for it. You’re expanding your thoughts and education by being curious. You’re still doing homework and researching the current ways of thinking so you can formulate your own conclusion—which may mean embarking on a different path. You get to learn what others have done to think differently and see what other angles you can take or if their research needs to go a little further.

Stop resisting where your mind wants to take you. This is just holding you back and keeping you in that process of conventional thinking.

Give yourself a reason to challenge conventional thinking

You can’t look into conspiracies theories just for the sake of it. Whether you believe the moon landings were a hoax or there were two shooters on the grassy knoll, the point is to dig into the available research and data and move beyond what someone tells you to believe.

Which means you need to find a reason to challenge what you’ve been told to believe. Give yourself that drive and passion to break the chains and create your own assumptions.  Socrates, the father of philosophy, argued that questions were far more powerful than answers. For some, this means questioning a way of doing or thinking, and for others, this may mean some social or humanitarian element needs to be at play.

It’s not necessarily going to be easy. Nothing worth having ever is.

So don’t be afraid to challenge conventional thinking. Put aside your Facebook feed–you don’t need to get your news from a meme–and dive into credible information. You may just find in doing so that your ideas will spark a movement and ignite others to take action. After all, the New World Order was once considered a myth,  the Wright brothers were laughed at, . . . and we once believed the earth was flat. . .. or maybe we still do.