If you have your own story of being in a cult or a high control group or if you've had

experience with manipulation or abuse the power that you'd like to share, leave us a message

on our hotline number at 347-86 trust. That's 347-868-7878 or shoot us an e-mail at TrustMePod

at gmail.com. Trust me, do you trust me? Trust me, I'm like a smart person. Yeah, I've never

lied to you. I'll never have lied. If you think that one person has all the answers, don't!

Welcome to TrustMe. The podcast about cults, extreme belief, and manipulation from two lizard

girls who've actually experienced it, I am Lola Blanc, and I am Megan Elizabeth.

And today our guest is Antonio Perez, easy former conspiracy theorist who followed Alex Jones.

He's going to talk to us about why Jones is over the top theories about the new world order

appeal to him, how his addiction factored into his paranoid thinking, and the sense of community

that conspiracy theories provided him at his local bar in the early internet days.

We'll also discuss how uncovering each new element of a supposed conspiracy provides little

hits a dopamine that become addictive, how conspiracy theories are filling a need that could be met

in other ways, and why having an internal locus of control is crucial to a vert conspiratorial

thinking. Plus how he finally stepped away from the deep state obsession and the book he's writing

on how to help people think for themselves again. Love it! Before we dive into Antonio, Megan,

kindly tell me what your cultiest thing is this week. Well, I was going to talk about the recent

passing of Lisa Marie Pressley, very sad heartbreaking. I was reading some articles about how much

of her money she ended up giving to Scientology, and she was in there a lot. I mean, she was,

she's been probably all of it. Yeah, and you know, she got dropped off when she was 11 for hours

of therapy every day that put her in a sauna. It was really intense, but I'm not going to talk about

that. Oh, that's not going to be my cultiest thing. I'm kind of giving too. Okay. Everybody's

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