Flat Earth Review: Mental Illness and pseudo-science

It's almost a joke that flat eartherism and mental illness are the same thing. How often have we compared even the most mentally ill people who have severe depression or schizophrenia favorably with someone who believes in flat earth? Flat earth is the epitome of what it means to believe some in spite of evidence.

That being said, is there a corrolation between mental illness and the modern flat earth movement?

Of course.

I'll give a few examples of leaders in the flat earth movement who have a very... loose grasp on reality.

William Schoebelen has been around since the early days of the satanic panic in the 1980's. He's had a lot of jobs which range from head witch of a massive druid cult to satanic high priest to secret agent of the Illuminati.  This was all before he was a christian of course, and now he travels the country and preaches on how Jesus can save our children from satanic secular child rapists, or something like that.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljMHmAIr03k

Clearly this guy is either completely insane or he is a profiteer who made a career out of exploiting the gullible. Either way his new flock/suckers are the flat earth community.

Next up is the owner of "Now You See TV" Jon Pounders.

"Now You See TV" or NYSTV (I know its a moronic name for a "news channel") is mostly focused on having the weirdest and wackiest of the fundamentalist community on their channel.Jon Pounders has been a huge supporter of the flat earth movement and his passion for scientifically impossible theories are only surpassed by his obsession with satanic ritual abuse. Pounders, by his own admission, has struggled with bipolar disorder and paranoia his entire life, along with in his own words "profound drug addictions." This doesn't discredit him though, because Pounders believes Jesus fixed his brain.

Finally, the head weirdo himself, Rob Skiba.

Rob Skiba has admitted that he struggles with severe depression that makes him suicidal on a monthly basis. While this might not seem like it would lead to insane beliefs, Skiba uses his religion as a crutch and rescuing device. His mental anguish is demons attacking him, not a chemical imbalance he needs medication to fix for example. He also adopted flat earth after a profound fight with cognitive dissonance because by his own admission if he didn't accept flat earth which he believes the bible teaches, he would have to abandon his religion. I don't have proof but judging from his belief that a teddy bear with a voice recorder saying "I love you " to a child Skiba didn't know was God speaking to Skiba himself I'd be concerned with paranoid schizophrenia as well.

Keep in mind, I don't judge these people for their illnesses. It's sad more than funny, but I think it gives clear insight into the modern flat earth movement and why people adopt it.