10 Crazy Conspiracy Theories From Asia

It’s not hard to see that conspiracy theories flourish just about anywhere in the world. This time around we’ll go through some of the wackiest conspiracy theories, both classic and recent, to have ever come out of Asia. Sparked by anti-Western paranoia, mysticism, or just flat-out insanity, these crazy conspiracy theories serve as proof that Asia definitely has its fair share of far-out nutjobs.

10Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini Was A British Adventurer’s Son

We’ve previously talked about how some Iranian conspiracy theorists havetagged the British as the malevolent force controlling Iran’s affairs behind the scenes, including the 1979 revolution. This conspiracy theory takes one crazy step further and holds that the British supported the firebrand Islamic leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini because he was actually the son of a British national named William Richard Richardson.

According to the theory, Williamson was a 19th-century adventurer who traveled across the world before settling in Iran and becoming affiliated with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. There, he also converted to Islam and took two wives, one of whom would bear the future Iranian leader. As the story goes, the young and delinquent Khomeini received strict religious instruction from an ayatollah who, along with his peers, later helped him evade a death sentence from the ruling Shah by making him an ayatollah and spiriting him away from Iran. Later on, Khomeini repaid the favor by killing them off upon his return, ostensibly so that his true lineage would never be revealed.

9Vietnam Still Has American POWs

Although the terribly bloody Vietnam War ended decades ago, one infamous rumor has refused to die out, namely that many American POWs are still being kept alive there up to now. Fueled by movies such as 1983′sUncommon Valor, this theory also holds that both the US and Vietnamese governments fully know about the POWs’ dire situation yet are either doing nothing or are covering it up.

Proponents of this belief, especially the families of the missing personnel, point to the US government’s shoddy or inconsistent data on the missing POWs as well as what they believe to be authentic sightings of the prisoners and the different signs for help they’ve left behind in various locations. The government has done several investigations, which concluded that the missing prisoners are most likely dead by now. Yet believers remain adamant and insist that they should not write off the prisoners without any physical evidence.

8Mao Zedong Was A Yale Stooge

To be fair, infamous Chinese dictator Mao Zedong really did work for Yale when he became the editor for the Chinese branch of Yale’s student journal in 1919. However, one conspiracy theory would have us believe that Mao wasreally an underling for Yale University’s infamous Skull and Bones.

According to this theory, Yale University’s ruling elite established its subsidiary in China because they wished to control the lucrative opium trade. To that end, they—along with the CIA’s precursor, OSS—employed Mao Zedong and his communists to fight off the perceived threats to their monopoly, including the Boxers and then the nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek. What they didn’t count on, however, was Mao betraying them when the communists finally won China’s civil war in 1949. Due to this unexpected double-cross, they and the CIA were forced to work with the Chinese triads in order to continue their illicit operations.

7Malala Is A CIA Agent

Photo credit: Claude TRUONG-NGOC

You might remember Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani schoolgirl whom the Pakistani Taliban shot in the head (yes, they aren’t above shooting little girls) in October 2012 because she wanted girls to go to school. Although Malala survived the assassination attempt and has since become an untiring advocate for women’s rights and education, worldwide attention to her ordeal has turned some of her own countrymen against her. They accuse Malala of being involved with the CIA or the West in an international conspiracy to destroy Pakistan.

This view is especially prevalent in Malala’s native Swat valley, where the deeply conservative townsfolk see the events as nothing but a plot by her family to achieve fame. While Pakistanis do have some justification to be paranoid about Western infiltration (the CIA did recruit a local doctor to help scout out Bin Laden, after all), this conspiracy theory defies all common sense. Perhaps the only thing more insane is the fact that the Pakistani Taliban promised to try and kill her again.

6Israel’s Nukes Triggered The Tsunami That Devastated Fukushima

At this point, we’re all pretty familiar with conspiracy theories about super weapons creating hurricanes, tsunamis, and other natural disasters. Now, there are claims that the very same thing happened during the devastating meltdown that occurred at Fukushima’s nuclear power plant in 2011—with Israel as the culprit this time.

According to one account, Japan had been secretly assisting Iran with its nuclear weapons program by manufacturing enriched uranium for them at Fukushima. To stop this, the Israelis planted a nuclear bomb near Japan’s coast that triggered the earthquake and the subsequent tsunami. In the other version, Israel initially assisted Japan with its nuclear weapons program on orders from President Bush and Vice President Cheney to counter China’s growing influence. However, the Israelis got angry when the Japanese became supportive of an independent Palestinian state. As revenge, they triggered the tsunami and also unleashed the Stuxnet virus on the plant for good measure.

5North Korea Carried Out The Boston Bombings

On par with the ridiculous conspiracy theory that the Boston Marathon bombings in April 2013 never happened is the assertion that North Korea was responsible for the attack. According to the proponents of this theory, North Korea carried out the attacks to celebrate its founder Kim Il-Sung’s 101st birthday anniversary, and also because it wanted to make good on its previous threats of an attack on US soil.

Understandably, North Korea’s official mouthpiece issued a subsequent condemnation of the conspiracy theory, denying that their country carried out the attack while also disavowing any alleged links with Al-Qaeda. According to them, North Korea would never resort to underhanded tactics to attack the US, since it has the capability to hit its enemy directly. For them, the only real conspiracy here is the black propaganda campaign by US conservatives to discredit North Korea in the international community.

4The US And The Taliban Are In Cahoots

Photo credit: isafmedia

We already mentioned how some conspiracy theorists believe that the US and North Korea are actually working together. In that same vein, there are actually those who believe that the US is also working with the Taliban in Afghanistan. This view has been taking root among ordinary Afghans who believe that the US is funding the Taliban in order to achieve its own ends—including having a buffer against Iran, China, and Russia. They like to point out that the numerically and logistically superior American and NATO forces could easily finish the Taliban off yet they do not do so, meaning they really have a hidden agenda. Even Afghan president Hamid Karzai has bought the conspiracy theory; in March 2013, he accused the US and the Taliban of collaborating in a series of false flag attacks as justification for an indefinite US presence in the region.

3MacArthur Received A Bribe To Liberate The Philippines

Was Douglas MacArthur—one of history’s greatest and most colorful war heroes—compelled to liberate the Philippines from the Japanese because the Philippine president handed him a substantial amount of money? Historians have concluded that the wartime Philippine President Manuel Quezon really did give MacArthur $500,000 (and another $140,000 to three members of his staff) in 1942 under the guise of outstanding service rendered to the Philippines. Yet the true reasons may never be ascertained since all the characters involved are already dead.

It is highly speculated that Quezon paid MacArthur off so that that the latter would allow Quezon and his family to evacuate to the US. Other than that, the money would serve to remind MacArthur to keep his promise of returning to the Philippines. Of course, his liberation campaign would later wreak untold devastation on the country and earn him criticism for deviating from what had been the highly-successful and less-bloody island-hopping strategy.

2The US And Taiwan Created The SARS Virus

Aside from the long-standing accusations that it created the AIDS virus, the US was once again implicated as the evil mastermind behind the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak that hit Asia and was especially devastating in China, having caused the deaths of more than 300 people. Rumors of US and also Taiwanese involvement in the outbreak reached a fever pitch after two Russian scientists stated that the virus appeared to be a cocktail of different viruses and could not have been natural.

Conspiracy theorists also tried to corroborate the Russian scientists’ findings with the argument that Taiwan—being one of the virus’s creators—suffered far fewer casualties because it possessed the cure. Of course, China received a dose of its own conspiracy medicine after Taiwan accused its rival country’s government of not only creating the virus but also of engaging in a massive cover-up of the outbreak’s true extent.

1Ancient India Suffered A Nuclear Attack

Did ancient civilizations really possess the power of the atom bomb? For some conspiracy theorists, the answer is a clear “yes.” According to them, divine beings or ancient aliens transferred the technology to various ancient civilizations. They were also not averse to using it themselves, as was supposedly recorded in ancient texts such as the Mahabharata, which speaks of a projectile “charged with all the power of the Universe.”

Believers of this theory point to various archaeological sites with inexplicably high amounts of radiation, the most notable example being that of an ancient city found in Rajasthan, India. If the theory is to be believed, the city suffered a nuclear attack 8–12 millennia ago, resulting in the deaths of 500,000 inhabitants. Subsequently, the city retained dangerous levels of radiation, which would explain the abnormally high number of people in the area who suffer from cancer or birth defects. Of course, this theory is not limited to Asia; it is also held that North America’s Great Lakes are actuallycraters from an atomic blast.

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10 Incredibly Insane UFO Religions

A UFO religion, as its name suggests, is any religion with beliefs that center around UFOs and extraterrestrials. Although Raelism and the notoriousHeaven’s Gate cult are two of the more well-known UFO religions, they are by no means the craziest. There are plenty of UFO religions around the world that are just as, if not more insane than both of the above combined.

10Chen Tao (Right Way)

Formed in 1993, this now-defunct Taiwanese cult used to believe in somevery bizarre doctrines laid out by its founder, ex-sociology teacher Hon-ming Chen. Blending Christianity, Buddhism, New Age, and UFO beliefs, Chen came up with many weird tenets. These included the idea that nuclear war created the solar system and annihilated four different time periods and that God picked up survivors in a flying saucer. Chen pinned these disasters and other problems plaguing humanity on corrupted human souls and devils known as “King Satans.”

Aside from their crazy beliefs, the group also gained recognition for announcing that the end of the world would come during the last week of March, 1998. Chen believed that God would appear on television worldwide, with nuclear war and natural disasters following shortly afterward. In 1996, Chen and his followers relocated to Garland, Texas. They believed that the place, as “God’s Land,” would render them safe from the impending apocalypse. Unfortunately for the believers, God was too camera shy to appear on TV, and the world continued to revolve well after their predicted doomsday date of March 31. After the fiasco, the group quietly faded into obscurity and has not been heard of since 2001.

9Orden Fiat Lux

Photo credit: Blick

Latin for “Let there be Light,” Fiax Lux had its humble beginnings in 1973, when its founder, a Swiss secretary named Erika Bertschinger, fell on her head during a horse ride. Subsequently, she discovered she was the Virgin Mary and could communicate with transcendental beings, such as Jesus Christ. Changing her name to Uriella, she established her largely ascetic group in 1980 and later transferred it to their current headquarters in Germany’s Black Forest area.

Uriella and her group believed that the world would be devastated in the middle of 1998 by Nazi flying saucers and natural disasters. They also believed that friendly aliens would come to rescue the chosen few and use them to resettle a new paradise on Earth. However, when the appointed time came and passed, Uriella told her members that God had temporarily postponed the event because they all prayed very hard. Since then, the group has laid low, biding their time until another end of the world.

8Unarius Academy Of Science

Photo credit: Unarius Academy Of Science

Formed in San Diego in 1954, by the husband-and-wife tandem of Ernest and Ruth Norman—who both claimed to be reincarnations of famous historical figures—the Unarius Academy of Science espouses some very weird beliefs. For one, they teach members—called Unarians—that their psychic prowess will grow if they meditate with a purportedly 10-millenia-old crystal skull called “Max.” Claiming to be a scientific group and not a religion, the group also teaches its members about “interdimensional physics,” which they assert can answer all questions about the universe and one’s existence.

Aside from that, the Unarians state that the Earth will soon rejoin a coalition of planets that had broken up hundreds of thousands of years ago, and that this event will usher in an age of prosperity. They predicted that this would happen back in 2001, with the landing of several spaceships. When that failed, they later explained that the 9/11 attacks showed the aliens that humanity was not yet ready to reunite with them and thus postponed the event.

7Outer Dimensional Forces

A full eight years before the extremely bloody Waco Siege, an eerily parallel event happened when authorities raided the lumberyard belonging to Orville Gordon, the founder of Outer Dimensional Forces. Gordon created the group sometime in the 1960s, when he became convinced that extraterrestrials—known as the “Outer Dimensional Forces”—would start Armageddon after they saw how humans abused the Earth.

Renaming himself Nodrog (“Gordon” backward), he converted his property into an UFO landing base called the “Armageddon Time Ark Base.” He believed that he and his followers would be picked up by the extraterrestrials and whisked away to safety during doomsday. The group also gained notoriety when one of its members planted a pipe bomb in a former mayor’s car in 1980, after the latter pressed efforts to buy the lumberyard and convert it into a shopping mall. It is speculated that the 90-something Gordon later died and was buried somewhere on his property. The group has persisted to this day, and its members even maintain a website.

6One World Family Commune

Photo credit: Galactic Messenger

If there’s a religion that can best combine hippie, communist, and UFO lifestyles, then this is it. Also known as the Industrial Church of the New World Comforter, this religion came into existence in California, in 1973. Its founder, a painter named Allen Noonan, experienced a series of otherworldly encounters with extraterrestrials who charged him with becoming “the New World Comforter and channel of the prophesied Everlasting Gospel.”

After receiving those instructions, Noonan changed his name to Allen Michael and set about forming his group under the central doctrine of Uni-Communism. According to this belief, peace can be achieved when all countries disarm themselves and people form a hippie-like commune. Aside from that, members also believe in a group of aliens called the “Galactic Elohim of Galactica.” According to them, these aliens—also the original creators of the Earth—would someday return to our planet and help in its transformation into a society where energy is free and injustice does not exist.

5I AM Activity

Photo credit: A Modern Mystic

Arguably the forerunner to all UFO religions, the “I AM Activity” had its start in 1930, after its founder Guy Ballard claimed to have met the legendary St. Germain in Mt. Shasta, California. An Ascended Master, St. Germain instructed Ballard to spread the method wherein people could unlock their “I AM” potential, becoming enlightened enough to also turn into Ascended Masters.

After that encounter, Ballard formed his movement in 1932 and continuously wrote books under the telepathic guidance of St. Germain and other Ascended Masters, including Jesus. At its heyday, the movement reportedly had almost a million members. After Ballard died in 1939, his wife Edna became the channel for the divine messages, which she continued to receive until her death in 1971. Since then, the movement has been controlled by its Board of Directors based in Illinois. Although they claim to have 300 affiliate groups around the world, no new teachings have been received since the couple’s deaths, ostensibly because the Ascended Masters have not yet appointed their successors.

4Tempelhofgesellschaft

It’s not a surprise that neo-Nazis like to brag about their race; however, some of them go the extra mile and believe that their ancestors actually came from outer space. In a bizarre combination of false racial superiority and UFO fascination, members of Tempelhofgesellschaft (Temple Society)—a neo-Nazi group formed in Vienna in the 1990s—believe that the original Aryan race were actually ancient Sumerians from the planet Aldebaran, who came here eons ago and settled in Atlantis.

According to Tempelhofgesellschaft, these beings led a highly segregated life back in their solar system, with them naturally at the top. They also believe that the Aryans/Sumerians, being celestial in nature, are mandated to dominate the world someday and conquer the other races, especially the Jews. Lastly, the members continue to hope that the reinforcements from Aldebaran—whom the Nazis supposedly contacted for help in 1967—will soon arrive to help them win World War II once and for all.

3Seekers

Remember when we discussed how people would lie to maintain a harmonious balance within themselves? Apparently, that also applies to groups. In 1954, Leon Festinger, in another one of his groundbreaking studies, managed to infiltrate and observe a Chicago UFO doomsday cult known as “the Seekers.” Through the automatic handwriting of its founder Dorothy Martin, the Seekers believed they were receiving messages from beings called “Guardians,” who came from the planet Clarion. These beings eventually warned the group that the world would end on December 21, 1954 and instructed them to prepare for a rescue on that day.

When the appointed time came and passed, Martin received another message through automatic writing saying they saved the world because of their intense faith. However, media’s mockery and threats of involuntary commitment forced the group to eventually scatter. Martin went to Peru and lived there for a few years. In 1965, she returned to Arizona, where she established a new group called the Association of Sananda and Sanat Kumara. She continued receiving messages for the group—which still operates today—until she passed away in 1992.

2Urantia Foundation

This group is the caretaker and promoter of The Urantia Book, which the group believes came from some aliens called the “Orvonton Commission.” According to them, the Commission—through a sleeping human medium—contacted and dictated the book to Chicago doctor W.S. Sadler during the 1930s. Sadler then formed a group to check and review the book for any errors. Eventually, this group would transform itself into the Urantia Foundation, which currently has affiliate groups in almost two dozen countries and has printed almost half a million copies of the book.

The book is basically an alternate retelling of the history of the Earth, the Universe in general, and Christianity in particular. According to the book, Jesus’s real name was Michael and the Universe is made up of seven concentric rings, with God’s dwelling right in the middle. The Urantia Foundation also claims that the book supplants the Bible as the definitive authority of truth and has encouraged local study groups and other movements to read it.

1The Cosmic Circle Of Fellowship

This group was formed in the early 1950s in Chicago. Its founder, a postman named William Ferguson (who also happened to be a convicted fraudster), claimed to have made contact with beings from other planets. A practitioner of deep relaxation, Ferguson claimed that during one such session in 1938, he was suddenly transported to the “Seventh Dimension” where he received enlightenment. The week after the incident, he had another out-body-experience, this time landing in the “Sixth Dimension” where all creation took place.

He also became acquainted with a being named Khauga (who took Ferguson to Mars) and the leaders of the Venusians—in 1947 and 1954, respectively. One of the group’s doctrines is the veneration of Khauga as a divine being. Ferguson also claims that his deep relaxation techniques can help the members achieve a higher level of dimensional consciousness and allow them to travel out of their earthly bodies. After Ferguson died in 1967, the Chicago branch took control of the group and is still active today.

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10 Incendiary Facts About Incest

We all seem to know that incest is wrong, either through cultural conditioning or what appear to be innate evolutionary cues, yet some humans can’t seem to resist the urge to bed their relatives. In fact, since the DNA of every living human is 99.9 percent the same, it may be much more common than we think. Still, that doesn’t mean incest is a good thing. As we will see, breeding with a close relative can result in some dire consequences.

10The Effects Of Inbreeding

Even if you believe that two consenting adults should be able to have sex with whomever they please, there’s no escaping the fact that reproducing with a close relative has some serious drawbacks. When we mate with someone with a completely different gene pool, our chance of passing onrecessive genes is only 50 percent. Many times, those genes remain dormant, but when people who share a large number of genes breed, the chance of passing on conditions known as autosomal recessive disorders—conditions that are inherited through recessive genes, including cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, and albinism—increases significantly.

Other side effects of inbreeding include the increased risk of infertility, birth defects like cleft palates, heart conditions, facial asymmetry, low birth weight, slow growth rate, and neonatal mortality. One study found that 40 percent of children whose parents were first-degree relatives were born with autosomal recessive disorders, congenital physical malformations, or severe intellectual deficits. According to the study, when first-degree relatives mate, the risk of their child suffering from an early death, serious birth defect, or mental disability increases to almost 50 percent.

9Evolutionary Strategies Against Incest

Fortunately, Mother Nature has developed her own strategies to deter us from mating with close relatives. According to evolutionary psychologists, just observing your mother care for another baby is a cue that that other child is a sibling and discourages sexual attraction. If you happen to be the youngest, being raised with other children by the same set of parents has the same effect. This may explain why relationships with adopted family members are still considered taboo even though they don’t share the same genes.

Females are more heavily invested invested in the genetic fitness of their offspring, and experts believe that’s why women tend to be particularly averse to incest. A 1994 study showed that women might actually be able tosmell the best genetic mate to father their future offspring. In the experiment, which would eventually be known as the “smelly t-shirt” test, women were asked to sniff shirts that had been worn by random men for three days and rate their scents for intensity, pleasantness, and sexiness. After analyzing the participants’ DNA, researchers found that the women preferred the scents of the men who were most genetically different from them.

A more recent study also found that couples who had the most genetic similarities also had the lowest sexual satisfaction. Women who were partnered with genetically similar mates were even more likely to cheat on their husbands. These studies suggest that genes can not only influence mate choice but determine your overall satisfaction with your partner.

8Inbreeding Among Animals

It’s fairly common for dog breeders to preserve desirable traits within their litters through inbreeding, but frequent inbreeding over many generations causes serious problems. Most animals suffer the same adverse effectsfrom inbreeding as humans, such as reduced fertility, slower growth rates, increased incidence of disease, and higher mortality rates. Also like humans, many creatures have evolved to form their own anti-incest mechanisms, either by migrating away from their homes or using various cues to identify their kin. Female lemurs, for instance, can tell if a male’s genes are too similar to her own by smelling the pheromones that emit from his genitals.

Mice also use smell to identify ideal potential mates, much like the human females in the smelly t-shirt test. Experiments have shown that keeping a brother and sister mouse isolated in a cage will often result in their mating, but only if there are no other viable partners. Introducing an unrelated male compels the female to abandon her brother. If the female has already been impregnated by her brother, she can even abort the pregnancy before mating with the unrelated male.

Because hyenas don’t use scent or other cues to identify relatives, females only mate with males that are new to their group. This preference for the “new guy” forces young male hyenas to leave their families upon adulthood in search of a pack of unrelated females, resulting in low levels of inbreeding among the species.

Of course, there are exceptions. The estimated 500-percent growth of the bedbug population in recent years was partially caused by a chemical resistance to insecticides but also the bedbug’s ability to thrive on inbreeding. When bedbugs that have this resistance to insecticide continue to inbreed, doubling up on those resistant genes strengthens the resistence of the next generation, making the parasites even harder to kill and demonstrating one of the few instances in which inbreeding can actually benefit a species.

7Even Plants Avoid Incest

Most living things benefit from genetic diversity when breeding, including plants, which have developed their own mechanisms to prevent self-pollination. Many plants are hermaphroditic, meaning they have both male and female reproductive organs, which makes it easy to self-pollinate. To prevent this, some plants, such as petunias and tobacco plants, have evolved to develop what scientists have dubbed the “self-incompatibility” strategy.

As a part of this strategy, some plants can identify their own pollen once it has entered the female reproductive organ (called the “pistil”) and destroy it before fertilization occurs using a toxin called S-RNase. Though the S-RNase is produced even when genetically diverse pollen has entered the pistil, the plant prevents the destruction of viable pollen by withholding the toxin until it has identified the pollen as either compatible or incompatible.

6The Ethics Of Incest

Some people believe that incest isn’t all that bad, especially when it’s between two consenting adults who aren’t having children. They insist that when you take reproduction out of the equation through birth control, sterilization, or homosexuality, no one is harmed by incest. Of course, the law has something to say about that.

In 2010, 46-year-old Columbia University professor David Esptein wascharged with one count of third-degree incest after being accused of having consensual sex with his 24-year-old daughter. The daughter faced no charges because, in the eyes of the law, children are considered a “protected class,” even when they’re above the age of consent. The theory is that thepower dynamic between a parent and a child makes consent impossible to negotiate. Even when incest occurs between siblings, the elder of the two is usually held to a higher degree of accountability.

Epstein’s lawyer has raised the argument that incest between consenting adults is no more reprehensible than homosexuality. Lawmakers around the world have disagreed with him, saying that incest is unacceptable because it destroys the family unit whereas, two unrelated gay people in a relationship form a new one. According to political author William Saletan, homosexuality is an orientation, but incest is not. Banning homosexual sex would mean that gay people wouldn’t be able to create relationships, while those attracted to a close relative can conceivably find alternate sexual partners.

5King Tut Was Weak, Frail, And Inbred

King Tut is arguably the most famous of all ancient Egyptians. His solid gold tomb was found in 1922, complete with around 2,000 treasures inside, including jewelery chests, weapons, and a royal throne decorated with silver and stones. With all this marvelous treasure, it would be easy to imagine the king as a handsome, strong, young ruler of the ancient world, but recent research has shown that Tut was frail, weakened by multiple malarial infections, and so disabled he needed a cane to walk.

While his malarial infections are at least partly to blame for his frailty, DNA testing revealed that Tut’s parents were brother and sister, which is likely why he suffered from congenital defects such as a clubfoot and cleft palate as well as a degenerative bone condition known as Kohler’s disease. In addition to being the product of incest, Tut was also a practitioner. He didn’t leave any living heirs, probably because he and his sibling wife were unable to bear children without fatal congenital disorders. Also found within his tomb were the mummified corpses of two fetuses, who are believed to be Tut’s daughters.

4Inbreeding Destroyed The Spanish Habsburg Dynasty

Tut’s family members weren’t the only royals to dip their pens in the family ink. Throughout the ages, incest among royal families was common and even encouraged in order to retain the purity of the bloodline. For two centuries, the Spanish Habsburg dynasty refused to share their power with outsiders, so they continued to inbreed with one another. This practice eventually led to their downfall in 1700, when King Charles II died without an heir.

The Habsburg family was so intent on keeping their royal blood pure that, prior to Charles’s death, 9 of the 11 marriages recorded during the dynasty’s 200-year reign were between biological relatives. Starting in 1550, nobodywithin the dynasty married outside of their family. Charles himself was the offspring of an uncle-niece marriage. By some estimations, he was one of the most inbred people in history, with 95.3 percent of his genes traceable to just five ancestors. One biography described poor Charles as having an “an enormous misshapen head” and a huge tongue. He also had a jaw that “stood so much out that his two rows of teeth could not meet,” which caused frequent drooling, an inability to chew, and extreme difficulty speaking. Other accounts said the king suffered from intestinal upsets, convulsions, premature ejaculation, and impotence.

Though the dynasty may be long gone, at least its name continues to live on among dental professionals. The condition called prognathism, which is a protruding lower jaw, has been nicknamed “Habsburg jaw” in homage to the impotent, drooling, big-headed king.

3The Incest Cult In Australia

In 2013, court documents revealed one of the worst cases of child abuse in Australia and perhaps one of the worst cases of multi-generational incest known to the world. The family, who the court appointed the pseudonymous surname Colt, was discovered living in rural New South Wales following an anonymous tip that their children were not going to school.

Shortly after arriving, authorities discovered that about 40 people were living in squalor inside two caravans, two sheds, and several tents. The compound had no sewage system, running water, toilets, showers, or baths. Among the people living there were several children, who were filthy and shy. Few of them were able to speak intelligibly, and almost all of them had fungal infections on their feet.

Genetic tests later revealed that all of the children, except for one 5-year-old girl, were products of incest, which was believed to have begun as many as 40 years ago. The children’s genes were traced to just one set of grandparents, who were brother and sister. Eight of the children’s parents were brother and sister, mother and son, or father and daughter, while the remaining six children were born from parents who were aunt and nephew, uncle and niece, half-siblings, or grandparents and grandchild. The children themselves had sex with one another from a very young age.

Most suffered from severe health problems, including malnourishment, speech and hearing difficulties, an inability to read or write, and urgent dental problems. One 15-year-old boy had walking difficulties and severe psoriasis. His speech was barely intelligible, he regularly soiled his bed, and he was learning at a kindergartner’s level. Two other 15-year-old boys who suffered from similar disabilities were found to have been completely neglected when it came to personal and dental hygiene. A 14-year-old girl who was underweight and unable to use toilet paper or a comb suffered from severe speech and sight difficulties. She was also unable to read or write, though she was perfectly capable of threatening to cut off a caseworker’s fingers. The remainder of the children suffered from similar problems.

In total, 12 children were removed from their parents’ custody and either placed in foster homes or treatment programs to address their sexual and psychological trauma. As of 2013, the mothers of the children had hired lawyers to fight for custody, while one of the mothers is due to face chargesin court for procuring the removal of a child from care and recruiting a child for a crime. More charges are expected to be laid in the future.

2Genetic Sexual Attraction

For most of us, the idea of falling hopelessly in love with a close relative is probably both disgusting and inconceivable, but for up to 50 percent of people who reunite with their siblings, parents, or offspring after separating at birth, developing obsessive feelings for a family member is a reality. These strange emotions are the result of a condition known as genetic sexual attraction (GSA), and it has reportedly become so common that post-adoption agencies warn their clients about it and provide specific training to their counselors to treat it.

Unfortunately, not much is known about GSA because most people are afraid to admit that they’re attracted to a close relative and the subject of incest is still very taboo among academics and psychologists, resulting in a lack of research on the subject. What is known is that the attraction doesn’t always lead to sex. Sometimes, it’s just an overwhelming desire to be around and touch the long-lost relative. When it does result in a sexual relationship, it’s usually between reunited brothers and sisters. One psychiatrist, who conducted one of the only known studies on the condition, cautions that there is a stark difference between traditional incest and GSA. While GSA sufferers are technically committing acts of incest, they are repulsed by the thought of having sex with family members they grew up with.

What could cause something like this to happen? According to Freud, we’re all repressing incestuous urges, and recent studies suggest that the good doctor may have been at least somewhat right. In 2010, researchers found that people tended to partner with those who resembled their opposite sex parent. Specifically, scientists found that women were attracted to men whose features resembled the central portions of their father’s faces, while men were attracted to women who shared similarities with the lower parts of their mother’s faces. An earlier study also found that men and women, respectively, opted for partners who had the same eye and hair color of their opposite sex parent, while yet another study found that children of older parents gravitated toward older partners.

The theory is that we are “imprinted” from a young age to seek out the familiar by mating with people who resemble those who raised us. According to psychologists, when you see a face that is similar to yours, you tend to believe the person it belongs to is more trustworthy and cooperative. One Scottish study found that women were most attracted to men who were essentially masculine versions of themselves. Psychologists believe that this is because overt masculinity can sometimes make women wary, and familiar facial features may help to build trust.

Though it might seem counter-intuitive, given all the issues with inbreeding, evolutionary theory says that we’re attracted to mates who resemble our parents because doing so may promote our own genes. To make sure we don’t choose partners with genes that are too similar, though, humans subconsciously employ guides such as scent to attract us towards those with sufficient genetic diversity.

1We’re All Related Anyway

In 1987, geneticists studied the mitochondrial DNA of 147 people of different races and found that the DNA of all living people fall within one of two human lineages. One of these lineages descended solely from Africa, while the other contains traces of all other races. According to one geneticist, humans actually share more mitochondrial DNA than most primates. The mitochondrial DNA of two humans has only about half as many differences as the DNA of two other primates of the same species, suggesting that humans have a much more recent common ancestor than other primates. In fact, geneticists have traced everyone’s DNA to a single woman, nicknamed Mitochondrial Eve, who probably lived around 200,000 years ago in Africa.

If you happen to have blue eyes, you and every other blue-eyed person on Earth share a single common ancestor who lived between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. Before this common ancestor, every human being had brown eyes. Scientists aren’t sure why blue eyes spread so quickly around Europe, buttheories have sprung up that blue eyes may be more useful in certain levels of daylight or were just seen as sexually attractive to potential mates.

If you’re of European heritage, your lineage and the lineage of every European alive today can be traced to a set of ancestors that lived only 1,000 years ago, as researchers discovered after testing the DNA of over 2,000 people all across Europe. Researchers also found that, naturally, populations that lived closer together tended to be more related. Italians are slightly less related than other European populations, perhaps because they had a stable, independent population for many years, while people from the United Kingdom are more related to people from Ireland than people from other parts of the UK. Meanwhile, Eastern Europeans tend to be more related than the rest of Europe, which may be the result of the Slavic population boom that occurred about 1,000 years ago.

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