Ever since those planes flew into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and crashed in that Pennsylvania field on 9/11/2001, there have been a kajillion conspiracy theories floating around. For example: How was the government able to release photographs and profiles of all 19 highjackers seemingly minutes after the attacks? If a plane really hit the Pentagon, where are the pictures of the plane parts? Did the entire plane distintigrate on contact? Finally, if the passengers of Flight 93 caused the plane to crash, why wasn’t the debris spread over several miles instead of compacted in one tiny little area like it was, as if shot out of the sky by a missile?

Yeah, we’ve all heard them. But here’s one you may not have heard before:

The 9/11 attacks were engineered by President George W. Bush. To cover up the fact that he’s really a space alien.

Ok, this may sound like the set-up for a joke or a fictional film. But it’s not. Waiting for NESARA is a real documentary, not a fake mockumentary, about a group in Utah called — of all things — the Open Mind Forum that believes that the president is a space alien who engineered the 9/11 attacks and the Iraq war to prevent a “secret” law from being passed, called NESARA: The Economic Stabilization and Recovery Act.

Actually, this law — according to the legend — was already passed during the last days of the Clinton administration and was about to be implemented in October of 2001. Until 9/11 changed everything (as the saying goes). Once NESARA goes into effect, the entire federal government will be abolished and the IRS will be demolished. Then Jesus is going to come down in a spaceship and save us all. And if you think it’s strange that Jesus might need a spaceship, well it’s just easier for him to travel through space like that.

I enjoy a good conspiracy theory, in fact I love a good one. NESARA is a great one, combining random elements from Illuminati theories, convoluted alien overlord tales, creatures disguised as humans, evil government conjecture, shadowy cult sub-groups and the Second Coming. Indeed, the story of NESARA may be the most perfect conspiracy theory ever created.

NESARA did not start with the Open Mind Forum, they’re just a group of followers. The film is deliberately vague about who actually started this wild conspiracy theory. Although the Open Minders do get regular Internet updates from somebody called the “Dove of Oneness,” it’s assumed the Dove didn’t start it either. The “Dove” is obviously someone who is perpetuating and expanding this scam, again for what ultimate purpose we don’t know. Well, I say “obviously” to the sane and rational. The Open Minders haven’t figured this out yet, and probably never will.

Like the Godot the film’s title alludes to, NESARA never actually arrives (of course) and it’s something of a red herring. While the film slowly rolls out the full story of NESARA, the movie’s point isn’t the actual details of the conspiracy. The movie asks the bigger question of how and why do people get involved in cults.

The majority of the members of the Open Mind Forum, at least the ones interviewed, are former Mormon cultists. I’m not talking about the more mainstream Mormon religion, but the oddball sects that splintered off from the main group and still practice polygamy. For a good explanation of the differences between the main Mormon organization and the sects, I highly recommend the book Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakaeur.

For whatever reasons, the Open Minders have been excommunicated from their sects, meaning that all their friends and family in those sects can no longer associate with them. Thrown out of their heavily insular and insulated Mormon groups, the Open Minders are grasping for something and anything else to believe in. How they can make the leap to believing that Bush is a reptilian space alien and Jesus flies around in a spaceship is unknown. Director Zeb Haradon doesn’t judge the Open Minders and the connection between cultish behaviors is never actually discussed even though it’s a fairly large and clear subtext. Waiting for NESARA drops the audience into the middle of an Open Mind Forum meeting and lets them figure out who the group is and why it believes what it does for themselves. Hell, there’s probably some people who will watch the film and come away with a deep belief in NESARA.

I don’t really want to judge the Open Minders myself, but it was hard to watch the film and not do that. I just can’t fathom how seemingly rational people can believe such stupid shit. Part of it actually made me mad in how they would spread ridiculous stories about alien spaceships abducting our troops on the Iraq battlefield and lazer beams destroying the missles flying into Baghdad before they hit the ground. People are dying in this war and these dopes are obsessing over minutia in their stupid fantasy world.

P.S. Via the film’s official site, there have been some dramatic updates to the conspiracy since the film was made, which the site helpfully keeps up with. [UPDATE: Film website now defunct.]

Watch the Waiting for NESARA movie trailer: