In the windswept expanse of the Mojave Desert, a man known as "Mad" Mike Hughes prepared to launch himself into the sky, driven by an unshakable conviction that the Earth was flat. On February 22, 2020, his homemade rocket represented his third attempt to prove his belief—tragically, it would also be his last. Shortly after takeoff, Hughes crashed, losing his life in pursuit of what most scientists would call an impossible dream.

For evolutionary anthropologists, stories like Hughes' represent a fascinating psychological puzzle. Why do intelligent humans sometimes embrace beliefs that seem to completely contradict established scientific understanding? A recent review in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences offers a compelling explanation: people develop extraordinary beliefs through the same fundamental mechanisms they use to understand any aspect of reality.

Traditionally, social scientists have approached unusual beliefs—like flat Earth theories, supernatural claims, or elaborate conspiracy narratives—as fundamentally different from mainstream thinking. They've typically attributed such beliefs to cognitive biases or social dynamics, suggesting people adopt strange ideas either because of mental shortcuts or to fit into particular social groups.

However, the new research proposes a more nuanced understanding. Experience itself plays a critical role in shaping these beliefs, acting both as a filter determining which extraordinary ideas can spread and as a spark that helps people make sense of confusing personal experiences. Take the flat Earth theory: while scientifically impossible, it feels intuitively true because the ground beneath our feet appears perfectly flat when we're standing on it.

The study highlights how humans naturally try to explain inexplicable experiences. Strange occurrences like sleep paralysis—where individuals feel awake but cannot move, creating a terrifying liminal state—often prompt people to develop complex explanatory narratives. These beliefs aren't random but represent genuine attempts to understand confusing sensory experiences.

What makes this research particularly fascinating is its compassionate approach. Rather than mocking or dismissing people with extraordinary beliefs, the anthropological perspective seeks to understand the deeply human impulses driving these convictions. Social dynamics, cognitive biases, and personal experiences interweave to create belief systems that might seem bizarre to outsiders but feel completely logical to those who hold them.

The research reminds us that belief is rarely about pure rationality. It's a complex interaction between our sensory experiences, social environments, and fundamental human desire to make sense of a complex world. Whether it's a rocket enthusiast risking everything to prove a geographical theory or someone interpreting a strange nighttime experience through a supernatural lens, these beliefs reflect our profound human need to understand and explain our reality.