Verified by 
Since the riots and breaching of the United States Capitol on 6 January 2021, there have been multiple news stories about people trying to lessen the hold QAnon has on their family members. There are also more first-person accounts of former QAnon members. People in both sets of stories discuss the ways they, or their parents or other family members, became different people, sacrificing important relationships and commitments, stopping self-care, and inhabiting the world in very different ways.
A common refrain in both sets of stories is that people are pulled into an echo chamber or closed feedback loop that accelerates the erosion of trust in non-QAnon people and any other sources of information; the only reliable sources of information are the YouTube channels, chat rooms, and other websites that are sponsored by QAnon. People spend massive amounts of time in those loops where they encounter appeals to shared grievances, accounts of loss of rights, financial security, liberties, and all the attendant insecurities following such losses.
Even more important than the shared grievances is a sense of purpose—obligation even—to right the wrongs of a powerful “deep state” engaged in the sex trafficking of children that also steals elections. The insight and knowledge come from Q who allegedly is deeply embedded in the government. Having shared purpose with others is a powerful and exhilarating feeling. People who had felt marginalized because of beliefs, feelings, or preferences now find themselves in the middle of a system in which they are not just the normal ones but the ones with the “real knowledge” who can right the wrongs of corruption all in the name of patriotism.
It is not uncommon for people in these accounts to make comparisons to addiction. There is a rush of dopamine that comes from having a mission or calling. Another person claims that hate and ideology are the drugs of choice, so it makes sense to treat membership in QAnon as an addiction. I am going to bracket the question of whether a commitment to a political ideology is an addiction or not for now.
It’s interesting to consider the experiences of people who have so radically altered their lives as examples of conversions. American philosopher and psychologist William James (1842-1910) describes a conversion as a psychological process in which ideas that floated in the “transmarginal region” between the conscious and subconscious mind move into conscious awareness. Conversions may be sudden or gradual but the process is the same. At some point, ideas, images, and beliefs that had been outside the awareness of the conscious mind move front and center. When the ideas seem to suddenly rocket into awareness, the force may feel so strong that people believe it could only have been caused by a force outside themselves. This is often how people think of religious conversions when an unbeliever comes to believe in a deity. One can convert from religious belief to nonbelief, too. In other cases, the awareness dawns more slowly in smaller fits and starts perhaps. Falling in love is a gradual conversion. So, too, is falling out of love. Whether sudden or gradual, the outcomes are the same, James claims. People are reborn, regenerated, or rejuvenated.
James recognizes that two things need to be present in the mind of a person who is susceptible to a conversion. The first is a sense of the wrongness or incompleteness of his present life. QAnon is exceptionally adept at helping individuals to identify what they believe is wrong in their lives and where to ascribe the blame. QAnon gives a framework and a shared language to voice grievances and worries. The second necessary feature for a conversion is a positive ideal at which to aim. There has got to be a way to transform the wrongness in the world and have a better life. QAnon provides that to its members with calls to protest, stop "the steal," and use force to fight where necessary to stop the exploitation of children.
Regardless of the speed of the conversion, there are some common experiences post-conversion. One is that there is a sense of a higher control or a higher controlling agency. A person also feels a sense of assurance and new-found confidence. The newly converted often believe themselves to perceive truths not known before. The conversion experience in some way provides the decoder ring to all that has perplexed a person. Just as important, the world seems to change; it isn’t just that a person’s view of it changes but rather the world is new and different.
These effects map onto the descriptions from people who had been in QAnon but have left. James’s language is helpful here. A conversion changes a person’s “habitual center of personal energy,” or the “hot place in his consciousness.” A person’s habitual center is the axis around which much of his life turns. When people describe the relationships sundered, the careers suspended, and the aspirations deferred when joining QAnon, their habitual centers of energy change to something different. The changes are so significant, James claims, that people become new people. They may no longer be recognizable to themselves or to those who have known them their entire lives. This helps to explain why many family members of QAnon members express a longing to get their mother, father, daughter, or son "back." They want the person they knew to return. It also explains why people who have left QAnon try to recover their old selves.
If becoming a member of QAnon is a conversion, then leaving QAnon is also a conversion. A person’s habitual center needs to shift again, but this is not to say that a person will revert to the same person he was before. It is possible that she can create or generate a new habitual center of energy. This seems the case for those who have left QAnon and now work to help others leave or to assist family members with their loved ones. James would acknowledge others can help, but no one can change the habitual center of energy of another. As much as someone wants another to change, her wanting it does not make it so. Ultimately, James says, each person’s center is their own to live.
How can one person catch even a glimpse of the present wrongness or incompleteness of the world of QAnon? This is especially difficult in the echo chamber and closed feedback loop accompanied by large-scale distrust of non-QAnon members. One woman had a moment of cognitive dissonance. All her QAnon sources were telling her a certain prominent figure was being arrested but she saw that person on the news acting without a care in the world. Those moments are wrinkles in the fabrications; they can dwell in the transmarginal region of consciousness. Finding a positive ideal at which to aim is just as difficult. Those who have left QAnon may serve that function for some in much the same way that people with longer-term recovery from addiction serve for those trying to stay sober.
For those people concerned about friends or families who are in QAnon and want to know what to do or how to help, it is important to remember that these changes are about a person’s entire life. They felt that something was wrong or lacking and QAnon provided the answers and a program for living. Understanding the whys of someone becoming a member of QAnon and what they are getting out of it is crucial to understanding why someone might leave it.
References
James, William. 1899. Talks to Teachers. New York: Longmans Green.
James, William. 1902. The Varieties of Religious Experience. New York: Longmans Green.
