Gaslighting the whole planet?

I have a weird little idea I think could make a good story, but I'm worried it might be too far fetched. What do you guys think?

So imagine that there's a really famous theme park, like Disney Land levels of famous, but one day it just vanished off the face of the planet. The site where it once was is now completely forested, as if nothing has ever been built there at all. What's more, everything even passively related to the park has disappeared too. Souvenirs, receipts, even photographs taken in and of the park vanish overnight. Everybody remembers it, but can't find a single piece of evidence that they were ever there, or that it ever even existed. The government funded "experts" claim that if no evidence of the park can be found, the park must never have been real, and name this the first case of "worldwide mass delusion." They're essentially gaslighting the entire world's population about the existence of a well known tourist attraction.

The thing is, I want it to work. People resist at first, naturally, but as time goes by and more "studies" on the delusion are published, they start to doubt their memories. Within a few years, anyone who still believes in the park are lumped alongside Bigfoot believers and Elvis spotters. Those few who continue to insist are subjected to "therapy" that's supposed to help them overcome their delusions. The story would be about one of these believers finding out what really happened to the park.

What do you think? Is it too far fetched to think that the government could brainwash the entire world into thinking they imagined what was essentially Disney Land?

 

This sounds like a really cool idea! If you haven't already, you might be interested to look up 'Mandela effect', which is the phenomenon of unconnected people remembering public facts or events incorrectly in the same way. There have been a number of examples of it happening, it sounds like it could play into your idea nicely.

Edited for clarity

 

This sounds really interesting! I would really like to read this and see where it goes!

 

This is taking more of an X-Files/SCP angle. The park was secretly built to lure in human sacrifices, the costumes were interdimensional portals with Lovecraftian nightmare creatures inside them, and people were getting eaten, so the government (or maybe an organization working outside the government?) made the whole thing disappear.

 

What do you mean?

 

People don't know about all of that. They just know that the park and all evidence of it vanished overnight.

 

Not too far-fetched at all. I think it's a wonderful concept.

The question is: Who are the main characters, and how does this mass gaslighting affect them? But ... that's your book, obviously.

 

The main character was there at the park the day before it disappeared. His brother was the one to get eaten, and he saw it happen, so he is much less susceptible to the brainwashing than other people. He's been seeing a "therapist" for thirteen years now, and his community sees him as a crackpot no better than a Bigfoot hunter. Even his mother has been convinced that her younger son was killed by a drunk driver, complete with a fake body for them to bury since the real one was sucked into an alternate dimension and devoured by a cosmic mess.

 

This reminds me slightly of a book by a Japanese author I read a few years ago. Not sure if I still have it, but it was heavy on weird mathematics. A stone sculpture of a fish appeared in a Tokyo park (?) with a mathematical equation inscribed on its side. No one could solve the equation, but no one could prove it was nonsense either. Many papers were written, trying to explain both the math and the appearance of the fish, but then one day the sculpture just disappeared as mysteriously as it had appeared. However, it took with it all copies of the formula, all photos and drawings of the sculpture, and all hardcopy or digital discussions of it. No one could remember the exact formula either, so any further attempts to solve it were for naught. I'll see if I still have it, but something tells me it probably ended up in my office book exchange.

 

This is definitely not too far-fetched at all. In fact, I think it's a really good idea for a story. We have seen recently how easy it is to brainwash a population just using social media. Your idea is just the notion of 'fake news' being taken to its extreme. If each person is made to feel as if THEY are weird if they claim to remember such an activity, they will stay silent. And the delusion will grow. Each person will begin to doubt themselves, especially if all physical traces of the place have vanished ...photos, souvenirs, etc. I think that's a really really unique idea worth exploring. For sure.

 

If Disney world disappeared tomorrow and all your family and friends still claimed to remember it, would you be convinced it never existed?

 

Aha, brain burped up the title: Self Reference ENGINE by Toh EnJoe. Kind of like if Vonnegut and Pynchon had a Japanese love-child. Not an easy read (and I mean no reflection on your idea, which I think is pretty neat actually, by that). So yeah, go with it, sounds fun.

 

Sounds like it could become a new religion.

 

I like this story idea, but finding a satisfying conclusion seems difficult. Where do you go with it?

 

Where do I go with what?

 

With the story idea (sorry to speak for the hamster).

 

Mascot costumes that lead to alternate dimensions with Lovecraftian nightmares inside them.

 

Very cool idea!

 

What about the people who built the park and the employees? Do their tax returns disappear? Do their banks have details of salary being paid into their accounts, and if not how have they paid for whatever they needed to live through the years? If two people became firm friends over years working together at the park, I find it hard to believe they'd accept it was all a delusion and that they're good friends even though they have no idea how they know each other.

 

Some of them vanished along with the park. The rest are too scared to do anything but pretend they've never heard about it.

 

And of course anybody who brings it up gets called a conspiracy theorist and ridiculed into silence.

 

And if they look too deep, the government just says "Screw it! You wanna see the park? Here ya go!"