Freaky Friday Files: Death of Max Spiers

ashey9111
May 2
4 min read

Hi friends! Happy Friday!

I hope you've had a wonderful week. I was researching for some of my Freaky Friday Files blog posts, and I came across the death of Max Spiers. I thought this was an interesting one to talk about. It's not as scary as some of my other Freaky Friday Files, but it does make you think about things! It's more on the sad side of things.

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Death of Max Spiers

On the 16th July, 2026, British Ufologist Max Spiers passed away while visiting a friend in Warsaw, Poland. He was known to cause controversy with news outlets such as the BBC for things he was investigating. He also gave lectures on the paranormal, conspiracy theories, government cover-ups, and UFO/alien-related things. I also read somewhere that he gave other lectures on more "normal" topics, but I can't find the source (hopefully I'm not just making that up).

The reason that his death is considered "strange" is that just a few days prior to his passing, he sent a text message to his mum saying, "If anything happens to me, investigate". Max Spiers' full name was Maxwell Bates-Spiers (1976 - 2016). From a very young age, Max was interested in conspiracy theories, out-of-body experiences, and he also believed that he had been given supernatural powers at birth, like he thought he was going to turn into a super soldier, but there was never any evidence of this. He also suffered from severe anxiety (which to me is very relatable). There were many critiques of Max Spiers' conspiracy work as people accused him of plagiarism - aka collecting other people's work and presenting it as his own.

Spiers visited the USA, and during his time there, he cracked his pelvis. For treatment, he was prescribed opiates and later developed an opiate use disorder. As he was unable to obtain more opiates, he started using h*roin. When he was in Poland, it was alleged that Spiers relapsed, which a video taken before his passing highlights. His mum says that he was behaving the same way as he did when she had seen him on h*roin.

Authorities found that Max had died from pneumonia and an overdose of X*nax. Originally, they thought it was of natural causes, and his mum had to push for more information, as she couldn't obtain Max's consent for them to release it (make it make sense, guys). It wasn't until 2019 that they released results showing what was in his system. A combination of the drugs and having pneumonia led to gastric issues and ultimately, his death. He left behind two children.

There is a 6-part documentary called Fractured available on YouTube about Max Spiers if you are interested. You can find the playlist link "here".

I want to include a quote from Dan Seitz's article about Max Spiers because I think it ties things together nicely:

"Ufologists and conspiracy theorists often mourn the loss of one of their own by assuming it’s all part of the grand cover-up. They are, after all, disinclined to believe in coincidence in the first place, and when tragedy strikes, even if the evidence is thin, perhaps a grand assassination is easier to accept than the cruelties of fate. It’s easy to forget the fundamental belief of conspiracy theories is that everything happens for a reason and that somebody, somewhere, is in charge. On the other hand, it’s a lot easier to be rational when information is offered freely."

He goes on to say:

"Above all, we shouldn’t lose track of the tragedy here. Spiers left behind two children, and his mother is facing a Kafkaesque mess — just to receive what should be simple and necessary paperwork. No one should face such callous treatment in the face of a sudden loss. The Spiers family, one way or the other, deserves answers, even if they don’t believe what they hear."

I think this highlights how people can be super quick to jump to conclusions based on limited evidence, especially if you are a conspiracy theorist yourself. Confirmation bias is ripe.

May Max Spiers rest in peace.

This post also made me start thinking about conspiracy theorists in general, and one article from Brashier (2023) says:

"conspiracy theorists reject the mainstream explanation for an event, often in favor of a more complex account. They exhibit a general distrust of others and expend considerable effort to find ‘evidence’ supporting their beliefs. In searching for answers, conspiracy theorists likely expose themselves to misleading information online and overestimate their own knowledge. Understanding when elaboration and cognitive effort might backfire is crucial, as conspiracy beliefs lead to political disengagement, environmental inaction, prejudice, and support for violence."

I need to do some more research on this particular topic of why conspiracy theorists exist and how they think, but it may have detrimental implications in today's socio-political climate.

Thanks for reading this week's edition of Freaky Friday Files.

Stay safe,

Ash x

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