Like many children, I believed in Santa Claus. He came by my house, dropped through the chimney and left off presents for my brother and me every year. Until I figured out the reality of Santa, he was a necessary part of my understanding of Christmas.

I was in a box in which I so believed in Santa Claus that no one could convince me that the facts were really different. I only got out of that box when I realized that I had never taken another idea seriously.

When I mention my disbelief in the idea that Osama bin Laden planned and orchestrated the events of 9/11, I get a quizzical look from some people. They apparently cannot understand why I do not accept the official theory. I think that they are in a box much like I was as a child.

If one has conducted research and concludes that bin Laden and al-Qaeda committed the crimes of 9/11, I have no problem with that. Good research allows a person to seriously consider a number of possibilities before making a decision. Somewhere along the way they shed the box.

But I am convinced that a significant number of our population cannot hold a meaningful conversation about this topic because they never challenged their own conceptions. And until they do, they will not comprehend anything I say that goes beyond the walls of their box: the 19 suicide hijackers, the four planes, the phone calls from passengers, the courageous passengers who fought back and forced a crash landing of one of the planes in a field, etc.

This attitude fits in with an old beer commercial whose message was "It's it and that's that." It is the idea that we know what we need to know and that's all there is to it. It is too bad because new information cannot reach one whose mind is closed.

There is plenty of information for anyone interested in challenging the official line of 9/11 to consider. And when we consider new information, we throw away the box that traps us. Consider this:

The 19 suicide hijackers - who says there were any hijackers that day? The information about them came from the media, which supposedly heard from investigators who found documents about the 19 men in the trunk of a car or on the luggage carousel at Boston Logan airport, depending on which story you believe. Why would hijackers bring any information that identified them? Especially when seven of these names have been identified as names of people still alive! Throw off the box - the documents sound more like a plant to throw off investigators than what the official story tells us.

The four planes - who says that four planes were used to crash into buildings? Again the media told us the flight numbers and gave various lists of passengers for each. But no one has ever produced receipts for plane tickets, boarding pass stubs or videos of any of the passengers supposedly on the flights. Furthermore, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics records show that only two of the four alleged hijacker flights were scheduled to take off that day. With four crash sites, it should be obvious that other objects were used in at least some of the crashes that took place.

The phone calls from passengers - What calls? Research has proven that cell phones are ineffective, at best, at the altitude that the flights supposedly went to. The idea that over twenty calls went through, even if a few were reliable air phones, is preposterous. The box opens here if we are willing to acknowledge the possibility that calls were made from the ground, either through voice synthesizers or by people to their relatives. Why would people call relatives with information of impending doom if it were not true? Consider the fact that a hijack simulation took place that very day.

And that story about passengers on United 93 fighting back against the hijackers? Without hijackers, that would be impossible. Where did we get this information? We got it from the media who got it through a representative of Verizon phones, who said she did not tape record the conversation with one of the men supposedly involved in the fight against the hijackers because she was afraid she would disconnect the call. As if a person with nothing else to do but call would not simply call her again?

Most people, I am convinced, want the truth. But wanting it is not enough. It is necessary to go and seek it. Just get rid of that box over your head and see what you can find!

Read more about 9/11 Here!