1. Vertical hierarchies such as the one's we'e lived under for thousands of years are ripe targets for secret groups vying for complete control. As a result rumors and conspiracies are part of the allure - as it is with any mystery.

2. Electromagnetic forces around Earth, planets, our Star, and around biological beings are not very well understood.

3. Pure Speculation - the stuff science fiction is made - that disruption of the electromagnetic forces of a pole shift could wipe out all long and short term memories of humans and turn us all into instantaneous Alzheimer sufferers. A fiction, most likely.