Conspirituality

Hot yoga tycoon and sex offender Bikram Choudhury was set to teach his sweaty pseudoscience in Vancouver starting on February 20th. But a team of yoga allies, led by a woman who has sued Choudhury for rape, said "Fuck off."

So that's that.

Or is it? We have many questions.

Why was this cursed event planned in the first place? Who on earth is continuing to support this clown, and trying to make money off of him? Who would cover themselves in sweaty shit in order to prop up this Simpsons-level caricature of a yoga megalomaniac? And how did Bikram Yoga become the de facto exercise method and spiritual practice of "Freedom Convoy" supporters?

Matthew takes a sweaty tour through a land of pseudoscience and rape culture, hot yogis and truckers, anti-vaxxers and frog-lickers to find out.

Big thank you to Colin Hall of Bodhi Tree Yoga for stopping by!

Show Notes

Canadian yoga competition stretches into Edmonton | CBC News

Controversial Bikram yoga founder's planned Vancouver workshops raising flags

Jill Lawler's 1st-person account

Petition · Stop Predator Bikram Choudhury from hosting Yoga Seminar in Vancouver · Change.org

Woman speaking out against Bikram Yoga event gets disturbing pushback from organizer

Bikram yoga event no longer planned for Vancouver hotel

Bikram Yoga Creator Loses It When Asked About Sexual Assault Allegations | HuffPost Women

Sponsor: https://www.gardomlakeyoga.ca/

WATCH: Justin Trudeau cross-examined by Convoy lawyer

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The Twitter Files are the grift that keeps on giving. This week, Derek and Julian look at Alex Berenson's recent appearance on Russell Brand's Rumble channel to talk about the conspiracies that only exists in their heads—and the misinformation they share along the way.

Show Notes

The Pandemic’s Wrongest Man

Russell Brand: Elites Are Using Liberal Ideas to Justify Inequality

How anti-vaxxers monetize misinformation

URGENT: A federal database offers more evidence the mRNA Covid jabs may have serious cardiovascular risks

For red and blue America, a glaring divide in COVID-19 death rates persists 2 years later

Scathing evaluation of Sweden's COVID response reveals 'failures' to control the virus

Large, real-world study finds COVID-19 vaccination more effective than natural immunity in protecting against all causes of death, hospitalization and emergency department visits

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Today, Hulu releases a 3-episode doc series called “Stolen Youth,” directed by Zach Heinzerling.

The pole star for this low-dopamine, low-cortisol, non-true-crime, survivor-centred documentary is Daniel Levin’s painful and radiant memoir, Slonim Woods 9. In 2010, Levin was drawn into an extended-family domestic abuse group led by Larry Ray, the father of one of his friends at Sarah Lawrence College. It took him years to leave, years to begin to recover, and years to become the de facto subject coordinator for this film.

Matthew talks with Zach and Daniel about what it takes to really listen to survivors of group abuse, and how the arts of memoir and documentary can be doorways to reconnection and integration.

In an interview debrief, Julian and Matthew discuss why reviewing Stolen Youth is such a relief in the current Wild West cultsploitation landscape.

Well-told stories in this zone—and we need more of them—educate, de-sensationalize, and de-stigmatize. They humanize every step of the journey: from recruitment, to enmeshment, to complicity, to recovery, to creativity.

Show Notes

Slonim Woods 9 by Daniel Barban Levin

Rough Cut: What do filmmakers owe their subjects? w/Souki Medhaoui

Larry Ray and the Stolen Kids of Sarah Lawrence

How Did Larry Ray Run a Cult at Sarah Lawrence? 

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Sure, a big question: one Derek explores in the context of this nearly three-year-old Conspirituality project. Criticism and awareness are essential tools in a critical thinking kit, but to what end? As he prepares upcoming presentations on the topic of misinformation in public health, Derek reflects on the value of identifying charlatans and quacks while also speculating about how to move forward. 

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Those who fly high, fall hard. Pole dance company S-Factor crashed and burned in 2021 amidst a stack of complaints. Detractors said the company was conducting unlicensed group therapy, cosplaying enlightenment by co-opting the labour of sex workers, and whitewashing issues of racial equality.

Created by former actor Sheila Kelley, S-Factor monetized pole dancing as a path of feminist and spiritual awakening.

In this 2-part Listener Story, Matthew speaks to Jessica Hopper about her 13 years learning and teaching in the now-defunct company. Hopper paints a picture of a confusing, high-demand group, and tells us how she made her way out.

NOTE: During our discussion, Jessica recounts a tense all-hands S-factor staff meeting to discuss PR strategy at a crucial moment as the company cracked-up over issues of white fragility. I wasn't able to secure a recording of that call before my interview with Jessica, or since. But after we recorded, I did confirm what Jessica reports about it with 3 of the other participants on that call.  MR

Show Notes

Stripped Down: The Undoing of Hollywood's Favorite Pole-Dancing Studio —Hollywood Reporter.

"Strip Down, Rise Up" | Official Trailer | Netflix

Faces of Fierce Femininity—online conference organized by Kelly Brogan

Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema—Laura Mulvey, 1975

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Can you believe that Nancy Pelosi paid people to attack the Capitol on Jan 6 in order to make Republicans look bad? Actually, I mean, Jan 6 was the most peaceful gathering of a million patriots in history. Wait, hold on: Jan 6 was an antifa operative to act as cover for the fact that the election was, indeed, stolen. 

Do any of these stories sound familiar? Now imagine hearing them all, and dozens more like them, all in the same day, and you’ll get a glimpse of what Daily Show correspondent and host of the podcast, Fingers the Conspiracy, Jordan Klepper, endures on a regular basis. Today Jordan joins us to talk about the cursed world of conspiracies that he’s witnessed, up close and in person, with the people who spread them, what it was like to be at the Capitol on Jan 6, and the bewildering intersection of comedy and politics. 

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Katie Griggs. Katie Day. Kundalini Katie. Guru Jagat. We hardly knew you.

The late "Queen of Conspiracy Theories" is now memorialized on NPR through Emily Guerin's LAist podcast "Imperfect Paradise."

Matthew sits down with Emily to explore how we cover figures like Griggs, what it was like to interview her family, and what we can ultimately say about the compromised feminist empowerment she offered her followers—and whether she could have taken another route.

Show Notes

She was a popular yoga guru. Then she embraced QAnon conspiracy theories — NPR, LAist

36: Guru Jagat’s Pandemic Brandwash (w/Philip Deslippe & Stacie Stukin)

37: Guru Jagat Cultjacks Kundalini Yoga (w/Philip Deslippe & Stacie Stukin)

(PDF) From Maharaj to Mahan Tantric: The Construction of Yogi Bhajan’s Kundalini Yoga — Philip Deslippe

Yogi Bhajan Turned an L.A. Yoga Studio into a Juggernaut, and Left Two Generations of Followers Reeling from Alleged Abuse — Stacie Stukin

Inside the Dubious World of RA MA Yoga, and Its Girl Boss Guru to the Stars — Cassidy George, VICE

Guru Jagat Dies. A Saint Is Born. | by Matthew Remski | Aug, 2021 | Medium

Guru Jagat Mourned in Person with Breathing Exercises, No Masks — Matthew Remski

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What do you do  when your psychotherapy clients suffer from conspiracy theory anxiety?

What do you do when the conspirituality-based therapy advice they get from TikTok is compelling, but also misleading?

Toronto-based Registered Psychotherapist Alessia Caputo joins Matthew for this Listener Story installment to discuss the changing therapeutic landscape, in the office and online.

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Using a combination of Alexa, Siri, and your extensive search history, we've been able to scan your bio energetic field, and are sending personalized quantum rebalancing and immune-boosting frequencies your way as you listen. Can you feel it?! Can your pet feel it? Because, dear listener, there’s a program for them, too. In fact, there’s a program for everything and everyone because frequencies don’t discriminate—as long as you’re not into Big Pharma, that is. All you need is to invest in this little $1,000 machine—$4,000 if you want the “professional edition”—that clips onto your Lulu gear and injects quantum vibes straight into your soul.

That’s right, this week we’re talking about the Healy. Our correspondent, Mallory DeMille, has scanned the ethereal social media frequencies to find a greatest hits collection of influencers attempting to energetically guide you into their downline. Derek offers a bit of Healy history, which is rooted in the anti-EMF movement, while Matthew and I wonder: why is it that the same wellness crew that’s afraid of 5G and vaccine technology is so willing to wear this mysterious device? 

Show Notes

Healy World Official on YouTube

Marcus Schmieke explains the Technology and Science behind Healy

@trusting_birth questioning Healy

See conspirituality.net/episodes for screenshots mentioned during this episode

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Did the Matrix kidnap Top G? Or is Andrew Tate the Matrix himself, now unplugged and shorting out in a Romanian jail?

While his self-confessed crimes against women come home to roost, the online spectacle his arrest has generated provides a litmus test for just how fast the cognitive dissonance of culture war chaos can plummet.

Welcome to the broader “Tate crime”: a spectacle of acute reality-reversal, fueled by reactionary politics and driven by a cultic network of devotees and SEO managers, where culture war punditry is funded by bogus self-help courses and online pornography.

Show Notes

The PHD Program (“Pimping Hos Degree)

Andrew Tate said he broke a woman's jaw and that his business was a 'scam' ahead of Romanian charges

Tate admits to statutory rape

Part One: Andrew Tate, and the Mythopoetic Men's Movement - Behind the Bastards | iHeart

The Dangerous Rise of Andrew Tate

"From Pick-Up Artists to Incels: Con(fidence) Games, Networked Misogyny, and the Failure of Neoliberalism"

A Coordinated Group Of 4,500 Bots Tweeted In Support Of Andrew Tate

Teachers Warn That Misogynist Andrew Tate Has 'Radicalized' School-Age Boys

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