Conspirituality

There's no Teal Swan without the Satanic Panic. And there's no Satanic Panic without the 1980 publication of Michelle Remembers, by Lawrence Pazder and Michelle Smith.

In this first of three segments on this melted book, Matthew and Julian cover its historical, cultural, and mass media context. We start with a review of a 1985 20/20 episode called “The Devil Worshippers” for a taste of how mainstream outlets hosted cranks like Pazder, giving him a hall pass on evidence, and overlooking how his Catholic fetishes and paranoias played a huge role in the fictions he spun.

The post Vatican 2 context is crucial, especially as we bear witness to the current political triumphs of Trad-Cath propaganda and politics in our post-Roe, QAnon -fried world. For help, we look to an excellent essay by social historian Bernard Doherty about the genre and elements of the Catholic Horror Film, which begins with Rosemary's Baby in 1968. This reactionary genre attempted to respond to modernizing—or postmodernizing, as Jordan Peterson might say—changes in Church doctrine.

Bottom line? The Satanic Panic largely begins in and is sustained by Catholic-flavoured conspirituality anxiety about secularization, sex, babies, and abortion.

Show Notes

Michael Hobbes and Sarah Marshall cover Michelle Remembers with great skill.

"20/20" the Devil Worshippers - May 16, 1985

West of Memphis movie review & film summary (2012) | Roger Ebert

Mel Gibson: The man without a pope - Where Peter Is

The Smoke of Satan on the Silver Screen: The Catholic Horror Film, Vatican II, and the Revival of Demonology | Journal for the Academic Study of Religion

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We can't understand Teal Swan without understanding the Satanic Panic. And we can't really understand that historical disaster with out feeling our way into the mysteries of memory, fantasy, shame, and terror.

Many of you will have heard about therapists interfering in a family constellation by insinuating the client has has memories of abuse to uncover, and that they can’t go forward in their lives without doing that work. This is the bread and butter of Swan's technique, with the result being that many of her close followers come to tell stories  about their childhoods that echo hers. Swan's own story of childhood abuse crystallized after she goes through treatment with a leading Satanic Panic therapist, Barbara Snow.

Those are stories on the page. But today, to kick off the Swan Song Series, Julian shares  the moment-by-moment mechanics of how this disastrous parody of therapy turned his own life inside out, and alienated him from his family for a decade.

Content warning for listeners: we’ll be talking about stories of child sexual abuse.

Show Notes

The Gateway

Michelle Remembers, covered by Sarah Marshall and Michael Hobbes

Forrest Yoga students ask A. Forrest to stop using the Zia Nation symbol

A. Forrest's ostensible mentor 

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Matthew sits down with ace journalist EJ Dickson to explore her deep archive of reporting on the policing of women's bodies, and how it reflects on her own experience of childbirth.

This episode opens and closes with reference to the essay that first introduced Matthew to this world, "Giving Birth in Yogaland," written by his partner Alix, after two C-section deliveries.

Show Notes

"Giving Birth in Yogaland" —Alix Cale

raggapunzel on Instagram —water birth on the beach

Covid-19 Vaccine: How Dommes Are Convincing Submissives to Get Jabs

Matt Gaetz, QAnon Followers, and the GOP Are Exploiting the #FreeBritney Movement

Are Sex-Negative 'Puriteens' Actually Taking Over the Internet?

'Pastel QAnon' Is Infiltrating the Natural Parenting Community

Princess Diana Struggled With Bulimia. Does 'The Crown' Do Her Justice?

The Baby-Formula Shortage Has Spawned a New Brand of Mom-Shamers

Roe v. Wade: Top Influencers Avoid Abortion Debate - Rolling Stone

Amber Heard, Johnny Depp: TikTok Reenactments of Testimony Goes Viral

Michelle Phan: How YouTube Beauty Guru Fell in With Bullshit Peddler

There Are a Million Reasons to Get An Abortion. This Was Mine.

Bentinho Massaro: Instagram Guru 'F-king' His Followers 'To Freedom'

In Minnie Mouse's D

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A recent review questioning the serotonin theory of depression has revived a generations-long debate over the very notion of "chemical imbalances." While there are plenty of important debates about the roles of pharmacology and psychotherapy in mental health disorders, conspiritualists from both wellness spaces and the far right have been using mental health to promote (and monetize) their own agendas. Derek investigates.

Show Notes

The serotonin theory of depression: a systematic umbrella review of the evidence

The New Study on Serotonin and Depression Isn’t About Antidepressants

Inside Kelly Brogan’s Covid-Denying, Vax-Resistant Conspiracy Machine

The Far Right’s Next Target for a Bullshit Moral Panic: Antidepressants

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Life is scary. Natural disasters, violent intruders, and deadly viruses threaten our survival and endanger our loved ones. When ordinary solutions and institutions are not trusted, we may reach for talismanic help; crystals, herbal remedies, ritual prayer and magical thinking, or we might consult the charismatic oracle who channels prophecies from the Great Beyond—right on your iPhone.

But what about weaponry? Even though guns exert devastating real-world impact, our guest argues that they also carry an important  symbolic power. While most may never use it, the knowledge that cold hard steel is nearby is one attempt at managing an anxiety that is all-too human. In fact, coping strategies both magical and militaristic are woven into the American political psyche—and as the pandemic has demonstrated, flare up dramatically during social crises; even at times becoming strange bedfellows.

Philosophy and religion professor Alan Levinovitz calls this "empowerment epistemology" and describes it as a connective tissue between the seemingly distant domains of gun culture and the wellness sphere. In both cases, this longing for empowerment in the face of helplessness motivates us to cleave to what we believe protects us, regardless of evidence to the contrary—or the tragic consequences in our middle schools and medical ICUs.

Show Notes

Oprah's 'happiness guru' designed apartments to maximize joy — and they start at $5 million

Killing does not come easy for soldiers - The Washington Post

Hanns Johst “Schlageter”

Quote/Counterquote: “Whenever I hear the word 'culture'…” 

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Some of the most valuable material that comes to us from Paula Marino's Open Shadow film of 2017 is an extended interview with Swan's parent's, the Bosworths. They speak about Swan's sensory sensitivity as a young child, and how that morphed into a staunchly independent but sometimes isolated social life. They describe Swan's secret runic writing, their belief in her capacities as a medical intuitive, and discuss the gaps in psychiatric care that failed them all when her mental health needed help. This episode examines this interview, and then cross-checks some aspects against the account of Swan's childhood friend, Diana Hansen Ribera.

Here we have the unique insight into parents speaking vulnerably and transparently about their baffling child—which means we can really lean into the primal material that pre-exists the charged questions about whether Teal Swan is  running a cult or encouraging suicide. What we find, between the accounts of the Bosworths and Ribera, is a collection of commonplace phenomena: high sensitivity, parents learning as they go, the intrusion of internet pornography, and a likely abusive figure who was too close to the family.

In this episode, Matthew and Julian discuss the mystery of familial memory,  idealizing vs. pathologizing children, the appeals of fantasy as a mode of relief, whether the Satanic Panic was a collective cry for help to resolve commonplace domestic and community abuse, and the possibility that cult formation is a social form of post traumatic play.

Show Notes

Open Shadow — Paula Marino

Do You Cry Easily? You May Be a 'Highly Sensitive Person'

The science behind why some of us are shy

Study: Pornography does not cause violent sex crimes

When Children Act Out Sexually: A Guide for Parents and Teachers

1607: Growing up with Teal Swan - Diana Hansen Ribera

“Forbidden Games”: Post-Traumatic Child's Play — Lenore Terr

Valerie L. Dripchak (2007). Posttraumatic Play: Towards Acceptance and Resolution. , 35(2), 125–134. doi:10.1007/s10615-006-0068-y

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We spend so much time on this podcast discussing the wellness industry’s paranoia around anything from the medical “establishment” or the Luciferean nature of “Big Pharma,” but there’s another devil that’s lurking around every corner: the Mainstream Media.

Derek has long argued that there’s no such thing. Media organizations are competing businesses, and while there can be sloppiness when trying to break a story or laziness when rewriting press releases for clicks, the notion of a media “Deep State” is usually part of the conspiritualist’s sales technique, not the reality of modern media.

Derek began his career as a religion journalist, and this week he interviews Sam Kestenbaum, who’s made a career in this field. Sam has written for the NY Times and the Washington Post, where he recently published an expose on Christiane Northrup. Derek asks him about this story in particular, as well as his process of reporting on religion, the differences between spirituality and religion, and the coming post-pandemic spirituality surge—and how conspiritualists are already monetizing it.

Show Notes

Christiane Northrup, once a New Age health guru, now spreads covid disinformation

Life After Proclaiming a Trump Re-election As Divinely Ordained

Godspeak Calvary Church Defies Quarantine, Attendance Soars

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In this episode of the Swan Song Series, Matthew interviews Paola Marino about why she found Teal Swan a fascinating subject to film for 2018’s “Open Shadow.” They discuss aesthetics, the mystery of personality, why Swan’s parents agreed to sit down with her. Matthew also surprised her with the newly-revealed translations of Swan’s coded journal pages.

Prefacing the interview is a discussion between Julian and Matthew about art, artifice, the risks of doing and not doing hard journalism on the subjects we cover. They discuss James Joyce’s proverb about  noble art, in which he describes “aesthetic arrest” as the middle way between propaganda and pornography.

Marino’s work attempts to find that path, while Jon Kasbe’s The Deep End falters to both sides. On one hand Kasbe’s film titillates viewers with high drama. On the other hand it tells viewers what they should think. And in both cases it creates a story where the truth would suffice.

The feelings excited by improper art are kinetic, desire or loathing. Desire urges us to possess, to go to something; loathing urges us to abandon, to go from something. These are kinetic emotions. The arts which excite them, pornographical or didactic, are therefore improper arts. The esthetic emotion (I use the general term) is therefore static. The mind is arrested and raised above desire and loathing. — James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Show Notes

Open Shadow—Paola Marino

Gizmodo Launches 'The Gateway,' an Investigative Podcast About a Controversial Internet Spiritual Guru

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This podcast was born in response to COVID and vaccine disinformation that, while bubbling up for some time, flooded the population with the release of the pseudodocumentary, “Plandemic.” Ever since then, we’ve wondered how to combat the constant tides of pseudoscience masquerading as “natural remedies” that conspiritualists champion, then sell for a profit. 

One of our earliest champions was the Southern California-based cardiologist, Danielle Belardo, who built up a large social media following even before the pandemic ravaged the world. Not only was she on the actual frontlines of COVID wards, but she’s been leading the charge on providing evidence-based information on her social media feeds, as well as her excellent podcast, Wellness: Fact Vs Fiction.

Derek was recently a guest on that podcast, and now Danielle returns the favor, joining him to discuss her thoughts on being a science communicator and a female cardiologist in a male-dominated field, as well as many of the wellness myths circling around social media, including supplements, statins, sunscreen, veganism, organic foods, and GMOs. 

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Derek steps back from conspiracies and wellness this week to discuss something very healing and personal to him: music. Specifically, how music has shaped his career, as well as the story behind the music you hear every week on this podcast.

Show Notes

EarthRise SoundSystem on Spotify

Earthrise SoundSystem vs Nina Simone: Come Ye

Bole 2 Harlem

Pete Kuzma

Global Beat Fusion: The History of the Future of Music

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