Conspirituality

During Thursday’s episode, Derek briefly described Flow States in the context of a universal form of spirituality. He explores that concept in a little more depth, pulling audio from Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s 2004 TED Talk about the social ramifications of Flow States.

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We’re grounding down. We’re letting go. We are going deep. We are finding the metta in our meta and tuning in to Source. This week we’ll either answer or transcend the core questions our listeners post in moments of parasocial vulnerability:

Do you guys believe in anything at all? Are there any wholesome spiritual communities out there? Are all spiritual teachers toxic?

This four-hour immersive encounter between three white guys is not to be missed!

(Seriously tho: we’ve got some huge interviews and investigative pieces coming up in the next few weeks, so we’re kicking back a little here to talk basics and regroup.)

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Julian traces the roots of today’s pandemic-era conspirituality back to What The Bleep’s quantum woo, The Secret’s privileged denial and grandiosity, and the dark lessons of why beliefs really matter, as revealed by James Arthur Ray’s deadly Spiritual Warrior Retreat.

Show Notes

Laura Tucker’s response to Nine Perfect Strangers

Guru: The Dark Side of Enlightenment

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Daniel Sherrell is the author of an extraordinary memoir and prayer book, Warmth: Coming of Age at the End of Our World, in which he recounts how, as a climate activist born in 1990, he has fought to manage, digest, and even celebrate the desperate tasks of the only age he’s known: the Anthropocene. The book is his homage to the resources that help him meditate on weaning ourselves from the dissociations of Twitter and doing the hard work of transforming climate grief into climate integrity.

In our feature interview this week, Matthew sits down with Daniel to discuss the real conspiracy of climate denialism, and how conspiracy theories provide relief to those who cannot contemplate our condition.

We start the show with Derek’s contemplation of Amitav Ghosh’s “The Great Derangement” and Julian’s notes on climate denialism dwarfing the disinformation we typically interrogate in the wellness world.

Show Notes

Warmth by Daniel Sherrell

Sherrell and Dorothy Fortenberry on Know Your Enemy

Why Grief can be Strength in a Warming World | Daniel Sherrell |

Learning How to Die in the Anthropocene – Scranton

Laudato si’ (24 May 2015) | Francis

Tucker Carlson on Military Vaccine Mandate

Dr. Wilson (Debunk the Funk) on Mike Yeadon

Big Oil’s War on Science

UCSA Climate Skeptic Disinformation List

The Climate Disinformation Playbook

Desmog Database

Steven Koonin, the “Obama Scientist”

Daniel Sherrell’s Reading List

Ducks, Newburyport — Ellman

The Summer Book – Jannson

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On his family’s yearly trip to Manitoulin Island, Matthew detoxes from conspirituality influencer garbage, and returns with parts of a new plan.

Show Notes

Warmth by Daniel Sherrell: 9780143136538 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

Living at the End of Our World (w/ Daniel Sherrell & Dorothy Fortenberry) | Know Your Enemy

Lives Reclaimed — Mark Roseman

What Conspiritualists and Anti-Vaxxers Get Right | by Matthew Remski | Aug, 2021 | Medium

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This week, California Governor Gavin Newsom rode sane pandemic messaging to victory against the Republican-led recall election by a huge margin. Unsurprisingly, voting patterns perfectly matched the state COVID heat map, with fans of the recall suffering the worst outbreaks. Meanwhile, a strict lockdown in Australia, which is experiencing a Delta outbreak, led to American libertarians and right-wing commentators screaming fascism! We talk to Decoding the Gurus co-host (and real-life Australian) Matthew Browne about the situation on the ground. Later in the episode, Julian interviews another Aussie, Dr. Izzy Smith, about her online anti-conspiracy theory activism and science advocacy.

In the Ticker, Derek looks at JP Sears’s new cryptocurrency grift, which appears to be inspired by fellow Austinite Mikki Willis—who also announced a supplement grift this week. Matthew talks briefly to Toronto video journalist Morgan Yew to begin making sense of the alarming convergence of racist alt-right groups with aggressive anti-mask, anti-vaccine protestors at medical facilities in Canada.

Show Notes

How the media helped fuel the anti-vaxx movement

The Non-Fungible Freedom Column

Atlantic article “Australia Traded Away Too Much Liberty”

Josh Szeps Twitter thread response to The Atlantic

Federalist article Pursuing Covid-Zero Has Turned Australia into an Authoritarian State

Opinion | Meet the police chief turned yoga instructor prodding wealthy suburbanites to civil war

Ex-La Habra police chief Alan Hostetter, 5 others charged in Jan. 6 Capitol riot

When QAnon Came to Canada

Glowing Mama Anti-Masker. Toronto Influencer Socially Toilets in… | by Matthew Remski | Medium

Morgan Yew (@weynagrom)

Morgan Yew interviewing Sarah Choujounian of Canadian Frontline Nurses

Morgan Yew: Plan to “Interview” Racist Anti-Lockdown Influencer Ends in Violence

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In June, Planedemic creator Mikki Willis appeared on Living 4D with Paul Chek to discuss what “really happened” at the Capitol on Jan 6. During the long-ranging talk, Willis took some time to attack a VICE News article that we were featured in. Unfortunately for Willis, we have the audio from the Election Night party in Austin being referenced. Derek updates Willis’s memory.

Show Notes

Living 4D With Paul Check, EP 141 – Mikki Willis 2: What’s Really Going On?

The Election Night audio

Leading New Age Conspiracy Influencers Plan Their Retreat to Utopian Lagoon

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Paul Chek will tell you how much he’s influenced the fitness industry. He’ll tell you that he popularized Swiss Balls, and about his time working with the Jordan-era Chicago Bulls and then the championship Lakers. The kinesiologist and founder of the Chek Institute, which offers numerous training programs under the slogan, “We teach the science of living well,” claims that he’s always taken a holistic approach to weightlifting and the gym. In fact, the man does not mind telling you how vast his influence is.

Embedded in Chek’s holistic approach is a penchant for conspiratorial thinking. He trained JP Sears, traded podcasts with biohacker Ben Greenfield, hung with anus sunshiner Troy Casey, and hosted Mikki Willis twice in the last year on his own podcast, Living 4D with Paul Chek. Today’s co-host, NYC-based fitness expert Antonio Valladares, also trained with Chek, but unlike many of Chek’s acolytes, Antonio has used his time and knowledge debunking conspiracy theories in nutrition and fitness, not adding to the fire.

In this week’s closer, Matthew reviews and contextualizes a Facebook post from the charismatic dissectionist Gil Hedley. Hedley’s post leaned into familiar anti-vax territory. But he deleted it — and, in a positive email exchange, revealed some earnest motivations and empathetic impulses. A good lesson that you never quite know where people are coming from, or where they’re going.

Show Notes

Deconstructing Paul Chek

Who is Paul Chek: Holistic Lifestyle Coach

Plandemic Director Mikki Willis Explains His Presence at Capitol Riot — Matthew Remski

About Gil Hedley

Gil Hedley: Fascia and stretching:  The Fuzz Speech

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A QAnon-themed Stop The Steal, anti-vax, Covid-denial roadshow came to an untimely end in mid-August with their fearless leader succumbing to COVID pneumonia on a ventilator in Florida. He denied the virus was real until his last breath.

This week, Julian chronicles the 84-stop Arise USA Resurrection Tour led by the recently deceased former CIA agent, Robert David Steele.

Characters on this Ill-fated tour include the aging wanna-be rock star slam-poet conspiracist Sacha Stone, anti-vax Urban Health Alliance leader Kevin Jenkins, cowboy-costumed MC Trent Loos, and a presidential impersonator named Lincoln Bob.

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Psychedelics are all the rage in the investment world, with hundreds of millions of dollars pouring into research-based startups in the hope of finding interventions for addiction, depression, PTSD, end-of-life anxieties, and much more. But is it too much? Are we, as has happened with numerous substances in the past, placing too much faith in plant medicine? Will investors expecting a return on investment skew the research? And, more to the point of this podcast, is the burgeoning crop of yoga instructors turned shamans promising more than they can deliver?

With Matthew on a much-deserved vacation this week, Julian interviews Derek about these topics based on Derek’s 2020 book, Hero’s Dose: The Case for Psychedelics in Ritual & Therapy.

In the Ticker this week, Julian looks at the growing list of anti-vax, COVID-is-a-hoax conservative radio hosts dying of COVID. We begin with the obvious: Joe Rogan recently contracted COVID, and admitted to undergoing what might be the most insane drug regimen to date.

Show Notes

Robert David Steele Dies from Covid, While Denying Covid

Anti-Vax Conservative Radio Hosts Dying from Covid

Caleb Wallace, 30-year-old Freedom Rally Organizer Dies from Covid

Texas GOP official who Mocked Covid, dies from it

Hero’s Dose: The Case for Psychedelics in Ritual & Therapy

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Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada

Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | Julian

Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem

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