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Conspirituality
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Conspirituality episodes
- Bonus Sample: I Don’t Know Who My Friends Are
After watching the Almost 30 podcast hosts bond over Zach Bush’s Jesus-like qualities, Matthew explores the barren friendship landscape of wellness gigworkers.
We engage with friendship pornography by consuming attractive images and vicarious sensations of friendship for the sake of pleasure, without having to engage with the complexity of social conditions, class differences, boredom, sickness, or death, and without having to be responsible for the other in any sustainable way.Why is this relevant to conspirituality? Because at every turn on this podcast, we are talking about economies built within demographics sewn together by consumerism. It’s a world in which charisma is the currency and emotions are the commodities. When the influencer sells you on their subscription “community”, they are offering a toxic mimic of friendship — that’s clear… Think of how MLMs co-opt the lingo of “community”, “tribe”, etc, when what they’re really doing is turning every single social interaction within a given demographic into a sales pitch.
From the transcript:
Show Notes
About Lindsey & Krista: Almost 30
SoulCycle changed fitness. Its culture and toxic work environment made growth impossible.
The Wellness Pornographers. Gamifying intimacy, abusing public… | by Matthew Remski | Aug, 2021 | Medium
Anti-Vax Doctor Manifests as Jesus. Wellness Ladies Weep with Joy. — Matthew Remski-- -- --
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9 min - 66: Spirituality & Status (w/Will Storr)
Spirituality, ill-defined a term that it is, often implies both an emptying out and an addition. What leaves is the vacuous clinging to achievements that are supposedly preventing us from seeing our true nature. What’s granted is a new mindset, a novel way of being, one in which you are at peace with both yourself and the world.
Where does the drive for status play into this quest? As journalist Will Storr points out in his new book, The Status Game: On Social Position and How We Use It, you can’t escape our impulse for achieving status. You can learn to dampen its hold on you, however. Derek catches up with Will to discuss how status plays a role in anti-vax groups, spiritual communities, and political groups.
We start this week with a Ticker by Matthew, who previews a bonus episode on the friendship porn we see on the Almost 30 episode in which the hosts share tears after being snowjobbed by Zach Bush.
Show Notes
Almost 30 podcast, Ep.451: Dr. Zach Bush on Fear, The Immune System, & The Real Meaning of Life
The Status Game by Will Storr review — how the fight for status defines our world-- -- --
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Original music by EarthRise SoundSystemLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 14 min - Bonus Sample: The Question of Consciousness
One of the most debated topics in spirituality (and beyond) involves the origins of consciousness. Most neuroscientists agree that it’s emergent—the physiological systems of the body create what we call “consciousness.”
Derek revisits his 2018 conversation with Michael Gazzaniga, whose 1961 studies on split-brain patients revolutionized the discipline of neuroscience.
Show Notes
Neuroscientist Anil Seth: ‘We risk not understanding the central mystery of life’
VS Ramachandran: 3 Clues to Understanding Your Brain
Decoding the Brain’s Cacophony-- -- --
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Original music by EarthRise SoundSystemLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
9 min - 65: Long-Haul QAnon (w/Rachel Bernstein & Jitarth Jadeja)
Santa Barbara surf coach Matthew Coleman murdered his two young children in Mexico nearly two weeks ago. He told the FBI that he was “enlightened by QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories and was receiving visions and signs revealing that his wife possessed serpent DNA and had passed it on to his children.”
Beneath the peak chaos of this story lies a social fabric torn to shreds by QAnon and related conspiracy theories. Marriages are ending, custody battles are raging, and parents and children are negotiating painful silences or estrangements.
Joining us today as a co-host is Jitarth Jadeya, one of the few ex-QAnon followers so far who has been willing and able to discuss what this fever dream did to him and his family. Marriage and Family therapist Rachel Bernstein, the host of the brilliant IndoctriNation Podcast, also joins to discuss her experiences working with cult survivors and providing recovery resources.
In this week’s closer, Derek examines the scientific hipsterism of Zach Bush, who has recently co-opted Malcolm X as a posthumous endorser, when Malcolm would have probably hated his gut biome.
Show Notes
Surf Instructor Killed His Children and Claimed QAnon Made Him Do It, F.B.I. Says
QAnon: a timeline of violence linked to the conspiracy theory
Former QAnon follower Jitarth Jadeja on “The Takeout” — 2/12/2021
Former QAnon believer says following the conspiracy “was absolutely a drug”
He went down the QAnon rabbit hole for almost two years. Here’s how he got out
How Ex-QAnon Followers Escaped The Cultish Conspiracy Theory
He’s a former QAnon believer. He doesn’t want to tell his story, but thinks it might help.
Rachel Bernstein’s excellent IndoctriNation Podcast
QAnon Casualties on Reddit-- -- --
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Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | Julian
Original music by EarthRise SoundSystemLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 25 min - Bonus Sample: Strongman Heroes, Barefoot Science, & Fake Victims
Conspiritualists amp up their victimhood-fetish by comparing anti-vaxxers to Jim Crow-era African Americans and Jews under the Holocaust. Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson questions vaccines, bangs the CRT red-scare propaganda drum, and swoons over Hungarian fascist Viktor Orban.
ulian compares Fox News’s idealizing coverage of Orban to how they treat another famous Hungarian, boogeyman of the far-right, George Soros. He also tells the tragic tale of Trofim Lysenko—Stalin’s “barefoot scientist,” to illustrate how pseudoscience actually flourishes (to everyone’s detriment) under real totalitarianism.
Show Notes
The Soviet Era’s Deadliest Scientist Is Regaining Popularity in Russia
Under fascism, a generation of scientific knowledge was lost in Spain
Hungarian scientists are on edge as country is poised to force out top university
Say it with statues: Brick-and-mortar revisionism in Orban’s Hungary
Orban shocks the world again: He admits to being a Nazi pilot, calling him a knight and a hero-- -- --
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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 SoundSystemLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
9 min - 64: Remembering Guru Jagat: a Panel
With guests: Philip Deslippe, Jules Hartley, Janja Lalich, and Stacie Stukin
We’ve convened an expert panel this week to remember and discuss Katie Griggs, aka GJ. She died in an LA hospital on the evening of August 1st. LA Magazine was the first outlet to confirm the death with the RA MA Institute, which Griggs co-founded in Venice, CA.
The cause of death has not been confirmed, but according to a eulogy film put out by the RA MA Institute, Griggs reportedly broke her ankle in Berlin on July 11th, and on the 15th had surgery to repair it in Los Angeles. Subsequently, she developed a pulmonary embolism, which proved fatal.
In episodes 36 and 37, Philip and Stacie joined me to discuss Griggs’s adopted culture and religion, Kundalini Yoga, and where she stood in relation to the legacy of KY’s abusive founder, Yogi Bhajan. They are uniquely equipped for that background: Philip is an expert in KY history, and Stacie has published excellent investigative work on the #metoo wave that swept through the community to uncover long-suppressed stories of Bhajan’s abuses.
Joining us today to dig even deeper are former Kundalini Yoga student Jules Hartley, and renowned cult expert Janja Lalich.
In our earlier episodes, we discussed how Griggs went on the offensive in the midst of the Kundalini abuse scandal, publicly attacking Bhajan’s survivors. We also discussed how she quickly pivoted into conspiracy theories about COVID and BLM when the pandemic hit. We also discussed the culture and cultural impact of Griggs’s RA MA Institute.
We continue that discussion in somber tones today.
Show Notes
Philip Deslippe’s website
Jules Hartley on IMDB
Janja Lalich’s website and 2021 Recommended Reading List
Stacie Stukin on Twitter
LA Magazine Griggs death notice
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
(PDF) From Maharaj to Mahan Tantric: The Construction of Yogi Bhajan’s Kundalini Yoga — Philip Deslippe-- -- --
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Original music by EarthRise SoundSystemLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 37 min - Bonus Sample: Wellness Pornography as Abuse
This past week, Matthew defined “Wellness Pornography”, working from the ideas of C. Thi Nguyen and Bekka Williams in their essay “Moral Outrage Porn.” In this bonus episode, he asks:
- How do we measure the violence of wellness pornography when it becomes clear that it fuels vaccine hesitancy?
- When wellness pornographers directly indoctrinate people against public health, are they, like the sexual pornographers eviscerated by Andrea Dworkin, violating civil rights to security and safety?
- If we start to see the death concealed by wellness pornography, will we also see through the ads for pickup trucks to the ecocide they conceal? Will that help?
- What will we do with all of this rage?
Show Notes
The Wellness Pornographers. Gamifying intimacy, abusing public… | by Matthew Remski | Aug, 2021 | Medium(PDF)
Moral Outrage Porn — Nguyen and Williams
Kohut and the self-objectAndrea Dworkin’s Testimony to the Attorney General On Pornography (all trigger warnings)
Hunger Strike: Starving Amidst Plenty by Susie Orbach-- -- --
Support us on Patreon
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 SoundSystemLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
9 min - 63: Yoga and the Jab (w/Colin Hall & Sarah Garden)
The YogaVaxGate Instagram post turns out to have been a bellwether for the $88B industry packed with science skeptics and spiritual bypassers. When Wolf Terry got trolled for daring to argue in Yoga Journal that getting vaccinated was an act of non-harming, the stormfront was clear. As thousands of yoga studios ponder opening amidst the stop-and-start waves of Delta and beyond, one question dominates staff meetings: “Will we ask our returning clients for proof of vaccination?”
Matthew interviews Sarah Garden and Colin Hall of Bodhi Tree Yoga in Saskatchewan, who made national news when they announced that yes, they would. Bodhi Tree clients will have to show their card; if they can’t or don’t want to be vaccinated, online classes are still available. Simple, right? Not in Yogaland. We’ll be reading from emails describing the backlash — from the absurd to the abhorrent — faced by studio owners who are taking the no-brainer Bodhi Tree path.
In the Ticker, Derek looks at Antisemitism in vaccine disinformation campaigns while Julian checks in with Joseph Mercola, who announced he’ll be removing all content from his website this week. In the Jab, Julian lays out the “base-rate fallacy” anti-vaxxers are using to falsely claim that vaccinations are not helping to stop COVID-19. And off the top, we’ll briefly flag the topic for next week: the sudden death of conspiritualist Kundalini leader Katie Griggs.
Show Notes
How About Not Using the Holocaust to Spread Vaccine Disinformation?
Mob Morality and the Unvaxxed
Inside the Dubious World of RA MA Yoga, and Its Girl Boss Guru to the Stars
Griggs LAMag obit
Matthew: Guru Jagat Dies. A Saint is Born.
‘Bold decisions’: Regina yoga studio cancels in-person classes, calls on others to follow suit – Regina | Globalnews.ca
Regina yoga studio requiring proof of vaccination to attend classes
Lawyer says yoga studio should be legally allowed to ask clients for vaccination status
Bodhi Tree Yoga, Regina SK
The Most Influential
-- -- --
Support us on Patreon
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
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
2 hr 9 min - Bonus Sample: Vaccines Are Not the Holocaust
A recent uptick in Holocaust-related memes around the COVID vaccine is fueling further anti-Semitic thought and behavior. Derek investigates a crop of wellness influencers guilty of this charge.
-- -- --
Support us on Patreon
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 SoundSystemLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
5 min - 62: Manifesting Something Awful (w/Dale Beran)
The genius parade continues this week with co-host Dale Beran, author of It Came from Something Awful: How a Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump into Office. All three of us writers are legit blown away by Beran’s layered and penetrating coverage of the chan-verse-to-Capitol Riot pipeline.
After last week’s journey led by Dr. Annie Kelly through the anti-feminism of the high-testosterone sites that prepped cyberspace for QAnon, Beran takes us deep into the cosplayed souls of the man-child nihilists who created an online politics of chaos, and served it up to the MAGA movement.
Equal parts deep-internet history, social psychology, and critique of late capitalism, Beran’s lamentation to based and wasted youth still manages to hold out some hope for the future — and we’re going to ask him why.
Show Notes
The Return of Anonymous
Who Are the Incels of 4Chan, and Why Are They So Angry?
It Came From Something Awful: How a Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump into Office-- -- --
Support us on Patreon
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 SoundSystemLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 24 min
About Conspirituality
From the publisher's feed
Dismantling New Age cults, wellness grifters, and conspiracy-mad yogis. At best, the conspirituality movement attacks public health efforts in times of crisis. At worst, it fronts and recruits for the…
fever-dream of QAnon. As the alt-right and New Age horseshoe toward each other in a blur of disinformation, clear discourse, and good intentions get smothered. Charismatic influencers exploit their followers by co-opting conspiracy theories on a spectrum of intensity ranging from vaccines to child trafficking. In the process, spiritual beliefs that have nurtured creativity and meaning are transforming into memes of a quickly-globalizing paranoia. Conspirituality Podcast attempts to bring understanding to this landscape. A journalist, a cult researcher, and a philosophical skeptic discuss the stories, cognitive dissonances, and cultic dynamics tearing through the yoga, wellness, and new spirituality worlds. Mainstream outlets have noticed the problem. We crowd-source, research, analyze, and dream answers to it.
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