In this Gurometer edition, Matt and Chris feed Iain McGilchrist into the sacred instrument to see where exactly refined country-parish-minister vibes land when combined with galaxy-brained hemispheres, civilisational decline narratives, decorative scholarship, and the other features of guruosity.

Iain McGilchrist Gurometer

00:27 Introduction

01:00 Iain McGilchrist Reactions

04:40 Galaxy Brain-ness

06:39 Cultishness

08:28 Anti-Establishmentarianism

11:39 Grievance Mongering

14:30 Self-Aggrandizement and Narcissism

17:21 Cassandra Complex

19:54 Revolutionary Theories

20:48 Pseudo-Profound Bullshit

24:10 Conspiracy Mongering

25:08 Excessive Profiteering

26:10 Moral Grandstanding

27:15 Overall Score

28:47 Bonus Round

33:04 Guru Binary Scores

37:18 Outro

We become highly effective at exploiting the gap between salience and relevance as we universalise semiotic capability and listen to more brave renegades talking about how amazing they are. Join us, won't you?

Supplementary Material 50 (Full Episode: 2hrs 23 mins)

00:24 Introduction

02:07 British People Struggling with Compliments

04:53 Matt loves SOME episode titles

08:42 Nachos Pronunciation

10:13 Brett Weinstein vs Michael Tracey

29:08 Brett pivots to his Anti-Vaxx Hits

42:32 The Hug Box World of Podcasting

45:55 When Eric met Joe (again)

47:29 Eric and Rogan re-litigate Sean Carroll's criticisms

55:55 Eric's insatiable desire to be linked with Epstein

01:14:36 Eric Weinstein is a Construct

01:16:36 When Ana met Candace

01:18:18 Useful Idiots and Shameless Propagandists

01:19:59 Ryan Grim's reaction to being in Iranian Propaganda Videos

01:26:22 Zeteo gets to the bottom of the Iranian Casualty Figures

01:30:24 Ana and Candace's Hug Session

01:36:31 A horse named shoe?

01:47:26 The Holocaust Media Industry

01:53:48 Jimmy Dore makes the Religious Pivot

02:01:39 The Brave Renegade Narrative that Never Gets Old

02:12:57 Horseshoe Populism

02:16:23 Jordan Hall x AI Instructions

02:21:46 Agent Hall infecting your Mattrix

Links

• The Romesh Ranganathan Show: Tom Davis On Success, Setbacks & Being a Dad
• FULL PANEL: Should we abolish all podcasts? Michael Tracey, Bret Weinstein, Lauren Southern
• Joe Rogan Experience #2503 - Eric Weinstein
• https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/candace-owens-tate-brothers-visit-russia-kremlin-touts-thaw-rcna348311
• Candace Owens x Ana Kasparian
• Financial Times - How China is breaking apart a people and its culture
• Zeteo: Where Did the 40,000 Iran Protests Death Toll Number Come From?
• Ana Kasparian repeating anti-semitic conspiracies about 9/11
• More fun tweets from Ana
• The Young Turks: Tucker’s 9/11 Documentary Raises Some HUGE Questions
• Jimmy Dore has tapped into God after stopping smoking Pot
• Jordan Hall Decodes AI

The Decoders wrap up cult season by dissecting a titan of the cult scene, the founder of Scientology, Lafayette Ronald Hubbard or L. Ron for short. A prolific science fiction author, L. Ron founded an alternative self-help movement and then developed it into his cosmic self-help 'religion' of Scientology.

Scientology has now been the subject of multiple documentaries and even a fairly detailed South Park parody episode, so it feels like many are aware of the general 'deal' of Scientology. But how about L. Rob Hubbard as a guru... how many people have actually taken the time to sit down and just hear the guy out? Here at DTG HQ, we are all about the good-faith deep dives, so we decided to devote some time to analysing a 1966 Rhodesian TV interview with L. Ron Hubbard, in which a friendly Scientologist interviewer (not identified as such) politely tees up Hubbard to explain Scientology.

So join us to find out how L. Ron invented a “workable science,” a “religion of religions,” and a self-help machine that raises IQ, fixes life problems, and proves life after death. By modern standards L. Ron can seem a bit quaint, but because of that, he serves as a useful primer in the core techniques of Guru manipulation, including narcissistic invented biographies, disdain for materialism, a persecution complex, flattery of followers, and anti-establishment disparagement. All of the classics are on display!

So get ready to wake up to your true potential, process your engrams, and so forth.

Links

• Source Material Interview: Interview with L. Ron Hubbard in Zimbabwe
• Behind the Bastards: L. Ron Hubbard Series
• Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief (Documentary)
• My Scientology Movie: Louie Theroux

Matthew Browne, a high-profile advocate for pan-psychism, compels his reluctant co-host to endure a public struggle session on the topic of consciousness, hopefully for the last time.

Supplementary Material 49

00:00 Introduction

02:47 Returning to the Emerald Isle

03:44 Irish History Segment: The Titanic & Potato Famines

10:45 McGilchrist Reflections

12:51 Knowledge Fight has ended

26:23 Podcasting Motivations

34:37 Calibrated Expectations

41:03 The Problem with the Patreon Members

42:51 Shermer's Activist Skeptic Research

47:24 Research on Support for Political Violence in the US

54:35 Rob Henderson and Decorative Scholarship

58:11 Ryan Holiday Stoically Flames MAGA

01:04:41 Zuby and Motivated Reasoning

01:07:15 Monocausal Explanations for Declining Birth Rates

01:08:51 More credulity from Shermer

01:10:25 Bryan Johnson and Testicular Optimisation

01:14:41 Testicle Fixation Gurus

01:15:24 Professor Jiang thinks Trump is Immortal

01:19:57 When Dawkins Met Claude

01:30:00 The Great Consciousness Debate of 2026

01:42:47 When Cladius met Claudia

01:52:39 Chris's Concession

01:54:23 Animal Minds and AI Consciousness

01:56:31 Russell Brand vs Piers Morgan

02:10:13 Thirsty Christian dunks on Dawkins

02:13:18 Brand's Family's Response

02:22:39 Hasan Piker is the one who knocks!

02:27:44 Outro

02:28:36 A final message of hope!

Links

• Knowledge Fight's Last Episode – The End of the Road
• Jordan's video on the Onion
• Dan's blog on his next plans
• Rob Henderson’s thread promoting the Shermer Skeptic Study
• Polarization Research Lab- Low levels of support for partisan violence
• Polarization Research Lab - Did the 2024 Election Change American Attitudes About Democracy?
• Ryan Holiday’s response to the Shellenberger video
• Ryan Holiday responding to article that he is ‘fuming’ at Ivanka
• Zuby’s insights on Birth Rate Decline
• Vice article on the history of testicle transplants
• "Massive GRIFTER!" Piers Morgan Grills Russell Brand On Allegations, Prison, 'Truth' & Religion
• UnHerd: When Claudia met Claudius- So are they really conscious?
• UnHerd: When Dawkins met Claude Could this AI be conscious?
• ‘Professor’ Jiang on Trump’s Immortality
• Mehdi Hasan dunking on Dawkins

In this episode, we return to Iain McGilchrist as he spirals upwards from his binary hemispheric model into full cosmic spirituality. The rule is simple: everything McGilchrist likes is due to the subtle, nuanced, and deeply sophisticated right brain, while the left brain (pffft) is responsible for reductionism, modernity, and most of the problems in your life.

From this neuroscientific foundation, the theory expands with admirable ambition. Civilisations rise and fall depending on which hemisphere they inhabit. Ancient societies were properly attuned to the right brain, while the modern world has gone mechanical and spiritually bankrupt. The details are, of course, very complex, but the moral is clear.

Scientific evidence features occasionally, mostly in a decorative capacity or as parables of scientists being baffled by mystical forces. Hence, we learn that decapitated worms retain perfect memories, Nobel Prizes have been awarded for demonstrating a mystical direction powering evolution, and near-death experiences establish that memories form when the brain isn't functioning.

Alongside this hard science, McGilchrist also ventures into more spiritual realms, where we learn that artificial intelligence is likely to be channelling demons, schizophrenia might be caused by malign spiritual forces treating our brains as a luxury resort, and recently exorcised demons prefer to communicate via text message. No really...

Ultimately, what matters is that McGilchrist's bespoke theology, bespoke metaphysics, bespoke biological teleology, and bespoke panentheist philosophy are really very impressive. And if you don't find any of it compelling, well, we are sad to inform you that this itself proves you are stuck in the wrong mode of thinking and failing to recognise true profundity.

And if that doesn't work, then let's just say it was all a metaphor anyway!

Links

• Alex O' Connor: Why Evolution Gave You Two Brains - Iain McGilchrist
• Jonathan Pageau: Artificial Intelligence, Possession, and Mental Illness - Dr. Iain McGilchrist
• Think Faith: Philosopher Iain McGilchrist DEBATES neuroscientist Anil Seth on God & minds | Uncommon Ground
• Spezio, M. (2019). McGilchrist and hemisphere lateralization: a neuroscientific and metaanalytic assessment. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 9(4), 387–399. https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2019.1604416
• Corballis, M. C. (2014). Left brain, right brain: facts and fantasies. PLoS biology, 12(1), e1001767.
• Carson, A. (2010). The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. By Iain McGilchrist. Yale University Press. 2009. US $38.00 (hb). 608 pp. ISBN: 9780300148787. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 196(6), 498-498.
• De Haan, D. (2019). McGilchrist’s hemispheric homunculi. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 9(4), 368-379.
• Shomrat, T., & Levin, M. (2013). An automated training paradigm reveals long-term memory in planarians and its persistence through head regeneration. Journal of Experimental Biology, 216(20), 3799-3810.

The hour grows late, and Matt the Grey-Haired rides once more from his quiet study, summoned by whispers from the ever-churning gurusphere. And so he goes, to seek counsel with Chris the Grey-Bearded, keeper of receipts, watcher of long-form content, and wielder of the sacred Gurometer. For the gurus stir again… and their nonsense must be decoded.

Supplementary Material 48: Grey Beard's Council, Late-Stage Anti-Capitalism, and Demonic Mould Health Updates

00:00 Greetings Old Friend

02:22 Decoding the Gamers

04:16 A Reckoning with Old Grey Hair

06:19 Joe Rogan determining US Medical Approvals

12:15 The Fall of Orban and the Silence of the Heterodox World

17:09 The Hypocrisy of Peter Boghossian

19:52 Dave Rubin and other Tenet Media Stooges

21:43 The Dugin, Jiang and Sneako Brain Trust discuss the ultra-hyper-globalists.

28:58 Trump attacks Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, & Megyn Kelly

32:39 A Return to Weinstein World

33:00 Bret's Moon Landing Conspiracies

39:03 Eric and his Silicon Friend are still having problems

42:47 Hasan Piker Discourse

54:33 The Radicalisation Funnel?

01:00:14 Hasan on Ukraine

01:03:21 Hasan doing China apologetics

01:14:03 More Apologetics

01:16:37 Hasan on the Vietnamese MAGA supporter

01:23:41 What about Destiny?

01:26:58 Yale is full of Snakes and Badgers

01:33:17 Micro Looting from the Corporations

01:41:36 Cenk Uyghur's Rent Gouging Credentials

01:44:47 Social Murder and Selective "Understanding"

01:54:26 Late-Stage Capitalist Anti-Capitalism

01:56:22 Tucker Carlson is Selling Russell Brand's Guide to Becoming a Christian

02:00:33 Sean Hannity chooses Trump over his Catholicism

02:04:18 Russell Brand and the spiritual marketplace

02:05:48 Postmodern Conservatism

02:07:28 Taking a Long View

02:10:14 AI Bouldering Gym Cages

02:11:30 Taylor Lorenz is making good points on Twitter!

02:19:52 Taylor's controversial take: AI is useful

02:21:36 Adam Conover engages in revisionist history on tech

02:24:14 Rotary Telephones and Typewriter Experiences

02:26:41 The Onion takeover of Infowars?

02:31:28 Knowledge Fight's Concerns

02:35:56 Jordan Peterson Health Update

02:40:07 Endlessly Misdiagnosed by "Experts"

02:44:32 The Dietary Cures

02:47:20 Experimental Stem Cell Treatments

02:50:04 Pageau blames Peterson's lack of faith

03:00:14 Letting the Pressure Out

03:01:07 Outro

03:02:01 We Must Join with the Mould

The full episode is available to Patreon subscribers (3 hours, 3 minutes).

Join us at: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingTheGurus

Links

• Joe Rogan crowing about his role in the White House executive order on Ibogaine
• Fact Check of Rogan's claims on PolitiFact
• Pancreatic cancer mRNA trial update: NBC report on six-year follow-up
• Article on NIH grant cancellations/funding cuts at Washington Post
• APHA release on lawsuit over politically driven grant terminations
• Ban on DEI words, including "polarization" by DOGE
• BBC Article on Orbán's loss
• Boghossian dodges criticism of Hungary in HardTalk interview
• Boghossian avoids dealing with protests in Hungary
• Dugin / Sneako / Professor Jiang interview
• Trump attacks Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, and Megyn Kelly
• Bret Weinstein's moon landing / Artemis clip highlighted by Bad Stats
• Eric Weinstein's tweets on commercial AI and theoretical physics
• Tucker Carlson's promotion for Russell Brand's new Christian-themed book
• Ezra Klein on Hasan Piker: RealClearPolitics mirror of the New York Times column
• Conduit: I Spent ONE WEEK Watching Hasan Piker ‪, And This Is What I Learned
• A generational divide over Trump among Vietnamese-Americans – BBC News
• Hasan reacts to the Vietnamese-American documentary
• Twitter Thread with most of the viral Hasan clips
• Noahpinion: Hasan Piker is bad for the Democrats
• Hasan's Yale Debate on YouTube
• Yair Rosenberg's article on the Atlantic: The Problem With Hasan Piker’s Einstein Story
• NYT: ‘The Rich Don’t Play by the Rules. So Why Should I?' Why petty theft might be the new political protest’
• LA Times article on the Onion's Infowars Takeover Bid
• Alex Jones clip of him roaming shirtless and complaining about the Onion
• Mikhaila Peterson: Jordan Peterson Health Update and Psych Med Injury Discussion
• Jonathan Pageau explains Jordan's illness is due to his refusal to submit to God
• Taylor Lorenz being correct about the past promotion of technology products
• Tech Dirt article on the recent court decisions against Meta and YouTube
• Sean Hannity endorses Trump over his Catholicism
• Taylor Lorenz: The Truth About the Social Media Addiction Trial

In this episode, we take a journey into the mind, traversing both the left and right hemispheres, but mostly the left, as we engage with the truly mind-bending insights of British psychiatrist-philosopher-neuroscientist-theologian-author Iain McGilchrist. Best known for his 2009 book "The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World" but also a much lauded academic and sensemaker.

We outline McGilchrist’s extremely complicated thesis that the two hemispheres of the brain reflect fundamentally different “ways of being” and that this is reflected in individuals and civilisations that rely more on one side than the other. This is, of course, not merely a crude binary. As McGilchrist repeatedly emphasises, it would be quite wrong to suggest he is simply valorising everything he likes (religion, poetry, classic literature, wood-panelled interiors, sense-making chats) and attributing them to the products of a profound and integrative right hemisphere. Similarly, he does not simply want to denigrate materialists as reductive left-brain thinkers who cannot appreciate art, beauty, or love because they are too busy thinking about atoms. There is definitely none of that in his chat with Alex O'Connor (AKA CosmicSkeptic).

Expect neuroanatomy, metaphysics, and extended reflections on the nature of love. In other words, a completely standard Decoding the Gurus episode.

Links

• Alex O' Connor: Why Evolution Gave You Two Brains - Iain McGilchrist
• Iain McGilchrist's website.
• Spezio, M. (2019). McGilchrist and hemisphere lateralization: a neuroscientific and metaanalytic assessment. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 9(4), 387–399. https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2019.1604416
• Lamm, C., Decety, J., & Singer, T. (2011). Meta-analytic evidence for common and distinct neural networks associated with directly experienced pain and empathy for pain. Neuroimage, 54(3), 2492-2502.
• Stavrova, O., & Ehlebracht, D. (2019). The cynical genius illusion: Exploring and debunking lay beliefs about cynicism and competence. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 45(2), 254-269.
• Lindquist, K. A., Wager, T. D., Kober, H., Bliss-Moreau, E., & Barrett, L. F. (2012). The brain basis of emotion: a meta-analytic review. Behavioral and brain sciences, 35(3), 121-143.

On this episode, we’re joined by Stevie Baskin, a skeptic and YouTuber who released a five-hour detailed critique of the “meta-deception” of Oz Pearlman. He argues that mentalism differs from traditional magic by introducing an additional meta-deception because, unlike magicians, mentalists often leave their audiences with inaccurate beliefs about body language reading, subliminal influence, NLP, and general psychology. In Stevie’s framework, this places mentalists closer to psychics and mediums than to magicians, because the deceptive element is not clearly acknowledged.

We examine this position, unpack common mentalist techniques, consider the role of strategic disclaimers and TED-style “epistemic theatre,” and explore possible parallels with contemporary secular gurus.

Sources

• Metadeception: the truth about Oz Pearlman
• The Disagreement: Debating a mentalist professor of psychology (Scott Barry Kaufman) about Oz Pearlman
• Chris' old blog covering the ethics of Derren Brown's claims in 2009
• The Power Of Subliminal Messages | Trick Of The Mind | Derren Brown

Our cover is blown. Our secret funders unmasked. Code Red: Abort! Abort! This is not a drill.

Supplementary Material 47: The DTG Conspiracy UNMASKED, Quantum Idiots, and Triggernometry Prophecies

00:00 Glowing Introduction

03:14 The Secret Conspiracy at the Heart of the Podcast

08:17 The Israel Connection

19:09 Cenk Uygur's Pickleball Conspiracy

23:25 Comment Section Conspiracies

30:20 Pizzagate Conspiracies Revisited

37:55 The Value of debating with ChadBigCum

42:26 AI discourse reflections

43:43 Ben Burgis's hyperbolic reaction to AI use

44:53 The AI revolution and its potential impacts

47:53 Social and Economic Disruption and Job Replacement

51:33 The Dangers of Slopified Work and AI economies

55:47 Statistical Analysis Software and the value of Friction

57:36 The Perils of AI Usage outside of your Skillset

58:59 The Solution is within yourself!

01:04:22 The Hundred Schools of AI discourse

01:05:58 Double Slit and Quantum Physics Insights from Warren Smith

01:12:39 Schrodinger's poor, misinterpreted cat

01:13:48 The Wonderful Benjamin Boyce

01:14:41 Quantum Woo and Arrogant Sensemakers

01:18:29 Young Matt and Aged Chris

01:20:13 The Triggernometry Prophecy

01:23:54 Quid Pro Quo in the Discourse Circuit

01:28:25 The Anti-Institutional Horseshoe Theory of MEHDI HASAN

01:37:18 So Long and Thanks for All the Fish!

The full episode is available to Patreon subscribers (1 hour, 40 minutes).

Join us at: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingTheGurus

Links

• Reddit post unmasking our Israeli backers
• Mother Jones article on whether 'pizza' is a codeword in the Epstein files (Spoiler: No it is not)
• Mickey's Opinion Piece in The Canadian Jewish News about "quiet anti-semitism"
• Ben Burgis is suggesting a journalist should be fired for using AI
• Cenk Uygur’s Pickleball Conspiracy
• Vigeland & Citarella on Epstein: The One Conspiracy to Rule Them All (YouTube)
• Benjamin Boyce and Warren Smith discuss Quantum Physics
• Triggernometry: Mehdi Hasan Debate on the Iran War, Immigration and the Israel Lobby
• Creator of Horseshoe Theory Dies aged 100

Mickey is BACK with two new papers he has co-authored, a bunch of opinions, and a very unwelcome idea: maybe the problem with AI isn't that it doesn't work but that it works too well!

The first paper, Against Frictionless AI, argues that AI assistance and its ability to take away the effort from thinking, writing, and smooth out social(like) interactions could be robbing those activities of the very thing that makes them worthwhile.

The second paper is a more empirical investigation that presents a bunch of studies examining the topic of the (alleged) moralisation of AI. Some findings suggest that opposition to AI among some people isn't really about risks or trade-offs but rather about non-negotiable sacred moral values. Who knew?

We also discuss effort justification, reproducible research, robosexual allyship, and just how much humanity remains within the cyborg Matthew Browne.

And remember... It's just like our opinion, man!

• Decoding Academia 34: Empathetic AIs? (Patreon Series)
• Ovsyannikova, D., Oldemburgo de Mello, V., & Inzlicht, M. (2025). Third-party evaluators perceive AI as more compassionate than expert humans. Communications Psychology, 3, Article 4.
• Zohar, E., Bloom, P., & Inzlicht, M. (2026). Against frictionless AI. Communications Psychology, 4, Article 39.
• Oldemburgo de Mello, V., Côté, É., Ayad, R., Inbar, Y., Plaks, J., & Inzlicht, M. (2026). The moralization of artificial intelligence (Manuscript under review).
• Paul Bloom's Small Potatoes Substack
• - My friend thinks it's a good idea for us to spend most of our time with AI companions
• - Is it irresponsible for academics to refuse to use AI?
• Mickey's Speak Now Regret Later Substack
• - AI Alarmism Trades on Fear, Not Facts
• Mickey's provocative tweet on his recent paper
• DTG Previous Interview with Mickey on the Replication Crisis, Mindfulness, and Responsible Heterodoxy
• Andy Masley Substack debunking the AI water usage claims
• Andy Masley Substack: Using ChatGPT is not bad for the environment - a cheat sheet
• Pataranutaporn, P., Karny, S., Archiwaranguprok, C., Albrecht, C., Liu, A. R., & Maes, P. (2025). “My Boyfriend is AI”: A computational analysis of human–AI companionship in Reddit’s AI community. arXiv.
• Critical response to Mickey's paper from Roy Schulam on Substack