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Conspirituality — Philosophy
Conspirituality

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.

Copyright: © 2023 Conspirituality

Latest Episodes:

Deep Cut: The OG New Age Grifter: Madame Blavatsky Oct 12, 2024

Show notes

Born in 1831, Helena "Madame" Blavatsky pioneered the New Age grift. The Russian aristocrat plagiarized her books while claiming to be channeling the “Masters of Ancient Wisdom” to tell a dodgy heroic back-story. She founded the Theosophical Society in New York, claimed to have learned a secret Tibetan language, and laid the foundation for alien channelers and Woo-Anon. She also inspired the Nazis.

In the latest episode from a series on the pseudoscience New Age roots of today’s conspirituality phenomenon, Julian pins Blavatsky on the cork-board map.

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227: Rescue Remedy for The Republic Oct 10, 2024

Show notes

On September 29, a predicted one million people were going to show up for the Rescue the Republic event in Washington DC. Founded by the libertarian party chair, the Defeat the Mandates founder, and “professor in exile,” Bret Weinstein, about 1,500 mostly MAGA acolytes showed up. Yet the event represents something a long time building in America: the strange and at times uncomfortable merging of wellness and right-wing politics via MAHA and MAGA.

Sure, RFK Jr was there, but today we’re going to look at a few figures we haven’t covered in a while, or at all. As can be expected in conspiracy land, the C-list celebrities brought some of the most outlandish, and most dangerous, ideas along with them.

Show Notes

Orange Shirt Day | The Canadian Encyclopedia

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and the History of Residential Schools - Foundry

Phyllis’ Story - Orange Shirt Society

More Than Anything Else, the Rally to Rescue the Republic Was Awkward

Are food dyes used in the US banned in other countries? No, not really.

IDF Ordered Hannibal Directive on October 7 to Prevent Hamas Taking Soldiers Captive - Israel News - Haaretz.com

Have no childhood vaccines ever been tested using double-blind placebo controlled trials?

Vincent van Gogh's "Sunflowers" paintings vandalized hours after activists sentenced for similar incident - CBS News

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Bonus Sample: What Are We Doing About Health? Oct 07, 2024

Show notes

With MAHA taking over stages nationwide, we’re experiencing a deluge of wellness influence and contrarians screaming about systemic issues with food, medicine, and government. Yet the solutions they offer never actually address public health.

Ironically, the same trend has been occurring in investment-driven medicine, where both government and private sector money is flowing into individualized medicine at the expense of public health.

Derek dives into this sordid affair, concluding with six steps experts agree would actually do something about the state of our health.

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Brief: RFK Jr Screws His Followers Oct 05, 2024

Show notes

Finally: a dedicated, concise report on RFK Jr’s sordid history with women, with all the sources.

Why?

Because now one of the allegations involves a criminal act.

And because it’s becoming clearer that the emotional manipulation he allegedly deploys in his personal life—many sources say that “love-bombing” is his technique—rhymes so closely with his political day-to-day that it’s hard to find the lines between stumping, white knighting, seducing, and screwing.

Correction: The RFK Jr clip “I’m not a church boy” ran on Breaking Points, not Majority Report.

Show Notes

The real victims of Olivia Nuzzi’s affair with RFK Jr are other female journalists | Moira Donegan | The Guardian

Exclusive: Multiple Women Claiming Romantic Relationships With RFK Jr. Threaten His Standing in Trump Orbit

RFK Jr.’s Family Doesn’t Want Him to Run. Even They May Not Know His Darkest Secrets. | Vanity Fair

Damning Report Reveals RFK Jr.’s History of Alleged Sexual Assault | The New Republic

RFK Jr. Was a Compulsive Womanizer, and Yes, We Should Care | The New Republic

43 suspected mistresses found in RFK Jr.’s phone

Former babysitter for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accuses him of sexual assault in Vanity Fair profile

Woman who accused RFK Jr of sexual assault says he apologized by text | Reuters

Keith Edwards — “I’m not a church boy.”

Massachusetts Sexual Assault Laws

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Texts Apology to Woman Who Says He Sexually Assaulted Her

A Timeline of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Controversies

The Last Days of Mary Kennedy: 'She Is Angry and Depressed, but She Is Not Ill' (Exclusive)

AA meetings in the White House? Kennedy, a recovering addict, says it's just one of changes he'd make

RFK Jr. Wants to Send People Addicted to Antidepressants to Government “Wellness Farms” – Mother Jones

Brief: The New Age Origin Story of RFK Jr’s Campaign — Conspirituality

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226: MAHA Storms the Capitol Oct 03, 2024

Show notes

Cleanse the soil! Purify the blood! Save the children! Make America Healthy Again!

On Sept 23, Jordan Peterson, RFK Jr., rising alt-health stars Casey and Calley Means, and many other nutrition non-experts gathered for a live streamed event they called the American Health and Nutrition Roundtable, hosted by Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.

Their subtitle, A Second Opinion, was an apt description for the alternative fact-filled diatribes that ensued. The soil has been poisoned, everyone is fat and sick, the entire medical industry is corrupted by Big Pharma, and Big Food is enacting a genocide on the American people via metabolic dysfunction. COVID skepticism and anti-vax messaging lurked just beneath the surface.

The speakers painted a terrifying picture and then presented themselves as benevolent common-sense saviors. At the climax of her speech, Casey Means, fresh from her career-boosting Tucker Carlson appearance, took a deep breath before declaring that this is all actually a spiritual crisis.

Show Notes

Killers of the Flower Moon: The real history behind diabetes and Native Americans.

Special Report: QAnon Fantasies Look Like Colonial Realities (w/Julian Brave NoiseCat) — Conspirituality

Palestinians pampered”— Robert Kennedy Jr

CDC Sociodemographic Data on American chronic disease

Commonwealth Fund: Portrait of the Failing US Healthcare System

Mikhaila Fuller | Yeah, I get botox. From the latest Q&A, link in bio. | Instagram

Mikhaila Peterson’s life at the molten core of the culture wars - New Statesman

NPR on International Journal of Obesity Study

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Relief Project #2: Natalie Wynn/Contrapoints Oct 01, 2024

Show notes

Matthew here with the second installment of Five Big Questions Posed to an Extremely Thoughtful Person.

Does Natalie Wynn need an introduction? Or do we simply know that every frame of every Contrapoints essay is a gorgeous still life, a love letter to the unknown viewer thirsty for smarts and queerness and justice?

Often, top-tier artfulness will wind up concealing the artist. But despite the rigors of curation and the introversion Wynn ‘fesses up to in this interview, she also communicates welcome and generosity, and it was an honor to hear her speak personally about these Big Things..

BTW: here are the five questions. You can think about them too.

What terrifies you most in these times?
What is the most meaningful and supportive idea or story you return to for reliable wisdom and relief?
What is the greatest obstacle you face in forming community relationships, and how do you work to overcome it?
If you were responsible for comforting and guiding a child terrified of climate catastrophe, how would you do it? What would you say?
If your wisest ancestor came in a dream to offer you one piece of advice about living in difficult times, what would it be?

Show Notes

ContraPoints - YouTube

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Bonus Sample: Faith: Unearned and Earned Sep 30, 2024

Show notes

An essay from Matthew exploring the problem of authenticity which plagues every investigation we do on the spiritual influencer beat.

There are queasy questions we’re always contending with when we’re listening to the preaching of Charles Eisenstein, Kelly Brogan, Zach Bush, or RFK Jr:

Has this person really committed to the spirituality they are presenting? Or is spirituality instrumental to them? Do they have experience to share, or programs to sell?

It’s hard if not impossible to find the line between these things, especially in the society of the spectacle, especially when we’re talking about influencers we don’t personally know. But it's an important consideration because assumptions made in one direction or another taint the entire discourse.

Maybe, we’re talking about the difference between unearned faith and earned faith.

Show Notes

Zero at the Bone: Wiman

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Brief: The Actual Biggest Losers Sep 28, 2024

Show notes

On Monday, Senator Ron Johnson sponsored a congressional panel entitled "American Health and Nutrition: A Second Opinion." Unfortunately no actual health or nutrition experts were invited. Instead, the four-and-a-half hour event featured speakers like Robert F Kennedy Jr, Jordan Peterson, Jillian Michaels, Vani Hari (Food Babe), and a host of other influencers and contrarians. Derek investigates all the science that wasn't told—and all the products and services that were sold.

Note: Derek meant to compare aluminum fear-mongering with thimerasol (organomercury) but instead conflated them. Both are safe at the level used in vaccines as adjuvants, though most thimerasol was removed due to public outcries and an abundance of caution. Links added to Show Notes.

Show Notes

Mandela Barnes Says Sen. Ron Johnson 'Bought and Paid for' by Big Pharma

The Congressional "American Health and Nutrition Roundtable" was an egregious display of anti-science disinformation

MEDIA ADVISORY: Sen. Johnson to Lead Roundtable Discussion: “American Health and Nutrition: A Second Opinion”

Thimerosal and Vaccines

Adjuvants and Vaccines

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225: Trauma Healing for Trump Sep 26, 2024

Show notes

Tens of people will be flocking to Washington DC this Sunday as Rumble comes to life during Rescue the Republic, a one-day event featuring RFK Jr, Russell Brand, Jordan Peterson, Bret Weinstein, Tulsi Gabbard—it’s quite an impressive roster of anti-vax luminaries and right-wing contrarians gathering under the pretense of what is effectively a glorified Donald Trump rally.

And that’s not hyperbole, given that Trump is seated next to Elon Musk on the marketing materials, which is a graphic retelling of George Washington crossing the Delaware River. While this event is already infected with tons of conspirituality, one late addition caught our attention: Human Garage. This fascia-release-cures-everything organization had to flee California for Canada due to legal troubles, yet their star continues to rise as they embark on their “Transforming Trauma” world tour. And nothing says “healing” more than spreading pseudoscientific wellness jargon and hawking turmeric supplements at a Trump event.

Show Notes

Apostolic Journey to Singapore: Interreligious Meeting with Young People in the Catholic Junior College (13 September 2024) | Francis

Lord by Thy Holy Cross

Pope: War in Gaza is too much! No steps taken for peace - Vatican News

Physio Reacts: Episode 1 - Human Garage (Part 1 of ?)

Physio Reacts: Episode 2 - Human Garage (Part 2)

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Bonus Sample: The Child Messiah Fantasy Sep 23, 2024

Show notes

The British occultists took the thin and sickly but beautiful boy away from his family. Groomed him for 20 years to become the savior of humanity. Trained him between 1909-29 to be a serene guru and charming English aristocrat. He looked good in a double-breasted suit and had fabulous hair. Huge amounts of money flowed into the organization they built around him.

But Krishnamurti became a man the day he shocked them all. Julian’s latest chapter of his historical series wraps up Helena Blavatsky’s Theosophical Society—one of the crucial 19th century roots of New Age metaphysics, and the phenomenon we call conspirituality.

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