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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:

154: The Truth Wars (w/Renée DiResta) May 18, 2023

Show notes

In the post-truth world, journalists who report facts are disparaged as perpetuating the narrative while candidates who hold the appropriate qualifications are smeared as deep state operatives. Likewise, a career spent studying terrorism, online conspiracy theories, and digital propaganda becomes "evidence" of opposing free speech and the American way.

Our guest today became the "main character" on Twitter in April, subject to information requests from Congress and labeled the "leader of the Censorship Industrial Complex" from her perch at the center of a conspiracy web in which Big Tech, government intelligence agencies, and woke university think tanks secretly silenced free speech online.

Her name is Renée DiResta, and Julian talks to her about her extensive study of online propaganda. She tells us about the unfolding digital information crisis, of which the Twitter Files is just be the most recent example.

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Bonus Sample: The Dalai Lama Spectacle May 15, 2023

Show notes

What the hell happened between the Dalai Lama and that Indian boy? The internet served up a raft of painfully inflammatory takes, so I took a month to talk with Tibetologists and review the literature on sexual abuse in Tibetan Buddhist contexts.

This is a deep, tangled dive. Content warnings apply.

Chapters:

Why cover this, and why now?
Summary
The Clip
Virality
Two Orientalisms
Outrages and Pilled Mindset
What do Tibetans and their allies say?
Kazi Adi Shakti, Thi Nguyen, Becca Williams

Full Show Notes on Patreon

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Brief: Why Does Every Conspiracy Theory Lead Back to Antisemitism? (w/Ben Cohen) May 13, 2023

Show notes

We've seen it over and over again: somehow, in some way, globalists are involved. George Soros is pulling the strings. Jews will replace us, with other minorities, or fund the interests that are against "us."

Derek talks with The Banter founder, Ben Cohen, about the modern state of antisemitism. They also discuss Russell Brand's meteoric rise into right-wing celebrity, as well as Aubrey Marcus's uninformed takes on vaccines and politics.

Show Notes

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153: The Anti-Sunscreen Movement (w/Sara Aniano & Michelle Wong) May 11, 2023

Show notes

Did you know that it’s not the sun that causes cancer, but sunscreen? Or that sunscreen is actually a Big Pharma creation to keep you from receiving the sun’s magical healing properties? How about the fact that sunscreen molecules can be found in your brain 10 years after application? And don’t even get me started on the life-changing effects of exposing your asshole to direct sunshine.

Ok, I promise that’s the last time I’m going to mention asshole sunning during this episode. As for the rest of those equally-absurd claims, I’ll be talking to cosmetic chemist, Michelle Wong, aka Lab Muffin Beauty Science, to dispose of the gibberish and give me a serious 101 on sunscreen. Before that, I’ll be talking to disinformation analyst Sara Aniano about the connection between the anti-sunscreen movement and antisemitism—because yes, that’s a thing, too.

Show Notes

Sara Aniano on Twitter

Michelle Wong on Instagram | TikTok

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Bonus Sample: Chris Rufo’s Fascist Long-Game May 08, 2023

Show notes

Florida governor Ron DeSantis appointed right-wing propagandist, Christopher Rufo, along with other conservative Christian education-activists, to the board of the tiny, progressive New College in Sarasota, FL this past January.

They fired the president, installed prayer at the board meetings, forbade personal pronouns in faculty email signatures, and claimed DeSantis’s electoral victory gave them a constitutional mandate to make whatever changes they want.

The invaders frame this hostile take-over as a test-case model to “recapture” universities across the state and the country.

But who is Rufo really? He’s the guy behind the manufactured moral panic over Critical Race Theory that set conservative media, school boards and city council meetings ablaze with fear-mongering over “woke Marxism” in 2021.

New College is the latest conquest in his explicit long-game to remake the fabric of America, one sadistic lie at a time.

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Brief: Marianne Williamson’s Spiritual Therapy Schtick May 06, 2023

Show notes

Marianne Williamson? Inexperienced? Not at all.

In fact, she does have a ton of experience… in New Age, on-stage pseudotherapy, where she solves the problems of the troubled with memorized lines from A Course in Miracles. She’s been doing these sessions at workshops and retreats for decades, and the schtick is always the same: if only the person would change their minds about their problem, the world would be healed.

While this may fly on the workshop circuit, if you listen carefully you’ll hear that she gives the same answer on the stump.

It comes through most clearly when she’s pressed on questions of strategy. She will instantly pivot to talking about the spirit and the soul. The effect is a disarming oscillation between the political and the personal. Are we talking about defeating fascists? No, no, that’s too worldly! We’re talking about opening our hearts. And if that feels good during a politically tense exchange, it’s because she changed the subject.

To see how this sleight-of-hand works, Matthew examines two classic Williamson encounters to show that the answers she gives on the stump aren’t much different from the answers she gives on her New Age retreats.

Show Notes

That Time Byron Katie Gaslit a Follower about Trump | by Matthew Remski

I'm Afraid of Trump—The Work of Byron Katie

Being Rejected for Your Spiritual Beliefs | Q&A With Marianne Williamson

Mindfulness can make you selfish: A pioneering new study examines the social effects of mindfulness

Marianne Williamson with TYT's John Iadarola & Francesca Fiorentini

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152: Tulsi Gabbard’s Krishna Consciousness (w/Nitai Joseph) May 04, 2023

Show notes

What does it mean for a prominent American politician to come into power as the sleeper cell of an eccentric Hindu-American cult? Does she act independently, or has her God-man got her on speed-dial? Can she bridge the divide between left and right with the radiant glow of Krishna consciousness?

Joining us today to help answer these questions is Nitai Joseph. He shares some heritage with Gabbard, because he also grew up in a Hare Krishna sect. He holds an MSc. in the Psychology of Coercive Control and has worked across a range of issues connected to ideology and manipulation, including cultic awareness, child sexual abuse prevention, adverse meditation experiences, and organizational ethics and accountability.

Show Notes

Gopala Govinda Rama Chant by Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa Chris Butler

QAnon Anonymous Episode 211: Tulsi Gabbard P1 (The Cult) feat Mike Prysner

QAnon Anonymous Episode 212: Tulsi Gabbard P2 (The Fascist Turn) feat Mike Prysner

Tulsi Gabbard Had a Very Strange Childhood

What Does Tulsi Gabbard Believe? | The New Yorker

Chris Butler Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa: on “freedom”

An Insiders Perspective on Tulsi Gabbard and her Guru | by Lalita | Medium

Tulsi Gabbard 2016 Janmashtami Message

ISKCON Abuse Timeline

Definition of Betrayal Trauma Theory

Archived ex-Hare Krishna message board

Nitai can be reached via LinkedIn

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Bonus Sample: Reimagining the Apocalypse May 01, 2023

Show notes

Apocalyptic language is everywhere: in the marketing copy of wellness influencers and pseudo-documentary makers selling spike protein detoxes and vaccine fear-mongering videos, and in the fervent anti-trans panic stoked by right-wing Substackers.

How we use language — and we use that how language to inspire actions — is everything.

Derek imagines a better use of language, and of understanding, through the lens modern secular Buddhism.

Show Notes

The World-Ending Fire — Wendell Berry

A Paradise Built in Hell — Rebecca Solnit

After Buddhism — Stephen Batchelor

Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist — Stephen Batchelor

Buddhism — Alan Watts

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151: Satan Wants You Watch Party (Spoilers) Apr 27, 2023

Show notes

How, in the name of the Holy Virgin Mary, did Michelle Remembers—the book that started the Satanic Panic—come to be written? Who was Lawrence Pazder really? Did he encourage and exaggerate Michelle Smith’s recovered memories of ritual abuse? Did Smith tell him what he wanted to hear? Or was it a little of both?

Canadian filmmakers Sean Horlor and Steve Adams have a new documentary out called “Satan Wants You,” and it fills in a lot of the blanks in our prior “Swan Song Series” reporting with incredible archival footage and brave interviews from friends and family members.

Today it opens at Toronto’s Hot Docs Festival, which means the reviews embargo is lifted… and our review is: “Incredible work. Must see.”

PS! If you haven't pre-ordered our fabulously interesting book, Barnes and Noble are running a 25% off pre-order promo. You can use "PREORDER25" as the discount code at checkout. Good from now till Friday!

Show Notes

Satan Wants You

Conspirituality: UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series 4 | Michelle Remembers: Context & History

Conspirituality: UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series 5 | Michelle Remembers: Themes & Framing

Conspirituality - UNLOCKED: Michelle Remembers: Literal Symbols

Conspirituality - UNLOCKED: The Courage to Heal Pt. 1 on Stitcher

Conspirituality - UNLOCKED: The Courage to Heal Pt. 2 on Stitcher

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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Bonus Sample: Framing George Soros Apr 24, 2023

Show notes

FOX News says he wants to destroy America. Candace Owens is scared to speak his name out loud. Mikki Willis is making a film about his assault on the American family. Dr. Christiane Northrup claims he caused the pandemic. Trump called DA Alvin Bragg a "Soros-funded animal."

Who is this billionaire Jewish banker, a man so diabolical he can simultaneously be the greatest capitalist of all time and a communist chaos agent, so deceptive that he founded philanthropic organizations in 120 countries while supposedly being the "most evil man in the world?" And how does his financial influence in American politics actually stack up against the machinations of disciplined religious right-wing powerbrokers, supercharged by dark money?

Show Notes

The right’s obsession with Soros

Soros on right-wing conspiracies against him

Democrat dark money

An overview of dark money

2022 biggest disclosed donor list

Barre Seid donates $1.6B

Harlan Crow and Justice Thomas

Sheldon Whitehouse on dark money and SCOTUS

Leonard Leo and SCOTUS

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