Introduction

Exploring how a skeptic found comfort in spiritual content on TikTok, leading to an immersion in manifestation, astrology, and tarot cards. It also discusses the influence of social media algorithms on personal interests and the reflective journey post this spiritual exploration.

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Episode notes

In this week's episode, I explore the spiritual-adjacent corners of TikTok like manifestation-tok, tarot-tok, psychic-tok, and astrology-tok, and how this content can lead users down a harmful pipeline. I look at how young people, Gen Z in particular, are turning to new-age spirituality to make sense of the world and how the TikTok algorithm contributes to increasingly extreme beliefs in this area. I also share case studies of users who have devolved into "spiritual psychosis" (an unofficial term) after becoming obsessed with this side of TikTok.

Timestamps:

4:05 Why I wanted to talk about this topic

5:13 Overview of the spiritual side of TikTok

10:30 Explaining “spiritual psychosis”

13:36 Creator case studies

17:44 The role of TikTok’s algorithm

Find Dr. Ash King: https://www.heavymental.com.au/

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Follow Lauren on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurenmeisner_/

Sources:

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/astrology-is-at-the-center-of-danielle-johnson-murder-case-but-any-spiritual-practice-can-incite-violence