#92 - A Vaccine for Conspirituality | Erik Davis

The image of the QAnon Shaman in the United States Senate is the perfect symbol of how unfortunate members of the psychedelic community have fallen down QAnon trapdoor during this pandemic. Today on the show Erik Davis, renowned psychedelic author and wizard of the weird, returns to Life is a Festival to address the worrying trend of “conspirituality” and what we can do to inoculate ourselves against it. On the show we discuss the metaphysical mud that can flow in psychedelic experiences. Erik acknowledges his ethical responsibility to help foster discernment and shares tools we can use to protect ourselves and each other. We explore our own vulnerabilities to conspiracy thinking and discuss the practice of “withering self-observation.” Finally we rap about the evolution of the Life is a Festival philosophy for these difficult times. Erik is journalist, author, and public speaker. His is best known for his works Techgnosis and High Weirdness, as well as his essays on Burning Man and the human potential movement. He is also the author of Burning Shore, a sub stack that I high recommend subscribing to. This is his second time on the show after his appearance extolling the virtues of psychedelic weirdness on episode 23, Keep Psychedelics Weird. Links Burning Shore Substack: https://www.burningshore.com/ High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BT6DBKT Techgnosis: Myth, Magic and Mysticism in the Age of Information: https://techgnosis.com/ Keep Psychedelics Weird: https://www.eamonarmstrong.com/lifeisafestival/erik-davis The Emergence of Conspirituality: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13537903.2011.539846?journalCode=cjcr20 “Conspirituality” by Jules Evans: https://julesevans.medium.com/conspirituality-the-overlap-between-the-new-age-and-conspiracy-beliefs-c0305eb92185 Timestamps :11 - Metaphysical mud and extremist rabbit holes :20 - Ethical responsibility to strengthen discernment :31 - How to inoculate yourself with an inner superhero team :48 - Recognizing your own vulnerabilities and having compassion for others’ :59 - The practice of “withering self-observation” 1:10 - How life is like a festival in difficult times