Conspirituality

Dr. Theodora Wildcroft joins us again to take us through the basics of contemporary Religious Studies. She discusses how the discipline approaches issues of ritual, value, meaning, charisma, and role-playing, while also leading us through the process by which objects, places, and people become sacred. Spoiler: it’s more about what we do than what we believe.Wildcroft also dissects the chronic problem of conspiritualists weaponizing myths of rebellion and recovery.Matthew gives a brief rundown on the trainwreck of Mikki Willis’s “Plandemic 2,” and also talks about the Q-map as an artistic (if delusional) landscape of comfort and connection. Derek contemplates the chemicals we don’t question while putting onto or inside of our bodies, while Julian homes in on one particular chemical: the pyramid scheme propped up by Big Essential Oil.Show NotesThe QAnon mapHow to spot a conspiracy theory – Expert guide to conspiracy theories part oneMandala Offering – Ring Set VersionLotsawa House: Mandala OfferingDeep State Mapping ProjectWas Lewis Carroll a Pedophile? His Photographs Suggest SoTravis View on Twitter2019 Plastic Surgery Statistics ReportRisk Associated with Bee Venom Therapy: A Systematic Review and Meta-AnalysisClass Action: Young Living ‘Nothing More Than an Unlawful Pyramid Scheme’Multi-Level Vaccine RefusalVery simplistic visual example of how conspiracy theories can become transnationalDeconstructing the placebo effect and finding the meaning responseT-- -- --Support us on PatreonPre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | CanadaFollow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | JulianOriginal music by EarthRise SoundSystem Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week, we started to explore how the real issue of child trafficking is being weaponized by bad-faith actors. This week we’re joined by two experts that explain the overt and subtle impacts involved.Regan Williams, CEO and founder of Seen & Heard, a nonprofit that provides youth in foster care with professional and personal development via the performing arts, offers a ground zero perspective of trafficked children and teens (and the people that actually care for them) being made even more invisible by conspiratorial clicktivism.Religious Studies scholar and trauma-sensitive yoga consultant, Dr. Theo Wildcroft, joins us from England to discuss the consequences of trauma histories being hijacked for political and emotional manipulation. She offers insight into the mythic elements of conspirituality-to-Q that cannot be ignored if we want to understand how trauma is both stored and resisted.On This Week in Conspirituality, Matthew considers the absurdity of David Wolfe accusing the medical community of not doing anything about cancer. Julian investigates anti-Semitic blood libel themes in QAnon and Derek discusses the chronic dangers of seeking utopia.Show NotesTo report abuse/neglect, call the child abuse hotline: 800.540.4000 (LA county) / 800.422.4453 (National)Epstein is a real pedophile. Why are QAnon and Pizzagate so focused on fake ones?The Dark Virality of a Hollywood Blood-Harvesting ConspiracyJust how anti-Semitic is QAnon?QAnon isn’t newly anti-Semitic—it’s always been that wayQ supporters are incorrectly doxxing journalists who report on QAnon as JewishNearly 600,000 people have voted for candidates who support QAnonHere are the QAnon supporters running for Congress in 2020QAnon Supporter Who Made Bigoted Videos Wins Ga. Primary, Likely Heading To CongressProminent Republicans back a conspiracy theory-promoting congressional candidate in GeorgiaArgentino on-- -- --Support us on PatreonPre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | CanadaFollow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | JulianOriginal music by EarthRise SoundSystem Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two of this podcast’s hosts have been involved in destructive cult dynamics. Matthew’s three years with Michael Roach and three years at Endeavor Academy are at the root of his cult research and journalism. Julian’s six years in the inner circle around what he describes as Ana Forrest’s incendiary and manipulative approach to yoga left him with repressed memories. Those experiences also left his family deeply scarred by some of the same Satanic Panic themes prevalent in the QAnon movement. His ongoing work advocating for critical thinking and community health is part of his recovery.Derek describes himself as being “cult-adjacent”—not uncommon for a lifelong wellness industry professional. In this episode, he’ll interview Julian and Matthew about their cult experiences, the recovery process, and cultic dynamics in modern yoga, Buddhist, and New Age communities informing the growing field of conspirituality.They’ll also discuss cultic organizations being ideally positioned to sell “Disaster Spirituality” (props to Naomi Klein) in times of crisis. Cult leaders understand the power of charisma, the attractiveness of transcendental ideology, and what it takes to make vulnerable people feel like every question is answerable with jargon, intrusive eye contact, and deeply deceptive shit. Matthew will ground the discussion with a synopsis of cult research, basic concepts, and useful definitions.Show NotesThe David Wolfe video about pedophilia and TrumpUnited States of Conspiracy | PBS documentaryQAnon Casualties: stories on RedditSteven Hassan’s “Influence Continuum,” which is helpful for assessing the health of influenceGreat podcast about James Arthur Ray and the question of undue influenceTony Robbins’ PR defends him when people are injured at his firewalking eventsExcellent podcast series on Heaven’s GateThe conviction of Keith RanierePeter Georgiades on the legal barriers to cult litigationDaniel Shaw on “Traumatic Narcissism“QAnon Anonymous-- -- --Support us on PatreonPre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | CanadaFollow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | JulianOriginal music by EarthRise SoundSystem Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A recent report by the UK’s Center for Countering Digital Hate found that anti-vaxx organizations reach 58 million people on social media. The total amount of money spent by anti-vax groups and advertisers targeting their followers on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube is roughly $1 billion. The majority of the money funding the most prominent anti-vax groups is by just two men: osteopath Joseph Mercola and fund manager Bernard Selz. All of this makes you wonder: Why is so money being used to target anti-vaxxers?Derek interviews Imran Ahmed, founder of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, about how anti-vax leaders and groups are using social media to target and recruit followers. The stakes are higher than ever, as the vaccine argument has transcended autism and is threatening to endanger public health during the pandemic.Julian considers the vaccine fears of parents as well as the shadow of the Tuskegee Syphillis Study, and how anti-vax alliances are targeting black communities, which could be a disastrous Trojan Horse for COVID-19, while Matthew serves up his This Week in Conspirituality segment in the epilogue, looking at how the leader of the high-demand group he was indoctrinated into over 20 years ago, led by Michael Roach, is rebooting old content as a COVID-era grift.Show NotesHistory of VaccinesA History of Measles in the United StatesMeasles Cases and OutbreaksMMR Vaccination | What You Should KnowMercury, Vaccines, and Autism: One Controversy, Three HistoriesAluminum in vaccinesHuman papillomavirus (HPV) vaccinesCDC Global Health – Polio – Our ProgressChristiane Northrup: Triangulation, regret, Gardisil, civil disobedienceHow the Public Learned About the Infamous Tuskegee Syphilis StudyAnti-vaccination leaders fuel black mistrust of medical establishment as covid-19 kills people of color-- -- --Support us on PatreonPre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | CanadaFollow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | JulianOriginal music by EarthRise SoundSystem Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jivana Heyman, an expert on ableism in conspiracy theories, discusses the impact of ableist ideas in wellness culture. The podcast also explores the fear of death, Twitter's crackdown on QAnon, vulnerability in personal growth, the intersection of yoga and activism, spiritual bypassing, and the importance of embracing the reality of illness and death. It touches on the urgency of finding a vaccine for HIV/AIDS and navigating body image and eating disorders.

As Christiane Northrup’s social media feed descends even further into the delusional zone — this week she retweeted explicitly identified QAnon content — we ask Professor Jacqueline Antonovich of Nursing Clio about the history of charisma, magic, and entrepreneurship in women’s wellness. When asked if she was surprised by Northrup’s conspirituality spiral, Antonovich was clear: “Not at all.” She carefully unpacks why.We also look at the role of media in conspiritual thinking and discuss Northup’s enthusiastic endorsement of the movement to “make Americans free again” by becoming single-issue voters—the issue being vaccines.Show NotesMarshall McLuhan | The medium is the messageHow Can the Press Best Serve a Democratic Society?In 1947, the press reported on the Hutchins Commission reportTrump, QAnon and an impending judgment day: Behind the Facebook-fueled rise of The Epoch TimesTrump’s New Favorite Channel Employs Kremlin-Paid JournalistHundreds of hyperpartisan sites are masquerading as local news. This map shows if there’s one near you.Make Americans Free Again | The New Normal: Citizens In ChargeJacqueline Antonovich | Nursing ClioNorthrup’s retweet of a QAnon account boosting the red shoe conspiracyGilman’s “Yellow Wallpaper“Ricki Lake’s “Business of Being Born“On Lydia PinkhamOn Mary Putnam JacobySarah Swedburg on Louise HayHow New Age Guru Louise Hay Harmed a Generation of Gay Men-- -- --Support us on PatreonPre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | CanadaFollow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | JulianOriginal music by EarthRise SoundSystem Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

OB/GYN Dr. Christiane Northrup has been a giant in women’s healthcare advocacy for decades. She has persuasively argued for lower-intervention childbirth, an end to circumcision, and policies that place family unity at the heart of health care. She’s known and loved for challenging her medical training with faith-based values and an intuition framed as feminine (if not feminist) and “sovereign.”Northrup draws on astrology, feng shui, chakra theory, and “vibrational” healing as modes of resistance to what she sees as medical patriarchy. This resistance began seamlessly intersecting with COVID trutherism in April, when she started posting daily Facebook sermons to her half-million followers. The series is called “The Great Awakening” — a phrase first used to describe 18th-century American spiritual revival movements, but was recently co-opted by QAnon conspiracists to describe the inevitable triumph of Trump over the Deep State.Northrup’s sermons, combined with her posts of Plandemic, Tony Robbins interviewing anti-vaxxers, and a podcast with “Andy” Wakefield in which she called COVID a “flu” and expressed concern about Bill Gates taking over public education, give a rich glimpse into the seduction of conspirituality in the hands of a wellness matriarch.Most recently, Northrup has strengthened her alignment with QAnon by posting a trailer for a follow-up to a key recruiting video. With up to a dozen QAnon supporters running for office in November, Northrup is positioned to nudge middle-class white wellness women with money into a cult that believes Trump is a messianic figure.This week’s interview is with Britt Hermes, who earned her doctorate in naturopathic medicine from Bastyr University in 2011. After three years of practice, Hermes left the profession to became its most vocal public critic. We asked her to weigh in on women’s wellness in the pandemic and the appeal of Dr. Northrup.Show NotesPharmaceutical Ethics and Grassroots Activism in the United States: A Social History PerspectiveJust 50% of Americans plan to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Here’s how to win over the restTo celebrate the Fourth, Michael Flynn posts a pledge to conspiracy group QAnonHow New Age Guru Louise Hay Harmed a Generation of Gay MenHow the ‘Plandemic’ Movie and Its Falsehoods Spread -- -- --Support us on PatreonPre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | CanadaFollow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | JulianOriginal music by EarthRise SoundSystem Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It can be as hard to talk with your well-meaning yoga-world friend about their COVID-conspiracy beliefs as it is to talk with a family member about their devotion to Donald Trump. This isn’t an accident — but it’s not exactly by design, either. Both figures can seem trapped in filter bubbles of jargon that hypnotizes and cancels critical thinking.In this episode, we talk with pre-eminent cult researcher Steve Hassan about his new book, The Cult of Trump, and explore the overlaps between the cults of personality that destroy political, wellness, and spiritual cultures. We discuss changes in cultic technique in the age of lockdown, and how best to maintain contact with a person transformed by manipulation. The interview with Steven begins at the 37-minute mark.Show NotesTroy Casey videoUFO Conspiracy Theorists Offer ‘Ascension’ From Our Hell World for $333The Prophecies of QHow the ‘Plandemic’ Movie and Its Falsehoods Spread Widely OnlineAnatomy of Delusion: How Otherwise Conscious People Descended into the Darkness — Stephen DinanShift Network coursesMatthew on the Shift NetworkThe Cult of Trump Media PageSteven Hassan’s BITE ModelInfluence Continuum“I Am Not Your Guru” — Tony Robbins documentary“Hacking the Consumer’s Brain” — Moran Cerf-- -- --Support us on PatreonPre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | CanadaFollow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | JulianOriginal music by EarthRise SoundSystem Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conspiritualists are compelling for numerous reasons: they’re charismatic; they claim to transcend polarized politics; they claim to speak the unspeakable in a quest for hidden truths. It makes sense that a key rhetorical instrument in their toolbox is poetry.“The real virus is fear” is a unifying metaphor for conspiritualists, but there are others. In conspiritual-ese, the immune system is like the Christian soul: eternal, perfect, and solitary. Masks are signs of submission that symbolize the suppression of free speech and even slavery. Public health departments are bureaucracies of death. Vaccines are poisons designed to demand compliance. Vaccinators are Satanic agents compelled to enter the sacred space of the body — especially the child’s body — in order to possess it.In this episode, Derek (cancer survivor), Matthew (pulmonary embolism survivor), and Julian (Lyme disease in remission) discuss the function of the beautiful and delusional metaphors of illness and transcendence in conspiritual-ese, applying the discoveries of Susan Sontag and Eula Biss. Maggie Levantovskaya, an Adjunct Lecturer at Santa Clara University, discusses her essay, “My Disease is Not a Metaphor.”Show Notes“My Disease is Not a Metaphor” — Maggie Levantovskaya“Don’t Thank Me for My Sacrifice” — Maggie LevantovskayaResilience and Possibility Conversation with Zach Bush MDMary Baker Eddy: American Religious LeaderThe Science of Mind — Ernest Holmes“The Trouble With Medicine’s Metaphors” — Dhruv KhullarTravis View on adrenochromeInternalised Ableism: The Tyranny WithinAbleism and internalized ableism“Will you Go with a War-Cry or a Whimper?” — Ben RalstonOn Immunity: An Inoculation — Eula Biss-- -- --Support us on PatreonPre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | CanadaFollow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | JulianOriginal music by EarthRise SoundSystem Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Natalia Petrzela, a historian of American fitness, and Dax-Devlon Ross, a civil rights educator, dive into the troubling ties between racism and wellness culture. They discuss the fallout from controversial wellness influencers and the historical roots of fitness ideologies that promote systemic inequalities. The conversation highlights the dangers of individualistic narratives in spiritual discourse, emphasizing the need for collective healing and empathy. Their insights shed light on the pervasive issues of racial dynamics within the wellness industry today.