Conspirituality

JP Sears is selling CBD. His new company, Awaken, recently sent out a marketing email extolling the benefits of CBD. Derek looks at the science behind the claims.

Show Notes

CBD is everywhere. But is it a scam?

Inverted U-Shaped Dose-Response Curve of the Anxiolytic Effect of Cannabidiol during Public Speaking in Real Life

Pioneering UAMS Study Warns of CBD Supplements’ Harm to Gut Health

Can Cannabis Help Your Gut?

The Impact of Cannabidiol on Human Brain Function: A Systematic Review

Cannabis, Cannabinoids, and Sleep: a Review of the Literature

Does CBD Help With Insomnia?

Cannabidiol (CBD): What we know and what we don't

Antioxidative and Anti-Inflammatory Properties of Cannabidiol

Cannabidiol (CBD): a killer for inflammatory rheumatoid arthritis synovial fibroblasts

A single dose of cannabidiol reduces blood pressure in healthy volunteers in a randomized crossover study

Immune Responses Regulated by Cannabidiol

Can CBD Benefit Your Immune System?

CBD and Heart Health

Efficacy and Safety of Cannabidiol and Tetrahydrocannabivarin on Glycemic and Lipid Parameters in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Parallel Group Pilot Study

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Why do so many inflammatory culture war issues crystallize around vaccines and masks? What is so compelling about these forms of public health and mutual aid, that they become central to the right-wing imagination? 

For some, straight-up libertarianism might be a sufficient answer: the knee-jerk allergy to being asked to do anything as a social player. And beneath that might lie conspiratorial notions of Fauci being a Red, Bill Gates monetizing polio, or George Soros controlling Congress. 

Matthew argues that even those are surface stories, covering over a trembling anxiety about the status of the body in relation to the State, and God. 

Show Notes

Rudolf Steiner on Traditional Childhood Illnesses and Vaccines

Biss, Eula. On Immunity: An Inoculation. Minneapolis: Graywolf, 2015

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Is Marianne Williamson’s promotion of A Course in Miracles any more relevant to her political persona than Biden’s Catholicism? If it demonstrably informs her every instinct and communication (as we expect it would given she sermonizes out of it every day), then yes, it is. If it leads her to suggest that meditation can help contain nuclear waste, divert hurricanes, heal the “scam” of clinical depression, or “boost the immune system” against COVID19, then yes, it is. 

Is it sexist to highlight Williamson’s reported history of interpersonal abusiveness, when male politicians get away with far worse? There is definitely a double standard to resist. But when a candidate builds a political persona on being a love-and-light wayshower, it’s important to evaluate what that actually looks like ground-level. It’s also important to consider whether immature behavior might be a plausible outcome of following the Jesus of A Course in Miracles, who is a huge asshole. 

Finally: if Williamson is the only candidate out there talking about reparations and M4A, is it reactionary to dismiss her on religious or behavioral grounds? Not if you’re actually interested in a functional progressive politics, free from magical thinking and charismatic bafflement. 

Show Notes

Williamson’s COVID meditation, Facebook Live

Read: Pope Francis’ May prayer to Mary for the end of the pandemic | America Magazine

Marianne Williamson’s ‘abusive’ treatment of 2020 campaign staff, revealed - POLITICO 

Marianne Williamson is a controversial AIDS-crisis figure for gay men.

MARIANNE'S FAITHFUL | Vanity Fair | June 1991

Project Angel Food Rocked by Feuds

The Divine Miss W — People

The Power, the Glory, the Glitz - Los Angeles Times 

Marianne Williamson Bows Out as Pastor - Beliefnet 

Marianne Williamson's Democratic debate performance raised eyebrows. But she's no friend of the left.

Marianne Williamson responds to Politico article alleging abuse toward staff - BBC News 

Here Are The Presidential Candidates Women Have Been Donating To 

Marianne Williamson on Her Insurgent Campaign Against Joe Biden ❧ Current Affairs

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Why did Trump kick-off his 2024 presidential campaign in Waco, Texas? Who were the Branch Davidians, anyway?

Julian unpacks the incendiary streams of far-right anti-government militia history and religious apocalypticism that our former president is tapping into as he faces legal jeopardy. It all goes back almost 300 years to the original Great Awakening that QAnon and New Age channelers tried to remix in 2020.

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Listen… Can you hear it?

All across the propagandist right and the free speech center, there's a new rallying cry: it's time to fight the “censorship industrial complex!”

Researching and documenting digital disinformation—and coordinating to combat its malevolent agendas—is now all being described as a pseudo-academic scam, a hoax covering up an authoritarian liberal campaign of vile and secretive censorship. Now, as it turns out, this gnashing of teeth and shedding of tears at the cruel injustice of social media censorship, and the swift, brutal cancellation of anyone daring to go against the mainstream narrative is actually not new.

We’ll look at the broader topic today, as well as some specific variations on the victim of censorship gambit, which uncannily often precedes being handed an even bigger megaphone.

Show Notes

Conspirituality + Glassbox Media

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Recording the audiobook at a swanky Toronto studio sends Matthew down a memory hole to wonder about performance, self-awareness, and anxiety, and their relation to charisma.

“Whatever charisma I have or project into the world has always been both prompted and tempered by the belief that becoming larger, that reaching out and creating an impression would soothe a confused or immature sense of self. That if I could be seen, I would be loved, and if loved, I would be real.

“If there is an anxiety at the core of the influencers we study, it might be related to this. This week I had the opportunity to meditate on it, to remember how charisma formed around and within me, first through an arts education, and then as a yoga and wellness entrepreneur. It’s made me wonder whether and how I’ve been that much different than Zach Bush, or Mikki Willis, or Katie Griggs. I know how to project that voice, I know how to put on my resting guru face.”

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Conspiritualists are not wrong that Jeffery Epstein’s downline has so far evaded justice. Or that the highest levels of the Catholic Church aided and abetted child sexual abuse for generations. They are not wrong about the existence of child sexual abuse materials circulating online, and that children are coerced, abducted, and sometimes killed in order to make them. 

But their narratives are contorted by panic, mythology, stereotypes, paranoid and grandiose assumptions, and the antisemitic conspiracy theorizing of QAnon, which spread like wildfire through yoga and wellness social media during the pandemic and has now normalized as the “groomer” meme. They say that child sexual abuse is a planned, nefarious, top-down attack on innocents. They say that its purpose is to turn the world away from God, to starve humanity of hope.

Matthew sits down with Håkon Høydal, an investigative journalist in Norway who has spent years researching and exposing the most abject behaviors on the dark web. His work reveals a very different landscape. It’s a banal world, close to home, hiding in plain sight, presided over by young men who are making reckless choices after having decided that their pathological and criminally harmful impulses will never be understood, much less treated. 

Show Notes

Hunting Warhead | CBC News 

VG exposed the largest child sexual abuse forum. It was run by the police. 

Porn site founder accused of sex trafficking arrested in Spain - The Globe and Mail

Sex offender treatment scheme led to increase in reoffending | UK news | The Guardian

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Matthew sits down with Sam Binkley, Professor of Sociology at Emerson College in Boston to discuss his 2007 book Getting Loose: Lifestyle Consumption in the 1970s.

We cited this very helpful work as we dug into the sociology of conspirituality for our own upcoming book. Here’s a thumbnail of Binkley’s argument:

The 1970s ushered in a period of “getting loose” in relation to the body, work expectations, family relations, and political allegiances. This happened as the great moral and political questions of the 1960s deflated without resolution, even as they enshrined looser social mores around sex and finding meaningful work. The cultural yearning for structural change found its home in the project of the self, facilitated by an accelerated consumerism that expanded the conflation of agency with consumption. Getting Loose characterizes this inward turn as a retreat from the terrors of revolutionary freedom.

Show Notes

Getting Loose — Binkley

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There are a number of philosophies presented in yoga spaces as "universal truths" that turn out to be little more than directives in an echo chamber. And there are protocols presented as therapeutic in wellness spaces that blur the line between spiritual rhetoric and pseudoscience — and some are quite dangerous.

Derek looks at his experiences as a student at Jivamukti Yoga as well as the recent "ozone enema" podcast between Gwyneth Paltrow and Will Cole to discuss spiritual rhetoric and pseudoscience. He opens with his experiences as an international music journalist to provide a framework for thinking outside of your box, be it a local yoga studio or the websites you treat as gospel.

Show Notes

Gwyneth Paltrow Admits to Getting Ozone in Her Rectum

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When Disneyworld becomes DeSantisland, Eric Weinstein will be in charge of the Epcot Planetarium, JP Sears will headline the Family Values comedy stage, Jordan Peterson and Jonathan Pageau will build an Orthodox cathedral for male transformation rituals. And Cinderella Castle will be remodeled into a Potemkin Capitol where Mikki Willis will choreograph and film daily insurrections.

The groundwork is being laid now, as we explore the institutionalization of QAnon. Moms for Liberty, egged on by Mike Flynn, is taking over school boards throughout the Sunshine State. Chris Rufo is now a college trustee, and Bret Weinstein is holding court in state medical committees. All while our conspirituality influencers, from Sears to Northrup to Avocado Wolfe, cheer on the dissolution of every social contract, every veneer of democracy. 

The propaganda and sadism is so despairing that Derek might need religion, and Matthew might lose himself in retro fantasies of Disneyworld. Luckily, Julian talks with Sarasota anti-DeSantis activist Terra Kater about fighting the good fight under the hot sun.

Show Notes

CBD is everywhere. But is it a scam?

Dear Conservatives, I Apologize

The Paranoid Style in American Politics

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QAnon ain't over—it's on your television. It's been mainstreamed, networked, and remixed. Senior online extremism and disinformation researcher, Alex Kaplan of Media Matters joins Julian to share his reporting on the latest developments. 2024 is fast approaching. Under the looming shadows of legal calamity, Trump is rallying the Anons on Truth Social while Mike Flynn and his grifter-entourage roadshow preaches hellfire and ivermectin anti-vax election denial at an evangelical church near you. Can't make it? Sit back and grab the remote. 

Show Notes

Alex Kaplan's Media Matters archive

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In this listener story, Julian talks to disabled rights activist and journalist Abby Mahler about how the fake COVID-cure grift endangers people who really need hydroxychloroquine to survive.

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"Cleansing is no longer an option, it's a necessity.”

From wellness influencers obsessed about the meat-body, to Christofascists obsessed about the body politic, rhetoric bombards us from all sides.

Professor of Rhetoric Colleen Derkatch joins Julian to discuss the techniques of the meaning miasma. Her focus is on wellness rhetoric specifically, and how it points to incipient illness, encourages recreational diagnostics, and describes daily routines as liturgies that grant membership in divine communities.

Also we can't avoid talking about Russell Brand on Bill Maher. Sorry. 

Show Notes

Meet Colleen Derkatch

Gish Gallop: When People Try to Win Debates by Using Overwhelming Nonsense

Pharma Wants In - Rina Raphael

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Can Marianne Williamson maintain street cred as a progressive while promoting New Age Jesus?

Can she hammer out functional policy while preaching out of A Course in Miracles—the most anti-political pseudospiritual text on the planet?

Can she advocate for public health despite a history of waffling on vaccine science? Can she make a strong argument for health care reform while giving sermons from a book that says people get sick because they are not spiritual enough?

Can she really help fat people with her book that says that fatness is a "repository of twisted thoughts and feelings?"

Matthew doubts it, but hey—miracles happen!


Show Notes

William Thetford's CV (MKUltra reference)

Marianne Williamson's Democratic debate performance raised eyebrows. But she's no friend of the left.

Marianne Williamson is a controversial AIDS-crisis figure for gay men.

Kevin Sessums on MW, FB post: "I am an HIV+ man who lost lots of friends to AIDS and I know the harm she did conning many into believing they deserved their biological condition - and even their deaths- because they weren't spiritually fit enough to visualize the AIDS virus away."

Marianne Williamson on Twitter: "Let’s not forget that masks aren’t our only protection against Covid. Strengthening the immune system is also very important: recommendations like vitamins C and D, healthy food and exercise, positive/spiritual consciousness." / Twitter

A Course in Weight Loss: 21 Spiritual Lessons for Surrendering Your Weight Forever

Marianne Williamson promoted anti-vaxxer theories on her radio show in 2012 episode | CNN Politics 

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Answering the current wave of confusing vaccine misinformation. Julian is joined by molecular biologist Dr. Dan Wilson. "Died Suddenly," correlation vs. causation, the vaccine court, and the recycled anti-vax tropes gaining fresh traction are all addressed in this succinct PSA.

Correction: Julian incorrectly calls Dr. Dan a "microbiologist" at the start of this Brief—but he actually holds a PhD in molecular biology.

Show Notes

Vaccinated/Unvaccinated Viral Load Study

Vaccination Reduces COVID Transmission

Standard Child/Adolescent Schedule

What is Gene Therapy?

Accelerating Vaccine Trials

"Died Suddenly" Debunk

Vaccine Court and Lawsuit Realities

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So much suffering occurs because we romanticize a past that never actually existed in the belief that it's destined to become the future. In the middle we sit, here, now, with time marching forward. Derek explores how wellness influencers weaponize this psychological phenomenon and describes his personal remedy for such thinking. 

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Continuing a conversation from EP142, Derek looks at the cultural damage done when musicians co-opt musical styles to promote their own propaganda, which is often at odds with the social struggles of the oppressed class that created the music. 

After briefly investigating the history of reggae through the lens of indentured servants from India, he discusses artists using two genres—reggae and hip-hop—in such a way that strips the original intention of the music of all value.

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Do visiting inter-dimensional spirits and stowaway UFO passengers use the LAX Airport to touch down among us? Well they do if they're in town for the Conscious Life Expo, conveniently located at the LAX Airport Hilton for those who rely on otherwise mundane modes of travel.

The Valentine's Day weekend crystals and angel cards fest of disjointed spirituality meets dodgy science just celebrated its 21st year as the premiere gathering point for awakened seekers choosing to come out of sovereign superposition and manifest in space-time reality.

But, as visiting Vice News correspondent Anna Merlan tells us, it turns out the organizers have grappled for years with how to reconcile the tensions between obvious charlatans and those who really, truly can talk to the dead, psychics who can diagnose your dog's mystery ailments, and those making artificial claims about all-natural elixirs, prophets of light and love, and QAnon promoting anti-vax conspiritualists.

This year's solution? Tuck the most radicalized New Age hate-preachers away in the Rabbit Hole Room, and charge top-dollar for the red-pilled faithful to swoon at their feet.

Show Notes

Thrive review by Eric Johnson

COVID-19 misinformation contributed to 2800 Canadian deaths, report suggests

Fault Lines Report: Canadian Council for Academics

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How does it feel to grow up in a back-to-the-land house that vibrates with the anxious passion of conspiracy theories?

What would happen when the world began to disconfirm the conspiratorial lore? How would you maintain your relationships, nurture the good, and gently let go of everything else?

Maggie joins Matthew for this Listener Story to explore these questions in relation to her journey from childhood to today.

Note: my question about conspirituality being an ethnicity was inspired by a conversation with listener Lilium Rajan, a writer who I hope to learn more from.

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Is Canada trying to euthanize the mentally ill?

Self-professed "theocratic fascist" Matt Walsh says so. So does the OG anti-woke agitator, James Lindsay. Both cravenly distort Canada's proposed expansion of its Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) laws to include people suffering from mental illness.

But are they entirely wrong? From the left, Jeremy Appel writes in Jacobin:

I’ve come to realize that euthanasia in Canada represents the cynical endgame of social provisioning within the brutal logic of late-stage capitalism — we’ll starve you of the funding you need to live a dignified life, demand you pay back pandemic aid you applied for in good faith, and if you don’t like it, well, why don’t you just kill yourself?

Psychologist and ethics professor Dr. Taslim Alanii-Verjee joins Matthew to discuss the ethical labyrinth of MAiD expansion, and how the altruistic quest for patient autonomy and dignity can run afoul of the neoliberal state's failure to provide the necessaries.

Show Notes

Dr. Taslim Alani-Verjee

Federal government moves to delay MAID for people suffering solely from mental illness | CBC News

The Problems With Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying Policy

Special Joint Committee on MAiD - Dr. Sonu Gaind

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Hot yoga tycoon and sex offender Bikram Choudhury was set to teach his sweaty pseudoscience in Vancouver starting on February 20th. But a team of yoga allies, led by a woman who has sued Choudhury for rape, said "Fuck off."

So that's that.

Or is it? We have many questions.

Why was this cursed event planned in the first place? Who on earth is continuing to support this clown, and trying to make money off of him? Who would cover themselves in sweaty shit in order to prop up this Simpsons-level caricature of a yoga megalomaniac? And how did Bikram Yoga become the de facto exercise method and spiritual practice of "Freedom Convoy" supporters?

Matthew takes a sweaty tour through a land of pseudoscience and rape culture, hot yogis and truckers, anti-vaxxers and frog-lickers to find out.

Big thank you to Colin Hall of Bodhi Tree Yoga for stopping by!

Show Notes

Canadian yoga competition stretches into Edmonton | CBC News

Controversial Bikram yoga founder's planned Vancouver workshops raising flags

Jill Lawler's 1st-person account

Petition · Stop Predator Bikram Choudhury from hosting Yoga Seminar in Vancouver · Change.org

Woman speaking out against Bikram Yoga event gets disturbing pushback from organizer

Bikram yoga event no longer planned for Vancouver hotel

Bikram Yoga Creator Loses It When Asked About Sexual Assault Allegations | HuffPost Women

Sponsor: https://www.gardomlakeyoga.ca/

WATCH: Justin Trudeau cross-examined by Convoy lawyer

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The Twitter Files are the grift that keeps on giving. This week, Derek and Julian look at Alex Berenson's recent appearance on Russell Brand's Rumble channel to talk about the conspiracies that only exists in their heads—and the misinformation they share along the way.

Show Notes

The Pandemic’s Wrongest Man

Russell Brand: Elites Are Using Liberal Ideas to Justify Inequality

How anti-vaxxers monetize misinformation

URGENT: A federal database offers more evidence the mRNA Covid jabs may have serious cardiovascular risks

For red and blue America, a glaring divide in COVID-19 death rates persists 2 years later

Scathing evaluation of Sweden's COVID response reveals 'failures' to control the virus

Large, real-world study finds COVID-19 vaccination more effective than natural immunity in protecting against all causes of death, hospitalization and emergency department visits

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Today, Hulu releases a 3-episode doc series called “Stolen Youth,” directed by Zach Heinzerling.

The pole star for this low-dopamine, low-cortisol, non-true-crime, survivor-centred documentary is Daniel Levin’s painful and radiant memoir, Slonim Woods 9. In 2010, Levin was drawn into an extended-family domestic abuse group led by Larry Ray, the father of one of his friends at Sarah Lawrence College. It took him years to leave, years to begin to recover, and years to become the de facto subject coordinator for this film.

Matthew talks with Zach and Daniel about what it takes to really listen to survivors of group abuse, and how the arts of memoir and documentary can be doorways to reconnection and integration.

In an interview debrief, Julian and Matthew discuss why reviewing Stolen Youth is such a relief in the current Wild West cultsploitation landscape.

Well-told stories in this zone—and we need more of them—educate, de-sensationalize, and de-stigmatize. They humanize every step of the journey: from recruitment, to enmeshment, to complicity, to recovery, to creativity.

Show Notes

Slonim Woods 9 by Daniel Barban Levin

Rough Cut: What do filmmakers owe their subjects? w/Souki Medhaoui

Larry Ray and the Stolen Kids of Sarah Lawrence

How Did Larry Ray Run a Cult at Sarah Lawrence? 

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Sure, a big question: one Derek explores in the context of this nearly three-year-old Conspirituality project. Criticism and awareness are essential tools in a critical thinking kit, but to what end? As he prepares upcoming presentations on the topic of misinformation in public health, Derek reflects on the value of identifying charlatans and quacks while also speculating about how to move forward. 

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Those who fly high, fall hard. Pole dance company S-Factor crashed and burned in 2021 amidst a stack of complaints. Detractors said the company was conducting unlicensed group therapy, cosplaying enlightenment by co-opting the labour of sex workers, and whitewashing issues of racial equality.

Created by former actor Sheila Kelley, S-Factor monetized pole dancing as a path of feminist and spiritual awakening.

In this 2-part Listener Story, Matthew speaks to Jessica Hopper about her 13 years learning and teaching in the now-defunct company. Hopper paints a picture of a confusing, high-demand group, and tells us how she made her way out.

NOTE: During our discussion, Jessica recounts a tense all-hands S-factor staff meeting to discuss PR strategy at a crucial moment as the company cracked-up over issues of white fragility. I wasn't able to secure a recording of that call before my interview with Jessica, or since. But after we recorded, I did confirm what Jessica reports about it with 3 of the other participants on that call.  MR

Show Notes

Stripped Down: The Undoing of Hollywood's Favorite Pole-Dancing Studio —Hollywood Reporter.

"Strip Down, Rise Up" | Official Trailer | Netflix

Faces of Fierce Femininity—online conference organized by Kelly Brogan

Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema—Laura Mulvey, 1975

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Can you believe that Nancy Pelosi paid people to attack the Capitol on Jan 6 in order to make Republicans look bad? Actually, I mean, Jan 6 was the most peaceful gathering of a million patriots in history. Wait, hold on: Jan 6 was an antifa operative to act as cover for the fact that the election was, indeed, stolen. 

Do any of these stories sound familiar? Now imagine hearing them all, and dozens more like them, all in the same day, and you’ll get a glimpse of what Daily Show correspondent and host of the podcast, Fingers the Conspiracy, Jordan Klepper, endures on a regular basis. Today Jordan joins us to talk about the cursed world of conspiracies that he’s witnessed, up close and in person, with the people who spread them, what it was like to be at the Capitol on Jan 6, and the bewildering intersection of comedy and politics. 

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Katie Griggs. Katie Day. Kundalini Katie. Guru Jagat. We hardly knew you.

The late "Queen of Conspiracy Theories" is now memorialized on NPR through Emily Guerin's LAist podcast "Imperfect Paradise."

Matthew sits down with Emily to explore how we cover figures like Griggs, what it was like to interview her family, and what we can ultimately say about the compromised feminist empowerment she offered her followers—and whether she could have taken another route.

Show Notes

She was a popular yoga guru. Then she embraced QAnon conspiracy theories — NPR, LAist

36: Guru Jagat’s Pandemic Brandwash (w/Philip Deslippe & Stacie Stukin)

37: Guru Jagat Cultjacks Kundalini Yoga (w/Philip Deslippe & Stacie Stukin)

(PDF) From Maharaj to Mahan Tantric: The Construction of Yogi Bhajan’s Kundalini Yoga — Philip Deslippe

Yogi Bhajan Turned an L.A. Yoga Studio into a Juggernaut, and Left Two Generations of Followers Reeling from Alleged Abuse — Stacie Stukin

Inside the Dubious World of RA MA Yoga, and Its Girl Boss Guru to the Stars — Cassidy George, VICE

Guru Jagat Dies. A Saint Is Born. | by Matthew Remski | Aug, 2021 | Medium

Guru Jagat Mourned in Person with Breathing Exercises, No Masks — Matthew Remski

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What do you do  when your psychotherapy clients suffer from conspiracy theory anxiety?

What do you do when the conspirituality-based therapy advice they get from TikTok is compelling, but also misleading?

Toronto-based Registered Psychotherapist Alessia Caputo joins Matthew for this Listener Story installment to discuss the changing therapeutic landscape, in the office and online.

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Using a combination of Alexa, Siri, and your extensive search history, we've been able to scan your bio energetic field, and are sending personalized quantum rebalancing and immune-boosting frequencies your way as you listen. Can you feel it?! Can your pet feel it? Because, dear listener, there’s a program for them, too. In fact, there’s a program for everything and everyone because frequencies don’t discriminate—as long as you’re not into Big Pharma, that is. All you need is to invest in this little $1,000 machine—$4,000 if you want the “professional edition”—that clips onto your Lulu gear and injects quantum vibes straight into your soul.

That’s right, this week we’re talking about the Healy. Our correspondent, Mallory DeMille, has scanned the ethereal social media frequencies to find a greatest hits collection of influencers attempting to energetically guide you into their downline. Derek offers a bit of Healy history, which is rooted in the anti-EMF movement, while Matthew and I wonder: why is it that the same wellness crew that’s afraid of 5G and vaccine technology is so willing to wear this mysterious device? 

Show Notes

Healy World Official on YouTube

Marcus Schmieke explains the Technology and Science behind Healy

@trusting_birth questioning Healy

See conspirituality.net/episodes for screenshots mentioned during this episode

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Did the Matrix kidnap Top G? Or is Andrew Tate the Matrix himself, now unplugged and shorting out in a Romanian jail?

While his self-confessed crimes against women come home to roost, the online spectacle his arrest has generated provides a litmus test for just how fast the cognitive dissonance of culture war chaos can plummet.

Welcome to the broader “Tate crime”: a spectacle of acute reality-reversal, fueled by reactionary politics and driven by a cultic network of devotees and SEO managers, where culture war punditry is funded by bogus self-help courses and online pornography.

Show Notes

The PHD Program (“Pimping Hos Degree)

Andrew Tate said he broke a woman's jaw and that his business was a 'scam' ahead of Romanian charges

Tate admits to statutory rape

Part One: Andrew Tate, and the Mythopoetic Men's Movement - Behind the Bastards | iHeart

The Dangerous Rise of Andrew Tate

"From Pick-Up Artists to Incels: Con(fidence) Games, Networked Misogyny, and the Failure of Neoliberalism"

A Coordinated Group Of 4,500 Bots Tweeted In Support Of Andrew Tate

Teachers Warn That Misogynist Andrew Tate Has 'Radicalized' School-Age Boys

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Ok, the title is a bit outlandish, but for a reason: many of Russell Brand's Rumble videos feature titles like "HERE WE GO" and "THE FALL OF FAUCI." When everything is at volume 11, nothing seems to make sense—which is a bit how Derek and Julian feel after listening to his recent interview with Bari Weiss.

Not that Bari isn't a solid presenter—she is, even if we don't agree with everything she says. We'll pick apart her portion of the Twitter Files, while also continuing our investigation into Russell's always-on and always-loud tactics that disorient as much as obscure. 

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Perhaps you’ve seen the Rumi quote repeated on social media memes: “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” The wounded healer is a popular archetype in wellness spaces, and indeed, sometimes experience teaches wisdom, enabling the victim to overcome their trauma and help others. But in conspiritualist spaces, the wounded healer can also begin a monetization stream where everything becomes evidence of trauma, only to be healed through this book, or that course, or a brand-new brand of meditation that’s only the marketing scheme of an old form.

Speaking of brands, we look at the wounded healer through the lens of Russell Brand, among others. This leads to Derek’s interview with YouTuber and podcaster, Chris Boutte, aka The Rewired Soul, who happens to be in recovery and watched firsthand as Russell went from helpful figure to shadowy archetype. Can an addiction to drugs be healed, only to lead to an addiction to clicks and likes? Stay tuned…

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In part two of Derek and Julian's deconstruction of the Russell Brand/Matt Taibbi Twitter Files Rumble Session, Matt and Russell swoon over their interactions with Elon Musk, discuss how the MSM unfairly maligns Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine, and chat about the old regime at Twitter being in service of the sinister agenda of global institutions like the IMF.

Strap in.

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How do the screams of the Satanic Panic echo in anti-woke politics?

This past week, New Age Satanic Panic influencer Teal Swan released a new video to 1.5M YouTube subscribers about the dangers of "Wokeism." Yesterday, Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) announced plans to form a Congressional Anti-Woke Caucus.

We know by now that conspirituality is a machine charismatics can use to generate mystical solutions to exaggerated or imagined crises. With Swan’s pivot into anti-woke discourse, she is taking the next logical step in broadening and secularizing her message. 

What's not entirely clear is the pathway Swan has taken from Satanic Panic influencer to a New Age starseed, to unlicensed trauma recovery expert, to this potential future as a culture warrior. This Brief connects some of the dots, as the entanglement between New Age wellness objectives and reactionary populism tightens.

Show Notes

"Wokeism" and Today's "Woke" Society

109. Who’s Afraid of Teal Swan? (w/Jon Kasbe)

111: Who's Afraid of Teal Swan (pt 2) (w/Jennings Brown)

UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series 1 | Close to Home (please search "Swan Song Series to find all unlocked episodes)

From QAnon to Anti-Woke. A New Age guru pivots to a new… | by Matthew Remski

Qanon - The Great Awakening: PsyOp or the Real Deal? - Piercing the Veil of Reality Bernhard Guenther

The January 6th Capitol Siege has indelibly linked QAnon to domestic terrorism.

The deletion of vast networks of QAnon influencers and groups from social channels like FB and Twitter

Cullen Hoback’s Q: Into the Storm documentary

Rep. Jim Banks announces the Anti-Woke Caucus

Fighting the Woke Agenda in Congress - The American Mind 

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Where have all the strongmen gone, long time scrolling? Where have all the strongmen gone, long time ago? Where have all the strongmen gone? Gone to posting, everyone. Oh when will they ever turn off their phones? Not anytime soon. Trump on Truth Social, Modi on Instagram, Bolsonaro tweeting from a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Miami.

Today we’re looking at the new strongmen at the top of our political circuses. According to our guest, strongman-whisperer historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, they’re of new breed. They’re not the steampunk fascists of 100 years ago. They’re not Cold War autocrats, installed by the CIA. These guys are posters. They do not need to seize the means of production. Their goal is to disrupt the production of meaning.

Julian’s interview with Ben-Ghiat gives us a great opportunity to look at the strongman fetish in conspirituality, and to rate the top male influencers in our book on a scale of 10 Gaddafis.

Show Notes

Twitter’s moderation system is in tatters

Who is the 'Trump of the Tropics?': Brazil's divisive new president, Jair Bolsonaro— in his own words

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In November, the College of Psychologists of Ontario (CPO)—through which Jordan Peterson must be licensed in order to treat private clients—opened an investigation into complaints over his Twitter behavior. A few days ago, he publishing the disciplinary paper trail to Twitter, but failed to properly redact the names of complainants. 

Mystery questions: 

Can you shitpost at public servants, dox complainants, misgender people, call doctors who provide gender-affirming care “monsters,” cavort with fascists, and fat shame random swimsuit models to millions of people on Twitter and continue to be a licensed psychologist in the province of Ontario? 

Dr. Taslim Alani-Verjee joins me to do some 101 work on JP’s commitments to the profession that gives him clout and credibility. She is a clinical psychologist and the Director and Founder of Silm Centre for Mental Health. She teaches psychology and ethics at Adler Graduate Professional School, and is adjunct professor at Lakehead. Some of her concentration areas include intimate partner violence, stigma, social justice, and cultural competence.

Show Notes

CPOntario vs J B Peterson

Howard Levitt: What's happening to Jordan Peterson could happen to anyone now

When Your Psychologist Goes Viral: How Jordan Peterson's Fame Affected His Private Practice 

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While the Twitter Files revealed...not much at all...the right continues to push Elon Musk's "revelations" as hard as Hunter Biden's magical laptop, which seems to absorb every ill in society like Pandora's infamous box. And then there's Russell Brand, who can't turn away from a good conspiracy, or a bad one. He talks about Hunter's laptop and more with Matt Taibbi in a recent hour-long Rumble session. 

This week is part one of Derek and Julian's deconstruction of what went down, why it ultimately doesn't matter, and why it matters very much to both Brand's and Taibbi's brand building. 

Show Notes

Will the Real Tesla Founder Please Stand Up? 

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Matthew and Julian sit down for the second of a two-part examination of the 1988 bestseller at the heart of the recovered memory movement. This is episode 10 of the Swan Song Series.

Show Notes

Controversy Behind the False Memory Syndrome Foundation

The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse

Truth and reconciliation

Cases That Have Resulted in Convictions

Why The Courage to Heal Isn't on My Recommended Reading List

Creating Hysteria

25 Years of Trauma Treatment Networker 2014

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Happy New Year, Conspirituality listeners!

As with the much anticipated midterm elections, the holiday season is now officially behind us. Which means that in addition to any of the colds, flu, and COVID strains circulating, many of our listeners may still be in recovery mode from family time.

We're specifically referring to political tensions over the holiday dinner table. You know, the vegan sister insisting on a land acknowledgment before the QAnon uncle says grace, while the anti-vax aunt rants at her to take off her mask. Can somebody pass the apple pie?

Our guest today is journalist, author, and political analyst, Anand Giridharadas. Julian spoke with him about his new book, The Persuaders, in which he profiles people on the ground working to change minds, bridge divisions and fight for democracy. The Persuaders offers inspiration to those who refuse to accept that a rigid polarization in which no one ever changes their mind, is the new normal.

Show Notes

How to Become a Better Persuader

Understanding Your Circle of Influence: Calling In with Loretta Ross

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The Hodgetwins’ brand of comedy relies on punching down, not nuance or storytelling—or being based in reality in any meaningful way. They’ll take a subject, make fun of it, then sometimes moralize about why they’re right on a topic—especially when it comes to their version of masculinity.

Derek looks at these twins' vitriolic humor and places it in the context of competition. Whether they're preaching transphobia, fat-shaming, or other forms of bigotry, what they're revealing is really male fragility, not the all-important masculinity they profess.

Show Notes

The Racist Roots of Fighting Obesity

The Bizarre and Racist History of the BMI

Breaking Down the ‘Wellness-Industrial Complex,’ an Episode at a Time

Frans de Waal: The surprising science of alpha males

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Chaya Raichik of Libs of TikTok calls the LGBTQ+ community a cult. Does this mean the term has lost all meaning?

Searching for the roots of Raichik's abuse of cult discourse leads Matthew back through a cursed gender critical message board to an ill-conceived Twitter thread by cult expert Steve Hassan.

A Conspirituality Brief on what happens when fascists seize control of highly-charged explanatory tools.

Show Notes

Libs of TikTok has become central to right wing politics - The Washington Post

Twitter account Libs of TikTok blamed for harassment of children's hospitals

The artificial growth of hate speech

The Happy-Go-Lucky Jewish Group That Connects Trump and Putin - POLITICO Magazine

Cross-Dressing - Parshat Ki Teitzei - Chabad.org

Secret LGBTQ Chabad Group Fills Void - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

'Social contagion' isn’t causing more youths to be transgender, study finds

Meet Chris Elston, the BC Man Taking Anti-Trans Hate On Tour Across Canada

Chris Elston: Woman followed by man demanding trans health 'education'

Study finds 2.5% of transgender kids go through detransition 

Detransition Facts and Statistics 2022: Exploding the Myths Around

Hassan's main detrans Twitter thread

Hassan's other detrans Twitter thread

The BITE Model of Authoritarian Control: Undue Influence, Thought Reform, Brainwashing, Mind Control, Trafficking and the Law - ProQuest 

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Matthew and Julian sit down for the first of a two-part examination of the 1988 bestseller at the heart of the recovered memory movement—which played a central role in validating Satanic Panic testimonials. This is episode 9 of the Swan Song Series 9.

The basic premise of The Courage to Heal, by creative writing instructors Ellen Bass and Laura Davis,  is that memories of childhood abuse, especially child sexual abuse, can be recovered and articulated by survivors who are given the proper space, tools, and validation. The book explores how this be facilitated within the context of journaling, writing poetry, and writing memoir, and what the therapeutic benefits of full confessional articulation can be.

While countless people affirm that this book was a lifeline during a time in which recovery resources for child abuse survivors were rare,  there are substantial problems with the book's method, claims about memory, dodgy sources, and endorsement of outright Satanic Panic propaganda.

Show Notes

Controversy Behind the False Memory Syndrome Foundation

The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse

Truth and reconciliation

Cases That Have Resulted in Convictions

Why The Courage to Heal Isn't on My Recommended Reading List

Creating Hysteria

25 Years of Trauma Treatment Networker 2014

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Part 2 of Matthew's conversation with Sarah. 

Sarah grew up in the Church of Scientology. But she also grew up in a small town. And, in a neurodiverse family. 

We come from so many places. Exploitative, hierarchical, hypocritical. Generous, tender, and odd. 

It is an honor to present this installment of Listeners' Stories. We're tickled to learn that Sarah's awakening from Scientology was quickened by that South Park episode. And we're humbled to learn about how her mother, despite being deeply enmeshed in a coercive cult, still managed to kindle both compassion and common sense in her children.

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The second part of Julian and Matthew's long look at the 1999 film Teal Swan was reportedly obsessed with as a teen. Girl, Interrupted is a freewheeling adaptation of a 1993 memoir by Susanna Kaysen about the 18 months she spent undergoing treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder in a Massachusetts psychiatric facility in the late 1960s. This episode 8 of the Swan Song Series.

This study is provoked by a memory recounted by Swan's childhood friend, Diana Hansen Ribera, that Swan identified with the character of Lisa Rowe in the film. Angelina Jolie won an Oscar for her searing performance of Rowe, a sociopath.

In this second episode, we explore several characters that Swan may have (and may yet) identify with, discuss the awkwardness of portraying mental health narratives on the big screen, and what it would really take for such an intense film to be digestible for typical teenagers. Matthew ends with a meditation on immersive/claustrophobic media—which Swan goes on to master—compared with the relief of developing a meta-view capable of inhabiting many stories, as opposed to imitating one.

Show Notes

SENECA THE YOUNGER, HERCULES FURENS - Theoi Classical Texts Library

Hercules (Seneca)

Girl, Interrupted — Susanna Kaysen

1607: Growing up with Teal Swan - Diana Hansen Ribera

Mad, Bad, and Sad: Women and the Mind Doctors by Lisa Appignanesi

Brittany Murphy: Inside Her Sudden Death at 32 That Still Confounds Hollywood

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Elon, Elon, who are you? Where is your essential self? Where are you as you soar through your space fantasies, as you track and hedge and bet your billions, wondering if all those emeralds gave you an unfair advantage in life? 

What is the weather like on Mars? Have you found yourself yet, hiding in  millions of lines of self-driving code? Have you found your own face as you surveil your quivering workforce, bunking in the San Francisco headquarters you stopped paying rent on?

Is the real you playing endless video games, getting stoned with Joe Rogan, making an eleventh baby with a fourth partner? Do you feel  you’re connected to everything when you post at the speed of light?

As Musk teeters on the brink of ego death and financial annihilation, Matthew wonders about his inner life, especially after he dropped a Buddhist-type Easter Egg in a tweeted photo of his bedside table.

Is Elon Musk a Buddha-bro?  No surprise if he was.  After all, a big chunk of American  Buddhism lines up perfectly with Musk's reactionary centrism, performative transcendence, bog-standard conspiracism, and culture war shitposting.

Here to help us understand this strange world—and what kind of Buddhism could make Elon Musk a better human, if he gave a shit—are Dr. Ann Gleig, Aassociate Professor of religion and cultural studies at University of Central Florida, and independent scholar Brenna Artinger. We’ll be focusing on their awesome paper, “#BuddhistCultureWars: BuddhaBros, Alt-Right Dharma, and Snowflake Sanghas,”

Show Notes

Adam Jensen | Deus Ex Wiki 

THE CALIFORNIAN IDEOLOGY

Mindfulness in Silicon Valley | Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School 

#BuddhistCultureWars: BuddhaBros, Alt-Right Dharma, and Snowflake Sanghas 

Reactionary White Buddhists Have Joined The Fight Against Critical Race Theory 

Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? 

A Murky Scandal Involving a Powerful Punk Rock Dharma Teacher Is Dividing a Major Buddhist Community

Leaked Internal Report: Famous Buddhist Leader Noah Levine Was Accused of Rape and Assault

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Sarah grew up in the Church of Scientology. But she also grew up in a small town. And, in a neurodiverse family. 

We come from so many places. Exploitative, hierarchical, hypocritical. Generous, tender, and odd. 

It is an honor to present this installment of Listeners' Stories. We're tickled to learn that Sarah's awakening from Scientology was quickened by that South Park episode. And we're humbled to learn about how her mother, despite being deeply enmeshed in a coercive cult, still managed to kindle both compassion and common sense in her children.

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Remember way back to the beginning of this podcast, shortly after “Plandemic” dropped, when wellness influencers immediately began selling supposed “immune supporting” supplements? That trend has only intensified in recent months, with grifters like Peter McCullough and Mikki Willis getting in on the supplement game. In part three of his trilogy on supplements, Derek talks with dietician Kevin Klatt about what supplements are actually good for—as well as how this unregulated industry is monetizing fears around future viruses.

They also discuss the wild west of nootropics, supposed brain-enhancing substances that don’t scare you about pandemics, but instead make you believe that with just a little more optimization you’ll be the most perfect you possible…until another product drop, that is. To discuss the world of lack that other influencers capitalize on, we’ll discuss the annual A Fest, a TED-style wellness gathering for millionaires that banks on you never actually feeling content in your life, but instead chasing a promise of unachievable eternal betterment.

Show Notes

Inside the Wellness Festival for Millionaires

Human Rights Watch: Jordan

Kevin Klatt on Instagram | Twitter

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In this special report, Julian examines how the machinery of right-wing propaganda engineers the necessary conditions for stochastic terror. The recent waves of dehumanizing anti-LGBTQ bigotry heighten the probability of extremist violence. When it happens—as in November's tragic mass-shooting at Club Q, pointing this out leads right-wing media to quickly accuse the left of exploiting tragedy. Worse still, we're supposedly defending "groomers" and "child mutilation."

Meanwhile literal swastika flag-waving Nazis, as well as Proud Boys, Patriot Front, and other armed militia-types are increasingly showing up outside LGBTQ venues across the country. Terrorists deliberately sabotaged a North Carolina power grid, in an act many believe was designed to stop a drag show. Forty thousand people were without power for four days in early December as a result.

At the epicenter of this latest toxic culture war shock-wave is The Daily Wire. Funded by idiosyncratic religious fundamentalists who believe abortion and homosexuality are not only sins, but should be crimes—their roster of edgy, slickly produced personalities, like Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, Candace Owens, and now, Jordan Peterson, all go hard on the ugliest characterizations, both of LGBTQ people, and of the teachers and doctors who care for them. Julian shows how they have picked up on James Lindsay's outrageous conspiracy claim of a "handshake agreement" between communists and pedophiles, and how the "grass roots" moral panic org. with super PAC funding, Moms for Liberty, is hijacking school boards in Red states and Blue.

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Those who fly high, fall hard. Pole dance company S-Factor crashed and burned in 2021 amidst a stack of complaints. Detractors said the company was conducting unlicensed group therapy, cosplaying enlightenment by co-opting the labour of sex workers, and whitewashing issues of racial equality.

Created by former actor Sheila Kelley, S-Factor monetized pole dancing as a path of feminist and spiritual awakening.

In Part 2 of this Listener Story, Matthew speaks to Jessica Hopper about her 13 years learning and teaching in the now-defunct company. Hopper paints a picture of a confusing, high-demand group, and tells us how she made her way out.

NOTE: During our discussion, Jessica recounts a tense all-hands S-factor staff meeting to discuss PR strategy at a crucial moment as the company cracked-up over issues of white fragility. I wasn't able to secure a recording of that call before my interview with Jessica, or since. But after we recorded, I did confirm what Jessica reports about it with 3 of the other participants on that call.  MR

Show Notes

Stripped Down: The Undoing of Hollywood's Favorite Pole-Dancing Studio —Hollywood Reporter.

"Strip Down, Rise Up" | Official Trailer | Netflix

Faces of Fierce Femininity—online conference organized by Kelly Brogan

Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema—Laura Mulvey, 1975

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Julian and Matthew take a long look at the 1999 film Teal Swan was reportedly obsessed with as a teen. Girl, Interrupted is a bold adaptation of a 1993 memoir by the writer Susanna Kaysen about the 18 months she spent undergoing treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder in a Massachusetts psychiatric facility in the late 1960s. This is episode 7 of the Swan Song Series.

This study is provoked by a memory recounted by Swan's childhood friend, Diana Hansen Ribera, that Swan identified with the character of Lisa Rowe in the film. Angelina Jolie won an Oscar for her searing performance of Rowe, a sociopath.

Show Notes

Girl, Interrupted — Susanna Kaysen

1607: Growing up with Teal Swan - Diana Hansen Ribera

Mad, Bad, and Sad: Women and the Mind Doctors by Lisa Appignanesi | Goodreads

Brittany Murphy: Inside Her Sudden Death at 32 That Still Confounds Hollywood

Girl, Interrupted at her Music. Vermeer. 1660.

It’s the painting from whose frame a girl looks out, ignoring her beefy music teacher, whose proprietary hand rests on her chair. The light is muted, winter light, but her face is bright. I looked into her brown eyes and I recoiled. She was warning me of something—she had looked up from her work to warn me. Her mouth was slightly open, as if she had just drawn a breath in order to say to me, “Don’t!” I moved backward, trying to get beyond the range of her urgency. But her urgency filled the corridor. “Wait,” she was saying, “wait! Don’t go!” — Susanna Kaysen, Girl, Interrupted

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