Conspirituality

Our guest today, Jennings Brown, is a bright light in an increasingly chaotic cult-content economy. His 2018 podcast on Teal Swan, The Gateway, produced with Gizmodo, sets a high-watermark standard for research, fairness, and sensitivity. A lot has happened since that pod dropped: #MeToo, MAGA, QAnon, COVID, and now a post-reality Supreme Court in which Justice Thomas publishes a concurrence in which he states that COVID vaccines use the tissues of aborted fetuses. All of which is to say: we don’t know how intensely the insanity of the era will escalate, but we do know that clear, ethical reporting on difficult issues is a very thin lifeline back to sanity, communication, and trying to do something.

If you listened to episode 109 (if you haven’t we encourage you to stop here and go there), you’ll hear our criticisms of The Deep End docuseries about Teal Swan. You’ll hear us interview the director, Jon Kasbe. We lean on him, maybe too gently, on the numerous integrity issues with his film. Bottom line: with deceptive edits and a vacuum of expert commentary and research, we feel that this project is a real setback for everyone trying to understand cultic dynamics in the online age. And as we’ll report at the top of the show, before our interview with Brown, the story of this embedment is only getting messier.

Our interview with Jennings steers clear of the muck, because what we really wanted to hear was all about his process, his editorial decisions, and the help he got from his producers. We were also very lucky to have him drop some previously unreported data into the mix. Spoiler alert: it’s about the types of things that Swan used to write in her secret runic alien language.

Show Notes

Jennings Brown — About page with tip line contact info

Episode 109: Who's Afraid of Teal Swan? w/ Jon Kasbe

Jon Kasbe wishing Teal Swan happy birthday

Bits Sola rapping Teal Swan happy birthday

Gizmodo Launches 'The Gateway,' an Investigative Podcast About a Controversial Internet Spiritual Guru

Open Shadow — Paola Marino

Paola Marino on The Deep End (clip)

Jennings Brown — Revelations

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We can't understand Teal Swan without understanding the Satanic Panic. And we can't really understand that historical disaster with out feeling our way into the mysteries of memory, fantasy, shame, and terror.

Many of you will have heard about therapists interfering in a family constellation by insinuating the client has has memories of abuse to uncover, and that they can’t go forward in their lives without doing that work. This is the bread and butter of Swan's technique, with the result being that many of her close followers come to tell stories  about their childhoods that echo hers. Swan's own story of childhood abuse crystallized after she goes through treatment with a leading Satanic Panic therapist, Barbara Snow.

Those are stories on the page. But today, to kick off the Swan Song Series, Julian shares  the moment-by-moment mechanics of how this disastrous parody of therapy turned his own life inside out, and alienated him from his family for a decade.

Content warning for listeners: we’ll be talking about stories of child sexual abuse.

Show Notes

The Gateway

Michelle Remembers, covered by Sarah Marshall and Michael Hobbes

Forrest Yoga students ask A. Forrest to stop using the Zia Nation symbol

A. Forrest's ostensible mentor 

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Rosaries made of shell casings. A breakaway Unification Church sect that holds rituals with gilded ARs. JP Sears on the gun range. The unholy American trinity of conservative politics, religious extremism, and gun culture is deep into its liturgical calendar. And it looks like conspiritualist influencers in the yoga and wellness space are setting up their juice bars outside the temple of the gun.

Is Christiane Northrup LARPing when she talks about murdering political enemies? What would Mikki Willis wear to tactical boot camp? Amidst the carnage of Uvalde and the Supreme Court, are conspiritualists gearing up to offer logistical or merely symbolic support for political violence? Does it even make a difference? When does the Temple of the Gun become a firing range, and then a staging ground?

We’ll cover these questions this week in part one of our look at guns and spirituality. Then in three weeks, Julian will talk to sociologist of religion Alan Levinovitz about how New Age spirituality and US gun culture shake hands through an “epistemology of individual empowerment,” which, he argues, has emerged amidst a crash in social solidarity.

Show Notes

New York Times report on Guns in GOP Ads

How Many Lives Were Saved by The Assault Weapons Ban?

Christian Nationalists and the Holy Gun Crusade

Rod Of Iron Ministries Buys “Spiritual Retreat” Property in Tennessee

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Matthew introduces Julian to the solipsism of an old Catholic catechism. Julian remembers meditating on non-duality. What spaces in our brains do these exercises create? Did we need those spaces for safety, or to hide from ourselves and the world? What happens to these spaces when we no longer need them? If we learned how to take pleasure in “cognitive closure” through religion or spirituality, can we use that skill forever, but detached from the ideologies that want to steal that fire?

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If the world has become too much to bear—and the bots know it from your search history— you will likely find Teal Swan. She will appear, an angel of the algorithms, part icon and part anime avenger. Against a backdrop of flowing water or turning constellations, she will gaze into your despair. She will speak in a drone at once hypnotic and relieving, giving words to feelings you thought were taboo. At 3am, this might feel like mystical luck, but it’s no accident. Swan is open about recruiting suicidal seekers to her content, and she has the tech chops to do it.

Now, with Jon Kasbe’s series, “The Deep End” airing on Hulu, Swan has entered some A-list limelight. But what do we really learn from this docutainment event, radiating out from an embedment in Swan’s inner circle? According to Kasbe’s own words, we don’t learn the “Capital T Truth” of Swan’s day-to-day, but rather the immersive feeling of what it is like to be under her spell.

Or do we? Swan accuses Kasbe of casting his own spell, with deceptive editing that scrambles timelines and conflates interactions, and even different people. And it appears she might not be wrong. We talk to Kasbe in this episode about his vision and blindspots, and the ironic risk of creating a film of Satanic-Panic level false memories about an influencer who says she specializes in retrieving past trauma.

This episode will pilot a series of Patreon bonus episodes in which we’ll study the Teal Swan spectacle in detail, and how important it is to not only report on it well, but to be fair to an influencer like Swan and her dedicated followers, lest they lose even more trust in the real  world.

CORRECTION: Matthew referred to Jennings Brown's role on The Deep End production incorrectly during the episode. His title is "Development Executive Producer."

Show Notes

The Deep End

The Gateway Podcast 

Teal Swan 2014 interview on her backstory.

Teal Swan: Gucci Guru article by Be Scofield

Barbara Snow’s seminal Satanic Panic article: Ritualistic Child Abuse In A Neighborhood Setting

Recovered Memory Therapist Placed on Probation

Michelle Remembers & The Satanic Panic

Teal’s Responses to The Deep End Start HERE

Teal Swan Defense :Testimonial Deep End Defamation—Sylvan

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After becoming global leaders in gun manufacturing in the 16th century, Japan banished all guns from their country for two centuries. How did this happen? And what were the results? Well, even today, the nation of 127 million experiences under 10 gun deaths every year.

Derek looks back at this period in history to find out what happens when a society seems to move backward when in reality progress is made. He also looks at the psychology of warfare while noting that as bad as society can become, nothing is inevitable.

Show Notes

Giving Up the Gun: Japan's Reversion to the Sword, 1543-1879

The demographics of gun ownership

America's gun culture - in seven charts

Packy McCormick: Optimism

Japan has almost completely eliminated gun deaths — here's how

A Terrible Love of War: James Hillman

War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning: Chris Hedges

Tribe: Sebastian Junger

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Half-a-million Facebook followers. Hundreds of videos in a series called “The Great Awakening.” Christiane Northrup, the matriarch of New Age women’s wellness, warns her followers about fake viruses, and tells them to avoid sex with their vaccinated partners. She stumps alongside QAnon celebrities, shovels campaign contributions to Trump, and dotes over sovereign citizen sheriffs. To ease your symptoms of ascension, she offers bath recipes of alfalfa greens and Dr. Bronner’s soap. You can have a good soak and listen to her golden harp.

But in this nowhere world, where oh where is Christiane Northrup? Who is she? Is she flesh and blood, or a social media hologram generated by a Louise Hay AI? Is that mansion she broadcasts from a sound stage, or is there real soil and manure and flowers there? Our guests today know Northrup as super-real, because they live in her home state of Maine. Alyce Ornella, Andy O’Brien, and Mooncat have known her as a doctor, an MLM diva, antivax rabble rouser, and QAnon tour promoter.

Now, they tell us, another Northrup may be crystallizing on Maine’s rocky shore, floating past the lighthouses and over the cranberry bogs on a cloud of essential oils. She’s been seen haunting the blueberry patches, wearing a chunky necklace of lobster claws. As Northrup begins to hold revival meetings in Down East churches, and openly fantasize about murdering political enemies, they wonder if she is assuming her ultimate form—as an IRL cult leader.

Show Notes

Dear Dr. Northrup

Dr. No: Christiane Northrup

Republican barred from inviting guests into State House

Naomi Wolf: “Five Freedoms” speech, April 2021.

Arise USA rally draws crowds inside, outside Crosby Center

Arise USA Meets Maine Stands Up

Inside the Disastrous Conspiracy Roadshow That Likely Killed a COVID-Denying Ex-CIA Agent

Maine Republican compared the governor to Nazi Josef Mengele

ME state rep compares COVID vaccine mandate to Nazism

Northrup bo

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Julian recently attended his first Catholic funeral and found himself equal parts supportive friend and atheist anthropologist. This week, Matthew draws on his Catholic upbringing and experience as church organist (for close to 1,000 funerals) to help unpack this experience. 

In hindsight, it turns out that the rote blandness of organized religion may serve communities more honestly than the monetized performative charisma of New Age ritual. The conversation touches on the mythological and social dimensions of religion, as well as both Julian and Matthew’s experience of corporal punishment at school, meted out by the same authority figures who donned ceremonial robes for church.

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Aubrey Marcus really wants to not be a cult leader. He really wants Fit For Service to not be labeled a cult. He’s come out and said so, in a bold but vague response to criticism of his content from our podcast. Matthew takes him at his word, and puts on his cult research hat to give some pointers on how Aubrey can avoid abusing his power. Key bits of advice include: rejecting high intensity recruitment techniques, not depicting the world outside Fit For Service as “upside down” or insane, and not platforming alleged child molesters like Marc Gafni.

While this open letter is addressed to Aubrey, his Fit For Service clients might also find it useful as they decide whether to keep spending up to 20K USD per year participating in the program. Also, if Aubrey feels that this episode contains information that will help current and future participants assess whether he is really making good on his promise to provide “radical self-sovereignty,” we at Conspirituality Podcast would happily give permission for this episode to be included with Fit For Service materials, pro bono.

This letter is also open in a broader sense, because it contains solid tips for all earnest charismatic influencers who want to improve their ethics game. We believe you can do it, influencers! You can dig deep, and live your better life, by fucking over fewer people!

Show Notes

A Holocaust Denier Is Travelling Across Canada Building Up The Country's Newest Far-Right Militia Movement - Canadian Anti-Hate Network

'I Was 13 When Marc Gafni's Abuse Began' – The Forward

Former Rabbi Accused of Improper Sexual Conduct Now Rising Star in U.S. Spiritual Movement

Gafni Faces Fallout From New Age Community

Marc Gafni Named In Latest Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Against Yeshiva University

Popular New Age author Marc Gafni molested 13-year-old girl in 1980, lawsuit says

Sara Kabakov lawsuit docket

“Jane Doe” lawsuit

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An audio essay from Matthew about how anti-trans ideology can so curdle the soul that an otherwise progressive eco-activist—Derrick Jensen of Deep Green Resistance—can blow up his entire career over it, disrupting the very thing he says he lives for, and destroying the movement he spent years building up.

The story starts more than a decade ago, but comes to its peak absurdity, for Matthew at least, on Facebook. He posted some thoughts about Jordan Peterson freaking out over that woman on the cover of Sports Illustrated. And then Jensen visited his page.

Show Notes

The New Age / Medieval Mortifications of Jordan Peterson | by Matthew Remski | Medium

That FB post about Peterson and Yumi Nu

Yumi Nu cleverly responds to Jordan Peterson's 'not beautiful' comment' | indy100

Simulacra and Simulations — Baudrillard

Government Bill (House of Commons) C-16 (42-1) - First Reading - An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code - Parliament of Canada

Canada's gender identity rights Bill C-16 explained

Four years on, past critics are silent on whether fears around transgender human rights bill were founded

An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code

Jordan Peterson: The right to be politically incorrect

I Was in the Room While Jordan Peterson and Senators Debated My Human Rights

​​Lies of the land: against and beyond Paul Kingsnorth's völkisch environmentalism

What Speaking Like Jordan Peterson Probably Feels Like

J

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We've gone deep on yoga communities infected by conspiracy theories. We've looked at essential oils and supplements influencers peddling in misinformation. There are channelers and astrologers and chiropractors. But there's another world we've only mentioned in passing: martial arts practitioners, which turn out to be another influential vector for disinformation. 

This week, Stephan Kesting, longtime BJJ black belt and instructor (and so much more) joins Derek to look at the conspiratorial frame of Joe Rogan, Dana White, and many other figures peddling misinformation in the arts.

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Matthew and Julian have to thank Kelly Brogan for hanging out on an episode of Aubrey Marcus's podcast, where she lays bare the emotional avoidance and cruelty that conspirituality attempts to sublimate—or dispel the guilt of.

Here's the pull quote for the ages:

So when I am sick, right, chronically sick, what do I get? I get compassion built in to my life from others who pity me. Right? And who offer me that surrogate hit of love. I get to say no without having to actually learn to assert my boundaries and express my desires in this clear, indirect way because of course, I'm limited by my illness. I can't do that. I get to say no all the time. I get to experience the validation of this felt sense of wrongness and brokenness that's always lived within me out of all my patients told me that the first time they got a diagnosis, they felt like See, I knew something was wrong with me. Yeah. And it's like, you know, ends up being like the prison number you know, that's put on their vest, but it feels in the moment like it's somebody's finally seeing their hurt. And when, you know, we end up over identifying with that wound with the cancer diagnosis with the, you know, the mental illness…

She goes on in the episode to say: "victim consciousness is the only human pathology."

Show Notes

Premka Memoir

If you want to STAY SICK, Don't Watch This | Dr. Kelly Brogan MD on Aubrey Marcus Podcast

Lesson 136: Sickness is a defense against the… | ACIM

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Is humanity doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past?

This week, Julian traces a timeline from the bright-eyed early days of the internet to the dark message boards where QAnon emerged—and that still foment white supremacist mass shootings. to the dizzying infinite scroll on TikTok. Each new evolution of social media exploits innate human vulnerabilities more effectively, delivering more potent strains of deceptive manipulation to receptive young minds.

No surprise, then, that a crew of talented dancers with huge TikTok audiences appears to have been recruited into a high-demand evangelical group with a divine mandate to conquer all aspects of American life for Jesus. We'll hear from friends and family anxiously wondering what is going on.

For today's interview, Abbie Richards returns. She's the the mis and disinformation researcher with special expertise on the "clock app."

Show Notes

How Lonelygirl15 Changed The Internet

Analyzing TikTok Usage and Growth

Is "The Garden" a TikTok Cult?

Dancing In The Name of The Lord

Inside the $2.5M LA Mansion Where Alleged TikTok "Cult" Shoots Videos

Shekinah Church "About" Page

The Modern Apostles Who Want To Want To Reshape America Ahead of the End Times

HBO Recruits Instagram Independent Reporters

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Julian and Matthew decompress after the interview with Gavin Ryan and discuss the "alt-med treadmill" and what it means to never quite know where the threshold of evidence lies.

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Cortney and Shana can’t remember exactly how they first became aware of the New Age promises and anxieties that would come to dominate every aspect of their lives. Their mom brought it into the house and their daily rhythms bit by bit.

As kids in the early 1980s, they would fall asleep to visualizations by the self-help guru Wayne Dyer, on audiocassette. Or mom would read passages from Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda, after tucking them into bed. Cortney remembers an eerie photograph of the yogi’s corpse in a glass coffin in the mortuary. The lore was that he just wouldn’t decay. “Mom had a real fascination with beating death,” she told us. 

When the girls were still in elementary school, mom took them to an “attunement”, which must have made them the youngest Reiki Masters in Green Bay, Wisconsin—if not the whole midwest. “She was on a search,” Shana told us. 

And at some point the local massage training, the flyers in the health food stores, and the mail-order books weren’t enough. Mom started going to events, a long way from home—all the way out in Washington State. One time she came home with a VHS tape and played it for the girls. It showed a woman named J.Z. Knight transform into someone she called “Ramtha,” who she said was 35,000 years old, and carried the wisdom of the ages. She also brought audiocassettes of Ramtha, which they played in the car. 

This was their introduction to “channeling.” They were young teens, and didn’t know what to think. Was it magic? Was it funny? Ramtha sounded like the Great Gazoo, after all. When mom wasn’t home they’d show the VHS tape to their friends and giggle. But they also felt strange about it. Embarrassed. 

“I remember yelling at my mom, ‘Why can't you be normal?’” Shana said. What they understand now is how much she desperately needed to find something that was meaningful. 

“She was really struggling in the Catholic religion,” Shana said, “And her marriage,” Cortney added. “And midlife. It was the perfect storm.” 

Matthew sits down with Cortney and Shana as they share their story publicly for the first time. 

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As the crew is in the final stages of submitting their forthcoming book, Julian and Derek reflect on how yoga has evolved in their personal lives. In Part 2, they talk about yoga in aging bodies, the pursuit of philosophy, and leaving the damn cell phone out of yoga studios.

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Since day one, we've been covering medical disinformation on this podcast, always wondering where it would move next. Our collective breaths were stolen when learning about the seemingly inevitable overturning of Roe v Wade last week—and the extensive implications that could have for American society.

Mother Jones senior editor, Kiera Butler, has been reporting on medical disinformation in parenting groups for years. Her most recent piece points out the next potential freedom to be stripped from women: the use of contraception. She joins Derek this week to talk about this seemingly dystopian present we're moving into, as well as the continued merging of the Christian Right and wellness influencers—which is very much a part of this movement. 

Show Notes

The Anti-Abortion Movement’s Next Target: Birth Control

The Terrifying Story of How QAnon Infiltrated Moms’ Groups

The Death of Roe Is Going to Tear America Apart

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As the crew is in the final stages of submitting their forthcoming book, Julian and Derek reflect on how yoga has evolved in their personal lives. In Part 1, they discuss the origins of their yoga practices, what led them to teaching, and some ideas about yoga philosophy in general.

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After we published episode 98 on “Placebo Joe” Dispenza, an Australian artist named Gavin Ryan posted a comment to Facebook in response:

“My wife was full of this stuff, when she stopped taking all the treatments that had finally turned her breast cancer around, right up to the day she died of it. Still fully convinced she was going to heal herself by sheer force of wishful thinking.” We reached out, and Gavin agreed to an interview.

Fey was 47 years old when she died under the coconut palms and stars of Ubud, with Gavin at her side. She’d spent six years feverishly trying to keep ahead of breast cancer with alternative medicine and New Age spirituality. She received several turns of evidence-based care that had served her body well. But she would always return to the energy work, herbs, and meditations that spoke to her soul.

Gavin was there with her all the way. He found himself stretched thin between advocating for treatments that worked, and honoring her need for magic.

We're really grateful that he has shared this story with us.

Show Notes

Here's the full recording of Fey reciting "Karuna Breath."

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Manifestation workshops. MLM downlines. The supplement grift. Cash is king everywhere in the conspirituality sphere, even—especially—when disguised in the jargon of spiritual-ese. Derek and Julian step back and discuss the cash grab impulse, as well as talk about their own feelings on money and its value.

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In this conversation, Beatrice Adler-Bolton—disability justice advocate and co-host of Death Panel Podcast—says something twice:

"Under capitalism, you’re only entitled to the survival you can buy."

Her forthcoming co-authored book is called, provocatively, Health Communism. Part of its argument is that we have to imagine a society in which everyone is entitled to the survival we can share.

How disquieting it is that the natural instinct we have as individuals to ask:  "What is this going to cost me?" is microcosmic to neoliberal obsessions—austerity, productivity, and dreams of a better future purchased with moral sacrifices in the present. It’s microcosmic to the brutal decisions our societies are now making about who is worthy of protection and who isn't, and which political constituencies we can't afford to piss off by appealing to the small amount of generosity and humility it takes to wear a mask.

We're living in a culture of What is it going to cost me? And that's not really a culture at all.

If we don't do better, then how exactly are the conspiritualists wrong? Not about the details, but about the existential condition. They imagine a Cabal at the top of everything, making nefarious decisions, and this is easy to dismiss. Less easy to dismiss is the feeling they articulate, that many of us share: that unseen and impersonal forces are working against the spirit of human generosity. They know that sometimes we all feel ourselves participating in that process, which means we have to do something—perhaps as radical as waking up. Not to the magic of turmeric, or the realization that we’re starseeds. Something far more radical than that, and much more mundane: that we can organize ourselves in more fair and loving ways.

Beatrice Adler-Bolton is a blind/low vision and chronically ill artist, writer, and disability justice advocate. Beatrice studies radical patient groups and the capitalist political economy of health as an independent researcher and is earning a master's in Disability Studies at CUNY. She is the co-host of the Death Panel podcast with Artie Vierkant and Phil Rocco.

Note from Beatrice:

If you'd like to give your listeners a little more info on Disability Justice (DJ), I would recommend this link from Sins Invalid, which is a short and foundational DJ text and a really quick primer on what it is written by Patty Berne and Sins Invalid: tinyurl.com/DJ10Principles.

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Derek and Julian discuss the literary influences and yogic practices that led them to yoga in the first place, while also discussing what spirituality in a post-pandemic world could look like. 

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In July 2020, just as we were finding our sea legs with this podcast, Imran Ahmed joined to discuss the state of disinformation occurring around the world. As the founder of the UK’s Center for Countering Digital Hate, he had just produced a report that found anti-vax organizations were reaching 58 million people on social media—and this was well before the COVID vaccines were developed. The total amount of money spent by anti-vax groups and advertisers targeting their followers on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube turned out to be roughly $1 billion.

Imran’s group kept reporting and we kept covering them. You probably remember the Center thanks to its Disinformation Dozen report, which profoundly impacted awareness of just how much anti-vax leaders were monetizing their supplements, seminars, and other supposed COVID “interventions.” The report even reached the White House where Joe Biden called out the Disinformation Dozen during a press conference. 

What’s changed in the nearly two years since we had Imran on? Well, a lot—and in some ways, not much at all. Julian interviews Imran this time around after having met up in person at the Defeat the Mandates rally in downtown Los Angeles. Imran discusses what’s changed, what hasn’t, and how the bottom line remains the same: namely, the conspiritualist’s bottom line. They also talk about the nature of free speech in an internet filled with disinformation. 

Before hearing from Imran, Derek and Julian briefly discuss the state of disinformation and free speech online, which Derek frames in terms of urban planning and the concept of legibility. 

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The Sermon of the Sardines is etched into our very souls. Picture the scene, as dreamboat doctor Zach Bush recounts his shimmering story of swimming off the coast of Tulum with thousands of tiny heroic fish, for Rich Roll’s Tuscany retreat participants. In this week’s Bonus episode Matthew and Julian connect the dots between Zach’s quivering amphibious ecstasy, his fascist notions of holy sacrifice in warfare via “non-empathic presence,” how he praises his hospice staff for using reiki as opposed to pain meds, and inspires his listeners to have no fear of death. After all—it’s the ultimate upgrade. From Sardine to Salvation, Bush has it covered.

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Listeners: there’s a revolution going on. Legions of Twitter counselors and Instagram therapists has risen up to offer unsolicited sermons on cults, cult leaders, and cult recovery. With COVID closing down the studios, every third yoga teacher has become an expert in trauma. They’re starting Facebook groups. They’re selling courses. They’re doing their Family Systems work out in the open, displaying heroic levels of vulnerability. We’re just waiting for the first QAnon recovery MLM to launch on Kickstarter.  We know it’s coming. There will be oils, and breathing exercises, and some very long emotional check-ins on Zoom.

Meanwhile, Netflix is distinguishing itself from GaiaTV, the Netflix of cults, with an explosion of cult documentaries. There’s a gold rush on. Scouts for all of the streaming companies are lined up outside of the ashrams, vetting survivors to see who has the chops to carry a series. We seem to love them, but sometimes not as much as the sociopaths themselves. The cult doc is the new true crime chill.

Beneath the feeding frenzy, there’s real work to be done. The QAnon Casualities subreddit has 235K followers as of today. We get dozens of emails and DMs from people who have had their lives upended by conspirituality and cults. We have hints and whispers to offer them, but no answers. Yes, we live in a capitalist hellscape in which emotional turmoil of the people is commodified and sold back to them in the form of workshops and bingeable series. But we are also able to host Rachel Bernstein, cult recovery therapist, to get some clarity on the basic phenomena that dominate our commons today.

Program note: We’re going to try to stretch this out to 90 minutes so that we can each say we got a 45-minute free consult on why TF we’re doing this job.

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Since early on in this conspirituality experiment, Derek has been using the catchphrase that is the title of this week's bonus episode. Julian joins in to discuss exactly what the phrase means in the landscape of conspiritualists, who the most egregious offenders are, and the origin story of the term. If you think your coffee is moldy or those glasses are really blocking blue light, think again.

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If you get treated by someone who says they’re a doctor, but they’re not, can they still have a placebo effect? That’s the question we’d like to ask Dr. Joe Dispenza, who’s not a doctor, but who plays one on the internet, treating one and all with the placebo of his bafflegab about Quantum healing and TimeSpace.

Placebo Joe. Who is he? How do you take the measure of a Quantum Man? We’ll shine our browsers into the slit experiment and observe a particle here, a wave there. The particles of video clips, the waves of affiliate links. We’ll run our signature experiment: Schrodinger’s Influencer, to find out just how many parallel Joe Dispenzas are populating the multiple universes he is trying to crack back to alignment with his chiropractic panache. There’s the Joe of the Ramtha School of Enlightenment, Joe who starred in “What The Bleep Do We Know?” There’s faith healer Joe, and Joe who now headlines, alongside David Icke, for the Netflix of conspirituality, Gaia TV.

Joking aside: in episode 89, we heard from Mary, whose husband almost gave up on chemotherapy for aggressive pancreatic cancer under the influence of Placebo Joe. And today we’ll watch him pretend to be able to cure infertility, and romance Aubrey Marcus. We’ll also puzzle over his strangely undramatic origin story. We’ll suss out the normalizing impact Joe has on a whole raft of bullshit. We’ll wonder why this boy from a nice working class famiglia in Jersey wanted to be a doctor so badly, he was willing to talk himself into it.

Show Notes

Gaia Acquires Yoga International, a Leading Digital Yoga Service

You Are The Placebo

Why Some People Are More Susceptible to Placebos

$2.5B Spent by the NCCIH

Placebo Myths Debunked

Feedback Monday Bonus: Responding to Lissa Rankin

Merv Griffin Show JZ Knight As Ramtha - 1985 - 14 minutes

RSE: 4 axioms

Life University loses accreditation

Dispenza Quantum University bio

Joe Dispenza "I am the Placebo"

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Matthew and Julian draw back the curtain to take you behind the scenes of the book-writing process. They step back to consider the pantheon of conspiritualists we’ve covered over the last two years; the kaleidoscope of themes they represent, and the key moments they’ve had on the big cultural stage as the pandemic has unfolded. Who among them is worthy of being cast in the rogue’s gallery we will include in the book that will officially document all of our work over almost 100 episodes now?

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This week we’re “just asking questions.” You probably recognize that quip from Joe Rogan, of course, but today’s focus is another actor and comedian turned popular podcaster, Russell Brand. As with Rogan, who he recently said he loved being compared to, Brand is amassing an increasingly large following—trust us, he’ll remind you of that number at the top of every episode—thanks to his high-energy solo rants about the conspiracy of, well, seemingly everything.

But what’s Russell really saying? We’ve listened to hours of his podcasts and watched further hours of videos and, to be honest, we can’t really tell. Pseudo-spiritual musings mesh with benign revolutionary politicizing with a healthy dose of his live performance schedule and reminders to smash the subscribe button thrown in. Russell is exceptionally good at evoking emotions and firing listeners up with his high-energy, seemingly stream-of-consciousness diatribes, yet when you break down the sentences, you find that he’s pretty content-free. Well, except when he’s marketing himself, which, at the end of the day, seems to be the only thing Russell is truly interested in.

Show Notes

Hybrid immunity offers increased protection that is longer-lasting against Covid-19 reinfection, studies show

Russell Brand: My Response

Russell Brand: How Did We Miss This?

Russell Brand & Nigel Farage clash over immigration on Question Time

Russell Brand: 'I've never voted, never will'

Johnson & Johnson Announces Real-World Evidence and Phase 3 Data Confirming Strong and Long-Lasting Protection of Single-Shot COVID-19 Vaccine in the U.S.

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Vaccine Boosting in Persons Already Protected by Natural or Vaccine-Induced Immunity

Effectiveness of the BNT162b2 Vaccine after Recovery from Covid-19

Protection against SARS-CoV-2 after Covid-19 Vaccination and Previous Infection

World Economic Forum: Digital Identity

Watch Russell Brand Read From A Couple Of My Articles

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Hey everyone... Matthew and Julian here with a more relaxed format. We'll be periodically checking in on feedback going forward, starting with a look at some shade thrown by Lissa Rankin at the pod. We're not entirely buying what she's selling, but it does give us pause to reflect on communication styles, satire, and empathy.

Here's what Rankin had to say: https://www.facebook.com/lissarankin/posts/521303766024162.

And here's how Matthew responded: https://www.facebook.com/matthew.remski/posts/10166401550575602

(Apologies about Matthew's sound quality. Kittens knocked over the mic stand and snapped the connectors. Derek is shipping out a hand-me-down for Thursday!)

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You might have heard some revolutionary news: germs don’t exist. Ok, they exist, but they only make you sick after you ruin your relationship with your environment—the terrain. Actually, the idea isn’t new. Initially floated in the 19th century, terrain theory was never  proven in real-world experiments, and so fell dormant—until now. As with many terrible 19th-century science metaphysics, conspiritualists are feeling nostalgic. And do we have a group to introduce you to this week.

To help us debunk this funk, Dr Dan Wilson returns to the pod to offer his keen ear in breaking down the bullsh*t being shoveled by Tom Cowan and Andrew Kaufman during The Event 2021. First, Derek offers a brief history of the battle between germ theory and terrain theory—one that produced a clear winner in Louis Pasteur, which, as conspiritualists now spin it, is just further evidence of the Deep State conspiracy holding us all back.

Show Notes

Dan Wilson on YouTube | Instagram | Twitter

This pseudoscience movement wants to wipe germs from existence

Germ theory denialism is alive and well – and taking the nuance out of scientific debate

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The world's top life coach has a new book, Life Force. Seemingly bulletproof to criticism due to connections in high places (and a litigious legal team), Tony Robbins's new book is a perfect example of the conspiritualist grift: mix science with sciencey sentiment and package it in a shiny revolutionary marketing package that promises much and delivers little more than confusion. Derek reviews.

Show Notes

A single blood test claims to detect dozens of cancers. Skeptics wouldn’t bet your life on it.

The 700-calorie breakfast you should eat if you want to live forever, according to a futurist who spends $1 million a year on pills and eating right

What supplements does Ray Kurzweil take and why?

Instagram: Low testosterone is one of the most underdiagnosed conditions in American men

Epigenetics: It doesn't mean what quacks think it means

Siddhartha Mukherjee: The Gene

Detox: What “They” Don’t Want You To Know

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The mystical politics of Aleksandr Dugin, the mercurial philosopher and geopolitical strategist hovering behind Vladimir Putin, is front and center this week.  Last week, we covered the phenomenon of Western conspiritualists folding the Russian invasion of Ukraine into their fact-free claims about what's really going on. It turns out that once you're all-in on the cabal, the Great Reset, mole children, and vaccine genocide, whatever happens in the world means you were right all along.

Conspiritualists are claiming that, just like Donald Trump, Putin is really a light worker fighting to save the children and destroy Anthony Fauci's secret bioweapons labs in Ukraine while heralding the true Great Awakening. But an entirely different prophecy, one promising a Soviet spiritual rebirth, appears to be inspiring Vladimir Putin's actions—as well as Russia's disruptive interference in American politics.

Julian unpacks the perennialist religious movement, Traditionalism, and how it speaks to fascist political actors around the world, including Steve Bannon. This is especially relevant in light of tragic events in Europe, a stark reminder of those of us who remember the Cold War. This time, Dugin and Putin dream of a new Russian Empire.

Show Notes

Aleksandr Dugin Ukraine Invasion Press Conference

Moscow Patriarch Stokes Religious Tensions with Ukraine Remarks

Dugin, Putin & The 2016 Election

The Rise of Traditionalism by Benjamin Teitelbaum

Steve Bannon’s Ideological Soulmate

Dugin Fired from University Post for Inciting Genocide

The London Dinner that Brought Europe’s Far-Right Together

Bannon Cites Julius Evola

Inside The Strange Origins of Bannon’s Nationalist Fantasia

Dugin’s Foundations of Geopolitics Reviewed

Dugin’s Eurasianism & The Am

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Matthew brushes off and polishes stories and analyses we’ve only had the time to glance at in various episodes. A second or even 3rd instalment may be forthcoming.

Presented in chronological order, dating from a year before the WHO declared the pandemic, up to just after they did. 

• March, 2019: How JZ Knight, aka Ramtha, began forging alliances with Qanon promoters back in the spring of 2019.
• February, 2020: How Joe Mercola positioned himself very early as the go-to for COVID quackery, and how his platform primed the pump for circulating terrible ideas right out of the gate.
• March 11, 2020: How Dr. Tom Cowan resurrected R Steiner for his wisdom on COVID.
• March 20, 2020: How Mak Parhar, a Flat Earther Bikram Yoga teacher, was the first yoga studio owner in Canada to defy the shutdown. What was he thinking? He later died of COVID. 

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After two years of being lied to about COVID, are you really going to believe the mainstream media about what’s happening in Ukraine? Didn’t you know that Ukraine is a child-trafficking hub? That it’s full of US-funded bioweapons labs? Do you really think Putin is evil, or do you just think what you’re told to think? Look at you, with your all-new, personalized, more terrifying feed to doom scroll. Only it’s not new, just more intense. If it wasn’t, how would the powers-that-be keep your attention while they instantly convert your money into social credit and make you pay $10 for a gallon of gas? Wake up! See through the green-screen battle scenes and crisis actors covered in stage blood. The explosions are revelations, the flashes of light are miracles waiting to be recognized.

Yes, dear listeners: Conspirituality influencers have gone to war, and they’ve dragged us kicking and screaming to the front lines. But now that we’re here, we’re committed to understanding and negotiating this liminal space. We are podcast peacekeepers. Our rations are non-GMO. We have our helmets of analysis securely fastened; our flak jackets will protect our vital organs. Most importantly, our hearts will stay intact.

To you at home: we urge you to plant your victory gardens now and keep the faith. Conspiritualists have launched a brutal, illegal attack on a humanitarian crisis. They’re monetizing a war in which starving 19-year-olds are killing civilians. Our influencers may well meet the reality of their empty souls on this battlefield. When they come home bandaged, they will need soup and real jobs—and that will be up to us.

Show Notes

Who is Gene Decode?

Signposts On The Road To Ascension Trailer #1 — Witzeman

Ukraine Invasion & Putin’s Spiritual Advisor Alexandr Dugin

Teal Swan on The War Inside

Christiane Northrup Shares Patriot Underground on the Khazarian Mafia

JP Sears Hot Tub Hot Take

Pro-Publica on Fake Fact-Checks About Invasion

Maajid Nawaz on Facebook and Azov Battalion

NATO on National Women’s Day

BBC on Claims of  “crisis actors” in Ukraine

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Matthew takes a break from the news to expand on the possible origins of conspirituality—as being related to intergenerational trauma.

What is conspirituality, if not the mobilization of forced, fragile, and ultimately empty spiritual aspirations, made to temper hypervigilance?

It's also just a relief and a pleasure to spend time away from the feeds, and immersed in this brilliant film.

Show Notes

Dr. Nerurkar on the glorification of trauma

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A few weeks ago, you couldn’t turn to a social media platform without seeing that Joe Rogan was trending. The diversity of topics boggled the mind: COVID disinformation; misogyny, pseudoscience; transphobia; and, of course, racism, thanks to the infamous N-word mixtape. Then a parallel argument came through: fair pay for musicians on Spotify. Given that Rogan was given $100 million for his podcasting contract—a number we’d later find out was closer to $200 million—the economic discussion brought another dimension into the conversation. But given all of the topics being discussed, which dimension should we have focused on?

That thought led Derek to write a series of tweets on the topic, followed by a more in-depth Substack article contemplating the three main issues of concern: scientific misinformation, racism, and fair pay. The tweets led to a lot of pushback, which we’ll be looking at through the lens of conversation and debate, as well as a 2021 Pew Research poll on American political typologies. It also led to today’s guests—infectious disease epidemiologist and science communicator, Jessica Malaty Rivera, and civic product leader and community activist, Daniel Latorre—offering their own views on the topics, first on social media, then here on the podcast. But first, we’ll discuss the implications of intersectionality and progressive politics in a world in which social media can distort as much as it amplifies. Matthew will dish on how much he loathes everything Joe Rogan stands for, and why—but also wonders about how pragmatic his seething hatred is, or could be.

Just a note before we begin. Between our last episode—in which Julian caught up with Sara Aniano and dappergander on current events in the QAnon world—and today, Russia has invaded Ukraine, and all of the news is terrible and terrifying. Since the first rockets hit, we’ve been monitoring how conspirituality influencers are responding, and we’ll bring you that data next week, as it continues to show the adaptability of the movement and the willingness of its influencers to say literally anything to remain at the center of the attention and outrage economy.

Show Notes

Joe Rogan: We are in Kali Yuga

Joe Rogan shares Sadhguru: “It is fashionable to suffer”

Matthew Sheffield on Right-Left “balance” on Rogan.

McInnes appearance on Rogan “instrumental” to Proud Boys’ growth: Rolling Stone

Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology

Race & Class at Spotify

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The Left-Right political spectrum doesn't really capture the breadth of political sentiment in America. Derek looks at a 2021 study by Pew Research on political typologies—as well as Jean-Pierre Faye's horseshoe theory—to better understand the multivariate dynamics at play, as well as its implications for democracy in America moving forward.

Show Notes

Pew Research: Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology

Rational Wiki: Horseshoe Theory

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"Freedom Convoy" leader, Pat King, recently live-streamed his arrest on Facebook. His racist public incitements to violence belie claims that the convoy was non-partisan and peaceful. As with other conspiracy-based events, inner circle communications and public relations messaging prove to be contradictory.

From RFK Jr appearing at a Far Right rally in Berlin and militias storming the US Capitol on Jan 6 to anti-vaxxers gathering at the Lincoln memorial and the Ottawa truckers tying up traffic and trade for over a month, QAnon appears everywhere.

This week, Julian pilots solo to interview extremism experts Sara Aniano (who regularly reports on the alt-tech far-right cess-pool, Telegram) and dappergander about recent developments in the Q-adjacent conspiracy sphere, implications for the planned American convoy, and the coming midterm elections in America. They also discuss surviving the emotional toll of their research and offer advice for those trying to help themselves—or someone they love—escape.

Show Notes

dappergander on Twitter

Sara Aniano on Twitter

Grid.News Reporting on Planned American Trucker Convoy

Q-Adjacent Convoy Protestor Arrested in Ottawa Cries Out “I’m  Being “Stuck with a Vaccine” 

Convoy Leader Signs Off Her Speech at Occupation with WWG1WGA Rallying Cry

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They couldn’t be more different: the self-made, self-help guru to the stars, the antisemitic Black-separatist, the blue-blood anti-vax lawyer, and the founder of a science-fiction religion. But in the cult-conspiracy economy, strange bedfellows are often the norm.

Julian investigates how—underneath cultural, racial, political, and even religious differences—opportunistic grifters can always find common cause in the pursuit of wealth and influence. In the end, they’re all carpetbaggers dressed up as pharaohs.

Show Notes

The Lies of RFK Jr’s Medical Racism Documentary

Samoan Measles Outbreak

Somali Measles Outbreak

Measles Outbreak Amongst Brooklyn Orthodox Jews

RFK Jr. At Berlin protest with Neo-Nazis

Weaponizing Racism for Anti-Vax Activism

Werner Erhard: Father of Self-Help

Anti-Vax Infiltrates Nation of Islam 

Scientology Money Project

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When Stephanie Sibbio, owner of Glowing Mama Fitness in Toronto, livestreamed herself harassing workers in her local health food store over COVID policy, the world was introduced to a now-familiar archetype: the petulant anti-masker who cares as little about science as she does about others. Sibbio has since developed this role with gusto, becoming a minor celebrity in the Canadian antivax movement. Recently, she threw her support behind the Occupation of Ottawa.

But everyone comes from somewhere: a family, a network, a circle. Beneath a persona hardened by the social media spectacle, there’s a person to be known, remembered, and perhaps welcomed back.

Today Matthew sits down with four friends who have known and loved Stephanie since junior high school. They share stories of the bonds they nurtured growing up, and how quickly and violently antivax ideology and social media smashed their circle.

An honest and transparent discussion about the emotional and social costs of conspirituality.

Show Notes

Glowing Mama Anti-Masker. Toronto Influencer Socially Toilets in…

The Unbearable Feelings of the Anti-Masker

Oppression Fantasies of White Anti-Vax Moms

That Time When I Was in a Cult and Got a Loving Letter from a Friend

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"An essential pleasure of white liberal identity in Canada is the schadenfreude of looking down our noses when we consider what’s south of us. It’s an unearned pride that says: “We’re not like that.” It’s delusional. We are absolutely like that, with tougher gun laws and the moderating effect of the Parliamentary process—but absolutely like that. We want to say “QAnon  wouldn’t find a foothold here.” and it does. We want to say “We’re a long way off from Jan 6,” but we’re not. Democracy is as fragile as the human body."

An editorial piece from Matthew on a harsh awakening in the Great White Liberal North.

Show Notes

Land acknowledgments meant to honor Indigenous people too often do the opposite – erasing American Indians and sanitizing history instead

Harsha Walia on historical continuity

Ottawa police discover children living in protesters' trucks | The Star

Land Acknowledgement – City of Toronto

Toronto Cops Say They Did 'Tremendous Job' After Beating People, Destroying Homeless Camp

Nearly $2 million spent on clearing encampments should have gone to housing, advocates say

300 people trapped. 4 hours. Pouring rain. The day I was kettled by police in Toronto.

'We regret that mistakes were made': Toronto police acknowledge 'unacceptable' mass arrests at 2010 G20 protests

Lawsuit filed against convoy organizers, seeking damages on behalf of downtown Ottawa residents

We're not Tragically Hip fans — and yes, we're Canadian

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We cover a lot of ground in this episode. But to introduce it in seed form, we want to draw your attention to a 15-second video we’ve posted to our Instagram. It shows a little boy, clearly stressed, sitting in the cab of an expensive black pickup truck with the window open, holding his ears against the incredible noise of the air horns as his mother takes a triumphant pan-shot video of a convoy rally.

The clip encapsulates the surreal chaos of a deceptive, astroturfed, funded-from-outside, social-media-driven catastrophe that is right in line with the worst of the conspirituality world. A torrent of misinformation, co-opted trauma, and “freedom-fighters” LARPing, in which children are weaponized by super-pilled parents, in which we can witness the cycles of social neglect and psychic violence turning in real time.

We open today with a review of the Occupation of Ottawa and what we know so far, and a discussion of how our conspirituality friends are co-opting and distorting events in ways that are not only craven, but will increase the chances that this event will end in violence. Finally, Matthew interviews Elizabeth Simons of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network on the deep background, the big picture, and the horizon.

CORRECTION: Matthew incorrectly stated that The Branches Yoga in Kitchener Waterloo hosted a workshop by Selam Debs. They did not host it, but they did promote it to their community.

Show Notes

Canadian Anti-Hate Network

New Age Healers and Right-Wing Militants Come Together in Ottawa

Canadian Yoga Teacher and Anti-Racism Educator Targetted

The 'Freedom Convoy' Is Nothing But A Vehicle For The Far Right

Mayor of Windsor: “Some occupiers are willing to die.”

A Holocaust Denier Is Travelling Across Canada Building Up The Country's Newest Far-Right Militia Movement - Canadian Anti-Hate Network

Canada's “Freedom Convoy” Is a Front for a Right-Wing, Anti-Worker Agenda

Ottawa police discover children living in protesters' trucks | The Star

Freedom Convoy Brings the Far-Right 

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Despite the binary conversations around vaccinations, healing has never been an either/or dependent on one factor. What works for one person isn't necessarily the correct course of action for someone else. One criticism of modern health care certainly stands out: the ritual of healing has been sacrificed for the convenience of scripts and hasty dialogues between doctors and patients. 

Derek looks at the intersection of healing and ritual through the lens of placebo studies and psychedelics, arguing that regardless of the discipline, "therapy" is a holistic endeavor. 

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Mary joins Matthew for an extended interview about the last year of her husband’s life. Louis died of pancreatic cancer almost exactly a year ago, at the age of 45. Mary—who has asked that her last name be kept off the record for privacy concerns—loved him and cared for him throughout that journey. It was hard, not only for the reasons we all share, but because Louis spent his last months under the influence of quantum chiropractor Joe Dispenza. At one crucial point, he was on the verge of stopping his chemotherapy treatment, believing that a Dispenza meditation technique might be more effective.

Mary is an Applied Psychologist with a science background and an evidence-based mindset. She didn’t share Louis’s beliefs or ideals, and at points was terrified that his death would be hastened by conspirituality. But of course, she loved and served him nonetheless. And it seems he had a good death, perhaps blessed by beliefs that made Mary wonder if they might provide relief for her as well.

If we’ve learned one thing over the course of this project, it’s that we’ll be living and dying together for a long time at the crossroads of data and imagination, science and spirituality, evidence and the unknown. We’re grateful that Mary has shared this love story of how she navigated it all.

Note: If you have recently lost someone close to you, you may find this episode difficult to listen to.

Show Notes

John-Roger, New Age Spiritual Leader in California, Dies at 80 - The New York Times

ARCHIVE Cult Leader John-Roger, Who Says He's Inhabited by a Divine Spirit, Stands Accused of a Campaign of Hate 

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Last week’s Defeat The Mandate March in Washington D.C. saw a who’s-who of conspiracists address thousands from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Live-streaming and mic’d up— some fresh from massive exposure on the Joe Rogan Experience—they complained about censorship and tyranny, and compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.

They present themselves as bold outsiders who reveal forbidden knowledge and stand up against the corrupt establishment. But scratch the surface of anti-vax celebrity and Covid-conspiracism and you’ll find the well-oiled machinery of affiliate marketing and global quack-medicine sales networks.

Julian reports on Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Simone Gold, Pierre Kory, and Sayer Ji. He follows the money and asks, “What’s the difference between a misguided activist and a cynical grifter?”

Show Notes

Kennedy Xmas Party Hypocrisy

Ravens’ Theory of Mind Research

Primate Theory of Mind

Goldfish-Broccoli Study

$1M in PPP Loans for Anti-Vax Groups

CCDH Pandemic Profiteers

Grandview Research on CAM Global Market

NCCIH Spent $2.5 on Failed Alt-Med Studies

Skeptical Inquirer Report on CAM Grants

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Snap. Crackle. Pop. That’s the release you’ve been waiting for—the ecstasy of small gas bubbles being “cracked” along your spine. While it’s debatable how much good chiropractic adjustments are doing for your body—there’s some evidence that it alleviates lower back pain, alongside a litany of unsubstantiated claims—what’s not debatable is the number of anti-vax, pseudoscience-prone chiropractors clogging the conspirituality pipeline these days.

This isn’t a “chiropractor takedown” episode, as both Derek and Julian have benefited from treatments in the past. Indeed, there’s a whole realm of “mixers” that try to follow best practices and clinical science. Yet there’s a strong conspiritualist lean among a number of chiropractors and we want to know why. To that end, Derek offers a history of the practice, which is, perhaps unsurprisingly, rooted in an anti-vax, anti-medicine strain of 19th-century vitalism. Julian discusses some of his experiences while Matthew questions consent and harm in the industry. The team then breaks down chiropractor Melissa Sell’s discussion of the antisemitic Germanic New Medicine, which she recently championed on the pseudopalooza of online disinformation conferences, The Event 2021.

Show Notes

U.S. Judge Finds Medical Group Conspired Against Chiropractors

Chiropractors Charged in Insurance Scam

Can Indecision Cause Hemorrhoids?

Goodbye to All Yoga Bullies. | by Matthew Remski | Medium  

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Inspired by a recent discussion on psychoanalysis and politics with Pat Blanchfield on Know Your Enemy, this brief meditation focuses on two aspects of the conspirituality landscape that have lurked in the unconscious of the pod:

1. People do not make sense. There are conflicting impulses and voices within us all. One objective of our project is akin to the goal psychoanalysis: to get those parts talking. 
2. Calling people hypocrites for not making sense is a terrible way of getting them to make sense. What we call hypocrisy, they have used for coherence and survival. The blowback isn't stubbornness, but a confession of needs.

Matthew looks at how the contradictions of Kelly Brogan and JP Sears make sense. Brogan rails against "mommy medicine" while installing herself as "mommy shaman." Sears tells us "Don't outsource your truth," while he absorbs data from Bitchute and Rogan.

Brogan's followers are attracted by the simultaneous rejection and reconstitution of authority. JP Sears is a hollow husk of a man, telling his followers to look inside.

But when you meet a contradiction or a defence that is harmful, you can’t just argue it away. You have to work towards a better answer to the condition the defence is trying to ease.

Show Notes

Freud and Politics (w/ Pat Blanchfield)

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When we left our Austin conspirituality heroes in the last episode, Charles Eisenstein, New Age Q, was locking in his position as the philosopher—or jester—in the court of Aubrey Marcus.

But what of this court? Matthew’s scene by scene analysis of some prime Marcus marketing porn will give us some clues. The video in question is for Marcus’s life-coaching programme, which is called “Fit for Service.” The visuals centre around what looks like a haka ritual dance, through which customers release their inner warriors, nurture their affiliate links and jazz up their socials.

On point for the influencer age, the ritual plays out in a narcissistic hall of mirrors, choreographed for performance by programme participants in order to promote the programme they are performing in. Naturally, Matthew will be using the analytical frameworks of spectacle and simulation from Guy Debord and Jean Baudrillard to make sense of it. He’ll also apply Renato Rosaldo’s concept of “imperialist nostalgia” to explore the ugly conflicts in Marcus’s indigenous cosplay.

Show Notes

Fit for Service homepage

fit.for.service:  A Dandelion In A Field Is Un-killable

A poet’s plea to save our planet | IN-Q | TED Institute

"Revolution": The FORGOTTEN Voices of The Pandemic Will Have You In Tears

The 5 Desires: Marcus on FFS promises

Aubrey Marcus - Fit For Service Mastermind - Review – Max Hug

The Wellness Pornographers. Gamifying intimacy, abusing public… | by Matthew Remski | Medium

Heresy Labs on Heilung

Renato Rosaldo: Imperialist Nostalgia

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Charles Eistenstein has had quite the pandemic. Essays read by millions, retweeted by Jack Dorsey, quoted by Ivanka Trump, held up as the poet philosopher of conspirituality—hell, he’s even been on the podcast!

Given the response to this bonus episode, we've decided to release it into the wild as an important companion to Conspirituality 86. Julian tracks the transformative arc of malformed ideas garnished with spiritualized language that has made Eisenstein the romantic mascot of anti-vax, Covid-contrarian wellness. This is how he finds himself now poised to become the mythic storyteller-in-residence of an emerging Austin-based cult of psychedelic bro science and “medical freedom.”

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