Conspirituality

We cover conspiracy theories, spiritual abuse, and religious and right-wing extremism. We cover showmen and charismatics suffering from King Victim Complex. Last week we had to study a goddam assassination attempt.  But sometimes we get to peek into the worlds that younger people are making within our cursed digital environments, and we realize they might be laughing at some of the problems that fill us olds with despair right out of existence.  Gaming journalist and Master of Divinity Riley MacLeod joins Matthew to talk about whether the hit indie game Cult of the Lamb might be all the inoculation against cultic dynamics that generation Alpha ever needs.  Show Notes Riley MacLeod - Aftermath Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two landmark Supreme Court decisions—the Trump immunity case and the overturning of the Chevron doctrine—represent the legal institutionalization of the core values of conspirituality: self-sovereignty, natural immunity or divine protection, and “doing your own research.”  The attempted assassination on the former president forged the essence of these two rulings into a stunning still life of Trump’s image for those who love him and those he’s appointed to serve him.  Julian and Matthew wade into the flood, and what might happen at ground zero of conspiracy theory formation—this time veering left as well as right. Show Notes Former classmate of Trump rally gunman says he was ‘bullied almost every day’  The FBI Identifies Suspected Gunman in Trump Rally Shooting: What to Know - The New York Times FBI identifies Thomas Crooks of Bethel Park as the suspect in Trump assassination attempt FBI probing motives, background of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the Western Pa. gunman behind Donald Trump assassination attempt  A shooting range, a gun store, and a ladder purchase: Tracking the Trump rally gunman's movements leading up to his attack  Trump rewrites Republican convention speech to focus on unity not Biden - Washington Examiner   Vance shooting response: https://x.com/JDVance1/status/1812280973628965109  Musk shooting response: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1812256998588662068  Rubio shooting response: https://x.com/marcorubio/status/1812256529296613657  Boebert shooting response: https://x.com/KyleClark/status/1812316469016846373  Brief: The Theatre of Trump (w/Hank Willenbrink) — Conspirituality   23-939 Trump v. United States (07/01/2024) Clarence Thomas Raised Another Issue: Was Jack Smith Legally Appointed? - The New York Times  22-451 Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (06/28/2024) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Project 2025's approach to environmental issues is pretty straightforward: deny climate science, dismantle the EPA, clear a path that prioritizes corporate profits, and let the world burn. Derek and Julian unpack the details on the chilling chapter from Project 2025's 920-page manifesto that outlines their plans for the Environmental Protection Agency. According to their own statements, a Trump presidency would set these and other disastrous plans in motion from day one. Show Notes Conspirituality 187: Project 2025: An Authoritarian Conspiracy Project 2025's Disdain for Public Education The GOP Thinks Food Stamps Are the Real Problem The GOP Takeover of Media The Plan to Dismantle Health Care Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While speaking on Steve Bannon’s podcast, The War Room, Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts recently stated, “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless—if the left allows it to be.”  Roberts is the mastermind behind Project 2025, Heritage’s 920-page “presidential transition” agenda that seeks to implement authoritarian power in America. The text combines the anti-regulatory stance of libertarianism, laissez faire capitalism on steroids as espoused by conservatives, and the heinous and anti-democratic religious dogma of Christian nationalists, and it’s finally receiving a lot of attention. Derek and Julian look beyond the “bloodless” comment to hear what else Roberts and crew have in store for America should Donald Trump regain the presidency. As you might imagine, it has nothing to do with democracy. Show Notes Taraji P Henson Calls Out Project 2025 at BET Awards ‘Complete and utter B.S.’: Trump DEFINITELY knows his own team authoring Project 2025 Kevin Roberts on The War Room Conspirituality 187: Project 2025: An Authoritarian Conspiracy Project 2025's Disdain for Public Education The GOP Thinks Food Stamps Are the Real Problem The GOP Takeover of Media The Plan to Dismantle Health Care Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re looking at a lavish infomercial put out by New Age oligarch and RFK Jr superfan Aubrey Marcus, in which he tries to show the world that his very expensive encounter group, Fit For Service, is definitely not a cult. And at how Matthew got quoted in the opening montage as though he endorsed FFS as an “anti-cult.” He hasn’t. Marcus might be protesting too much. Because no one with any credibility has actually called FFS a cult, and they couldn’t, because no one has done the investigative work that would take. In a lot of ways, that question is beside the point. It’s not the ‘70s anymore. If you have 604K YouTube subscribers, and millions in the bank from oil money and supplement sales, you don’t need to coerce anyone into staying on your ashram compound and working on your spiritual ideas for free. You too can have an unlimited supply of well-heeled seekers cycling through your coaching encounter group. So the real questions are: what is it really worth, and what does it really serve? Show Notes 87: The Aubrey Marcus Spectacle Brief: The New Age Origin Story of RFK Jr’s Campaign 107: An Open Letter to Aubrey Marcu 86: Charles Eisenstein, New Age Q Why Kyle Kingsbury Quit The UFC  Myths That Make Us | Godsey Montana Summit talk   The music festival that wants to know your deepest secrets [Annihilation] Can someone explain the shimmer from the movie scientifically? Dharma Artist Collective—Godsey’s online community   The Poet Queen 'I Was 13 When Marc Gafni's Abuse Began' 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  Aaron Rogers in Marc Gafni’s library Has Aaron Rodgers been learning Torah at his offseason retreat? My Dad Died: The Blessings Of The Father Pt 1 w/ Dr. Marc Gafni Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back in 2011, Ward and Voas wrote that conspirituality was a mainly-online movement, and they were right about that. They didn’t do fieldwork at events. They didn’t attend trainings and rituals. They combed the internet for evidence of what they were looking for.  They found strange and anxious spiritual themes. But they also found evidence of what the internet does in all of its speed and dissociation, in its invitation to seize attention through contrarianism and amplify jagged anxieties and glittering pieties.  In finding conspirituality, they may have proven that you can’t do religion on the internet. And maybe, that’s part of why conspirituality exists.  Religious impulses are ancient and primal, centering communities as campfires do. But they also throw off sparks of narcissism and extremism, which the algorithms must capture to drive engagement.  Show Notes MMMEATTT — “A newsletter about things that can’t exist on the internet” by Beau Brink Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The stress of influencing in the New Age / alt-med world is rough. You have to pretend to know everything, from vaccine science to the origins of autism, to how feminism has desecrated the sanctity of motherhood. It’s not surprising that a growing number of the conspirituality influencers we know and love are all tuckered out, and now choosing to let Jesus take the wheel.  Freebirth mogul Yolande Norris Clark now joins the growing ranks of converts from conspirituality to Orthodox Christianity. How will she square her politics of the divine feminine with a hyper-patriarchal tradition? Or is it really such a stretch?  Show Notes "Giving Birth in Yogaland" She wanted a 'freebirth' with no doctors. Online groups convinced her it would be OK. From Costa Rica, Yolande Norris-Clark Free-Births COVID News About “Hellscape” of Canada Free-Birther Yolande Norris-Clark Promotes “The Secret Covenant” COVID-Denialist: “Rona Is as Real as You Want it To Be”Argentino on Pastel Q — Twitter Pastel QAnon The Women Making Conspiracy Theories Beautiful  The Instagram aesthetic that made QAnon mainstream The Conspiracy Theory to Rule Them All 'Pastel QAnon' Is Infiltrating the Natural Parenting Community  First appearance of "The Secret Covenant" online  Secret Covenant: Freedom-Force (2004)  Secret Covenant boosted on a QAnon channel, 2020  PolitiFact | John D. Rockefeller did not write a ‘secret covenant’ about world domination Transphobia in the Midwifery Community Yolande Norris-Clark: Transgenderism, Feminism & C0Vid (Content warning: transphobic creator)  Orthodox Christian churches are drawing in far-right American converts Matthew Heimbach excommunicated  Justin Trudeau & The Misuse Of Words Giving Birth in the Church Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can yoga bring hostages home? No. Can yoga stop a genocide? Also no. But this won’t stop earnest practitioners from instrumentalizing practice for both purposes.  For supporters of Israel, practice is dedicated to the protection of land, the return of hostages, and to uphold the spiritual valor of soldiers. Among supporters of Palestine and a ceasefire, yoga practice and community is an organizing principle for decrying genocide, building mutual aid, and resisting global colonialism. Both factions cite the Bhagavad Gita. Does yoga support nationalistic violence and body fascism? Isn’t that where its modern origins lie? Or does it have deeper, intersectional roots in universal liberation?  The interpretive war, articulated and inflamed online, only accelerates the material war.  But there is a third space we examine today: the gap between how spiritual aspirations appear and are praised or condemned in the world of the spectacle, and how they play out in the flesh. Show Notes Tel Aviv Yoga Event  About : Israeli hostages taken by Hamas   We Are Still Standing handstand event Carmel Gat | Yoga in captivity Taken captive: Carmel Gat, seen doing yoga with hostage children Initial Twitter posting of Alfie's yoga class in Gaza  Reserve combat engineer practices yoga with soldiers in a house in Gaza IG post | criticism of Yoga Journal cover In Israel, Chanting 'Om' Between Missiles What does Israel's rescue of 4 captives, and the killing of 274 Palestinians, mean for truce talks? AP: Calculating death numbers in Gaza  Sarah Martin Little Rock yoga benefit event Rasha Madkour fundraiser for The Longhorn Muslim Alumni Network UK yoga event for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund Hot Yoga Glasgow yogathon for the International Rescue Committee A look inside the growing Pro-Palestine student solidarity encampment at UCSB Pro-Palestinian Demonstrators At USC Join Camp-In Movement On Heels Of Valedictorian Controversy Sheena Sood's Yoga for Palestine series at Bhakti Yoga Movement in Portland 50. Sellouts & Zealots (w/Sheena Sood) Samson's Foxes insignia Reserve combat engineer practices yoga with soldiers in a house in Gaza  The Dangerous History Behind Netanyahu’s Amalek Rhetoric Dark Mirror: A Torah View of Revenge, and its Reflection in Israeli Media During Operation Iron Swords Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it really mean to be a prophet, found a religion, and persuade millions of people that god speaks directly to you?  And what does this god tell you? How to live morally. What kinds of sex are forbidden. How to avoid death and live forever. When the end of the world is coming, and which messiah will bring it. In this latest installment on the history of the intersection of spirituality and pseudoscience, Julian looks at the story of a prophet named Ellen G. White and what she may have in common with historical figures as diverse as Gopi Krishna, Dostoevsky, and Joan of Arc. Show Notes Christian Experiences and Teachings of Ellen G White Phantoms in the Brain Sam Kean: Heaven is for Neuroscience Neuroscience for the soul Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last month, Russell Brand visited Jordan Peterson's podcast for “The Evolution of Theology.” Which, given these two figures, had to focus on topics like the unreligious impulsivity of gay people and why slaves should “just not be slaves.” Derek and Julian discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On June 14, Reuters published an article about the US Military’s clandestine program to discredit China’s Sinovac vaccine during the early days of Covid-19. Turns out the Pentagon hired an outside agency to purposefully spread FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) about the Chinese inoculation program by flooding social media with anti-vax propaganda. It was a smack in the face for anyone—including us—who’s been calling for sound public health measures over the last four years. And it very likely killed people in Southeast Asia. This week, we look at the harrowing reporting that revealed a shameful, interventionary program that began under the Trump administration and persisted at least a few months into the Biden presidency. We’ll also review the very few conspiritualists that have even covered the story—somewhat surprising, given that a good ol’ government conspiracy is their bread and butter. But what happens when anti-vaxxers are confronted with a government-led anti-vax program, enacted by the same military that some of them, like RFK Jr, want to drastically reduce? Let’s find out. Show Notes Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic (Reuters) Pentagon Ran Secret Anti-Vax Campaign in Philippines, While Censoring Americans Who Criticized COVID Shots (Children’s Health Defense)  Supporting military missions overseas (GDIT “Careers” page) Companies Profiting from the Gaza Genocide CONTRACT to GENERAL DYNAMICS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, INC. DynPort Vaccine Company Public Health Vaccine Diplomacy in the Wake of COVID-19 Pentagon Orders Sweeping Review Martin Luther King Jr.’s moral stance against Vietnam War offers lessons for the Middle East Exclusive: Inside the S--tshow That Was the Trump-Biden Transition The Scam at the Heart of the Mysterious Epoch Times  End The Forever Wars | Kennedy24  EXPOSED: Secret Pentagon MISINFO Campaign Spread LIES About COVID Vaccines (The Hill) DISGUSTING! Glenn Greenwald GOES OFF On Pentagon Anti-Vax Psyop (Breaking Points) Pentagon Opens Sweeping Review of Clandestine Psychological Operations Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is the distance between spiritual practice and social action? Derek has weighed this question for decades. This unscripted meditation on the topic uses Aubrey Marcus's new "documentary," Anti-Cult, as a jump-off point.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices