Conspirituality6 Mai 2023

Brief: Marianne Williamson’s Spiritual Therapy Schtick

Marianne Williamson? Inexperienced? Not at all. In fact, she does have a ton of experience… in New Age, on-stage pseudotherapy, where she solves the problems of the troubled with memorized lines from A Course in Miracles. She’s been doing these sessions at workshops and retreats for decades, and the schtick is always the same: if only the person would change their minds about their problem, the world would be healed. While this may fly on the workshop circuit, if you listen carefully you’ll hear that she gives the same answer on the stump. It comes through most clearly when she’s pressed on questions of strategy. She will instantly pivot to talking about the spirit and the soul. The effect is a disarming oscillation between the political and the personal. Are we talking about defeating fascists? No, no, that’s too worldly! We’re talking about opening our hearts. And if that feels good during a politically tense exchange, it’s because she changed the subject. To see how this sleight-of-hand works, Matthew examines two classic Williamson encounters to show that the answers she gives on the stump aren’t much different from the answers she gives on her New Age retreats. Show Notes That Time Byron Katie Gaslit a Follower about Trump | by Matthew Remski I'm Afraid of Trump—The Work of Byron Katie Being Rejected for Your Spiritual Beliefs | Q&A With Marianne Williamson Mindfulness can make you selfish: A pioneering new study examines the social effects of mindfulness Marianne Williamson with TYT's John Iadarola & Francesca Fiorentini Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Episoder(809)

Bonus Sample: RFK Jr Reboots Reaganomics

Listen to the full episode RFK Jr has been one of the loudest champions of the Trump's work requirements for Medicaid and SNAP recipients. While he frames it in the language of health, he's really ju...

22 Jun 6min

Brief: Conspirituality Viewed Through Neofeudalism and Vectoralism

Matthew applies three interlocking frameworks to the conspirituality phenomenon—and to the podcast itself. Drawing on Jodi Dean's theory of neofeudalism, Yanis Varoufakis's technofeudalism, and McKenz...

20 Jun 34min

313: The Resurrection of JP Sears

A decade ago, JP Sears built a large following poking fun at yogis and wellness types with his “ultra spiritual life” videos. Then Covid came and Sears took a hard right turn. In fact, he credits the ...

18 Jun 1h 21min

Bonus Sample: Candace Owens and MAGA’s Russia Kink

Listen to the full episode Influential right-wing pundit turned celebrity conspiracy-peddler, Candace Owens, just visited Russia for the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. While at “Russia’...

15 Jun 6min

Book Club: Food Intelligence

In the first edition of the Conspirituality Book Club, Derek dives into Food Intelligence: The Science of How Food Both Nourishes and Harms Us by Julia Belluz and Kevin Hall, PhD. First, he looks at...

13 Jun 29min

312: The Next Plague

A plague is coming. We don’t know when or which one, but we do know that since humans started gathering in groups numbering in the thousands, plagues became a consistent feature of existence. So a pla...

11 Jun 1h 6min

Bonus Sample: Liberation Theology or Magical Thinking?

Matthew investigates whether Pope Leo XIV's appeals to Liberation Theology represent genuine solidarity with the poor or a sophisticated form of spiritual bypassing. Drawing on Ole Jakob Løland's an...

8 Jun 5min

Brief: Collapse at the FDA

The FDA is bleeding out Covid contrarians. Marty Makary, Vinay Prasad, Tracy Beth Høeg—all gone. Jonathan Howard returns to discuss why so many RFK Jr's friends have reached the end of their bureaucra...

6 Jun 31min