217: Childless Cat Lady

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

8 Jul 20245min

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

6 Jul 202437min

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

3 Jul 20241h 9min

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

1 Jul 20246min

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

29 Jun 202435min

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

27 Jun 20241h 12min

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

24 Jun 20246min

A Deep Cut from January's Patreon. Control the Court. Overturn Roe. Funnel anonymous donations and shady gifts. Deregulate for Jesus. Roll back the cultural clock. Celebrate. Rinse and Repeat. Leonard Leo’s libertarian Catholic agenda has made him a preeminent power-broker in right-wing American politics. He’s reshaping society while enjoying the pipeline of cash and influence that connects billionaire GOP mega-donors and the SCOTUS judges he helped install. Julian tracks how Leo’s Federalist Society used Trump as part of a decades-long systematic takeover of the judicial system that culminated in the current ethics and corruption scandal in the SCOTUS. Show Notes ProPublica “Friends of the Court” investigative journalism series The Guardian Club For Growth GOP Insurectionist Support Open Secret 2022 Donor List Dark Money Spending After Citizen’s United Senator Sheldon Whitehouse “The Front Group Swarms” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

22 Jun 202447min