Bonus Sample: Globalize The Intifada?

Two of this podcast’s hosts have been involved in destructive cult dynamics. Matthew’s three years with Michael Roach and three years at Endeavor Academy are at the root of his cult research and journalism. Julian’s six years in the inner circle around what he describes as Ana Forrest’s incendiary and manipulative approach to yoga left him with repressed memories. Those experiences also left his family deeply scarred by some of the same Satanic Panic themes prevalent in the QAnon movement. His ongoing work advocating for critical thinking and community health is part of his recovery. Derek describes himself as being “cult-adjacent”—not uncommon for a lifelong wellness industry professional. In this episode, he’ll interview Julian and Matthew about their cult experiences, the recovery process, and cultic dynamics in modern yoga, Buddhist, and New Age communities informing the growing field of conspirituality. They’ll also discuss cultic organizations being ideally positioned to sell “Disaster Spirituality” (props to Naomi Klein) in times of crisis. Cult leaders understand the power of charisma, the attractiveness of transcendental ideology, and what it takes to make vulnerable people feel like every question is answerable with jargon, intrusive eye contact, and deeply deceptive shit. Matthew will ground the discussion with a synopsis of cult research, basic concepts, and useful definitions. Show Notes The David Wolfe video about pedophilia and Trump United States of Conspiracy | PBS documentary QAnon Casualties: stories on Reddit Steven Hassan’s “Influence Continuum,” which is helpful for assessing the health of influence Great podcast about James Arthur Ray and the question of undue influence Tony Robbins’ PR defends him when people are injured at his firewalking events Excellent podcast series on Heaven’s Gate The conviction of Keith Raniere Peter Georgiades on the legal barriers to cult litigation Daniel Shaw on “Traumatic Narcissism“ QAnon Anonymous -- -- -- Support us on Patreon Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | Julian Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

6 Aug 20201h 52min

A recent report by the UK’s Center for Countering Digital Hate found that anti-vaxx organizations reach 58 million people on social media. The total amount of money spent by anti-vax groups and advertisers targeting their followers on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube is roughly $1 billion. The majority of the money funding the most prominent anti-vax groups is by just two men: osteopath Joseph Mercola and fund manager Bernard Selz. All of this makes you wonder: Why is so money being used to target anti-vaxxers? Derek interviews Imran Ahmed, founder of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, about how anti-vax leaders and groups are using social media to target and recruit followers. The stakes are higher than ever, as the vaccine argument has transcended autism and is threatening to endanger public health during the pandemic. Julian considers the vaccine fears of parents as well as the shadow of the Tuskegee Syphillis Study, and how anti-vax alliances are targeting black communities, which could be a disastrous Trojan Horse for COVID-19, while Matthew serves up his This Week in Conspirituality segment in the epilogue, looking at how the leader of the high-demand group he was indoctrinated into over 20 years ago, led by Michael Roach, is rebooting old content as a COVID-era grift. Show Notes History of Vaccines A History of Measles in the United States Measles Cases and Outbreaks MMR Vaccination | What You Should Know Mercury, Vaccines, and Autism: One Controversy, Three Histories Aluminum in vaccines Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines CDC Global Health – Polio – Our Progress Christiane Northrup: Triangulation, regret, Gardisil, civil disobedience How the Public Learned About the Infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study Anti-vaccination leaders fuel black mistrust of medical establishment as covid-19 kills people of color -- -- -- Support us on Patreon Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | Julian Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

30 Juli 20201h 57min

Percolating alongside racism and classism, one of the most pernicious subtexts of conspirituality propaganda is ableism. Proponents spout accusatory mantras like: “You have an immune system!,” “You’d have nothing to worry about if you were vegan!,” and, of course, “Living in fear is the real cause of disease.” Not only do these ideas have nothing to do with virology, they also condemn everyone who is immuno-compromised, living in a food desert, or managing trauma to the margins. COVID-19 has exposed the ugliest secret of wellness culture: the glorification of the self over concern about the community. None of this is news for disability activists. In this episode, Matthew interviews Jivana Heyman, founder of Accessible Yoga and longtime AIDS activist, about walking the anti-conspirituality line between yoga and public health. Heyman also reveals how the past and present intersect in Tony Fauci, a leading figure in AIDS research during Reagan’s tenure who is now being muzzled by Trump. In This Week in Conspirituality, Julian looks at the fear of death through the lens of Ernest Becker and Joseph Campbell, Derek discusses free speech after Twitter removes 7,000 QAnon accounts, and Matthew tries to empathize with the “awakened” aspect of conspirituality, i.e., What have they woken up to? Show Notes A Force In The Universe: Brad Ramsey Advanced Asthanga practice video with Pattabhi Jois The Prophecies of Q Twitter Removes Thousands Of QAnon Accounts, Promises Sweeping Ban On The Conspiracy What Does Free Speech Mean? As Predicted: Parler Is Banning Users It Doesn’t Like Statistics & Information on Childhood Sexual Abuse Matthew’s tribute to Jivana Heyman -- -- -- Support us on Patreon Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | Julian Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

23 Juli 20201h 55min

As Christiane Northrup’s social media feed descends even further into the delusional zone — this week she retweeted explicitly identified QAnon content — we ask Professor Jacqueline Antonovich of Nursing Clio about the history of charisma, magic, and entrepreneurship in women’s wellness. When asked if she was surprised by Northrup’s conspirituality spiral, Antonovich was clear: “Not at all.” She carefully unpacks why. We also look at the role of media in conspiritual thinking and discuss Northup’s enthusiastic endorsement of the movement to “make Americans free again” by becoming single-issue voters—the issue being vaccines. Show Notes Marshall McLuhan | The medium is the message How Can the Press Best Serve a Democratic Society? In 1947, the press reported on the Hutchins Commission report Trump, QAnon and an impending judgment day: Behind the Facebook-fueled rise of The Epoch Times Trump’s New Favorite Channel Employs Kremlin-Paid Journalist Hundreds of hyperpartisan sites are masquerading as local news. This map shows if there’s one near you. Make Americans Free Again | The New Normal: Citizens In Charge Jacqueline Antonovich | Nursing Clio Northrup’s retweet of a QAnon account boosting the red shoe conspiracy Gilman’s “Yellow Wallpaper“ Ricki Lake’s “Business of Being Born“ On Lydia Pinkham On Mary Putnam Jacoby Sarah Swedburg on Louise Hay How New Age Guru Louise Hay Harmed a Generation of Gay Men -- -- -- Support us on Patreon Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | Julian Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

16 Juli 20202h 1min

OB/GYN Dr. Christiane Northrup has been a giant in women’s healthcare advocacy for decades. She has persuasively argued for lower-intervention childbirth, an end to circumcision, and policies that place family unity at the heart of health care. She’s known and loved for challenging her medical training with faith-based values and an intuition framed as feminine (if not feminist) and “sovereign.” Northrup draws on astrology, feng shui, chakra theory, and “vibrational” healing as modes of resistance to what she sees as medical patriarchy. This resistance began seamlessly intersecting with COVID trutherism in April, when she started posting daily Facebook sermons to her half-million followers. The series is called “The Great Awakening” — a phrase first used to describe 18th-century American spiritual revival movements, but was recently co-opted by QAnon conspiracists to describe the inevitable triumph of Trump over the Deep State. Northrup’s sermons, combined with her posts of Plandemic, Tony Robbins interviewing anti-vaxxers, and a podcast with “Andy” Wakefield in which she called COVID a “flu” and expressed concern about Bill Gates taking over public education, give a rich glimpse into the seduction of conspirituality in the hands of a wellness matriarch. Most recently, Northrup has strengthened her alignment with QAnon by posting a trailer for a follow-up to a key recruiting video. With up to a dozen QAnon supporters running for office in November, Northrup is positioned to nudge middle-class white wellness women with money into a cult that believes Trump is a messianic figure. This week’s interview is with Britt Hermes, who earned her doctorate in naturopathic medicine from Bastyr University in 2011. After three years of practice, Hermes left the profession to became its most vocal public critic. We asked her to weigh in on women’s wellness in the pandemic and the appeal of Dr. Northrup. Show Notes Pharmaceutical Ethics and Grassroots Activism in the United States: A Social History Perspective Just 50% of Americans plan to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Here’s how to win over the rest To celebrate the Fourth, Michael Flynn posts a pledge to conspiracy group QAnon How New Age Guru Louise Hay Harmed a Generation of Gay Men How the ‘Plandemic’ Movie and Its Falsehoods Spread -- -- -- Support us on Patreon Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | Julian Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

9 Juli 20201h 31min

It can be as hard to talk with your well-meaning yoga-world friend about their COVID-conspiracy beliefs as it is to talk with a family member about their devotion to Donald Trump. This isn’t an accident — but it’s not exactly by design, either. Both figures can seem trapped in filter bubbles of jargon that hypnotizes and cancels critical thinking. In this episode, we talk with pre-eminent cult researcher Steve Hassan about his new book, The Cult of Trump, and explore the overlaps between the cults of personality that destroy political, wellness, and spiritual cultures. We discuss changes in cultic technique in the age of lockdown, and how best to maintain contact with a person transformed by manipulation. The interview with Steven begins at the 37-minute mark. Show Notes Troy Casey video UFO Conspiracy Theorists Offer ‘Ascension’ From Our Hell World for $333 The Prophecies of Q How the ‘Plandemic’ Movie and Its Falsehoods Spread Widely Online Anatomy of Delusion: How Otherwise Conscious People Descended into the Darkness — Stephen Dinan Shift Network courses Matthew on the Shift Network The Cult of Trump Media Page Steven Hassan’s BITE Model Influence Continuum “I Am Not Your Guru” — Tony Robbins documentary “Hacking the Consumer’s Brain” — Moran Cerf -- -- -- Support us on Patreon Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | Julian Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2 Juli 20201h 58min

Conspiritualists are compelling for numerous reasons: they’re charismatic; they claim to transcend polarized politics; they claim to speak the unspeakable in a quest for hidden truths. It makes sense that a key rhetorical instrument in their toolbox is poetry. “The real virus is fear” is a unifying metaphor for conspiritualists, but there are others. In conspiritual-ese, the immune system is like the Christian soul: eternal, perfect, and solitary. Masks are signs of submission that symbolize the suppression of free speech and even slavery. Public health departments are bureaucracies of death. Vaccines are poisons designed to demand compliance. Vaccinators are Satanic agents compelled to enter the sacred space of the body — especially the child’s body — in order to possess it. In this episode, Derek (cancer survivor), Matthew (pulmonary embolism survivor), and Julian (Lyme disease in remission) discuss the function of the beautiful and delusional metaphors of illness and transcendence in conspiritual-ese, applying the discoveries of Susan Sontag and Eula Biss. Maggie Levantovskaya, an Adjunct Lecturer at Santa Clara University, discusses her essay, “My Disease is Not a Metaphor.” Show Notes “My Disease is Not a Metaphor” — Maggie Levantovskaya “Don’t Thank Me for My Sacrifice” — Maggie Levantovskaya Resilience and Possibility Conversation with Zach Bush MD Mary Baker Eddy: American Religious Leader The Science of Mind — Ernest Holmes “The Trouble With Medicine’s Metaphors” — Dhruv Khullar Travis View on adrenochrome Internalised Ableism: The Tyranny Within Ableism and internalized ableism “Will you Go with a War-Cry or a Whimper?” — Ben Ralston On Immunity: An Inoculation — Eula Biss -- -- -- Support us on Patreon Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | Julian Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

25 Juni 20201h 42min

On one hand, we have the CEO of Crossfit tweeting that “Floyd-19” is the real problem. (He got canceled.) On the other, COVID-truther psychiatrist Kelly Brogan is using Hopi mythology to support the fantasy of a Corona consciousness-awakening — while the Hopi themselves live within the Navajo Nation, which has the highest infection rate in the country. WTF is going on with white wellness people? For this episode, we’re joined by New School historian of American fitness, Dr. Natalia Petrzela, who sheds light on the historical links between physical culture and racism, and Dax-Devlon Ross, an anti-racism and civil rights educator, on what white wellness ideology does to Black people. Show Notes Dr. Petrzela on Ahmaud Abery A Letter to My White Male Friends of a Certain Age — Dax-Devlon Ross Glassman’s FLOYD-19 tweet Buzzfeed covering Glassman’s Zoom Dr. Petrzela tweeting on McFadden and Sandow One City’s Struggle to Police the Police — Dax in The Washington Post Kelly Brogan using “sovereignty” Kelly Brogan appropriating a Hopi text Something we didn’t cover: A Wisconsin “I Can’t Breathe” workout A BUNCH of white spiritual dudes claiming that the “I can’t breathe” protest chant is a spell to program people for slavery to the Deep State. They advise taking strong action with deep breathing exercises and antidote mantras. -- -- -- Support us on Patreon Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | Julian Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

18 Juni 20201h 24min