Conspirituality

Conspirituality examines how the Yoga and wellness world moved from doing things that are good for your body, into conspiracy theory through the COVID19 pandemic. This book covers insights from the 3 authors that were very involved in the health and wellness world, until they started to see the bad turn it was taking into "fake news" and alternative medicines.

One eye-opening insight is that much of the wellness industry is fat-shaming professionalized. Practitioners sell you shame, then sell you their perfect solution to your shame.

This goes well with Manufacturing Happy Citizens. Read my longer review here.

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- [[The Great Awakening]] 2
- [[COVID 19|COVID]] 5

- [[social media]] works in binaries and punishes anyone who is perceived to flip-flop 7
- Yet changing your opinion in the face of new information should be applauded
- ![[Conspirituality]] 8

- wellness world [[fat shaming]] is a professionalised and socially acceptable version of [[bully|bullying]] 9
- [[soft eugenics]] 14
- [[Physiognomy]] 14

**structure** 15

Part 1 - deep dive into what [[Conspirituality]]is and how it works

Part 2 - looks at historical tensions that have degraded cognition

Part 3 - the worst examples of influencers in the field

Part 4 - stories of those impacted by [[influencer]]s and [[Conspirituality]]

### part 1 - conspirituality 101

- [ ] paper: [[The Emergence of Conspirituality]] by Charlotte Ward and David Voas 19
- though Charlotte seems to have use the paper as a way to legitimize Conspirituality as a valid view
- there are multiple instances, that were wiped from the web, of her spouting [[conspiracy theory]]
- [[The Hampstead Hoax]] 23
- [[9-11]] 37
- [[The Shock Doctrine - The Rise of Disaster Capitalism]] 39
- [[disaster spirituality]] is similar to [[disaster capitalism]] in that people use world disasters to push their brand of spiritual healing forward 40
- where disaster capitalists have money to take advantage of harms for financial gain, disaster spirituality looks at trauma as a life-raft to jump on as they fail and need something to bring them to the front of people’s minds. 41
- [[red-pilled]] 47
- [[On Immunity - Eula Biss]] 54
- talks about the [[church]] comparing the [[smallpox]] [[Vaccine]] to the [[mark of the beast]] and a sign that the devil had invaded you to destroy your soul
- so it’s very similar to what [[anti-vacination]] people say now
- these conspiracy influencers do get one thing right, the institutions of society have failed us often. Health care is expensive in the [[United States]] and [[Canada]] has terrible wait times. They get just enough right to appeal to everyone that sees problems in late stage [[capitalist|capitalism]] and how it’s harming us and our world. Chapter 6

### Part 2 - Strange Attractors

- [[pogrom]] 66
- [[surveillance capitalism]] 66
- [[facism]] 66
- [[eugenics]] 70
- it seems to me that this “sandow effect” is similar to the [[Puritan Work Ethic]] culture that says the more work you do the “better” you are. Originally it was the more work you did the more religous you were, but now it’s a sign of how awesome you are. The Sandow Effect is all about purfying your body through will-power, working out, diet. 74
- [[waldorf school]] 80
- read the summary of it, because it’s based on racist ideas of creating “pure” students and the founder was very [[racist]] in his writing
- [[Bikram Yoga]] 88
- the only [[detooxification]] routines that are backed by science are prescribe for those that have ingested [[poison]] or are struggling with [[substance abuse]]. Your regular organs do all the "cleansing" you need. Pg 95
- ![[antisemitic blood libel]] Pg 100
- [[overton window]] Page 102
- [[Satanic Panic]] Pg 108
- [[replication crisis]] Page 120
- the [[United States]] has a federal agency devoted to testing [[alternative medicine]] since 1991. It has continually found that herbal supplements and other alternative medicine practices don't work. [[Acupunture]] may work, but it barely beats retractable needles or needles that ignore traditional acupuncture locations. Pg 122, 123
- [[The Secret - Rhonda Byrne]] Page 125
- [[Dunning-Kruger Effect]] Pg 127
- the authors say that much of intense [[yoga]] teaching is filled with single lectures on diet and eating well that let students fall into this effect. They think they know far more than they do, because they have little training and don't understand any nuance
- [[Gaia Inc]] Page 143
- [[It Came from Something Awful - Dale Beran]] Pg 146
- [[Tony Robbins]] Pg 149
- [[Jordan B Peterson]] Pg 152
- [[Joe Rogan]] Pg 153

### Part 3 - Gallery of Rogues

- ![[wellness pornography]] Pg 163

- [[Godwin’s Law of Nazi Analogies]] Pg 166
- [[white privilege]] Pg 173
- [[Dr Christiane Northrup]] Pg 179
- [[Out of Shadows Movie]] Pg 184
- [[Mikki Willis]] Pg 191
- [[Pepe the Frog]] Pg 207
- [[Robert F Kennedy Jr]] Pg 223
- [[Black Panthers]] Pg 227
- [[Donald Trump]]
- it's crazy that they say [[Donald Trump]] is a "crazy wisdom" teacher which is someone who has ascended so high that their behaviour is "broken" to teach us about ourselves. In this idea his [[sexual abuse]] and assault is teaching us to stop it because it's horrific. Such mental gymnastics. Pg 243, 244
- these [[New Age]] teachers don't hold truth to power, or talk about [[poverty]] or [[racism]] as things to resolve. It's all about accepting things as they are and "being a better person". This is similar to [[capitalism wants you to believe you picked your life]] because if you picked it, then it's your fault. Pg 248
- it's not that there is inequality and the systems surrounding you make it hard to have any other choice than what you have. [[Scarcity 180920201044]] isn't real and it doesn't affect you if you have an "open mind" and work to "ascend"
- the best thing you can do for someone caught up in a [[Conspirituality]] [[influencer]] is to love them without expectation of their performance towards your ideas and without false promises you have to justify later because they didn't happen. Pg 259

### Part 4 - Beyond Conspirituality

- it's not uncommon for adult parents in the types of groups cited in the book to become infantilized by the [[influencer]] and then abdicate any responsibility for anything but their own enlightenment. This leaves [[parenting]] to the side and leaves the children to fend for themselves. Pg 269
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