Label: conspiracy spirituality

Conspirituality (again)

Conspirituality (again)

Just stood and fried pancakes. Thought of the mix of esoteric holistic spirituality, and conspiracy theories. What is now called "conspirituality" in research. How is it that? That the two ways of looking at the world seem to marry so well?

Conspiracy theories in general are not that exciting. Resentful, marginalized and fearful people in the mid-west, etc, grasping for a simple answer in all uncertainty & disappointment. It is more interesting to try to understand how educated, conscious, idealistic individuals, such as those who like Western esotericism, with their "on the way to the light-and we are in the lead" philosophy, can start such a thing? What's in the works?

So, as I stood there staring into the frying pan & turning my plates, I came up with one thing and another! Suggestions, partial explanations... Not all of them are correct, but one or a few, possibly in combination... Fill in the ones you want...

  • That both things, esotericism and conspiracyism, use the same brain center? As if trained up, became extra active, "over-movable", via the spiritual studies? So that it is only too easy to think outside the box
  • That you have a spiritual world view that is so bright, and personal ideals that are set so high, that the urge to see sinister conspiracies & dark pacts "out there" becomes... Yes, what do you call that? Projected? That the outside world becomes a projection surface for a darkness that is actually one's own, but which one does not want to be aware of
  • That the world has become too crass, material, atheistic, "demystified"? An attraction, a craving for conspiracies, becomes an attempt to remedy, via the imagination, a kind of mental and cultural deficiency

Then there are, of course, conspiracies that are real too. High-level unholy alliances, cartel formations, etc…

Conspirituality/Conspiracy spirituality

Conspirituality/Conspiracy spirituality

"Conspirituality takes a deep dive into the troubling phenomenon of influencers who have curdled New Age spirituality and wellness with the politics of paranoia-peddling vaccine misinformation, tales of child trafficking, and wild conspiracy theories. […]

[T]his expansive and revelatory book unpacks the follies, frauds, cons and cults that dominate the New Age and wellness spheres and betray the trust of people who seek genuine relief in this uncertain age.”

Released later in June.

https://www.bokus.com/bok/9781541702981/conspirituality/

Narcissism and conspiracy belief

Narcissism and conspiracy belief

Some thoughts, based on the title and abstract. That thing with state and trait? Boosted narcissism as something you are, basically. Or more like something that a certain system of thought might tempt. For conspiracy theories, even the most far-reaching ones, Trump as a Savior, chemtrails, etc., there are lots of people who are attracted by such world explanations. Sure, there is something "narcissistic" about it. Us and them. The darkness, the threat, the stupidity are on the outside, etc. But is it narcissism. For real?

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X22001051?via%3Dihub

In defense of the conspiracy theorists! 2

In defense of the conspiracy theorists! 2

Conspiracy theories, again. There is the whole scale, I think (much like in that one the "pyramid" from MSB). From the confirmed theories, which we know today were correct. Via the possibly true, over the probably not true. To the completely crazy theories.

And I myself think that at least the worst theories contain some projective component. This means that one's own darkness, or mostly worry, confusion, is placed "out there". Or that actual abuses are somehow amplified, or what to call it, in one's imaginations. A petty damn unfair world becomes thoroughly, planned and thought out, damn.

Okay. But I wanted to try to see it from a different angle. A more conciliatory stance. If such conspiracy fantasies can also serve a healthy function? To some extent anyway. That it is almost like a reflex in the soul. An attempt to remedy an imbalance. Because the world has been "demystified" to an all too high degree. Something that came with the Enlightenment, natural science, etc. And for which no one can really be held accountable. It just happened that way.

But that it is almost like a cultural deficiency state. Kind of like something you need to take a nutritional supplement for, because of our modern life, depleted soils, etc?

PS Here is "part 1" ... Rev.

Carl Raschke was something on the track

Carl Raschke was something on the track

I'm guessing this is the harshest thing ever said or written by a researcher on new age/new spirituality. The quote was in some local newspaper, as I remember it, from the north of the USA or Canada.

Carl Raschke has been controversial, committed himself against Satanism, among others. Philosopher and theologian. Professor at the University of Denver. Got scolded by colleagues who thought he was too alarmist, one-eyed.

Still, I feel he had a point. (I guess that's why I even ordered a copy of that article once.) I think I understand what he was reacting to. Other assessors have taken up about the same in the "holistic" world of thought, but expressed themselves more sensitively.

Today, when I see what some acquaintances have started to link and share, for example on Facebook, I am horrified. What is going on? What has happened?

Criticism of the authorities' handling of the Covid-19 epidemic. Okay. But it's like a certain kind of mistrustful, authority-defying thinking has released all inhibitions & become slightly paranoid. Criticism of vaccines is mixed with Jewish conspiracy, Illuminati, that Trump is the one who will save us, etc. Anything goes, it seems. It's a pure upside-down world, if you ask me.

Perhaps the potential has always been there, it just hasn't been fully realized. Until now when the phenomenon of new age/new spirituality itself has sort of mutated into a nasty virus you haven't seen before.

Raschke was on to something.

Conspiracy (Conspirituality)

Conspiracy (Conspirituality)

Is it Covid-19 that raised the temperature and finally caused everything to burst, for people you thought you knew? And that lowered the threshold for everything possible conspiratorial one is prepared to accept as true or at least "interesting"...

Jules Evans on “conspirituality”:

There are two moods one finds in the history of spirituality, going back to Gnosticism and running through Romanticism. On the one hand, there is the euphoric mood — the universe is conspiring in your favor, you can fulfill your divine potential, you can change the world simply by changing your thoughts. If enough people raise their consciousness, a new age of love will dawn on the planet. This is Oprah's inspiring gospel.

But then the new age of love doesn't happen, adversity strikes, the economy tanks, shit goes wrong. And the dreamers start to ask, why hasn't the age of love dawned? What or who is blocking us? That's when paranoid conspiracies can arise.

As Isaiah Berlin puts it in his lectures on romanticism:

“There is another, more pessimistic, version [of Romanticism]… Although we individuals seek to liberate ourselves, yet the universe is not to be tamed in this easy fashion. There is something behind, something in the dark depths of the unconscious, or of history, there is something not seized by us which frustrates our dearest wishes...

This paranoia [can] take the form of looking for all kinds of conspiracies in history... perhaps history is formed by forces over which we have no control. Someone is at the back of it all: perhaps the Jesuits, perhaps the Jews, perhaps the Freemasons... We the enlightened, we the virtuous, we the wise and the kind seek to do this or that, but somehow all our efforts end in nothing , and therefore there must be some fearful hostile fore lying in wait for us.”

Why didn't the age of love dawn? Because of Them. Why did my business fail? Because of Them. This is the paranoid version of the New Age dream. This is how spirituality curdles into conspirituality…

Feel like writing something more about this "conspirituality"... For me, it's mostly a name that matches my own observations and feelings. Not so much studying. But it really is a concept that seems to be "trending" right now. What a sign of freshness! Podcasts, blogs, books... In the text above, by Jules Evans (which came as an email, so could not be linked to) he addresses what seems to be the birth of the concept.

There was an article in the Journal of Contemporary Religion that appeared ten years ago: “The Emergence of Conspirituality” (2011), by Charlotte Ward & David Voas.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13537903.2011.539846?scroll=top&needAccess=true

"The female-dominated New Age (with its positive focus on self) and the male-dominated realm of conspiracy theory (with its negative focus on global politics) may seem antithetical. There is a synthesis of the two, however, that we call 'conspirituality'. We define, describe, and analyze this hybrid system of belief; it has been noticed before without receiving much scholarly attention. Conspirituality is a rapidly growing web movement expressing an ideology fueled by political disillusionment and the popularity of alternative worldviews. It has international celebrities, bestsellers, radio and TV stations. It offers a broad politico-spiritual philosophy based on two core convictions, the first traditional to conspiracy theory, the second rooted in the New Age: 1) a secret group covertly controls, or is trying to control, the political and social order, and 2) humanity is undergoing a 'paradigm shift' in consciousness. Proponents believe that the best strategy for dealing with the threat of a totalitarian 'new world order' is to act in accordance with an awakened 'new paradigm' worldview.”

Because, it's something that happened... This with circles in cornfields, UFOs (which may have been covered up by governments), etc... things like that have existed "in neo-spiritual circles" for a long time. But after 9/11?, Trump? and now Covid-19?, it has become so aggressive, personal… (And, yes, I am aware if I myself am not so nice when I get into this topic)…

There are, for example, those who claim that Elvis only faked his death and lives on, still walking around in the discounts at Graceland. I don't have much of a problem with that. I wish him all the best & send grateful thoughts every time I hear (about) him 🙂 I'm more concerned about this whole QAnon-David Icke & Co-Jew conspiracy-9/11-Trump cult and all its tentacles. To me it seems like a single projected hallucinatory mumbo jumbo, pardon my French.

Why are new spiritual people climate skeptics?

Why are new spiritual people climate skeptics?

“In just ten years, the moon will enter a cycle that will amplify rising sea levels – and cause a 'dramatic' increase in flooding in US coastal areas. That's what NASA warns about in a new report... [...] According to astronomy researcher Eric Stempels at Uppsala University, it's about a slow 'rocking' in the moon's orbit, which changes during a roughly 18-year cycle."

You probably don't have to be a climate denier to find this notice a bit fascinating anyway.

Speaking of the climate... In a neo-spiritual context many years ago, I attended a screening of a documentary that argued that the changes in the weather that we saw - and that were to be expected - were not due to us humans, as the experts claimed, but were the effect of enormous cyclical phenomena in the Milky Way itself.

Yes, what do you know. My meteorological, climatological?, knowledge is small. (But I don't think the others in the audience at the time were any fans of it either). The feeling after the screening, apart from the fact that it is always dizzying to be reminded of the greatness of the universe, of course!, was that the delight had more to do with some kind of defiance of authority, envy?.

A challenge is managing to have several thoughts in your head at the same time, I think.