The Conspirituality Report

Hello, YogAnon! The Spirituality Hijack

1st of 4 Field-Guide Posts on Yoga and Conspirituality

Photo by Jan Kopřiva on Unsplash

Conspiracy theory researchers like Dr. Peter Knight assert that conspiratorial thinking follows 3 axioms:

1. Nothing is as it seems.
2. Everything happens for a reason.
3. Everything is connected.

For seasoned yoga students — and New Age enthusiasts — these principles will sound very familiar.

Funny story: when I cited Knight’s axioms in an interview with Buddha at the Gas Pump broadcaster Rick Archer, the 71 year-old ambassador of New Age media laughed. “But I believe all of those things!”

As well he should. As a half-century veteran of Transcendental Meditation and other forms of yoga, Archer knows that these principles can provide insight, equanimity, and resilience. But he also knows — and this is part of what we talked about— that if they cross a certain line of paranoia, or are stripped of the moral frameworks or the pastoral guidance that give shape to functional religious culture, these same rules can point in another direction. They can form the backbone of conspiratorial thinking.

“Nothing is as it seems”