Disaster Spirituality: The Self Project & How The Apolitical Is Political / Matthew Remski

Conspirituality podcast co-host and journalist Matthew Remski returns to the podcast, bringing his ongoing analysis of online cultists, grifters, and conspiritualists to a discussion that relates to the book he co-authored with co-hosts Julian Walker and Derek Beres titled Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat, forthcoming from Public Affairs/Random House in June.

We begin our discussion by delving into what Matthew describes as the “amoral attention economy” and how becoming “professionalized into the cursed news cycle” impacts one’s mental health. Matthew has taken it upon himself to jump into the fray of online “disaster spirituality” and the circles of culty health and wellness grifters—a psychologically and emotionally taxing beat to be on. Based on personal experiences he’s had, some of which he shares in this interview, along with a deep research background into cultic dynamics and abuse in spiritual movements, Matthew has developed an ability to adeptly spot, analyze, and critique the charismatic, narcissistic, self-aggrandizing public personas that contaminate public discourse. He walks us through the dynamics at play, and provides a material framework for understanding how these figures and ideas become so influential to begin with. 

Following the threads from the Satanic Panic to QAnon, and from QAnon to anti-wokeness, Matthew identifies a set of motivations and circumstances that sets the stage for moral panics and their destructive consequences. Conspiracism becomes inevitable within various spiritual/health and wellness subcultures, communities, and cliques that emphasize the apolitical over the political, the project of the self over class consciousness. Matthew identifies how the apolitical is, in fact, very political, and how “doing your own research” is only half the story.

Bio:

Matthew Remski is a cult survivor and researcher. His 2019 book, Practice and All is Coming: Abuse, Cult Dynamics and Healing in Yoga and Beyond, is the first systematic analysis of pervasive cultism in the modern yoga world. He researches and writes on abuse in spiritual movements at his website, as well as for publications like GEN by Medium and The Walrus. His current research is pivoting to look at cultic dynamics in conspirituality and eco-justice movements. He lives in Toronto with his partner and their two sons.

Episode Notes:

Preorder Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat from Bookshop.

Subscribe to Conspirituality and learn more.

Learn more about Matthew’s work at his website and follow him on Twitter.

Music produced by Epik The Dawn.