Conspirituality

[James_H]

Good article about the currently relevant but perpetually present intersection of conspiracist and alternative spirituality subcultures, written by somebody with a good knowledge of occult and Fortean history. Worth your time.

https://medium.com/@julesevans/cons...e-new-age-and-conspiracy-beliefs-c0305eb92185

 

[Ladyloafer]

That's really interesting, thanks.

Ecstatic globalism versus paranoid conspiracy
Let me add to this emerging discourse by suggesting that conspirituality theories are a form of mystical or ecstatic experience. I want to compare two forms of mystical experience.

The first is a sort of extroverted euphoric mystical experience: ‘Everything is connected. I am synchronicitously drawn to helpers and allies, the universe is carrying us forward to a wonderful climactic transformation (the Rapture, the Omega Point, the Paradigm Shift) , and we are the heroic warriors of light appointed by God / the Universe to manifest this glorious new phase shift in human history.’

The second is a paranoid ‘bad’ trip version of the euphoric ‘good’ trip. ‘Everything is connected, there is a secret order being revealed to me, but I am not part of it. It is an evil demonic order, and it is trying to control me and everyone else. They have a Grand Plan and it is taking shape now. But perhaps I, and one or two others, can wake up to this Grand Plan, and expose it, and at least hide from it.’

The first trip is a euphoric ego-expansion (I am the Universe!) and the second is paranoid ego-persecution (The Universe is controlled by Evil Demons who are against me!)

and

Where one group are ecstatic, optimistic, super-empowered, insider (and entitled) conspirators, the other are pessimistic, paranoid, disempowered conspirators.

But their thinking styles are in some ways quite similar — schizotypal, magical, prone to seeing secret influences, hidden connections, and Grand Plans. Above all, both over-estimate the competence of elites to control the world . They under-estimate the dumbness of elites and the chaotic cluster-f*ck of actual politics. Both think the elite are superhuman — either divinely-inspired or demonically-controlled.

 

[EnolaGaia]

It strikes me that the overlap or juxtaposition of New Age style "spirituality" and conspiracy theories represents the oil-versus-water conflict between two distinct and immiscible thematic foci on the individual (spirituality) and the collective (conspiracies).

Once an individual's transcendental (magical; religious; enlightenment; etc.) experience becomes a shared point of reference within a group it shifts into an unavoidably abstracted model (doctrine; belief system; dogma; etc.) which in turn serves to distinguish an "us" from a "them." Once this shift occurs it's the newly entered "us" / "them" referential context that serves as the stage for conspiratorial extrapolations to emerge.

 

[uair01]

And a general theory of conspiracy thinkers:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/...es-share-a-cluster-of-psychological-features/

In May 2018 the American Psychiatric Association released the results of a national survey suggesting that 39 percent of Americans feel more anxious than they did a year ago, primarily about health, safety, finances, politics and relationships. Another 2017 report found that 63 percent of Americans are extremely worried about the future of the nation and that 59 percent consider this the lowest point in U.S. history that they can remember. These feelings span the political spectrum. A 2018 Pew Research Center survey found that the majority of both Democrats and Republicans feel that “their side” in politics has been losing in recent years on issues they find important.

Such existential crises can promote conspiratorial thinking. In a 2015 study in the Netherlands, researchers split college students into three groups. People in one group were primed to feel powerless. The scientists asked them to recall and write about a time in their lives when they felt they were not in control of the situation they were in. Those in a second group were cued in the opposite direction. They were asked to write about a time when they felt totally in control. And still others, in a third group, were asked something neutral: to describe what they had for dinner last night. Then the researchers asked all the groups how they felt about the construction of a new subway line in Amsterdam that had been plagued by problems.

 

[uair01]

And here is another general theory:

https://www.brookings.edu/techstream/how-media-consumption-patterns-fuel-conspiratorial-thinking/
People encounter the news in a variety of ways. While some people omnivorously devour all the news they can and others prefer news from their ideological side, a considerable number of people choose not to look for the news at all, confident they can stay informed because if it is important enough the news will work its way into their interpersonal networks or social media feeds. People exhibiting high levels of this “news finds me” perception tend to have lower political knowledge and interest than others, and tend to use social media more often. Since previous research shows that those who are highly knowledgeable about, and distrustful of, the government are more prone to conspiracism, we wondered whether these media-use patterns and orientations toward news consumption contributed to a conspiratorial mentality as well.