Hi Daniel. Well this is interesting reading, Unfortunately you continue to make the same mistake that you've made in other writings i.e. to ignore the outsized role of the corporatization of American politics and culture. Factoring that in, we can see that there has been sustained attack on natural health coming from the corporate sector and in particular Big Pharma for many decades now. I refer you to an article I wrote about this some years ago:
Another area where I would suggest altering your perception has to do with the Great Awakening or the Shift. Granted there are many distortions and misinterpretations out there now but this has always been the case in the realm of the spiritual and metaphysical. Among those who in the early going have studied and embraced these realities, nothing at all has changed. In fact, the core principles of these very powerful trends remain intact and are proceeding within the same level of expectation that those of us who have been studying this material for decades now expected.
Apparently you had other expectations of what would happen. Either that or your timeline is somewhat limited which is an easy thing to happen to any of us in these crazy times. In any event, I encourage you to return to the core material and you will realize that we are indeed in an extraordinary time of possibility and that the sometimes contorted interpretations of what's happening now do indeed manifest in strange social and cultural ways. However that does not necessarily mean at all that the original material including the Mayan and other indigenous prophecies and guidance are not fully intact, accurate, and relevant and can guide us through this labyrinth.
I agree with what you write here... This what I have been saying in my work over many years. If you recall, I wrote a book about the indigenous prophecies and helped introduce those ideas to a large, mainstream audience. I found your article to be a kind of superficial gloss, to be honest. Perhaps in the future you will go a bit deeper.
In your piece, you write: "One especially pernicious mindset working against these other forms of healing is the notion that if something can’t be measured or quantified, it can’t be a valid and worthy aspect of human experience, a belief system associated with a hidden systems of values called scientific materialism." Yes, sure, but ultimately, healing and health can be quantified to a certain extent. Either someone who religiously practices Joe DiSpenza's meditations has the ability to reverse stage 3 cancer at a more than average rate, as he seems to claim, or they don't. If various alternative health practices cannot rely on any evidence except anecdotal evidence to back its claims, isn't that a bit of a problem?
In my experience, the notion of measured results and evidence-based results has lately been more often than not used as a blunt instrument to discredit natural heath approaches. Years ago there were attempts under the rubric of CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) to try to reconcile the two approaches. There was even government funding for it which has now dried up. But those kinds of efforts now have largely fallen by the wayside now that Pharma has "won" hearts and minds post-Covid. That and other trends now mean that conventional medicine has become fully corporate in nature and only "science-based" approaches (read: corporate-approved approaches) using whatever obscure measurement techniques are in vogue at the time in the echelons will be considered valid. In a for-profit system, whatever results we might be looking at will of course be skewed. Nature of the beast. (By the way, thanks for reading the article.)
Measured results? It all depends on which results are being measured as well as which ones are not. Joe DiSpenza does not represent or speak for anyone but himself. He is deservedly or undeservedly popular. Reversing stage 3 cancer isn't easy to do with any method I know. Shame on him and of course sue him he does anyone harm with his advice. The claim that many integrative ( not called alternative any more) therapies are not supported by evidence, as any systematic literature search will show, is untrue and purposefully maintained by hostile and repressive sources. The NIH is currently investing billions in additional research on everything from acupuncture , chiropractic , homeopathy etc. Why because they believe these natural - non pharmaceutical therapies have a great deal to offer when it comes to improving health and wellness.
Just to add quickly: the reason why there's very little evidence-based study on cannabis is largely because most of the funding for medical studies these days comes from Pharma and corporate sources.
I remember reading David Icke’s Tales from the Time Loop in the early 2000s. It was right around the time I started experimenting psychedelics. I remember thinking everything I think is the exact opposite of what I knew to be true up until that point. Icke uses a lot of truth breadcrumbs to lead the reader into believing something that’s a leap and not a logical conclusion with solid evidence. It’s a simple explanation that our world is fucked up because reptilian bloodlines remain in power to keep us shackled and controlled. There’s something in that that seems true even if it’s only metaphorical.
How do we know what’s true?
I wrote my capstone paper as philosophy student undergrad trying to refute Sextus Empircus’s the Skeptic Way which thesis is that we can only go by appearances of things and never know the truth. I made an argument that we can have degrees of certainty but can never be 100% certain. I got an A on the paper but I I thought it was a sloppy rebuttal and it still haunts me today that we can never absolutely know the truth...
Are you familiar with General Semantics and it’s structural differential map ?
Basically abstraction and definitions in an infinite universe always leaves out more than it includes . Therefore GS offers many language devices to help us maintain humility / sanity when we use language and abstraction. Can we know everything ? Is what we know true ? Is seeing believing or is believing perceiving ? These are the great issues of humanity which GS and the teaching of Rudolf Steiner address in very practical ways as well as spiritual evolutionary ways imo.
I’ll look into general semantics. I’m currently writing a song about semantic gymnastics people play in order to not have to change their beliefs. Thanks for the tip!
Levels of Knowing and Existence is a good introduction to GS :) If you get a chance to read Steiner , and have a spiritual inclination ,you might try his lectures The World of the Senses and the World of the Spirit. The thing about Steiner that is fascinating is not so much his content which can be astoundingly clear is his way of speaking in a descriptive versus definitive way. Which again me thinks a good way to go for our species.
Great !! Here's a little Steiner quote about the problem with rationalism based on materialism and it reiterates his advise that reverence, respect and wonder ought to precede and provide the foundation for all thought / cognition
"It is not easy, at first, to believe that feelings like reverence and respect have anything to do with cognition. This is due to the fact that we are inclined to set cognition aside as a faculty by itself — one that stands in no relation to what otherwise occurs in the soul. In so thinking we do not bear in mind that it is the soul which exercises the faculty of cognition; and feelings are for the soul what food is for the body. If we give the body stones in place of bread, its activity will cease. It is the same with the soul. Veneration, homage, devotion are like nutriment making it healthy and strong, especially strong for the activity of cognition. Disrespect, antipathy, underestimation of what deserves recognition, all exert a paralyzing and withering effect on this faculty of cognition"
But lived experience (existentialism in philosophic terms) does not require "absolutes." It requires sufficient evidence to make the millions of little and big choices we all have to make. Seeking absolute truth can be a strait jacket, and is there only ONE? Maybe thousands, starting with Descartes, "I think, therefore I am!"
I appreciate this series. It feels strangely validating — a relief for you to be examining the shift from the late 2000s until now. I’ve been involved in the wellness community as participant, entrepreneur, and community builder since 2006 or so; and I was also a quiet observer of the early alt news and conspiracy forums from around 2007. It’s been lonely and scary… and disempowering (quite the opposite of what the wellness community originally offered me or inspired me toward) to be noticing the trends and the shifts since 2012 or so.
The Q Anon stuff expertly magnifies and high jacks peoples distrust and disgust with how we are herd managed by a condescending , narcissistic 1% and then turns those emotions into an addictive drug for its followers who become progressively more fanatical and CERTAIN because of constant reinforcement .
Personally I suspect that Q material comes from the “ deep state” or intelligence community and is a way to mislead, misdirect and embarrass.these people’s natural instincts in order to discredit them and preserve the status quo. My gut suggests that Q Anon and the Truth is Dead hysterics are both ways of trying to defend rationalism's ownership of reality. It reminds me of the counter reformation, and it's anti individualist efforts that gave birth to the Inquisition. The inquisitors were great defenders of the status quo institutions and prosecutors of those who heretically deviated from its proprietary truths. They too loved to exaggerate and capitalize on the depravity of the violators, making a small % of the persecuted appear representative of the whole.
You seem to be lumping the anti-vaccine movement into 'lost its mind'. Particularly relative to covid and the covid vaccination, I'd suggest you immerse yourself in the scientific literature surrounding just how dangerous covid is/was, and just how safe the covid vaccination is. I'm not venturing extreme views relative to either of these vantage points, but, balance is important.
Exactly how safe and how effective the COVID injection was , is actually still being determined. It will probably take years to settle these questions more accurately , more scientifically Likewise exactly in what ways was it effective, ineffective or harmful to which populations is also still being determined. However you might also want to reimburse yourself in the scientific literature as a number of new studies and statistical analysis have come out that are not nearly as black and white in answering these questions as you might have concluded from information in 2020, 2021 or 2022. From my personal observation almost everything we were told about the injection and the risks of COVID to everyone (versus particular populations) has proven to be wrong and in some cases convenient lies.
Here's something that identifies the swamp all post modern factions are wallowing in and a way out that begins with respecting even those we disagree with or those few who go too far:
"Our civilization tends more toward critical judgment and condemnation than toward devotion and selfless veneration. Our children already criticize far more than they worship. But every criticism, every adverse judgment passed, disperses the powers of the soul for the attainment of higher knowledge in the same measure that all veneration and reverence develops them."
In an epoch of criticism ideals are lowered; other feelings take the place of veneration, respect, adoration, and wonder. Our own age thrusts these feelings further and further into the background, so that they can only be conveyed to man through his every-day life in a very small degree.
Everywhere in his environment and his experiences he must seek motives of admiration and homage. If I meet a man and blame him for his shortcomings, I rob myself of power to attain higher knowledge; but if I try to enter lovingly into his merits, I gather such power. The student must continually be intent upon following this advice. The spiritually experienced know how much they owe to the circumstance that in face of all things they ever again turn to the good, and withhold adverse judgement. But this must not remain an external rule of life; rather it must take possession of our innermost soul. Man has it in his power to perfect himself and, in time, completely to transform himself. But this transformation must take place in his innermost self, in his thought-life. It is not enough that I show respect only in my outward bearing; I must have this respect in my thoughts.
The student must begin by absorbing this devotion into this thought-life. He must be wary of thoughts of disrespect, of adverse criticism, existing in his consciousness, and he must endeavor straightaway to cultivate thoughts of devotion.
Steiner, Rudolf. Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment: With linked Table of Contents (p. 9). Wilder Publications, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
I'm glad that DP is digging into Wilber's integral model here. I found the book on Trump to be an interesting take on the election.
In the last paragraph of this article, DP jumps from summarizing the problems with "extreme postmodernism" to concluding that this is the source of conspirituality, and perhaps not making it clear that this jump is DP's and not Wilber's. I'd like more explanation on how "green gone bad" leads to conspirituality.
Green leads to extreme relativism or aperspectival madness where you feel there is no objective truth and your thoughts “create” your reality. Hence if something accords with what you want to believe anyway, you will take it as “true” and feel vindicated.
OK, thanks. But what about the case with traditional conservatives, who would be not be green in terms of worldview? I think it's that the dysfunctional extreme of postmodernism has permeated all of society.
yes I agree... remember when GW Bush's cronies put down the "reality-based community?" (Funny the original article from the NY Times Magazine in 2004 by Ron Suskind seems to be off the web). I think it was Karl Rove... said they were "creating" the new reality, not just reacting to stuff.
“Create your own reality” in Steiner terms is extreme, ungrounded Luciferic thinking which is ego aggrandizing and euphoric . However you’ll notice different version of this same flavor of thinking in scientific and high tech fields that also tend to the grandiose and self- aggrandizing in different ways. Like “we’ve saved millions of lives with xyz” or technologies will make us godlike or create utopia on Earth. These are also the our way is the only way or the top -best way or the correct way people. The we know the truth or objective reality through thinking/ abstraction / language or science people . These folks are imo and I suspect Steiner’s similarity deluded and full of themselves. However there is an interesting Ahrimanic aspect to believers in their possession of objective truth through numbers, math, accounting, militarism and statistics etc. These tend to be overly Earth bound , rationalistic , materialistic thinkers who tend to face the universe with great . underlying fear and insecurity regarding it’s mystery and unknowableness . Is there an objective reality . Yes, but it requires multi perspectives( the blind men and the elephant parable ) ,the development of multidimensional sense organs ,( Steiner’s spiritual senses )it requires direct perception of higher knowledge . it is not thinking or language accessible: the Dao that can be named is not the eternal Dao etc. I’m surprised you let yourself be dragged into the dead end of the dualistic objective versus subjective reality red herring. There are zillions of subjective realities and a grand totality of phenomena we call objective or absolute reality. Buddhas they say can perceive both simultaneously and do so with great composure, love , wisdom and compassion. Which is a lovely as a role model imo. Anyone’s objective reality that lacks these qualities and inclusiveness is of little interest to me.
For me there’s something here about the rise in conspiratorial thinking being a product of an expansion of consciousness that lacks groundedness. I think about my dad--a deeply passionate, politically driven guy who got really into Q. Him and I can meet each other in expansive-big picture-thinking space where we talk about the world, God, spirituality, the Universe in big abstract felt sense ways. As we begin to bring that felt sense down to earth and connect it w what we see as happening on the ground, that’s where things quickly fall apart. My sister, who goes in on Q stuff w my dad, describes it as a fun thought experiment--zooming out, connecting dots, seeing big picture. In this way it expands her consciousness to play in new realms like that. To connect intuitive felt senses (like the “sense” behind the reptilian narrative you mention, Daniel) with big picture narratives. I think it’s good that people are seeking to cultivate their intuition and tap into what they sense about the world, but its a problem when it’s not grounded in things with integrity; both practices of channeling intuition that are healthy and grounded, as well as forming narratives based on verifiable info, trustworthy media etc etc -- both of which are skills
Thank you Daniel, this has been very illuminating and clarifying. I teach yoga and have been part of the "consciousness" community for around eight years. On some level I think there's always been a thrum of conspiracies floating around in the community but I never paid much attention to them until the COVID era when they became unavoidable to hear about. I'm also an Integral Coach and continue to study and utilize Ken's theories so it's great fun to read about them in your newsletter! The reason I started reading your work and continue to is because you put things I've thought + wondered about into words (that I never could) and help to untangle what constantly feels like a tangled mess. Truly, thank you so much for your work in the world.
Excellent, Daniel. You're getting to the core of the con-spirituality issue and unpacking its trajectory very well. I greatly respect your understanding of the subject matter and how you put your thoughts into words. These are complicated landscapes, and personal experience matters.
Around 2010-2012 I exited from Sedona, a veritable menu of New Age practitioners and extreme "woo" that had repelled me in the decade prior.
As I had a front-row seat to the development of the internet and related technologies, I am now highly suspicious of anything that appears on social media or mainstream media feeds, especially from those who are highly paid and maneuvered into the conveyance of memes and popular click-bait trends. Personalities/influencers, politicians, and celebrities have become valuable tools that allow a grand chess game of warring old family factions to play out on a largely unsuspecting public.
They (let's blame the Rothschilds, Rockefellers*, Carnegie, et al., as their history is quite clear) dismantled the natural health system, broke up the peace movement of the 1960s, created havoc in the 1970s, and attacked all that we thought would lead us to an enlightened, healthy society—and for what, exactly? You've written enough about capitalism to answer this question. They created the military-industrial-biopharmaceutical complex that has grown into a gigantic control mechanism that has inserted its nerve endings into every faction of human existence.
Within that 2010-2012 time frame you mentioned, something strange happened with my then-boyfriend, a brilliant, sharp-minded lawyer famous for suing the U.S. government to release its secret UFO files. Peter Gersten, a.k.a. "the UFO Lawyer," who was one of the founders of Citizens Against UFO Secrecy, a man who took the government to the Supreme Court, and was an expert in filing FOIA requests, was now going to leap off the top of Bell Rock, into a portal, at 11:11 UT on the winter solstice of 2012, and save humanity from a pending cosmic virus. He stopped lecturing and granting interviews on his prior work, preferring to revel in his new title, "Vortex Jumper." I left and returned to Canada. This was and still is an honestly "WTF" scenario.
Before Peter, I was in a ten-year relationship with Jim Dilettoso, founder of Village Labs, a forerunner in the dot-com industry of the early 1990s. Engineers worked diligently on the programming that would eventually become industry standards for the tools we now use daily. Executives at the lab included the head of FEMA for Arizona, who was also a recruiter for the West Point Academy. Another was from D.C., a former Reagan appointee, one of few publicly ostracized for connections to the Iran Contra affair. My point is that military contractors monitored the lab closely, which, as I understand it, is not unusual, especially when the company's founder was known to have formerly had high-security clearance.
Jim is a nefarious character whose integrity is questioned on any internet search involving his name. He was one of the investigators called in on the Billy Meier case in the late 1970s. While under the influence one night, he told me that the government investigators made up the entire list of "Pleiadians." It was a social experiment to find out what the public response would be over many years. Who would claim to be a channel? Who would write books? Who would say they investigated Billy themselves, who would support him as legitimate, and who would go to great lengths to expose the case as a hoax? It is fascinating that this case has yet to run its entire course, as Billy is still alive. However, its death throes are evident as the colonel who hired the investigators has passed away, his unusual history quickly fading from all modern conversations about UFOs, and photos from his collection, sadly, are now being sold for a small fortune via Sotheby's*. Col. Stevens died a pauper.
Why am I bringing this up? Those tools in their infancy thirty and forty years ago are finely-tuned high-tech chess pieces now. Whoever and whatever was helpful to the agenda to take humanity to "Human 2.0" has been closely contained and scooped up by those who can afford to pay for it.
Everyone who consumes any media is under their influence. Any factor can be inflated or highlighted according to whim, pointing straight back to a level of cooperation (from my point of view) that has had the "third tier" of your government salivating with delight over the amount of power and monetary gain that now comes so quickly to them. There is no actual left and right thinking at that level, nor is there a separation of governments involved with the Five Eyes. But, they count on their citizenry fighting amongst themselves and keeping them unable to decipher the bigger picture. Those who put it all together are labelled "conspiracy theorists" or worse.
It is the old game, made better. Those "out there" stories, the crazy stuff like Q Anon, the blood-drinking pedophiles, and the nutty conspiracies that split people apart, are child's play. It's what "they" do for all the reasons you probably think. They'll take a popular story and run with it. It's dangerous territory that creates a cover for perpetrators and a battleground for people who either seek out the sensationalized information or disregard it entirely. Look at MK-Ultra as a well-publicized and declassified mind control program. It's the tip of a giant, nasty iceberg.
As to Pfizer and the vaccine issue. Big sigh. I just wanted to see a product monograph for my safety, which was not forthcoming then. I have a history of bad reactions to pharmaceutical drugs, so I don't take any. My decision has nothing to do with Trump - LOL! I can't stand the guy. The attacks on natural health are pretty freaky for me. However, any practitioner who has battled the Codex Alimentarius* can tell you about lengthy and complicated regulation issues over the years. It's nothing new among users of supplements and natural health products.
I don't care if people want to take medicines from criminally-convicted drug purveyors*. I'd prefer that they weren't mandated and that instead of using celebrities and fancy, expensive ad campaigns with clever marketing slogans (or outright demands) for coercion purposes, they would provide the truth to begin with. But the truth is a moot issue nowadays. Pretty sad that we can't even trust the factions we thought would save us from the very situation in which we now find ourselves.
I'm just going to saddle up and hope that horses will be allowed in the 15-minute cities so I can ride off into a virtual sunset ;)
Right on !! Thank you, for laying out so clearly much of what I have noticed and concluded over the past 50 years. I'm listening right now to Cohen's song; Everybody Knows , which ought to be the theme song for our time.
Great choice of theme song! Thanks. It's hard to write everything into a short comment and still get the key points across. I just fire off whatever comes to mind, but I could also write a lot more! I'm glad you "get it."
If we dive deeper, is the “so called” issue of Conspirituality being used to delegitimize political candidates or environmental issues as “conspiracies” if they diverge from official government narratives? We might want to explore the economic war between legacy media and independent news sites and lawsuits regarding censorship and first amendment rights. One can’t write about the issue of “conspiracy” and media or understand RFK Jr, without looking at his antitrust lawsuit against TNI (Trusted News Initiative) an approach launched by the BBC in 2020. “The Real RFK Trials, a truth warrior,” by Dick Russell, mentions the internal BBC memo, “we need to choke them (alternative news sites) off at the source, we need to crush them.” RFK, Jr filed against the Trusted News Initiative (TNI) alleging antitrust and First Amendment violations. TNI launched in March 2020, is a coalition of some of the world’s largest news organizations, including the Associated Press, the BBC, the Washington Post, and Reuters, who partnered with Big Tech with the aim of stopping the spread of “misinformation.”
The TNI suit accuses the media companies of collaborating to "exclude" rival news publishers whose work "challenges and competes with TNI members' reporting on certain issues relating to Covid-19 and US politics." According to France24news,
“While the 'Trusted News Initiative' publicly purports to be a self-appointed 'truth police' extirpating online 'misinformation,' in fact it has suppressed wholly accurate and legitimate reporting in furtherance of the economic self-interest of its members," the suit alleges.
In a different lawsuit, on July 4, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey granted his motion to block top officials in the federal government from continuing to violate the First Amendment rights and recognized the States’ evidence of unconscionable federal censorship activities.
Government agencies or officials did run afoul of the First Amendment free speech guarantees when forcing social media companies to censor specific content, and there was also a collusion with legacy media with the Trusted News Initiative.
In the Rubin Report https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eChdjCZvr2M Kennedy explains that internal memos obtained from the Trusted News Initiative (TNI) show intent to destroy independent media, stamping them out and choking them off by labeling stories and topics as ‘misinformation’, and via censorship, denying them access to the social media sites critical to economically functioning. TNI’s directive: any departing from the official ‘trusted news’, official government narratives would be identified and denied a platform, whether or not statements were true or not.
One can’t write about Conspirituality and RFK Jr., without including the context of “Internal communications from the BBC.
RFK explains. “One of the things, the BBC organizers said… ‘this is about saving ourselves, our economic models, the real competition is coming from alternative media site that are eroding trust and taking away our business model’…..this is what the memo from BBC said, “we need to choke off those sites,”…. they did it by agreeing on a single narrative and by shadow banning anyone (departing from government orthodoxies) as those sites required social media for their business models."
RFK shares, "They all identified individuals that would be saying something censored. “If you were Green Med Info a site that provides wellness information, or Mercola, departing from government orthodoxies. you would find yourself banned on social media, and those sites required social media for their business models.” Only way they grow and earn advertising dollars. challenged those organized.
Kennedy mentions that legacy media which traditionally functioned as “guardians of the first amendments of free expression, (is) supposed to courageously speak truth to power, maintain a posture of fear and skepticism toward the big aggregations of power and government corporations, (yet became) the opposite propagandists for the powerful and the enemy of the first amendment.”
This issue around censorship and government collusion with social media is also being explored by Aaron Kheriaty, writes in the “Digital Empire Strikes Back.”
Before the digital age, prior censorship cases typically involved the government suppressing one publisher, one article or book, or one source. In this case, we have a government-funded, government-coordinated “misinformation” industry responsible for censoring hundreds of thousands of Americans on social media tens of millions of times. The breadth and scope of what has been dubbed the “censorship-industrial complex” is astonishing, and the government is controlling its activities.
I
ndeed, in the closing remarks of the ruling, Judge Doughty went even further, alluding to the dystopian regime depicted in Orwell’s 1984. Much of what the government censored turned out to be true — the fact that Covid shots do not stop infection or transmission, the collateral harms caused by lockdowns and school closures However, government censorship is unconstitutional regardless of whether the information censored turns out, upon critical examination and debate, to be true or false. Government officials cannot arrogate the power to decide for all citizens what is true and what is false — as they are not God, they lack the omniscience to make those judgments. Their desire to assume this role only reveals their arrogant contempt for the intelligence and judgment of ordinary Americans. Students of history can readily grasp that government censorship is never about the disinterested pursuit of truth — it’s always about accruing and maintaining power, about shielding the regime from criticism and silencing any opposition. Authoritarian regimes have always justified censorship in terms of protecting people from harm — people who apparently are incapable of discerning what is true and right on their own and without instructions from their rulers.
The blogs about Conspirituality book bother me especially as Time Magazine and Rolling Stone have used Conspirituality to minimize environmental issues and political candidates. I also agree about the outsized role of the corporatization of American politics and culture.
Daniel, what you share is valid, “The problem with Conspirituality is it swings too far in the other direction, throwing the baby out with the esoteric bathwater. It acknowledges yet trivializes the legitimate basis of many people’s distrust.”
Yet Conspiruality goes further than just trivializing the legitimate basis of people’s distrust, and it isn’t just the esoteric bathwater, when used by mainstream media to dismiss inconvenient science or delegitimize political candidates. Time Magazine references both Conspirituality and RFK Jr., sidelining a real issue of lack of government and corporate accountability, and this begs the question is Conspirituality been co-opted by Time Magazine to lay out a mental pathology theory for people who question official narratives around industry profits?
Disinformation works both ways. Silent Spring author Rachel Carson was attacked 60 years ago. The glaring omission in the Conspirituality blogs includes what the Union of Concerned Scientists call the Tobacco Playbook, a decades old PR campaign that discounts environmental issues unpopular with industry profit (and now political candidates that ask uncomfortable questions of industry safety). According to Union of Concerned Scientists, a ” now-infamous memorandum from a tobacco executive in 1969 captured this strategy well: “Doubt is our product, since it is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists in the minds of the general public.”
Your blog references the Conspirituality book and RFK being an anti vaxxer, yet RFK Jr. in a NY Post interview wrote, “I urge people to listen to what I actually say instead of listening to the litany of derisive sound bites that the mainstream media offers to mischaracterize and distort my positions on the whole range of issues. I am not and have never been anti-vaccine. I’ve always said that I’m for safe vaccines and robust science and for regulatory agencies that are free from conflicts of interest and financial entanglements with the pharmaceutical industry..”
Conspiracy and misinformation are the new buzzwords in a world of many converging metacrisises - not just in spiritual circles. Is Conspirituality being used as a disinfomation playbook by media to blitz scientists, whistleblowers and political candidates who ask safety questions and question industry profit? The Big Think article also references Conspirituality about another environmental concern - 5G:
The red flag is the use of the word "supposed dangers of 5G, " and only speaking about opportunists who profit off of belly bands for pregnant women worried about 5G while omitting public policy that show evidence of harm such as the New Hampshire State 5G Commission. This kind of reporting does a disservice to children such Amelia Giraldi who testified in front of Congress, with 582 days being displaced from her home from a cell tower. The Baby Safe Project, derived from Dr. Hugh Taylor, Yale University School of Medicine which speaks about fetal exposures to cell phone radiation solutions for pregnant women, was not referenced, a lost opportunity. https://www.babysafeproject.org/about
Environmental issues and regulatory capture are not a fringe religion. There is a danger when Conspirituality dives into environmental health issues and politics, drawing upon a context framed in New Age dilemmas.
Zeus Yiamouyiannis writes, “We can now add to the toolbox of psy-ops: interagency collusion, outright censorship, professional retaliation, dismissal of inconvenient evidence, and the delegitimization of valid competing science as “conspiracy”
Psy-ops attempts to determine not only what is official and what can be construed and reported as true (even if it is verifiably FALSE) but what will be ALLOWABLE in public discussion and action. The use of psy-ops has so invaded nearly every quarter of public discussion and participation.”
My point of view derives from environmental science and also media sources such as “Project Censored,” stories that are under reported. Project Censored book clubs have been at various state Universities, as part of media literacy program where students research under reported stories under the guidance of professors. https://www.projectcensored.org/top-25-censored-news-stories-2022/page/3/
See also PEERS website that researches news articles about well researched stories from independent sources.
Yes. And unresolved trauma, individual and collective coupled with that modern sense of alienation feeds psychoses in all its forms. You mean you don't believe the Reptilians are behind it all?
They could be.... I haven’t seen strong evidence in favor of it, but I’m not dismissing it altogether 🦎 - but I agree that on the trauma front it’s almost like the reptilian narrative is a shadow archetype of our global capitalist society...? Something to meditate on. Cheers!
Oddly enough, in their supposedly good-faith attempts to defuse the culture wars, the Conspirituality gang are really doing nothing but throwing fuel on the fire. I’ve listened to a few episodes of their show and understood their motivation and approach clear as day: they are grifters, trying to make a mill by calling out grifters.
In the process they are really doing a lot more harm than good. AFAIK they propose no real alternative structures for movements, progress, or societal evolution.
Just more blue church, decline and fall type thinking. From my personal experience and extensive reading and research, magic is real, mass media and culture is not our friend, and many of the supposedly debunked wellness modalities change lives for the better every day.
Here’s a podcast that came out today that has some great insights about conspiracy that takes a symbolic/ occult approach to attempt to see below the surface of the phenomenon and why this is so prevalent now
"Our civilization tends more toward critical judgment and condemnation than toward devotion and selfless veneration. Our children already criticize far more than they worship. But every criticism, every adverse judgment passed, disperses the powers of the soul for the attainment of higher knowledge in the same measure that all veneration and reverence develops them".
"In an epoch of criticism ideals are lowered; other feelings take the place of veneration, respect, adoration, and wonder. Our own age thrusts these feelings further and further into the background, so that they can only be conveyed to man through his every-day life in a very small degree.
"Everywhere in his environment and his experiences he must seek motives of admiration and homage. If I meet a man and blame him for his shortcomings, I rob myself of power to attain higher knowledge; but if I try to enter lovingly into his merits, I gather such power. The student must continually be intent upon following this advice. The spiritually experienced know how much they owe to the circumstance that in face of all things they ever again turn to the good, and withhold adverse judgement. But this must not remain an external rule of life; rather it must take possession of our innermost soul. Man has it in his power to perfect himself and, in time, completely to transform himself. But this transformation must take place in his innermost self, in his thought-life. It is not enough that I show respect only in my outward bearing; I must have this respect in my thoughts."
The student must begin by absorbing this devotion into this thought-life. He must be wary of thoughts of disrespect, of adverse criticism, existing in his consciousness, and he must endeavor straightaway to cultivate thoughts of devotion" .
Steiner, Rudolf. Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment: With linked Table of Contents (p. 9). Wilder Publications, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
Hi Daniel. Well this is interesting reading, Unfortunately you continue to make the same mistake that you've made in other writings i.e. to ignore the outsized role of the corporatization of American politics and culture. Factoring that in, we can see that there has been sustained attack on natural health coming from the corporate sector and in particular Big Pharma for many decades now. I refer you to an article I wrote about this some years ago:
https://kindredspirit.co.uk/2020/10/11/science-and-spirituality/
Another area where I would suggest altering your perception has to do with the Great Awakening or the Shift. Granted there are many distortions and misinterpretations out there now but this has always been the case in the realm of the spiritual and metaphysical. Among those who in the early going have studied and embraced these realities, nothing at all has changed. In fact, the core principles of these very powerful trends remain intact and are proceeding within the same level of expectation that those of us who have been studying this material for decades now expected.
Apparently you had other expectations of what would happen. Either that or your timeline is somewhat limited which is an easy thing to happen to any of us in these crazy times. In any event, I encourage you to return to the core material and you will realize that we are indeed in an extraordinary time of possibility and that the sometimes contorted interpretations of what's happening now do indeed manifest in strange social and cultural ways. However that does not necessarily mean at all that the original material including the Mayan and other indigenous prophecies and guidance are not fully intact, accurate, and relevant and can guide us through this labyrinth.
Regards,
Tom Valovic
I agree with what you write here... This what I have been saying in my work over many years. If you recall, I wrote a book about the indigenous prophecies and helped introduce those ideas to a large, mainstream audience. I found your article to be a kind of superficial gloss, to be honest. Perhaps in the future you will go a bit deeper.
In your piece, you write: "One especially pernicious mindset working against these other forms of healing is the notion that if something can’t be measured or quantified, it can’t be a valid and worthy aspect of human experience, a belief system associated with a hidden systems of values called scientific materialism." Yes, sure, but ultimately, healing and health can be quantified to a certain extent. Either someone who religiously practices Joe DiSpenza's meditations has the ability to reverse stage 3 cancer at a more than average rate, as he seems to claim, or they don't. If various alternative health practices cannot rely on any evidence except anecdotal evidence to back its claims, isn't that a bit of a problem?
In my experience, the notion of measured results and evidence-based results has lately been more often than not used as a blunt instrument to discredit natural heath approaches. Years ago there were attempts under the rubric of CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) to try to reconcile the two approaches. There was even government funding for it which has now dried up. But those kinds of efforts now have largely fallen by the wayside now that Pharma has "won" hearts and minds post-Covid. That and other trends now mean that conventional medicine has become fully corporate in nature and only "science-based" approaches (read: corporate-approved approaches) using whatever obscure measurement techniques are in vogue at the time in the echelons will be considered valid. In a for-profit system, whatever results we might be looking at will of course be skewed. Nature of the beast. (By the way, thanks for reading the article.)
Mercola interviews Meryl Nass posted today:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2023/07/16/who-global-tyranny.aspx?ui=cc4e6ead5e71ee3e95bfe75132f824d0678fdc5d9126391c916cc21f07f9612e&sd=20130514&cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1ReadMore&cid=20230716&foDate=false&mid=DM1433941&rid=1856824866
Measured results? It all depends on which results are being measured as well as which ones are not. Joe DiSpenza does not represent or speak for anyone but himself. He is deservedly or undeservedly popular. Reversing stage 3 cancer isn't easy to do with any method I know. Shame on him and of course sue him he does anyone harm with his advice. The claim that many integrative ( not called alternative any more) therapies are not supported by evidence, as any systematic literature search will show, is untrue and purposefully maintained by hostile and repressive sources. The NIH is currently investing billions in additional research on everything from acupuncture , chiropractic , homeopathy etc. Why because they believe these natural - non pharmaceutical therapies have a great deal to offer when it comes to improving health and wellness.
Just to add quickly: the reason why there's very little evidence-based study on cannabis is largely because most of the funding for medical studies these days comes from Pharma and corporate sources.
Thanks for these likes folks. If anyone would like to discuss these complexities in email, happy to do so: cloudhands5858@gmail.com. Cheers, Tom
I remember reading David Icke’s Tales from the Time Loop in the early 2000s. It was right around the time I started experimenting psychedelics. I remember thinking everything I think is the exact opposite of what I knew to be true up until that point. Icke uses a lot of truth breadcrumbs to lead the reader into believing something that’s a leap and not a logical conclusion with solid evidence. It’s a simple explanation that our world is fucked up because reptilian bloodlines remain in power to keep us shackled and controlled. There’s something in that that seems true even if it’s only metaphorical.
How do we know what’s true?
I wrote my capstone paper as philosophy student undergrad trying to refute Sextus Empircus’s the Skeptic Way which thesis is that we can only go by appearances of things and never know the truth. I made an argument that we can have degrees of certainty but can never be 100% certain. I got an A on the paper but I I thought it was a sloppy rebuttal and it still haunts me today that we can never absolutely know the truth...
Are you familiar with General Semantics and it’s structural differential map ?
Basically abstraction and definitions in an infinite universe always leaves out more than it includes . Therefore GS offers many language devices to help us maintain humility / sanity when we use language and abstraction. Can we know everything ? Is what we know true ? Is seeing believing or is believing perceiving ? These are the great issues of humanity which GS and the teaching of Rudolf Steiner address in very practical ways as well as spiritual evolutionary ways imo.
I’ll look into general semantics. I’m currently writing a song about semantic gymnastics people play in order to not have to change their beliefs. Thanks for the tip!
Levels of Knowing and Existence is a good introduction to GS :) If you get a chance to read Steiner , and have a spiritual inclination ,you might try his lectures The World of the Senses and the World of the Spirit. The thing about Steiner that is fascinating is not so much his content which can be astoundingly clear is his way of speaking in a descriptive versus definitive way. Which again me thinks a good way to go for our species.
Thanks! I’ll check it out!
Great !! Here's a little Steiner quote about the problem with rationalism based on materialism and it reiterates his advise that reverence, respect and wonder ought to precede and provide the foundation for all thought / cognition
"It is not easy, at first, to believe that feelings like reverence and respect have anything to do with cognition. This is due to the fact that we are inclined to set cognition aside as a faculty by itself — one that stands in no relation to what otherwise occurs in the soul. In so thinking we do not bear in mind that it is the soul which exercises the faculty of cognition; and feelings are for the soul what food is for the body. If we give the body stones in place of bread, its activity will cease. It is the same with the soul. Veneration, homage, devotion are like nutriment making it healthy and strong, especially strong for the activity of cognition. Disrespect, antipathy, underestimation of what deserves recognition, all exert a paralyzing and withering effect on this faculty of cognition"
Love the "semantic gymnastics" phrase. Sartre calls that "bad faith," and rightfully so.
But lived experience (existentialism in philosophic terms) does not require "absolutes." It requires sufficient evidence to make the millions of little and big choices we all have to make. Seeking absolute truth can be a strait jacket, and is there only ONE? Maybe thousands, starting with Descartes, "I think, therefore I am!"
I appreciate this series. It feels strangely validating — a relief for you to be examining the shift from the late 2000s until now. I’ve been involved in the wellness community as participant, entrepreneur, and community builder since 2006 or so; and I was also a quiet observer of the early alt news and conspiracy forums from around 2007. It’s been lonely and scary… and disempowering (quite the opposite of what the wellness community originally offered me or inspired me toward) to be noticing the trends and the shifts since 2012 or so.
Hi Jen, please feel free to share any more of your thoughts... what do you think happened ?!
The Q Anon stuff expertly magnifies and high jacks peoples distrust and disgust with how we are herd managed by a condescending , narcissistic 1% and then turns those emotions into an addictive drug for its followers who become progressively more fanatical and CERTAIN because of constant reinforcement .
Personally I suspect that Q material comes from the “ deep state” or intelligence community and is a way to mislead, misdirect and embarrass.these people’s natural instincts in order to discredit them and preserve the status quo. My gut suggests that Q Anon and the Truth is Dead hysterics are both ways of trying to defend rationalism's ownership of reality. It reminds me of the counter reformation, and it's anti individualist efforts that gave birth to the Inquisition. The inquisitors were great defenders of the status quo institutions and prosecutors of those who heretically deviated from its proprietary truths. They too loved to exaggerate and capitalize on the depravity of the violators, making a small % of the persecuted appear representative of the whole.
You seem to be lumping the anti-vaccine movement into 'lost its mind'. Particularly relative to covid and the covid vaccination, I'd suggest you immerse yourself in the scientific literature surrounding just how dangerous covid is/was, and just how safe the covid vaccination is. I'm not venturing extreme views relative to either of these vantage points, but, balance is important.
Yes I anticipated that criticism! I will try to address this point in a subsequent piece.
Exactly how safe and how effective the COVID injection was , is actually still being determined. It will probably take years to settle these questions more accurately , more scientifically Likewise exactly in what ways was it effective, ineffective or harmful to which populations is also still being determined. However you might also want to reimburse yourself in the scientific literature as a number of new studies and statistical analysis have come out that are not nearly as black and white in answering these questions as you might have concluded from information in 2020, 2021 or 2022. From my personal observation almost everything we were told about the injection and the risks of COVID to everyone (versus particular populations) has proven to be wrong and in some cases convenient lies.
totally agree. for examples of scientific literature see author 'unacceptable Jessica' on substack.
Here's something that identifies the swamp all post modern factions are wallowing in and a way out that begins with respecting even those we disagree with or those few who go too far:
"Our civilization tends more toward critical judgment and condemnation than toward devotion and selfless veneration. Our children already criticize far more than they worship. But every criticism, every adverse judgment passed, disperses the powers of the soul for the attainment of higher knowledge in the same measure that all veneration and reverence develops them."
In an epoch of criticism ideals are lowered; other feelings take the place of veneration, respect, adoration, and wonder. Our own age thrusts these feelings further and further into the background, so that they can only be conveyed to man through his every-day life in a very small degree.
Everywhere in his environment and his experiences he must seek motives of admiration and homage. If I meet a man and blame him for his shortcomings, I rob myself of power to attain higher knowledge; but if I try to enter lovingly into his merits, I gather such power. The student must continually be intent upon following this advice. The spiritually experienced know how much they owe to the circumstance that in face of all things they ever again turn to the good, and withhold adverse judgement. But this must not remain an external rule of life; rather it must take possession of our innermost soul. Man has it in his power to perfect himself and, in time, completely to transform himself. But this transformation must take place in his innermost self, in his thought-life. It is not enough that I show respect only in my outward bearing; I must have this respect in my thoughts.
The student must begin by absorbing this devotion into this thought-life. He must be wary of thoughts of disrespect, of adverse criticism, existing in his consciousness, and he must endeavor straightaway to cultivate thoughts of devotion.
Steiner, Rudolf. Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment: With linked Table of Contents (p. 9). Wilder Publications, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
I'm glad that DP is digging into Wilber's integral model here. I found the book on Trump to be an interesting take on the election.
In the last paragraph of this article, DP jumps from summarizing the problems with "extreme postmodernism" to concluding that this is the source of conspirituality, and perhaps not making it clear that this jump is DP's and not Wilber's. I'd like more explanation on how "green gone bad" leads to conspirituality.
Green leads to extreme relativism or aperspectival madness where you feel there is no objective truth and your thoughts “create” your reality. Hence if something accords with what you want to believe anyway, you will take it as “true” and feel vindicated.
OK, thanks. But what about the case with traditional conservatives, who would be not be green in terms of worldview? I think it's that the dysfunctional extreme of postmodernism has permeated all of society.
yes I agree... remember when GW Bush's cronies put down the "reality-based community?" (Funny the original article from the NY Times Magazine in 2004 by Ron Suskind seems to be off the web). I think it was Karl Rove... said they were "creating" the new reality, not just reacting to stuff.
“Create your own reality” in Steiner terms is extreme, ungrounded Luciferic thinking which is ego aggrandizing and euphoric . However you’ll notice different version of this same flavor of thinking in scientific and high tech fields that also tend to the grandiose and self- aggrandizing in different ways. Like “we’ve saved millions of lives with xyz” or technologies will make us godlike or create utopia on Earth. These are also the our way is the only way or the top -best way or the correct way people. The we know the truth or objective reality through thinking/ abstraction / language or science people . These folks are imo and I suspect Steiner’s similarity deluded and full of themselves. However there is an interesting Ahrimanic aspect to believers in their possession of objective truth through numbers, math, accounting, militarism and statistics etc. These tend to be overly Earth bound , rationalistic , materialistic thinkers who tend to face the universe with great . underlying fear and insecurity regarding it’s mystery and unknowableness . Is there an objective reality . Yes, but it requires multi perspectives( the blind men and the elephant parable ) ,the development of multidimensional sense organs ,( Steiner’s spiritual senses )it requires direct perception of higher knowledge . it is not thinking or language accessible: the Dao that can be named is not the eternal Dao etc. I’m surprised you let yourself be dragged into the dead end of the dualistic objective versus subjective reality red herring. There are zillions of subjective realities and a grand totality of phenomena we call objective or absolute reality. Buddhas they say can perceive both simultaneously and do so with great composure, love , wisdom and compassion. Which is a lovely as a role model imo. Anyone’s objective reality that lacks these qualities and inclusiveness is of little interest to me.
I don't even know what that is ? Send a link, description?
For me there’s something here about the rise in conspiratorial thinking being a product of an expansion of consciousness that lacks groundedness. I think about my dad--a deeply passionate, politically driven guy who got really into Q. Him and I can meet each other in expansive-big picture-thinking space where we talk about the world, God, spirituality, the Universe in big abstract felt sense ways. As we begin to bring that felt sense down to earth and connect it w what we see as happening on the ground, that’s where things quickly fall apart. My sister, who goes in on Q stuff w my dad, describes it as a fun thought experiment--zooming out, connecting dots, seeing big picture. In this way it expands her consciousness to play in new realms like that. To connect intuitive felt senses (like the “sense” behind the reptilian narrative you mention, Daniel) with big picture narratives. I think it’s good that people are seeking to cultivate their intuition and tap into what they sense about the world, but its a problem when it’s not grounded in things with integrity; both practices of channeling intuition that are healthy and grounded, as well as forming narratives based on verifiable info, trustworthy media etc etc -- both of which are skills
Thank you Daniel, this has been very illuminating and clarifying. I teach yoga and have been part of the "consciousness" community for around eight years. On some level I think there's always been a thrum of conspiracies floating around in the community but I never paid much attention to them until the COVID era when they became unavoidable to hear about. I'm also an Integral Coach and continue to study and utilize Ken's theories so it's great fun to read about them in your newsletter! The reason I started reading your work and continue to is because you put things I've thought + wondered about into words (that I never could) and help to untangle what constantly feels like a tangled mess. Truly, thank you so much for your work in the world.
Excellent, Daniel. You're getting to the core of the con-spirituality issue and unpacking its trajectory very well. I greatly respect your understanding of the subject matter and how you put your thoughts into words. These are complicated landscapes, and personal experience matters.
Around 2010-2012 I exited from Sedona, a veritable menu of New Age practitioners and extreme "woo" that had repelled me in the decade prior.
As I had a front-row seat to the development of the internet and related technologies, I am now highly suspicious of anything that appears on social media or mainstream media feeds, especially from those who are highly paid and maneuvered into the conveyance of memes and popular click-bait trends. Personalities/influencers, politicians, and celebrities have become valuable tools that allow a grand chess game of warring old family factions to play out on a largely unsuspecting public.
They (let's blame the Rothschilds, Rockefellers*, Carnegie, et al., as their history is quite clear) dismantled the natural health system, broke up the peace movement of the 1960s, created havoc in the 1970s, and attacked all that we thought would lead us to an enlightened, healthy society—and for what, exactly? You've written enough about capitalism to answer this question. They created the military-industrial-biopharmaceutical complex that has grown into a gigantic control mechanism that has inserted its nerve endings into every faction of human existence.
Within that 2010-2012 time frame you mentioned, something strange happened with my then-boyfriend, a brilliant, sharp-minded lawyer famous for suing the U.S. government to release its secret UFO files. Peter Gersten, a.k.a. "the UFO Lawyer," who was one of the founders of Citizens Against UFO Secrecy, a man who took the government to the Supreme Court, and was an expert in filing FOIA requests, was now going to leap off the top of Bell Rock, into a portal, at 11:11 UT on the winter solstice of 2012, and save humanity from a pending cosmic virus. He stopped lecturing and granting interviews on his prior work, preferring to revel in his new title, "Vortex Jumper." I left and returned to Canada. This was and still is an honestly "WTF" scenario.
Before Peter, I was in a ten-year relationship with Jim Dilettoso, founder of Village Labs, a forerunner in the dot-com industry of the early 1990s. Engineers worked diligently on the programming that would eventually become industry standards for the tools we now use daily. Executives at the lab included the head of FEMA for Arizona, who was also a recruiter for the West Point Academy. Another was from D.C., a former Reagan appointee, one of few publicly ostracized for connections to the Iran Contra affair. My point is that military contractors monitored the lab closely, which, as I understand it, is not unusual, especially when the company's founder was known to have formerly had high-security clearance.
Jim is a nefarious character whose integrity is questioned on any internet search involving his name. He was one of the investigators called in on the Billy Meier case in the late 1970s. While under the influence one night, he told me that the government investigators made up the entire list of "Pleiadians." It was a social experiment to find out what the public response would be over many years. Who would claim to be a channel? Who would write books? Who would say they investigated Billy themselves, who would support him as legitimate, and who would go to great lengths to expose the case as a hoax? It is fascinating that this case has yet to run its entire course, as Billy is still alive. However, its death throes are evident as the colonel who hired the investigators has passed away, his unusual history quickly fading from all modern conversations about UFOs, and photos from his collection, sadly, are now being sold for a small fortune via Sotheby's*. Col. Stevens died a pauper.
Why am I bringing this up? Those tools in their infancy thirty and forty years ago are finely-tuned high-tech chess pieces now. Whoever and whatever was helpful to the agenda to take humanity to "Human 2.0" has been closely contained and scooped up by those who can afford to pay for it.
Everyone who consumes any media is under their influence. Any factor can be inflated or highlighted according to whim, pointing straight back to a level of cooperation (from my point of view) that has had the "third tier" of your government salivating with delight over the amount of power and monetary gain that now comes so quickly to them. There is no actual left and right thinking at that level, nor is there a separation of governments involved with the Five Eyes. But, they count on their citizenry fighting amongst themselves and keeping them unable to decipher the bigger picture. Those who put it all together are labelled "conspiracy theorists" or worse.
It is the old game, made better. Those "out there" stories, the crazy stuff like Q Anon, the blood-drinking pedophiles, and the nutty conspiracies that split people apart, are child's play. It's what "they" do for all the reasons you probably think. They'll take a popular story and run with it. It's dangerous territory that creates a cover for perpetrators and a battleground for people who either seek out the sensationalized information or disregard it entirely. Look at MK-Ultra as a well-publicized and declassified mind control program. It's the tip of a giant, nasty iceberg.
As to Pfizer and the vaccine issue. Big sigh. I just wanted to see a product monograph for my safety, which was not forthcoming then. I have a history of bad reactions to pharmaceutical drugs, so I don't take any. My decision has nothing to do with Trump - LOL! I can't stand the guy. The attacks on natural health are pretty freaky for me. However, any practitioner who has battled the Codex Alimentarius* can tell you about lengthy and complicated regulation issues over the years. It's nothing new among users of supplements and natural health products.
I don't care if people want to take medicines from criminally-convicted drug purveyors*. I'd prefer that they weren't mandated and that instead of using celebrities and fancy, expensive ad campaigns with clever marketing slogans (or outright demands) for coercion purposes, they would provide the truth to begin with. But the truth is a moot issue nowadays. Pretty sad that we can't even trust the factions we thought would save us from the very situation in which we now find ourselves.
I'm just going to saddle up and hope that horses will be allowed in the 15-minute cities so I can ride off into a virtual sunset ;)
*https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Rockefeller_Foundation
*https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/believe-it-bid-on-the-vintage-ufo-photos-made-famous-in-x-files
*https://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/en/
*https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/pfizer
Right on !! Thank you, for laying out so clearly much of what I have noticed and concluded over the past 50 years. I'm listening right now to Cohen's song; Everybody Knows , which ought to be the theme song for our time.
Great choice of theme song! Thanks. It's hard to write everything into a short comment and still get the key points across. I just fire off whatever comes to mind, but I could also write a lot more! I'm glad you "get it."
If we dive deeper, is the “so called” issue of Conspirituality being used to delegitimize political candidates or environmental issues as “conspiracies” if they diverge from official government narratives? We might want to explore the economic war between legacy media and independent news sites and lawsuits regarding censorship and first amendment rights. One can’t write about the issue of “conspiracy” and media or understand RFK Jr, without looking at his antitrust lawsuit against TNI (Trusted News Initiative) an approach launched by the BBC in 2020. “The Real RFK Trials, a truth warrior,” by Dick Russell, mentions the internal BBC memo, “we need to choke them (alternative news sites) off at the source, we need to crush them.” RFK, Jr filed against the Trusted News Initiative (TNI) alleging antitrust and First Amendment violations. TNI launched in March 2020, is a coalition of some of the world’s largest news organizations, including the Associated Press, the BBC, the Washington Post, and Reuters, who partnered with Big Tech with the aim of stopping the spread of “misinformation.”
https://reclaimthenet.org/rfk-jr-sues-mainstream-media-misinformation-cartel
The TNI suit accuses the media companies of collaborating to "exclude" rival news publishers whose work "challenges and competes with TNI members' reporting on certain issues relating to Covid-19 and US politics." According to France24news,
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230113-robert-f-kennedy-jr-sues-media-outlets-over-misinformation-initiative
“While the 'Trusted News Initiative' publicly purports to be a self-appointed 'truth police' extirpating online 'misinformation,' in fact it has suppressed wholly accurate and legitimate reporting in furtherance of the economic self-interest of its members," the suit alleges.
In a different lawsuit, on July 4, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey granted his motion to block top officials in the federal government from continuing to violate the First Amendment rights and recognized the States’ evidence of unconscionable federal censorship activities.
https://www.ago.mo.gov/home/news/2023/07/05/missouri-attorney-general-andrew-bailey-obtains-court-order-blocking-the-biden-administration-from-violating-first-amendment
Government agencies or officials did run afoul of the First Amendment free speech guarantees when forcing social media companies to censor specific content, and there was also a collusion with legacy media with the Trusted News Initiative.
In the Rubin Report https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eChdjCZvr2M Kennedy explains that internal memos obtained from the Trusted News Initiative (TNI) show intent to destroy independent media, stamping them out and choking them off by labeling stories and topics as ‘misinformation’, and via censorship, denying them access to the social media sites critical to economically functioning. TNI’s directive: any departing from the official ‘trusted news’, official government narratives would be identified and denied a platform, whether or not statements were true or not.
One can’t write about Conspirituality and RFK Jr., without including the context of “Internal communications from the BBC.
RFK explains. “One of the things, the BBC organizers said… ‘this is about saving ourselves, our economic models, the real competition is coming from alternative media site that are eroding trust and taking away our business model’…..this is what the memo from BBC said, “we need to choke off those sites,”…. they did it by agreeing on a single narrative and by shadow banning anyone (departing from government orthodoxies) as those sites required social media for their business models."
RFK shares, "They all identified individuals that would be saying something censored. “If you were Green Med Info a site that provides wellness information, or Mercola, departing from government orthodoxies. you would find yourself banned on social media, and those sites required social media for their business models.” Only way they grow and earn advertising dollars. challenged those organized.
Kennedy mentions that legacy media which traditionally functioned as “guardians of the first amendments of free expression, (is) supposed to courageously speak truth to power, maintain a posture of fear and skepticism toward the big aggregations of power and government corporations, (yet became) the opposite propagandists for the powerful and the enemy of the first amendment.”
This issue around censorship and government collusion with social media is also being explored by Aaron Kheriaty, writes in the “Digital Empire Strikes Back.”
https://aaronkheriaty.substack.com/p/the-censorship-empire-strikes-back?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Before the digital age, prior censorship cases typically involved the government suppressing one publisher, one article or book, or one source. In this case, we have a government-funded, government-coordinated “misinformation” industry responsible for censoring hundreds of thousands of Americans on social media tens of millions of times. The breadth and scope of what has been dubbed the “censorship-industrial complex” is astonishing, and the government is controlling its activities.
I
ndeed, in the closing remarks of the ruling, Judge Doughty went even further, alluding to the dystopian regime depicted in Orwell’s 1984. Much of what the government censored turned out to be true — the fact that Covid shots do not stop infection or transmission, the collateral harms caused by lockdowns and school closures However, government censorship is unconstitutional regardless of whether the information censored turns out, upon critical examination and debate, to be true or false. Government officials cannot arrogate the power to decide for all citizens what is true and what is false — as they are not God, they lack the omniscience to make those judgments. Their desire to assume this role only reveals their arrogant contempt for the intelligence and judgment of ordinary Americans. Students of history can readily grasp that government censorship is never about the disinterested pursuit of truth — it’s always about accruing and maintaining power, about shielding the regime from criticism and silencing any opposition. Authoritarian regimes have always justified censorship in terms of protecting people from harm — people who apparently are incapable of discerning what is true and right on their own and without instructions from their rulers.
The blogs about Conspirituality book bother me especially as Time Magazine and Rolling Stone have used Conspirituality to minimize environmental issues and political candidates. I also agree about the outsized role of the corporatization of American politics and culture.
Daniel, what you share is valid, “The problem with Conspirituality is it swings too far in the other direction, throwing the baby out with the esoteric bathwater. It acknowledges yet trivializes the legitimate basis of many people’s distrust.”
Yet Conspiruality goes further than just trivializing the legitimate basis of people’s distrust, and it isn’t just the esoteric bathwater, when used by mainstream media to dismiss inconvenient science or delegitimize political candidates. Time Magazine references both Conspirituality and RFK Jr., sidelining a real issue of lack of government and corporate accountability, and this begs the question is Conspirituality been co-opted by Time Magazine to lay out a mental pathology theory for people who question official narratives around industry profits?
Disinformation works both ways. Silent Spring author Rachel Carson was attacked 60 years ago. The glaring omission in the Conspirituality blogs includes what the Union of Concerned Scientists call the Tobacco Playbook, a decades old PR campaign that discounts environmental issues unpopular with industry profit (and now political candidates that ask uncomfortable questions of industry safety). According to Union of Concerned Scientists, a ” now-infamous memorandum from a tobacco executive in 1969 captured this strategy well: “Doubt is our product, since it is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists in the minds of the general public.”
Your blog references the Conspirituality book and RFK being an anti vaxxer, yet RFK Jr. in a NY Post interview wrote, “I urge people to listen to what I actually say instead of listening to the litany of derisive sound bites that the mainstream media offers to mischaracterize and distort my positions on the whole range of issues. I am not and have never been anti-vaccine. I’ve always said that I’m for safe vaccines and robust science and for regulatory agencies that are free from conflicts of interest and financial entanglements with the pharmaceutical industry..”
Conspiracy and misinformation are the new buzzwords in a world of many converging metacrisises - not just in spiritual circles. Is Conspirituality being used as a disinfomation playbook by media to blitz scientists, whistleblowers and political candidates who ask safety questions and question industry profit? The Big Think article also references Conspirituality about another environmental concern - 5G:
https://bigthink.com/the-present/conspirituality-new-age-conspiracy-theories-public-health/
The red flag is the use of the word "supposed dangers of 5G, " and only speaking about opportunists who profit off of belly bands for pregnant women worried about 5G while omitting public policy that show evidence of harm such as the New Hampshire State 5G Commission. This kind of reporting does a disservice to children such Amelia Giraldi who testified in front of Congress, with 582 days being displaced from her home from a cell tower. The Baby Safe Project, derived from Dr. Hugh Taylor, Yale University School of Medicine which speaks about fetal exposures to cell phone radiation solutions for pregnant women, was not referenced, a lost opportunity. https://www.babysafeproject.org/about
Environmental issues and regulatory capture are not a fringe religion. There is a danger when Conspirituality dives into environmental health issues and politics, drawing upon a context framed in New Age dilemmas.
Zeus Yiamouyiannis writes, “We can now add to the toolbox of psy-ops: interagency collusion, outright censorship, professional retaliation, dismissal of inconvenient evidence, and the delegitimization of valid competing science as “conspiracy”
Psy-ops attempts to determine not only what is official and what can be construed and reported as true (even if it is verifiably FALSE) but what will be ALLOWABLE in public discussion and action. The use of psy-ops has so invaded nearly every quarter of public discussion and participation.”
My point of view derives from environmental science and also media sources such as “Project Censored,” stories that are under reported. Project Censored book clubs have been at various state Universities, as part of media literacy program where students research under reported stories under the guidance of professors. https://www.projectcensored.org/top-25-censored-news-stories-2022/page/3/
See also PEERS website that researches news articles about well researched stories from independent sources.
https://www.wanttoknow.info/23/7-us-officials-collude-with-big-tech-to-overturn-first-amendment
Yes. And unresolved trauma, individual and collective coupled with that modern sense of alienation feeds psychoses in all its forms. You mean you don't believe the Reptilians are behind it all?
They could be.... I haven’t seen strong evidence in favor of it, but I’m not dismissing it altogether 🦎 - but I agree that on the trauma front it’s almost like the reptilian narrative is a shadow archetype of our global capitalist society...? Something to meditate on. Cheers!
Oddly enough, in their supposedly good-faith attempts to defuse the culture wars, the Conspirituality gang are really doing nothing but throwing fuel on the fire. I’ve listened to a few episodes of their show and understood their motivation and approach clear as day: they are grifters, trying to make a mill by calling out grifters.
In the process they are really doing a lot more harm than good. AFAIK they propose no real alternative structures for movements, progress, or societal evolution.
Just more blue church, decline and fall type thinking. From my personal experience and extensive reading and research, magic is real, mass media and culture is not our friend, and many of the supposedly debunked wellness modalities change lives for the better every day.
Which modalities in particular?
Here’s a podcast that came out today that has some great insights about conspiracy that takes a symbolic/ occult approach to attempt to see below the surface of the phenomenon and why this is so prevalent now
https://youtu.be/D__CrY3FaWA
"Our civilization tends more toward critical judgment and condemnation than toward devotion and selfless veneration. Our children already criticize far more than they worship. But every criticism, every adverse judgment passed, disperses the powers of the soul for the attainment of higher knowledge in the same measure that all veneration and reverence develops them".
"In an epoch of criticism ideals are lowered; other feelings take the place of veneration, respect, adoration, and wonder. Our own age thrusts these feelings further and further into the background, so that they can only be conveyed to man through his every-day life in a very small degree.
"Everywhere in his environment and his experiences he must seek motives of admiration and homage. If I meet a man and blame him for his shortcomings, I rob myself of power to attain higher knowledge; but if I try to enter lovingly into his merits, I gather such power. The student must continually be intent upon following this advice. The spiritually experienced know how much they owe to the circumstance that in face of all things they ever again turn to the good, and withhold adverse judgement. But this must not remain an external rule of life; rather it must take possession of our innermost soul. Man has it in his power to perfect himself and, in time, completely to transform himself. But this transformation must take place in his innermost self, in his thought-life. It is not enough that I show respect only in my outward bearing; I must have this respect in my thoughts."
The student must begin by absorbing this devotion into this thought-life. He must be wary of thoughts of disrespect, of adverse criticism, existing in his consciousness, and he must endeavor straightaway to cultivate thoughts of devotion" .
Steiner, Rudolf. Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment: With linked Table of Contents (p. 9). Wilder Publications, Inc.. Kindle Edition.