Mini book review

[dhampyresa]

Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat, by Julian Walker, Matthew Remski & Derek Beres

The central idea of this book is that the underlying principles of New Age philosophy and consipracy theories are very similar: Karma = "nothing happens by accident"; Illusion = "nothing is at it seems" and Interdependance = "everything is connected". An interesting and well-argued read.


I read this book early in 2025, at roughly the same time as The Gospel of Wellness: Gyms, Gurus, Goop, and the False Promise of Self-Care, by Rina Raphael (it was fine) so I'm not sure which of the two -- or even the Decoding the Gurus podcast I was bingeing at the time -- had this additional tidbit: part of the appeal of alternative medicine is the personalised aspect of it. You're not special, getting the same vaccine as everyone else, but this homeopathy is tailored to you specifically/this diet aligns with your astrological chart/etc.

Comments

[kore]

Yeah, one thing I read in a book by I think Paul Offitt? was, no wonder ppl prefer "holistic practitioners" who don't make you wait an hour and then give you 15 minutes, who actually seem to listen to you and take you seriously. Western medicine still struggles with the treatment of ppl as patients,o as bodies w One Specific Thing wrong with them that the patient by definition has no knowledge of.