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A review by jarrahpenguin
Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Public Health Threat by Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker
3.0
I wasn't a Conspirituality podcast listener but saw this book referenced in [b:Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World|138505710|Doppelganger A Trip into the Mirror World|Naomi Klein|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1689105362l/138505710._SY75_.jpg|167494133] and thought it sounded super interesting. I appreciated the first part of the book, which defines conspirituality and lays out the historical and philosophical links between wellness/new-agey spiritual philosophies and anti-science/individualist/borderline fascist conspiracy theories, and how we've seen that playing out in recent years in particular.
The three authors have an extensive background in yogaworld, so a large chunk of the book is devoted to analyzing conspirituality in that context. As someone with a very limited connection to yoga I found the subject matter interesting but not particularlly relevant. The third section of the book includes profiles of some of the most toxic A-list conspirituality influencers. I read the first couple and then skim read the rest, eager to get to part four, which was to focus on lessons the authors had learned from expert guests on their podcast. After reading so much description of the problem - which I was already fairly aware of - I was most looking forward to takeaways in terms of what someone like me could do.
While I appreciated the profiles of listeners who had shared their individual experiences with conspirituality and how they had broken free, I was disappointed to find that the lessons learned from experts was only a few pages long. There was one paragraph for each expert, with a few sentences on their background and a key lesson they had shared. There wasn't any particular organization to it, and it felt like an appendix directing readers to go back and listen to various podcast episodes, instead of taking the time to synthesize themes and analysis as they had in the intro sections to the book.
I found the writing style a bit dry throughout, partly just due to the way the perspectives of the three writers were voiced. But overall there's a lot of valuable content and research in Conspirituality, particularly for those who haven't done extensive reading/listening on the topic already, and/or those with more of a connection to the yogaworld/conspirituality intersection.
The three authors have an extensive background in yogaworld, so a large chunk of the book is devoted to analyzing conspirituality in that context. As someone with a very limited connection to yoga I found the subject matter interesting but not particularlly relevant. The third section of the book includes profiles of some of the most toxic A-list conspirituality influencers. I read the first couple and then skim read the rest, eager to get to part four, which was to focus on lessons the authors had learned from expert guests on their podcast. After reading so much description of the problem - which I was already fairly aware of - I was most looking forward to takeaways in terms of what someone like me could do.
While I appreciated the profiles of listeners who had shared their individual experiences with conspirituality and how they had broken free, I was disappointed to find that the lessons learned from experts was only a few pages long. There was one paragraph for each expert, with a few sentences on their background and a key lesson they had shared. There wasn't any particular organization to it, and it felt like an appendix directing readers to go back and listen to various podcast episodes, instead of taking the time to synthesize themes and analysis as they had in the intro sections to the book.
I found the writing style a bit dry throughout, partly just due to the way the perspectives of the three writers were voiced. But overall there's a lot of valuable content and research in Conspirituality, particularly for those who haven't done extensive reading/listening on the topic already, and/or those with more of a connection to the yogaworld/conspirituality intersection.