I ended up DNFing this book at 10% due to the writing style. At least the first few chapters of this book read like a freshman college essay, lots of filler words and bad paragraph construction. I was hoping that there would be footnotes and more cited evidence based claims on the effect of new age spirituality on society, but this book seems to be more about the author's friends and how they relate to the subject.

smart, meticulously researched, self aware... everything I want a zeitgeisty, informative book to be. made me want to listen to the podcast that the authors host!

The book Conspirituality How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat by Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, and Julian Walker dives into the wild and eye opening world of New Age grifters and conspiracists. Their book provides detailed explanations and history of how this has been evolving over decades (if not centuries) as not a new problem but one that has been festering for awhile especially in our vulnerable alternative health communities.

Harmful conspiracies have exploded as more mainstream with the usage of the Internet and social media, where algorithm usage has created non diverse echo chambers. And the COVID-19 pandemic just added fuel to the ever growing fire.

PROS

It shows why people are drawn to harmful conspiracies and can get swept up into all this when they are starting out as well intended, such as following a certain yoga guru who is preaching this harmful stuff on Instagram or TikTok.

It also shows where certain people, places, and things like yoga and wellness practices or practitioners can lead well meaning people into the land of harmful conspiracies, cults, and Qanon.

It gives explanations where the conspiritualists are not wrong, such as where our for-profit health care system here in America has set the stage for incubating such distrust and a rebellious response to their broken system.

The book reveals and explains the hidden fascist meaning in many of these conspiracies such as the need to “find a scapegoat for all things that fill us with horror and shame, and to make someone else responsible for the vulnerability of our children.”

CONS

I can’t think of any as this is a well written, eye opening book that gives a lot of well researched information about the issue.

Would I recommend?

Yes, I would absolutely recommend reading this book. The authors try to show how and why well meaning people can get sucked into these harmful things and calls them out so that we can be more aware.

RATING: 5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I got a copy of this from NetGalley, but I didn’t get it finished before the release date so I started switching back and forth between the ebook and audiobook. It wasn’t a bad book, there was lots of good information to be had, but the book as a whole felt like such a slog. It wasn’t as readable as I’d hoped and felt like one long info dump. I don’t know if I’d recommend it, maybe for someone interested in a deep dive into the topic, but probably not for a casual reader.

Oof. This was really fascinating, well-written, and engrossing, but I'm having a hard time describing it aside from "huge." The problem of conspirituality is immense. This book is like a massive, tangled web. Each yogi, cult leader, and conspiracy theorist mentioned has ties to all the others. I would be very interested in a book just about Oprah's contributions to this sphere, because oh my god, everyone was tied to her.

I have listened to a few episodes of the Conspirituality podcast, but you don't need to in order to get a lot out of the book. I am now going to go back and listen to more, though, because there are certain figures and trends I want to learn more about. This book whets the appetite for more research, which is always a lovely thing to get out of a book.

Free e-ARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher for reviewing purposes!

Wow. This book is A Lot. I'll say that I've never listened to the authors' podcast, but have been very interested in the wellness-alt-right- QAnon- conspirituality system for a long time. This book is very thorough in its research and explanations- it can sometimes be a little dry, or difficult to read because of the subject matter. Some of the stories made me sick, and some made my heart ache. But I think this is full of good information and a very comprehensive look at the way the wellness culture was twisted and the effect that so many influencers and people who provided spiritual guidance were instrumental in Covid conspiracy theories.
Would recommend this for people who enjoyed Cultish, Hey Hun, and similar nonfiction.

Conspritituality is a book that seems like it would be made for me. I have a deep interest in conspiracy theories, cults of personality, and general woo. And yet… I hated this book.

Let's back up, what is conspirituality anyway? Basically, it's the overlap of conspiracy theories with spirituality, typically in the realm of New Age practices. It's also the name of a podcast launched in 2020 looking into this phenomenon. And from that podcast came this book.

Now full disclosure I’ve previously tried to get into the podcast but the way the three hosts speak and go over the topics was … not for me. Their speaking patterns are affected in a way that comes across as pretentious, and they are incredibly long-winded. Not a great podcast, but maybe a great book.?

Nope. All of the issues I have with the podcast are here and somehow worse. The 384 pages feel closer to 800, and the tone never lost its pretension. And that's a shame, because the information in this book is important and if written by different authors interesting. The connection between New Age spirituality, Yoga, and wellness to conspiracy thinking isn’t explored enough. These days books around conspiracy from conservative thought are a dime a dozen and I was looking forward to a shift in focus.

I don’t want to downplay the amount of research and knowledge that clearly went into this book. It is packed with examples of spirituality gone sour and the unfortunate consequences it brings. This book excels at exploring the more niche groups that you probably have never heard of in mainstream conspiracy literature. I particularly recommend the section where there's an entire history of modern yoga practice that is equal parts interesting and disturbing.

For me, this book will be best used as a reference tool if I ever need it, but it's not something I would sit down a read.

This book was my most anticipated non-fiction new arrival of 2023.
Also, so far it has been my absolute favorite non-fiction read of 2023.
I had so much hope for this book, and it did deliver. It delivered even more than I expected and hoped it would deliver.
I know the concept for this book was born from a podcast – as I am not a listener of anything much, I had not listened to even a single episode of the podcast. But I did read their posts. Most of the things I read made me nod in agreement. Most of the things I read made me think I want more like this, way more.
The book is a mix of personal experiences, references (by the way, all are clearly disclosed – if you are like me and want to see the source, it is all there!), very well-worded opinions, lots of research, and lots of common sense.
There is a lot of yoga in the book. I would even say that yoga makes up more than half of all the conspiritualists in the book. That was a surprise for me. Yes, I did know that there are lots of yoga people out there who live in some made-up reality, but I had no idea that there were so many of those, and honestly, I did not know that much about the yoga world at all. So that was a huge WOW moment for me.
There are chapters covering Waldorf, lots of talk about alternative woo/energy health care, lots and lots of covering covid misinformation and anti-vax movements, many cult mentions, many influencer mentions, lots of talk about self-help gurus and self-proclaimed Instagram coaches, and most of all – lots of explaining of why those are so appealing to many and how they draw people in, what makes them like magnets for most, and how they make sense to so many.
Yes, this book is not a quick read and most likely you will not be able to devour it in one go. For me, it was a “background read” of sorts for two weeks. I would read other books, and then I would read some of this, and then go back to other reads.
Overall, I wish there were more than 5 stars to give to this book. It. Was. Just. So. Good. I feel like the world really, really needs this book right now (and has needed it for the past 3 years at least), and finally, it is here. I feel like everyone should be screaming from the rooftops about it. It was just the best, a very well-written, well-researched, and powerful book.

This book explores the intersections between New Age movements and growing extremist right-wind ideologies through an analysis of the current ~Wellness~ and yoga spaces and their embrace of health disinformation throughout COVID-19 and their subsequent redpilling into QAnon beliefs. I've never heard of the authors' podcast before, so I have no bias on that front from being fans of theirs previously but I do appreciate the insider perspective that they bring to the table in terms of them analyzing their own experiences in various cult/yoga/alternative medicine settings. I found the discussion of the history of modern yoga being tied inextricably to the roots of eugenics to be particularly interesting.

The text does get a little bogged down and academic at times but overall I found this to be a good, interesting read and would recommend it.

I love the Conspirituality podcast, and this book is a deeper dive with greater background but also a broad overview of all things wellness grift and conspiracy. It's a call to recognize our biases and be more critical consumers of social media. If you're a long time podcast listener, some material might be a bit repetitive but I still think it's a worthy read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC, in exchange for this honest review.

Conspirituality dives into the world of new age wellness where it meets conspiracies. Beres, Remski, and Walker explain how a large amount new age influencers have started openly embracing conspiracies like QAnon, COVID denial, and antivax. As a listener, I found this an easy read while still learning a fair amount. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone interested in learning about how spirituality and conspiracy theories can entangle itself.

Thanks to the galleys being available in due time, I was able to interview co-author Matthew Remski. The link is shared below.

An interesting concept, explored in a compelling way. It was a bit long, and not quite what I was expecting, but enjoyable.

The overall takeway from reading this book is that our society needs to do a better job of teaching the scientific method, accessing, reading, and evaluating research to everyone. This should at least be part of every high school science curriculum! The vacuum of real-world solutions to ever-mounting problems. Knowledge and the teaching of the scientific method and history needs to be at everyone’s hands. Otherwise, we are doomed to fall into the hands of charlatans with authoritarian, fascist aims.

Conspirituality is a blending of the words “conspiracy” with “spirituality”. That is precisely what this book is about – the meeting of the ever-growing conspiracy world with spirituality of any type or description. In a few cases, the spirituality in question is mainstream within the culture and society in question, but more often the spirituality is either a new spirituality, or one co-opted from another culture and society, and shoe-horned into American, or sometimes European culture.

Nothing lends itself so well to conspiracy as health and wellness. When combined with healthcare in the US being prohibitively costly, the alternative health has its appeal. Never mind that alternative health is populated by supposed cures that have never been proven to work, or have been proven to not work. This can be meshed into a co-opted spirituality by dubbing it “ancient wisdom”. Add in the fact that real, scientific information is held behind paywalls, or is held by those such as physicians and professors who will give it out in small chunks for a high fee, and the social field is ripe that THEY are hiding something from us. Then, various political pundits will at least partially fund their shows by offering supplements with proprietary formulas, and the conspiracy-health link is made.

Alternative health – indeed most of the alternative- world, is heavily infused with spirituality of whatever sort. Often the spiritual is said to be the source of it – and the “ancient wisdom” of so-called alternative medicine. The mechanisms, as well as some of the personalities driving the wellness economy are the drivers of this conspirituality movement.

Behind much of this alternative health combined with an alternative spirituality with a smattering of both conservative politics and Qanon are some age-old notions of “blame the victim”. “You create your own reality”. “You get what you manifest”. “You chose this life under these conditions”.

Thank you Netgalley for sending me an advanced copy of "Conspirituality" in exchange for an honest review!

I want to start by saying-- I have never listened to their podcast before and have no knowledge about the authors and their experiences in life. I'm a bad person and wanted to read the book purely because the cover interested me.

I also want to preface this review by saying-- I am an averagely educated person in a small town in the South. 2020-late 2021 was a very stressful time to be in my area, as it was everywhere (obviously by this book), but I frequently deleted people I had known for years because of the conspiracy theories posted on Facebook. I worked retail throughout the pandemic, and I was just mentally exhausted at the--excuse my french-- bullshit. The first chapter or so of this, I was reading it and was like "YES YES YES! All of this" because I truly felt like my worries and annoyances were put into words. It was almost triggering to read, and gave me flashbacks to when my blood pressure began to raise as an adult.

Although, as the book went on, I got... well, unfortunately, bored. The writing is SO well thought out and researched, but for me, it just felt...dry. I don't know if my location in the country affected some of my feelings-- as there is NOT a ton of yoga studios in my town, and the book talks a LOT about yoga. And a lot of the people referenced in the book were just really unfamiliar to me. One thought I also had as a reader (as a democrat too) was that I wished this book didn't feel like it was aimed towards a particular political party. I think a lot of people who may lean towards the right, if they pick up the book, will just completely shut off. Do I think they'll pick up the book? No idea, but it was just a thought.

Overall, if you kept up with the hubub more than me during COVID, I think you will enjoy this book. The writing is really well done, I just don't think it was the best for me as a reader personally.

This book is incredibly engaging and well researched. It is going to take me a while to read it simply because the source material is so heavy and dense, but I wanted to provide my feedback that this is absolutely filling a hole in the genre that has yet to be really written about. Grateful to the authors for the work they put in, and I have already begun boosting this book to my personal networks!

I have been listening to the podcast Conspirituality for a couple of years. But you don't have to in order to read the book. It is a look into the world of New Age Alt-Med grifters. People say "oh what's the harm?" These so-called leaders physically and financially abuse lots of people, that's the harm. When they scare parents into not vaccinating their kids, that's the harm. And don't even get me started on Q.

I just reviewed Conspirituality by Derek Beres; Matthew Remski; Julian Walker. #NetGalley

I live on a very specific corner of the internet where I consume a lot (questionably too much) conspiracy theory, cult, anti-MLM, etc. content. This book feels like it was written for me and my unique interests. The concepts are definitely complex, and it is safe to say that this book is not for everyone. I am fascinated by the exploration of the connection between wellness/conspiracy theory/anti-vax/fascism. I am looking forward to more discourse surrounding this book and to fully immersing myself in the associated podcast.

A brilliant exposè of the immersion of the crunchy wellness movement and conspiracy theories and the problems resulting. Well researched, engaging, and a powerful book.

DNF at 10%. I really enjoyed the prologue and learning about all of the authors experiences, and how those experiences lead them to writing this book. However after that, the writing got very dry and dense and I just felt very bored, so I decided to DNF.