Conspirituality

Conspirituality, a neologism combining "conspiracy" and "spirituality", describes the overlap and merging of the worlds of New Age and conspiracy theory. Defined in 2011 by Charlotte Ward and David Voas for their study of such, conspirituality began to spread on the web back in the mid-1990s, drawing on various offline precursors.Ward, Charlotte and Voas, David (2011) ‘The Emergence of Conspirituality’, Journal of Contemporary Religion, 26(1): 103-121. PDF copy. In the decade since, the word has grown popular along with the increasingly visible growth of what it describes, including infamously QAnon melding with New Age and "wellness". In 2015, Egil Asprem and Asbjørn Dyrendal argued that the emergence of conspirituality is predictable, given the nature of the "cultic milieu" and the roots of the New Age in Western esotericism and in turn older conspiracy-oriented worldviews.Asprem, Egil & Dyrendal, Asbjørn. (2015). 'Conspirituality Reconsidered: How Surprising and How New is the Confluence of Spirituality and Conspiracy Theory?', Journal of Contemporary Religion. 30. 367-382. 10.1080/13537903.2015.1081339. Postprint copy.
From the initial paper and onward, the term has been associated with the political spectrum, and with the melding of fringe left-wing moonbattery and right-wing wingnuttery. (In the early 2020s, this idea was highlighted in media coverage of QAnon.) In informal terms, over time crank magnetism has essentially brought together the "opposites" of the spirituality and "wellness" of the left and the conspiracism and "us vs. them" mentality of the right. This can in part be understood in terms of horseshoe theory and some greater underlying similarities between the previously more separate movements. At the same time, there's also complementary aspects to the two opposites, each type filling certain psychological roles while leaving room for those of the other. The New Age is more optimistically focused on the self and its possibilities, while conspiracism is more pessimistically focused on the outside world and on politics.
==How conspiracy thinking converges==
A variety of past and present movements and cultural currents center around belief in conspiracies. Some are more associated with (far-)right-wing thought, and originally fundamentalist Christianity. This includes great concern about the evils of satanic conspiracies, and about large parts of popular culture having hidden, sinister meanings at odds with what is believed to be the one true message and righteous path. It also includes extreme suspicion towards international co-operation, and any political striving toward sustainability or equality. Many large political and other events, as well as secularization and often the progress of science, are seen as part of the evil plans of New World Order (NWO) conspirators.
Other types of conspiracy theories are more associated with the political left, with alternative medicine, and with non-traditional spiritual beliefs. There's an overlap between the New Age and Ufology, including in beliefs about governmental cover-ups surrounding UFOs and extraterrestrials and their activities. Similar beliefs concern suppressed knowledge about paranormal subjects. And wellness moonbats tend to view themselves as knowing the true nature of health and illness, knowledge suppressed by the government and medical establishment who conspire to harm people instead of helping them.
There's common features to the mentalities of such "anti-Establishment" subcultures or "cultic milieus", easily leading to an exchange and merging of ideas over time, as members of one milieu are exposed to the ideas of other milieus. Conspiracy thinking is built into all ideas of "suppressed knowledge", where the idea is that an orthodoxy or "mainstream" authority tries to keep people ignorant and misinformed. Furthermore, opposition to the "Establishment" makes conspiracy theory in general a kind of shared language.
The overall tendency is that of a syncretism of conspiracy theories, smaller themes and theories from a variety of sources being brought together under larger umbrellas of super-conspiracies. Subcultures and groups may differ in their larger views on good and evil, in how they "package" and approach the whole, but in incorporating beliefs from one another, they easily meld at least somewhat into a larger loose-knit movement. An example is how during the COVID-19 pandemic, QAnon beliefs have melded with those of the broader wellness movement."The dark side of wellness: the overlap between spiritual thinking and far-right conspiracies", The Guardian, Eva Wiseman (Sun 17 Oct 2021)
==Growth toward the mainstream==
It isn't the basic combination of conspiracy and spirituality which is new, but rather its modern popularization. The growth of the web in the 1990s led to beliefs in shadow governments and NWO conspiracies spreading from fundamentalist Christian subcultures to other religions and groups, and later, blending into the New Age world which the religious right has long opposed as a "satanic" threat. Eventually, a fuller melding of far-right beliefs and attitudes with the New Age rose to (in)famy in the form of QAnon growing into and transforming New Age subculture.
David Icke is one of the main examples of early popularizers of conspirituality beliefs in the 2011 paper. His message includes the great Reptilian conspiracy, the hidden sinister nature of the UN's Agenda 21 (and basically everything else the UN claims is meant to make the world a nicer place), the vague idea that love is the answer, and the certainty that Icke and like-minded woo-pushers are those who know how to reach the greater consciousness needed to solve all the problems humanity faces. Fears of invisible dangers and a focus on love or other spiritual means of transformation, a vague overwhelming threat by a system holding or threatening to take hold of the world in an iron grip, and a spiritual path to safety and salvation – these are general themes and ingredients in such worldviews.
Ward and Voas distinguish between two phases or "generations" in the spread of conspirituality. Initially, pre-web messages were more widely spread through the web, people like Icke reaching a broader audience. Around 2002, not so long after the September 11 terrorist attacks, a rough second turning point can be seen, only in part connected to the 9/11 "truther movement" and its further popularizing of conspiracy theory. By then, the web had further developed into a means by which fringe messages could more easily spread, becoming more visible and accessible relative to mainstream messages – shown for example in how belief in the 2012 apocalypse became popular from 2004 and on. The ongoing trend Ward and Voas describe extends for at least a decade, seeing the rise to prominence of conspiracists like Alex Jones, and the increasing role of centralized social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. In the late 2010s later phases began.
While earlier research anticipated that ring-wing conspiracism melded into the New Age movement could lead in a neo-Nazi direction, it did not predict the quicker and more general politicized spread of less extreme right-wing conspirituality, along with the rise of right-wing populism. With its messages of opposition to the "Establishment", such political movements, when polarization increases and prominent mainstream voices begin to loudly oppose them, can begin to greatly attract conspiracists. After all, the idea that the greater body social is truly divided is at odds with the assumption that the whole "Establishment" is ultimately under the control of an organized sinister force, and secretly united under them. The case of Donald Trump and QAnon shows how, when political tensions rise, conspiracists can be driven to embrace a side which has plainly become part of the "Establishment", viewing it as somehow being the opposite of said "Establishment", as a result of what seems a blind shoehorning of all prominent political and cultural factions into the categories of the "united" sinister system and its righteous opponents.
A fourth turning point closer in time to the third can be seen in how the COVID-19 pandemic, through a social and emotional climate of uncertainty and fearfulness, has provided fertile soil for the further flourishing of conspirituality, accelerating developments connecting different groups and beliefs in conspiracies."The Conspiracy Singularity Has Arrived", Vice, Anna Merlan (July 17, 2020) The broader wellness movement has developed ties to and come to overlap with movements such as QAnon, and a diverse collection of groups have gathered under the umbrella of the anti-vaccination movement. The intensifying clash between governmental and other institutional striving for public health and a widening "alternative" crowd offering a staunch opposition may possibly, for a period of years or decades, change the trajectory of future developments towards the more dramatic.
==The irony of Charlotte Ward's inversion==
The main author of the 2011 paper that initially defined conspirituality turns out to be, outside of that brief academic role, a conspiritualist herself; Charlotte Ward described the growth of conspirituality in positive terms as a global awakening on her old website at conspirituality.org – which she took down sometime in November 2014, prior to writing a woo-tastic book called Illuminati Party! under the pseudonym of Jacqui Farmer."How Charlotte Ward's 'conspirituality' videos led us to Jacqui Farmer", El Coyote, September 30, 2017, Hoaxtead Research blog. Her (mis)adventures as a conspiritualist include supporting several satanic ritual abuse hoaxes, including in 2015 promoting false allegations against people in the case of the Hampstead hoax,"Updating the FAQ: Promoters of the hoax", El Coyote, April 8, 2019, Hoaxtead Research blog."Promoters of the hoax, part 2", El Coyote, April 9, 2019, Hoaxtead Research blog. initially behind her pseudonym."Charlotte Ward accepts reality!", El Coyote, October 8, 2015, Hoaxtead Research blog. As of 2017, Ward promoted Pizzagate nonsense,"Genuine Pizzagate REAL HARDCORE evidence", 'carleea', Project Avalon forum, July 18, 2017 (archived) alongside keeping up a smaller-scale promoting of the Hampstead hoax. Over the years, she has been promoting her 2011 paper to other conspiritualists."Charlotte Ward takes her ‘conspirituality’ theories on the road again", El Coyote, October 16, 2017, Hoaxtead Research blog.
Charlotte Ward appears to have viewed the conspirituality phenomenon she would later describe in the 2011 paper as something good as far back as 2003. Her later activities provide yet another example of what so-called "awakening", and a fight ostensibly for good and against evil, amounts to when people lose themselves in dishonesty and a conspiracist muddle, both intellectually and ethically. Meanwhile, the word which Ward helped popularize remains a useful word, and later research helps build a more clear and nuanced picture of the nature of types of beliefs, groups, and their potential developments.
==See also==
* Conspiracy theory
* New Age
* Crank magnetism
* Horseshoe theory
* David Icke – an earlier, prototypical example
* QAnon
==External links==
* conspirituality.net – Skeptical podcast and website focused on the topic.
==Notes==
==References==
 
Category:Alt-right
Category:Conspiracy theories
Category:Neologisms
Category:New Age