I’ve been a fan of Yoga for a long time, starting in the late 90’s as I started doing it to get an edge over my opponents on the mat in BJJ.
In general I found Yoga useful and regenerative, although at times I really had to turn off my ears and ignore the quantum woo gobbledygook emanating from the mouth of some newly minted graduate of the latest teacher training program.
But recently some of the messaging in the Yoga and wellness community has mutated from kookie psychobabble to actively undermining science, medicine, physiology and virology while we are in the middle of a pandemic.
In episode 291 of The Strenuous Life Podcast I talk in depth about all of this with author, Yoga instructor and podcaster Derek Beres. We dive into cult dynamics, Q-Anon, the intersection between left wing Yoga culture and right wing conspiracy theory, the increasing levels of social division that heavily undermine our ability to respond to crises, and the corrosion of truth and facts.
Unfortunately I see many parallels between what’s happening in the Yoga community and what’s happening in the BJJ community, and talk about them in the podcast episode.
Ultimately though this goes way beyond Yoga and BJJ; I’m truly terrified about the possible consequences when the two halves of society are operating under completely different and incompatible sets of basic facts.
Please have a listen below. Also check out the podcast cohosted by Derek called Conspirituality – it’s VERY good and dives deeper into issues of cults, QAnon, and conspiracy thinking – and visit DerekBeres.com to find out more about Derek.
How to Listen to the “Cults and Conspiracies in the Yoga, Wellness, and BJJ Communities” Episode of The Strenuous Life Podcast
1) I’ve released this conversation with Derek Beres on my podcast (The Strenuous Life Podcast) as episode 291 which you can listen to on all podcast players, including the following popular platforms and apps…
2) If you don’t have a preferred podcast player you can can listen on the Grapplearts BJJ Master App which you can download for free for iPhone and iPad in the Apple App Store here or for Android devices in the Google Play Store here.
3) Or you can stream the audio right here without leaving the page by clicking play below…
Good luck my friends,
Stephan Kesting
Related Tweets
“You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.”- Daniel Patrick Moynihan
This is the core problem nowadays: disinformation, misinformation, & social media siloing allows everyone to have their own set of facts. We need to fix this or we’re screwed
— StephanKesting (@StephanKesting) October 21, 2020
Watching a YouTube video is NOT doing research.
Watching a YouTube video is NOT doing research.
Watching a YouTube video is NOT doing research.
Watching a YouTube video is NOT doing research.
Research is reading the original scientific articles or doing the science yourself
— StephanKesting (@StephanKesting) October 16, 2020
To people who have been “Q-pilled,” QAnon plays a much deeper role in their lives; it has elements of a support group, a political party, a lifestyle brand, a collective delusion, a religion, a cult, a huge multiplayer game and an extremist network. – https://t.co/dfbKLgN38Q
— StephanKesting (@StephanKesting) October 21, 2020