21: Om-ed and Dangerous: Militant Wellness (w/Sarah Hightower)

We still can’t believe alt-health Bali retreat rockstar Sacha Stone called for the “evisceration” of public officials last week. Are conspiritualists really crossing over into militancy? Are the products of wellness so boring, and are the markets so saturated, that messianic influencers have no choice but to up the ante? Stone’s recent interview guest, Christiane Northrup, recently invoked the sacred power of the Sheriff as the highest law in the land for anti-lockdown folks who believe they’re being oppressed. That argument was first made by the white nationalist Posse Comitatus in the 1970s — the seed group for many of today’s militias.

This week, we investigate the means by which religious cults and conspiritualists rattle sabers and poison people. Derek reviews Japan’s AUM cult as a prelude to Julian’s riveting interview with AUM expert Sarah Hightower. Julian reports on the Northrupian intersection between militia movements and alt-health ideas of “sovereignty.” Matthew discusses violence in ISKCON as the Hare Krishnas parade mask-free through Glastonbury.

Show Notes

Rajneeshee leaders take revenge on The Dalles’ with poison, homeless

Cult Leaders & Psychopaths: Power Beyond the Grave

We Need to Talk about the Rise of White Supremacy in Yoga

Epic Yoga San Clemente

Alan Hostetter playing a singing bowl in a Trump t-shirt

Reddit thread on Q Casualties Dating App

Sex and Death on the Road to Nirvana

Amy Coney Barrett uses her children in different ways

What the Second Amendment really meant to the Founders