The New Age Movement & the Spirit of Neoliberalism
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- Опубликовано: 24 июл 2024
- A deep dive into the rise and fall of the New Age
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Non-Anglo Sphere New Age articles:
A Latin American New Age? by María Julia Carozzi brill.com/view/book/edcoll/97...
The Spiritual World: Aspects Of New Age In Japan by Inken Prohl brill.com/view/book/edcoll/97...
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@Spice8Rack, @twin_rabbit, @zoe_bee, @Tom_Nicholas, @JohntheDuncan, @BroeyDeschanel, @ThoughtSlime, @SophiefromMars, and @roramdin 
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Go to kamikoto.com/wereinhell or use the promo code wereinhell at checkout to get $50 off!
star wars actually has some cult themes though...
Hey so eating on videos is one thing many disabled people can't stand
Hate to bring this up but do NOT buy from their website. Even with the promo code that kit is $30 cheaper on other sites.
Happy for you to get that sponsor money but their pricing is really disingenuous.
@@the_devoteaser I didn’t think of that, I’ll add a content warning when I get back home
@@izsaf what sites would you suggest
A big reason churches are so impactful in the culture war is because they offer community and, specifically, community resources. If you're a single parent, it's easier to get involved in the local church because it offers a free after school program, cheap friday fish frys, and Sunday school than it is to attend your local social justice meet ups that only happen late at night, don't offer child care, and aren't generally welcoming to children. Even if you're dispassionate of the former and are very passionate about the latter, if you're desperate for community and resources you have to make practical concessions to accommodate your children.
This is so true, my sister is a single parent liberal and is a wicca, but she still takes her toddlers to church events because they're the only place that is so specifically built to offer community
It's because those places are tax free and some get donations from private and government organizations. We Leftists just don't have the infrastructure available to us on such a large scale and it freaking sucks.
It’s worth noting that the workers’ movement in some countries used to rely on such “communalism” by offering not only the trinity of union, political party, and cooperative shops and businesses, but also a host of cultural activities, such as sports, arts, book clubs and voluntary education, as well as funeral and building societies and their own media.
Probably the main reason the workers’ movement tended to be less involved in childcare was that until the 1960s and 1970s the movement was still very male dominated, with more traditional ideas of gender and thus more apt to think of child care as a task for individual women, rather than something the movement should offer or facilitate.
When women and their interest became more prominent in the workers’ movement(s) in the US and (non-communist) Europe, the older, more comprehensive approach of offering an almost all encompassing alternative communal life(style) to that of church, capitalism or other broad movements, had already waned or were in the process of doing so.
The cooperative alternatives to shops and producers closed or were sold/privatised while many of the other programmes lost their connection to the movement and became more or less independent entities. At the same time the political parties began to gradually distance themselves from the unions (and vice versa), while the media either shut up shop or became more like their competitors.
My point is that there have been alternatives to the church communalism that were arguably even more ambitious in their attempt at offering a “total lifestyle package”.
On a side note, getting away from the purely religious conversation, this is a huge reason why the Black Panthers were so successful and influential. Their survival programs literally became a backbone for communities with no social support from the government or general culture. Need food? Go to a Black Panther Community Pantry or drop your child off for the Black Panther free breakfast for kids program. Recreational needs? Black Panther community forums, sports centers, film clubs and youth centers. Health issues? Check out Black Panther health clinics, health classes or research centers. On and on beyond that. It created a sense of belonging and empowerment over individual hardships.
I totally agree and I also think its why going after religion as a whole is such a non-starter (I'm totally for going after specific points and policies though!). To a lot of people you are also going after their main source of community support.
I DEMAND A WHOLE ASS VIDEO ABOUT THE HISTORY OF OCCULT SECRET SOCIETIES. ME AND THE OTHER 20 PEOPLE WITH THIS NICHE INTEREST DESERVE TO HEAR ALL YOUR WISDOM ABOUT IT.
I second that
Make it 21!
Let the likes come to your commend so he might feel compelled to make this video. Great idea
75 people? Anyways its fun hearing about obscure groups.
Agreed!
I have fibromyalgia and I really hate it when people tell me I'm just not bringing the right energy into things and I'd stop being in pain if I just had a better attitude.
you need to move on, let go of all you are holding unto (even things you need to maintain and hold together...), is hurting you, they be repeating that kind of bs and how they always know the right way for you hahahaha and then don't understand people need to take certain medications, especially older people, or that people may simply experience things due to living in a place with certain circumstances and not due to manifestation, that's why usually people with privilege promote those new age ideas and give everything a label to what it is, as they have nothing to lose and do it even on detriment of others and society. They believe everything to be in terms of energy, that literally every thought you speak into existence as an opinion or word it out must never be negative because of focusing on every energy of the words instead of the meaning of a sentence... as if energy alone will decide what people will do in real life, maybe energy does attract or influence situations and people but not to such extent, people still decide with their free will what intentions are they gonna have and what will they do to become prosperous and not just think about it to come into existence.
Also do not trust colonial capitalist "doctors ", but have also healed a lot due to free youtube binaurals and frequencies, etc., and one for everything, and hopefully that will help? Medbed are also said to be around, already, too?
sorry to hear, and affirmation from someone who has been around health care a lot... the empathy gap in people who want to deny pain is shocking and sad.
People do it, because they want to believe that something like our illnesses could not, WOULD NOT happen to them 😮
It's easier to tell themselves that we did something to cause it, than to admit lack of control.
I work in local government. Throughout 2020, we were working in extremely dangerous conditions, and they kept sending us emails offering us classes in mindfulness meditation. Then my boss had a meeting to ask us why morale was so low. We were like, "We don't need mindfulness meditation. We need safe working conditions... And a raise."
What office of local government?
That's another poin tho, upper echelon dipshits quite literally use mental sedatives to keep the working class under control, instead of helping the workers for real
the people need a raise!! the working ppl should be able to live on one job as they did before
yup work for the irs and this is my exact experience. mental health classes that you can only attend using pto but you have to save pto for when you get another "cold".
Exactly. Mindfulness devoid of fairness or justice is a crock of poo.
As a Buddhist it’s depressing how commercialized Buddhist iconography, ideas and practiced have become. Buy this book, pay for this retreat, expensive Buddha statue and so on. In America at least.
same here an europe, and the same thing is doen with daoism
It’s not like Christianity is any different on that score (think of anything from the commercialisation of Christmas and Valentine’s Day to the “prosperity gospel” and similar “Jesus wants you to get rich” claptrap).
The satire of “Buddy Christ” and a promotional plenary indulgence as part of the “Catholicism Wow” campaign from the 1999 movie “Dogma” is sometimes hard to distinguish from real world examples, apart from the Catholic Church probably finding such gimmicks a bit too tasteless in real life.
Capitalist Buddhism is an absolute mockery of actual Buddhist teachings. You're never allowed to feel upset about anything because shame on you for having attachments, then we'll use that shame to get you to buy our book and teach you how to be an unrealistically perfect person.
Meanwhile, I feel like the general consensus in actual Buddhism is that trying to reach enlightenment kinda sucks because we'd always rather be doing something else. There's no life-altering transformations or sudden moments where you'll reach enlightenment out of thin air with minimal effort; it's all painfully hard work over a ridiculous number of lifetimes. But that's not really marketable, you see.
Big same
@@hexwolfi this bastardization of Buddhism actually has to do with Theosophy. Henry Steel Olcott was one of the founders or maybe just one of the earliest important followers of Theosophy who traveled in east Asia and decided to remake buddhism in a way that was palatable to the west. He consolidated it, took out the more ritualistic/polytheism-adjacent beliefs, and tried to boil it down into a much less diverse and less complex version of what it used to be. He’s largely responsible for so many white people believing that Buddhism is more of a philosophy/school of meditation than a religion with its own holidays, demons, spirits, and rituals. Ask any American what they think Buddhists do, they’ll say meditation. Some of them know about tantra maybe but it’s likely they think of tantra as meditation but you get to fuck and hoard unethical amounts of wealth. Henry Steel Olcott set up a bunch of Young Men’s Buddhist Associations and translated Buddhist texts into English while removing all the flavor and mixing together different types of buddhism, educating thousands of both East Asian and newly interested American and English Buddhists in his new, unseasoned buddhism. Had a HUGE impact on what people think of buddhism in the west today, and he wasn’t even Buddhist.
I feel like when talking about the New Age Movement and referencing hippies, it's good to acknowledge how much they appropriate the cultures of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Specifically, Indigenous peoples in the US could not legally practice their religions, ceremonies, or certain cultural practices until the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act in *1978.* So while these people were appropriating their ceremonies, Indigenous peoples couldn't even practice their own culture without fear/risk of retribution. I think a book rec that would add an interesting layer to this is "Playing Indian" by Philip Deloria (it's a fairly short book.) Love your videos!
New Agers seem to find "inspiration" in pretty much any culture they perceive as exotic. Asian, African, Polynesian, and of course Native American, among many others. Though, of course, the whole "noble savage" trope makes Native American traditions particularly vulnerable to New Age appropriation since they are perceived as more "spiritual" by virtue of their "primitiveness". I remember reading that one Native nation actually declared war on these New Age "twinkies", which was particularly funny for me.
I was thinking about this too, throwing a recommendation to also read Custer Died For Your Sins by Vine Deloria, Jr.
@@BrandonPilcher There /are/ some critiques to be made of the concept of the "noble savage" as it is used today, too, though. I'd recommend Graeber's latest book, "The Dawn of Everything"
(Graeber's the same author that also wrote "bullshit jobs")
@@TheLostArchangel666 RIP Graeber HE was lit
Also don’t forget that Canada treated/treats Indigenous people just as terribly as the US
My favourite New Age experience is when I saw a "healer" (to please a friend) and the "healer" started talking to my thumb and "reading its psychic energy" (and getting things about me very wrong). Literally having a conversation with my thumb. It took all my self control not to burst out laughing.
The sad fact of the matter is such people lived such lives of comfort that the concept of pain or suffering is just a fairy tale. In such, they treat the healing of suffering with the same light. Pain and suffering are simply 'states of mind' to these people that you can simply ignore and have it fade away, utterly unwitting to the fact that these pains were so easily avoided due to privilege, status, or outright comfort of wealth.
Same type of people who say, "The best way to relieve stress is to take a few weeks off of work and head to your timeshare in the Bahamas." sort of mindset. Utterly ignorant to the fact most people cannot take a few weeks off of work, cannot afford the flight, and cannot afford the timeshare in a tropic region.
It's the new "Let them eat cake!" Shouted from the rooftops to every social media device to remind us constantly how much they have vs how little we were allowed.
and yet I read that and think "wow that's so much more attention and attempt at connection than actual doctors and surgeons I've dealt with."
(I am criticising the status quo.)
Also depends on a persons actual self-awareness, too?
Loved this video, especially as someone whose into cults and in the past western occult. I'm still watching, but wanted to add something since we (Black Americans) r left out of this convo. The commodification of "New age spirituality" was happening before eastern religions with African religions. In the US, we have Hoodoo and Voodoo (different from the African and Haitian type) that was outlawed for Black Americans to practice however was allowed for white Americans to set up stores to sell things. Black Anthropologists called this markerteered hoodoo. Also for spiritualism there exists a different type for Black Americans as well. Originally both groups of people were together however as time went on the white spiritualist church started to ban Black people this forcing them to create their own churches. When they started passing laws to criminalize Hoodoo and Voodoo these churches became places to preserve these religions underground. I added this to show how the commodification and selling of "exotic" religions for a check was a phenomenon that was happening in US own backyard before happening on an international scale. So when yall go to New Orleans peep how few of the "hoodoo/voodoo" shops are actually owned or ran by Black people. Also if u wish to learn more u can actually check out wikipedia someone did an amazing job explaining the history and the reference section based where the books came from.
Thank you for sharing. This explains so much of what I see in spiritual communities. I'm a practicing pagan and was doing a mutual aid project in one of my groups. I was looking for books on hoodoo for another member and it was a real struggle to find books by black authors. So many outlets only promote publishers like Llewellyn books because they churn out so much cheaply made content that's mostly just hearsay by white authors. I've been really confused about how so many of these people claim to come from family traditions. Knowing this was going on earlier than I realized makes it make more sense.
@@sissymarie2912 Yes! For alot of us going back to it, it was quite frustrating trying to find books by Black people. I dont even think the problem was the fact it was written by white people but the fact they denied Hoodoo was African origin. The more learned about Hoodoo and it sister religions in South America and Caribbean (Lucumi, Palo, etc) and in Africa (specifically western and central; Ifa, Vodun, etc) the more apparent the African influence was. But the fact that so didnt even take the time to learn or straight up made up a new origin is quite frustrating. Also feel like them doing this ignores the unique spiritual practices that existed in the US (spiritualism, Appalachia magic, etc etc). I'm gonna wrap it up in here with this. One thing i learned was alot of these books r extremely surface level. They may practice stuff deeper but that's not what they r teaching to the masses, which really be how alot of new age spirituality be
There’s a book you might be interested called something like sex workers, psychics, and numbers runners: black women’s role in New York city’s underground economy. It was a long title. I read the chapter on psychics for an essay I wrote, it basically talks about how spiritualist movements provided opportunities for black women to make money and become famous in a sphere where they wouldn’t draw official attention and thus animosity from authorities. Pretty ingenious stuff and a really interesting read. It talks about some of the things you went over in your comment and a fair amount of movements that this video discusses.
Edit I can’t speak to the other chapters since I only read the one about psychics but yeah what I read of it was really good
Similar stuff happened in Brazil when African religions were outlawed. It forced those communities to create a thin veiled syncretism with Christianity to remain alive.
Glad you bring up "the commoditization" because that is my biggest objection to any new age fads.
I don't have time to finish this before work, so I'll just say I've been a fan since this channel was BlackGoat666 with 2 videos, and I love what it's become. Easily one of the most fun and thought-provoking "leftist cultural analysis" channels out there. Thanks for what you do. That's it, that's my Engagement comment.
Omg thank you!
100%
I remember the blackgoat666 days vividly and I love the evolution of this channel, though it took me forever to figure out these were one in the same
Legit
I am new here and this stuff is awesome. The evil RUclips algo did good today 😊
Something that doesn't really get emphasized nearly enough is how strongly Blavatsky's Theosophical Society is tied to colonialist white supremacism, exemplified in their Great White Brotherhood and some of the later teachings, and that colonialist white supremacism is still profoundly influential in many modern "New Age" groups and types of "spirituality".
Something else that doesn't get emphasized enough is how much of later New Age religious movements is based in colonialist appropriation of various indigenous religious traditions, not just Indian and Chinese religions; as well as its tendency to conflate them into monolithic stereotypes instead of profoundly different beliefs and practices.
I think the reason it is not talked enough is that almost absolutely no one. Even in magick practitioners, have ever read anything Blavatsky wrote. They just see something vaguely inspired by her and run with it.
Blavatsky is the Bakunin of magists.
@@seemysight Also theosophy is mostly dead anyways. Antroposophy is still around, but at least put in *some* effort to reject that stuff.
@@seemysight It goes way beyond Blavatsky, though. Bailey, Crowley, Quimby, Swedenborg, Mulford, Steiner, and many of their contemporaries and followers were also white supremacists or racists to varying degrees, and a few were outright Nazi sympathizers. Not all of them were violent racists, many were of a more patronizing "White Man's Burden" school of racism (eg. Bailey), who fit into the colonialist narrative of "civilizing the natives".
A lot of their racism is expressed in a subtler, more insidious form, typified in their "spiritual advancement" rhetoric. White Europeans were often described as the most "spiritually advanced", either literally or metaphorically (some wrote about "spiritual whiteness" vs. "spiritual blackness", claiming them to be separate qualities from the actual skin colour), while the peoples who suffered under colonialism were either suffering because of their own bad "racial karma", they deliberately choose (via their "spiritual being") to be oppressed, or they brought it upon themselves due to their own negative mindset (the "Law of Attraction").
Their "Ascended Masters" are either white, or some sort of colonialist caricature of a POC, particularly Indian, Egyptian, or First Nations peoples. It's extremely rare that they will have a spiritual figurehead who is of sub-Saharan African origin or identity.
By the same token, much of their writing also expresses sexism/misogyny, ableism, and so on; again not necessarily in an explicit or violent way; but often through an insidious, victim-blaming, condescending, paternalist sort of way. Interestingly, what we see as the contemporary toxic positivity movement has its roots in the New Thought/New Age philosophies.
@@Painocus theosophy influenced many magical systems and traditions that still hold sway over Occulture tho. Weird cause Theosophy was/is scared of actual Magick in general.
@@seemysight I've read some of Blavatsky's work, and I was frankly intrigued by some of her pseudoscientific, parapsychological musings (assuming they were hers, as there have been claims of plagiarism levied against her). Her synthesis of spiritual/religious beliefs through time and space, coupled with claims of "scientific" concurrence, while flawed, is rather entertaining from an ontological perspective. However, the corpus of the Theosophical "canon" does have some pretty problematic stuff, particularly pertaining to delusions of racial superiority (thinly veiled and weakly justified by "historical" evidence). Theosophy, it seems - as with any religion - is rooted in the zeitgeist of its foundational era. As so-called "scientific accuracy" was a prime prerogative of the Theosophical Society at the time, its dogma implicated a reconciliation with new and popular scientific ideas, including (but not limited to) eugenics. And that's, uh...not okay.
A wonderful book I read called “McMindfulness” only made me so much angrier as a working class person towards HR. Great video!
"Everyone who died in the Holocaust choose to die in the Holocaust [...] That's why Hitler went to heaven."
Well, I think that's enough internet for this lifetime.
one of the biggest yikes i ever experienced
Madness!
No comment..
One of my special interests is in scams, con artists, self help gurus and grifters in general-- I don't know why I just find deception fascinating. So I've definitely noticed a lot of them tend to be New Age-y and have been wondering how that happened for a while so I'm glad to see this video.
I recommend Super Eyepatch Wolf's video on psychics!!
Also the podcast, "Behind the Bastards"
I think new age is similar to Christianity because it gives the scammer a higher power to set up as an authority that they can interpret to others
@@purple-flowers I've been meaning to watch them. Maybe after I finish binging "Kill James Bond".
@@philipksick6810 I think even more than that ultimately a con artist's goal is to make you have faith in the scam-- and what better way to do that than to tap into literal faith.
As someone who grew up in Brazilian Espiritualism it's really interesting to learn that them gringos have been drinking from the same crazy juice.
😋 Yes.
there is no fount of crazy we won't sip from lmao
As another brazilian with dark experiences with brazilian spiritualism I salute you
Current Brazilian Spiritualist movement was basically imported from US and British yuppies/ "hippies". And older Chico Xavier kind of stuff is just like whatever Arthur Conan Doyle and original occultists promoted. Oh and as a side note; Brazilian Prosperity gospel is just tweaked American Exceptionalism.
It's sad seeing a lot of gen z falling for the same old traps.
Could be worse. We could be importing Anastasianism from the Russians. That would be really mto loko.
This was so helpful! It’s particularly interesting that neoliberal/new age stuff was marketed towards women, you can definitely see the echoes of that in the self-care industry.
This was great to listen to because it confirmed my own theories on how New Age became what it is today. My dad served in VietNam and pretty much remained what I would call a 'classical hippie' since after the war, and he has always complained about 'yuppies'. In high school a lot of his classical hippie tendencies had rubbed off on me, and my friends handed me a copy of 'The Secret' to read thinking I would love it and it would change my life, but I was horrified by the disgusting ideas hidden in that superficially 'inspiring' book. I tried to explain to my friends what was wrong with it but no one understood me at the time and insisted I was close minded and would never get it as long as I continued to be 'negative'. Now 15 years later everyone who isn't New Age finally noticed the same things wrong with it, and some of my friends who defended it at the time have also seen the light by now. I can say though, the moment I read that book and saw how everyone was just uncritically fawning over it is when I started to realize there was a huge difference between classical hippies like my dad and the neo-liberal descendant of the yuppies we now know as 'New Age'.
Even though it’s one year later your comment is still 100% true. The New Age stuff is ridiculous. Half of it is just pseudoscience about crystals and the other half is just racist Madame Blavatsky type shit that just sounds like a bad Conan the barbarian fanfiction
ah my mom was like that affected greatly by war and attempted to have a hippie personality, but not only was socially penalized for this dissent cuz we were in a government family, she fell into "The Celestine Prophecy", "Men are from Mars" and other equally as pitiful garbage. She hated the yuppies until I suppose they find ways to apply the boot that force people into obedience again. I started to pay attention to her actions rather than words, eye opening as a teen
@@3g0st Man that is really tragic indeed. I hated the Celestine Prophecy! That was another New Age book all my 'hippie' friends in the early 2000s got me to read and I thought it was cool at first but right after I finished the book and thought about it for 2 seconds it made me really uncomfortable. No matter what social club a person falls into it's always wisest to look at actions more than words. I've met so many hippies and punks alike who preach day after day about their values but don't live them in their daily life whatsoever. It's the people who you can tell are trying their best to be good people I trust the most even when they don't get all the details right.
Most “hippies” of the 70’s and 80’s are currently doing everything in their power to strip human rights and burn you alive for profit
I am so relieved to find out I wasn’t the only teenager getting in a hermetic Gnosticism
Hahah, right??!
World of Darkness and Xenosaga did that to me
For about 6 months during college, I was very into Alan Watts. Because of my studies (philosophy and religion) I was personally interested in reading Buddhist sutras, Daoist texts/parables, and a mix of philosophical literature (mostly 19th and 20th century continental stuff; Frankfurt school, Nietzsche, etc). Through RUclips, I happened upon some obscure lofi channels with ~5 hour video compilations of Watts which were always a fun listen. Over those 6 months, I came to view Watts not as a grifter (despite the fact he himself has proclaimed to be one) but someone who could discuss, with a rough amount of clarity, common problems I encountered in my area of study. Long story short, he was interesting to listen to in my free time and helped me cope with the existential dread that comes with being a broke philosophy student.
Eventually, I felt no desire to listen to him anymore; but not because I found him 'corrupt' in some way or another. In the words of Watts himself, "My goal is that you never attend one of my sessions again" or something along those lines. And eventually it clicked for me: there was no need for a guru or spiritual teacher. Watts, like any grifter, was simply a person with a story to tell; the only difference was I found him both amusing and endearing enough to listen to without the desire to throw money at him. In one sense, he was the best kind of grifter because he didn't seem to give a shit whether people listened to him or not.
All of this is to say, you could imagine the shock on my face when I get on RUclips one evening only to be greeted by some hyper-capitalist Uber advertisement with a random audio clip of Watts saying "What do you REALLY desire??"
It's both depressing and vile how any avenue of human interest in a capitalist society can be redirected toward the motive of productivity, personal gain, and totalizing control over the world.
I know my example of 'Uber Watts' isn't really significant (a better example would be the adoption of Watts' content to sell capitalist ideology via the ocean of New age/self help channels on RUclips) but it feels like a pretty succinct example of the problem you discussed in the video.
Anyways, thanks again for the effort you put into this one. It was a great watch. Much love to you!
It's not a coincidence, Watts understood himself as a perpetrator and a victim of capitalism. As such, he has a hypercapitalist and anticapitalist aspect to him, that's how and why Capitalism sells the rope to hang itself.
The real difference between an advertising agency and Allen Watts is that Watts says it out in the open first and foremost, instead of the darkest secret you dig out when justice is already too late.
Watts is a thief who is honest that he is picking your pocket, while the agency is keeping that their heart's secret. Watts has nothing to show, so he tells you as much about the whole world as he knows. The agency has everything to show, that being selling the whole world back to itself for pennies on the dollar and leaving to McParadise. Naturally, agencies have every reason to hide the game of how the world works, they want to stay dishonest about robbing you so they can keep doing it, Watts' job is done when you learn all you need to learn and go away.
Hearing Watts’ voice first in the Xbox trailer and now in an Uber ad makes me think he’d be spinning in his grave...if indeed he were still there.
Alan Watts called himself a "spiritual entertainer" if I remember correctly
@@Mrcake0103 I think he would just laugh lol
@@kc-fr3qp "I found him through like anarchist/taoist/environmentalist means" That is where I found him as well, his influence on Gary Snyder and Robert Anton Wilson...
I am very fond of your conversational presentation. It's educational without being any kind of condescending. It's like if two buddies were sitting next to each other at a computer, and one explains to the other a deeper concept of a topic they're exploring together. It's really great. I appreciate the free content, bud.
It is always wild when one of the video essay youtubers I follow makes a video about something I actually know about. I majored in Religion in college and specifically studied religion/cult elements of Neoliberalism for my senior thesis. I wish I could have spent more time on it but I did get to explore a lot of these ideas. It's amazing to be able to revisit them in this video, especially since I no longer study Religion or Neoliberalism at all in my current field.
I think that it is important when discussing a topic like this where Kabbalah keeps coming up that it be acknowledged that the Kabbalah that is mentioned here is not actually Kabbalah. Rather it is a form of Kabbalah that has been culturally appropriated from Judaism, Jewish culture, and the Jewish people. Kabbalah is a form of Torah learning that has an extremely deep and intense nature and focuses on meditation, and reality, the theoretical, and "Olam Hazeh" This World and the spiritual realm, the soul, and “Olam Haba” The World To Come.
It is understood because of the complex nature of concepts studied in Kabbalah that the person studying it can become mentally unstable, as it is discussed and documented in Jewish history of people “losing their minds” when studying Kabbalah. This is why for as long as Kabbalah has existed so has the requirements to study it.
There are three requirements to study Kabbalah and they 1) the person must be Jewish 2) the person must be 40 years of age or older 3) the person must be very learned in Torah. All three requirements have to be fulfilled in order to study Kabbalah.
Like I said, I think all of this is important to acknowledge or mention when you have a topic where Kabbalah keeps coming up.
super important comment. and it goes similarly for other traditions as well. usually, any genuine esoteric or spiritual endeavor requires years of learning, experience, and disciplined practice. and none of those have anything to do with making money, "manifesting" wealth, or personal development.
@@gabrielsoto1693 I agree. When looking at "new age" type of stuff, or whatever they want to call it, you will find it laden with cultural appropriation that they use to line their pockets all while totally misrepresenting and misunderstanding that which they have appropriated.
Yeah the Kabbalah most people think of is a cult run by a scammer in LA, not the Kabbalah studied in Judaism.
And (1) is probably the biggest problem with Kabbalah. It is an inherently enthnocentric, exclusionary, and racist belief system, which is a large part of why it's so popular with extremely conservative Jews like the Ultraorthodox and the Hasidim. It's certainly more intellectually sophisticated than New Age belief systems, but I don't think people should be concerned about "appropriating" Kabbalah, since there is no reason outsiders should respect the ethnocentric beliefs of Kabbalistic Judaisim, and I say that as a Jewish American.
@@n.trushaev5132 while what you’ve said is 100% true, there is also Kabbalah being taught by rabbis to the general public. I was learning gematria last year as well as introductory lessons on the Sefirot, all by legit Jewish academics that want to have Jewish mysticism be accessible and well represented. I’m not Jewish but as an esotericist, my experience has been that while there are super cringy ultra conservative communities that keep this stuff from the public, there’s people interested in making Kabbalah an open source of information about Jewish esoteric philosophy.
As for its ethnocentric nature, I’d say it’s a yes and no. It is definitely a Jewish practice and world view. But it also has deep roots in Neo-Platonism, and has syncretized Alchemy, Hermeticism, and even some forms of Gnosticism into its foray. So it can be both exclusively Jewish and also incredibly synthesized, depending on what your perspective and context are.u
worth noting that in the extended health field in particular, chiropractic care draws its origins HEAVILY from transcendentalist belief systems - that anything that's wrong with us is because our spine isn't aligned properly and that we're capable of healing ourselves if we readjust them. Myles Power has an excellent video series about this and how chiropractic care has consistently been rife with malpractice that had on many occasions, resulted in a patient's death. I cannot recommend it enough
fun fact: elon musk's families were famous chiropractors from his mothers side and fought for chiropractors to be considered doctors in canada, so they could be drafted as medics instead of soldiers in WW2
@@luiysia Jesus that's ghoulish, and I *live* in Canada where chiro gets coverage along other more legit and effective extended health treatments like physio
no wonder people's spines get fucked when they go to a chiropractor. it's also like people forget there are basic stretching exercises that help posture.
I saw an Instagram reel of a baby a getting adjusted. A Baby.
It was a chiropractor who fixed my back, first place Id go again if I get another back issue. Just saying, chiropractor are still around because they really work for some people and some problems
As someone semi-raised in a New Age tradition the phrase "Christ Consciousness" was like a jumpscare lmao
Loved this! Another really important of new thought btw is that it’s also really ableist. They believe sick and disabled people choose to be sick which mirrors our oppression under neoliberalism. For example Shirley MacLaine said that Steven Hawking choose to get ALS in order to “focus on physics”.
dawg I be "sweatin like a freak!" this new age paradigm got me perspiring over the things I can't change and apathetic to the things I can...
modern life as we know it got me acting upppp 🥵
When you started talking about inexplicable vegetable growth in poor soil, I thought for sure you were going to cover Mazovian Socio-Economics, Ignus Nilsen and communist crop yield. Missed opportunity. I once built a crazy house of cards, like really wild, you would not believe this house of cards, it no way should have stood, but me and my bros had such strong communism, the thing stood. A miracle.
It's funny how gambler's fallacy and survivorship bias creeps into odd areas of life - "I did a statistically unlikely thing!" turns into "this is a miracle, I'm not just lucky, this was ordained. I am special!". This usually then turns into an expectation that the statistically unlikely thing can either be reliably repeated, or that even more unlikely things can now be achieved with certainty. Anyone who (with statistical inevitability) fails to repeat these achievements is then just not special/holy/manifesting enough.
Really? So great, like, I wouldn't believe it?
Then I totally believe it. I mean, if you couldn't believe it then clearly you're not enlightened enough.
It has to be said that from the beginning, a whole bunch of those practices were stolen from Romani people who relied heavily on their spiritual practices and culture for survival. So on top of being ostracized out of racism, they were pushed out of their own culture by white scammers who made it almost impossible to practice safely (that's without talking about the discriminatory laws targeting Roms and turning them into criminal for practicing their own culture).
The New Age movement is entangled with racisme, white supremacy, cultural theft and other colonizer bullshit. That's one of the reasons why it's looked down upon in decolonizing groups, even among spiritual circles.
*And that's a VERY brief summary of an extremely complex issue that many POC still face regarding spiritual reclaiming. It's an important one as it very often ties historically into means of survival in a way that white people never had to face after stealing those practices.
Me learning about the development of the new age movement while making steady eye contact with Stuart Little for an hour:
👁👄👁
I think this video has encapsulated a lot of the reasons why I've always been suspicious of Western mysticism and occultism, even though I find it interesting as a phenomenon. It's the commodification of religious experience. Ironically I think that the anticonsumerist stance actually helps with this: don't buy that new TV, instead buy a two-week stay in the Peruvian jungle drinking ayahuasca tea. Allow your ego to put on a new costume and proclaim itself dead. Let us fill your head with nonsense about the fluorine in the water while your neurons are still trying to reestablish meaningful pathways and convince you to only hydrate with coconut water from halfway across the world. Don't think about the slave labour and the thousands of kilograms of carbon dioxide that were released into the atmosphere to get it to you. It's like the hustle culture seminars that tell you the best way to improve your life is to keep attending seminars.
Also the part where you did the impression with "why can't we all just love each other, man?" - it's like you've met my dad, because that's him to a T.
Western mysticism is far older than the concept of commodification. Everything has or can be commodified, no reason why occultism should be singled out.
@@Xeper616 True, but my opinions on the commodification of, say, housing or social relationships aren't relevant on a video about New Age ideas.
I suppose I could have mentioned that I'm also suspicious of American megachurches and prophecy-conspiracy complexes such as Q for much the same reasons.
Yeah western Mysticism shouldn't be the term used, 'mystic' is generally associated with portions of larger religions. I.E. Palamists, Orthodox Christian Hesychasts, Jewish Kabbalists, Christian Kaballists, Desert Fathers, Islamic Sufism, Meister Eckhart's teachings, the Friends of God, etc. They tend to be neo-platonic, while often some of their teachings or concepts were lifted by the new age of spiritualist movement, it was essentially to take concepts from these movements, toss out almost all of the substance around them, and then do the same to other religions or mystical systems to create something entirely individualistic.
A great example is Meister Eckhart, as a lot of the new Age movement don't seem to really read him, they seem to read his critics accusations of him. That with enough contemplation and spiritual growth you no longer needed organized religion and would achieve self-actualization. Whilst his positions were frankly the opposite, that a mystic's end goal was more unity with the church to a degree that the idea of 'following' a religion would be impossible, as following was thought, choice, action, something you do. Not something you are part of.
Shipping things across the world is actually very efficient, low pollution, and cheap per kg of shipment. Meat and dairy on the other hand is horrifically bad for the environment. Someone drinking coconut water is having a miniscule effect on the planet compared to someone paying for a burger or chicken
The funny part is, what got me angry at it was because I was not satisfied with atheism _nor_ "the Church", but _also_ was poor and thought "man, these people make it sound like you gotta be RICH to 'be spiritual'". And that type of extreme class discrimination just seems so ... unspiritual. I interestingly started to carve my own routes once I realized I didn't have to bend a knee to anybody's dogma and I've been much happier ever since, only becoming angered when I see how much capitalism and rightism if not fascism has infected this sector because it's like, dude, that's _zero_ difference to fundie Christianity at that point, and then you make it too expensive for everyone to get, at least the pauper can go to the church and hear some shitty rightwing preacher prattle about how that gays will go to hell without paying too much
In the US, spiritualism started even earlier, around the time of the Civil War, largely as a response to its death toll.
I though it existed before civil war in the US?
@@neftana8 it definitely did
@@neftana8 there was a massive revival in and around Western NY in the 1800s. Look up the Burnt Over District.
@@glummdead so based on what I read it was before the civil war, but interesting enough the Second Great awakening looks like it may have played a part in causing it
There's a book called This Republic of Suffering about that and it SLAPS
as a pagan leftist i really loved this video. overall very well thought out, and the research on occult history was very good. imo, organized religion as we know it has benefits and drawbacks, and i think we would benefit greatly if we applied anarchist theory to our groups rather than centralizing on "great wise figures".
Coming from a anarchist Satanist, I’ve learned so much from the pagan community.
Deference to authority is pretty well built out of satanic belief structures, but I had to look to pagans to seek out healthy anti capitalist spirituality. Community relationship is tough in Satanism, but y’all do it so well
Have you read Occult Features of Anarchism? It’s a very good and thorough breakdown of the shared history between revolutionary socialism and 19th century occultism.
The end of this video hit me pretty hard. I am definitely missing a sense of community in my life. I have friends and family, and I’m even Christian. But most of the Christian communities that reach out to new people are pretty anti-LGBTQ.
Work is very atomizing, especially with work from home. I am technically part of a union though, so maybe I’ll start getting more involved with that.
I have also worked at companies that had new agey meditation in the morning. It always struck me as odd that that was acceptable but it would certainly feel strange to have an officially work sanctioned Christian or Muslim prayer group in the morning. Not saying we should have that, just that the video helped clear up why that distinction exists. New age stuff can be taken individually and used for capitalistic benefit, while traditional religions have community and belief based ties that would essentially make it impossible to incorporate in a modern neoliberal workplace.
Fantastic video.
THIS. SAME. Holy SHIT I miss my church so badly, but the shift in its culture was one that frankly, got hostile to my Trans self. And it's impossible to incorporate Christianity or traditional religious practices into Capitalism. It's hard to even do with like minded people. Even seemingly individualistic Christian practices like Hesychasm are DEEPLY communal based in practice.
@@WereScrib You should look for a United Church of Christ church or a Episcopal church. My church has a small rainbow flag on it (all year, not just in June). There's a list of open and accepting churches on the Internet if you search for it.
@@MilwaukeeWoman Or Unitarian Univeralists. Or I have spent some time with a Diamond Way Buddhist community and they have no problem with LGBT. There is even a local mosque that accepts it. I live in Germany and German is a gendered language and there are two ways of making it gender neutral. One indicates either male or female but there is a „super inclusive“ way of writing that encompasses trans and non binary people and they use the latter style in all the writing on their website. I go there often and while I have never seen an obviously LGBT person praying there, they own a restaurant and you often see LGBT people there. There are a ton of different options. Instead of trying to incorporate religion into capitalism, you have to find a group that understands the real message and isn‘t hostile to people who are what God made them to be.
@@Iudicatio I'm sorry, I knoe that's not the point, but I'm learning German, and can you tell me about this two ways of making something (pronouns? names of workers? nouns as a whole? dunno, what you meant by that, sorry) gender neutral?
Our teenage selves shared a passion for the occult and secret societies. I have a fantastic library I started at 13.
SAME.
SAME...
TBH I just wish most of the books weren't just bad. Religious studies and studies of the occult have advanced so fast, most of it feels like propaganda written by apologists of grifters, now. Though I'll always love my collected works of the Golden Dawn, and while not quite occult, I got into them through the same sources and MAN everything written by Montogue Summers and Charles Fort are amazing, though for different reasons.
I wish we were in a sociology degree together. It would have been far less painful and infinitely funnier with you in class. Your comedy hits such a depressed Canadian sweet spot, I love it.
Timestamps! 🏴
9:39 Psychics & Scientists
27:33 The Hippies
36:22 Angels in Pinstripes
Just want to say I love the content lately. also, as a fellow canadian you might find it amazing that MacKenzie King (longest serving prime minister) was a practicing spiritualist, used ouija boards, thought he could talk to his dead mother and asked Franklin d roosevelt for political advice. It's like my favourite canadian history fun fact.
As someone who believes in a load of woo woo bullshit, thanks for it making this with a level of respect
Sweet! New content! Love your vids!
I love YOUR vids (:
Love it when my favorite creators intersect ❤️
Thank you for making this video! Me and my friend had a big chat about this very topic after watching your previous video.
I currently work in retail in a crystal shop with a numerologist, palm reader, medium, tarot reader and a white shaman. I once had a coworker talk about 'the negative thoughts she had that gave her breast cancer.' and another who paid an outrageous sum, I think $4000 for a spell caster to remove a 'hereditary curse' that she claimed had giver her thyroid cancer. It is by far the least funny and most depressing part of all this and it can really do my head in after a long day so its always so refreshing to hear someone talk about this stuff who isn't invested in it spiritually.
There is absolutely a new phase of the New Age congealing around government conspiracy theory, two of my coworkers are now massively into the Q Anon shit, I've seen it referred to as 'pastel q.' I also see a huge number of younger people coming in specifically looking for wicca and witchcraft, which is often quite fringe and taboo in the more 'angel, crystal and white light' sections of the community that in my time in the industry certainly dominated.
Just my 20c thrown out there in a youtube comment!
Actually, when you read what the neoliberal founders actually wrote (as well as what happened in Pinochet's Chile) you find that neoliberalism differs with classical liberalism (and libertarianism) in the sense that it doesn't think that state control of society should be minimized but that the state should use it's power to make the market possible by a plurality of means, including saving banks (too big to fail), violent repression of social movements and producing the kind of individuals that are adaptable to the needs of the market (fluidity) ; therefore they also don't believe at all that people are inherently rational, they believe that they are to be made to act rationally : the reason why neoliberals will pretend to believe that they oppose the intervention of the state and that they ascribe rationality to the individual is purely rhetorical because they try to look like they are classical liberals.
It's pretty important because defining neoliberalism as an ideology opposed to the state in any shape or form leads to major confusions. For instance it is very much not in the interest of the left to advocate against the idea that people are rational because class struggle presupposes the rationality of groups. Also right wing people will always be the first to question the rationality of the actions of poor and racialized people. When neoliberals make us believe that they actually attribute rationality to people and that they are opposed to the state they back us in a very muddy corner : they make us believe that we are to oppose the popular attribution of rationality and that we are to defend the state, if we don't step back and reflect on whether or not we should do that we have already lost.
>Also right wing people will always be the first to question the rationality of the actions of poor and racialized people.
Lol what? Have you been asleep the past decade?
I'm 100% here for the We're in Hell cooking segment- the burning is appropriate to the name
i love how his sous chef nerdiness came out with this ad 😂
100% agreed altho my jaw definitely hit the floor when I found out that $250 counts as affordable in terms of knives, did not know how expensive that kind of crap really is
Appropriate to the name? A clever observation, Mr. Cook.
@@froyotastic5665 same!
@@Disentropic1 I do try
I was once in a We’re In Hell comment section and was discussing a video idea I had discussing the different types of bad work environments in low wage work (notably comparing and contrasting working in food service with working in retail). I was working on this and everyone was very encouraging and I would like to post an official follow up to this: I now have 3 jobs and no computer (RIP my laptop, her name was Amy and she will be surely missed), so I uh will probably not finish a piece until after the revolution at this point haha I have no money and I live in Hell. It is very hot SOS
I am so sorry! That sucks!
@@khazermashkes2316 haha yeah life sucks
Wishing you all the strength you need to get through this!
@@andreirachko thanks comrade
I’m not sure what happened but I got a “promotion” at my primary gig which seems to just mean that I have a second role there in addition to my original job there and so now I’m doing two times the amount of work for a dollar more an hour?? I’m not sure how I was tricked into this! Anyway, it’s close enough to full time now for me to cut down to only the one job so I’m doing that starting this week, but we’ll see how long that lasts! I am definitely in Hell!
@@zenleeparadise wow, that doesn’t sound fair. I hope you get to a point soon where you’re compensated fairly for all your work~
This hits home to me, realising that my mother was influenced by New Thought, subsequently "comforting" me if I complained about life problems in my life, that my soul had "chosen" this path. I'm on good terms with her despite that, but those beliefs are creepy.
I know it's been 2+ months since your post, but I'm perusing this comments and am loving the discourse in them. This is what my best friend subscribed to, that I had "chosen this path" and there was a reason I chose it. To me, that's just as disillusioned with reality as Christianity is, saying "god chose this for you, therefore he has a plan". Ever since I left Christianity a few years ago, I've been utterly fascinated studying religion as a whole, and namely the fundamentalist elements of them, particularly in Christianity and New Age. I'm glad to hear you're on good terms with your mom regardless. I had to cut my friendship off with my friend because she believed she was an alien from another planet.
This is the perfect video for watching at 2am while gnawing on a block of cheese. This topic is so fascinating and I’m learning a lot, but also, I’m not convinced my youtube rabbit hole would have led me here during the day. I’m totally gonna check out your other content though
I dabble in tarot reading and I have to admit it is actually a blessing and a curse at parties. You'll be the center of attention but you will also not get a minute's rest as every soul at the party wants you to do 900 reads about their crushes.
Every time I read or hear of Blavatsky, I think of something an acquaintance once said in relation to her: "So nasty how much time we spend pretending all our favorite philosophers weren't neck-deep in the occult when in fact they were."
What's wrong with the occult?
Just asking.
@@grmpEqweer Nothing.
Every religion is occult. It's just a slur you use against others.
@@CountingStars333 No it’s not. Occult means something and people who practice esotericism self-identify as occultists. Academics differentiate between occult practices and orthodox religions. The occult literally means “hidden”, highlighting the difference between mysticism and the common religion. Judaism is religion, Kabbalah is occult. Christianity is religion, Gnosticism is occult. Islam is religion, Sufism is occult.
@@grmpEqweerOccult has been generally thought of as negative, malific practices?
I'm very much into esotericism and new age ideas, but my pursuit has always been sincere. I do hope people can see distinction between the charlatans and profiteers, and those of us who are primarily concerned with understanding life on a deeper level.
Yessss I was hoping you’d talk more about this! I love your take on cultural analysis and the weird “fix yourself first” mentality of some new age practices always put me off when I dabbled in those spaces. The commodification of Hindu iconography always bothered me, especially, as someone raised in a Hindu religious tradition. Looking forward to watching!
It's just as commodified in the East. Except that people don't necessarily see it as something exotic. They have these new age spiritual healers who do temple tours as well and they make tons of money.
The recent evolution of religion is something that’s so interesting to me- thank you for this video series!! I love your takes on things
Hehe, I knew that entire group of people and societies you mentioned because I was raised in a very 90’s new age-y family and leaned that way spiritually until very recently. I have complicated emotions about this because it brought a lot of objective and subjective good into my life and my progressive ideals would not have been formed without the influence of this ideology. That being said, I have also inherited a lot of neoliberal toxicity that I am trying to unpack from it. But the one thing I find infuriating is that my mom, the one person I need to discuss this with as she was the new age contingency in the house, refuses to get into it with me even though she’s generally totally open-minded because she insisted she raised me without ideology. And that is the insidious catch-22 of this movement, that it is ideology that presents itself as and believes itself to be ideology free, and as such it holds itself as free from reproach and questioning, even though the central doctrine was to be curious as question accepted/traditional narratives. I am still a spiritual person and I owe a lot of that to New Age, I think it’s has a lot of positives and I refuse to mock it or throw it under the bus like others do- that being said, I do feel a lot of anger towards it at the moment. Anyways, on with the video… 😄
I’m sure you can relate to the left wing Christians who have not let go of their beliefs because they value them but constantly cringe at the grifters and bigots using their religion to justify garbage. Happens to every religion he’ll even to absence of religion. I’m an atheist snd I cringe at the old atheist videos from a decade ago hating on religions and espousing anti feminism
@@briannawaldorf8485 my Catholic self feels your comment in my soul 😭
@@nusquamnemo4780 Seems like a lot of Catholics go for the good and leave the bad stuff in the church on their way out. Others, like me, become Episcopalians, which I worry is turning into Unitarian Universalism.
@@MilwaukeeWomanhey what's wrong with the unitarians they get so much slack
Don’t think I’ve ever seen a better intro for an essay documentary type thing like this. Great work you rock 🪨
i think your channel was recommended to me right after your name change, and dude, i get pretty excited every time a new video shows up on my feed! thanks for all your work, and making me laugh as well.
7:53 these ones that are like "we can teach you how to perfectly read and interact with other people" annoy the hell out of me. i grew up with undiagnosed autism and i spent so, so long on those things, trying to understand even slightly the nuances other people saw in people's facial expressions, trying to mimic "normal" facial expressions and tones of voice, quoting the conversation response examples they gave word for word cause it was the only way i could say anything much more complicated than "the weather's nice today" without subsitituting half the words for "thing" or vague hand gestures (if i was trying to explain this irl i would probably say something along the lines of "it's bad and i hate it cause it preys on people's insecurities", that last bit being a fairly common phrase. that's how i speak literally all the time irl, quotes and basic sentences. it kinda sucked that the only time i could come across as intelligent was when i was directly lifting sentences from other people that fit what i was trying to say, but whatever, that's a bit of a tangent). it was such a waste of time, obviously, at the end of it i was still autistic and still had a childish voice, and all i got out of it was deep-rooted insecurities that, no matter how hard i tried, i could never be "normal", absolute certainty and final confirmation that i was broken in some way. fortunately i was like 13-15 so i didn't spend any money on this bs, but like that is the sort of people they're targeting, not necessarily autistic, but people who are socially awkward in some way and want to be 'fixed'. and that just doesn't sit right with me
Amaizing how in the end, the world seems to be tied in all sorts of ways, even in ways we wouldnt expect, like religion and capitalism, i will never stop finding interest in this world as bad as it may seem
It’s so cool!
15:45 Fun fact about Jiddu Krishnamurti: After years of being groomed by the the Theosophical Society as the world's next great spiritual leader, he dissolved The Order of the Star of the East because he felt that having and participating in things such as new age societies and promoting a leader-follower relationship was anathema to his core teachings.
Wow. I like that guy. He was also an inspiration for David Bohm, a real "quantum mystic" (i.e. not one who thought you could just thought-power your way to being a billionaire).
I always love the music in your videos! Always appreciate you explaining/tying in some good ol' theory
Not actually related to the video but I'm doing a paper on influencers and sponsorships right now and with all of that floating around in my head I just think it's really cool that you accepted a sponsor that sold something you actually know about and could speak on with some authority. I think it's genuinely the most ethical way to go about this, so props to you on that.
Nice sentiment, but unfortunately Kamikoto is a bit of a scam, they're cheap chinese knives with poor grinds and steels and aren't really worth anyone's time. In general, I don't think anybody should take an influencer's opinion seriously about anything other than the specific niche they are known for.
@@TyyyJ I mean genuinely I worked in the kitchen for 10 years and I don't technically know anything about a knife other than if it feels good to use so if another chef tells me it seems worth it then that's probably fine? If it works better than something that's like 20 bucks from Target it would be an upgrade for me.
@@RainWhitehart well sure, but if you were to take the advice of people with no life who spend all day min-maxing chef knives (i.e Reddit) you'd probably find something significantly better, or for far cheaper. It's your choice if you wanna fall for marketing buzz.
Thank u so much for this Video i always felt weird when people Talk about this Type of spirituality but Never knew how to put it into words
I've just submitted the final draft of my master's thesis and I can finally relax and finish the video properly!!! 😭
Finally finished this video!! Thanks for taking such a deep dive on this topic!
It may seem small, but at the 9:30 ish minute mark, just clarifying that this covers the anglosphere and the scope-related reason is such a simple yet nice touch for my french self. Anglocentrism is a touchy thing at times, and seeing it at least addressed every now and then makes watching theory about "ten OTHER wacky ways the US has been built on foundations of systemic evil" more palatable.
Gah, I was just reading about McMindfullness and now this. I truly feel there's so much potential in personal peace and fulfilment (as well as collective action and community building) in spirituality, but it just gets fucked by capitalism. Most spiritual faiths generally encourage a renunciation of materialism/consumerism and encourage fraternity and compassion, really sucks man to see neoliberalist capitalism infecting literally everything and building the fucking AmaZen booth.....
I don't think it was corrupted by capitalism, as such. There is something inherently elitist to New Age. The whole concept of gurus has an authoritarian smell. Cult leaders like Bhagwan had no problem bathing in luxury. "I deserve to have a gazillion $ because I function at a higher spiritual level." That mixes well with capitalism.
@@dalstein3708 depends on what you mean by inherent and by new age very heavily. OP is talking about something else
I'm Buddhist, I often feel some kind of way about how mindfulness is talked about and taught in the US. It often feels very diluted, but many in my sangha feel that it can spark the possibility of someone deciding to learn about the dharma and begin the path. I'm sure that may happen, and I'm sure there's okay corporate workshops with well practiced teachers. It's just the commodification just gets under my skin.
@@roxyamused Mindfulness training is mandated by some corporations as a way to teach people to focus on their jobs because focusing on work they hate will make them happier.
Mindfulness is also a DBT therapy concept and part of its core skills, which I’m pretty sure is because some of the founding psychologists of DBT were into new age mindfulness stuff. But the two (or in this case three including the real religious mindfulness practice) are very different things with different goals, so it’s also corporations appropriating the language of therapy to make you think it’s a personal emotional failing that you’re not the perfect worker
I feel like you've been on fire this whole year. I've enjoyed your videos for quite a while now, but I have been especially enjoying the topics you've been taking on lately.
This channel has been such a pleasant surprise! I’m glad it got recommended to me.
I was literally binge re-watching your videos yesterday wondering when u would upload again 😩 im so happy
new We’re In Hell?? Oh my days, I audibly said “fuck yeah”
hell yeah man me too
Thank you for putting links to all of the other RUclipsrs that helped you with this. It's really nice to be pumping up other smaller channels.
This was a pretty random vid to come into my feed, and I really just clicked on it for background noise, but man, I was blown away by your presentation. Bravo!
I'm legitimately hyped when I see a new video from you. Love your videos!
You're my current favorite RUclipsr and deep dives into niche yet rich concepts like this is why
You’re content is incredibly well made and I love that you cover such interesting topics. Also that shirt is incredible.
as a former line cook and sociology minor (and current social worker) … you’re my fave youtuber ever ♥️♥️
Me: (sees new WIH video) “Time for my reminder that we live in the bad timeline.”
This week, YoubusTubus has blessed the faithful with a Big Joel, a Renegade Cut, *AND* a new We're In Hell.
It's a glorious time to be alive.
(no, i'm kidding -- it sucks to be alive in 2022. good thing we have channels like these to ease the malaise. thanks WIH!)
You forgot Contrapoints. truly a glorious week
Brilliant essay. As someone who grew up in the new age movement and went to Findhorn as a child in the 80s, you really nailed a lot of the logical and phenomenological extensions.
What a great video! Keep up the great work! You’re getting better at it every time.
Btw fantastic choice of music at the end
*when he's explaining how new age entails millenarianism*
Me - "THE AAAAGE OF AQUARIUUUUS"
Ah yes just when I wanted to start studying for my test tomorrow, truly the perfect exuse to contine my procrastination and therefore destroy my sleep schedule even more. Well anyways I'll now totally binge this whole masterpiece of youtube content
This video felt kind of surreal to me because, as a person growing up in the '90s, I saw a lot of this happen but had absolutely no idea what the f*** was going on and nobody explained anything. I just knew that the adults were fighting and it was very concerning regarding the future but also we shouldn't think about it too hard. You just gave me a timeline of all of the crazy events and brought in a context I never knew I needed so thank you very much for the great video!
Oh hey, finally a video I have a nice base of knowledge on before going into it! Love it 💜
Love your channel, the topics you pick and the eloquent and comical way you break things down, awesome stuff!
Great video as usual. I also want to shout out the music because the music in your videos is so cool every time!
Hey, thanks 😊
Wow, what a really awesome intro you have. The music and the display is really nice. You're the only RUclipsr who I will watch your ads, because you seem so genuine and not to be biased or anything, but we align very close politically speaking. It's very easy to digest content from someone who I know cares about people. That's such a magnet to what attracted me to watch you and I've loved all of your videos. Also you are hilarious aswell. I'd just like to say thanks for being a good person all around.
As someone who was sucked into the New Age Movement and couldn't figure out how to get out for years (every time I'd try, I'd just end up with more people in a different part of it - even if I went to another country), I want to thank you for this video. It really helped me to understand so much of what I've seen in the past and gave me some good ways of recognizing what parts of the movement look like that I may not have known about yet (so I can keep avoiding them in the future).
Great video. Also shout out to Will Jarvis who just keeps putting out bangers for these videos!
Thanks so much!
The music in these videos is always so unnecessarily good
Sorry, I’ll tone it down
@@williethejayman omg
I enjoyed the video, I also enjoyed the silica gel cushion you have on your sofa 👍
I loved this video! Thank you! And I also really love the outro music you use! What a great artist!!!
Thank you!
Awesome video! The ending conclusion is spot on. I'm really interested in communication of ideas/goals in hierarchical communities as a scriptwriter and also in meditation. Because of this (and of course money reasons) I worked for one of the most popular tech companies as well as an international start up and the top down training is on the same level as brainwashing to me. Both places really emphasised the 'we're a family' and 'we have a common goal' ideologies in training. Wild stuff.
The sad part is that an ideal workplace _SHOULD BE_ "like a family", in a _true_ sense. I.e. where the people have _real_ and _genuine_ connections with each other, as opposed to just being a bunch of depressed and oppressed people trying to "mind their own business" while 5:00 PM can't get there soon enough. But that's not what a capitalist system is about.
Sensing a Weird Reads With Emily Louise aura around this video title. Looking forward to digging in. Also, religion as self help is a huge cultural meme - as an awards acceptance cliché, an oft prescribed addiction recovery outline, and a lot of the notion of born-again salvation is paired with a dark times motivating backstory.
Engagement points incoming.
Love it. I can keep your videos in the background when doing software dev work and it gives me a good chuckle.
Great video. Informative, insightful, and entertaining.
Long-form video essays by leftist creators are, by a huge margin, my favourite videos on this platform - I just get so excited and kick my feet in the air when I see credits to all the other leftist creators who were involved in creating these absolute monstrosities
There were only two pages available in the document for Latin American New Age, but I wanted to add to this, as a Latin American living in Latin America:
When I think of New Age, I think of Anglosphere crystals, etc.; practices native to our region, whatever the form they may take, is just spirituality to me. For example, in my country, lots of people bathe themselves in specialty herbal concoctions for various purposes, to attract love or money, etc.
There's an interclass and intraclass divide in my country. Classism. The biggest divide in Latin America.
New Age people are usually middle-class and up people, almost never belonging to the old families, who have disposable income. In a way, them not engaging traditional spirituality is another way of trying to forge an identity for themselves and set themselves apart from the masses, since they're closed off from traditional families.
Not only that, but within their own classes, New Agers belong to the most heavily US-ified cohort (I like saying gringofied) compared to their peers, tend to not have children and to not desire them, or, if they do, follow idiotic crunchy crap imported from the US. They tend to not consume much national media, if at all, and little news-uninformed twats.
It's easy to tell if a neighborhood has newly minted PMC (profesional managerial class) because a soap shop with crystals will pop up when the numbers of PMC reach a critical mass, like a watered down version of SoCal sensitivities.
Maybe you find this observation interesting.
Just gotta say I love the consistent use of Will Jarvis’s music on your channel, it’s lead me to finding his music and HOOOLY FUCK! So amazing
I just discovered you with the video that preceded this one, and so far I’m pretty intrigued. You have some good humor and I’ve not really seen anybody talk about the new age movement to this degree. Also, I’m not sure why but found the word Anglosphere to be hilarious.
its hard for me to talk about spirituality because i really think some spiritual stuff (incl theosophy) can be sort of a cool insight into non-western cultures, and generally spirituality is very harmless, but the capitalism baked into spirituality online is maybe one of my least favorite things lol. so i somehow respect it while having zero interest or trust in it. another banger, love your videos!
Spirituality can be helpful to an individual just as much as it can be harmful imo
I always say one’s spirituality should serve them, not the other way around. I think that if someone chooses to be spiritual, they need to be very mindful of what helps them and what harms them because it’s not hard to fall into concepts that lower your self esteem or inspire you to isolate yourself completely for absurd periods of time etc- various methods can be taken to an extreme that will harm a person emotionally or interpersonally. Just my perspective, of course
as a Buddhist i can say theosophy will not teach you about Buddhism or any eastern religion. if you want to learn about other religions and cultures its best to learn form people who practice it not a crazy Christian
Don't buy those knives, they're a scam. Mass produced cheap knives, overpriced based on the materials and craftsmanship. Plus they engage in some blatant orientalism by just saying "mysterious Japanese steel which is somehow better because it's from Japan" and they're actually mostly made in China anyways. Kinda disappointing to see a RUclipsr I respect take this sponsorship tbh.
man your videos are so interesting but will jarvis' music is just. 👌 chef's kiss. reason enough to watch.