Comparative Conspirituality: A Decolonial Approach From the Global South
Speakers
If you take a quick stroll through forums discussing spirituality on social media, you will come across “quantum trainers” and “holistic therapists” who warn of grand conspiracies that keep you asleep while offering you an awakening to reality. A flurry of virtual gurus sound the alarm about the Great Reset, the New World Order, the creation of viruses in laboratories, and the danger of 5G technology, while pointing the way out via reconnection with nature and spirituality, through strengthening “natural immunity,” tantra, sphincter sunbathing, psychedelics, and rituals from the far corners of the globe. The amalgamation of spiritualist practices with anti-scientific and extreme right-wing worldviews was defined by the term “conspirituality,” coined and discussed by authors from the Global North, and representing a very particular form of overlap of political cynicism and spiritual optimism. Although Eurocentric, the phenomenon of conspirituality also exists in Latin America. However, in these countries, it presents itself mainly as a phenomenon imported from the white West. This presentation will reflect on this phenomenon from a decolonial perspective coming from the Global South. It will try to identify the historical origins of conspirituality, the reasons why it has emerged today as a relevant actor in the Western psychedelic landscape, the differences and connections of its manifestation in the Global North and South, its relation to cultural appropriation and to the contemporary New Age market, and the role of internet social networks in the emergence and boosting of the phenomenon.
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