Does the Existence of One Negate the Totality of the Other? - What Journey are We On?
Does the Existence of QAnon negate the totality of Spirituality?
In true meandering fashion, my brain and heart have been turning this question over and over.
Do I believe in QAnon?
No. Hands down, no. And I was puzzled at the Venn diagram of how it intersected with the influencers in the (mostly online) spirituality I was following. The community I resonated with.
I could “understand” it in the overlap between QAnon and fundamental Christianity, because of the rampant misogyny and racism I had observed in real-life and online in those spheres.
But, in my admitted naivety, I didn’t see how pervasive that also was in the “new-age” practitioners working under the moniker of spirituality.
Does this mean we’re NOT going through a Great Awakening?
This question was harder for me to parse through. I think we are in the midst of ...something… an energy shift? An awakening? A closing of a cycle and a beginning of a new one? Is this the first in human history? Probably not. The last? Also probably no, but it feels like it’s playing out at an accelerated rate because of the availability of aggregated information and history/hindsight at our fingertips.
So, why can’t I let others in the space believe what they believe and I believe what I believe?
Well, because I find such validation in the calling out of said QAnon influencers. It’s not something I’m proud of, but it’s a feeling that comes up. And is that perhaps the shame cycle of cancel culture? Do we need to acknowledge accountability of that on BOTH sides?
But also, for me, while I get the initial comfort of someone “agreeing” with me, I then find that the ones who call out the most left in the space swing the pendulum completely the other way and renounce any belief in ANY of this way of thinking. Not the QAnon specific theories, but the other “unknowns” - the “magic” in the world. The unexplained.
I find myself bristling at this too. The either/or. The all or nothing. I fall back, again and again, on both/and.
Is this how cancel culture works? Is this why we are so divided?
Following my disbelief that QAnon could live in this seemingly “open” space - open meaning accepting of all lifestyles and choices, I found the Conspirituality podcast.
Self-described in their About page: "At best, the conspirituality movement attacks public health efforts in times of crisis. At worst, it fronts and recruits for the fever-dream of QAnon. ...
Conspirituality Podcast attempts to bring understanding to this landscape. A journalist, a cult researcher, and a philosophical skeptic discuss the stories, cognitive dissonances, and cultic dynamics tearing through the yoga, wellness, and new spirituality worlds. Mainstream outlets have noticed the problem. We crowd-source, research, analyze, and dream answers to it."
I found the hosts, Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, and Julian Walker to be clear and concise with their assessment. I resonated with their callouts on some of the most blatant offenders in the space and backed it up with solid scientific reasoning and guests who are experts in their fields and who have studied these types of trends and phenomena. But also, the relief I found at not being the only one to see beyond the influencer veil was coupled at moments in each episode with my internal rebellion at the dismissal of ALL “magic”.
And then the feeling of shame, the one I was directing at other people, cycled back to me.
Because I do believe in energy. I do believe in strange coincidences. I believe in a greater power larger than us. I am not married to any one story, but instead, find a truth in the aggregate.
Does this mean I am no better than a QAnon believer?
In episode 33 - Manipulating the Hero’s Journey, they talk about the archetype of the Hero’s Journey as coined by Joseph Campbell and how it is paralleled by these influencers today. For me, the coincidence (or synchronicity if you will) was that I was halfway through reading the transcript of the famous interview series he had with Bill Moyer in 1988. when the podcast episode dropped.
Setting aside the rampant misogynistic bias that Mr. Campbell lived with, his recounts of myths as the way cultures grow, learn, change, and heal, felt very true to me. But again, it only felt like part of the story. In 1990, Maureen Murdock, a student of Campbell’s, published the Heroine’s Journey in response. I saw this best summarized by the Heroine’s Journey Project:
“As a student of Campbell’s, Murdock, came to believe that the Hero’s Journey model did not adequately address the psycho-spiritual journey of women. She developed a model of a heroine’s journey based on her work with women in therapy. When she showed it to Campbell in 1983, Campbell reportedly said, “Women don’t need to make the journey. In the whole mythological journey, the woman is there. All she has to do is realize that she’s the place that people are trying to get to.” Perhaps Campbell viewed the hero’s journey as a journey toward wholeness, and in a patriarchal society in which men subordinate qualities traditionally associated with the feminine, the search for wholeness would lead to their reclaiming so-called feminine qualities and values. However, it appears that Campbell was either uninterested in women reclaiming qualities that had been lost to them through enculturation or those that had never been viewed as rightfully theirs, or he was blinded by the fact that the myths that he was examining involved male figures.”
When comparing the two, the Hero and the Heroine, and taking gender bias out, I could draw a conclusion that many Hero’s Journeys can live in a single Heroine’s journey. Like a spiral, or a cycle, many passes (many “journeys”) are sometimes needed to integrate the hero back into a society. Society being a place where ALL beings could live and be supported.
And that is what feels like all of this is missing - QAnon or Conspirituality (or any argument on any dividing side) - the coming back together.
For no, while I can’t agree with QAnon in any form, even child trafficking. (The organizations who care for that subject have actually been negatively affected by all of this attention.)
I also can’t quite get behind that because QAnon doesn’t exist - but is believed by certain people - that it proves that ALL spirituality is a farce. That people can’t “channel”, or know things they “shouldn’t” or “couldn’t”. That “energy” doesn’t influence us on a personal and collective level. That phases of the moon, which is proven to control the tides, does not affect humans, who are 90% water.
I can’t believe that science is the only, and because it exists, it negates the spiritual. I believe they walk hand-in-hand in ways we can’t even fathom. Because I also don’t want to live in a world without science. But I won’t, I can’t, give up one for the other.
““The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all art and science.””
Now, please know these are my personal musings trying to explain the patterns I see right now in turbulent times. I am not saying I know more or less than anyone else.
I do think that spiritual bypassing, toxic positivity, and some of the other things that exist in the space are just as dangerous as QAnon. And, I do appreciate the great job the Conspirituality podcast does of “following the money”. In my own experience, I have observed influencers (also known as small businesses marketing their services in the pre- and early- days of social media) getting stuck in the cycle of having to sell their ideas to live, even when they may have evolved beyond the thoughts they are selling.
But I can’t think that that means all the unknown light AND shadow parts of the collective consciousness in this space is negated.
That is where I am today, and if nothing else, may this serve as a marker for where I may be tomorrow. For, maybe the ability to admit when we were wrong is the greatest tool we all have at our disposal. That instead of doubling down with noise-canceling headphones to stay in our bubbles, perhaps choose to desire to be open to all of these (also ever-changing) inputs and pull from our own hearts, our own truths.* To be open to authentic change to create a world in which ALL are accepted.
For change is the only constant we have.
*Acknowledging that awareness of fear masquerading as intuition is also crucial. 🤪
Photo by Vadim Sadovski on Unsplash
