QAnon Shamanism: When Conspiracy Thinking and Spirituality Converge

Among the violent extremists that stormed the Capitol on January 6th, one character really stood out: the “QAnon Shaman.” Bare-chested, face-painted, and wearing a horned fur cap, Jake Angeli attracted widespread attention. After years promoting himself as a New Age light-worker and minor psychedelic influencer, Angeli had become a vocal proponent of the right-wing QAnon conspiracy theory.

Angeli is just the tip of the iceberg. Our times have witnessed an extraordinary uptick in “conspirituality:” the blending of transformational culture and outlandish, dark, and sometimes highly manipulated conspiracy narratives. Countless “spiritual but not religious” communities — engaged in wellness, yoga, mindfulness, and psychedelic healing — have seen the virulent spread of paranoid plots, baseless conspiracy theories, and rumors of Satanic mind-control.

We are right to question mainstream media stories, to explore alternative modalities, and to commit to doing (real) research. But legitimate concerns about consensus reality do not explain why so many seekers and healers fell into a right-wing reality tunnel in which Donald Trump was waging holy war against a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles.

How did this happen? Why did these narratives spread so rapidly? How did social media, the pandemic, political polarization, and flaws in contemporary transformational culture contribute?

As we go forward together into an ever-weirding world, how can we develop more spiritual discernment, epistemic health, and “nerd immunity”?

Join us and Erik Davis, Jules Evans, and Erica Magill as we explore this worrying trend and map some exit ramps from the rabbit hole.