Why New Age People Tend To Believe So Much in Conspiracy Theories?

[Recursoinominado]

Seriously, i was part of several groups and followed pages on social media that had spiritual purposes (mostly new age) and this COVID situation came to show how out of touch with "Reality" most of those people are. I am seeing over and over again people equating masks as an ABUSE, an attempt from the government to CONTROL people and SPREAD FEAR.

They create this persona of people who wear a mask are sheep, being controlled, and are asleep while I and those who agree with me are the awake ones. Those who see clearly through the situation.

This is not even funny, it is kind of sad to see how much time and energy people waste with useless rationalizations. The worse thing is due to the internet they can find like-minded people and stay stuck in a circlejerk of conspiracy theories.

It is also interesting to see how much those people have in common with Trump supporters.

[Leo Gura]

Sheep being sheep.

A New Age sheep is still a sheep.

Nobody is thinking about anything independently. Sheep are just switching flocks.

[Globalcollective]

@Recursoinominado

7 minutes ago, Recursoinominado said:

Seriously, i was part of several groups and followed pages on social media that had spiritual purposes (mostly new age) and this COVID situation came to show how out of touch with "Reality" most of those people are. I am seeing over and over again people equating masks as an ABUSE, an attempt from the government to CONTROL people and SPREAD FEAR.

They create this persona of people who wear a mask are sheep, being controlled, and are asleep while I and those who agree with me are the awake ones. Those who see clearly through the situation.

This is not even funny, it is kind of sad to see how much time and energy people waste with useless rationalizations. The worse thing is due to the internet they can find like-minded people and stay stuck in a circlejerk of conspiracy theories.

It is also interesting to see how much those people have in common with Trump supporters.

Yeah Im seeing the same thing, I even work in a new age type place and alot of people are buying heavily into the conspiracies around COVID. I will be interested to hear what others here think on this. 

Who knows maybe there is some truth to it but its more the way you approach it right. They complain and moan without giving any practical solutions and they also don't seem to have a full answer as to what this so called Global Elite are planing to actually do by locking us all down. Surely global lockdowns is the last thing they would want as if anything is going to make us wake up its putting us all in isolation. Then again I actually can admit I have no clue as to what is really going on atm. 

Edited October 31, 2020 by Globalcollective

[PurpleTree]

I've been really into conspiracy theories about a decade ago, so i was before most sheeple

wasn't into all of them though, just some.

now, not so much.

[Recursoinominado]

@Globalcollective Nobody REEEALLY know what is going on, that's not the point!

What i am baffled is with the amount of time and energy WASTED with theories they can't ever prove, time and energy they could be spending actually working on themselves, building an online business, reading, practicing yoga, meditation or whatever. 

I mean, at BEST wearing a mask in public is a mild discomfort, even if COVID were indeed some sort of planned population control, the best we could do as individuals is to work to become great and possibly changing things later, not bitching and whining endlessly on social media like they are being led to concentration camps. This is some next level victim complex or even narcissism. 

[No Self]

The first thing to know about the New Age movement is that it is a lightweight, half-arsed spirituality that wants the lovey-dovey, feel-good antics of true religion, but without the hard work, shadow investigating, deep meditation, philosophical contemplation and so on.

The New Ager wants to endlessly pamper the wounded inner child with rainbows and unicorns, shamelessly abusing both scientific concepts and religious teachings to say whatever nonsense makes themselves feel angelic and magnificent. And it is so ungrounded that the current phase of promoting Trump will likely pass in favour of some other rubbish next year. It is feminine energy gone horribly wrong (except for the bullshit artists who make millions out of it).

Just as an example, I remember several years ago, there was a New Age trend called 'quantum jumping'. The idea was that one can access a possible future scenario and 'jump' into it to have whatever you want. Sigh. Firstly, this is just the same old law of attraction (which I have no opinion on) rebranded. Secondly, the scientific community currently does NOT support the New Age interpretation of quantum physics. Thirdly, even the LoT requires some disciplined effort sustained over time. Fourthly, a genuine understanding of the nature spirituality, happiness and love would lead down a very different path.

I realise I still haven't answered the question. New Agers despise authorities because they represent all the killjoys of grounded, reality-based, responsible, adult life. The need to wear masks in order to do the right thing by others is antithetical to an obsession with short-term gain and maximising whatever feels good for ME, right NOW. Conspiracy theories pamper the ego with a sense of superior knowledge, moral high ground and freedom to defame and abuse others to project their own dark shadow. Why? You guessed it, to feel good.

I formally lost all respect for the New Age movement after I started getting bombarded with pro-Trump propaganda by those people. I realised that they truly stand for nothing except whatever bullshit makes them feel good this week. 

[Reciprocality]

We think we live forever, thus follows destructive avocations, conspiracies is but one of those.

[Recursoinominado]

7 minutes ago, No Self said:

The first thing to know about the New Age movement is that it is a lightweight, half-arsed spirituality that wants the lovey-dovey, feel-good antics of true religion, but without the hard work, shadow investigating, deep meditation, philosophical contemplation and so on.

The New Ager wants to endlessly pamper the wounded inner child with rainbows and unicorns, shamelessly abusing both scientific concepts and religious teachings to say whatever nonsense makes themselves feel angelic and magnificent. And it is so ungrounded that the current phase of promoting Trump will likely pass in favour of some other rubbish next year. It is feminine energy gone horribly wrong (except for the bullshit artists who make millions out of it).

Just as an example, I remember several years ago, there was a New Age trend called 'quantum jumping'. The idea was that one can access a possible future scenario and 'jump' into it to have whatever you want. Sigh. Firstly, this is just the same old law of attraction (which I have no opinion on) rebranded. Secondly, the scientific community currently does NOT support the New Age interpretation of quantum physics. Thirdly, even the LoT requires some disciplined effort sustained over time. Fourthly, a genuine understanding of the nature spirituality, happiness and love would lead down a very different path.

I realise I still haven't answered the question. New Agers despise authorities because they represent all the killjoys of grounded, reality-based, responsible, adult life. The need to wear masks in order to do the right thing by others is antithetical to an obsession with short-term gain and maximising whatever feels good for ME, right NOW. Conspiracy theories pamper the ego with a sense of superior knowledge, moral high ground and freedom to defame and abuse others to project their own dark shadow. Why? You guessed it, to feel good.

I formally lost all respect for the New Age movement after I started getting bombarded with pro-Trump propaganda by those people. I realised that they truly stand for nothing except whatever bullshit makes them feel good this week. 

Damn, you made a great summary of the New Age movement. I was once open-minded but the deeper i go into spirituality, the more i see how delusional most of them are. As you said, they seem to be weak egos trying their best to feel special and angelic, calling themselves all sorts of names like "gypsies, witches, Pleiadians, old souls, starseeds, whatever".  They use pseudo-spirituality in order to avoid actually doing some serious inner work.

10 minutes ago, Reciprocality said:

We think we live forever, thus follows destructive avocations, conspiracies is but one of those.

That's deep, bro.

[Reciprocality]

2 minutes ago, Recursoinominado said:

That's deep, bro.

Haha, well it weren't meant as pessimistic as you may thought it were, for it sure sounded so reading it for myself.

A first-principled suicidality weren't quite what i were going for.

[Recursoinominado]

4 minutes ago, Reciprocality said:

Haha, well it weren't meant as pessimistic as you may thought it were, for it sure sounded so reading it for myself.

A first-principled suicidality weren't quite what i were going for.

I didn't read as pessimistic. That reminds me of a book called "The Denial Of Death", which talks about our heroic callings being an aspect of this denial of death, trying to transcend death itself through heroic acts that last for ages (maybe in history books). 

[ivory]

@No Self  Great analysis of the new age movement. I don't know anyone deeply entrenched in conspiracy theories but I have known many new-agers. What has astonished me is their willingness to pile on belief after belief without questioning any of it. I had always wondered why until I had a conversation with one of them. He said, "Without spirituality life would be meaningless." I think you are right in assessing the desire to feel good as a primary motive. But it's also true that many of them are avoiding an existential meltdown (we could argue that that is the desire to feel good). Nothing lasts, all of life is unsatisfactory, and there's no self to experience either. Not an easy pill to swallow. It's much more palatable to believe that we have spirits guiding us then to consider the possibility that we're 100% groundless.

[No Self]

28 minutes ago, Recursoinominado said:

Damn, you made a great summary of the New Age movement.

 

12 minutes ago, ivory said:

@No Self  Great analysis of the new age movement.

Thanks!

The insight that I have come as a result of being quite close to some New Age people. There is often a downfall at some point and it can be sad to see.

When a child is traumatised by uncontrollable and unpleasant events, sometimes the child resorts to fantasy as a coping strategy. In fantasy land, anything you want is true, you just have to build up walls to block the outside world. The syndrome that I mentioned seems to be a result of retaining this unfortunate habit into adulthood, and finding others to create a safe space/echo chamber/cult.

I am not saying that all of the New Age claims are necessarily false, only that the movement is primarily an exercise in ego gratification and ego defence and thus, not the highest path by any means.

[Megan Alecia]

Easy "solutions"/answers

Edited November 1, 2020 by Megan Alecia

[ivory]

34 minutes ago, No Self said:

I am not saying that all of the New Age claims are necessarily false, only that the movement is primarily an exercise in ego gratification and ego defence and thus, not the highest path by any means.

While we are being honest here I would like to add that the new age ego is my least favorite to be around.

[Hello from Russia]

Could be just stage blue in disguise. I found true new agers (stage green+) don't buy into that shit very much. Who do, however, is mostly stage blue guys based on my experience

Edited November 1, 2020 by Hello from Russia

[Globalcollective]

1 hour ago, Recursoinominado said:

@Globalcollective Nobody REEEALLY know what is going on, that's not the point!

What i am baffled is with the amount of time and energy WASTED with theories they can't ever prove, time and energy they could be spending actually working on themselves, building an online business, reading, practicing yoga, meditation or whatever. 

I mean, at BEST wearing a mask in public is a mild discomfort, even if COVID were indeed some sort of planned population control, the best we could do as individuals is to work to become great and possibly changing things later, not bitching and whining endlessly on social media like they are being led to concentration camps. This is some next level victim complex or even narcissism. 

@Recursoinominado I know I don't disagree with you I find it baffling too, maybe I gave them too much credit. One thing I can say for sure tho is the people I know who are into deep spiritual practices and take it seriously don't fall into this trap. The reason why they aren't busy working on all that stuff you mentioned is probably because they have a lot of deep work left to do within themselves so scapegoat it with these stupid theories. 

[Globalcollective]

3 minutes ago, Hello from Russia said:

Could be just stage blue in disguise. I found true new agers (stage green+) don't buy into that shit very much. Who do, however, is mostly stage blue folks from my experience

@Hello from Russia Interesting I find stage green is the prime candidate for them, especially with the ones about covid. Yellow or above is where you don't find it 

[Akemrelax]

This is not surprising to me. New agers believe in stuff they have no direct experience with all the time. Do you think they have verified chakras, energy, astrology, voodoo, numerology, and all such things? No, they project and believe in such things. It’s no surprise they believe in COVID-19 conspiracy theories.

They have made an identity out of being contrarians and into gimmicky hippie things. They use spirituality to solve their dysfunctions, that’s why it puts them in a comfort zone of comfortable beliefs and ideas. Spirituality must be pursued with positive motivation, otherwise it (usually) leads to escapism.

[Leo Gura]

Green people are sheep too.