Thread by @matthewremski

@marwilliamson may respond beyond denial and challenge this devastating reporting through a defamation suit. If she doesn't, well, hm.

Either way, a few observations are in order with regard to interpersonal behaviours in the New Age (NA) world./1

politico.com/news/2023/03/1…

Charismatic religious leaders can be hypocritical assholes regardless of their faith, and any faith can be used to rationalize or spiritualize abuse.

What makes NA charismatics different is that they operate almost entirely according to individualistic market principles. /2

There are NA economies and Oprah platforms and workshop circuits, but no functional communities with social history, experience in social justice or charitable work. Most NA philosophy piously sneers at worldly work. Their obsession is with the self-project. /3

NA offers no standard education, no peers to hold you accountable, no daily management of shared assets. I.e., all of the stuff you would need to be competent in politics.

The self-project is reflected and amplified by an entrepreneurial structure selling personal awakening. /4

So. Imagine you spend a decade or more meditating on #ACourseinMiracles, which says that your thoughts make reality, sickness = spiritual weakness, psychotherapy is misguided, all emotions but love are insane, and there are no worldly or material solutions to suffering. /5

Imagine you do all of that meditation in the above-described libertarian-consumer mode.

Then, part of you realizes that you also want to really change the world.

But: the primary tool you have for changing the world is the dogged belief that your thoughts create reality. /6

You would not be set up for success. Even moderate failure would feel unreal, humiliating, enraging.

If the reporting here stands, it would not be surprising to me. ACIM, more than any other spiritual text I know of, is a machine for magical thinking and its terrors. /7

Stories of NA megalomaniacs are standard on our beat.

They are not worse than evangelical or yoga cult leaders. The difference is that they code progressive, because the NA discourse of universal light etc can sound like mutual aid.

Is this a stable leftist politics? No. /8

References to NDAs and trauma bonding? Not good, if the reporting stands.

More generally, the amount of extreme internal tension necessitated by NA emotional repression and world-denial wrecks havoc in this demographic. /9

Devotion to ACIM does not predict shitty behaviour. But the NA is very good at masking and monetizing shitty behaviour behind claims of universal compassion, demands for forgiveness, and the messiah complex that asks devotees to repeat:

"I am the holy Son of God." /end