From a four year old blog post: "So for da record, I don´t do crystals or channeling, don´t await the arrival of benign space brothers to some hippie commune, nor do I do affirmations in the hope of selling off real estate at inflated prices (in the neighborhood of Boston, presumably). I don´t even wear a turban and a golden dagger, although I suppose that could be interesting pastimes, especially in the middle of a pandemic! So I don´t know, man."
Dude.
Is this "the sly man"? Or maybe not, since "Nathan" just admitted that his former business (selling magical crystals for a profit) was a scam. What if some of "Nathan´s" customers sue him?
Just as I suspected, this guy is a wanna-be "cult" leader. Or "club" leader, to use his own terminology. The most charitable interpretation is that he´s into some modernized version of Advaita Vedanta or Zen. A less charitable interpretation? Think OTO, Franklin Jones, or even Gurdjieff. What is the "power" he constantly talks about? Kundalini, maybe...?
Not recommended.
Vision boards are dangerous, apparently. Never even heard of them before, but our sistah in Xrist Doreen Virtue have the receipts. Please note that Virtue actually say that vision boards may work. But since they aren´t Biblical but rather occult, you shouldn´t use them anyway.
I didn´t think I would have to defend "positive thinking"!
That being said: I´m sure Virtue is right when she said that everything she got from vision boards "felt wrong" in some way. Well, yes, that´s because the material world is imperfect. In that sense, "turning to God" might indeed be a better option if you want "eternal peace". But while humans can´t live by bread alone, most of us do need that darn bread somewhere at the base of Maslow´s pyramid. And if the good lord doesn´t provide it, well...
A rather bad and naïve article, supposedly written by a senior award-winning writer. Yeah, so about that...
Conspirituality was a thing 30 years ago and probably earlier. So was the new agey interface between demographics that "should" be liberal/leftist and various right-wing ideas. And the American alternative scene has always been incredibly eclectic, including politically speaking. I´m old enough to remember when confused left-liberals supported Pat Buchanan, for crying out loud! And what about left-liberal Ralph Nader´s protest outside Skull & Bones headquarters?
The article was written in 2021, long before RFK Jr endorsed Trump. Which fits the format. The discourse that conspirituality (conspiracy + spirituality) was a new thing was in vogue. But sure, it may have been "new" as in "not part of the mainstream", mainstream defined as "whatever is noticed by mandarinette liberals at Salon magazine". LOL.
The second link goes to a conversation between my own humble self and ChatGPT.
Why some New Age influencers believe Trump is a "lightworker"
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| Welcome to the night club! |
A propos the previous blog post...
This is from the website of the Universal Life Church Monastery (the ex-night club breakaway faction). These guys are more insane than I expected!
Only in America? The so-called Universal Life Church (ULC) is notorious for ordaining literally anyone to its "ministry", including Playboy employees and explicit atheists. OK, they don´t ordain dogs and cats. Or do they?
But...it turns out that even this super-inclusive Church has split and that most people "ordained" by it have really received their certificate from a breakaway faction informally known as The Monastery. It´s apparently a former gay-oriented night club housed in a vacated church building in Seattle?! They were offically recognized by the original ULC at one point, but then decided to strike out on their own, appropriating the ULC designation in the process. It seems the neo-ULC is currently larger than the paleo-version!
The ULC was founded over a century ago by one Kirby J Hensley. His actual religious beliefs seem somewhat unclear. Perhaps a soft-core version of New Thought coupled with a heavy dose of California-style liberalism? Or was it libertarianism? At one point, he explicitly referred to himself as a "con man". It´s rather obvious that his Church was really a business operation, since most people "ordained" also bought products through the ULC´s mail order service or websites. After Hensley´s death, the ULC apparently paid over a million dollars to the IRS in back taxes.
Apparently, there is also a third group based on Hensley´s ideas, but they don´t call themselves ULC and actually have three doctrinal statements (well, kind of), whereas the paleos and the neos have exactly none. I kind of wonder what would happen if people on the Alt Right would ironically get ordained by the ULCs as a provocation? Would that force these Churches to finally issue a formal creed openly espousing West Coast values? But perhaps the Alt Right isn´t *that* ironic, after all...
Again: Only in America. On planet Earth.
ChatGPT continues its Kulturkritik of (or is it Kulturkampf against) modern Western spirituality, now from a bhakti yoga perspective!
Examine why Bhakti resists esoteric merger.
This is a crucial question, because Bhakti is the great spoiler of modern esoteric universalism. It persistently refuses to collapse into technique, symbolism, or psychologized “spirituality,” and that resistance is structural, not accidental.
I’ll examine this in layers: metaphysical, soteriological, ritual, psychological, and modern reception.
At its heart, Bhakti asserts:
The ultimate reality is personal, and liberation occurs through relationship, not through knowledge or technique.
This immediately creates friction with esoteric synthesis.
• Esotericism seeks correspondence
• Bhakti seeks communion
These are not the same orientation.
Even in non-dual Bhakti (e.g., Ramanuja, Chaitanya):
• The devotee never becomes God
• Difference is preserved in intimacy
• Love requires otherness
Thus Bhakti resists:
• Tantric identity claims
• Alchemical self-perfection
• Theosophical “you are divine” rhetoric
God remains irreducibly other.
Bhakti insists:
Liberation is granted, not achieved.
This is fatal to esoteric technique.
• No mantra works automatically
• No ritual compels God
• No insight guarantees liberation
Even practices (japa, kīrtan) are:
• Expressions of love
• Not technologies of ascent
Esoteric systems often treat emotion as:
• Raw material to be refined
• Energy to be transmuted
Bhakti treats emotion as:
A mode of knowledge
Love, longing, grief, ecstasy are:
• Epistemic
• Revelatory
• Final, not preliminary
This breaks the esoteric ladder model.
In Bhakti:
• Pain is not a purifying fire
• Nor a cosmic correction
• Nor ignorance to be dissolved
It is:
The ache of separation (viraha)
This cannot be repurposed as:
• Alchemical crucible
• Tantric intensity
• Psychological growth tool
It must be endured and offered.
Bhakti lives in:
• Stories
• Songs
• Lives of saints
• Divine play (līlā)
Esotericism prefers:
• Schemas
• Correspondences
• Maps
• Stages
Narrative resists abstraction.
You can’t easily turn:
• Krishna stealing butter
• Rama grieving Sita
• Mirabai singing in exile
into techniques.
Historically:
• Bhakti movements rejected elite ritualism
• Undermined priestly control
• Cut across caste and gender
• Prioritized accessibility over secrecy
Esotericism thrives on:
• Initiation
• Hierarchy
• Esoteric knowledge
Bhakti thrives on:
• Public singing
• Repetition
• Simplicity
Modern spirituality prefers:
• Autonomy
• Empowerment
• Inner divinity
• Mastery
Bhakti demands:
• Dependence
• Vulnerability
• Surrender
• Trust
This is existentially uncomfortable in modernity.
• “Krishna is an archetype”
• “Devotion is self-love”
• “God is your higher self”
These moves neutralize Bhakti by:
• Removing alterity
• Eliminating grace
• Turning prayer into affirmation
What remains is no longer Bhakti.
This is why:
• Meister Eckhart gets absorbed into esotericism
• Teresa of Ávila does not
Because Teresa insists on:
• Christ as other
• Love as surrender
• Obedience as path
Bhakti stands with Teresa, not with Eckhart.
Bhakti resists esoteric merger because it insists that liberation comes through a loving relationship with an irreducibly other God, grounded in grace rather than technique, emotion rather than mastery, and surrender rather than self-realization.
Across your questions—Tantra, theurgy, Martinism, Böhme, Dhumavatī—Bhakti marks the limit case:
• Where esoteric synthesis breaks
• Where technique fails
• Where identity collapses into love
If you want, we could:
• Compare Bhakti with Christian theurgy
• Examine why modern identity spirituality avoids devotion
• Analyze viraha alongside dark-night mysticism
• Or return to Kali/Dhumavatī as non-Bhakti poles
Just tell me where to go next.
At this point in our conversation, the AI started to do some kind of Kulturkritik of modern esotericism (think New Age, New Thought and so on).
Could you compare alchemy and theurgy with Tantric sādhanā and look at why modern esotericism merges them?
Excellent pairing. Tantric sādhanā sits between alchemy and theurgy in a way that helps explain why modern esotericism collapses all three. I’ll do this in two parts: first a structural comparison, then an analysis of the modern merger.
Tantra is often misunderstood because it uses ritual, transformation, and divine invocation simultaneously. But it has its own metaphysical logic.
Nothing is broken, but everything is bound.
This already differentiates it from classical theurgy.
• No absolute Fall
• No ontological rupture
• No exile from God
Bondage (bandha) arises from:
• Ignorance (avidyā)
• Misidentification
• Habitual limitation
This places Tantra closer to alchemy than to theurgy.
Liberation through recognition of identity with the divine.
Specifically:
• Jīva realizes identity with Śiva / Devī
• Matter is not escaped but divinized
• World becomes the field of liberation
No “return from exile” — because one never left.
Tantra uniquely integrates:
• Ritual (mantra, nyāsa, pūjā)
• Body techniques (mudrā, breath, sexual polarity)
• Visualization (yantra, deity yoga)
• Gnosis (recognition, jñāna)
Unlike alchemy:
• Less laboratory/process metaphor
• More identity transformation
Unlike theurgy:
• Deities are not ontologically separate in the end
• Invocation is recognition, not appeal
Here is the crucial difference.
• Nature transforms itself
• God intervenes from beyond
• The practitioner awakens as God
Deities are:
• Real
• Active
• Ultimately non-dual with the sādhaka
This makes Tantra incompatible with classical theurgy’s humility-before-transcendence model.
Tantra does not deny:
• Decay
• Terror
• Loss
• Emptiness
But it treats them as:
Forms of Śakti, not signs of cosmic failure
Dhumavatī embodies:
• Void
• Loss
• Smoke
• Hunger
Yet she is:
• A Mahāvidyā
• A path, not a punishment
This is radically non-theurgical.
| Feature | Alchemy | Theurgy | Tantra |
|---|---|---|---|
| World status | Incomplete | Fallen | Bound |
| Matter | Latent spirit | Disordered | Divine |
| Goal | Completion | Restoration | Recognition |
| Method | Process | Invocation | Identity |
| Deity | Archetype | Repairer | Self |
| Darkness | Impurity | Rupture | Power |
Now the second part of your question.
This merger is not accidental — it’s driven by modernity.
Pre-modern systems assumed:
• Stable cosmologies
• Clear metaphysical claims
• Shared religious horizons
Modern esotericism arises after those collapse.
So:
• Ontological claims become symbolic
• Metaphysical disagreements blur
• Techniques survive, doctrines fade
From the 19th century onward:
• Alchemy → psychology (Jung)
• Tantra → energy work
• Theurgy → intention-setting
Once internalized:
• Completion
• Restoration
• Recognition
all look the same: “self-transformation.”
This erases the original distinctions.
Theosophy:
• Rejected exclusive truth claims
• Treated all traditions as fragments
• Reinterpreted deities as principles
• Universalized initiation
Thus:
• Christ becomes “Christ principle”
• Śakti becomes “cosmic energy”
• Angels become “higher vibrations”
Alchemy, theurgy, and Tantra become interchangeable methods.
Classical theurgy is demanding:
• Moral purification
• Obedience
• Submission
Modern esotericism prefers:
• Empowerment
• Mastery
• Self-authorization
So it borrows:
• Alchemical transformation
• Tantric empowerment
and quietly drops:
• Theurgical humility
Tantra enters Western esotericism:
• Stripped of lineage
• Decontextualized
• Romanticized
It is reframed as:
• A technique of power
• A method of awakening
• A confirmation of Western esoteric ideas
Rather than a disciplined tradition.
Modern esotericism typically assumes:
• The self is divine
• Techniques unlock it
• Symbols are interchangeable
• Traditions are metaphors
This synthesis feels liberating—but loses depth.
Because:
• Alchemy asks: How do I complete nature?
• Theurgy asks: How am I restored?
• Tantra asks: Who am I already?
Merging them obscures the question being asked.
Tantric sādhanā treats bondage as ignorance rather than rupture, using ritualized identity with the divine, whereas modern esotericism collapses alchemy, theurgy, and Tantra by psychologizing them into a single narrative of self-transformation.
If you want, next we could:
• Compare Tantra with Advaita or Dzogchen
• Examine why Bhakti resists esoteric merger
• Return to Dhumavatī vs Böhme’s dark ground
• Or analyze modern identity spirituality as failed theurgy
Just say the word.
YouTube videos of skeptics going after some really low hanging fruit.
The first clip tells us what happens if a fairly well-educated skeptic (in a black mask) decides to seriously comment a confused spouter of quasi-quantum woo-woo. It´s funny, after a fashion.
Next, that South Korean guy who pretends to have the world´s highest IQ is apparently still at it. Just wait until the more serious Christians realize that he´s a "heretic". But sure, maybe flat earthers will still take him at face value?
And then there´s some fake "time traveler" who claims he´s the next emperor of North America or something to that effect. LOL. He´s also afraid of catching diabetes because he drinks too much soda?!
The ride never ends. And I want a tastier fruit salad!
Professor Dave sounds less unhinged than usual in this 4 year old clip, in which he attacks "quantum mysticism" or the misuse of quantum physics (or rather the pop version of it) to promote New Age spirituality, New Thought-like self-help and alternative medicine.
Deepak Chopra is prominently featured and so are the ubiqutuous crystals. Somewhat surprisingly, the budding cult leader Leo is still around on YouTube. I assumed he would be too uncharismatic to become the honcho of anything! Maybe a quantum effect of some kind?
If Dave had always been like this, I might even start to like him, but alas, I suppose the pitbull style was more lucrative...
New Thought is back with a vengeance. On the web. In the form of mostly female influencers. Another example of the typical American phenomenon "become succesful by talking about success" (rather than actually doing something).
This scholarly YouTube channel does its best to analyze the phenomenon. See: New Thought, New Age, The Secret, Oprah...and, I suppose, good ol´Mammon!
Somewhere in there, you can even see Donald Trump...
Sometimes even Doreen Virtue makes interesting content. This time about MLM, including its connection to charismatic Christianity. It seems all MLMs operate in pretty much the same way, make up pretty much the same claims, and have the same detrimental results for most of the participants. I didn´t know about the (presumably informal) connections to New Thought and the prosperity gospel, but it doesn´t surprise me either. After all, the underlying ideas seem to be the same: a kind of "magical thinking" about success and how to reach it, the cultic mentality, and so on. Obviously, the entire basis for these things is American capitalism and/or culture.
In the one-hour video, Virtue speaks with two former merchandizers of "Amway", an old MLM business in the United States (and accused of being a cult for decades by critics). The couple were also involved in the Word of Faith movement. They discuss how Amway really operates backstage, and how certain Christian groups try to recruit people through the MLM milieu.
As I said, could be of some interest.
The Amazing Atheist (sic) comes out as a believer in Chaos Magick. Make of this content what ye wish.
Doreen Virtue´s most recent YouTube video has the absurd title "Oprah´s Demonic Agenda - Insider Tells All", the insider in question being Virtue herself. I have essentially zero interest in Oprah Winfrey and her show, so it came as something of a surprise to learn that she was *so* into New Age spirituality, including channeling and similar stuff. But yes, that would explain a thing or two. Indeed, Doreen Virtue herself (during her New Age period) was one of the people propelled into mega-fame by Oprah. Another was none other than Marianne Williamson, today mostly known for her two quixotic attempts to run for US president.
I can´t say I like this clip. Virtue´s born again Christian fundamentalism makes her condemn essentially everything else as "demonic". Oprah is apparently an abuse survivor and it seems many female survivors are drawn to New Age and New Thought, perhaps because of its magical positive thinking message, which these people may found empowering. Or at least more empowering than, say, Christian fundamentalism?
Virtue spends a good portion of her video to argue that abuse victims should embrace her form of fundamentalism rather than the "demonic" New Age messaging, which in her estimation is simply "disassociation". The New Age believers live in a fantasy world of love, but its somehow created by the Devil himself who acts as their "sugar daddy". So survivors of sexual and physical abuse should turn to Christ instead.
Virtue´s version of Christ, that is. Since he tortures billions of sinners in an eternal hell, somebody might argue that he is the ultimate serial abuser. And hardly a good alternative to the metaphysical sugar daddy.
Frankly, I found this video to be pretty disturbing. Maybe we should pray for...Doreen Virtue.
Denna underliga slinga har titeln "Ta emot oväntat överflöd och välsignelser i ditt liv". Fungerar ju knappast, men det kanske är värt ett försök? Fast egentligen borde jag väl ha postat detta den 11 november kl. 11:11 (lokal tid)...
Two New Age YouTube clips about Doreen Virtue. I didn´t know that Virtue grew up in a Christian Science or New Thought home. Apparently, as a New Age teacher, she took the Love & Light of this particular brand of spirituality to new heights. Guardian angels, unicorns, mermaids, no 2012 apocalypse...positive thinking, guys! One of her angel card decks is apparently a sanitized version of the Tarot, with all the scary stuff excised (no Death, no Devil, no Tower).
At the height of her popularity, Virtue appeared on Oprah Winfrey Show and made millions of dollars. Indeed, her classes were extremely expensive (the content-creator mentions a class that cost 2000 dollars). Why she later became a Christian fundamentalist seems to be anybody´s guess, and I don´t think this content-creator gets her theology right. But then, Virtue has probably changed it a couple of times anyway.
It´s a weird story, tbh, more so since Doreen Virtue´s new beliefs are the polar opposites of the fluffy positive "metaphysical" stuff she was promoting for years. It´s like she now believes that only the scary and negative things about New Age are real, with no redeeming qualities whatever. Virtue has even tried to stop further distribution of her old books and card decks.
Did she have a paranoid epiphany, I wonder?
I find it funny that the most colorful presidential candidate in recent memory (except Trump and Biden, obviously) has her own page on the website of the World Religions and Spirituality Project.
Yes, that would be New Age teacher Marianne Williamson.
I didn´t know she was Jewish or had a background in ACIM (A Course In Miracles) specifically, while her connections to the hippie counter-culture are perhaps less surprising. In fact, I didn´t know she even existed before her 2020 bid for the Dem nomination. In reality, Williamson is apparently the most popular promoter of ACIM, propelled to fame through Oprah Winfrey Show! Note that she has de-Christianized ACIM (which purports to be a channeled message from Jesus) to give it a wider appeal (presumably in New Age and secular circles).
The WRSP entry hasn´t been updated since 2020, so I include a second link about her 2024 primary campaign, which she recently suspended.
