Does yoga have a conspiracy theory problem?

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:
Shayan Sardarizadeh
@Shayan86
"They'd send me info about Big Pharma, which then led into Bill Gates, then to sex trafficking.

"I also saw a different language being used amongst my peers: 'The Great Awakening', 'The Storm', 'Where We Go One We Go All'."

Report by @joshcheetham
Closeup of a woman sitting cross-legged on her bed at home and using a streaming class on a laptop to help her meditate
Does yoga have a conspiracy theory problem?
Some online yoga influencers are accused of spreading conspiracy theories. Does yoga have a problem?
bbc.co.uk
6:20 PM · Feb 14, 2021

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-55957298

[Sanity Claws]

1. I don't know of any yoga or "new age" sites that are into QAnon

There may be some anti-vaxxers in the sites but they certainly don't dominate the sites.

[SunSeeker]

3. Well, Marjorie Taylor Greene's tantric sex yoga guru is obviously QAnon curious.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/02/marjorie-taylor-greene-alleged-gym-affairs

[Upthevibe]

16. Sanity Claws....Quite a few "New Age"/"New Thought" people,

sites, and people I know have been taken in by QAnon. It's a BIG problem. I've cut lose two very good friends...

[Hortensis]

2. Yes, among some. Alternative therapy and belief groups are being swamped

by influxes of conspiracists, who tend to be drawn to anything that strikes them as counterculture, occult forces, herbalism, woo in general, no matter how old and established. Principled practitioners, initially taken by surprise at the kind of things new adherents were spouting, have been fighting for a while to maintain control and to protect their beliefs and other people from the corruption of this craziness.

[Sanity Claws]

5. Can you identify a few of those sites?

I'm curious.
Is it more than just a few trolls, who seem to show up everywhere?

[Hortensis]

8. Yup. I've only read about it. You'll need to search on the problem.

Some disciplines, including yoga practitioners, have united to trade ideas and work together. I glanced at but didn't read a statement of purpose signed by a bunch that denounced what was happening. As you can imagine, they were all flummoxed and didn't know what to do when this began.

Of course, some practitioners will always have been flaky, complicating the picture, and likely many of those were very low-hanging fruit. There's also a lot of money to be made.

[Hortensis]

8. Yup. I've only read about it. Search on the problem. Some

disciplines, including yoga practitioners, have united to trade ideas and work together. I glanced at but didn't read a statement of purpose signed by a bunch that denounced what was happening. As you can imagine, they were all flummoxed and didn't know what to do when this began.

[electric_blue68]

13. Woah-oh! I'd not heard about this! 😯

[liberal_mama]

19. Yeah, the Yoga and Alternative Medicine groups on Facebook are suddenly filled with Qanon Believers

Even my Fibromylagia groups are full of anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists. I've been a member of these groups for years and I never noticed too much of this before.

[Baitball Blogger]

4. What I noticed about someone who is deep in Yoga, is that they used the practice to tune-out.

It's as if tuning out is spiritual. She doesn't want to talk politics. Considers it too toxic.

[tinrobot]

12. Politics actually is kind of toxic, particularly at the moment.

I could understand people not wanting to talk about it, regardless of yoga practice.

[tanyev]

6. Interesting, and a little odd.

I guarantee there’s still a lot of Bible thumping Trumphumpers who think yoga is of the devil.

[msfiddlestix]

7. Right? I remember doing yoga back a hundred years ago, there wasn't any kind of boogaloo Q thingy

no weird anything.

except the time I did some peyote before doing yoga. that one was a little bit weird. but not evil weird.

[marlakay]

10. I do yoga with Adriene from Austin, Texas

She is sweet and videos free on YouTube, never talks politics but you can tell she is liberal by the things she says about environment and other things.

[Coventina]

11. Yoga is a thousands years old practice. It does not have a CT problem.

There might be some CT weirdos who think yoga people are CT-curious, but the practice itself is not to blame.

What nonsense!

[Takket]

14. America has a conspiracy theory problem

This isn’t confined to any one thing like yoga.

[tinrobot]

15. All types of people practice yoga.

Some will invariably believe in conspiracies, most won't.

Don't blame the yoga.

[liberal_mama]

17. I have a friend who is yoga instructor and in a short period of time, she went totally Qanon crazy!

Right around the time the pandemic started, she went out of her mind, saying the virus was a hoax, refusing to wear a mask, obsessed with Qanon theories like Bill Gates and 5G. I posted an article about Tom Hanks and she attacked it, saying he was a pedophile. I had to unfriend her on Facebook because she was acting like a lunatic and it was upsetting my family and other friends.

[lunasun]

18. I would say the "wellness" community has had one as a whole. I trace it back to Obama years imo

So yoga would be a part of that community
Had steered away online for years already since I got turned off back then but now lately I’ve been reading many sites have turned full nutter and the whole covid made it worse
so I went back to a few I used to visit and they are all convinced they don’t need a vaccine and have all kind of CT concern on what the shot can do to you .
Some no need for mask because all kinds of excuses
I personally didn’t run into Qn stuff but it was bad enough . So weird
What does this have to do with real wellness ?
Really sad just because you do yoga and stay healthy does not mean you are invincible in a pandemic . The CT stuff all ridiculous scare garbage

Here is an article from last fall talking about it
Many people have been highlighting how far it’s going down to try and stop the spread for quite some time
Plenty are not involved at all and don’t like what’s trying to take over or be promoted

https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/wellness-influencers-q-anon/

She thinks QAnon has found such a willing audience among the wellness community because many people who find themselves in that space do so because they’re seekers, looking for answers about their own mental and physical health, and may be skeptical of certain mainstream institutions. Khouri points to the popularity of anti-vaxx rhetoric and distrust of “Big Pharma” within wellness spaces.

“They want personal sovereignty over their health choices, so the idea that COVID is a hoax or a plot to get everyone vaccinated fits into their narrative,” she says. “Many people in the wellness community fancy themselves free thinkers and anti-establishment.”