Hey everyone, I'm Matthew Remski. This is Conspiruality, where we investigate the roots and

intersections of conspiracy theories and spiritual influence to uncover cults, pseudoscience,

and authoritarian extremism. You can follow myself, Derek and Julian, on Blue Sky. The podcast

is on Instagram and threads under its own handle. And you can support

our Patreon. You can also find me personally on YouTube and TikTok at Antifascist Dad.

Short bonus episode today called Michael Parenti went to a yoga ashram. And it's a riff on a story

that Parenti told to open a lecture in

1987 in Colorado called the political uses of religion at the American atheists convention.

So I'll start by rolling that. A few years ago, I went on a yoga retreat in the Caribbean,

a little island. It's an ashram where people practice yoga.

I went because I like yoga. Unfortunately, this microphone in front of my... Can you all hear me,

all right? Back there in the cheap seats, you can... You can... Unfortunately, the head of the whole...

This yoga sect was there, the head Swami, a very religious man,

and he gave sermons every morning which the guests were required to attend.

And every day he talked about love and the

higher cosmic force of love. And every day he talked about how spiritual things were everything

and material things are nothing. He was an Indian. You say spiritual things are everything,

material things are nothing.

And then one day his yacht was on, got loose from the pier and it began to float away.

And he started to scream and so get my yacht, get my yacht.

And he had a yacht and he had a seaplane.

And this man of love I noticed was filled with hate. He yelled

...