Bonus Sample: Swan Song Series 4 | Michelle Remembers: Context & History

Conspirituality

Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker

Social Sciences, Science, Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.0 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2022

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There's no Teal Swan without the Satanic Panic. And there's no Satanic Panic without the 1980 publication of Michelle Remembers, by Lawrence Pazder and Michelle Smith.In this first of three segments on this melted book, Matthew and Julian cover its historical, cultural, and mass media context. We start with a review of a 1985 20/20 episode called “The Devil Worshippers” for a taste of how mainstream outlets hosted cranks like Pazder, giving him a hall pass on evidence, and overlooking how his Catholic fetishes and paranoias played a huge role in the fictions he spun. The post Vatican 2 context is crucial, especially as we bear witness to the current political triumphs of Trad-Cath propaganda and politics in our post-Roe, QAnon -fried world. For help, we look to an excellent essay by social historian Bernard Doherty about the genre and elements of the Catholic Horror Film, which begins with Rosemary's Baby in 1968. This reactionary genre attempted to respond to modernizing—or postmodernizing, as Jordan Peterson might say—changes in Church doctrine.Bottom line? The Satanic Panic largely begins in and is sustained by Catholic-flavoured conspirituality anxiety about secularization, sex, babies, and abortion.Show NotesMichael Hobbes and Sarah Marshall cover Michelle Remembers with great skill. "20/20" the Devil Worshippers - May 16, 1985West of Memphis movie review & film summary (2012) | Roger EbertMel Gibson: The man without a pope - Where Peter IsThe Smoke of Satan on the Silver Screen: The Catholic Horror Film, Vatican II, and the Revival of Demonology | Journal for the Academic Study of Religion -- -- --Support us on PatreonPre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | JulianOriginal music by EarthRise SoundSystem Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a Glassbox Media Podcast.
0:11.0	Hello, conspiratuality listeners.
0:13.0	This bonus sample comes to you from our Early Access Patreon collection called Swan Song
0:18.5	Series, in which we examine the historical and cultural roots that inform and fuel the
0:24.1	teal swan spectacle.
0:26.0	The full version of this episode will show up on this feed sometime in the future, but
0:30.8	if you'd like to hear it now and support our growing research and publishing initiatives,
0:36.0	please pledge $5 a month at patreon.com slash conspiratuality for access to this and hundreds
0:42.7	of hours of bonus media.
0:45.8	Our own three-part pathway through this material will have a more narrow frame because we'll
0:53.5	be thinking particularly about the legacy of Michelle Remembers in relation to conspiratuality
0:58.5	and teal swan.
1:00.4	So our plan for this episode is to deliver some historical, cultural, and mass media context.
1:08.2	On the mass media front, we have clips of a 2020 episode from 1985.
1:13.4	It's called The Devil Worshipers and it will spin your head around like poor Regan in
1:18.0	the exorcist.
1:19.0	So you'll hear us do some bits on it.
1:21.4	It's hilarious, but it's also harrowing to consider just how piled network news was in
1:27.1	the 1980s, which only added kerosene to the satanic panic fire.
1:32.7	We're also today going to introduce Lawrence Paster, the co-author, but likely the lead
1:38.7	or main or soul author of Michelle Remembers, but for the transcripts of the sessions,
1:45.8	which we'll get to.
	...

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