The Conspirituality Virus

In February 2021, I got my second jab of the Pfizer vaccine.

A week before getting it, a dear friend and spiritual brother of mine wrote to me to “break off” our friendship. At first, I was confused. I was sure that nothing had happened between us. But as I read his message, I came to understand that he felt the need to end our friendship because I had publicly posted a photograph of myself receiving my first vaccination.

As I was getting inoculated against the Coronavirus, apparently my friend had been infected by what I came to think of as the “conspirituality” virus.

My friend is a deeply spiritual man. His style of spirituality is more New Age than mine, but our connection was heart-based from our first meeting. He is also deeply skeptical of conventional authority and had gone far down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories surrounding the pandemic.

In our periodic contact over the previous year, our conversations would return again and again to the idea that the pandemic had been planned, that the virus was somehow part of a larger conspiracy, and that powerful forces were using the crisis to control the population.

But our conversations always came back to the heart, in a reaffirmation of our connection and loving friendship.

Then, between my first and second vaccination, he decided that, in a move of what he called “radical honesty,” he had to confront me.

Apparently, my decision to get vaccinated — and to publicly post about it — had crossed a line for him. He felt that I had lost my connection to my spiritual source and that our paths needed to separate.

I was being canceled by a friend.

To be fair, I do believe in some conspiracy theories. I also believe there are important conversations to be had about vaccinations, public health, authority, and the limits of institutional trust.

But this experience made me reflect on something deeper.

The pandemic did not simply expose disagreements about medicine or politics. It exposed how easily fear, mistrust, identity, and spiritual beliefs can become intertwined.

The term “conspirituality” describes a particular intersection of New Age spirituality and conspiracy thinking. It can become especially powerful when distrust of authority combines with a sense that one has discovered a hidden truth that others cannot see.

Once beliefs become part of our identity, disagreement can begin to feel like a threat to who we are.

And when that happens, conversation becomes difficult.

It becomes easier to dismiss the other person than to remain in relationship with them.

For me, one of the saddest aspects of this experience was not the disagreement itself. It was the loss of connection.

Regardless of our differences in belief, my friend is now, and always will be, in my heart.

There are many difficult things about the times we live in. One of the most painful is watching fear and certainty divide people who genuinely care about one another.

Perhaps the spiritual practice is not simply to discover what is true.

Perhaps it is also to remain human with one another while we disagree.

May we all heal.