Important: NPR takes a closer look at the 'wellness to QAnon pipeline'

Next time you’re thinking about heading to the yoga studio, you’d be well advised to stop and think twice about what you could be exposing yourself to. Because, as NPR reports, things are getting pretty ugly in the yoga realm

QAnon and conspiratorial thinking have gained traction in certain yoga and wellness circles.

Here's how one yoga teacher's story — and path to radicalization — can help shed light on the "wellness to QAnon" pipeline.https://t.co/kRNMl7iy15

— NPR (@NPR) January 2, 2023

One yogi turned out to be a believer in chemtrails and lizard people, which is obviously a sign that all yoga instructors are right-wing conspiracy theorists.

More from NPR:

Of course, many people practice yoga without believing in conspiracy theories. However, yoga philosophy and conspiratorial thinking have a lot in common, [Matthew Remski, a former yoga teacher and journalist] said, making it easy to slide from the former into the latter.

In both circles, there is an emphasis on “doing your own research” and “finding your own truth.” And many people who practice and teach yoga distrust Western medicine, preferring to find alternative solutions or try to let their body heal itself.

“The relativism around truth, which has so long been a part of wellness culture, really reared its head in the pandemic,” said Natalia Petrzela, an author and historian at The New School. “This idea that ‘truth is just in the eye of the beholder’ is something which can feel kind of empowering when you’re sitting in yoga class, but when it’s the pandemic, and that kind of language is being deployed to kind of foment, like, vaccine denial or COVID denialism, it has the same power, because we’re all steeped in this culture … it can be used for real harm.”

QAnon, in particular, may have a particular resonance for yoga practitioners, according to Ben Lorber, a researcher at Political Research Associates, a think tank that monitors right-wing movements, because both communities share the idea of a higher truth accessible to a select few.

I was almost radicalized by a local yogi but thankfully the studio was shut down for several months and I was able to be deprogrammed.

If anyone you know is still practicing yoga, speak up. #SilenceIsViolence #SeeSomethingSaySomething https://t.co/v3x8PdhPo9

— 🫃🏼🇺🇦💉Hollaria Briden, Esq. (@HollyBriden) January 2, 2023

Snort.

If you banned “reporting” on Qanon, Trump, and various activities like bird-watching being racist, NPR would find nothing on Earth left to say. https://t.co/yFZgnhJHGQ

— Adam Mala (@themalacast) January 2, 2023

This is the same taxpayer funded publication that said the Hunter Biden laptop story wasn’t newsworthy https://t.co/WNGXSu66Hp

— SuperPratt (@HHrvynia) January 2, 2023

Parting reminder: