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- May 19, 2026
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- #1
I premise I read almost only conspiracy related materials. Conspiracy theory is one of my lifetime hobbies.
We should have a book review section by the way.
Rating 8.5/10
I was readin this book but I skipped the intro. After some pages, I wondered if the author is xtian, bcause her writing seems classical xtian conspiracy content. These xtian conspiracy theorists are more driven than avg, they spend more time documentin, researchin, they write treatises. And their metanarrative is something like good vs evil or sense of victimism, or they talk about satan hidden in every corner. Turns out yes shes xtian.
Carla writes of evil hidden forces in the new age movement, the government and the corporate world. Shes convinced these forces are a threat to humanity and shes inspired by "back to the land" xtian coping and self sufficiency romantics. And we also see a belief in free will, which is the reason Carla is so meticulous listing all the hypnotic methods. Plus, she believes in democracy, so she thinks everyone should be aware of these hypnosis practices.
I liked in the book theres a lot of amazing drawings. The author of these draws is Corey Smigliani, and they look cartoonish and haunting. A great atmosphere. These drawings look like fading memory of a bad dream and this visual language works very well for the type of info presented.
Theres lots of refs and quotes and citations. But, alot of them are on the internet and I noticed some quotes cannot be reached. The website where they were taken is gone. This serves as a reminder for all conspiracy theorists: we should always archive everything. Internet is getting wiped and rewritten.
As for research methodology I would say is mostly good. There are some flaws, for example Carla takes some quotes out of context, and she misrepresents them, she makes them appear as "doctrine" of the entire field of study or as if they guide the principles of an entire organization. She often ignores experts pushing against the people she mentions, except when is convenient to her narrative, then she starts quoting experts.
My biggest critique is her blind spot: while accurately exposing how eastern religions and new age practices use hypnosis wrapped in spiritual theatrics, she refuses to apply that same standard to xtianity. Aside from calling out individual bad actors like mega church hypnotists or predatory priests, her own faith remains untouched.
Another critique I have is that the book is very repetitive. Carla repeats her intuition over and over. Shes focused on this idea that hypnosis can be used to circumvent moral barriers, but institutions often deny it and present hypnosis as an innocent thing. This goes on for over 400 pages, she repeats herself waay too often, and I think it could have been done better.
Lastly, I didnt like the word format, theres 2 columns of text for each page and I find it difficult to read on an ipad, but if it was a paper book I would have disliked it same. Chapter count is also redundant, theres too many of them, and I dont know exactly what is the order, is it time? Is carla writing some sort of chronology or what? I also feel carla could have just summed up the stories at the beginning and give a link to read them, instead of basically rewriting them.
Book left me asking did she use an editor? Most issues I lamented could have been spoted easy. Lots of formatting could have been fixed. Not that its bad, its just too "creative", she inserts words into elypse shapes and sometimes inside boxes, and other times she quotes someone in a square rectangle. It looks to me Carla had fun on inkscape or something.
Answer is no, she had no editor. Much respect for trying to edit your own book but it could have been done better. I feel its a waste, the book was good potential, the drawing especially make it good. If edited properly, this stuff could be easily recommended. I think just for the difficulty of searching quotes and understand contexts the reader has to be mid-level or advanced and have already familiarity with conspiracy theories.
Despite these biases and structural flaws, I deeply admire the labor behind this book. It is a fascinating, well researched archive worth reading regardless of whether you accept her entire thesis. You can learn a lot of ideas from this book, especially if youre new to the topic of new age delusions. I think it can warn you against doing some new age rituals, and tell you what is really going on. So my review is positive, you have to simply accept all the xtian bias for what it is.
We should have a book review section by the way.
Rating 8.5/10
I was readin this book but I skipped the intro. After some pages, I wondered if the author is xtian, bcause her writing seems classical xtian conspiracy content. These xtian conspiracy theorists are more driven than avg, they spend more time documentin, researchin, they write treatises. And their metanarrative is something like good vs evil or sense of victimism, or they talk about satan hidden in every corner. Turns out yes shes xtian.
Carla writes of evil hidden forces in the new age movement, the government and the corporate world. Shes convinced these forces are a threat to humanity and shes inspired by "back to the land" xtian coping and self sufficiency romantics. And we also see a belief in free will, which is the reason Carla is so meticulous listing all the hypnotic methods. Plus, she believes in democracy, so she thinks everyone should be aware of these hypnosis practices.
I liked in the book theres a lot of amazing drawings. The author of these draws is Corey Smigliani, and they look cartoonish and haunting. A great atmosphere. These drawings look like fading memory of a bad dream and this visual language works very well for the type of info presented.
Theres lots of refs and quotes and citations. But, alot of them are on the internet and I noticed some quotes cannot be reached. The website where they were taken is gone. This serves as a reminder for all conspiracy theorists: we should always archive everything. Internet is getting wiped and rewritten.
As for research methodology I would say is mostly good. There are some flaws, for example Carla takes some quotes out of context, and she misrepresents them, she makes them appear as "doctrine" of the entire field of study or as if they guide the principles of an entire organization. She often ignores experts pushing against the people she mentions, except when is convenient to her narrative, then she starts quoting experts.
My biggest critique is her blind spot: while accurately exposing how eastern religions and new age practices use hypnosis wrapped in spiritual theatrics, she refuses to apply that same standard to xtianity. Aside from calling out individual bad actors like mega church hypnotists or predatory priests, her own faith remains untouched.
Another critique I have is that the book is very repetitive. Carla repeats her intuition over and over. Shes focused on this idea that hypnosis can be used to circumvent moral barriers, but institutions often deny it and present hypnosis as an innocent thing. This goes on for over 400 pages, she repeats herself waay too often, and I think it could have been done better.
Lastly, I didnt like the word format, theres 2 columns of text for each page and I find it difficult to read on an ipad, but if it was a paper book I would have disliked it same. Chapter count is also redundant, theres too many of them, and I dont know exactly what is the order, is it time? Is carla writing some sort of chronology or what? I also feel carla could have just summed up the stories at the beginning and give a link to read them, instead of basically rewriting them.
Book left me asking did she use an editor? Most issues I lamented could have been spoted easy. Lots of formatting could have been fixed. Not that its bad, its just too "creative", she inserts words into elypse shapes and sometimes inside boxes, and other times she quotes someone in a square rectangle. It looks to me Carla had fun on inkscape or something.
Answer is no, she had no editor. Much respect for trying to edit your own book but it could have been done better. I feel its a waste, the book was good potential, the drawing especially make it good. If edited properly, this stuff could be easily recommended. I think just for the difficulty of searching quotes and understand contexts the reader has to be mid-level or advanced and have already familiarity with conspiracy theories.
Despite these biases and structural flaws, I deeply admire the labor behind this book. It is a fascinating, well researched archive worth reading regardless of whether you accept her entire thesis. You can learn a lot of ideas from this book, especially if youre new to the topic of new age delusions. I think it can warn you against doing some new age rituals, and tell you what is really going on. So my review is positive, you have to simply accept all the xtian bias for what it is.
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