Listeners: today’s episode marks a turning point for us all here at Conspirituality HQ. Humbled by a recent quantum download, we realize that we have for too long been relying on our critical faculties. For too long we have insisted that words mean things. Our poisoned irony has calcified our throat chakras and burned your ears to the point you may never trust a spiritual influencer again. Today we release our addiction to meaning, our fetish for precision in words. We begin to trust the inner babbler of heart-language. We hearken to the oracles, the speakers in tongues, the oompa loompa doompety doos, the glossalalics who trimper the ainions with seedgly refurns. Our hope is that with their help, we can begin to scrize the colong of wolfile stenoses.But we cannot enter this new world of activated communication alone. Our guide today is correspondent Mallory DeMille, who comes to us from the land of TikTok, where Light Language has gone viral, and is making bank, bank, bankity bing bong bank.Show NotesMallory on Instagram | TwitterKundun - Nechung oracle Blonk performs Ursonate with real-time typographySofia for anxiety: Reply to @jennam1127 anxiety reliefSofia: “Removing Darkness”Sofia helping with everyone’s kidneysSofia’s light language was “opened up” by ayahuascaSofia has her activations turned into tie dye wraps so awesome“Become a Light Language Practitioner” with SofiaSofia provides light language for lonelinessSheryl presents: Light Language LoveSheryl needs you to sit TF downSheryl’s waiverLily on
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Why, she is our TikTok ambassador and correspondent.
Hey Mallory, welcome.
It's really nice to be here.
Thank you for having me.
And we'll be handing the reins over to you today after the usual housekeeping, Derek.
Yes.
Welcome, Mallory.
And you can stay up to date with us on all of our social media handles, including Instagram.
Still at Conspiripod for the moment.
We are all individually on Twitter.
You can find our handles in the show notes at the bottom.
And Mallory, what's your Twitter handle so people could find you there?
I am at this underscore is underscore Mallory.
We'll include that in the show notes this week as well.
We are of course at Patreon at patreon.com slash conspirituality where for $5 a month you can help support us and get access to our Monday bonus episodes.
And after this episode, we will be launching a new tier that I talked about last week.
For $10 a month, we are going to be hosting two live streams a month between us where we can interact with people through YouTube.
And we'll also be including in that tier behind-the-scenes videos that we'll be regularly recording about our research process that will be uploaded directly to Patreon.
So, as we've said, we've been deplatformed twice from Instagram.
We've had problems twice on YouTube before.
We really need to take control of our content.
And so, we're going to be putting a lot more of our efforts on our Patreon feed.
And you can find all of that on our newly launched website as well at Conspirituality.net.
And finally, on all of that, you can pre-order our book, That is now possible, I believe, in Canada, but definitely in all of the other areas through our publishers, Public Affairs and Random House Canada.
All that information is also at Conspirituality.net.
Yay!
Publishing date, June 23rd, 2023.
No!
June 13th, Matthew!
June 13th.
Oh, is it?
I'm sorry.
You're pushing it back even further.
Right.
Conspiratuality 126, light language TikTok featuring Mallory DeMille.
Bye.
Listeners, today's episode marks a turning point for us all here at Conspiratuality HQ.
Humbled by a recent quantum download, we realize that we have for too long been relying on our critical faculties.
For too long we have insisted that words mean things.
Our poisoned irony has calcified our throat chakras and burned your ears to the point you may never trust a spiritual influencer again.
Today, we release our addiction to meaning, our fetish for precision in words.
We begin to trust the inner babbler of heart language.
We hearken to the oracles, the speakers in tongues, the oompa-loompa-doompity-doos, the glossolalics who tremper the aliens with siegely returns.
Our hope is that with their help we can begin to scryse the colon of wolf-eel stenoses.
But we cannot enter this new world of activated communication alone.
Our guide today is correspondent Mallory DeMille, who comes to us from the land of TikTok, where light language has gone viral and is making bank, bank, bankity, bing, bong, bank.
Hello, listeners.
I'm Mallory.
And I think on a previous episode, Matthew described my Twitter feed as, quote, hot garbage.
So it is great to be here.
You're welcome.
I took it as a compliment.
So thank you.
Today, we're talking TikTok, but not the lip syncing, pointing at words, wholesome songs about corn kind.
Sometimes when a conspirituality-leaning TikTok lands on my For You page, I just can't help myself and curiosity takes over and I sprint down the rabbit hole.
And today, I'm taking you with me.
Say yes if you wish to accept this light-language TikTok episode.
Yes, yes.
Now, but do we also, is there also a special hand gesture we have to make to indicate consent?
Maybe.
Type something, type something on Twitter, accept and affirm.
Right.
We're really glad that you're with us, especially because we've sent you on a mission that we did not want to take ourselves, to dig around in light language TikTok for us.
But before we get to what you found, I thought I would just give a brief landscape of the territory of speaking in tongues and where it fits in on our beat.
Because, you know, what we'll be talking about has very deep roots that go back a very long way, you know, it's a time out of mind.
A huge portion of the literature that we know of that comes to be labeled as channeled actually begins as a form of glossolalia or ecstatic speech.
And in terms of the well-known Western histories, we have the Greeks doing it with oracles often speaking angelic languages that temple priests would have to translate.
We have early Christians struck by ecstatic speech whenever they're moved by the Spirit, the Spirit evidently of the still palpable Jesus Christ, so the capacity to go into Glassolalia is about the proximity of the deity.
And many denominations in the U.S.
still retain this as a liturgical practice, as we'll talk about in a bit.
There's Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, who claimed that he received the Book of Mormon in quote-unquote Reformed Egyptian, which then he himself translated, involving a magic trick with a hat.
And then there's an example from another context altogether, the Nechung Oracle, has given prophecies for the leaders of Tibet for centuries, and so far as I know they don't allow the actual sounds to be recorded, but in the 1997 Scorsese film Kundun,
We see a recreation of the Dalai Lama as a young teenager being counseled by the Oracle about the approach of the Chinese.
and the oracle is usually a middle-aged or older monk who will traditionally wear an outfit and
headdress that weighs hundreds of pounds. but then they develop superhuman strength
when they are possessed by the deity and they jitterbug all over the gompa.
heed the warning of your predecessor or the war will end here
Careful.
Careful. Careful.
And what's totally metal about that is that the oracle collapses, the physical vehicle for the
oracle collapses after giving the dire warning has to be taken off to the infirmary after the speech is over.
You know, I just have to say, Matthew, I remember watching that when it first came out and, you know, I was as...
I was as much of a sort of admirer of the Dalai Lama as any of us sort of liberal spiritual seekers in the 90s.
But I came away from that film just being like, this stuff is bonkers.
And I honestly, as much as I have respect for Tibetan culture, to me there's not that much difference between these two claims and traditions.
You know, when you're talking about Joseph Smith and his looking into the hat to correctly interpret.
The channeled language of reformed Egyptian and this stuff from old world Tibet.
You know, there's another usage of glossolalia that has at times run in a very different direction.
A direction that doesn't presume to heal, to predict, to transform anything, or to bless anything.
And I'm talking about how the Dadaists actually used a form of ecstatic speech,
which mimicked and mocked the breakdown, actually, of meaning in the shadow of fascism.
I'm going to do a little bit of a demonstration of that. So, I'm going to start with a little
Dell a Ar hrrahr belbao phimsa-pa-paa, rr beba phims ba bbaa, bäba phims ba betay,
Beba fyms beba te. Beba fyms beba te te. Fyms beba te te o.
ba phims ba betay tsay, phims ba betay tsay oh, Phemus baetay tsay oh, bagiv kee tday.
Fyms beba te te o.
Dedeh simm rrrr ee ee, bif tilf to til yee, caa.
Rr insa ke te bebe inska rmu, tse wensa de or inska rmu, rakka te bebe.
Rrumph tilf to, tse wensa de or inska rmu, tse wensa de or inska rmu, rakka
te bebe, rakka te betay.
Rrumph. Rrumph. Rrumph. Rrumph.
That is the first minute of a sound poem called Ursonat, or the Primal Sonata,
by the multimedia artist Kurt Schwitters, which kind of evolved from a number of cafe performances
that he gave between 1922 and 1932.
So what was he on about?
In part, the Dadaists were ecstatically deconstructing visual art, and in this case language, to interrogate European, imperial, colonial, hegemonic power.
Perhaps also they were mocking religious speaking in tongues, but what they wind up with is a kind of secular speaking in tongues.
And what they are also doing is that they're mimicking and mocking industrial production and the odious machinery of state.
So, there's no surprise that Schwitters has to flee Germany in 1937 after the Nazis categorize his work as So, Mallory, let's just get this out in the open.
Are any of the light talkers you'll be introducing us to in danger of being deplatformed for challenging the power structures of late-stage capitalism?
I think TikTok is maybe just capitalism with lip-syncing?
Boom, that's pretty concise.
So, in the 1980s, we can point to a kind of light language, I think light, as in channeled literature that carries transcendent themes but isn't altogether gibberish.
And I'm thinking here of Marianne Williamson's favorite book, A Course in Miracles.
It's a great example here because something like 80% of it is written in iambic pentameter, Which means that after a while, all you can really hear as you're nodding off is that da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum heartbeat.
But a more recent and alarming example of glossolalia comes to us from Reverend Paula White, who's Trump's favorite preacher, who on the eve of the 2020 election took to her megachurch stage with this.
The Lord says it is done.
For I hear victory, victory, victory, victory in the quarters of heaven, in the quarters of heaven.
Hamanda, Aka, Ata, Raka, Tede, Baka, Sanda, Ata, Ambo, Osa, Kata, Rite, Eke, Banda, Ata, Rike, Tide, Asha, Da.
Angels have even been dispatched from Africa right now.
Africa right now.
Africa right now.
From Africa right now.
They're coming here.
They're coming here in the name of Jesus from South America.
They're coming here.
They're coming here from Africa.
from South America, angelic forces, angelic reinforcement, angelic reinforcement,
angelic reinforcement.
Vika hata anda ata, ora bata rata, ande eke eke manda rasata.
For I hear the sound of victory.
I hear the sound of victory.
There's Paula White.
All right, so how does all of this stuff fit into the conspirituality landscape, Julian?
Well, I mean, here's the thing with Paula White.
She's a prosperity gospel televangelist, and I think this has a huge overlap with the New Age abundance and manifestation preoccupation.
You know, God or the universe wants you to be wealthy, and being wealthy indicates strong faith and righteousness, all being spiritually rewarded.
We've already seen how our New Age conspiritualists not only trend to the right in our analysis, but they also lick their chops when they realize there's a whole new fervent audience waiting in megachurches for them to sell their narcissistic selves to on big stages with dramatic lighting and audiovisual displays.
You can hear the music behind Paula White as she does that performance.
But you know, she's also a neo-charismatic Pentecostal who believes that speaking in tongues and performing miracles and asserting prophecies and having the power to heal all fall under this category of gifts of the spirit or charismatic gifts and these are given to people with her kind of faith as a way to fight the daily holy war against demonic forces in the real world.
Now, as with all apocalyptic beliefs, one only has to shift the vernacular for it to mesh nicely with whatever accelerationist fever dream floats your particular ship of fools, whether that's overtly QAnon or it's just the Great Awakening as prophesied by some kind of set of New Age preachers.
I'll just add too that we're squarely in the domain of my sometimes controversial position that there's only really two types of people, I think, who adopt this style of leadership.
They either have psychiatric or neurological conditions and so believe this nonsense because they're having a very vivid experience of it, or they just know it's absolute nonsense and they're cynical grifters.
So Mallory, to you, how are the light talkers of TikTok continuing on in this venerable tradition?
Well, you know, this is my first time on a podcast and I am feeling a bit anxious.
Do you mind if I first play a TikTok that said it can help?
Sure.
Let's go.
Oh My
I Thank you so much.
Do you feel better?
That's Kua Healing.
I do feel a little bit better.
That's Kua Healing, a.k.a.
Sofia Vizcarando.
Her blonde hair sits a few inches below her shoulders.
She's wearing mala beads around her neck, a beaded headband across her forehead that depicts jaguar eyes, and headphones over her ears.
As she waves her hands in what appear to be a very intentional movement, the green screen behind her has been replaced with moving colors reminiscent of a tie-dye design.
She looks a little bit like an extra in Midsommar, to be honest.
Quite wholesome, but a little bit 19th century and a little bit ominous, too, in my view.
Yeah, I agree.
And just in terms of my own interaction with her content, I realized that I looked at her Instagram feed first.
And I felt bad about us critiquing her because she's so young and she seems so earnest.
She's also really into music.
She has access to some pretty serious instruments.
I noticed as a guitarist, she has a Taylor acoustic guitar, which probably runs a few thousand dollars.
She has what looks like a custom Paul Reed Smith electric guitar, which again is going to run multiple thousands.
So I'm guessing she comes from a quite wealthy background.
And as I was first looking, I was thinking, well, gee, I hope she grows out of the sillier aspects of this.
But then I went to her TikTok and I saw the perfect alchemy of audience capture that's going on there.
I know you're going to get into it.
This kind of audience capture shaping of a young person into only leaning harder and harder into what I perceive as a grift.
Especially when, like, the channeled Light Language video for Clear Skin has 1.8 million views.
That's probably more than that now.
Yeah, I bet.
She has a video talking about how she overcame trauma and addiction from her early teens.
So I'm getting pretty strong Kaira Teal Swan vibes from this perhaps up-and-coming charismatic influencer reaching many vulnerable followers.
With this style of hypnotic, intrusive eye contact and outlandish claims.
So I guess we'll be keeping an eye on how her story develops.
Well, according to her TikTok bio, Akua Healing, or Sophia, is a musical channel healer and artist.
She has just over 240,000 TikTok followers, with her first video only posted this past March, actually.
And she's just one creator in the world of light language TikTok.
The video we just listened to is titled Instant Anxiety Relief Light Language.
Scroll if you do not wish to receive.
Additional text overlay on the video is as follows.
Allow this light language activation to help melt away your anxiety.
This activation is coded to help soothe the root emotions, thought patterns, or physical factors contributing to this anxiety.
Anxiety is a stress response that can be caused by many factors such as life slash emotional stressors, You may feel the need to yawn, cry, shake, or have an energetic response as you listen.
How do you feel now?
Leave a comment.
You may feel the need to yawn, cry, shake, or have an energetic response as you listen.
How do you feel now?
Leave a comment.
Listen as many times as you need.
Now this scroll by if you do not wish to receive is like an interesting nod to consent culture.
Um, so...
So I'm just wondering, does that indicate to you, Mallory, that these folks are really taking their impact seriously?
Possibly.
Based on what I've seen though, I'd say it's about 50-50 whether the creator includes a consent element whether that's spoken or it's written on the screen somewhere.
I've seen this content element or this consent element used actually more in Reiki TikTok or energy healing talk more broadly.
Like say yes or think yes or stay if you accept or stay if you feel called or they ask you to comment a specific word to accept or affirm which like comments is a highly tracked metric For TikTok, anyway.
Sophia doesn't regularly do this, or if she does, it's written on the screen, so her videos might just appear in your feed and you're forced to have your gut healed or your DNA activated.
I mean, the thing about this, too, is you could say that it's a nod to consent, but it's also a way of getting some sort of buy-in where the person who's viewing it is connecting more and feeling like they're actually having an interaction, right?
Yeah, I probably with those, even just the nod, like scroll past if you don't wish to engage, the person that stays is probably going to bump up the time spent on the actual video too, right?
Because they are making a choice.
That's very interesting.
That's right.
And one extra piece that I want to put here is that if you want to book a one-on-one session with her outside of TikTok, there is actually a thorough waiver that you have to sign.
It seems from a simple Google search that signing a consent form for energy healing is actually pretty common practice.
But there's no waiver needed to take advice on her TikTok.
Hold on, hold on.
This is a thorough form, a consent form for like distance energy healing, right?
Yes, it's to be assumed, yes.
But touching on what you just mentioned actually, thinking about the act of them asking for consent where they might not know if the viewer even accepted.
Even a creator asking consent and the viewer playing along and thinking or saying yes, it's a form of commitment on their part or like openness to the notion that this thing might actually do something for them.
And her nudge to comment and watch on repeat is really interesting, as if it's for our benefit and definitely not hers, because comments and views are important metrics tracked by TikTok when deciding how often to recommend their video to others.
One of her TikToks, titled Removing Darkness, tells you to watch, quote, one time for clearing, three times to remove evil eye, seven to remove curse.
Oh wow!
That's amazing!
It also strikes me there's an NLP kind of dynamic going on here too with how you're being hooked.
Can you say a little bit more about that, especially for people who might not be familiar with NLP techniques?
Yeah, programming is sort of a controversial field that's related to hypnosis and it's something actually that a lot of stage performers use, a lot of magicians who use hypnosis or who are doing cold reading techniques on you while they're performing a trick.
They'll also use various language and body language and visual cues to To get you to do what they want you to do without explicitly saying it.
Yeah, and it can be highly effective in the hands of someone who knows how to do it.
So the thing is, is that Tony Robbins had to spend years studying how to do that in workshop settings.
But I mean, this same sort of technique can just kind of spread osmotically and virally through TikTok as these people imitate each other, right?
I think so.
Well, before we go any further, I do want to answer what is probably the obvious question, which is that yes, there are people on TikTok who actually believe that this young woman is channeling healing powers through her phone to yours.
On her website, where you can book a private one-hour session for $333 USD, Sophia describes light language as the following.
Light language is a form of interdimensional, nonlinear, energetic communication.
It's a way of expressing energy from the unseen world into the seen through movement art, talking, or singing.
Kua channels it primarily vocally.
The sound waves transmitted by the voice carry energetic codes that your higher self interprets and applies to your energetic body, mind, and spirit.
It's not often understood by the mind, although some do.
As of this recording, TikToks with hashtag lightlanguage have been viewed 172 million times.
I had to update that last night because it had increased since I started this research.
Hashtags with lightlanguage healing have been viewed 30 million times.
And while that is a lot of people viewing lightlanguage TikTok, I hate to say that those view counts are actually relatively low.
When you compare them to other segments, so for example, hashtag witch talk, which I had never heard of until I stumbled across it, has 33 billion with a B views.
So much higher than if you had asked me to estimate before I looked it up.
Hashtag yoga has 20 billion views and even hashtag essential oils has 319 million views.
Wow.
And it is important to remember that these are views and not likes.
One of Sophia's TikToks alone has almost 10 million views.
So Mallory, why do you think she's done so well in such a short amount of time?
You said that she only fired up this account in March.
Do you think her earnestness wins points on this app?
Is it the algorithms?
Is something else going on?
The almighty algorithm.
It is my observation that TikTok kind of throws all, or at least most, previously held social media growth rules kind of out the window.
Personally, I've had an Instagram and Twitter for years and always hovered kind of around the same number of followers, but on TikTok, it only took me a month and a few viral videos to completely surpass those follower counts.
To better illustrate this point, Sophia is also on Instagram, but she only has 4700 followers, even though she regularly posts there as well.
And since I started this research less than a month ago, Sophia has actually gained another 10,000 TikTok followers.
Wow.
So it moves quick.
While there's maybe like an unexplainable perhaps luck element to the app, there's also something Sophia is doing that would certainly help.
So she regularly uses a number of hashtags in her captions.
Some that are more broad.
So hashtag spiritual talk, which has 2 billion views.
Hashtag energy healing has 833 million views.
She regularly uses those ones.
And then some of her more specific videos, depending on the context of what she's claiming she can
heal.
So for example, in her gut healing video, she uses hashtag gut health, which has 2.4 billion views.
Hashtags can certainly help more people see your content, which can ultimately lead to gaining more followers.
It also helps that her content is very niche.
She's not trying to be everything for everyone.
People know what to expect when they follow her.
I also, in my sprinting down the rabbit hole, checked out who she was following herself, and she's following a number of TikTok growth, or like how to build a brand accounts, and they're obviously paying off.
And then out of curiosity, I scrolled back to see her first kind of viral video, and it was a DNA activation light language posted in April, and it has 250,000 views.
And that was probably her first bump in followers, and after that, her video views are regularly in the double-digit or even triple-digit thousands, and she even has a few in the millions.
Every time she has a video go viral, it probably boosts her followers.
Her highest viewed TikTok is called Powerful.
Clear sinuses instantly.
And it has 9.8 million views.
There are so many clear sinuses in this world.
So that's, so she's clearing sinuses with her music but also with the hand gestures.
But this isn't like neti pot or like snuff or something like that.
It's not, it's just the sound and the gestures.
Yes, yeah.
The whole, the video, the act of watching the video.
We have clear Simon Says.
Yeah, just let it wash over you.
That's a pretty big sample size, though, if she really wanted to try and get some some data.
Anecdotally, I've had TikToks go kind of viral.
And once TikTok decides to feed it to more and more people and maybe other creators are like stitching or duetting it, the likes and the follows literally just kind of roll in.
TikTok engagement and culture and behavior is not really comparable to other social media platforms.
Metrics like followers can accumulate really quickly if you fall into the algorithm sweet spot.
Can you explain this to me like I'm 50?
What does stitching and duetting mean?
So TikTok, I believe, is the first social platform to introduce a really easy way to add commentary on other creators' videos.
So duetting means that an existing video will show next to the video that you're filming and you can It's like this really weird thing where some people just do videos and they literally just watch it and then their video goes viral instead of the original video.
And then stitching means that the original video plays and then your video plays after it.
So you can stitch up to five seconds.
And so people add their commentary.
There's a lot of comedic stitching that happens.
That's the kind of algorithm side of TikTok that I like to be on, the comedic part.
But there are ways for your TikToks to be seen by more people
because people are sharing and adding their own kind of spin on it.
It would seem that stitching especially would be it might be on the comedic side,
but it might also be a real kind of shitpost machine as well
because people are taking clips and then basically mocking the original creators.
Does that happen a lot?
Yes, I have been shit, shit-stitched, if that's what you want to call it.
Shit-posting-stitched.
I mean, I talk about misinformation on my TikTok, and so there's people that obviously don't like that, and then they add their commentary, and I guess that's all just part of the game.
Yeah.
I have one last thought on this which is that Sophia is a musician and her TikToks, to me at least, are more enjoyable to just listen to compared to some of the other light language creators who I kind of sound like they're just casting a spell on me.
Yeah, so what are the videos that are pulling in all these view counts you might be wondering?
Other clips on Sophia's TikTok are titled things like powerful kidney healing, powerful hormone balance healing, Instant inflammation relief, super effective ear healing, powerful liver healing, and powerful addiction healing.
And we will not listen to them all, because honestly they all kind of sound the same.
Yeah, let's just say it's a good thing she's not promoting any pseudoscience, right?
In watching a few of these videos it really does feel like she's created these little songs and they're all very similar and then she's got the hand gestures and everything and then it's almost like she's just randomly assigned them to being cures for these different ailments and what I notice is that the songs are pre-recorded and then she films herself kind of lip-syncing to them and either the syncing up is kind of off in terms of how the video processed or like She's making the stuff up so much on the spot that she doesn't know what she's supposed to be lip syncing to a lot of the phraseology.
Julian, I think you're very disrespectful of the uniqueness of each individual offering.
Dead right, I absolutely am.
Every light language song is an intricately designed snowflake, designed to melt into your one wild and precious third eye.
Hey, that's a dig at Mary Oliver's stuff!
Right, so one thing that's bothering me here is that it seems so far that the light language has to do something.
It has to be productive.
It can't just be for fun, like scatting is.
I was gonna say, there's a link here.
I mean, contrary to the impression a lot of people have about scatting in jazz, which, you know, is just using syllables with no explicit meaning as a way for the singer to improvise over chord changes, It actually requires very advanced technical skills and ear training.
You're singing through the changes in the same way that an instrumental jazz soloist would do.
In terms of being quote-unquote productive, there's no claims with scatting of magical effects, but it's deeply embedded in a profoundly intellectual tradition of Immersion in music theory and pathways of creating novel emotional tension and release patterns and repeating motifs.
And even with scatting, you might reference canonic melodies from other songs in your improvised lines.
So, again, it just seems to me... That's stitching, actually.
That's stitching.
Yes, it is.
It's duetting.
Yeah, it's the original stitching.
But, you know, I think it's often the case that new agers fail to realize that the pseudo-profound
kind of magpie theology that they engage in and dabble in could actually be explored with
actual depth if they humbled themselves enough to actually study something.
And I would actually, you know, I would suggest to Sophia, like, yeah, you're interested in
music and in sound that doesn't necessarily have explicit language meaning.
Study jazz.
Look at Lisa Gerrard's work.
Look at the Cocteau Twins.
Look at amazing musicians who have done this without claiming that it's going to fucking heal your kidneys, right?
I mean, while there's definitely comments on her videos addressing the ridiculousness of her claims, because TikTok can be absolutely ruthless, as we already heard, there are others praising Sophia and her work and sharing their anecdotal stories in the comments about how watching one of her TikToks supposedly influenced their healing.
And the comment section is sometimes my favorite place to look.
And the kidney healing video has a comment on it that actually said it made the commenters' kidneys hurt a little less while they navigate end-stage kidney failure.
Oh my gosh.
That settles it.
But we also know that it's infiltrated COVID discourse, because Mallory, you were telling me in Slack that you had just come across some, you know, sort of purifying your vessel from COVID light language TikToks.
Is that right?
Yes, I somehow found myself on Light Language for COVID TikTok.
I think the one you're referring to is titled, quote, My Best Attempt to Miraculously Cure COVID, and it was in response to someone asking him for that, because you can make videos in response to people's comments from previous videos.
Unsurprisingly, that one got flagged with a little learn more about COVID-19 vaccines banner at the bottom.
OK, so they're doing that.
They're doing they're doing that.
TikTok is.
Yes.
All right.
I imagine it was the word COVID.
Is it going to be based on the tag or is it or are the bots actually listening to the TikToks as well?
Um, he, well, on other platforms, um, like anti-vaxxers, for example, will use like code for COVID, like they'll use the at symbol instead of the O. Um, but in this video he didn't do any of that.
And so I imagine there was some sort of bot that picked up on the word COVID, um, and then it slapped the banner on the video.
Right.
There was another one titled Radical Healing Codes for Anyone Who Has Experienced COVID Recently.
That was the title of the video, and a lot of people in the comments were thanking her for producing that.
There was another one titled Virus Healing, Acceleration, and Symptom Relief Assistance, though right above that, in tiny font, it said, For Entertainment Purposes.
It says that on the top on the label of the Pfizer vaccine, too, doesn't it?
For entertainment purposes, you just like just squeeze the thing down.
Yeah.
I've been wildly entertained then three times.
So, I mean, for that one, I'll give him some credit because in the caption, he states first and foremost that it's not medical advice or treatment.
But unfortunately, he was the only one that I saw who made that clear.
And these specific healing claims seem quite consistent in light language TikTok, but what is not consistent is that this is not medical advice or treatment clarification.
And going through Sophia's TikTok specifically, I didn't see any, I am not a health professional statements.
So in between these healing videos, Sophia answers questions and she shares more about what light language is and what it can allegedly do and heal.
She has a few plant duet videos where she makes music next to a geranium or a spruce tree and she's put what appeared to just be like Apple headphones on them.
On the tree?
On the geranium?
Yes, on the geranium and then a separate video where they're on the spruce tree.
Aren't they like crushing the geranium?
No, she just places them on top.
Okay, alright.
Wow.
Okay, Matthew, you got me.
You set this whole thing up as a prank.
You're pranking me, right?
We're not really recording, are we?
We're totally recording, yeah.
Oh, Jesus.
But ultimately, all of what I just mentioned is Sophia's way of subtly selling what she has to offer beyond TikTok.
And that's because Sophia isn't just a TikTok creator.
TikTok is merely a place for her to build a following and a sizable one, obviously, at that, who she can then direct to where she can make money off of them.
I mean, can you believe it?
Her link tree has nine links, so this is one link in her bio that goes to a separate page where she can offer many different things.
There's one for more information, it's like at the top of her link tree, for her seven-day Costa Rica Plant Medicine 2023 Retreat in collaboration with Lotus Heart Temple Ayahuasca Church.
Oh, wow.
For the angel number price of $3,333, you too could experience, in addition to accommodations and food, Three ayahuasca ceremonies with live music and light language, four trauma-informed integration circles, and one cambo ceremony, which I didn't know what it was, but it's described on the retreat website as the following.
Cambo is a name for the medicine that comes from the excretion of the giant monkey tree frog in the Amazon.
It is ethically harvested and it's back Ethically harvested from its back and then applied to small burns in the skin in order to help the body release toxins, parasites, emotional trauma, heavy metals, and more.
It is often referred to as the vaccine of the jungle.
Oh boy.
End quote.
Yeah.
You will also receive four kinetic yoga classes, one blue lotus ceremony, and...
Airport pickup and drop-off.
I mean, I'm so confused.
Why do we not have some kind of very, like, odd-sounding descriptor in front of airport pickup and drop-off?
It should be like, you know, chaperoned by angels, airport pickup and drop-off.
No, no, quantum, quantum airport pickup.
There you go.
Right.
Definitely.
And it was almost like accommodations and then a bunch of stuff happens and then you get dropped out of the airport.
Sophia actually shares in a TikTok that her like language channel opened up during an ayahuasca ceremony.
So, yeah, a couple of thoughts here.
I mean, first of all, do we know how old she is?
I don't.
Yeah.
She's young.
Yeah.
I'd be surprised if she's older than 24.
So, here's my hope is that she has a lot of professional logistical support for the retreat business and that she hasn't herself been kind of strung along by, you know, retreat center grifters in Costa Rica because that kind of scenario can turn into a disaster for everybody involved, including her.
In terms of legal liability.
Legal liability, the whole thing.
But I also don't know whether she has a lot of experience in real-life retreat-type environments.
It sounds like she's been doing one-on-one consultations with people online.
And when you get a bunch of people doing, you know, light language, hyperventilation, and combo in the middle of the jungle of Costa Rica, you have to be very, very, very careful with how all of that goes. And it's not easy for any even
skilled facilitators who are doing, you know, legitimate trained things to hold that all together.
Yeah, she actually has videos on her feed. I forget which one of them of her kind of DJing and singing and doing
light language with a group of people in the room who are engaged either in some kind of psychedelic journey or doing
breath work.
and there's a couple other facilitators there with her.
You know, it's not dissimilar from our last episode with the three percenters doing breathwork.
Right.
So, I mean, what it calls to mind is, do you remember the story of how Amber Sears kind of, before she married JP, kind of crashed her Costa Rican retreat business with terrible reviews?
Because I think she was just not up for the customer service aspect of making sure that people are well taken care of on something that they're spending $4,000 or $8,000 on or something.
Yeah, I mean, in that case, these people all showed up and like the accommodations were terrible.
There was hardly, you know, they weren't provided with food or the food they were providing was just terrible or very little.
It's like a fire festival.
It was Yoga Fire Festival with Amber Lee Sears, or whatever her name was before.
And yeah, so I hope that that goes okay for her in March.
But Julian, this smells like a case of, like, ayahuasca tourists really wanting to get into the curanderos vibes, but maybe they don't know the language.
Well, I think it's shamanism, quote-unquote, in the exact same way drinking ayahuasca in someone's living room with an influencer facilitating and DJing is shamanism.
It's been transplanted to a likely fairly underpriced beautiful setting for an overpriced fee.
It's probably some kind of meaningful experience, a group of people coming together who earnestly want to grow and heal and have invested some sense of idealization in the facilitator.
But the social and ideological structure around it is, I think, overtly delusional and self-serving.
And, of course, her own deep plant medicine experiences are what opened up her channel to the light language, which, you know, that kind of claim to authority, it's like the influencer version of a diploma mill master's degree.
You know, it's like, I got my master's when I was under the influence and now I know how to do this thing because it was bestowed upon me.
Yeah, it's the verification by initiation kind of model, right?
Yeah, except even more solipsistic, right?
Right, yeah, because you're talking about an extremely subjective and quite volatile indescribable experience that you have as you're puking your guts out and yeah.
Kemetic yoga, you mentioned Mallory, this is kind of like an Afro-futurist related thing that comes out of the belief that the ancient Egyptians We're the first people to practice a very advanced kind of yoga.
And when I say belief, I mean it's mainly the content of a yoga person named Yersor Rahotip who in the 1970s started saying that the hieroglyphs could also be used as movement instruction pictures.
Now this is an assumed name, I'm assuming.
I think so.
I don't know what the birth name is, but I wasn't sure what a blue lotus ceremony is, but I asked, and Mallory, you answered.
It looks like the blue lotus is a flower from Egypt, according to the advertising copy, that comes from the River Nile.
Revered by the Egyptians as a powerful plant teacher, this flower teaches connection to the present moment, divine consciousness, and cultivation of our own enlightenment.
You will drink blue lotus tea on the beach with a blue lotus priestess, and you will experience the magic of this plant in sacred community.
Those are big promises.
Big promises.
And they smell like a little bit of Orientalism to me.
With the light language itself, there seems to be an undercurrent here of white people perhaps remembering parts of or mimicking aspects of Middle Eastern and South Asian aesthetics that they have come into contact with.
A lot of the hand movements they're doing in the Selfie Reiki and light language stuff seem to be reminiscent of South Asian Yeah, it sure isn't.
There seem to be sort of references to mudras and Julian, we were pointing out on Slack that when Indian raga
musicians are learning their beats, they too, they have a kind of scatting vocalese.
But mudras aren't reiki and tabla vocalese isn't like language.
Yeah, it sure isn't. I mean, this is really within the context of Indian Karnataka and other forms, it's really
demanding and rigorous dance and percussion training and it does involve vocalizing rhythms and you learn these very
detailed and complex forms of that particular repertoire that you have to memorize and internalize in your body so
as to be able to play with just like jazz positions to be able to play off of each other.
You have to understand the actual language that has a codified structure to it and a longstanding tradition.
I think with these light language folks, when we see the gestures that are also reminiscent of mudras, We can go down the road of recognizing a kind of cultural appropriation in a very superficial form.
But I also just have this weird sense that it all happens in the ahistorical postmodern closed loop of social media culture in which everything is really just a copy of a copy of a copy.
I don't know that these influencers necessarily have put in the time to study videos of what was happening in another culture as a way of legitimizing their grift.
I think it all just kind of rhymes in a way that they feel gives it legitimacy.
It strikes me a little bit as being like cargo cults, you know, where it's like you have, you set everything up in a way that mimics the sense of the thing that you're wanting to claim to be doing, but you don't really know what any of it means.
Yeah, I think that this comment actually kind of points back to what I suggested about how if you wanted to learn NLP back in the day, in the 1970s or 1980s, you actually had to go to Esalen or you had to go to Omega Institute or, you know, you had to put some time in.
And yeah, it seems like this particular social media platform really does produce this sort of simulation machine in which things can be repeated and repeated and repeated.
Yeah, even if we have a negative interpretation of proper NLP, it still has that one advantage of actually being a discipline that people have studied and studied under experts and there are texts and all the rest of it, whereas this is just fabricated out of thin air.
I mean, one really interesting thing about TikTok compared to other social media platforms is that you are praised for repeating and copying other people.
That's the whole point of like trends.
And so there are thousands of influencers doing the exact same thing, the exact same lip syncing, the exact same audio.
And they're given their own clout for just copying it.
That's the trending nature of TikTok.
Yeah, so that's really, that's really, that is now, and that is unique to TikTok because I think it shows up in Instagram Reels a little bit because the music clips that everybody uses can be repeated over and over again.
But yeah, that's really fascinating to think about.
So you actually, you can gain prominence as an individual influencer through joining a kind of conga line of mimics.
That's true, yeah.
And there is a running joke on TikTok that Instagram real users will figure out the trends months later.
Well, and this is interesting too, right?
Because the medium becomes the message.
The technology, the things that are available at a touch of a button on a particular platform will then drive how these cultural phenomena are happening on one platform versus on another.
Yeah, it's really funny.
I mentioned in the intro the Korn song.
My partner is not on TikTok and he is like, what are you singing?
And it's almost like you have to be there.
You have to know.
And if you're not there, then it kind of sounds ridiculous.
But if you are in it, then you get it.
Can you give us a sample?
You know what?
Maybe we'll just put it in the show notes.
Nobody wants to hear me sing.
I am not a future light language singer.
So the Costa Rican trip is just one link in Sofia's LinkedIn bio.
She has another one that says, where are my light language activations, healing clothes, and tapestries?
And I'm actually just going to let Sofia explain this one.
What if this light language activation was turned into art?
That's exactly what this tapestry is right here.
It is a visual representation of that stress relief activation I just showed you.
I'm working with an artist who listens to my light language activation and transforms them into activating art.
Now you can wear light language and reap the benefits of it on your clothing and hanging it in your room.
Check out my... take it yours.
It sounds like she stitched herself there.
And I also want to say that she didn't say on that screen when she said, check out my, she pointed at words that said Lincoln bio, but she didn't say it out loud because sometimes the TikTok bots will pick up on someone saying or writing Lincoln bio and they'll push it down in the algorithm because they're not trying to reward that type of behavior.
She's very savvy.
She's definitely studying this stuff.
Very savvy.
She's not relying on channeled information for how she utilizes her platform for her business.
She's actually learned about it from people who know what's up.
Yes, you can tell she knows what's up on TikTok.
But these activations are a square image that to me kind of looked like just a mix between tie-dye and the designs that LuLaRoe convinced thousands of women to wear on leggings, like the MLM.
So, merchandise on her website is titled things like Remove Blockages to Success Lounge Pants, Clarity of Purpose Hoodie, Heal Heartbreak Trucker Hat, and Stress Relief Unisex T-Shirt.
I mean, it strikes me this is light language NFT, right?
I think we've taken it.
And this goes to my point, too.
I think she knows that there's nothing about the made-up words she's singing in that song that are somehow magically imprinted onto this clothing.
I just think she knows that.
I mean, I like that she's working with a local artist, she said.
I think that type of collaboration is cool.
I'm not super stoked about the claims that she's making about her clothes, but I do like that part.
Um, in addition to some freebies linked, like an ebook on our light language, like a beginner's book, and an opportunity to sign up for her newsletter, which I did, and I have received seven emails in two weeks.
It looks like Sophia is launching her own community and membership app.
Then this one actually caught my eye.
She has a link that reads, Become a Light Language Practitioner.
And there's no price listed, but Sophia states that in this eight-week practitioner training, quote, I'll teach you everything I know about channeling and healing with light language in order to start your own light language practice or incorporate the modality as a supplement to your current practices, end quote.
So there seems to be a growing trend in unregulated industries with this crazy reach that social media provides to offer both services for clients and training for those who might feel called, perhaps because of your content, to pursue your chosen career as well.
And I mean, why make profit off of one person at a time when you could profit off of a group of people for eight weeks who will then go on to help grow and legitimize your industry?
There's just more and more and more of you.
So yes, I could put us all on the waitlist today if you like, and we could all become light language practitioners.
Any takers?
I mean, I just, I want to say here, Matthew, you'll recognize this is, this is exactly the path that the yoga industry took.
Exactly.
It's just so accelerated.
It's compressed.
Right.
It's, yeah, it's, it's compressed.
She very quickly has figured out, oh, now I can do the training to teach people do what I do and charge them an exorbitant amount.
Yeah, so in the early 2000s, that took maybe five years of studio practice, then two years on the conference circuit, and then maybe you would do your YTT or something like that.
And then maybe your YTT would start to travel.
But yeah, TikTok from March of what, was it this year or last year?
It's this year, March of this year, right Mallory?
March of this year.
It's less than a year old.
She's doing the training already.
So the metric is how many people know of your work.
It's not how long you've been doing it or how deep your skill set is, right?
Or how many professional levels you've sort of achieved.
It's how many people know about what you're doing and then boom.
Well, on the Retreat website, I would have to double check this, but it sounded like she's been doing light language for like four years, but her TikTok presence is really new, and it's obviously exploding.
So Sophia's followers, which there's again, a lot of them, 242,000, I just checked it last night, but it's probably more today.
So her followers and vulnerable people scrolling TikTok are made to believe that her voice and music, even if it's through my broken headphones, has the ability to seemingly heal all their physical and mental health ailments, despite being sandwiched between Like other videos about the Try Guys and Taylor Swift, but maybe that's just my algorithm.
So I'm just, you know, what happens long term when someone believes that another human's voice in their pocket at all times has the ability to heal them?
If I watch Sophia's Instant Anxiety Relief video on repeat, will I be healed of my anxiety?
While they may feel nice to listen to for some, probably not, there is inherent risk in making these claims because it may influence someone to prolong seeking actual, qualified help.
These videos are especially problematic when claiming they can heal your addiction and every organ in your body.
Anyone who interacts or spends time on Sophia's TikToks or profile will be fed more videos just like or adjacent to hers on their For You page.
And through the illusory truth effect, which is the tendency to believe false information to be correct after repeated exposure, viewers could be made to believe that this is an equal or superior alternative to evidence-based treatments.
I do want to say, like, I do find irony in instant anxiety relief and addiction healing videos on a social media app that many are speculating is a contributing factor to mental health issues, including anxiety, and many self-diagnose as being addicted to.
Sophia even has a video where she is responding to someone's request.
She does this often.
She takes requests for light language for loneliness.
And it's actually kind of sad because Sophia is filming it in her room alone.
And when you think about it, the person viewing it is also probably alone or clearly not paying attention to the people they're with because they're scrolling TikTok.
Now, have you seen any of these influencers sort of explicitly pay attention to that paradox that they're communicating through an alienating technology, and are they sort of cognizant that they're trying to overcome it in some way, or to them, does the technology kind of disappear?
I think the technology kind of just disappears with TikTok because the goal really is to make your video go viral.
Like that's where the most rewards come from.
And I think if you're sharing gaps in how you may be helpful to followers, that may not be that may not be beneficial for you.
And so I haven't in the videos that I saw, which was a lot, but also still a tiny slice of all that exists.
I didn't see anything that addressed that.
You know, I will give it to Sophia, though.
She is a very talented singer and a very talented musician, and ultimately she is just one creator who claims that her TikToks have healing powers.
Wait, there's more?
Well, I'd now like to introduce you to Cheryl.
She also goes by Sol, of Light Language Love.
She has 226,000 TikTok followers.
Her bio says, Babylon-inspired, that babe, Sol Sessions, and crystal jewelry.
Her Light Language TikToks are slightly different than Sophia's.
See if you can spot the difference.
I'm gonna need you to sit the fuck down for this one, okay?
This is a very divinely guided message from the ancestors, and it is time.
If you are watching this, you come from a lineage of healers, mystics, witches...
And wizards.
And there's no gender to this healing ability, okay?
So if you're watching this, again, I need you to really take this shit seriously because all these fucking excuses of why you haven't started to remember these things are all in your fucking head.
You have the truth, the keys, to everything that you need, okay?
Spirit has sent me, your ancestors have sent me, to provide an activation for you.
So I am going to speak in tongues and channel light code energy to activate Those energies within you.
Okay, you're not going to understand this with your mind.
You're going to feel it with your heart and with your soul.
So if you were open to receiving please say yes to consent to this energy.
Try to drink some water after and ground your energy after as well.
Let yourself feel whatever it is.
You're going to feel know you are safe.
Okay, let's get started.
Native Language.
Native Language.
Catch your breath.
Native Language.
So I think now is where we all take a water break.
Thank you.
I mean, the first thing, of course, we noticed that she's using a lot of profanity.
She's very aggressive.
There's an almost abusive quality to it, and she wants us to feel safe, but the music playing in the background is like a horror movie soundtrack.
I think that is the tinkling that comes from the Harry Potter films.
Am I right?
Is that what it is?
Well, it's all of those dissonant minor ninths.
That's fascinating.
And then too, the sounds that she's making had more of either a South Asian or an African kind of quality to them as well, which I always think is interesting, like what these people choose to make their light language sound like.
So on her website, Cheryl shares that her abilities were, quote, passed down to me from my ancestors, both cosmic and within my lineage, end quote.
And that she's a professional psychic medium, light language, divine chanting, energy healer, animal communicator, and spiritual mentor.
And I can't help but imagine that if her ancestors, both cosmic and within your lineage, saw TikTok and filters and hashtags, that they might have a few questions.
Right.
And, and she is adding something interesting here along the light language in addition to the very aggro introduction.
And this contradiction, I just want to like flag that again, Julian, that, you know, I need you to sit the fuck down and it's all in your fucking head.
Stop making excuses.
Stop making excuses and you are safe here.
Like, that is classic Disorganized attachment projection out into the listener field, right?
Yeah, it's almost like what Mickey Willis would do.
Yeah, I'm going to scare the shit out of you, but you're also safe.
And now I'm going to start the incantation.
Yeah, not good at all.
She does have, just by virtue of her whole presentation, a decolonizing vibe.
She identifies as part of a Filipino line of Babylon shamans that date back to pre-colonial times.
They're usually always women or feminized men, and I think that's what's going on in the saying that there's no genders in this healing comment.
Yeah, I think that's also part of just trying to keep our audience as large as possible, like witches or wizards.
I mean, if you're a wizard too, that's cool.
Stick around.
Right.
For her, she also says that the practice involves speaking to the dead, and as the testimonials have it, somebody named Kelly says, in my reading, You were able to channel my father's spirit, words, advice, and emotion in such a way it was as if he was standing in front of me and speaking the words himself.
I needed that.
With the insight and peace that came through, I now feel the ability to move forward with my life and grieve my father's passing properly.
This is the kind of thing that sent Harry Houdini into a blind rage and had him turning over the tapping tables and, you know, yeah.
Well, Cheryl's claims are not as specific as Sophia's, who I wouldn't be surprised if one day she uploaded a TikTok that was claiming to heal just my right pinky toe.
But instead, Cheryl's light language videos are titled things like.
You should throw in some curses there.
to activate your soul purpose and remembrance.
Divine Goddess Light Language activation.
Channeled message for you.
You should throw in some curses there.
Channeled fucking message for you.
Right, asshole.
Dickwad.
Powerful goddamn light language fucking energy cleanse and powerful healing with badass light language.
Right, exactly.
Maybe I won't share this episode on my LinkedIn anymore.
In addition to clips where she's talking and channeling to her phone, she also has a number of lip-syncing TikToks, which is very common on the app, where she utilizes trending audio.
There's also a few TikToks of her just taking her dog out.
She is an animal communicator.
Some at a wedding.
And yet, all of these videos are tagged with hashtag lightlanguage or hashtag lightlanguagelove, which is her handle.
I mean, this reminds me, Matthew, a little of the classic sort of devotional sense that you can get Darshan from the guru, just from glimpsing their little finger, just from seeing them exit the back door of their house to go, you know, do whatever they're doing.
Yeah, yeah.
I am kind of haunted by the boldness of, I have come, or your ancestors have sent me.
They're really incredible claims.
Quite disarming, actually.
But at the same time, she is not doing quite as well, metrics-wise, as Sophia is doing.
Is that right, Mallory?
I would say she uploads more videos.
You can tell she batch films because she's wearing the same clothes and she uploads like six different videos of her wearing the same thing in the same setting.
I don't think her view counts aren't as high as Sofia's.
I mean, Sofia's are in the triple digit thousands or millions consistently now.
And hers, it might just be because there's more of them and they need more time.
But when I was looking at them, they were kind of like under 10,000 views.
Yeah, I mean, there's a way that Sophia is really leveraging the hashtags in such a way that she's like, okay, gut health, gut health is trending.
I'm gonna do a light language video that's for gut health.
I'm gonna title it something that's like heal your gut health instantly.
And that's gonna get a lot of attention.
Yeah, I guess what I'm looking forward to Mallory in hearing more from you about more TikTok subjects is I have this instinct that somehow I could assess The aesthetic kind of affect differences between Sophia's presentation and what Cheryl's doing and try to make some cultural guesses about why one is doing better than the other.
But it seems like it's a lot more complex than that, that there's a lot more technology involved.
There's a lot more sort of You know, AI driving the boat.
And so it's hard to actually, like, part of what I want to say is I don't think Cheryl is going to get as far as Sophia does because she has these sort of abusive tendencies.
Some people are going to buy into that.
Some people are going to feel very gratified by that.
But Sophia does not open herself up to that kind of liability.
It's a much simpler and slicker message, I think.
I have a fitness background, too, and it's kind of like some people really like the personal trainers that push them really hard and don't take excuses.
And other people prefer personal trainers that are much more compassionate.
And so I think it might just come down to personal preference.
Right.
On her website, beyond a lot of crystal jewelry for sale, she offers private psychic medium readings and or light language healing in 30, 45 and 60 minute increments.
These sessions are $125, $155, and $185 respectively, so a little bit cheaper than Sophia's.
If you scroll a bit further down past three stock photos of crystals, you will see this legal disclaimer.
Cheryl Fortuno with Light Language Love will not be held accountable for any interpretations or fucked up decisions made by recipients based on information provided during readings.
Okay, I won't do any more of those.
These readings are for entertainment purposes only.
All information and or advice given to you by Cheryl Fortuno with Light Language Love should not be taken In the place of any medical, legal, or financial advice given to you by any qualified professional, all sessions by Cheryl Fortuno with Light Language Love are not a substitute for medical, legal, or financial advice.
I really think she should cut that in light language.
She should just read the entire disclaimer in light language with gestures.
I don't know if it's stand up in a court of law.
Yeah, but it's really, I wonder how she digests the hypocrisy of that.
Sit the fuck down, my ancestors sent you.
These readings are for entertainment purposes only.
Amazing.
Amazing stuff.
Yeah, and while you don't have to pay to view her TikTok, so I guess it's kind of different, this disclaimer is nowhere to be found, at least that I could find on her TikTok profile.
This website disclaimer makes it clear that Cheryl is not a qualified professional, but on TikTok, she can be whatever she wants.
Yeah, because the website is explicitly about sales.
It is.
And TikTok is something else, right?
It's a little bit more legal.
Anyone can start offering light language services using TikTok as a client funnel, which they are doing, with no formal credentials, not that there are any, making whatever claims they wish in order to help craft their niche.
Yeah, I mean, formal credentials and make-believe.
But yeah, you know, we've already talked about the fast track.
I just, you know, I have friends all the time who tell me with a sense of awe and respect about their auntie or nephew or friend who just became a third level Reiki master.
I'm sure there'll be something like that soon for light language.
I mean, that's actually a great segue, Julian, because now we're going to meet Lily, a light language TikTok creator.
She has almost 30,000 followers, so not as many as Cheryl or Sophia.
Her bio states that she, like Cheryl, also sells jewelry and is a light language activator, healer, and coder.
According to Lily, we could all start speaking light language today.
I get many questions with regards to how do I learn light language?
Well, The thing is, light language is not really learned per se.
It's more like a remembering.
And anyone actually can start speaking light language if you are contracted to do so in this lifetime, as well as if you're ready to speak it.
So there are a couple of ways to activate it.
One is self-activation.
You can do that by listening to various light languages and I know a lot of people follow like the ones that listen to me on TikTok.
They actually have By listening to me, I should say, they've actually activated their light language and that is actually very exciting.
And so what I'll be doing is I'll also be putting together a library of the different dialects that I speak so that you can go through it and see if you can, after listening to it, to see if you can actually calibrate and help you bring out your light language.
And if not, the second way of doing it is by getting someone to activate your light language.
And that's how I started speaking.
And I am actually a light language activator, so I can do that, help you out with that if you'd like.
And yeah, looking forward to hearing you speak!
There's a lot in this about remembering how to do something that is innate or that's kind of been lost or forgotten, that when you do the light language, you're actually remembering your primal or your pure speech.
And so, what it makes me think of, Julian, is whether or not we can really separate this out from the typology of the indigo child and other things like that, a New Age landscape Yeah, I mean this idea that we come in trailing clouds of glory as Wordsworth had it, the notion that spiritual awakening is really just a remembering of deep wisdom that the newborn baby is already fully in touch with and closest to, rather than some kind of developmental process of training and study and developing mature wisdom and compassion in a way where you feel like you have anything of substance to offer to other human beings.
Yeah, and if we're always talking about coming from purity and influence, I can imagine that there would be some crossover with other purity discourses, especially involving children.
Vaccines cause autism, for example, because any time you invoke youth or something original Well, it's on the main stage right now with the midterms, right?
that really depends on being stressed out about having forgotten something or having
been polluted by something.
Well, it's on the main stage right now with the midterms, right?
The moral panics that are being used by the right-wing propagandists are, they're about,
sure, they're about vaccines, but they're also about education, learning about slavery
in schools.
Yeah, it's all children.
It's all children.
Yeah, it's all about protecting children from some supposedly horrible liberal ideology
that's going to rob them of their innocence and therefore their purity, when really from
a New Age perspective, they already have all the truths of the universe in their unsullied
souls.
And you know, there's even opposition here to things like learning critical thinking,
learning about science in a way that gives you a skeptical mindset about other kinds
of beliefs.
interesting listening to that clip of Lily compared to Sophia Rochelle.
I don't think she's quite as articulate in selling herself.
But if you did decide that you wanted to take Lily's second option of activation, which does seem a lot easier, a one-on-one light language activation with Lily is only $155.
This activation process seems comparable, again, to Reiki attunement, where you pay money to have someone higher than you just say, yep, you have this ability now.
Can you feel it?
Can you feel it?
You have it now.
And it has me thinking maybe degrees and diplomas and certificates are the real scams instead of this verbal snake oil.
It's incredibly unlikely that watching a TikTok has the power to heal you physically or mentally, or help you find your soul's purpose, and unlikely to the nth degree when said healing is based on magical thinking, and there is no space for you to ask how exactly it's helping because it's in a language you are not meant to understand.
And I would love more TikToks that say, talk to your science-supporting doctor, or talk to your qualified therapist, or consider finding a qualified therapist, or consider finding a mentor, or in general just be careful that there are people here selling entertainment disguised as medical advice.
But those sometimes aren't as sexy or as interesting for the clout-chasing and immediate feedback nature of TikTok.
And when the videos you spend more time on or engage with share information based on magical thinking, you're going to see more TikToks that share information based on magical thinking.
And so the echo chamber solidifies a little more with every scroll.
Honestly, TikTok is a lot.
And it's truly unlike any other social media platform before it.
There's so much to unpack.
And light language is a paper-thin slice of what's happening on the app.
And we've barely scratched the surface today.
So for me, it's challenging to conceptualize taking a step back, its influence and impact day to day on those who do subscribe to these beliefs.
And maybe I just need something to take the edge off now after all that, all that depth and that digging.
So to end, Healer Daniel, who is a master energy healer and spiritual activator, he has 51.7 thousand TikTok followers and he only books one-on-one sessions through Instagram DMs, is going to get us high in 60 seconds.
So enjoy.
I'm gonna get you high in 60 seconds, serotonin, melatonin, and anti-methyltryptamine.
Psychoactive cannabinoids activating.
I'll change your Azrael and your visions Kira sama no ko Hana kada shoto Hana ha
Heisho ba toshi hei kare shono mana kare shono hono mana Iseki deshi meresi be here sama Hana ko
Asho to ko dakara shune na kara hi Ere keresi be here shono mana ko
Hoshoba Hana Hana kado shono mana kore shono heresi heresi Heresi be Hana mana kodo shono mana kore shono here kara
mana kare shono manka Haaaaaaa
Joho ni shime Do you feel a lot higher than when you started?
You know, one thing that I appreciated about it, at least when he started out, and this
made me disappointed to see that he's not just about getting high because he has to
master heal everyone.
Is that he starts his Gossolalia from a recitation of psychedelic jargon.
So I heard serotonin, melatonin, cannabinoids, and then those words all devolved into the tongues.
So that was kind of interesting.
It's not just psychedelic jargon, it's the pseudoscience of linking neurotransmitter names to then transitioning into mythological angelic names and then into the gobbledygook.
And in fact, I think we see these deliberate transitions from real words for real molecules
to real words for imaginary beings to fake words about nothing at all,
with each supposedly indicating a kind of escalation of the spiritual flavor.
And again, I'm just struck listening to that by how, because he's saying, I'm gonna get you high.
And we listened to it and we're like, yeah, I didn't get high.
And it makes me think, what is the profile of the kind of person
who consumes this stuff and is impacted by it in a way that they feel is legit.
It's probably someone who is pretty suggestible, pretty easily influenceable, has a pretty slim grasp on staying grounded and in touch with reality, and that to me is scary.
They also might be alone.
It might be late at night.
They might be stressed out in a bunch of different ways.
I mean, there's some really compelling music.
They might have just taken a big bong hit.
Right.
I was actually going to say.
Yeah.
But, you know, back to like how he devolves his language from beginning to end, there's this moment where, you know, I'm thinking of Kurt Schwitters again, and how he could go Dada with it.
And if he had, and if others did as well, we might start to hear not just light language, but also maybe a kind of shadow language that maybe wouldn't be about fantasies of personal healing or memory or excavating trauma.
Or certainly not about workshops or trainings or being activated or uncovering the secret true language and meaning of the gods.
Like, I can imagine somebody getting into this kind of Glossolalia as a way of coming a little bit more down to earth and closer to the bone.
If they were meditating on, you know, the failures of language or the tensions of their internal voices or, you know, if they were just sort of listening or performing the kind of cry in the dark about whether anything can have meaning or to make sense.
So, yeah, I wonder if there's anybody listening to this stuff who who hears something else, who hears instead of activations,
they hear a kind of deconstruction of their world.
Maybe that's idealizing, I don't know.
Whatever legitimate kind of interesting, counter-cultural, intellectual, deconstructionist
impulses might drive another form of this that you're referring to.
I think as in general with the new age, all of that gets kind of oversimplified into get out of your mind, feel it with your heart, know it with your intuition, trust that it means what I'm telling you it means in an actually completely authoritarian and manipulative way.
So, yeah, if you said that to them, they'd be like, yeah, that's absolutely what we're doing.
Language is inadequate to the ineffable ultimate truths of the universe, and you shouldn't be able to understand it.
We're trying to bypass your rational mind, because rationality is the problem in terms of spiritual awakening, as opposed to, hey, let's do a really interesting deconstruction in the way that I think of the surrealist painters doing around World War II.
I mean, to bring it full circle, one of Sophia's videos is actually what alerted me to light language TikTok.
It just landed in my For You page.
And I'm obviously ultra skeptical of what I see on social media.
But for some, this could have been like a conspirituality gateway TikTok, all thanks to the algorithm.
And maybe because one TikTok appeared in front of their eyeballs one day,
their beliefs about reality shift even just a little bit.
And it impacts decisions that they make about their health or their life over time
in the name of entertainment purposes only.
This also seems like a good time to mention that you only have to be 13 years old
to start a TikTok account. And I personally know people younger than that who are on it.
My background is in business and communications and social media.
And so I look at a lot of things obviously through that lens.
And I think Sophia specifically as a case study is really interesting.
She is young and after looking through her website it's quite clear that she is in business building mode.
She is trying to figure out the most lucrative way to leverage this newfound clout and following.
She's got a ton of legal jargon in place.
And it seems like the retreat she's offering, the practitioner training and the membership app all start with a waitlist, which I'm assuming is so she can gauge interest before going full steam ahead to figure out what is the best route to go.
And it doesn't look like she has any traditional testimonials yet, which is really interesting.
Just TikTok comments.
And that's like a whole other phenomenon and another thing we could unpack one day.
I don't love what she's claiming she's capable of, but her TikTok is less than a year old still, and I'm just really curious what she's going to do and how long she's going to play this game.
Hallery, thank you so much for the amazing research.
Can you give your Twitter handle again?
Yes.
So on Twitter, I'm at this underscore is underscore Mallory.
If you want to follow me on TikTok, I'm also there at Mallory's Thoughts.
