Scott Carney: Spirituality, Health Gurus, and The Pursuit of Enlightenment

In this episode of the Smarter Not Harder Podcast, our guest Scott Carney joins our host Boomer Anderson to give one-cent solutions to life's $64,000 questions that include:   How does something go from an idea, to a story, to a book?  How can one go wrong in the pursuit of what is otherwise known as a noble path? What is the relationship between the dark side of spirituality and the pursuit of enlightenment?   Scott Carney is a New York Times bestselling author, anthropologist and investigative journalist. His works include What Doesn't Kill Us, The Vortex, The Wedge, The Red Market and The Enlightenment Trap. Carney was a contributing editor at Wired for five years and his writing also appears in Mother Jones, Men's Journal, Playboy, Foreign Policy, Discover, Outside and Fast Company. His work has been the subject of a variety of radio and television programs, including on NPR and National Geographic TV.  What we discuss: [00:00] The rule of social media is the same as the rule of improv [06:38] The moment that instigated the majority of what Scott has written  [17:43] Spirituality can be a tool to become a good person, but it can also lead to spiritual bypassing [23:32] Exploring the dangers of spiritual journeys and gurus [39:58] The authenticity of Eastern spiritual traditions is often overestimated [50:57] Beware of warning signs in spiritual and health communities that may indicate cult-like behavior [01:13] The problem with health gurus and their untested ideas [1:06:49] The potential dangers of the Wim Hof method [1:12:02] The dangers of blindly following gurus and influencers Find more from Smarter Not Harder: Website: https://troscriptions.com/blogs/podcast | https://homehope.org Instagram: @troscriptions | @homehopeorg   Find out more from Scott Carney: https://www.scottcarney.com/ Instagram: @sgcarney Twitter: @sgcarney Get 10% Off Your Purchase of the Metabolomics Module by using PODCAST10 at https://www.homehope.org   Get 10% Off your Troscriptions purchase by using POD10 at https://www.troscriptions.com   Get daily content from the hosts of Smarter Not Harder by following @troscriptions on Instagram.