A Cult of Personality Won't Save Us

Breath of Fire, a four-part documentary that debuted on Max in October, is set to air its final episode next Wednesday. The series looks at Katie Griggs, a Kundalini yoga instructor who adopts the name Guru Jagat, opens a studio in Los Angeles and creates her own little cult “fiefdom,” as ex-members call it. Backed by Harbhajan Signh Khalsa, this helped solidify Katie as an expert in Kundalini, despite her being a white girl with dreadlocks. Celebrities attended her lessons and she became a girl boss for the nu age.

Of course, Griggs is selling a lie mostly built on underpaid labor and lies. She’s their only path to enlightenment and the life they dreamed of. The sacrifices they make now for the Ra Ma Institute, her LA-based office, will pay off later. She created a dynamic that allowed her to belittle and abuse her followers and they accepted it because they felt she could do no wrong. The Kundalini institute that trained Griggs also dealt with accusations of sexual assault and abuse. Griggs, despite being a hippie, LA-based nu wave guru, called the accusations lies and willfully discredited victims in order to serve the larger cult that built her own cult of personality.

There are obvious ties between this documentary and the election. Trump sold voters the lie of cheap gas and groceries like Griggs pushed enlightenment via $50 zoom courses. In the aftermath of Kamala’s loss, people have pointed to the many cult-like fiefdoms that have grown to support Trump. Their theory is that the left needs their own Joe Rogans and Andrew Tates to convince young men to vote Democrat. But these men aren’t pulled into these podcasts because of political messaging, like Griggs’ followers yearned to follow in her girlboss footprints, they’re there because they hope to emulate the importance, success and power of these men.

Eventually, Griggs’ empire collapsed when her comments became too incendiary, when her followers failed to see her deliver the things she promised and, I suspect, we’ll see a similar destruction of the MAGA-podcast bro when another Trump presidency doesn’t turn them all into Twitch millionaires. Asking liberals and leftists to hoist up their own figureheads that inspire cult-like devotion seems like a useless task. Icons and cult leaders inevitably let the people that follow them down. A “leftist Joe Rogan” (if it were even realistic to do that, Taylor Lorenz wrote about how unlikely that is), would only be followed by inevitable disappointment in that figure. And while the right is happy to support a scammer and ignore the truth if it means defeating their enemies, leftists have little to gain from adopting that same tactic.

The Ra Ma Institute tied its mission to people’s hopes and desires. Without the guidance of the institute, these people were led to feel like they’d be lost. People are eager to turn to influencers, podcast hosts and TikTok identity types to figure out who they are, but this isn’t an ethos that should be encouraged. Your political goals and concerns should not be dependent on the thoughts of celebrities you do not know. You should be entertained by Joe Rogan or Beyoncé while understanding that they are not in your economic class and their politics most likely won’t benefit you. This is difficult. For many, it’s easier to buy into someone else’s promise than it is to craft your own plan for the life you want. Why do the work if you can listen to a Griggs or Rogan and they have the answers for you?

I don’t think there’s an easy way to turn this country around. There is no singular leftist Joe Rogan or Katie Griggs who will convince people to stop voting against their interests. What good does it do to have people buy into a personality that will never live up to the image people create of them? Griggs said she was a beacon of good health and spirituality, but she died of cardiac arrest caused by a pulmonary embolism that some feel was the result of her refusing to follow public health rules during the pandemic or take the COVID-19 vaccine. Joe Rogan went from a Bernie-supporting libertarian to a Trump-supporting conservative because his political opinions shift with the wind of whatever will make him the most money.

The followers of “Guru Jagat” found their own ways to practice spirituality and yoga after her fall. It turns out, they never needed Katie Griggs to tell them what to do, they needed to figure out what they actually wanted for themselves. Cults of personality hope people skip that step so they don’t realize they’re being used. True progressive policies don’t need to be sold with a wink and a smile.

Breath of Fire is the perfect documentary for this moment. It’s an aggravating reminder that some are happy to benefit from the money and power gained by selling yourself as the answer. As the influencer industry grows older, maybe there will be a reckoning when people realize the cults of personality trying to sell them a certain lifestyle are doing just that: selling them something. Their goal is to turn you into a consumer, not to help you actually find enlightenment or to become an “alpha male” by taking DMT. If you were to actually achieve what they did, you wouldn’t need to listen to them anymore. You’d stop giving them money.

With Trump coming back, the era of the grifter is back. People who want to sell you easy resistance and easy answers will thrive, like they did last time. Are they asking you to serve your community and the work that matters to you? Or are they asking you to consume something as an alternative to that?

What Else?

• I’m at Union Hall next Thursday with Carly Ballerini! Get tickets! It’s going to be a fun show, we can all be angry together. It’s also New York Comedy Fest so there’s a great show after too!

• I was on the podcast Fine Beats and Cheeses talking about Anatomy of Lies and the Grey’s Anatomy scandal if you’d like to hear about that!

• Jason Mantzoukas is doing a show at The Elysian in Los Angeles occasionally that is very good! I got to see it this past Tuesday and it’s very good. Go if you get a chance. Our night was an hour of two-person improv (him and D’Arcy Carden, yes we got a Good Place reunion), but I think it changes up.

• FLEX! is back at The Comedy Store on 11/26 and we have a great line-up, but also it is two days before my birthday so this will be my party! Get tickets!

• Tough week. Sorry, I don’t feel like writing about the fun TV I’m watching, but don’t worry, I’ll have a TV rec guide for you soon! High Potential is so good! I loved the new episode of Abbott with Langston Kerman! I’m obsessed with The Penguin, it’s kinda horny.