Alan Levinovitz

They do the same thing that a lot of these long COVID protocols do.

They go to the science.

They mine it for stuff that looks promising, but it's actually very preliminary or sketchy.

They build it into some kind of protocol.

Successful gurus like him also put...

put out the external trappings of what people believe to be health.

I mean, this is something I think is really interesting, which is that being shredded is not the same as being extremely healthy.

Everyone knows that.

But you cannot become a guru without being shredded and hairless.

I mean, not all of them, but there's this look, right?

And that look wouldn't have commanded respect.

In 1920, you would have looked like a freak.

I mean, people would be like, what is wrong with this person?

They look so scary.

So you combine all of these things and you get people to believe that maybe just maybe the scariest thing in the world, death, is something that you might not have to face.

I would caution.

I also do comparative folklore.

And there's always folk tales about the people seeking to cheat death.

And Michael, spoiler alert, there is not a folk tale I've read in which those people succeed.

There's not a folk tale I've read in which those people have normal, happy lives.