From Gwyneth Paltrow to Andrew Tate: How we entered the 'golden age of gurus'.

There was a time when the name Gwyneth Paltrow sparked associations with Sliding Doors and fruity baby names.

Today, it conjures images of taupe furnishings, of ‘health’ supplements, of bone-broth diets, of jade eggs that strengthen the muscles of the vagina, and of candles that claim to smell like one.

And today — well, last week — the name Gwyneth Paltrow was associated with a courtroom drama so comically posh it could be lifted from the pages of a Hollywood satire. In case you missed it, the details are here. But basically, she was accused of skiing into a retired dentist in Utah (an incident for which she was found to be 'not at fault', thank you very much).

Gwyneth is no longer just a former actor. She is goop, the online self-care juggernaut she founded in 2008. By selling 'clean' beauty, fashion and homewares to millions — couched in the promise of a serene, healthful lifestyle, which she wholeheartedly embodies — Gwyneth has become a wellness guru.

Watch: Netflix's trailer for The Goop Lab With Gwyneth Paltrow. Post continues after video.

Helen Lewis, a British journalist and staff writer at The Atlantic, recently released a BBC podcast about the creation of thoroughly modern gurus like Gwyneth. It’s called The New Gurus, and it delves into how and why these figures have embedded themselves so effectively (and often profitably) into our culture.

Think Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, and the cult-like status to which he elevated the brand’s products. Think misogynist Andrew Tate, the former kickboxer and UK Big Brother contestant who earned over 11 billion views on TikTok by offering men advice on getting rich and attracting and controlling women. And think Russell Brand, the comedian who reinvented himself as a 'public thought leader' promoting scepticism and conspiracies to his over 6.5 million YouTube subscribers.

We are, Helen Lewis argues, in the 'golden age of the guru'.

So what makes someone a guru?

Speaking to Mamamia’s No Filter podcast, Helen explained that while celebrities have charisma and influencers have fandom, a guru has both — plus one key extra.

"[They’re] offering people a way to live," she said. "It’s the idea of being a spiritual teacher, which is where the word 'guru' comes from in Sanskrit."

Of course, people have turned to gurus for centuries. These are people who guide us through times of turmoil, who offer answers and certainty in times when both feel scarce.

But the reason we’re in this 'golden age', Helen argues, is because of something thoroughly modern: social media.

We no longer need to make pilgrimages to far-flung countries to seek wisdom from sage figures. We can access them in our homes, in our palms, on demand.

"The modern world often feels very large and confusing, and I think people are on the search for human-size things that they can grab onto," Helen said.

Her podcast looks at gurus who have sprung up across various genres, from wellness to cryptocurrency, dating to productivity, self-improvement to diversity.

These gurus speak to vast and vastly different audiences, but there are a few key similarities between them.

They offer 'forbidden knowledge'. That is, something that encourages us to look beyond the mainstream. 

That can be something relatively low-stakes like crystal healing or vitamin supplements to help you 'detox'. Or something more extreme like former My Kitchen Rules judge Pete Evans peddling a $15,000 'light therapy machine', which he claimed could be used to protect people against COVID-19.

They are selling something. Often, that’s literal merchandise, products, subscriptions, memberships, ticketed events, and so on. But what makes them effective is that, more than that, they’re selling a story, a lifestyle, an aspiration.

As Helen puts it, "The guru offers a personification of something."

Think Gwyneth Paltrow and goop.

"It's her initials in the name of it, but she's also the signifier, right?" Helen said. 

"You see, the filming in her house, and it's all delicious beige and lovely scented candles and throw pillows.

"Gwyneth has become an avatar for that particular type of wellness. So it's like, do you like Gwyneth? Do you buy this whole lifestyle?"

They are unselfconscious. "They are the last unselfconscious people on the internet," argues Helen.

"The internet style for the last decade has been characterised by being soaked in irony and self-awareness. You're posing, you're living your life in this very self-conscious way, you're doing it for the [Insta]Gram. But what you get when you listen to a lot of these gurus is people who are just completely themselves, in a very weird way.

"That means that there is a tendency for the mainstream to sneer at them," Helen continued. "But actually, people really like the earnestness. People find the irony-soaked culture — and the idea that you're supposed to know all these precepts and what to say —  kind of exhausting."

For many people, she argued, there’s relief in coming across someone unbothered by judgement, because it usually means this is someone who won’t judge them.

Take Gwyneth in court last week. 

The designer turtleneck jumpers, the green juice she sipped while her lawyers talked, her response to a question about whether the incident dampened her enjoyment of her holiday: "Well, I lost half a day of skiing."

Now that’s a way to live.

For more from Helen Lewis, including how she thinks comedian Russell Brand’s guru phase is his "greatest acting performance yet", and the trait that makes someone more likely to believe conspiracies, listen to No Filter here.

Feature Image: Getty/Mamamia.