I have been on what some may call a “spiritual pilgrimage”. It started, like most people’s journeys; attending the odd yoga class, then it progressed to learning how to meditate, energy healing, outer body experiences, discovering how to alter space time…(it escalated quickly). My spirituality was personal to me, I studied various ancient practices, and found my very unique way of connecting to the Divine. This is why, when I first came face-to-face with the modern “spiritual” community, I became a bit disillusioned.
This community can be found in the cafés of Ubud, on the beaches of Koh Phangnan, in the jungle of Tulum, and of course doing yoga poses in front of pyramids on Instagram. They all dress the same, say the same buzzwords, touting “love and light” as they go. It’s a competition: who can appear to be the most enlightened. I lost count at how many people proclaimed to have been one of Mary Magdelene’s mates in a past life.
To be seen to be “spiritual” comes with a price tag. It has become a privilege of the middle class and the rich who pay thousands of dollars to attend a retreat in Costa Rica, just to puke in a bucket with 60 other people. They want the magic wand, the magic potion, the magic mushrooms, anything magic to bring meaning and purpose. They are outsourcing their thoughts, bypassing the hard work of self and soul development.
I am very aware that I sound judgemental, but it feels like this modern western spiritual movement is at risk of becoming a religion at best, an egoic cult at worst. They judge the vaccinated to be “sheeple”, and yet they are undistinguishable from each other. Born again hippies forgetting that the one key message of the hippies: everything is love.
Intention is everything, and I do not believe that these people are evil. They constantly seek healing; spending even more thousands of dollars on sound baths, breathwork, ice baths, trauma release therapies, the list goes on. This constant search assumes that they are constantly sick, which in some ways I think they are. Their search for healing and meaning has warped them into a collective of lost and fearful individuals, who’ve found a tribe and a sense of belonging.
This modern spirituality movement has lost its way. It has become more of an industry than a path towards consciousness and the creation of Heaven on Earth. It’s not easy to be conscious, in fact, it takes a lot of consciousness to be conscious. Perhaps this is why spiritual bypassing has become so prevalent in a society that always wants quick fixes.
The spiritual path is an individual one. It requires a lot of work; to let go of your ego, to release your mind, to learn to listen to your heart, and to empower the healer and divine within. I hope that this community will wake up and actually embody their motto of “love and light”, because at the moment all I see is fear.
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