For many centuries, there has been a growing disconnect in Western culture from the essence of spiritual growth, wholesome conduct, and the practice of living without conflict. While the healing and coaching professions have the potential to be powerful catalysts for change, they too often fall short of recognising this disconnect. Spiritual influencers and communities […]
Spirituality matters, I believe, because all of the challenges us humans face, such as: financial trouble, loss of meaning or direction, anger, sadness, discord, loneliness, addiction, co-dependency and confusion – can all be construed as spiritual challenges. All arise from our inner conflicts and disconnection from parts of ourselves. But this is not the predominant
The word ‘narcissist’ is shorthand for someone with Narcissist Personality Disorder, which is a medical diagnosis for someone displaying observable characteristics including an inflated sense of their own importance, an insatiable need for attention and admiration and a pathological lack of ability to experience empathy. At its core, however, a narcissist can be thought of
If you’ve ever had a numinous spiritual experience, fallen in love, experienced joy at your sports team winning, or even become trapped in an abusive relationship or cult, then you will have experienced ‘Participation Mystique.’ Jung described Participation Mystique in many places, building on ideas by Lucien Lévy-Bruhl. It is is a powerful concept for
There was much I had to learn during my own exit and recovery from the inner circle of an exploitative Buddhist cult. In my months of untangling all the useful lessons from the poison, I probably acquired the equivalent of a Masters degree in Buddhism. Although I did not change my name. This task was
The workplace isn’t somewhere commonly associated with ‘cults.’ But a cult can be any group of people bound together by codependent dynamics. Exploitative cults can form not just around religion, but in politics, self-help groups and in the conventional workplace. Cults are in fact far more common in the modern workplace than many people realise
Cults can be a vehicle for spiritual growth as well as a trap. But one thing that defines them as a cult is that they do intend, consciously or not, to be a trap. A typical cult will suggest that their way is “the” way, and that the only way forward is through them and
It can be tempting to think that the wholesome response to malevolence is to ‘let it go’ by ‘doing nothing’ – To show antagonists a holier way of being by graciously “turning the other cheek.” But true “Letting go” is not the same as “doing nothing.” Our mind brought this challenge about for good reason.
The challenges faced by civilization today are not bad luck or random coincidence. The real challenge is not climate change, biodiversity, pandemics, social media, war, nuclear disaster, politicians, political divide, inequality, prejudice or discrimination or malignant artificial intelligence. Attempt to ‘solve’ any one of these issues and the real challenge will simply re-emerge in a
When we hurry and rush around, there’s a story that accompanies it: I’m moving fast to get more done, to arrive on time, to not let people down, to be better, and so on. But in truth the hurrying is a reaction to a feeling, which the Ego then steps in to justify. We rush
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