I don't know if it's appropriate to comment on other leading authors who write about and profit from their near death experiences. But if there's any information available, I'd be interested to know if Anita Moorjani has been evasive about producing medical records to review or stands up well to scrutiny? I find her and her books fascinating and convincing, but if she's another one who evades cross examination, that's important to know too. I guess it's important to identify as many false prophets as possible, and as many real ones too. There are very few real ones as you state, but it's good to know who they are too, even though they are by nature, often less conspicuous.
I'm fascinated by what you write about trauma in the first year of life. I haven't heard this before but keen to learn more as there certainly does seem to be an overlap between trauma and spiritual experiences
Thank you for this exploration! I went back to school recently to study the intersection of psychology and spirituality, and have become extremely jaded after seeing this flavor of spiritual bypassing play out again and again.
Creating a safe space for people to authentically explore and claim our birthright to spiritual experience requires rolling up our sleeves and tackling the gritty work of confronting this shadow in our spiritual communities.
My observations line up with yours: spiritual narcissists (regardless of the tradition) are often the people dominating the conversations in what should be sacred spaces. I’ve witnessed some of the most outspoken “spiritual” types do things like willingly infect people to disease to prove their antivax beliefs, then play the victim to online audiences when called out for causing harm. You are also spot-on that the people who have had authentic experiences and have wrestled with the gritty reality of embodying their experiences tend to be the quietest about them. Humility - it’s a good thing!
Thank you for creating space for these kinds of conversations to start. The more light that shines on this phenomenon, the better.
Such good insights! Thank you for writing this. I've often felt conflicted about my draw towards yoga because of the guru mentality that sometimes comes with it. After leaving the religion of my youth, I have walked away from many conversations, events, classes, etc. that claim to have the answer. All the black and white thinking of my childhood opened my eyes to the great mystery of everything and to look to science and personal experience for proof. If anything, it awakened my skepticism but left a little room for soul-full living.
This is a fascinating take! I was totally enthralled by Mind Over Medicine when I first read it. I have my own against all odds healing story as well, and I’m always trying to figure out what it really was and how the brain works toward healing or hurting.
I also agree about the link between trauma in the first year of life and increased spiritual insights being fascinating. It also follows that people with trauma have an increased ability to anticipate danger to a point that that sense becomes supernatural. I have witnessed this with traumatised people I know - seriously uncanny insights about people, and events. Basically increased awareness which I guess overlaps with hypervigilance. I also think increased intuition comes when someone you love dies. Your link to them passes over to the spiritual too. With the Joseph Campbell myth formula - the hero/ine goes on an epic journey - confronts the monster, has a moment of death and then comes back with the sacred knowledge that enables them to resolve the problem and often go on to live a richer life. I witnessed some strange events around my father's funeral - a family portrait fell off the wall ten minutes after we were all talking about it, on the day of his funeral. It might have been the cat, but he had never knocked a picture off the wall before!! Corny as it sounds, it definitely felt like 'the veil had become thinner.'
I don't know if it's appropriate to comment on other leading authors who write about and profit from their near death experiences. But if there's any information available, I'd be interested to know if Anita Moorjani has been evasive about producing medical records to review or stands up well to scrutiny? I find her and her books fascinating and convincing, but if she's another one who evades cross examination, that's important to know too. I guess it's important to identify as many false prophets as possible, and as many real ones too. There are very few real ones as you state, but it's good to know who they are too, even though they are by nature, often less conspicuous.
I'm fascinated by what you write about trauma in the first year of life. I haven't heard this before but keen to learn more as there certainly does seem to be an overlap between trauma and spiritual experiences
Thank you for this exploration! I went back to school recently to study the intersection of psychology and spirituality, and have become extremely jaded after seeing this flavor of spiritual bypassing play out again and again.
Creating a safe space for people to authentically explore and claim our birthright to spiritual experience requires rolling up our sleeves and tackling the gritty work of confronting this shadow in our spiritual communities.
My observations line up with yours: spiritual narcissists (regardless of the tradition) are often the people dominating the conversations in what should be sacred spaces. I’ve witnessed some of the most outspoken “spiritual” types do things like willingly infect people to disease to prove their antivax beliefs, then play the victim to online audiences when called out for causing harm. You are also spot-on that the people who have had authentic experiences and have wrestled with the gritty reality of embodying their experiences tend to be the quietest about them. Humility - it’s a good thing!
Thank you for creating space for these kinds of conversations to start. The more light that shines on this phenomenon, the better.
Such good insights! Thank you for writing this. I've often felt conflicted about my draw towards yoga because of the guru mentality that sometimes comes with it. After leaving the religion of my youth, I have walked away from many conversations, events, classes, etc. that claim to have the answer. All the black and white thinking of my childhood opened my eyes to the great mystery of everything and to look to science and personal experience for proof. If anything, it awakened my skepticism but left a little room for soul-full living.
This is a fascinating take! I was totally enthralled by Mind Over Medicine when I first read it. I have my own against all odds healing story as well, and I’m always trying to figure out what it really was and how the brain works toward healing or hurting.
I also agree about the link between trauma in the first year of life and increased spiritual insights being fascinating. It also follows that people with trauma have an increased ability to anticipate danger to a point that that sense becomes supernatural. I have witnessed this with traumatised people I know - seriously uncanny insights about people, and events. Basically increased awareness which I guess overlaps with hypervigilance. I also think increased intuition comes when someone you love dies. Your link to them passes over to the spiritual too. With the Joseph Campbell myth formula - the hero/ine goes on an epic journey - confronts the monster, has a moment of death and then comes back with the sacred knowledge that enables them to resolve the problem and often go on to live a richer life. I witnessed some strange events around my father's funeral - a family portrait fell off the wall ten minutes after we were all talking about it, on the day of his funeral. It might have been the cat, but he had never knocked a picture off the wall before!! Corny as it sounds, it definitely felt like 'the veil had become thinner.'