Fake Spirituality Examples Mega-Thread

[TimStr]

I think the issue is not so much, that these things are woo hoo. There might be people with legit psychic or healing abilities. But thats not so much what the question of fake spirituality is about.

As I see it, the issue is more that people confuse the believes they have about those psychics and healers for doing spiritual work. Many people think they become spiritual by immersing themselves in these kind of new age circles and adopting the "spiritual" culture. They become trapped in a sort of spiritual performance.

For this to happen, it doen't matter if the new age hypothoses or the psychic ability is actually legit or not. People create the fantasies about it weather there is legitimacy to these things or not.

But thats not what genuine truth seeking means.

Edited July 20 by TimStr

[PurpleTree]

Is "real" spirituality one that keeps you seeking on a path

or one that yanks away your path?

who knows

 

[Princess Arabia]

6 minutes ago, PurpleTree said:

Is "real" spirituality one that keeps you seeking on a path

or one that yanks away your path?

who knows

 

There are no real paths. 

[PurpleTree]

30 minutes ago, Princess Arabia said:

There are no real paths. 

Then what is fake spirituality?

 

[Sugarcoat]

Part of what spirituality is , is a mental construct that becomes part of your psyche and identity that you hold as a mental overlay on reality, contributing to the sense of distance between you and the external, and gives depth to the self. 

[Majed]

Fake spirituality : having a threesome in burning man calling your partners divine feminine LMAOOOOO.

Genuine spirituality: sitting in the closet for a week straight. 

[Leo Gura]

You guys need to do a lot more contemplating on what fake vs real spirituality is.

You're still missing the distinction.

Don't ask me. Contemplate.

Edited July 20 by Leo Gura

[PurpleTree]

17 minutes ago, Majed said:

 

 spirituality: sitting in the closet for a week straight. 

You’re deeply closeted in the spiritual closet. Come out that closet boii

Just now, Leo Gura said:

You guys need to do a lot more contemplating on what fake vs real spirituality is.

You're still missing the distinction.

I mean i guess it’s a spectrum. Worst is straight grifters and dangerous cults.

[TimStr]

Here is another one for the shits and giggles:

The church of dudeism, a religion founded on impersonating the Dude from the famous Jeff Bridges movie: The Big Lebowsky

Practicioners usually go bowling, drink lots of White Russians and wear cozy sweaters. It was founded by his holyness, the dudely lama, Oliver Benjamin.

The great thing about this is, that most practicioners have self-awareness about the whole thing being a mockery. 

 

Here is an interview with the founder of Dudeism.

Edited July 20 by TimStr

[Leo Gura]

1 minute ago, PurpleTree said:

I mean i guess it’s a spectrum. Worst is straight grifters and dangerous cults.

That's way too shallow of an answer.

The answer is profound.

[Princess Arabia]

43 minutes ago, PurpleTree said:

Then what is fake spirituality?

 

All I'm saying is paths are illusory. I'm on an illusionary path.

[Dodo]

Orchestra without direction is just random noise. 

Still is, but, what are we doing here? 🤔 

This.. this... chicanery! 

The greatest orchestra, greatest conductor, and many mini orchestras and conductors within it... who's weaving and threading... its some serious real stuff ....

Mentioning the bad seeds only strengtens them. Cut them at the root by ignoring.

Edited July 20 by Dodo

[TimStr]

Here is something from the depths of tibetan buddhism:

The oracle of Nechung. He puts himself into trance and performs dances wearing extremely heavy bronze costumes (sometimes up to 40 kilos) while transmitting visions. He serves as one of the primary advisors for the dalai lama.
 

 

 

By the way: I don't want to discredit this by saying that all of this is fake in the sense that it is purely performative. I believe that going into trance and having visions can be archieved. And I think that if anyone the tibetans are experts in this. But we still have to ponder, weather this is actually genuine truthseeking or something distinct from that. We also need to consider whats the role of tradition within all this.

I am mainly posting this because we wanted to have a thread about the peculiarities that happen when humans start to engage with spirituality.

Edited July 20 by TimStr

[Nemra]

9 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

The key is if reality is being understood or not. Are you gaining insight into reality? If so it is legit. If not is it a distraction.

@Leo Gura, I think you just gave away one of the answers in the above post on what differentiates fake from real spirituality.

Edited July 20 by Nemra

[Natasha Tori Maru]

@Nemra indeed, there is some insight there. You could see the confusion begin to unfold early in the thread which is why prompting harder seemed valid.

It is worthy to sit with. Because it's not like all new age can be thrown away so easily! 

[Schizophonia]

I know someone (an ex "new-ager" who becomes christian) who went to Bali and describe it like a "nest of losers"; like people with peter pan syndrome or almost who don't have a job, partner, and are afraid of any responsabilities in general.

He talked about someone he meat there who went to a Jacuzzi with him and his friends before peeing inside, when they got angry about him and asket what he did, he responded that it was because "my urine is gold who ill clean the energy of the Jacuzzi" or something like that lol.

Edited July 20 by Schizophonia

[Nemra]

2 minutes ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

@Nemra indeed, there is some insight there. You could see the confusion begin to unfold early in the thread which is why prompting harder seemed valid.

Understood.

2 minutes ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

It is worthy to sit with. Because it's not like all new age can be thrown away so easily! 

Sure.

[r0ckyreed]

The only real spiritual teachers I know are Peter Ralston, Leo Gura, and Jed McKenna. Everyone else isn’t hardcore enough and sugarcoats the spiritual ego. Think about it. Bashar, Rupert Spira, Eckhart Tolle, and others are just feeding sugar to your spiritual ego. They aren’t serious enough about deconstructing ego. What these spiritual teachers offer is wisdom, but it isn’t awakening.

Edited July 20 by r0ckyreed

[Davino]

I like the example of Brother XII cult as fake spirituality. Why? Because you have a leader who is one of the most gifted occultist ever born, yet used those powers to corrupt and serve his own ego, making a terrible cult.

 

[ExploringReality]

The difference is profound and deep.

Fake spirituality in one sense is beliefs and core hidden assumptions that maintains this selfish drive to survive. Survival is an extremely complex nuance topic that I can't fully explain here now, Leo does an amazing job helping us see what survival is. But fake spirituality is connected with survival. Like using spirituality as an overcoat or garment over this fake person, being a phony.

Also it's deeply tied to corruption and all forms of self deception and outright devilry.  Also it's thinking and surviving in a way that feeds this ego, accomplishing things for relatively good intentions but it's like trying to fill a voidless void, trying to be virtuous in the name of virtue, it's also equivalent to dog shit. 

Fake spirituality is construction of illusion, survival and the social matrix. Real spiritually is deprogramming the mind. Real spirituality is Truth.

Edited July 20 by ExploringReality