9 Spiritually Transmitted Diseases
Fake gold exists because there is real gold. This maxim is a statement of intent regarding the topic that we discuss in this article: the 9 spiritually transmitted diseases.
The false gurus and “teachers of life” tend to be a waste of arrogance and hermetic opportunism. Enlightenment becomes a longing for souls who believe they are lost and who walk the world in search and capture of someone to enlighten them.
When we feel lost we become “cannon fodder”, a tremendously appetizing dish for the carrion birds of the interior road. Characters that are pure marketing and competing for an award that has taken on tinges of hypocrisy and falsehood.
For example, many propose, in certain cases without any basis other than their own opinion, that meditation opens the way for us to get rid of all those contaminants that push us to ask ourselves questions.
As an extreme example we can think of cases of sectarian groups that come to pay large sums of money to commit suicide.
But there are also critical people who know how to put the point on the “i” to the set of false gurus, vital trainers and specialists in the domain of our mind. Mariana Caplan, PhD in Philosophy, writer and anthropologist, has devoted her life to the study of spirituality without a critical sense.
The 9 spiritually transmitted diseases that can “infect” us
A very successful vision on the distortion of spirituality and the commercial use of this fashion is offered by Mariana Caplan, who raises the reality of 10 spiritually transmitted diseases.
1. Fast food spirituality.
If we mix spirituality with a culture that celebrates speed, multitasking, and quick results, we are likely to get the so-called fast food spirituality. This, as defined by Caplan, is a product of the common and understandable fantasy that alleviating the suffering of our human condition can be quick and easy. The path of spirituality or rather spiritual transformation CANNOT be obtained as a quick fix.
2. The spirituality of imitation.
Speaking in a calm way, dressing in certain clothes and colors, acting in a certain way… Is all this essential if we want to consider ourselves “spiritual people”? The truth is that NO. This “spiritually transmitted” disease makes us try to imitate the idea of what we believe to be spiritual in the same way that leopard skin fabric mimics the real skin of a leopard.
3. Confusing motivations.
The need to fill our emotional void, the belief that the spiritual path will free us from the sufferings of life, and the desire to be special and “magical” leads us to intermingle these aspirations with the genuine and pure desire to grow.
4. Identify with spiritual experiences.
As Caplan affirms, “in this disease, the ego identifies with our spiritual experiences and takes them as its own, and we begin to believe that we are embodying ideas that have arisen within us at certain times.” Obviously this does not last indefinitely, although it will tend to last in those people who believe themselves to be “enlightened” or who behave as “spiritual and life teachers.”
5. The spiritualized ego.
Caplan argues that this disease occurs when the ego’s own personality structure deeply and deeply mixes with spiritual concepts and ideas. The result is an ego structure that is “bulletproof.” We become invulnerable to help, we close our senses to new contradictory information and other constructive proposals. We become impenetrable and we stagnate our growth although, of course, we carry spirituality as our flag.
6. The mass production of spiritual teachers.
There are a lot of spiritual traditions (Buddhism, for example) that are in vogue today. The result of marketing is a marketing of figures and specialists who make themselves known as people with great spiritual enlightenment when in fact they are not. As our author states, this disease works like a spiritual conveyor belt: put yourself in this glow, get that vision, and bam! you are enlightened and ready to enlighten others in a similar way.
7. Spiritual pride.
When the practitioner. Thanks to years of effort, he reaches a certain level of wisdom, he can use that achievement to close himself to other experiences. It is possible that you feel in “spiritual superiority” and that transmit a subtle message that comes to say “I am better than others, wiser, and above, because I am spiritual.”
8. The mind of the group.
The group mind is an insidious virus that contains many elements of traditional codependency. Subtle and unconscious loyalties and agreements regarding the way of acting and thinking, speaking and dressing can lead to a rejection of other experiences, thought patterns or people.
9. The deadly virus.
“I have reached the final goal of my spiritual path.” This disease can be terminal and fatal to our spiritual evolution. As Caplan affirms, our spiritual progress ends at the point where this idea takes shape in our mind, because the moment we begin to believe that we have reached the end of the road, further growth stops.
