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12 common manifestations of spiritual disorders and spiritually transmitted diseases.
1. Free Lunch Spirituality: There is no such thing as a spiritual free lunch, evolution is seldom if ever a fast process. In order to become a spiritual master you must become and be in every way a master of self, in, of and for love in service to all that is. There is no quick and easy fix to end human suffering, the path to mastery is difficult and requires persistence, patience and a willingness to walk the talk of mastery…. That is why they call it mastery, if it were easy then everyone would be doing it. This delusion is characterised by those who do lots of workshops and read a lot of self help books, are very knowledgeable yet seldom engage in any real behaviour change. They think that merely turning up and paying the fee is enough to become enlightened.
2. Imitative Spirituality: Imitative spirituality is when someone mimics the apparent behaviour of someone more advanced upon the path than they are whilst deluding themselves that this means that they themselves are enlightened. They talk, dress and act as they imagine a spiritual person would. This kind of spirituality that merely mimics spiritual realisation no more makes you a master than would wearing the same clothes as your favourite singer would make you a rock star.
3. Mixed Motivations: Although you may possess a genuine and pure desire to become a better person, that often gets mixed with less selfless motivations, including the desire to be loved, the desire to belong, an attempt to overcome low self esteem and our inner emptiness, the belief that the spiritual path will improve the comfort and personal power in this lifetime, spiritual ambition, the desire to be special, to be better than others in order to feel safe, to be "the chosen one."
4. Identifying with Peak Spiritual Experiences: This is really identifying as an ego with a spirit rather than being a spirit with an ego. In this delusion the ego identifies with your spiritual process and makes it its own, and you begin to believe that you are embodying insights, entities and levels that have arisen within you at certain times. Just because you experience oneness with something in meditation does not mean that you are the living embodiment or incarnation of that. Many spiritual teachers believe in error that they are the reincarnation of Jesus or whoever because they once had some peak experience of oneness with that being or level.
5. The Spirit identified Ego: It is important to understand that being spirit identified does not mean that your ego believes it is spirit, rather it means that you know yourself to be the indwelling animating spirit that is utilising a soul and human body in order to explore and experience the physical universe. When the form structures of the egoic personality simply become deeply imprinted with spiritual concepts and ideas, rather than being transformed through a living revelation of higher spiritual realities, the result is an egoic structure that is rigid, self righteous, invulnerable to change and with deep feelings of superiority. This is the messiah complex. When the ego becomes spirit identified in this way, you are invulnerable to help, new input, or constructive feedback. You become impenetrable and completely stunted in your capacity for spiritual growth, whilst believing you are an enlightened master.
6. Cloned Spiritual Teachers: There are many modern spiritual ‘isms that produce people who believe themselves to be at a high level of spiritual enlightenment, or mastery, that is far beyond their actual level. This is very similar to free lunch spirituality however this occurs when the student adopts a guru and they then proceed to clone themselves in the image of the guru in a co-dependent way. The guru stimulates the energy field of the student, the student is temporarily raised to a higher level but believe they have become permanently enlightened, and are instantly ready to enlighten others in similar fashion. This is not to say that teachers produced in such a way have nothing to offer as they may well might, albeit showing you what not to do, the real problem is that they represent themselves as having achieved spiritual mastery and in so doing give genuine spiritual teachers a bad name.
7. Fatalistic Over-identification with ones "predictive" analysis: While it is true that up until a certain point you experience limitations based upon the prevailing energetic conditions when you were born, you reach a certain point upon the path where you develop the ability to mould your earthly character and expression so as to make it a reflection of your inner spirit reality. Many however believe in a fatalistic, pre-ordained way that they are rigidly imprisoned within. Their "makeup" massively limits and distorts all of their spiritual work. Such ones also tend to see everything that happens as being some fatalisitic omen. Often they will not ever make a decision without first consulting some oracle such as tarot cards etc.
8. Spiritual Pride: Spiritual pride occurs when someone on the spiritual path, through years or perhaps lifetimes of consistent effort, has attained to a particular level of wisdom and enlightenment and then uses that attainment to justify shutting down any need for further growth. A feeling of "spiritual superiority" is strong symptom of this spiritually transmitted disease. It manifests as a subtle feeling that "I am better, more wise, more entitled and superior to others because I am so spiritual."
9. Collective Mind Syndrome: Also described as group mind, cult mentality or ashramic disease, this is an insidious illness that contains many elements of traditional group co-dependence. Those infected in a spiritual group make subtle unconscious agreements and contracts regarding the correct way to think, communicate, dress, and behave. They lose all sense of individual unity and connection with their own creative source and in effect become drones. Individuals and groups infected with "collective mind syndrome" reject free thinking individuals, attitudes, and circumstances that do not conform to the often unwritten rules of the group. Discernment is discouraged and there is a strong sense of ‘us and them’ associated with this disorder.
10. Lack of gratitude and humility: This is the most common spiritual illness encountered on the spiritual path. Symptoms include feeling that your path is more difficult that others, that life is not fair and general victim consciousness. Such ones so afflicted are usually passive aggressive and often refuse to accept help and assistance, rather taking everything as a personal insult and attack.
11. The Chosen ones Complex: The chosen ones complex is the belief that "Our group is more spiritual, more evolved, powerful, enlightened and better than any other group." There is a subtle yet very important distinction between the recognition that one has found the right path, teacher or community for them, and the delusion that you have found the ‘Only one’. In truth there are potentially as many spiritual paths as there are sentient beings, however as most lack the necessary leadership, insight and shrewdness required to create a duplicatible spiritual mechanism of self transcendence (spiritual path) so then will most gravitate towards a wayshower to lead and guide them forward upon the path. Always remember that the true measure of a master is not how many students or devotees they have but how many masters they produce.
12. The most deadly delusion: "I am a fully and completely realised spiritual master!": This spiritual illness has the capacity to terminate to our spiritual evolution and cause a fall which will entail aeons of time retracing your steps. This is the belief that you have arrived at the final goal of the spiritual path. Believing this delusion is akin to postulating that you are creative source, the source of all life, ‘the’ creator. Once again there is a subtle yet important difference between knowing that you are one with creation and believing that you are ‘the’ creator!. The spiritual path is a living evolving experience, there is no static goal or endgame. Our spiritual progress ceases when this belief becomes formed in our psyche, for the moment we begin to believe that we have reached the end of the path, further growth becomes impossible.
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