In recent times we have seen a big rise in people walking away from Abrahamic Religions and becoming more involved in spirituality. Unfortunately this has lead to many falling victim to the predators that exist in spiritual spaces. These predators are motivated and experienced in convincing these people to believe in all sorts of things that may not necessarily be in their best interests. The most outstanding example is the chokehold the New Age Spirituality has, sweeping across social media and with many believing to have found the spirituality that they were seeking when they walked away from Abrahamic Religions. While many were seeking a community, needing guidance to navigate finding the light in dark times or even finding answers to questions that they may have had ancestrally, they ended up walking into the trap of New Age Spirituality, which is broad and has been the epicenter for appropriating beliefs from across the world in order to obtain and retain relevance among the masses. In short, New Age Spirituality is structured in such a way that it can touch on certain points that may seem like they are sound to someone that has no formal background in spirituality but the actual wisdom supporting the concepts is missing and the structure to even obtain that wisdom has been stripped away.

Behind this New Age Spirituality the concept of being a student has been retained but the concept of being a teacher has been heavily modified in favor of allowing anyone to claim to be a teacher. There is no substitute for a good teacher, there is no teacher that can properly teach what they do not know. This is because if you do not have the wisdom of the ancients, you cannot properly give it to someone else. The issue with this ideology is that it empowers social influencers to swoop in and claim the position of being teachers without formally obtaining it via training, ceremonies or any form of education. They can just start teaching things that may or may not be true and since the concept of being a student has been left in place, their following feel called to be students. As the students grow in their “understanding” and their following, they too can gravitate towards teaching others and becoming “teachers.” This creates a belief system where many people can learn from many people in very deep seeded ways but the source of the information was never qualified. The issue at hand has now created another issue where there are so many people that have adapted and wholeheartedly believe these things that they become widely accepted as correct and proper spiritual practice. For reference, New Age Spirituality has incorporated concepts such as Auras, Chakras, Karma, Higher Self, Indigo Children, Pyramid Power, Breathwork, Astrology etc. Most of these concepts belong to complete religious beliefs from across the world and have no business being isolated and then incorporated into another spiritual belief, this is clearly appropriation that was done by someone in particular and they taught this as the correct and proper form of spirituality that the masses would relate to.

While being a student is crucial to the spiritual journey, picking a teacher is just as crucial. Not all teachers are the same, they do not all have the same wisdom or qualifications and they do not all have your best interest at heart. It is important to keep that in mind when coming to a conclusion about learning from someone. The qualifications really do matter but something else to keep an eye on is the practice itself. Seeing as how New Age Spirituality and other adjacent spiritual beliefs are based on flawed mechanisms and ideologies that lead to appropriations and shallow surface-level wisdom, reaching to the source of where these ideologies come from is recommended. For example; If the concept of Karma is something that resonates with you deeply, you may want to look into the origin of Karma and possibly practice that versus some odd spirituality that appropriated that concept from them. If what you resonate with is an African Traditional Religion in particular, you will need to find a qualified elder that will properly guide you on the journey into that traditional religion and not some sort of social influencer that speaks as if they know something on the subject. Just as someone cannot attend Church one Sunday and then claim to be a Priest, one cannot pick up a single spiritual concept and claim to be a Spiritual Leader in any capacity. This behavior is mostly observed from someone who is not a qualified teacher and is purposely misleading newer people into following them and learning flawed concepts and ideologies from them. To walk away from Abrahamic Religions is not just a physical task, it is also a mental, emotional and spiritual one. Walking away physically but still being mentally, emotionally and spiritually beholden to the concepts in those religions is not what spirituality is. One cannot approach spiritual traditions and religions with a conquerors mindset, appropriating and violating procedures to their convenience as is being portrayed by New Age Spirituality and its adjacent sibling spiritual beliefs. One needs to really walk away and expand their mind, body and soul in order to actually even be spiritual and there are so many more steps to becoming a Spiritual Leader. Seek the truth.

Social Influencers need to stop falsely claiming titles, they are only serving to destroy that which they claim.