This piece is part of my ongoing reflections on psychology, spirituality as lived experience, and how meaning is shaped by environment, culture, power, and personal history. I’m not offering answers or teaching belief systems here — I’m sharing observations formed over time, through work, relationships, research, and lived experience.

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Over the past decade, spirituality and wellbeing have become increasingly visible — and increasingly commercial.

Yoga, meditation, breathwork, manifestation, trauma healing, nervous system regulation, intuition, and “awakening” are now part of everyday language. On the surface, this looks like progress. More people are talking about inner life, mental health, and meaning than ever before.

And yet, something about this landscape has started to make me even more uneasy.

Many people turn to spirituality because they are tired, burned out, grieving, disillusioned, or quietly questioning the lives they’ve built. That vulnerability is not a weakness — it’s a very human response to modern life. I know in my own life, just lighting a candle when all was breaking down gave me some hope when I had no idea of how I was going to take the next step.

I’ve held both my spiritual perspective quietly and also evolved my skills in discernment.

When Spirituality Becomes a Product

What I’ve been noticing — particularly in the modern Western world — is how easily spirituality becomes something that’s packaged, branded, and sold as certainty. Many of the people I come into contact with are seekers and want to try something new, there is intrigue ,curiosity and a desire to explore something deeper . many turn up at wellbeing events then go back home and live day to day life , for others its more than that. Its also how i pursued spirituality and the esoteric for many years before diving in deeper into yoga and meditation practice .

However many people turn to spirituality to escape capitalism, only to encounter it again in a different form.

Packaged spirituality often has familiar features:

• It simplifies complex inner work into digestible frameworks

• It aestheticises suffering and healing

• It relies on identity (“I am spiritual”, “I am awakened”)

• It creates hierarchy (teacher / follower, enlightened / not)

• It promises clarity, certainty, or transcendence

• And it often thrives during moments of vulnerability — grief, trauma, burnout, transition

• Or tells you , you are part of the chosen few

None of this automatically makes it malicious. Many spaces begin with genuine care. But when certainty is sold as safety, and authority replaces inquiry, and people project trust and faith without discernment, then something essential is lost and people can become vulnerable to the unscrupulous .

Certainty sells.
But certainty is not the same as wisdom.

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Embodied Spirituality Feels Very Different

Embodied spirituality doesn’t announce itself loudly.

It’s often quiet, relational, and ordinary. It shows up in how someone lives, listens, and relates — not in how confidently they speak or how well they brand themselves.

Embodied spirituality:

• Is lived, not performed

• Evolves slowly over time

• Is shaped by culture, relationships, and environment

• Doesn’t need constant naming or identity reinforcement

• Can’t be fully taught — only pointed toward

• Doesn’t promise escape from being human

In my own life, the most meaningful spiritual learning hasn’t come from workshops or teachings alone, but from lived experience — relationships, loss, illness, cultural immersion, psychological work, and time.

This is one reason I’m cautious about spaces that claim to offer transformation without acknowledging context, power, or the nervous system.

Why Seekers Are Vulnerable — and Why That’s Not a Failing

It’s important to say this clearly: people don’t fall into unhealthy spiritual dynamics because they are unintelligent or naïve.

They fall in because they are searching.

As Irvin Yalom explored so powerfully in Love’s Executioner, the human longing for meaning, relief, and connection can make us deeply susceptible — not only to others, but to our own projections.

When someone is exhausted, grieving, or questioning their identity, certainty can feel like safety. A confident voice can feel like guidance. A clear framework can feel like rescue.

This doesn’t make people weak. It makes them human.

Power, Shadow, and Spiritual Authority

Another dynamic I’ve become increasingly attentive to is how unexamined shadow shows up in spiritual spaces.

Carl Jung wrote extensively about projection — how parts of ourselves we haven’t integrated get projected onto others. In spiritual contexts, this can look like idealising leaders, teachers, or systems as holding answers we don’t yet trust ourselves to hold.

When shadow isn’t acknowledged, it doesn’t disappear. It relocates.

Sometimes into charisma.
Sometimes into moral certainty.
Sometimes into spiritual authority.

This is why I’m wary of spaces that discourage questioning, minimise discomfort, or frame doubt as a lack of faith rather than a healthy part of discernment.

My Position: Discernment Over Devotion

I want to be clear about where I stand.

I’m not anti-spirituality. In fact I live a normal ordinary but deeply spiritual life.
I’m anti unconscious authority.

I know that many of us start out as seekers.
I’m protective of them. I want them to have good experiences, but these can become a cover and distraction for the depth work required.

I don’t claim enlightenment or special access to truth. In fact its taken me a long time to speak more openly about my experiences and the things I see. I don’t teach belief systems or ask people to follow me. I want people to get something of what they need knowing we are always evolving and maybe further down the line a coach, doctor or reflexologist may help. We meet many people on our path .What I offer comes through the lenses I know best: psychology, spirituality as lived experience of living within many different types of cultures and class, culture, exploring and experiencing trauma, and the study of power and meaning-making.

My work has been influenced by thinkers like Ram Dass, who repeatedly warned against spiritual ego and bypassing — and who spoke openly about how easily spirituality can become another identity rather than a deepening of compassion and humility.

What matters to me now is not being certain, but staying present.

Discernment as Care

Discernment isn’t cynicism.
It’s care.

It’s the willingness to ask:

• Who benefits here?

• What power dynamics are at play?

• What happens when someone questions this?

• Does this space support grounding, ethics, and emotional regulation?

• Or does it create dependency, hierarchy, or bypassing?

The most important authority in any spiritual path is not the teacher.

It’s your capacity to stay honest, awake, and connected to your own inner knowing — especially when things feel uncomfortable or unclear.

Closing Reflection

Spirituality doesn’t need to rescue us from being human.

If anything, it asks us to meet our humanity more fully — with awareness, responsibility, and care.

In a world full of noise, certainty, and spectacle, staying grounded may be the most radical practice of all.