Don't be in such a rush to meet the "transcendental God." It is through work on yourself, with and through others, that you will meet Him/Her/God first. Stop running. Stay here and do the work. (Michael Garbe)
Spiritual Bypass - The use of spirituality - meditation, seclusion or isolation, ritualistic mantra or prayer, religion, etc, as a compulsive behavior, becoming nothing more than the next drug. Spiritual Bypass is utilized to escape from the reality of stress, pain, and trauma endured in one’s lifetime, and which ultimately results in a spiritual prison. One can only be freed by cleansing oneself of trauma, not by running away from trauma into a spiritual prison.
Working in the substance abuse field for years, I encountered this nifty equation:
Pain/Stress + Drug Use/Compulsive Behavior = Immediate Pleasure + Future Pain.
Plugging in spirituality into this equation is the simplest way to define spiritual bypass.
Therefore Spiritual bypass looks like this:
Pain/Stress + Compulsive Spirituality = Immediate Pleasure + Future Pain
I would not even call it immediate pleasure, but more so dissociation and escape from reality.
Many, many, people run to drugs and to compulsive behaviors in order to not deal with their down issues. Many people run up to spirituality to not deal with their down issues.
You may ask. What are down issues???
Down issues are the traumas that we endured as children and while we were growing up, before we gained the strength and power to fend for, and defend ourselves, from the powers that were. Many people have still not gained this strength. Many people are gaining it. This is true spiritual awakening. The working through trauma towards liberation, not the running away from trauma into spiritual imprisonment.
I would like to delve back into the Chakra System to better depict traumas of down, and spiritual bypass up. Please see: http://www.psychodynamicawakening.com/chakras/
The first three chakras, the energy centers beginning from the base of the body to the solar plexus, are the energy centers that are concerned with Mother, Father, and the traumas that we may have been endured from our primary attachment figures; or the traumas that may have been endured by not having these primary attachment figures!!!
NO ONE had a perfect childhood, and for those who say that they did, I would suggest that there is some dissociation, other than spiritual bypass, that is occurring, and should be explored in order for you to heal. Separation/Individuation - separation from traumas, occurs at the 3rd Chakra, from which we can then move up into the heart chakra, learn to love all people unconditionally, even our injurers, and continue our journey upwards into the more etheric spiritual realms.
Spiritual Bypass can be seen in many of the practices taught by the so called “gurus” and “experts,” mentioned in my previous article (You Are Your Own Guru), such as meditation on the third eye (6th Chakra), up, rather then down where the trauma is located. Forced meditation up, rather than down, leads to nothing but dissociation and disconnection from exactly the energy centers that need to be focused on to heal. As mentioned in my previous article, your body will guide you to the point of meditation, not some “guru” or “expert.” Feeling your body and your energy will guide you back to your traumas, in order for you to heal through them; YOU ARE YOUR OWN GURU!!! You may already be feeling these energies in the form of aches and pains in the lower body, gastrointestinal issues, etc, as well as feeling the energy itself, if you really begin to connect with yourself. Please see article - You Are Your Own Guru (http://www.psychodynamicawakening.com/blog)
Another area of the New Age Spiritual Movement that I would like to address, is the use of energetic grounding and shielding techniques, which I have understood as another subtle form of spiritual bypass.
Simply put: The only reason to ground, is to ground you down into yourself, in order for you to deal with traumas that you have been running up and away from. If you do not heal boundary violations that occurred within yourself, such as physical and sexual abuse, there is NO amount of energetic shield building, use of magical stones, etc, that will build boundaries for you!!! Building boundaries is an inside job, that takes work! It means working through trauma in order to heal and gain strength. It does not occur through some magic technique. THERE IS NO MAGIC PILL!!! YOU ARE YOUR OWN GURU! Spiritual awakening is an empowerment process and it takes work to build this strength.
MOST IMPORTANTLY!!! IT IS OKAY TO HAVE EMOTIONS!!! IT IS OKAY TO FEEL!!!
This has been the worst injury of spiritual bypass and spiritual imprisonment for humanity. The dissociation from our feelings in order to achieve some state of blissful detachment.
There is nothing more liberating than expressing oneself freely, and this means expressing each and every one of your emotions, breaking the chains of trauma and spiritual imprisonment, towards the freedom of your creative self.
You mean even anger? It’s okay to be angry?
Simply put: If slaves did not get angry, they would still be slaves!!! Individuals like Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks were angry!!! This resulted in change!!! It is how the anger was used, constructively for action and change, rather than self destructively that was and is the issue.
It is scary to feel. It is scary to feel trauma that occurred and is stored within the body. For this reason, many people turn to alcohol and drug use, turn to compulsive behaviors such as excessive television watching and Facebook scrolling, and in this new day and age, turn to compulsive spiritual practice, such as compulsive yoga and meditation - the new age drug, which is nothing more than an escape from trauma if not used consciously; this is spiritual bypass and spiritual imprisonment.
True spiritual freedom, awakening, and expression, is gained though complete expression of your true self. Complete expression of truth, of trauma, of pain, of emotions, of feelings. Complete expression of fear, sadness, and anger, if this is your truth, in order to burn away these feelings. This is self love and self acceptance. Loving yourself for everything you are and everything you have endured. Be proud of yourself! Love yourself! LOVE EVERY ASPECT OF YOURSELF!!!
Spritual awakening is a journey down, just as much as it is a journey up. Because if we really want to get spiritual, down is up, and up is down. Correct? ; )
-Michael Garbe