Fast Food America Demanding a Fast Food Spirituality
Every day, millions of Americans attend week-end shamanic retreats and self-help healing seminars, searching for new meaning–any meaning–to enhance their lives. They want to find answers in a few days from practices that take years to develop.
But is it so terrible that people seek these weekend seminars? No, it is not—as long as they take what they have learned home with them and begin to practice this newfound spirituality. Seeking spiritual wisdom can never be wrong.
Even with “fast food spirituality,” what people learn is valid. What are they seeking? Maybe they are tired of the mindset that pins them down as bad people, because someone ate fruit from a tree at the suggestion of a snake, long, long ago. So they attend these seminars and retreats that they hope will take them to a place within themselves that touches their own divinity.
Many people attend these seminars for the feeling of being a part of something bigger than themselves. Some may have that experience for just that weekend, yet something inside them changes, and they return home with something new to hold within their hearts. And yet others will take that information and grow to become great spiritual leaders. We can never tell where someone is on his or her own spiritual path.
People want and need the revelation that tells them they are a part of The Divine. They want to recognize that they are a part of everything, until one day they can proclaim, “everything that is, is alive.”
So what does it matter that Nancy down the street is attending a New Age healing seminar but has not yet found her own spiritual path? What does it matter that many want to experience the shamanic workshops, and the uplifting seminars of great speakers such as Depak Chopra, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Michael Harner, and Carolyn Myss? Are those experiences invalid? These seekers are applying their energies to a constructive and spiritual direction that can only do them good, instead of spending a lifetime in destruction.
People who are on a steady spiritual path can often help lead others who seem superficially engaged with these spiritual matters. Because they’ve taken the first step, the seed is planted. Instead of judging their “fast food spirituality,” we should use our own wisdom to nurture those seeking to grow.
I read your blog about fast food spirituality and thought it was really good!
My mom has been reading somewhat “spiritual” books (one of which is actually by Wayne Dyer) and it had been getting on my nerves for some reason, probably because I feel that she isn’t really getting what she’s supposed be be getting out of them. However, you proved a good point there. The fact that she’s actually reading books like that in the first place is a good start for her. She may not be anywhere near her “nirvana” as of yet, but at least she’s trying. Your blog actually made me think differently and made me feel better about the whole thing
So thanks!
<3~Stacey~<3