The Love & Light Movement is BS

Eat, Pray, & Love was so well received by the sort of girls that worship the goddess of Pumpkin Spice, and are notorious for wearing Lululemons. For others, this was another contribution to the whitewashing of Spirituality. Honestly, the whole notion of Westernizing Eastern philosophies has been a grand debate for decades (maybe even centuries). My complaints towards it could be a drop in an ocean of irritation, and those same people I am referring to would merely lecture me about what demons possess me.

Oh well.

My unpopular opinion is mostly that the “New Age” movement isn’t new at all. This is the same as The Crusades, Renaissance, and Manifest Destiny movement with, of course, a “new” spin. As a black woman majoring in Psychology, of course I understand the importance of mental health, self-development, and undoing trauma. That’s. Not. My. Complaint. Here.

My complaint stems from the people that have taken their same obsession with unrealistic personal standards, White affluent elitism, and bastardizing other people’s cultures to then say it’s for the benefit of humanity, because they’re “saving” other people (from who? from what?). And by enlighten, they really mean enWHITEn, because the photos they use in their Tarot decks, retreat advertisements, and masterclasses are void of ethnic and body-type representation. It’s like their Ayurvedic-dreamcatcher-angelic-shamanic-crystal-Reiki-plant-medicine-Goddess doesn’t approve of diversity.

The emphasis of being a “Lightworker” and envisioning “white lights” and “banishing the darkness” mirrors the speech historically used to rationalize slavery. But oh no, that’s so WRONG. That’s so MEAN. I need to tame my shadow self and blah blah blah.

This You that supposedly lurks in darkness is still a part of you, isn’t it? When you watch the videos of the leaders from which many take these concepts, you do feel a lot of love. And I’m not saying “they’re all shitty people”, and “we have nothing to learn from people like this”. Rather, I’m saying, can’t those trying to “Ascend” see how much they have to learn from “Reality”? The ugly parts of society, and the people that aren’t “Woke” can also be your teachers.

The story of leaving a 9-5 to pursue your “Dream” seems even more elusive, when you think of impoverished working Americans. Do you have to sell your enlightenment to them for 5 EASY payments of $199? How accessible is your self-love, if the price tag equals a weeks worth of groceries? Do you have any free resources or meet-ups to help the Collective heal?

I am ALL ABOUT understanding deeper truths, but I’ve found that a lot of times they really are just little bits of nuggets from within that you connect with through the outside. I just wish I wouldn’t have squandered so much money and picked at old wounds of socio-racial inadequacy in order to find that out.

What started out as an abrasive LOVE letter to those that need to re-examine why they’re on a journey, is now ending in a call to action. Have you started on a spiritual path or self-transformation journey in hopes that some mystical culture would cure you of the wounds your parents (and society) inflicted upon you? If so, now that you are reaching “Enlightenment” are you waving that certificate around in hopes of shitting on Them (and all the people you were already conditioned to feel superior to)? Instead, why don’t you ask yourself, how much money do I have to spend in order to rationalize how worthy I am of love?

We should be able to tell each other from the most loving place “you’re annoying” and “your new spiritual path sucks”. How am I being mean when all I’m doing is calling you out on your front? The same way no one likes Sidewalk preachers condemning us all to hell in front of events, no one likes your long tangents on your trip to Costa Rica or India or Bali or... How can you truly maintain unending positive thinking without poisoning yourself?

I challenge you to mentally strip your beliefs and rituals to the bare-minimum. To write down what your safe space or Highest Truth would look like if you didn’t encroach upon a closed religion or practice. To ask yourself, am I whitewashing the human pursuit of love and fulfillment, and if so, what can I do to heal this pattern for good?

Just like so many Spiritual Teachers would tell you, in one iteration of another, you are worthy of love, safety, and success. No matter your ethnicity, religion, country, education, or money, you are deserving of respect. In order to find that respect in the world around, I wholeheartedly believe you have to extend it to yourself first. So if you’ve adopted certain practices assuming it would get you closer to Enlightenment, I suggest you check in to yourself to see if you want to continue it going forward. After all, there’s no “look” someone that loves themselves should have. We can have that wisdom regardless of our past or future. All it takes is cultivating it right now.

Love and KINDNESS, y’all.