The Spiritual Bypass

The Spiritual Bypass.

I don't know how widely this term is used beyond California, so forgive me if I am stating the obvious. Psychospiritual and therapeutic practitioners here use it to describe the phenomenon amongst some New Age and spiritual followers - once an experience of peace or bliss has been tasted in meditation, people can develop a tendency to take refuge in that experience as a way of avoiding, or bypassing, arising emotions that are perceived as "unspiritual."

Like many Anglo-Saxons, I was not raised to express or discuss emotions, so it was an automatic response for me to adopt the spiritual bypass within my BK world. I certainly got the message that anger, depression, or even joy as a response to worldly things, were wrong and signs of failure. I thought I was succeeding if I could bypass these emotions, and I was totally complicit in discounting or judging issues within my BK environment that had an emotional root.

It was several years before I began to see the potential for personal harm and institutional abuse in this position. Just to share one example, I witnessed some extreme psychological abuse of three young Brothers at the hands of a center-in-charge, who I now consider a pathological bully and an egomaniac. The abuse was bad enough, (and I confess that I was too much of the "insider mindset" to speak out or act) but I got very concerned about the seeming complete lack of permission for those victims to speak up, or to express their emotional reality about it later. (I sincerely hope they found their way to recovery from that experience).

I am interested in this again now in the light of today's emerging spiritual teachers - Eckhart Tolle, Arjuna Ardagh, Byron Katie, Adyashanti, Gangaji, and many others I am sure. Their message seems to be the opposite: when any problematic emotion arises (and that can be a positive emotion in an inappropriate situation), move your focus into the center of it, experience the energetic and visceral reality of it, without any thought, story, movement toward or away.

If you completely drop all stories about why you are angry, say, and drop all impetus to act on or react to the anger, then (to quote the Murli), you will discover that it is just a paper tiger. You will discover an infinite realm of presence, silence, and love (or whatever) on the other side. I remember BK Denise giving a class on this once in London. And I remember being totally confused by it because it seemed so contrary to my understanding, and far too dangerous to contemplate.

As I explore these teachers and practice their very simple message, which is the direct opposite of the spiritual bypass, I am beginning to discover the truth in what Byron Katie says, "Life is internal ... There is no way my life cannot be a mirror image of my thinking. There is nothing out there but my thinking."

This brings me back to the Murli! I don't remember whether it was in Sakar or Avyakt Murlis, but I do remember Baba saying occasionally that the world is nothing but a dream, in other words nothing but a projection of thought. It makes me wonder if I am coming full circle now and seeing that there is more depth to the Murlis than I thought at the time, and if that depth can be arrived at from the opposite direction.

I am sure this kind of thing has been discussed on here before, but I'd be very interested to read comments and views from others if you can bear to go over it again.

I am reposting this from "signs and warnings of mind control" since I think I went off topic:

Last night I ate fish with my family for the first time in years. It was like a coming out party although nobody said anything or created any drama ... until today when they tried to push chicken on me. I said, "I will eat what I want, when I want without feeling pressure from you." They laughed at me and that's when old feelings from childhood came up about how controlling my family was then. A couple of hours later I had an epiphany. What I realized was that I had transfered one system of control over to another and onto another until I reached the BKs. I believe in psychology it's called transference and we do it often and unconsciously.

The question that came to mind was, "so after all this, did I heal anything at all, or was it all just covered up?" I did notice I was much more in control of my emotions, especially because I felt I was being ganged up on. So my self-control came to be tested and proved to be useful. I know they did not consciously mean to be mean, but irregardless of their intentions, I became aware of the original seed of control which brought yet another layer of "mind control" history to the forefront.

Then I understood why I wanted a new family. And I understood why it was safer to be "detached" and I understood why it was better to be numb than to be alive and feel the pain. And I understood why I thought that everywhere else would be safer than home. But it's not. The only safe place is when we are healed inside and everything we do is geared towards becoming healed.

Today it is, personally, not as drastic as the picture I am painting, but it is a very real portrait of some of the characters that make up society. When a person is light and joyful and enthusiastic about life, it suggests success at least at being happy, which brings out feelings of jealousy and hatred in those who are unhappy. I think a lot of the sabotage that occurs between people is not intentional but a dance between light and dark. Like attracts like but light will also attract dark precisely because the dark needs some light. And unconscious people need to create opposites in order to create the ideal in their minds.

So a person who is unhappy and sees a happy person, will have to bring them down in order to keep themselves up. The same goes for professional success. How many times have we seen people feel the need to destroy their competitors in order to be on top? There is room for everyone to be successful in this world, but oftentimes fear creates enemies where before there weren't any.

The Law of Karma, taken too far, is not healthy because it suggests we deserve all the bad things we get which causes feelings of guilt. If I thought I deserved the bullying then I would have just accepted my lot, but I don't think that way anymore. I think that unconscious people wil grab any opportunity they can to be in control and victorious at the expense of other people and situations.

I believe it's called selfishness and self-centeredness. And I believe the BKs are a group of people who have done just that. People can be blinded by success and VIPs and want to ride the coattails of those who have managed to climb The Ladder of Success. But selfishness leaves a trail of blood behind it.