With all this talk of becoming one with the universe, spirituality has started to become an industry and it’s booming. A trend has emerged called the New Age movement. Here’s my thoughts.
In my earlier years all I can remember was that I was always searching... for something. You could call it a purpose, a greater connection, or you could say I was looking for my Self.
I wanted my life to mean something. As I got older I still felt as though there were pieces of me which either got stripped or lost in some other dimension.
It wasn't until years later, at around the age of 24 I started to really recognize how much all of this "searching" really had done to me, and in my personal opinion, was slowly ruining my life.
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As I was saying earlier. I wanted my life to mean something. I'm not sure to "who" exactly, but there would be images in my mind of this greater end point I would reach when I finally did X,Y, or Z.
This final form, of who I was meant to be, was always so close, yet so far away, that I started to question whether that was the point of it all.
Was I psyoped somewhere along the way? When do I remember feeling and thinking that I need to fix myself, or resolve some issue within my being? When did this begin?
As we all do, we search for answers, luckily we have the internet, and with that we are allowed to find any piece of information that can fit into our current world view, and validate our thinking and what we're feeling - these days now into the finest detail.
In today's online world, spiritual discussions often feel like a never-ending maze. We're constantly debating what ideas are "enlightened" and which ones are "low vibration". The irony is that to even have this conversation, you need a solid grasp of these supposed "levels of consciousness."
And guess what? These levels are so subjective that what's true for one person might not be for another. It's like a never-ending loop where everything becomes true again, depending on where you stand.
The internet has opened up a playground for spiritual exploration, but it's also become a breeding ground for all sorts of unhinged beliefs.
With so much information swirling around, it's hard to separate fact from fiction. And when you throw in the concept of different "levels" of awareness, things get even more difficult to comprehend. Every spiritual tradition has its own idea of what constitutes a higher state of consciousness
The New Age movement is not a new thing, in fact, it started in the 70s and was more pure back then then what has turned into now. in my opinion, having been slightly associated with new age and their ideas, I’ve come to find that what did it currently is now is no longer what it used to represent.
Before it was crystals, tarot cards, and this wild obsession with psychedelic culturePOST and whatever Sedona is like (I lived there for 4 years), consumerism has turned into - it was a movement that was about peace, love and connection. Now it has turned into something far beyond its original roots and has been at the forefront of turning spirituality into a new industry.
Nowadays, we have an industry of and influencers online selling courses with no certifications, with the only thing to sell is their exchange of their time that they have spent learning about the self and nothing more. Much of these spiritual gurus and even online influencers are selling to you what you never needed and I believe they don’t even have it themselves.
A big part of what I’ve realized in shifting over my own personal perception of reality from new age thinking to a more practical lens, is that the more I focus on becoming real the less I need to escape from the reality that I currently live. Escapism is fundamentally at the roots of spiritual practices, even if intentions are correctly in place.
It’s the irony of believing you need an intricate and detailed, spiritual routine and maintenance program, because what would happen if you didn’t stick with it? What would happen if you forgot your crystals at home and went out to an event that was important to you? Would you begin to feel off because you no longer have your sacred emblems around you?
These were the types of questions that came into my mind when I was beginning to detach from the new age as I started to realize there was a codependent relationship between these external objects, and the perception of what I believe they were doing for me later on turn to not be real at all.
I think it’s hard for some people to let go of their attachment to the often very consumer and commodified, branded theme of spirituality, because especially nowadays, there is so much built-up information about the industry of it, therefore backing up how true and useful it all could be.
I’ve come to realize fundamentally is that when you turn back to becoming real and embrace the reality for exactly how it is without any theme or contextualization of what you’ve learned in some mystical book, you will find what is always been there and therefore what is always been real for you.
Finding and discovering the keys to your reality, first begins when you look deeply into the reality that you are in right now. I guess there is some power in the now, but you can forget the rest.
Raymond is a multi-disciplinary designer and developer currently living in either Silicon Valley or San Diego, CA depending on the seasons. You'll find him most commonly skateboarding, having a coffee, programming, algorithmic day trading, creating 3D art or working to bring the Reality Designers vision to life.
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