Spiritual Bypassing

When I was four I began my spiritual journey. I'd love to be able to say it started in the womb, or at birth, but that's simply not true. I was a carnal baby. But shortly after my fourth birthday I read a page from a book a friend had left for my mother. I couldn't make sense of many of the words, and what the book was or what it said isn't important. What matters is that it sent me down a spiritual path.

But no one ever told me spirituality could be a self-sabotaging ego trap. Once I turned seven I had spent about three years reading spiritual teachings and incorporating them into my life before ever learning that spirituality has a dark side. Naturally, I was taken aback. I felt kind of betrayed. How could something that seemed so pure and good be harmful?

The answer has to do with something that psychologists call spiritual bypassing. In the early 1980s, psychologist John Welwood coined the term “spiritual bypassing” to refer to the use of spiritual practices and beliefs to avoid confronting uncomfortable feelings, unresolved wounds, and fundamental emotional and psychological needs.

That's when I recalled having been molested by a horse. Not physically of course. That would be odd to say the least. Spiritually. Well, it wasn't a horse per say. It was a pony. But I was very small and that vile thing had it's way with me. I've healed those wounds since then (by my tenth birthday in fact), but I've never forgotten. And so, to this day I teach others to be wary of this dark side, of spiritual bypassing, and of horses.

Jah bless, my fellow light beings!