I’ve been into personal development for some time now and two years ago I got my first coaching certification.
And so, I’ve officially entered the ranks of an industry created with the basic overall mission, as I would like to think, to help people improve themselves and their lives, and in the process improve the world.
Some coaches, yoga and meditation instructors and other types of wellness providers regularly talk about social issues that they feel passionate about on their platforms; whether its racism, inequality, environmental protection, women’s and/or LGBTQ+ rights. Some just stick to their content and the transformational programs and/or products that they sell or promote.
In my opinion, both approaches are perfectly fine. I don’t yet use my platform to talk about wider issues, so I applaud everyone who engages with their followers to not only talk about their offerings but about issues that they deem are important.
Not surprisingly, recent events have prompted many more in the personal development sphere (or “spirituality” world as it’s sometimes called) to talk about current happenings, in particular in regard to the recent protests supporting #BlackLivesMatter, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.
And I, together with other colleagues of mine, have noticed a trend.
A trend that, in fact, for many isn’t surprising given the profile of people who have dominated the “personal development” space.
But an alarming trend, nonetheless.
And the trend is the active and open negation of not just facts and evidence, but the lived experiences of other human beings.
As healers, coaches, lightworkers, teachers, educators, truth sayers, however, we identify ourselves, we inevitably function within a particular context – a particular time and space.
And it’s fallen to our lot to function in, among other things, a “post-truth” era.
Now, I know there’s a lot of debate around this term, but at its core, for me, “post-truth” is about denying the lived experience of individuals, particularly whole groups of individuals, even when these experiences are documented and evidenced.
“Post-truth” is about considering the lived experience of individuals debatable, a matter of one’s perspective, or within the context of the spiritual or personal development communities, a matter of the degree of one’s enlightenment.
For me, data, research and evidence that fully confirm the experiences that individual human beings have are the “hard truths”, for which finding alternatives require some impressive, and dangerous, feat of manipulation and spiritual bypassing.
I don’t believe anyone can claim to serve other people and aid in their personal development and have a complete disregard for “hard truths”.
Negating the truth opens up space for damaging falsehoods.
This is why Trump and other demagogues and autocrats thrive in a “post-truth” context. By negating something, you can pretend that it isn’t real and, as a result, not have to face the actual issues, but go against those that are working towards addressing the real issues.
So basically, if you don’t like some numbers, just say they’re not real.
You don’t like a virus that reveals all the weaknesses of your governance structures and socio-economic systems, just say it isn’t real.
You don’t like a particular group, just say that they’re in fact a part of a bigger conspiracy, and, in effect, are not real.
Negating “hard truths” does not add to debates, nor expand viewpoints, all it does is perpetuate conflict.
Which is, again, why people like Trump, thrive in that context.
All of us who have decided to work in the area of personal development have taken upon ourselves to uplevel human well-being, awareness and consciousness, through whatever transmission that we have been called to do that and, in the process, either intentionally through our work or not, uplevel the society and world in which we live in.
I really don’t see how that is possible if a person believes that they have the right (and privilege) to negate the lived experiences of other human beings.
I can’t understand how someone can be committed to spiritual work and transformation and allow within their spaces narratives that support the notion that the BLM movement is a creation of the “deep state” with some nefarious aim of power and corruption.
I can’t understand how someone can be committed to spiritual work and transformation and allow within their spaces narratives that support the notion that racism or sexism isn’t real, because we are the creators of our own reality and willpower and consciousness alone can change our lived reality.
I can’t understand how someone can be committed to spiritual work and transformation and allow within their spaces narratives that support the notion that the COVID-19 virus is not real.
To give just a couple of examples.
To make it worse, these viewpoints are trunked as “truths”, and you’re portrayed as “unenlightened” or intolerant if you don’t see these truths, garnering patronizing comments or, even worse, heart emojis for calling these out for the falsehoods that they are.
In a “post-truth” world someone like Brian Rose from London Real can talk about his mission “to create a mass scale transformation of humanity into a fully empowered, conscious and cooperative species” and yet give space on his platform for people like Ted Nugent or Alex Jones of InfoWars and even present them as champions of truth and free speech.
Currently Brian Rose is on a “crusade” against “censorship” because he was banned from the “Silicon Valley elites” for posting, among other things, an interview with David Icke whose canon of thought includes the claim that inter-dimensional alien reptiles have hijacked the Earth and genetically modified reptiles posing as human are in effect manipulating global events to control real humans and keep them in fear. Icke’s freedom of thought also includes entertaining “alterative” views of major global events, like World War II and the Holocaust.
I get where “post-truth” comes from. It comes from a breakdown of trust in the institutions of government, media, science, education, civic organizations.
But the truth does not begin and end with these institutions. They begin and end with the lived experiences of people and only deeply entrenched privilege (whether racial, gender, geopolitical or socioeconomic) could prevent anyone from seeing and honouring those lived experiences.
I get why believing the falsehood that there’s a pattern to everything and it all leads to a plot of global proportions that only the initiated and those that “think for themselves” can notice and see.
It’s way easier to accept that, than the harsh reality that everything that is unfolding and unraveling currently (systemic racism, shareholder capitalism, the mindless destruction of our planet) are of our own making, and consequently unmaking if we’re willing to see the real truth of our reality.
Make no mistake, “post-truth” is dangerous.
I repeat, falsehoods that are spewed by people that not only have large platforms, but also followers who look to these same people as sources of enlightenment, guidance, models of consciousness and awareness is dangerous.
I witnessed, first-hand, the demise of my country and society, and I can tell you how shockingly little it takes for a country, a “normal” country, to fall apart and, God forbid, descend into something even darker.
And it all starts with lies.
You confuse people with falsehoods praying on their darkest fears and impulses to the point that they can no longer see the actual truth of what is happening to them.
The blatant disregard of “hard truths” directly supports the narratives of some very dangerous people and groups of people who have no interest in the common good, and certainly not the well-being of others (Trump and the such) and who feed on fear, disarray and chaos as sources of power.
Conspiracy theories only add to the confusion and cause additional difficulties.
I live in a country that just revels in conspiracy theories. If you ever come to Sarajevo and have the pleasure of taking a taxi drive with a driver that can speak, at least a little bit of your language, at some juncture of your trip you’re more than likely to get a run-down on some of the most fantastic conspiracy theories you could have ever heard. It’s just part of the folklore.
It’s funny and endearing in its way.
But the problem is, that when on a collective level, you believe that your fate is not in your control, that what is obvious isn’t really what it seems and that minority groups are basically instruments of wider conspiracies made to destabilize everything that is “normal” in your society, you can’t really go anywhere from there.
There’s no healing and there’s definitely no movement forward. Which is why my country and society has been in a comatose state for nearly three decades now. And as traumatic as upheavals are, staying frozen in fear thinking that somehow all of this is beyond your control and you’re constantly under attack, as anyone who has ever done trauma work knows all too well, is way worse.
The light can’t exist in lies and falsehoods, just like a candle can’t burn in a place with no air.
So, to conclude, I’m not asking you to take my side.
All that I asking, is to listen.
Listen to the activists on the frontlines of the fight against racial and social inequality.
Listen to the doctors and nurses on the frontlines of the fight against this pandemic.
Listen to the indigenous people or the poor in developing countries on the frontlines of the fight against climate change.
Listen to their stories and as any true great master and teacher, learn.
It will be hard, and it will hurt.
But as any true great master and teacher, you will grow.
Lies and falsehoods only lead into darkness; don’t allow yourselves to be even the smallest instrument of that descent.
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