My ‘bullshit detector’ for navigating communities of spiritual practitioners/ alternative health practices

It has been an interesting time living in a place that describes itself as “a rich and diverse community for those wishing to live in an eco-friendly community of like-minded people.” On the one hand, I have been exposed to quality yoga classes, to the extent that I don’t think I can return to regular gym kinds of yoga, which now seem shallow. On the other hand, I have mentally developed a stronger ‘bullshit detector’ to serve me within these spiritual environments.

I chose to live at Kawai Purapura because I was looking to live in an “eco-friendly community of like-minded people” as promised on the website, but the eco-friendly part isn’t very strongly practised (shown by things like being told I have to use the dryer to dry my clothes as it is a bad look to put up a clothesline), nor the community part (although to be fair I was limited by the lack of knowledge about what was in the shared community dinner food and whether it fit my dietary requirements, meaning I kept away from these events). Having said that, I have met some great people, and had the benefit of living on a small footprint with shared facilities, surrounded by a vast amount of native bush, pool and resident cafe that the residents share, as well as free access to yoga and festivals. But I think this experience, and wide awareness around residents that we are being ripped off by paying high rent for poor facilities that are barely maintained, draws attention to the complicated aspects of places claiming to be ‘communities,’ especially when supposedly owned by people who are trying to make a profit.

I have made a bullshit detector list based on my own experiences because I feel like we still need to have strong personal boundaries and awareness alongside the very important pursuit of developing a mindful, introspective and open mind and learning about the knowledge of ancient/indigenous philosophy and medical practices. Tara Brach and the Dorge Chang Institute, Avondale are two places practising a Buddhist philosophy that I have found to have a healthy balance between spirituality and acknowledgement of the outside world. I am a newbie and outsider attending these spiritual events, so it is very much subjective and I am no doubt missing a lot of things. Also, as someone coming in with ‘fresh eyes’ I can maybe see toxic ideas that are so common place that people constantly in this spaces can’t seem them. For example, a lady came in late to a talk by an indigenous American medical practitioner, after discussion on the effect of colonization of his people, and asked what he thought of a garden she was “manifesting” (bringing into existence through her mind) to eventually be at her house- with 4 teepees in a circle and a fire in the middle. She didn’t even flinch when he said it was cultural appropriation so I don’t think she knew what this meant.

Here is the list of questions to ask, mostly based on my experience of attending the Voices of the Sacred Earth festival that happened at this site. Many of the events were by high quality practitioners following ancient traditions with a lifetime of being educated through a mentoring process and profound understanding of the strong philosophy of their traditions. Others seemed to pick and choose certain parts of Eastern-ish philosophy and adapt it to harmful, unquestioned modern norms, but the two seemed to be presented as the same.

1) Do they follow standard ethical approaches of care? Under law, The Health and Disability Commissioner (Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights) Regulations 1996 “also include persons who hold themselves out as providing health services that may be considered outside the mainstream of medical practice, such as naturopaths, homeopaths, and acupuncturists”, and I have come to think it important to check that this is followed as I have had 2 accounts of feeling the ethics have been breached in my care (I have followed the complaint process both times and feel happy that appropriate action was taken). It seems that alternative health therapists sometimes have little training in the fundamental rights of the patient, such as consent and realising limitation of care. I wonder whether this might be a useful guide when applied to group spiritual workshops as well.

2) Has the guide/ practitioner gained their qualification/title in a way that, when Googled, comes up with only people advertising the course to get the qualification, and does this publicity focus on empowering the person who is going to be qualified to make money, among other things? While formal training is by no means necessary, I think it is useful to know the source where the person gained their knowledge.

3) Does the spiritual logic the speaker advocates for leave any of the following open for interpretation? (I think that they don’t explicitly even have to say these things, but it is enough for this to be read ‘between the lines’ and no stance being clearly taken against these ideas):
-Poor people/ sick people are that way for reasons that are their fault; if you’re poor/ sick, you can change that in entirety through what this practice teaches, which is focused on you as an individual; if there is something you want (monetary, skills etc), you can without doubt get it from your own work inwardly.
– If other people are poor/ sick/ unlucky in some way, you need to stop them from affecting you somehow; you need to make sure you are pure (spiritually/ physically- food etc.) and the cost doesn’t matter (financially, the earth). It is about you as an individual, and we won’t talk about how the environment is affected by your actions, or anything about such things as institutional racism, colonisation and exploitation/ inequality; talking about such things is just ‘negative’, or in itself harmful spiritually.
-Anything that focuses on women and men achieving their ‘true’ purpose that requires women to be only caring and pleasing men. This is a VERY delicate line to negotiate which I still don’t really understand. For instance, I went to one talk that focused on decolonising gender roles in New Zealand, which became more restrictive to Maori women after colonisation, and I think this is an under heard and important area to investigate.

For more reading I also recommend: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/future-no-future-depression-left-politics-mental-health/?fbclid=IwAR1-AQM4adb3ISwCMzvHa_sqlU3UoMNBq0CQq07-blOblqfIXxdcYp4uolk