15 Myths and Misconceptions in Spirituality
A list of spiritual myths, assumptions and misconceptions that can stump newly-awakened and long-term seekers alike. The content for some of the points is substantial and I may create standalone articles over time from them, which I plan to link here where appropriate.
Do you have any questions about any of the topics? Do you feel the urge to explain how I’m incorrect? By all means, use the comments below to do so.
Myth #1: Eating Meat Is Bad for You
Reality:
You’re not on Earth to be squeaky clean. You’re in a messy environment tasked with doing the best you can with what you’re given. Your vows made from the heart are valid, but living on the physical plane can already be a difficult task. You’ll have your hands full with challenges, doubts, moments of vulnerability, and trauma. On top of this, depriving yourself from the resources available on this plane might be an unrealistic premise.
Explanation:
The assessments about meat made by the spiritual field are generally valid. Meat can hold the chemical and energetic traces of the emotions and stress the animal endured during life, including any experienced when being slain. The vibration of meat is tied to the lower vibratory characteristics of the physical plane, and its consumption may impact you accordingly. Other concerns, such as how society treats animals, the sustainability of raising livestock, etc. are also legitimate. Finally and if nothing else, the premise of consuming living creatures can be seen as barbaric to those awakening to the self-evident truth all things are connected.
Spirituality involves acknowledging animals are part of the same continuum all are connected to, and therefore the realization they aught to be regarded them with compassion and respect. But spirituality does not exist in a vacuum: what’s appropriate and in integrity is not absolute but rather tied to the vibration and set of circumstances of the setting at any given moment. Human life needs to be engaged with as much ideal as a pragmatic mindset to navigate a demanding high-pressure environment, aiming for the integrity and balance that are possible rather than idealized.
Spirit understands the heavy lifting of your task and what you’re up against, and you have a degree of leeway to do what you need to do to to find your bearings here. The truth is that there is no “sin” or lack of spiritual integrity in eating meat. I’m well aware this is controversial, but fundamentally this matter comes down entirely to personal responsibility, not to a metaphysical rule mandating what’s right and wrong. Sometimes life asks you to co-exist with two seemingly paradoxical sides, in this case love/compassion/respect towards animals and eating animal-sourced food. Having to deal with this paradox and others does not come down to you, rather it has to do with the sharp contrasting natures of the physical and spiritual planes.
By the same token it can bring your vibration closer to the material plane, animal meat can also confer energy, vitality, focus, and grounding. Earth’s 3D setting is intense and demanding, and each human body represents a unique story, context, and biological needs. The confluence of these factors can lead to individual circumstances where there can be a net gain in consuming meat. In addition, animals as spiritual entities are on different stages of progress, even sometimes within the same species, in such a way that holding respect for an animal or group of animals doesn’t necessarily warrant sparing them for being raised for consumption. Some cultures on Earth hold the habit of honoring and paying respects to their animals slain for consumption, which tends to dispel arrogance and cultivate dignity in how they’re treated. Even such a prerogative would largely be an improvement on how humanity as a whole regards animals, spiritually speaking.
With this matter as well as in any other, each person is to find their balance from the space of their spiritual discernment. Such inquiry may start from spiritual fervor, but also needs to be unveiled and tempered by seeking what brings you closer to you best states of harmony. From this inner exploration, if you feel meat and animal-sourced food takes away your peace of mind, harms your vibration, brings you out of balance, or otherwise disrupts how you want to live life, by all means avoid it. And if you realize you need an intake of meat for your balance, that can be right too – no matter what any spiritual sources or influencers on socia media might say. If you’re going through major life ordeals, energetic processing, or both, you may not have the luxury of foregoing meat, and you won’t be any less spiritual for it.
Is there potential imbalance in the consumption of meat? Yes. Is there anything on the material plane entirely devoid of the risk of imbalance? Hardly. Is there potential for learning about your own personal balance? Definitely. Again, this matter comes down to your discernment, experimentation, and responsibility. But the premise meat is invariably bad for you as a blanket rule is false.
Summary:
Don’t confuse the lack of respect with how society’s low awareness treats animals with your own needs for balance. Consuming meat isn’t intrinsically inappropriate in a spiritual sense nor are you out of line for doing so. Now get your head out of your assessment and go get that burger.
Read more:
Myth #2: Being Spiritual Means Being Spotless
Reality:
Spirituality involves staying in spiritual integrity, while also acknowledging perfection doesn’t exist.
Explanation:
I’ll say spirituality involves the persistent, self-regulatory aim of staying in spiritual integrity. However, this may often mean – much like in the point above – the integrity that’s possible and realistic rather one that’s theoretical and idealized. This is because you’re subjected to a reality that can be unforgiving and may not always play along. Assuming the condition you’re committed within to stay in integrity (and not just paying lip service to doing so) then you do what you have to do.
Spiritual people [the interpretation of which can be subjective, so please use whichever meaning you wish to confer to it] and those who went through spiritual awakening don’t suddenly cease to be human, and can be especially sensitive and intense in terms of feeling things. So just like everyone else they can get angry, frustrated, overwhelmed, doubtful. They can fall in the deepest despair. And they can go through crisis that bring about the worst in them.
Further, spiritual people will still be bound to the same processes of living and learning, which often involve trial-and-error. The aforementioned darkness in difficult times can perhaps be made even darker and scarier, given how the individual is now acquainted with spiritual concepts. And in those moments of darkness the person will still have to make decisions and choices, which may very well be made out of fear and despair. When you make a choice out of fear, more often than not that choice tends to lower the vibration further of what’s chosen going forward.
Spiritual people will also still have an ego, and they’ll be going through the healing of that ego as part of their spiritual processes, where they’ll have to understand where said ego is and isn’t and where darkness lies including within. These might mean dealing with their own darkness, which in essence continues to be part of being human and didn’t disappear overnight just because they’ve spiritually awakened. All while continuing to live within a society that for the most part lacks any spiritual principles or acknowledgment of the reality’s spiritual nature.
In the midst of all of this, spiritual people can and will often find themselves in messy, intense, awkward, and despairing situations. As such, mistakes as well as decisions made out of fear, lack of hope, and/or from the worst rather than best version of themselves, will occur. It would be unreasonable to expect otherwise. Thus, being spiritual has less to do with being “perfect” or “immaculate”, and more to do with the unwavering willingness to remain in integrity and hope/faith even then, as well as continuing to drive forward in life. In this regard, you could interpret the idea of being immaculate as meaning strength of character and integrity in the face of adversity, more so than perfection and lack of mistakes.
Summary:
Being spotless, or immaculate if you prefer, has to do with grace in adversity, unwavering commitment to personal integrity, and holding love in an open heart that is acted upon. And no so much the complete absence of darkness, flaws, or mistakes.
Myth #3: Asking Money for Spiritual Service Makes It a Scam
Reality:
Spiritual practitioners are entitled to try to earn their sustenance through their work, and are under no spiritual obligation to provide it without compensation.
Explanation:
A matter of personal affectation, given I’m a practitioner myself performing paid service.
Spiritual knowledge itself is universally applicable, and each spiritual teacher can to an extent share their knowledge accessibly if not for free, making it available to all without distinction. At the same time, the world runs on money and work that’s specialized and involves effort, such as those involved in running a trade, performing service for others, writing books, and so on, must be eligible to receive compensation. Both are true at the same time. Otherwise you’re saying the specialist, in this case of spiritual service, isn’t worthy of even trying to earn their sustenance by what they do.
Consider a smartphone, computer, or other similar device. Consider a meal in a place you love. Consider the trip or experience you’d always wanted to take. How does the worth of these compare to knowing your soul’s background and desires, your story reincarnating in the Cosmos, and connecting and peering through the other side of the veil? On the other hand, if for spiritual service to be true it must be offered freely, that means the practitioner must give away what they’ve specialized in. But for all other occupations, including those involving teaching, compensation applies and is expected. So does this mean the practitioner is supposed to make a sacrifice no one else is willing to? For what reason? To prove what? In the name of whom? If you want to change this, first change how the world runs; don’t place on practitioners alone the onus to do so.
With the exchange of goods and services compensation is normal and expected; specialized spiritual service involves said exchange and is no exception. Believing otherwise is just another form of veiled cynical skepticism under the guise of righteousness. The person who sees value in the service wouldn’t think of depriving those who offer it of the possibility to receive compensation. They’d rather see them prosper and receive due recognition, which is what you feel when you regard something with love and appreciation.
Summary:
While there’s a range of validity/falsehood to to spiritual sources and practices, requesting money for spiritual service in itself doesn’t imply it’s as false and/or out of integrity. In fact it’s precisely the other way around: the more helpful/legitimate/true a service is, the more impact it carries, and the more integrity it’s offered with, the greater legitimacy there is in requesting compensation.
Read more:
Myth #4: You Can’t Be Spiritual Without a Religion
Reality:
Spirituality equates to the aim of aligning with the ethereal nature of reality, which may or may not involve adherence to a religion.
Explanation:
Spirituality generally equates to the awareness all reality is a spiritual/energetic construct, and seeking to live and behave according to that realization. This will typically also incorporate the personal responsibility of embodying the best version of oneself, which in turn ties to the core purposes by which abstract consciousness undertakes physical experience.
If you notice, the above did not include the notion of religion. You may or may not find affiliating to a religion to be helpful to achieve the above; but resonating with the spiritual is an individual premise that does not depend on a religion.
Religion is a human construct: a given established interpretation of reality and its spiritual/esoteric nature. So at one stage of your progress you may need or find helpful the structure of a religion, to anchor and assist with your own interpretations and path. But religions can also be static and dogmatic interpretations of something that does not depend on them in any way. Because of this, past a certain threshold of your progress you may want to drink from multiple sources and interpretations, and seek to formulate your own custom-built formulation of reality. When this time comes, you’re aiming to spiritually stand on your own two feet, and you may find affiliation to a particularly religion to be too restrictive and limiting.
At this point religions will likely become to you, if anything, possible sources from which to draw from. But not so much monolithic blocks of beliefs you’re expected to adhere and prioritize over very other perspective.
Summary:
Spirituality is alignment with the etheric nature of reality binding all things; religion is a human construct made about it. You can hold your own personal understanding of spirituality that draws from many sources without affiliation to a religion. And at some point in your path this is what you may wish to do.
Myth #5: There is No Self / Reality is an Illusion / Nothing Matters
Reality:
There’s some value to this perspective and to the firsthand experience from which it was drawn. But taking it at face value can be bogus.
Explanation:
In some moments of profound connection and/or peak spiritual experience, the observer’s awareness may expand and breach the metaphysical veil. In doing so, it may see itself as one with oneness of Creation and the Creator. And from that expanded perspective, while now connected to the broader whole, your human existence and all things in it may appear tiny, pointless, irrelevant… perhaps even nonexistent, like a speck of dust in the wind. Similar in some ways, for instance, to feeling minuscule when observing the starry night sky.
It is natural to place things into perspective when seeing them from greater distance and less attachment. But that does not mean you don’t exist / you don’t matter / your experience is an illusion and/or irrelevant. What would be the point? What were you doing here? Or are you still supposed to fade into oblivion once you’re no longer here – even after having realized the spiritual nature of the entire Universe? Putting things into perspective is perfectly fine; but if nothing matters in a literal sense your experience here would be pointless. That’s just not the case.
In all fairness, a portion to the personalities, masks, and stratagems you adopt while on the material plane can be ego-centric and dissonant from your spiritual truth, and can thus be considered false in that sense. And your personal spiritual path might lead you to eventually acknowledge them as such and discard them, or cease feeding them. But fundamentally and spiritually speaking, the “you” living your life is not an illusion: it’s the one God/Source/Creator, experiencing this reality from up close as one as Their aspects. And whatever you experience is inexorably relevant to your spiritual path in Creation, as the aforementioned aspect of the Creator.
This is why the self being an “illusion” is straight up false. You are not an illusion. You exist and always will.
In addition, in all of Creation expansion of awareness never leads to dissolution – of any kind, in any way. I’ll repeat: expansion of awareness, which includes spiritual graduations/ascension, and even across the Densities, never leads to any dissolution, or to any loss of identity, of any kind. If anything, when awareness expands it becomes capable of encompassing broader and broader perceptions of that what/who it always was and always will be. But the You (your sense of self) is not an illusion; You will not cease to exist, ever; and Your personal experience matters, is relevant, is valuable, and is inexorably serving Creation.
Summary:
There’s validity to the statement in the sense all things can ultimately be put into perspective if observed from a high enough point of view. However, this shouldn’t be construed to regard you or your experience as irrelevant. Your existence matters, and so does your experience.
Myth #6: Meditation is Essential for Spirituality
Reality:
Meditation is a tool. But spirituality is a totality that includes all possible tools and forms. You pick and choose those that serve you without any one of them being “necessary” strictly speaking.
Explanation:
Meditation can become a critical resource for the path of many. It can bring several benefits such as emotional grounding, balance, and spiritual connection. Even so, it’s not the crux of what it means to be spiritual, nor is it a panacea for spiritual progress. It’s a resource, one you may explore in the course of your spiritual journey and may or may not include in your experience for the benefits it brings, to whichever extent it does so for you.
Much like with any resource, the practice of meditation will resonate with each person differently – and to some it might simply not “fit”. Spirituality isn’t about any given tool but rather the willingness to be connected and grounded at every moment. Depending on your background and life story, there may be types of situations that for you may to an extent facilitate stillness and connection, even simple things such as washing the dishes, walking, hiking, sunbathing, etc. In that regard these may function as elements of a meditation-like “practice” that is integrated in every moment of your life, and they may be all you need.
In addition, using meditation as a means to achieve spiritual progress, breakthrough, epiphany, etc. almost always equates to another pursuit of the ego, where the tool starts being used as a spiritual crutch/shortcut. Whereas typically and ideally spiritual breakthroughs arrive spontaneously as a result of a) the intention, openness, and/or preparedness to receive them, together with b) the willingness to carry one’s life with an open mind and in spiritual integrity at all times.
Summary:
Meditation is a spiritual tool, but not a necessary condition for a spiritual existence.
Myth #7: Forgiveness is Always The Answer
Reality:
The idea of forgiveness is often terribly blown out of proportion. When in spirituality we use the term “forgiveness” we should probably be using closure instead.
Explanation:
Closure – or perhaps release, surrender, letting go, etc. – is when, in a lingering situation of pain, attachment or resentment, you’re finally able to lay the situation to rest, releasing it from your energy completely. At which point the situation, event, or person no longer burdens you; no longer holds domain over you; no longer are you bound to them. When you’re pondering forgiving something or someone, in reality we’re looking for ways to grant yourself closure from that situation (if and when it’s in our grasp to do so).
Even if a situation involves loss, experiencing closure/resolution about it will allow you to move on from it eventually. You may mourn it, and the scar might always exist; but over time it will cease to ache. And when the situation involves someone having wronged you or having suffered at their hands, forgiveness equates to your willingness to drop the grudges and resentment that might weight on you (and not them). If on the other hand something hasn’t received or wasn’t allowed closure, an entire lifetime might pass and you may very well find yourself looking back to the issue as if all happened just yesterday. In short: forgiveness can help create closure for lingering situations of the past.
But, depending on the situation, knowledge/understanding can also create closure. So can validation. So can, sometimes, the passage of time. So can, sometimes, someone else forgiving you. At the end of the day what you spiritually seek is closure, and forgiveness is one possible step to get there, but not the only one.
In addition, a point of contention I have with the idea of forgiveness is that it can often enable abuse. If you want to release a situation of your past forgiveness might be key; but if an oppressor is conducting ongoing abuse and unwilling to acknowledge it, that’s not the moment to forgive them.
Let’s hypothetically say that for some reason a stranger on the street is coming at you with a knife drawn, with their minds set to stab you. In this hypothetical and metaphorical scenario, some spiritual lines of thought could suggest laying down your defenses and surrendering, or maybe talking to them with a clear and focused mind. This might be a form of humility and peaceful resilience, but it might only go so far. In that situation your physical integrity is at risk, and there might not be the time or space for pleasantries. So you do whatever you need to do to live to see another day. If the aggressor can’t be reasoned with in that instant, your only choices are to stand your ground and be prepared to fight, or run first and ask questions later.
Likewise, where there’s someone in your reality who’s trespassing on your energy, such as a toxic family member, a hostile co-worker, a neighbor overstepping their boundaries, someone committed to challenging you legally for a minor dispute, and so on, your first priority is not forgiving them. You may try doing so internally if it helps move the energy for you; but you cannot do so outwardly because the situation itself won’t allow it. You can’t drop your defenses in a literal sense – or you’ll just get stabbed more. In which case you’ll just be enabling the aggressor, and the only thing that’ll happen is that more loss and trauma will be created, all at your expense.
“Giving the other cheek” is a response that only applies when you’re meant to restrain the ego from propagating dynamics of aggression-response. Further, building bridges and finding middle grounds is a part of life in an imperfect world. But in the cases of outright abuse, when an energy is trespassing on yours in an unattainable manner, you don’t owe the aggressor a goddamn thing – much less forgiveness. Your first and sole priority is to either stand your ground and block access to your energy, or leave the situation of misalignment at your earliest opportunity. Forgiveness only comes much later, if and when you can observe the situation from afar and with much greater detachment.
Summary:
Forgiveness is not just “overrated” but often a pretext for enabling abuse. The concept should be interpreted as closure if and when feasible, or perhaps the act of letting go. But in ongoing situations of lopsided imbalance and unfairness, the last thing you want to be doing is “forgiving” the oppressor.
Myth #8: The Ego is Meant to be Eliminated
Reality:
The ego is a byproduct of incarnating on the material plane. The expectation of eliminating it in a complete sense is unrealistic, and the aim to do so can become a pursuit… of the ego.
Explanation:
Instead, what you want is to alleviate the weight and pull of the ego on you, your sense of identity, and your behavior. One of the main tasks on a spiritual path may be discerning where the ego resides, and not letting your behavior be dictated by it. And part of the exercise of spiritual integrity is about keeping one’s ego “in the pocket” if you will, permitting its expression if and only to the extent it it doesn’t push situations out of balance. Otherwise, having an ego is part of being human and should be taken as such.
Summary:
The ego is to human life what salt is to cooking: the correct amount can bring a dish to life; but even just a little too much spoils it completely.
Read more: What Is the Ego? How Is It Created? How Is It Deconstructed?
Myth #9: Spiritual Awakening is the Same As Enlightenment
Reality:
Enlightenment is a term with a lot of charged history and meanings. Using it interchangeably with the concept of Spiritual Awakening can induce misconceptions about the spiritual path.
Explanation:
As far as I’m concerned, you’re free to use this term in any way you wish: to refer to being awakened, ascended, holding wisdom, being spiritual in a general sense, etc. Also, it’s not up to me to speak of enlightenment, because I neither regard nor present myself as such.
What I want to say on this topic is based on my current understanding and work. From that perspective, I equate enlightenment to the state of being free from karma and/or spiritually graduated from the Earth’s plane. From this perspective, someone being enlightened, even if currently incarnated, means spiritually they aren’t or don’t feel bound the material plane, possibly accompanied by the inner knowing/certainty of that being the case. Which, by the way, is something that essentially only you and no one else may ever be able to tell.
Whereas Spiritual Awakening refers to a personal transformation (or sequence of them) where the filters of the mind are relaxed to the extent you’re able to realize the existence of the spiritual/intangible in a self-evident manner – as opposed to one based on conjecture, faith, etc. From that point forward you’re able to handle knowledge that previously might have been seen as “weird” or fringe, and would have been vetoed by the mind. This doesn’t mean such information is always correct, nevertheless you’re open to scrutinize and explore it without prejudice.
Spiritual Awakening is a major milestone in your personal path that’s often carefully planned and accounted for on the spiritual level. My point of contention is that referring to being awakened as “enlightened” may induce the erroneous idea that once Awakening happens it’s all over, you’re all wise, and there’s nothing left to heal or deal with. Your mileage may vary, but that tends not to be the case. Just because you’ve Awakened doesn’t mean your traumas/wounds, challenges, or fears, which carry over not just from this lifetime but also past-lives, have suddenly dissolved and disappeared. In fact, spiritual awakening often kickstarts a process of closer collaboration with Spirit, and may supercharge the healing of the aforementioned wounds, traumas, fears, etc.
In short, Awakening may not eliminate whatever your needs for energetic healing and processing you may have. But referring to awakening as enlightenment may create the (wrong) impression that it’s a conclusion; that you’re meant to be deeply wise and all-knowing; that you’ll now live happily ever after… when in fact it’s often a (major) milestone in your journey. As a result and in this sense, referring to Awakening as being the same as Enlightenment is incorrect.
Summary:
You can refer to being spiritually awakened and enlightened interchangeably if you so wish, but be advised spiritual awakening is usually far from a destination. Rather, it’s often the start of a journey, or a significant milestone if you will.
Read More: Spiritual Awakening Is Not the Same as Enlightenment
Myth #10: Starseeds Are on Earth to Fulfill a Mission / I’m Here to Change the World
Reality:
You’re here to do no such thing. You are the Universe experiencing Itself through the eyes of a human being. But you’re also a speck of dust in the wind; a tiny fraction of the totality sharing your existence along with a myriad of others.
Explanation:
When individuals awaken and start unveiling the Light of Creation, they’re connecting with things on a grander scale and deeper levels that regular human awareness allows. Starseeds might be tapping into their unconscious references of what more advanced societies felt in higher Densities, leading them to dream of living in said realities and/or escape the cruelty of the current one. Further, realizing the greatness of the Light of Creation is also realizing the greatness of your own Light. And Its sheer beauty, along with the natural desire to shine It for the world to see, can be easy pickings for your ego.
Along with spiritually awakening, at one point or another you’ll find yourself dreaming of brushing aside the darkness in the world. You’ll want to make the world a better place in large sweeping strokes. You’ll fantasize about being Jesus Himself, or your favorite/relevant spiritual notable. You’ll have all the past lives that did good things, and none of those that did bad ones. There will be a part of your spirituality that’s about making a grand entrance.
Let’s be fair and say there’s a vein of legitimacy to this. Your Light is that great even if your ego is inflated by it. Plus, by awakening to the Light you become Its spokesperson or representative, as you now know It intimately and in an evident manner. The sheer strength of that Light will seem enough to easily cast aside whatever is dark in the world, or so that’s your impression. That’s how evident and powerful the Light is.
Unfortunately, the world is a highly complex and intricate mess that often doesn’t bulge, or doesn’t move fast/visibly enough, no matter how much spiritual exuberance you throw at it. Why? Because the world’s circumstances are built on the foundation of Free Will; and when in the past human Free Will chose darkness, and still does, that darkness becomes heavily ingrained and isn’t easily dislodged. Because it was chosen.
The Light in the world does cause inexorable sweeping change, mind you; it’s much like the flow of water inevitably carves its way through the hardest stone. But typically speaking it doesn’t happen at the rate we’d like to see. There might be breakthrough moments, but for the most part each new day brings more of the same. So sooner or later you’ll get yanked back to the harsher elements of our reality, and the seeker’s expectations will need be adjusted and pulled/squeezed back in – just like our abstract awareness has to contract just to be on the material plane.
Your Light can and does change the world. But that entirely hinges on the Light you choose and are able to carry as a person. The Light held and transmitted by positive/uplifting/hopeful beliefs, love, random but thoughtful kindness, hope, optimism, resilience, spiritual integrity, grace, protecting another, wisdom yanked out of the claws of adversity. And even then, this Light often works in ways you can’t see and/or won’t witness yourself. It’s the spontaneous gesture that’s next to weightless to you, but for another has gargantuan impact that will be remembered forever. It’s what the zeitgeist associates with wholeness and restoring “faith in humanity”. So the Light works bit by bit, gesture by gesture, choice by choice, example by example. On the other hand, ego, bigotry, xenophobia, separation, segregation, bullying, arrogance, power play, privilege for a few, “saving” the world for some at the expense of others, calling “light” to darkness – those are not Light.
Our Light can change the world collectively. But that doesn’t mean you’re here to fulfill some grand design or assignment. It doesn’t mean your life is meant to high impact on proceedings on the planet. Some individuals might feel called to positions where they can have great impact. But even then whatever they accomplish won’t change the world on its own, it will at most be just one piece in a complex, long-term tapestry by which the world swings, shakes, and swirls. And all things that are created can be used for good and bad along the way; and any place of power can also be one of corruption.
And you might be a Starseed. But that doesn’t mean you’re here to be taken away to the ships or work with aliens up close and personal. It doesn’t mean the veil’s breached and reality’s bending around you as you walk. It doesn’t mean you’re here to act an ambassador or architect for galactic overseers. Even if you’re drawn to spiritual/metaphysical practices close to the otherworldly – channeling, healing, energy work, etc. – you’re still not here as a “representative” of anything, or to conduct a “mission” on behalf of anyone.
You’re here to help uplift Earth and aid its society in its rise of awareness. And you do that by working as part of it from within. By holding the Light of your presence, shining it when you can, in the small everyday steps your personal life involves. By making practical personal choices, sometimes the hard ones, where you’re living by the living truth of your message rather than what the world tells you it’s normal. And you also do that, of course, by exploring any particular spiritual interests if you feel inspired to. Each Starseed, lightworker, and spiritual seeker contribute to the human collective with their small parts. Each is akin to a small buoy inflated with air to help an underwater object rise to the surface, which is to say, helping the collective slowly rise in vibration.
There much to it that isn’t glamorous or exciting. You’re not working for portals to open up or for spaceships to come down. But you’re working for the sake of the Light in your existence; and that is the Light that changes the world, one person at a time.
Summary:
Your only mission in life is to carry the best and fullest human life you’re able, with as much Light and love you can muster. This does not exclude devoting to spiritual pursuit and/or aiming to the stars if you’re inclined – but the world will keep on spinning around the Sun regardless.
Myth #11: Earth Is a Prison Planet / Reincarnation Is a Trap
Reality:
Only two things can keep in you in any given experience: a) your Soul’s desires and b) the karma you’ve accumulated calling for you to resolve it. Both tie to your broad-level spiritual directives as a spiritual entity in Creation.
Explanation:
All things that might bound you to a set of circumstances, no matter how difficult or despairing, are ultimately spiritually self-contained and yours to provide closure for. This is a perspective of a certain optimism – suffering is nothing to be trifled with – but also of spiritual accountability. Whereas any perspective that you trapped by some deceit or under the thumb of an evil space empire, frames you as a victim while conveniently omitting the hosts of Light in selfless service to Humanity, without whom you wouldn’t be able to take the next breath. It’s a fear-based perspective depriving you of your spiritual agency and responsibility.
Granted, there are out there all manner of groups and entities of varying alignments in the Cosmos, as well as many different and unique backgrounds to the experience of the souls who are incarnating as humans. Additionally, trudging through accumulated karmic attributes on the Earth plane, together with the levels of despair associated with doing so, can very much feel like a prison.
That being said, nothing stands above the Light, and believing otherwise is a subversion of Truth. the Light is the crux of all clarity, healing, and liberation, and all spiritual paths involve heading or returning to the Light, in some way, shape, or form. For that reason, adopting a perspective that ignores or turns their back to the Light, namely out of fear of being trapped, can paradoxically leave you more vulnerable to spiritual deceit and falling prey to prisons of your own creation.
This type of narrative arises from a collective consciousness slowly remembering their Cosmic origins, realizing they’re in a reality of (comparatively) extremely low living standards, insidious and pervasive levels of societal deceit, and where the fundamental sacredness of reality is not acknowledged. In that sense it is, to an extent, understandable. Even so, you’re responsible for choose what you believe, as the beliefs you subscribe to can and will influence your reality. Subscribe to any such narrative at your peril.
Summary:
You’re always free to choose the Light, wherever you are, whatever your circumstances might be: this is a power you always have. You’re also free to adopt fear-based garbage if that’s what you want.
Read more: Is Earth a Prison Planet? My Take
Myth #12: Spirituality Necessitates Restriction / Giving Up on Pleasure
Reality:
Spirituality necessitates striving for balance. Balance sometimes requires discipline, other times mandates love and self-love.
Explanation:
If a certain habit or pattern is disrupting your habits, lowering your vibration, being destructive, and so on, then that dynamic may be out of alignment with your best interests. And it will therefore warrant steps to correct, tone down, or eliminate the weight of that habit. The same if you feel certain choices are perhaps making you so comfortable that they’re detrimental for your aims. This principle can also be extended to certain types of controlled deprivation if you believe your state of balance will be improved by them; an example to illustrate would be experimenting with fasting or intermittent fasting, which would be a form of restriction intended bring you a benefit of some description, in this case increased health.
But balance also involves giving yourself what might be lacking for said balance to be maintained. All pain and no play makes the seeker a dull boy: joy, pleasure, happiness, guiltless abundance, etc. are also part of human life. Deprivation of what’s crucial for your balance can be highly detrimental to your stay on the Earth plane, and consequently to the spiritual progress you can achieve. In certain instances you may need more comfort, not less.
In short, by the same token you aught to cultivate discipline and integrity, you’re also to afford love and nurturing to yourself; with both sides of the equation having equal spiritual value.
Summary:
Discipline and structure are forms of wisdom – and so is allowing yourself nurturing, joy, and pleasure as much as needed.
Read more: Spirituality is Not About Restriction
Myth #13: Thinking of Healing as a Short and Decisive Solution
Reality:
Healing is habitually a drawn-out lifelong process, rather than a single “ah ah” moment that finally ends all suffering.
Explanation:
Spirituality often goes hand in hand with suffering. You’ll be hard pressed to find empaths, practitioners, healers etc. without a story of trauma, abandonment, neglect, toxicity, or some other scarring. I don’t meant to justify or aggrandize suffering; but objectively speaking the soil that is fertile for spiritual paths often was plowed by trauma. We often refer to as healing to the movement of seeking to resolve suffering.
When submerged in a sea of suffering with no answers, it’s natural to want a solution that takes the pain away, or to expect a “ahah” moment that finally turns on the lights. But the trauma we refer to when we say “healing” typically can’t be traced to a single moment, rather it will have been born and raised in an environment that built it up. On top of it, unless this is your very first time on Earth, that same suffering traces to a continuum of past-lives and broader background of grappling with it.
Even if trauma can be traced to a single identifiable event, its impact often came from the context where it occurred. A context of lacking safety, support, nurturing, validation, that rewarded bigotry, that preyed on the vulnerable, and so on. If a predator lunges at you but you’re standing behind a safety glass, the moment is scary but not traumatic; it’s only when you’re being chased alone in the dark, already in a state of panic and with no one to save you, that the predator becomes a nightmare.
This to say healing of what’s deep, pervasive, and complex, is simply not something that can happen overnight.
Rather, more often than not healing is a verb and not a noun. It’s a complex, laborious, drawn-out process warranting long term resilience, where often you’ll expect/want things to occur in a certain way but often find diminishing returns, dead ends, and setbacks – even when it seemed you were finally making headway. One that will often take you beyond your limits and comfort zones, when you’re already hurting and out of your depth. And even if “healing” does arrive suddenly and completely, again that was possible due to a certain context, perhaps after a long struggle that allowed the energy to be worked and become ready to receive its conclusion.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t seek healing. It means only you may find it in unexpected ways and/or where you least expect.
Summary:
While from within a state of despair the most natural expectation is to find relief and a way to end suffering, the truth is that healing can often be a complex process warranting long-term commitment, dedication, and resilience. And that may drawn from you a resilience you didn’t know you had.
Read more: Healing Takes Time
Myth #14: With the Spiritual/Metaphysical You Can’t Know For Sure
Reality:
Yes you can. While this is a grounded and responsible assumption, it’s straight up false. Usually accompanied by something along the lines of “you need to say in my opinion“, “you aren’t there”, “you don’t know for sure”, etc.
Explanation:
This perspective holds an element of truth: in the human experience there will always be a level of occlusion of the metaphysical, and consequently a degree of mystery that will only ever really subside once you cross over to the other side of the veil.
The above notwithstanding, let me state it clearly: it is absolutely not true that the human being can’t have firsthand insight into what is. The human being is metaphysically apt to bring into the incarnation and/or to develop/train/practice spiritual connection that allows them to tap beyond the veil. Therefore, they can gain insight into the metaphysical and be able to understand mystery, beyond belief, faith, or speculation. You can do so to a sufficient, satisfactory extent and integrity, that a) you may and should share your insights with others, and b) to the extent that stating “in my opinion” while doing so would do great disservice to the work it took to get there.
This doesn’t mean you have the obligation to do such work, to gain metaphysical insights etc. Or that you’re at any fault for not committing or feeling inspired to do so. My only point is that it is within the reach of the human being to tap to the metaphysical and gain insights of it with validity.
Summary:
It is a fundamental fallacy of human awareness to conceive metaphysical knowledge as being inaccessible to the human being. You have a built-in spiritual connection that can be used to do so, which was what happened with many of the spiritual masters of the past. If they were able to connect beyond the veil, so can each and every one of you – which is precisely the point and the message of many of them.
Read more: Gnosis – To Know The Actual Truth
Myth #15: We Aren’t Spared of Suffering, Therefore God Either Doesn’t Exist or Doesn’t Care
Reality:
No entity in Creation can spare you of your suffering. This doesn’t mean God is an amorphous blob to whom everything is indifferent.
Explanation:
This is one of the more difficult premises on this list, given the atrocious depth of suffering that is possible in all walks of life on Earth. This perspective can involve a legitimate level of resentment, purely from the distance with which Spirit oversees the experience on Earth, while we’re seemingly left “down here” to our own devices. So anything I might say will always pale in comparison to these, and will never be able to offer closure to it.
This reality is one of Free Will, which means you can either choose to embrace the Light of the Creator or reject It. That’s what it’s all about. And at times, especially when witnessing or enduring abject suffering, you made the choice to doubt the Creator. In doing so you chose to believe in darkness, for that’s what questioning the Light of the Creator means. In fact, it’s the same when today you doubt whether God exists or if They care at all: you are holding resentment with both of your hands. As a result of choosing darkness that darkness became yours to bear. In that specific item you chose to deny your Creator, separating yourself from them – it became what’s called a karmic attribute. And so now that suffering will haunt you until the moment you chose to offer it closure, by facing it with relentless faith instead of doubt, peace instead of despair, and with grace instead of resentment. Until you choose to face it without denying the Creator and the Light that you are. That is the way back to the Creator: always choosing the Light unquestionably, courageously, without compromise. Because this is a realm of Free Will where your choice matters.
When you call upon the Light, the Light will always be with you. It’s just that they can’t spare you from the choices you have to make, or the situations that place you where you are to make them. If the child at the hospital with terminal cancer can go through their plight with unspeakable bravery – why can’t you do the same when someone wrongs you? When things don’t go your way? When someone you care about falls ill? When addressing your neighbor’s differences? When holding on to pain from the past?
The Light must be chosen in the dark with relentless faith, for that darkness is yours and that’s what it’s for.
Summary:
This realm isn’t about God proving Themselves to you, it’s all about you and what you choose. The trial of Free Will is yours, not God’s. By navigating the choices you make and their consequence, eventually you are to come to a place of turning to the Light unquestionably and when it truly matters – which is often laughing in the face of darkness.
