Such an important reflection. Deep gratitude for Adrianne Tamar Arachne and all who invite and inspire us again and again to question, to look more deeply, to expand beyond the status quo, to examine our belief systems and privilege, and to transform that which harms into that which truly helps. If we are alive and breathing, there is more shedding of the layers needed of all that we've absorbed which blocks rather than opens our hearts, minds, bodies, souls to our interconnections with all of life. A deeply important question: Are we healing towards the whole? ― Molly
Thinking a lot about cults of personality.
Especially in the "healer" space.
But secondarily, in the tribe/radical expression spaces.. as well as other more fringe networks of community.
Though dramatic examples in the "healer" space might be Teal Swan or Kaia Ra (Sure. I'll throw Tony Robbins in there.), or others who peddle their hard-earned specialness through their style of harrowing personal journey confessionals and command of "the chills of truth" in their delivery of a spiritual-based narrative.. I can't help but take a look at the subtleties of how abuse of power gains a sneaky foothold based on the many ways - from the subtle to the overt - that power over human psychology is hijacked.
What grooms us to give our power away to personalities that feel powerful? Especially spiritually powerful?
Furthermore - for the powerful people in question - what grooms us to perform our personality in a way that leverages that algorithm for our own gain?
There's a distinct formula to it.
The trappings of "authenticity." Confession. Aptitude with language/expression. Specialness. Charisma. Magnetism.
"Hi. This is me. I'm special in these ways. I have just enough truth in my narrative that I will hook your deep sneaking suspicion that something isn't perfect about your life, and I can fix it. Follow me. Believe in my persona. I'll save you. (For just $6666.)"
A proper investigation on this pattern - both the patterns of the followers and the leaders - would take books and books to do it proper justice. (And there are many already. Worth reading. I'm currently into "Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism" by Amanda Montell.)
In my own limited investigation, there's many causal factors to consider.
There's the rise of social media's content-engagement algorithms, which reward successful persona creation. For many people, a successful persona creation propagates their income stream, and is an enormous part of how they pay the bills. And I understand that. (For that matter, we can look at our economy's capitalism/consumerism streams as a macro-level construct that propagates the focus on the "successful persona". A background of always-impending scarcity keeps us spinning on the hamster wheel of "making it". "Making it" involves performing. Etc.)
There's also internalized damage from varying forms of abuse of power we all suffer from.
As one example.. Many of us were raised in a church or some form of spiritual cult that taught us to give our power away to the one who'd save us all (in whatever form it took), and even if we've since-left that cult.. maybe we haven't cleared the core belief pattern from our lives, and are thus subconsciously susceptible to the next spiritual power-touting personality who charismatically entrances us.
There's many ways we are hijacked by cults of personality.
And I mean, hey. In some cases, maybe the healer/coach/priest/priestess/teacher/thought leader isn't necessarily harming, and may in fact have a bag of tricks for assisting people to a certain level of self-healing.
But what's the bottom line?
Can a person who leverages the algorithms of powerful personality on the basis of their own specialness heal you towards anything but your own specialness?
For that matter.. is the recognition of our own specialness a good enough dream when we now find ourselves at the natural logical conclusion of capitalism's destruction of the Earth, which is at it's core a manifested dream of the individual's specialness taking precedence over the rest of the web of life?
I don't think I can get on board with that, anymore.
A dream that is forged from and ends at an individual's specialness can only be propagated by a disassociation from the rest of the web of life.
And, I suppose, in a culture formed on dissociation.. this feels "normal".
But as I continue to investigate all of this.. I can't hep but arrive at the understanding that: If a powerful personality isn't healing people out of their own specialness and towards a more interconnected understanding and responsbility with the entire web of life.. I think at this point, it's honestly just mental masturbation.
So maybe it's time to ask our healers:
What's your bottom line?
Is this just about the specialness of the individual?
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