Spiritual Bypassing

Spiritual bypassing is a term coined by American psychologist John Welwood some 30 years ago when people use spiritual beliefs and practices to avoid dealing with their painful feelings or unresolved emotional wounds.   Frequently they use the goal of  "enlightenment" to cut themselves off from reality, hoping that this will limit their exposure to potential negativity.

In its purest sense, spirituality can only lead to greater connection with ourselves, with the community, and eventually with the divine source.  Yet for the spiritual bypassers, the dismissal of one's own feelings, states and conditions often accentuate the gap with the outside world.  Their justification of practising the so-called ultimate truth might disparage or dismiss human needs and engagement.

And this is not just a phenomenon, sidestepping their own issues could be hazardous in multiple ways: 1) Feeding one's pride or putting the self on moral high ground and assuming superiority.  2) Projecting our deep yearnings upon others or acting out the wounding in other ways. 3) Difficulty in developing true compassion because one fails to cultivate empathy or relate to other members in the society.  4) Manifesting the repressed pain or suffering in a physiological way when there is no outlet.

While we are here to respect individuality, we are not so different from each other after all.  This is true whether we see it from the point of our basic human needs or  biological makeup in a scientific way.  Whatever way you choose to live, the interdependency and interconnectedness of the universe is an undeniably fact.  As human beings, we are born to bond and attach before we can learn to detach.  Otherwise, the oneness which is so often labelled on the foreheads of some new age practitioners will become a fallacy.