The Insanity Of Today’s Contrived & Misguided New Age

This once less toxic world has descended into a swirling cesspool of spiritual delusion, nationalist posturing, and next-level narcissism. Today’s dimwitted new-agers and born-again Maga monsters are clogging up the web with their shallow, conspiratorial, feel-good snake oil. They’re taking their contrived spiritual crack and egoistic ideologies to unprecedented heights, feeding it to the masses like it’s enlightenment on tap.

Welcome to Hypocrisy 2.0, where everything is packaged, branded, and sold as “soul expansion,” but not one ounce of it holds up to even a second of objective scrutiny.

A World Of Crazies

You have Joe Dispensa selling brain crack and false positivity, Wim Hof believing that cold water will save the world, and  Deepak Chopra commercializing spirituality to such a degree that he’s become a joke: The Doctor Of Quantum Woo. 

Sadly, you also have the spiritual ego- and trend-whores like Gwyneth Paltrow and Gabrielle Bernstein who sell different types of goop: Paltrow’s trippy face paste (amid other sundries) – and Bernstein’s expensive brain goop – ya know, mental crack for people who refuse to come to terms with things like karma and developing a work ethic.

After all, G.O.O.P. stands for: Gullible Overpriced Obsession Products and Greedy Obnoxious Outrageous Pseudoscience.

Seriously, feeling “spiritually aligned” has nothing to do with spiritual growth or healing – it’s a hormonal and chemical conjuring that produces nothing but a momentary contrived sense of self, reality, and the moment. You can do better.

As if all that wasn’t insane enough, all the manifestation addicts are now convinced their Happy Thought Spirituality and fake “side hustles” comprise the answer to poverty, enlightenment, and world peace. 

Apparently, meditation is no longer a pathway to your liberation. 

You have the Soul Twin cultists Jeff and Shaleia Divine, who actually believe that Jeff is Jesus and that finding a Soul Twin is required for your happiness. (It’s not, by the way: A Soul Twin is what we seek when we refuse to do our spiritual and emotional work toward our own healing and seek someone as a surrogate to take agency over something we refuse to work on ourselves.) And they’re selling memberships at a price that should come with a happy ending, a sea of ejaculate, and a certified used car.

Here’s the thing: Seeking a Soul Twin is to say, “Gosh, I would like someone else to handle my work and karma. Later, after they leave (which is inevitable), I’ll hate them, hate myself, and give up on the idea that I can have a loving relationship.”

Seeking a Soul Twin is like looking forward to cocaine. You will 100% regret it later.

Hint: Do the emotional and spiritual work – and never give another person agency over any aspect of your Self or life. While at it, become the healed, aware, and loving person you seek. 

Oh, and grow the fuck up.

There are a few spiritual influencers on the fence: Teal Swan encourages shadow work, which is a good thing, but she focused on it – and allows for suicide, aspects which are antithetical to the nature of healing and The Universe. Teal’s trauma therapy is hit or miss and, in most cases, murky and based in ego and self-identity rather than enduring spiritual truths. Meanwhile, well, it’s a personality cult, which is, you know, probably not that spiritually illuminating for Teal or her rabid, misguided followers.

But that’s the rub: Today’s influencers are more concerned with enrapturing people than truly and profoundly helping them. They focus on the hype and allure rather than the principles that can free people from bondage. Even Deepak Chopra is selling a cult-like hipster spirituality now. He’s more focused on lavishly quantum sound bytes than on encouraging spiritual humility and seeking deeper truths. Don’t get me wrong, the Big D is lovely, but he’s off mission.

Healing & Karmic Bypassing

The level of commercialization in today’s spirituality and healing categories is quite insane. Spirituality has become less about health and expansiveness and more about the performative (and appearance) side of spirituality. Somehow, today’s hipster spiritual culture has been misled, where it’s become quite acceptable to equate a wellness retreat or crystal bath with deep healing, liberation, and doing all the vital, gritty, emotional work.

Let’s face it, it sucks to acknowledge who we truly are. It’s painful to see our ugliness, mistakes, and karma popping up all around us. And it’s easy to gloss over the work to be done. Look, you’ve lived hundreds, if not thousands of lives. You’ve done things and allowed things that were not, let’s say, aligned with your purest essence. You carry these impressions from life to life – UNTIL you resolve them – truly see, allow, acknowledge, and release them. After all, there are consequences for every thought and action. 

Eventually, you’ll have to get into the real work. While a guru can help relieve the effects of karma, you will have to face at least some measure of the repercussions related to all of your prior choices – which most often involves deep emotional work.

High-Vibration Is Good, But….

It’s perfectly appropriate to seek a higher vibration in every aspect of life. Chanting mantras, releasing the past, and dissolving projections into the future are powerful. It’s lovely to have positive thoughts related to our most deeply held pain. 

But it’s unlikely that a goopy product, shiny course, or outward experience will lead to a sustainable and enduring higher vibration. More often than not, all the trendy catchphrases around raising your vibration are based on assumption, ego, and, frankly, delusion.

There is such a thing as toxic positivity, where these influencers encourage their fans to avoid negative emotions and continually reframe challenging experiences. If you’re doing this, you’re missing out on the wisdom generated through pain. There is no wisdom but through emotion.

Oh, and look, you CANNOT buy your way into enlightenment. I mean, spiritual apps are lovely, crystals are pretty, and goopy face acid feels suitable for 12 seconds – but none of these things will help you cross the bridge to fully and finally fathoming your pure and eternal Self.

Meditate, chant in Sanskrit, pray, cry, forgive. Repeat.

Finally

Be careful which media you consume and to what degree. Be aware that there are repercussions for your narcissism, nationalism, and laziness. Do more research before you form an opinion. Seek to own your shit before you ask someone else to handle it for you.

Here’s a lovely list to keep in mind:

Forget the Shortcuts: Real healing isn’t about paying for a miracle goop or trendy, contrived solution. The truth is, the REAL work is messy, it’s raw, and it’s uncomfortable. Anyone who promises you a fast track to enlightenment is selling you snake oil. Get dirty. Get real. Do the work. That’s where freedom is. Even when you’re in pain, you can be peaceful. But you can’t skip the pain.

Spot The Fake Science: Just because today’s childish, hipster influencers use words like “quantum” or “vibration” doesn’t mean they know what they’re talking about. In fact, they’re delusional. The next time you hear those words thrown around in spiritual masturbation circles, take pause. Real spirituality isn’t about continuously expressing enthusiasm – glorifying the Self  – sounding smart – or borrowing from science to seem legitimate – it’s about doing the personal work to comprehend the truth and source a path to wisdom.

Stop Outsourcing Your Healing: You are not needy – unless you choose to be. And if you’re needy, it doesn’t mean you need someone to handle your healing. In fact – you don’t need anyone to rescue you or fix your karma. You can invite people (and spiritual Gurus & teachers) to walk with you and subtly lighten your load – but waiting for a soul twin or guru to heal all of your wounds is a trap. Stop giving away your power. 

Here’s the thing: You’ve got everything you need inside to do the deep emotional work and free yourself. You have the power to be your own healer. You can ask a spiritual Guru for guidance or help in your healing, even to help dissolve some of your most stubborn karma – but YOU have to do the work, eventually embracing the fact that nobody is coming to save you. In fact, even in your broken state, you have all the tools you need to source a profound healing. After all, YOU embody The Universe. 

Let’s Get Real About Positivity: Life isn’t a curated Instagram feed or an invitation to find the most helpful drugs to elevate you from your pain. Being spiritually healed and awake means facing the darkness, not running from it – and invoking the light – while you do the deeper work. The fake smiley-face crackheads who focus solely on “good vibes” are just spiritual imposters, selling you fake food – and an empty, fleeting, and unfulfilling reality. REAL growth comes from facing the hard stuff head-on.

Here’s the thing: False positivity is toxic and psychologically damaging. It encourages people to bypass their pain – ignoring the calling of their core Self – and inspires them never to address the deeper wounds that need healing. I mean, come on, how fucked up is that?!

Karma is Yours, Own It: There’s no escaping your prior lives, choices, and actions, no matter how much you want to reframe-ify, affirmation-ate, hallucinate, or buy your way out of it. Don’t run from your karma – and the identities and attributes it created – EMBRACE IT! 

Allow affordable courses based on ancient teachings to support you, but in the meantime, you must accept your mistakes and start making new choices.

Real spiritual work is free. It’s found in meditation, selfless service, prayer and rituals, and the everyday acts of self-inquiry, self-honesty, self-responsibility, and self-healing. Spiritual consumerism and all the world’s justifications for its insanity are just illusions – don’t fall for any of it.

You’ll love my simple and affordable courses and eBooks on PaulWagner.com, where I offer guidance on spiritual practices, rituals, and healing herbs – all based on authentic spiritual teachings.

You’ll love The Shankara Oracle – there is no spiritual tool like it today.