Photo by Birgitte Heiberg on Unsplash
Spiritual bypass has allowed the narcissistic systems of control to run roughshod over Earth for centuries. I’ll make a bold claim: once the collective has healed from spiritual bypassing, narcissists’ power will be massively curtailed at a global and community level.
How do you know if you're doing that? Are you letting yourself feel what you god damn well do feel or are you love-and-light'ing so much you sweep it all under the carpet?
This eventually shows up in a myriad of physical symptoms from those you'd associate with anxiety, depression plus insomnia, weight gain, high blood pressure, twitching eye muscles, chronic pain, etc. Basically these are all the inflammatory conditions we associate with the Western lifestyle and have become so much background radiation it's hard to face the truth of the seriousness of all of it. This process is called “somatization.” Dr. Gabor Mate’s new movie The Wisdom of Trauma explains it really well with the research to back it up.
We have a lot to be angry about, and I am angry. We have a lot to grieve about, and I am grieving. My spirituality doesn't numb me to the open-eyed acceptance of where we are or prevent me from constructing the vision of the world I want to inhabit. That’s a sign it’s not bypassing.
For many years I've hated having faith and trusting my knowing. It’s been a long road back to find myself and be able to count on this center.
Spiritual bypass is the love-and-light version of its opposite polarity, nihilism BTW, but that’s a whole other essay for another day. Both repress the emotions, just with different world views to justify themselves.
I'm not nihilistic (anymore) and won't be dragged into it any further. I can't live like that, this much is clear. I will not put spirituality at odds with science. They are not in competition with one another battling out territory of the truth, despite all the appearance to the contrary.
If my words open space of possibility to take clear action in your life, great. That's the most I can do. If doesn't, feel free to ignore me.
Becoming Dragon is a tool for doing your shadow work so you’re not spiritual bypassing anymore. Go grab a digital card fo’ free at becomingdragon.com.