The Sickness of the Transformation Industry
(And our civilization)
“When the pope sits on the chamber pot to shit, does he believe in his own infallibility? Does not every imposter occasionally recognize his own hairy, homely humanity? Perhaps not; worn long enough, sometimes the Mask of Authority becomes the man. Even looking in a mirror, he will see the sacred Mask and not his own ordinary human face.”
— Robert Anton Wilson
In this essay, I’m about to present a deep-dive diagnosis of the ills of the spiritual industry—and our civilization in general.
First of all, let me say: I don’t wanna be too hard on the transformation industry.
I’ve met many amazing people in this space.
And I understand all too well the pressures, incentives, and feedback loops that lead people into the trap of believing their own hype and/or projecting an image of being a Fully Healed, Enlightened Superhuman (or close to it)…
Yet, I feel we’ve gotta be honest: This industry is in many ways deeply sick. It has huge, sticky shadows.
Here’s the thing:
The vast majority of people in the transformation space do have gifts to share.
(I mean, ultimately, we all have plenty of gifts to share in life.)
Transformational containers can be incredibly powerful and life-altering.
BUT…
Money (in its current form) corrupts.
Plain and simple.
Economic Pressure Leading to a ‘Race to the Bottom’
If I were to summarize concisely where the sickness and shadows in the industry primarily come from…
I’d say that it’s economic pressure.
Most people seem to agree that the global economy is in the shitter right now.
As I spoke about in ‘The Religion of Money,’ the economic system quite obviously isn’t working well for most people.
The vast majority are working for insultingly low wages, and meanwhile everything is getting dramatically more expensive in recent decades.
Probably the only reason that this hasn’t resulted in some kind of larger collapse or uprising or dramatic civilization shift (yet)…
Is that people are utterly drugged and numbed out by the ridiculously addictive and sedating cornucopia of 21st-century vices:
Video games, social media, Netflix, smartphones, booze, super-strong cannabis, (online) gambling, porn, shopping, credit cards, and so forth — the list goes on and on.
It’s straight out of Huxley’s Brave New World — we’ve allowed ourselves to be “entertained to death,” sedated into a stupor by technological vices to such an extent that we barely notice how hollow, disconnected, and dystopian everything is…
And barely notice that the majority of people are in debt up to their eyeballs (the average American is $90k in the hole), desperately trying to claw out some kind of security for themselves, while only about ~1% of people are actually getting (a lot) richer…
The whole thing appears to be an elaborate House of Cards, teetering and tottering on the brink of some sort of collapse—propped up only by financial wizardry, collective hypnosis, and mass denial and sedation.
This is the broader context in which the current spiritual transformation industry (and all industries) are operating.
It’s no wonder, then, that the Marketing & Self-Promotion side of the transformation industry (like most industries), has turned into a near-absolute ‘race to the bottom.’
Driven by the pressure to ‘sign clients’ and stack a little dough (or simply pay off debt), transformational entrepreneurs have largely become caricatures of themselves.
It’s so omnipresent and normalized in the industry that I think it’s actually hard for a lot of people to see:
The ridiculously over-hyped promises
Everyone telling you that you can 100% “create your own reality” / dream life and they can show you how for $10k - $100k+
The way in which everyone projects a false, contrived image of themselves as a veritable Enlightened Superhuman
The way in which constant narcissistic self-glorification has become the Norm for those promoting their services
The bizarre and disturbing omnipresence of “coaches who coach coaches who coach coaches who coach coaches, ad infinitum” (P.T. Mistlberger has a great short story lampooning this trend)
The list goes on. I’ll probably write plenty more on this in the coming times.
Just within the past couple days I’ve observed well-known transformational entrepreneurs make absurd promises like (paraphrasing):
“Ayahuasca definitely will fix *everything* in your life. Permanently. It won’t be easy, but it will fix everything.”
“Simply by entering this container you are going to step into a Consciousness Stream that is going to allow you to effortlessly create your most genius work and the wealth you truly desire.”
“After you receive my activation, you’ll never make a bad decision in your work *ever* again, because your Primordial Genius will be activated.”
“Taking my course will definitely add $10-100k to your bank account.”
These sorts of over-promises (and far more egregious ones) are absolutely omnipresent in this industry.
And the above all actually came from entrepreneurs I consider to be on the more aligned and respectable end of the spectrum, in terms of being people who genuinely deliver a lot of value.
Yet still, these people have nonetheless been seduced into some combination of a) believing their own hype, and/or b) allowing the norms of the industry to distort their marketing.
I’m Guilty Too
And I get it.
Fuck, I do. I’ve absolutely been ‘guilty’ of this too. I’ve made a lot of wildly over-hyped statements in my marketing over the years — such as telling people they likely won’t recognize their lives 7-8 months after working with me, they’ll likely become far wealthier in all areas, they’ll likely be able to travel the world and live their dream life, etc. etc. etc.
[Typically I always snuck in the word “likely” somewhere, so as to leave myself an ‘escape hatch’ and not blatantly over-promise that something is definitely going to happen. I also would typically say such things were likely *if* people showed up fully and did the work. Still, though, I knew on some level that this rhetoric was manipulative in a way that didn’t sit fully well with me.]
And some of my clients genuinely did get these sorts of results.
But naturally, they’re the outliers — the ones who showed up 1,000%, were truly committed, and who had natural predispositions and talents that were going to take them far in life, no matter what.
And, naturally, a lot of people didn’t get completely life-revolutionizing results.
I do believe that virtually everyone who has stepped into a container with me has benefitted and received substantial value / medicine in one way or another.
One thing I’ve always had going for me is that I do truly care about people (most of the time). This in itself can take you a long ways in entrepreneurship, in any industry.
I also hold a strong field of Loving Presence that I believe is innately healing; I know/teach a lot of genuinely deep and pragmatic wisdom; and I am good at inspiring and igniting people and giving them permission to be who they truly are on a new level.
SO…
It’s interesting to note that I believe people generally do receive substantial value from my containers — and from a lot of other containers…
BUT…
The value people receive often simply cannot live up to the over-hyped images and promises that were painted in the marketing.
As such, there are then (subtle) feelings of incongruence and hypocrisy that arise…
I believe that for many entrepreneurs, these feelings are unconscious or only semi-conscious. The person does not allow themselves to see their own hypocrisy, because they fear and sense (perhaps accurately) that to see themselves clearly would be the unraveling of everything they’ve built — plus their security and ability to make money and survive. This pattern is not limited to entrepreneurs; it is widespread globally.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
— Upton Sinclair
Sigh…
So that’s sorta how we got tangled up in this outrageous debacle of a spectacle…
In which every other person who’s been to a couple New Age workshops now claims to be a healed / enlightened ‘coach’ who can teach you how to ‘create your own reality’ (for just $5k/month).
A Pernicious Feedback Loop
There’s a pernicious feedback loop going on here:
Tons of people get drawn to ‘coaching’ for the wrong reasons, because of the promise of fast/easy money and IG-influencer, digital-nomad lifestyles.
These people quickly start to feel that in order to compete in the industry, they need to emulate the norms of massive over-promising, over-hyping, and narcissistic glorification of themselves and their offers.
Thus, every coach pretends to “have it all figured out” and to be a Superhuman living the most magical dream life (secretly on some level feeling like a fraud / imposter / hypocrite), to try to attract clients.
Thus, even more people flock to become coaches, because the lifestyle appears so enticing.
Thus, there’s even more competition in the industry.
Thus, the levels of over-promising, over-hyping, and narcissistic glorification (not to mention the use of artificial scarcity, pushing fear-buttons, and other manipulative marketing tactics) get continuously amplified to greater and greater heights, appearing increasingly preposterous to any sober onlooker peering in from the outside.
And yet, people do keep buying these over-hyped offerings, because 1) Many of them do actually provide plenty of real value, even if the value can’t live up to the lofty claims, 2) Manipulative marketing often works, especially on desperate people, and 3) People are becoming increasingly desperate to find someone who can ‘fix’ their life / problems, or lead them to Narnia, because the civilization is becoming increasingly dystopian and soul-corrosive.
From first-hand experience, let me tell you…
It’s damn hard not to be affected by this feedback loop, and sucked into the game, at least to some extent.
We’re conditioned implicitly and explicitly from many angles (from a young age)—especially once we start learning entrepreneurship—to feel like…
“Yeah, this is just how marketing and advertising work. You over-hype things in order to sell them. You’ve gotta make big promises. You’ve gotta make an offer so good people feel stupid refusing it. You’ve gotta bake in some artificial scarcity and urgency. You’ve gotta push people’s fear/pain buttons and then promise them a glorious solution.”
This is classic marketing ideology, in a nutshell.
And as much as so many transformational entrepreneurs claim to be ‘new paradigm’ and ‘not pushy’ in their marketing / selling…
That’s bullshit, in most cases. Most are using the same old playbook, at least to some extent, even if it’s dressed up in a New Age costume and speaking a more ‘woo woo’ language.
Winding Down
Phew, that was a lot.
I’m getting tired—been writing for hours.
There’s plenty more I can say on this topic, and likely I’ll say a lot more soon.
Feels like what I’ve written here is a substantial piece of the puzzle, though.
Simply seeing this sickness clearly, seeing ourselves clearly, and being honest about what is going on, is an immensely powerful step toward healing.
This sickness, again, is civilization-wide. It’s definitely not limited to the transformation industry.
The cure, in a sentence, is this:
Be honest about it, see it clearly, hold it in Loving Presence-Awareness.
This is so utterly simple, yet in my view it really is the Final Medicine: Love.
You just be honest about what is Real, and hold it in Love.
Whatever feelings come up with the honesty—grief, anger, sadness, dread, fear, anxiety, depression, rage, desperation, hopelessness—you just hold them in Love.
That is how we truly walk the path Home to the Wholeness that we Always Already Are.
Honesty and Love.
From that space of Wholeness…
From the space of being reconnected to our Hearts, our bodies, our souls, to Nature, to God, to our deepest Truth…
Everything actually is possible.
And we can transfigure this civilization into a gorgeous work of art.
But before we can do that, we’re going to need brutal honesty.
A LOT more brutal honesty.
And a lot more Love.
This is the Real Work.
Cheers to the honor, dignity, beauty, and grace of doing the Real Work.
Amen.
Honesty and Love,
Jordan