Is This The Final Collapse of Guru Culture?
- 1 hour ago
- 7 min read
Yes. Even Spirituality Has a Power Problem
It’s no longer just politics, finance, media or royalty being exposed. Our belief systems are now part of the crossfire.
The wellness industry became enormous after the pandemic, and like every expanding industry, power gathered. Books became doctrine. Teachers became interpreters of truth. Followers became believers and Kate Moss created a cosmic perfume.
It's super easy to be sarcastic and cynical about this stuff but it's also easy to trust it blindly. Depending where you are at, it's the middle ground most people skip and our discernment should look like this...
Take what resonates.
Test it in real life.
Keep what works.
Release what doesn’t.
Sure. Read the books. Appreciate the insights. Respect the contribution. But never surrender authorship of your own perception. Also, we can read every book ever written on consciousness and still avoid knowing ourselves. Being ‘spiritual’ and ‘spiritual growth’ does not mean agreeing with a teacher or guide. It’s becoming internally referenced.
I wrote something a year ago, along the same lines. In fact, I wrote a piece for a very early Elephant Journal on the same subject back in 2016, so I suppose you could say it’s a subject close to my heart.
In a world increasingly shaped by noise, spectacle, and media-driven narratives, we are searching for heroes. We look to politicians, celebrities, and figures of influence to lead us, to fix what’s broken, and to inspire us to action. But the truth is, the real power we need to make change lies within us.
Never give your power away. We need to learn to trust ourselves more than anyone we learn from.
And we need to start now.
The Epstein Effect
Watching recent events about Deepak Chopra and other spiritual ‘leaders’ unfold is both compelling and unsettling.
In fact, it makes me MAD.
These are the very people and spaces that are there to help heal. They are the very people who claim that truth is the answer to our personal freedom and do the opposite.
Before we go on... get into this properly. Catch up by reading the brave piece by Dr Scott Mills who wrote on Substack. He calls out major players in the industry who publicly teach courage, truth and accountability but are choosing silence over truth.
He says; "I have now read approximately 700 documents from the Epstein-Chopra correspondence. I didn’t go looking for dirt. I went looking for a reason to still believe in the man whose work had been a comfort to me in the darkest time of my life.I didn’t find one.Epstein didn’t just confide in Chopra and sign off with “Love.” He moved money for him. He brokered deals. He opened doors to some of the wealthiest and most powerful people on earth — and Chopra walked through every one of them."
It's a compelling read and will make you look at those in question very differently.
Also, part of this emerging conversation, you should read this deeply courageous piece by Lissa Rankin, MD. Lissa has worked with the likes of Chopra, Louise Hay, Joe Dispenza, Gabby Bernstein, Wayne Dyer, Christiane Northrup and many others.
She says, and I quote; "I’ve largely avoided naming names, because it’s so scary to do so. I don’t want to hurt anyone, deal with lawsuits, or shatter someone’s guru projections about someone who’s actually helped them. I don’t want to be the one to tell someone there’s no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny- because it’s so lovely for our child-like parts to have role models we can pedestalize, even if that very dynamic makes us vulnerable to being harmed by the people we put in “one up” guru roles."
Lissa Rankin, MD
For those who don't know, inside a spiritual environment, it’s difficult to call this stuff out. Disagreement can be framed as ego, trauma, or lack of awareness. Power hides very comfortably inside kind language.
How dare these people mess with our intuition? How dare they use our personal growth, which is our human right, as a tool for their power games and personal gain?
Nevertheless, I believe that this is merely a social mirror. We place extraordinary status on ordinary humans. Money, power or visibility does not make someone inherently wiser, and the ability to articulate meaningful ideas does not make someone enlightened.
We all carry the same potential for awareness, influence and material success. Some people pursue leadership and recognition, others prefer a quieter life, but neither path holds greater truth.
That distinction matters. Guidance can be helpful, but the truth is not owned by the person delivering it.
So What's Really Happening?
This is uncomfortable for many of us who care deeply about self-empowerment, but it feels part of a wider unravelling of patterns that repeat through generations.
Self-development was never meant to replace religion with a softer aesthetic. It was meant to remove the need for a guru entirely and turn attention inward.
I have learned from many authors and gained genuine insight through their work. But recent discussions around influential figures reveal that this is a structural issue. We are in a pedestal culture, and there is a hierarchy forming inside movements that promise us freedom.
I’m not just talking about the individuals in question, but about the structures surrounding them. The people are quiet and protecting their reps. Those who will most probably win out of doing so.
Read this brave piece by Scott Mills on Substack, who calls out major players in the industry who publicly teach courage, truth and accountability but are choosing silence over truth.
They are not practising what they preach. Why aren’t they holding those responsible accountable and telling their side of the story?
Have they too much to lose? In doing so, they are still promoting old paradigm behaviour. The very thing they are meant to be leading us far away from.
Hypocrites!
The Astrology Was Right
I look at major astrological transits regularly. At first, it started out of curiosity, but after 6 learning years, and working closely with an amazing astrologer - not to mention the countless, unmistakable ‘coincidences’, it is now never in question.
For those who would like to know, Neptune is completing its long stay in Pisces and moving into Aries. We will see a dissolution of the boundary between faith and projection. For years, it amplified idealisation and spiritual glamour.
Apt.
And now, as it moves forward, illusion gives way to confrontation, and our clarity arrives through friction rather than comfort.
We are in a period where structures cannot hide behind images anymore. Pluto has moved into Aquarius, redistributing power from central figures to us - the collective.
The dismantling of structures is topical. Many, like myself, have been expecting it. I watch it play out in daily life on a smaller scale and on the worlds stage. It has been happening under the radar for years, and now, it’s rearing its ugly head for all to see.
And more importantly, it’s demanding our ACTION. We are moving from belief to verification. Authority is decentralising, and I am more than ready for it.
The Continued Guru Problem
The unravelling of these structures is merely patterns that have repeated again and again through generation to generation. The one thing that has never changed is that it is up to us to change the trajectory.
Reading a Deepak Chopra book is wonderful and often useful, but living inside someone else’s conclusions is absolutely not.
Many of us enter healing spaces at vulnerable moments in our lives. Grief. Illness. Loss. Identity shifts. We are searching for relief, clarity, stability and validity. Often we find language that explains our feelings better than we could... ever.
There is instant gratification and validation. “Someone understands me!’
This is real and valuable. But when interpretation turns into authority, it’s dangerous. I would never try to tell you that I know better than you. It’s not possible!
I can share my lived experience, my learning, my intuition, but that’s where the line is drawn. It is up to you to find that in you.
The shadow is admirationthat becomes dependency. That’s the stuff of cults.
A beautiful friend once said to me, ‘a teacher can describe a map, but they can’t become the destination.‘ I loved that.
"We the People must do our inner work if we’re to transform what’s happening. The outer is merely a reflection of the inner - the world a reflection of our state of consciousness - in the life of a nation as in the life of an individual." Marianne Williamson
The Metox Perspective
I believe that this is the start of something important and something I have been personally waiting for, for many years. We have moved from the shedding of the snake year to the widely intuitive and ballsy fire horse.
It’s the end of spiritual authority and where the real self-work begins and I built Metox for that very reason. To champion our inner, soul work.
It’s a personal mindset, but not one that is outsourced. It belongs to you. And only you.
It’s when we quieten the external voices and ensure our own become stronger. It‘s not about replacing one belief system with another. It is about removing the need for one completely.
A clearing of conditioning, identity performance, borrowed language and inherited ideas, and more....until we can actually see what we think without any influence whatsoever.
I’m not anti-guide. I guide.
I’m not anti-learning. I learn daily.
I AM anti-dependent.
And I want the same for you.
Awareness makes us harder to control, not easier to guide.
I was compelled to write this last night...
Because this moment really matters. There is huge accountability energy right now. I’m seeing and feeling it everywhere.
It’s a reminder that influencers are just that. Influencers. If a philosophy only works when you believe the person delivering it, it was never wisdom. It was only ever an influence.
The real function of inner work is autonomy.
So when we read about prominent figures falling under scrutiny, there’s no need for outrage; look for the inner lessons. Because what is really being revealed is that spirituality is being returned to its rightful owner.
You. Us. Me.
Please let us stop outsourcing our power and bring it home.
Comments