Did you know that between 1940 and 1920, Spiritualism was at its peak?
It’s believed that by 1897 spiritualism in the USA and Europe had more than 8 million followers and that most of those followers were middle and upper-class people.
So where are we today with Spiritualism?
With the over-saturated internet full of information overload, are we any better off for the thousands of spiritual videos, social media posts/websites/blog sites?
Where you think it would promote growth, I think we have to be honest about what’s really going on and realise that for many healers, readers, and spiritual teachers, spiritualism may be losing its appeal, so why is that?
For the last 25 years, spiritual growth has been at the core of everything I do. From 2005 my husband and I were blessed enough to be able to make our spiritual life, also our only source of income.
Through the years we’ve met thousands upon thousands of people in mind, body, and spirit exhibitions, in our home and also through spiritual development programmes we’ve done around the world. It was inspiring and exciting seeing so many people with a desire to develop their own spiritual growth, be it psychic development, their healing practices, or just being personally able to talk with the world of spirit.
In fact, it was only last year when I was forced to move house and scale down the paperwork we were holding, did I realise the sheer volume of student feedback forms we had accumulated over the years from truly amazing and beautiful people we had been blessed to meet, talk with and train.
As we know, life never stands still, it is always changing, morphing into something different and in all life, there are cycles peaks and troughs. In the 90’s the mind, body, and spirit fairs I used to exhibit at were heaving with people. I remember our stand having queues of five people deep waiting to be served or spoken to, every one of them eager to learn and develop themselves and it wasn’t just our own stand. Many of the other exhibitors were equally busy, but then a change began to occur.
Around 2010 the nature of the people coming to the mind, body and spirit events changed. More stalls were being added that weren’t spiritual. Jewellery stalls, clothes and make-up stalls began to become part of the exhibition. One of the major mind, body and spirit organisers merged their show with the Yoga exhibition to try and get more people through the doors. From
Whereas people used to be interested in their spiritual growth, the focus moved on to shopping for jewellery, clothes and the odd occasional crystal or music cd. The consensus among the stall holders was that the big build-up to the year 2000 had been a big letdown for many spiritual people and therefore many felt let down and had lost faith in spiritualism. Other stall-holders blamed the slowdown in the economy.
Thankfully, I intuitively knew the writing was on the wall for these exhibitions and in 2014 I stepped back from exhibiting. What followed over the coming years was many mind, body, and spirit organisers either going bust or merging their business with another exhibitor to try and stay afloat.
What is sad, is that the mind, body and spirit fairs gave people a chance to connect and get to know many spiritual teachers, advisors and healing therapists so they could develop a relationship with them. With demonstrations from a wide range of spiritual people, it planted seeds of what was possible for many people seeking to explore their own spiritual side. Most importantly of all, it offered a way of connection and community to those seeking personal and spiritual education and enlightenment. So what went wrong?
Throughout the years I have met many people who ‘claim’ to be spiritual. I have been blessed enough to teach in the UK, Europe, Japan and the USA over the years, and what has struck me, is the difference in approach to spirituality as a way of life. The approach in the East is vastly different to that in the western world.
In Japan, everything revolves around spirituality. Holistic healthcare is sought first before medical unless it’s an emergency. Their approach to learning and developing spirituality is at the core of everything, because they believe everything else grows from having spiritual foundations. If the soul and spirit are well, then life will be well. In the Western world, for many people, spirituality is fitted in where it can be, after everything else has been taken care of. Spirituality in the East is highly valued, in the Western world, it is a form of entertainment for most.
In the past couple of years, I have been helping many other spiritual teachers and healers in marketing their skills and services, and what I have noticed is that there are so many talented healers and readers who are really struggling with their businesses.
I have spoken with many who have either given up their businesses or broken down in despair at how their businesses are failing and yet, there is this belief that people are now more spiritual than ever, so what’s really going on?
When you visit YouTube, there are thousands of videos on different spiritual topics, would it surprise you to know that the vast majority of time spent watching those videos is less than five minutes?
Meditation videos on YouTube are aplenty most with an average running time of about 30 minutes and yet, they are, on average, only listened to/watched, for about five minutes.
If you look at many LIVE stream spiritual events, very few now have over 50 people watching. So, is interest in spiritualism dying?
I believe it is, and I also think it is one of the reasons why life is getting harder and harder for everyone.
For many spiritual people, we all have a belief that everything is energy and I think many of us have forgotten how important having a spiritual foundation in life is. Funnily enough, I was talking with someone the other day and they were commenting on how crappy our weather was here in the UK and I said, is there any wonder when the vast majority of the British people are doom and gloomy about the rising costs of petrol and energy supplies? The weather also responds to energy, if we’re feeling under the weather, then our weather will respond likewise.
Life responds to our energies. If we focus on the doom and gloom, life responds accordingly. I can talk until I am blue in the face about how having a daily spiritual practice really benefits mental and physical well-being. I can show you reams of statistics that show those people who are studying and learning something spiritual have a higher psychological and physical state of well-being but to no avail and this is because, for the vast majority of people, spirituality isn’t important enough.
If something is important enough, we find the time, we invest ourselves, time and money to make it happen. I have also, over the years, watched many so-called spiritual people turn their backs on excellent spiritual teachers just because they voiced something that didn’t agree with their current beliefs. And yet, believe it or not, if you truly want to learn and expand yourself, it’s important to choose to listen to spiritual teachers who don’t agree with you, because without a differing view or opinion, how can you know the choices you’re making are right for you? To shun a spiritual teacher because they speak a different truth to you, indicates you’re not open, you’re blinkered/ biased and if that’s the case, enlightenment will be elusive.
In the eastern world, the majority of people with some spiritual or religious beliefs spend about 20% of their annual income on their spiritual growth or spiritual services such as Reiki treatments to maintain well-being or classes.
In the eastern world, many dedicate at least 5-10 hours in a week to spiritual practice or growth. In the western world, for many people, there’s no investment in their spiritual growth whatsoever. You may find that hard to believe, but here’s the sad truth. In four global polls in 2005 77% had some form of belief. In 2012, those with some form of religious or spiritual beliefs had dropped to just 23%. In 2017 the percentage of people in the United Kingdom alone without any form of spiritual or religious beliefs was 73%.
It’s a sad fact that if you don’t use it, you lose it. What does this say about the future prospects of the generations to come? With no standing spiritual or religious foundations what does this say about our ability to become higher evolved?
Whilst we may advance technologically and scientifically, without spiritual foundations there will be many impacts on humans as a whole.
Spirituality at its core gives us purpose and hope. Spirituality enables us to turn off from the madness of the world and find inner peace, without investing in our own spiritual growth and supporting those who teach it to others, how will that affect the mental and physical well-being of everyone?
For me, I think the single most important fact of why we should invest in our own spiritual growth and make it the very foundations of our life, who we are, and everything we do is that spirituality helps us to focus on building connections with each other. If we lose our ability to connect, touch, hold, and share with others, we will have lost the true meaning of life.
Without spirituality, we lose our ability to be human, to hold compassion, find validation and understanding, and more importantly create community.
It’s easy to justify why you shouldn’t pay for a spiritual service, book, meditation or class but if spirituality isn’t to die within ourselves or the world, I would urge you to justify why you should be investing in your own spiritual growth, because, without it, the world will be pretty much devoid of the meaning of life.
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