Making Room for Practical Spirituality in a Scandal-Prone Industry
Recently, the media has gone after “former monk” and podcaster Jay Shetty for what many claim is a money-driven empire built on steep exaggeration. Frankly, it’s just another example of the issues challenging a male-dominated industry with its fair share of scandal.
I am all for people becoming successful at what they love. Money is not evil. However, money has a way of infecting the best of intentions. Perhaps the power it provides is why women are so underrepresented on the spiritual stage. Similar to the “rarity” of female philosophers, something we covered in the new issue of SoulTech Magazine, even Google struggles to pull up results for female spiritual leaders. Isn’t it time we made room on the spiritual stage for more divine feminine thought leaders?
If you read my new book, Memory Mansion, or listen to SoulTech’s podcast, Citizen Journalist, you may have noticed we approach conscious living from a very practical place. As someone who has studied many spiritual practices over the years, it is my experience that the good it can do humanity has consistently gotten lost in monetization, hierarchies, hypocrisy, and misogyny. This is why you won’t see a lot of industry language in my work. I have found fancy lingo to be exclusionary in every industry. Isn’t that the point of creating it? Hearing it reminds me of overeducated academics. They sound cool, but how useful are they?
(Enjoy a teaser of the latest podcast for Soultech’s Citizen Journalist, featuring Goodpod’s top-rated marketing host Billy Dees. Watch it on YouTube or stream it on Spotify)
Monetization has held back the most important message of the yogic lifestyle since American celebrities and businesses turned it into a product-selling bonanza. Again, I am not opposed to people making money but boy it does tend to ruin even the best of messages. Ask self-help gurus who have slipped into running what amounts to a pyramid scheme built on the backs of lost souls.
Hierarchies have long been a way to enhance power. Look at the laundry list of religious leaders who live in multimillion-dollar mansions. When I mention the name Joel Osteen, his rich and powerful lifestyle comes to mind.
Join us in NYC on April 4th at the Anthology Film Archives for SoulTech’s Soundbites2Solutions event, presented by FairSay Films. We are screening their short film Displaced, which Luis Guzman said brought him to tears, and I am leading a panel discussion with a group of experts to carry the topic of immigration from Soundbites2 Solutions)
In recent decades, the hypocrisy of spiritual leaders has been a ratings bonanza for prime-time TV and old-school publications like The National Enquirer. Which, for the record, broke some pretty insane but true stories in its heyday. Some of the most famous people to ever work in the industry are now infamous for their hypocrisy.
However, I believe the main social issue preventing the expansion of human consciousness worldwide is overt and hidden misogyny in religion and spirituality. Overt misogyny is very apparent in many parts of the world. We see it in countries and cultures where women cannot lead.
It’s the veiled misogyny that is truly tricky. How revered is Gandhi? Yet, it is well known that he did not treat women well and believed in dated gender roles. A recent example that speaks to this issue is when the Dalai Lama was asked about the chance of a female being chosen for his role, and he said she would need to be attractive to do any good. Seriously, WTH does a woman being pretty have to do with her ability to lead? His slip does shine a bright light on something more serious than we seem ready to address.
There is a dramatic lack of representation of female leadership in spiritual and religious communities around the world. This is true for the most influential industries. In venture capital, less than 3% of women-led businesses receive funding! The lack of women in spirituality cuts the divine feminine approach out of one of the most powerful tools for addressing mental health challenges globally. We are cutting “the mother” if you will from a role she was naturally designed for.
It is time to support female lead spirituality. Women have a different approach. In my case, it is practical spirituality. My goal is to keep spiritual practices easy to understand and easy to apply to life. Something that will provide more people with the tools that allow them to command their thoughts and raise their consciousness.
Change only happens when we address the elephant in the room.
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Let me know your thoughts on the topic. We create change by facing our history, speaking the truth, and sharing solutions.
Love and light,
Shaman Isis
To learn more about my spiritual books, signings, and guidance work, visit: www.ShamanIsis.com
To learn more about the SoulTech lifestyle brand, visit: www.SoulTech.World