Wait. What?! I sat back in my chair, stunned, and revolted, at what I’d just heard.
In my years as a spiritual counselor, I’ve heard some pretty wild things, but this one took the cake.
Twenty. THOUSAND. Dollars??!
“She said it would take $20,000 as a ‘spiritual investment’ for her to help me build an altar.”
(Enter speechless silence.)
After I pulled myself together a bit, I went on a slight rant about these professed spiritual readers and coaches who feel free to charge crazy amounts of money to people who just want answers.
Unfortunately, as spirituality moves more into the mainstream, this is becoming a common occurrence (and is my greatest professional pet peeve).
Spiritually, things aren’t what they were even a decade ago. Covid craziness aside, there has been a definite change that make us feel like there’s a rapidly approaching deadline to complete a very important project.
People are embarking on personal search missions for deeper, more spiritually authentic lives and the daily grind isn’t cutting it.
They hear their spirit yelling, “Find your life purpose! You need more peace in your life! Go for your dreams!” But they don’t know how. And it never goes away (hence the impending deadline feeling).
So the search begins. They peruse online, read books they can’t finish, and try to get answers from spiritual readers.
The problem is that the things they read or “answers” they get from readers can’t truly validate their situation, so they still don’t know what to do, what to believe, and are left confused.
So it’s back to square one– searching. And searching. And reading. And going on meditation retreats. And taking online courses they don’t finish. It’s all a cyclical dead end.
Ironically, most people look to the world for spiritual direction, but they never consider looking “up,” where spiritual things actually are, where their answers patiently lie in wait, specifically for them.
All of this toiling around and wasted time and money can be resolved with the very first thing I teach new clients: spiritual discernment.
If you’re feeling pulled to do something else, live somewhere else, and pursue a dream, you’re going to need some guidance–but not from a book or a reader.
Fortify your connection to God and your own Divine support. Hear them, feel them, and be courageous enough to follow their instructions. The most important part of all of this is to distinguish all of these things seperately from your own thoughts and emotions. This is spiritual discernment.
Without the ability to hear or feel a piece of guidance and believe it, you will doubt it.
Without hearing the reassurance that God is making arrangements for you to pursue your dream, you won’t see a way.
Without building the physical-world evidence of how Divine help works, you’ll think you’re on your own.
But what most people do have is a certain level of feeling and knowing. This is because they’re very used to feeling (albiet, most of the time it’s unhappiness), but it’s still feeling, and it’s closely tied to the knowing.
You feel sad and unfulfilled and know you should be doing something else. But after you cultivate the ability to feel peaceful and hear Divine guidance, you’ll know God has your back. It works the same way as feeling unhappy, but you’re going up instead of down.
Cultivating spiritual independence like this will be the ultimate downfall of “big business spirituality,” but until then, anyone looking for spiritual answers are likely to get swooped into paying dumb amounts of money for them.
You don’t need a spiritual reader to tell you your relationship is over. You already know it.
You don’t need them to tell you what to do next. Just listen.
You don’t need to research online when you have an empathic experience. Feel their love for you.
And you don’t need more crystals or books. Enough already.
Get serious about your spiritual practice, stick to it, and get familiar with your own inherent spiritual promptings and abilities. Exercise them so you know how they work and you’ll never look to the world for spiritual answers again.
Start looking up.
Fulfilling your purpose and your happiness in life will depend on it.
And it will save you $20,000.