15 signs of spiritual ego in new-age communities
Summary
TLDRIn this video, Justin Brown from Ideapod explores the concept of spiritual ego, outlining three stages—novice, yogi, and guru—where individuals may develop an inflated sense of self-importance tied to their spiritual journey. He identifies 15 signs of spiritual ego, such as over-intellectualizing spirituality and lacking humility, and stresses the importance of not isolating those with spiritual ego but rather engaging with them to foster a more inclusive and collaborative spiritual community.
Takeaways
- 🌟 Spiritual ego is an unhealthy form of ego that arises from identifying oneself with a spiritual path or experience, often leading to a sense of superiority.
- 🧘♂️ The three stages of spiritual ego development are the novice stage, where one has initial spiritual insights; the yogi stage, where one adheres to a specific method or teaching; and the guru stage, where one transcends methods and claims universal wisdom.
- 👁️🗨️ Signs of spiritual ego include over-intellectualizing spirituality, judging others' spiritual progress, holding dogmatic beliefs, and developing a messiah complex.
- 📚 Spirituality is about the pursuit of knowledge beyond the material world and is inherently personal, but spiritual ego can lead to isolation from others and an overemphasis on one's own spiritual journey.
- 🌏 Spiritual ego can manifest as a loss of interest in the world and others, focusing solely on one's own spiritual development and experiences.
- 💭 The video discusses the importance of not just pursuing spiritual knowledge but also integrating it into daily life and relationships, emphasizing the need for balance.
- 🤔 The script highlights the importance of recognizing and addressing spiritual ego in oneself and others, suggesting that it's not about shutting out such individuals but rather understanding and bridging the gap.
- 🌱 The video encourages viewers to engage with spiritual communities and individuals with an open mind, to learn from their experiences and share wisdom across different paths.
- 🌈 The speaker shares personal experiences and observations from living in a spiritual community, providing a realistic perspective on the prevalence and impact of spiritual ego.
- 🔗 The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to reflect on the content, engage in dialogue, and contribute to a broader understanding of spiritual ego and narcissism.
Q & A
What is the main topic of Justin Brown's video?
-The main topic of Justin Brown's video is 'spiritual ego' or 'spiritual narcissism,' where he discusses the concept, its types, signs to look out for, and how to deal with individuals exhibiting spiritual ego.
What are the three types of spiritual ego that Justin Brown describes?
-The three types of spiritual ego Justin Brown describes are the novice stage, the yogi stage, and the guru stage. The novice stage is characterized by the first spiritual insights, the yogi stage involves proselytizing a chosen method or system, and the guru stage is where one transcends methods and claims universal teaching abilities.
What does Justin Brown suggest as a key sign of spiritual ego?
-One of the key signs of spiritual ego that Justin Brown suggests is over-intellectualizing spirituality, where individuals focus too much on analyzing and discussing spiritual concepts rather than experiencing and living them.
What is the significance of the location where Justin Brown is filming the video?
-Justin Brown is filming the video on Koh Phangan, an island in Thailand known for its spiritual community. The location is significant as it provides a real-world context for discussing spiritual ego and allows for exploration of the topic within a community where such issues are prevalent.
Why does Justin Brown feel guilty about being in Koh Phangan?
-Justin Brown feels guilty about being in Koh Phangan because he recognizes the prevalence of spiritual ego in the community and admits to having had an unhealthy spiritual ego himself in the past.
What is the role of Chira in the video?
-Chira is a local tour guide in Koh Phangan who is featured in the video. She provides insights into the spiritual community on the island and accompanies Justin on his exploration of the island, offering a local perspective on the topic of spiritual ego.
What does Justin Brown suggest as a potential issue with some spiritual seekers?
-Justin Brown suggests that some spiritual seekers may become overly focused on their own self-development and spirituality to the extent that they neglect contributing to their community or helping others, which he illustrates through the behavior of some yoga practitioners on the island.
What are the 15 key signs of spiritual ego that Justin Brown plans to discuss?
-The 15 key signs of spiritual ego that Justin Brown plans to discuss include over-intellectualizing spirituality, judging others' spiritual advancement, having dogmatic beliefs, having a messiah complex, being stuck in positive thinking, trying to be a guru to others, believing one has figured it all out, spiritual righteousness, lacking genuine curiosity, lacking humility, lacking compassion, withdrawing from life to pursue spiritual knowledge, becoming a narcissist, and losing interest in others.
What is Justin Brown's advice for dealing with someone who has spiritual ego?
-Instead of rejecting or shutting out someone with spiritual ego, Justin Brown advises building bridges between spiritual communities and the wider world, promoting knowledge exchange, and recognizing the shared human quest for meaning.
How does Justin Brown plan to further the discussion on spiritual ego?
-Justin Brown plans to further the discussion on spiritual ego by creating a comprehensive article that includes insights from the video and comments from viewers, with the intention of providing a guide on dealing with spiritual ego and narcissism.
Outlines
🔍 Introduction to Spiritual Ego and Narcissism
Justin Brown from Ideapod introduces the topic of spiritual ego and narcissism, explaining that he will discuss three types of spiritual ego, 15 key signs to identify it, and offer advice on how to handle relationships with individuals who exhibit spiritual ego. He shares a personal anecdote about his observations in a spiritual community in Koh Phangan, Thailand, where he noticed a tendency towards selfishness among some spiritual seekers. Justin confesses to having experienced an unhealthy spiritual ego himself and aims to explore the signs and solutions through this video.
🌀 The Three Stages of Spiritual Ego
The video script outlines three stages of spiritual ego development: the novice stage, where individuals have initial profound insights and believe their experiences apply to everyone; the yogi stage, where they become attached to a specific method or teaching and feel compelled to proselytize; and the guru stage, where they transcend methods and believe they can share universal teachings relevant to all. Justin discusses his own experiences with the yogi stage and the dangers of gurus who may be overly persuasive and convincing in their teachings.
🚦 Signs of Spiritual Ego and Their Impact
Justin enumerates 15 signs of spiritual ego, including over-intellectualizing spirituality, judging others' spiritual progress, holding dogmatic beliefs, having a messiah complex, and trying to be a guru to others. He also discusses the tendency to think positively at all costs, which can lead to ignoring negative emotions. The sign of spiritual righteousness is highlighted, where individuals engage in debates to prove their spiritual views superior. The script also touches on the lack of genuine curiosity and humility, and how spiritual ego can lead to a withdrawal from society and an excessive focus on self.
🌱 Overcoming Spiritual Ego Through Community and Collaboration
In the final paragraph, Justin emphasizes the importance of not isolating oneself or others with spiritual ego but instead building bridges between spiritual communities and the wider world. He suggests that spiritual seekers and everyday people should learn from each other and celebrate diversity in spiritual experiences. Justin invites viewers to contribute their insights in the comments to create a comprehensive guide on spiritual ego and narcissism. He also encourages viewers to subscribe for updates on his upcoming content related to this topic.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Spiritual Ego
💡Spiritual Narcissism
💡Over Intellectualizing
💡Dogmatic Beliefs
💡Messiah Complex
💡Spiritual Righteousness
💡Humility
💡Guru
💡Yogi
💡Novice Stage
💡Collaborative Experience
Highlights
Introduction to the concept of spiritual ego and its impact on personal growth and relationships.
Description of the three stages of spiritual ego development: novice, yogi, and guru stages.
The novice stage where individuals have their first profound spiritual insight and may overgeneralize its applicability.
The yogi stage characterized by adherence to a specific spiritual method and a desire to proselytize.
The guru stage where individuals claim universal wisdom and may develop a self-proclaimed guru complex.
Personal confession of the speaker's past struggles with an unhealthy spiritual ego.
The importance of not shutting out those with spiritual ego but instead building bridges for understanding.
15 key signs to identify spiritual ego in oneself or others, starting with over-intellectualizing spirituality.
Judging others as spiritually superior or inferior as a sign of spiritual ego.
Rigidity in spiritual beliefs and the development of a messiah complex as indicators of spiritual ego.
The trap of constant positivity and the neglect of negative emotions as a sign of spiritual ego.
The desire to be a guru to others and the lack of genuine curiosity as signs of spiritual ego.
Lack of humility and compassion as manifestations of spiritual ego.
Withdrawal from society in pursuit of spiritual knowledge as a sign of spiritual ego.
The final sign of spiritual ego being a complete loss of interest in others and self-focus.
The speaker's experience in Kopanyang and observations on the spiritual community's self-centeredness.
The importance of contributing to society and the environment as demonstrated by a local tour guide.
Encouragement for viewers to engage in dialogue and share their insights on spiritual ego in the comments.
Call to action for viewers to subscribe for updates on future content related to spiritual ego and narcissism.
Transcripts
hey guys justin brown from ideapod here
today's video
is on spiritual ego spiritual
[Music]
narcissism
i'm going to go through the three types
of spiritual ego that most people go
through when they develop this
unhealthy type of ego i'm then going to
share
15 key signs to look out for so you can
identify if someone's going through
spiritual ego around you or if you're
going through spiritual ego
finally i'm going to share at the very
end of this video exactly what to do if
you've got someone in your life that has
spiritual ego now
the answer is not to shut them out it's
not to draw your boundaries with them
it's going to be something very
different and it's worth sticking around
to find out
what it is before i get into the video a
very
quick note i'm sharing this because i'm
currently on kopanyang
an island in thailand and there's a huge
spiritual community of people and then
the other day i met a
new friend someone who's been living
here for three years and her first
question to me was you're not a yoga
person
are you and she was worried that i was
one of those spiritual seekers on the
island part of the community and my
friend
told me that when she meets yoga people
on the island she feels like
in general the yoga people are very
selfish people that are very wrapped up
in the story they tell
about themselves and that got me
thinking about spiritual ego
and the fact that i used to have a very
unhealthy spiritual ego so this video
in part is kind of a confession of mine
i feel a little guilty being here in
copanyang and seeing spiritual ego
everywhere so i want to share this video
to go a little deeper so please know
that this is a self-exploration as i go
through
all of these different signs of
spiritual ego now the other part of the
video
is that my friend chira the one who i
had this great conversation with she's
on her way here now
and she's a local tour guide she's going
to take me to some really unusual parts
of kopanyang so i'm going to take you
with me so you get to see the beautiful
parts of propanyang and as i go through
this journey i'm going to share the key
parts of this video
as we explore spiritual ego together so
to get this video
started i first want to explain what it
means to have
a spiritual ego so spirituality is
really the pursuit
of knowledge relating to something
outside the material world
or outside the five senses that we've
got so there's some sort of knowledge of
something outside all of that and i
think when you're on a spiritual path
you're seeking to pursue a life where
you're incorporating
a set of practices as well as a set of
concepts
related to whatever you discover about
this non-material
world and i think at some level
everyone's spiritual
in that we're all aware of something
infinite something outside ourselves
that there's a whole lot more to life
than what we can
see touch feel smell and so on so that's
what spirituality is in pursuing a
spiritual life now when you've got
spiritual ego or you're becoming a
spiritual narcissist
that's when you start to identify
who you are in relationship with the
spiritual path you're on so usually
someone has arrived at some sort of an
aha moment
they've had some sort of transcendental
experience
they may have met someone very profound
and wise who've shared something
that's totally opened up their eyes to
something new for the very first time
or it could be one of those first
experiences you can have doing something
like ayahuasca
or some sort of retreat or kundalini
yoga or
breath work so you have this huge rush
this huge insight now
that's a pretty normal thing it's a
pretty wonderful thing for us all to
chase to experience but the problem is
when you build an identity around that
experience that you've got
and when you start to see yourself as
superior to
others for having had that experience or
having had
that insight so it's the superiority
combined with building it around your
identity
that involves having a spiritual ego and
becoming a spiritual
narcissist that's what having a
spiritual ego means now i'm gonna go a
little bit deeper
and explain the three types of spiritual
ego that i see most people kind of
transitioning through
as they build this stock of spiritual
insights but first cheera is going to
take us a little deeper into copanyang
oh where are you taking us
[Music]
[Music]
so in just a moment i'm going to go
through the 15
signs that someone's got a spiritual ego
first i want to explain the three types
of spiritual ego that people pass
through
so the first type is when you're going
through the novice stage of spiritual
exploration and this is where you have
that first
insight and you may have learned
something really profound from
one of the spiritual teachers like
eckhart tolle or
osho or something like that and these
spiritual gurus have this real knack for
managing to
universalize what they're teaching so
that
you feel like it's particularly relevant
for you and it really describes what
you're going through and that's because
it does there's something very genuine
in these teachings
but when you first have that insight
then you think that what you're going
through
applies to everyone else around you but
you've arrived at this
particular place because you've figured
this out so that's the novice stage when
you first
started the next stage is the yogi stage
and these are the people
who they've chosen a method or they've
chosen a particular approach and it
could be yoga it could be one of the
types of yoga could be many different
things
and then you realize there's a whole
system of teaching behind this one
insight and as you
go down the rabbit hole of these
learnings you realize that more and more
of these insights apply to you and what
you're going through therefore it must
apply to other people
so the yogi often goes around thinking
that particular method or system
is what needs to be shared with other
people so they start proselytizing
which means they want to spread the word
and bring people into their
movement and then the third stage is the
guru stage and this is where someone
transcends the method
and can see through the method and knows
how
to share universal teaching so they
apply
in every circumstance and when someone
reaches that
guru stage often they're a
self-proclaimed
guru and they realize they've got this
special ability
to share their teachings in a universal
way to make it relevant to everyone and
everything and every experience
happening
around you and there's a special kind of
spiritual ego
that the self-proclaimed gurus have
because they're often extremely clever
they know
how to convince you that what they're
sharing is perfect for you in every
situation
and they've reached that guru level so
those are the three stages
that people often pass through that we
often pass through in my own case
i definitely have entered the yogi stage
many different times when i've found the
answer through some sort of method
and i've wanted to spread the word and
i've done that through love through
wanting to share through wanting other
people to experience this too so
it definitely comes from a really good
place i completely understand it
although i think we need to be very
careful of gurus the gurus who arrive at
that place because they've got the
ability to see through this
and yet they continue seeing themselves
as a guru
and wanting to convince other people of
what they're teaching
so i was out with the cheer the other
day and you were telling me about
the yoga people here which of course is
we respect the yoga people
but one observation you had that was
very profound was how selfish they are
yeah i feel that i think they're a
little bit selfish about it
and then what i love when you said they
spend so much time focusing on
self-development and spirituality but
then you ask them sometimes well what
about actually helping other people
doing something to contribute
to the community and you feel that
sometimes they're a little too focused
on self to
to focus on other people they're just
like when i ask them what do you
think or what should we do about it it's
like why do we have to give a crap
you said that to me yeah just like as
long as yourself happy
you don't have to care about others and
it's interesting because then as we're
walking along the beach here
and we came to you know shoot this uh
film that i'm creating about spiritual
ego and
you know i'm focused on what i'm trying
to achieve and cheer us here as a tour
guide like trying to make sure it's a
good experience but then suddenly chiro
just stopped everything
dropped everything and started picking
up the trash along the beach because you
couldn't just
let it go and so for me that's a
wonderful example of
spirituality in action in terms of
actually
contributing to other people around you
even when you can't solve the whole
problem the problem's much bigger than
you but you still want to
make a small difference if you're able
to well yeah
supposed to be like that yeah i'm going
to go through now the 15
signs of spiritual ego to look out for
in yourself
or in people around you the first sign
is that you're over intellectualizing
spirituality now
this was the big mistake that i made i
always wanted to analyze everything
talk about it find fellow spiritual
seekers get into
really long and deep conversations about
it but then i learnt about spirituality
that it's so much more an experience
of life of relationships with others
that i realized that over
intellectualizing it
was taking me away from that fundamental
experience the second key sign of
spiritual ego
is judging others as more or less
advanced
than you this is where the superiority
kicks in and it's where
the person that's spiritual narcissist
is starting to think that they're better
than others the third sign is having
dogmatic beliefs and this is where you
start to believe in the fundamental
truths that you're experiencing and you
hold them as rigid
axioms in your understanding of yourself
and the world the next sign is having a
messiah complex now i've encountered a
number of people in the spiritual world
that especially when they start to
embrace psychedelics they get whispers
from gods that tell them certain things
and they start to believe that they are
a god walking on earth now of course at
some level we're all gods i can
understand that
we've all got the presence of god within
but the problem is when you translate
that spiritual experience into your
relationships with others with society
the fifth sign
is where you get stuck in the trap of
always trying to think
positively i got really stuck in this
when i used to embrace the law of
attraction and
i thought that it was really important
that spiritual people were always
a high vibration problem was i was
ignoring a lot of the fundamental
negative emotions like
fear frustration insecurity and then i
didn't realize you can actually get a
lot of personal power from those
emotions the next and related sign of
spiritual ego is when you're trying to
be a guru to other people when you think
that you've found the answer
particularly happens with people with
the messiah complex and you want to
spread these fundamental truths
to everyone around you another sign of
spiritual ego is when you believe you've
figured it all
out when your current state of knowledge
you believe is at some sort of
final or absolute level another sign of
spiritual ego is spiritual righteousness
this is a good sign and i used to do
this all the time it is when you engage
in spiritual
debates now it's all very well to have
spiritual dialogues where two people are
mutually on the search for truth
together where they're supporting each
other in that quest but a debate
usually involves one person being right
and the other person being wrong
and spiritual ego is often present in
people who are always in that debate
they always think that they're right
and they want to overpower other people
around them
another sign is lacking genuine
curiosity about the world around you you
lack genuine curiosity because you feel
like you've found the answer you don't
need to learn
anything new another sign of
spirituality is lacking
humility thinking you're better than
people around you often people with
spiritual ego
are lacking compassion because they see
themselves as so separate with their
experiences
they think they've arrived at something
they lack compassion for people because
they just think those other people
haven't managed to attain
their level of spiritual greatness a big
sign of spiritual ego
is when you stop living your life so
that you can pursue
spiritual knowledge it often happens in
retreat type environments or here in
copenhagen when there's a yoga studio or
retreat
pretty much everywhere around this
island and people kind of want to
withdraw from society from where they're
from they can actually get here and find
enlightenment
find the truth they don't realize
they're actually withdrawing from the
world around them another sign of
spiritual ego
is that you've become a narcissist so
all you can think about is yourself
all you can talk about is your own story
of what brings you here
and you really lose interest in other
people around you and that's really the
final sign of
spiritual ego is when you've completely
lost interest
in others and you're only focused on
yourself where are we going now
we go to very nice place there
everywhere is nice here with shira says
nice nice and then when we get there
i'm going to share with you exactly what
to do when
you encounter people with spiritual ego
many times i
like to go on facebook events and then
research for what's going on in koppen i
saw many people did
do like trash heroes they're going to
pick up the trash
on a beach or i do something useful or
food donation or adult cat or dog but i
have not seen many
yoga communities they do something like
that they mostly just
yoga people meet up with yoga people do
something about yoga things too
people go to us for free namaste
can i have some waters can i have some
fruit
[Music]
we're heading up to the final
destination of this wonderful tour
it's the secret mountain
[Music]
um
we can't divorce our spirituality from
the relationships we have with each
other
with society with the whole world around
us and for me
it's such a key point that we live in a
world where we've got the opportunity
to learn from each other to grow
together to have a collaborative
experience to
celebrate our diversity now i said at
the start i'm going to share what i
think
you should do if you have someone with a
spiritual ego in your life
or if you're someone that may be
developing a spiritual
ego i think it's very tempting to reject
that person
to shut off and to draw your boundaries
and to try to associate with people
that are on a similar pursuit of meaning
as what you're
on but i don't think that's the best
thing to do in the face
of people with spiritual ego
in your life ultimately i think that the
spiritual communities that
are developing all around the world in
places like kopanyang
are doing wonderful work there's kernels
of truths being shared and experienced
by these people we want to build bridges
between these communities
and the wider world outside so that
whatever's happening in that community
we can learn from and embrace and
whatever's happening in the real world
also can be shared inside the spiritual
community so we can
collapse this distinction between the
spiritual seekers and
everyday people so that we can realize
that ultimately
we're all on a search for meaning we're
all spiritual at a fundamental level we
just
experience it in different ways we have
different language
to share how we're experiencing it and i
think really that
we need to break these boundaries
between people and start to
build much more effective knowledge
exchanges
in the world around us thanks so much
for watching the video this far i've got
a lot more to share about this topic and
i'd love to learn from you in the
comments below
what are some of the signs that i've
missed what are some of the points that
i haven't made
what are some of the things i'm not
considering i'm going to put together
a really big article and share it on
ideapod i'm going to share what's in
this video but i'd like to share
whatever you share in the comments below
so that together we can create
a really good article about spiritual
ego spiritual narcissism
we can create a guide about what people
should do make sure you sign up to
ideapod's email list there's a link
below so that you can find out when i
publish that article and if you find
value in this video
please hit the like button if you don't
like what i'm sharing please hit the
dislike
button leave a comment and subscribe
i'm going to share a few more videos
while i'm in copanyang and if you
subscribe
see you next time
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