Holier Than Thou Hippy Dippy BS

[MysterionMuffles]

So for the past 3 days I've been engaging in a Gratefulness Challenge on Facebook where you post a status listing three things you are grateful for for five days, and then nominate two other people to do the same. It has been a great practice in vulnerability and shouting from mountain tops to immortalize my gratitude for each thing I've listed the past few days.

 

Then I see this post from this hippy chick

 

 

 

Ewwww this made my skin crawl. You know, I really hate a lot of new age spititualists. They hark on about non-ego and being Zen, when really they're just trying to assert ascendancy over those who don't share the same spiritual beliefs as them. Or at least it has been in my experience with this woman. I felt disempowered and discouraged from spreading awareness, compassion, and gratitude-- not just on social media, but also the physical world--when I read this post.

 

An even more ironic thing is that she used social media to preach this holier than thou message. She posted this simply because she was the first person I nominated for the Gratefulness Challenge. What a passive aggressive way of saying "I have nothing to be thankful for than my own ego."

 

Gross. I'm glad I unsubscribed to her so I don't see her on my newsfeed. I was just told about this post and that's how I found out.

 

Do you have any people like this in your life? Where on the surface they're "spiritual" and on this path to wholeness, when really they use it to diminish others?

[ancapzeebo]

At least she's honest in saying that her thoughts are coming from her heart.  Definitely not from her head.  Also, what kind of moral virtue is 'awareness'???? I feel like i'm drowing in irrationality. 

[RyanT]

Do you have any people like this in your life? Where on the surface they're "spiritual" and on this path to wholeness, when really they use it to diminish others?

 

.....I used to be one......

 

Certainly for me it was such an easy little shortcut to feeling good about myself, rather than actually putting in the work, going though all the pain, struggle, isolation and often total bewilderment self knowledge entails.

 

Acknowledging where I am at the minute, just how far I've yet to climb. Reconciling the fear/bitterness that because of the completely unfair and random nature of the F.O.O we're born into I may have to work twice as hard as someone else for half the results..that's a big one for me at the minute...it sucks.  

 

Whereas of course within 'spirituality' that's all irreverent, physical reality is the delusion/illusion, what really matters is this foggy intangible world that floats high above it all..we can all just teleport up to...if only we can detach our pure, infinite 'soul' from this pesky, restrictive 'worldly' mind and body..  

 

Utterly the polar opposite of self-knowledge  

 

Maybe explain why it stuck in your craw so much Jamz?

 

I also often find when I'm drawn to try and process that sort of B.S disorientating and dis-empowering, 

 

Stefan made the magnificent analogy that it's like playing baseball and being pitched a cloud to try and hit.

...Big kudos for not engaging there mate, the more you try and fight it the more it engulfs you...

[AustinJames]

Haha! Yes, I know exactly the type. Once upon a time I was a yoga teacher. This kind of thing is part of the reason I no longer am. I dated a hardcore mystic/new age girl for six years. None of the relationships I had with mystics/new agers survived my pursuit of truth. They are allergic to objectivism.

[MMX2010]

One of my favorite Stef quotes is, "If you really think there's such a thing as a Nice Spiritual Person, you haven't tried to disagree with her about something really important." 

[Dylan Lawrence Moore]

My favorite is the "in my opinion" part. That way if you call her out on her bullshit, she can make you out to be the asshole for getting upset about just an opinion.

 

Until, of course, you say something very true and real, in which case it will suddenly become your opinion.

[MysterionMuffles]

Dylan: it's funny that you say that because that's exactly what she did. She said it wasn't about anything in particular, but I know for a fact it was her holier than thou way of saying she didn't want to do the Gratefulness Challenge. 

 

Well I talked to her in private about how discourage and disempowering it was for her to say that and she got defensive, inflicting the conclusion that I was just taking things personally. I've been having a lot of experiences with her where when she can't provide any reason or evidence in our disagreements, she retreats to inflicting the conclusion that I'm taking things personally--online and offline. 

 

Needless to say I've unfriended her after a long series of RTR conversations where I just got my feelings dismissed because she would rather be right than compassionate.

One of my favorite Stef quotes is, "If you really think there's such a thing as a Nice Spiritual Person, you haven't tried to disagree with her about something really important." 

 

LMFAO yeah case in point. She believes in karma in the previous lives kind of way. I asked her how she knew that stuff was real and she gave me an anectodal piece of evidence where one of her spiritual master's family members died, then that person got reincarnated as a two year old who remembered everything from his supposed past life. Then I asked her if she's met this family and verified that, and she said no, she was just repeating what she was told. Then the topic moved on to some more personal stuff and she got defensive.

Whereas of course within 'spirituality' that's all irreverent, physical reality is the delusion/illusion, what really matters is this foggy intangible world that floats high above it all..we can all just teleport up to...if only we can detach our pure, infinite 'soul' from this pesky, restrictive 'worldly' mind and body..  

 

Utterly the polar opposite of self-knowledge  

 

Which is why this woman drove me nuts when we used to hang out. I ask for empirical evidence of her claims and she would just escape to this world of unreality that I supposedly couldn't grasp til I was at her High Priestess level

[StylesGrant]

Perhaps it was condenscending on her part, but I did get a distinct 'facebook isn't that great' point out of it. Which, yes, and no,. .I agree social media has some very tooth and claw flaws to it, and it is always, always hippy paleo-progressive people who go on rants about 'real community' 'real person to person relation' rants against media. But seriously, walking in traffic while on your phone and not eating dinner together, spending time together, etc. Maybe its just better to do it and not say it, its in the how, and if you come across as a pretentious critical person, it loses the message. 

 

On the other hand, social media is probably the only thing that is going to save the collapse of Empire. 

 

This and this movie I just watched, 'Goodbye World' on Netflix, has got me thinking back to that episode of South Park where everyone is homophobic so they get in the 'big gay pile' and at the end they decide to start farming and growing sustainable as a community, .. .

 

Really just, set awareness and what not by example, because I assure a 'big gay pile' and an absence of social media isn't going to make people want to be more hippy dippy.

[fractional slacker]

I am uncomfortable with this challenge, but instead of figuring out why, I will mix up a word salad, mock your enthusiasm,  and present you with a bunch of non sense, fog, and self righteousness.  Gross is a good description.

 

I would suggest you run, don't walk from this black hole of nihilism and non thinking. 

[MysterionMuffles]

I am uncomfortable with this challenge, but instead of figuring out why, I will mix up a word salad, mock your enthusiasm,  and present you with a bunch of non sense, fog, and self righteousness.  Gross is a good description.

 

I would suggest you run, don't walk from this black hole of nihilism and non thinking. 

 

yeah basically lol

 

I have run fast and far from being her friend. These illogical beliefs in mysticisism and inconsistent actions that clash with her stated values--can't do it man. She preaches so hard about unconditional love and non-judgement, yet where's the love for me being such a "difficult" friend when she herself said you should practice love for someone you may have a good reason to hate. Where's the non-judgement crap when she's strawmanning, ad homineming me, and inflicting egregious conclusions?

 

This is a woman who has rants harshly about her father for half an hour at a time who ends each rant with saying she loves him because she has to, otherwise not loving one is not loving all BECAUSE WE'RE ALL ONE. You wanna talk about delusions, honey? Take a look at yourself from the outside.

 

I am DONE with this hippy dippy bullshit. 

[Carl Green]

I'm reading that FB post of hers in the vacuum of just that post so maybe I'm missing it. Where is she attacking you for declining the "challenge". How could she have rejected the positive obligation without seeming to be attacking to you?

[bitcoin]

I agree with ancapzeebo. She is speaking from her heart and expressing herself openly. I don't see how shes attacking you. Shes simply expressing how she feels about expressing gratefulness through social media in this way.

 

I don't see how attacking her and calling her names because of being a "hippie" is any better, in any case, even if you are right. What you are doing seems quite hypocritical to me.

 

I also agree with Carl, I don't see how she could have rejected "the challenge" without seeming to be attacking you. Perhaps there is some aspect of passive aggressiveness but I don't feel she really could have declined without causing upset. 

[RandR10]

It's funny, I read her entire post and couldn't find that she said anything.  I think that takes true talent.  To formulate that many sentences without syntactical or grammatical error, and still say basically nothing.  I'm not offended by it though.  Just bored.

[JSDev]

My favorite is the "in my opinion" part. That way if you call her out on her bullshit, she can make you out to be the asshole for getting upset about just an opinion.Until, of course, you say something very true and real, in which case it will suddenly become your opinion.

"Just sayin" is another one of those qualifiers people tack on the end of rants as a get out of jail free card.

It's funny, I read her entire post and couldn't find that she said anything. I think that takes true talent. To formulate that many sentences without syntactical or grammatical error, and still say basically nothing. I'm not offended by it though. Just bored.

She studied culinary arts at the Peter Joseph School of Word Salad

[MysterionMuffles]

I agree with ancapzeebo. She is speaking from her heart and expressing herself openly. I don't see how shes attacking you. Shes simply expressing how she feels about expressing gratefulness through social media in this way.

 

I don't see how attacking her and calling her names because of being a "hippie" is any better, in any case, even if you are right. What you are doing seems quite hypocritical to me.

 

I also agree with Carl, I don't see how she could have rejected "the challenge" without seeming to be attacking you. Perhaps there is some aspect of passive aggressiveness but I don't feel she really could have declined without causing upset. 

 

I'm reading that FB post of hers in the vacuum of just that post so maybe I'm missing it. Where is she attacking you for declining the "challenge". How could she have rejected the positive obligation without seeming to be attacking to you?

 

She could have just as easily not participated in the challenge and not post this status. But because so many of my friends, some of them mutual between us, ARE participating in the challenge, it felt like she was diminishing the positivity we wanted to spread throughout our Facebook circles. I never said she was attacking us, but basically diminishing our engagement with this challenge. I merely state that I feel disempowered and discouraged from reading her post.

 

The attack comes in the private chats I've had with her where I simply state how I feel about her post. That's where she gets personal and defensive, telling me to re-read all these spiritual books we've both read, that I'm just taking things personally, that I'm being a difficult person for being offended by everything she says. Which is rich because I don't get offended by everything she says. We have long winded debates, and when she simply can't make a reasoned argument, I ask for more clairification, and that's when her ego kicks in and acts like I'm this sensitive little boy for getting frustrated with how she brushes off the conversation by telling me to go do my own research---when really I'm just genuinely interested in her input. Well, I've lost that interest because I simply get attacked for lacking knowledge that which I just want her to enlighten me on.

 

The ironic thing about this post is that she posts DAILY quotes from spiritual teachers that talk of gratitude, awareness, and compassion. You wanna talk hypocrisy, Jake? Read the 4th post in this thread. 

[Carl Green]

Ah, I think I get your perspective better now, RJ. Though isn't it it still a perception (you felt) that she's deliberately attempting to diminish the positivity of the participants.

 

You can also interpret the post as her wanting to get across the message that she feels best when she is "constantly taking the challenge" and others might as well.

[MysterionMuffles]

yeah so I can admit that her conclusion is right, that I do take what she says personally. But constantly inflicting that conclusion on me as a way to dismiss me, as opposed to taking the time why I have this perspective--and thus being stuck on hers--gave me too much anxiety to continue a relationship with her. I've always opened myself up for her perspective on anything, but even those invitations were also attacked because she assumes that I would attack her for contrary opinions. In one semi successful RTR, she finally admitted that she shrugs off the conversations by telling me to do my own research, simply because of that fear. I appreciated that openness from her and for a while I thought the concept of RTR clicked for her, but I'm not in the business of trying to change her if she herself cannot hold onto new knowledge and accept or explore it further--just because it doesn't already align with her preconceptions.

[bitcoin]

She could have just as easily not participated in the challenge and not post this status. But because so many of my friends, some of them mutual between us, ARE participating in the challenge, it felt like she was diminishing the positivity we wanted to spread throughout our Facebook circles. I never said she was attacking us, but basically diminishing our engagement with this challenge. I merely state that I feel disempowered and discouraged from reading her post.

 

The attack comes in the private chats I've had with her where I simply state how I feel about her post. That's where she gets personal and defensive, telling me to re-read all these spiritual books we've both read, that I'm just taking things personally, that I'm being a difficult person for being offended by everything she says. Which is rich because I don't get offended by everything she says. We have long winded debates, and when she simply can't make a reasoned argument, I ask for more clairification, and that's when her ego kicks in and acts like I'm this sensitive little boy for getting frustrated with how she brushes off the conversation by telling me to go do my own research---when really I'm just genuinely interested in her input. Well, I've lost that interest because I simply get attacked for lacking knowledge that which I just want her to enlighten me on.

 

The ironic thing about this post is that she posts DAILY quotes from spiritual teachers that talk of gratitude, awareness, and compassion. You wanna talk hypocrisy, Jake? Read the 4th post in this thread. 

 

It makes more sense as you explain it, though, you did not provide anyone with these details and most people on this thread has basically just talked a lot of shit. In any case you have made many assertions about her and her intentions without concrete evidence. Again, she expressed how she felt about the whole things "arrogant", "hippy dippy", etc or not, these are your take-aways. Of course, it makes more sense with background, but in any case, she explained how she felt about the whole thing. Realistically, she simply refused to follow what you were doing and sharing and that upset you. You cannot blame her for that. 

 

I am not sure what you mean by "You wanna talk hypocrisy, Jake? Read the 4th post in this thread." ? Unless.. you are referring to AustinJames; lmfao..?  

 

In any case I am not / was not disagreeing or agreeing with anything, I just think it is important to look at all of this before simply determining someone is passive aggressive, etc. and before referring to someone as "hippy dippie" and other condescending names. 

[MysterionMuffles]

I was referring to my post and how she goes against the values she claims to believe in. I might elaborate in greater detail later.

oops sorry Austin I counted the messages wrong

I meant 7th post! I dunno how I got 4