The Shadow of Spirituality UNCENSORED: Straight Talk on How Spirituality Can Harm You & How to Heal Those Wounds

Have you been disillusioned, disappointed, or downright abused by a spiritual teacher, therapist, shaman, healer, or guru?

Are you afraid of asking for what you need or expressing when you’re triggered because people will think you’re not “spiritual” enough?

Do you ever feel dismissed, hurt, blindsided, or bullied by your “spiritual” friends when you’re hurting
and just need comfort, reassurance, and simple human kindness?

Are you using your spiritual practices to bypass the unavoidable pain of being human?

These are the kinds of questions we’ll be exploring together in our 3-1/2-hours Flash Class—The Shadow of Spirituality UNCENSORED: Straight Talk on How Spirituality Can Harm You & How to Heal Those Wounds

This prerecorded virtual workshop will explore 10 popular spiritual teachings that may be harming you—and invite you to consider 10 healthier alternatives.

We’ll inquire about:

Why the “law of attraction” isn’t a law and the shadow side of trying to “manifest” everything you desire.
Premature forgiveness and how it isolates you from the heart anger that sets and enforces clear boundaries, leaving you vulnerable to the kind of abuse and neglect that traumatize the heart.
Mariana Caplan’s “10 STDs”—the 10 Spiritually Transmitted Diseases. (Beware of the deadly “I have arrived” virus!)
How discernment is different than judgment and why it’s essential that you don’t give your power away or project perfection onto any spiritual leader .
How intuition, synchronicity, and discernment can help you make aligned, healthy, mature choices based on spiritual guidance.
How to assess whether spiritual guidance is real or just your ego wearing spiritual robes.
How people use their spirituality as a “spiritual bypass” and how doing so cuts you off from intimacy and joy and impedes healing.
How to glean the gems from spiritual teachings without incurring the trauma that results when they’re misused.

$19.95

This class is for you if:

You’ve been hurt by “spiritual” people who seem to have lost touch with the loving kindness that should be at the heart of spirituality
You’re afraid of asking for what you need or expressing when you’re triggered because you’ve been taught that spiritual people don’t get triggered or have needs
You’ve been harmed by a spiritual leader, guru, therapist, or self-help teacher who you thought you could trust
You realize you need help beefing up your discernment so you can protect yourself from the hidden pitfalls that litter the spiritual path for those who are naïve and vulnerable to others who abuse their power or have lost touch with their heart
You’ve become aware that you’re guilty of the understandable tendency towards “spiritual bypassing,” and you want to learn how to glean the gems from spiritual teachings without using it as yet another crutch to avoid feeling painful human emotions

The spiritual path is no joke, and if you’re not aware of the landmines, it’s easy to feel blindsided. This class is intended to hone your discernment, sharpen your awareness, help us all laugh at ourselves, grow our compassion for those who harm us inadvertently, and protect your all-powerful, wide open, ever-loving, vulnerable heart so you can grow even more deeply in love with the Divine in all forms.

Why Lissa Feels Called to Teach This Class

Like so many who suffer from “post-traumatic church syndrome” but yearn for a deeper spiritual connection, Lissa headed gung ho into spiritual circles with a naïve, child-like curiosity that made her open to quick, deep growth, new teachings, illuminated ideas and practices, and many wonderful people. However, she also got easily seduced by the allure of spirituality outside the church, temple, or mosque and lacked maturity and discernment, which made her vulnerable to many ways in which spirituality can be abused. As she learned to be a conscious disciple and stop giving her power away to spiritual teachers and group dynamics that foster a spiritualized peer pressure, she became an avid student of the shadow of spirituality, not just as a way to protect herself from abuse, but also as a way to protect those she serves from the ways she might be vulnerable to unintentionally harming those she serves. As so often happens with difficult life lessons, she is grateful for the teachings from those who helped her learn discernment, even as she felt betrayed by the violation of their trust, the painful consequences of their unintegrated wisdom, and the challenges that arose from imbalanced teachings from people with genuine spiritual insight and real spiritual power but without healthy psychological development or spiritual ethic around the illumined use of spiritual power. She feels a passionate calling to help other spiritual seekers learn to take responsibility for their own part in spiritual growth so we can ferret out the beauty of the teachings without making ourselves unnecessarily vulnerable to the potential abuses, insensitivity, and lack of heart that can litter the spiritual path. By continually coming back to the heart of compassion, wholeness, and trust in your own Divinity, you can open yourself more and more deeply to direct connection to Source, participate in spiritual community, learn from spiritual teachers and other seekers, listen to Divine guidance, and allow your own heart to burst open in the sacredness of your inner sanctum.

Lissa Rankin

Lissa Rankin, MD, New York Times bestselling author of Mind Over Medicine, The Fear Cure, and The Anatomy of a Calling is a physician, speaker, founder of the Whole Health Medicine Institute, and mystic. Passionate about what makes people optimally healthy and what predisposes them to illness, she is on a mission to merge science and spirituality in a way that not only facilitates the health of the individual, but also uplifts the health of the collective. Bridging between seemingly disparate worlds, Lissa is a connector, collaborator, curator, and amplifier, broadcasting not only her unique visionary ideas, but also those of cutting edge visionaries she discerns and trusts, especially in the field of her latest research into “Sacred Medicine.” Lissa has starred in two National Public Television specials and also leads workshops, both online and at retreat centers like Esalen and Kripalu. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her daughter. She blogs at LissaRankin.com and posts regularly on Facebook.