A Self-Test for Spiritual Bypassing

One of our callers had a question about spiritual bypassing — how to notice when we are doing, and what to do about it when we find ourselves heading in that direction.

Here’s a little test I came up with for myself when I was traveling the waters of “imaginal spirituality” in my twenties, and trying to find the other shore. Because I also remember feeling like I was privy to some sort of “superknowledge” that somehow set me apart from most other people, because I could see something that they couldn’t see. And I really liked that feeling. But it didn’t take me long to figure out that I was headed down some fairly dark alleys.

So, in order to pull myself back out, I simply started asking myself: “Does my ‘spiritual knowledge’ make me feel MORE special, or LESS special?”

If I answered the first way, I knew I was doing something wrong.

And if I was doing something wrong, I would then break it down into a number of other questions:

• Am I using my spirituality as a way to create meaning, comfort, or importance for a separate self that feels lost without it?
• Am I using it to try to impress people so they think I am smart/wise/woke?
• Am I using it to get laid? Is there some unconscious sexual self-selection going on here?
• Am I using it to prevent people from seeing my faults, failings, and insecurities?
• Am I using it as a way to insulate myself from the cruel physics of the “real world”?
• Am I using it as a way to meet my own needs around belonging and self-esteem?
• Am I using it as a way to elevate myself above people who don’t see the world the same way I do?
• Am I using it as a way to feel like I belong to some esoteric elite, as opposed to all the rest of the sheeple?
• Am I thinking about effortless awareness, or am I actually relaxing into it?

I have absolutely answered “yes” to every single one of these at one point or another. I still do at times. And simply acknowledging and owning that “yes” — making that subject into object, shining some a bit more light on the shadow, bringing just a little bit more embodied awareness — helped me discover the next phase of my own spiritual life, where the imaginal occupied a far less important space in my consciousness and was replaced instead by an appeal for ordinary “quiet” awakening, selfless service, and getting back to the marketplace where I can hopefully make some sort of impact. I don’t go around looking for spiritual fireworks any more — give me that good old fashioned “simple feeling of being” any day!
Just some cairns from my own personal path, for whatever its worth.