Re: Recovering from New Age Mumbo Jumbo

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1) They are more "special" than you. They have more of a connection to higher abilities or god.

2) They put others teachers down. No one is as good as them. They are threatened easily by others.

(Corboy They make jokes at the expense of other teachers and traditions or even insult them.)

3) They seek pity or are a martyr.

(Corboy: When ill, this type often guilt trips disciples into becoming enablers. If scandal hits the teacher and community, often the teacher gets sick or goes on a retreat. Illnesses are blamed on disciple's negative energies or doubts. You may be ejected from the community or sent into disgrace because your negative energy wounded the teacher's aura - this is just a re-enactment of the alcoholic family.)

4) Weirdly protective inner circle.

(Corboy: big tip-off. Never, ever ignore this.)

5) They teach mainly from an intellect as opposed to the heart or spirit. They are cur off from their emotional body.

Gigi noted: I was a little concerned with the number of people who wrote off the possibility that a person they consider to be "spiritual" could be an abusive narcissist. "How can my husband be a narcissist when he watches Bashar and quotes Tolle?"

Let me be clear here.

The spiritual world is a perfect place for a narcissist. There are even spiritual teachers who teach from a place of needing adoration and energetic supply as opposed to genuinely wanting to uplift others. Individuals can logically understand universal law, recite it, and never truly integrate it - Or live it. Metaphysical information can be spoken from the intellect, or pure mind, with no true connection to the heart, higher self, or spirit.

It is more than OK to detach from anyone who you feel may be damaging for as long as you need to feel balanced.

Anyone genuinely concerned about your well being will let that happen

** Add Ons!**

6) Overtly sexual- sexual energy is magnetic and people with NPD will use it as an easy way to gain attention and energy.

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For a narcissist, the spiritual community is the perfect place. It’s the perfect place to angle yourself to be. Why? Because of all the narcissistic supply that you can have.”

“So, just because someone is able to talk about the eleventh dimensions of time and space, or of how to heal your heart, or spirit guides, or whatever spiritual concept it is, doesn’t mean that they’re actually spiritually connected at all.”

“The first [quality] is that they are special, and have more abilities than you. Or, they have more direct access to Source.”

(Corboy: pay attention to this. The Specialness Disease. Terminal Uniqueness. A narcissistic therapist may trick us to believe that he or she is special, has something that all other therapists do not have. You are made to feel lucky, saved, rescued because you were referred to this special therapist just in time. If become convinced this person is your only option, you feel afraid to entertain doubts, feel afraid to trust your own misgivings. Worse, you put up with BS you'd never tolerate from anyone else and you self respect gradually bleeds away.)

“If you feel like someone is a narcissistic person leading a cult or trying to form that, trying to form a very distinct spiritual circle for their own narcissistic supply, they will give you information and insight but there will be an air of being different or special. There will be something special about them that no one else can really do or can offer you. Even if they say that they’re all one, and that you can rise to be anything that you want and that you are free, there will always be an undertone no matter how subtle it is, that they have more access to spirit than you, or they were simply born different, and oftentimes they have a very direct mission that they have to do because they’re special. Because they’re born with this. And this is where you sense a narcissistic ego right there. It’s right there.”

(Corboy--Hear, hear - this is it. Don't be fooled by self deprecating mannerisms or laughter. And...pay attention and see if disciples feel oh so special for having found this teacher or therapist or leader. Feel oh so special because
they attribute all sorts of special qualities to the teacher when outsiders
are bored, or see the teacher as arrogant or downright creepy. )

“They have to be the best. They have to be the one who has supreme knowledge. They will also accuse other people of copying them; they will think that somebody else who is talking about spirituality is copying them. Because again they have to be supreme and anybody who is talking about spirituality 'must be copying my work or me'. Which is ironic because actually many spiritual teachers who have NPD don’t use their own original material; much of the processes they use and material they use are actually taken from ancient religions, or other teachers, or other texts. So there is that mirroring again where they themselves don’t have that access to spirit to necessarily have their own perspective on things, so they take it from someone else and they assume that everybody else is copying.”

“A narcissistic person will seek pity. And this is odd. As we think people with NPD are full of ego and would be beyond pity and pity would be embarrassing. But this is actually a very clever defense mechanism…Being a wounded baby bird allows you to not take responsibility for your actions…It keeps their inner circle and followers highly protective of them.”