I want to ask one question btw and I hope it is not so... Is this forum for looking for the frauds, or is this for dissing all the spirituality? I read some topics and at some topics it seems that if someone says that he/she believes in something, what ever it is, he/she will be blamed for being gullible.
In terms of our spiritual beliefs and practices, we have a wide range among the members of this forum. Most people here have never discussed their personal beliefs and practices, as they see it as a private matter, not something to display on the Internet. One way you can know you are among frauds on the Internet is if they go on and on about their great powers and fantastic experiences.* Most people who are sincerely involved in spiritual practice, in a good way, are humble. And those who live among other people of their faith and traditions do not need to seek for community or teachers on the Internet or in weekend workshops.
Those who come to this forum from fraud-infested sites may perceive some of us as not spiritual. In reality, I think the truth is very different.
We have people here who are deeply involved in the ceremonial ways of their communities, on a daily, lifelong basis. We have others who only attend the major ceremonies or services of their faith. We also have agnostics and skeptics. But what we have in common is that we are against pay-to-pray, and we are against the objectification and commodification of people and their traditions. From what I've seen even the agnostics here respect the right of traditional people to hold their ceremonies without interference from outsiders, and even those who are skeptical about some spiritual matters are committed to respecting the elders and protecting spiritual people from exploitation.
For many of us, protecting traditional cultures, and other activism, is a part of our spiritual path.
Even if it was a "salespeech" there were enough good in that for people to buy it.
I agree that people gravitate towards what sounds good to them, and in a disconnected way these things may make them feel good and lead them to make some positive changes in their lives. Where I disagree is that nice-sounding words can be taken out of context of what the exploiter is doing to people. If the exploiter lures the people into a scam with nice-sounding words... better the exploiter had kept their mouth shut in the first place.
*There are some exceptions to this. I've seen some young people from traditional communities post in public fora about ceremonies they've been to... but then usually an elder will give them a talking-to about it and they'll stop. It's happened here before, and excessive detail about ceremony has been edited out, so as not to give food to the frauds.
But not everyone draws the line in the same place. Sometimes traditional people will decide to go into
some detail about ceremony, such as after the James Ray deathlodge, to educate people about wrongs that are being done. But there is a difference between an elder choosing to educate the public (to save lives) and a younger person (or misinformed person) going on and on in public about matters that are sacred and private.
For me personally, when I was younger I was far more open about my spiritual practice. And like many young people I was also pretty arrogant and ignorant. I did some stupid things. I made a lot of mistakes. Coming from a revived, non-NDN tradition, my Gaelic colleagues and I have at times made the decision to share the basic material more openly, in an effort to give nons who are not living in a community that has these ways a way to connect with the earth and the traditions of our ancestors. We also have done this to provide nons with an alternative to ripping off NDNs. But I see a difference between sharing basic Gaelic material (much of which was written down hundreds of years ago) and sharing details of private traditions. But that may be a tangent of the tangent, as currently, for the most part, the Gaelic polytheists are dealing with different circumstances than traditional NDN communities are facing. There are significant overlaps in our issues, but as most Gaelic people have white skin privilege and are no longer oppressed the way we were generations ago (back when the Irish were not considered "white"), there are also large differences in the relative immediacy and severity of what we are dealing with.
