Honoring Guru-free week
Dear friends
I have just learned of a very significant event this week – Americans Against Self-Help Fraud (AASF) are celebrating Guru-free week. They ask that you: “Go GURU-FREE by NOT listening to gurus and by not reading any more Self-Help books, at least until you have applied what you read in the last one.”
To celebrate this event, the AASF has published the results of their 2010 Scammy Awards. The Awards, based on research and reader surveys, acknowledge the most dishonest self-help and self-healing gurus of 2009-2010.
Why would I tell you about this?
I hope at least one of you is pondering the superficial irony of me – a healing “expert” and blogger telling you to stop listening to Gurus. Why would I do that?
The reason is simple – I am not your, or anyone’s guru. I never will be. And yes I know that all of the frauds also say “I’m not a guru” but they thrive off the attention and love, so let me be clear – I don’t. I am a private guy with a private life who would love nothing more to retire to an island and run an anonymous business. I could make a lot more money doing that (or returning to Law), but I don’t do that because I know I can help lots of people by sharing what I know here on this blog. So the least I can do is help you develop discernment so you don’t make the same mistakes I did.
My journey to “Guru-free”
Without boring you with my spiritual journey, I acknowledge that I have been burned by at least 3 false prophets or gurus in my life, 2 briefly and 1 expensively over a 5 year period. That says a lot more about me than about them. (Yes, I can be a slow learner!) All 3 seemed wise and connected and could tell me “God tells me to tell you…”. All 3 founded their own healing modalities, and at least 1 is internationally famous. All 3 truly believed they were speaking to God, and in good faith I spent thousands of dollars for courses or consultations before I finally realized that NO ONE speaks for God. How can anyone else speak for your essential essence? No one is closer to All That Is than You (it’s an oxymoron – you can’t be disconnected from yourself).
Having spent the last year dealing with very broken and damaged teachers of a healing technique supposedly “given by Creator”, all I can advise you is this: if someone tells you that something must be safe or good or valuable because it comes from God / Spirit / Creator: RUN, as fast as you can! The most disempowering part of the Guru cult is that people turn their rational minds off. They stop thinking about how ridiculous the person’s words are, because, after all, they are connected to upstairs!
So please, join me in celebrating Guru-free week. Please do as Americans Against Self-Help Fraud ask and take at least a few days to find your own wisdom. Read the books you have before buying another. Realize how much practical knowledge you have before you put anyone else on a pedestal. No matter what I, or anyone else tells you; no matter how good the advice sounds, don’t believe anything that doesn’t sound right or logical, and don’t accept that anything or anyone has a higher Truth than You.
If you’ve made it this far through my daily rant, you may also really enjoy reading the AASF’s list of winners of this year’s Scammy Award for the mist disreputable Guru of 2009-2010. The Awards are voted by an AASF survey and cover a range of topics such as “Hypocrite Award”, “Dumb Speak” and “Hoodwinked Award”. For more info see the listings: http://www.selfhelpfraud.com/Incident_Report.html
Yours in Guru-free week!
Simon
PS what has been your experiences with Gurus? Have you been lucky enough to find a real one that wasn’t really in it for the money, fame or adoration? Leave your comments here.
)
Jill 
hi simon,
thank you for posting this. a very interesting topic, i had thought about a lot.
i think there are always two sides to every issue.
on one side, the ‘threads’ of these so called gurus are multiple. the perceived ‘new age junk’ that turns people off and keeps them forever away from healing, the negative image it reflects to all other true seekers and devotees.. plus of course the lifes/lifetimes lost in being ‘lost’ in wrong paradigms..
but i honestly think that each one of them means well, maybe knows about healing and spirituality on an intellectual level, but is not on the consciousness level he/she is talking about? i think that is what is creating real harm.
and how can we say these gurus are better or worse then main world religions? to me at least, they have too many parallels. they give hope, they brainwash, they exclude, they put god outside of you.
i know i am generalizing a lot, but at the end my believe is that they all serve the specific purpose of being a stepping stone to higher awareness. like dr. david hawkins explains it so well with the different levels of consciousness. everybody is at a different level and needs a different entry ticket.
everybody has free will and a god given judgement. if people dont learn and dont make use of it, is it the gurus/religions to be blamed for?
never letting go of your good judgement is a choice, like you did. like i did. like everybody can do.
i think spiritual disappointment is a major traumatic happening in ones life, but then even that serves you as a gateway and you learn from it.
its just my humble opinion. maybe i am wrong
lots of love
pinar
[Reply]
simonrose Reply:
April 7th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
hi Pinar, thanks for visiting my blog.
> but i honestly think that each one of them means well,
I have struggled with this question. Of the three gurus I have had interactions with, I know for sure that one of them means well. Two of them I think meant well at the start but have been so distorted by money and ego that they no longer do.
Case in point – when a follower says to a guru “I think there might be something wrong with what you are teaching, maybe people are getting hurt”, the guru who actually means well will at least say “show me the evidence, let’s talk about it.” The guru who no longer means well will say “if you say anything to anyone I will sue you.” This has been my experience with one guru, as reflected in the Scammy Awards result (which had nothing to do with me by the way, I didn’t even get to vote).
This is more detail and drama than I intended to mention, but worthwhile if it answers your questions.
Good luck with the RPT course in Istanbul, I hope you guys get the numbers, David is a great teacher. (Anyone reading this near Turkey, please contact David via our website for an amazing weekend of grace.)
blessings
Simon
[Reply]