New Age Spiritual Tools

Use and Misuse of Spiritual Tools. It is obvious that physical tools (like a hammer) may be used constructively (to build a home) or misused (to cause great bodily harm). It is not so evident that every spiritual tool can also be misused. Such misuse is epidemic, yet most neither recognize nor acknowledge even the possibility. A list of misused spiritual tools would include all the New Age favorites: meditation, prayer, ritual, ceremony, books, sacred objects, drumming, chanting, dancing, astrology and ecstatic trances.

One important key to determining tool misuse is motivation. If the intent for use of a tool is to acquire information, healing or guidance from the spirit realms, then that is a positive sign that often indicates quality use. Those specific conscious motivations are not enough, however, to guarantee quality; for there can be underlying unhealthy motivations which will destroy the quality of tool use. Such hidden motivations might include a desire to feel good, a wish to avoid psychological pain/hurt, a desire to please or a spiritual performance (i.e., look at how spiritual I am). These hidden motivators come from our adaptive personalities and sabotage the quality of our tool use. Such hidden motivators are all fear-based and prevent high quality alignment with our loving souls.

Some tools are less likely than others to be abused. The books and systems I recommend studying in Chapter 16 are those I consider least likely to be misused. In this chapter, I shall offer my suggestions for specific tools/actions for maximum benefit and to avoid misuse.