Addressing Unhealthy Escapism In Spirituality

Summary: Below I describe what constitutes as spiritual escapism, briefly using an example in Buddhism to illustrate how its a universal occurrence, although most of this post focuses on solitary spiritual paths. I then outline how the habit of spiritual escapism often leads to psychosis, and conclude by discussing preventative measures spiritual practitioners can consider.

In Buddhism, there is a meditative state one can enter called asaññi-bhava, or non-perception. As described by Thännisaro Bhikku, some people enjoy it for the lack of sensation it offers and much time can pass in what seems to the meditator for a short period. However, it is considered a state of "wrong concentration" and an unsafe one. This is because there is nothing in this state that improves insight or discernment. Without a guru advising self-awareness and moderation, a meditator may confuse asaññi-bhava for a more useful state and spend a large amount of time there, growing attached to dulled senses while in the long term gaining nothing for advancement.

I mention asaññi-bhava because even as I am about to comment mostly on modern and solitary polytheistic pathways, I wanted to highlight that the urge to escape life and using spirituality to do it is a common occurrence across religions. What Bhikku's writing shows is that older, organized religions have considerations and protections in place to ensure their adherents avoid potential harm by going too far into spiritual practice with wrong intention. However, if you are not part of such a tradition nor community, it is important for you to be aware of risks.

"Escapism" as defined by Merriam-Webster is "habitual diversion of the mind to purely imaginative activity or entertainment as an escape from reality or routine." This definition is a broad and neutral one and you probably already know that escapism has its values. However, there are also habitual types of escapism that range from not constructive to destructive to the people who practice them. For instance, escapism can also include the use of substances to the point of a person becoming sick with dependence. Substance abuse disorder, one can say, is a doom loop of escapism. The person becomes so dependent upon the substance providing escape that they begin to behave in ways that sacrifice their wellbeing and those of their loved ones in order to continually reach the escape.

This is also what happens with people who use spirituality as their own personal form of escapism. To be clear, this does not negate the common knowledge that spirituality can be part of a healing process. In fact, many people in substance abuse recovery turn to spirituality partially due to the similar neurological boosts spirituality and substances provide. Spirituality provides values, ritual, and routine that can set foundations to support people in developing life phases that are happier, healthier, and more sustainable.

However... With a lack of other supports, including access to mental healthcare, some people are at risk of even treating spirituality as an escapist outlet rather than a constructive coping mechanism. Organized or cultural religions typically provide their practices as tools toward self-improvement, gaining higher wisdom, and accessing community. In contrast, spiritual pathways such as those had by many solitary polytheists and other spirit workers seen online specifically lack these anchors. When individuals do not self-guide themselves toward such goals and become increasingly immersed in disconnection from consensus reality, things can go quite sour.

From my own personal observations and discussions with other polytheists about cases they have witnessed, it seems a lot of people who are at risk share some key qualities. They tend to be isolated in their practice, they don't show respect for the mundane or material world in comparison to other realms, and they don't establish clear spiritual goals for themselves outside of pleasure-based wish fulfillment. This may look like spending inordinate amounts of time in the astral while exhibiting little connection with their bodies. It could also look like claiming to entirely fill their social needs with spirits, which is not possible*. They may identify entirely by their believed non-earth origins. Instead of accepting that they are embodied and have Earthly lives that require attention, they attempt dissociation at every possible point.

Both the pleasure-seeking and dissociation sets the person up to have poor emotional preparation when something challenging in life inevitably occurs. At first, said challenges may be dismissed as "learning lessons," which is common language in pagan and witchcraft communities, but easily segues into a process called "spiritual bypassing." Spiritual bypassing involves the claim that obstacles are arising because they have a deeper spiritual purpose. This claim quite literally bypasses what is necessary in order to process an experience, which is to first endure it by fully navigating it as it is presently occurring and acknowledging the related feelings and needs surrounding the event. Meaning making, learning lessons, gaining wisdom, all of that is supposed to come after the event has concluded, while spiritual bypassing jumps the gun.

The more practitioners adhere to pleasure-seeking, dissociation, and spiritual bypassing, the worse their circumstances become. As difficulties sourced in the material world go unaddressed or unresolved, these previous escapist habits will deepen in their intensity. Eventually, from what I have observed, what this seems to result in is a loss of spiritual connections and pathways in extremely uncomfortable and sometimes terrifying ways.

Gradually, the person's perspective on their spiritual world becomes unstable and they begin to report spiritual events that seem to correlate to their material-psychological distress. However, they may not make this connection and insist on their experiences that contradict consensus reality, such as a type of spirit showing aggression toward them that is generally held to be unharmful. Because psychosis is defined by a loss of contact with consensus reality as well as the experiencing of delusions, this is when we can say that this person has entered spiritual psychosis.

The significance of this psychosis is further illustrated when, instead of facing the issues in the material world that are growing more significant, the person concentrates on the events happening in their spiritual world to an obsessive degree. Eventually, they may start to experience violent delusions about the spirits with whom they claim mutual love. The supposed homes and worlds that they have created or have been created for them in the astral begin to break down or see dramatically catastrophic ends. Again, because the person has given little to no time to practicing grounding exercises nor coping mechanisms, they are emotionally ill-equipped to handle any of this situation. They often have severe psychological breakdowns and continue obsessing over these spiritual events while ignoring the aggravating factors in the physical world that deeply need addressing. Ultimately, the painful spiritual events keep occurring until the person is terrified away from everything that previously defined their practice.

As spiritual observers ourselves, we can theorize that this is the spiritual doors slamming shut so that the person is forced to work on the damage occurring in their material life and body. However, some people have shared with me cases where the individuals flee back to organized religion. This sometimes happens in inappropriate ways, such as them not completing a conversion for a religion that requires one. I personally see such behavior as continuation of an inability to take self-accountability, which is a core necessity for assessing one's unhealthy habits, including spiritual escapism.

Spirituality does not just involve relief, reassurance, and ways to make an embodied life more bearable. True spiritual paths require some sense of duty, usually to spirits or systems. But there is also a duty to oneself, which should always come first. That is why one way to avoid spiritual escapism is willingness to live without spirituality at all (usually temporarily) if it means self-preservation. As a person whose entire life is predicated on spirituality and has brushed up against spiritual psychosis one or two times myself, what helped me was professional psychological support as well as a determination to return to a state of stability. To me, preventative measures looks like having a human support network, which is largely made up of people who are either less spiritual than I am or have spiritual paths that contain real respect for the material world. It also looks like focusing on self-growth, which includes gaining skills I need to better navigate human systems and tend to my wellbeing, such as budgeting and home maintenance. I don't treat the material world as less important than the spiritual one and in fact hold the basic tenet that the latter must support the former, otherwise it is irrelevant.

It's also important to continuously ask ourselves questions if we are on solitary spiritual pathways. Are you paying lip service to the importance of discernment, or are you actually investing in it? Do you do regular grounding exercises and show care toward your body? If something uncomfortable happens spiritually, are you willing to take the very basic step of putting it all down for awhile? Are you establishing a feeling of positive self-regard or sense of identity outside of what you believe you are spirit-wise? You are, after all, here now. You may have a certain feeling of discomfort in that fact and that's okay. But if you want to truly have a good life, the answer is not in walking away from everything that exists in this realm. It's in digging in, accepting both the good and bad, and coming to your own point of balance.

*Same issue with AI "companions." We need physical touch as humans and we also need to be disagreed with, pushed back on, and forced to change and expand. Spirits can only do some of these things; AI can clearly do none.