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Religion is great for the greedy lazy narcissist, because it is the one thing which justifies anything you want; even the narcissistic love of empty prestige, and no need for any evidence, qualifications, research, effort or proof. Anyone can claim that a holy book, a tradition, an artistic movement, a spiritual awakening, a prophecy, a vision, the supernatural, or imagined gods, support their claim to be a special person and have access to special truth. Who can prove you wrong ? Religion offers lots of props to otherwise unjustifiable claims, by far the best tool for the dishonest, lazy, greedy and self-important.

But some of the selfish narcissists noticed that, not all the props are as strong as others. Imagined humanistic gods especially, do not seem to convince like they once did, and of all the props religion offers to the fake, they seem to be the easiest to undermine. With a lot of people not even willing to accept the idea of them any longer. It seemed like hard work, to have to justify and support claims for one of the props, that you were hoping would really be supporting your fake claims.

But of course the answer was obvious. Just throw out the one weak shaky prop, and the rest will stand up much better. After all nobody ever got a message from imagined gods telling them anything important. And the really great bonus about doing without the gods was, the narcissist could then make the claim that they threw out the humanistic gods, as the result of a deep meaningful insight into the nature of the universe, even more prestige. ( It is not a deep insight, it is just a cheap shallow con-trick. ) You could also claim that by doing so, you had also got rid of religion's evil side. ( You must be a good person therefore. ) It does not of course get rid of anything, least of all the evil, because of course the none existent god is not a source of anything.

And so the so called "New Age Religion", was born. Still with all the props for the unsupportable, and all the fake authority which comes from the so called spiritual and supernatural, to delight the most egotistical of frauds, but no challenge to their fraud, which could come from trying to prove they share a bed with a god at night.

A giant leap forward for fraud and narcissism.

( I don't like New Age, if you had not guessed yet. Please tell me about my failings.)

Fernapple 9 Nov 7
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5 comments

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1

I must admit I have not spent much brainpower sorting out the failings of new age religion. Yanni music, people fawning over crystals, and pop guris styling themselves as eastern mystics while speaking in riddles to avoid any scrutiny against their actual lack of profundity was all enough to convince me early on to steer clear.

You are obviously a strong person to survive the encounter. I just picked out one small feature that they all have in common, from a safe distance, addressing the whole mess is just too much.

@Fernapple wise of you!

1

Agree with your assessment, though I had never thought to articulate it in such a way.

Surrounded by New Age nuts in my community, I have found they seem to demand some sort of elevated respect for believing trees talk to them, or that the universe has found them a parking spot. Calling some inanimate objects sacred is unquestioned, simply because they say they are and it's an insult to them for me to be skeptical about it.

Really hard to reason with them as they claim to be in a different dimension that an unenlightened person like me could never understand. They have left "organized religion" for this new age nonsense where they can claim anything they like, and be the leader of their own group of followers too.

I know people who make their living off of gullible people who believe the "spirit guide" knows something far above anything found with education about the natural world and human tendencies.

I just keep my distance and my mouth shut. When asked to participate, I remind them I live in reality where there are natural consequences for actions, not magical responses to magical thinking.

I like your term "empty prestige" and thinking that perhaps they are just regular people with low self esteem, maybe insecure in some ways, wanting the attention of inflated artificial esteem and praise for being some super human whisperer of the spirit.

Yours is a very good assessment, and based in first hand experience which is useful. Thank you.

1

As usual your opinions seem to make a lot of sense. Since I am not at all familiar with new age spiritualism, I cannot really say I agree with you. I definitely agree with your assessment of religions led by humanistic God.

2

Narcissists seem to come in two varieties: those who choose to let their egos run wild, and those who are actually mentally ill. Not that it matters much. One thing I've noticed is that the psychotic narcissist's behaviors are more consistent. Which makes them more predictable.

2

No failures. Your entitled to speak your mind as you see fit. Sure there will be disagreements here and there, depending on ones viewpoint.

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