Spiritual Appropriation

In the 1960’s and the 1970’s, the New Age movement became a huge and more mainstream lifestyle. During that time and even now currently, Religion and Spirituality create a social divide with both sides following completely different “guidelines” to living life. Over the years, you can see how big being spiritual became a popular topic and/or aspect to many. Especially with the rise of social media, you can see plenty of pages, groups, people and others promoting spirituality and tangible items that relate to it. An important question can be asked: When do we, as citizens in Western Civilization, cross the line into stealing from Eastern Culture, where Spirituality originated from. It seems to be thin. Since many Spiritual practices like meditating, using sage, crystals, etc all stem from Eastern Civilization and got adopted here in the U.S. sparks interesting debate. Of course, Spirituality doesn’t always have to mean participating in those practices. The main takeaway is how you see yourself as a person in this world, as well as, being in tune with yourself and your intuition. But when you go on social media (particularly Instagram) you can see how certain pages try to sell spirituality and use it as a gain for profit and/or more followers. Typically you can stumble across pages selling Spiritual items that claim to do a million and one things that improve your health either physically or mentally. In my opinion, that is when the appropriation line is crossed because of trying to profit off a culture. What starts the fire is when people catch on to those pages because they sell crystals or stones that are fake and have all those claims that aren’t scientifically proven. Others that teach you how to meditate, do yoga or other practices can be seen as beneficial but does that also cross the line? That is completely up to the consumer and how they see it. A lot of them call out the fact that those pages are using Eastern culture as a cash grab. Some also respond positively to those posts, which brings many different emotional ties to this topic. Profiting off a culture that you are not whatsoever affiliated with raises the concerns about appropriation. Otherwise, Spirituality should be seen as our own individualistic journeys that we have to figure out, embracing self love and staying grounded. Not something that can be sold to us and that’s when I believe the line isn’t crossed.