The Spiritualization of Greed

by Stephanie Brail

A disturbing trend has emerged in the human potential movement in recent years. It is the trend towards making financial wealth the be-all and end-all of personal growth.

The trend isn't entirely new; Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich was published way back in 1937. And yet, such books from the past seemed to be specific to the goal of becoming successful. They did not necessarily posit this goal as the ultimate meaning of life. Many of the earliest leaders in the success field were deeply religious, spiritual men who held their relationship with God above all else.

Consider, also, that in the early 1900s we were still a young nation that was in the process of building wealth. Thus, encouraging young men to go out and make themselves successful was not even so much about having the biggest and best toys, but what mark you could make upon the world of industry.

Since then, however, the human potential movement has gotten sidetracked by greed and materialism, and has sadly been confusing this with spirituality.

Love, Spiritual Growth and Character
It wasn't always like this. In the 1960s, we had the peace movement, with an emphasis on "free love" and exploring the new-found spirituality from the East. Popular self-help gurus that emerged in the 1970s included Leo Buscaglia and M. Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Traveled.

These teachers did not talk about money. Buscaglia's mission was to spread love throughout the world. Peck's message was that we were here to overcome difficulties as a way of spiritually evolving. The human potential movement seemed to be about love and spiritual growth, not bigger cars or mansions.

When the 1980s hit, however, a wave of greed overtook America, partly as a backlash to the hippie 60s. Robin Leach's "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" became a top syndicated show, and in the movie Wall Street we were told "Greed is good."

As America turned more and more towards instant gratification instead of core values, the human potential movement seemed to follow. Not everyone followed the lure of riches: Stephen Covey emerged in the 1990s as a tough-talking but grounded leader who told us in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People that character was important.

Unfortunately, the self-help focus on character has been short-lived. What has emerged instead is a pseudo-spirituality based on narcissism, instant gratification, and materialism.

The New Age's Descent Into Materialism
The Secret did not invent the notion that "if you think rich thoughts you'll become rich," but it certainly has capitalized on the current mood of the self-help crowd.

When you watch The Secret, what you'll see is a film almost entirely focused on materialistic goals. A man visualizing a luxury car. A woman desiring a pearl necklace. A boy focusing on a new bike.

Sure, there's a man who wants to get a girlfriend, but even that could be considered an appendage - a trophy, not necessarily a relationship.

What is going on here? Since when did spirituality become materialism?

I'm not sure if I can pinpoint the exact tipping point for this. But I can highlight a few of the "memes" contributing to this disturbing trend.

1. The idea that we create our reality with our thoughts or emotions. It can certainly be empowering to consider that we create our reality with our thoughts. And there is certainly a partial truth in this. Taken as 100% truth, however, this idea becomes a recipe for apathy and greed.

Under this idea, a little girl who has been the victim of a war "attracted" the war to herself with her negative thinking. This idea also justifies wage disparities and an environment where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. After all, the poor just "created" their poverty. The rich got there from their positive thinking (and never because of accident of birth, luck, greed, a rigged financial system, or even hard work).

2. Poverty is not spiritual, therefore riches must be spiritual. Because for many years, poverty was "spiritualized," some folks backlashed and decided they had enough of being poor in the name of God. Rather than come to some middle ground, they flipped the equation and decided that if poverty was not spiritual, materialism had to be.

Flip-flopping to an opposite extreme out of reaction is rarely healthy. Furthermore, this sort of black and white thinking leads to faulty reasoning. No, poverty is not more spiritual, but neither is excessive wealth.

3. If you are not rich, it's because you feel you do not deserve it. This is such an easy thing to say because it's impossible to prove either way. If someone tells you some nonsense such as, "You don't have more because you don't have enough 'havingness' in your being," it's hard to counter. You can respond by saying "Actually, I feel perfectly fine about myself," but they'll respond, "You just can't see it, but the lack of self-love is there in there somewhere." And on and on. This can lead to an endless circular discussion that goes nowhere.

It's hard to explain to some people that money isn't the prime motivator for a large number of people. For many folks, love, service, and spirituality is more important. But those blinded by materialism have a hard time seeing and understanding this.

4. If you are not rich, it's because you have a problem with rich people. (Conversely: Don't criticize rich people because you'll block your own ability to attract money.) This is a brilliant line of mis-logic. Basically, if you criticize rich people in any way, you are responsible for you own lack of riches. This is convenient. It means rich people become beyond reproach. It means you'll never stop to question your wealth guru and ask for an accounting of all that money he takes in. You'll never stop to question why a CEO should get a bonus of $10 million dollars while laying off half the workforce.

There's a problem with this one, though. It does not explain why there are some rich people who criticize other rich people for their greed. Never mind the fact that there are definitely some rich people who deserve our criticism. (White collar criminals, for example.)

5. The universe is infinitely abundant, therefore the rich are not taking from the poor. (There's more than enough to go around.) Actually, this is a major fallacy. Many of the rich are precisely that way because they took from the poor (or at least, their forefathers did). Many are rich because, in the least, they aren't sharing their wealth.

A CEO who makes $20 million a year and then lays off 10,000 workers in the interests of "saving money" for the company is a good example of someone who is hoarding money for himself. How many millions does a person need before it's enough? If the CEO was feeling truly abundant, wouldn't he be more generous and give up a little bit of his multi-million dollar salary to keep jobs for the regular, hard-working people who have given so much to his company?

The fact is, while the universe may be spiritually abundant, the physical world is not. We have a finite number of resources. We have a finite number of dollars. And what happens is that people try to grab their share of the finite resources, and they don't want to give any of it to others. If we truly lived in an infinitely abundant world, then everyone would have a million dollars and a huge mansion. But we don't. Because it's not.

(Never mind the fact that environmentally speaking our planet simply could not sustain an American upscale lifestyle for every single person on the planet. It is physically impossible with our current technology, food needs, and available land.)

A Better Spirituality
I am suggesting, therefore, that it's time for us to change course in the human potential movement. Enough is enough. I'm tired of greedy people putting on wealth seminars promising riches to people, when it's really more about making money for the seminar leader.

I suggest the following:

1. A reasonable expectation of moderate affluence for everyone that means their basic needs are met for food, clothing and shelter, with money left over for education, inspiration, and vacation.

2. A recognition of the fact that simple living is often a higher, more noble pursuit than obscene wealth. No-one needs to have a 12 bedroom mansion with 7 bathrooms, unless they happen to have a very large family living with them. Smaller homes are not only easier to maintain, they are more ecologically sound and harm the environment less.

3. A change in values, where we do not worship people just because they have lots of money or fame. Rather, let's honor people who are making a difference in the world.

4. Let's put people above profits. The mandate of corporations needs to change from profits above all else to people above all else.

Really, are these things so hard to get?

For the life of me, I have no idea how some people sleep at night, knowing they made their money off the backs of children in foreign sweatshops. Does a Porsche really make up for destroying lives as well as the planet? The rationalizations that have to go on in the minds of these people must be astonishing.

Finally, the human potential movement must step back from the greed that has overtaken it. Consider that some people who go into the self-help business may just be in it for the fame and fortune. These may not be the best people to be getting your spiritual teachings from.

If your spiritual teacher is just going on about how to create material wealth like they did, it's probably time to get a new spiritual teacher. One of the things you get from a deep spirituality is being in a space of love and joy regardless of your outer circumstances. Anyone who outwardly brags about their money or material objects obviously did not learn this important lesson. To me, that's someone who is busy trying to fill an inner hole. They are trying to fill it with money. Do they have something to teach me? Perhaps, but it's hardly the lesson they thought they were giving.