Spiraling Spirituality and Consumerism

The world is one big circle, or, perhaps, spiral.

While Westerners flock to the Far East in search of spirituality, the Far East flocks to western science and consumerism. An Indian friend of mine is looking into coming to the USA to study at a Vedic university because there are none in India. Indian college students are immersed in science of the western world and discounting their own millennial old sciences.

It's ironic that tourists searching for spirituality in India are bombarded by money-grubbing touts. I didn't understand why people even went to India for spiritual reasons until this last trip. Yet there are still remnants there of reverence for the mystical. There are still guru's and mystics whose energy is palpable. A yogi in Rishikesh had visiting hours were people could sit outside his room and feel his energy! It was palpable. As strong as the Boddhi Tree! Ironically, most of the visitors were westerners.

In the USA, I don't believe I've ever run across such popular mystics. People maybe go to church. Occasionally you hear of a "healer" in the community with special healing powers. Science and the church long ago usurped the power of having one's own spiritual experiences. Funny, because slowly science is finding ways to measure subtle energies like Reiki. Because they couldn't measure it or explain it, such subtle energies were discounted as myth. And as Quantum Science becomes integrated into Newtonian Physics, Science is slowly coming full circle to what such ancient sciences as the Vedas have know for years. The American populace is leading the way in search of ways to find peace and God in their materialistic, hedonistic lives.

And, the spiritual/mystical movement is growing in the USA with such things as Reiki and Shamanic healing practitioners. There is a "new age" of rediscovering the ancient mystical traditions and incorporating them into our modern lives.

Meanwhile, once mystical cultures of the East are running from their traditions, chasing money and consumerism. They are on one side of the circle, and we on another in the ebb and flow of life.

The other day, I realized that this is happening on other levels. The masses of America flock to Target and Walmart for cheap Chinese jeans or the equivalent... why go to The Gap or Levi's when you can get cheap cheap cheap jeans! Meanwhile, in places like India and Thailand, people seek the name brands for quality!

It's a funny and interesting world!