The Spiritual Celebrity Trap

It's lonely at the top - especially for spiritual "leaders"

I wrote recently about how spiritual teachers need teachers—that the old model of ongoing mentorship, sādhana, and spiritual supervision has quietly collapsed, and many of us are now doing sacred work in isolation.

Since writing that piece, I’ve been sitting with something deeper.

What happens when someone not only teaches in isolation, but becomes famous or “successful”, or wealthy doing the work?

What happens when someone starts doing heart/soul/mind/life work for thousands of people—through their voice, their nervous system, their body—without the right training, protection, or integration?

The answer is what I’m seeing all too often: They burn out. They get sick. They lose their center.
They become shiny and charismatic on stage, but anxious, addicted, or depressed off-camera.
And often, they have no idea why.

It’s similar to the thing that happens with famous artists/actors/authors, but more insidious in a way.

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The Secret Side Effects of Success

Spiritual work is subtle. Even in its most modern, mainstream forms—meditation, breathwork, coaching, trauma healing—we’re working with life force. We’re touching deep grooves in people’s psyches. We’re sitting with people’s karma. We’re stirring the winds of change in people’s bodies and hearts.

Those energies have to go somewhere.
And more often than not, they move through the teacher.

If a person is teaching or leading groups—even gently, even mindfully—they are opening themselves to tremendous energetic and emotional currents. That’s true whether they have 20 people in a Zoom room or 2 million followers on social media.

Now add to that the heat of fame, the power of projection, the karmic load of influence, and the addictive cocktail of success and attention and money… and you start to see why so many brilliant, sincere teachers eventually crash.

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The Energetics of Celebrity

Here’s something I’ve learned from watching public figures—musicians, actors, and now spiritual celebrities:

When you become famous, you stop being a person to the world.
You become a symbol. An avatar. A magnet for people’s hopes, needs, fantasies, and projections.

You may still be a human to a handful of friends and your family, but to the throngs of people you’re connecting with through media, you’re kind of like a god or a goddess.

And if you don’t have the inner architecture to metabolize all that psychic weight, it crushes you. It distorts your perception of reality. It isolates you. It takes a serious toll your nervous system. It’s not the same as just “being busy’. That energetic connection with people is a different kind of labor. And those of us with recorded material out there, it happens 24 hours a day—even while we sleep.

We’ve seen it in artists, actors, and musicians for decades:

• The burnout.

• The addiction.

• The “taking time out” that’s actually a breakdown or trip to rehab.

• The sudden deaths that everyone saw coming but no one stopped.

Now we’re seeing the same pattern with spiritual teachers authors and influencers. Only this time, the projections are wrapped in reverence. The business is mistaken for service.

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When the Cover-Up Is Spiritual

In the world of celebrity, the cracks are hidden under PR, image management, cosmetic surgery, and press cycles.

In the world of spiritual celebrity, the cracks are hidden under language about love and presence and light. On line or in social media, we keep smiling, we need to sell the next retreat, the next book, the next program. There’s no time to break down. We’re selling healing, but weirdly, we can’t show OUR need to heal.

The masks we use don’t just hide the wounds—they spiritualizes them.
The performance becomes the proof.
The facade becomes the transmission.

And when that happens, not only does the teacher suffer…
the teaching itself becomes distorted. The tradition itself becomes weakened.

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Horizontal Reach Without Vertical Depth

Here’s one way I think about it:

Most spiritual teachers these days are actually entrepreneurs, so they need to build their horizontal reach—their platform, their numbers, their income, their audience. That’s not wrong. In fact, in many cases it’s needed. But its CONSUMING. And this labor is also rewarded.

Because it’s so consuming, few among us are simultaneously growing our vertical depth—our connection to Spirit, our inner integration, our rootedness in the power of what we’re teaching.

And when our horizontal reach outpaces our vertical depth, we will fall.
It’s just a matter of time.

It’s not always a big crash. Sometimes it’s slow creep into illness or delusion. Before we know it, we’ve stopped being a teacher or healer, now we’re just a spokesperson, a business person.

I’ve been there.

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Spiritual Work Was Never Meant to Be Done Alone

Traditionally, junior teachers came up under senior teachers.
There were elders. Lineages. Tests. Time.

You didn’t just start leading groups after a weekend training. You practiced for years. You were watched. Held. Corrected. You didn’t even think about “holding space” for others until you had learned how to hold your own center no matter what.

The idea of “having a brand” was not a thing. Now it is often the main thing.

Also, when you started teaching, you didn’t do it alone.
You were surrounded by other practitioners.
You checked in. You received healing. You were seen.

Now?
We have coaches with no teachers. Influencers with no mentors. “Spiritual leaders” with no spiritual practices.
People working with trauma who have never cleaned out their own basement.
People leading breathwork who are addicted to cigarettes and ketamine.
People teaching meditation who haven’t sat still in months.

And perhaps most heartbreakingly: we have people with huge followings and beautiful messages who are completely alone.

But the numbers look good. And they’ve got bills to pay. And who could say no to a book deal or a sponsorship or gig with another celebrity?

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Let’s Name the Cost

This is not about shaming anyone.
This is about naming what I see and what I’ve experienced to a limited extent in my own career.

The cost is:

• Teachers in chronic anxiety, depression, illness, or confusion

• Clients who feel something’s “off” but can’t put their finger on it

• Teachings that sound powerful or attractive, but lack energetic transmission

• Communities built around personas instead of actual practical wisdom and awakened living

• Burnout, depression, disillusionment, addiction, and worse

This work has always been dangerous to the ego.
But without protection and support, it can also be dangerous to the body and the mind and to the traditions we learned from in the first place.

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I Am Here for This

I would love to help teachers with this. Quietly. Behind the scenes.
Not as a brand consultant. Not as a hype man.
But as a spiritual teacher’s teacher.

I’ve been walking this path (very imperfectly) for three decades.
I’ve helped people through ego death, kundalinī awakenings, dark nights, illness, burnout, and many other hidden initiations that come with real spiritual exposure. I’ve done this for artists in the public eye and spiritual teachers and authors too.

What I offer is simple:
A healing container to go where you don’t have to perform.
A relationship that doesn’t depend on your popularity.
A space where the vertical can grow again.

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This Should Be a Thing

I want it to become normal—expected, even—that when a person starts holding spiritual space for others, especially at scale, they have elders behind them.
Someone to turn to when the currents get strong.
Someone who can spot the spiritual infections that don’t show up on a lab report.
Someone who doesn’t want anything from them, but wants everything for them.

Let me be your bullshit insurance.

Let me be someone you can laugh with and let down your mask with.

Because this work isn’t just about staying on stage.
It’s about staying whole. Staying real. Staying free.

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An Invitation

If you’re teaching, influencing, leading, healing—especially if you’re doing it alone—I’d love to hear from you.

If you’re someone who’s “made it” but feel more lost than ever…
If you’re afraid you’re on the edge of burnout…
If you’ve built something outwardly beautiful but inwardly chaotic…
Or if you just know you need someone in your corner who gets it…

Reach out.
Quietly.
Privately.
Sacredly.

I am here.

Let’s talk.

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS ABOUT MY COACHING WORK

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Also…

I still have spaces open in our new online course (which has a 1:1 immersion level).

We start Sunday!

DETAILS HERE