Russell Bishop has written an essay on The Huffington Post arguing that the past decade has been one of “spiritual awakening.” Bishop-whose bio includes “executive coach,” “author,” “performance improvement consultant,” “educational psychologists,” “professional life coach,” and “management consultant”-lists seven “phenomenon” as evidence for this spiritual awakening:

1. The Kabbalah (A mystical form of Judaism gaining popularity with celebrities, most famously Madonna)
2. Yoga (An exercise sometimes combined with meditation…again, Bishop cites celebrities who practice it: Ricky Martin, Meg Ryan, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Anniston, Jerry Seinfeld, Shirley MacLaine, and Charlie Sheen)
3. What the BLEEP Do We Know (A 2004 documentary blending quantum physics  with matters of consciousness)
4. The Secret (2006 best selling book about the “law of attraction”…and, surprise, he lists Oprah, Larry King, and Ellen DeGeneres as adherents)
5. The Shack (2007 best selling book with over 5 million copies)
6. A New Earth (Ekhart Tolle’s 2008 best-seller which got a lot of attention thanks again to Oprah)
7. The Lost Symbol (Dan Brown’s follow-up novel to The DaVinci Code)

Let me cut to the chase-I think Russell Bishop is dead wrong. Here is my response to his evidence of a spiritual awakening and his seven phenomenon:

First, his list is dominated by popular books (and one apparently popular movie) with some kind of spiritual premise. I suppose these best sellers might be evidence of a growing spiritual hunger in our culture if previous years did not include spiritual books on the best sellers list.

But a quick Google search of the best selling books from 1990-1999 reveals some interesting titles. Tuesdays With Morrie, Conversations With God, The Celestine Prophecy, Embraced by the Light, and Left Behind were all hot reads before 2000. In addition, two of the best selling authors in the 90s were Deepak Chopra and Pope John Paul. In short, book sales offer no evidence that the 2000s have been more spiritual than previous decades.

The other two items on Bishop’s list of evidence for a spiritual awakening are yoga and Kabbalah. While yoga has certainly gained wide acceptance as an exercise program, evidence that people are using yoga as a spiritual practice is less obvious. Bishop himself cites a study that found 8 percent of Americans who have not tried yoga would be interested in learning more about it. Well, 8 percent! Call the press.

What’s more troublesome is that Bishop’s “evidence” for a spiritual awakening due to yoga and Kabbalah is limited solely to celebrities. Apparently if Madonna and Bennifer are into something it means an awakening is afoot.

Bishop falls into a common trap-he believes that perception is reality. Because those with microphones and cameras declare something to be doesn’t mean it is. Perhaps a spiritual awaking is occurring in the celebrity culture as Kabbalah, Scientology, and “Law of Attraction” gurus engage the SoCal social scene and eventually make their way into studios, but Bishop extends this bubble to include us all without any boots-on-the-ground analysis of what’s actually happening in the country.

So what is really happening? I’m not sure. I’m not a sociologist and I’m not even a “performance improvement consultant.” But it’s interesting to note what Bishops leaves out of his list. He doesn’t mention Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life, which was published in 2002 and has become the best selling non-fiction book in history. He also fails to mention that religious texts such as the Bible and Quran remain more popular than any of the books in his list.

Bishop also skips the fact that The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson’s 2004 film, has grossed nearly $1 billion worldwide. The New Age film on Bishop’s list, released the same year, has earned $10 million-or about 1% of The Passion’s total.

Russell Bishop clearly has an agenda to push. He wants us to believe that spirituality, particularly the Hollywood variety, is on the rise while traditional religion is waning. His bias is made clear by the end of his article when he writes:

I, for one, am grateful and hopeful that we seem to be moving away from religious trappings and more toward spiritual connection.

Sorry, Russell, but the real evidence suggests that religion isn’t going anywhere, and your assertion that we are witnessing a New Age spiritual awakening is just wishful thinking. But by all means keep wishing, maybe that law of attraction will start paying off.

 

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