The Cult of 'Mindset'

Trigger warning: this article contains some discussion of rape and rape culture.

I love me some spiritual shiz.

Tarot cards, astrology books, yoga, mediation. All the good stuff.

I ponder endlessly about how to 'live my dream' and make money without being an employee.

I want to be financially independent. Hell yeah, who doesn't?

But here are some things I've noticed on my personal journey to enlightenment.

The more I get into different areas, the more I research, the more effort I pour into making something happen, the more disillusioned I've become. Why?

The Cult of Mindset. (I'm sure others have used this phrase, but I use it here to illustrate how the concept of your 'mindset' being 'right' can be used to sell you something).

Now, I'm sorry to disappoint you, this isn't like these other ubiquitous articles out there that tout that it's simply your lack of the correct mindset that's holding you back from success.

(I have written plenty of those).

This is about why the cult of 'Mindset' can actually cause more harm than good.

We're really complicated, emotional yet rational beings. And the world is a really messed up place.

When we distil everything that happens around us and relate it back to our own mindset, it takes things out of their rightful context and puts the blame squarely on our shoulders.

You don't need that shit in your life.

Look, I'm not saying throw the baby out with the bathwater, whatever helps helps. What I'm saying is, it's not your fault that fucked up shit happens.

And speaking of babies...

One of the worst examples of Mindset gone wrong is the new agey 'birth is so natural and perfect' discourse that has filtered it's way into disrupting medical fact.

It's not your fault that your birth plan didn't go to plan.

Birth is an incredibly messy, dangerous, jaw dropping experience and yes it is thanks to medical science that you and your baby have an excellent chance of surviving in this day and age.

There is no need to doubt that you made the right decision to get a C section when your baby was in distress.

It's not dramatic to say that in the past, without the C section option, you and your baby may well have died.

That has fuck all to do with your 'mindset' despite what your hypno-birthing coach told you.

To make it clear, I'm not against hypno-birthing or any mindset work that can begin you on a good track for being able to handle what comes your way.

What I am against is anti medical pseudoscience putting people in danger to push a product or service.

Buying in too hard to these concepts can very easily create a lot of unnecessary guilt for mothers who are already vulnerable.

The cult of mindset has encouraged us, quite wrongly, to take things outside our control and make them within the power of our 'mindset'.

I'm a pretty optimistic person by nature. I generally expect that the things I want in life will become mine. I don't particularly labour for them, they just come to me. Some people might call this 'the secret' or 'manifestation', I think it's confirmation bias.

I simply ignore the events that don't fit with this narrative and write them off as irrelevant.

I'm not gonna lie, this can be a pretty helpful way to be a lot of the time.

But that doesn't mean I'm not occasionally plagued with doubt. When I am, the opposite starts to happen.

The opposite is expecting everything that can go wrong, will. Then it's simply a case of looking for the evidence. Without doubt evidence will be found.

The stuff that went right that day, fluke.

Everything feels super personal from this place.

Trigger warning: the following paragraphs contain a discussion on rape.

I used to volunteer on a rape helpline, one night I had a call with a very distressed teenage girl who had watched 'The Secret', terrified that she was going to manifest herself another rape because she 'couldn't control her negative thoughts'.

It took me aback somewhat, as I was just getting into a lot of wellness, occulty type self help stuff and thought I'd found some kind of secret to living well that would benefit everyone.

Needless to say this call shattered that illusion.

What had happened to her WAS NOT HER FAULT.

If she wasn't out of danger and it was likely to happen again, that was also NOT HER FAULT.

The very concept that someone could manifest their own rape made me sick to my stomach and I realised the fundamental flaw with all this pseudo-spiritual talk (which, have you noticed, always talks about success in the context of private yachts and Lamborghini's. It seems you can't truly be enlightened unless you have a Lamborghini).

This fundamental flaw exploits our psychology as humans. Our fears and hopes can be preyed upon to make others richer, regardless of the self blame and shame that can be unleashed on our own lives. All they need to do is tap into it and apparently a fountain of money pours out.

This is common with MLM's (Multilevel Marketing Company's).

Or Network Marketing, Direct Sales, or even Vector Marketing. Different names for the same business model.

I may write more on this in future as the fundamental structure of these businesses is nothing other than a pyramid scheme that uses 'Self Help' and 'Wellness' (and some pretty intense cult tactics) to sell you an idea that you can be rich.

What's really happening is they are manipulating you into handing over increasing amounts of money and coercing you to find more people to unwittingly exploit, making you both victim and perpetrator.

A perfect cocktail of shame to ensure you don't speak up when you realise the dream is a bust.

In other words: A scam.

The maths doesn't work.

Market saturation for the product will be achieved almost immediately, your friends and family can only buy so much.

The second problem is there are only so many humans in your network, home town and subsequently the planet.

You cannot recruit forever, therefore it is impossible to be as rich as the person that started it or the people that got in at the beginning.

If it's hard to understand why, it's because they not only have access to their own networks they have access to yours. This continues down the line meaning the access at the bottom is down to a few people while the top is now claiming money from the entire pyramid.

If you are part of an MLM, I completely get why, they got that sales pitch down pat.

The trouble is, any company that has chosen this business model has done so to make themselves, not you, a shit ton of money. The nature of the model demands replication of 'ambassadors' or whatever they're calling you, to think you are investing in yourself and your 'business' so money can be taken from the bottom and transferred to the top.

There is NOT infinite market demand for whatever product you are selling. Even if it is vegan, cruelty free, etc. The product exists to legitimise the business model and make it seems less like a pyramid scheme.

Also so it can call itself legal as it claims product sales drive the business.

(Side note on this, yes pyramid schemes are illegal. But that doesn't mean they can't exist. You have to prove a business is actually a pyramid scheme before it's declared illegal.

MLM's have used clever get arounds and have even infiltrated the political and legal systems to ensure it's nigh on impossible to prove they are operating illegally.)

The product itself is not important. What is important is your progression down their 'leadership' path a.k.a recruiting.

They have conferences and team calls where language is repeated that drives home the need for you to have 'the right mindset for success'.

Subtext: it's your fault you can't make this work.

Your friends don't want to buy more shit, month after month and they're starting to think that maybe this business of yours seems a bit fishy.

Your upline tells you they don't want to see you succeed so cut them out of your life.

The manipulation that causes normal people to behave in a utterly abnormal way socially can cause massive destruction to social connections. Furthering the silence around this business type that seems oh so new and innovative but is actually as old as the OG scam.

Can you see the inherent immorality of this 'business' type?

I've used quotation marks a lot in this article. It's just because they is so much bullshit flying around these days, dressed up to 'help' you I can't cope.

I don't know about you, but I am so sick of being lied to.

So that's a little taste of what's wrong with some of the language that gets thrown about today.

But does this mean all new agey spiritualist type stuff is a scam?

I don't think so.

The bible (I'm not Christian for the record) says pray in private.

Take what helps, leave the rest.

And if someone comes to you with a 'great opportunity' tell them to fuck all the way off.