Why We Don’t Need More Spiritual Leaders... We Need More People Who Can Feel

Let’s be honest.

We’ve had enough of the guru complex.

The white-robed mystic with a messiah complex.

The barefoot whisperer with 100k followers and a camera crew.

The self-proclaimed “high priest of embodiment” who hasn’t actually felt a real emotion since 2007.

No shade. Just facts.

The spiritual marketplace is saturated with narcissists in mala beads. And what most people are calling “enlightenment” is just well-lit escapism.

Performance.

Masked avoidance.

A perfectly curated trauma-informed circus that keeps people spiritually entertained but emotionally unchanged.

And if you’ve ever handed your power to someone like that, I get it. So have I.

Because we’re raised to seek permission.

We’re conditioned to hand our hearts to someone who looks like they know better. Who speaks in riddles. Who says they’ve “transcended the ego” but still needs a new headshot every lunar cycle.

But here’s the truth you already know deep down:

Spirituality has become a place to hide from the heart.

Where do we go when the pain hits?

When the heartbreak comes?

When the shame rises?

When we lose someone?

When we don’t know who we are anymore?

For most people?

Straight into distraction, dissociation, or another bloody breathwork training.

Because actually feeling is terrifying. It’s vulnerable. It’s raw. And it doesn’t make for good Instagram content.

But this is what we need.

Not more “masters.” Not more million-dollar coaches preaching from infinity pools.

Not another self-love retreat where no one talks about grief.

We need people who can sit in silence with someone’s sorrow and not try to fix it.

People who can scream and cry and rage in the dark without needing to call it a “release.”

People who can feel—fully, honestly, unfiltered—and make that their practice.

The Heart Doesn’t Want a Teacher. It Wants the Truth.

This is a love letter to those who’ve had enough.

Who are done pretending.

Who are ready to meet life as it is, not as it’s branded.

No performance.

No hierarchy.

No spiritual gaslighting wrapped in incense.

Just real humans, remembering how to feel again.

And maybe… just maybe… that’s the most radical kind of initiation there is.

Love, SJ.

PS. I just started a crowdfunding, check it out here