1) FAST-FOOD SPIRITUALITY: It consists of believing that there are quick and easy remedies to eliminate suffering and evolve spiritually. Spiritual transformation cannot be quick because the spiritual process itself consists of putting aside haste and respecting one’s natural rhythms.

2) IMITATIVE SPIRITUALITY: is the tendency to speak, dress and/or act as a spiritual person should do. It’s like wearing a leopard skin to look like a leopard.

3) CONFUSED MOTIVATIONS: Although the desire to grow is genuine, it is often mixed with other motivations such as belonging, being loved, being special, or even being superior and fulfilling personal ambition.

4) IDENTIFICATION WITH SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES: it occurs when the ego, after living a spiritual experience, appropriates it, so that it allows itself to believe that everything about itself comes from these spiritual experiences, which are actually transitory states that transcend the ego.

5) THE SPIRITUAL EGO: When a person identifies excessively with spiritual concepts and ideas, he tends to be invulnerable to criticism, so his growth slows down. He becomes an impenetrable being, cut off from the world.

6) MASS PRODUCTION OF SPIRITUAL MASTERS: There are currently many spiritual traditions that give titles to people who are far from having achieved their spiritual mastery and still sell themselves as spiritual masters. The problem is not that these teachers train other people, but that they sell themselves as having achieved a high degree of mastery.

7) SPIRITUAL PRIDE: the person, after having reached a real degree of spirituality, stagnates there, excusing himself in this knowledge to not continue growing. It is often linked to a feeling of superiority, of being better than others.

GROUP MIND: Also described as groupthink, cult mentality, or ashram disease, it occurs when people belonging to a certain group accept implicit norms about how to think, speak, dress, and act. People with this “virus” reject others who do not comply with this regulation.

9) THE SELECTED PEOPLE COMPLEX: It is the belief that “our group is more evolved, powerful, enlightened, or simply better than the rest”. It is different to think that we have found the best group for us than to think that it is the best group.

10) THE DEADLY VIRUS: THE “ALREADY ARRIVED”: This disease is so strong that it has the potential to kill spiritual growth. It’s something like “I’ve reached the end of my spiritual growth, I have nothing more to learn”. At that moment spiritual growth ceases, it is as if we have killed our soul.

Adapted from: “Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discernment about the Spiritual.

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