Cultural Integrity
June 6, 2025
The world becoming more perceptive and skeptical is not necessarily a terrible thing. In fact, it has a powerfully positive effect on language and context.
I was thinking recently about the concept of “positive thinking” and how that language is so often tied up with the idea of “spiritual bypassing.”
Personally, I do not believe the original intention of the great minds of the past was to lead people down a path towards this destination of a deteriorated presence, which is often the result when one “spiritually bypasses” their shadow aspects of themselves.
What may have been once implied in the past has been misunderstood and misinterpreted in out present day and age. I believe the reason for this ignorance is due to our enormous lack of cultural integrity.
The act of “thinking positively” implies that integration is happening.
That our darkness is not simply being drowned out by the light but, rather, is being transformed into it.
In other words, if we believe we are adding more light, more positivity, and more love into our lives without removing any of the darkness that is pre-existing within us, through the power of our conscious awareness, true transmutation is not happening.
Our roots must “plunge into the darkness” and the reason we can do this without becoming enslaved to the darkness is because of our empowered direction.
This is what makes “plunging into darkness” a positive experience.
All flowers bloom above the ground.
The lack of cultural integrity in much of the newer generations is the result of many of the experiences people have in the modern world.
People, generally, don’t know where they’re going and if they do know where they’re going, they don’t know why they’re going there.
Some do know why and where they are going and in order to form their integrated desire, they needed to become quite skeptical to the bombardment of influence that permeates our culture.
Everyone is making their way towards the center of the spiral and the main difference between now and “then” is that, due to the accessibility of influence and echo chambers, it’s much easier now for anyone to believe that they are already at the center.
That their way of thinking, and their beliefs about themselves and the world, is not something that can easily be improved upon.
Dangerous.
What happens is that their empowered direction then doesn’t become as clear.
What used to be dictated by culture, even though that culture was a bit archaic – aka religion – is now being directed, more often than not, from the self.
This isn’t a bad thing.
Just notice that the “self” is written with the little “s”.
People are rarely directing their lives from the Self.
Their egos are often running their lives and often people don’t even know there is another option. Due to their skeptical nature, they might not be looking all that hard for one.
Why should they? They’re doing their best to surround themselves with people who tell them that their thinking is as evolved as it gets. (AI chats are certainly aiding in this dilemma as well.)
So, when it comes to positive thinking, or positive action, there is a difference between doing or thinking something “positive” – so one can avoid the sticky and yucky feelings within themselves – or thinking something positive while fully integrating those dark, uncomfortable, “negative” feelings within themselves.
The first option, the one we would often link to spiritual bypassing, is an egoic answer to an egoic problem. We could also say a personal answer to a personal problem.
Let me just say that if the way you are often going about avoiding your challenging emotions is by forcing yourself to think loving and kind thoughts and by doing loving and kind actions for yourself and others… Congratulations.
Most people explore avoidance through behaviors that are much more destructive for themselves and their world. They might turn towards drugs; use sex; fall into addictive behaviors; they might take weight loss pills to avoid working out; many simply fall into the entanglement of materialism.
There are many ways that people can spiritually bypass their inner shit.
If spiritual bypassing is simply the act of using “positivity” to avoid doing our own integration work, then that puts everything that our egos can gravitate towards, to avoid and escape, on the table.
I’m sure smoking pot, railing ketamine, or consuming media feels pretty positive for the ego. I hear the word “toxic positivity” thrown around, more often than not, from people who engage in various forms of self-harming behavior.
To their ego, their intolerance, self-victimization, addictions, or inner rage is viewed as a very “positive” thing.
Is this just as “toxic” as the new-age avoidant touting, “love and light”?
The other way to use positivity is to assist us in integrating the darkness.
All roads do eventually lead to integration however, this way could be described as a “spiritual solution to an egoic problem.” Or an “impersonal solution to a personal problem.”
The biggest difference between our willingness to solve our problems from an impersonal place rather than a personal place comes from how we are choosing to see ourselves and the world.
Do we see ourselves as one or do we see ourselves as separate?
If I am willing to see you as an integrated part of myself, then if I am ever wronged by you I can use it as an opportunity to learn more about myself, integrate that wisdom, and move towards a more loving connection with you.
If I get offended by someone, it’s an opportunity for me to notice where my boundaries are and the personal values I have associated with those boundaries.
Getting offended is a good thing.
It shows us who we are.
It doesn’t often show us who another person is though.
The real question is how quickly can we experience good-will towards the people who have crossed us?
That is our anchored, aligned, direction.
That’s the direction that leads to an excellent and loving future.
So, is the culture we are surrounded by in alignment with this type of integrity?
This is what cultural integrity means.
If we are not in integrity with a united and interconnected view of ourselves and the world, then integration of our pain (individual or collective) will not be fully possible.
Healing in its truest sense comes from the unified understanding that we are all one.