When Spiritual Influencers “Turn”: Understanding the New Fear Around New Age Practices

por Brittany Manning

Lately, many of us are witnessing something confusing and painful: spiritual teachers, influencers, and even family members who once embraced intuition, energy work, ancestral wisdom, or New Age practices are now rejecting it all—sometimes calling it demonic—and declaring that only one path is safe.

If you’ve felt unsettled, judged, or quietly afraid after seeing this shift, you’re not alone.

This moment isn’t about you being wrong. It’s about a collective swing toward certainty in a time of uncertainty.

A Cultural Backlash, Not a Spiritual Failure

Periods of social stress tend to push people toward simpler, more absolute frameworks. When the world feels chaotic, ambiguity becomes threatening. Nuance feels unsafe. Inner authority feels risky.

So people gravitate toward systems that promise:

  • clear rules

  • clear good vs. evil

  • external authority

  • moral certainty

This is not new. History shows this pattern repeating again and again.

What we’re seeing now is not “awakening vs deception.” It’s integration vs polarization.

Why “New Age” Became the Villain

“New Age” is a broad, messy label that includes everything from:

  • meditation and breathwork

  • mindfulness and nervous-system regulation

  • creativity, symbolism, and archetypes

  • emotional awareness and embodiment

But it also included real issues:

  • ungrounded teachers

  • spiritual bypassing

  • pressure to always be “high vibe”

  • lack of accountability

Instead of discernment—separating what’s healthy from what’s harmful—the reaction became total rejection.

Fear prefers extremes.

Jesus, Christ Consciousness, and Control

Many people genuinely feel called to Jesus right now. That path can be beautiful, stabilizing, and deeply loving.

But there’s an important distinction:

  • Christ consciousness invites inner transformation, compassion, humility, and love.

  • Fear-based devotion demands rejection of intuition, embodiment, and personal discernment.

Jesus himself taught stillness, direct connection with God, and radical love. Silence, contemplation, and prayer have always been part of Christian tradition. Meditation is not foreign to faith—it’s foundational.

When spiritual messages rely on fear, shame, or threats, that’s not divine authority. That’s human anxiety seeking control.

The Dark Feminine Is Not Evil

The “dark feminine” is often misunderstood. It is not harm, chaos, or malice. It represents:

  • boundaries

  • depth

  • emotional truth

  • intuition

  • grief and anger as teachers

  • cycles of death and rebirth

Cultures throughout history honored these aspects of the feminine. They became demonized when power structures needed obedience over wholeness.

Light without dark is dissociation.
Dark without light is chaos.
Integration is health.

Why This Feels Personal

It hurts more when:

  • people you admired change suddenly

  • family members reject parts of themselves

  • practices that once felt safe are labeled dangerous

This pain isn’t spiritual confusion—it’s relational grief. You’re watching people close doors you’re still walking through.

That doesn’t mean your path is wrong. It means paths diverge.

What Actually Matters

Instead of asking:

“Is this practice bad?”

A healthier question is:

  • Does this ground me in my body?

  • Does this make me calmer, kinder, more responsible?

  • Does this help me live my real life better?

Spiritual health shows up in how we live, not which label we choose.

You Don’t Have to Choose Sides

You are allowed to:

  • love Jesus

  • meditate

  • honor intuition

  • be grounded and skeptical

  • enjoy symbolism and depth

  • reject fear-based narratives

You don’t owe anyone a declaration of allegiance.

The loudest voices are rarely the most peaceful ones.

A Final Grounding Truth

Anything aligned with love will never require you to:

  • abandon your inner knowing

  • fear your own mind

  • distrust your body

  • shrink your wholeness

If your practices help you feel more present, embodied, and compassionate, you are not “falling into darkness.”

You’re simply choosing integration over fear.

And that path—while quieter—is far older and far steadier than the noise around it.

Volver a Noteworthy