One night, Michael Zeligs went with a friend to a spiritual gathering and performance. It consisted of a single highly advanced individual leading the group in songs and workshops for heart opening and healing.
A few hours later, when Michael returned home, he was completely freaked out. He couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t sit still. He was upset in ways he couldn’t put his finger on. He got up and turned on his computer. In the morning, I found the following transcript:
The reason I'm resistant is because he’s obviously crafted the perfect package: A kind of performance that could be called a house concert, but really which was a sermon, ceremony and musical meditation. All of which was simple the stage upon which to talk about his products.
He had quite a few. He had a book that he'd written. He had six different CD's, and he played a song off of each one, even though the transitions were super abrupt. The songs weren't even that good. They just featured an uncommon instrument from an obscure origin. CD's were themed for meditation and yoga, love, and how to embody love: different, spiritual meme-based titles.
He had drums and African harps for sale. He had an exclusive 10 day retreat in Hawaii for sale. “Retail is where most of our profits come from,” he told us, flat out. “So even though you were asked to pay $5-$20 at the door, what would really help us out would be if you wanted to buy something. We take credit cards.”
The advantage of selling these kinds of products is that he was able to contextualize himself within people's super awesome spiritual experiences: whether they get a healing while listening to his "music for massage" CD, or if they have an epiphany during the drum circle which follows the short sales pitch / concert, the goal is ultimately to associate in his listeners’ minds that cathartic feeling of healing/release with him as a musician, a teacher, and a leader.
The ceremony is punctuated with fairly authentic and heartfelt prayers for release and the good of the world. The freaky thing is that what he is teaching is actually effective for moving energy. That way the god thing comes in...it actually works.
People leave having really enjoyed themselves, having healed, learned a lot and heard some eloquent aphorisms. Not only do they buy things, take cards, and sign in on the mailing list, but they are also so inspired by the healing and intimacy they have experienced that they want to tell their friends about it. They want to come to another show and get sold to again in exchange for the healing group experience.
This is a process that involves power in curious ways, it leverages upon the white spiritual kids who are well educated and have parents with money. These kids have spent a lot of time in ashrams and they are fairly used to the concept of gurus and strict rules, so they are more easily drawn in to becoming a follower of these smaller acts, of doing outrageous and helpful things in exchange for continuing to receive the experience.
The salesman musician books shows in conscious mid-twenties spiritual co-op houses, as well as urban ashram constituents of the big name gurus, as well as new hippy-style churches and yoga studios. People in this environment are used to being sold to within the context of spiritual experiences. The turnaround on CD sales and purchases is much higher...
There the transcript breaks off as he must have gone to bed. But contained within this fragment of unedited thought gushing is a small glimpse into what it is, how it works these days (or perhaps how it worked all along). The spiritual experience as a commodity. The New Age is defined not so much by a shift in consciousness, but a conscious shift in marketing. And we can see how effective it can be even when the product is mediocre at best. The guru musician can support himself, tour around and host retreats in soulful places like Hawaii, and feel like he’s bringing some good, some light into peoples’ lives. Is he wrong? That is the question I believe it poses: if his customers/followers leave feeling good and happy with their purchases, is he wrong?
(With much thanks to Michael Zeligs for his collaboration on this blog posting)
1 comment:
So, would it have felt more legit if he hadn't been marketing? Or was he getting some egoic thrill that would still seem weasly? The healer/guru character is inherently an 'authority'. The real conscious shift is the active embrace of the concept that we author our own stories. Shame on the "well intentioned" to make a name and a buck off the sheeple of a fiat economy rather than attempting actually to present them with their own holy autonomy.
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