This piece was inspired by a question from Anuradha Pandey while I was travelling to India. She asked: “I don’t know if you already wrote about this but I would be interested in your observations about the differences in how the two societies see the concept of the sacred. I’ve been thinking a lot about that and about the tensions between the individual and collective in my own self because of having Indian parents.”
I deeply appreciated this like many other essays of yours, and thank you for the shout out. First, gurupreneur is so good I’m mad at myself for not seeing it as a portmanteau before. You got me thinking of all the Indians who have come to the US selling a specific interpretation of the spirituality of their homeland. This got me thinking about whether there is a distinction between guru and cult leader, because I grew up in the Hare Krishna community. It was led by a gurupreneur but he brought so many people to a place they’d never have gotten spiritually. At the same time, it was a cult. And is that different from the snake oil Jay Shetty is selling? Ironically Shetty got his qualifications by interning with the Hare Krishnas who themselves are separate from the way most other Indians practice.
This made me want to do a pilgrimage trip. My parents are going to Kailash this summer and I can’t get the time off to do it, but if my parents hadn’t dragged me to a million other pilgrimage sites as a kid I wouldn’t be who I am today. I also am very proud to be born of a culture that gives so many others meaning even if they aren’t born of it. I’ve been ruminating for some time on why Westerners gets so much from India, and I think it’s because there’s something you can’t pinpoint in all aspects of society. Almost like you can feel cosmic force of Shakti.
You can absolutely feel the cosmic force of Shakti in India. I think humans don't even realise that it's what they're seeking. Thank you so much for reading and for describing your own personal experience.
👏👏 you are dead on here Nathalie 🙌 I love your term gurupreneur. It is fitting and I've met many. One was the head pastor ( I use that term loosely here) at a church. I was so stunned at her behavior and her sales-pitchy attitude 🙄 It was an eye-opening experience for sure.
Selling packages of 'help' is what tells me the person is trying to make someone their employer. I see that a lot.
You are also correct that people will exploit even the desire to belong. Great piece!
Thank you Penny for reading! Some people believe they are doing others a favour by selling their religion and practices. History shows that those good intentions destroyed so many cultures.
Thank you Nathalie for bringing this up" similar to those who express communal narcissism", it is a high time now, spiritual scammers needs to be exposed.
It can be hard to expose them when they continue to be surrounded by their die hard devotees but I do believe there is a breaking point. What often happens is these grifters apologise, take time away, and return with their more humble persona to repeat the process again.
Facts. It’s incredibly dangerous too - I’ve seen people go into full blown manic episodes for years on end because a tarot reader keeps telling everyone that “someone is doing black magic on them” which is sickening - she keeps everyone in a state of fear so they keep coming back and she keeps collecting a few pennies per view - and those views rack up to the tens of thousands. On some channels, millions.
It creates an addiction and cult of fear, which is one of the primary complaints about organized religion. I wish I was only talking about one isolated case but I see this stuff in numbers I can’t comprehend.
So yes to what you said - teachers are good but not if one cannot discern between a charlatan and a genuine person - and real teachers only lead you toward leading yourself - they don’t try to play god with you.
Yet another great read. There is so much here that I am still digesting. I am thinking a lot about this as it relates to the professional guidance and community I seek. Tysm for this.
While I agree with the premise of your article, Nathalie, I must say I respectfully disagree with putting Jon Kabat-Zinn in the gurupreneur category. I have read Jon's books, done his guided meditations, watched him in talks (including a live event on Saturday) and the man is one of the most profound and wise teachers out there.
I appreciate your perspective Adina, and I can see that his work has been meaningful and helpful to many. What I’m naming isn't about him as a person, but the wider impact of separating Buddhist teachings from their roots to create a secular mindfulness model under his name. That model became the foundation of a wellness industry that, intentionally or not, often bypasses context, culture, and ethics.
My intention wasn’t to diminish the value he’s brought to individuals, but to point to a wider system and pattern that his model helped make possible, sometimes unintentionally. It’s possible to respect someone's wisdom and contribution and critically examine the ways their work becomes part of a broader structure that can commodify, decontextualise, or even distort sacred practices.
What I’m exploring here is about what happens when sacred knowledge becomes detached from its cultural, spiritual, and ethical roots and then monetized and repackaged for mass consumption. Even well-meaning leaders can, knowingly or not, participate in systems that lead to harm, erasure, or spiritual bypass.
I also know how hard it can be to hold both truths at once; gratitude for what we’ve received and awareness of the impacts beyond our own experience. That tension is where so much necessary reflection lives and insight can emerge.
Great article, very good observations and summary. I have a few friends in the Oracle Girl cult, who shows many trademarks of a Gurupreneur, has become a millionaire through her work but is so clever about it that she does it all “entirely by donations”. It’s such a sly passive aggressive marketing scheme, it’s disgusting. She speaks endless word salad about Quadrality and purifying the world but first you must join her purification group and attend XYZ. People who follow her are like disciples and don’t tolerate any criticisms. In fact, if you try to criticize you are being told you are not ready to understand or of too low vibration (favorite excuse for many Gurus btw to NOT tolerate any criticism). She has a legal framework to her website and groups that would make a big corporate shudder, takes zero responsibility for anything (it’s all yours!), and zero transparency where the money goes or how much other than she saying and posting she has donated onwards to XYZ charity (how much? vetted the charity or not). Its mind boggling.
I haven’t heard about the Oracle Girl cult but it seems like your typical spiritual sisterhood MLM that promotes spiritual bypassing, disconnection from support, siphoning funds, deception and zero accountability. Members become so dissociated that they don’t realise they’re speaking gibberish and believing nonsense.
It’s inevitable. I don’t mean that in a snarky way. It’s changing the dynamic on Substack. This is the longest I’ve ever stayed involved with any social media platform and it’s noticeably ballooning with what you’re talking about.I find myself engaging less on Substack as certain accounts are positioning themselves with the net result being a migration to the familiarity and comfort found at the highest elevations of the bell curve. It’s all part of the process.
An interesting observation @Shawn Truax. I’m not seeing Gurupreneurs here, though I know they do exist. I’ve been militant about removing potential nuisances from my Notes feed so I maintain relative control of what Substack shows me. I can guarantee if you’re liberal with your swipe function on irritating notes/posts, it will improve what you see.
There’s part of me that finds it intriguing to watch it play out. How do people choose their demagogues? What attracts them? What are the attributes their new gurus possess that these people are drawn to? What part of themselves are they willing to sacrifice in order to win their new guru’s acceptance?
All good questions. I can give a simplistic and obviously not complete answer based on my own observations of what makes us want to submit to an authority. My answer is that everyone is looking for love from their daddy. Whoever resembles their ideal daddy, whether it's the shadow dad of an abusive/neglectful/meh upbringing or the most brilliant qualities of the ideal dad archetype doesn't matter.
Nice - I like that. So if I’m understanding, you’re thinking that there’s a fundamentally patriarchal nature to the systemic hierarchy? That’s really intriguing. So the relationship doesn’t need to be nurturing in nature? In fact, it’s the neglect that’s the key because it makes us feel like we’re missing something that guru would have us believe that only the guru can fill. But if they filled that need then we wouldn’t need them. So it’s the allure more than the actualisation?
Nurturing is experienced differently by each of us. Nurturing can mean getting attention or approval that is conditional compared to a more feminine construct of nurturing (ie soothing, gentle). The conditional nurturing with inconsistent expectations means that you never know what will get you approval but you will keep trying, even if it means enduring punishment/criticism/neglect. That's what cult leaders do - even the favourites aren't always certain of being the favourite and continue to work hard to prove their loyalty to the leader.
Transgenderism is clearly a religion. Jesus rose from the dead. A man can become a woman. Both are examples of a kind of magical thinking protected in the US by the First Amendment as is my belief as an atheist that they are religious nonsense.
Crikey really good Nathalie. 🙏As always when I read one of your consciousness busting articles, I look deeply to assess the disturbing possibility that I might be guilty, shamed, embarrassed by the key concept you describe, in this case a guropreneur. 🤔There is no doubt I seek self-esteem and self actualisation yet I hope very much I'm not one of the millions who have decided self-esteem is the pinnacle while self-actualisation and happiness is unreachable. 🤔 I believe they are reachable with as you alluded to the very essence of spirituality. I think the thought of appearing bumptious is anathema to me likely due to being told I was as a child by peers. So, acquiring knowledge, understanding, and learning are definitely part of my purpose as they harvest happiness through connection and trusted relationships. I think self-actualising happiness should be the purpose and not power and status for its own sake. 🤔
Trevor, from what I know about you, you are very far from being a gurupreneur. We might each fall into saviourism from time to time, but spiritual consumerism is something else!
As always, I'm grateful that you can share so openly about your self-reflection process.
Well said. I think the lineage issue is particularly important. The greatest teachers have always taught without financial exchange and having had rigorous and exacting(and often very long) study themselves first. I’ve followed an Advaita Vedanta path for many years now and can’t tell you how many advaita style teachers there are on the spiritual circuit, selling(at a high price) teachings that are meant to be taught in context and with a particular student in mind.Taken out of context(quite literally without sacred texts) they are just slogans and hypnotic techniques that move very few people to the intended destination. They make people feel good while at the retreat but confused and depressed when they leave. It’s a fast food version and leaves people empty and hungry for something real. The people that do have a mystical experience with these teachers sometimes go on to set themselves up on the circuit. Unfortunately what can happen is that sincere students can become jaded by exposure to this nonsense and naturally assume that the original teaching is what’s at fault. Your Byron Katie’s and your Rupert Spira’s etc. they have something but it’s not the whole thing, not even close.
I deeply appreciated this like many other essays of yours, and thank you for the shout out. First, gurupreneur is so good I’m mad at myself for not seeing it as a portmanteau before. You got me thinking of all the Indians who have come to the US selling a specific interpretation of the spirituality of their homeland. This got me thinking about whether there is a distinction between guru and cult leader, because I grew up in the Hare Krishna community. It was led by a gurupreneur but he brought so many people to a place they’d never have gotten spiritually. At the same time, it was a cult. And is that different from the snake oil Jay Shetty is selling? Ironically Shetty got his qualifications by interning with the Hare Krishnas who themselves are separate from the way most other Indians practice.
This made me want to do a pilgrimage trip. My parents are going to Kailash this summer and I can’t get the time off to do it, but if my parents hadn’t dragged me to a million other pilgrimage sites as a kid I wouldn’t be who I am today. I also am very proud to be born of a culture that gives so many others meaning even if they aren’t born of it. I’ve been ruminating for some time on why Westerners gets so much from India, and I think it’s because there’s something you can’t pinpoint in all aspects of society. Almost like you can feel cosmic force of Shakti.
You can absolutely feel the cosmic force of Shakti in India. I think humans don't even realise that it's what they're seeking. Thank you so much for reading and for describing your own personal experience.
HA! Shetty was 1st person to come to mind as I read the article too :) I’m in LA and he seems to be every other celeb’s BFF these days
American elites have always been fascinated by whatever Indians sell them
👏👏 you are dead on here Nathalie 🙌 I love your term gurupreneur. It is fitting and I've met many. One was the head pastor ( I use that term loosely here) at a church. I was so stunned at her behavior and her sales-pitchy attitude 🙄 It was an eye-opening experience for sure.
Selling packages of 'help' is what tells me the person is trying to make someone their employer. I see that a lot.
You are also correct that people will exploit even the desire to belong. Great piece!
Thank you Penny for reading! Some people believe they are doing others a favour by selling their religion and practices. History shows that those good intentions destroyed so many cultures.
Thank you Nathalie for bringing this up" similar to those who express communal narcissism", it is a high time now, spiritual scammers needs to be exposed.
It can be hard to expose them when they continue to be surrounded by their die hard devotees but I do believe there is a breaking point. What often happens is these grifters apologise, take time away, and return with their more humble persona to repeat the process again.
Facts. It’s incredibly dangerous too - I’ve seen people go into full blown manic episodes for years on end because a tarot reader keeps telling everyone that “someone is doing black magic on them” which is sickening - she keeps everyone in a state of fear so they keep coming back and she keeps collecting a few pennies per view - and those views rack up to the tens of thousands. On some channels, millions.
It creates an addiction and cult of fear, which is one of the primary complaints about organized religion. I wish I was only talking about one isolated case but I see this stuff in numbers I can’t comprehend.
So yes to what you said - teachers are good but not if one cannot discern between a charlatan and a genuine person - and real teachers only lead you toward leading yourself - they don’t try to play god with you.
Yet another great read. There is so much here that I am still digesting. I am thinking a lot about this as it relates to the professional guidance and community I seek. Tysm for this.
Thank you for reading Rupi! Spirituality as a business always gets my hackles up.
While I agree with the premise of your article, Nathalie, I must say I respectfully disagree with putting Jon Kabat-Zinn in the gurupreneur category. I have read Jon's books, done his guided meditations, watched him in talks (including a live event on Saturday) and the man is one of the most profound and wise teachers out there.
I appreciate your perspective Adina, and I can see that his work has been meaningful and helpful to many. What I’m naming isn't about him as a person, but the wider impact of separating Buddhist teachings from their roots to create a secular mindfulness model under his name. That model became the foundation of a wellness industry that, intentionally or not, often bypasses context, culture, and ethics.
My intention wasn’t to diminish the value he’s brought to individuals, but to point to a wider system and pattern that his model helped make possible, sometimes unintentionally. It’s possible to respect someone's wisdom and contribution and critically examine the ways their work becomes part of a broader structure that can commodify, decontextualise, or even distort sacred practices.
What I’m exploring here is about what happens when sacred knowledge becomes detached from its cultural, spiritual, and ethical roots and then monetized and repackaged for mass consumption. Even well-meaning leaders can, knowingly or not, participate in systems that lead to harm, erasure, or spiritual bypass.
I also know how hard it can be to hold both truths at once; gratitude for what we’ve received and awareness of the impacts beyond our own experience. That tension is where so much necessary reflection lives and insight can emerge.
Thank you again for engaging with this.
Great article, very good observations and summary. I have a few friends in the Oracle Girl cult, who shows many trademarks of a Gurupreneur, has become a millionaire through her work but is so clever about it that she does it all “entirely by donations”. It’s such a sly passive aggressive marketing scheme, it’s disgusting. She speaks endless word salad about Quadrality and purifying the world but first you must join her purification group and attend XYZ. People who follow her are like disciples and don’t tolerate any criticisms. In fact, if you try to criticize you are being told you are not ready to understand or of too low vibration (favorite excuse for many Gurus btw to NOT tolerate any criticism). She has a legal framework to her website and groups that would make a big corporate shudder, takes zero responsibility for anything (it’s all yours!), and zero transparency where the money goes or how much other than she saying and posting she has donated onwards to XYZ charity (how much? vetted the charity or not). Its mind boggling.
I haven’t heard about the Oracle Girl cult but it seems like your typical spiritual sisterhood MLM that promotes spiritual bypassing, disconnection from support, siphoning funds, deception and zero accountability. Members become so dissociated that they don’t realise they’re speaking gibberish and believing nonsense.
It’s inevitable. I don’t mean that in a snarky way. It’s changing the dynamic on Substack. This is the longest I’ve ever stayed involved with any social media platform and it’s noticeably ballooning with what you’re talking about.I find myself engaging less on Substack as certain accounts are positioning themselves with the net result being a migration to the familiarity and comfort found at the highest elevations of the bell curve. It’s all part of the process.
An interesting observation @Shawn Truax. I’m not seeing Gurupreneurs here, though I know they do exist. I’ve been militant about removing potential nuisances from my Notes feed so I maintain relative control of what Substack shows me. I can guarantee if you’re liberal with your swipe function on irritating notes/posts, it will improve what you see.
There’s part of me that finds it intriguing to watch it play out. How do people choose their demagogues? What attracts them? What are the attributes their new gurus possess that these people are drawn to? What part of themselves are they willing to sacrifice in order to win their new guru’s acceptance?
All good questions. I can give a simplistic and obviously not complete answer based on my own observations of what makes us want to submit to an authority. My answer is that everyone is looking for love from their daddy. Whoever resembles their ideal daddy, whether it's the shadow dad of an abusive/neglectful/meh upbringing or the most brilliant qualities of the ideal dad archetype doesn't matter.
Nice - I like that. So if I’m understanding, you’re thinking that there’s a fundamentally patriarchal nature to the systemic hierarchy? That’s really intriguing. So the relationship doesn’t need to be nurturing in nature? In fact, it’s the neglect that’s the key because it makes us feel like we’re missing something that guru would have us believe that only the guru can fill. But if they filled that need then we wouldn’t need them. So it’s the allure more than the actualisation?
Nurturing is experienced differently by each of us. Nurturing can mean getting attention or approval that is conditional compared to a more feminine construct of nurturing (ie soothing, gentle). The conditional nurturing with inconsistent expectations means that you never know what will get you approval but you will keep trying, even if it means enduring punishment/criticism/neglect. That's what cult leaders do - even the favourites aren't always certain of being the favourite and continue to work hard to prove their loyalty to the leader.
Because the guru can always reframe “success” so that it’s always subjective and ambiguous?
Transgenderism is clearly a religion. Jesus rose from the dead. A man can become a woman. Both are examples of a kind of magical thinking protected in the US by the First Amendment as is my belief as an atheist that they are religious nonsense.
Crikey really good Nathalie. 🙏As always when I read one of your consciousness busting articles, I look deeply to assess the disturbing possibility that I might be guilty, shamed, embarrassed by the key concept you describe, in this case a guropreneur. 🤔There is no doubt I seek self-esteem and self actualisation yet I hope very much I'm not one of the millions who have decided self-esteem is the pinnacle while self-actualisation and happiness is unreachable. 🤔 I believe they are reachable with as you alluded to the very essence of spirituality. I think the thought of appearing bumptious is anathema to me likely due to being told I was as a child by peers. So, acquiring knowledge, understanding, and learning are definitely part of my purpose as they harvest happiness through connection and trusted relationships. I think self-actualising happiness should be the purpose and not power and status for its own sake. 🤔
Trevor, from what I know about you, you are very far from being a gurupreneur. We might each fall into saviourism from time to time, but spiritual consumerism is something else!
As always, I'm grateful that you can share so openly about your self-reflection process.
A great read
Thank you for reading!
In many ways what you're describing is a cult. Ultimately cults use the power of your fears against you in order to exploit you.
This tends to attract a certain type of person. It only works on people who are susceptible to these types of techniques.
There's an old saying that a real student can gain enlightenment even from a false teacher because the 'truth' and the full reality prevail.
St. Paul was the ultimate gurupreneur. He even got his writings inserted into the Church's master document. The Church he founded of course.
Of course!
I noticed that. The Gospel is so different from "the books of Paul"
Well said. I think the lineage issue is particularly important. The greatest teachers have always taught without financial exchange and having had rigorous and exacting(and often very long) study themselves first. I’ve followed an Advaita Vedanta path for many years now and can’t tell you how many advaita style teachers there are on the spiritual circuit, selling(at a high price) teachings that are meant to be taught in context and with a particular student in mind.Taken out of context(quite literally without sacred texts) they are just slogans and hypnotic techniques that move very few people to the intended destination. They make people feel good while at the retreat but confused and depressed when they leave. It’s a fast food version and leaves people empty and hungry for something real. The people that do have a mystical experience with these teachers sometimes go on to set themselves up on the circuit. Unfortunately what can happen is that sincere students can become jaded by exposure to this nonsense and naturally assume that the original teaching is what’s at fault. Your Byron Katie’s and your Rupert Spira’s etc. they have something but it’s not the whole thing, not even close.
Well said Annie - some people conflate having something as having all the goods. Spiritual red flags are easily ignored!
When I tried to get your ebook, the page said it is “out of stock”
I've had a similar issue with someone else. What country are you in?
UK 🇬🇧. Just thought I will let you know. Love your content
Pet peeve. Nailed it!