Gatekeeping in Spiritual Practices

Ever felt like someone was holding the keys to spiritual knowledge just out of your reach? In this candid exploration of spiritual gatekeeping, I dive into the surprisingly restrictive world of some spiritual modalities and why certain teachers seem determined to control access to spiritual growth.

Responding to a thought-provoking question from a listener named Sarah, I examine how gatekeeping manifests in practices, where practitioners must follow rigid guidelines, charge minimum fees, and even seek permission before discussing the modality publicly. Drawing from my experience as a certified master teacher in multiple modalities, I reveal the strange disconnect between spiritual principles of openness and the reality of tightly controlled knowledge.

What's particularly fascinating is the pattern I've noticed: heavily gatekept modalities often originate from practitioners with more masculine, process-driven approaches. This raises important questions about the intersection of gender energy, control, and spiritual teaching. While structure certainly has value, does excessive control actually limit the reach and evolution of these healing practices? The evidence suggests it might—many strictly regulated modalities remain relatively unknown despite existing for decades.

For anyone navigating their spiritual journey, this episode offers crucial guidance on identifying true teachers versus controllers. The spiritual guides worth following are those who empower rather than restrict, who build your confidence instead of dependency, who encourage your unique expression instead of demanding rigid adherence to their way. Remember that you're meant to bring your authentic self to your spiritual practice, not simply replicate what's been done before. Trust your intuition, honor your unique path, and recognize that true spiritual growth rarely comes with a rulebook.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello there, welcome to Empower your Soul.
This is gonna be a quick littleepisode, but there was a really
great question asked by Sarahover on Instagram when I was
asking and probing who hasanything they want me to cover
on the podcast, and her questionor response was can you talk
about gatekeeping in thespiritual modalities, the

(00:20):
spiritual community?
And I think this is such aninteresting topic and I don't
know, honestly, how much I haveto say about this.
But I think with every industrythere is gatekeeping, with some
of these amazing specializedknowledge Right, and I and I

(00:40):
think that with gatekeeping youknow you have experts that do
this, that do this well, thatfind their own way to do it.
You know you might.
I'm just thinking about myhairstylist friends that going
to learn how to do likeextensions and they have to sign
an NDA on how they the methodof installing these extensions
in people's hair right, and soshe can't go and teach anybody
else because she's literallysigned an NDA that says she

(01:02):
can't do that.
So it's just interesting to methis idea of gatekeeping,
because I think it's rampant.
I think it's rampant everywhereand gatekeeping comes from
having a special way to dothings that is a differentiator
and or a competitive advantagethat allows you to essentially
own the method so that you makethe money when you do this.

(01:23):
So I don't think thatspirituality, or spiritual
modalities, is really anydifferent than other industries
when it comes to havingsecretive ways to do things to
retain money for the people whocreate these ideas and these
methodologies.
So, specifically, what comes tomind and I'm not even supposed

(01:44):
to talk about this is IET.
Okay, so I'm not, like I'mright now.
This is how strict they are.
Don't don't report me, please,but you're supposed to get
approval to even talk about thismethodology Before I talk about
it on this podcast, like I'msupposed to write a letter to
the IET organization before Ieven have this conversation.

(02:09):
And so it's just interesting tome because IET is a method of
healing.
It's very similar I'm going tosay it's similar to Reiki.
It is different in its modalitybecause you're actually using
energy healing on your physicalbody, like past, present.
You go through all thesedifferent things.
I went through all the levels.
I'm a master, not a teacher.

(02:32):
I'm a master.
I think, yeah, no, I'm a masterteacher, so I've done all these
modalities, but it's freakinggatekept right.
Um, all of all of the book.
I, my process engineer brain,says hats off to them, but my,
my spiritual brain says I don'tlike this at all, because what
they did is they made it so thatthis is the program, like it is

(02:54):
this modality, and they havespecific training books, they
have specific ways to do this.
It's like if you've ever, like,been a mom that has led girls
on the run girl, girl Scouts,boy Scouts you're going to know
what I'm talking about, becausethey literally give you the book
of what to do, what not to do.
Follow this exactly.
That's IET.
And so if you want to become anIET, iet teacher and teach this

(03:17):
to other people, they tell youyour class has to be in person,
it has to be seven hours long,you have to charge at least 265
per student, like they literallytell you all this stuff, you
have to buy the books, you haveto do it this way, you have to
do it that way, right, they tellyou everything about it.
And then, obviously, because Ihave to buy their books and all
these things, right, I have toput my name on their website,

(03:39):
right, like all this stuff comeswith it.
And so they're literallygatekeeping this modality.
And what is so interesting to meis, I think it's to a detriment
to that modality.
Have you heard of it?
Have you heard of IET?
How many of you can say you'veactually gone to an IET
practitioner or got an IETsession?
Yeah, and this is what I thinkthe problem with gatekeeping is

(04:04):
is that probably not many of youhave even heard of this
modality, and that's because itis gatekept.
Right, there's so few people.
This actually started quite awhile ago that I believe it was
the 80s.
Many people know this modalitybecause it's gatekept, and so I
think there's a component ofthat, sarah, that really hinders

(04:35):
the growth of some of thesemodalities.
And when things are not gatekeptand I'm thinking in my head,
I'm thinking like Linda Howe'sAkashic Records right, she will
tell you how to do it right, andthen you can go out and get
another book from another authorabout how to do it their way
and how to do it the other way,and so it's.
It's so interesting to mebecause I think there's this

(04:59):
weird dichotomy between, like,gatekeeping and not gatekeeping.
I don't even know where this isgoing, sarah, because I think
when it's gatekept in thespiritual world, it's not good,
because you're essentiallytelling people what you can do
with it, what you can't do withit and you're being secretive

(05:19):
about it and you're owning itunder the guise of doing it one
certain way and like for forprocess people like me.
It's maintaining the integrityof the modality and thinking
like it's like Reiki, right, themodality is you, like you're,

(05:39):
you're learning this specificmodality, you're supposed to do
it a certain way for it to bethe most impactful, but at the
same time they don't give youdifferent ways to make it yours
and I.
It's just interesting, andmaybe, maybe the big thing here,
sarah, is for someone that'sbeen in corporate and been in

(06:00):
this process driven background,I can understand why people put
process around these things.
Right, and if you look, oh, ifyou look at all of those
modalities that are gatekept, alot of them are men who created
it Interesting, right, and Ithink the IT guy's an engineer.

(06:25):
Interesting right, and I thinkthe IT guy's an engineer.
And so why wouldn't?
Why wouldn't they follow I'mgoing to say sorry for the
stereotype here why wouldn'tthey follow the traditional
masculine way of do it my wayLet me show you and here's the
book on it rather than anintuitive approach?
So I wonder, I wonder, from amodality perspective this is my

(06:49):
hypothesis I wonder if a lot ofthese and um, I Reiki was from a
man, right?
Yeah, reiki?
Yeah, madusaka, I can'tremember.
It's been a while, sorry.
You can tell how much I doReiki.
I'm also Reiki master teachercertified.
I don't use it very often, butI think that was also from a

(07:11):
male too.
So, think so, like I wonder, Iwonder if it's just a function
of the person who created themodality being like more
masculine energy or morefeminine energy, which is more
intuitive.
Do it your own way, I don'tknow, I don't know.
So I'm going to put themodalities aside and I'm just
going to talk.
To talk about teachers now andthe gatekeeping that teachers do

(07:32):
.
This tends to come from an egocentered perspective of don't be
better than me, because anyteachers that gatekeep and say
oh, that's the problem with myshamanism.
Teacher, sorry, fuck, causehe's a man and he says you have
to do it this way, which isinteresting, cause he's a very
intuitive man, but you have todo it this way.
Interesting, um, okay, anyway,I digress.

(07:57):
So, in terms of the spiritualleaders, then, anyone that
gatekeeps is coming from an egocentered perspective of needing
to either control or needing tomaintain this appearance of
better than now, so that theycan have money for
differentiating and doing thingsdifferently.

(08:17):
And I say this and I'm probablygoing to revisit this episode
in 10 years from now and kick myown ass about this, but I think
for modalities where people canlearn them, that makes like.
I think that's your red flag.
Anyone that's trying togatekeep any of the spiritual
work.
That's a red flag for me andthat's that, um, that's why I
won't go on and teach it,because I don't trust.

(08:38):
I don't think that's the way youcan approach some of this work,
and so I guess you have to useyour own intuition on what
you're okay with.
Are you okay with teacherssaying you have to do it a
certain way, or I'm not going toteach you that you're not ready
.
I don't know.
I don't know how to, how toanswer.
You're going to have to come upto your own approach and how to

(09:00):
answer that.
Sarah and other other peoplelistening out here that that
resonates with, and just go withthe practitioners who make the
most sense for you, who make youfeel good, who make you feel
like you're capable andconfident and able to do this
work, even if you're stilllearning it like, even if you
don't have all the all thethings pulled together, even if
it doesn't make complete sense,are they at least giving you the

(09:21):
confidence and letting you know, like, where you're at is
fantastic, you're going to getto where you need to go, but
where you're at is fantastic,great job.
Those are the teachers that youneed and I've said this a
million times, so I'm not goingto go there again.
No-transcript me, I'm doing itwrong and to do it their way.

(10:03):
But just be careful.
As a beginner Again, we all needto find our own way with all
these modalities, and so honoryourself and honor your learning
journey and honor your teamthat you're supposed to be doing
things your way and a littlebit differently than maybe what
you've been taught.
And a lot of people don't wantto be perfectionist and we come

(10:26):
from this good girl, good boybackground where we want to do
what the person in charge says,and so gatekeeping is a way to
keep us in control and doingthings the way that it's always
been done.
But we're not supposed to dothings the way things always
have been done in the spiritual.
We're supposed to be new andcreative and event and do things

(10:47):
differently, and so I'm goingto encourage you, sarah, to do
this, and everyone else that'slistening to this podcast.
I feel like I went down therabbit hole a little bit, so I'm
going to end it, but thank youso, so much for this question,
sarah.
It was such a good question.
If there's any other follow-upsyou have, you know where to
find me.
I just wanted to thank you allfor being here today.
I hope you all have a wonderfulday.

(11:09):
Take care.