The business of Consciousness and Spirituality
Loic Le Meur
Loic Le Meur
Read my substack loic.substack.com
Published Aug 13, 2022
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Consciousness and spirituality are different concepts
Consciousness - state of being aware of and responding to ones’ surroundings. A person aware of something and especially of oneself. It’s the quality of being aware. A conscious business is a business that is aware of its impact.
Spiritual - the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things. An example of a spiritual business - are you making money by helping people be more concerned by their spirit than their own body?
Most spiritual businesses are concerned with consciousness. The purpose of a spiritual business is generally not to make money but to help others. When the focus is on helping others and it is successful, it attracts abundance and can become a big business, see what Sadhguru does. His team buys ads, records any of his talks, sells the courses and the retreats…
If it helps people or the planet, there is nothing wrong in making money. Money is just energy.
Some people think “spiritual” should never be a business. Yet, people need to have a roof, food, clothes and generally have to generate some revenues unless they live in a monastery or alone in the forest.
I think it’s okay to make money as long as the business creates jobs, treats its team well and does good for people or nature.
The limits of the integrity of conscious or spiritual businesses
There are a few people though who are starting a spiritual business only to make money and are successful at it. It is one of the dangers of our times because it does not feel like the right intention and it can damage people such as the story of John of God.
There are many businesses that will add “organic” to anything just to ride the wave and are destroying the planet in other ways. Amazon.com launched a “conscious” category but contributes in moving daily container ships from China. They are one of the top sources of pollution. Can we trust the integrity of those businesses and human nature to not be greedy?
For profit versus non-profit
I think there is nothing wrong in “doing business” while “doing good” and making a living out of it. I was living for years with my ex-partner Leila Janah and witnessed her hard work for years with her non-profit Samasource.
She finally turned it into a 100% for profit business -sama.com- before sadly leaving us in physical form but Sama, LXMI and her foundation continue. She taught me why making a business was better in her opinion than a non-profit for growth and hiring more people who needed work (in her case in Africa). The main reason was the energy she and her organization were spending fund raising constantly, which slowed down potential growth.
We need to change our habits now
For our own survival and for the planet we cannot live the way we live anymore, we need to change our habits with our own mind, our body and respect the Earth.
I feel a tremendous change going on in the need for conscious businesses. Last time I felt a huge change like this was when I discovered the Internet in 1993. Today we cannot imagine how to live without it.
I think the consciousness revolution is acceleration dramatically changing the way we live. Like the Internet everyone is be impacted. Unlike for the Internet, we must change now to avoid the growth of the “silent killer” -depression and mind sicknesses- and the obvious ecological disaster we are inflicting to the planet and ourselves.
You’re invited to a zoom call next Tuesday aug 16 18h CEST
As I mentioned yesterday on my daily newsletter yawa.news (I write here no more than once a week) many friends in my online community want to work or start a business in the consciousness space so we decided to do a zoom call next Tuesday Aug 16 18h-19h30 CEST. You are all welcome to join here is the google calendar invite and the zoom invite details.
In preparation for the call, here are:
A few notes with some ideas for work or business
I have included examples of both for profit and non profits, since they are all providing work and need resources to run.
Single person “business”teacher
coach
public speaker (ex. Joe Dispenza who has turned it into a big business)
spiritual leader (ex. Sadhguru who has a whole organization around him)
body practices teacher (ie yoga teacher or Kundalini ex. Yogi Amandeep Singh)
author (books, newsletters, podcasts, ex. Daniel Pinchbeck or Michael Pollan)
musician (ex. Delfina Mun)
ceremony facilitator or “shaman” (ex. Kuauhtli)
film maker or producer
tarot or astrology “readers” (the best of all also movie maker Alejandro Jodorowsky followed by 5M people on Facebook!)
healings and healers
Businesses or non-profit organizationsonline teachings classes (ex. - Soundstrue, Gaia or Mindvalley)
retreat centers (example - Pachamama, Spirit Rock, dhamma.org which is free, Uni Retreats)
conferences (ex. - Wisdom 2.0)
festivals (ex. the upcoming “Colibri” that I will join in Corfu, Greece Sept 10)
media, content, newsletters
spiritual or consciousness tours/trips organizer or tour operator (trips to the Amazon Forest, Buddhist monasteries, etc)
conscious products (example: the Ocean Cleanup Project)
conscious shops or stores (Thrive Market or even Amazon launched a “conscious” space)
ecommerce shops selling spiritual objects or indigenous medicine (ex. Katukina)
not for profit organizations helping the planet (ex. Amazon Watch)
We could add of course any company products that includes doing good for the environment or the planet but that would be a broad mission… If you watched Cowspiracy and Seaspiracy you know the labels are often misleading…
I am leaving out of this on purpose the different churches and religions… for obvious reasons.
Some of the topicsTherapy
Navigating life / motivational Work / transformation
Meditation
Dreams work and recall, lucid dreaming
Hypnosis (including self-hypnosis)
Spiritual paths
Food and nutrition
Sustainability
Art and spirituality
Medicines and substances
The end of the world (all the bad news like global warming, human or natural disasters such as Covid or Pollution)
Ancient wisdom
Indigenous wisdom and practices
”Shamanism” and holding ceremonies or rituals
Applying ancient wisdom to modern life or business
Healings
Tarot, Astrology
Resources
Books
Movies
Music
Art
Online talks
Podcasts
Online videos
Retreats or trips
The prices can range from free (10 day meditation at dhamma.org) to the most luxurious retreats in five star hotels or private tours of the Amazon jungle that can be thousands of dollars or even tens of thousands.
Some people are shocked that it “becomes a business” and shocked by the high prices of certain retreats.
There are risks for sure - for example some indigenous villages become amusement parks as it already happened in some places in Africa. I personally think that if they only way for someone wealthy to discover spirituality or a ceremony is to do it in a high-end setting, there is nothing wrong with this.
I am obviously concerned that those who hold ancestral knowledge and are the guardian of spiritual and natural places are not respected enough. They could also completely change the way they live by adopting our bad business manners. This will be the topic of another newsletter.
Business is already happening anyway, better feature the businesses that are respectful of the people and the environment than trying to stop it, it would not work.
These are just a few notes.
What am I missing? Please leave ideas or examples of conscious or spiritual businesses in comments thanks!
I also write a daily newsletter yawa.news here are the posts I wrote there since my last email if you did not see them:
Recording of the zoom call inviting you to a Vision Quest and stories of participants
Be “impeccably positive” with Kuauhtli a medicine man
How to get started in meditation
Mastering your thoughts and near-death experiences
A “medicine” of the Amazon forest, the “hapé”
You are not who you think you are
Finally, I also publish this as a daily podcast you can subscribe to on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Yawa.news
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