Hijacking the Sacred: How New Age Movements Co-Opt Eastern Wisdom and Enable Abuse

Exposing the Dark Triad under the guise of light is sacred work. In the growing landscape of New Age movements, practices like yoga, meditation, breathwork, and non-duality are widely embraced. These practices are rooted in ancient wisdom with much to offer, but are often co-opted by the West and unrooted from their cultural foundation. Lacking this foundation and distorted through capitalistic and egocentric lenses, this promise of peace, insight, and liberation becomes empty gestures of “love and light”, creating a disturbing trend that often goes unnamed. The co-optation of sacred Eastern philosophies erases their depth, distorts their meaning, and can enable narcissistic abuse, psychological manipulation, and complex trauma.

At Yogi Counseling, we call this phenomenon “hijacking the sacred.” It’s what happens when spiritual traditions rooted in humility, ethics, and interdependence are taken out of context and used to serve ego, hierarchy, and power.

How the Dark Triad Hides in Plain Sight

In psychology, the Dark Triad refers to a cluster of traits associated with interpersonal harm:

• Narcissism: grandiosity, entitlement, need for admiration

• Machiavellianism: manipulation, strategic deceit, exploitation

• Psychopathy: lack of empathy, impulsivity, callousness

In spiritual spaces, these traits don’t disappear—they camouflage.

They are often cloaked in language that sounds wise, awakened, or “high vibrational,” and they relate to Dark Triad Traits: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy.

• Narcissism is defined as a pattern of grandiosity, a need for admiration, and a lack of empathy.

  • Key traits include: inflated self-importance, fantasies about unlimited success, power, or ideal love, belief in one’s own uniqueness or superiority, craving for attention or validation, exploitation in relationships, and difficulty tolerating criticism or perceived slights. It can present as overt (grandiose) or covert (vulnerable), with the latter often masking entitlement and resentment beneath apparent humility or sensitivity.

  • How this shows up in a spiritualized expression: “I’m a divine channel” or “I’ve transcended the ego”.

  • What it really is: Grandiosity and superiority masked as enlightenment.

• Machiavellianism is defined as a manipulative interpersonal style marked by strategic calculation, cynicism, and a focus on self-interest and deception.

  • Key traits include: cunning and strategic manipulation, emotional detachment, pragmatic and goal oriented behavior, lack of moral concern or loyalty, distrust of others, belief that the ends justify the means. Individuals high in this trait often present as charming and diplomatic, but operate behind the secenes to control outcomes to their advantage.

  • How this shows up in a spiritualized expression: “This was divinely orchestrated” or “You’re not ready for this truth”

  • What it really is: Manipulative use of spiritual language to control or silence dissent

• Psychopathy is defined as a personality trait characterized by impulsivity, callousness, antisocial, with shallow affect and limited remorse or empathy. It is associated with interpersonal coldness and antisocial behavior.

  • Key traits include: Lack of empathy or guilt, superficial charm, impulsivity and poor behavioral control, risk-taking or thrill-seeking behavior, aggressiveness or cruelty, and shallow emotional experience

  • How this shows up in a spiritualized expression: “Your trauma is just a story” or “Everything is an illusion”

  • What it really is: Emotional detachment and lack of empathy reframed as spiritual non-attachment

Eastern Philosophy Taken out of Context

Many New Age and wellness movements claim to draw from Hinduism, Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, and Taoism. However, the core teachings of these traditions are often stripped of their ethical, communal, and liberatory roots.

Here are some of the most commonly hijacked concepts:

1. Non-Attachment (Aparigraha)

• Origin: A core tenet in Hindu and Buddhist ethics, non-attachment is meant to help practitioners let go of clinging—not to people, but to illusion, ego, and craving. It’s paired with compassion and active engagement in the world.

• Hijacked Version: “If you’re suffering, you’re just too attached.”

• Harmful Impact: Spiritual seekers or survivors of trauma are shamed for having emotional responses or needs. This fuels emotional invalidation and retraumatization under the guise of spiritual detachment.

2. Ego Death

• Origin: In many contemplative traditions, ego death refers to a loosening or transcendence of self-identity that facilitates deeper awareness and humility.

• Hijacked Version: “You’re in your ego if you have boundaries.”

• Harmful Impact: Abusive teachers or group members use this concept to silence critique, shame survivors for advocating for themselves, and discourage relational accountability.

3. Karma

• Origin: A highly nuanced concept in Eastern philosophy, karma refers to cause and effect across lifetimes, emphasizing ethical conduct and self-responsibility.

• Hijacked Version: “You attracted this trauma because of your karma.”

• Harmful Impact: Victims of violence or abuse are blamed for their own suffering. This promotes spiritual bypassing and erodes empathy, leads to self-criticism, and perpetuates trauma narratives.

4. Oneness / Non-Duality (Advaita)

• Origin: The non-dual tradition teaches that all beings are interconnected, and suffering is reduced when we see beyond separation—but it’s never meant to erase relational ethics.

• Hijacked Version: “There’s no victim or perpetrator—it’s all one.”

• Harmful Impact: Dismisses accountability and invalidates survivors’ reality. This rhetoric often keeps people bonded to abusive spiritual communities out of guilt or fear of being “unenlightened.”

5. Emptiness (Śūnyatā)

• Origin: In Mahāyāna Buddhism, emptiness points to the interdependent nature of all things—not that things don’t exist, but that they exist relationally, not independently.

• Hijacked Version: “Nothing is real, so trauma isn’t real either.”

• Harmful Impact: Encourages dissociation and spiritual bypassing, minimizes the body’s lived experience, and promotes intellectual detachment rather than healing.

The Impact on Survivors

When sacred teachings are reduced to tools of control, survivors often report:

• Intense shame, believing they are spiritually broken or “unawakened”

• Emotional confusion, dissociation, and self-doubt

• Isolation from family, friends, and their own intuition

• Difficulty trusting therapeutic or spiritual support afterward

These are symptoms not just of religious betrayal—but of complex trauma. Survivors may develop C-PTSD, especially if the abuse involved charismatic authority, spiritual gaslighting, or group coercion.

What Healing Requires

Healing from spiritual abuse begins with disentangling truth from distortion. This is slow, tender work. It requires:

• Restoring trust in your own body and boundaries

• Grieving the loss of spiritual innocence and belonging

• Reclaiming the sacred on your own terms

At Yogi Counseling, we offer trauma-informed support for survivors of spiritual abuse, religious trauma, and toxic spirituality. We integrate:

• Internal Family Systems (IFS) to heal wounded parts shaped by spiritual betrayal

• Somatic approaches to reconnect you to your own truth and agency

• Spiritual integration therapy that honors—not pathologizes—your desire for meaning, transcendence, and connection

A Final Word: Sacredness Is Not a Commodity

Spirituality should not be a stage for the ego. It is not a brand. It is not a product.
Sacredness is a relationship—a practice of humility, presence, and collective care.

If you have been harmed by someone who claimed to be a healer, guru, teacher, or guide, you are not alone. And it is not your fault.

You can return to yourself. You can reclaim your own wisdom and you deserve care that honors your pain, your questions, and your complexity.