Spiritual experiences and realizations are not delusions.
Spiritual delusions may begin when we arrange spiritual insights into lower and higher truths. If those rankings become rigid, fixed or absolute, they can quietly become filters for every new experience.
Sometimes spiritual teachings may leave you feeling invalidated if they do not honor your personal experience.
Invalidation and rejection may be feelings that you just want to let go – opening space for the promised spiritual liberation to unfold.
But what if emotions aren’t just here to transcend or dissolve?
They might help you notice whether spiritual insight is unfolding with a sense of safety and connection.
The paths of liberation and spiritual delusion can lie close together – they weren’t always separate in my own journey.
Perhaps simply noticing how much of your personal experience is truly welcome could help you avoid some of the limiting beliefs I had to work through.
How much of your experience needs to be observed without identification or translated into impersonal language before it is taken seriously?
Michiel Kroon
Liberation and spiritual delusion are not always separate paths. The same realization that initially creates freedom can later become a belief system that limits experience.
My first introduction to non-duality
The first steps into non-duality can feel steep, especially when it negates your own lived experience.
I became really interested in non-duality in my early twenties. I felt attracted to the energy of liberation I felt at gatherings and satsangs. But sharing something personal in these circles quickly felt unsafe. Some of the teachers completely rejected my experience.
Many times, I felt devastated by the rejections. And even that emotion was deconstructed at times. My experience was wronged because it contained the word ‘I’, I was told. And because it was thought-based.
At that time, I didn’t yet realize how the same teaching could feel both liberating and emotionally unsettling.
What is non-duality?
Non-duality claims that there is no real separation between subject and object, or between you and me. Most non-duality teachings acknowledge that a relative level also exists. But they place it beneath an ultimate reality that can’t be named, and that can’t be divided.
The distinction that non-duality makes between ultimate and relative reality is central to what follows.
From liberation to stagnation
Even though it was really difficult emotionally, I also felt the liberating energy and wanted to know more. I gradually learned to observe my mind, and then to shift my attention towards awareness itself.
Satsang gatherings were a bit like a practice ground for this. We were all trying to speak without using the word ‘I’. Although, some of the more ‘advanced’ students were granted a bit of ambiguity and were allowed to use the word.
At first, stepping back from mental/emotional patterns gave relief. I just felt a freedom from thought patterns that had previously been torturing me on the inside.
But gradually, I also started to step back from important signs about my own life.
After a few years, I slowly started noticing that my life had become quite stagnant, and I was pretty detached from it.
Yet, I could not fully face what this stagnation might be telling me, because non-duality had taught me to reject my own experience. To put it more precisely, it had taught me that identification with my experience is a phenomenon within a greater awareness.
So, I kept shifting my attention to a ‘non-dual’ state.
Looking back at how personal experience lost its weight
Over time, the invalidation revealed even deeper issues with non-duality:
- It placed personal experience beneath the authority of non-dual realization. I couldn’t see what the stagnation was telling me about my life. Instead, non-duality had already defined what was ultimately real and what was less than real.
- It claimed that everything simply was what it was, while treating non-dual realization as sacred and final.
- Gradually, non-duality became like a gatekeeper. New ideas, emotions and identities were permitted only if they could be interpreted through the non-dual framework.
- To me, it started to feel like a suffocating vacuum. Everything was allowed to appear, but nothing personal seemed to carry enough weight to change the direction of my life.
This was deeper than avoiding difficult emotions or spiritual bypassing. It was more like a gradual invalidation of my inner world.
Everything personal kept losing weight as I listened to teachings about non-dual realization. They did not offer me a pathway back to inner validation. Instead, my inner trust seemed to be leaking away.
I would soon find out that this had nothing to do with the expansion of consciousness I felt. Instead, it came from the non-dual story that I had absorbed.
Seeing through non-duality
The website nevernothere.com doesn’t exist anymore now. But Richard Miller used to host interviews with hundreds of non-duality teachers on there. I was still following him at a time when my life had become really stagnant and I was ill with chronic fatigue.
Things started to shift for me after Richard invited me for a course. Above all, the course actually questioned non-duality. I started to see that many of my non-dual insights had become less alive.
These insights were once pointers to a deeper truth. But now they had become approximately 95% beliefs that I kept repeating to myself.
When I began exploring non-duality I felt rejected many times for sharing my personal experience. I now saw how absorbing this rejection had been part of the process of taking in a belief system.
A gentle reflection on what gets lost
But isn’t non-duality the ultimate truth?
It might look like I’m just trashing non-duality. But I actually think that it has a lot of helpful points. It’s just that the liberating promise of non-duality also makes its limitations more difficult to recognize.
I have seen too many Facebook posts about a supposed spiritual war between the light and the dark. What if the light and the dark are relative truths, and we can shift our attention to a bigger perspective?
Non-duality shows us that identities come and go, but awareness is eternal. This realization can be really helpful in letting go of old identities.
Because of these helpful pointers, it’s no wonder that non-dualists really value their teachings.
But at some point they might face the fact that non-duality has also become a new identity. Or they might reinforce that identity by calling it the greatest, highest or ultimate truth.
Non-duality might become a truth to defend, rather than a realization to keep living and exploring.
To me, it’s no different from the teachings of Jesus being fortified into a religion and all the beliefs that come with it. ⛪
The four ages of non-duality
People might have objections to me portraying non-duality as a belief system. And I’m not here to convince you, I’m just sharing my experience.
I feel that both of these can be true at the same time:
- A lived realization of non-duality.
- Limitations from non-dual beliefs.
One thing that gave me more insight is to zoom out a bit and look at the development of non-duality teachings.
Non-duality has changed considerably over time, but I see a recurring hierarchy within it: non-dual realization is granted greater authority than personal experience. Different traditions subordinate that experience in different ways and to different degrees.
Let’s look at four ages of non-duality to get a fresh perspective:
- Traditional Advaita
- Western Advaita
- Neo-Advaita
- The Instagram age
1. Traditional Advaita
Non-dual realization was placed within a structured path of preparation, devotion and relationship with a teacher. Personal experience was given relative rather than ultimate status, but the realization was held within a wider spiritual framework.
Advaita means ‘not two’ or ‘non-secondness‘ in Sanskrit, a classical Indian language. It has roots in ancient scriptures like the Upanishads.
Traditional Advaita developed within hierarchical social and teaching structures. This historical structure is worth remembering when Advaita is described as the ‘highest’ teaching.
Advaita was passed on from guru to devotee. The guru was glorified in that tradition, and their flaws were often overlooked.
One well-known guru was Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950). He emphasized self-inquiry by asking the question ‘Who am I?’ Another influential teacher was Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981), whose teachings are more instructional.
Advaita is about liberation from ignorance about the true nature of the self. It uses the concept of Māyā to explain the world of appearances.
One practical entry point is studying the three gunas: sattva (purity), rajas (activity), and tamas (inertia). Understanding these basic tendencies can help to cultivate sattva, supporting inner purification.
In traditional Advaita Vedanta, purification of the mind is the mandatory condition for the onset of Brahman-atman knowledge.1 In other words, spiritual liberation existed within a framework of preparation, ethics and relationship with the teacher.
This is a broad description of an intricate philosophy. Please check the links and sources for more precise descriptions.
1. Sivakumar, K.S. (2024). Mind and Its Purification in the Philosophy of Advaita Vedanta. International Journal of Indian Psychology
2. Western Advaita
As Advaita moved to the West, its central realization remained authoritative while Western questions about identity, healing and free will entered the teaching.
As Westerners also started to visit these teachers, they brought these teachings back home with them, along with their interpretations.
One teacher who took the Advaita teachings to the West was Jean Klein (1912-1998). Later on, Francis Lucille started teaching in a similar way.
If you want to learn non-duality it’s probably good to stay close to the original. At the same time, it’s important to realize that these teachings already changed quite a bit when they were first taken to the West.
One undeniable change is language. Western languages didn’t have the same vocabulary to point to a spiritual reality. Whereas in some Eastern languages, those concepts are inherently embedded in the words.
So, Eastern teachings entered a new culture that didn’t have the same shared understanding about spiritual experience. In the excellent book Halfway up the Mountain, Mariana Caplan explains how this lack of context can sometimes lead to confusion, distortion, or premature claims of enlightenment.2
At the same time, not all changes were bad. Making the teachings more widely available was a positive shift. Although this availability can also overwhelm people, if they are not psychologically or energetically ready for the teaching.
If someone isn’t ready for them, spiritual experiences can sometimes become entangled with ego inflation and personal authority.2
Overall, the distinction between the absolute and relative truth remained. But Western seekers brought new questions about self-improvement, emotional healing and free will.
This created a tension: seekers arrived with psychological questions, but the teaching often answered from a level where the personal self was already treated as secondary.
Looking at this helped me realize that I wasn’t the only one struggling with a disconnect between ‘ultimate reality’ and practical life.
2. Mariana Caplan (1999), Halfway Up The Mountain: The Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment
3. Neo-Advaita
Neo-Advaita often presents the non-dual conclusion without the same preparation, inquiry or relational context. Personal difficulties can therefore be absorbed into the teaching before they are fully explored.
I feel that the main difference between traditional and Western Advaita and Neo-Advaita lies in relationship. By that I mean both the relationship to oneself, and to the teacher.
In Neo-Advaita, the importance of devotion is gone. In other words, the experience is flattened. There is no need for self-inquiry, because ‘there is no-one to do it’. Everything just happens, and every thought can be endlessly deconstructed.
At the end of the day, in Neo-Advaita, there is nothing at all to do. Except maybe crack a cosmic joke about it all.
Tony Parsons talks about non-duality in this way. Also, Jeff Foster before he left non-duality behind.
I have questioned this approach many times. One of my videos questions the idea that life is an illusion, which is a recurring claim in Neo-Advaita.
Traditional teachers have actually used the term Neo-advaita to distance themselves from it. In contrast, Neo-Advaita teachers may deny that there is any fundamental difference.
Phillip Charles Lucas has researched this conflict within the modern non-dual community. He describes a split between approaches that remain committed to tradition and those that have departed from it in significant ways.3
I understand Neo-Advaita as a conclusion that appears without the traditional development towards it. I visited a few Neo-Advaita gatherings and did not encounter any meaningful developmental path. Personal difficulties could be dismissed immediately.
When ‘there is no separate self’ is offered as the immediate answer, personal experiences can remain unexplored. Hurt, choice, healing and responsibility might be absorbed into the claim that there is no one to whom they belong.
4. The Instagram Age
In the social-media age, non-dual realization can become part of a public identity and personal brand. The self is denied philosophically while the person declaring its unreality becomes increasingly prominent.
I feel that social media is a double-edged sword.
On one side, you can share experiences, and compare notes. You might resonate with someone’s experience and learn from it.
On the other side, online personalities simplify complex teachings for personal branding. Even more advanced teachings that were traditionally shielded from the public become commodities.
Overall, we could say that the self is still declared unreal. But paradoxically, the person declaring it rises in prominence.
The four ages of non-duality contain very different teachers and approaches. But I see a recurring hierarchy across all of them. The authority is in the non-dual realization, or the one who realizes it, while personal experience is downgraded.
How non-duality can monopolize and limit your development
In my own journey, and in observing others, I have often seen how non-duality shifts from lived experience into spiritual delusion.
The friction with relative truth often creates rigidity. How much dogma appears around it probably depends on the amount of hierarchy or denial of relative truth.
There are also people who are lucky or open-minded enough to broaden their spiritual path. But if they stay radical non-dual, that way of thinking increasingly monopolizes their spirituality.
We can be affected by non-duality in different ways
For myself, the main issue was with invalidation and rejection of my experience. But I want to acknowledge that others might have different kinds of issues.
Some people might use non-dual ideas to avoid criticism, emotions or responsibilities. These are forms of spiritual bypassing.
Some may even make premature claims of enlightenment, or seek excessive admiration for their spiritual state.
In the worst cases, cult leaders can weaponize non-duality. They invalidate followers’ experiences and undermine their personal agency.
Teachings that question the self can also cause feelings of self-erasure and may contribute to depersonalization for a group of people. I understand that these can be serious issues that might require professional help. For myself, this wasn’t the biggest issue – I felt acknowledged but not validated.
Finally, I’ve seen that stagnation can happen across the board. But it’s not always experienced as an issue – some people are happier resting in a closed framework than others. Though many times, non-dual beliefs exist under the radar but keep people stuck in a loop.
Red flags in non-duality
Below are a few red flags that will almost certainly cause issues in your life. These can sometimes be found in more extreme versions of non-duality teachings.
- The myth that non-duality is the only way out of suffering – prevents you from walking away.
- Impossible promises of constant satisfaction, joy or happiness – will leave you feeling inadequate or disappointed.
- Negating emotions by saying they are an illusion – prevents emotional development and trauma healing.
- Telling you to sever ties with loved ones, friends or family – isolates you from others.
- Focusing on death, claiming to kill the ego, or idealizing self-destruction – plays into feelings of self-erasure.
This essay is one-sided on purpose
If you feel that I’m selling non-duality short, I actually agree with you. I haven’t talked much about the spiritual liberation that it points to.
Instead, I’ve purposely focused on the delusional and dogmatic side of non-duality to show you something:
It’s a delusion to see your non-dual realization as the ultimate truth to chase or fortify.
I don’t believe non-dual realization is a healthy goal by itself. Sure, exploring impersonal dimensions can be an interesting part of the spiritual journey.
But non-duality teachings are bit like flying through Luton. The flight itself could be good but try not to make it a goal to go to that airport. ✈️
No, I’m sorry actually, I feel a bit bad now for saying that about Luton airport. And non-duality has its place too.
Nonetheless, Creative spirituality offers more diverse ways of traveling.
Here’s my deeper point: I believe that true spirituality is not a hierarchy.
A lot of spiritual confusion stems from the idea that there needs to be an ultimate truth at the top. Both in the East and the West, we’ve inherited spiritual confusion from a patriarchal society.
That confusion happens each time you interpret a spiritual experience as some kind of hierarchy: ‘this realization is higher than the relative world of personal experience’.
Let’s put it in non-dual terms.
What can happen shortly after a spiritual experience or realization?
After a spiritual experience or realization, the mind tries to box it in. The mind identifies a hierarchy, and the ego identifies with it. It’s like you’re packaging your realization with a shiny wrapper called non-duality.
I see this pattern as a distorted energy based on fear. It contrasts with the purity of our original vibration – you can read more about that oneness in the Lemurian Starchild Oracle.
The best ice cream
Imagine that you’re on a sunny holiday and you found the best ice-cream stall.
You have tasted many flavors of ice cream in your life, but this ice cream is the ultimate. After eating one, you immediately order another one. And you have another one before you go to sleep.
In fact, you start having one for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This ice cream is so good that you start to worship it. You just don’t respect people anymore if they don’t like it.
After a few days, you might notice that you are missing other types of food. But you immediately suppress that feeling, because you know the ice cream is so good, that you don’t want to disrespect it…
The problem is not that the ice cream was never good. Its genuine goodness becomes the reason to reject every other form of nourishment. And that is the delusion.
Creative Spirituality
Today’s non-dual insight can become tomorrow’s belief system that starts filtering your experiences. Sometimes people don’t even notice.
The basic rhythm of Verbal Dancing and creative spirituality – expanding, breathing, and expressing – can help your experience begin to flow again.
The expanding stage re-opens the framework to questioning and new perspectives.
The breathing stage allows a pause. You might notice how old conclusions loosen, and that you didn’t need them as much as you perhaps thought.
Finally, the expressing stage helps you find a new inner landing spot. You might feel an energy shift that supports meaning, agency and creativity. But now they are not fixed truths, but rather living responses to your experience.
Commonly asked questions
Is non-duality a path to true liberation or a spiritual delusion?
It could go either way, but it does depend on the type of path.
- If your path is uncompromising, radical non-duality, there is a good chance that it ends up in spiritual delusion.
- If you are willing to broaden your view beyond non-dual beliefs, the path could stay liberating beyond the first non-dual realizations.
In other words, those first non-dual realizations can be a true liberation – stepping back from negative thoughts and outdated identities. After that, the path contains a definite risk of going into a spiritual delusion, but it depends on where you go with it.
If you notice that you are using non-dual concepts to reject your experience, bypass self-improvement or reject healing, you are in the danger zone. Non-duality can easily shift from liberation into stagnation, and degrade into a dogmatic belief system.
On the other hand, opening up to new perspectives is a good antidote. New experiences might invite you to let go of non-dual beliefs (no ‘I’, there is only awareness). Presence and consciousness expansion do not depend on those beliefs – they are more like a crutch that can hold you back.
What are the dangers of getting trapped in a non-dual belief system?
The primary danger is that non-dual realization can gain authority over every other form of experience.
Emotions, relationships, agency and critical thinking may then feel less trustworthy. Detachment from passions, healing or spiritual guidance can become a sign that liberation is shifting toward spiritual delusion.
How does modern Neo-Advaita differ from traditional Advaita?
Traditional Advaita Vedanta includes self-inquiry, preparation and a relationship with the teacher. Modern Neo-Advaita often presents the conclusion directly: “There is no one here to do anything.”
Its simplicity can create a deep recognition, but it may also flatten personal difficulties into a cold philosophy.
I’ve seen how both traditional Advaita and Neo-Advaita can become dogmatic.
How does non-duality decide what is ultimately real and what is less than real?
Non-duality often distinguishes between ultimate reality and relative reality. Ultimate reality might be described as undivided awareness, while thoughts, emotions, identities and relationships belong to the relative world of appearances.
As people follow the teaching, they may begin sorting experience into what is real and what is illusion. In traditional Advaita, this can happen through ideas about Māyā. In Neo-Advaita, it may appear more bluntly in claims that life or the separate self is an illusion. Over time, these categories can harden into a belief system.
How can a non-dual realization become ‘sacred’?
A non-dual realization can be profound and liberating. The danger begins when its depth is treated as proof that it is the ultimate truth.
Other thoughts, emotions and spiritual perspectives may remain open to questioning, while the non-dual insight becomes untouchable.
How can non-duality become a gatekeeper?
By gatekeeper, I mean a mental filter. It accepts experiences as valid only if they fit within the non-dual framework.
For example, wanting to improve yourself could be interpreted as identification with thought.
Another point often comes up when the non-duality teaching is criticized. Even if the teaching is experienced as depersonalizing, or self-negating, the critique might not pass the gatekeeper. The teacher might simply repeat that in ‘reality’ there is no person to have these experiences.
How can non-duality become an identity?
Non-duality can reveal that identities are temporary and constructed. But being someone who has “seen through identity” can become a new spiritual identity.
This is difficult to notice because it presents itself as no identity at all. It may appear through repetitive non-dual language or certainty about ultimate truth.
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