The Only Way Out Is Through: The Peril of Spiritual Bypass

Abstract

Given the increased attention to spirituality in the counseling literature, with a primary emphasis on helping clients find their spiritual path, it is important for counselors to be aware of one potential pitfall of the spiritual path, namely spiritual bypass. Spiritual bypass occurs when clients seek to use their spiritual beliefs, practices, and experiences to avoid genuine contact with their psychological “unfinished business.” The purpose of this article is to define spiritual bypass, discuss the necessity of healing at the cognitive, emotional, and physical levels, as well as at the spiritual level for holistic wellness, and provide examples of clients in spiritual bypass.

Spiritual barriers to humility: a multidimensional study

“…Several spiritual leaders and psychologists alike have noted that spirituality may be experienced as a means to self-enhancement and/or employed as a narcissistic defence against psychological problems (see Cashwell, Bentley, & Yarborough, 2007;Saint John of the Cross [1577-1578] 1990Welwood, 2000). Jung (1953) asserted that an attraction to spiritual can sometimes be rooted in autonomous narcissism masked as the desire for self-actualisation.…”

Spiritual Bypass: A Preliminary Investigation

“…Spiritual bypass has been hypothesized to manifest in a number of ways, such as extreme external locus of control and abdication of personal responsibility, spiritual obsession, and the repression of emotions, as well as spiritual narcissism-an "I'm enlightened and you're not" syndrome (Cashwell et al, 2007;Welwood, 2000;Whitfield, 2003). The genuine spiritual path involves awareness and acceptance of present moment circumstances.…”

The Spiritual Bypass Scale-Brazilian Adaptation: How Religious Affiliation, Age, and Gender Can Predict Levels of Psychological Avoidance and Spiritualizing

“…Two possible explanations exist for why Superiority negatively correlates with Psychological Avoidance. First, though spiritual narcissism is hypothesized as a component of spiritual bypass (Cashwell et al, 2007;Cashwell et al, 2010;Welwood, 2000;Whitfield, 2003), none of the items on the SBS-BT nor in the original version of the scale directly relate to this concept. Second, the internal reliability of the NPI is questionable, rendering the interpretation suspect.…”

“…This is somewhat surprising since experts have argued that clinicians' being conversant with the nuances of spiritual bypass to be vitally important as many people's pursuit of a spiritual path or being religiously committed to both Eastern and Western traditions is a common experiene (Cashwell, et al 2004;Masters, 2010;Welwood, 1984). Moreover, clinicians have attested to the serious problems that spiritual bypass poses for social, psychological, and spiritual health; among the complications it could pose include depression, anxiety, addiction, stagnated emotional maturity or alexithymia, isolation, and spiritual narcissism (Cashwell et al, 2007;Cashwell et al, 2010;Clarke, Giordano, Cashwell, & Lewis, 2013;Welwood, 2000;Whitfield, 2003). Given such postulations and its supposed widespread prevalence, research on spiritual bypass is sorely needed.…”

“…The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship of spiritual bypass and its sub-facets with the psycho-social variables that theoretically correlate with spiritual bypass based on the existing literature (Cashwell, Bentley, & Yarborough, 2007;Cashwell, Clarke, & Graves, 2009;Cashwell et al, 2010;Cashwell, Myers, & Shurts, 2004;Masters, 2010;Welwood, 1984Welwood, , 2000. Once we established their relationship, we also were interested in testing the predictive value of spiritual bypass after accounting for salient control variables.…”