Spiritual Bypassing
Definition
The structural-articulation of the developmental-distortion in which contemplative-articulation is used to avoid integration-of-shadow-material. Spiritual Bypassing names the structural-distortion articulated by John Welwood; the broader Netist articulation reads Spiritual Bypassing as one specific developmental-distortion that the broader contemplative-tradition has recognized as structural-arrest in the developmental-arc.
Literal meaning
The structural-distortion of using contemplative-articulation to avoid shadow-integration. Spiritual Bypassing articulates the broader-tradition's recognition of one specific developmental-distortion in which the practitioner uses spiritual-language and spiritual-practice to avoid structural-engagement with shadow-material.
Esoteric meaning
Spiritual Bypassing articulates the structural-feature that the broader contemplative-tradition has recognized as *the developmental-distortion of avoidance-through-spirituality*. The structural-recognition is that contemplative-articulation can be structurally-misused to avoid shadow-integration; the broader Role of Shadow in Growth articulation specifies that shadow-integration is foundational to mature-development, and Spiritual Bypassing operates as the structural-distortion that prevents this integration.
Allegorical meaning
A specific-cleaning-effort that vigorously-articulates surface-cleaning while leaving deeper-accumulated-distortions unaddressed: the surface-cleaning is real, the deeper-distortions remain, and the structural-recognition is that the surface-effort cannot substitute for the structural-engagement that the deeper-distortions require.
Extended meaning
Spiritual Bypassing articulates several specific structural-features: (1) The contemporary articulation operates through John Welwood's articulation in *Toward a Psychology of Awakening* (2000); the broader research-community has continued documentation; (2) Spiritual Bypassing operates through specific articulations: using meditation to avoid emotion-integration, using spiritual-concepts to deny psychological-issues, using cosmic-perspective to avoid relational-engagement; (3) The structural-corrective is shadow-integration through the broader Role of Shadow in Growth and What We Avoid We Become disciplines; (4) The Spiritual Bypassing recognition supports the broader Spiritual Maturity articulation; the structurally-mature practitioner has integrated shadow-material rather than bypassing it. The relationship to *Role of Shadow in Growth*, *What We Avoid We Become*, *Spiritual Maturity*, *Burden of Knowing*, *Hubris and Humility*, and the broader developmental-articulations is structural.
*Spiritual Bypassing* articulates the developmental-distortion. The article complements *Role of Shadow in Growth*, *What We Avoid We Become*, *Spiritual Maturity*, *Burden of Knowing*, *Hubris and Humility*, and the broader developmental-articulations.
Usage
A practitioner encounters Spiritual Bypassing in the broader articulation of developmental-discipline and in specific contexts of shadow-integration work.
Science correspondence
John Welwood's *Toward a Psychology of Awakening* (2000). The broader contemporary research at the broader contemplative-psychology research-community.