Member-only story
Self-Help Has A Lot in Common with Religion, Including Fake Gurus
2 fundamentally useful concepts frequently abused
I am not a religious person but I wouldn’t call myself an atheist either.
I do believe there is a higher power, or simply destiny or something beyond our control that also isn’t sheer chance.
By birth or lineage, I am a Hindu, and it is a religion as good as any other, so I never bothered to renounce or convert to another.
My relationship with self-help advice is a bit similar too. There are some good tips that come along that I cherry-pick, while others I put in the trash bin.
As I gave this similarity between self-help and religious beliefs some more thought, I was astounded by the similarities the two have, and how many of them can be rather dangerous. Let’s take a look.
The basic premise that each works on is faith or hope
Religion, largely, centers itself on the premise of a higher power and our faith in that power. Some kind of god, scripture, or a central belief system, that you must follow to get closer to that divine being.
A faith that following a certain set of principles or leading a certain kind of life will put you on a…
