Full disclosure, with the backing of my Patrons last year, I laboured for a couple months on a treatise - "The Future of the Wellness Industry". It's currently hosted on my website, and the coming weeks will lean on the content it contains. At the same time, the content and webpage will be updated within the next 2 weeks. By the time we get to exploring the Paradigms next week, I'm hoping it will be ready!
For those wanting to play catch up, the big idea I’m proposing here is that - in the West - spirituality has become commodified, creating a “Wellness industry”; and we need to change it.
To dismantle it, reform it, or build anew, we need to frame it as an industry - talk about what's coming next, from a big picture, industry-wide perspective.
To generate alternatives to the established Paradigm.
As far as I've seen, no one has suggested a model that delineates one Paradigm from another, describes how we might move between them, and provides a hypothesis for what a Future beyond the current Wellness Industry could be.
I want to propose a first draft of what a Future could be. In short, my belief is that The Future of Wellness isn't an Industry - it's an ecosystem.
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In coming weeks, I’m hoping to create a deeper, shared understanding of where we've come from, and where we could go, together. For reference, last week’s post saw us take a whizz through history to understand the factors and lineages that created the “Wellness Industry” of today.
To better understand the content that will come, I want to take this week to introduce some mental models (which will be explained in-depth in the future).
While you read, I encourage you to keep an open mind, and take time to digest what's here! As always, reflections and thoughts are most welcome in the comments.
Figure 1 explained in brief.
To describe the "Wellness Industry" is to hold eternity in the palm of your hand.
It’s a space made up of disparate crafts, lineages, people, and organisations. As I'm specifically framing how spirituality is conceived in our current Industry (and society, and economy), I'm focusing on the spaces that go by many monikers - spiritual, new age, witchy, conscious, holistic, etc.
I've foregone these and chosen "Wellness" for the sake of convenience. I don’t feel it's particularly comprehensive or descriptive, but for all of us that I've referenced in Figure 1 and beyond, it will do (for now) to describe the prevailing Paradigm.
Specifically, I am speaking to the Industry in the West; the UK, EU, US, and Australia. I don't know enough to speak to it as a global industry, and (more importantly) I recognise that in many geographies, the Paradigms I'll present here - these framings of spirituality - simply wouldn't hold true.
This isn't intended as a way to frame entire belief systems, or spirituality and religion broadly. Though I've tried to write as objectively as possible, I recognise my biases.
The whole reason this exists is my contention that the Wellness Industry needs to change.
Figure 2 explained in brief.
This is the mental model I've created to allow us to better frame and understand the different Paradigms that exist in the Wellness Industry - as well as what (I believe) could exist in the Future.
These Paradigms are mental models about ways of being; how we treat spirituality in our society and economy.
They are fluid, and emerge over time. Each exist for different purposes, solve different problems, and include and transcend all the previous Paradigms.
That’s the reason why today, we can find examples of every Paradigm, co-existing.
Each Paradigm has an accompanying set of characteristics, which we can use to compare them. They all view spirituality differently, have distinct styles, stereotypes, and guiding beliefs.
Each brings unique iconoclasts, social issues, novel breakthroughs, and are birthed amidst their own social conditions. We'll also consider the tools they use to exert power, and the shadows they cast.
Here’s a thousand-foot view of them all, before we go into depth in coming weeks.
The first paradigm, New Age, is characterised by the metaphor of Spirituality as a "Divine" virtue; an entitlement afforded to some and not others. The focus on change is at the individual level, with personal transcendence as the priority. This is typified by the ideas of "raising" your vibration or consciousness, and a grand awakening which will leave others behind.
The second, Wellness, is the prevailing paradigm; that of Spirituality as a commodity. We see it as the rise of self-help books and gurus of the 80's, into the modern era of boss-babe MLM's. Here, we see changes at organisational levels, like workplace wellness programs, and "conscious business" courses.
However, I feel we're currently shifting towards the next Paradigm, which is what I term Folk revival (for lack of a more encompassing term).
Here, people are increasingly disenfranchised with the Industry - especially the capitalist components of it. We're seeing a return to folkways, focus on community care, and change on the social level. Spirituality is seen as a way for communities to heal.
The final paradigm isn't well established. I’ve dubbed it Interwoven, for lack of a better term. Once here, Spirituality is perceived as a Commons. The Ecosystem is a collection of Commons-oriented Peer to Peer networks, which exist to increase social value. These organisations are for-purpose, transparent, communally self-governed, and create change at an institutional level.
Of course, there’s more to each of these below the surface, and what I hope to accomplish in framing them is not to create a “good/bad” dichotomy, but a lens through which to better understand our world.
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For this week, that’s the extent of the long-read, dear (long) readers.
As always, there is more (lighthearted) content below. If you know someone who might be impacted from this, too, you can share it with them.
Next week, we will continue with Part 2, exploring the first Paradigm: New Age.
For now, here are some prompts to deepen your exploration.
Consider the current Paradigm we're operating under in the West (what I've called "Wellness" for convenience).
Is there another name that you use which feels more appropriate?
In a couple of sentences, how would you describe the Industry as it is?
Create a list of as many crafts or practices you can think of that are tucked under the wing of this Industry.
🎬 Short takes
You might've missed Mutability in your inbox last week, dear reader. That's no mistake; I was bed-bound for a few days, which left me little energy to write.
The keenest blow wasn't my disappointment in not getting a post out. It was that I had to forgo an opportunity to write.
This was the first time I had a moment to reflect and realise - I adore writing Mutability. Not that this is surprising: I don’t think anyone who despises writing starts a publication. I’m mighty thankful that i’ve cultivated this little Ritual for myself, and perhaps a necessary reframe has helped me realise it.
Of course, my little perfectionist voice was yelling "One per week!". That wasn't possible last week, and the world didn't burn down because of it. If nothing else, I want Mutability to stick it to the collective (and unhealthy) Wellness/ hustle/ productivity norms we've accepted.
If I wasn't well enough to go to work, why would I write my (arguably more important-to-me) newsletter? 🤷♂️
It would have been P.B Shelley's birthday just last week; and while I couldn't post about it, here's my IG post from last year.
Shelley was radical - in both his philosophies and his art. His poetry, essays, and pamphlets covered political, social, and literary reform; gender, classism, and environmentalism.
It got him on government radars, on the wrong side of a lotta (mostly religious) people, and kicked out of university.
Of course, his poetry endures as some of the finest English-language poetry we have, and still makes for thrilling and heartfelt reading. Some of my favourites are “A Vision of the sea”; “Adonäis” (duh); and “Hymn to intellectual Beauty”.
He would've been one year my senior, and try as I might, it's hard not to compare oneself. Mutability was named in homage, to the spirit of what his poem (and philosophies) represented; that we might be many things at many times, and that we can celebrate beauty while we sow rebellion ❤️🔥
In listening to a lotta pop-punk over the years, most songs will lyrically tend towards the personal rather than the social. It feels rare that a band will drop a song which addresses social norms or issues; so when I find one, I'm surprised.
"Transparency" - the first track on Knuckle Puck's 2014 While I stay secluded - has for years just been a strong opener to a great album. Until last week, I hadn’t realised it’s also a critique of social media.
At the time, the relative novelty of social media meant that it was easy to make light of people posting everything on it. Eight years on, though, the lyrics are perhaps more relevant than at the time of writing.
Sure, it's a little bit on the "angry finger pointing" side (IYKYK), and it's not winning any literary awards - but the sentiment is there. I would argue that our lives have become "governed by news feeds and notifications", and it feels like "nothing is sacred" on social media (for better or worse).
The thesis ("all I want is for everyone to be aware of/ their own transparency") is still valid. A gentle reminder to us all about how much we live online, and how much of our lives are lived and shared offline. Thanks, 2014 Knuckle Puck ✊
❤️🔥 What I’m crushing on
It was my heart’s delight to have two of my dearest friends stay with me last week; one all the way from Australia, and one from the U.K. It was the first time I was able to show loved ones from abroad around my city and have them in my home.
We went canoeing along the Kromme Rijn last weekend, and I was dazzled by the amount of electric blue dragonflies on the river.
I'm grateful that we have access to green spaces like Ameelisweerd so close to home. Amelisweerd and the Rhijnauwen is ~300 ha of some of the grandest old trees in the Netherlands, and home to over 400 species of mushrooms. Sadly, Amelisweerd is at risk from lobbyists wanting to widen the highway, and being defended by the "Friends of Amelisweerd" and others.
Dougie MacLean's "Ready for the storm". His album, Craigie Dhu, is a seminal piece of Scottish folk music, and turns 40 years old next year. If you've ever heard "Caledonia", this is the album it's originally from!
Throughout Italy's Camonica Valley, refugees and other migrants are learning a range of trades from local artisans, and populating once-deserted villages. As part of a government initiative aimed at reviving rural economies, they're keeping traditions alive, and offered a fresh start in a new country. Hotel Giardino is one example run entirely by a staff of refugees!
This vintage postcard I bought recently has been mesmerising me. It's an Ernst Kutzer illustration of "Der Erlkönig" (The Elfking); pecifically after Shubert's lieder; which was based on Goethe's poem; which was based on a Danish legend 🧝♂️
🧶 What I’m wrangling with
At some point in the last 3 years, I've become someone who's comfortable leaving messages unread (and un-replied) for days - often weeks - at a time. The mere thought of this would’ve had me in sweats back in the day (the physical reaction, not the clothes - but that would be a weird curse).
I’m not entirely sure how this happened, but I’m putting it down to pandemic isolation, and an intentional move away from the “always-on” / instantaneous reply culture.
One part of me thinks “What happened to me?”, and the other part is pretty OK with it, when I stop to consider that I have the patience and understanding for people who do the same thing to me.
Splendid song that Ready for the storm.