The Reality of Spirituality and Western Consciousness Institutions

Racism, Discrimination, and the Lack of International Cooperation in Out-of-Body Experiences and Consciousness Studies

I am not writing this essay out of pessimism, nor with the aim of attacking the West or denying the contributions made by Western researchers and authors in the fields of spirituality, out-of-body experiences, and the study of consciousness. I have personally learned from many Western methods, books, and schools, and I have studied a considerable part of their history, terminology, and training methods. Integrity, however, also requires us not to settle for the idealized image that some of these institutions present of themselves. We must speak frankly about the other side of the experience: discrimination, condescension, weak international cooperation, and the concentration of knowledge within specific geographical and cultural circles.

Here I wish to share my personal experience of attempting to build international cooperation in out-of-body experiences and consciousness research. These attempts extended to organizations and individuals in the United States, Brazil, and Australia, as well as authors, trainers, and researchers from a variety of Western backgrounds.

Over time, I began to notice a recurring pattern in the way some Western individuals and institutions dealt with researchers and organizations from the Arab and Islamic world, as well as from regions such as India and China. I do not claim that every Western institution or researcher holds this attitude, but the repetition of these situations made it difficult to regard them as isolated incidents.

Global Spirituality That Stops at Borders

Many institutions in this field speak of the unity of consciousness, the universality of spirit, and the transcendence of religious, national, and racial boundaries. In theory, the human being is presented as a cosmic being unrestricted by identity, language, or geography. Yet when the discussion moves from rhetoric to practical cooperation, the picture sometimes changes quite clearly.

When a researcher, translator, or institution from the Arab world seeks to translate training material, organize scholarly cooperation, establish an accredited center, or conduct a serious interview, barriers suddenly appear. Openness becomes limited, communication slows, rejection comes without explanation, or unpaid work is accepted while permission to publish or benefit from its results is withheld.

This reveals a contradiction: how can an institution that speaks of cosmic consciousness treat knowledge as though it were a closed form of cultural property? And how can someone who speaks of transcending the ego view entire peoples as less prepared to understand or less deserving of participation?

My Experience with Translation and Cooperation

As someone who has studied many Western approaches in this field, and as the holder of an accredited license to work in translation, I attempted to contact a number of authors and institutions in order to translate their programs and content into Arabic.

I contacted organizations associated with Spiritism in the United States and tried to open channels of cooperation with the Monroe Institute. I also sought communication regarding the Astral Dynamics website and system associated with the work of Robert Bruce, in addition to my attempts within the Conscientiology community in Brazil, as well as with authors, trainers, and individuals from the Western world.

My intention was not to obtain free materials or appropriate the work of others. I was proposing professional cooperation and lawful, organized translation that could introduce these systems to a broad Arabic-speaking audience. Nevertheless, the prevailing pattern was neglect, rejection, or an unwillingness even to discuss the matter.

In some cases, as in Conscientiology, translation or revision work was accepted, but publication was not permitted and the content was not made genuinely available to the Arabic-speaking public. The translator thus becomes someone who contributes cultural and linguistic labor without any serious intention on the other side to deliver the knowledge to the region to which that translator belongs.

I also encountered clear reluctance toward conducting interviews, establishing partnerships, or discussing the creation of centers and programs in the Middle East and the Arab world. The rejection was not always explicit, but it appeared through silence, delay, unbalanced conditions, or the treatment of the region as though it were inherently unqualified.

The Pessimistic View of the Islamic World, India, and China

I believe that part of the problem stems from an entrenched negative image of the people of these regions. Some view the Islamic world, India, and China as environments dominated by authority, religion, or social control, and therefore incapable of allowing freedom of thought beyond traditional frameworks.

From this, it may be inferred that the peoples of these regions are culturally backward, unable to build independent institutions in the study of consciousness, or incapable of protecting researchers and practitioners from religious or political restriction.

Some of these concerns may be connected to real conditions in particular countries, and it would be wrong to deny the challenges to freedom of expression and research in many societies. The problem begins, however, when these concerns become a sweeping judgment about billions of people, and when Arab, Indian, or Chinese researchers are assumed to be less capable of critical thinking, experimentation, or innovation.

The Islamic world is not a single bloc, India is not merely a religious stereotype, and China is not merely a political authority. These societies contain researchers, thinkers, translators, and practitioners with profound experience, as well as institutions capable of working, developing, and building genuine audiences.

The Superiority Complex Behind Spiritual Discourse

The second problem may be described as a cultural superiority complex. I have discovered that speaking about universality and cosmic unity does not necessarily mean freedom from racism or Western-centrism.

In their practical dealings, some people in the West who speak about spirituality and enlightenment differ little from conventional business owners. They may use the language of love, consciousness, and evolution, yet their goals remain tied to profit, personal branding, control over content, and the search for markets that promise a rapid return.

When they see no immediate profit in the Arab market, they show little interest in translation or expansion there. When they do not understand the nature of Islamic societies, they assume that no demand exists for their books or programs. Worse still, some may not truly believe that people in these regions are capable of comprehending the knowledge they offer.

This attitude is not always expressed openly. Rarely does someone write, “I do not trust Arabs,” or “I do not believe Muslims can understand this field.” Yet the attitude appears in decisions, in the level of respect shown, in the refusal of partnership, and in the failure to grant Arab institutions the same opportunities given to European or American institutions.

Spirituality Does Not Automatically Eliminate Racism

There is a common illusion that a person who practices meditation, out-of-body exploration, or energy healing automatically becomes more ethical and open-minded. Experience, however, shows that spiritual practice does not necessarily erase cultural, racial, or psychological prejudice.

A person may experience unusual states of consciousness and then return to behave with a sense of superiority. Someone may speak of transcending the ego while building a highly centralized institution around themselves. A person may believe in multiple lives while still viewing the peoples of the present world through old colonial classifications.

Spiritual experience is not a certificate of moral integrity. An out-of-body experience does not mean that the experiencer has become free from racism, greed, or the need for control. Institutions and individuals must therefore be evaluated by their actual conduct, not by the terminology they use.

The Problem of Total Dependence on Imported Knowledge

These experiences have convinced me that we will not excel in consciousness studies if our role remains limited to waiting for whatever the West permits us to translate, importing its systems, or seeking recognition from its institutions.

Translation is important, intellectual exchange is necessary, and Western experience should not be rejected. Translation alone, however, does not build a civilization, and extending the thought of others does not create intellectual independence.

If our institutions remain merely branches of Western systems, we will continue to be subject to their approval, terminology, limitations, and internal conflicts. Arab researchers will remain compelled to prove themselves before people who may know nothing about their history, culture, or experience.

We therefore need to move from the stage of importation to the stage of production. We need to build our own systems, terminology, institutions, and research while remaining open to everything useful from both East and West, but without dependency.

We possess a deep intellectual and spiritual history. The Arab and Islamic world is not an empty land waiting to be filled with Western knowledge. We have a long history of philosophy, medicine, astronomy, spiritual psychology, Sufism, mysticism, and the study of the self, imagination, visions, dreams, and states of consciousness.

Muslim philosophers and mystics discussed the self, spirit, mind, perception, and existence centuries before many contemporary Western institutions appeared. This does not mean that everything in the heritage is correct or that it eliminates the need for modern science and critical inquiry. It means that we possess an intellectual and cultural foundation that can be developed, rather than always beginning as pupils waiting for the approval of a Western center.

What is needed is neither a blind return to the past nor the transformation of consciousness studies into a closed religious discourse. What is needed is a contemporary project that combines critical study, disciplined personal experience, philosophy, heritage, and scientific research wherever possible.

Toward an Independent Arab Foundation for Consciousness Studies

I have reached a clear conviction: an independent Arab foundation for the study of consciousness and out-of-body experiences must be created—a foundation that is not hostile to the West, but is not dependent on it.

We should lawfully translate what we are able to translate and cooperate with every institution that respects us as genuine partners. At the same time, however, we must produce our own books, courses, terminology, studies, and training systems.

We must also build networks of cooperation with researchers in India, China, Africa, Latin America, and other regions that have likewise suffered from Western-centrism. The world is not limited to the United States and Europe, and knowledge does not move in only one direction.

True international cooperation does not mean that a Western center transmits knowledge to the periphery. It means that different centers exchange experience on equal terms.

The Role of Mindscape

I believe Mindscape should be part of this transformation. The aim is not for it to become an Arabic copy of a Western institution, nor to repeat the ideas of Monroe, Robert Bruce, Conscientiology, or others mechanically.

We can study these schools, benefit from them, and critique them, but we must build our own identity and our own approach, rooted in our experience, our culture, and the needs of our societies.

Mindscape should be a space for exploring consciousness and reality in a systematic, non-dogmatic manner, free from submission to religious, intellectual, or Western authority. It should permit experimentation and criticism, respect heritage without sanctifying it, and benefit from science without turning it into a closed materialist ideology. Independence does not mean isolation; it means entering cooperation as an equal rather than as a subordinate.

My Message to Western Institutions and Researchers in Consciousness Studies

My message to Western institutions and researchers is simple: if you truly believe in the universality of consciousness, your practices must be worthy of that discourse.

It is not enough to speak of unity and the cosmic spirit while knowledge remains confined to English or Portuguese. Nor is it enough to call for transcending the ego while non-Western institutions are treated with superiority or constant suspicion.

The Arab world, India, China, and Africa are not merely potential markets, nor are they backward regions waiting to be rescued. They contain researchers, authors, and practitioners capable of contributing, criticizing, and developing—not merely translating and consuming.

Real cooperation requires respect, transparency, mutual recognition, and the sharing of opportunities and rights. It does not mean accepting unpaid work and then preventing its contributor from publishing it or benefiting from it.

Conclusion

I do not write this to call for a break with the West, nor to deny the value of what it has contributed to the study of consciousness and out-of-body experiences. Nor do I wish to replace Western prejudice with an opposing Arab or Islamic prejudice.

I do, however, reject the expectation that we must always prove our worth before institutions that make no comparable effort to understand us. I also reject the transformation of spirituality into an attractive cover beneath which profit, centralization, and discrimination are concealed.

My negative experiences did not lead me to abandon international cooperation, but they did lead me to redefine it. The cooperation we need is not dependency on any party, but partnership among equals. It is not waiting for recognition, but building strong institutions that command respect through their output, continuity, and quality of work.

Some may refuse to authorize translations of their books, and many institutions may continue to ignore the Arab world, but that does not mean we should stop. It means that the time has come to write our own books, build our own systems, establish our own schools, and offer our own vision of consciousness studies.

We should not remain on the margins of the global map of consciousness. We must create our own center.

Trainer Mohammed Alamassi

Researcher and Out-of-Body Explorer