How to be Ultra Spiritual

How to be Ultra Spiritual by JP Sears was initially posted on YouTube on May 24, 2021, but you can watch on Rumble now or listen to it on PodBean, or of course you can keep reading.

So, if you don’t know who JP Sears is, he hit my radar several years ago with his Prancersize video, which then sent me down the rabbit hole of Ultra Spiritual JP, which if you haven’t seen his videos yet, crawl out from the rock you obviously live under and go watch his videos…as soon as you finish this one. Anyway, a few years ago he wrote this book, and I bought it and put it on my shelf until I gave myself good reason to read it, namely starting this channel, where I am trying to make it legal to 1. Think, and 2. Laugh

And this is what How to be Ultra Spiritual does. It does make you laugh, because JP is wickedly funny, and it makes you think because his satire is as spot on as Gad Saad. And satire is the best part. In this book, JP takes you through 12 ½ steps to being ultra spiritual, and he basically kicks the tar out of an awful lot of new age sacred cows. 

Incidentally, herein is the secret to happiness: Have no sacred cows—or at least be willing to laugh about them. Some of the sacred cows that JP kicks include yoga, veganism, guru’s, meditation, religion, and depending on your feelings.

I think JP tackles each of these in turn on his Ultra Spiritual YouTube channel, but I think I want to review these like I did Jordan Peterson’s Beyond Order, seeing how I compare and how I can encompass these teachings to make myself more Ultra Spiritual, like the Ultra enlightened JP Sears

1.       Competitive Spirituality, I am off to a good start in my quest for Ultraspirituality, since I have shamed others into feeling bad about their lack of spirituality or the fact that they are not as spiritual as me.  But I think I’m still doing it wrong, since JP advises multiple ways to assert your superiority without ACTUALLY stating that you are superior.

2.       Inconveniently Human I read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, and let me just say, the ancient Stoics could learn a thing or two about burying humanity from JP Sears. He walks you through step by step on how to kill that most human part of yourself: Feelings. I’m pretty good about repressing my feelings, but I still have them, which means I lose Ultraspiritual points on this one.

3.       Dreaming up your Awakening. I remember my own awakening….

4.       Rigidly Yogic, because you can only be spiritual if you not only do yoga, but are loudly vocal about the type of yoga you practice. I also lose spiritual points on this one.  I USED to practice Bikram yoga.  I also lost spiritual points because after the Bikram yoga, instead of going for smoothy and taking a picture of me in my yoga gear, which was Walmart brand and ultra cheap and basically worn until it fell off my body in rags, I would immediately go home and shower the prodigious amounts of sweat off myself. So again, I fail at ultra spirituality. But I may be able to redeem myself if I start yoga again. Maybe.

5.       Veganism I completely fail here. I am not now and will never be a vegan. This has to do with extreme aenemia…meat helps me not pass out. So, I lose 10,000 ultra spiritual points for not being a vegan.

6.       Your Guru the only guru anyone needs is the ultra-enlightened JP Sears. Send him money!

7.       Mindfullessness I think I have a lock on this one. At least at my day job, where half the time I completely tune out whatever someone is saying to me, then pretend like I was having phone connection problems (if my boss at my day job watches this, I’m kidding…or am I…?) So, I pay absolutely no attention, then intuit what the question was based on the last thing they said. Then I impulsively spit out the answer, trusting the universe to guide me to the correct guidance. I’m halfway to the key for mindfullessness…

8.       Merciless Meditation another failure!  I am not good at this ultraspirituality. I started a book on meditation (not the Marcus Aurelius one, but a book with how to words in the title.) I think I need an app for that.

9.       Critically Nonjudgmental ok, this was something else I excelled at. I am super nonjudgmental, while criticizing others for being completely judgmental. It’s a true gift, to recognize when someone is being judgmental and then call them out on it.

10.   Religiously Unreligious another win! Not an atheist, which JP correctly identifies as another religion, but I tend to avoid all levels of organized religion.

11.   Plant Medicine Compulsions and a final failure. The above-mentioned day job precludes me from plant medications. But JP does an excellent job describing the benefits of Ayahuasca.

12.   Spiritual Testing Grounds this was literally a test.  Maybe I am not as hopeless as I thought, since I aced the test…naturally.

12.5  Convincing Spirituality the half step is looking to the future of spirituality, and I look forward to learning more ultra spiritual tips from ultra enlightened JP.

This was a super fun, tongue in cheek read, while JP kicks to death the sacred cows of the new age movements. If you need a quick laugh, check out JP’s channel. If you need a laugh that makes you think, read this book.