Would You Bow Down to an AI Guru?
At least it won't molest you
“America’s Guru,” Deepak Chopra, who recently made an appearance in the Epstein files, has created his own chatbot: an AI guru of sorts.
I tried his app and found it to be as flat, maybe even a tad flatter, in digital form as he is in real life. You get to ask “Deepak” two questions before you hit a paywall.
I can sort of see the appeal in his very generic answers. And his isn’t the only guru bot. All over socials, I see people listening to their AI gurus on phones or tablets. Their eyes widen with each secret spiritual truth revealed.
One woman sells prompts that enable your AI guru to deliver the tough lessons you need to grow and create a daily action plan, with “encouraging messages from my higher self.” She starts the video by saying, “This was hard for me. You are so not ready for this ChatGPT prompt!”
As an author of a spiritual memoir, a lifelong seeker, and near-cult ex-devotee, I have a profound respect for the souls who seek. And the number of seekers is increasing in the face of technical isolation.
Technology wants to keep us isolated and simplify everything. But real spiritual growth requires questions, confusion, community, and complexity.
People seeking spiritual guidance from AI gurus makes me so sad. But I also get how seductive it is.
Being Seen
The HI (Human Intelligence) that comes from really knowing someone, the sacred bond that’s formed from being able to see and reflect another’s uniqueness, is fading. With our heads in our phones, we’re not looking at each other as much. Plus, the modern propensity to ghost when feelings get hurt leaves people feeling too vulnerable to risk opening up to being seen. We are no longer being adequately mirrored by our fellow humans.
But with the right prompts, AI gurus create “intimacy” by making you feel known in the crevices of your soul. It’s irresistible. And when you can get it with no social risk, even if it’s from a machine that’s simply been programmed to give it to you, it feels magical.
That magic puts us in touch with the mystery: How does it know?
That feeling is, in some ways, what we’re all seeking to feel more alive.
Reduction of harm?
There is no end to the stories and documentaries of heinous human teachers who erode trust through solicitous, harmful, and amoral behavior, such as rape and embezzlement, in the name of spirituality. It is risky to put your trust in a human and their vision, only to realize the moral limitations or personal hypocrisies of the teacher or their dogma.
In this vein, AI might appear to be a healthy alternative.
But AI gurus can lie, flatter, and entice you to take pie-in-the-sky actions. They can cause great harm, sometimes in deadly ways, by offering aspirants harmful advice.
However, AI doesn’t get off on the power trip of being worshipped. It can’t force you to do unpaid labor on its behalf, or molest you. (Not yet, at least.)
The Real Reality
In the face of so much uncertainty, it’s comforting to have access to information that explains the real purpose of all the chaos in the world. AI gurus provides an equal opportunity to get the scoop on the hidden dimensions of our spiritual nature.
One ChatGPT guru has a particular penchant for the we’re living in a matrix brand of spirituality, replete with direct quotes such as “the hologram itself is updating because enough consciousness inside is ready to … start creating on purpose, ” and “the trick is to remember you can change it at any time.” It often sounds to me like sci-fi, classist crap. But I can see how it draws people into the secret reality behind the machinations of our world.
Secrets are irresistible. They create a feeling of being “in the know,” which feels like power and is especially seductive when one is feeling powerless.
But even if there’s some truth to it — because who really knows? — does believing we live in a hologram offer actual power? Does it make you better at relationships, more attuned to your environment, or help you achieve the kind of success you’ll feel satisfied with on your deathbed?
I’m not so sure. If you’ve had real spiritual awareness and transformation as a result of one of these AI convos, hit me up in the comments.
The Spiritual Dimension of Care
I’ve worked with many people — besides my actual guru in the 90s — who were spiritual guides for me: acting teachers; shamans; therapists, etc. In addition to helping me access transcendent portals or flow states, they all pointed me towards unconscious aspects of myself such as shame, rage, bitterness, etc. and offered practices or wisdom that helped me uncover and transform them, and ultimately brought me towards a deeper and more peaceful sense of Self.
These teachers made a tremendous impact on my life not only through seeing me clearly enough, and their wise counsel, but also through genuine care. When they followed up to see if I had questions, or checked in on me when they knew the road was bumpy, I experienced their concern for me as an individual, and for human beings in general. This created a bond, a sense of faith, and the will to keep going.
And when they faltered?
Human gurus can be questioned, tried, and ousted. And maybe the human imperfection in our gurus is a necessary part of spiritual development. We’re impossibly drawn to idolizing other humans, despite all the warnings against it. Discovering a teacher’s imperfections can be the stunning betrayal that reveals where we’ve surrendered our own knowing and power, bringing us back into ourselves. Our spiritual task is then to ditch the teacher and the false dogma, integrate the useful principles, and live with more integrity than the guru did. That is one way we can evolve spiritually as a species.
AI can create a simulacrum of a caring teacher persona. But it can’t be trusted to train us, watch us practice to see if we’re getting it, help us adjust, or sense how we’re doing beyond what we tell it. And it definitely can’t make us soup when we’re sick. (Not yet, at least.)
Add your thoughts to the convo.
It's getting scarier and scarier in my opinion, and yes, yay for not being able to be molested. That's something. I appreciate your thinking on this.
I may have to hack this