In the quest for social reflection, one man stands out. And he stands tall.

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JP Sears has popped out of the woodwork with some hilarious videos in his Ultra spiritual series, which pick apart many aspects of what could be called spiritual dogmatism.

A lot of people have missed the point though and a firestorm has popped up in the comments sections of his videos with many people crying insensitivity. In our interview JP reveals a little known fact about his own diet which would surprise many of the people who are hating on him.

The “How to become gluten intolerant” video

A lot of people love this video because it touches on something that many of us are thinking; the gluten free thing is often highly pretentious coming from it’s advocates.

What most people don’t know is that JP himself has been gluten free for 12 years. This will be a big surprise for those of you who think big bad JP is on an insensitivity rampage, but what he’s really trying to do is shed some light on something which far too many people take too seriously.

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“I have a health practice but the way I use this health practice can start to become unhealthy. I think the control, attachment, dogma, rigidity, expectations, even victimization around a health practice is a lot of unhealthiness enveloping this health practice. I’m a big fan of not taking myself too seriously, and every once in a while I find it very helpful to do a little inventory. Sit down and say ‘OK JP, what of my beliefs, my practices, my values, what of these am I taking too seriously?” and just because I find I’m taking something too seriously doesn’t mean I’m going to push that belief or practice or value, out onto the street and well screw this it’s not part of my life anymore, but what I do want to do is deliberately and intentionally add some levity to the gravity of it. If it’s still serving me I’m going to keep it but how can I shed some of the gravity of the dogma, and control, or whatever else of the belief which is working against me.”

JP emphasises that he likes to follow the intuition of his body to determine how he should treat it or nourish it. He doesn’t advocate that everybody be gluten free, just that you should see how you feel when you follow any kind of health practice.

Or as he put it in his video:

Being gluten intolerant is the hottest eating trend in the New Age community since we found out you don’t have to eat animals. Gluten is the new animal you don’t have to eat. Being gluten intolerant used to be limited only to those who are actually intolerant to gluten, but with a cutting-edge information I’m sharing with you in this video, you too can be gluten intolerant regardless if you’re truly intolerant to gluten or not.

On Beauty

We will never truly accept ourselves physically if we don’t take care of what we think of ourselves on the inside. Although outer beauty and taking care of ourselves physically will have an effect on both the way other people see us and on how we see ourselves, the case of Michael Jackson demonstrates amply that in the end you need to have authentic self love or nothing you do on the outside will matter.

We’re all subject to social conditioning and our own perspective on our beauty can become muddled; it can become unclear if we are looking at ourselves the way we really are, the way other people think of us, or the way we think other people think of us.

Or as JP puts it:

“Am I seeing myself the way other people see me, or am I actually genuinely in touch with my own authentic interpretation of my beauty, or my ugliness?” We have so much conditioning that were used to seeing ourselves based on how we see other people seeing us.” “It’s a great discovery when we can finally crash into whats my authentic perspective on how I look”

Obviously we have to dig deep to learn if we’ve been numb to our own reality or we’re on the right track.

Spirituality Dogmatic Spirituality

Most people get into spiritual practices to become more (buzzword alert) holistic and non judgemental, and to truly feel connected with others and nature. The problem comes when our idea of spirituality, and our practices, ends up blocking us from achieving what we were looking for in the first place.

This happens because people start focusing on group etiquette instead of the the real objective of connecting more deeply with ourselves and others. People who don’t follow the same practices will then be considered outsiders, and not “enlightened” like people inside the clique.

It doesn’t matter if it’s called spirituality, the end result is a disconnection from other people and reality.

This is the central theme behind JP’s Ultra Spiritual series where he picks apart different spiritual practices and hopes to shed light on something which most people seem unaware of.

“Most of us could agree the world of spirituality, no matter what angle you come from, is all about acceptance and non judgment, so when we take a look at the values or practices of our spiritual life they actually start to work against what we’re striving for. Maybe (within) our spiritual practices we become dogmatic, and without us even knowing it, fuels our judgment of other people.” “The path I’m taking to find myself can also be the path where I lose myself.” “Our spiritual practices can eventually become practices that kind of constrict our spirituality. They can create a sense of separation, judgment and superiority.” “The ultra spiritual series I do is all about calling people out, me being one of them, on things we do that prevent us from being more authentically ourselves.”

Watch the full interview with JP for the whole story, and subscribe for more content weekly.

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By Eddy Baller

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Originally posted on The BallerCast

Photo: Flickr/Joe Hall