The Dark Side Of Spiritual Identities: Splitting, Trauma Bonding, and the Us vs. Them Mentality

On social media, messages about “chosen ones,” “empaths,” and other identities related to spirituality have exploded.

Initially, I found this movement extremely exciting. It put to words what I had been going through my whole life: the loneliness, the spiritual warfare, and how I was different from most people (due to the light).

When it came to the ‘chosen ones’ movement in particular, I envisioned this awareness of who we are (which some may call the “144,000”—something I believe is symbolic rather than literal) would result in us coming together for the betterment of humanity.

Many of us have experienced an extreme amount of isolation and it appeared that we would unite so as to help each other and the future generations, so that they wouldn’t go through as much darkness as what we had to go through.

However, as time went on, I started to feel disenchanted with most of the messages from the chosen ones and empath community.

Rather than the focus being about the upliftment and empowerment of humanity, most creators’ messages centered around spiritual egotism and persecution.

It was like every other message was about how you were more “special,” how people envied you, and how others could not be trusted.

In the chosen ones sphere, for instance, messengers often engage in excessive flattery and encourage spiritual grandiosity.

Furthermore, many are too preoccupied with how others are envious of them and most people can’t be trusted, some even coming off as extremely guarded and defensive.

To be clear, there are indeed some messages about chosen ones and empaths are positive and informative in nature and I don’t mean to discount the value some have offered. I, myself, have created videos about chosen ones and empaths. I also think it is about how the messages are structured and where they are coming from.

Additionally, I intimately understand how people of the dark (i.e. pathologically envious people) often try to prevent those of the light from knowing who they are.

But, it is important to acknowledge that there are some glaring issues within the chosen ones and empath community.

One of the biggest things is that the chosen ones and empath community causes a lot of people to engage in what is known in psychology terms as “splitting.” In a nutshell, it is when a person sees people and situations in black-and-white, right vs. wrong, angel vs. devil.

Sometimes it is useful to see people in distinct “good/bad” terms, especially if you have a tendency to overlook the toxic traits in others and need to see them more clearly. This is especially true if you are dealing with a malevolent cluster-B type since they have ill intentions.

Nonetheless, splitting leads to people adopting an “us vs. them” mentality which often becomes a form of trauma bonding. I don’t necessarily mean trauma bonding in the way a narcissist would trauma bond with an empath, although there may be similar dynamics, but that people literally bond over their trauma/pain over higher ideals and a greater vision.

As you may be able to see, splitting, an us vs. them mentality, and trauma bonding can easily occur together when people are relating to themselves by spiritual identities which emphasizes exclusiveness by nature.

In other words, if one is special because their light makes them different from others, then it is easy to adopt a belief system where they split, see outsiders as enemies, and bond over these things.

Learning some things in messages for chosen ones and empaths can be helpful to an extent, but you have to expand your knowledge past these concepts at some point. Otherwise, you run the risk of being stunted since these communities only go so deep and are often an echo chamber.

My recommendation is to get the information you need but allow yourself to learn from other types of sources as well.

Another recommendation if you are drawn to people who share about topics like empaths and chosen ones is to look for those whose work is multi-faceted.

This is because many of these channels often regurgitate the same messages without providing deeper frameworks and solutions to actually move your life forward, so people can easily get stuck in a lower timeline where they are not growing as exponentially as they can.