It's not only women who are 'lovely dovey' and believe in being better people beyond anything else. I agree that stupidly vast sums of money are spent on things that I wouldn't part with my money for, but I accept the belief systems of those who, for instance, think it will make their lives better to buy a Hermes handbag, or a pair of Jimmy Choos, or even a massive house or countless holidays in the Bahamas.
I think it's silly and unhelpful to the peace the world deserves, but I try to focus more on not making that judgement because I know that, in truth, it's judgement and intolerance that creates wars and poverty and depression, not Jimmy Choos, or Reiki.
The things some of you are trying to debunk usually help people to become better people. They help connect people with their higher selves, the bit of them that isn't dragged down by ego, judgement, lack of compassion and self-love. They're the sort of things that makes the Mandelas, the Ghandis, the Ammas of the world.
I also believe, however, in the 'don't pay to pray' principle, and struggle with the vast sums of mine that change hands in the name of anything - fashion or spirituality. Both systems exploit people when in the hands of unawakened, unwhole people.
I reject the premise of anyone who intolerably and unkindly tramples all over another person's beliefs and choices, particularly if those beliefs and choices are leading them to be better, more conscious people, which will ultimately make the world a better, more conscious world.
However it works, whether it's universal life force, God, or simply the 'placebo effect' - whatever you want to believe - the point is that reiki, yoga, meditation, pagan ritual, prayer, shamanic drum journeys, Any activity with a spiritual base, has changed many, many people's lives. And not just the lives of those who subscribe to them.
My daily practice of yoga, meditation and prayer has changed the energy/atmosphere in our household completely to be one of more peace and more unconditional love and compassion. The women's circles I have sat in where we have chanted to evoke the aspects of the Goddesses that are within us all - whether that's on an actual or simply an archetypal level - have changed how I feel about myself so deeply that I have emerged from twenty-plus years of debilitating depression and anxiety into what feels like my first ever spring.
My husband's experience of reiki has taught him ways of coping with his own negative feelings about himself, with his self-doubt and low self-esteem, and with the negativity of others, so that he now comes home from work calm, peaceful and truly in his power, rather than stressed, tired and full of migraines.
Does being sneering and patronising actually make you feel pleasant? Does it fill you up with joy and peace? Or does it create an unpleasant feeling of one-upmanship, or smugness? Do your go away from these posts feeling at peace with yourself, or have you simply strengthened your ego's sense of vanity and judgementalness?
That is my point about who I would rather communicate with. Yes, the vast sums of money exchanged issues a big one, but not one limited to the holistic therapies - we're told hourly by adverts on the tv, the computer, by the road in magazines and newspapers, and by people who seem to have it all, celebrities etc. that spending vast sums of money on shoes, cars, mobile phones etc. will make us happy...how is that different to the peddling of alternative therapies?
Both are lies if you need to part with a lot of cash for them. What is true, however, is that holistic therapies and belief systems have far more power to heal as they focus on the truth of what's really deep down. When peddled by people asking for more payment than they need to earn a modest living, then I think it doesn't lead to the same awakening, but by someone who asks for donations to cover costs, or to help them survive financially, or who offers energy exchange as a way of paying, then truly that can only make positive changes in people's lives and even in the world, and your lack of compassion and tolerance does the opposite - it makes the world a more destructive, intolerant, dangerous place.