I stopped smoking and my dreams came back. Not visionary dreams. Strange ones. Disjointed. Human.
Along with them came sleepless nights, prophetic questions, and a deeper reckoning about money, authority, integrity, and what New Thought must become in this moment of cultural strain.
Sobriety has sharpened my consciousness. This is what I am discovering after the haze.
If I may, I wanted to share a few ideas for you. Not to say that these ideas are right, they are just the ones I’ve considered in my journey.
I believe addictive behavior is fundamentally a survival mechanism. I say that as someone who has been in recovery for years. I don’t see addiction as a moral failing; I see it as a maladaptive coping strategy that emerges when someone doesn’t perceive another option. In my own life, it was deeply connected to trauma in childhood and early adulthood. I developed many coping strategies during that time. And to be clear, coping strategies aren’t inherently negative. Sometimes we genuinely need a break. The key question is whether the way we take that break supports our mental and emotional health.
You hit the nail on the head! Nervous system regulation is essential. One of the challenges we face is that we don’t have strong cultural infrastructure for it. As Dr. Stephen Porges has said, “We cannot self-regulate until we co-regulate.”
When I look at early New Thought movements or even Louise Hay’s work, I see structures that fostered co-regulation. I plan to write more about this, but it seems to me that we’ve lost that relational infrastructure. Too often, churches can become spaces of division, spiritual hierarchy, or subtle shame. Even some New Thought spaces, with a heavy emphasis on individualism, can unintentionally increase feelings of isolation, guilt, or inadequacy.
The original New Thought message wasn’t individualism as a path to freedom. It was personal responsibility and individualization as pathways to wellness — within a deeply relational framework.
Our systems tend to reward self-will. That’s part of why I spoke about prosperity the way I did recently. Sometimes the most responsible thing we can do is ask for help. Individualism can focus on blame, or worse yet, “I can’t afford it.” Financial barriers to mental health or even spiritual formation. Personal responsibility says, “I need support right now.” Those are very different orientations. The challenge is that we deeply need infrastructure that supports people’s ability to ask for help. A correlation space, if you will.
In many ways, extreme individualism helped create modern guru culture. Yet early New Thought leaders often resisted hierarchy. Myrtle Fillmore of Unity wrote, “We confer titles on no one, we use no titles ourselves, and we take no account of those which other persons use.” Emma Curtis Hopkins even closed her school once she believed the consciousness movement had taken root, which is did and was demonstrated. Her aim was never legacy, but awakening.
I’m not opposed to honoring accomplishment or using titles. But titles can reinforce spiritual hierarchy in some people’s minds, which can undermine co-regulation by subtly outsourcing spirituality to the person “with the ministry.” At this stage, collective consciousness moved away from priests, but many mixed toward capitalistic gurus. Which worked really well for people that started out their with resources.
Regarding money: I trust that resources arrive when and how they are needed. For me, prosperity means well-being — and that includes money, but it also includes relationships, creativity, support, and unexpected avenues of care. True prosperity allows me to say, “I need help.” That, too, is personal responsibility.
Money itself is neutral. Problems arise when access to spiritual formation or community becomes contingent on financial barriers. That’s a systemic issue we are seeing play out widely. Even in our own respective movements. It isn’t money that corrupts — it’s our attachment to it. And more deeply, it’s how we use consciousness.
This is longer than I intended, but I wanted to share these reflections. I may be wrong — I’m still learning. But I appreciate the path you’re walking. As Ram Dass said, “We’re all just walking each other home.” Might just be that our paths are intersecting at this stage.
Rev Dr Brzezinski, welcome home. Your words are deeply thoughtful, grounding, and inspiring. Your clarity and renewed purpose are beautifully articulated throughout your writing. I honor your journey and your awakening. New Thought is alive and well in, as, and through you now.
Excellent work here my friend!
If I may, I wanted to share a few ideas for you. Not to say that these ideas are right, they are just the ones I’ve considered in my journey.
I believe addictive behavior is fundamentally a survival mechanism. I say that as someone who has been in recovery for years. I don’t see addiction as a moral failing; I see it as a maladaptive coping strategy that emerges when someone doesn’t perceive another option. In my own life, it was deeply connected to trauma in childhood and early adulthood. I developed many coping strategies during that time. And to be clear, coping strategies aren’t inherently negative. Sometimes we genuinely need a break. The key question is whether the way we take that break supports our mental and emotional health.
You hit the nail on the head! Nervous system regulation is essential. One of the challenges we face is that we don’t have strong cultural infrastructure for it. As Dr. Stephen Porges has said, “We cannot self-regulate until we co-regulate.”
When I look at early New Thought movements or even Louise Hay’s work, I see structures that fostered co-regulation. I plan to write more about this, but it seems to me that we’ve lost that relational infrastructure. Too often, churches can become spaces of division, spiritual hierarchy, or subtle shame. Even some New Thought spaces, with a heavy emphasis on individualism, can unintentionally increase feelings of isolation, guilt, or inadequacy.
The original New Thought message wasn’t individualism as a path to freedom. It was personal responsibility and individualization as pathways to wellness — within a deeply relational framework.
Our systems tend to reward self-will. That’s part of why I spoke about prosperity the way I did recently. Sometimes the most responsible thing we can do is ask for help. Individualism can focus on blame, or worse yet, “I can’t afford it.” Financial barriers to mental health or even spiritual formation. Personal responsibility says, “I need support right now.” Those are very different orientations. The challenge is that we deeply need infrastructure that supports people’s ability to ask for help. A correlation space, if you will.
In many ways, extreme individualism helped create modern guru culture. Yet early New Thought leaders often resisted hierarchy. Myrtle Fillmore of Unity wrote, “We confer titles on no one, we use no titles ourselves, and we take no account of those which other persons use.” Emma Curtis Hopkins even closed her school once she believed the consciousness movement had taken root, which is did and was demonstrated. Her aim was never legacy, but awakening.
I’m not opposed to honoring accomplishment or using titles. But titles can reinforce spiritual hierarchy in some people’s minds, which can undermine co-regulation by subtly outsourcing spirituality to the person “with the ministry.” At this stage, collective consciousness moved away from priests, but many mixed toward capitalistic gurus. Which worked really well for people that started out their with resources.
Regarding money: I trust that resources arrive when and how they are needed. For me, prosperity means well-being — and that includes money, but it also includes relationships, creativity, support, and unexpected avenues of care. True prosperity allows me to say, “I need help.” That, too, is personal responsibility.
Money itself is neutral. Problems arise when access to spiritual formation or community becomes contingent on financial barriers. That’s a systemic issue we are seeing play out widely. Even in our own respective movements. It isn’t money that corrupts — it’s our attachment to it. And more deeply, it’s how we use consciousness.
This is longer than I intended, but I wanted to share these reflections. I may be wrong — I’m still learning. But I appreciate the path you’re walking. As Ram Dass said, “We’re all just walking each other home.” Might just be that our paths are intersecting at this stage.
Rev Dr Brzezinski, welcome home. Your words are deeply thoughtful, grounding, and inspiring. Your clarity and renewed purpose are beautifully articulated throughout your writing. I honor your journey and your awakening. New Thought is alive and well in, as, and through you now.