McMindfulness by Ronald Purser

Author:Ronald Purser
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Watkins Media

chapter nine

Mindful Merchants

Corporate mindfulness training is an extremely lucrative business for savvy consultants. In 2018, the Global Wellness Institute valued “the wellness economy” at $3.72 trillion. The “fitness & mind-body” sector, of which the mindfulness industry is part, is worth $542 billion.1 Sounding mindful of conflicts of interest, the editor of Mindful magazine, Barry Boyce, says “good teachers” are those who “show a strong measure of independence” from their corporate sponsors.2

But is such independence really possible? With such large amounts of money at stake, can we really believe that mindfulness programs wouldn’t dovetail with corporate priorities? How many trainers want to bite the hand that feeds them?

A trip to the Awakened Leadership conference in Los Angeles only amplified my doubts. It all seemed so predictable, starting with the keynote speaker, Dawa Darchin Phillips. Borrowing Aristotle’s tactic of pathos, he began with a dramatic tale of cheating death. I felt emotionally manipulated, but tried to be mindful, setting aside my instinctive reactions and allowing myself to hear how he almost drowned. Then peace washed over him. A friend eventually rescued him, and his life was changed forever.

The spiel soon went downhill. “I want to tell you right away, research is boring,” Phillips said. “And I am going to show you a lot of research.” He wasn’t wrong. What he told us was boring. The research was the same old “this-is-your- brain-on-mindfulness” propaganda. I also noticed a pattern in his slides. Their full-screen, colorful, emotionally laden photos — a smiling child, an elderly loving couple holding hands, a sunset over the ocean — were indistinguishable from those I’d seen at workshops with Search Inside Yourself and Jeremy Hunter. Despite the tedium, there was something just a little too smooth that turned me off. I Googled Phillips and found a slick website. In grandiose terms, it hawked the “Awakened World Global Pilgrimage.” For just $22,500, you could join him on an “ascending journey through the seven chakras of our planet.”3

Back on planet mindfulness, Phillips droned on about why it was so popular in corporations. Don’t tell me — because of employee disengagement? Yep. Out came the same Gallup poll. Did he ask why workers “disengaged”? Was there even an inkling of critical thinking? Nope, just a fat dose of “wow!” Look how bad this problem is. The employees are so disengaged. Businesses are losing tons of money. Mindfulness to the rescue! And don’t worry — it’s not at all weird — check out this science! That was about the sum of his strategy for persuading potential corporate clients in attendance.

During the follow-up Q&A, the conference sponsor asked: “What is your daily consulting fee for delivering a corporate mindfulness training program?” Phillips got a bit cagey. “Well it depends on whether the client is senior management,” he hedged. “And it also depends if we send our senior trainers.” That wasn’t specific enough for the sponsor, who pressed on: “Well, can you just give us a ballpark idea?” Phillips hesitated. The fee? “$12,000 per day,” he muttered.

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