Spirituality Became Exhausting. That Might Be the Problem. With Binesh Toor

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Based on a conversation with Binesh Toor and host Philipp Kobald

The modern spiritual crisis has an odd aesthetic. It smells faintly of palo santo, arrives via algorithm, and speaks in a tone suggesting that enlightenment is roughly three affirmations and a magnesium supplement away. Somewhere between the fifth podcast clip about “raising your frequency” and a sponsored post explaining why your trauma is blocking abundance, many people quietly started wondering if spirituality had become just another productivity cult wearing linen trousers.

And then, every now and then, somebody says something disarmingly simple: “Spirituality doesn’t have to be boring.” — Binesh Toor

Which, frankly, feels almost rebellious now.

The Exhaustion of Performing Enlightenment

One of the strangest side effects of modern spiritual culture is how exhausting it has become. The language of awakening increasingly resembles corporate burnout with incense. Heal faster. Manifest harder. Optimise your nervous system. Become your highest self before Tuesday.

No wonder people are tired.

In this episode of Spiritual Conversation, Philipp Kobald speaks with Pakistani energy healer and spiritual practitioner Binesh Toor about mysticism, Sufism, energy healing, and the uncomfortable reality that many people searching for spiritual truth are secretly suffocating under the weight of trying to “do spirituality correctly.”

What makes the conversation land isn’t grand philosophy. It’s relief. Relief that maybe spirituality isn’t supposed to feel like another performance review. Relief that questioning things doesn’t make you broken. Relief that ancient wisdom traditions were often far less rigid, humourless, and doctrinaire than their modern internet versions.

At one point, Toor describes mysticism not as obedience to a set of perfect beliefs, but as exploration: “They’re not going to ask you to follow their principle or rules. They’re going to give you the tools to explore yourself.” — Binesh Toor

That distinction matters more than most people realise. Because many people aren’t rejecting spirituality itself. They’re rejecting spiritual authoritarianism disguised as wellness.

The Mystics Were Not Content Creators

There is something almost hilarious about the fact that some of history’s most profound spiritual traditions are now filtered through motivational reels narrated by someone standing barefoot in Bali near a suspiciously expensive smoothie.

The Sufi mystics would probably laugh first.

That’s one of the most refreshing threads running through the conversation: the reminder that mysticism was never meant to be sterile. The great Sufi poets weren’t producing polished self-help frameworks for brand partnerships. They wandered deserts, wrote poetry, questioned society, mocked ego, and often sounded startlingly alive.

Philipp Kobald captures this beautifully when reflecting on what drew him toward Sufi writings in the first place: “I enjoyed the humor a lot.” — Philipp Kobald

Not transcendence. Not superiority. Humour.

There’s a reason that detail feels important. Humour punctures spiritual vanity faster than almost anything else. It interrupts the fantasy that awakening means becoming emotionally airbrushed. The mystics understood this long before modern wellness culture started monetising seriousness as proof of depth.

Somewhere along the line, spirituality became associated with speaking very slowly about quantum energy while looking mildly disappointed in humanity. But many genuine traditions carried warmth, contradiction, poetry, absurdity, and emotional texture. They understood something modern culture often forgets: wisdom without humanity becomes theatre.

Energy, But Without the Merchandising

The episode circles repeatedly around energy healing, but interestingly, not in the polished influencer sense that now dominates social media. Toor speaks about energy in deeply practical terms: burnout, emotional overload, blocked thoughts, collective suffering.

“The science says the same thing now. We are beings which are made of energy.” — Binesh Toor

What’s notable is not the claim itself. Variations of that idea now appear everywhere from neuroscience-adjacent podcasts to wellness retreats charging the price of a small vehicle for breathwork beside a waterfall.

What matters is the emotional framing around it.

In the conversation, energy isn’t treated as a fashionable identity accessory. It’s treated as responsibility. If human beings are interconnected emotionally, psychologically, spiritually — even imperfectly — then isolation becomes partly an illusion. The suffering of others leaks into the collective atmosphere whether we acknowledge it or not. Wars, fear, disconnection, rage: they don’t remain politely contained behind borders.

Which may explain why so many people feel spiritually overloaded despite outwardly functioning lives. The nervous system was never designed for twenty-four-hour exposure to global despair packaged as scrolling content.

Modern people often speak about burnout as though it’s merely professional fatigue. But much of it is existential exhaustion. Too much noise. Too many identities. Too much performance. Too little meaning.

And perhaps that’s why mysticism is resurfacing again — not because people suddenly want dogma, but because they want direct experience. Something felt. Something lived. Not another lecture.

The Internet Accidentally Opened the Temple Doors

One of the most compelling observations in the episode arrives almost casually. Toor reflects on how the internet exposed her to spiritual traditions and writings that were previously inaccessible, particularly across cultural and linguistic boundaries.

It’s easy to mock the internet — and often deservedly. Humanity has, after all, invented a device capable of accessing centuries of philosophy only to primarily use it for arguments about celebrities and videos of raccoons stealing cat food.

But something extraordinary has also happened.

Ancient ideas that once remained geographically isolated are now colliding in real time. Sufism meets psychology. Buddhist meditation meets neuroscience. Indigenous perspectives meet ecological collapse. Religious certainty meets spiritual curiosity.

The result is messy. Sometimes deeply commercialised. Occasionally ridiculous. But also strangely hopeful.

Because beneath the chaos sits a generation asking sincere questions again.

Not performative questions. Real ones.

What matters? Why are so many people emotionally numb? Why does achievement often fail to produce meaning? Can spirituality exist without manipulation, tribalism, or intellectual surrender? And perhaps most importantly: can someone seek truth without pretending certainty?

Maybe the Point Was Never Perfection

The episode never tries to offer a clean answer to spirituality’s contradictions. Thankfully.

Instead, it leaves something more useful: permission.

Permission to explore without immediately choosing a camp. Permission to question inherited narratives. Permission to approach spirituality without turning it into identity cosplay. Permission to laugh.

That last one may be the most important.

Because people searching for meaning do not necessarily need more pressure. Many already feel spiritually inadequate before they’ve even begun. They’ve consumed enough content to believe enlightenment is a competitive sport populated entirely by serene people with perfect morning routines.

Meanwhile, the mystics were writing poetry about longing, confusion, love, suffering, ego, absurdity, and the unbearable complexity of being human.

In other words: they sounded human.

And maybe that is the real relief hidden underneath conversations like this one. Not that somebody finally has all the answers, but that the search itself does not require becoming less alive.

Perhaps spirituality was never meant to remove contradiction. Perhaps it was meant to help us survive it with more honesty.

Guest Bio: Binesh Toor is a Pakistani spiritual practitioner and energy healer who works with clients online and explores mysticism, healing, and consciousness through the lens of Sufism and energy work.

🌐 Link to our Guest and Books: Web: www.sheelwhoheal.com

Philipp’s Book: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. 🌐Spiritual Parenting: https://amzn.to/4e0Xx5e #Ad

The full episode can be watched on the HolisticCircle YouTube channel.

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