A Feeling Turned Into A Measurement
Spiritual bypassing was first described as a pattern, not a number.
In 2017, psychologist Jesse Fox and colleagues built the Spiritual Bypass Scale (SBS-13) to actually measure it.
13 Items, One Simple Format
The scale has 13 statements. You rate how true each one is for you on a four-point scale of agreement, from strongly disagree to strongly agree.
No pass or fail. Just a pattern, scored.
It Splits Into Two Factors
- Psychological Avoidance — Nine items measuring the tendency to dodge difficult emotions by turning to spirituality instead.
- Spiritualizing — Four items measuring the habit of reframing ordinary psychological struggles in purely spiritual terms.
Both factors correlate with each other, but they’re measuring two slightly different moves.
Factor 1: Psychological Avoidance
These nine items catch the direct move — something painful comes up, and spirituality becomes the exit instead of the path through it.
- Emotional Deflection — When I feel intense negative emotions like anger or grief, I use spiritual practices to quickly change my emotional state rather than feel them directly.
- Preference For Spiritual Help — It is more important to me to seek spiritual guidance than to seek aid from a psychological helper or counselor.
- Detachment From Conflict — I avoid addressing relationship issues or interpersonal conflict because I believe love and light should resolve everything naturally.
- Invalidation Of Negative Feelings — I believe that feeling angry, sad, or disappointed is a sign of lower consciousness or spiritual failure.
- Premature Forgiveness — I forgive people immediately after they hurt me so that I don’t hold onto negative spiritual energy, even if I haven’t fully processed the boundary or the pain.
- Ego Dismissal — When someone gives me critical feedback, I tend to view it as “their ego” or projection rather than taking personal accountability.
- Bypassing Physical Or Psychological Treatment — I believe standard medical or psychological treatments are unnecessary if one relies fully on spiritual healing.
- Detached Neutrality — I work to maintain a state of spiritual detachment so that difficult life events cannot affect me emotionally.
- Superiority Or Spiritual Rank — I feel that my spiritual understanding places me above mundane human drama and petty emotional concerns.
Factor 2: Spiritualizing
These four items catch something subtler — taking an ordinary human struggle and re-labeling it entirely in spiritual language, so it never has to be dealt with as what it actually is.
- Blame Via Karma Or Spiritual Attribution — When someone I know is experiencing hardship or trouble, I believe it is because they have done something wrong spiritually or attracted it.
- Attributing Malice To Spiritual Forces — When experiencing life difficulties, I tend to explain them primarily as spiritual attacks or cosmic tests rather than earthly or psychological causes.
- Expectation Of Divine Intervention Over Action — When I am in emotional pain, I believe God or the Universe will deliver me from it without requiring me to take practical or therapeutic action.
- Exaggerating Meaning — I believe every minor setback or unpleasant interaction carries a deep, fate-driven cosmic lesson that must immediately be reframed.
The Scale Holds Up Statistically
The SBS-13 has been tested for reliability, and the numbers are solid: strong internal consistency for the total scale, and for each of the two subscales separately.
It’s since been translated and validated in other populations, including adaptations in Brazil, Korea, India, and Spain, with similar results.
It Connects To Real Outcomes
Higher scores on the scale have been linked to higher stress, anxiety, and depression in the research that’s used it.
The bypass doesn’t just feel unresolved. It measurably correlates with unresolved distress.
It’s Not A Diagnosis
Fox has been clear that spiritual bypass isn’t automatically pathological. In his own words, it often looks like taking something spiritual out of context and misapplying it.
Clinicians generally don’t treat a temporary bypass during acute stress or a genuine spiritual crisis as unhealthy on its own. The scale measures a pattern, not a verdict.
A Simpler Version For Everyday Self-Reflection
Alongside the formal SBS-13, a more accessible set of 13 self-inquiry questions has circulated as a practical reflection tool.
This isn’t the validated academic scale — it’s a plainer-language way to ask yourself the same underlying question: is this practice helping me feel it, or helping me skip it?
- On Anger — Do I allow myself to feel genuine anger and set firm boundaries, or do I quickly reframe anger as “unspiritual” or “low vibration”?
- On Grief — Am I letting myself fully feel sadness and loss, or am I rushing to say “everything happens for a reason” to stop the pain?
- On Relationships — Do I use terms like “mirroring” or “projection” to avoid taking responsibility for my impact on others?
- On Conflict — Am I avoiding difficult conversations in the name of “keeping the peace” or “staying in love and light”?
- On Forgiveness — Have I genuinely processed the impact of being hurt, or did I grant premature forgiveness to make myself feel spiritually evolved?
- On Human Needs — Do I honor my fundamental human desires for intimacy, security, and recognition, or do I dismiss them as “just my ego talking”?
- On The Body — When uncomfortable emotions arise, do I retreat into mental or spiritual concepts, or do I stay present with the physical sensations in my body?
- On Boundaries — Can I say a clear, unapologetic no without needing a spiritual or energetic justification for it?
- On Compassion — Do I offer genuine, practical support to people who suffer, or do I dismiss their pain by telling them they “manifested” or “attracted” it?
- On Shadows — Am I actively looking at my unlikable traits, like jealousy, insecurity, and control, or am I identifying exclusively with a light, transcendent self-image?
- On Disagreement — How do I react when someone challenges my beliefs — do I stay grounded and open, or do I privately judge them as less conscious or spiritually blind?
- On Vulnerability — Do I share my real struggles and uncertainties as they happen, or do I only share past struggles after I’ve turned them into neat spiritual lessons?
- On Integration — Is my spiritual practice helping me show up more grounded, accountable, and present in daily human life, or is it acting as an escape hatch?
Why A Scale Like This Actually Matters
Before this, spiritual bypass was mostly discussed through anecdote and case study.
A validated scale means therapists and researchers can actually track it, study what predicts it, and see whether treatment approaches move the number. The self-inquiry version means you can ask yourself the same question without waiting for a research setting.
If you recognize yourself in several of these and want to look at what’s actually underneath it, reach out for coaching and let’s find out together.
Keep Reading
- Spiritual Bypassing: Using Spiritual Ideas To Avoid Facing Real Pain
- Unraveling: The Spiritual Breakdown That Awakens Your Real Self
- Not Every Feeling Is A Truth: Stop Worshipping Mind Fog
