This just really struck me. I think it is at the heart of some of the fakes and frauds. Also their followers:
http://www.geocities.com/fakemedicinemen/
Cutting Through Spiritual materialism
By Chogyam Trungpa
"Walking the spiritual path properly is a very subtle process; it is not something to jump into naively. There are numerous sidetracks which lead to a distorted, ego-centered version of spirituality; we can deceive ourselves into thinking we are developing spiritually when instead we are strengthening our egocentricity through spiritual techniques. This fundamental distortion may be referred to as spiritual materialism "
I agree with the sentiment but ironically Trungpa was a womaniser whose alcoholism killed him:
http://www.strippingthegurus.com/stgsamplechapters/trungpa.asp
Google cache of Guardian article (http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:5tIXhLp8bF0J:www.american-buddha.com/sexual.healing.htm+trungpa+alcoholic+gurus&hl=en)
Interesting, he was the founder of Naropa, who did so much exploitation of sweatlodges. That explains a lot.
Unfortunately, some truly insightful people, fall pray to their own selves.