Spiritual question

I have wondered about this for some time. Here in the west, many western women like to engage in spiritual practices that are similar to spiritual practices found around the world. While many women will go and participate with an established spiritual practice, such as Zen Buddhism, and learn from a teacher or master who has studied. However, others  invent their own spiritual practice that is similar to, say, Zen Buddhism, and then go out and teach their practice to others. We see this alot with yoga teachers but now it's branching out into more spiritual realms. I guess this has always been true with the New Age spirituality centers that have been around for a while.  What do you think about that, making up similar practices and then teaching it to other people?