The Sacred Speaks

This podcast episode explores how one mystical experience can bring an individual to question the nature of reality enough so that they devote their life to answering questions that often time seem unanswerable: What is the nature of reality? What is a self? What is identity? Also, how do people approach their lives after they have an experience that challenges the way they see the world; yet because that same experience seems so outside of their cultural norms, they keep it to themselves? Although with that said, Dr. Linda Ceriello began to notice that at the turn of the millennium many more people seemed free to start a public discussion about these radical personal experiences that seem to shatter and destabilize one’s worldview. We discuss the millennials and the plural generations as challenging the boundaries of these cultural identities, and how these younger generations are dealing with the grand narratives, they have been provided — the birth of the “spiritual but not religious” movement. We explore the differences between modernism, postmodernism, and the development of what some call metamodern; popular culture and the various depictions of mystical narratives; and she examines how Russell Brand has become such a significant figure in popular culture, fulfilling roles ranging from social advocate to spiritual teacher, and comedian. Bio: Linda Ceriello is a scholar of religions, specializing in Asian religions in America, mystical experience, contemplative studies, and critical theory of popular culture. She recently received her Ph.D. in Religion from Rice University, and also has a Master's degree in Education from Antioch University Seattle. Some of her favorite lecture topics include awe and wonder, the history of yoga, metamodern monsters, and the gnostic attributes of transgressive comedy. Publications include “Encoded Ambiguities, Embodied Ontologies: The Transformative Speech of Transgressive Female Figures in Gnosticism and Tantra” in (European Journal of Esotericism) La Rosa di Paracelso, and the forthcoming chapters, “Toward a Metamodern Reading of Spiritual-but-Not-Religious Mysticisms” in Being Spiritual But Not Religious: Past, Present, Future(s), and “"The Big Bad and the Big “Aha!”: Metamodern Monsters as Transformational Figures of Instability" in Holy Monsters, Sacred Grotesques: Monstrosity and Religion in Europe and the U.S. She is co-founder and editor, with Greg Dember, of the website, What Is Metamodern? www.whatismetamodern.com. Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Band of the week: Greg Dember Music page: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/greg-dember/292921755 Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesacredspeaks/

This podcast episode explores the stories that help us understand our reality, our place in that reality, and how humans both cling to and challenge these same stories. Jeffrey Kripal has been a keeper of many extraordinary stories, and as a professor of religion, he is positioned to question the stories that we believe serve us, but the reality is that we often serve the story. This conversation is anchored in Dr. Kripal’s newest book, The Flip, wherein he challenges many of the assumptions of materialist science and posits that the sciences are not wrong, but that they are incomplete and therefore we need a change in our worldview. His arguments are well articulated and well informed by many scientists, including neuroscientists and physicists, who have, as a result of their research into reality, moved away from the materialist worldview into an approach to reality that chips away at many of the assumptions in which many of us have been educated – for example, the fact that we don’t really know what matter and consciousness are in the first place. Really. From Jeff’s book: A “flip,” writes Jeffrey J. Kripal, is “a reversal of perspective,””a new real,” often born of an extreme, life-changing experience. The Flip is Kripal’s ambitious, visionary program for unifying the sciences and the humanities to expand our minds, open our hearts, and negotiate a peaceful resolution to the culture wars. Combining accounts of rationalists’ spiritual awakenings and consciousness explorations by philosophers, neuroscientists, and mystics within a framework of history of science and religion, Kripal compellingly signals a path to mending our fractured world. Bio: Jeffrey J. Kripal holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University, where he chaired the Department of Religion for eight years and helped create the GEM Program, a doctoral concentration in the study of Gnosticism, Esotericism, and Mysticism that is the largest program of its kind in the world. He is the Associate Director of the Center for Theory and Research at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, where he also serves as Chair of the Board. Jeff is the author of numerous books, seven of which are with The University of Chicago Press, including, most recently a memoir-manifesto entitled Secret Body: Erotic and Esoteric Currents in the History of Religions(Chicago, 2017). He has also served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Macmillan Handbook Series on Religion (ten volumes, 2015-2016). He specializes in the study of extreme religious states and the re-visioning of a New Comparativism, particularly as both involve putting “the impossible” back on the academic table again. He is presently working on a three-volume study of paranormal currents in the history of religions and the sciences for The University of Chicago Press, collectively entitled The Super Story. http://jeffreyjkripal.com Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Band of the week: Chomsky Music page: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/chomsky/5662475 Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesacredspeaks/

The title of the John Horgan’s book, The Mind-Body Problems, with the addition of the “s”articulates the core of the mind-body problem – that it is plural. John Horgan is not content with one story that solves for the myriad problems we humans encounter when we explore reality and hunt to discover who we are and what matters most. John has been a scientific journalist for over 35 years and as someone who is paid to be curious he has commented on, written about, queried, and learned about some of the most ubiquitous and obscure scientific theories and discoveries science and human thought have brought to the foreground. Bio: John Horgan is a science journalist and Director of the Center for Science Writings at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey. A former senior writer at Scientific American (1986-1997), he has also written for The New York Times, National Geographic, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, Slate and other publications. He writes the "Cross-check" blog for Scientific American and produces "Mind-Body Problems" for the online talk show Bloggingheads.tv. He tweets as @horganism. Horgan's most recent book, Mind-Body Problems: Science, Subjectivity and Who We Really Are, takes a radical new approach to the deepest and oldest of all mysteries, the mind-body problem. Published in September 2018, it is available for free online at mindbodyproblems.com, for $5 as an Amazon e-book and for $15 as a paperback. Horgan's first book was The End of Science: Facing the Limits of Science in the Twilight of the Scientific Age, which was republished with a new preface in 2015 by Basic Books. Originally published in 1996, it became a U.S. bestseller and was translated into 13 languages. Horgan's other books include The Undiscovered Mind: How the Human Brain Defies Replication, Medication, and Explanation, 1999, translated into eight languages; Rational Mysticism: Spirituality Meets Science in the Search for Enlightenment, 2003, which The New York Times called "marvelous" (see outtakes from the book posted on this site); and The End of War, published in paperback in 2014, which novelist Nicholson Baker described as "thoughtful, unflappable, closely argued." Horgan's publications have received international coverage. He has been interviewed hundreds of times for print, radio, and television media, including The Lehrer News Hour, Charlie Rose, and National Public Radio's Science Friday. He has lectured at dozens of institutions in North America and Europe, including MIT, Caltech, Princeton, Dartmouth, McGill, the University of Amsterdam, and England's National Physical Laboratory. His awards include the 2005 Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellowship in Science and Religion; the American Psychiatric Association Certificate of Commendation for Outstanding Reporting on Psychiatric Issues (1997); the Science Journalism Award of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1992 and 1994); and the National Association of Science Writers Science-in-Society Award (1993). His articles have been selected for the anthologies The Best American Science and Nature Writing and The Best American Science Writing. Horgan was an associate editor at IEEE Spectrum, the journal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, from 1983 to 1986. He received a B.A. in English from Columbia University's School of General Studies in 1982 and an M.S. from Columbia's School of Journalism in 1983. http://www.johnhorgan.org https://meaningoflife.tv/programs/current/mind-body-problems https://mindbodyproblems.com Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Band of the week: The Deathray Davies Music page: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/the-deathray-davies/6557498 Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesacredspeaks/

We begin this conversation with Dr. April DeConick’s first exposure to Gnostic literature when she was a young student, without any real idea of what it is she was going to do with her life. The question for her was, “Why are these Gnostic texts not included in the New Testament?” This question sent her on the path of discovery, as she devoured literature from near-eastern and biblical studies. Dr. DeConick's particular interests include those aspects of the religious traditions that fell through the cracks of social, religious, and spiritual norms, while despite this still maintain a considerable influence on the dominant traditions of our current religious worldview. This conversation explores subjects ranging from early Christianity to Gnostic, Mystic, and Shamanic thought, ritual, and literature. These early communities were in large part quite transgressive; therefore much of the conversation is oriented towards understanding the nature of culture, power, societies, and the various ways that people throughout time have made meaning of the mysterious nature of reality. Bio: April DeConick holds the Isla Carroll and Percy E. Turner Professorship in New Testament and Early Christianity at Rice University, and is Chair of the Department of Religion. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1994 in the Department of Near Eastern Studies. Since then, she has studied, written and taught on a range of topics revolving around the silenced voices of religious people and the communities that were left behind or discarded when Christianity emerged in the first four centuries CE as a new religion. She is the co-founder and executive editor of a new academic journal called Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies published by a very prestigious publishing house in Europe. She founded and chaired for years the Mysticism, Esotericism and Gnosticism group in the Society of Biblical Literature and is now Chair of the Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism group. She is most noted for her writing on the Gospel of Judas when she challenged sensationalism generated by the National Geographic Society that wrongly claimed that Judas is a gnostic hero in this text and that his heroics would rewrite our understanding of early Christianity. Instead, her work shows that Judas remains demonic in the Gospel of Judas, just as he is in the New Testament gospels. Her work on this text was so instrumental that she appeared in CNN’s documentary on the Gospel of Judas that premiered in 2015 on the TV series "Finding Jesus". Her most recent book, The Gnostic New Age, has won an award from the Figure Foundation for the best book to be published by an university press in philosophy and religion. It is tradition that the Figure Foundation composes a koan for each book to receive this award and publishes it on the front page. The koan for The Gnostic New Age reads: “that square be squared”. If you have any insight into the meaning of this koan, she would love to hear it. https://reli.rice.edu/people/faculty/april-deconick http://aprildeconick.com Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesacredspeaks/

We begin our conversation with Dr. Stein explaining initiation and “The Spirit of the Depths,” as the dance between reason and the inevitable call that each of us hears from our soul – that unique part of us that is outside of culture. Dr. Stein differentiates between directed thinking and nondirected thinking – causality-based, rational thinking and the spontaneous emergence of images that seem to come from beyond our conscious control. The former helps each of us “get from A to B,” while the latter operates with imagination as the presenter of the subjective content. He locates the consequence of the growth of rational thinking, as pushing out the relationship we each have with the symbol and the imagination. Noting that this produced a materially dominant culture, although the sacrifice is our disconnection from the immaterial. We conclude by discussing the tension of opposites. Bio: Dr. Stein is a graduate of Yale University (B.A. and M.Div.), the University of Chicago (Ph.D.), and the C.G. Jung Institut-Zurich (Diploma). He is a founding member of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts and of the Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts. He has been the president of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (2001-4), and the President of The International School of Analytical Psychology-Zurich (2008-2012). http://murraystein.com Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Band of the week: Halou http://www.halou.com Music page: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/halou/2602748 Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesacredspeaks/

After struggling through depression during medical school, Dr. Joseph Tafur was introduced to peyote by a friend who was researching psychedelics as a medical intervention. He reports that he quickly realized the connection between modern medical interventions, such as anti-depressants and psychedelics. In 2007 Dr. Tafur traveled to the Amazon and began his exploration of Ayahuasca and later began his training in Shipibo shamanism. Dr. Tafur’s medical background and his training as a Shipibo shaman position him to articulately explain the Western understanding of this spiritually-based approach to healing. Dr. Tafur’s book is full of case studies, and his use of these examples provide a first-hand account of what many know to be true: that many individuals do not feel adequately understood by the traditional western medicine. We discuss epigenetics, specifically how researchers are beginning to understand how trauma can be passed down from one generation to the other. We frame depression and other psychological issues as a disorder of the imagination, wherein the individual is cut off from their sense of creativity, and which cuts the individual off from imagining other possibilities in their life, and therefore they suffer under the burden of the discomfort and belief that change is not possible. Although Dr. Tafur can use modern medical language, he prefers to speak about love and broke-heartedness as it relates to what is missing in modern medicine. Bio: Dr. Tafur has been an Integrative Medicine activist throughout his medical career, while in medical school at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine, and during his Family Medicine Residency at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He has collaborated on research projects with the UCLA Center for East-West Medicine and the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine. After residency, Dr. Tafur subsequently completed a two-year Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at the UCSD Department of Psychiatry under psychoneuroimmunology expert Dr. Paul Mills. While in San Diego, he also served on the board for the Alternative Healing Network and the Steering Committee for the UCSD Center for Integrative Medicine. Dr. Tafur is also dedicated to education. At Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual, Dr. Tafur supervised traditional training for allopathic medical students and medical student groups from the Southwestern College of Naturopathic Medicine and Bastyr College of Naturopathic Medicine. He has also worked as a professor for the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine’s online doctoral program. He is now developing new educational programs for Modern Spirit. Since 2007, Dr. Tafur, a has been traveling to Peru to work with Traditional Amazonian Plant Medicine and to study with Master Shipibo Healers. He has completed his shamanic initiation under Maestro Ricardo Amaringo and worked alongside him for years in ayahuasca healing ceremony at Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual. Here in the United States, he is working to promote the value of spiritual healing in modern healthcare and to demonstrate the intersection between traditional healing and allopathic medicine .https://drjoetafur.com https://modernspirit.org Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Band of the week: Black Tie Dynasty Music page: https://www.facebook.com/blacktiedynasty/ https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/black-tie-dynasty/41368471 Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesacredspeaks/

Many people make mystical claims about their worldview, but few can articulate their view in a way similar to Rabbi Jeff Roth. In this episode, Rabbi Roth explains that he views the fundamental problem of human existence as a rift between the human being and the divine. He explains that this rift created the ground of what we call evil. Rabbi Roth locates the origin point of the split between the divine and the human as the formation of the conceptual, thinking mind and language. He draws from mystical Jewish and Buddhist practice. Rabbi Roth’s understanding of the various problems with different translations of the original stories from the Torah supports his approach of deconstructing the original language used in both The Torah and The Zohar. This process of understanding and deconstructing takes an act of awareness, contemplation, and a handle on the original language systems used to communicate foundational stories in, not only the Judeo-Christian myth, but also any story that human beings have identified that reflects the origins of creation. Bio Rabbi Jeff Roth is the founder and Director of The Awakened Heart Project for Contemplative Judaism. He was the co-founder of Elat Chayyim where he served as Executive Director and Spiritual Director for 13 years. He is the co-leader of the Jewish Mindfulness Teacher Training program and has facilitated of over 190 Jewish meditation retreats. He is the author of, Jewish Meditation Practices for Everyday Life and Me, Myself and God, both from Jewish lights Publishing. https://www.awakenedheartproject.org Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Song of the week from Slaid Cleaves https://www.slaidcleaves.com Music page: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/breakfast-in-hell/380426781?i=380426816 Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks

The discussion today centers on Dr. John Beebe’s ideas about psychological types as inspired by Jung’s understanding and articulation of this theory of personality. Dr. John Beebe is the leading expert on the subject, so much so that in the forthcoming release of Jung’s collected works on Psychological Type will include an introduction by Dr. Beebe – an honor of the utmost order. Dr. Beebe and I explore how the psychological types show up in film and how viewing films through this lens may enable someone to understand the various types and the dynamics between them better. Dr. Beebe explains how our early history provides the framework for our attitudes to organize themselves in service to making sense of the world. Conflicts between each other and ourselves are usually, in part, a consequence of the different attitudes and functions of the personality misunderstanding each other given their differences between how each of these comes to experience and know what it experiences. John identifies Hamlet as a means by which we may see the personality types play out. Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Band of the week: The Chemistry Set Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks

How does a young man growing up in an “under resourced” community make sense of the mystical experiences that began at the age of 14 years old spending time with friends? By making his exploration of African American religion and theology the center point of his spiritual and academic development – and helping others through the process. This episode explores Cleve’s development and the dissertation that has provided him the container to examine his thinking as it relates to those thoughts and thinkers who have influenced him. At Princeton Theological Seminary, Cleve, began to expand his understanding of the great thinkers within Black Theology and African American Cultural studies including people such as Hortense Spillers, W.E.B. Du Bois, Cornell West, James Cone, Martin Luther King Jr, and others. Cleve provides a deeper understanding of Black critical thought, and how this intellectual tradition has influenced religion and culture. Interwoven into this rich conversation, we also discuss personal symbols for Cleve such as how N.W.A provided a means by which Cleve, as a young guy, began to understand his cultural upbringing and the basic struggle as an adolescent boy – in particular what factors shaped his understanding of himself, of his religion, and of his community. Bio: Cleve V. Tinsley IV is an ordained Baptist minister, scholar of religion and African American culture, and community social justice strategist based in Houston, TX. He is currently the Co-Managing Partner of projectCURATE—a non-profit social impact enterprise and intersectional justice collaborative—and a PhD candidate in the Department of Religion at Rice University. Cleve’s research focuses on critical understandings of the wider social scientific and historical approaches to the study of religion in general and African-American religion in particular. His current research explores the relationship between religion, black freedom struggles, and African-American formations in America and argues for more expansive sociological approaches to studying the meaning and nature of black religious identity given the complexity of religion and spirituality in the lives of African Americans today. Cleve also works as a research fellow in the Religion and Public Life Program (RPLP) at Rice and, prior to his doctoral training, earned his Master of Divinity (MDiv) at Princeton Theological Seminary. Cleve has worked in the past as a pastor and consultant for several churches and educational non-profit organizations in the US South and on the East Coast. www.projectcurate.org Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Band of the week: Abstract Rude and Tribe Unique https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/p-a-i-n-t/306865459 Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks

This conversation does not begin with any theory; it begins with racism, violence, and fear – all within the first decade of the life of today’s participant, Pastor Rudy Rasmus – to which he concludes, ultimately, the centrality of love. How he did this is the core theme of our conversation and what he has made primary in his mission of life - that he truly lives out on a daily basis. Rudy positions his early childhood trauma as a prerequisite for wisdom and his capacity to see through the masks that many people wear so that he can teach people how to love and accept themselves and others. This conversation will invite you to investigate how you love, how you are loved, and how you could express love for others. Bio: Rudy Rasmus is a pastor, author, and a humanitarian with a passion for outreach to the world’s most challenged communities. From Rudy’s previous life of owning and operating a “borderline bordello,” today he co-pastors the St. John’s Church in Downtown Houston with his wife Juanita. A church that began with 9 existing members in 1992, St. John’s has grown to thousands where every week people of every social and economic background share the same pew. He attributes the success of the church to a compassionate group of people who have embraced the vision of tearing down the walls of classism, sexism, and racism and building bridges of unconditional love, universal recovery, and unprecedented hope. Thanks to generous support from a collaboration of government agencies and a significant donation from Tina, Beyoncé, and Solange Knowles the St. John’s Downtown campus includes the Knowles-Temenos Apartments, a 43-unit Single Room Occupancy development designed to provide permanent living accommodations for formerly homeless women and men. Temenos CDC portfolio also includes an 80-unit apartment community to meet the growing need for permanent supportive housing for the previously homeless in Houston, Texas and a 15-unit apartment project for chronic inebriates and the most vulnerable homeless individuals in the Houston community. Pastors Rudy and Juanita founded the Bread of Life, Inc. (a not for profit corporation) in December of 1992 and began serving 500 meals per day to the homeless in the sanctuary at St. John’s. Years later the Bread of Life has changed the landscape of Downtown Houston providing an array of services to homeless men and women. The project also distributes over 9 tons of fresh produce weekly to hungry families. St. John’s is one of few faith communities in the U.S. providing HIV/AIDS testing to churchgoers on Sundays through the innovative “Get Tested Project.” For many years Pastor Rudy has coordinated domestic and global anti-hunger initiatives in conjunction with Beyoncé’s concert tours and travels extensively developing and supporting programs around the world for people experiencing poverty. Today, with a focus on social impact investing, the Bread of Life owns and operates Eco Life Employment LLC, a digital employment and staffing agency for men and women with troubled past lives and the Amazing KMAZ 102.5fm radio station. Rudy and Juanita have been married for 32 years and are the proud parents of two outstanding daughters, Morgan and Ryan, a phenomenal Son-in-Law, Hamilton, and an amazing grandson Website: https://www.pastorrudy.net Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Band of the week: BADBADNOTGOOD http://badbadnotgood.com https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/confessions-pt-iii-feat-colin-stetson/1327052545?i=1327052553 Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks

In today’s episode Dr. Bill Barnard and John explore some of the fundamental definitions and aspects of consciousness and the study of consciousness. Bill is a professor of religious studies and passionately studies William James and Henri Bergson – both early thinkers in the world of religion, psychology and consciousness. The conversation touches upon some of the basic overview of the study of consciousness including materialism, idealism, determinism, dual and non-dual traditions, psychedelics, and meanders through the dynamic between the materialist reductive thinking about consciousness juxtaposed with the non-dual traditions. Dr. Barnard also discusses his study of entheogens in religious contexts, primarily as sourced by the Santo Daime tradition. Bio: Dr. G. William Barnard, (B.A. Antioch University; M.A. Temple University; Ph.D. University of Chicago) is a Professor of Religious Studies, as well as a University Distinguished Teaching Professor. His primary areas of research interests are the comparative philosophy of mysticism, religion and the social sciences, contemporary spirituality, religion and healing, and consciousness studies. Professor Barnard is currently researching the Santo Daime tradition, a syncretistic, entheogenically-based new religious movement that emerged in Brazil in the mid-twentieth century. He teaches a variety of courses: Magic, Myth, and Religion; Mysticism: East and West; Understanding the Self: East and West; Introduction to Primal Religions; Wholeness and Holiness: Religion and Healing Across Cultures; Waking Up: The Philosophy of Yoga and the Practice of Meditation; Ways of Being Religious; Living from the Heart (of it All): An Exploration of Mystical/Spiritual Ethics; Plants of the Gods: Religion and Psychedelics; and a graduate core seminar: History, Theory, and Method in Religious Studies. Professor Barnard is the author of Living Consciousness: The Metaphysical Vision of Henri Bergson as well as Exploring Unseen Worlds: William James and the Philosophy of Mysticism, both published by State University of New York Press. In addition, Professor Barnard is the co-editor of Crossing Boundaries: Essays on the Ethical Status of Mysticism. Professor Barnard has also written many journal articles and book chapters on a variety of topics, such as pedagogy in religious studies, the nature of religious experience, and issues in the psychology of religion. He is a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers and has received the Godbey Lecture Series Authors’ Award for both Living Consciousness and Exploring Unseen Worlds. He has also received the Golden Mustang Outstanding Faculty Award for teaching and scholarship as well as the SMU Mortar Board Honor Society Award for teaching excellence. He was also awarded an American Academy of Religion Individual Research grant. Website: https://www.smu.edu/Dedman/Academics/Departments/ReligiousStudies/FacultyStaff/Barnard Music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks

This episode begins with Count explaining his professional background in the music business as a musician, producer, engineer, & writer. Considering that his career spans both pre and post internet revolution, he is well placed to critique the positive aspects of the internet and also the dark side of the “internet of free.” We explore the economics of creativity on the internet and how this new economy has transformed the music industry in particular, but also how this process bleeds into arenas such as journalism and retail. Count works to debunk a number of the common misunderstandings of the freedom of the internet. Count has created part one of the three part documentary which has received critical acclaim. Those interviewed within the documentary include David Byrne, Noam Chomsky, US Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Jonathan Taplin (Bob Dylan, Martin Scorsese), Steve Knopper (Rolling Stone), Rob Levine (Billboard magazine), Matt Mason (Bit Torrent), John Perry Barlow, Lawrence Lessig, and other key voices, alongside personal stories from musicians, filmmakers, authors, and creators of all kinds. Bio: San Francisco based producer, Count [AKA Mikael Eldridge], has been involved in just about every aspect of the music business. He has worked for indie and major labels, scored films, and has worked as producer, engineer, mixer, and remixer for artists such as DJ Shadow, Frank Sinatra, Radiohead, John Cale [Velvet Underground], No Doubt, New Order, RUN DMC, Tycho, Zoe Keating, Galactic, Trombone Shorty, The Bee Gees, Thievery Corporation, and many more. With his own bands Inu and Halou, Count has toured the US and performed live at shows such as Seattle's Bumbershoot festival, The San Francisco International Film Festival, the SF Museum of Modern Art, Filter Magazine's Culture Collides Festival and more. Count is currently directing the documentary Unsound, which is about the impact that internet revolution is having on all creators. He has become a vocal advocate on artist rights issues, speaking at The Future of Music Summit, C2SV, SXSW, Grammys on the Hill, and several international summits. Count is also currently involved in the C3 (Content Creators Coalition), which is helping to organize a collective voice to deal with issues affecting creators in the Internet age. Website: https://www.unsoundthemovie.com https://www.vertebraeproductions.com Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Band of the week: Inu and Tycho Inu: https://www.vertebraeproductions.com https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/not-for-anyone/373655312 Tycho: http://www.tychomusic.com https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/epoch/1154577700 https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/awake/793928184 Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks

In this episode of The Sacred Speaks, John Price speaks with Dr. Rachel Harris about her book, Listening To Ayahuasca, and other related topics. Following her early experience in meditation and body practices at Esalen and with Suzuki Roshi, Dr. Harris formalized her interest in research focusing on the various ways that we may treat human suffering and then she experienced Ayahuasca in the rainforests of Costa Rica. Following her personal experience, she wanted to research “religious experience” as it manifests within the various reports that people provide following their own Ayahuasca journey. She explains the design of her studies and explores aspects of the biology of psychedelics, in particular, a network of the brain called the Default Mode Network, a network of brain structures “quieted” during psychedelic experience and meditation. The DMN is the “generator of our ego” it maintains the constructed world and self. Not only does Dr. Harris speak to the western approach to both the research-based use of psychedelics and the recreational use, but she also speaks to the worldview of indigenous cultures and how this metaphysical view that sees the world as alive has influenced and conflicted with the typical western worldview. While grounding her work in the Ayahuasca, her research reaches far beyond the experiences of Psychonauts and into the minds and homes of each and every one of us who seeks to transform the daily and the mundane. Bio: Psychologist Rachel Harris, Ph.D. is the author of Listening to Ayahuasca: New Hope for Depression, Addiction, PTSD and Anxiety. She was in private practice for thirty-five years working with people interested in psychospiritual development. During a decade working in research, Rachel received a National Institutes of Health New Investigator’s Award and published more than forty scientific studies in peer-reviewed journals. She has also consulted to Fortune 500 companies and the United Nations. Rachel was in the 1968 Esalen Residential Program, Big Sur, CA. This intensive six-month program focused on meditation and bodywork. In the early seventies, Rachel studied with Dorothy Nolte in the movement system, Structural Awareness, based on Dr. Ida Rolf’s Structural Integration (Rolfing). Rachel also co-edited the Journal of the American Dance Therapy Association for three years. Awareness of how people live and move in their bodies has always been an aspect of Rachel’s approach to psychotherapy. During the mid-eighties into the early aughts, Rachel led workshops at Omega Institute, NY and Esalen Institute, CA. She wrote Twenty Minute Retreats: Revive Your Spirit in Just Minutes a Day with Simple, Self-Led Practices (NY: Holt, 2000). This book describes many of the psychological, meditative and body awareness exercises she taught in her workshops. In 2005 Rachel traveled to a retreat center in Costa Rica and serendipitously found herself with the opportunity to drink ayahuasca with Ecuadorian shamans. The morning after her first ceremony, Rachel began asking questions about the therapeutic potential of this medicine. She conducted a three-year research project with Lee Gurel, Ph.D. that resulted in “A Study of Ayahuasca Use in North America,” published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs (Summer, 2012). Website: https://www.listeningtoayahuasca.com Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Band of the week: Taylor Young https://www.dallasobserver.com/music/taylor-young-of-the-os-premieres-new-single-shine-on-me-11178400 https://www.instagram.com/tayloryoungmusic/ Music page: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/shine-on-me/1436712697?i=1436712972 Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks

In this episode, John Price speaks with music therapist, Jennifer Townsend, about music and music therapy. We discuss the definition of music therapy, the biological aspects of performing and listening to music, how concepts from physics have informed the connecting and healing processes of music therapy, the uses of music therapy as an aid in brain development following a trauma, relationship bonding when coming together on the “beat”, and other topics. Jennifer offers the listener stories of the healing aspects of music within populations ranging from those affected by acute psychosis, and non-responsiveness, she explains the rapport building dimensions of music in relationship and notes how music can reduce anxiety amongst those who have been traumatized. While listening to this episode, one thing becomes clear: that there are profound reasons why many of us will spend more of our time and money on music than sex and drugs (medical and otherwise). Bio: Jennifer Townsend, MMT, MT-BC, is the Program Manager for Music Therapy at Houston Methodist. In this capacity, she has overseen the growth of music therapy across the system of Houston Methodist hospitals, led research initiatives in music therapy and music medicine, and provides clinical supervision to the Houston Methodist creative arts therapy team of eight. She has published articles on technology in music therapy, music therapy in epilepsy treatment, music therapy in NICU, and published a chapter on Medically Fragile Children in Guidelines for Music Therapy Practice in Pediatrics. Website: https://www.musictherapy.org http://www.cbmt.org Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Band of the week: Grace Kali https://gracekali.com https://twitter.com/thegracekali Music page: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/grace-kali/1396993208 https://soundcloud.com/gracekali https://www.amazon.com/Sign-Times-Grace-Kali/dp/B07DMGDTY7 Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks

This episode begins with Matthew and I exploring his history growing up with the fundamentalist wing of religion in Christianity. Matt’s story is one of coming to terms and wrestling with the religion of his youth and through that process asking challenging to grapple with questions. We discuss power structures within and between groups ranging from economically bound systems to geographically connected and disconnected networks. Matt’s dissertation looked at trauma and the narrative that five women maintained about their religious and philosophical worldview following overwhelming trauma. Matt offers a perspective on religion that is often not included in many religious and academic circles, atheist or theist alike. Bio: Matt is currently on staff at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Houston Texas as the Senior Associate Pastor, is the Co-Managing Director of projectCURATE, a social action and racial equity non-profit, Executive Director of Iconoclast Artists, a creative arts program in Houston and Galveston’s urban schools that has over 600 weekly participants and is Assistant Professor of Recovery Ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary. Prior to this he was on faculty at Duke Divinity School as professor of Practical Theology and Community Development. In 2013, he completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Cambridge’s Psychology and Religion Research Group (PRRG) where he explored redemptive narratives and models of social justice movements rooted in religious communities. He received his Masters of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary and completed his PhD at Texas Tech University in 2010. His dissertation explored how women construct alternative narratives of redemption from years of sustained trauma and abuse. While at Texas Tech he was the Associate Director at The Center for the Study of Addiction, responsible for the replication model helping to establish collegiate recovery communities in campuses across the United States. From 1996-2008 he was Associate Pastor of Houston’s Chapelwood United Methodist Church and founding pastor of Mercy Street. Matt is married to his best friend Michele and they have 3 crazy boys: Miguel (15), Lucas (14) and Gabriel (11). Website: https://www.projectcurate.org http://www.stpaulshouston.org/staff/ Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Band of the week: Ghostface Killah and BADBADNOTGOOD https://www.facebook.com/GhostfaceKillahOfficial/ http://badbadnotgood.com Music page: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/sour-soul/952769969 Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks

This conversation explores the research into religion. Ken began his academic search when he started to ask deeper question about the nature of human experience such as morality, values, how people can live better lives, and he is a skeptic and seeking to ground his work in empirical research. Dr. Pargament discusses the relationship between attachment and religion - how one’s developmental history and environment interrelate and often informs one’s relationship with “God.” Dr. Parament’s work involves looking at each person’s religious experience and asking them questions about the nature of that relationship to the sacred in their lives. How have they come to relate to the divine – theist and atheist alike? His research helps us understand not only the nature of the relationship but also the outcome of the relationship. One question he asks is: How has one's relationship to the divine impacted how that individual copes with suffering? “From a talk presented at Harvard: Empirical studies indicate that people attribute sacred qualities to many aspects of life, such as relationships, nature, work, virtues, and the body. Perceptions of sacredness have important implications for health and well-being. A growing body of research indicates that people are more likely to: (a) organize their lives around sacred goals and values; (b) preserve and protect aspects of life they hold sacred; and (c) invest more of their resources into and derive greater satisfaction and meaning from sanctified objects. However, perceptions of sacredness can be problematic when: (a) people experience the loss or violation of what they hold sacred; (b) when they imbue inappropriate objects (e.g., drugs, violence, despots) with sacred qualities; and (c) when people are intolerant of divergent views of the sacred.” (https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/rshm/event/dr-kenneth-pargament-sacred-matters-spirituality-vital-aspect-health-and-well-being). Bio: Dr. Pargament's nationally and internationally known research addresses religious beliefs and health. His current research program addresses how elderly people who struggle with their religious beliefs and hold negative perceptions about their relationships with God and life meaning have an increased risk of death, even after controlling for physical and mental health and demographic characteristics. He also studies the process by which people create perceptions about the sanctity of aspects of their life activities and the beneficial effects of "sanctification" for individual and interpersonal well-being. A strong emphasis on this work is how individuals and couples "sanctify" their marriage and how that sanctification is a strong predictor of marital quality and stability. Dr. Pargament won the 2000 Virginia Staudt Sexton Mentoring Award from the American Psychological Association for his generous work in encouraging both faculty, undergraduate, and graduate research in the psychology of religion. Website: https://www.bgsu.edu/arts-and-sciences/center-for-family-demographic-research/about-cfdr/research-affiliates/kenneth-i-pargament.html Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Band of the week: The Hundred Inevitables https://www.facebook.com/thehundredinevitables/ Music page: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/decade-of-downtime/1017437376 Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks

In this episode, Henry Richardson, owner, and CEO of DEFINE body and mind, and I sit down to explore how to run what he refers to as a “spiritual business.” He uses terms such as “appreciative inquiry” and speaks of breathing life into not only a bottom line but also the inner and outer community of the business. He states that how the model of the business is structured will influence how each employee views their presence at the business, which then impacts how the customer and the community the business serves, feels about themselves and their interactions with the business. Henry outlines how to make this possible, and with a successful and growing business of 23 facilities in the U.S. and one open in Dubai, along with two graduate degrees, one MBA from Rice University and another master's degree from University of Pennsylvania in positive psychology, he can speak to both how he manages the business and how his story informs his higher purpose. Website: https://definebody.com Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Band of the week: John Evans https://johnevansband.com Music page: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/polyester/1103330346 Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks

This conversation favors the irrational over the rational. Kate has made it her mission, both in her professional life and personal life to study the pathways on which people travel through their lives. She states, “The paths that people are called to are often socially unacceptable.” She is referencing how often each of us has to sacrifice either a part of ourselves for the security of the outer world, or the security of the outer world so that one can “live on the edge” and discover who they are and what really matters to that individual. When Kate was 4 years old, a poisonous snake bit her, a story that had not entered into her awareness until she was much older and in analysis herself. Once she recalled the event she began to have dreams that included snake motifs and she began to study rites of passage, initiation, and rituals that people had been writing about throughout human history. We discuss the seven aspects she identifies and articulates through her book. Kate has made it her mission to help people place their struggles and conflicts into meaningful narratives. And, how is one to know the direction that the narrative is providing? Bio: Kate Burns is a Jungian analyst with a private practice in Houston, Texas. She earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, she worked as a geophysicist until a downturn in the oil industry sent her back to school for an MBA from Rice University. A desire to explore spiritual issues led her to pursue a master’s degree in counseling, followed by studies at the International School of Analytical Psychology, Zurich. She has taught classes at the Jung Center in Houston since 2005 and has devoted herself to the practice of yoga since 2000. She serves on the board of directors for Jungians in Training Zurich, an organization raising awareness about C.G. Jung, his life and work. Kate is the author of "Paths to Transformation: From Initiation to Liberation and "Soul's Desire to Become New" in Jung's Red Book for Our Time, volume 2. Website: Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Band of the week: Lauren Fine Music page: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/lauren-fine/30889026 Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks

As a scientist, Tom’s insight into religion and psychology balances his worldview given that he matriculated through both the sciences and philosophy. He says, that as soon as he began to see the world through a hand-lens, he was sold on physics, biology, entomology, evolution and ecology, and vertebrate zoology, but landed squarely in biology. Tom’s primary area of interest began in complex systems. Access to an electron microscope in the biochemistry lab opened up Tom’s understanding of the microscopic world that is within, around, and through us. He defines “complex systems” and uses this interest to look at religion and psychology. Tom asks why no one can predict what the Dow Jones is going to do tomorrow?” Because the economy is a complex system. Tom’s “naïve love of biology” was the attitude that bade him to leave the early movement in bioengineering, which he deemed as morally repugnant, and sent him onto a path of recollecting his interests in philosophy and religion primarily to the work of Carl Jung, James Hillman, and Henry Corbin. Tom’s love for Hillman is expressed from his seeking psychological diversity and Corbin for his grounding in the imagination. Tom departed from reductive science because his brain began to feel like a machine, cranking out facts, and this landed him in the exploration of the imagination. With this in mind, Tom recognizes the battle within him between the “humanist” and the “scientist.” He believes on some level that adopting an easy pluralism as a means for us each to deal with our tendency toward fundamentalist thinking and behaving. He has been actively undermining the tendency for any human to be motivated by any fundamentalism – which both Henry Corbin and James Hillman do. Good on you, Tom! Bio: Tom graduated from Connecticut College in 1974 with a B.A. in philosophy, magna cum laude, with coursework in history and the history of art, and received the Susanne Langer Award for Achievement in Philosophy. Among the most long-lasting influences were my reading of Hegel, Heidegger, Ernst Cassirer and Erwin Panofsky, as well as the ideas and the teaching of historian F. Edward Cranz. In 1997 Tom resigned from my teaching position and my family moved to Maine. He then began writing in earnest. Tom's first essay on Corbin was among those selected to receive a John Templeton Foundation Exemplary Essay Award in the “Expanding Humanity’s Vision of God” Program in 2000. The following year he was one of six invited speakers at the Eranos Conference in Ascona, Switzerland, where Corbin had been a leading figure for many years. Tom's first book on Corbin, the imagination and related themes was published in 2003, and others followed in 2005, 2007, 2012 and 2015. In 2004 he was invited for the first of a series of lectures for the Temenos Academy in London. In the summer of 2007 Tom was honored to be elected a Fellow of the Temenos Academy. Website: https://sites.google.com/view/tom-cheetham/home?authuser=0 Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Band of the week: Centro-matic Music page: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/centro-matic/6557444 Will Johnson: http://www.will-johnson.com Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks

The discussion begins with a question about duality in the structure of human consciousness (up/down, sacred/profane, subject/object, yin/yang, psyche/soma). Gary maintains a longstanding interest in explorations of matter and psyche. His book borrows from the conversations and ideas exchanged between Carl Jung and Wolfgang Pauli, one of the men responsible for the discovery of quantum physics. For Jung the opposites are primary therefore the conversation expands on this idea throughout the exchange. Further, Gary defines spiritual and synchronicity, noting how often “science” or the material and spiritual are not interpreted in the way that may be of more service to us all. He provides examples of synchronicity and helps the listener understand the concept of synchronicity. Jung and Pauli converse because of the strange behavior of the electron in the atom and how causality breaks down when we try to understand the individual – less about causality than about a teleological structure of the individual’s life. Technology is questioned and viewed as a phenomenon that has drastically changed the relationship that we have with ourselves and created us into distracted individuals who struggle to sit with ourselves. Gary discusses his understanding of the religious task and defines this process as “learning whom we are born to be and making it real in time and space.” We finish on the subject of numbers and the archetypal background of numbers as qualities and not only quantities. Bio: J. Gary Sparks, B.Sc., M.Div., M.A., is a graduate of Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA; the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA; and the C.G. Jung Institute of Zurich, Switzerland. He is a former Peace Corps Korea Volunteer during the early 1970s and co-editor of Edward F. Edinger’s Science of the Soul (2002) and Ego and Self: The Old Testament Prophets (2000). He is widely known in North America for his lectures and seminars on the significance and application of Jungian psychology. Completing eight years of training in 1982, Gary graduated from the C.G. Jung Institute in Zürich and presently makes his living as a Jungian analyst. The Jungian approach observes that the personality spontaneously produces images which symbolically communicate the means of resolving a given impasse and—more generally—the unique life course for each individual in pursuit of meaning and satisfaction to follow. In practical terms the Jungian focus studies dreams as a way of getting at this deeper source of knowledge. Such has been Gary’s enduring fascination: to learn the nature of our symbolic language, to understand its value in the therapeutic setting and to discover its relevance to solving human problems in general. Website: http://www.jgsparks.net Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Band of the week: BADBADNOTGOOD http://badbadnotgood.com Music page: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/badbadnotgood/505464105 Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks

19: Tibetan meditation and spiritual practice. A conversation with Alejandro Chaoul In this episode, Alejandro’s knowledge provides a guide rail down into the parts of meditation that are not just about feeling calm and blissful, but the meditation that brings the “gunk” to the surface so that one can be more present with it, work with it and transform it. He discusses how valuable it is that a meditation practice helps increase feelings of relaxation and calm, although he also recognizes that we often need to bring our “shit to the cushion,” and ask difficult questions about where that pain is coming from and how we keep falling for the same patterns. We talk about religion as containing helpful tools, whose value can often be overtaken by people misusing the potential of each tradition. Dr. Chaoul defines enlightenment (if such a thing can be defined) and carefully articulates his words to help the listener begin to understand what it means to be present. Further, he defines spirit and discusses different ways to enhance one’s “spiritual connection,” with one’s life. How we find ways to support our connection with self, world, and the meaning of life. Bio: Dr. Alejandro Chaoul is a Senior Teacher of The 3 Doors, an international organization founded by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche with the goal of transforming lives through meditation. Alejandro has studied in the Tibetan tradition since 1989, and for over 20 years with Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak and Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, completing the 7-year training at Ligmincha Institute in 2000. He also holds a Ph.D. in Tibetan religions from Rice University. Since 1995, he has been teaching meditation classes, and Tibetan Yoga (Tsa Lung & Trul Khor) workshops nationally and internationally under the auspices of Ligmincha Institute and is on the Board of the Ligmincha Texas Institute for the Tibetan meditative and healing arts. In 1999 he began teaching these techniques at the Integrative Medicine Program of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX, where he holds a faculty position and for the last fifteen years conducts research on the effect of these practices in people with cancer. He is also an associate faculty member at The University of Texas’ McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics, where he teaches medical students in the areas of spirituality, complementary and integrative medicine, and end of life care. Alejandro is also the author of Chod Practice in the Bon Tradition (Snow Lion, 2009). Website: http://alechaoul.com https://junghouston.org/about-the-center/mind-body-spirit-institute/ Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Song of the week: Bleeding https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/bleeding/20833875?i=20833857 Flickerstick’s music: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/flickerstick/473740 Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks

Rabbi Sholklapper may speak and read enough languages to make anyone jealous. This multi-lingual blessing allows him the unique gift of investigating ancient religious texts to deconstruct them and explore meaning lost over the passing of time and that has often been injected with interpretations based in ulterior motives. This fact makes him an exceptionally fun person with whom to share a coffee and conversation. One of the most influential and life-changing moments in Ariel’s life involved his experience of arriving on the scene as a first responder following a bomb exploding on a bus in Israel. This trauma sent him into enough of a blunted state of numbness that he began exploring meditation and mindfulness. He is now a teacher of both. Through this conversation, Ariel answers the question, “What is Judaism?” His answer: that each of us has a divine spark and our lives are about getting closer to that spark. The consequences of this understanding from his perspective is one of the goals of the work: becoming kinder to others, more compassionate, and also more settled, and in life. A necessary and honorable goal indeed. Bio: Rabbi Ariel Sholklapper is a mindfulness practitioner who got his start under the guidance of Rabbis Jeff Roth, James Jacobson Maisels, and Joanna Katz in 2011. Since then he has attended, managed, and facilitated retreats and mindfulness meditation groups all over the world. He was recently appointed Director of the Jewish Mindfulness Center of Houston at Congregation Beth Yeshurun, the largest Conservative Jewish congregation in the United States. He earned a degree in philosophy and Jewish studies at UCLA, was ordained at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, and holds an MBA in nonprofit management. Learn more about this project at: www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks Theme music provided by: www.modernnationsmusic.com Song of the week: Fireproof on Mingo Fishtrap’s album “On Time” lyrics and music by Treson Scipio and Roger Blevins Jr. www.mingofishtrap.com

This conversation explores some of the basic foundations for depth psychology; in particular, how paying attention to the body provides a ground for any individual to come to know their intuitive center point. Dr. Nanine Ewing surveys the body and the unconscious and the various pressures on how one should view each of these concepts in today’s culture. Nanine explains “the psychology of beauty” through both her academic study of attractiveness and the body, and also her experience as a woman in a culture that both subtly, and not, so subtlety emphasizes looks, pressuring women to change, alter, and value her looks and presentation. She discusses death and aging with a grace that is contagious. An underlying theme of this conversation is that if we but have these conversations more and more, may we all come to learn the gifts that life, death, aging, and impermanence conceal beneath our initial fears of coming to term with these inevitabilities. Bio: Nanine Ewing, Ph.D., F.A.G.P.A., GGP, L.M.F.T, BC-DMT is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Houston, Texas for the past 33 years. She is a Fellow of the American Group Psychotherapy Association and a Certified Group Psychotherapist and a Dance Movement therapist. She has spoken nationally and internationally on the subjects of nonverbal communication, Jungian theory, Group process, Group dynamics, Psyche and Soma, Countertransference, the Anti-group, and many other topics. She teaches in an alternate training route for dance movement therapists in Embodied Neurobiology for advanced clinical training at Experiential Therapies in Austin, Texas. She has a private practice in Houston, Texas and runs 3 groups a week for clinicians and private clients. She does in depth individual work with a Jungian orientation focusing on dream work and symbolic work in the body and psyche. Her clientele includes a large percentage of her fellow clinicians. She has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and a Masters in counseling psychology and is a certified Adlerian and has studied hypnotherapy to the consultant level. She believes deeply in the work of the therapist's inner life and has been committed to her own therapy and analysis for the entire spectrum of her clinical work and dedicates herself to encouraging other clinicians to do the same. www.nanineewing.com Learn more about this project at: www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks Theme music provided by: www.modernnationsmusic.com Song of the week: Bitta Honey (live) by Mingo Fishtrap www.mingofishtrap.com

This episode of the podcast begins with Dr. Cross discussing how his history influences the work that he has been doing with families and children “from hard places” for almost 40 years. This conversation explores David’s philosophical orientation as informed by the work of philosopher Benedict De Spinoza. David cites that Spinoza served as close to a philosophical “North Star” as anyone could get. David sees Spinoza as an ascetic, and one aspect of his life is the “honest work” that grounds us. Doing the real work of trying to make a difference. This conversation touches upon human growth and development, trauma and trauma-informed care, Eastern and Western philosophy, attachment, culture, and politics. Our conversation deconstructs the essence of the trust-based connection that Dr. Cross and his partner in the creation of the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development, Dr. Karyn Purvis, have worked to help bring to families and kids of the world. Bio: Dr. David Cross is the Rees-Jones Director of the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development and a Professor in the TCU Department of Psychology. Dr. Cross leads the Institute in its triple mission of research, education and outreach to improve the lives of children who have experienced abuse, neglect, and/or trauma. He has authored many peer-reviewed publications about issues regarding at-risk children. Dr. Cross earned his B.S. from California State University Fresno with a major in Psychology, and then attended The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for graduate study, beginning in 1980. He earned an M.A. in Psychology and an M.A. in Statistics. He later earned a Ph.D. in Education and Psychology. In 1985, he accepted a position as Assistant Professor in TCU’s Department of Psychology. Dr. Cross, with his former colleague Dr. Karyn Purvis, co-authored “The Connected Child: Bringing Hope and Healing to Your Adoptive Family” to help adoptive parents understand the needs of children from hard places. “The Connected Child” continues to be a best-seller among adoption books. Together, Drs. Purvis and Cross created Trust-Based Relational Intervention® (TBRI®), a holistic, attachment based, trauma-informed, and evidence-based intervention for children who have experienced relational trauma. Dr. Cross and his staff at the Institute regularly train professionals from around the world in TBRI®. The Institute is actively engaged in research that not only demonstrates the efficacy of TBRI® as an evidence-based intervention, but also in research about how to grow trauma-informed organizations and communities. In addition to his responsibilities at the Institute, Dr. Cross teaches many TCU courses including Case Studies in Child Development, Generalized Linear Models, and Graduate Developmental Psychology. Dr. Cross’s wife, Trudy, is a retired Kindergarten teacher and a practicing Grandmother. His daughter, Jennifer, graduated from TCU in 2003, and is an environmental project manager for CB&I. His son, Nathan, is a former USMC Captain, and is now studying history at UTA. https://child.tcu.edu Learn more about this project at: www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks Theme music provided by: www.modernnationsmusic.com Song of the week: My 66 by Shadows of Jets https://www.facebook.com/ShadowsOfJets/

Harvey is a psychotherapist and a teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, who received the title of Lama, Vajra Master from his teacher in 2010 and in a teaching context is known as Lama Namgyal Dorje. Dr. Aronson’s academic and spiritual path places him in an informed position to speak about the intersection of the both Buddhism and psychology; so much so that his book, Buddhist Practice On Western Ground, does just that. His treatment of culture, in general, and the differences between Tibetan and “Western” culture is an enlightening endeavor for any reader of his work, as it calls the reader to interrogate the patterns of their culture. Any participant of therapy will often hear their therapist urge them to “feel their feelings” with the implication that they have been “cut off” from their ability to be informed and signaled by one means the psyche communicates – through the body and with the feelings. He states that much of what the psychotherapist is working to do is to invite the individual to feel and experience what they were denied the validity of experiencing through their development. Harvey roots his exploration of the differences between Buddhism and Western psychology within a transformation that occurred in his life while teaching as a professor of Buddhist studies. As a young professor, Dr. Aronson learned that he would not get tenure and then began to experience a series of panic attacks, which sent him seeking a therapist. This process brought to the foreground the differences between the two and also sent him down the path of psychotherapeutic practice. Another core aspect of Harvey’s work is developmental theory as it relates to the Western practices of child-rearing and the implications that the cultural approach to parenting may appears to contribute and inform both how Westerners begin to understand themselves and also express their feelings and also how therapy treats the potential injuries that occur as a consequence – noting that, no matter the culture in which we develop, there will usually be some kind of wound as a result. Harvey states that many of the wounds that we endure through life are relational in nature and therefore the relational aspect of psychotherapy may meet the wound on the ground of its origin. Bio: Harvey B. Aronson, holds a BA in Chemistry from Brooklyn College, an MSW from Boston University, and a PhD in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin. He has studied extensively with prominent teachers in the Geluk, Dzogchen and Theravada traditions in India, Nepal and the United States. Harvey is the author of Buddhist Practice on Western Ground and Love and Sympathy in Theravada Buddhism, and a recognized scholar of the intersections between traditional Buddhist practice and Western therapeutic modalities. Harvey, and his wife Anne C. Klein, both hold PhDs in Buddhist Studies with a long, shared history of learning from the highest lamas of Tibetan traditions, and they founded Dawn Mountain in 1996. As practitioners, scholars, translators and gifted teachers, they serve Western seekers of all stripes and have fostered a strong community of advanced students that reaches from Houston to Portland, Oregon; Berkeley, California; Bloomington, Indiana; Ithaca, New York; Copenhagen, Denmark and beyond Harvey and Anne have been practicing and studying together in Asia and the west since 1970. They received the title of Lama, Vajra Master from their teacher in 2010 and in teaching context are known respectively as Lama Rigzin Drolma and Lama Namgyal Dorje. www.dawnmountain.org Learn more about this project at: www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks Theme music provided by: www.modernnationsmusic.com Song of the week: New Age, by Cut Throat Finches www.cutthroatfinches.com

We begin our conversation with Bob joking that, as a young boy growing up in the San Francisco Bay area, he knew he was a Democrat before he knew he was Jewish. Bob was deeply influenced by Robert “Bobby” Kennedy’s position as an agent of change so much so that he began working with the Kennedy campaign early in his life; and considering that Bobby Kennedy was a hero figure for Bob, Kennedy’s death greatly impacted him so much so that he continued the work of activism for collective change. When he was a young man, Bob embarked on a path into education, and as a self-professed skeptic, he hesitantly began a meditation practice at 18 years old although that was soon overwhelmed by the profound experience that transcendental meditation brought into his life. With the seeds of desire to educate children, Bob began teaching and educating inner-city youth and inmates about the benefits of meditation. He has continued along this path ever since. Bob and David Lynch began the nonprofit The David Lynch Foundation and have since offered scholarships to seek to teach over one million children the transformative value of meditation. The results of these interventions are astounding. To cite one example, within a year or two, following learning meditation some of the most underperforming schools in the bay area elevated the ranks to become among some of the higher performing schools in the area. Bob discusses three forms of meditation and provides a little background on each, and expands on the practice of Transcendental Meditation. Bob draws from ancient practice to modern neuroscience to back up his claims of how revolutionary a meditation practice can be for your life – and, as he frames it, it is more accessible than you may think. Bio: Bob Roth is one of the most experienced and sought-after meditation leaders in America. Over the past 45 years, Bob has taught Transcendental Meditation to many thousands of people and is the author of the forthcoming authoritative book on the subject, entitled "Strength in Stillness: The Power of Transcendental Meditation", which will be published internationally by Simon & Schuster in February 2018. Bob Currently serves as the CEO of the David Lynch Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charity which has brought meditation to over 500,000 inner-city youth in underserved schools in 35 countries, to veterans and their families who suffer from post-traumatic stress, and women and children who are survivors of domestic violence. Bob also directs the Center for Leadership Performance, another nonprofit, which is bringing meditation to Fortune 100 companies, government organizations, and nonprofit charities. Bob is the host of the SiriusXM radio show, "Success Without Stress" and has spoken about meditation to industry leaders at such gatherings as Google Zeitgeist, Aspen Ideas Festival, Aspen Brain Conference, Wisdom2.0, and Summit. https://www.davidlynchfoundation.org Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Song of the week: Jeff Price https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/mississippi-lights/1393868655

Robert speaks with eloquence as he grounds his research (me-search) in his personal story, a story that has a sobering way of articulating both the academic and the particular dynamic between, hope and despair, his subject of study. Robert has emerged from the depth and is now able to support others as they make a similar journey into their own experiences of the ups of life and also the downs. About the time when many of us were working on how to write and understand basic math, Robert was becoming more and more immersed in the world of alcohol and drugs. Many people struggle to separate themselves from the pull of these addictions, but for Robert, this aspect of his early life has served to provide him with the experiential knowledge that often only within the depths of personal darkness may we come to know the light of hope. After researching these phenomena, Robert does not believe hope to be intellectual, but relational – we “do” hope - meaning that no matter how hopeless we may feel at any time, we can cultivate a deeper relationship to hope and imagine ourselves to brighter and broader life experience. Biography: Robert Hilliker, LCSW, LCDC received his Master’s degree from the University of Houston’s Graduate College of Social Work. Following graduation Robert pursued additional training working as a Post-Graduate Social Work Fellow at The Menninger Clinic. He then completed a two-year fellowship at the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies. Currently, Robert is a doctoral student at the Institute for Clinical Social Work in Chicago, IL. He worked for three years at The Council on Alcohol and Drugs Houston where he served as the Manager of Executive and Treatment Services. As a therapist in the adult intensive outpatient program he provided clinical treatment services to individuals, couples, families, and groups. Robert worked at The Daring Way LLC with Dr. Brené Brown where he served as the Chief Clinical Officer for over three years. He has facilitated this methodology across diverse settings including Baylor Psychiatry Clinic, The Menninger Clinic, and The Council on Alcohol and Drugs Houston. In April 2014, Robert co-founded and became the Managing Partner for The Lovett Center LLC with his business partner, Will Davis. The Lovett Center is a community of helping professionals that offers traditional lease space, part-time office space, as well as opportunities for collaboration and continued learning for therapists. Robert works with patients in private practice at The Lovett Center and serves as the Clinical Director for the Pathos Program at The Lovett Center. Pathos offers intensive outpatient, supportive outpatient, and aftercare programming for people struggling with addiction and co-occurring mental health issues. Robert’s private practice focuses on work with professionals, addictive disorders, shame resiliency, and behavioral health issues. He provides individual, couples, family, and group psychotherapy. https://thelovettcenter.com Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Song of the week: Holy Moly http://www.holymolytexas.com Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks

Dr. Shefali explains that her primary entry point into the world of connecting with and teaching parenting is through her desire to expand the consciousness of each person. She explains that because the beginning stages of parenting so often create a willingness to make sacrifices on behalf of the parent, she realized that people were more amenable to “great spiritual change.” She frames consciousness as an act of introspection whereby each of us may learn how to challenge the “lies” that culture has told us about who and how we need to be. Culture while necessary, inevitably wounds people because the nature of culture is bi-polar, while it provides guidance by which we can connect to the world, it also limits our capacity to come to know ourselves. We are each called to both learn to be in the world and then to also see through the guises presented by the culture of fear and control that are interwoven within the nature of culture. To achieve this, the threshold through which we must all pass is marked by the feeling of our vulnerability and how the common refrain of “this is hard’ is the precise moment we need to be most fully engaged. We are asking ourselves not to feel pain, but are entirely aware that in each of our lives pain is correlated with our personal growth. Dr. Shefali is asked what it means when we parents desire for our kids to be “successful and happy”? Learn Dr. Shefali’s insight into this and other questions about parenting. Her core approach is that while the act of parents “turning the spotlight” away from our kids and onto ourselves is a scary experience, it is also an expanding one, with the consequence of the entire family feeling more abundant and more free to be the unique being each member of the family was created to be. Oprah has endorsed Shefali’s work as revolutionary and life-changing. Dr. Shefali Tsabary’s ground-breaking approach to parenting has taken her books to the top of The NY Times best-sellers list. Her blend of clinical psychology and eastern mindfulness sets her apart as a leader in the field of mindfulness psychology. As an international speaker, she speaks at events around the globe, spreading her message of conscious parenting and mindful living. She also has a private practice where she consults with families and couples. Shefali received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Columbia University, New York. Dr. Tsabary was exposed to Eastern mindfulness at an early age and integrates its teachings with Western psychology. Blending East and West, she lectures extensively on mindful living and conscious parenting around the world and is in private practice. Dr. Shefali is a keynote speaker who presents at conferences and workshops around the world. Some of the venues at which Dr. Shefali has presented are: Wisdom 2.0, TEDx, Kellogg Business School, The Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education, and many more. She has had key collaborations with Goldie Hawn’s MindUp Foundation, Kids in the House and many educational and transformational centers around the world. She also has a private practice where she consults with families and couples. She resides with her husband and daughter in New York. www.drshefali.com Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com

The discussion begins with Rodney’s musical biography starting at the age of 9, this early interest in music then transforms into a life calling by the age of 11. Currently, he is in training as a Jungian analyst, and therefore he speaks eloquently about the integration of music and depth psychology. Rodney’s life has provided him the ground to understand how music can give an individual an invitation to consciously and unconsciously explore their creativity, sexuality, and their worldview. Rodney considers his early sexual development through his childhood growing up in West Texas and emphasizes how music provided him a container to hold onto the “life-force” that needed a location for expression. Music eventually could not contain the life-force any longer, and he began searching and expanding his sexuality and his identity. One academic and personal arena of study for Rodney is sexuality, and in particular male sexuality, therefore we consider the modes through which men feel they can and cannot talk about with each other and find means by which to connect. Rodney’s interests are each located around the central theme of intimacy and self-expression – including music, relationship, sexuality, tattoos, depth psychology, and the beard. Rodney Waters is the Scholarship Director for Music Doing Good, a nonprofit based in Houston, Texas that transforms children’s lives through innovative, music-based programming. As a pianist he has performed extensively in Japan and Europe, and in Houston with the Houston Symphony, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, Da Camera, Musiqa, and St. Cecilia Chamber Music Society. In April 2016, his recording with Curt Thompson of the complete Sonatas for Violin and Piano by American composer Charles Ives was named one of the top 10 recordings of Ives’ music by Gramophone Magazine. Rodney earned his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in piano performance from the Mannes College of Music in New York, where he studied with Richard Goode. A long-time advocate for the use of art in service of social causes, Rodney has created projects to support local resettlement of refugees through Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston and HIV prevention programs through AIDS Foundation Houston. In 2016 Rodney composed and recorded music for Jungians Speaking, a DVD series released by Chiron Publications. He is currently in training to be a Jungian Analyst at the International School of Analytical Psychology in Zurich. Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/

Michael works as a Rolfer and therefore works with the body every day; and, he states, “we are not properly introduced to our bodies in this culture.” He designates most of the hours of each day touching people, and the underlying philosophy may surprise you. This episode reminds us all to attend to the form from which we manifest each moment. Michael’s meaning in life is born from attending to people’s body, and his personal story will help you understand how he has become so enlightened by his work on the body as a student of the biochemist, Ida Rolf, Ph.D. Growing up on the East Coast, living on the East Side in New York City in the late 60s, and then moving to California in the 60s opened Michael’s eyes beyond what he had come to know in his traditional upbringing at all male boarding schools and Yale University, wherein he studied Russian literature. From random nights watching a live performance from Lou Reed in the east side of New York City in the late 60s to random encounters with Ram Dass or Alan Watts, Michael has a deep connection with the epicenter of the explosion of American counterculture and the exploration of human consciousness in the late 60s and 70s in California. Michael discusses how Eslen and Ida Rolf were both at the center of his studies of the body and consciousness. Michael’s bio: Michael Laird McIver, Certified Advanced Rolfer Currently in 44th year of practice as a Certified Advanced Rolfer. Rolf Institute of Structural Integration Basic Rolfing Training, 1973 Emmett Hutchins, Instructor Rolf Institute of Structural integration Advanced Rolfing Training, 1974 Dr. Ida P. Rolf, Instructor Rolf Institute Board of Directors, 1993-97 Chairman, Red River Region of the Rolf Institute 1989-92 Massage Therapy Instructor, Texas, 2014 Massage Continuing Education Provider, Texas, 2014 Aston-Patterning Consultants, 1977-78 Applied Rolfing Techniques Judith Aston, Instructor Monterey Peninsula Nursing School, 1971-72 Anatomy, Physiology, and Chemistry Esalen Institute Massage Therapy Staff, 1971-73 Yale University, 1963-67 The Hotchkiss School, 1959-63 Michael's website: http://www.rolfinghoustontx.com Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Song of the week by: Collin Herring http://www.collinherring.com Collin’s music: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/collin-herring/65485822 Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks

We begin by agreeing that as two “keepers of stories” we often find people sharing with us their private experiences, ones that they often do not share with others. Therefore, we are both in a confident position to make certain characterizations about aspects of the human project that many people have experienced, but few share “out loud.” Each of us identifies the core differences between what people have going on in their lives and what they wish to consciously present to others. We all do this. This conversation, hopefully, will provide the listener with some content to both normalize and challenge the judgment we feel for these thoughts, fantasies, and behaviors. We explore the general absence of healthy sex education beyond biology, including values and pleasure, and discuss how much shame, guilt, & ignorance on the subject matter of sexuality is rooted in the abundance of misinformation and anxiety preventing people from learning about their body, and their partner’s body. Christina discusses her personal history with the origin of her website confidentlovers.com, including how pornography played a part in her development. We further discuss how the consequences of the ubiquity of porn specifically how it has contributed to disrupting our imagination, sexual creativity, & spontaneity. Through listening you will learn that Christina is willing to have conversations that many people are not willing to have in her pursuit to help free people up from the cycle of shame and anxiety around sex and sexuality. Where to reach Christina: www.confidentlovers.com Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Song of the week: The Burning Hotels https://www.facebook.com/theburninghotels/ Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks

In this week's podcast, Episcopal priest James Derkits and I explore the human need for community as expressed through the way the South Texas island town, Port Aransas, responds to the destruction following Hurricane Harvey. We explore individual and collective trauma and recognize that sometimes people find psychological gold after enduring the darkest of times. We begin this conversation by James vulnerably explaining the journey through his priesthood, which includes a period of doubt. James and I explore Christian theology and define terms ranging from priest and grace to ritual, and James eloquently helps us understand what religion means to him and how he understands the term Christ – James has a broad definition of this term that may signify more than one may think. The episode reframes my understanding of the Christian tradition (it just might not be what you think). James's Bio: I grew up in Silsbee, TX I went to college in San Marcos I'm married to Laura Derkits Eli is our son I'm an Episcopal Priest I live in Port Aransas I'm a musician I love being outdoors I pay attention to my dreams Where to reach James: http://james-derkits.blogspot.com http://www.trinitybythesea.org https://www.facebook.com/TrinitybytheSea/ Music by James: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/buffalo-roam/1129484513 Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/

Today’s conversation begins with Dr. Corbett’s analysis of the limitations of an exclusively biological mode of treating psychological issues. Lionel reframes one’s relationship to emotional symptoms away from the traditional models of modern psychopathology into a mode in which the symptom understood to be a signal for an aspect of life that is in need of attention. He defines complex and archetype, stating that the archetypes are analogous to the laws of physics. Lionel explores Jungian psychology as a psychospiritual therapy. Dr. Corbett offers his interpretation of The Book of Job from a Jungian lens, and he examines his history within Jungian psychology and the theory of psychoanalytical self-psychology. He recognizes the union between the personalitstic traditions (such as Kohut and Freud) and the archetypal traditions (Jung). We discuss consciousness and a few basic differences between dualistic and non-dual thinking. Dr. Corbett circles around the controversial and charged philosophical problem of defining consciousness. Bio: Lionel Corbett received his Medical Degree from the University of Manchester, England, in 1966; served as a military physician; and became a Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 1974. In the USA, he did fundamental research into the biochemistry of the brain; began one of the first programs in the psychology of aging; was a hospital medical director of in-patient psychiatry; trained as a Jungian analyst at the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago 1978-1986; helped found a training program for Jungian analysts in Santa Fe, while carrying on a private practice and teaching psychiatry at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Corbett has studied various spiritual disciplines including Christian and Jewish mysticism, Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, and Yoga and has had a personal meditation practice for 20 years. He now teaches depth psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute near Santa Barbara, California, where he founded the Psyche and the Sacred program, a highly successful series in its 5th year that integrates spirituality with depth psychology. This program has developed a powerful approach to spirituality that is based on personal experience of the sacred, avoiding all forms of doctrine and dogma. He is the author of 5 books, several training films, and over 40 professional articles. Publications Include: The essay Seduction, Psychotherapy, and the Alchemical Glutinum Mundiin the book Fire in the Stone: The Alchemy of Desire; Psyche and the Sacred: Spirituality Beyond Religion; The Sacred Cauldron: Psychotherapy as a Spiritual Practice; The Religious Function of the Psyche, and Soul in Anguish: Psychotherapeutic Approaches to Suffering. Courses taught in the Jungian and Archetypal Studies Specialization: Depth Psychology & the Sacred: Approaching the Numinous; Introduction to Depth Psychology https://www.pacifica.edu/faculty/lionel-corbett/ www.psycheandthesacred.org Music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/

Bill provides an autobiographical landscape of his early training and matriculation. Following his history, we begin exploring the limitations of the various therapeutic worldviews. We discuss how psychology and religion have been interwoven, specifically not the psychology of religion, but psychology and religion. Bill describes how the various psychological models illuminate religion. In particular, he references figures such as William James, Sigmund Freud, Abraham Maslow, and Carl Jung, emphasizing how the psychological worldview of these figures influences their understanding of religion. Bill has a way of challenging any worldview and asking questions about how any particular worldview affects how and what one may “see” as a result. Bill calls his approach dialogical whereby individuals are invited to place all of these psychological technologies, and others, into conversation with each other. He desires to bring to light, what he calls, an Ethnopsychospiritualy a view that incorporates and understands that the personal and cultural wisdom in the various religious traditions is inseparable from each tradition. Looking at the models carefully differing between the projection models of psychospiritualities versus recognizing that there is cultural refraction on the light, although there is an objective light. Through the conversation, there is an undertone of attending to how the worldview we adopt can both expand and limit an individual’s perspective unless each of us is conscious of this fact. Bio: William B. Parsons is Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University. He has written and edited several books, including The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling (Oxford, 1999), Teaching Mysticism (Oxford, 2011), Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain (Routledge, 2001), Mourning Religion (Virginia, 2008), Freud in Dialogue with Augustine: Psychoanalysis, Mysticism, and the Culture of Modern Spirituality (Virginia, 2013) as well as dozens of essays in multiple journals and books. He has served as Chair of the Department of Religious Studies (Rice University), as Director of the Humanities Research Center (Rice University), as Editor (the psychology of religion section) with Religious Studies Review and is Associate Editor of the International Series in the Psychology of Religion. He has been a Fellow at the Martin Marty Center of the University of Chicago and at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) at Hebrew University. Music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/

Episode 5: Religion and Psychology. A conversation with Pittman McGehee In today’s episode, Pittman unpacks the definition of religion and broadens the traditional limiting assumptions many immediately experience in relationship to religion. We discuss how many of the actions that have been in the name of religion are not religious. We begin by defining religion, the philosophy of materialism, psychological wholeness, good and evil, individuation, and the Self. Pittman discusses where religion goes wrong and how the human stewards of the various traditions affect the search for wholeness with human impulses, ideologies, and dominance. He defines spirituality as the deep human longing to transfer the transcendent into the immanent through experience and reflection upon it. We explore the profoundly powerful sacred aspects of human sexuality and the assault by the organize structures and the misinterpretation of each tradition that has been destructive of sexuality. Biography: Pittman became was ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church in 1969, The Very Reverend J. Pittman McGehee served, for 11 years, as Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, located in the center of downtown Houston. Since moving to Houston in 1980, Mr. McGehee has been in demand as a lecturer and speaker in the fields of psychology and religion. He lectures regularly at the C. G. Jung Center and has published two papers through that Center: “Water as a Symbol of Transformation” (1985), and “The Healing Wound and the Wounded Healer” (1986). He is a regular book reviewer for The Living Church. Dr. McGehee has held many distinguished lectureships, including the 1987 Harvey Lecture at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, where he received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity; the 1988 Perkins Lecture in Wichita Falls; the 1990 Woodhull Lectures in Dayton, Ohio, and the 1991 St. Luke’s Lectures in Birmingham. He was the 1994 Rockwell visiting Theologian at the University of Houston and 1996 Carolyn Fay Lecturer in Analytical Psychology also at the University of Houston. He is an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Texas, an Adjunct Instructor at Saybrook University, and a Faculty Member of the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. His books are: The Invisible Church: Finding Spirituality Where You Are, Praeger Press, 2008; Raising Lazarus: The Science of Healing the Soul, 2009; Words Made Flesh: Selected Sermons by The Very Reverend J. Pittman McGehee, D.D., 2011; The Paradox of Love, (available 10/1/2011); and Slender Threads: An Interview with Robert Johnson (DVD). In addition to his teaching and prose writing, Mr. McGehee is known for his poetry. His work has been chosen for the juried Houston Poetry Fest (1985, 1987, 1988), and his poems “Ash Wednesday,” “Pegasus,” and “Semination” were published in the Poetry Fest Anthology. His poems also have appeared in the Cimarron Review, the Anglican Theological Review, the St. Luke’s Journal, In Art magazine, Cite magazine, Windhover, and New Texas magazine. In 1991, Dr. McGehee resigned from Christ Church Cathedral to become the director of The Institute for the Advancement of Psychology and Spirituality. The Institute joins the disciplines of psychology and religion by exploring the concept that mental health comes with the integration of the biological, psychological, and spiritual elements of the human condition. In 1996, the C. G. Jung Institute of Dallas awarded him a diploma in Analytical Psychology. In addition, he is currently in private practice as a priest/psychoanalyst and teacher/lecturer. www.jpittmanmcgehee.com Music provided by: www.modernnationsmusic.com Learn more about this project at: www.thesacredspeaks.com www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/

Episode 4: A life worth living. A conversation with James Hollis In this episode, Jim and I discuss how elements of his personal history positioned his interest in depth psychology specifically and learning in general. Jim defines depth psychology and discusses how a relationship to one’s inner world orients one’s self to meaning and purpose. We explore how the relationship to a vocation or calling will either enhance or limit each of our life experience. He frames the price of being separated from one’s inner voice as “the problem of our time.” We discuss how the poet’s life and interest investigate the cosmos and psyche, as Jim believes that the poet is depth psychology. We investigate the difference between learning and thinking and evaluate how making a living and making money have contributed to the unbalancing of our culture. We explore the imagination and reason as working together to image possibilities. We frame addiction as a consequence of ego consciousness clinging to a management system believed to palliate the suffering of living. He eloquently identifies the core struggle shared amongst men and the related consequences of this struggle. We converse about the nature of transcendence and how attending to our symptoms, dreams, and fantasies place us into relationship with mysteries beyond our conscious sense of “I.” James Hollis, Ph. D. was born in Springfield, Illinois, and graduated from Manchester University in 1962 and Drew University in 1967. He taught Humanities 26 years in various colleges and universities before retraining as a Jungian analyst at the Jung Institute of Zurich, Switzerland (1977-82). He is presently a licensed Jungian analyst in private practice in Washington, D.C. He served as Executive Director of the Jung Educational Center in Houston, Texas for many years and now is Executive Director of the Jung Society of Washington. He is a retired Senior Training Analyst for the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, was first Director of Training of the Philadelphia Jung Institute, and is Vice-President Emeritus of the Philemon Foundation. Additionally, he is a Professor of Jungian Studies for Saybrook University of San Francisco/Houston. He lives with his wife Jill, an artist and retired therapist, in Washington, DC. Together they have three living children and eight grand-children. He has written a total of fifteen books and over fifty articles. The books have been translated into Swedish, Russian, German, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian, Korean, Finnish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Farsi, Japanese, Greek, Chinese, and Czech. www.jameshollis.net Music provided by: www.modernnationsmusic.com Learn more about this project at: www.thesacredspeaks.com

Niki is an expert on the ascetic John Cassian and the French philosopher Michel Foucault. In this episode Niki and I discuss her newest book, Sites of the Ascetic Self. Niki is most interested in daily practices of discipline that can help and enable individuals to open to certain forms of self-transformation including transformation of our bodies, our emotions and our relation to other people. She discusses how her history places her into relationship with her current areas of study. We are shaped as subjects in this world, therefore one of Niki’s core questions is: how can we become self-shaping and self-forming? Looking at the kinds of daily practices we each live and how those practices influence and inform our reality. We explore the value of recognizing the various interpretations and agencies that are present in every moment. We define the terms such as ethics, ascetic, and others. We discuss the modern understanding of mental health and the progressive pathologizing of one’s relationship with the voices, urges, and powers formed within one’s “head” or self. She is interested in the construction of one’s character as a way of life. Niki Clements works at the disciplinary intersection between the history of Christian practice, philosophy of religion, and religious ethics. She specializes in Christian asceticism and mysticism in late antiquity, highlighting its resources for thinking through contemporary ethical formation and conceptions of the self. She is currently completing the first comprehensive treatment of the ethical thought of John Cassian (c.360-c.435), a late antique Catholic architect of Latin monasticism doctrinally marginalized for his optimistic views on human agency. Engaging Michel Foucault's late work on ethics-which sees Cassian as a crucial inaugurator of modern disciplinary subjectivity-she critiques the conceptual limitations that Foucault's philosophical categories impose on his reading of Cassian, late antique Christianity, and the study of religion. She also pursues a transdisciplinary approach with cognitive neuroscience to argue that ethical formation integrates consciousness, embodiment, and affectivity. She is the volume editor for Mental Religion: The Brain, Cognition, and Culture, as part of the forthcoming Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks. http://rice.academia.edu/NikiClements Specialization: History of Catholic thought and practice, Christianity in late antiquity, asceticism and mysticism, religious ethics, philosophy of religion, theories and methods in the study of religion, religion, and science Academic History: Ph.D., Brown University, Religion and Critical Thought, 2014 M.T.S., Harvard Divinity School, 2007 B.A., Sarah Lawrence College, 2003 Music provided by: www.modernnationsmusic.com Learn more about this project at: www.thesacredspeaks.com

Have you ever wondered if someone can help you understand ways to think about the wild and, at times, frightening fantasies that we all experience throughout our lives (and sometimes on a daily basis)? Do we have fantasies, or do they have us? In this episode, Sean Fitzpatrick and I discuss the imagination and how the way each of us interprets those images and affects that seem to emerge from places whose point of origin are unknown can often influence our daily lives. From Sean’s perspective the attitude that we take to our fantasies is so important that he refers to this attitude as the ethics of the imagination; and he applies this to fantasies ranging from the murderous and the sexual to the mundane. Within this conversation Sean defines the terms “Jungian”, fantasy, imagination, spiritual, and ethical. Sean Fitzpatrick, PhD, LPC, holds master’s degrees in religious studies (Rice University) and clinical psychology (University of Houston – Clear Lake) and received his doctorate in psychology through Saybrook University’s program in Jungian studies. Sean is a psychotherapist in private practice and has been employed at The Jung Center since 1997. He has been an instructor at The Jung Center since 2001, and he lectures locally and nationally on a range of contemporary social and psychological issues. Learn more about Sean and The Houston Jung Center at: http://www.junghouston.org Music provided by: www.modernnationsmusic.com Learn more about this project at: www.thesacredspeaks.com

In this episode, Jeff and I discuss the nature of religion and secularism. We explore the need for culture to create a more generous science that includes experiences that are currently outside of the boundaries of the modern sciences. We define terms such as religion, belief, and gnosis, all in service of gaining a deeper understanding of the narratives that fuel and drive much of the human need to understand our lived experience. Jeffrey J. Kripal holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University. He is the author of Comparing Religions (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014); Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal (Chicago, 2011); Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred (Chicago, 2010); Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion (Chicago, 2007); The Serpent’s Gift: Gnostic Reflections on the Study of Religion (Chicago, 2007); Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom: Eroticism and Reflexivity in the Study of Mysticism (Chicago, 2001); and Kali’s Child: The Mystical and the Erotic in the Life and Teachings of Ramakrishna (Chicago, 1995). He has also co-edited volumes with: Sudhir Kakar, on the history, science, psychology, and analysis of psychical experiences, Seriously Strange: Thinking Anew about Psychical Experiences (Viking, 2012); Wouter Hanegraaff on eroticism and esotericism, Hidden Intercourse: Eros and Sexuality in the History of Western Esotericism (University of Amsterdam Press, 2008); Glenn W. Shuck on the history of Esalen and the American counterculture, On the Edge of the Future: Esalen and the Evolution of American Culture (Indiana, 2005); Rachel Fell McDermott on a popular Hindu goddess, Encountering Kali: In the Margins, at the Center, in the West (California, 2003); G. William Barnard on the ethical critique of mystical traditions, Crossing Boundaries: Essays on the Ethical Status of Mysticism (Seven Bridges, 2002); and T.G. Vaidyanathan of Bangalore, India, on the dialogue between psychoanalysis and Hinduism, Vishnu on Freud’s Desk: A Reader in Psychoanalysis and Hinduism (Oxford, 1999). His present areas of writing and research include the articulation of a New Comparativism within the study of religion that will put “the impossible” back on the table again, a robust and even conversation between the sciences and the humanities, and the mapping of an emergent mythology or “Super Story” within paranormal communities and individual visionaries. Learn more at: www.thesacredspeaks.com