Libsyn Directory

Episode #24: My Religious Deconstruction Story, Pt. 5

Mythic Imaginations: How Stories Shape and Change Our Lives

In this final chapter of my religious deconstruction journey, I talk about how my relationship with the faith and religion of my past looks and feels today, particularly in the context of tumultuous social and political upheaval in the United States. I acknowledge both the gifts I have received from the faith and religious community of my past, as well as a continued and growing anger and frustration in the face of the rising popularity of Christian Nationalism. I also express my raw and candid thoughts about the institutions that have seeded and nurtured the obsession to replace liberal...

Episode #23: My Religious Deconstruction Story, Pt. 4

Mythic Imaginations: How Stories Shape and Change Our Lives

As my religious deconstruction story continues, I come full circle to the memory of my father, David, where nearly 20 years after his death I find an opportunity for inner reconciliation and peace. With the help of a good friend to walk me through a healing ceremony out in the wild deserts of Southern California, I find forgiveness, healing, redemption, and release. This episode concludes with a song...the only song I have ever written about my father directly. It walks through all the complex emotions I've had in relationship to him over the years. The children's voices at the end of the song...

My Religious Deconstruction Story: Part 3

Mythic Imaginations: How Stories Shape and Change Our Lives

In this episode I recount the years where I was getting ready to graduate from college but having little to no direction as to where to go in life and what to do next. A serendipitous chain of events in my senior year of college opened the door to an unexpected pathway which led me to go to graduate school where I studied to become a therapist. This proved to be a frutiful time of personal, spiritual, and educational enlightenment and renaissance for me, and I still recount those years as some of the most fulfilling and illuminating of my life to date. In this period, new questions were...

My Religious Deconstruction Story: Part 2

Mythic Imaginations: How Stories Shape and Change Our Lives

In this episode my story resumes around my early college years and the particular struggles I was having and developing around that time. Having covertly lost my faith in the church of my upbringing and my larger faith in God beginning to erode rapidly, I set out to look for answers and the truth beyond the familiar confines of my religious community; outside the borders of its theological tenets, assumptions, and presumptions. Giving myself the gift of this freedom did come with a cost. I had left my community and its various safety nets behind. This episode concludes with a prophetic dream I...

My Religious Deconstruction Story: Part 1

Mythic Imaginations: How Stories Shape and Change Our Lives

Religious deconstruction is a path of transition, like so many other transitions that all of us go through in life. It has the components of loss, crisis, confusion, grief, and anger. It also includes catharsis, wisdom, joy, anticipation, and the opportunity for new life to arise out of the ashes of an old one. My deconstruction journey begins for me at the age of 10, when our family learned that my father was diagnosed with cancer and ends in the middle of my high school years, particularly at the age of 16, when my father lost his battle with cancer, and everything that occurred in the...

Episode #19: Laura Lewis-Barr: Inner Work Through Short Films, Pt. 2

Mythic Imaginations: How Stories Shape and Change Our Lives

Laura Lewis-Barr is an award-winning screenwriter, stop-motion filmmaker, and educator. Laura writes comedy features. As a filmmaker Laura's focus is on animating fairy tales and mythic stories that explore personal and collective transformation. She is inspired by the work of Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, Jack Zipes, and Marie-Louise von Franz. Laura creates her short films in the basement of her house in Chicago, IL, where she resides.

Episode #18: Laura Lewis-Barr: Inner Work With Short Films, Pt. 1

Mythic Imaginations: How Stories Shape and Change Our Lives

Laura Lewis-Barr is an award-winning screenwriter, stop-motion filmmaker, and educator. Laura writes comedy features. As a filmmaker Laura's focus is on animating fairy tales and mythic stories that explore personal and collective transformation. She is inspired by the work of Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, Jack Zipes, and Marie-Louise von Franz. Laura creates her short films in the basement of her house in Chicago, IL where she resides.

Episode #17: Apokalypsis: A Time of Turmoil & Revelation

Mythic Imaginations: How Stories Shape and Change Our Lives

The term Apokalypsis is a Greek word that denotes a "revelation" or an "unveiling." It is the term from which we derive the modern word apocalypse. Unlike modern, fundamentalist religious movements that interpret this idea to mean the literal end of the world, the original term denotes something different, if no less harrowing. The moment of revelation, in both Biblical and mythical literature always heralds a change to come, and typically no small change, but rather something very big and profound which will impact an entire people, nation, or in our case today, yes, the entire world. It...

Mythic Imaginations: Same Podcast, New Title!

Mythic Imaginations: How Stories Shape and Change Our Lives

Episode #15: Stories With Bear, Part 2: Learning To Be "Hollow-Boned"

Mythic Imaginations: How Stories Shape and Change Our Lives

In this episode, Bear shares some of his experiences interacting with the Aboriginal communities he met with during his time Australia. Bear also introduces us to the concept of being “hollow-boned,” as he recalls his work in facilitating sweat lodges, which is a stance that a person must take in order to “hold space” for others. We also explore the power of intention and balance as mechanisms for both growth and healing in our lives, as Bear talks about using past traumas as more of a “springboard rather than an anchor,” as he puts it. We end our time talking about the importance...

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