A New Look at American Spirituality
The podcast of the Sacred Inclusion Network
According to the Fetzer Institute's recent study about spirituality in the United States, 86% of survey respondents considered themselves spiritual; about 66% aspire to be more spiritual; and people who identify as spiritual are more liable to be civilly engaged and get involved in politics and vote.
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Hack the Brain!
The podcast of the Sacred Inclusion Network
Contemporary neuroscience is an essential ingredient in our understanding of human development, including our capacity for greater happiness and wisdom. In this podcast, author and educator Jim Hickman explains how our evolving understanding of the brain's functioning gives credence to the value of certain forms of spiritual practice, how spiritual practice "sculpts the brain," and how we can use what we're learning about the brain to develop enhanced cognitive, emotional and spiritual skills.
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The Mystic, the Psychic, the Paranormal
The podcast of the Sacred Inclusion Network
JeffreyJ J. Kripal mission is to extend religious scholarship into the realm of the preternatural. A professor and Associate Dean of Humanities at Rice University, he's pioneer in broadening religious studies to include things like mysticism, the paranormal and near-death experiences.
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Into the Mystic
The podcast of the Sacred Inclusion Network
Former pharmacist Paul Corson explains how his transcendental experiences fundamentally changed his way of being in the world. He shares his born-again experience, the nature of miracles and, the relationship between spiritual substance and the material world.
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The Sara Minkara Story
The podcast of the Sacred Inclusion Network
Don't think of Sara Minkara as a blind person. Think of her as as person who is blind. Social activist, speaker, and a winner of multiple awards, the founder of the advocacy organization Empowerment for Integration (ETI) has never let used her absence of vision of an excuse or crutch. A Blind, Muslim, first-generation American, Sara Minkara has spent her life on a journey toward not only acceptance but also real empowerment—for herself and everyone she meets.
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"Touching the Jaguar"
The podcast of the Sacred Inclusion Network
Author, activist and renegade economist John Perkins traces his journey from Peace Corps volunteer to co-founding the Pachamama Alliance, a non-profit devoted to establishing a world future generations will want to inherit. Perkins is best know for his best-selling book, Confessions of an Economic Hitman.
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Digital Disruptor: The Internet's Impact on Religion and Spirituality
The podcast of the Sacred Inclusion Network
Digital culture is transforming religion in multiple ways, from how people draw from multiple sources to define where they fit spiritually, to how they relate to institutional authority. According to Texas A&M Professor of Communication Heidi A. Campbell, the internet allows people to create their own religious tribe, apart from the confines of whatever congregation they belong.
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Galvanizing Change in this Pandemic Moment
The podcast of the Sacred Inclusion Network
Most of us progressive-minded folks are members of multiple communities, be they religious, spiritual, environmental or political. What unites us are our values, the foremost of which is an innate sense of our sacred interdependence, or reverence for both the entirety of the interconnected web and all of its connected parts. This podcast explores the possibility of harnessing our energies for the full expression of the higher values that unite us: a project here called The Network of Light..
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Lucid Dreaming as a Pathway to the Divine
The podcast of the Sacred Inclusion Network
Dream researcher Ryan Hurd explains how anyone can begin the process of working with their dreams, his studies on the impact of galantamine paired with meditation and dream reliving on subsequent dreams, and how dreams can be portals for the expansion of consciousness.
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Healing the Wounded Masculine
The podcast of the Sacred Inclusion Network
Men who exhibit toxic "Me Two" behavior are not just predators, but victims, says leadership coach and spiritual teacher Wendy C. Williams.
info_outlineJust before the Dark Night came calling, Fiona Robertson felt she was on top of the world. She was the co-founder of an award winning health project, had a charismatic new boyfriend, and felt more physically fit than any time in her life.
Yet in quiet moments she felt that something wasn't quite right. The material success she'd achieved wasn't really giving her peace. Within a relatively short time, a series of circumstances occurred that undermined her carefully constructed sense of self-esteem.
"Becoming the person I had believed I should be did not bring about the happiness or contentment I had imagined it would, simply because it wasn’t who I really was," she writes in her new book, The Dark Night of the Soul: A Journey from Absence to Presence.
Robertson here shares how she navigated the spiritual crisis first described in a poem by St. John of the Cross. She explains how the process involves the disintegration of a false self that masks fear and unworthiness, and the emergence of a mature, stable and integrated true self. She describes what she's learned by comparing her experiences with those of a group she calls her amam cara, a group of friends and associates who've also experienced the Dark Night of the Soul.
Links:
- Book site
- Robertson's main site
- Wikipedia's description of the Dark Night of the Soul
- Diversity and Spirituality Network's site
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