What do you do if you’re a man of the cloth and are confronted by the reality of UFOs? I’m not talking about a now commonplace flying saucer sighting, but a middle-of-the-night visitation by a gray alien—an incident that’s then repeated over and over again, with a changing cast of extraterrestrial visitors. If you’re the Reverend Michael J.S. Carter, who currently serves as the minister of a Unitarian Universalist congregation in North Carolina, you try to make sense of the... Read more
Have you heard of “the shimmer”? It’s a term coined by the life philosopher and dharma artist Erick Godsey to describe our unhealthy attraction to our smartphones, or any screen that sucks us into the Internet. Godsey, whose ideas are rooted in mythology, didn’t exactly invent “the shimmer.” He borrowed it from the 2018 science fiction movie Annihilation. In that film, the shimmer is (as reported by Wikipedia) “a mysterious quarantined zone of mutating plants and animals caused by an... Read more
I was a good ten years into my spirituality explorations before I seriously tried meditation. I had wondered, “what’s the point?” I had believed that my mind was the vehicle that would garner me new spiritual insights—and wondered how thinking about “nothing” could result in something. But eventually, I got it. I began to see that my ever-thinking, always analyzing mind didn’t have all the answers. In fact, it was sometimes getting in the way. I discovered that the quietude... Read more
I read a lot of spirituality books and articles and sometimes stumble upon stories that don’t merit a full column—but have messages worth repeating. Each of these “tidbits” has an important insight (or insights) to offer, ideas that may have you thinking long after you read them. Here are four of my recent favorites, with some light editing. What Does the World Owe You? This short piece comes from Seth Godin’s Blog and is a trick question of sorts. The... Read more
Jesus was a man, yes, but he is also a spirit as alive today as he was two thousand years ago. He does not appear now as a man but as a state of consciousness, which does not make him any less real. ~Marianne Williamson In her new book The Mystic Jesus, Marianne Williamson sees Jesus as a living presence, as alive as you and me. Forget the dusty Jesus of the Bible. This Jesus is more a state of... Read more
This is one of the 112 stories that appears in Wake Up Call: Daily Insights for the Spiritual Curious. How do you walk through life? Are you sure-footed with a specific destination in mind? Or are you stuck in place, unsure of your direction or which way to head? Every now and then, you’ll hear about a friend or acquaintance who has “found their calling.” And when you hear those words spoken, it might cause you to wonder: Does everyone... Read more
Sounds like an overpromise, doesn’t it? But’s that’s how Dr. Joe Dispenza describes a specific meditation technique in his book Becoming Supernatural. Before we go there, a little backstory is in order. Because the meditation that Dispenza is talking about is really all about the breath and how we use it. If you Google “breathing” or “breathing exercises,” a gazillion video and webpage options will pop up. Among the more interesting techniques are the super-intense Wim-Hof exercises which practically make... Read more
There’s a 78-year old book that has had an outsized effect on many modern-day spiritual seekers. Steve Jobs saw to it that copies of the book were handed out at his funeral. George Harrison was a devotee and gave a copy to then US President Gerald Ford. His wife Priscilla said it was even a favorite read of Elvis Presley. The book is Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda, and its spiritual lessons are every bit as timeless and... Read more
You might already be asking yourself: What’s a spirit guide and how does it differ from a guardian angel? Well, for starters, let’s touch on guardian angels which are probably better known. (I’ve written about them here and here.) Part of the Christian faith, angels are mentioned prominently in the Bible as in this passage from Matthew 18:10: “Don’t look down on the little ones. For I tell you that the angels always see the face of my Father in... Read more
Karen Armstrong is a former Catholic nun who left the church and became one of the world’s leading writers on spirituality and faith. She has penned books on the Bible, Buddhism, and Islam, as well as the ambitious A History of God. So when it comes to religion, she knows a thing or two. In a 2018 interview on Oprah’s Super Soul Conversation, Oprah Winfrey asked Armstrong the following question: “Is there a common thread that ties together all religions?”... Read more
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