Thanks for the thoughtful dissection of spiritual and mystical practices and experiences. As you indicated explicitly (dissolution of the post-Dispenza retreat group) and implicitly (referencing Gandhi, MLK and Mandela), transformative spiritual experiences should result in and be aimed at increased, sustained, holistic, life-affirming, and self-sacrificial involvement in a community of others who find themselves somewhere along the same path. "Evil" can be easily sniffed out in the fruits of incomplete, misguided or deceptive spiritual teachings which fail to produce or even inhibit people from finding a community marked by mutual support, acceptance of differences, joyful inward AND outward service, and some form of fumbling toward unconditional love.
“Beware of wisdom that is not earned.” --- Happily concur with some of the other comments, this piece is really really wonderful. Honest, poignant, interesting and touching on something real; and since your wisdom here feels earned it rings all the more true. Thx Taylor.
Thank you for reading, Samuel. It honestly means a lot. There is a flood of things to read and reading is hard in a world of distraction, so, again, thank you.
Thank you for sharing this Taylor. I was raised in a cult (Mormonism) and after unraveling that web, I found myself in a disorienting freefall looking for truth and meaning. Without a belief system in place, I was in a state of confusion around morals, ethics, the purpose of life, my own identity, etc. I stumbled upon Sam Harris' work (Waking Up book) and discovered a "highly rational" spiritual take on experience. Through meditation and psychedelics, I found a great deal of insight and temporary peace. But there was always a return to baseline and the questioning and unease returned. What you wrote here captures a great deal of my yearning; a desire to have regular spiritual connection without the dogma and manipulation. I don't know what the answer is, but it feels good to know I'm not alone.
This is great. I was reading some random Christian post the other day and it occurred to me that there is basically difference between Christians who say things like “God is looking out for you, be patient” and new age spiritualists who say “the Universe is benevolent and wants you to receive all that you desire”. They’ve just replaced the idea of God with the word Universe, but it’s the same thing. Trust in God’s will/Trust in the benevolence of the universe. The thing that I like about Christianity more, thought, is that there is some level of personal surrender to a power greater than yourself that you may not understand. Whereas in new age spiritualism, with its focus on manifestation and “positive energy” there is this idea of it’s your fault if your life isn’t exactly how you want it, you’re not manifesting/being positive/vibrating correctly.
Love this topic, I too so desperately at times have wished to believe in this modern pseudo-spiritual-scientific gurus. But in the end, OG Jordan Peterson was right. It’s not about miracles, belief in God is about aiming meaningfully and becoming strong enough to face the hard times with faith and character.
There are only two kinds of spirits: the Holy Spirit sent by Lord Jesus Christ and the evil spirits sent by the devil. Don't play the dangerous game with unknown evil spirits. They don’t play around, and they will stick around. The end result is always the big feast they are all waiting for: the death.
This is a good piece, man. Thank you for writing it. I will say though that I feel you’ve straw-manned nondual teachings here. True nonduality includes everything, including our mythic & sacramental human journeys. As a lover of Christ & dedicated family man who loves rich stories, cathedrals, & ceremony, I can tell you that nonduality points to a simple rest that fully includes all these wonderful & human aspects of life. No illusions, nothing negated. It points to radiant wholeness dancing itself forth as all this poetry of form -- it points to God’s supra-personal grace. Take care 🙏🏼❤️🔥
Thanks for appreciating and being open, Taylor. I appreciate that -- I really enjoyed your piece. Nonduality can be a very tricky thing to speak about. Perhaps the writings of Joan Tollifson here on Substack may speak to you. Or Jeff Foster, Adyashanti, or Anandamayi Ma. Each one has to find the flavor they connect with. For me Peter Brown’s yoga of radiant presence has been an enormous blessing in this respect (www.theopendoorway.org)... if you look at my recent writings, especially on my Substack ‘ever innocent heart’ you’ll find more on this. I’ve also spoken about it plenty on YouTube; this recent video goes deeply into the themes of heartful, humanity-including nonduality that I began presenting to you in my initial comment: https://youtu.be/V8E3hEhjlyM?si=-WfmencHGoHHQvam
I’d also be up for a call about this sometime if you like -- it’s one of my great joys to speak with people about these matters
Hey! Really enjoyed this. Efforts are being made along these lines. Up here in Portland, OR we're playing a parareality game called "Phonomancer" that allows one to participate in quasi-fictional (i.e., mythic) narrative. Part of that is doing hard, hard Shadow work. In our current practice, that involves contemplating the fate of Anne Frank and the reality of the Holocaust as part of ritual magic intended to prevent the end of the world. You might find it interesting! https://youtu.be/TAUILZI51Xk?si=tUcF-STgEnOwMnJo
Wow! This is interesting stuff. Shadow work seems especially salient in narrative frameworks. Or, at least, that would explain why I'm always going, "This is movie is about integration of the shadow," to my annoyed friends.
Thanks for reading, Sean. Would love to continue the discussion.
That'd be great! Drop me a line at sean (at) entheogym (dot) com and let's set up a call! In the meantime, I'll dig into your article backlog. If you're curious about Phonomancer, there's more info at https://www.phonomancer.com. Thanks, Taylor!
thank you for sharing - very cool/unique perspective! Meditation (in my world) can be a double edges sword. Capable of harnessing powers depending on why you are meditating and the amount of knowledge you have. William Donahue in my opinion is the BEST interpreter of the bible and his works are directly focused on meditation. If your curious about the spiritual side of things I recommend going to his you tube and clicking whatever video resonates with you. It's all about astrology cosmology science meta physics. I believe all is possible yet I also dont believe half the crap ppl say. Its all love and your world is the only thing that is important! everyone will have their own god or perspective that is "right." Just follow YOUR path! Thanks again - great read!
This was beautifully done! Appreciate your honesty and sharing while weaving in many threads regarding the current phenomena of self-help and spiritual gurus. Without a grounded framework and tradition, the religious function of the psyche becomes hijacked by any number of flashy and seemingly powerful movements that shimmer with numinosity, meaning and a way to orient in reality.
Also, so very curious to hear more on the conversation mentioned here: "She also thought the “beings” people encountered during deep meditations were Jungian archetypes. We had a great, long conversation down that rabbit hole."
I also agree that altered states of consciousness tap us into the unconscious aspects of psyche, which at the core is the structures of the archetypes. It's why these experiences can be so moving, otherworldly, imagistic. And why they can be radically destabilizing as well.
Thank you *so* much for that Abraham clip. It takes a specific desire to understand that because we do die, because our experience in space-time is finite, it behooves is to focus on creating what we want which for many of us is joy. A joyful world. It’s not mandatory to desire a joyful world. As that man displayed, it’s allowable to focus on misery only. Either way he’s going to croak as she said. Either way, joy or misery, this will end. It’s all about the choice. We can choose to align with light and love--and we’d be hard pressed to find a single person who has never experienced it for one second--and we can decide we want as much of that and we want to spread as much of it as we can even while the planet burns and others suffer--or we can lament burning and suffering while never adding a single thing to the world or even another person to try to lift it or them up.
This is one giant experiential sandbox and then we die. Free will means your will is free to focus as it will. Conscious choice is the gift of free will. Choose by anything. But be aware the joy is a choice individually. The more who choose it, the more collectively who’ll experience it.
And then we die in physical space-time regardless what we choose.
Oh so glad I read this. Wonderful title, I resonate w the “spiritual but not religious.”
You might LOVE this book: Existential Kink. I recently finished it, a referral from a friend, and it addresses head on the bogus-ness of so much “shelf help” (great term).
Concur I appreciate the authenticity here. Also, I’m in Colorado, so woah, a few synchronicities in here for me. My hubs is on an “atomic habits” reading kick right now, lol.
You also had a couple sentences in here that I may have to consult you about borrowing, relating to some writing I want to do. (They were about knots and fiber of all things, having to do with the self.)
So glad I read this. Thanks for not selling me short, kicking up the inspiration, and highly resonating with the vibes of the times. (Queue a whole rant about “belief,” “religion,” and Jupiter retrograde, haha!)
Thanks for the thoughtful dissection of spiritual and mystical practices and experiences. As you indicated explicitly (dissolution of the post-Dispenza retreat group) and implicitly (referencing Gandhi, MLK and Mandela), transformative spiritual experiences should result in and be aimed at increased, sustained, holistic, life-affirming, and self-sacrificial involvement in a community of others who find themselves somewhere along the same path. "Evil" can be easily sniffed out in the fruits of incomplete, misguided or deceptive spiritual teachings which fail to produce or even inhibit people from finding a community marked by mutual support, acceptance of differences, joyful inward AND outward service, and some form of fumbling toward unconditional love.
This is really clarifying for me. I didn't realize how much the answer just is "community." And "fumbling toward unconditional love," is beautiful.
Truly, we need other people to not be insane. Thanks for being other people to me.
We are all just walking each other home.
“Beware of wisdom that is not earned.” --- Happily concur with some of the other comments, this piece is really really wonderful. Honest, poignant, interesting and touching on something real; and since your wisdom here feels earned it rings all the more true. Thx Taylor.
Thank you for reading, Samuel. It honestly means a lot. There is a flood of things to read and reading is hard in a world of distraction, so, again, thank you.
Thank you for sharing this Taylor. I was raised in a cult (Mormonism) and after unraveling that web, I found myself in a disorienting freefall looking for truth and meaning. Without a belief system in place, I was in a state of confusion around morals, ethics, the purpose of life, my own identity, etc. I stumbled upon Sam Harris' work (Waking Up book) and discovered a "highly rational" spiritual take on experience. Through meditation and psychedelics, I found a great deal of insight and temporary peace. But there was always a return to baseline and the questioning and unease returned. What you wrote here captures a great deal of my yearning; a desire to have regular spiritual connection without the dogma and manipulation. I don't know what the answer is, but it feels good to know I'm not alone.
I’d recommend checking out books by Lee Strobel.
‘It’s so obvious that it hurts.’ But I was special and different, a contrarian ...
Me too, Abi.... Me too.
This is great. I was reading some random Christian post the other day and it occurred to me that there is basically difference between Christians who say things like “God is looking out for you, be patient” and new age spiritualists who say “the Universe is benevolent and wants you to receive all that you desire”. They’ve just replaced the idea of God with the word Universe, but it’s the same thing. Trust in God’s will/Trust in the benevolence of the universe. The thing that I like about Christianity more, thought, is that there is some level of personal surrender to a power greater than yourself that you may not understand. Whereas in new age spiritualism, with its focus on manifestation and “positive energy” there is this idea of it’s your fault if your life isn’t exactly how you want it, you’re not manifesting/being positive/vibrating correctly.
Love this topic, I too so desperately at times have wished to believe in this modern pseudo-spiritual-scientific gurus. But in the end, OG Jordan Peterson was right. It’s not about miracles, belief in God is about aiming meaningfully and becoming strong enough to face the hard times with faith and character.
There are only two kinds of spirits: the Holy Spirit sent by Lord Jesus Christ and the evil spirits sent by the devil. Don't play the dangerous game with unknown evil spirits. They don’t play around, and they will stick around. The end result is always the big feast they are all waiting for: the death.
In my suuper humble opinion, this is your best, most honest writing in quite a while. Thanks for sharing your very real struggle, Taylor; I feel you.
Well, that humble opinion means a lot on my end. Thanks for reading and it's good to see your name.
Damn. And Amen.
“They open floodgates without digging channels.”
Boy, preach.
“Reality is narrative. That doesn’t mean it’s not real.”
Lots of Saturday truths.
Thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much, Dekera. A lot of what we talked about on the call came out here. Thank you for that, too.
reality is like an illusion
This is a good piece, man. Thank you for writing it. I will say though that I feel you’ve straw-manned nondual teachings here. True nonduality includes everything, including our mythic & sacramental human journeys. As a lover of Christ & dedicated family man who loves rich stories, cathedrals, & ceremony, I can tell you that nonduality points to a simple rest that fully includes all these wonderful & human aspects of life. No illusions, nothing negated. It points to radiant wholeness dancing itself forth as all this poetry of form -- it points to God’s supra-personal grace. Take care 🙏🏼❤️🔥
What a great response. I would love to learn more about what you're saying.
Thanks for appreciating and being open, Taylor. I appreciate that -- I really enjoyed your piece. Nonduality can be a very tricky thing to speak about. Perhaps the writings of Joan Tollifson here on Substack may speak to you. Or Jeff Foster, Adyashanti, or Anandamayi Ma. Each one has to find the flavor they connect with. For me Peter Brown’s yoga of radiant presence has been an enormous blessing in this respect (www.theopendoorway.org)... if you look at my recent writings, especially on my Substack ‘ever innocent heart’ you’ll find more on this. I’ve also spoken about it plenty on YouTube; this recent video goes deeply into the themes of heartful, humanity-including nonduality that I began presenting to you in my initial comment: https://youtu.be/V8E3hEhjlyM?si=-WfmencHGoHHQvam
I’d also be up for a call about this sometime if you like -- it’s one of my great joys to speak with people about these matters
Warmly,
Jordan
🙏🏼❤️🔥
Great essay and very much inline with what I've found. I'll be including this in a future post on the power of Myth sometime soon.
Thanks, Michael. I'll look forward to reading that.
Hey! Really enjoyed this. Efforts are being made along these lines. Up here in Portland, OR we're playing a parareality game called "Phonomancer" that allows one to participate in quasi-fictional (i.e., mythic) narrative. Part of that is doing hard, hard Shadow work. In our current practice, that involves contemplating the fate of Anne Frank and the reality of the Holocaust as part of ritual magic intended to prevent the end of the world. You might find it interesting! https://youtu.be/TAUILZI51Xk?si=tUcF-STgEnOwMnJo
Wow! This is interesting stuff. Shadow work seems especially salient in narrative frameworks. Or, at least, that would explain why I'm always going, "This is movie is about integration of the shadow," to my annoyed friends.
Thanks for reading, Sean. Would love to continue the discussion.
That'd be great! Drop me a line at sean (at) entheogym (dot) com and let's set up a call! In the meantime, I'll dig into your article backlog. If you're curious about Phonomancer, there's more info at https://www.phonomancer.com. Thanks, Taylor!
Powerful piece. A lot of resonance with this🙏
thank you for sharing - very cool/unique perspective! Meditation (in my world) can be a double edges sword. Capable of harnessing powers depending on why you are meditating and the amount of knowledge you have. William Donahue in my opinion is the BEST interpreter of the bible and his works are directly focused on meditation. If your curious about the spiritual side of things I recommend going to his you tube and clicking whatever video resonates with you. It's all about astrology cosmology science meta physics. I believe all is possible yet I also dont believe half the crap ppl say. Its all love and your world is the only thing that is important! everyone will have their own god or perspective that is "right." Just follow YOUR path! Thanks again - great read!
This was beautifully done! Appreciate your honesty and sharing while weaving in many threads regarding the current phenomena of self-help and spiritual gurus. Without a grounded framework and tradition, the religious function of the psyche becomes hijacked by any number of flashy and seemingly powerful movements that shimmer with numinosity, meaning and a way to orient in reality.
Also, so very curious to hear more on the conversation mentioned here: "She also thought the “beings” people encountered during deep meditations were Jungian archetypes. We had a great, long conversation down that rabbit hole."
I also agree that altered states of consciousness tap us into the unconscious aspects of psyche, which at the core is the structures of the archetypes. It's why these experiences can be so moving, otherworldly, imagistic. And why they can be radically destabilizing as well.
Thank you *so* much for that Abraham clip. It takes a specific desire to understand that because we do die, because our experience in space-time is finite, it behooves is to focus on creating what we want which for many of us is joy. A joyful world. It’s not mandatory to desire a joyful world. As that man displayed, it’s allowable to focus on misery only. Either way he’s going to croak as she said. Either way, joy or misery, this will end. It’s all about the choice. We can choose to align with light and love--and we’d be hard pressed to find a single person who has never experienced it for one second--and we can decide we want as much of that and we want to spread as much of it as we can even while the planet burns and others suffer--or we can lament burning and suffering while never adding a single thing to the world or even another person to try to lift it or them up.
This is one giant experiential sandbox and then we die. Free will means your will is free to focus as it will. Conscious choice is the gift of free will. Choose by anything. But be aware the joy is a choice individually. The more who choose it, the more collectively who’ll experience it.
And then we die in physical space-time regardless what we choose.
Oh so glad I read this. Wonderful title, I resonate w the “spiritual but not religious.”
You might LOVE this book: Existential Kink. I recently finished it, a referral from a friend, and it addresses head on the bogus-ness of so much “shelf help” (great term).
Concur I appreciate the authenticity here. Also, I’m in Colorado, so woah, a few synchronicities in here for me. My hubs is on an “atomic habits” reading kick right now, lol.
You also had a couple sentences in here that I may have to consult you about borrowing, relating to some writing I want to do. (They were about knots and fiber of all things, having to do with the self.)
So glad I read this. Thanks for not selling me short, kicking up the inspiration, and highly resonating with the vibes of the times. (Queue a whole rant about “belief,” “religion,” and Jupiter retrograde, haha!)
Genevieve, thanks so much for reading. And, please, steal, borrow anything I've ever said. It's free. I'm making it all up.
Synchronicities mean right place, right time. So, that seems good!