This is the kind of sermon I’d tattoo on my third eye if it weren’t already blinking with existential dread.
You’ve done something most modern spiritual leaders are terrified to attempt: you’ve named the unnameable, held the void’s hand, and somehow managed not to immediately monetize it with a seven-step funnel. Instead, you honored it. You presenced it. You built a tent and said, “Come sit here. You’re not crazy. You’re awakening.”
As someone who’s also kicked the scaffolding out from under the old gods and lived to roast about it, I just want to say: thank you. For reminding us that reconstruction isn’t a new gospel—it’s a slow dance with mystery. With grief. With meaninglessness that somehow gives birth to meaning again.
May your “bad spiritual director” examples be required reading at every seminary, coaching program, and ayahuasca retreat that dares to mention the soul.
Not a particularly experienced writer yet this topic is of such significance in my journey through life that I offer my 2cents.
Had my initial spiritual emergency 63 years ago but that was resolved with a bottle until there simply were not enough bottles to fill the hole inside.
At 33 years old a moment of clarity provided a truth filled seeing of what I had become. Desperation drove me to AA which initially provided the answer to my drinking problem (don't drink), helped me to then start to understand my core problem, thinking. So what do I do know since the God of my understanding was a narsasitic mean old man with its hand out but rarely for helping. Prison provided a travelling monk whose teachings showed the how and why of meditation which directed my actions to the "hole" of thinking. 43+ years later (still with the keystone of AA though greatly expended with the ideas, philosophies from others) SPIRITUALLY has been broken, disceted torn apart directed, analyzed continues to expand, kinda like the universe, know and unknown.
Oooh, thank you for the mention, Jim. I’m beyond honored and so grateful to be in community with you. ❤️🔥Love everything here - your experience is so beneficial to so many in the deconstruction/reconstruction process at any stage; we are all so vulnerable through this and you have bushwhacked a path of no path that honors each individual’s needs and journey. Namaste is the best response. 🙏🏻💜
A crisis of meaning Jim? An Apocalypse of Trust? Or the unwitting evolution of an Original Sin? The imaginary pretense that we hit the mark of reality, with our reality-labelling Words? The Illusory sense-of-knowing inherent in Language? The Devil in Disguise? Yet, will the courage to confess the sin of ignorance & willingness to eat from the tree of true knowledge that exists in knowing that you know nothing, to paraphrase Socrates.
Cause an Apocalypse of Words (a revelation) that Reveals the true Reality of the World 🌍 An inner apocalypse of Realization? That creates a felt-sense of being in Heaven? For where and what else would heaven be, within in a Cosmic environment that is overwhelmingly hostile to life's existence? As they say, when it comes to discerning truth from falsehood, context is Everything. And does the average, even the best educated human being, lack a true contextual perspective on the reality of Existence?
Will the current Zeitgeist end up forcing humanity to awaken to Reality beyond the reified-reality of a our communication biased consciousness? The reification-fallacy of our multilingual creation of Consensual-reality? The Great Human Illusion of Knowing? Our species-specific, Delusion of Consciousness, to paraphrase Albert Einstein?
Jim...thank you so much for the kind mention 🙏 As someone currently deep in a second PhD exploring the existential meaning crisis, I’m always grateful when these themes are brought into wider conversations. We need more of this: more reflection, more depth, more courage to name what’s really going on beneath the surface.
I studied engineering and worked as a computer programmer then was in the second cohort of Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project in 2007. Which sent me into my dark night of the soul. I am currently studying for a DMIn with my thesis using NIH-HEALS palliative care research, my thesis title is Extinction Can Be Fun- Palliative Care for a Dying Planet. So your research is so beyond my own but aligns. I enjoy your writing so very much. Thank you. At 65, I will probably never finish but am throughly enjoying the process. It is fun delving into my subconscious with Monroe Institute meditation and politics. I am on Pilgrimage to Chartres with Ubiquity Wisdom Academy this coming week. I write my experiences and thoughts on my substack because I am not an academic. The climate crisis is an existential crisis. I call my time now as arranging deck chairs on the Titanic and serving the best tea and cookies. It’s all good.
Some climate scientists say 2/3rds of life on earth with pass in this 6th mass extinction event. But after every prior extinction event, life returned. My point of it being fun, is we will learn our lesson and come back better. We will have delved into our subconscious and learn to live in harmony with nature not against it. It’s Pollyanna thinking maybe but it gets me through this chaos.
I agree, Life is a powerful and resilient force - previous extinction events demonstrate that (Life came back swinging 😁). Just to be clear, I don’t mean human extinction or 2/3rds of species other than us - I mean the whole lot - its vital we (as Life’s most potent force) use the gifts Life gave us to prevent this if we can - you’re bang on with the climate crisis being an existential threat - our minds are Life’s way of mitigating those risks - not exacerbating them.
This is the kind of sermon I’d tattoo on my third eye if it weren’t already blinking with existential dread.
You’ve done something most modern spiritual leaders are terrified to attempt: you’ve named the unnameable, held the void’s hand, and somehow managed not to immediately monetize it with a seven-step funnel. Instead, you honored it. You presenced it. You built a tent and said, “Come sit here. You’re not crazy. You’re awakening.”
As someone who’s also kicked the scaffolding out from under the old gods and lived to roast about it, I just want to say: thank you. For reminding us that reconstruction isn’t a new gospel—it’s a slow dance with mystery. With grief. With meaninglessness that somehow gives birth to meaning again.
May your “bad spiritual director” examples be required reading at every seminary, coaching program, and ayahuasca retreat that dares to mention the soul.
With deep listening (and a little holy mischief),
Not a particularly experienced writer yet this topic is of such significance in my journey through life that I offer my 2cents.
Had my initial spiritual emergency 63 years ago but that was resolved with a bottle until there simply were not enough bottles to fill the hole inside.
At 33 years old a moment of clarity provided a truth filled seeing of what I had become. Desperation drove me to AA which initially provided the answer to my drinking problem (don't drink), helped me to then start to understand my core problem, thinking. So what do I do know since the God of my understanding was a narsasitic mean old man with its hand out but rarely for helping. Prison provided a travelling monk whose teachings showed the how and why of meditation which directed my actions to the "hole" of thinking. 43+ years later (still with the keystone of AA though greatly expended with the ideas, philosophies from others) SPIRITUALLY has been broken, disceted torn apart directed, analyzed continues to expand, kinda like the universe, know and unknown.
Oooh, thank you for the mention, Jim. I’m beyond honored and so grateful to be in community with you. ❤️🔥Love everything here - your experience is so beneficial to so many in the deconstruction/reconstruction process at any stage; we are all so vulnerable through this and you have bushwhacked a path of no path that honors each individual’s needs and journey. Namaste is the best response. 🙏🏻💜
A crisis of meaning Jim? An Apocalypse of Trust? Or the unwitting evolution of an Original Sin? The imaginary pretense that we hit the mark of reality, with our reality-labelling Words? The Illusory sense-of-knowing inherent in Language? The Devil in Disguise? Yet, will the courage to confess the sin of ignorance & willingness to eat from the tree of true knowledge that exists in knowing that you know nothing, to paraphrase Socrates.
Cause an Apocalypse of Words (a revelation) that Reveals the true Reality of the World 🌍 An inner apocalypse of Realization? That creates a felt-sense of being in Heaven? For where and what else would heaven be, within in a Cosmic environment that is overwhelmingly hostile to life's existence? As they say, when it comes to discerning truth from falsehood, context is Everything. And does the average, even the best educated human being, lack a true contextual perspective on the reality of Existence?
Will the current Zeitgeist end up forcing humanity to awaken to Reality beyond the reified-reality of a our communication biased consciousness? The reification-fallacy of our multilingual creation of Consensual-reality? The Great Human Illusion of Knowing? Our species-specific, Delusion of Consciousness, to paraphrase Albert Einstein?
Our Waking Dream of Reified-Reality?
Jim...thank you so much for the kind mention 🙏 As someone currently deep in a second PhD exploring the existential meaning crisis, I’m always grateful when these themes are brought into wider conversations. We need more of this: more reflection, more depth, more courage to name what’s really going on beneath the surface.
I studied engineering and worked as a computer programmer then was in the second cohort of Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project in 2007. Which sent me into my dark night of the soul. I am currently studying for a DMIn with my thesis using NIH-HEALS palliative care research, my thesis title is Extinction Can Be Fun- Palliative Care for a Dying Planet. So your research is so beyond my own but aligns. I enjoy your writing so very much. Thank you. At 65, I will probably never finish but am throughly enjoying the process. It is fun delving into my subconscious with Monroe Institute meditation and politics. I am on Pilgrimage to Chartres with Ubiquity Wisdom Academy this coming week. I write my experiences and thoughts on my substack because I am not an academic. The climate crisis is an existential crisis. I call my time now as arranging deck chairs on the Titanic and serving the best tea and cookies. It’s all good.
Extinction Can Be Fun - but total extinction means all value ceases... :(
The universe loses all meaning...
Life (big L) is good - THE good - the source of all meaning and value. Not single lives (small l) - Big L Life - all life.
Some climate scientists say 2/3rds of life on earth with pass in this 6th mass extinction event. But after every prior extinction event, life returned. My point of it being fun, is we will learn our lesson and come back better. We will have delved into our subconscious and learn to live in harmony with nature not against it. It’s Pollyanna thinking maybe but it gets me through this chaos.
I agree, Life is a powerful and resilient force - previous extinction events demonstrate that (Life came back swinging 😁). Just to be clear, I don’t mean human extinction or 2/3rds of species other than us - I mean the whole lot - its vital we (as Life’s most potent force) use the gifts Life gave us to prevent this if we can - you’re bang on with the climate crisis being an existential threat - our minds are Life’s way of mitigating those risks - not exacerbating them.
One more very relevant one, meaning for all - no exclusions: spiritual, life-affirming - and super intuitive: https://synnthesis.substack.com/p/youve-been-living-without-a-foundation
Great stuff Jim - but no mention? 😆😉 We're peas in the very same pod, life is good:
https://synnthesis.substack.com/p/stasis-worship-part-1-the-god-of