The Sacred Speaks

Brett Hurt, technology entrepreneur, investor, author, and CEO of Love Conquers Fear, traces his journey from childhood coding to a transformative spiritual quest. They explore psychedelics, consciousness, AI, creativity, privacy, authoritarian power, and humanity’s path from scarcity to abundance. Brett considers how love, wisdom, and intentionality might shape technology’s impact on the future.

Simon Yugler, a depth psychotherapist and author apprenticed in Shipibo ayahuasca tradition, explores mythopoetics and soul-centered psychedelic work. He discusses living myths, archetypes in visionary states, apprenticeship versus short trainings, men’s initiation and communal repair, and a moving psilocybin case of rediscovering goodness. Critiques of medicalization and cultural dilution also come up.

Robert Forte, historian of religion who republished The Road to Eleusis and worked with foundational psychedelic thinkers. He recounts a Sufi tale about changed waters. He traces mystery traditions, Eleusis fieldwork, and cultural secrecy. He critiques mass psychedelia, media influence, and political entanglements. He warns about commercialization and urges cultivation of virtue and discernment.

Susan Schwartz, Jungian analyst and author studying father-related dynamics. She discusses how father absence shapes identity, relationships, sexuality, and the inner gaze. Short clinical dreams illuminate unconscious father patterns. Conversation covers effects on men and women, cultural blind spots, possibilities for fathers to change, and questions most people never ask about paternal influence.

Wouter Hanegraaff, professor and leading scholar of Western esotericism, explores what the West expelled: magic, alchemy, gnosis, and visionary experience. He traces music as an entry into altered states. He reframes the “Greater West,” argues anti-idolatry shaped marginalization and colonial violence, and calls to recover buried pagan and esoteric currents as central to Western history.

Leslie Kean, investigative journalist known for evidence-first reporting on UFOs and the afterlife, brings a Zen-influenced curiosity. She discusses rigorous cases: military UFO reports, near-death stories, verifiable child past-life memories, and physical mediumship. Conversations cover non-local consciousness, ontological shock, and how careful investigation changes public discourse and reduces fear around death.

In this episode of The Sacred Speaks, Dr. John W. Price sits down with Timothy Morton, philosopher, writer, and Rita Shea Guffey Chair in English at Rice University, for a wide-ranging conversation about hell, ontology, and what it means to live without an "outside." Morton is the author of Hell, along with numerous works on ecology, object-oriented ontology, and the entanglement of human and nonhuman worlds. Together, John and Morton explore hell not as an afterlife destination but as a lived condition of felt distance from the divine and deep entanglement with the biosphere. This conversation moves through ontology and how things exist, the critique of holism and mastery as tied to fascism and colonial habits of thought, the distinction between panic and grief as pathways to change, and why mystery, irony, and hesitation may be the most honest responses to reality. Morton frames social media as a continuation of 18th-century politics of sensibility, critiques metaphysics of presence and gnostic hierarchies, and suggests that paradise is not elsewhere but something we build inside hell. Rather than offering resolution, this episode invites listeners into an uncomfortable and generative encounter with the structures we inhabit without seeing. Key Takeaways: Timothy Morton defines ontology as how things exist and argues that our deepest assumptions about reality shape everything from ecology to politics. The conversation frames holism and mastery as colonial and fascist habits of thought, suggesting that ecology requires giving up the fantasy of total comprehension. Morton distinguishes panic from grief, proposing that panic is an ontological shock when our worldview cracks, while grief is the doorway through. The interview explores hell as an embodied, cultural structure rather than a metaphysical location, and suggests irony, hesitation, and mystery as reality signals. Morton reads William Blake as a poet of infinite narrators and weaponized gentleness, connecting the Lamb and the Tiger to questions of presence and paradox. Timestamps (00:00) Welcome and Guest Intro (01:26) Workshops and Community Updates (03:38) Substack and Upcoming Book (04:26) Jumping Straight Into the Recording (05:34) Writing Without Forcing (07:54) Why Hell and Ontology (13:22) Ontology Explained Simply (14:41) Holism and Fascism Critique (18:53) Ecology Against Mastery (23:02) Building Heaven in Hell (25:22) Trauma and Meaning Saturation (26:48) Mystery and Opacity of Truth (33:01) Colonizer Mind and Worldviews (39:00) Panic as Ontological Shock (41:19) Panic Before Grief (42:28) Mockery and Woke (43:26) Grief Breaks Control (44:24) Worldviews as Weapons (45:52) Frog Versus Soldier (49:02) Initiation and Identity Loss (52:37) Phenomenology Explained (56:46) Glitches and Consciousness (58:44) Gods of Decay (01:01:45) Evolution Without a Plan (01:06:34) Trust Made of Mistrust (01:08:29) Art as Emotional Poison (01:12:27) Social Media Sensibility (01:15:46) Irony Hesitation Reality (01:18:47) Online Irony Lacks Democracy (01:19:29) Blake Tiger Infinite Narrators (01:23:02) Lamb Poem Weaponized Gentleness (01:24:34) Hell as Flipped God Presence (01:27:04) Buddhism Fixation and Bypass (01:31:33) VIP Paranormal Double Speak (01:36:37) Hell Not Just State of Mind (01:39:35) Metaphysics Presence and Hierarchy (01:50:32) Embodied Paradox as Divine (01:52:28) Closing Reflections and Thanks Connect with Timothy Morton Rice University Faculty Page: Timothy Morton, Rita Shea Guffey Chair in English, Rice University Book: Hell by Timothy Morton Website for John http://www.drjohnwprice.com WATCH: YouTube for The Sacred Speaks https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOAuksnpfht1udHWUVEO7Rg Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ @thesacredspeaks Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesacredspeaks/ Brought to you by: https://www.thecenterforhas.com Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com

John Bucher, mythologist, storyteller, and executive director of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, explores how myth shapes personal and collective life. He discusses theme over plot, favorite stories revealing hidden needs, the loss of shared cultural myths, AI as a new cultural story, and practical rituals and media choices for telling a better story in daily life.

Molly Carroll, therapist, writer, and author of Trust Within, shares how intuition rises from rupture and lived honesty. She tells the story of leaving an engagement and explores grief, codependency, and therapy. Short practices and bodily cues for sensing intuition are discussed. The conversation examines whether intuition steadies or unsettles identity and how courage changes with life stages.

Dr. Douglas Thomas, a Jungian scholar and psychotherapist, dives deep into the psychology of BDSM and kink. He reframes these experiences as essential expressions of the psyche, rather than mere pathology. The conversation uncovers why societal fears around sexuality often lead to moral rigidity. Douglas explores how transgressing societal norms can lead to wholeness and discusses the potential for trauma empowerment within BDSM practices. He emphasizes the importance of consent, community protocols, and the transformative dimensions of these often-stigmatized experiences.