The Sacred Speaks

Michael works as a Rolfer and therefore works with the body every day; and, he states, “we are not properly introduced to our bodies in this culture.” He designates most of the hours of each day touching people, and the underlying philosophy may surprise you. This episode reminds us all to attend to the form from which we manifest each moment. Michael’s meaning in life is born from attending to people’s body, and his personal story will help you understand how he has become so enlightened by his work on the body as a student of the biochemist, Ida Rolf, Ph.D. Growing up on the East Coast, living on the East Side in New York City in the late 60s, and then moving to California in the 60s opened Michael’s eyes beyond what he had come to know in his traditional upbringing at all male boarding schools and Yale University, wherein he studied Russian literature. From random nights watching a live performance from Lou Reed in the east side of New York City in the late 60s to random encounters with Ram Dass or Alan Watts, Michael has a deep connection with the epicenter of the explosion of American counterculture and the exploration of human consciousness in the late 60s and 70s in California. Michael discusses how Eslen and Ida Rolf were both at the center of his studies of the body and consciousness. Michael’s bio: Michael Laird McIver, Certified Advanced Rolfer Currently in 44th year of practice as a Certified Advanced Rolfer. Rolf Institute of Structural Integration Basic Rolfing Training, 1973 Emmett Hutchins, Instructor Rolf Institute of Structural integration Advanced Rolfing Training, 1974 Dr. Ida P. Rolf, Instructor Rolf Institute Board of Directors, 1993-97 Chairman, Red River Region of the Rolf Institute 1989-92 Massage Therapy Instructor, Texas, 2014 Massage Continuing Education Provider, Texas, 2014 Aston-Patterning Consultants, 1977-78 Applied Rolfing Techniques Judith Aston, Instructor Monterey Peninsula Nursing School, 1971-72 Anatomy, Physiology, and Chemistry Esalen Institute Massage Therapy Staff, 1971-73 Yale University, 1963-67 The Hotchkiss School, 1959-63 Michael's website: http://www.rolfinghoustontx.com Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Song of the week by: Collin Herring http://www.collinherring.com Collin’s music: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/collin-herring/65485822 Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks

We begin by agreeing that as two “keepers of stories” we often find people sharing with us their private experiences, ones that they often do not share with others. Therefore, we are both in a confident position to make certain characterizations about aspects of the human project that many people have experienced, but few share “out loud.” Each of us identifies the core differences between what people have going on in their lives and what they wish to consciously present to others. We all do this. This conversation, hopefully, will provide the listener with some content to both normalize and challenge the judgment we feel for these thoughts, fantasies, and behaviors. We explore the general absence of healthy sex education beyond biology, including values and pleasure, and discuss how much shame, guilt, & ignorance on the subject matter of sexuality is rooted in the abundance of misinformation and anxiety preventing people from learning about their body, and their partner’s body. Christina discusses her personal history with the origin of her website confidentlovers.com, including how pornography played a part in her development. We further discuss how the consequences of the ubiquity of porn specifically how it has contributed to disrupting our imagination, sexual creativity, & spontaneity. Through listening you will learn that Christina is willing to have conversations that many people are not willing to have in her pursuit to help free people up from the cycle of shame and anxiety around sex and sexuality. Where to reach Christina: www.confidentlovers.com Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Song of the week: The Burning Hotels https://www.facebook.com/theburninghotels/ Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesacredspeaks

In this week's podcast, Episcopal priest James Derkits and I explore the human need for community as expressed through the way the South Texas island town, Port Aransas, responds to the destruction following Hurricane Harvey. We explore individual and collective trauma and recognize that sometimes people find psychological gold after enduring the darkest of times. We begin this conversation by James vulnerably explaining the journey through his priesthood, which includes a period of doubt. James and I explore Christian theology and define terms ranging from priest and grace to ritual, and James eloquently helps us understand what religion means to him and how he understands the term Christ – James has a broad definition of this term that may signify more than one may think. The episode reframes my understanding of the Christian tradition (it just might not be what you think). James's Bio: I grew up in Silsbee, TX I went to college in San Marcos I'm married to Laura Derkits Eli is our son I'm an Episcopal Priest I live in Port Aransas I'm a musician I love being outdoors I pay attention to my dreams Where to reach James: http://james-derkits.blogspot.com http://www.trinitybythesea.org https://www.facebook.com/TrinitybytheSea/ Music by James: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/buffalo-roam/1129484513 Theme music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/

Today’s conversation begins with Dr. Corbett’s analysis of the limitations of an exclusively biological mode of treating psychological issues. Lionel reframes one’s relationship to emotional symptoms away from the traditional models of modern psychopathology into a mode in which the symptom understood to be a signal for an aspect of life that is in need of attention. He defines complex and archetype, stating that the archetypes are analogous to the laws of physics. Lionel explores Jungian psychology as a psychospiritual therapy. Dr. Corbett offers his interpretation of The Book of Job from a Jungian lens, and he examines his history within Jungian psychology and the theory of psychoanalytical self-psychology. He recognizes the union between the personalitstic traditions (such as Kohut and Freud) and the archetypal traditions (Jung). We discuss consciousness and a few basic differences between dualistic and non-dual thinking. Dr. Corbett circles around the controversial and charged philosophical problem of defining consciousness. Bio: Lionel Corbett received his Medical Degree from the University of Manchester, England, in 1966; served as a military physician; and became a Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 1974. In the USA, he did fundamental research into the biochemistry of the brain; began one of the first programs in the psychology of aging; was a hospital medical director of in-patient psychiatry; trained as a Jungian analyst at the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago 1978-1986; helped found a training program for Jungian analysts in Santa Fe, while carrying on a private practice and teaching psychiatry at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Corbett has studied various spiritual disciplines including Christian and Jewish mysticism, Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, and Yoga and has had a personal meditation practice for 20 years. He now teaches depth psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute near Santa Barbara, California, where he founded the Psyche and the Sacred program, a highly successful series in its 5th year that integrates spirituality with depth psychology. This program has developed a powerful approach to spirituality that is based on personal experience of the sacred, avoiding all forms of doctrine and dogma. He is the author of 5 books, several training films, and over 40 professional articles. Publications Include: The essay Seduction, Psychotherapy, and the Alchemical Glutinum Mundiin the book Fire in the Stone: The Alchemy of Desire; Psyche and the Sacred: Spirituality Beyond Religion; The Sacred Cauldron: Psychotherapy as a Spiritual Practice; The Religious Function of the Psyche, and Soul in Anguish: Psychotherapeutic Approaches to Suffering. Courses taught in the Jungian and Archetypal Studies Specialization: Depth Psychology & the Sacred: Approaching the Numinous; Introduction to Depth Psychology https://www.pacifica.edu/faculty/lionel-corbett/ www.psycheandthesacred.org Music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/

Bill provides an autobiographical landscape of his early training and matriculation. Following his history, we begin exploring the limitations of the various therapeutic worldviews. We discuss how psychology and religion have been interwoven, specifically not the psychology of religion, but psychology and religion. Bill describes how the various psychological models illuminate religion. In particular, he references figures such as William James, Sigmund Freud, Abraham Maslow, and Carl Jung, emphasizing how the psychological worldview of these figures influences their understanding of religion. Bill has a way of challenging any worldview and asking questions about how any particular worldview affects how and what one may “see” as a result. Bill calls his approach dialogical whereby individuals are invited to place all of these psychological technologies, and others, into conversation with each other. He desires to bring to light, what he calls, an Ethnopsychospiritualy a view that incorporates and understands that the personal and cultural wisdom in the various religious traditions is inseparable from each tradition. Looking at the models carefully differing between the projection models of psychospiritualities versus recognizing that there is cultural refraction on the light, although there is an objective light. Through the conversation, there is an undertone of attending to how the worldview we adopt can both expand and limit an individual’s perspective unless each of us is conscious of this fact. Bio: William B. Parsons is Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University. He has written and edited several books, including The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling (Oxford, 1999), Teaching Mysticism (Oxford, 2011), Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain (Routledge, 2001), Mourning Religion (Virginia, 2008), Freud in Dialogue with Augustine: Psychoanalysis, Mysticism, and the Culture of Modern Spirituality (Virginia, 2013) as well as dozens of essays in multiple journals and books. He has served as Chair of the Department of Religious Studies (Rice University), as Director of the Humanities Research Center (Rice University), as Editor (the psychology of religion section) with Religious Studies Review and is Associate Editor of the International Series in the Psychology of Religion. He has been a Fellow at the Martin Marty Center of the University of Chicago and at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) at Hebrew University. Music provided by: http://www.modernnationsmusic.com Learn more about this project at: http://www.thesacredspeaks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/

Episode 5: Religion and Psychology. A conversation with Pittman McGehee In today’s episode, Pittman unpacks the definition of religion and broadens the traditional limiting assumptions many immediately experience in relationship to religion. We discuss how many of the actions that have been in the name of religion are not religious. We begin by defining religion, the philosophy of materialism, psychological wholeness, good and evil, individuation, and the Self. Pittman discusses where religion goes wrong and how the human stewards of the various traditions affect the search for wholeness with human impulses, ideologies, and dominance. He defines spirituality as the deep human longing to transfer the transcendent into the immanent through experience and reflection upon it. We explore the profoundly powerful sacred aspects of human sexuality and the assault by the organize structures and the misinterpretation of each tradition that has been destructive of sexuality. Biography: Pittman became was ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church in 1969, The Very Reverend J. Pittman McGehee served, for 11 years, as Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, located in the center of downtown Houston. Since moving to Houston in 1980, Mr. McGehee has been in demand as a lecturer and speaker in the fields of psychology and religion. He lectures regularly at the C. G. Jung Center and has published two papers through that Center: “Water as a Symbol of Transformation” (1985), and “The Healing Wound and the Wounded Healer” (1986). He is a regular book reviewer for The Living Church. Dr. McGehee has held many distinguished lectureships, including the 1987 Harvey Lecture at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, where he received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity; the 1988 Perkins Lecture in Wichita Falls; the 1990 Woodhull Lectures in Dayton, Ohio, and the 1991 St. Luke’s Lectures in Birmingham. He was the 1994 Rockwell visiting Theologian at the University of Houston and 1996 Carolyn Fay Lecturer in Analytical Psychology also at the University of Houston. He is an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Texas, an Adjunct Instructor at Saybrook University, and a Faculty Member of the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. His books are: The Invisible Church: Finding Spirituality Where You Are, Praeger Press, 2008; Raising Lazarus: The Science of Healing the Soul, 2009; Words Made Flesh: Selected Sermons by The Very Reverend J. Pittman McGehee, D.D., 2011; The Paradox of Love, (available 10/1/2011); and Slender Threads: An Interview with Robert Johnson (DVD). In addition to his teaching and prose writing, Mr. McGehee is known for his poetry. His work has been chosen for the juried Houston Poetry Fest (1985, 1987, 1988), and his poems “Ash Wednesday,” “Pegasus,” and “Semination” were published in the Poetry Fest Anthology. His poems also have appeared in the Cimarron Review, the Anglican Theological Review, the St. Luke’s Journal, In Art magazine, Cite magazine, Windhover, and New Texas magazine. In 1991, Dr. McGehee resigned from Christ Church Cathedral to become the director of The Institute for the Advancement of Psychology and Spirituality. The Institute joins the disciplines of psychology and religion by exploring the concept that mental health comes with the integration of the biological, psychological, and spiritual elements of the human condition. In 1996, the C. G. Jung Institute of Dallas awarded him a diploma in Analytical Psychology. In addition, he is currently in private practice as a priest/psychoanalyst and teacher/lecturer. www.jpittmanmcgehee.com Music provided by: www.modernnationsmusic.com Learn more about this project at: www.thesacredspeaks.com www.instagram.com/thesacredspeaks/

Episode 4: A life worth living. A conversation with James Hollis In this episode, Jim and I discuss how elements of his personal history positioned his interest in depth psychology specifically and learning in general. Jim defines depth psychology and discusses how a relationship to one’s inner world orients one’s self to meaning and purpose. We explore how the relationship to a vocation or calling will either enhance or limit each of our life experience. He frames the price of being separated from one’s inner voice as “the problem of our time.” We discuss how the poet’s life and interest investigate the cosmos and psyche, as Jim believes that the poet is depth psychology. We investigate the difference between learning and thinking and evaluate how making a living and making money have contributed to the unbalancing of our culture. We explore the imagination and reason as working together to image possibilities. We frame addiction as a consequence of ego consciousness clinging to a management system believed to palliate the suffering of living. He eloquently identifies the core struggle shared amongst men and the related consequences of this struggle. We converse about the nature of transcendence and how attending to our symptoms, dreams, and fantasies place us into relationship with mysteries beyond our conscious sense of “I.” James Hollis, Ph. D. was born in Springfield, Illinois, and graduated from Manchester University in 1962 and Drew University in 1967. He taught Humanities 26 years in various colleges and universities before retraining as a Jungian analyst at the Jung Institute of Zurich, Switzerland (1977-82). He is presently a licensed Jungian analyst in private practice in Washington, D.C. He served as Executive Director of the Jung Educational Center in Houston, Texas for many years and now is Executive Director of the Jung Society of Washington. He is a retired Senior Training Analyst for the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, was first Director of Training of the Philadelphia Jung Institute, and is Vice-President Emeritus of the Philemon Foundation. Additionally, he is a Professor of Jungian Studies for Saybrook University of San Francisco/Houston. He lives with his wife Jill, an artist and retired therapist, in Washington, DC. Together they have three living children and eight grand-children. He has written a total of fifteen books and over fifty articles. The books have been translated into Swedish, Russian, German, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian, Korean, Finnish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Farsi, Japanese, Greek, Chinese, and Czech. www.jameshollis.net Music provided by: www.modernnationsmusic.com Learn more about this project at: www.thesacredspeaks.com

Niki is an expert on the ascetic John Cassian and the French philosopher Michel Foucault. In this episode Niki and I discuss her newest book, Sites of the Ascetic Self. Niki is most interested in daily practices of discipline that can help and enable individuals to open to certain forms of self-transformation including transformation of our bodies, our emotions and our relation to other people. She discusses how her history places her into relationship with her current areas of study. We are shaped as subjects in this world, therefore one of Niki’s core questions is: how can we become self-shaping and self-forming? Looking at the kinds of daily practices we each live and how those practices influence and inform our reality. We explore the value of recognizing the various interpretations and agencies that are present in every moment. We define the terms such as ethics, ascetic, and others. We discuss the modern understanding of mental health and the progressive pathologizing of one’s relationship with the voices, urges, and powers formed within one’s “head” or self. She is interested in the construction of one’s character as a way of life. Niki Clements works at the disciplinary intersection between the history of Christian practice, philosophy of religion, and religious ethics. She specializes in Christian asceticism and mysticism in late antiquity, highlighting its resources for thinking through contemporary ethical formation and conceptions of the self. She is currently completing the first comprehensive treatment of the ethical thought of John Cassian (c.360-c.435), a late antique Catholic architect of Latin monasticism doctrinally marginalized for his optimistic views on human agency. Engaging Michel Foucault's late work on ethics-which sees Cassian as a crucial inaugurator of modern disciplinary subjectivity-she critiques the conceptual limitations that Foucault's philosophical categories impose on his reading of Cassian, late antique Christianity, and the study of religion. She also pursues a transdisciplinary approach with cognitive neuroscience to argue that ethical formation integrates consciousness, embodiment, and affectivity. She is the volume editor for Mental Religion: The Brain, Cognition, and Culture, as part of the forthcoming Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks. http://rice.academia.edu/NikiClements Specialization: History of Catholic thought and practice, Christianity in late antiquity, asceticism and mysticism, religious ethics, philosophy of religion, theories and methods in the study of religion, religion, and science Academic History: Ph.D., Brown University, Religion and Critical Thought, 2014 M.T.S., Harvard Divinity School, 2007 B.A., Sarah Lawrence College, 2003 Music provided by: www.modernnationsmusic.com Learn more about this project at: www.thesacredspeaks.com

Have you ever wondered if someone can help you understand ways to think about the wild and, at times, frightening fantasies that we all experience throughout our lives (and sometimes on a daily basis)? Do we have fantasies, or do they have us? In this episode, Sean Fitzpatrick and I discuss the imagination and how the way each of us interprets those images and affects that seem to emerge from places whose point of origin are unknown can often influence our daily lives. From Sean’s perspective the attitude that we take to our fantasies is so important that he refers to this attitude as the ethics of the imagination; and he applies this to fantasies ranging from the murderous and the sexual to the mundane. Within this conversation Sean defines the terms “Jungian”, fantasy, imagination, spiritual, and ethical. Sean Fitzpatrick, PhD, LPC, holds master’s degrees in religious studies (Rice University) and clinical psychology (University of Houston – Clear Lake) and received his doctorate in psychology through Saybrook University’s program in Jungian studies. Sean is a psychotherapist in private practice and has been employed at The Jung Center since 1997. He has been an instructor at The Jung Center since 2001, and he lectures locally and nationally on a range of contemporary social and psychological issues. Learn more about Sean and The Houston Jung Center at: http://www.junghouston.org Music provided by: www.modernnationsmusic.com Learn more about this project at: www.thesacredspeaks.com

In this episode, Jeff and I discuss the nature of religion and secularism. We explore the need for culture to create a more generous science that includes experiences that are currently outside of the boundaries of the modern sciences. We define terms such as religion, belief, and gnosis, all in service of gaining a deeper understanding of the narratives that fuel and drive much of the human need to understand our lived experience. Jeffrey J. Kripal holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University. He is the author of Comparing Religions (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014); Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal (Chicago, 2011); Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred (Chicago, 2010); Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion (Chicago, 2007); The Serpent’s Gift: Gnostic Reflections on the Study of Religion (Chicago, 2007); Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom: Eroticism and Reflexivity in the Study of Mysticism (Chicago, 2001); and Kali’s Child: The Mystical and the Erotic in the Life and Teachings of Ramakrishna (Chicago, 1995). He has also co-edited volumes with: Sudhir Kakar, on the history, science, psychology, and analysis of psychical experiences, Seriously Strange: Thinking Anew about Psychical Experiences (Viking, 2012); Wouter Hanegraaff on eroticism and esotericism, Hidden Intercourse: Eros and Sexuality in the History of Western Esotericism (University of Amsterdam Press, 2008); Glenn W. Shuck on the history of Esalen and the American counterculture, On the Edge of the Future: Esalen and the Evolution of American Culture (Indiana, 2005); Rachel Fell McDermott on a popular Hindu goddess, Encountering Kali: In the Margins, at the Center, in the West (California, 2003); G. William Barnard on the ethical critique of mystical traditions, Crossing Boundaries: Essays on the Ethical Status of Mysticism (Seven Bridges, 2002); and T.G. Vaidyanathan of Bangalore, India, on the dialogue between psychoanalysis and Hinduism, Vishnu on Freud’s Desk: A Reader in Psychoanalysis and Hinduism (Oxford, 1999). His present areas of writing and research include the articulation of a New Comparativism within the study of religion that will put “the impossible” back on the table again, a robust and even conversation between the sciences and the humanities, and the mapping of an emergent mythology or “Super Story” within paranormal communities and individual visionaries. Learn more at: www.thesacredspeaks.com