Almost Awakened

Bill Sits down with Jana Spangler, Brittney Hartley, and Anthony Miller and they embark on a series that seeks to help the Almost Awakened Audience sense the great resources and tools to a life well lived by exposing you to Buddhism and it contemplative nature. We are using as a backdrop the 12 part presentation by Jack Kornfield titled “Buddhism for Beginners” The goal of this series is to help you to be a more authentic & healthier version of yourself. In part 1 we discuss the Eight Fold Path which involves a wisdom in how we both perceive the world as well as how we respond rather than react to the world.Jana Spangler is a Certified Integral Professional Coach with Symmetry Solutions who specializes in coaching individuals, couples, and families who are affected by shifting religious belief. She is an educator in subjects of faith, spiritual connection and development, and relationships. She attended The Living School under the direction of Fr. Richard Rohr, where she studied Contemplative Christianity and other wisdom traditions and how they can support the transforming work of love in ourselves, our communities, and the world. Brittney Hartley is the author of Mormon Philosophy Simplified. She has a masters degree in the Future of American Religion and is in training as a spiritual director with the Center for Non-religious Spirituality. Her work focuses on rebuilding spiritual health after religious trauma. Anthony Miller is an entrepreneur and education enthusiast in Billings, Montana, with Masters degrees in Business Administration and in Financial Services. After a lifetime of faithful membership in the church, he experienced a faith transition after he stumbled across the Gospel Topics Essays and similar materials in 2016, while he was searching for resources to support his adult gay son. Anthony blogs at UnpackingAmbiguity.com and is a frequent contributor to post and progressive Mormon support communities. Bill Reel is the Founder and Executive Director of Mormon Discussion Inc. a non-profit whose mission it is to provide resources and support to humans who are deconstructing unhealthy spiritual systems and to help those individuals reconstruct a new world view that values Authenticity and Vulnerability.  Bill is the author of “Faith Development Explained” a document designed to help people understand their own awakening.  

Today Bill brings some Buddhism in and discusses the cause of suffering or grasping at how we want the world to be rather than sit with how it is. He explains why argument and conflict start and how they spiral and how good humans can learn to sit with the disturbances early in those conflicts and alter the path those humans are on. Once you understand that the conflict is inside of you and not outside, you are prepared to act differently, leading to avoiding most of the conflict that arises within you.

This conversation is held that involves the following 5 questions as well as other interesting places we take the conversation along the way.1. What is more dangerous for the future of humanity, nihilism or dogmatism? What are the dangers of each? 2. What are the most important aspects of developing a spiritual life out of nothing? 3. How do you involve young children in a spiritual life outside of religion? 4. How do we transfer over spiritual institutions to a secular world (chaplains, churches, pastors, etc.). How do secular leaders make a living doing spiritual work in the world? 5. How do you build communities around secular morals? What are the new innovations in this field? How are people filling spiritual voids after religion?RESOURCES:Esther Perel Where Should We BeginJordan Peterson & Sam Harris Debates

The excitement surrounding the GME Gamestop Stock story for the last week has been palpable. So In today’s Episode of Almost Awakened I explain as simply as I can what the hell is going on with GME Gamestop stock. How did this train get going? What has potentially pumped the stock up, what potentially made it crash down, and what caused it to level off and where are we at today. And as we watch in upcoming days, what will happen to GME and the stocks such as AMC, BB, NOK right behind it? Its going to be fun to watch.RESOURCES:https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/27/business/gamestop-wall-street-bets.htmlReddit Wall Street Betshttps://www.thestreet.com/video/gme-stock-surge-reddit-change-stock-market-pyschologyhttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/28/robinhood-interactive-brokers-restrict-trading-in-gamestop-s.htmlhttps://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/wallstreetbets-reddit-vs-wall-street/index.html100%+ short interest in GameStock stock (GME) – fundamental & technical deep value analysis

Today with sit down with Veronica Funess, Intimacy Coach in Training and we discuss sexual shame that exists within society. We discuss how healthy negotiation of sexuality can look. We discuss kinks, fantasies, and how to incorporate your most vulnerable and healthy self into a healthy relationship with your partner.Veronica is a Graduate in Gender & Women’s studies with minors in Business Administration and Communication. She is passionate about helping others improve their relationships and honor their erotic selves. Veronica is training at the Somatica Institute and Studied Gender and Women’s Studies at The University of Arizona. Past experience includes providing and directing peer education and facilitation for sexual violence and healthy relationships programming, market research and PR internships, and client and customer service positions: boutique fitness membership advising, and serving and bartending at an elevated NYC Vegan comfort food bar.  A reminder when it comes to negotiating sexuality “Within ethical and legal constraints, we all have the right to push for what we want from our partner (and to suffer the consequences for pushing too hard). Similarly, we also have the right to deny our partner’s requests (and to suffer the consequences for shutting them down). But we need to remember that nothing in a relationship happens in a vacuum—it is influenced by what came before, as well as what else is going on in the relationship. So generosity can be rewarded (and bad behavior can be punished) in more ways than one. Therefore, we have to keep the bigger picture in mind—what price am I willing to pay for this? If it’s worth it, then it’s worth it, but since life and relationships involve compromise and sacrifice, we have to consider the potential ripple effects.”RESOURCES:Somatica InstituteThe Erotic MindComing TogetherSex At DawnMating in CaptivityVeronica Funess Linked InVeronica Funess Instagram Page

My friend Phil McLemore comes back on the podcast and this time to debate the question of “What is the life well lived”? We talk about societies and individuals and how freedom versus control makes or inhibits space to be a growing responsible healthy adult who is happy with their life and producing a positive wake through how they move through life. We touch on drugs and sex due to the strong sentiments felt about this two topics and their polarizing nature to set the stage for this deep conversation around what leads to a life well lived and what leads to a wake of trauma, destruction, and self deception. This is one of the best if not the best conversation I have ever been part of and I hope you the listener will benefit from the push and pull as the two of us debate from somewhat different perspectives (and at times extremely different positions) what it means to “Live a Life well lived”Resources: Phil Mclemore and some of his written work Becoming the Beloved PDFHindering the Saints PDFThe Yoga of Christ PDFMormon Mantras PDF

I sit down with my friend, Professor, Podcaster, and Author Jon Westover and we discuss his new book, “The Alchemy of Truly Remarkable Leadership: Ordinary, Everyday Actions That Produce Extraordinary Results”. We talk about what makes a good leader. What toxic leadership looks like. How good leaders foster principles like trust, diversity, inclusivity, and belonging. and Most importantly, I think, how good leaders create an environment for people around them to achieve and succeed. Jon truly is a great leader and you can tell that his words are congruent with his internal character. The world is a better place with humans like Jon around.RESOURCES: Jon’s LinkedIn ProfileJon’s BookJon’s articles on Forbes Jon’s Podcast

Bill talks today about how each of us is quirky, how each of us is seeking validation and acceptance. How we each are weird and have strange thoughts and yet each of us is fighting to reveal our true selves

Holidays tend to bring up things within us and for Bill and his wife Amanda, this Thanksgiving was one of those. From Amanda’s emotional awareness of her daughter moving out of state to take the next step in their own lives, To Bill dealing with the one year anniversary of the loss of his mom, to sensing that life moves one and life doesn’t stop. Today is about how we all deal with life’s constant change.

Phizer just announced and two more companies right behind them announced they have arrived at a vaccine for Covid19. These Vaccines are showing a 95% effectiveness. And yet…. somehow 50% of the population has been turned off of seeing such as a positive. 50% of our population is skeptical about receiving these vaccines. Today on the Almost Awakened Podcast we talk about why people are scared of vaccines, why we perceive a link between vaccines and negative outcomes including Autism, and what Science has to say about Vaccines.  NOT: We humans often have emotional connection to topics like this and such stops us from communicating to each other in ways that we can all listen and learn from each other.  Please be aware of such as you engage the conversation regardless of where you stand.RESOURCES:https://www.historyofvaccines.org/timeline/allhttps://www.immune.org.nz/vaccines/vaccine-development/brief-history-vaccinationhttps://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.24.3.611https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/ensuringsafety/history/index.htmlhttps://www.chop.edu/centers-programs/vaccine-education-center/vaccine-history/developments-by-yearhttps://www.livescience.com/57488-vaccine-safety-numbers.htmlhttps://www.chop.edu/centers-programs/vaccine-education-center/vaccine-safety/are-vaccines-safehttps://www.vaccines.gov/basics/safetyhttps://apnews.com/article/us-news-coronavirus-pandemic-177b3ba382517392911c029ecbe74daahttps://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/11/19/covid-19-vaccines-who-gets-coronavirus-immunization-first/3778098001/