

Almost Awakened
Brittney Hartley & Bill Reel
Awake Enough To Question, Grounded Enough To Grow
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jan 3, 2023 • 1h 55min
Almost Awakened: 133: Faith After Doubt Part 3
Hartley and Reel once again invite Jana Spangler and Anthony Miller on to dive deep into the idea of Doubt. This is the Third and Final part using Brian McLaren’s book “Faith After Doubt” as the framing for this conversation. And along the way they hope to address how to move away from right belief in to encompassing Love and how to hold people as they are while make a big box for other’s humanity to fit in.
RESOURCES:
https://upliftkids.org/
https://www.youtube.com/@UCtQo1nPDdzxeLFq021DMmTA

Dec 26, 2022 • 1h 27min
Almost Awakened: 132: Sound Therapy with Jess Foutz
Today Bill sits down with his good friend and past guest Jess Foutz to discuss her work in Sound Therapy. Sound therapy is the practice of using beautiful sounding instruments to help you be both present and to go deep within yourself to process things in your past or present life. Jess gives us the example of multiple instruments that she owns and plays and around these instruments we engage in a deep conversation around music and sound. RESOURCES: Grow With Soul Website – https://www.growwithsoul.com/ Shamanic Sound Healings – https://www.growwithsoul.com/shamanicsoundhealings What there is to know about Sound Healing – https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/sound-healing

Dec 20, 2022 • 1h 46min
Almost Awakened: 131: Jesus As A Wisdom Teacher – Christmas Special
Hartley and Reel decide to celebrate the Christmas Season by diving into their favorite stories that surround Christ. In spite of not holding a literal view of the Christ figure of the New Testament they still find a way to draw out modern spirituality through the stories attributed to the Christ figure!

Dec 13, 2022 • 1h 49min
Almost Awakened: 130: Spiritual Atheism with Nick Jankel
Spiritual Atheist is a ground-breaking ‘philosophical memoir’ that draws on the author’s knowledge of cutting-edge neuroscience, physics, and psychology; his insights into wisdom traditions like Taoism, Kabbalah, Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, Zen, and Sufism; and twenty years experience leading hundreds of major organizations, and tens of thousands of individuals, to transform themselves. Unable to find lasting happiness with religion, reason, pills, therapy, partying, wealth, success, or entrepreneurship, the author discovered the life-changing and heart-expanding benefits of ‘spiritual’ enlightenment. But not satisfied with New Age ideology, he spent years meticulously joining the dots between science and spirituality to form a rigorous philosophy for the ‘spiritual but not religious’ who want to flourish in their inner lives, relationships, and careers.RESOURCES: https://switchonnow.com/https://smile.amazon.com/Nick-Seneca-Jankel/e/B00L115YX0 https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickjankel

Dec 6, 2022 • 1h 54min
Almost Awakened: 129: Faith After Doubt Part 2
Britt & Bill once again invite Jana Spangler and Anthony Miller on to dive deep into the idea of Doubt. This is the second of three parts using Brian McLaren’s book “Faith After Doubt” as the framing for this conversation. And along the way they hope to address the following.
Doubt as Descent Doubt as Dissent
Doubt as Love
Doubt as a Human Problem
Faith, Beliefs, and Revolutionary LoveRESOURCES:Part 1 – https://youtu.be/3iFBEtHQZqIJon Paulien Stages of Faith – http://www.thebattleofarmageddon.com/stages_of_faith.pdfPerry’s Stage of Cognitive Development – https://mormondiscussionpodcast.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/Perry-Scheme.pdf

Nov 29, 2022 • 1h 40min
Almost Awakened: 128: Human Biases
Most of us believe inside our mind that we are being objective, fair, and reasonable. And at the same time we sort of grasp we are not and that our mind leans towards beliefs, conclusions, and taking sides on various issues. Today we discuss biases and how they affect us and how we can best avoid them which in turn helps us be more present in reality.
RESOURCES:
Brian McLaren on biases – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/learning-how-to-see-with-brian-mclaren/id1532685433
wiki List of cognitive biases – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
Another list of Biases – https://thedecisionlab.com/biases
Three Ways To Avoid Bias In Decision-Making – https://www.forbes.com/sites/jarretjackson/2020/08/26/three-ways-to-avoid-bias-in-decision-making/?sh=5a7fe890a715
MindTools How Avoid Biases – https://www.mindtools.com/a0ozgex/cognitive-bias
Outsmart your own Biases – https://hbr.org/2015/05/outsmart-your-own-biases

Nov 16, 2022 • 29min
Almost Awakened 127: Chiron and the Wounded Healer
A dive into Greek Mythology and archetype for this episode. Chiron was the wisest of all centaurs, who can teach a lot about our wounds. It is in our wounds that we are healed.

Nov 8, 2022 • 1h 43min
Almost Awakened: 126: Thomas Jay Oord – Open & Relational Theology – A Modern View Of God
Hartley and Reel sit down with Theologian and Philosopher Thomas Jay Oord to discuss Theology. Namely how Religion helps us connect with our inner and outer world. How humans are social creature who crave connection and whose minds seeks meaning constantly. Oord, Hartley, and Reel facilitate a conversation where we look into the Idea of GOD and if can can create a framing for God that allows us to dismiss the unhealthy facets of belief and religion. And if we take out all the unhealthy, if there is anything left of GOD worthy of continued belief.
Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian, philosopher, and multidisciplinary scholar who directs a doctoral program at Northwind Theological Seminary and the Center for Open and Relational Theology. He formerly taught for sixteen years as a tenured professor at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho and before that a philosophy professor at Eastern Nazarene College. Oord is the author or editor of more than thirty books and hundreds of articles. He is known for his contributions to research on love, open theism, process theism, open and relational theology, postmodernism, the relationship between religion and science, Wesleyan, holiness, Nazarene theology. Oord is consistently ranked among the most influential academic theologians of our time. (Wikipedia)

Nov 1, 2022 • 1h 29min
Almost Awakened: 125: Faith After Doubt Part 1
Britt & Bill once again invite Jana Spangler and Anthony Miller on to dive deep into the idea of Doubt. Using Brian McLaren’s book “Faith After Doubt” as the framing for this conversation. And along the way they hope to address the following.* Doubt as Loss – How did you experience doubt as a loss?* Doubt as Loneliness – How did doubt bring loneliness?* Doubt as Crisis -How did doubt bring crisis?* Doubt as Doorway – What did doubt open up for you?* Doubt as Growth – What growth did you experience because of doubt?
Resources:
Introduction to Stages of Faith – https://christoffaith.org/2018/04/7386/
Jon Paulien Stags of Faith – http://www.thebattleofarmageddon.com/stages_of_faith.pdf
Ages & Stages: Robert Keeley – https://faithformationlearningexchange.net/uploads/5/2/4/6/5246709/faith_development__faith_formation_-_keeley.pdf
Ken Wilber: Spiral Dynamics – https://mormondiscussions.org/discussion/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/IntegralMapBest.jpg
Perry’s Scheme of Cognitive Development – https://mormondiscussions.org/discussion/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/12/Perry-Scheme.pdf
Fowler’s Stages of Faith – https://psychologycharts.com/james-fowler-stages-of-faith.html

Oct 25, 2022 • 1h 58min
Almost Awakened: 124: Navigating Difficult Conversations
On this weeks episode Bill and Britt discuss How to have “Difficult Conversations”. When a Hard Disagreement occurs, often our Egos get in the way of having hard conversations where both sides feel heard and understood. Often even small conversations with nothing at stake can have us misunderstanding each other. So today Bill & Britt share their insights into how to navigate difficult conversations.
Resources For Hard Conversations:https://www.hrmorning.com/articles/difficult-conversations/https://au.reachout.com/articles/6-steps-to-help-you-tackle-difficult-conversationshttps://www.judyringer.com/resources/articles/we-have-to-talk-a-stepbystep-checklist-for-difficult-conversations.phphttps://hbr.org/2017/05/how-to-have-difficult-conversations-when-you-dont-like-conflicthttps://www.betterup.com/blog/how-to-have-difficult-conversations