The Numinous Podcast

What is the size and shape of the wound of absence? When she was 11 years old, Sheila Webster's mother died of cancer. With tender open-heartedness, Sheila shares her story of navigating her mother's death and the impact it had on her life as she became a woman and a mother. This show was created in response to a previous episode on the Mother Wound. Sheila commented that she couldn't really relate and I was intrigued. How We Met I'm not sure I remember exactly how I met Sheila - I think she saw me speak at a conference and then booked an appointment with me. I know it was about four years ago and we've since woven in and out of each other's paths. When I think of Sheila, the word "alignment" comes to mind. She's one of those people you meet and instantly know she's a good, solid, dependable person with a strong moral compass. Considering her story, that seems quite a feat, no?  

International energy and finance analyst, Nicole Foss, breaks it down for us: what is really coming down the road in terms of systemic financial collapse and how do we personal prepare and cope with it. Can we talk for a minute about the escalating consequences of debt? How about the unsecured loans we're making to the banks (ie: keeping our savings there)? We run some scenarios.   We also talk about the importance of social capital in the midst of a long drawn-out crisis. This conversation is definitely thought-provoking. For more in-depth review, read the cited post, How To Build A Lifeboat.

How do we cope with personal and public debt in an age of global markets and possible Econopocalypse? We're talking with international energy and finance analyst, Nicole Foss, about how we manage global financial insecurity at a personal level. How do we manage our personal finance, investments and real estate to secure our future when globalization makes us so vulnerable to systemic collapse? I'm asking Nicole to expand on financial concepts because she's such an intellectual force of nature. Here's just a sample of her background: Nicole ran the Agri-Energy Producers' Association of Ontario, where she has focused on farm-based biogas projects and grid connections for renewable energy. While living in the UK, she was a Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, where she specialized in nuclear safety in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, and conducted research into electricity policy at the EU level. She earned a BSc in biology from Carleton University in Canada (where she focused primarily on neuroscience and psychology), a post-graduate diploma in air and water pollution control, and an LLM in international law in development from the University of Warwick in the UK. She was granted the University Medal for the top science graduate in 1988 and the law school prize for the top law school graduate in 1997. So, yeah, she's pretty well informed.

In a universe that's at least 13 billion years old and at least 13 billion light years across, how is it possible we've never had contact with intelligent life from other planets? In this episode, Astronomy Educator and Librarian, John Reid, discusses the Fermi Paradox, space debris and what the heck is happening with those crazy lights shining on the asteroid Ceres right now. How We Met John and I went to high school together. One of the most memorable and terrifying experiences of my high school life was a late study session in the creepy old wing of the main school building. John told a group of us, in chilling, expressionless detail, all about this book he was reading called The Shining by Stephen King. Episode We start by tackling The Fermi Paradox, the contradiction between the extremely high likelihood of intelligent life in the universe and the extremely low probability of our never having come across it yet. We also muse about what might be happening with those brights lights on Ceres right now. I get irate about space debris and John gets moony about the moon. He slips in little side notes here and there about things can could instantly end all life on earth like gamma ray explosions, supernova explosions and asteroids hitting us. (We saw what happened to the dinosaurs, he says casually.) This is one of my favourite episodes and I'd like to thank my patron, Charlene Lo, currently hailing from Hong Kong, for her support in making it happen.  Yay, Charlene!

Graphic designer, Emrys Miller, has worked as an artistic director for both a yoga magazine and a skeptic magazine - what the??? How does he, and how do we, make sense of the world using both reason and intuition? How We Met I mentioned our origin story last time Emrys was on the show. You might also find it interesting to know that Emrys is the father of twin girls just entering their teen years. (Each, in my opinion, is a genius in her own way.) Emrys and his family usually spend an extended vacation every summer at an ashram in the interior of British Columbia. Cool, right? Also perhaps a little unexpected. Episode Required reading for this podcast: Anomalous Events That Can Shake One's Skepticism to the Core by Michael Shermer. And I simply can't recommend the book by Barbara Ehrenreich that I mention in the show highly enough. It's called Living With A Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search For The Truth About Everything and it was so deliciously exciting for me that when I read the last line, I slammed the book shut and literally squealed. Also, take a look at Emrys' site www.rocketdayarts.com. If you're interested in humanism, check out the book he published, Voices of Humanism. It's an anthology of 35 articles by 15 humanists. My copy has a lot of underlines and dog ears.  

Love in the Age of Ecological Apocalypse: Cultivating the Relationships We Need To Thrive is Carolyn Baker's most recent book and I'm so thrilled to talk to her about it in this episode of The Numinous Podcast. In this episode, Carolyn talks about our fear of death, shares practical skills for communicating with a reluctant partner and children. She also helps us move through the feeling of schizophrenia that comes from trying to speak truth while living in an insane culture.

For this special milestone episode, my husband, Ruben Anderson, interviews me. A self-proclaimed atheist, Ruben starts out with basic questions about intuition and spirituality. But things get interesting when evidence mounts that Ruben is, in fact, the most spiritual person I know.

This week on the podcast we're getting to the heart of it all: facing environmental, economic and social decline and the sheer amount of grief that entails. Thankfully, we have the lucid, sensible and sensitive guidance of one of North America's foremost experts and elders in this area, Carolyn Baker, Ph.D. Carolyn is a Jungian psychotherapist, an adjunct professor of history and psychology, and a prolific author of many thought-provoking books including one I consider essential reading for our age, Collapsing Consciously: Transformative Truths for Turbulent Times. Some of the content in this show may be news to some of you, but for those for whom it is an urgent and incessant background beat, this show will be a release valve. Hearing someone approach such a daunting subject with such clarity and calmness is truly heartening.

This week my guest is musical artist, Christopher Lloyd Clarke. Christopher is the creative spirit behind all of the music in The Numinous School. I listen to his mucis nearly every day in meditation and use it in sessions with clients. I was curious to know how he found himself creating music in this niche.  

Indigo Ocean is the founder and champion of multiple service organizations, an entrepreneur, a self-made millionaire, and a consultant for spiritually oriented entrepreneurs. Her first suicide attempt was at age 9 and she struggled with depression for years before deciding to stay and make the most of life. In this episode, I mention Indigo's two books, Being Bliss and Micro Habits for Major Happiness. Indigo also recommends some great books for those exploring spirituality and enlightenment: Personal and perennial favourite, The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment by Thaddeus Golas The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot To find out more about Indigo Ocean and her offerings, including Phone Buddies Peer Counselling Community, find her online at www.IndigoOcean.org