Soul Searching Audacious Podcasts

Most of us have a morbid fear of our own mortality – we are generally petrified to die. Most of this fear about death is admitting that science might be right when it suggests that there is only total oblivion after death. Science requires greater scepticism than is found amongst religions regarding the belief in the continuity of consciousness after death. In this episode, we investigate several key beliefs regarding the hereafter: There is the belief that you are born into this world to begin a cycle of repeated lives, each with no memory of what happened to you in the past. Another belief is that after your death you will go to a specific plane of existence determined by God, such as heaven or hell, limbo or purgatory. People continuously seek proof of the afterlife. They cite Past Life Regression as proof of a previous spiritual existence or memory of a past incarnation. Near Death Experiences are also offered as proof of an afterlife because some people claim they can remember details of their experience leading to death after they are medically resuscitated. There are also some people who claim to remember perfect facts of the lives of others who lived in a different time in history.

Your hands teach you a lot about your romantic relationships. There are around half a dozen different hand configurations that symbolise different kinds of relationships. Listen to learn what they are so that you can identify bad ones and forge better choices to upscale the relationship you have or to develop wholesome new ones.

Negativity, prejudice and fear about ageing is a process that inevitably leads to self-loathing and despair. One of the hardest things one might be expected to deal with in life is invisibility, not being noticed or valued as a human being. Suddenly becoming invisible due to ageing is a particularly cruel aspect of life. People often become reclusive because they don't want to be seen as elderly and so they render themselves invisible. They stop circulating because they don't think they'll be noticed, many choose to stay at home out of fear of becoming irrelevant and being rejected or ridiculed. Before you can expect others to think of you as something more than just your age, you have to think of yourself as something more than just your age. It takes some guts to reinvent yourself in your midlife and again as you begin to age. Developing a wholesome attitude towards ageing is not only about survival but more about thriving. Successful ageing means continuing to do what you love to do - and never using your age as the only reason for not doing it. It is also about paying more attention to spiritual issues. I talk to Tobie Cronje to get his wisdom about fearless ageing.

Mindfulness is the ability to know what’s happening in your head at any given moment without being carried away by it. Mindfulness has been around in Buddhist tradition for the last 2,500 thousand years. Clinical psychology and psychiatry since the 1970s have developed a number of therapeutic applications based on mindfulness for helping people who are experiencing a variety of psychological conditions because studies have shown that rumination and worry contribute to mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety which in turn may lead to physical illness. Most of us are permanently trapped in some form of anxiety. The practice of mindfulness diffuses our negativity, aggression, pain, suffering, and frustration, which may have been gathering power. Rather than suppressing emotions or indulging in them, here it is important to view them, and your thoughts, and whatever arises with an acceptance and a generosity that are as open and spacious as possible. Listen to the podcast to learn how to use a simple mindfulness technique.

We are presently experiencing the worst drought in decades and it is at times like this when nature switches off the urge to reproduce and turns its attention to survival instead. All animals exhibit adaptive responses to the lack of food. When deprived of nourishment, animals employ various mechanisms to reduce metabolism. This prolongs the period in which energy reserves can last. Science seems convinced that we still have these thrifty genes and that intermittent fasting may be both a smart and smartening way to live as it could increase health and strengthen brain functions. But it is one thing to say that fasting has benefit to spirit, mind and body but it’s quite another matter making sense of starvation and suffering, and how suffering can lead to higher states of consciousness.

Steve Anderson is now banned from entering South Africa unless he repents publicly from his current views. He will claim that the Devil has control of this country and that he has the God’ unequivocal blessing. This will be cited as another case of the Forces of Evil versus the Forces of Good. But what motivates people to seek conformity in others? Why can’t we just get along with everyone, regardless of how we might differ. Motivated by the story of Cain and Abel, with Abel representing white Europeans and Cain, dark-skinned heathens, the prevailing Christian view by the end of the Middle Ages was that non-Europeans were inferior creatures. Based on these interpretations, the Mormons banned black men from the priesthood and the Dutch Reform Church claimed biblical authority for the practice of apartheid. As Dr Verwoerd, the then Prime Minister of South Africa said "We did what God wanted us to do." But over the years, there has been a lot of eating of humble pie. Religious leaders of some of the world’s most prominent faiths have had to stand on the public platform and repent for their erroneous beliefs of the past. Fanaticism is slowly being squeezed from the crevices of society, opening up new avenues for acceptance, tolerance and the celebration of all.

Eavesdrop on a telephone conversation I had with Jennifer Hirsch. She is a Chirologist, an ambassador for the craft of hand reading and the ancient knowledge of palmistry. Chirology is a dialogue therapy. In using counselling with hand reading, Jen’s purpose is to teach that our hands are our unique, personal guide and tool for self-enquiry, and that their forms and markings tell an accurate story about our physical, emotional, vocational, mental and spiritual preferences.

She has pioneered chirology in South Africa since 1991 when she founded the Chirology Centre in Johannesburg.

In the first part of this show we take a close look at one’s intrinsic value, who are you and what you are worth. Then, in the second half of the show we do a little soul searching of our own when it comes to protesting over Pastor Steve Anderson’s visit to South Africa.

There are two threads that are often entangled and they are Love and Sex. Love is an emotion; sex is a biological urge. Often, when one is in a state of emotional neediness, one uses sex to bargain for love. Sex can also be addictive and one can get hooked on one's own neurochemistry. Nevertheless, Love and Sex can also be spiritual pathways worth exploring.

Christianity has a lot to say about LGBTI issues, condemning homosexuality based on literal interpretation of scriptures. The story of Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah is frequently offered as the reason for condemning same-sex practices. But is this the only way we should be looking at Biblical texts? The Bible, if it is to be the Word of God, can contain only one truth. Hence, is there any possibility of interpreting Biblical texts in a way that accommodates gay lifestyles?