Spirituality and Pop Culture

Sexy Spirituality Episode #39

Host: Lezli Goodwin

Guest: Rev. Dr. Raymont L. Anderson, Senior Minister of The Center for Spiritual Living Greater Baltimore

Guest: Rev. Barbara Bue, Manager of Field Services for Centers for Spiritual Living

Small Talk

Lezli, Ray and Barb talk about favorite Easter goodies and traditions. For Ray, it's chocolate. For Barb, it's Cadbury Crème Eggs. So terrible and so amazing.

Spirituality and Pop Culture

• We've got a gathering of proud geeks here today
• I wanted to have Ray and Barb on today, because these are two people I can always count on to get my geeky references and take them one step further, exploring the spiritual messages in pop culture.
• Ray. Tell me about how you came to connect your favorite pop culture icons with your spiritual life.
• Ray: I originally got into all of this through reading. Wonder Woman, Bionic Man, Bionic Woman. But at Carlo College, a philosophy teacher and a nun told me that spirituality and mythology are closely connected. Also, that the Bible is not in inerrant word of God. And then my father re-introduced me to Joseph Campbell. In order for SPider Man to become Spider Man, Uncle Ben taught him that with great power comes great responsibility. If we're going to walk this walk, there is responsibility. It's in Yoda, and in the Judeo-Christian theology.

• Barb: It's also practice, choice-points, the biggest opportunities for growth. Let's use Harry Potter – they learn your word is your power, but you must practice to say it rightly and use intention. All the things Science of Mind has been teaching for 150 years is in all of this, even from way before of course.
• The journey is never complete. You can be successful, and then step right back into the next expansion of the self. There is always another Heros Journey.
• Yoda learned for 600 years, to become the person who said you failed because you did not believe, you're not convicted. Two generations now have grown up with the Star Wars universe, and it's changing the world and wanting to make the world be different.
• The MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) is the most current wave in culture, echoing what Star Trek and Star Wars did in the last generation, comic books before.
• George Lucas is a Science of Mind guy! The Force was what he came to about God from the Science of Mind.

• Ray: Gene Roddenberry, communicators & now flip phones. Touch screens are now literally touch screens. Thought becomes form, it's in real life now. In Harry Potter, "Is this just my imagination?" Dumbledore, of course it's in your mind. WHy would that make it not real?
• Do we ever get to let go of the war or idea of the need to fight? The Declaration of Principles says the ultimate goal of life is freedom from discord of every nature, and this freedom is sure to be attained by all. Luke was at war with himself. We can get past the idea of needing to harm another, and move into challenging ourself and others. Like chess – that's a challenge, but not war.
• We can talk about how we can all win. Some people think that's fantasy thinking, but this is that episode! It's the old rising tides should float all boats.
• This idea that fantasy is just daydreaming, but Albert Einstein said imagination is more important than knowledge. All new things come from imagination, fantasy, thought first. Fantasy is just another way that the Divine is expressing.
• The key is separating the idea that fiction is for children. We do such a good job teaching children that anything is possible, and then we tell them to grow up. Lezli's generation (born in 1975) never knew a world without Star Wars and Star Trek, and we never stopped believing in possibilities and the bursting forth of technology shows it.

• Dr. Strange: At the root of existence, mind and matter meet. They are not divorceable. There is only one Mind, and that Mind is God. We know mind affects the body, physiology. If not, there wouldn't be 1-900 numbers. That wouldn't be a multi-billion -dollar industry.
• "Don't worry yourself sick." We say that because we know you can.
• So many of these stories also involve intuition, trusting the inner voice.
• How do we reconcile the comic book "There is only one" in a teaching where we are taught that we are all the chosen one? Each one of us are The One, and it's always manifesting as individuals, and as a team.
• Buffy had the Scoobies. Harry Potter had Ron and Hermione. Spider Man had the Avengers. They set it up as "The One," and then the hero chooses to build a family/team. Nobody is the Ron in their version of the story. Nobody is Xander. This even holds for Jesus, Jeshua, the Christ. But he says that he did these things but you will do greater. He built the family of apostles and then awakened it for all of us. IF we connect to it.

• What is our responsibility as New Thought teachers to reference pop culture for relevance?
• Barb: Those of us that do attract younger crowds include pop culture, sports and science, to men and women in balance. I do think it's important. Young people are coming in and they know all this because they grew up with Harry. We try to make it high minded and they are like, "Yeah, I learned about this when I was five."
• If you are brave enough and audacious enough and unapologetic enough to bring the fantasy into real life, not only will your life change, but the life of your community, city world will change, one thought at a time. Pop culture is the great example of how this happens.

Something Good

Barb: If you are looking to plug into community that thinks like this, that explores like this, find a Center for Spiritual Living. My personal favorite is New Thought Norther Colorado, which is a community I helped birth and I'm still attached to. Life can still be magic. www.NewThoughtNoCo.org

Ray: Feel free to find me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. (Raymont Anderson) www.cslgreaterbaltimore.com

Lezli: My something good is…I have a class coming up called Creating Powerful Memes. A picture is worth a thousand words, and the evidence of gorgeous branded memes are all over social media. The amazing thing is you can learn to create these impressive and impactful images more quickly and more easily than you think. Come explore free and low-cost technologies and techniques that will open the door to a completely new world of marketing magic! (Held as part of the Centers for Spiritual Living Advance and Thrive Series) Cost for this 4-week class is $89.00. Class starts Thursday, April 8 at 6:00 PM MST. To find out more, go to www.lezligoodwin.com/onlineclasses

If you'd like to support Sexy Spirituality Podcast, please consider joining us on Patreon at patreon.com/sexyspirituality. From early access to episodes to patron-only content, our Patreon community gets the very sexiest stuff from us! A big thank you to our patrons for making this show possible.

If you'd like to support Sexy Spirituality Podcast, please give a 5 start review on Apple Podcasts or the platform you prefer to listen on. It really does help! And please do check us out on Patreon.

Thank you for joining us for Sexy Spirituality. I'm your host, Lezli Goodwin, spiritual mentor, minister and author at lezligoodwin.com. Our guests have been Rev. Dr. Raymont L. Anderson, Senior Minister of The Center for Spiritual Living Greater Baltimore, and Rev. Barbara Bue, Manager of Field Services for Centers for Spiritual Living. Thanks for being with us!

If you have any feedback about the show, we'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. You can find all of our show notes and podcast episodes at sexyspiritualitypodcast.com. Be sure to click subscribe! We'll see you on April 9 for our next episode, "Expressing Spirituality through Songwriting". Thanks for joining us for Sexy Spirituality, Real Spirituality for the Modern World.