Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply).

Every year I'd rise in the pulpit on Christmas Eve and try to make sense of a story about a baby born two thousand years ago, and attempt to offer an interpretation of what that story means to us now. Every year I failed. Its meaning eluded me. But hidden within that story were other stories that the original hearers would have recognized, stories that told them their laments were heard by God, their oppression was over, and that there was hope for a new future. Where was Nick Coates when I needed him? Through his own frustration with the Christmas Story, Nick, a hipster United Church minister, dug deeper and found the story we never heard. Until now.

Nick's Coordinates:
Podcast: Prayer and Private Parts: a Podcast about Sex and Jesus
Twitter: @nickcoates

Credits
Theme music: Mary Had a Baby (traditional) performed by Bruce Cockburn on his 1993 album, "Christmas"

Personal Links
My web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.ca
My email address: [email protected]

Series Music Credit
"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2022

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply).

Reluctant to move on too quickly from my recent conversations with Michael Trotta and Philip Shepherd, I invited my friend Don McLeod to spend some time with me processing what we'd heard. Don, the co-founder of the Wisdom Centre, sees connections between what Michael and Philip were saying and the ancient Wisdom tradition--a way of knowing that is imaginal, embodied, and holistic. Jesus himself, Don believes, was a Wisdom teacher. In the end we found ourselves feeling new hope for the world in the cosmic story that is now emerging.

How to find Michael and Philip:
Michael Trotta: https://www.storymischief.com
Philip Shepherd: https://embodiedpresent.com

Other resources referred to in this episode:
The Wisdom Centre: https://wisdomcentre.ca
David Hatfield: https://davidhatfield.ca/edges-process-transformation
"The Complete Gospels" (collection of all the known gospels); Robert J. Miller, ed
"The Gnostic Gospels" by Elaine Pagels
"The Journey of Soul Initiation" by Bill Plotkin
"Grounded Spirituality" by Jeff Brown

Personal Links
My web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.ca
My email address: [email protected]

Series Music Credit
"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2022

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply).

It's not that we think too much; it's that we think too much using only our heads! We have cut ourselves off at the neck, losing touch with the natural intelligence of our bodies. Philip Shepherd wants to remove the barriers between the head and body and return to a wholeness we have not known since the Neolithic revolution had us subduing the earth and, by extension, becoming alienated from our own bodies. The head and body need to be reunited not just for our own sakes, but for the sake of the world.

Philip's Books:
New Self, New World
Radical Wholeness
Deep Fitness

Philip's Workshops and Courses:
Website: https://embodiedpresent.com

Personal Links
My web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.ca
My email address: [email protected]

Series Music Credit
"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2022

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply).

Myths and ancestral stories don't tell us who we are. But they set our feet on a journey to find out. Storyteller Michael Trotta left the confines of the education system to explore and to teach these deeper life-changing tales. Wherever we find them, myths and stories contain the power to open us to wonder and to the unique life waiting within each of us, to be born.

Links:
Michael's web site: https://www.storymischief.com
Michael's Podcast: Story Mischief

Errata:
The book I mentioned is “The Feast of Fools” (not “Ship of Fools”) by Harvey Cox; 1969. 

Personal Links
My web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.ca
My email address: [email protected]

Series Music Credit
"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2022

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply).

Why is it so difficult to find our way in the world, our true way? Why is a feeling of success, of having arrived, having made it, so elusive? And why can no one ever answer these questions? Storyteller Michael Trotta thinks it's because we trust logic when we should be trusting something else--stories. In the myth, the magic, and the mischief of the stories we tell are hidden the answers to life's most persistent questions. Only, they're not answers to be grasped; they're questions to be lived, which is a different thing altogether.

Connections:
Michael's podcast: Story Mischief
Michael's web site: https://www.storymischief.com

Credits:
"Success is a Myth-Logical Quest" is written and narrated by Michael Trotta. 

Personal Links
My web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.ca
My email address: [email protected]

Series Music Credit
"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2022

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply).

It's been a rich exploration, these past six weeks, talking about death and dying. But what does it all mean? What have we learned? Where does it lead us on the spiritual journey? Perhaps, right back to where we started ... to the path stretching out beneath our feet, to this life. Live well now, in other words--purposefully, lovingly, gratefully--and the rest will take care of itself.

Credits:
Closing Song: "I'm Going to Miss all This"; words and music by Brian Pearson; performed by Brian Pearson, with Kim Linkert on clarinet.
Photograph: by Guillaume de Germain on Unsplash

Personal Links
My web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.ca
My email address: [email protected]

Series Music Credit
"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2022

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply).

Spiritualists like Jane Fleming are well acquainted with the strange phenomena associated with death and dying. But they know that the larger purpose of that phenomena is to help us on our spiritual journey toward our ultimate union with the Creator. In this lifetime we may get glimpses from beyond the veil, but our steps return us to the path at our feet, here and now.

Books mentioned in this conversation:
"Hands-on Healing" by Jack Angelo
"Hands of Light" by Barbara Ann Brennan
"Why God Won't Go Away" by Dr. Andrew Newburg

Connections:
Calgary First Spiritualist Church: https://www.calgaryfirstspiritualistchurch.ca
The Eternity Connection (virtual church): https://www.eternityconnection.org

Credits:
Closing Song: "Lift Your Head," words and music by Brian Pearson; performed by Brian Pearson, featuring Mike Huston on lead guitar 

Personal Links
My web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.ca
My email address: [email protected]

Series Music Credit
"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2022

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply).

We might ask, "What happens when we die?" in order to gain wisdom about how to live. But finding out, at the end, might prove too late. What if we asked, "Why was I born in the first place?" If "heaven" is the same at both the beginning and the end of life, it might be the same question.

Contacts:
Margot's Web Site: https://www.drmargotmckinnon.com
Margot's Email: [email protected]

Credits:
Closing Song: "There's A Light" from the album So Far ...; words and music by Brian Pearson; performed by Brian Pearson

Personal Links
My web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.ca
My email address: [email protected]

Series Music Credit
"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2022

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply).

Deathwalkers, psychopomps, ancestors--we may be alone on our final voyage, but we needn't be lonely. The Universe itself will welcome us home, just as it birthed us in the first place. Death, it turns out, is a wondrous window on life itself, and who better to remind us of this than a death doula and ritual healing practitioner.

Contacts:
Sarah's work with the dying and their families: https://soulpassages.ca
Sarah's courses and workshops on death care: https://sacreddeathcare.com

Credit:
Closing Song: "The Ones Through Whom the Light Shines," words and music by Brian Pearson; performed by Brian Pearson

Personal Links
My web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.ca
My email address: [email protected]

Series Music Credit
"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2022

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply).

It was difficult enough when Jessica's husband Sean died suddenly, leaving her as a widow and a single mom. But posthumous revelations about his secret life turned her grief into rage. When it appeared he was trying to reach out to her from beyond the grave, she might not have returned his calls; but something compelled her to start paying attention. Perhaps they could help one another heal, from both sides of the Great Divide we call death.

Contact:
Jessica's grief-related storytelling website: https://endlessstories.love
The "secret book page" for Ghost of Boy Meets Girl: https://www.storymourning.com/a-secret-book.html
Brian's web site: www.brianepearson.ca
Brian's email: [email protected]

Credits:
Closing Song: "Love Covers Over," words and music by Brian Pearson; performed by Brian Pearson

Personal Links
My web site (where you can sign up for my blog): https://www.brianepearson.ca
My email address: [email protected]

Series Music Credit
"Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight, 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2022