The Numinous Podcast

How do you know if you're in a cult? And, how does an open society confront propaganda, brainwashing, and the rise of fascism? That's the undercurrent of this conversation with noted cultic studies expert, Alexandra Stein, PhD.

Alexandra Stein is a writer and educator specializing in the social psychology of ideological extremism and other dangerous social relationships. She brings an extraordinary lens to cultic studies with her attachment-based approach, which helps us understand how an average person – privileged and educated, even – can fall under the influence of a high-demand group.  

Pashta MaryMoon is a death doula, a Wiccan, a Quaker, and a longtime fan of Jesus. In fact, before we get to our conversation on death and dying, Pashta gives us a revealing tour of her early spirituality – a syncretic blend of earthy paganism, deep devotional relationship with Jesus as brother/lover/son, kinship with Mary Magdalene, and Wiccan god/goddess themes. To say she's a singular presence is understatement.

Pashta has been a compassionate radical her whole life. She is a longtime grassroots organizer including anti-nuclear activism in the '80s, and frontline support worker during the HIV/AIDS crisis in the '90s, with a current focus on death care alternatives in Canada.

I'm delighted to welcome back to the podcast, Tiffany Śwxeloselwet Joseph, to talk adapting to catastrophic collapse. Tiffany tells us stories about bees, salmon, orcas and humans, and her main strategy for collapse resilience: cultivating beauty inside and out.

Learn more about Tiffany and how you can work with her or invite her to your gathering.

Welcome back to the show for the sixth time, peak oil expert and author, John Michael Greer. In this episode, we're celebrating the tenth anniversary of John's seminal book, The Long Descent: A User's Guide To The End Of The Industrial Age. 

John explains the concept of Catabolic Collapse, why apocalypse scenarios are problematic and the hopium of political will and green utopias just as much so. I ask him about useful viable professions in collapse scenarios and how to choose where to live. Finally, John gives us three steps for personal preparation to face the deindustrial age.

Read the full article: Peak Oil Advice From German Poets

Patti Elledge is a Trauma Healing Specialist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner with a private practice in Asheville, NC. She's my supervisor and mentor and I'm here to tell the world: I love her and I think everyone should have more Patti in their life. I want that for you. You deserve some Patti.

In this conversation, Patti explains what Attachment is, what different Attachment styles look like in babies and how that translates in adulthood, the role of Evolutionary Biology in our Attachment systems, and how we can heal attachment wounds in a world of persistent precarity, climate change, and social turmoil.

I particularly enjoyed hearing Patti's thoughts on grief, rage, and how Attachment shows up in our spiritual lives.

Here are the resources Patti noted in this interview:

Mary Main

Mary Ainsworth

John Bowlby

Joanna Macy

Peter Levine and Somatic Experiencing

Stephen Porges and the Polyvagal System (YouTube)

Allan Schore and the Good Enough Mother

Portrait Of A Marriage: Yes, It's Mine (the article mentioned that I wrote)

Learning To See In The Dark Amid Catastrophe: An Interview With Deep Ecologist Joanna Macy

Patti specializes in somatic healing techniques via organic, instinctual ways of the body and psyche, allowing for more connection with self and other and the emergence of creativity and spirituality. Patti credits her training by Peter Levine, Diane Poole Heller and Raja Selvam.  She has assisted more than 40 trainings worldwide and now teaches Diane Poole Heller's pioneering work DARe, (Dynamic Attachment Re-Patterning Experience).

Patti has specialized in therapeutic application of neuroscience for 40 years and has a broad background in early development (interpersonal, social/emotional, language and cognition), sensory processing disorders, self- and co-regulatory processes and the neurobiology of stress and trauma.

While Patti's work is grounded in current day research on the neurobiology and physiology of the human stress mechanism, it is also infused with embodied intuition and a compassionate heart.

You can reach Patti at:

www.pattiatlarge.blogspot.com

https://dianepooleheller.com/teachersproviders/

https://sepractitioner.membergrove.com/member-details.php?id=1388

My guest today is author, speaker and consultant, Monique Gary Smith. We're talking about Territorial Acknowledgements, a small act of Reconciliation that is spreading beyond the borders of our province and country.

When I committed a few years ago to incorporating acts of Reconciliation into my personal and professional life, I began inviting elders (of all ages) to open all of my retreats and workshops with a Territorial Acknowledgement. When I was invited to give a speech, or lead a networking event, or any kind of circle, I would also verbally acknowledged the traditional occupants of the territory, wherever I went. And if I travelled outside of my region to go on Quest or a spiritual retreat, I would reach out to the local band or tribal office to find out more about the land and the ancestors from that place.

In this episode, Monique shares some ideas for how any person wanting to incorporate this small act of Reconciliation into their life or work might begin in a good way.

MoniqueGraySmith.com

Truth And Reconciliation Commission Of Canada: 94 Calls To Action

In this episode, I'm thrilled to talk with Matthew Remski about how one finds oneself in a cult, how to get out, and what high demand groups have to do with social justice, climate change and collapse.

Since then, I've followed Matthew and especially appreciated his real-time critique of the unravelling of the Shambala meditation community.

Alexandra Mann, Terror, Love and Brainwashing: Attachment In cults And Totalitarian Systems

Dr.Cathleen Mann

Steven Hassan

Dr.Michael Langone

This Is Not your Practice Life

My guest today is gardener, landscape designer, teacher of permaculture, and business owner, Solara Goldwynn of Hatchet & Seed.

Known for bringing lush, edible landscapes to forgotten private corners and under-used public spaces, Solara is not only a champion of sustainable values but I consider her a strong role model. But I also know that folks who live with such conviction also shoulder more emotional burden than most; I wanted to know how she copes with her own eco-grief and climate anxiety.

We talk about her work, what she thinks the future of the planet will look like when her daughter grows up, reconciling with having children in an age of overpopulation, and how she seeks joy in spite of these dire times.

For eco-inspiration, follow Solara and Hatchet & Seed on Instagram.

I'm delighted to welcome Jessie Hemphill back to the show to talk about Indigenizing Urban Design and also what we can learn about collapse and crisis preparedness from an Indigenous perspective.

I'm so excited that Jessie is attending our retreat, Ritual + Practice For Urban Homestead this fall because we are both pretty serious peppers and like to talk shop about our emergency preparedness plans and kits.

To learn more about Jessie's work in Comprehensive Community Planning, and to read her Master's Thesis summary, visit: alderhill.ca

To learn more about our Hollyhock retreat, visit our event page.

Tending The Threshold is an event happening in Ashland, Oregon, on May 26 and 27th, 2018. Tickets can information can be found at tendingthethreshold.com

It is a gathering of Change-makers, Bridge builders and Edge Dwellers, with no agenda other than to practice being together, and to learn how to take care of each other and the world, in these challenging times.

The container at this un-conference will be held by a group of ten co-facilitators from three countries and many walks of life. The group includes:

Poet and spoken word artist, Tannur Ali

And myself, Carmen Spagnola.

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Holly Truhlar, MA, JD, is a grief practitioner, ritualist, and community builder. She has a Masters degree in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology from Naropa University and a law degree from the University of Denver. Combining her experience in justice work and relational psychology, she created an intellectual, emotional, sociological, and spiritual approach to activism called Radical Attunement Work (RAW). Her writing and workshops dance with the topics of planetary grief, cultural trauma, oppression and inequality, restructuring power, environmental justice, conscious collapse, and subversion of the dominant system. She's deeply committed to transforming our culture of exploitation into communities of care.

http://hollytruhlar.com