UnBoxing “God”

This week, McCall begins the process of unboxing the “fractured self”, childhood and intergenerational trauma, and Epigenetics.

The exploration includes three guests: Cherish Asha Bolton (from Episode 8, where she also discussed the psyche, self, and soul) guides us through the “fractured self”; Margot Schrader briefs us on the Internal Family Systems model and intergenerational trauma; and Jessica Ferretti introduces us to somatic healing.

This dialogue challenges listeners to ponder, “What traumas am I carrying that I may not be aware of and how can I start to heal?”

• Cherish Asha Bolton, is an intercountry, transracial adoptee from India raised in America.  She is completing her Ph.D. in History and serves as the President of People for Ethical Adoption Reform (PEAR).

• Margot Schrader, is an artist,  licensed clinical mental health counselor and only child of a Holocaust survivor.  She is also  Mom to her 22 year old daughter and pretty much any kiddo that needs love. She strives to BE who she needed when she was younger.   She and her Partner of 5 years Live in NH where she works to improve access to mental health services for the Medicaid population.. Margot has been on a healing journey for more than half of her life. Trying to make sense of her own childhood trauma so that she can help others do the same. Margot is passionate about trauma research,Trauma therapy, neuroscience and Epigenetics. Margot's current area of interest is equality issues around poverty, class and race and how these issues intersect with Trauma and Epigenetics.

• Jessica Ferretti, a holistic health & life coach + owner of www.MeditationForMuscles.com - a Trauma-informed Massage and Healing sanctuary in Los Angeles.

In this week's episode, McCall unboxes the psyche, the self, and the soul.

What are they, and how do they differ, if at all?

McCall discusses these topics with two guests, William Ragan, PhD - professor of psychology, and Cherish Bolton - The Other(ed) Woman and (P.E.A.R.) People for Ethical Adoption Reform. They each shed light on aspects of 'self' through the lens of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung - with an overview of Freud's concept of id, ego, and super ego versus Jung's archetypes.

McCall shares her own research and thoughts (on Self, Soul and Mind) as she challenges listeners to ask the unanswerable question: "Who the hell am I?"

If you liked this Bonus Episode, check out:

Applying the writings and philosophies of William James to addiction and Alcoholics Anonymous, by Edward Mendelowitz, Ph.D. (from Society for Humanistic Psychology Newsletter - Oct. 2017)

Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature, by William James (a series of 20 lectures on 'natural theology' that psychologist/philosopher William James, from Harvard, conducted at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, from 1901-1902)

Spiritual, Not Religious Experience

BIG BOOK THEOLOGY: “WE AGNOSTICS” and William James, by James R.

Cravings for Deliverance: How William James, the Father of American Psychology, Inspired Alcoholics Anonymous, by Paul Schulte

While researching the UBG episodes on Mysticism, I stumbled upon this book called Empath to Mystic: The Art of Mastering Your Intuition and Fearlessly Being Yourself, by Aaran Solh, and although it didn't quite make its way into a full episode, I thought it was special enough to share it with you here, in a BONUS Bonus episode. Enjoy!

Have you ever wondered how taking psychedelics (or, "tripping" as it’s typically called) leads to experiences with the unknown?  Or how some people have trips that completely transform them?

This week we’re unboxing what “ego death” means and how humans have long sought to lose their egos, to transcend themselves, through a variety of pre-mortem death and rebirth rituals (such as baptism ) including… psychedelics.  Yep, drugs!

Complete Show Notes for all UBG episodes can be found on the website: www.unboxgodpod.com (with full summary, quotes, and links to external resources)

For this Bonus Episode, I will continue my exploration of Mysticism by introducing you to a mystic named Meister Eckhart (1260–1328), who heavily influenced my own personal pursuit of 'detachment' (which he called "dis-interest").

I will also talk a bit about Perennial Philosophy (aka Perennial Wisdom),  a perspective in spirituality that views all of the world's religious traditions as sharing a single, metaphysical truth or origin from which all esoteric and exoteric knowledge and doctrine have grown.

Finally, I will tease you with a little bit from the British writer and novelist Aldous Huxley who wrote the dystopian novel Brave New World as well as the 1945 non-fiction book The Perennial Philosophy.

(FYI: In the Spring of ‘53, Huxley had his first mescaline induced mystical experience, which he details in The Doors of Perception - the book that inspired Jim Morrison to name his band 'The Doors'. I will tell you much more in next week's Full episode!)

NOTE: I briefly touch on The Upanishads, which are a series of Hindu sacred treatises, one of Hindu's sacred texts, written in Sanskrit c. 800–200 BC, expounding the Vedas in predominantly mystical terms. The texts are written in a passionate poetic verse describing mystical states and spiritual concepts as well as descriptive short stories and dialogues between historical figures. They discuss things such as meditation, philosophy, Karma, higher states of being, and the nature of our maker... and even though the teachings are now thousands of years old, they are just as relevant today as they were back then. I encourage you to explore them further.

What, exactly, is mysticism?  This episode takes the plunge into the history of what we know about mysticism. What defines a "mystical experience" and how can we all be modern-day mystics?  My dear, Floridian, friend (Iris) gives us a taste of how she connects mysticism to her daily life, and then, Brother Matthew Paul Grote OP gives us a master lesson in Christian Mysticism.

Summary

Mysticism = the practice of religious ecstasies, together with whatever ideologies, ethics, rites, myths, legends, and magic may be related to them; experiencing the divine personally, to become intimate with God

Mysticism embodies four qualities:

1. Awakening - a realization of something greater than yourself

2. Divine Experience - a state of being that feels fully enveloped by God

3. Ineffability - the idea that mystical experience defies expression

4. Transformation - a change of heart

Mysticism in Ancient Greece was Christian and had three dimensions:

1. Biblical - hidden interpretations of Scriptures

2. Liturgical - ceremonial mystery of the Eucharist

3. Spiritual/Contemplative - experiential knowledge of God

Every organized religious or spiritual practice has a mystical offshoot

Current definition of mysticism: 'union with the Absolute, the Infinite, or God'

Walter Terence Stace distinguishes two types of mysticism: Extrovertive (“all as one”), an experience of the unity with the external world + Introvertive (“none as all”), an experience of unity devoid of perceptual objects (an experience of ‘no-thing-ness’)

RC Zaehner defines three fundamental types of mysticism:

(1) Theistic: includes most forms of Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and occasional Hindu examples of mysticism

(2) Monistic (based on “an experience of the unity of one’s soul”): includes Buddhism and certain Hindu schools of thought

(3) Panenhenic (“natural mysticism”): all other types of mysticism

Christian Mysticism: What is God?

- Originally Exodus 3:14: “I Am Who Am”, Tetragrammaton

- Plotinus: the idea of God represented as not being something but as existence itself

- St. Augustine: Finding God/Being/Unity with goodness itself through internal contemplation

- St. Thomas Aquinas: the Divine is intelligible even if it is infinite; we’re meant to know it... He is infinitely knowable, not infinitely unknowable

How to have a mystical life:

- We are made to do two things...

       1. To know (God, ourselves, our neighbor)

       2. To love (God, ourselves, our neighbor)

- We live a practical life of four Cardinal virtues: kindness, love, justice, and humility

- Christianity gives us infused mystical virtues of faith, hope, and love

- We cannot facilitate a mystical experience on our own but instead must open ourselves to a God that loves us

Quotables

“Although mystical states are similar to states of feeling, they also seem to those who experience them to be states of knowledge, too. They are experienced as states that allow direct insight into depths of truth that are unplumbed by our mere intellects.” --William James

“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” --Augustine of Hippo, Confessions

“Truth is truth no matter where it’s found, and every seed of truth should be watered and allowed to flourish.” --Brother Matthew Paul Grote

This bonus episode continues the question of “Can we be ‘good’ without God?” (from Episode 5)

Further exploration into the Stoic Philosophy/Lifestyle - with special friends and fellow travelers, Cassidy and Ryan. Specifically, we will unbox "The 4 Stoic Virtues". Also, we take a deeper look at the concept of “Sympatheia”, which if internalized, can change how we interact with the world—for the better.

Summary

Stoics believe they don’t control the world around them, only how they respond

The four cardinal virtues recognized by the Stoics:

Wisdom (sophia) / Prudence - Acting with care, showing thought for the future

Temperance (sophrosyne) / Moderation - Balance, self-control

Courage (andreia) / Fortitude - Insistence on Truth

Justice (dikaiosyne) / Morality - The source of all the other virtues

'Sympatheia' = the belief in mutual interdependence among everything in the universe

Quotables

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space.  In that space is our power to choose our response.”  --Viktor Frankl

“Works not words” --Seneca

“‘If you seek tranquillity, do less.’ Or (more accurately) do what’s essential—what the logos of a social being requires, and in the requisite way. Which brings a double satisfaction: to do less, better. Because most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more time, and more tranquillity. Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?’” --Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.24

“Curb your desire — don’t set your heart on so many things and you will get what you need.” --Epictetus

“You ask what is the proper limit to a person’s wealth? First, having what is essential, and second, having what is enough.” --Seneca

“Two words should be committed to memory and obeyed: persist and resist.” --Epictetus

“Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.’”  --Mary Anne Radmacher

“Summum bonum” --Latin expression meaning “the highest good”

“Justice is the crowning glory of the virtues.” --Marcus Aurelius

“What injures the hive injures the bee” --Marcus Aurelius

“Seeking the very best in ourselves means actively caring for the welfare of other human beings.” --Epictetus

“...to honor equality, to want to do good, and for a person, being human, to not want to harm human beings—this is the most honorable lesson and it makes just people out of those who learn it.” --Musonius Rufus

“If, at some point in your life, you should come across anything better than justice, prudence, self-control, courage—than a mind satisfied that it has succeeded in enabling you to act rationally, and satisfied to accept what’s beyond its control—if you find anything better than that, embrace it without reservations—it must be an extraordinary thing indeed—and enjoy it to the full.

But if nothing presents itself that’s superior to the spirit that lives within—the one that has subordinated individual desires to itself, that discriminates among impressions, that has broken free of physical temptations, and subordinated itself to the gods, and looks out for human beings’ welfare—if you find that there’s nothing more important or valuable than that, then don’t make room for anything but it.” --Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations

“...I, a universe of atoms, an atom in the universe.” --Richard Feynman

Today, we will take a look at an ancient Greek philosophy called Stoicism, which is a school of philosophy centered around personal ethics, founded about three hundred years before the time of Jesus.

Guests: Cassidy and Ryan

Summary

The 12-Step “Serenity Prayer” is a Stoic meditation prayed to a Higher Power

Stoic practices:

Train your perception to avoid good and bad.  There is no good or bad to the practicing Stoic. There is only perception, which you control.

• Take the view from above; practice sympatheia.

• “Is this within my control?”  Externals are uncontrollable; I can only control myself.

• Amor Fati: Love everything that happens.  Treat each moment (no matter how challenging) as something to be embraced and not avoided, to not only be okay with it but love it and be better for it.

Quotables

“Choose not to be harmed and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed and you haven’t been.” --Marcus Aurelius

“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” --Marcus Aurelius

“How beautifully Plato put it. Whenever you want to talk about people, it’s best to take a bird’s-eye view and see everything all at once— of gatherings, armies, farms, weddings and divorces, births and deaths, noisy courtrooms or silent spaces, every foreign people, holidays, memorials, markets— all blended together and arranged in a pairing of opposites.” --Marcus Aurelius

“The view from above changes our value judgments on things: luxury, power, war…and the worries of everyday life become ridiculous.” --Pierre Hadot

“In outer space, you develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it.” --Astronaut Edgar Mitchell

“The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own . . .”  --Epictetus

“Amor fati” --Latin phrase

“That one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backwards, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it….but love it.”  --Friedrich Nietzsche

“A + B = C.  If you change A and you don’t change B, C is still going to change.” --Cassidy Villano

“A blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.” --Marcus Aurelius

“Do not seek for things to happen the way you want them to; rather, wish that what happens happens the way it happens: then you will be happy.”  --Epictetus

“Memento mori” --Latin phrase

External Links + Resources: 

Barack Obama’s speech “A More Perfect Union”

Carl Sagan’s book Pale Blue Dot

Viktor Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning