Spirituality as the Antidote to a Divided World

In a world marked by division, polarization, and rising despair, could spirituality be the missing piece we need to heal — not just individually, but collectively?

In this episode of Integrated Wisdom, Tatiana explores why materialism has left us fragmented and hopeless, and how reconnecting with our spiritual essence offers an antidote. Drawing on research from psychology, neuroscience, psychiatry, and even reincarnation studies, she makes the case that spirituality is not just personal comfort — it’s a public health resource and a cultural healing force.

You’ll learn:

• Why over-identification with labels (political, social, cultural) deepens division and despair.
• How spirituality protects against suicide and mental health struggles (including Dr. Lisa Miller’s brain-imaging research at Columbia).
• Evidence from recent reviews (2024, 2025) linking spirituality and awe to resilience, compassion, and prosocial behaviour.
• The surprising lessons from reincarnation research that challenge our attachment to identity.
• Practical ways to strengthen your own spiritual connection and apply these insights in daily life and community.

✨ This episode is both a vision and a roadmap: showing how evidence-based spirituality can become medicine for our fractured world, and how small personal choices ripple outward into collective change.

Resources & References

• Miller, L. et al., JAMA Psychiatry: Cortical thickness and spirituality.
• Frontiers in Psychiatry (2024): Spirituality and improved coping, lower suicide risk.
• SpringerLink (2025): Awe and self-compassion.
• World Health Organization: Global mental health statistics.
• University of Virginia: Reincarnation research database.

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Intro and Outro music: Inspiring Morning by Playsound

Disclaimer: This podcast is intended for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be treated as psychological treatment or to replace the need for psychological treatment.

Episode Transcript

Tatiana (00:00):
Welcome to the Integrated Wisdom Podcast.

(00:03):
I am your host, Tatiana Ola,psychologist, spiritual
educator, and founder of a bodyof work.
Devote to lead others toremembering what we never truly
forgot, that science and spiritwere never separate.
They are H in their RY.
Expressions of the same sacredarchitecture.

(00:25):
This podcast is for the quietrevolutionaries, the therapists,
the seekers, the spirituallydiscerning and scientifically
curious who know that we arebeing called into a new paradigm
for personal and collectivetransformation.
Together we explore what itmeans to live a coherent.

(00:48):
Soul led life drawing frompsychology, neuroscience,
epigenetics, energy medicine,and spiritual remembrance.
These aren't just conversations.
They are transmissions for thoseready to return to what's true,
to what's whole, and to what'squietly waiting beneath it.

(01:15):
Hello and welcome back to theIntegrated Wisdom Podcast.
I'm Tatiana.
If you joined me last week welooked at spirituality and
suicide prevention and how thescience and lived experience
point to spiritual connection asa protective factor.
And today I want to widen thatlens.
If spirituality guardsindividuals against despair,

(01:38):
what might it offer to ourcommunities, our institutions,
and the problems we collectivelyface at the moment from
loneliness and polarization toeven climate grief.
But before we dive in, I want toquickly share something with you
later this month.
I'm reopening the doors to theConscious Therapist, my

(01:59):
signature program for mentalhealth professionals who wants
to safely and ethicallyintegrate spirituality into
their practice.
If this conversation resonateswith you and you'd like to be
the first to know when it opens,you can join the wait list.
You'll find the link to join inthe show notes.
Right now we're living in aworld where despair, division,

(02:23):
and disconnection are everywhereyou look.
Materialism.
The worldview that we're onlyour bodies, our brains, our bank
accounts, and our socialpositions is one of the root
causes of our current globalcrisis.
It teaches us that what we haveor what we've done defines our

(02:45):
worth.
It tells us that once life ends,so does everything.
But when people believe that twothings tend to happen.
They cling tightly to theidentities and labels that
they've been given in this onelifetime, or they fall into
despair because if suffering ismeaningless, then why keep

(03:09):
going?
And what has this materialistworldview led to?
A global mental health crisiswith skyrocketing rates of
anxiety, depression, suicide,and loneliness.
Political polarization wherepeople can't talk across
differences anymore.

(03:31):
Endless identity wars and thedivisions of race, gender,
wealth, and religion.
We're dividing ourselves intosmaller and smaller boxes and
forgetting the only label thattruly matters: HUMAN.
And here's the truth, thisfragmentation is not an

(03:52):
accident.
It is the shadow of materialism.
If we believe that we are onlyflesh and blood, then it's easy
to believe that we arefundamentally separate from one
another, that my group isdifferent from your group.
That my suffering is separatefrom your suffering.

(04:12):
We also reduce our capacity forconnection, empathy, and
collective healing.
But what if these identitiesaren't the truth of who we are
at all?
What if they're just temporarycostumes and the real story is
much bigger than that?

(04:33):
Let's start with scale.
Mental health needs are enormousright now.
The World Health Organization'sRecent reports note that over 1
billion people are living with amental health condition that's
approximately one in eight.
And global systems remainunder-resourced, which creates

(04:54):
urgency for preventionapproaches that go beyond clinic
walls.
That urgency is one reason Ibelieve that we must broaden our
prevention tools to includespiritual resources, not as a
replacement for clinical care,but as a complimentary
evidence-based dimension.
A growing body of research showsthat spiritual life and

(05:17):
spiritual practices areassociated with better mental
health outcomes acrosspopulations.
Research in neuroscience,psychology, and even near death
experiences is showing us thatwe are interconnected, that
consciousness extends beyond thebrain, and that awe, compassion
and transcendence are part ofour design.

(05:40):
A 2024 review in Frontiers inPsychiatry summarizes evidence
linking spirituality to improvedcoping, higher quality of life,
and lower rates of addiction andsuicidal behavior.
Neuroscience adds another layer.
Longitudinal brain imagingstudies, including studies led

(06:01):
from Columbia University by Dr.
Lisa Miller, has foundassociations between sustained
spiritual engagement andincreased cortical thickness in
regions involved in emotionregulation and stress
resilience, actual physiologicalchanges that plausibly underpin
increased psychologicalresilience.

(06:23):
At the same time,multidisciplinary clinic panels
are recommending that spiritualcare be integrated more
systematically into mentalhealth services.
A 2024 Delphi study reviewinghundreds of articles concluded
that spiritual determinants ofhealth warrant structured
integration into public mentalhealth practices.

(06:45):
That's a major shift formainstream clinical systems, and
it's an exciting one.
And finally, research on awe thesmall self transcendent
emotional state shows measurabledownstream effects on
self-compassion, humility, andpro-social behavior.

(07:06):
Very recent 2025 work found thatawe experiences can increase
self-compassion, which isdirectly relevant to both
individual wellbeing and howpeople relate in communities.
So if we accept those datapoints, that spirituality can
strengthen individualsbiologically and

(07:27):
psychologically, and that aweand transcendent experiences
promote prosociality.

The conceptual leap is this: what builds resilient (07:34):
undefined
individuals also buildsresilient communities.
Awe states reduce self focus andincrease care for others.
Rituals and shared practicesbind group identity and meaning,

(07:54):
meaning making reduceshopelessness and encourages
civic engagement.
That's the foundation for avision where spirituality helps
heal collective wounds.
It restores purpose, increasesempathy and creates practices
that bring people intorelationship across differences.

(08:16):
This isn't just philosophy.
The body of evidence thatsupports this viewpoint is only
growing.
And some of the most intriguingresearch comes from studies of
children who remember pastlives.
At the University of Virginia,they've documented over 2,500
objectively verified casesworldwide where children

(08:39):
describe with incredibleaccuracy, details of lives that
they couldn't possibly haveknown lending support for the
possibility or incarnation.
What's fascinating is that insome instances, a male child may
recall being a woman in aprevious life, or vice versa.
In one, they might be wealthy inanother, poor in one, they might

(09:03):
be white in another, black orindigenous or Asian.
Collectively, the documentedcases suggest that across
lifetimes we inhabit every kindof role.
In every kind of socialcategory.
Now, if that's true and theevidence is mounting that

(09:24):
something is happening here thatwe can't just dismiss, then no
single label we wear in thislifetime defines us.
They're all just perspectives,roles that we have stepped into
temporarily.
The deeper truth is that we areevolving essences, shaped by
experiences designed to move uscloser to becoming unconditional

(09:48):
love and wisdom.
Imagine what could shift if weheld this perspective as a
culture.
If instead of clinging to ourdivisions, we remembered that in
another lifetime we might havebeen born into the very group
that we're opposing today.

(10:11):
That would dissolve the illusionof separateness and remind us
that we are all at the core oneHuman family.
Spirituality then becomes morethan personal comfort.
It becomes the medicine for ourfractured world.
It redefines identity, reorientsus towards compassion.

(10:33):
And lifts us out of despair byshowing us that suffering isn't
meaningless.
It's a part of our growth assouls.
And that is why spirituality,The grounded evidence-informed
spirituality that I'm describinghas the potential to be the
antidote that we desperatelyneed.

(10:57):
So here's the vision and myinvitation.
What if we stopped seeing eachother as fragments, as opposing
categories or enemies locked inideological battle and started
seeing each other as spiritualbeings first?
What if the antidote topolarization, consumerism, and

(11:21):
despair isn't another politicalplatform, but a return to the
wisdom that science is finallybeginning to validate: that we
are interconnected, purposeful,and part of something much, much
larger.
What if we stopped clinging totemporary identities and began

(11:43):
living from the awareness of oneshared spiritual essence.
What if we stopped clinging totemporary identities and began
living from the awareness of ourshared spiritual essence?
What if spirituality wasn't afringe idea, but the foundation
of how we saw ourselves and eachother.

(12:07):
We don't need to wait for theworld to change around us.
We can start living this today.
Each time we step back from alabel and choose to see the
essence in ourselves and others,each time that we turn to
practices that strengthen ourspiritual core instead of
numbing our pain.

(12:28):
Each time we choose compassionover division, we are already
shifting the story.
And that's how the antidotebegins.
Not with one grand movement, butwith thousands of daily choices
rooted in the remembrance of whowe really are.

(12:50):
And over time those choicesripple outwards into systems,
communities, and cultures.
That's how we begin to rewritethe world story.
Now, I will keep exploring thisin future episodes, showing you
not just why this matters, buthow spirituality can transform

(13:12):
areas like mental health,education, and leadership.
But for now, I want to leave youwith this reminder.
You are not your labels.
You are not your suffering.
You are not your bank account,your politics, or your past.
You are spirit.

(13:33):
And remembering that truth isthe beginning of healing for you
and for all of us.
Thank you so much for joining mefor today's episode, and I hope
that it has resonated andawakened something in you.
I would love to hear from youabout any insights or

(13:55):
perspectives that have beensparked in you as a result of
this episode.
So please feel free to reach outto me either by email at
[e-mail] au oron Instagram@wisdomwithtatiana.
Let's start these conversationsand normalize them.

(14:19):
After today, we'll go back toour fortnightly schedule, and so
the next episode will bepublished on Wednesday, the 1st
of October.
I look forward to speaking moreto you then.
Remember, we were neverdisconnected.
Only waiting to remember.
Thanks.
Bye.

(14:42):
Thank you for tuning into thisepisode of Integrated Wisdom.
It is my sincere wish that thisepisode may have intrigued and
inspired you to reclaim yourpower and step into becoming
more fully integrated spiritualbeings.
New episodes are published everysecond Wednesday, and I hope
that you'll continue to join usas we dive deeper into what it

(15:02):
means to live an integratedlife.
If this space has stirredsomething in you, I invite you
to subscribe, share it withthose attuned to this path, and
explore the full body of work atintegratedwisdom.com au.
You can also find me onInstagram at Wisdom with

(15:23):
Tatiana, where the conversationcontinues.
Until next time, staydiscerning, stay curious, and
let this be your reminder.
You were never disconnected.
Only waiting to remember.