Spiritual Onion

Village of Idiots explores the increasing number of uneducated and ill-informed Americans.  The lack of critical thinking, the inability to self-reflect, and our declining public schools leave us open to authoritarianism and meaningless lives.

Subversive Spirituality takes a look at how capitalism and its cronies capture and consume everything, including subversive spiritual ideas, counter-cultural movements, psychotherapy and, dare I say, YOU.

This episode explores books, music, the loss of community, the re-imagining of vocation, and a visit by Obadiah the crusty, smelly shepherd.  

Hear an in-depth and honest analysis of how the culture is self-destructing as the False, the Bad, and the Ugly replace the True, the Good, and the Beautiful.  The podcast concludes with a look at how we can all take a small step in the right direction.  Let people of good will join together!

Shame Kills the Soul, Part 2 examines the connection between shame and envy—the connection between shame and bullying—the Church's complicity in shaming—​its failure to follow Jesus' teaching on non-judgment—and the power of acceptance.​

No other feeling does as much damage to our unique personality as does shame.  Our second stage of development as toddlers offers us the challenge of Autonomy versus Shame and its kissing cousin Self-Doubt. Autonomy allows us to be self-motivating—to freely explore ourselves and the world around us.  Controlled by others, Shame and Self-Doubt kill the soul and keep us confined within a prison constructed by others.  

WHEN YOU WERE BORN, WHO WAS THERE TO MEET YOU? We're looking at three initial building blocks for life, beginning with Trust versus Mistrust.  Let Spiritual Onion aid you in reflecting on your beginnings in the world.  Experience is key to shaping our ability to trust and our access to health mistrust.  And, when it comes to trust and mistrust of God, we reflect on the difference between belief and experience.

In this second installment, we touch on church history; examine Jesus' teaching on non-judgment and the psychological phenomenon of projection; his conversation about pearls and pigs (sounds like a Prince song); and what Jesus did not say!

In this third podcast in our series, we ask: Do we always have to forgive?  How did Jesus view wealth (and those TV evangelists)? What did Jesus really have to say about family (and "family values")?  How about the challenge to love our enemies (How's that working in America right now!). 

In this first session, we find out what was Jesus' favorite name for himself.  Why did he say that the whores were going into the Kingdom of Heaven before the most religious leaders of the day? Why did the mistranslation of the word for "Repent" negatively impacted Jesus' primary message?  All this and a helpful guide to approaching the Scriptures.

A Compassionate View of Narcissism, Part Two: How Did We Get Here?  Why did Narcissistic Character Disorders develop in our time? We begin to look at the characteristics of entitlement and the lack of empathy with the narcissist.  also, the connection between injury to the sense of self and the explosion of violence in our culture.  And more!

A Compassionate View Narcissism, Part Three: A Troubling Future. We continue our look at the characteristics of the narcissist. What is the connection between narcissistic injury and anxiety, depression, and addictive processes?  How did traditional Christian values mitigate narcissism? How does contemporary Christianity feed into our narcissism?  Plus, two intuitions to ponder!

Tune into Spiritual Onion where we examine an overused and misunderstood psychological slur. "A Compassionate View of Narcissism, Part One."  Narcissistic Characters Disorders are today's most frequent mental health diagnoses.  But how do we understand narcissism?  First, we must reflect on our sense of self and its needs from birth to death.

Make Haste Slowly: A Soulful Spirituality, Part Two takes us deeper into Soul's domain and shows us how joining Spirit and Soul enriches and enlivens our lives.  A critical move for a world on fire.

Part One looks at the dire state of religion and the world where Spirit has dominated our approach to life and where Soul has been cast out.  Part One examines the dominance of Spirit and introduces the importance of Soul in our lives.

The dream is the closest we will come to experiencing the new reality of life to come.  Our podcast explores, “Imagining the Afterlife.”  Since no one knows the afterlife experientially, this will be a spiritual and soulful imagining of heaven using the hints and clues we’ve been given. 

If the previous podcast, Dream Me Awake, awakened an interest to work with your dreams, the bonus podcast, Dream Resources, is just what you need to begin peeling the layers of those onions.  Oops, I mean dreams.

Every one of us dreams multiple times a night, but few of us pay attention. even if we do attend to our dreams, we may not know how to approach our dreams. "Dream Me Awake" provides a spiritual and soulful look at the dream. I’ll use several of my “big dreams” to illuminate how dreams inform our lives. 

Look for a bonus podcast that offers resources for working with your dreams.

IN ORDER TO HAVE A CHANCE OF LIVING A FULLY FLOURISHING LIFE, WE MUST
BE ABLE TO FACE AND PROCESS THE MYRIAD OF LOSSES THAT FALL ON US IN A
LIFETIME. LIFE IS LOSS. BOTH SPIRITUALITY AND DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY ARE TOOLS
THAT GUIDE US THROUGH THE PATTERN OF LOSS AND NEW LIFE THAT LIES AT
THE HEART OF OUR LIVES. TAKE A LISTEN TO LIFE, LOVE AND LOSS.