Tag: Spirituality
Gatherings September 2023
My Time at the Parliament of World Religions
Some reflections from my time at the Parliament of World Religions 2023 in Chicago.
Explanation July 2023 Uncategorized
Who Am I, Who Are You, and Who Are We: Culture(s) and Faith(s)
We live at the intersection of culture, faith, individuality, and community. Who we see ourselves to be and how all those identities interact matter in our experience of self and others.
Uncategorized
Gathering The Experienced
In my last few years as a pastor up in Maine, I often thought the American church, or at least my experience of it, needs a new map. Like overlaying a map of Paris on top of New York City and then finding new ways to get to places previously familiar, there need to be new pathways, new feeling networks that arc through the experience of faith and spirituality. I have a sneaking suspicion this…
April Explanation Structure
Scaffolds of the Strange: The Structure of ESEs
The four aspects of an Extraordinary Spiritual Experience help us understand and integrate the event. Set and Setting, Appearance, Revelation, and Disclosure all create a scaffolding for the way we interpret what has happened.
Explanation March
Changed by the Unexplained: What Is An Extraordinary Spiritual Experience (ESE)?
Last week, I talked about the value of structure when we consider what is happening in an Extraordinary Spiritual Experience (ESE). The goal in understanding that structure is to create scaffolds that allow for meaning-making of the experience. More often than not, the process of making meaning of an ESE is a long-term project, commonly called integration in the world of psychedelic therapy. There is the immediate event of the ESE, and then there is…
Historical
The Value of Structure
Why is structure important when we encounter the spiritual, the weird, the strange? The history of research into ESEs tells us some structure is needed for understanding and meaning-making.