spark my muse – Page 49 – Lisa Colón DeLay | Spiritual Formation and the Way of the Desert Elders

EPS 53: Magical Thinking (The Voo Doo You Do): Guest Matthew Hutson

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Video bonus feature:

SHOW NOTES

Matt Hutson has a B.S. in cognitive neuroscience from Brown University and an M.S. in science writing from MIT. He has written for Wired, The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, Discover, Scientific American Mind, Popular Mechanics, Technology Review, Slate, NewYorker.com, NYMag.com, ScienceMag.org, Aeon, Nautilus, Al Jazeera America, The Boston Globe,The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and Psychology Today, where he was the News Editor for four years.

Find Matt on Twitter

Matt’s book The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking

MIN 1:30
Matt’s religious and spiritual background and context for writing about magic and how we think.

A Brief History of Time

Stephen Hawking

MIN 2:30

Cognitive Neuroscience studies

Meaning is filtered through the mind.

MIN 3:30

What is magical thinking and how does it happen all the time in our lives?

MIN 9:00

Humans are very social creatures and we apply our perspective (like thoughts and desires) onto other things that are not human.

MIN 11:30

Some atheists claim they don’t commit mistakes of magical thinking, but Matthew says, “Not so fast, we all do and it’s not so bad!”

Involuntary Cognitive bias

The experiments the tease out the behavioral repercussion of these basis.

MIN 14:30

Instinct and staying safe

MIN 16:30

How does Matt deal with his own magical thinking?

Realizing the difference between correlation and causation.

MIN 18

Learning Critical Thinking

Is there another explanation?

MIN 20

Transcendent experiences and loss of awareness of ego or a sense of awe.

Astronauts often return from space with a new belief in God or spirituality or ecologically-minded or with a renewed sense of awe.

MIN 23

Matt’s transcendent moment in Alaska.

MIN 25

Matt talks about the “The Soul Lives On” and “Everything Happens for a Reason” chapters of his book.

MIN 29

Up loading our brains to live on after us and artificial intelligence.

MIN 31

symbols: such as, people feel less lonely when they watch tv.

MIN 34

Consciousness as discreet states

MIN 35

Verbs most activate our motor system

MIN 38

The movie HER and brain simulation

MIN 40

The psychology of social status. power, prestige, and class how we achieve it. Why we care about getting it and what’s good about it and how it shows our values.

MIN 42

How upbringing can program us for life.

Thank you so much for your interest in this episode. Dig around and listen to other episode and come back each Wednesday and Friday for new ones, or subscribe and never miss a thing.

Soul School – Lesson 21: A Test of Your Faith

Is this a time of testing in your life? That’s what the topic is about in this lesson today.

Welcome to Soul School, a weekly Wednesday installment for you. AND this time spread the word! The VIDEO class and worksheet, normally for Varsity Club members ONLY (people who sponsor the show on a monthly basis), is free and available to anyone, this week! Whooot.

SO-after you listen to the podcast, check it out: the video lesson that follows is here. Enjoy and share it if you know someone who’s going through a tough time of testing.

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EPS 51: The women of Sacred Ordinary Days

Thanks for listening to the Spark My Muse podcast today. Each Friday is a conversational guest episode. Today’s episode is a Spark My Muse first–not one, but two guests–the women from the podcast Sacred Ordinary Days. Jean and Lacy have quickly grown a strong tribe as they help listeners understand the seasons and rhythms of the liturgical year. They have both launched some fascinating resources too you will want to hear more about.

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Jenn square — *Click for Jenn’s site and resources*

lacy — *Click for Lacy’s site and resources.*

SHOW NOTES

MIN 1

Lacy (from Washington State) and Jenn (from Texas) intro

and how did you find each other and start a podcast?

MIN 6 What is the liturgical calendar exactly why do you find it meaningful?

• Playfulness, curiosity, exploration, tools for meaningful living.

MIN

8:30

Ritual can bring play instead of rigidity which is not what we think of with religion.

MIN 9 crafting a Rule of Life

“A rule of life offers creative boundaries in which God’s loving presence can be recognized and celebrated…” -Henry Nouwen

MIN 10:30

Ritual during Lent – Suggestions

Major theme:

Ash Wednesday the first day of LENT- remember who you are. Returning to dust and remembering your own mortality and your interior journey.

Not just about fasting.

MIN 12:00

Lent means “Spring” or springtime. Awake the true self and cast off the false self.

Fasting, prayer, alms giving bring us towards life. Death of the false self.

Preparation for Easter and it starts in the dark like a seed starts underground.

MIN 14:30 Lent is 40 days. Sundays aren’t counted because they are feast days.

40 days is a time of testing that leads us towards life.

Holy Saturday – the tomb day a day of despair.

MIN 16:30 The seasons covered in the Sacred Ordinary Days podcast

The church year, the Christian year, the liturgical year and learning alongside others.

Facebook.com/groups/sacredordinarydaystribe

MIN 18:30

Journeying in real time with everyone from all walks of life and in all age groups.

MIN 20

Lori Neff – Midday Connection – Lacy’s perpetual Calendar

Jenn’s Day Planner and KickStarter project

MIN 22

• Lectionary

• Daily Office

Liturgy means “the work of the people”

Reordering the days, minutes, and hours, and something to make it simple.

MIN 26

Lacy’s perpetual calendar and thematic seasonal prompts.

MIN 29

How the dates shift each year based on the vernal equinox and full moons.

The book of common prayer

asacredjourney.net/calendar

LENT 2016 February 10 – March 26 (but not Sundays)

MIN 32

Season of disruption where you make space and grieving the sad things about life. It prepares you for other sorrowful times in life. And prepares us to truly celebrate the wonderful times as well. We can hold both together. There are paradoxes. Both/And

MIN 35 Being fully human.

MIN 36 “It’s all grace.”

MIN 37

The underlying season remains and we can return to it whenever we need it.

MIN 38

Where you can find them.

EPS 50: The Amazing Story of Bruce Van Horn

I’m excited to have Bruce Van Horn on the Spark My Muse podcast.

His story is inspiring and his coaching, his presence on the internet at his WEBSITE and social media where he is one of the most Retweet encouragers on Twitter, in books, and on his podcast heard in 194 countries (Life is a Marathon) he has been an encouragement to millions.

BruceVanHorn
His book “Worry No More: 4 Steps to Stop Worrying and Start Living” is an Amazing International Best Seller.

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SHOW NOTES

MIN 5 Early in life Bruce got into Computers/IMB and tried to make his fortune and contentment externally.

Bruce losses it all at 27. At 42 loses it all again and feels like giving up.

MIN 10

How Bruce started to turn his life around and had his major epiphany.

How Bruce learned that the hardest part of running a marathon is the decision to run one (each day).

MIN 13

How Bruce applied his big success to all the aspects of his life.

MIN 15

How Bruce started to take responsibility for his whole life and take his thoughts captive and end negative self talk.

MIN 18

Peter Sage

“Complaints are the glue that keep you stuck to your problems.”

“Think and Grow Rich” Napoleon Hill

Express gratitude for what you have because it makes it easier to get what you want.

Making a list of things to be grateful for—which, at first, was insincere.

MIN 20 What would you miss if it was gone?

MIN 22

Making changes in life and relationships. Changing language like eliminating sarcasm.

MIN 24 Starting a life coaching relationship that led to jobs all over the world.

MIN 28

The stage four cancer that changed everything.

The surgery that went wrong and no pain medication to recover with.

MIN 34

“In this moment, if I can breathe, I have everything I need.”

Pain is not a curse. Somehow this experience is a gift. The story was a detour not an end.

MIN 36

“Worry No More” the book

Worry is like Mediation done wrong.

MIN 39

Experience is thought in this moment. We are telling ourselves a story. We can see another story. Worry is a story about what you don’t want to happen. and you can tell a different story.

MIN 40

Life is a Marathon podcast

Heard in 194 countries around the world.

EPS 49: The “Death Class” Trend – Guest Erika Hayasaski

Welcome to Spark My Muse!

Every Friday is a conversation with a guest. My guest today is Erika Hayasaki. She teaches workshops in nonfiction writing and classes in digital storytelling at the University of California, Irvine, where she is an associate professor in the Literary Journalism Program.

In her career as a journalist Erika’s seen many tragedies, but it was her involvement with Norma Bowe, the instructor of an unorthodox and very popular course at Kean University called “Death Class”, that showed her a completely different way to think about death and living and initiated her celebrated book project by that same name.

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Erika’s website is here.

Her book based on the Death Class.

SHOW NOTES

MIN 1 [Feb gift giveaway Facebook.com/sparkmymuse]

MIN 3 Erika’s journalism career and background.

MIN 7 Her spiritual religious context and upbringing / objectivity

MIN 12 How she was introduced to “Death Class” at Kean University with Norma Bowe,

and how the book about “Death Class” came about.

MIN 16 Field trips, general interest, fear of death, loss of a loved one, coming close to death are reasons people take the class.

MIN 19 Seeing an autopsy and death up close and how that changes you.

MIN 21 A renewed appreciation and outlook on life and the preciousness of living. Less anxiety around death and disaster after the class.

MIN 23 How we get exposed to death or stressful things in life and how we can process the scary things in life better.

MIN 25 Death anxiety is relieved more when people process through the ideas around death.

MIN 26 The afterlife and processing death in social contexts.

MIN 27 The “Death Salon” or “Death Cafe” or “Death Dinners”

exploring with art, socially, and with food the concepts and reality of mortality.

MIN 29 Alternative burial movement happening. We have become removed from the entire process like we used to be from the birth process.

MIN 30 How we grieve a loved one. How the Amish care from their dead.

MIN 32 Being with someone as they die.

MIN 34 CLICK for death salon reading list

MIN 35 Her uncle’s near death experiences.

Thank you for listening!
I hope you come back Wednesday for a new episode called Soul School.
If you enjoyed the show, please poke around and listen to other episodes and share the show with a friend!

xo
-Lisa