Everything religious, spiritual, or sacred is based on something set apart as special or extraordinary. In this episode, I describe spiritual awakening as a cycle of sensing, pursuing, and integrating the extraordinary. In the first part of this cycle, we sense the extraordinary and turn our attention toward it; in the second part, we pursue the extraordinary, navigating toward it and learning to recognize it; and in the third part, we integrate the extraordinary back into ordinary life. I illustrate this cycle with examples from my life, and I describe some problems that can arise along the way. (read more)

In my 30s, I was involved in a group that promoted Nonviolent Communication, a practice that helped me gain self-awareness, empathy, and conflict resolution skills. Unfortunately, my involvement in this group had an unintended side effect: over the course of a decade, I gradually lost my ability to think critically about Nonviolent Communication itself, and I eventually became somewhat of a true believer. During this time, I had similar experiences—though to a lesser degree—with various spiritual and environmental groups, too. Eventually, I noticed a pattern. After encountering helpful ideas, I was getting involved with groups of people that were promoting those ideas, then I was losing my ability to think critically about those ideas—almost as if I’d been brainwashed. This article is my attempt to shed some light on this pattern and explore what we can do about it. (read more)

Many groups are available to provide support for your spiritual journey—from religions to spiritual movements to self-help groups. For simplicity, I’m going to call all of them spiritual groups. What all spiritual groups have in common is that they all support spiritual awakening, which I define as evolution toward greater empowerment and greater compassion. Let’s explore some of the unique ways that spiritual groups can support awakening. (read more)