The Two Tongues Podcast

In this episode we check all the forbidden boxes, talking about identity politics and race relations, dual citizenship and divided allegiances, energy and personality and, of course, a controversial dose of religion. What is the risk of allowing non-naturalized citizens the right to vote? How about those with dual citizenship? What are the risks of emphasizing diversity over assimilation? And what...

In this episode Chris brings us Opinion Scholarship on the ancient Greek god--Dionysus. All due credit to Neal Sendlak of the YouTube show "Gnostic Informant" for much of the historical details presented today. (If you haven't checked out Gnostic Informant, you should!) I discuss the classical myth of Dionysus versus older, secretive myths preserved by the followers of Orpheus. We compare the two...

In this episode Kyle and Chris reunite after many, holiday weeks off...and there's much to catch up on. We discuss Chris' introduction to Jesse Lee Peterson, review the 2024 film "Nosferatu," and rave about the new podcast "The Telepathy Tapes." From here we turn to Chris' anxiety about aging, which takes the form of bitterness toward the new classes of actors and political talking heads, which ar...

In this episode Chris brings us Opinion Scholarship on the effects of starvation on human beings. We discuss the Minnesota Starvation Experiment of the 1940s, which leads into the aggregated data and meta-analysis of altered states of consciousness available through the Altered States Database (alteredstatesdb.org). Both sources report that mystical experiences arise spontaneously in subjects who...

In this episode Chris brings us Opinion Scholarship on the idea of a supreme, monotheistic God as expressed in the Neoplatonic idea of "The One" or "The Monad." We explore the commonalities between Christian Monotheism and Neoplatonism and speculate on the fertile ground for the emergency of this idea prepared by the pre-Socratics and Plato himself. We take a deep dive into Plotinus, Porphyry and...

In this episode Chris reconnects with friend of the show--Daniel Torridon of the Onion Unlimited podcast. We talk about U.S. politics in the new Trump era and the English perspective on it; we compare and contrast U.S. and U.K. political parties and platforms...and then pivot to our mutually favorite subject--Religion. Daniel discusses his journey from a repressive upbringing as a Jehovah's Witnes...

In this episode we introduce a new friend of the show and have a thoughtful discussion on the origin of religion and just what rests at the historical beginning of organized faith. We discuss the work of Wilhelm Schmidt, E.J. Michael Witzel and Michael Heiser on the subject in addition to a whole host of interesting asides. We discuss the ideas of 'sympathetic magic' and 'archetypes of the mind' a...

In this episode Chris returns to the Sermons of Meister Eckhart to build from the first Eckhart episode covering Sermon 52. On this pass we cover Eckhart's conception of the soul and how it relates to God, setting the stage for mystical experience. We then turn to the corpus of Eckhart's sermons in search of a path toward attaining mystical experience for yourself. While there are few direct presc...

In this episode Kyle and Chris re-unite after 2 weeks to catch up on the state of the world and what's new with each of us. The conversation  illustrated the contrast between our relatively recent past and glimpses of our future techo-utopia...or dystopia (a the case may be). Kyle discussed breaking his phone and enjoying the disconnection and independence that comes with it; eliciting nostalgia f...

In this episode Chris brings us Opinion Scholarship on the medieval Christian mystics, Meister Eckhart. We review one of his most famous sermons--Sermon 52--to discover why he was accused of heresy and delivered to the inquisition. We explore his notion of "being free of God," "standing in my first cause," and "breaking through" and the kenosis or self-emptying that is necessary to achieve it. We...

In this episode Chris and Kyle pow-wow with a former evangelist and friend of the show, Daniel Torridon, of the Onion Unlimited podcast, to see what we can make of Jesus as a teacher. What or who Jesus was remains hotly debated after over 2,000 years. Was he God or merely a man? Was he a prophet? A teacher? While we have no hope of consensus as to his godhood, we do have general agreement that he...

In this episode Chris brings us Opinion Scholarship, this time surrounding Christianity. We read through the gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, John and Thomas, searching for the teachings of Jesus. Here we find references to the 'gospel of the kingdom of God,' but without any clear description of what that means. So we seek, as Jesus suggested, until we find. And what did we find? A whole host of im...

In this episode Kyle and Chris reunite after a few weeks apart to catch up on what's been going on--the presidential debate key among them. We begin with praise and criticism of the GOT series, which Kyle felt compelled to share after re-watching all 8 seasons in bed sick this past week. The theme of political upheaval then took us into a discussion of the Trump-Harris debate and the various consp...

In this episode Chris delivers Opinion Scholarship on the idea of Nothingness and the Zero-Energy Universe Hypothesis in modern physics. He compares these ideas and their implications to humanity's oldest myths about the creation of the cosmos...and finds some striking parallels! In our myths we find a primordial mystery existing before existence from which 2 equal and opposing deities are formed....

In this episode Chris brings Opinion Scholarship on the ancient Persian religion--Zoroastrianism. We discuss the Proto-Indo-European people, their culture and religion and how they came down through the Indo-Iranian tribes that became both Zoroastrianism in Iran and Hinduism in India. We discuss the influence Zoroastrian ideas had on both Judaism and Christianity and explore what Zoroaster meant w...

In this episode Chris and Kyle interview Chris' former barber--John--to discuss the sacred confessional of the barbershop. We discuss why people feel so comfortable opening up to their barber, the secrets that get shared and the good-natured ribbing that takes place between a close-knit group of barbers and their regular customers. Chris admits that every conversation he ever had with John in the...

In this episode Chris delivers Opinion Scholarship on the meaning of Plato's famous Cave Allegory. He shows through the words of Plato and the ancient Greek Poet Pindar that the secret goings-on of the Eleusinian Mysteries share a hell of a lot with the experience of the prisoner freed from Plato's cave. He then posits that the secrecy surrounding the Mysteries kept Plato from speaking about it di...

In this episode Chris asks Kyle about the Indo-European influences on Judaism and Christianity and whether that impacts his personal faith. From there we pivot to a discussion of Chris' latest solo podcast entitled--Paleo Deo--on the subject of primitive monotheism. Then things get political. We discuss the libertarian and conservative revolutions occurring in Central and South America, the migrat...

In this episode Chris highlights the ideas of German Anthropologist--Wilhelm Schmidt--and makes the case for a form of Monotheism as the original expression of religious feeling and intuition. We explore Occam's Razor, look for evidence of any true historical polytheistic faiths and discuss the problem of Henotheism. We also explore the Supreme Beings or "High Gods" of tribal peoples to gain a bet...

In this episode we cross-over with friend of the show Daniel Torridon of the Onion Unlimited podcast to talk about praise and blame. We discuss the power of positive and negative reinforcement and reflect on those peculiar memories of praise and blame that showed us a mirror of our selves or others impacted our behavior or worldview. We don't conclude without throwing morality and religion in the...

In this episode Chris brings some Opinion Scholarship on the Greco-Egyptian tradition of Hermes Trismegistus, who bestowed great and secret wisdom upon humanity. We compare Biblical verses to the famous Hermetic dictum "As Above, So Below," and explore why a group of early Christians in Egyptian would have hid away Hermetic writings along with dozens of early Christian and Gnostic codices. What po...

In this episode Kyle and Chris discuss this past weeks' attempted assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump. We give our "first impressions" on the media's reaction as well as the reaction of ordinary people on Twitter. We discuss the many conspiracy theories already exploding from the left and point to the great hypocrisy of the double-standard surrounding "inciting violence." And...

In this episode Chris is brining you Opinion Scholarship on the myth of the Great Flood. While it's widely known that the deluge story appears all over the world, from every continent, very few people ever read the original sources to see just how similar they are. Today, I have remedied that! We read through the flood account from Ovid's Metamorphosis, compare the Indian account of the Flood of M...

Have you ever wondered what is meant by the phrase "mystery religions"? Ever wonder, just what the hell this "mystery" is? Are you frustrated by the deafening silence of the ancient writers on this subject? Titillated by the hints left by Plato and the pre-Socratics? Yeah, you're not alone. While the mysteries of Eleusis and the cults of Mithras and Isis may remain in the shadows, the mysteries of...

In this episode Chris is bringing you Opinion Scholarship on the religion of the Omaha tribe, indigenous to the Ohio Valley in the United States. More specifically, on their conception of God, whom they call Wakonda and their Sioux cousins call Wakan Tanka. We explore the fascinating form of henotheism or even monotheism that the Omaha practice and dive deeply into the opening line of their creati...