Mormon Discussion Podcast: Leading With Faith

Glenn and Bill tackle an audio series created by Michael Singer, author of the untethered soul, and use it as a springboard for their own Almost Awakened conversation. This is part 1 in a multipart series and the conversation in this part covers ideas such as you are not your body, thoughts, or experiences but instead is just the observer behind your senses. That this moment does not belong to you...

Today I sit down with my friend Glenn Ostlund author of the book “ Bathing with God “. Glenn and I both were deep believers in a specific religion. Then we both grew disenchanted with said religion. We deconstructed that religion and deconstructed other systems seemingly walked away from God and religion…. only to, unknown from each other, be on our own re-engaging the big questi...

Bill and Phil McLemore sit down and have a conversation around wisdom teachings such as meditation, awareness, being present, ego, the Yoga of Christ, mind chatter, myth, evolution, free will, and death. What an amazing conversation Phil helps us create. RESOURCES: https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/146-30-45.pdf https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/the-kriya-yoga/yoga-and-christ-ukiYPp7E9zG/ ht...

Today Bill dissects a 10 minute audio clip of Alan Watts. The video can be watched HERE and it is recommended you watch the video first before listening to the commentary. The truths being shared here are crucial to the awakened life. Learning to quiet your mind chatter. Learning to see the constructs of your life as something other than reality. Learning to be present rather than lost in past and...

Today Bill dives into tribalism. Why do we humans choose to be in tribes? What are the benefits and drawbacks of tribalism? What makes us humans unique and what facets of tribalism have we humans taken advantage of and at what expense? Where did tribalism come from? Can we cling to the benefits while minimizing and eliminating the drawbacks? All this and more is the jumping off point for today&#82...

Today I sit down with a friend who spent roughly a year in prison. What is prison life like? How does an Almost Awakened person perceive and negotiate their time and thoughts and behavior and what observations are made about the system and people around them? RESOURCES: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/gabrielsanchez/sara-bennett-looking-inside-women-prison-incarceration https://www.themarshal...

Today on the Almost Awakened Podcast we talk about how we judge ourselves and judge others and our behaviors as good or bad. But there is a challenge to step back and to see others in their humanity. To comprehend the trauma that is handed down to each one of us and to sit with what that says about us humans collectively and individually. To recognize the kinds of behaviors we humans show up with...

Today Bill talks about 4 observations about human behavior 1.) That we need to be protectors of others Stories rather than one who hijacks the narratives of others. 2.) That we need to work on being present and not getting lost in the mind chatter that can overwhelm us and prevent us from showing up for others. 3.) That we need to learn that when in an argument we move from tangent to tangent such...

Today we talk about the move from fitting in to showing up as your authentic self. We often show up in the world the way the world needs us to which has us withholding important parts of ourselves that feel unacceptable. We pretend to be things we are not. And yet as the awakening process occurs we feel pulled to show up as our authentic selves. Today we talk about the pain that such causes and ho...

Today I examine the issue of abortion. Not to decide the right or wrong of the issue but as a way to see into how we can think critically about a conversation where we are passionate and often not thinking as rationally. Abortion is a topic that often has us arguing from emotional passion and which runs so close to our sacred beliefs that we often struggle to think rationally and logically about t...

In this episode we piggy back on last weeks episode on myth and help the Almost Awakened listener deconstruct one of our judeo/ christian myths… namely the Adam & Eve story around the Fall. We talk about what Adam and Eve could represent and more importantly what the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil could imply and point us to. RESOURCES: https://www.amazon.com/Change-Yo...

Today we dip our toes into MYTH and how pervasive it is in our cultural and social structures. Any time we label or tell a story about the way things are and what they mean we are likely in the sphere of myth. Money, relationships, nationality and patriotism, family history, who people are…. all myth. Some myths are just inside our head and others are collectively agreed upon by entire socie...

Today we dive into how to handle conflict differently. The conversation centers around what is needed to help people get out of lizard brain and to help another to feel heard creating the space needed to keep a conflict from devolving. The conversation helps us understand how fear affected us hundreds of thousands of years ago and how we evolved to create new mechanisms of fear when we created lan...

Mekael and Bill utilize this episode to discuss the this George Floyd moment. His death, the protests and riots, the systemic racism in this country, the police abuse, and most importantly the ethnocentricity and tribalism that all these abuses and inequalities are rooted in. RESOURCES: https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/fall-2018/what-is-white-privilege-really https://www.cpt.org/files/Undoing%20...

We sit down with Brad Poulos and discuss Cannabis AKA Marijuana. We discuss Cannabis generally and get into what issues are on the forefront of the Cannabis Industry. RESOURCES: https://bradpoulos.com/ https://ca.linkedin.com/in/bradpoulos https://www.axsource.com/welcome-brad-poulos-our-cannabis-expert/ https://ocannabiz.com/archives/speakers/bradley-poulos

Mekael Interviews Bill today about his career as a pawnbroker. How does a Pawn Shop Work? How do you know if something is stolen? What are the coolest things that have come through the shop? What skills are helpful to be a good pawnbroker? All this and more on today episode on the Almost Awakened Podcast.

Bill sits down with Janet Bennion, Professor of Anthropology at Lyndon State College. Prof. Bennion specializes in gender dynamics in Mormon fundamentalist communities which practice polygamy and slo in polyamory more generally. Bennion is one of the world’s leading ethnographers of North American plural marriage. She has raised the question of decriminalization of plural marriage in a variet...

Mekael and Bill sit down with Steve Conlin from Five Wives Vodka to discuss the The History of their company and the challenges that their company has faced in getting their product out and how the alcohol industry generally is developing. As a side tangent we also touch on the history of the Barrison Sisters. We discuss the religious and religious deconstruction influence on their brand and how t...

Today Mekael and Bill sit down with Anthony Magnabosco who has pioneered the recorded demonstrations of Street Epistemology. Street Epistemology is a conversational tool that helps people reflect on the quality of their reasons and the reliability of their methods used to derive one’s confidence level in their deeply-held beliefs. Anthony shares how this works, what his motives are, how he d...

Mekael and Bill sit down with their good friend Ryan to discuss his career as a Fireman and Paramedic. They talk about what it takes to handle life’s most harrowing moments. How to process tragedy. What is death to one who encounters death often. What First Responders to emergency situations do to process the horrific moments. And more.

Mekael and Bill in lieu of the Covid19 Pandemic decide to do a brief historical dive into major pandemics in human history. RESOURCES: https://www.mphonline.org/worst-pandemics-in-history/ https://www.livescience.com/worst-epidemics-and-pandemics-in-history.html https://www.history.com/news/pandemics-end-plague-cholera-black-death-smallpox https://www.visualcapitalist.com/history-of-pandemics-dead...

We sit down today with Holly Hope and discuss her energy healing practice. We discuss the skepticism around this practice, how drums are made and used in healing practices, the use of energy crystals, and the real life scucess stories Holly has been part of. You can find Holly at http://thebeautyofperspective.com/

Mekael and Bill sit down with Astrologer Rob Barnes to discuss Astrology. Is it legit. What is Astrology. And how can it be helpful. RESOURCES: https://www.astrologybyrob.com/ https://astro.cafeastrology.com/natal.php

Mekael and Bill sit down with local DJ and Music lover Chris Finnegan to discuss how Music has power to awaken us. How it soothes the ego by helping us through the lyrics live in our past and future and with the music it brings us to present. We discuss reggae music in particular and also discuss the deconstruction of systems. Artists : Dirty Heads Rebelution Iya Terra Nahko Tubby Love Stick Figur...

Today Mekael and Bill discuss their recent visit to the Hashhouse, Bill’s unrelated Food Poisoning, the recent news on huge doses of LSD and how to raise children in a divorced mixed faith arrangement. Lastly Bill and Mekael wrestle with a father who masturbates his mentally and physically disabled adult child. http://whyimasturbatemyson.blogspot.com/2016/05/why-i-masturbate-my-profoundly-di...