Seekers of Unity

Hayyim Rothman is a scholar of modern Jewish thought, focusing on political theology and Jewish Anarchist theology in specific. Hayyim was a Fulbright postdoctoral scholar at Bar Ilan University and taught at Boston College, where he earned his doctorate in philosophy focusing on the political thought of Baruch Spinoza. Hayyim is an ordained rabbi with advanced degrees in Jewish thought and educat...

Continuing our series on the Druze by sitting down with Sheikh Professor Fadel Mansour, senior member of the Druze community, member of the management committee of the Higher Druze Religious Council in Ussafiya and a retired biologist at the Vulcani Institute.

We spent the past few months encountering, befriending and filming religious minorities in the Holy Land, turning strangers into friends. We crossed political, cultural, linguistic and religious borders and boundaries, in an attempt to chip away at the fear of the unknown, to show people that one step past their comfort zone, lies open arms, brothers and sisters, kindness, compassion and hospitali...

Continuing our introduction to the philosophy of Hasidism with a discussion of her inner work. Introducing Bitul and D’vekut, Hiskafya and Hishapcha, Nefesh Habehamit and Nefesh HaElokit, Alma D’Hiskasya and Alma D’Hisgalya, Hitbodeut and Hibonenut, Avoda B’Gashmiut, Shvira and Tikkun, Ohr and Keli, Klipot and Kavana, Avodat Habirurim and B’chol d’rachecha Join us: https://facebook.com/seekersofun...

Continuing our introduction to the philosophy of Hasidism with a discussion of her directionality on the divine and human realms. Introducing Ratzu and Shuv, Dira B’tachtonim, Tzimtzum lav K’pshuto, and Ayin and Yesh. Join us:  https://facebook.com/seekersofunity   https://instagram.com/seekersofunity   https://www.twitter.com/seekersofU   https://www.seekersofunity.com  ...

A Philosophical Poetical Foray into Hasidic Thought. Exploring the History, Characteristics, Definitions, Metaphysics, Message and Mission of Hasidism, Mysticism for the Masses. Part 1: Nothing But God: The Metaphysics of Hasidism.   This is part of a collaboration with Filip Holm from @Let's Talk Religion Check out his sister video here: https://youtu.be/qi9JW95P1T8 Join us: https://facebook...

A Metaphysical Dialogue Between the Mystical, Logical and Dialogical. Join us for this final instalment of the series around the thought of Martin Buber. A three-way dialogue between John Vervaeke, Guy Sengstock and Seekers of Unity, working together to draw out and clarify the connections between dialogos, mystical experience and transformation.

Professor Gregg Henriques, author of A New Unified Theory of Psychology, directs the Combined Clinical and School Psychology Doctoral Program at James Madison University. He is a licensed clinical psychologist with expertise in depression, suicide and the personality disorders. He has developed an integrative meta-theoretical framework for the field of psychology an integrative meta-theoretical fr...

Shammai Siskind is an intelligence analyst, congregational rabbi, teacher of Jewish philosophy and a self-proclaimed chocolate snob. In this convo we discuss Jewish Pantheism, Comparative Theology, the place of Subjectivity in Religion, the meaning of the Soul, Messianic Consciousness, Becoming God, Sanctifying the Ordinary, the need to Articulate the Moment and to Transcend the Ordinary, Metaphor...

Demystifying Mysticism and Decanting Kabbalah. Attempting to make sense of Seder Hishtalshelut, Kabbalah’s ‘Great Chain of Being.’ Exploring Cordovero’s liminal Keter, the middle-most point in existence, and Luria’s Tzimtzum, concealing and revealing, literal and non-literal. Dance with us between the cosmic curtains of consciousness, as we trace the traces of light lingering in the void, and find...

Making Sense of the Infinite, En Sof, the God of the Kabbalists. Is Kabbalah Pantheistic? Find our in this instalment of Pantheism and the Metaphysics of Mysticism.  Continuing our series on Jewish Pantheological thought. Looking at the way thinkers within the Jewish tradition thought about the relationship between God and World, in creative, daring and inspiring ways.  In this instalmen...

​John Vervaeke lays out a plausible, even persuasive case for Mysticism. Making Mysticism viable for us moderns. Marshaling the latest findings in Cognitive Science and Developmental Psychology in support Higher States of Consciousness and Transformative Mystical Experiences.   What, Why and How? Attempting to provide a Descriptive (what is happening, phenomenologically), Prescriptive (w...

Looking at the Seeds of Jewish Pantheism in the Bible, Philo, and the Rabbis.   We begin by distinguishing between pantheism and panentheism and suggest why those terms may be worthless but necessary. We then briefly quote some key biblical verses that went on to inspire and define the parameters of Jewish theological immanence and pantheologies. We then speak of the clash of culture that occ...

​  @John Vervaeke  is using the latest findings from cognitive science and psychology to integrate science and spirituality to alleviate the ongoing Meaning Crisis.  Dr. Vervaeke is an award-winning lecturer at the University of Toronto in the departments of psychology, cognitive science and Buddhist psychology, and the creator of Awakening from the Meaning Crisis series, in which h...

The final chapter of Spinoza’s Magnum Opus, the Ethics has been called “impenetrable,” and its central idea of amor dei intelectualis, intellectual love of God, “the central doctrine in Spinoza’s philosophy” has been called “one of the more opaque elements in a work full of opacity.” Many, even those that taken Spinoza very seriously, have dismissed this final chapter as “worthless,” “an unmitigat...

Baruch Spinoza was undoubtedly one of the greatest philosophical minds of history. But does his philosophy have relevance beyond the halls of academia? Can Spinoza, in all his wisdom, help us in our everyday lives? In this vid we share what might be Spinoza’s most powerful idea, one whose insight, if fully digested, might just be literally life changing. Presenting: Spinoza’s Secret to Living a Bl...

Baruch Spinoza is one of Western philosophy’s most lauded geniuses. But how many know what he actually espoused? In this vid we’ll be exploring Spinoza’s philosophy, beginning with a brief biographical sketch, a word on his legacy and methodology, followed by an introductory overview of the heart of his philosophy, his metaphysics. Exploring the Structure of Realty According to Baruch Spinoza.

Join us for a conversation with Yehudah DovBer Zirkind about Paradigm Shifts in Religion, from Truth to Meaning and Existential approaches to Religion. Yehudah DovBer shares openly and honestly about his religious journey into post-Orthodoxy, from fundamentalism to universalism modernism and post-modernism and reconstructing the shattered pieces in between.

In this convo with a fellow seeker, meditator, author, teacher and activist we explore ‘mysticism today,’ the insights of mysticism within a context of healthy modern scepticism and contemporary life.   We ask what mysticism might have to teach us in 2021? Is mysticism necessarily ethical, loving and unitive? Are all Mystical traditions teaching the same thing? And does Kabbalah still wo...

What best accounts for the commonality among the world's mystical traditions? & Is there a shared basic metaphysics of mysticism among the world’s mystical traditions?  Filip Holm of  @Let's Talk Religion  talks religion with  @Seekers of Unity    We get to chatting about perennialism, essentializing, ineffability and language, language and experience, and th...

Rav Kook was a polymath, a legalist and rationalist, a mystic and poet. He was a world leader of Jewry and one of her most influential thinkers of the past century. His legacy as both a nationalist and universalist continues to baffle his admirers and detractors. Joining us to help sort out this enigmatic spiritual giant and his messianic vision is Rabbi Bezalel Naor, an author and teacher, a pree...

Dr. Shaul Magid joins Seekers of Unity for an interview about living inside the paradox, the possibilities, opportunities and dangers of real spirituality today, the intersection between Jewish theology and other traditions on incarnation and apotheosis, and mystical antinomianism, clash of realities, in today’s day and age.  We get to talking about Zalman Schachter-Shalomi’s new vision for r...

Who was Giordano Bruno? Why was he Killed? and Why did the Catholic Church cover up his Death? Continuing our Series on the History of Pantheism, the Story of an Immanent God, with the Renaissance Mystery Giordano Bruno. Scientist? Mathematician? Philosopher? Mystic? Martyr? Exploring the Mystery of The Man who Bet his Life Against the Catholic Church and Won, His Gambit, His Poem, His Universe an...

In the ninth century, a Christian mystical philosopher tried to end the world (as we know it), with a book. The Philosopher: John Scotus Eriugena, the Book: Periphyseon, On the Division of Nature. Exploring Eriugena's philosophical system and the deifying implications it holds for us humans, soon to be, and always have been, Gods.

Why was Pantheism suppressed in the Middle Ages? What Darkened the Middle Ages? Is Aristotle to blame for the “Dark Ages”? Join us for an epic showdown: Scholasticism vs Neoplatonism, where we’ll try answer these questions.