The Sacred Speaks

This episode begins with Matthew and I exploring his history growing up with the fundamentalist wing of religion in Christianity. Matt’s story is one of coming to terms and wrestling with the religion of his youth and through that process asking challenging to grapple with questions. We discuss power structures within and between groups ranging from economically bound systems to geographically con...

In this episode, John Price speaks with music therapist, Jennifer Townsend, about music and music therapy. We discuss the definition of music therapy, the biological aspects of performing and listening to music, how concepts from physics have informed the connecting and healing processes of music therapy, the uses of music therapy as an aid in brain development following a trauma, relationship bon...

In this episode of The Sacred Speaks, John Price speaks with Dr. Rachel Harris about her book, Listening To Ayahuasca, and other related topics. Following her early experience in meditation and body practices at Esalen and with Suzuki Roshi, Dr. Harris formalized her interest in research focusing on the various ways that we may treat human suffering and then she experienced Ayahuasca in the rainfo...

This episode begins with Count explaining his professional background in the music business as a musician, producer, engineer, & writer. Considering that his career spans both pre and post internet revolution, he is well placed to critique the positive aspects of the internet and also the dark side of the “internet of free.” We explore the economics of creativity on the internet and how this n...

The discussion begins with a question about duality in the structure of human consciousness (up/down, sacred/profane, subject/object, yin/yang, psyche/soma). Gary maintains a longstanding interest in explorations of matter and psyche. His book borrows from the conversations and ideas exchanged between Carl Jung and Wolfgang Pauli, one of the men responsible for the discovery of quantum physics. Fo...

As a scientist, Tom’s insight into religion and psychology balances his worldview given that he matriculated through both the sciences and philosophy. He says, that as soon as he began to see the world through a hand-lens, he was sold on physics, biology, entomology, evolution and ecology, and vertebrate zoology, but landed squarely in biology. Tom’s primary area of interest began in complex syste...

This conversation favors the irrational over the rational. Kate has made it her mission, both in her professional life and personal life to study the pathways on which people travel through their lives. She states, “The paths that people are called to are often socially unacceptable.” She is referencing how often each of us has to sacrifice either a part of ourselves for the security of the outer...

In this episode, Henry Richardson, owner, and CEO of DEFINE body and mind, and I sit down to explore how to run what he refers to as a “spiritual business.” He uses terms such as “appreciative inquiry” and speaks of breathing life into not only a bottom line but also the inner and outer community of the business. He states that how the model of the business is structured will influence how each em...

This conversation explores the research into religion. Ken began his academic search when he started to ask deeper question about the nature of human experience such as morality, values, how people can live better lives, and he is a skeptic and seeking to ground his work in empirical research. Dr. Pargament discusses the relationship between attachment and religion - how one’s developmental histor...

This conversation explores some of the basic foundations for depth psychology; in particular, how paying attention to the body provides a ground for any individual to come to know their intuitive center point. Dr. Nanine Ewing surveys the body and the unconscious and the various pressures on how one should view each of these concepts in today’s culture. Nanine explains “the psychology of beauty” t...

Rabbi Sholklapper may speak and read enough languages to make anyone jealous. This multi-lingual blessing allows him the unique gift of investigating ancient religious texts to deconstruct them and explore meaning lost over the passing of time and that has often been injected with interpretations based on ulterior motives. This fact makes him an exceptionally fun person with whom to share a coffee...

In this episode, Alejandro’s knowledge provides a guide rail down into the parts of meditation that are not just about feeling calm and blissful, but the meditation that brings the “gunk” to the surface so that one can be more present with it, work with it and transform it. He discusses how valuable it is that a meditation practice helps increase feelings of relaxation and calm, although he also r...

This episode of the podcast begins with Dr. Cross discussing how his history influences the work that he has been doing with families and children “from hard places” for almost 40 years. This conversation explores David’s philosophical orientation as informed by the work of philosopher Benedict De Spinoza. David cites that Spinoza served as close to a philosophical “North Star” as anyone could get...

14: Transcendental Meditation. A conversation with Bob Roth.  We begin our conversation with Bob joking that, as a young boy growing up in the San Francisco Bay area, he knew he was a Democrat before he knew he was Jewish. Bob was deeply influenced by Robert “Bobby” Kennedy’s position as an agent of change so much so that he began working with the Kennedy campaign early in his life; and considerin...

Harvey is a psychotherapist and a teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, who received the title of Lama, Vajra Master from his teacher in 2010 and in a teaching context is known as Lama Namgyal Dorje.  Dr. Aronson’s academic and spiritual path places him in an informed position to speak about the intersection of the both Buddhism and psychology; so much so that his book, Buddhist Practice On Western Ground,...

Robert speaks with eloquence as he grounds his research (me-search) in his personal story, a story that has a sobering way of articulating both the academic and the particular dynamic between, hope and despair, his subject of study. Robert has emerged from the depth and is now able to support others as they make a similar journey into their own experiences of the ups of life and also the downs. Ab...

Dr. Shefali explains that her primary entry point into the world of connecting with and teaching parenting is through her desire to expand the consciousness of each person. She explains that because the beginning stages of parenting so often create a willingness to make sacrifices on behalf of the parent, she realized that people were more amenable to “great spiritual change.” She frames conscious...

We begin by agreeing that as two “keepers of stories” we often find people sharing with us their private experiences, ones that they often do not share with others. Therefore, we are both in a confident position to make certain characterizations about aspects of the human project that many people have experienced, but few share “out loud.” Each of us identifies the core differences between what pe...

Michael works as a Rolfer and therefore works with the body every day, and as he states, “we are not properly introduced to our bodies in this culture.” He designates most of the hours of each day touching people, and the underlying philosophy may surprise you. This episode reminds us all to attend to the form from which we manifest each moment. Michael’s meaning in life is born from attending to...

The discussion begins with Rodney’s musical biography starting at the age of 9, this early interest in music then transforms into a life calling by the age of 11. Currently, he is in training as a Jungian analyst, and therefore he speaks eloquently about the integration of music and depth psychology. Rodney’s life has provided him the ground to understand how music can give an individual an invita...

Episode 5: Religion and Psychology. A conversation with Pittman McGeheeIn today’s episode, Pittman unpacks the definition of religion and broadens the traditional limiting assumptions many immediately experience in relation to religion. We discuss how many of the actions that have been in the name of religion are not religious. We begin by defining religion, the philosophy of materialism, psycholo...

Bill provides an autobiographical landscape of his early training and matriculation. Following his history, we begin exploring the limitations of the various therapeutic worldviews. We discuss how psychology and religion have been interwoven, specifically not the psychology of religion, but psychology and religion. Bill describes how the various psychological models illuminate religion. In particu...

Today’s conversation begins with Dr. Corbett’s analysis of the limitations of an exclusively biological mode of treating psychological issues. Lionel reframes one’s relationship to emotional symptoms away from the traditional models of modern psychopathology into a mode in which the symptom understood to be a signal for an aspect of life that is in need of attention. He defines complex and archety...

8: Trauma, Doubt, & Gold. A conversation with James Derkits In this week's podcast, Episcopal priest James Derkits and I explore the human need for community as expressed through the way the South Texas island town, Port Aransas, responds to the destruction following Hurricane Harvey. We explore individual and collective trauma and recognize that sometimes people find psychological gold a...

Episode 4: A life worth living. A conversation with James Hollis In this episode, Jim and I discuss how elements of his personal history positioned his interest in depth psychology specifically and learning in general. Jim defines depth psychology and discusses how a relationship to one’s inner world orients one’s self to meaning and purpose. We explore how the relationship to a vocation or callin...