Interview begins @ 5:58

Annie Lamott and Neal Allen invite us into the heart of their relationship, where creativity, curiosity, and vulnerability intertwine. Annie introduces Neal's latest book, "Better Days: Tame Your Inner Critic," while Neal shares insights into Annie's newest work, "Somehow: Thoughts on Love." As we delve into their dynamic, we're reminded of Annie's infamous KFKD radio – a familiar concept for anyone acquainted with her writings – and how Neal's exploration of the inner critic seamlessly complements Annie's work. Reflecting on the early days of their relationship, Annie and Neal recount moments of openness and vulnerability, testing the waters of acceptance and understanding. Their willingness to confront their deepest wounds and expose them to the world underscores their authenticity and likability. Neal challenges the corrosive nature of identity politics, emphasizing the importance of transcending rigid notions of identity to foster genuine connection. In a candid discussion, Annie shares her experience with cancel culture and the anxiety it breeds in our social landscape. Together, we explore the implications of cancel culture on personal relationships and societal discourse, pondering the importance of genuine communication and compassion. As we journey deeper into their relationship, Annie and Neal offer a masterclass in marriage, highlighting the value of acceptance, curiosity, and patience. They demonstrate how years of spiritual and psychological work pave the way for navigating conflicts with grace and understanding.
Midway through the interview, Annie steps away, allowing Neal and John to explore the realm of the inner critic. Through an active Gestault exercise, Neal provides a firsthand example of confronting the superego and shedding the layers of defensiveness that obscure our true selves. Together, we explore the perception that shame and the superego serve as sufficient motivators for progress, while also examining the divisive nature of identity politics and its impact on our culture. Neal offers insights into the role of defensiveness in protecting against vulnerability, urging us to embrace authenticity over superficiality.


Bio: 

Anne Lamott is the author of twenty books, including the New York Timesbestsellers Help, Thanks, Wow; Dusk, Night, Dawn; Traveling Mercies; and Bird by Bird, as well as seven novels. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an inductee to the California Hall of Fame and Neal Allen is a spiritual coach, workshop leader, and author who began his transformative journey about ten years ago. Bob Birnbaum,  introduced him to the teachings of notable figures like Fritz Perls, Carl Rogers, and Adyashanti, as well as spiritual practices such as Eckhart Tolle's neo-Buddhism and Hameed Ali's Diamond Approach. His exploration deepened into self-realization, guiding him through phases of shedding personal narratives and societal beliefs, embracing the absurd, and confronting the concept of death, which included volunteering at hospice and dealing with personal loss. These experiences have profoundly shaped his practice and writings, including his books "Shapes of Truth: Discover God Inside You" and "Better Days: Tame Your Inner Critic."

www.shapesoftruth.com

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108: Anne Lamott & Neal Allen – Love and Taming the Inner Critic

Have you ever wondered if someone can help you understand ways to think about the wild and, at times, frightening fantasies that we all experience throughout our lives (and sometimes on a daily basis)? Do we have fantasies, or do they have us? In this episode, Sean Fitzpatrick and I discuss the imagination and how the way each of us interprets those images and affects that seem to emerge from places whose point of origin are unknown can often influence our daily lives. From Sean’s perspective the attitude that we take to our fantasies is so important that he refers to this attitude as the ethics of the imagination; and he applies this to fantasies ranging from the murderous and the sexual to the mundane. Within this conversation Sean defines the terms “Jungian”, fantasy, imagination, spiritual, and ethical. Sean Fitzpatrick, PhD, LPC, holds master’s degrees in religious studies (Rice University) and clinical psychology (University of Houston – Clear Lake) and received his doctorate in psychology through Saybrook University’s program in Jungian studies. Sean is a psychotherapist in private practice and has been employed at The Jung Center since 1997. He has been an instructor at The Jung Center since 2001, and he lectures locally and nationally on a range of contemporary social and psychological issues.

Learn more about Sean and The Houston Jung Center at: 
http://www.junghouston.org

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Learn more about this project at:
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Episode 2: The Imagination. A conversation with Sean Fitzpatrick

Niki is an expert on the ascetic John Cassian and the French philosopher Michel Foucault. In this episode Niki and I discuss her newest book, Sites of the Ascetic Self. Niki is most interested in daily practices of discipline that can help and enable individuals to open to certain forms of self-transformation including transformation of our bodies, our emotions and our relation to other people. She discusses how her history places her into relationship with her current areas of study. We are shaped as subjects in this world, therefore one of Niki’s core questions is: how can we become self-shaping and self-forming? Looking at the kinds of daily practices we each live and how those practices influence and inform our reality. We explore the value of recognizing the various interpretations and agencies that are present in every moment. We define the terms such as ethics, ascetic, and others. We discuss        the modern understanding of mental health and the progressive pathologizing  of one’s relationship with the voices, urges, and powers formed within one’s “head” or self. She is interested in the construction of one’s character as a way of life. 
Niki Clements works at the disciplinary intersection between the history of Christian practice, philosophy of religion, and religious ethics. She specializes in Christian asceticism and mysticism in late antiquity, highlighting its resources for thinking through contemporary ethical formation and conceptions of the self. She is currently completing the first comprehensive treatment of the ethical thought of John Cassian (c.360-c.435), a late antique Catholic architect of Latin monasticism doctrinally marginalized for his optimistic views on human agency. Engaging Michel Foucault's late work on ethics-which sees Cassian as a crucial inaugurator of modern disciplinary subjectivity-she critiques the conceptual limitations that Foucault's philosophical categories impose on his reading of Cassian, late antique Christianity, and the study of religion. She also pursues a transdisciplinary approach with cognitive neuroscience to argue that ethical formation integrates consciousness, embodiment, and affectivity. She is the volume editor for Mental Religion: The Brain, Cognition, and Culture, as part of the forthcoming Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks.

http://rice.academia.edu/NikiClements

Specialization: 
History of Catholic thought and practice, Christianity in late antiquity, asceticism and mysticism, religious ethics, philosophy of religion, theories and methods in the study of religion, religion, and science

Academic History: 
Ph.D., Brown University, Religion and Critical Thought, 2014
M.T.S., Harvard Divinity School, 2007
B.A., Sarah Lawrence College, 2003

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Episode 3: Self-formation and daily practices. A conversation with Niki Clements

Rogue (feat. AKACIA)

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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 connected and disconnected networks. Matt’s dissertation looked at trauma and the narrative that five women maintained about their religious and philosophical worldview following overwhelming trauma. Matt offers a perspective on religion that is often not included in many religious and academic circles, atheist or theist alike.
Bio:
Matt is currently on staff at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Houston Texas as the Senior Associate Pastor, is the Co-Managing Director of projectCURATE, a social action and racial equity non-profit, Executive Director of Iconoclast Artists, a creative arts program in Houston and Galveston’s urban schools that has over 600 weekly participants and is Assistant Professor of Recovery Ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary.  Prior to this he was on faculty at Duke Divinity School as professor of Practical Theology and Community Development.  In 2013, he completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Cambridge’s Psychology and Religion Research Group (PRRG) where he explored redemptive narratives and models of social justice movements rooted in religious communities. He received his Masters of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary and completed his PhD at Texas Tech University in 2010.  His dissertation explored how women construct alternative narratives of redemption from years of sustained trauma and abuse.  While at Texas Tech he was the Associate Director at The Center for the Study of Addiction, responsible for the replication model helping to establish collegiate recovery communities in campuses across the United States. From 1996-2008 he was Associate Pastor of Houston’s Chapelwood United Methodist Church and founding pastor of Mercy Street.  Matt is married to his best friend Michele and they have 3 crazy boys: Miguel (15), Lucas (14) and Gabriel (11).  

Website:
https://www.projectcurate.org
http://www.stpaulshouston.org/staff/
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Band of the week: Ghostface Killah and BADBADNOTGOOD
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25: Irreverent Reverence in Religion. A conversation with Matt Russell.

Long Black Cadillac

56: Sacred Stress. A conversation with George Faller. 
George is an outstanding person to connect with during this virus crisis because while when it comes to whether or not the virus is here, we do not have any choice in the matter. However, we can choose how to respond to the chaos and sense of disconnection that it brings. George’s role with the New York City Fire Department positioned him as a first responder to the Twin Towers on 9/11/2001. In the aftermath of this trauma, through education, training, and personal exploration, he began to understand his mission and purpose to be supporting others through crisis and trauma. Currently, as a marriage and family therapist, speaker, and writer, George works to bring his message to others. The most simplified form of this message is that we usually find the sacred within the stressful. But first, we need to find out which kind of stress we are talking about in the first place. In this conversation, George and I explore the two different kinds of stress - distress and eustress- the value within the function of the various ways in which we approach stress both approach and withdrawal, the hidden costs of our attempts to protect and defend ourselves, misconceptions surrounding our interpretation of stress, the influence between our individual perceptions of stress and the physiological consequences to that stress, the science behind coming together for support even when the larger part of our defenses are oriented to retreat, post-traumatic growth and the meaning that often accompanies the most devastating moments of our lives.  
Bio:
Prior to a career in the field of mental health, George spent 20 years as a NYC Firefighter and NYC Police Officer.  George received his M.S. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Iona College, where he graduated at the top of his class. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Queens College. His experience as a FDNY Peer Counselor, particularly following the events of 9/11, sparked his passion to help those impacted by trauma.
He is a certified Trainer/Supervisor/Therapist in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and founder of the New York Center for Emotionally Focused Therapy where he serves as President.  He is a Supervisor with the American Association for Marriage & Family Therapy (AAMFT) and teaches classes at the Ackerman Institute for the Family in Manhattan.  He is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist currently practicing in Connecticut and New York.  George is the director of training at the Greenwich Center for Hope & Renewal in Connecticut and is on the Board of the Porter Cason Institute at Tulane University in New Orleans.
George brings a unique and varied experience to his practice.  Whether he is providing marriage therapy to Wall Street executives, leading a conference for the United States Military or equipping therapists from around the globe, his ability to inspire is far-reaching.  George is also committed to bringing EFT to underprivileged populations and pushing the leading edge of effective therapy.
https://www.georgefaller.com
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/foreplay-radio-couples-and-sex-therapy/id1083324677
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Website for The Sacred Speaks: 
http://www.thesacredspeaks.com
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@thesacredspeaks
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56: Sacred Stress. A conversation with George Faller.

Join depth psychotherapist and Jungian scholar, John Price, in an exploration of extraordinary stories and phenomena that lurk beneath the surface of normal and everyday life. Listen in as John interviews experts, dilettantes, sinners, and saints to explore their professional and personal perspective on the underlying purpose of the mysteries which lurk within the seemingly mundane nature of day-to-day life. 

John received his Master’s degree in clinical psychology and his Doctorate degree in Jungian psychology. He is in private practice and is also on the faculty of The Jung Center and The University of St. Thomas, both located in Houston, Texas. He lectures and teaches classes in subjects ranging from Parenting and Consciousness to Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll. 

This podcast seeks to accept a challenge laid out by Carl Jung:  to explore the universal human feelings of emotional incompleteness, spiritual curiosity and one’s related search for wholeness and meaning. Interviews commence with the belief that, by engaging in this exploration, we can learn more about the psyche, consciousness, spirituality, philosophy and the profound, though often hidden, meaning of the day-to-day lives we lead (or which will lead us, if we aren’t watchful).

Come along as John follows people into bars, universities, places of worship, financial districts and the home. He finds each context equally able to provide a setting for this worthy search and also that, through this process, we have an opportunity to come to know each other and ourselves much more deeply.

108: Anne Lamott & Neal Allen – Love and Taming the Inner Critic

The Sacred Speaks: Hosted by John Price

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