THRIVING IN TIMES OF STRUGGLE
What does it mean to flourish when the systems we depend on are under strain?
Flourish in Times of Struggle is a new podcast series for people who want to move beyond personal resilience and grapple with the deeper structures that shape our lives. In this opening episode, Michael C. Patterson introduces the series’ focus on systems, legitimacy, and collective action—and invites listeners to think together about how healthier, more democratic forms of governance might emerge.
Earlier Flourish As You Age podcasts focused more on personal change and development to promote brain health and mental management.
THRIVING IN TIMES OF STRUGGLE
MIND - Mysticism: What Is It?
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A mystical experience, similar to the "enlightenment" described by Buddhists and other contemplative practices, involves a disillusion of self and a sense of unity with something grander than ourselves. We describes this something-grander-than-ourselves, in various ways - as God, as Tao, as the natural order and so on.
In this episode we explore the following topics
- Common characteristics of a mystical experience
- Iain McGilchrists hemisphere hypothesis
- An account of a mystical experience from Clare Booth Luce
- Introverted and Extroverted types of unity
- The power of metaphors: "The Kingdom of God," as an example
- No Self: the disillusion of self.
- Mathieu Ricard and Wolf Singer's book Beyond The Self
- Different approaches to enlightenment, Buddhist, mystical and hemispheric
- Unity with God (etc.) is a process of becoming.
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