In this wonderful, wide-ranging interview, LDF host Dan Wotherspoon speaks with Michael Hicks, a recently retired professor of Music at BYU, about his life, and especially his growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 60s and 70s. During this period, Michael became very active in the Jesus movement of the time, which has often been referred to as the time of the "Jesus Freaks." After several wonderful and exhausting years that included his playing the guitar and singing songs of Jesus at every school break, being part of a band made up of young Christians, joining a group that became known as Wineskins that served each Sunday at a state hospital and then opened up a gathering spot for anyone to come in an chat about anything (but especially Jesus) and then transforming into a home for alcoholics and addicts, Michael began to have conversations with a young Mormon woman and eventually joined the church. And that's when new adventures started! Very interesting ones. All of this is talked about frankly and revealingly in his new book: Wineskin: Freaking Jesus in the '60s and '70s, a Memoir (Signature Books, 2023). In this interview, Michael and Dan talk about many of these but also only hint at many parts that would be difficult to share in anything but the written word, especially how they all wove together in creating the Michael of today. Learn about his Jesus experience that set his life on an entirely new track. Learn how very difficult experiences with this family, Wineskins, and Mormonism have been transmuted into gold. Michael is someone very much worth getting to know! 

Latter-day Saints the world over are studying the New Testament this year. Much of value can be gleaned from following the Come Follow Me lessons and questions, but it falls quite short for those wanting to explore Jesus from wider perspectives.  This episode, our first of 2023, teases a few of these additional perspectives as our guest, Mark Crego, examines the religious and cultural setting of Judaism during Jesus's time, as well as in the regions in which he taught. Who were the Sadducees, Pharisees, Scribes, Essenes, Zealots, etc.? How did they form? What did they emphasize? What are their key teachings and motivations? In getting to these questions he takes us through the history of Judaism as it emerges from captivity, often quite changed from its leaders' encounters with Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Zoroastrian philosophies and teachings. It's a fascinating ride! The final third of the episode discusses what both Mark and LDF host Dan Wotherspoon believe is the key teaching of Jesus, and how it can be kept in mind as we engage not only with Sunday School classes, but also in our regular encounters with family, friends, and strangers. Enjoy! We think you will!

The Creche (the Nativity scene) is a staple in many homes and public places during the Christmas season. We most likely were taught when we were young about each person depicted in the scene, learned that Jesus was born in a manger (hence the animals present in most creche's), and in all of that came to understand via osmosis how our individual families relate to Jesus's birth and the wider Christmas story. For many of us, those impressions and story elements formed and hardened into "our" story.  But has that story gone stale? Does it still move our souls in the way it might have once upon a time? Has our growing into adulthood and experiencing faith shifts kept us from leaning into Christmas, allowing worries about historicity of the story and mismatches in the Gospel accounts to come to the forefront? In this episode, our wonderful guest, Jody England Hansen, shares ways that she has reanimated the season by various approaches to the use of the creche--Creche Afresh! She shares various rituals that can surround our putting out the pieces and figures, ones for just ourselves but also for involving children of all ages. The ultimate take-away from our discussion is that it takes more than just a mother to birth God into the world! We are all needed, and by reflecting on the nativity scene we can each find how we are called to that.  I think you will find this episode to be very interesting, informative, thought-provoking, and powerful. Perhaps your Christmas will be better from taking the time to listen in today!

When we struggle with previously held beliefs, various actions and teachings of authority figures, and/or religious teachings and practices that seem to not be loving--or even harmful--we can find ourselves wondering if all our work of pulling-apart and examining each element that has made up our worldview will ever end. It is a frightening process, full of many ups and downs. Part of the deep angst we can feel during these times of confusion is our concern that perhaps we will have to give up everything, including spirituality. In this terrific episode, LDF host Dan Wotherspoon is joined by Brittney Hartley, a spiritual director who specializes in working with folks who want spirituality “without the nonsense.” Brittney tells us of her own deep wrestles with faith, belief, religion, questions of meaning, including if anything means anything at all! Ultimately, however, she has emerged from the other side of these struggles with a greater and richer spirituality than ever before, just one that is not reliant upon beliefs, religious structures, or outside authority figures (except ones we might choose for ourselves). In course of the discussion, Britney works through nine important topics that provide grounding for a wonderful life—showing how each can come alive and add vitality to our lives even if we give up on truth claims and religious trappings. These are: Rituals Death Morality and Ethics Rewriting your sacred story Meaning and purpose Shadow and Inner Child Work Awe and Transcendence Community and Inspiration Self-Actualization and Human Flourishing This is an important episode that many listeners will connect with in deep ways, and if this path is not really for them, it will be for others in their circle. Formally religious or not, listen in!!!

In Part 2 of this very powerful two-part episode, Jana Spangler and Jody England Hansen join LDF host Dan Wotherspoon for a discussion of the close relationship between mental and spiritual trauma and our bodies. Much of what they offer is also true of physical trauma, but their primary focus is on how to recognize, understand, and find healing for our bodies and minds by exploring what is less obvious than specific bodily injuries.  So often, we don’t even notice how mental, emotional, and spiritual trauma affects our bodies, nor understand how it is these very bodies hold wonderful keys for healing and new creation. Do we find ourselves acting and reacting in ways that don’t align with our cognitive understandings? Why is this? Is it possible that our bodies have learned to become hyper-aware of potential threats to our well-being, and will therefore trigger reactions we don’t understand? I’ve already dealt with has happened to me. Are we, perhaps, having trauma reactions that override our conscious situational awareness that tells us we are in a safe situation? Trauma causes both subtle and noticeable reactions, sometimes storing memories of bad experiences in certain areas of our bodies. And the best path to healing from these traumas and how they not only affect us but also others who can’t understand what’s going on with us as we react emotionally or physically in inexplainable ways. And, as we do pay attention to our bodies, we can often find clues to the originating events and fears that are manifesting in us. From there, if we are to heal, we will need to go inward, inside our life experiences, and sometimes even into the life experiences of those who have hurt us. Inner work is never easy, but it always pays off as we learn to face our pain and fears. It is from this work, that new neural pathways, and new understandings, new equanimity, and refreshed hope will spring forth. There is no way to adequately describe the insights, recognitions, and validations this discussion holds. You will definitely want to listen to this episode and share it with friends and family who may not understand you—or even themselves.  Links to things referred to in the podcast Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, (Penguin, 2015) Teresa Pasquale, Sacred Wounds: A Path to Healing from Spiritual Trauma (Chalice Press, 2015) Film: The Wisdom of Trauma, available at thewisdomoftrauma.com To learn more about the traumatic experiences that were part of the debacle of Natasha Parker’s excommunication proceedings, listen to Latter-day Faith Episode 90–91, “Witnessing Even When Things Hurt so Badly”

In this very powerful two-part episode, Jana Spangler and Jody England Hansen join LDF host Dan Wotherspoon for a discussion of the close relationship between mental and spiritual trauma and our bodies. Much of what they offer is also true for physical trauma, but their primary focus is on how to recognize, understand, and find healing for our bodies and minds by exploring what is less obvious than specific bodily injuries.  So often, we don't even notice how mental, emotional, and spiritual trauma affects our bodies, and also understand how it is these very bodies hold wonderful keys for healing and new creation. Do we find ourselves acting and reacting in ways that don't align with our cognitive understandings? Why is this? Is it possible that our bodies have learned to become hyper-aware of potential threats to our well-being, and will therefore trigger reactions we don't understand? I've already dealt with has happened to me. Are we, perhaps, having trauma reactions that override our conscious situational awareness that tells us we are in a safe situation? Trauma causes both subtle and noticeable reactions, sometimes storing memories of bad experiences in certain areas of our bodies. And the best path to healing from these traumas and how they not only affect us but also others who can't understand what's going on with us as we react emotionally or physically in unexpected ways is to recognize where our bodies are hurting. And, as we do, we can often find clues to the originating events and fears that are manifesting in us. From there, if we are to heal, we will need to go inward, inside our life experiences, and sometimes even into the life experiences of those who have hurt us. Inner work is never easy, but it always pays off as we are able to face our pain and fears. It is from this work, that new pathways, new understandings, new equanimity, and hope will spring forth. There is no way to adequately describe the insights, recognitions, and validations this discussion holds. You will definitely want to listen to this two-part episode and share it with friends and family who may not understand you--or even themselves. 

In this episode, LDF host Dan Wotherspoon is joined by the wonderful, gifted, powerful author Carol Lynn Pearson to talk about her most recent book and the ideas that underlie it. The book, The Love Map: Saving Your Love Relationship and Incidentally Saving the World, is the flowering of a more-than-forty-year interest that Carol Lynn has had in the deep energies of the soul and universe that are at play in both societies and individual human lives. In this book, she focuses on the chakra system, which outlines seven energy centers in our bodies, each with its own different but vital contribution to our well-being, both physically and spiritually. Carol Lynn uses the metaphor of "kingdoms" in speaking about the contributions of (and potential dangers inherent in) each chakra, but focuses on the fourth kingdom, the "heart" chakra, as the most important for our love relationships. But learning to live and flourish in this kingdom only comes after all sorts of inner wrestles, especially with ego and the dangerous (and wonderful) energy of the third kingdom in which "power" is preeminent. Through compelling narrative and first-person voice, The Love Map, traces the journey of human history as Carol Lynn describes the type of energy that is ascendent in different chronological epochs, as well as through developments in the life of Joanna, a young woman, the narrator, whose three-year marriage is nearing collapse. The book is a depiction of Joanna's hero's journey. The book's voice and prose allows us to understand ourselves and human development writ large through dramatic encounters with each energy in a way that isn't accessible through more academic approaches. We "experience" our lives in these kingdoms, and we are grateful to Carol Lynn for teaching us of these kingdoms through story, which includes humor, heartaches, and faced fears. You don't want to miss this book! Nor this conversation!

The title of this episode is the title of a poem written by this week’s guest, Selina Forsyth. The poem, which she reads here, contains several wonderful metaphors that most of us can definitely relate to. In many ways, a work like this poem can aid us in actually coming to know our own selves better. The episode certainly contains conversation about the covenant path and spiritual journeys—rich territories in and of themselves. But it features much more. It discusses the creative process and its many parallels with revelation, instruction, and experiencing things at a much deeper level than when in our typical waking lives. In fact, for those who have struggled with meditation or other spiritual practices, diving into the world of creation/co-creation and working with our hands, our voices, and our imagination can often be a catalyst that assists us in coming to know more of what mystics know. It has paid off for Selina, and as an example, she credits it with a complete change in how she understands scripture. As the discussion turns to the poem itself, it raises several issues. One is the power of religious narratives and accompanying rituals have to, in some cases, lull us into a sense of being above the fray, and actually harming our sense of urgency to explore God and Spirit more deeply. In other sections, Selina and LDF host Dan Wotherspoon discuss various other things including the less formal stories we tell, and how goodness is far more powerful and affirming of God’s presence in our lives than are ideas and theories and teachings. It’s a terrific discussion! Come meet the wonderful and powerful Selina!

This episode is a follow up to Latter-day Faith 137, “The Hero’s Return,” which was released this past August. That episode featured a discussion between Stephen Carter and LDF host Dan Wotherspoon about an aspect of the Hero’s Return model that is one of its lesser studied elements: the decision by the hero/heroine to return to their society of origin, bringing with them the insights and power they have gained from their journey. In this follow-up, Dan Wotherspoon adds a few additional insights about that pivotal decision that weren’t explored in the first podcast. In order to help understand the cycle and the return better, Dan introduces and tells the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, penned by Richard Bach some fifty years ago. The fable is about a seagull who understands that there is more to a gull’s life than being in the large flock that follows fishing boats and feeds on its scraps. Jonathan gains the sense that the key to unlocking a higher form of life is through flight for flight’s sake, and through great effort, experimentation, risk, and practice he comes to new and rich understandings. After more and more training by other gulls on a similar journey, Jonathan differs from many of them by eventually choosing to return to the flock in order to serve other gulls who are interested in flight more than fighting for fish discarded by boats. Dan then focuses on the struggle to return, which most heroes only do reluctantly and that requires them facing different inner and outer obstacles. And if and when they do return, he introduces Joseph Campbell’s notion of their ability to be a “master of both worlds.”   There is much in this episode that relates closely to spiritual journeys in general, including Mormon ones. Listen in!

We often hear the terms "holy" and "holiness," and we have a general sense of what they mean. But it is always good to look at familiar terms and concepts through different lenses, different eyes, and this is what we have done in this episode. In it, LDF host Dan Wotherspoon is joined by Mark Crego and Kajsa Berlin-Kaufusi, both of whom are scriptural scholars as well as partners with Dan in the Faith Journey Foundation, to examine "holiness" from many angles. Does something "holy" necessarily entail that it is accessible only by those who qualify themselves first through holding certain beliefs or behaving in certain ways? Is being "holy" better understood as a state one reaches, or is it perhaps understood best as an ongoing process? What are the linguistic roots of the word "holy," and how do these connect with language and ideas we are familiar with today? Is "holiness" achieved or uncovered, revealed? How have these concepts affected Latter-day Saint lives? What teachings and emphases come the closest, and which miss the mark? These questions and many other aspects of holiness come forth in this wide-ranging but focused discussion among friends. We hope you will tune in for it!