Tag: Transcendence

Mysticism Is Like Sex

~ Stephen Bradford Long ~ 1 Comment

Mysticism is like sex. Let me explain.

I don’t believe in god or gods. I have no belief in an afterlife or supernatural beings. I’m not saying that they don’t exist. I’m open to being wrong. I just have an absence of belief in them. I’m what could be described as a “soft atheist”.

And yet, I also have a lifelong fascination with altered states of consciousness and the experience and practice of mystical self-transcendence. This fascination started when I was a child growing up in a charismatic family.

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The Bound and the Unbound: Religion and Transcendence

~ Stephen Bradford Long ~ 15 Comments

I recently listened to a fascinating conversation between the Catholic writer Arthur Brooks and the atheist Sam Harris about the role of spirituality and religion in a healthy life. You will need to get a subscription to either the Waking Up app or to Harris’s private feed to listen to the section in question. I leave your support of Harris up to your own discretion.

For the time being, let’s set aside the political and ideological differences I have with both these men. I’d like to focus on a fascinating difference between Brooks and Harris. 

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Sacred Tension: Vehicles of Transcendence | Levi Walbert

~ Stephen Bradford Long ~ 2 Comments

In this episode of Sacred Tension, I speak with Buddhist Minister Levi Walbert about his recent thesis on the theology of The Satanic Temple. We discuss the similarities between Buddhism and Satanism; Satanic aesthetic, practice, and philosophy as vehicles for transcendence; the nature of religion, and much more.

Levi Walbert is a Minister with the Bright Dawn practicing Jodo Shinshu. 

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