Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

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So… OK to move forward on the old booky-wook? Have a bit of clarity on the personal reasons that led me to create Soul Boom? Rainn unfortunately never warns the reader that not all paths are good. The individual must test and see if it is a good path. I would HIGHLY recommend this to those interested in spirituality especially if you have not heard of the Baha'i faith before as they have a lot of "new ways" to practice a religion that I think are commendable. But I was also drawn to these programs because these were families as real, relatable, and flawed as my own. How I longed to not be in my dysfunctional family but instead to live with Meathead and Gloria in Queens, or to be a patient of Bob Newhart in his Chicago practice, or an intern at WJM TV with Mary Tyler Moore. I would even have taken being drafted and having to clean latrines at the 4077th M.A.S.H. unit instead of eating awkward, loveless meatloaf with the Wilson family of Lake Forest Park, Washington. True story: I recently came across a news headline about some model/celebrity who had undergone some kind of “spiritual transformation.” I was intrigued. After all, I love spiritual transformations! Have had a couple myself over the decades. In fact, I might be having one right now as I write this. Upon further reading, turns out that this model/celebrity had undergone an actual exorcism of some kind in a remote town in Switzerland. A shaman had released some kind of demon/energy from them, and they were finally, on the other side of it, able to practice “self-care” and enjoy yoga and raw juicing from home. Something like that. Which got me thinking about the word “spirituality.” It can mean so many different things to so many people.

With "Soul Boom," Wilson digs deeper into ancient wisdom in an effort to foster transformative answers to life's biggest questions and the biggest challenges facing us today. It may not be the book you expected from Rainn Wilson, but it's likely the book we needed Rainn Wilson to give us. Because the Baha’i faith believes that all religions are the changeless face of the same god, and figureheads such as Jesus, the Buddha and Muhammed are all divine messengers manifesting the same god, Wilson is a natural advocate for embracing a spirituality that seeks to unite people from all religious faiths.I’m no authority on spirituality, religion, or holiness, and I’m anything but enlightened. Yes, I’ve read and studied a great deal. I’ve suffered deeply. I’ve pondered and contemplated and meditated. I’ve struggled and many times failed. But aren’t writers on spiritual topics supposed to have life all worked out? I’m here to tell you they (we) don’t. Although I have some insights from the work I’ve done, I still get anxious and confused a great deal. I swear too much. I’m impatient with my kid sometimes. I have a big ego that can sometimes subsume me. I compare and despair. I have been (and can be) overwhelmingly selfish and judgmental. I appreciate that Wilson explains what he means when he says that he believes in God (and I like his habit of saying, “I don’t believe in that God, either” when an atheist lists off all the negative attributes — jealous, vindictive, childhood-cancer-causing — of the Sky Daddy God of Abraham) and I am not unconvinced by his belief that life and consciousness seem too miraculous to have arisen by chance alone. (And I was not surprised to learn that Wilson was unable to sell a show discussing God to any network: a show about God being “too controversial” in Before I answer that question, I want to share some context. My life story, the story of my journey toward being an actor, a member of the Baha’i Faith, and a spiritual student/thinker/enthusiast (as told in full in The Bassoon King, my serio-comic memoir of 2015), is a complicated one.

THE BEAT GOES ON The suite sound of the Jerry Steinhilber Trio Band celebrating physical release of new album with Nov. 15 show What's going through your mind, especially when you read that headline and maybe dive a little more into that story? But now, the same has happened to me, only this is a “worlds colliding” scenario that I wholeheartedly embrace, rather than confront with fear and trembling. Soul Boom is an energized guidebook that argues for more spiritual thinking in our daily lives. Wilson is a funny and self-deprecating thinker who traces the commonalities of the world’s major religions, maintaining that embracing the general teachings of their inspirational scriptures can lead to a rich soulful life…. If you’re in need of a spiritual shot-in-the-arm from a kind teacher, you’ve come to the right place."At the same time, Wilson treats Christianity like Star Trek does religion. Star Trek is often as condescending to religion as any of the Hollywood shows Wilson critiques, a lesson I learned while becoming a Trekkie as a missionary kid in the ’90s. In describing one species’ development, for example, Captain Picard remarks, “Millennia ago, they abandoned their belief in the supernatural … the dark ages of superstition and ignorance and fear.” I had tea with him once and he said, 'How are you doing, Rainn?' And I said, 'You know, André, I'm just feeling so cynical. I'm feeling pessimistic.' He grabbed my arm like a vise, and he looked into my eyes and he said, 'Stop it, don't do it. Don't be cynical. If you're cynical, they win.' " It's not that there's no humor to be found in "Soul Boom." There's most definitely humor to be found here, however, "Soul Boom" for the most part gives us the other side of Rainn Wilson - a more contemplative fellow, devoted family man, and longtime spiritual human being raised in and still following the Baháʼí faith and fiercely devoted to climate issues. OUTDOORS Avoiding — and mitigating — human threats in the outdoors Outdoor recreation is 'dangerous enough without feeling threatened by other humans'

And hey, perhaps this book will truly be a catalyst for enlightened change. Perhaps, someday in the near future, I will hear: "Okay, Soul Boomer!" shouted (or muttered) in my direction. A spiritual girl can dream. Haha I will try my darndest not be a cynic and refrain from using the word "optimistic" in reference to how Wilson envisions humanity's future. Soul Boom was hopeful and JOYFUL! On the positive side, his argument for the necessity of creating a new religion (and accompanying thought exercise in which he does so) so made me look at the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster in a new light. Wilson brings up many excellent points and is incredibly well informed about the world’s major religions through his Baha’i faith journey. While he strays off on tangents at times, this book feels like the reader is in a conversation with the author. His thoughts on the ideal religion were interesting and his call to action for people to act deeply was spot on. That set him on a journey. "The very first question that I pondered as I was on this journey was, is there a God? ... I would ask my friends, 'Hey, do you believe in God?' "

It's so not cool to be religious," Wilson says. "And it's so funny because I've always identified as being a dork and a misfit and an outsider. Maybe that's why I played Dwight so effectively, apparently." The first step in knowing that there is a creative force in the universe is I know that there is love. I also know that there is beauty. I also know that there is art and there is music. And all of these things that are ineffable and transcendent are footprints. They're handholds on the path to finding the great mystery. The agency of the story in SoulBoom lies with humanity. As Wilson states, it is people who must change, through “recognizing that we are, in fact, spiritual beings having a collective human experience” who can be open to “the soul-level transformations we’re going to need to make.” The agency of the biblical story is God’s. It begins with God creating and ends with God dwelling; we work as co-stewards and God works through us, but we are never the stars of the show.