Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

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OUTDOORS Avoiding — and mitigating — human threats in the outdoors Outdoor recreation is 'dangerous enough without feeling threatened by other humans' Rainn Wilson played one of the greatest comic characters of all time, but the crisis we are living through is no joke. That’s why you should drop everything you are doing and read this remarkable book. It combines a seriousness of purpose, a depth of intellect and a warmth of spirit that is desperately needed today. It will lighten your load, fire your soul, and guide you on your way.”

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.

In Soul Boom,RainnWilson explores the landscape of the world’s faiths, and suggests a new and thoughtful spiritual path for seekers. If you’re hungry to rediscover what makes your existence divine, this book is for you.” I work at a Christian study center serving a large public university, so the trends of “nones” and the “spiritual but not religious” are present every day. Wilson should be lauded for breaking down the artificial “privatization” of spirituality that reduces faith to an individualistic pursuit of self-actualization or a distant set of dogmas. To the extent that SoulBoom’s spirituality fosters values that make it possible for people to become more Christlike, Christian readers can affirm the value of Soul Boom’s intervention. 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 a landscape of violence, porn, and drunk housewives.) To oversimplify: Believing that we are all divine at our cores ought to lead to us honouring ourselves and every other human on Earth (not to mention the planet itself), and not only would that solve individual problems (like the current crisis in youth mental health) but it would demand solutions for systemic problems (like partisan politics or the bizarre inequality of wealth that sees the seven richest men hoarding more wealth than the bottom fifty percent of humanity). I don’t think it’s controversial to say that the vast majority of us would like to see these changes, so why not look to the deep past and explore the beliefs and ideas that once bound us all together?

Arthur C. Brooks, author of Love Your Enemies, From Strength to Strength, and Build the Life You Want In an interview for Morning Edition, Wilson tells NPR's Rachel Martin about a spiritual odyssey that began as a child, growing up in the Baha'i faith of his family. Later, he began rejecting "everything to do with religion and faith and spirituality." Ultimately, I believe this entire crazy Soul Boom dissertation boils down to a single concept: unity . What we must seek in this spiritual revolution is a profound unity unlike anything humanity has ever experienced before.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. Rainn Wilson presents the Best Politics or Opinion Podcast award during The Podcast Academy’s First Annual Awards For Audio Excellence – The Ambies on May 16, 2021 in Los Angeles. Getty Images for The Podcast Academy/The Ambies I realized that fostering hope and joy in others is maybe our highest spiritual calling," he said. "And that is a key pillar to this spiritual revolution." When I think of spirituality and the 1970s, a particular word comes to mind. It’s not “meditation.” It’s not “LSD.” It’s not “guru” or “incense” or “chakras.”

Overall, I felt this book to be incredibly practical because you can reference it at any time with the glossary and my goldfish brain needs that. I think it serves as a great introduction for youths (or anyone really) curious about spirituality-- what great people throughout history have actually been teaching and demonstrating, love and unity.Thirteen years ago, my wife was in the third trimester of her pregnancy, and her doctor put her on bed rest due to something called pre-eclampsia. It can be a dangerous situation so she was confined to the bed, the couch, and any number of other comfy spaces. To help pass the time, Dwight, Michael, Jim, Pam, and all the others from Dunder Mifflin accompanied her and I just about every night for three months straight. Then, after our daughter was born in 2010, they all accompanied us most nights up to the present. Yes, I’m proud to admit — we are super fans (our daughter is now also one of the many young teenage fans out there) If that wasn’t awesome enough, in 2022, Rainn Wilson — via a mutual friend named Steve Sarowitz — joined us on the show and had an absolute blast of a conversation. Rainn Wilson!? On MY podcast? Wild! The issue with there being multiple ways to be God if an individual is part of the major world religions is that they contradict each other. Christianity is a monotheistic religion while Hinduism is a polytheistic faith. Buddhism is an atheistic Faith. Do I adore Rainn Wilson? Yes, I do. Do I think this is a very important topic? Absolutely. And is it still a very complex issue for me? *Sigh* Yes. Just ask my wife. (Who, by the way, is far more preternaturally spiritual than I am, believe you me!)

On its own terms, SoulBoom does resemble Star Trek. Implicitly, SoulBoom treats those things that make Christianity unique as remnants of Captain Picard’s “superstition and ignorance and fear.” In fact, Star Trek’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, was an avowed atheist and opposed organized religion in all its forms. Yet not all writers for Star Trek were quite as hostile. In a later series, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, produced after Roddenberry’s death, a devout religious character named Kira is confronted with the idea that all cultures should believe in each other’s gods for the sake of self-fulfillment and galactic peace. Rather than assent to this pragmatic approach to religion, she instead points out, “There’s just one thing—we can’t both be right.” In a fun exercise, quotes from “Kung Fu” and from holy texts are presented together, and it is impressively difficult to differentiate; for example, “Peace lies not in the world … but in the man who walks the path” (“Kung Fu”) and “There is nothing so disobedient as an undisciplined mind” (Buddha). 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?' " We need a change of heart, a reframing of all our conceptions and a new orientation of our activities. The inward life of man as well as his outward environment have to be reshaped if human salvation is to be secured. How did the death of your father help you deal with this topic and then write about it so others could read it in this book?Pop culture references, jokey humor, and an entertaining and irreverent writing style keep Soul Boom from feeling preachy…. While anyone who is spiritually seeking would likely enjoy Soul Boom, Wilson seems to have written it particularly with younger generations in mind." This book will be a wide-ranging smorgasbord of ideas—spiritual and otherwise. Take what you like and leave the rest. Some concepts I hope you’ll jibe with and others perhaps not so much. But it’s the beginning of a discussion, I hope. A touchstone. A spark. And eventually? A much-needed personal and societal transformation. If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.