New Podcast!

(If you're reading this on the Shaman Drums 2.0 Podcast and Blog site, please click the play button at the end of this post, or the one on the upper left that says "Media Player.")

Show Notes:

Well, one of the things I most enjoy about podcasting or blogging or writing in general is that it challenges me to put into words what previously may have been a feeling or belief that had not been previously formalized this way before. It’s one thing to believe or hold something dear, but it’s quite another to see it before you, standing naked and shivering before your eyes, warts and all! I guess I’ve been writing about religion and UFOs for a long time in one way or another, but trying to tackle them in a single podcast is a whole new proposition. So please know, there’s much more to what I think about the subjects than you will hear in this episode. (And there is a lot about them in previous podcast episodes.)

And—this is really important to me—I do not wish to step on anyone’s toes vis a vis what you may think about these subject. I’m not sure it is possible to write about something like this without shaking somebody’s tree, and for sure, I’m going against the advice my grandfather once gave me to never talk about politics or religion (he never mentioned UFOs) because it is bound to make someone mad. So I apologize now if this makes you mad.

Maybe it will help avert some anger if you know that, probably just like you, I find religion to be amorphous and hard to pin down. And that I do not as yet have a definitive idea of what it is. I know that it has a good side, and that it has sacred texts that contain much wisdom. I have read a lot of those texts and find them to speak to the better part of me. But then again, I also acknowledge that no religion is perfect, and thus no religion has a corner on the spirit market. So, in that vein, I think we are all looking and wondering, prodding and plodding, questioning and guessing about this subject of religion, and the object of its existence, God, or spirit or whatever you want to call it. In short, I don’t believe anyone really knows the true nature of God, but when we can distance ourselves from needing to believe one thing or another God, including whether or not we even believe in God’s existence, we are then free to consider the subject with our minds and our hearts, to let ourselves open to experience what I call the Dance with the Divine.

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I noticed something in post production that I'd like to make clear: I mentioned a link to Rael.org in the podcast. Please do not think I did this to either endorse or to condemn that group. I merely mentioned it off hand. Also, I lost the links to the sound effects people who provided the horse and moving horses sound files. I'll try to track 'em down by the next podcast and acknowledge them. At least I can supply the general URL to the wonderful Freesound Project, from where they came: http://www.freesound.org/forum/login.php?redirect=privmsg.php&folder=inbox&sid=5dcc7e3db42d1a2acddcb2e5694553ad

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I want to extend my deep gratitude to the musicians and others listed here.  (All links open a new window.)

Musicians, in order of their appearance:

(The first six can be found at www.PodSafeAudio.com)

1. Aaron Derington, “Gambit”
2. Bob Maus, “Borders”
3. Oleg Galkin, “Last Dance”
4. George Wood, “High Five”
5. Eric Moskal, “The Year Before The War”
6. Father Rock, “Break Out and Scatter”
7. Anahata, “Healing Touch,” can be found at www.Meditation.fm
8. Dimtry Lifshitz, “Victory,” can be found at www.facebook.com/dlifshitz

Other Links and Notes:

iTunes Link For Shaman Drums 2.0 Podcast
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=348401683

Research into “new” religions:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/nurel.htm

Interesting Bible Research
http://www.bartdehrman.com/

Rael Movement
http://www.Rael.org

Immanuel Kant, Opening Quotation:
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Etexts/kant.html

Kant Background:
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason.” SparkNotes LLC. n.d.. http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/religionboundaries/
(accessed January 13, 2010).

Pew Forum On Religion and Public Life: pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=490#1 Or
http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=504

The Gallup polling organization:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/124793/This-Christmas-78-Americans-Identify-Christian.aspx

New Religious Movements
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_religious_movement

Book Mentioned:
The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power by Jeff Sharlet
http://www.amazon.com/Jeff-Sharlet/e/B001HCV9UU/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1

King James Bible Luke 17:21
“Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”
http://kingjbible.com/luke/17.htm

Matthew 7:13
"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.”
http://bible.cc/matthew/7-13.htm

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