I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: our world is in a massive state of collapse. As a result, we’re living in very uncertain times. One would have to have their head firmly planted in the sand to not understand how dire things are on all levels: social, cultural, ecological and with our biosphere. The collapse is accelerating at a rate that’s impossible to keep up with, and it’s not pretty.
This spring, I released an 18-page essay that exposed a deep inner knowing that has been with me all my life. It changed my life in ways that I’m still adjusting to. It liberated me in ways I didn’t know I was still bound to. And it connected me to amazing people like this week’s guest.
Carolyn Baker is the author of several books about our chaotic and collapsing times. She’s a truth-teller extraordinaire. Her background includes: adjunct professor of history and psychology for more than 10 years, psychotherapist in private practice for 17 years and she’s also a student of ritual and mythology with a personal meditation practice that spans more than 30 years. She offers life coaching both locally in her hometown of Boulder, Colorado and also internationally. She’s a prolific author with 11 books to her name, and she’s also the host of the New Lifeboat Hour podcast.
Carolyn is passionate about creating islands of sanity in a sea of global chaos. This is where our work aligns. Carolyn and I both share a passion for inspiring passion, purpose, love and presence in these turbulent and uncertain times. We both expose hidden truths and engage in difficult conversations normally swept under the rug in out denial-infected, pain-phobic world. Where my work is primarily about critical thought and consciousness in our flat-lined culture, Carolyn gets to the roots of our global crisis by exposing the toxicity of our culture: economically, ecologically, politically, and in every shape and form that it presents itself. In that exposé, she inspires people to live fully now.
Emotional/spiritual connection in collapsing times.
Death, denial and human extinction.
What is initiation/rite of passage?
Grief is the absolute crux of what we should all be feeling in today’s collapsing world.
How denial of initiation is denial of awakening.
How we are living in planetary hospice.
The sacredness of grief and how it opens a portal to our love.
How we are born into separation and the lifelong trauma that ensues.
What is the shadow and how it manifests.
The seductive, toxic nature of new-age thinking.
The cultural addiction to happiness that prevents us from joy.
The peril of “hope” and how it prevents us from presence.
How grief and love are inseparable.
The importance of grief for effective activism.
Re-learning our connection to nature.
As always, this is an expansive and unapologetic conversation that goes to great depths. Be prepared to be activated by Carolyn Baker.
Active Love: Beyond the 11th hour online symposium.
The Gifts of Grief workshop.
Life at the End of Empire movie on Youtube.