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Hi Douglas. Yes, I have been very active with the Cobb Institute the past 5 years as well as Philip Clayton’s Institute for Ecological Civilization…I will recognize you from many zoom discussions with many others!

Carl Jung, in a letter to Bill Wilson, co-founder of AA, wrote about a man struggling with alcohol: “His craving for alcohol was the equivalent, on a low level, of the spiritual thirst of our being for wholeness, expressed in medieval language: the union with God.*
          How could one formulate such an insight in a language that is not misunderstood in our days?
          The only right and legitimate way to such an experience is that it happens to you in reality, and it can only happen to you when you walk on a path which leads you to higher understanding. You might be led to that goal by an act of grace or through a personal and honest contact with friends, or through a higher education of the mind beyond the confines of mere rationalism.”….”You see (Jung wrote), “alcohol” in Latin is spiritus, and you use the same word for the highest religious experience as well as for the most depraving poison. The helpful formula therefore is: spiritus contra spiritum.” So, (JF notes) I would certainly consider alcohol a lure, (maybe a false lure?) for a certain percentage of the population.

Hi Jamie. I’m in Claremont but was very involved with UU congregations for a number of years. I was at the GTU in Berekely with Peter Morales and I was pretty dismayed at some of the controversy that surrounded him his last year as President of the UUA. I feel very fortunate to have rediscovered Whitehead and the process community, the UU Statement of Principles seem to be so congruent with process thinking…

I feel fortunate the past few years being in conversations with some great process scholars (and theologians). I have mentioned more than once that it often seems like we are trying to “rescue God” from traditional theologies and I think there is some merit to the idea. I often ask atheists I have met to tell me about the God they do not believe in as I probably do not believe in that God either! (But that does not mean I don’t have faith.). and after all, God is not God’s name, it’s our name for something that cannot be named! (Many thanks to a great public theologian, Reverend Dr. Forrest Church, for these ideas.)

Hi Lyndall. I am in Socal, Claremont. Was at the GTU from 1999-2002.

Thank you for your comments on the Lakota people. I took a course from George “Tink” Tinker, Native American scholar and activist at Iliff that was very powerful. Looking forward tomore discussion

Nice to meet you Joel. We will have to go for a hike as I am not too far from Santa Monica! (Claremont)

The Cobb Institute holds “Tuesdays with John Cobb and Friends” as a ZOOM video conference call Tuesdays at 10 AM PDT. https://cobb.institute/event/john-cobb-friends-gathering-2020-09-22/

Tomorrow should be a good one….please send me john.fahey@cobb.institute or richard.livingston@cobb.institute an email and we will add you to our email invitation. Or just post your email and we will add to the list!