Personal/Stories

It's a good day when I combine a tall nonfat vanilla latte with some stimulating philosophical conversation. This afternoon I enjoyed both in the company of Patricia Herron, a religious studies professor. We get together periodically at the south Salem Beanery to solve the mysteries of the universe. Never quite get there, no matter how large the latte, but the journey is the thing. Today we started out musing about nonduality and duality. It's fun to talk about the One, my favorite non-religious euphemism for "God." But as countless mystics and philosophers have pointed out, as soon as you say…

Thanks to my friend Randy, who emailed me these images today, for a while I felt really good. Finally! I was beginning to get a well-deserved recognition of my holiness – as befits someone, namely Me, who has preached so many sermons here at the Church of the Churchless. Unfortunately, I let reality enter into my fantasy. Not a good idea, if you're entertaining delusions of spiritual grandeur (one of my favorite activities). I made the mistake of Googling "church of briantology card." And damn it!, up popped a result that led me to a blogger who just had to…

There I am, eleven or twelve years old, some age thereabouts, hunched over a test tube on my back porch, carefully following the instructions in my science kit that said, "Conduct this experiment in a well-ventilated area." Good advice. Because this, thankfully, was before the days when anal-retentive product safety types could stand between a boy and his homemade chlorine gas. As instructed, I put the chemicals into a test tube. I added water. I put my nose close to the test tube and waved my hand over the end of it to waft some of the gas into my…

I enjoyed my 45 minute or so BlogTalkRadio conversation with medium Marcel Cairo yesterday. We were supposed to talk about Science, Spirituality, and Spinoza, which we sort of did. The archived AfterLifeFM show is here. To hear me in my (somewhat muffled) glory, scroll down and click on one of the symbols to the right of "Dismantling Dogma." The arrow thingie fires up Windows Media Player. Alternatively, I'll share my memory of some conversational highlights. This is the third time Marcel and I have talked over the Internet. We've got a thing going. As a medium, Marcel obviously believes in…

Who knew there was such a thing as BlogTalkRadio? Not me, until medium Marcel Cairo invited me to be on his AfterLifeFM show today, 4 PM Pacific, 7 PM Eastern, some other time in between the coasts. Tune in. Or better yet, call in. You listen via the Internet by pressing the "Click here" thingie when the time comes. You can call in via any sort of phone: 646-478-5711. Our subject is Dismantling Dogma: Science, Spirituality, and Spinoza. I'm no expert on Spinoza, but I've filled up a large-post it note with pithy reminders of his philosophy, which should be…

The past few days haven't been real cheerful for me, save-the-world (or 137 acres, at least) wise. My wife and I have been leading a fight against a proposed subdivision on groundwater limited farmland adjacent to our neighborhood. Wednesday we got screwed by a purely political decision by our county Board of Commissioners. They ignored an independent hydrogeologic assessment and their own Planning Commission. That night I had trouble getting to sleep, as travesty of justice visions kept running through my brain. Thursday I got to vent to a television news reporter. That made me feel a bit better, even…

In my dream, I hasten to add. No need to call 911. All the killing last night took place in my own mind for reasons unknown, like so much else that transpires in my psyche. Usually I'm not big on trying to interpret dreams. Mostly they seem to be my mind's attempt to connect fragments of the previous day's disconnected experiences. Maybe this explains my dream. Maybe not. Regardless, the peak emotional moment is still vivid. "Nobody is going to come!" After repeatedly calling out for help to people I could see around me, I finally realized that if the…

When we had to drag everything out of the crawl space above our garage, I found a 1970 photo that hadn't seen the light of day for quite a while. I was struck by how I appeared so wise at 21, and, let's admit it, Christ like (leaving aside the minor detail that no one knows how Jesus looked). Now, at 58, I don't know nothing about God and all that. I'm on a downward trajectory that has culminated in my Wu Project. But I'm confident there's further to fall. This unposed photo was taken in my home town of…

I spent six hours this weekend pulling disintegrated insulation out of the crawl space above our garage. There are difficult jobs. There are nasty jobs. And then there are really shitty jobs. Like what I just did. Serendipity is perusing the comments on your blog and finding just what you need to give a boost of profundity to the post you were planning to write. Thank you, Edward, for the Richard Feynman quote: "A poet once said "The whole universe is in a glass of wine." We will probably never know in what sense he meant that, for poets do…

This is a Church of the Churchless day when some Oregon snow is going to do most of the talking. I learned quite a bit from it on my walk this morning. When you feel the spirit, jump up and dance with snowballs. Bare bright branches are beautiful. No leaves necessary. Even blah barren brush turns into wow! with a coating of white. Put on the right coat and you'll say "It's not cold." Dead trees are still alive. Oh, yes, very much so. It’s possible to walk in your own footsteps (our dog can, at least, which is how…

It’s sort of clichéd for a blogger to devote his last post of the year to thanking his readers. But who’s afraid of a big bad cliché? Not me. I’m doing it anyway. Thank you. TypePad, my blog host, tells me that on average a few hundred people enter the cyberspacey Church of the Churchless door every day. I’m grateful. I talk to myself a lot of the time. That gets old. It’s nice to reach out and touch someone else, even if they’re repulsed by the gesture. Today I caught up on some unreplied emails and came across one…

I ran into a platitude-buster at Salem’s LifeSource Natural Foods today. A new check-out girl started to ring up my items. She said, “Are you having a nice day?” I was familiar with grocery store etiquette, so responded with my expected line. “Yes, I am. Hope you are too.” That’s where the scripted exchange of pleasantries usually ends. But she surprised me. She stopped what she was doing, looked me in the eye, and asked, “What’s made it a nice day?” Nice! Yet also mildly anxiety-producing. I needed to come up with an answer. Pretty quick, since there were other…

I enjoyed my conversation with Marcel and Lenny on Achieve Radio's "In Good Spirit" tonight. Marcel mentioned the Church of the Churchless several times, so maybe some new blog readers have found their way here. I wrote about my reading with Marcel, the medium, last month, so it's slipped off the listing of most recent posts. For those interested in how a skeptic viewed his first reading, click on "I visit a Hollywood medium, Marcel Cairo." When (or if) Achieve Radio puts up an archive of tonight's show, I'll blog about it. For sure. [Update: Marcel sent me a link…

About 90 minutes into our Tango class last night the instructor asked us, “Are you ready to really challenge yourself, to drive yourself crazy?” There wasn’t much of a response from the dozen students. I meekly muttered, “Sure…I guess.” Up to that point we’d mostly been working on an ocho cortado pattern. At first it drove Laurel and me crazy, so that explains why we weren’t thrilled to hear that we were about to be driven even crazier. Six simple steps. But each has to be led and followed. Laurel and I struggled to get the pattern down. Then the…

Tonight two mediums gang up on little ol' skeptical me on Achieve Radio, an Internet broadcasting system. Hope I survive. One of them is Marcel Cairo, the Hollywood medium I had a session with and blogged about recently. I enjoyed talking with Marcel, so I'm looking forward to doubling the medium pleasure this evening. Here's a blurb about the show. Download marcel_lenny_in_good_spirit.htm I'm pretty sure the interview will be archived online, for those who have the good sense to watch "Lost" at 9 pm (PST) rather than listen to live Internet radio.

Yesterday I lost my medium virginity. During a visit to Hollywood to see my daughter Celeste and her husband Patrick, Marcel Cairo was kind enough to treat Celeste, Laurel, and me to a reading. Marcel is an afterlife medium and spiritual therapist. (Check out Marcel’s website for more info). Last Tuesday I got an email from Marcel that said, in part: I came across your site and really got a kick out of it. I like how you present thought provoking concepts with a sense of humor. I kind of take the same approach to my work. I am a…

I’ve gotten several email messages recently from people who said they appreciate what I’m doing here on the Church of the Churchless. Well, I appreciate the appreciation. We churchless still feel a need to belong. But it’s a lot more difficult to share a sense of camaraderie with those who aren’t a part of organized spirituality because, obviously, we’re not organized. Nor do we want to be. So I get a lot of satisfaction from cyberspace pats on the back. I also enjoy, in a different fashion, the occasional missives from true believers asking me to please, please, just shut…