The Building 4th Podcast

Synchronicities: Stories and Meaning

The Building 4th community shares stories of amazing synchronicities. Ways to understanding understand the meaning of synchronicities from the Ra Material and sound psychological footing are discussed.

Practicing Metamodern Spirituality with Doug Scott: The SH!PS Approach

In this episode, we are joined by Doug Scott, LCSW, MA, an experienced therapist and counselor based in Dallas, Texas, who has a deep interest in the intersection of psychology and spirituality; and Brendan Graham Dempsey, a writer, poet, farmer, and the director of Sky Meadow Institute, an organization dedicated to promoting systems-based thinking about the things that matter most. (see below for more information on Brendan).
Doug shares insights from his private practice and his master's degree in pastoral ministry, focusing particularly on how metamodern spirituality can facilitate positive change in the world.
Doug introduces the SH!PS Approach, a conceptual and practical framework designed to help individuals navigate their spiritual and psychological journeys. The acronym SH!PS stands for Solidarity, Hope, Interview, Process, and Service, with each component playing a crucial role in fostering meaningful transformation and connection.
The discussion explores Doug's fascinating background, including his early years in Saudi Arabia, time in Nicaragua with the Capuchin Franciscans, and his education at Boston College. He also delves into the importance of relational connection, self-awareness, and the transformative power of loving service.
Tune in to learn more about Doug's innovative tools and how they can be applied to enhance personal growth, build solidarity, and cultivate hope. Whether you're interested in psychology, spirituality, or the intersections of the two, this episode offers valuable insights and practical advice for anyone looking to deepen their understanding and practice of metamodern spirituality.
For more information, you can visit Doug's websites at www.dougscottcounseling.com and www.cosmicchrist.net ----
Brendan Graham Dempsey is a writer, poet, farmer, and the director of Sky Meadow Institute, an organization dedicated to promoting systems-based thinking about the things that matter most. 
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He holds a BA in religious studies from the University of Vermont and a master's in religion and art from Yale University. He is the author of the 7-volume Metamodern Spirituality Series and, most recently, Metamodernism: Or, The Cultural Logic of Cultural Logics.
 
His primary interests include theorizing developments in culture after postmodernism, productively bridging the divide between science and spirituality, and developing sustainable systems for life to flourish. All of these lead through the paradigms of emergence and complexity, which inform all of his work.

Ra Material’s "Heart of Evolution of Spirit": Unity, Love, Light, and Joy

Doug leads a discussion in the Building 4th group about one of the most pivotal points in the Ra Material. Doug explores the following quote from an accessible perspective that is simultaneously conventional and cosmic. 
52.11 Questioner: [...] from the point of view of an individual who wishes to follow the service-to-others path from our present position in third density, is there anything of importance other than disciplines of personality, knowledge of self, and strengthening of will?
Ra: I am Ra. This is technique. This is not the heart. Let us examine the heart of evolution.Let us remember that we are all one. This is the great learning/teaching. In this unity lies love. This is a great learn/teaching. In this unity lies light. This is the fundamental teaching of all planes of existence in materialization. Unity, love, light, and joy; this is the heart of evolution of the spirit.The second-ranking lessons are learn/taught in meditation and in service. At some point the mind/body/spirit complex is so smoothly activated and balanced by these central thoughts or distortions that the techniques you have mentioned become quite significant. However, the universe, its mystery unbroken, is one. Always begin and end in the Creator, not in technique.

Beatitudes and Mental Health

Doug Scott, LCSW, was invited by a Methodist pastor to give a sermon during the Sunday liturgy. Doug chose the Beatitudes and focused upon interpreting this beautiful but rarely unpacked Biblical story from the domain of mental health and becoming agents of wholeness in the world. 

[Part 3] Made In the Image, Growing In the Likeness

Mental Health counselors, Doug and Marie complete their three-part series on a deep dive into the Trinity.  This episode explores how healers are intentional participants of the divine desire to experience through creative expression. 

[Part 2] Made in the Image, Growing in the Likeness

Doug and Marie continue exploring how the Trinity unfolds in the human experience. This is part 2 of the series:
Made in the Image of God and Growing in the Likeness of God
Part 2: The Trinity and the Human Experience
A.Law of Three and the Veil of Forgetting
B.Skin of Human Suffering
C.The hidden seeds in the ground below the Contrast
The Seeds of Hope and the Flower of Joy
The Seeds of Anxiety and the Weed of Terror
D.Joy: gestalt of manifested wholeness

Exploring Meta-Modern Christianity: Bridging Tradition and Contemporary Spirituality

Doug and Matt begin by discussing Brendan Graham Dempsey's work on metamodern spirituality, and particularly metamodern Christianity. Matt highlights the differences between how Eastern and Western spiritual traditions have been adopted and critiqued within this framework, noting that Western Buddhism has been largely stripped of its cultural and cosmological context due to the nature of the modern colonial encounter out of which it arose. He contrasts this with Christianity, which he thinks is more challenging to separate from its cosmological and ritual elements. Matt praises Brendan's efforts to challenge Biblical literalism and explore a version of Christianity that aligns with contemporary scientific understanding. However, Matt expresses feeling somewhat constrained by Brendan's approach, suggesting there are other ways to interpret, for example, the Christ event, that respect scientific perspectives without being reductionistic or literalistic. Doug agrees on the importance of balancing esoteric and exoteric elements in spirituality, using an analogy of understanding a Lamborghini by both driving it and examining its engine. He appreciates Brendan's honest grappling with these spiritual issues but notes the need for incorporating rituals to ground spiritual practice. They both stress the significance of ritual in religious practice, not as mere metaphors but as enactments that transform consciousness. Matt argues that rituals help bridge the gap between our limited, individual perspectives and a more expansive, collective and even cosmic understanding. Doug adds that rituals lay the groundwork for collective human experience and help us connect with the deeper truths of existence. Doug also brings up the challenge of modern political discourse, emphasizing the need for empathy and understanding in political conversations. Matt agrees, suggesting that political engagement should be centered in the heart, aiming for persuasion rather than force. They both acknowledge the difficulty of navigating political polarization in an increasingly “post-liberal” era, but stress the importance of seeing the humanity in others and striving for a more compassionate and inclusive dialogue.

[Part 1] Made in the Image, Growing in the Likeness

This is the first of a three-part series entitled: Made in the Image, Growing in the Likeness.  This first part's title is: Being is Becoming: Why the Trinity is the Template of All Reality. 
Marie Woods:
Host of the "Everything You Need to Know in a Relationship" podcast and president/ founder of Life Above Foundation. In this enlightening episode, Marie and Doug discuss how the Trinity is the pattern for everything.
Doug Scott’s Bio
Doug Scott, LCSW, works as a mental health counselor in his private practice in Dallas, Texas. After graduating from college in 1997, he served as an international volunteer for two years in Bluefields, Nicaragua. This intense experience changed his life and he returned to the US to pursue graduate studies in clinical social work and pastoral ministry at Boston College. The nexus of spirituality and psychology have always intrigued Doug since childhood and he brings this sensibility to his counseling practice.
Doug Scott, LCSW, MA, grew up Catholic and was always drawn to the mystical lineage within this belief system. He had experiences with Jesus, Mary, and angels at an early age. His mystical inclinations have led him to seek the depth of things and teachers who inspire him, including: Richard Rohr, Cynthia Bourgeault, Ilia Delio, Teilhard de Chardin, Alfred North Whitehead, Jim Finley, and the lives of the Saints such as St. Francis of Assisi, Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila, and Teresa of Lisieux.
Doug sees the Trinity in everything and everywhere.  He sees how the living pattern of the Trinity provides the power for evolution in biology, psychology, and spirituality. For him, the Trinity is the codeword or abbreviated name of God. What is the long version? Something like this:  The Who-ing, the Why-ing, and the How-ing of Eternal Becoming.
Finally, Doug felt called to develop an approach—a type of pedagogy—that attempts to identify the steps in transformation and how a counselor, spiritual director, or caregiver in any position can help someone else initiate and process through the path of wholeness-making.  This is the SH!PS Approach.   
Presentation Outline:
A. Law of Three
B. Aware-Consciousness Principle
C. Creative Principle
D. Pan-Experientialism
E. To Hold, To Heal, To Bless: Pan-Sacramentalism

Law of Three and the Two Paths of Dynamic Polarity in the Ra Material

Doug Scott, LCSW brings his experience of a mental health counselor in exploring what the Law of Three has to offer when try to understand how the Ra Material describes how following the positive ethical pole and the negative ethical pole are equally difficult in Earth's Third Density.  

Law of Three, Jesus Christ Event, and the Logos' Path of Development (w/ Dr. Matt Segall, PhD)

Doug Scott, LCSW, MA offers into a detailed presentation about his synthesis of various philosophical and mystical traditions, discussing the concept of cosmogenesis and the evolution of consciousness. He outlined how different forces interact to create new dimensions of being, referencing the Law of Three, Whitehead’s process thought, and other sources. Dr. Matt Segall, PhD, noted the resonance between Doug's ideas and those in other philosophical traditions, such as Steiner’s anthroposophy and Vedic traditions. He appreciated the depth and universality of the Trinitarian creative process Doug described. They discussed how these esoteric principles manifest at various scales, from the quantum level to the macrocosm of the Earth, and how tensions and conflicts drive evolutionary progress. As Doug elaborated on the Christ event and its cosmic significance, Matt reflected on the current global situation. He emphasized the heightened tension and fragmentation in human identity and how this mirrors the larger cosmic process. Matt expressed concern over the geopolitical conflicts and the way what were once "cultural runways" for spirit to incarnate have by now become "runaway cultures" that distract us from the task of individual transformation.