Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

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Rainn Wilson presents the Best Politics or Opinion Podcast award during The Podcast Academy’s First Annual Awards For Audio Excellence – The Ambies on May 16, 2021 in Los Angeles. Getty Images for The Podcast Academy/The Ambies True story: I recently came across a news headline about some model/celebrity who had undergone some kind of “spiritual transformation.” I was intrigued. After all, I love spiritual transformations! Have had a couple myself over the decades. In fact, I might be having one right now as I write this. Upon further reading, turns out that this model/celebrity had undergone an actual exorcism of some kind in a remote town in Switzerland. A shaman had released some kind of demon/energy from them, and they were finally, on the other side of it, able to practice “self-care” and enjoy yoga and raw juicing from home. Something like that. Which got me thinking about the word “spirituality.” It can mean so many different things to so many people.

In Soul Boom,RainnWilson explores the landscape of the world’s faiths, and suggests a new and thoughtful spiritual path for seekers. If you’re hungry to rediscover what makes your existence divine, this book is for you.”Fans of The Office will find a few scattered nods to the beloved show, but Rainn is not Dwight, and this is not a book about the show... at *all*. Instead it is a thought provoking, inspiring call to spiritual growth and reformation, not just for ourselves, but for the entirety of humanity. The world, Wilson argues, has become increasingly polarized, self-interested, and vain. In place of the escapism of social media or technology, he proposes adopting spiritual tools, like prayer or meditation. His approach is pantheist, and he’s interested in the spiritual dimension of religious thought, not the religions or religious practice themselves. But he comes across as a man of faith, not science. Wilson, who is also a podcaster and cofounder of the media company SoulPancake, says he has now resolved any personal uncertainty about a higher power. "I know there's a God. It's not a faith thing. God is as real to me as my body is – as my rapidly decaying body," he said. I really struggled with this one. This is a topic that I'm not all that comfortable with, so I thought who better to make it more palatable than Rainn Wilson? I'm not religious. The correct term would be atheist, but I have a bit of an aversion to that one. The more outspoken atheists are so smug that it's really off-putting to me. I've always had the attitude that you should let people live. Let them believe what they want as long as no one is getting hurt. I would never attempt to talk someone out of their religious beliefs, and I just wish they would show me the same respect and not try to push theirs on me all the time. I believe religion and church can be really beneficial. A sense of community, support and making death a little easier, depending on one's beliefs. That's how I felt going into this book. Now I am angry. I hadn't written that first chapter, that introductory chapter that talks about why the hell is the guy who played Dwight from the office writing a book about spirituality? I think that people wouldn't know what to do or what to think of it. Also, along the way, I should mention, I try and be funny and the book is a little bit funny and fun to read, I hope.

What's going through your mind, especially when you read that headline and maybe dive a little more into that story? Sometimes I find that in books like these, there are a couple of minor paragraphs that are especially intriguing or revelatory. For me, I'll remember these short sections; 1) Andre Gregory's pleading with Wilson to resist cynicism, and 2) the character development exercises that Wilson used with teenagers at a Baha'i camp, and 3) the election methods that the Baha'i members use to elect their community leadership. The trauma that our struggling species has experienced in recent years—because of both the pandemic and societal tensions that threaten to overwhelm us—is not going away anytime soon. Existing political and economic systems are not enough to bring the change that the world needs. In this book, Rainn Wilson explores the possibility and hope for a spiritual revolution, a “Soul Boom,” to find a healing transformation on both a personal and global level In (a) virtue-nurturing context, we are neither living only for this world (as the atheist/materialist/physicalist might aspire to) nor living only for the next world (as the heaven-seeking fundamentalist might be). We are living for both. Because, it seems, both are connected. Our overarching purpose is pure and simple: soul growth. Developing our virtues is about cultivating that part of ourselves that is, at its essence, divine. This ongoing growth process requires a complete and total commitment to the physical plane of existence — this gorgeous, difficult planet, its ups and downs and trials and challenges, its beauty and sorrow. It also requires a longtail view of the eternal — knowing that we’re in this whole game of life for a very, very, very long haul. As in, like, infinite worlds of existence.Rainn Wilson explains the importance of spirituality to humanity, discusses both the good and problematic aspects of religion, and makes the case for a renewed sense of spirituality and religious engagement imbued with love and unity—all with thoughtfulness, clarity, and humor. Wilson] is selling nothing but belief in better, and it’s a really smart book that draws from so many quotes that you know and want to know. And it’s Rainn Wilson in a way you haven’t seen or heard him before, which is talking not about make believe, but about what is all too real.” Brilliant, humorous, and deeply wise, Rainn Wilson makes the case for spiritual revolution like no other. With humility that lands in the heart, Rainn invites us into a profound conversation on death and despair, God and transcendence, and love as a revolutionary force. The result: an electrifying manifesto on how to transform the world from the inside out. Let Soul Boom ignite and inspire you, as it has me!” In an increasingly challenged world, Wilson's "Soul Boom" explores the role spirituality can play, and in his opinion should play, in developing solutions for this complex world. The book reads as part spiritual autobiography and part spiritual manifesto, a weaving together of Wilson's own spiritual beliefs with a broader spectrum exploring a variety of spiritual paths and how they all lead toward solutions to help create the better world that so many of us long for these days. The agency of the story in SoulBoom lies with humanity. As Wilson states, it is people who must change, through “recognizing that we are, in fact, spiritual beings having a collective human experience” who can be open to “the soul-level transformations we’re going to need to make.” The agency of the biblical story is God’s. It begins with God creating and ends with God dwelling; we work as co-stewards and God works through us, but we are never the stars of the show.