Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

Product Information

I think these 10 points are good conversation starter for those that are spiritual or religious as these are very important topics. We may have some common beliefs which is good to focus on. The word “spirituality,” as the Oxford English Dictionary defines it, means “the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.” This is exactly what I’m talking about. Way to go, OED! I will delve into all these concepts in far greater detail as the book progresses, but if we are to believe, as I very much do, that we have some kind of “soul” that continues on some kind of journey after our bodies fall away, and that this spiritual essence of who we are is just as real (if not more so) than our bodies—in other words, that this “soul” is the nonanimal, nonmaterial, non-pleasure-and-power-seeking dimension of ourselves that continues in some form after our physical existence ceases—and if this soul exists, then there are certain practices, processes, and perspectives that might help to shape our human beingness, the reality of who we really are. This is what I’m referring to when I talk about the word “spirituality”: this eternal/divine aspect of ourselves that longs for higher truth and journeys toward heart-centered enlightenment and, dare I say it, God. Here I am. Sitting in my office during the early weeks of the COVID-19 quarantine, furiously outlining the book on big spiritual ideas that I’ve been wanting to write for years. “Now’s my chance!” I say to myself (while wearing the same sweatpants I’ve worn for the past six days with the little stain where I wiped my cinnamon-raisin oatmeal on my thigh). Here’s the big opportunity! Hours and hours of free time to vomit forth a potpourri of ideas on all my favorite topics: the journey of the soul, life after death, the Big Guy Upstairs, and the personal and universal spiritual transformation of society! I have undergone long periods of time when I was clinically depressed. There were times I reached emotional lows from which I felt I would never escape. I even seriously contemplated suicide. Thankfully, I always got therapeutic help when I needed it and love from some amazing friends and family members, and I had a profound partner in my wife, Holiday Reinhorn, who supported me with great empathy and strength.

Because the Baha’i faith believes that all religions are the changeless face of the same god, and figureheads such as Jesus, the Buddha and Muhammed are all divine messengers manifesting the same god, Wilson is a natural advocate for embracing a spirituality that seeks to unite people from all religious faiths. Like all good apologetical works, Wilson’s book starts by anticipating shared values and then moves toward claims that might be a harder sell for outsiders. The second half of the book suggests (in somewhat tongue-in-cheek fashion but seriously enough) that we need to create a “new religion” called SoulBoom that will help usher Wilson’s real interest—a global spiritual revolution advancing spiritual progress and cosmic unity. This religion looks a lot like the Baha’i faith, which includes no clergy and promotes practices of prayer and meditation. In making his case, he diagnoses many problems Christians would also highlight in American society: consumerism, loneliness, violence, and partisanship. His solutions, however, are harder to swallow.

Need Help?

THE BEAT GOES ON The suite sound of the Jerry Steinhilber Trio Band celebrating physical release of new album with Nov. 15 show To some, spirituality is completely synonymous with religious practice and “organized religion”: church, God, and so forth. To others, it can mean rituals involving hallucinogens. To many, because the word “spirit” is in it, it means that ghosts are involved. To still others, like the model/celebrity, it can mean exorcisms by Swiss shamans. And then I thought to myself, "Maybe I've done myself a disservice here. Maybe I need to re-explore those ideas about God and life and soul and the meaning of life and purpose and the nature of suffering because I'm so very unhappy maybe this will help me." And it did. It hasn't always been easy. It's been a very difficult, arduous road with a lot of ups and downs in it. But that is what really sparked my deep and abiding interest in these gigantic topics was they personally affected me and in the exploration of them, they made my life better. And I believe they can make other people's lives better, and I believe collectively they can make our lives better. All that said, Soul Boom, which calls for a worldwide spiritual revolution along the lines of “an ever-advancing civilization” and “collective” spiritual maturity, is a powerful presentation of the Baha’i faith’s perspective on spirituality. After putting down the book, readers will likely appreciate the Baha’i faith’s amiability and think highly of Wilson’s character, whatever they think of his views.

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. 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. At the end of the book Rainn comes up with his idea of the perfect religion and pulls a lot from his own religious group, the Baha'i faith. This book feels at times like advertisements for this, his SoulPancake company and various religious TV shows he pitched that networks passed on even though they were really really good. Take care reading this and maybe look online for accounts of people who left the Baha'i faith and why some feel it is a cult before you make any big life choices. Because, at the end of the day, as “spiritual” as my family appeared, there was a complete absence of loving expression in our house. Did my parents (including my birth mother, Shay, who took off when I was two and who I didn’t really get to know until I was about fifteen) love me? Yes. Most certainly. To the best of their limited, traumatized ability, my parents attempted a piss-poor fumbling love for me and, occasionally, each other.Let me be blunt with you, dear reader. I know what you might be asking right now: “Why the hell is the actor who played Dwight on The Office writing a book on spirituality?” In this heartfelt outing, [Rainn Wilson] offers a broad array of spiritual ideas for finding hope in a cynical world….Animated by self-aware humor, this entry doesn’t pretend to have all the answers, and instead offers deceptively simple yet thought-provoking musings to help readers embark on a quest of spiritual self-awareness. This is a pleasure to read.”

Eboo Patel, Founder and President of Interfaith America and author of We Need To Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy It's not that there's no humor to be found in "Soul Boom." There's most definitely humor to be found here, however, "Soul Boom" for the most part gives us the other side of Rainn Wilson - a more contemplative fellow, devoted family man, and longtime spiritual human being raised in and still following the Baháʼí faith and fiercely devoted to climate issues. And I'm thinking to myself, there's no way Rainn Wilson would lie about this, right? Let me see what's actually going on here. So I got on the old Google and I looked and sure enough, the Women's Health June, 2020 cover story was on Julianne Hough, recently named co-host of Dancing with the Stars, talking about how she had went to Switzerland and had some demons exercised from her and had had this spiritual transformation. Now, when this story came out, it's again ... With sincere enthusiasm and a playful tone, Wilson highlights the vitality of spirituality in our lives. I expected Rainn to lose me somewhere in the weeds of the spirituality woo-woo stuff, but he actually lost me when he outed himself as a David Brooks fanboy, yikes.It's so not cool to be religious," Wilson says. "And it's so funny because I've always identified as being a dork and a misfit and an outsider. Maybe that's why I played Dwight so effectively, apparently." Pop culture references, jokey humor, and an entertaining and irreverent writing style keep Soul Boom from feeling preachy…. While anyone who is spiritually seeking would likely enjoy Soul Boom, Wilson seems to have written it particularly with younger generations in mind." When talking about his own search for the spiritual, he notes a "transformative" encounter with his onetime acting teacher André Gregory, the director, writer, and actor who plays a version of himself in the 1981 film My Dinner with Andre. The first step in knowing that there is a creative force in the universe is I know that there is love. I also know that there is beauty. I also know that there is art and there is music. And all of these things that are ineffable and transcendent are footprints. They're handholds on the path to finding the great mystery.

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. But I was also drawn to these programs because these were families as real, relatable, and flawed as my own. How I longed to not be in my dysfunctional family but instead to live with Meathead and Gloria in Queens, or to be a patient of Bob Newhart in his Chicago practice, or an intern at WJM TV with Mary Tyler Moore. I would even have taken being drafted and having to clean latrines at the 4077th M.A.S.H. unit instead of eating awkward, loveless meatloaf with the Wilson family of Lake Forest Park, Washington. Why does a guy famous for playing a weird, officious nerd on one of America’s most beloved TV comedies (and many other offbeat characters) want to write about the soul, religion, the afterlife, sacredness, and the need for society to undergo a spiritual reimagining? Why is the beet-farming, paper-selling, tangentially Amish man-baby with the giant forehead and short-sleeved mustard shirts writing about the meaning of life? I had tea with him once and he said, 'How are you doing, Rainn?' And I said, 'You know, André, I'm just feeling so cynical. I'm feeling pessimistic.' He grabbed my arm like a vise, and he looked into my eyes and he said, 'Stop it, don't do it. Don't be cynical. If you're cynical, they win.' " So… OK to move forward on the old booky-wook? Have a bit of clarity on the personal reasons that led me to create Soul Boom?

Register for email newsletters

Thought this was good. If I had read this in high school, before my degree in philosophy and starting my masters in divinity I think this would’ve been very pivotal in my deconstruction. Now, this is another tool (hammer, maybe?) I can give to others who are at the beginning stages of their own deconstruction journey. Pop culture references, jokey humor and an entertaining and irreverent writing style keep “Soul Boom” from feeling preachy. Wilson uses “Star Trek” and “Kung Fu” to elucidate the twofold path of any spiritual journey; “Star Trek” representing collective spiritual aspirations (world peace, embracing diversity, etc.) and “Kung Fu,” the inner spiritual journey (wisdom, morality, etc.).