Ultimately, I believe this entire crazy Soul Boom dissertation boils down to a single concept: unity. What we must seek in this spiritual revolution is a profound unity unlike anything humanity has ever experienced before.
I didn’t previously know anything about Rainn Wilson’s interests and activism outside of acting – didn’t know that he had cofounded both the feelgood website/YouTube channel SoulPancake and an educational initiative for rural Haitian girls called Lidè Haiti; didn’t know that he’s a passionate environmental activist or that he is very active within the Baháʼí faith community — so while I was intrigued enough by the description of Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution to have been prompted to pick it up, I simply didn’t realise that this is exactly the sort of book that Wilson should be expected to write. Filled with a lifetime of experience, thought, and spiritual/literary quotes, Soul Boom explores what is wrong with modern life, defines what should be meant by terms like “sacred” and “divine”, and gives suggestions for how we could all work to make life on Earth better for everyone by recognising and honouring the sacred and divine in one another. Wilson’s tone is engaging and often self-deprecating — he acknowledges that he’s an actor, not a guru; admits his privilege as a successful white American male while begging leave to discuss poverty, racism, and sexism — and he seems sincere, knowledgeable, and eager to effect positive social change. I appreciated his interfaith approach — quoting from the Buddah, Jesus, Mohammed, Bahá'u'lláh (founder of the Baháʼí faith), etc., it’s clear that all religions are based on the idea of loving one another even if institutionalised religion seems to have forgotten that fact — and I was totally on board with everything Wilson writes about the present and the past. But when he gets to the prescriptive parts — describing what a new religion for all could look like and the specific steps we could all take to get to that ideal Star Trek-type Earth in the future — my interest started to wane and my cynicism took over (and, yes, I understand I’m supposed to fight pessimism with joy so that “they” don’t win but I am human and jaded about my fellow humans). I wish it could be this straightforward, and I hope that many, many others read Soul Boom and continue the conversation that Wilson has started; a spiritual revolution just might be what we need. (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.)
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.
I appreciate that Wilson explains what he means when he says that he believes in God (and I like his habit of saying, “I don’t believe in that God, either” when an atheist lists off all the negative attributes — jealous, vindictive, childhood-cancer-causing — of the Sky Daddy God of Abraham) and I am not unconvinced by his belief that life and consciousness seem too miraculous to have arisen by chance alone. (And I was not surprised to learn that Wilson was unable to sell a show discussing God to any network: a show about God being “too controversial” in a landscape of violence, porn, and drunk housewives.) To oversimplify: Believing that we are all divine at our cores ought to lead to us honouring ourselves and every other human on Earth (not to mention the planet itself), and not only would that solve individual problems (like the current crisis in youth mental health) but it would demand solutions for systemic problems (like partisan politics or the bizarre inequality of wealth that sees the seven richest men hoarding more wealth than the bottom fifty percent of humanity). I don’t think it’s controversial to say that the vast majority of us would like to see these changes, so why not look to the deep past and explore the beliefs and ideas that once bound us all together?
The point is, our global priorities seem epically misguided and upside down, and there are countless examples of the absurd choices we humans make on the largest of scales. To combine two uncombinable metaphors, so many times it feels like we’re frogs in the boiling water rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
It took Rainn Wilson an entire book to discuss a lifetime’s worth of research into the spiritual, so I am obviously cherry-picking and oversimplifying here. I will say: this is a very worthwhile read that I enjoyed quite a bit. Vive la révolution.
Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because dawn has come.
— Rabindranath Tagore
For a counterargument based on materialism and the unmiraculous rise of consciousness, see The Transcendent Brain: Spirituality in the Age of Science by Alan Lightman, reviewed here. And, as ever, I'm put in mind of Life of Pi and its ultimate conclusion that since it seems we will never prove the existence of God one way or the other, why settle for the lesser story? Or per Wilson, what harm would there be in treating ourselves and others with the reverence due to the divine?
