Guest Post: Joel Lesses from Unraveling Religion
March 30, 2022
Honoring Traditions and ‘The Deep River Flow’ of Life, Walking an Autumn Path, Making It One’s Own: A Talk with Henry Cretella, M.D on Spiritual Development
Today, we are showcasing the talents of Joel Lesses, host of the religious and spiritual podcast Unraveling Religion.
In this walk and spontaneous talk through a local neighborhood and nearby meadow in Rochester NY, Henry and Joel discuss Henry’s development in spirituality, syncretism, Indigenous teachings, Shamanism, forces in nature, Tibetan Buddhism, and Sufism. While walking through the rustling leaves, Henry and Joel explore synchronicities, Henry’s guides and teachers, various lessons, and how he opened up to deepen his human experience beyond a successful career as a psychiatrist. Henry and Joel also discuss the development of Amber Light International, the Alchemical Dialogues podcast, and his various classes. The areas of manifestation through the study of desire, wish and will, and connecting to community through the universal practices found in Sufism, including life’s teachings and lessons, are very personal to Henry. As a lifelong student of humanism and seeking the freedom of many traditions and paths that spirituality can offer, Henry and Joel explore the universal aspects of the different paths through our shared human experience.
Unraveling Religion’s mystical and practical discussions are explorations of spirituality and its relation to religion and psychology, with questions always. Beyond a specific religion or spiritual practice; what do we share, what do we have in common? These talks are a work in progress evolving our rich inner life, including reflections on religious texts, poems, art, and what is common in our human experience enhancing understanding of our relationships: with ourselves, with one another, and with the world we share. You can find Unraveling Religion on Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unraveling-religion/id1510379967
Joel David Lesses’ background is in psychology and counseling with other passions including the intersection of poetry, spirituality, science and phenomenology shared and disparate in the human experience, and transformative power of self-inquiry and introspection through contemplative and meditative practices. Joel was nominated by Artvoice in 2013 and 2014 as Buffalo’s Best Poet and won the honor in 2014. He has been published in various magazines and publications, founded Ground and Sky Poetry Series, and facilitated numerous poetry workshops.
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