Beyond Religious Shame: Reclaiming God, the True Self & Spiritual Authority, with Valerie Hamaker

Comments · 23

• MI

  @Missythompson103 · 3 weeks ago

  This definitely resonates with me. I won’t lie, it scares me as well. Still working through all of this.<br><br>Meghan I would love a video where you go into depth about Christ’s teachings and what He was inviting us to do. ❤ we have been taught things from a certain lense and sometimes it can be hard to see differently. <br>Thanks! 💜

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• PE

  @petervincent3560 · 3 weeks ago

  I find these discussions very Enlightening. Thank you. <br><br>I forwarded this video to my wife. <br><br>Forgive my extended thinking, I am grateful to be able to share a few thoughts.<br><br>I feel a few things that may be a concern for a man as I am.<br><br>Growing in the Esoteric Realm can become or bring a sense that we are completely separate agents unto ourselves; are we?<br><br>Could we take that freedom too far?<br><br>The structure of the universe with recognition that every element is a part of God is True in my understanding. Ultimate choice is real, because we do make our choices, regardless of what we believe. <br><br>The breakdown of the Church in the last days (ending cycle); Is clear in my understanding Isaiah, etc). <br><br>Now, what are we here for? <br><br>What teachings are we directed to do? Jesus (Yeshua said “you cannot save them all). Deeper understanding of that statement is (I want to save them all). <br><br>How do we save as many as we can? <br><br>Mystic understanding is understanding of the Mysteries. Very important! <br><br>It is inside us and you are showing us how to gain Wisdom! Every moment. Now, becoming as God is, we must become God right?<br><br>How can we save them through the Truth (Jesus).<br><br>Every Hair on their Heads is accounted for. None are lost. <br><br>What do we do to inherit own Kingdom (our Kingdom and all the Power to procreate)?<br><br>I believe it depends on, if we are connected to ALL the hosts of Heaven in Perfection - Doing No Harm to Anyone.<br><br>They cannot inherit what they are not. Repentance, Pure Love, Courage to always do what we believe is Right, as we grow in “The Gospel, Not the Church, The Gospel! <br><br>I have learned a lot from your words. Our sisters and Heaven. I am truly grateful.

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• AD

  @Adams-Fall · 3 weeks ago

  I agree that intellectual development can involve sorting what should be retained, transformed, or abandoned rather than simply throwing away an entire previous worldview. My larger concern, however, is what seems to follow from this framework in this discussion, which is the idea that individuals are thereby empowered to determine truth for themselves. <br> <br>I think we need to distinguish between having the responsibility and capacity to evaluate truth and being the ultimate authority for determining what is true. Developmental growth can certainly make us better at reasoning, recognizing assumptions, integrating perspectives, and detecting our own errors. But none of that guarantees that the conclusions we reach are true. A person can become more cognitively complex while still being wrong about reality. <br> <br>This also raises a problem with the “wheat and tares” metaphor. Who determines which is wheat and which is tares? If the individual ultimately decides based on what is developmentally resonant, then the framework risks becoming self-validating: I transcend what no longer resonates with me, retain what does, and then regard the resulting worldview as more developed. But what independent standard tells me that my sorting process is actually tracking truth rather than simply reflecting my current preferences, experiences, or cognitive limitations?

• AD

  @Adams-Fall · 3 weeks ago

  @<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWIB4Hb7bpg&amp;t=878">14:38</a> Developmental psychology does provide evidence for complexification in some human domains, but I think “transcend and include”, in the context of Wilber&apos;s Integral Theory, is being stated here much more strongly than the evidence warrants. The literature on development is quite cautious about treating integrative thinking as a universal developmental stage. “Transcend and include” may be a useful way of describing some forms of development, but there isn&apos;t good scientific evidence that it is the universal mechanism of healthy human development.

• AD

  @Adams-Fall · 3 weeks ago

  @<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWIB4Hb7bpg&amp;t=2220">37:00</a> There is nothing inherently wrong with describing differences in developmental complexity. The problem arises when those developmental differences become a hierarchy of epistemic authority. If you criticize religious institutions for placing people into “higher” and “lower” categories (defining who is in and out, up or down), but then assign people numerical levels or stages of enlightenment, you haven&apos;t necessarily escaped hierarchy but rather you may have simply replaced a religious hierarchy with a developmental one.<br><br>And this connects with my larger concern about the “transcend and include” framework. If the person at a supposedly higher stage is presumed to have a more comprehensive grasp of reality, then the developmental ranking can begin to function as a justification for truth claims: “I have transcended that stage, therefore I can see what they cannot.” But being more cognitively complex, psychologically integrated, or developmentally advanced does not automatically make someone correct about reality. <br><br>So I think the real question is not whether developmental differences exist, but whether we are using a developmental hierarchy as an independent measure of psychological complexity or as a proxy for truth and spiritual authority. If it is the latter, then the framework risks reproducing the very kind of hierarchy it criticizes in traditional religion, while giving that hierarchy a different vocabulary.

• ST

  @stefaniehall6214 · 3 weeks ago

  I like your topics and channel. I noticed some hypocrisy in how you were dissing the church for labeling people as higher and lower whilst you were giving peoples stages of enlightenment numbers. Haha. The numbers imply highness and lowness you see.

• TR

  @TRUMPET25 · 11 days ago

  How odd: the LDS church, its principles and doctrine are not Western ideas. That’s where your own beliefs fail. Your information here is your own experience. Do your own work.

• SE

  @sethhousley5940 · 2 weeks ago

  Why are you giving her a platform? She has the same counseling goals as Dehlin. She has caused people I love to leave the church.