Our Mission

The Society of Earth & Spirit is a community for people who want to think deeply, grow deliberately, explore spirituality seriously, and still be able to laugh at themselves along the way.

​

We are not built around a guru, a single teacher, or one person who supposedly has all the answers. There is no central leader whose beliefs become everyone else’s beliefs. Guides, teachers, members, writers, researchers, spiritual traditions, and even the organization itself can be questioned. In fact, we think questioning it is part of the work. The relationship between the leaders of the Society of Earth & Spirit and you will remain forever professional, communal, and respectful. In other words, no sex with members. We actually have a course on the website that includes why that phenomenon has happened so frequently in the past. Some reasons are obvious, some will likely surprise you.

​

NOTHING IS TOO SACRED TO RECONSIDER

We may hold beliefs strongly; we will let them go as strongly if enough information points a different way. We may study them for years. We may even build an entire worldview around them. And then we may discover that we were wrong. That is allowed here.

 

Any belief can and should be examined, challenged, refined, expanded, or abandoned when better understanding points somewhere else. The goal is not to protect an ideology. The goal is to keep looking. That applies to spiritual beliefs, scientific assumptions, philosophical ideas, psychological theories, and our own ideas.

​

WE KNOW WE DO NOT “GIVE” YOU WISDOM OR INSIGHT

We can introduce ideas, teach frameworks, recommend practices, ask questions, challenge assumptions, point toward resources, and sit beside you while you work something out. But we do not believe another person can simply hand you understanding.

 

A good teacher does not think that they "give" truth to you. A good teacher helps you see something you were not seeing before, but it was always there. You will experience remembering, not going out there and "finding" something. The insight is still all yours. The choice is still all yours. The power is all your.

​

EINSTEIN WAS NOT E = mc²

Einstein developed an extraordinary idea. He was not the idea. That distinction matters to us.

People create theories, teachings, practices, models, religions, philosophies, and systems of thought. Some may be brilliant. Some may be deeply useful. Some may be wrong. Usually, they are probably some mixture of all three.

 

We try to separate the idea from the person who introduced it. You do not have to worship Freud or Jung, Maslow or James to learn something from psychology. You do not have to become Buddhist to learn from Buddhist practice. You do not have to agree with everything Ken Wilber has ever said to find Integral Theory useful. And you certainly do not have to agree with us. We might kick you out if you do (smiling with you).

​

Did you know that he dies still trying to solve (create a formula for) the Grand Unification Theory? Not bad in and of itself, but he drastically refused to include quantum mechanics as part of it. His personal psychology drastically underserved him, with extreme difficulties as a result. This is not a judgement of the genius man; it's highlighting that yes, he was great at solving equations... that doesn't mean he was wise, lived an integral/spiritual life, was emotionally mature, etcetera. We don't want to conflate him as a genius physicist with anything else. Grateful for what he provided, as a physicist, and that's it. And once her gave it to the world, it had nothing to do with him. Same idea here - you will learn some tremendously valuable things here, but don't conflate that with who you learned it with is a this or a that. No, it's about the material, the learning, the process, and not about the guide you work with.

​

Question everything, take what helps you see more clearly. Challenge what doesn't.

​

MANY PATHS, ONE HORIZON

Different people need different things. For one person, development may begin with meditation. For another, it may begin with getting their finances under control, repairing a relationship, finding meaningful work, questioning an old belief, going back to school, joining a community, or simply cleaning their room.

We are interested in the whole person. That is why Society of Earth & Spirit brings together spirituality, psychology, philosophy, human development, relationships, work, physical life, creativity, service, community, and practical everyday living.

Growth does not happen in one isolated corner of a human being.

​

WE HELP, YOU DECIDE

Our role is not to tell you who to become. We can help you see yourself more clearly, discover possibilities you may not have considered, examine patterns and assumptions, learn serious ideas without needing another degree, develop practices that actually fit your life, find people willing to have real conversations, and decide what you want to work on next.

 

But you remain the final authority over your own development.

​

ABOUT THE “CULT” THING

No. We are not a cult.

 

We do, however, find it funny that practically any group of people interested in spirituality, consciousness, personal development, or sitting quietly together eventually gets called one. So we figured we might as well get there first.

 

Join the cult. Develop everything.

 

It is a joke. The commitment to independent thought, openness, personal agency, questioning authority, and freedom of belief is not.

​

WHAT WE’RE TRYING TO BUILD

We are trying to build a place where ordinary people can do unusually serious work on themselves. A place where spirituality does not require checking your brain at the door, and intellectual depth does not require pretending to know everything.

A place where people can disagree without becoming enemies. A place where learning eventually turns into practice, practice turns into experience, and experience sometimes changes how you live.

 

Seek. Integrate. Grow. Serve.

 

And keep looking. 

​

​

​