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. 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.

I cried when I read about the change Wilson saw in his students over the course of months practicing more mindful and compassionate behaviours. 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 ... Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Need Help?

I had so much fun reading this, but then at the same time, I had to put my real brain on because it was so deep.”

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. Before I answer that question, I want to share some context. My life story, the story of my journey toward being an actor, a member of the Baha’i Faith, and a spiritual student/thinker/enthusiast (as told in full in The Bassoon King, my serio-comic memoir of 2015), is a complicated one. Well, the Beatles met with the Maharishi, Cat Stevens became a Muslim, Shirley MacLaine communed with ancient aliens, a young Steve Jobs studied Buddhism in India, everybody was “kung fu fighting,” and countless young people sought answers along nontraditional spiritual paths. I would HIGHLY recommend this to those interested in spirituality especially if you have not heard of the Baha'i faith before as they have a lot of "new ways" to practice a religion that I think are commendable.BUSINESS Restaurant sales, closures, and confusion in Fairhaven Longtime businesses open, closed, and for sale If you approach your reading of "Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution" expecting to experience the quirky hilarity of Rainn Wilson's iconic Dwight Schrute character from "The Office," then you're likely to find "Soul Boom" a bit of a disappointment. So, thank you Rainn. You have a lovely book that I’m confident will help a lot of people out with their spiritual journeys. In a fun exercise, quotes from “Kung Fu” and from holy texts are presented together, and it is impressively difficult to differentiate; for example, “Peace lies not in the world … but in the man who walks the path” (“Kung Fu”) and “There is nothing so disobedient as an undisciplined mind” (Buddha). A higher power 2. Life after death 3. The power of prayer 4. Transcendence 5. Community 6. A moral compass 7. The force of love 8. Increased compassion 9. Service to the poor 10. A strong sense of purpose”