Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution

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Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

Terrific…thought-provoking, beautiful book….This is the one you want on your bedside, you can’t sleep, you lean over, you read this, especially on those restless nights.”

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.” 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. Rainn Wilson is best known for playing a paper salesman named Dwight Schrute on The Office. Most people that I have encountered had no idea how devoutly religious Wilson is to his faith which is the Baha’i Faith founded in the 1800s by a man named Bahá’u’lláh whose claim is to be the fulfillment of all the major world religions. Actor, producer, and writer Rainn Wilson , cofounder of the media company SoulPancake, explores the problem-solving benefits that spirituality gives us to create solutions for an increasingly challenging world.

Soul Boom failed to make a convert out of me (among other reasons because following his religion would make one a … Boomer?). Even so, the book is valuable for its contribution to a broader spiritual dialogue and as a skillful apologetic for the Baha’i faith. Wilson wishes his readers to embrace a spirituality that adheres to some key precepts drawn from his faith tradition. Christians, who in many contexts today might find themselves with only slightly more cultural resonance than someone from the Baha’i faith, can take note of the way Soul Boom searches for cultural common ground and offers its distinctive prescriptions to the uninitiated. We've talked about a number of topics that you've explored in the book. What did you learn either if it was a thing about a topic or about yourself in writing this book? I think these 10 points are good conversation starter for those that are spiritual or religious as these are very important topics. We may have some common beliefs which is good to focus on. Here I am. Sitting in my office during the early weeks of the COVID-19 quarantine, furiously outlining the book on big spiritual ideas that I’ve been wanting to write for years. “Now’s my chance!” I say to myself (while wearing the same sweatpants I’ve worn for the past six days with the little stain where I wiped my cinnamon-raisin oatmeal on my thigh). Here’s the big opportunity! Hours and hours of free time to vomit forth a potpourri of ideas on all my favorite topics: the journey of the soul, life after death, the Big Guy Upstairs, and the personal and universal spiritual transformation of society! For my dad and stepmom, there were dinners and TV watching and gardening and dog walking—in other words, all the ingredients of a loving family. But there was no actual bond in their marriage. In fact, when I asked them when they knew their union was a mistake and they didn’t actually belong together, they both said that it was within a year of their wedding—in 1969. So they did what any two mature people of insight and level heads would do: they stayed together fifteen more years and then got a divorce the second I left for college in 1984.

What it’s about: Rainn has been a seeker of spirituality for a long time with his company SoulPancake has done a lot of good in this area of the world. He’s done a ton of research into a variety of world religions all to end with the conclusion that we need a revolution. His proposal is a brand new religion he’s calling Soul Boom. He outlines what all major religions have, what this new religion would have in those ten areas, and seven additional components that we should include in this new religion. It’s a LOT of religion and spirituality talk. I loved how accessible the language and style were for a generally non-reader such as myself. I found the breakdowns of all the lists to be helpful in that they formed what's all muddled in my head into something concrete that I can work towards.