The Cult Spectrum

Ronald E Purser Ph.D is the Lam Larsen Distinguished Research Professor of Management at San Francisco State University. "He is best known for McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality, the international bestseller that ignited a global debate on the commodification of meditation. He is an instructor at Dharma College in Berkeley, California, where he leads courses and seminars on Mind Space pro bono.

Most spiritual language about light is comforting. We speak of finding our light, following the light, becoming enlightened, or being a light in the darkness. In an age of extraordinary material development yet deepening mental distress, spiritual growth may carry a responsibility beyond personal peace and fulfillment. A materially wealthy person can become spiritually impoverished through hoarding or indifference.A spiritually wealthy person may likewise diminish the metaphysical significance of insight and contentment by treating them exclusively as private attainments.Drawing from mythology, history, psychology, and ancient wisdom, this talk explores what it means to truly prosper and why qualities like love, compassion, courage, and wisdom become especially valuable when the world is losing its way. 

Love, commitment, and non-attachment can seem almost contradictory. Love asks us to care deeply. Commitment asks us to invest, remain present and invested. Non-attachment, meanwhile, is often misunderstood as distance, detachment, or keeping one foot out the door. This talk explores how these three, when properly understood, can actually strengthen one another. Let’s look at the difference between commitment and codependency, between staying and truly showing up, and between loving someone and needing to possess or control them. At its healthiest, non-attachment does not mean caring less; it means releasing the demand that love conform to our expectations. The result is a different vision of commitment: not clinging, obligation, or passive longevity, but sustained participation in something we have chosen to energize.

new book, LOSSLESSNESS, out now! We are not simply, or only, stressed because life is hard. Life has always been hard. We are also stressed because the rate of change, the uncertainty of the future, and the invasion of technology into the nervous system have exceeded our ability to maintain meaning.The question is not: “Should we reject modern life?” The better question is: “How do we remain soulful, present, loving, and human inside a world that will not stop updating?” And maybe the task is not to become anti-modern. Maybe the task is to become pro-enchantment.

Order my new book, Losslessness, here: https://a.co/d/07qUbPX2Cults are not inexplicable aberrations populated by uniquely gullible people. They magnify ordinary human tendencies of idealization, belonging, cognitive dissonance, sunk costs, power imbalance, spiritual inflation, and our desire to mistake temporary mystical states of consciousness for permanent attainment.

Mike Travisano brings more than 35 years of mindfulness practice and teaching into his work with clients, teams, and organizations. An ordained Buddhist teacher (Oshō) in south-central Pennsylvania, Mike’s approach is grounded, personal, and refreshingly real. He specializes in helping people recognize and work with unhelpful thoughts and emotions in real time—offering mindful strategies for creating movement, hope, and healing. Mike’s post-grad work in organizational psychology at Penn State informs much of his work with teams. Mike’s experience spans corporate leadership and contemplative practice. He has worked with IBM, the United Nations, and Blue Cross organizations, and currently serves as a Contemplative Practitioner for Charlie Health’s intensive mental health programs. He’s also a member of Charlie Health’s Clinical Content Advisory Council.His book, Refuge in Small Things, was released in 2024 and explores everyday practices for living with intention and presence. Mike’s writing has also been featured by Psychology Today, Tricycle Magazine, The Dewdrop, and others.

My first book, LOSSLESSNESS, is now here!It’s the number 1 new release in Consciousness and Thought on Amazon:https://a.co/d/04E0krSuThis talk explores the rainbow as a sacred symbol of pride, spirituality, and mystical insight: a sign that difference need not mean division, and unity need not require sameness. Through queer theory and wisdom traditions from around the world, the rainbow can be seen as a flag and even a theology of radiant continuity. Its colors can be named but not finally separated; each hue matters, yet all arise from one light. No color, no body, no form of love is exiled from the wholeness of the divine.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate.” -Carl JungWe often think of the inner child as a sentimental image of a younger version of ourselves waiting to be hugged. Psychologically speaking, we can also understand our inner child to be our current nervous system running a program based on its earliest education in safety. Before we had language, before we had philosophy, before we had a coherent self, the body was learning and the brain was developing until 25 years old, based on inherited and formative experiences. It was coding whether love was reliable, whether anger was dangerous, whether needs were welcome, whether silence meant peace or threat. In this sense, the inner child is not the past. The inner child is the past still firing through the present as psychological reflex.

You can watch the video of this episode on patreon: https://patreon.com/kindmind Complexity often belongs to the ego’s attempt to secure itself. It multiplies contingencies, roles, narratives, defenses, explanations, plans, possessions, and rehearsed identities. In ordinary times we may mistake this for sophistication. But in moments of real trial, the soul needs simplicity. Breath. Presence. Love. Sanctuary. Prayer. One next step. So simplicity is a return to essence under pressure.

Breathing reveals the essential work of awakening: when respiration runs on the midbrain’s automatic rhythm, much of life follows suit—thoughts, emotions, and behaviors moving mechanically while the mind mistakes this automaticity for authentic presence. This shared inertia is what mystics call sleep, a collective trance so pervasive that few feel any urgency to question it. Awakening requires sacred friction—the meeting of the body’s habitual impulse towards mechanical life with the mind’s intentional counter-impulse towards consciousness. In the simple act of choosing a breath, command shifts from the automatic to the aware; two forces meet, and sparks of self-remembering appear.