About Wonderstruck
Wonderstruck was inspired by the idea of being struck by the wrinkle in time, the glitch in the field, the liminal space filled with awe, the uncanny, and wonder. Such experiences often give us goosebumps as they don’t fit into our everyday perceptual framework. Such events are related to questions about consciousness, being, and reality that harkens insight, intuition, creativity and discovery. We look at mystery as a place where transformation often occurs.
Ancient traditions addressed deep mysteries that today are often relegated to the margins as irrelevant or superstitious. The Hindu and Buddhist Tantra, early Christianity, Sufism, Kabbalah, Hermeticism, shamanism, paganism, psychedelics, contemplative neuroscience, and the so-called anomalies in Western medicine may seem mysterious… but offer us a unique opportunity for transformation.
William James recognized 100 years ago in The Varieties of Religious Experience that human beings have the innate capacity for expansive experience and that we do ourselves a disservice not to study this phenomenon. Within it lays the capacity for humans to transform themselves. Globally we find ourselves distressed, dissatisfied and often overwhelmed. What would it mean if transcendent experiences were more acknowledged? What would it mean for our stewardship of self, other and planet?
People all over the world, are yearning for a greater sense of meaning. Modern civilization closed the door on the ineffable at great expense to wonder and creativity. We would like to use this podcast to open up the conversation and to ground what seems so potentially untethered. Perhaps the extraordinary is really a very ordinary, yet profound human capacity to experience, and a really life-changing one at that!
Wonderstruck, the podcast, is a deep and yet light hearted engagement with scientists, scholars, experts and outright experiencers in an attempt to put into thoughtful down to earth language the topics of: the mystical, the metaphysical, the transcendent, the transformative, the esoteric and ecstatic, the things dismissed as not real or relegated to the margins as they bend the box of mainstream materialism. Let’s just say that people you cannot even imagine have had these experiences. Some talk about them, most do not. For fun we can mention Pythagoras, Sigmond Freud, Madame Curie, Anthony Hopkins and Tracy Morgan, as well as various Nobel Laureates, writers, scientists, and even my kindergarten teacher!
Within the context of the sublime and wonder, join me as we ask questions like this:
- What is being human?
- What is Consciousness?
- What is the deal with death?
- What is the more than meets the eye?
- What is Love?
- How is reality defined and who defines it?
- How are these unconventional practices, ancient mysteries, and ideas even relevant to my life today?
- How has my life changed after having had a transformative experience?
At Wonderstruck, we address mind, body, and spirit. We discuss visions, intuition, and experiences of awe and terror. We pay attention to that “something other” within and the sacred in everyday life. In the course of our meetings we talk, push back and argue, all within the frame of acceptance and curiosity. We aim for a place where ideas can initiate change, openness, and learning. We ask questions that elicit authentic answers. Sometimes it gets kinda complicated but we aim for clarity, transparency, and authenticity. We seek to render ideas tangible and relevant. We invite you to listen and ask questions. Through all of this, we hope you find yourself wonderstruck!
Your Host
ELIZABETH ROVERE
Elizabeth Rovere, MA, MTS, PsyD, RYT-200 is a clinical psychologist, BodyAwake yoga teacher and podcast host in New York City.