Trust the Silence. It’s already inside you: after every heartbeat, between and beneath each thought. Learn to listen to it. Learn to gently let go of your inner commentator; give that voice the day off. Breathe quietly. Allow the silence to guide you.

Be Your Rooted Self. You are really you, only and completely you all the way down, deep into the soil. And if you are like everyone else, you’ve taken in lots of messages to be someone you’re not. Get rid of that nonsense. Give the world the gift of you.

Live Beyond Belief. Change up your worldview, your creed, your belief system. Not for the sake of chaos but for the sake of staying present and mindful. Discover the treasures that your dogmas tend to filter out. Let those treasures change you.

Embrace Playful Wonder. Giggle and be goofy. Run around screaming with the unanswerable questions. Jump in and out of fountains. Get dirt under your fingernails. Notice just how magnificent it all is. Marvel at just how wonderful you are.

Prioritize Joy. Don’t delay this one: it’s the most important thing after love. Give joy the place of honor it deserves. If joy eludes you, woo it gently and kindly; be patient but persistent. Be intimate with joy’s close friends: delight, awe, gratitude, and fun.

Love Nondually. Cultivate the vision of a world where unity matters more than polarity. The poles don’t disappear — dance with them both. Love them all, and let God sort them out. Watch over your heart, and gently deconstruct your resentments and bitterness.

Break the Rules. Mystics are not sheep; they are woefully incapable of simply doing what they’re told. Test the limits, push back against the meaningless customs and barriers that exist only to serve the convenience of others. Be radically free.

Color Outside the Lines. Take up a new hobby. Join a new religion (or an old one). Love someone you’re not “supposed” to love. Wear the wrong clothes, listen to the wrong music, notice the person everyone mocks and get to know their story — which will surprise you.

Be Psychedelic. The sacred plants are optional — but the transformed consciousness is necessary. Breathe exuberantly. Dream with abandon. Pay attention to everything. Integrate emerging wisdom. Get lost in expansive music and swirling colors. Be alive.

Ignore the Institution. Be kind and responsible, of course, but don’t waste time with bureaucratic officiousness. Question authority (including your own). Be humble but not a doormat. Sneak in through the cracks where no one’s watching.

Dismantle Privilege. For this one, inquire within; recognize who you deem to be “less than.” Share your advantages with others. Listen to those who are not used to being heard. Apologize whenever necessary. Agitate for constructive change.

Cause Good Trouble. Be curious; see what it’s like to rock the boat a little. If something needs to be changed, change it yourself if you can. Otherwise, find some way to get the attention of those in power. Be irritating and annoying. Be a story worth telling.

In 2025 I was invited to become the new facilitator for a day-long program called Wisdom Camp, held each year at the Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina.

The Wild Goose Festival brings together artists, musicians, writers, activists, contemplatives, spiritual directors, and many others to explore the intersections of spirituality, creativity, and justice. Having participated in the festival several times, I was honored to help lead one of its signature day-long experiences.

Wisdom Camp serves as a retreat and spiritual practice intensive, offering participants a deeper contemplative experience than the festival’s typical one-hour sessions. Over the years it has featured presenters such as Adam Bucko, Matthew Fox, Mirabai Starr, Lama Rod Owens, Cassidy Hall, and Alexander John Shaia, so I knew I had big shoes to fill.

My first step was inviting Debonee Morgan to serve as co-facilitator. Debonee is a therapist, spiritual director, and executive director of Zeitgeist Atlanta, where I serve as contemplative-in-residence. Her background in contemplative spirituality, spiritual direction, and integrative therapy, combined with her inclusive, pluralistic approach to faith, made her the ideal partner.

After exploring several ideas, we settled on a theme that immediately energized us both: Radical Mysticism.

Here’s a video we created to let people know about Wisdom Camp 2025:

Together we designed a day of spiritual practices, conversation, and reflection around that theme. The response exceeded all expectations: the festival organizers told us it was the best-attended Wisdom Camp — and the best-attended day-long camp—in the festival’s history. We received the news with gratitude, believing we were simply serving something much larger than ourselves.

That experience convinced us that Radical Mysticism deserved a life beyond a single annual retreat. As we prepare to return for Wisdom Camp 2026, we’ve also launched www.RadicalMystics.com as an ongoing space to share articles, podcasts, videos, and conversations. Our hope is to gather companions from around the world who want to explore a radical approach to mystery and what it might mean for our lives.

But this begs a question…

What is “Radical Mysticism”?

Words like “radical” and “mystic” carry a lot of connotations, ranging from the visionary to, frankly, the unsavory. So here are my thoughts on what this curious term might mean.

Let’s start with mystic. It’s related to mystery, and before that, to silence: the word mute descends from the same Greek word that gave us mystery and mysticism. Depending on where you’re coming from, mysticism could mean union with God, the experience of enlightenment, the transcendence of ordinary reality, a visionary dimension of consciousness — to name just a few possibilities. A mystic, therefore, is someone who either experiences, or calibrates their life toward, some form of mystical experience or consciousness. And even though it can mean many different things especially to different people, there seems to be a golden thread running through all the varieties of mysticism: a recognition that life carries an array of possibilities, far beyond what ordinarily meets the eye. Nothing is impossible to the mystic.

So then there’s “radical.” Forget any ideas you might have about violent extremists or inflexible ideologues — we’re using the word in a much more grounded (literally!) way. It comes from the Latin word for root — radix — think radishes. To be radical, therefore, means (or can mean) to be rooted, stable, anchored in the good earth (and the corollary to the good earth, the good human body). Radicals start at the root of the matter, and the root of mysticism is the experience of infinite possibilities. We weave mystery and silence and rootedness together to celebrate a vision of spirituality — indeed, of life in general — that is willing to go beyond the limitations of conventional religion, or garden-variety politics, or “business as usual” society. Mystics want liberation, transformation, deification (becoming one with the divine). Radical mystics, therefore, want that kind of interior transfiguration literally from the ground up.

Okay, I know this is all somewhat vague. But that’s by intention: we don’t want to box you in with our ideas about what radical mysticism is all about — or what is possible for us. We just want to co-create, with you, a forum where possibility and liberation and deep interior transformation all dance together. Where we can embody our from-the-roots-up spirituality beyond the confines of religion, of dogma, of limiting ideas of “this is how we’ve always done it.” Let’s open our hearts and minds and souls to infinite possibility: that’s where radical mystics love to dance. So come, and dance with us.

Beyond the Wild Goose

To be a radical mystic means to be engaged in something sacred and deep and eternal. And while we are eager to revisit our Wild Goose Festival friends (and to meet some new companions) as we return to the Wild Goose for Wisdom Camp 2026, we also feel like this topic is bigger than what one single retreat day once a year could fully do it justice.

So we decided to complement the annual in-person Wisdom Camp with a forum here on Substack, where not only can Debonee and I create content (whether articles, notes, podcasts or videos) to share with anyone and everyone interested in this topic, but hopefully this could also serve as a forum where a larger community could begin to form. Obviously, not everyone is going to make the trek to rural North Carolina to participate in a weekend festival; our purpose in creating www.RadicalMystics.com is to begin inviting friends and companions from around the world to join us in exploring and discerning a radical approach to mystery — and what it might mean for any of us.

We’re inviting you to be part of the circle. We hope you’ll subscribe to this newsletter, and that you’ll share your thoughts, ideas, etc. with us and with others who are drawn to this intersection of mystery and rootedness. If you haven’t already done so, subscribe here. Tell your friends, comrades, co-conspirators and fellow troublemakers about this as well. Let’s be community together.

Thanks. And stay tuned! There’s more to come.