Shame, Masculinity, Prayer, Ecstacy

Week of 8/18-23/2025: Shame, Masculinity, Prayer, Ecstasy

8/24/2025

This is a weekly summary of the previous week’s Daily Meditations. Three of them are penned by Matthew Fox (MF), and three by Gianluigi Gugliermetto (GG). You can click on the title of a DM in order to view the original piece in its entirety. Also, please note, we will continue to offer a video teaching by Matthew each Monday.

August 18, 2025: Healthy & Unhealthy Shame and Healthy & Unhealthy Masculinity (MF)

Matthew continues the conversation about shame, a topic he explored in his book Hidden Masculinity. In a study about the murders of black men, mostly by other black men, we find that, in prison, “the meanest rise to the top.” One convicted killer says, “Violence defines you as a man.”

The importance of belonging is key. Shame occurs when one feels one does not belong. How can this be resolved? The killers say that a mentor might have made all the difference.

Matthew interviewed Mark Nicholson, a therapist who grew up in England in the shadow of the World War I and II. Another aspect of toxic masculinity is that men are often shamed for grieving. Thus, learning to grieve can help to heal the shame.

Prisoner Explains Toxic Masculinity, Patriarchy and Rape Culture

A prisoner in Soledad State Prison (California) explains toxic masculinity, patriarchy, and rape culture. Video by Men Need Help.

August 19, 2025: Shame, Fascism, Healthy & Unhealthy Leaders & Father Figures (MF)

In our culture, men are taught to feel shame if they seek help from others. The ideal is the rugged individualism of someone like John Wayne.

Dr. James Adams lived through Hitler’s fascism. Decades ago, he predicted the rise of fascism in America. He warned of an all-knowing father who would preach resentment and aggression and wrap it in religion.

Conversely, a healthy fatherly figure encourages belonging. An unhealthy one derides and attacks the stranger or underdog, sowing seeds of hatred and division.

August 20, 2025: Prayer as Openness to Life (GG)

How do you define prayer? To GG, it’s the conscious effort to be in relationship with the Divine present in everything. In his book, Prayer: A Radical Response to Life, Matthew defines prayer as a radical “yes” to life — which includes also the prophetic “no” to injustice.

Matthew points out that, too often, modern consciousness has treated the soul-God relationship as a subject-object relationship. Those of us who want to keep using the name “God” must understand that God does not exist like objects exist in the world.

Matthew shares a quotation by Tolstoy: To know God and to live are one and the same thing: God is life. Therefore, at its core, GG says, prayer is a kind of openness to life.

Prayer vs. Action #podcast #justdoit #nike

“Prayer vs. Action.” Broken Silence Podcast

August 21, 2025: Praying with Queen Esther (GG)

In this time of rising fascism and cruelty, it can be offensive to see commercials of people dancing and having fun while people are being abducted and deported or sent to camps. In the biblical book of Esther, we read a very similar story: the powerful decided a date by which all Jews must be gone from the Persian empire, or else they would be slaughtered. (Esther 3:7)

Queen Esther, who was herself Jewish, responded by immediately beginning to fast and foregoing all pleasures. Esther risked her life by interfering with the king’s decision of expulsion/extermination. Through skillful diplomacy and sheer luck, she was pivotal in reversing the situation and saving all the Jews. Can we learn anything from Queen Esther’s courageous example?

August 22, 2025: Ecstasies (GG)

There has been a resurgence of interest regarding the effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) on the brain, and particularly on its connection with spirituality, prayer, and mystical experiences.

Recently, Matthew addressed this topic in the online magazine Progressing Spirit. He urges us to differentiate between natural ecstasies and tactical ecstasies. Natural ecstasies include: Nature, art, music, study, friendship, lovemaking, sports, travel, etc.

Tactical ecstasies are more elaborate practices, which are ways that human tribes have found for facilitating transcendent experiences—including the use of LSD.

Matthew urges us to first employ natural ecstasies. If we choose to try tactical ecstasies, he urges us to consider the risks. In his essay, Matthew gives a cautious blessing on the regulated use of LSD in spiritual settings, primarily because people seem to really need it at this time, including clergy. You can read his essay HERE.

Peyote drummer, 1927. Description by photographer Edward S. Curtis: The Peyote rite as practiced by the Indians of Oklahoma…

No Indian custom has been the subject of greater controversy or has led to the adoption of more laws and regulations with a view of abolishing it, largely because its effects have been misunderstood by white people. Picryl.

More Talk on Ecstasies (MF)

Continuing the conversation about LSD and other “tactical ecstasies,” Matthew shares a memory. In the 1960s, Matthew was part of a movement of about 80 young Dominicans from all over Europe who gathered to critique the order.

During a break, a free-spirited young Dutch Dominican stood on his hands with a rose in his mouth. Matthew asked him if he did drugs. He replied, “No. I get high on life.”

This is Matthew’s position exactly. We are here to get high on life. Another story: A therapist who counseled teenagers about drugs brought ten of them to a Cosmic Mass in Oakland. On the way home, they all said to her, “This is the first time in our life we’ve gotten high without drugs.”

Mystic-Warriors at the Roof of the World

In Monday’s DM, we shared the story of Marianne Grosspietsch and the Shanti Leprosy Aid organization of Nepal: faced with the loss of food from USAID, her community is planting thousands of fruit trees to nourish the hungry in the region while mitigating the effects of climate change.

We invite you to consider supporting this work HERE (US$) or HERE (€ and other currencies).

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