The No BS Spiritual Book Club with Sandie Sedgbeer

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Fr. Sean O’Laoire challenges long-held beliefs about God, scripture, and spiritual authority.

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Dec 18, 2025

Guest

Father Sean O'Leary

In a thought-provoking discussion, Father Sean O’Laoire, an Irish priest and mystic, challenges conventional ideas about God and spiritual authority. He shares insights on biblical mistruths and the need to move beyond rigid theology to experience Spirit directly. The conversation dives into consciousness studies, Irish mythology's cultural wisdom, and the relationship between science and spirituality. Father Sean also explores personal transformation, the concept of Bodhisattva, and the significance of community in today's spiritual landscape.

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ANECDOTE

Reading Night Deepened His Theodicy Quest

Father Sean recounts reading Elie Wiesel's Night and confronting theodicy after witnessing genocide narratives.
The memoir shaped his ongoing inquiry into why evil occurs and how faith survives trauma.

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ADVICE

Train Your Whole Brain For Presence

Use practices that integrate all four brain quadrants to live in the present and reduce fear-based planning.
Activate right-hemisphere presence and front-right unity to access awe and shared consciousness.

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ANECDOTE

Perinatal Workshop Sparked Reincarnation Experience

Father Sean describes participating in a perinatal workshop and experiencing a vivid past-life birth as a Tibetan woman.
That led him to apply perinatal matrices to individual and cultural neurotic patterns and global change.

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Choosing Ten Transformative Books

00:19 • 2min

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Irish Mythology as Cultural Wisdom

02:33 • 4min

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Bible Translation and Interpretation

06:54 • 2min

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Mystical Hermeneutics from His Grandmother

09:03 • 2min

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Escaping Eden and Ancient Gods

11:09 • 4min

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Science, Models, and Consciousness

14:58 • 7min

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Night and the Problem of Evil

Setting God Free and Cosmic Conspiracies

28:46 • 2min

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Contemplation and the Gene Keys

30:46 • 2min

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Whole Brain Living and Presence

32:38 • 3min

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Perinatal Matrices and Cultural Birth

36:07 • 5min

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Near-Death Research and Consciousness

40:49 • 1min

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Psychedelics, Cosmology, and Personal Cosmology

41:54 • 4min

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Seeking Jordan and Afterlife Communication

45:52 • 3min

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Books That Changed Him and Storytellers

48:50 • 3min

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Being Dismissed and Founding Community

51:23 • 3min

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Death, Regression, and Soul Lessons

54:39 • 3min

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Why He Would Reincarnate as a Bodhisattva

57:26 • 2min

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The Future of Religion and Local Communities

59:08 • 3min

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Children, Purpose, and Staying Awake

Seeking Jordan, How I Learned the Truth About Death and the Invisible Universe

Matthew McKay

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• Mentioned in 2 episodes

What is Truth?

Sean O'Leary

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Irish sagas and folk-tales

Eileen O'Faoláin

#94105

Consciousness beyond life the science of near-death experience

Pim van Lommel

#37065

Biocentrism, How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe

Robert Lanza

#44794

Beyond the Brain, Birth, Death and Transcendence in Psychotherapy

Stanislav Grof

#3846

• Mentioned in 12 episodes

LSD and the Mind of the Universe

Diamonds from Heaven

Christopher M. Bache

In this book, Christopher M. Bache chronicles his systematic journey into a unified field of consciousness that underlies all physical existence. Following protocols established by Stanislav Grof, Bache conducted 73 high-dose LSD sessions over the course of 20 years, which drew him into a deepening communion with cosmic consciousness. The book makes a powerful case for the value of psychedelically induced spiritual experience and discusses the challenges of integrating these experiences into everyday life. It also explores how psychedelic experiences can lead to collective transformation and help birth the future of humanity. Bache's journey reveals a spiral of death and rebirth, taking him through the collective unconscious into the creative intelligence of the universe, and ultimately to a realization of Divine Oneness and the Diamond Luminosity that lies outside cyclic existence.

#3598

• Mentioned in 13 episodes

Why?

The Purpose of the Universe

Philip Goff

In 'Why? The Purpose of the Universe', Philip Goff presents a thought-provoking argument for cosmic purpose, exploring alternatives to traditional religious explanations. He discusses the fine-tuning of the universe and the role of consciousness, proposing a new paradigm that moves beyond the dichotomy of God and atheism. The book offers a hopeful perspective on living with purpose, engaging with political and non-literal interpretations of religion.

• Mentioned in 10 episodes

Setting God Free

Moving Beyond the Caricature We've Created in Our Own Image

Father Seán ÓLaoire

In this book, Father Seán ÓLaoire puts God on trial for crimes against humanity, using the Torah/Pentateuch as evidence. The book is divided into four parts: Setting Psychology Free, Setting God Free, Setting Spirituality Free, and Setting Science Free. It delves into how we know what we know, decide what is true, and organize our beliefs into a coherent paradigm. The author, drawing from his background in mathematics, clinical psychology, and Catholic priesthood, offers a unique perspective that integrates science, spirituality, and personal experience to redefine the concept of God.

#4092

• Mentioned in 12 episodes

Whole Brain Living

The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life

Jill Bolte Taylor

In "Whole Brain Living," Jill Bolte Taylor expands on her previous work by introducing a framework for understanding the four distinct characters within the brain. She explains how these characters—two from the left hemisphere and two from the right—influence our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Taylor provides practical strategies for integrating these characters to achieve greater self-awareness and emotional regulation. The book emphasizes the importance of understanding the brain's structure to improve mental well-being. It offers a unique blend of neuroscience and self-help, empowering readers to take control of their mental and emotional states.

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• Mentioned in 26 episodes

My Stroke of Insight

A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey

Jill Bolte Taylor

On December 10, 1996, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven-year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist, suffered a rare form of stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. This event led to a complete deterioration of her cognitive functions within four hours, yet she alternated between the logical left brain and the intuitive right brain, experiencing euphoria and a sense of complete well-being. The book chronicles her eight-year recovery and the profound insights she gained into the brain's functioning and the potential for inner peace. Taylor's experience has been widely acclaimed, including a viral TED talk and recognition as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2008.

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Spirits in Spacesuits

Sean O'Laoire

#1211

• Mentioned in 32 episodes

Night

Elie Wiesel

In 'Night', Elie Wiesel narrates his harrowing experiences as a Jewish teenager during the Holocaust. The book follows Eliezer, a slightly fictionalized version of Wiesel, from his hometown of Sighet in Hungarian Transylvania to various concentration camps, including Auschwitz, Buna, Gleiwitz, and Buchenwald. It chronicles his struggles with faith, the inhuman conditions of the camps, and the tragic events that unfolded, including the death of his father. The memoir is a poignant and personal account of the Holocaust, highlighting themes of faith, silence, inhumanity, and the importance of human bonds.

What if God isn’t who we were taught to believe?

In this encore episode of The No BS Spiritual Book Club, Sandie Sedgbeer revisits a conversation that continuesto challenge assumptions about faith, scripture, and spiritual authority. Her guest is Fr. Sean O’Laoire—Irish priest, mystic, clinical psychologist, and spiritual storyteller—whose willingness to question doctrine ultimately led to exile from institutional religion.

Drawing from decades of lived experience, Fr. Sean speaks candidly about biblical mistruths, the dangers of rigid theology, and the difference between observing faith and participating in it. He invites listeners to move beyond belief systems and into direct relationship with Spirit—experienced, not explained.

Blending Christian mysticism, transpersonal psychology, and a deeply human understanding of consciousness, this conversation explores what it means to live inside a field of Spirit rather than merely talk about it. Fr. Sean’s reflections on seeing, hearing, and trusting the divine presence challenge us to rethink anxiety, fear, and our relationship with the future.

This is an encore conversation that still unsettles—and still opens doors.

🔗 Watch here: https://youtu.be/pOj73dAo2e4
📚 10 Best Spiritual Books: https://www.sedgbeer.com/father-sean-olaoires-10-best-spiritual-books/
🌐 Learn more: https://spiritsinspacesuits.com/about.html

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