Ask the Spiritual Cowgirl
Suggested Media Questions for Sera Beak
author of The Red Book:
A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach to Igniting Your Divine Spark
(Jossey-Bass, a Wiley Imprint, July 2006)

 

  1. Why do you say that young women been so neglected in the spirituality marketplace? Don’t we have tons of yoga magazines and Zen meditation books and Feng Shui guides and chick-lit books and Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul to help with our divine explorations? Aren’t these enough?
  1. Why is “religion” a four letter word to many in your generation?
  1. You call your book a “fire starter.” Why do you think “igniting your divine spark” is the most socially responsible thing a young woman can do nowadays?
  1. You tell women to let go of beliefs about God that conflict with their personal experience, and that they should discover what God is from the “inside out,” constantly questioning their own spiritual beliefs. Are you telling them to ignore tradition for the sake of fashionable rebellion? And isn’t this idea just a little narcissistic (all about me me me)?
  1. You want this book to be taken seriously as spirituality advice, yet you talk about lipstick and shoes and creating funky altars in your apartment. Now, besides the millions of women for whom shoes are a religion, how do you reconcile the serious and the sassy?
  1. You frequently write about “divine winks.” How does the universe “wink” at us and how does “winking back” allow us to dig out some profound meaning from everyday activities like subway rides and boring meetings and gym workouts?
  1. Some reviewers hone in on the sexuality portion of your book, given how you devote an entire chapter to encouraging open sexual exploration as a means to divine connection. Why do you think religion-and-spirituality types are so easily flustered by talk of orgasms and vibrators in relation to spirituality? Where does this fear of sex in relation to God come from?
  1. You encourage young women to “transgress,” to cross their normal boundaries and do something radically different than they might ever do normally—anything from simply dying their hair a different color to dancing on a bar to running in a marathon for the first time. Why is this kind of simple transgression such a crucial element in becoming more spiritually attuned? What does transgression have to do with our historic understanding of Jesus? Are you really saying getting a crazy dye job is a somehow a spiritual act?
  1. In your “red” approach, dreams play a very important role with regard to self awareness. Everyone knows that dreams contain weird images, but why should young women start paying more attention to their dreams? Are you saying this how the universe communicates? What are some tips for how to interpret what’s happening in that subconscious realm?
  1. What do you mean when you say that “the divine likes to go topless”? What exactly is a “Brazilian bikini-waxed prayer”? Why do you feel it’s so vital to create this kind of new spiritual lingo?
  1. You encourage young women to feel free to adopt any piece of a traditional religious or spiritual practice that resonates with them, no matter what culture it might originate from, and to recreate, reinterpret, and rearrange these pieces on their own terms. Isn’t this “picking and choosing” just a little blasphemous? Isn’t a piecemeal approach to spirituality a little insulting to the original culture and tradition where those practices originated? What do you mean by “broccoli vs. chocolate chip cookie spirituality”?
  1. Why did you feel that to explore spirituality in more depth, it was necessary to leave serious academic study behind and strike out on your own?

 

For more information or to schedule an interview with Sera Beak, please contact
Sara Long at 415-782-3213 or slong@wiley.com
 
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