Modern Animism Radio, a holistic spiritual path

Pan Society
  • 4.6 (22)
  • Spirituality
  • Updated Weekly

New to animism? Want to explore the animist lifestyle in the modern world? Come with us. We were born into this and can show you the ropes about rituals, Spirit, ancestors, holy days, and so much more!

  1. 6d ago

    Cemetery Preservationist Jason Church on Tending the Dead and Honoring the Living

    What does it mean to listen to a gravestone? Jason Church has spent his life finding out. As Chief of Technical Services at the National Park Service's National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, Jason is one of the country's leading experts in cemetery preservation and monument conservation — but his relationship with these sacred places began long before any credential. It started in fourth grade, in a cemetery in Wilmington, North Carolina, with a caretaker who showed a curious kid things most people never get to see. In this conversation, Jason talks about what cemeteries hold — not just names and dates, but stories, artistry, spiritual presence, and the living pulse of community memory. We explore the craftsmanship of anonymous stone carvers whose finest work sits in forgotten corners of the country, the oral histories that disappear when a marker crumbles, and what it actually felt like to raise his family inside Laurel Grove South Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia — one of the most historically and spiritually significant African American burial grounds in the South. For animists, cemetery preservation isn't maintenance. It's reciprocity. It's relationship. And Jason Church has been living that truth since he was nine years old. Chapters00:00 The Seeds of Curiosity: A Childhood Fascination07:17 Living Among the Dead: Caretaking in a Cemetery11:31 The Art and Science of Preservation16:39 Community and Connection: The People Behind the Graves26:12 Legacy and Storytelling: Keeping Memories Alive#CemeteryPreservation #Animism #AnimistPodcast #SacredLand #CemeteryConservation #HonoringAncestors #GravestoneRestoration #HistoricPreservation #DeathPositive #FolkArt #OralHistory #BurialGrounds #AncestorVeneration #LaurelGroveCemetery #NationalParkService #SpiritInTheGround #CemeteryHistory #SacredSites #GraveyardCulture #TendingTheDead🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode👇 Tell us in the comments — what cemetery has stayed with you?Want to go deeper? Join me here:https://www.patreon.com/cw/PanSocietyAnimismLaura Giles is an animist licensed clinical social worker who specializes in healing trauma. She founded Pan Society to make animism accessible to modern people. She delights in helping people to find their own spiritual path and awaken their innate spiritual wisdom.For more information about Laura Giles, see her websites at https://linktr.ee/lauragilesBumper credits: Music from Pond5. Videos from Pixabay and Pexels.

    37 min

  2. Jun 15

    The Wound That Splits You in Two: Why You Can't Feel the Connection You Know Is Real

    You know the world is alive. You feel it in flashes — in the forest, in a quiet moment, in a flicker of connection that feels like coming home. And then it's gone, and you're back behind the glass, watching your own life from a distance. This isn't a failure of your spirituality. It's not that you're "not doing it right."In Part 2 of this series, we go deep into what trauma actually does to the nervous system — and why the same sensitivity that draws you toward animism, toward feeling the aliveness of the world, is also the thing standing between you and actually landing inside it. We explore: * Why dissociation is a protector, not a flaw * The three layers of wounding: personal, ancestral, and collective * Why hypervigilance often underlies spiritual sensitivity * Structural dissociation — the biology of why you can know connection is real and still not feel it * How to begin honoring the parts of you that learned to protect you This is for the deeply feeling people. The ones who light the candles, sit with the trees, do the practice — and still feel that pane of glass. You are not alone in this, and you are not failing. Part 3 is coming soon, where we start talking about what healing this actually looks like.If this resonated, I'd love to hear which part hit hardest — drop it in the comments below. Want to go deeper? Join me here:https://www.patreon.com/cw/PanSocietyAnimismLaura Giles is an animist licensed clinical social worker who specializes in healing trauma. She founded Pan Society to make animism accessible to modern people. She delights in helping people to find their own spiritual path and awaken their innate spiritual wisdom.For more information about Laura Giles, see her websites at https://linktr.ee/lauragiles

    20 min

  3. Jun 11

    What The Pilgrimage Gets Right About Religion That Most Films Are Too Afraid to Say

    Most films about religion play it safe. They make faith the light that saves everyone, or the darkness that corrupts everything. The Pilgrimage (2017) does something braver — and rarer.Through six characters, this quiet Irish film maps the full spectrum of what religion actually does to human beings. Raymond sees any rock as a potential relic and uses the Crusades as a machine for wealth and absolution. Geraldus is a true believer who turned in his own father as a heretic — not for power, but because the institution has replaced his conscience entirely. Brother Ciarán shares Geraldus's faith exactly, and yet dies forgiving his torturer with his last breath. The mute was set adrift without oars for something terrible he did, found by Diarmuid, and has been choosing smallness as penance ever since. And Diarmuid himself — young, quiet, the only one whose faith has never been used for anything — is the only one pure enough to touch the relic. And the only one who understands what must be done with it in the end.This video is a deep-dive psychological and spiritual reading of The Pilgrimage — one of the most honest films about faith ever made, and one almost nobody is talking about.Chapters00:00 The Dual Nature of Faith in Hollywood02:32 Exploring the Characters of 'Pilgrimage'04:51 Raymond: The Pragmatic User of Faith08:32 Geraldus: The True Believer's Tragedy12:06 Brother Ciaran: Faith in Action16:07 The Mute: Guilt and Redemption20:07 Jermud: Pure Spirituality24:10 The Pagans: The Old Sacred27:11 The Power Dynamics of Religion30:04 The Universal Need for Meaning32:41 The Final Sacrifice and Its Implications37:10 The Honest Exploration of Faith#Pilgrimage #spiritualityvsreligion#FilmAnalysis #ReligionAndFilm#FaithVsReligion #MovieExplainedWant to go deeper? Join me here:https://www.patreon.com/cw/PanSocietyAnimismLaura Giles is an animist licensed clinical social worker who specializes in healing trauma. She founded Pan Society to make animism accessible to modern people. She delights in helping people to find their own spiritual path and awaken their innate spiritual wisdom.For more information about Laura Giles, see her websites at https://linktr.ee/lauragilesBumper credits: Music from Pond5. Videos from Pixabay and Pexels.

    41 min

  4. Jun 8

    Why Can't I Feel? Why Can't I Connect? Numb to Known Ep

    Do you feel present in the room but absent from it? Like the river used to speak — and now it doesn't?For those of us who understand the world as alive and relational, disconnection isn't just a social problem. It's a cosmic one. When the felt sense goes quiet, we lose touch not only with people, but with everything that speaks.In this first episode of From Numb to Known, we name the specific ache of disconnection that animists often feel most deeply — and we explain why you are not broken. You are severed. And severing is something that happens to people, which means it can be understood, and slowly, carefully, healed. We explore interoception — the sense through which you feel yourself and the world — and how trauma and modern life together turn it down. We talk about why genuine empathy requires a body that is available to receive, and why that availability is exactly what gets shut down under prolonged stress. And we hold space for the particular grief of ancestral disconnection: when the lineage that held these practices was broken before we were born.This series is about returning to a connected way of life. This episode is where we begin — with the truth of where we are. Want to go deeper? Join me here:https://www.patreon.com/cw/PanSocietyAnimism

    30 min

  5. Jun 4

    Finding Your Way Back to an Animist Center: How to Reconnect When Life Feels Empty (Kato)

    Do you feel like something is missing — but you can't quite name what it is? You're not alone. Millions of people are searching for deeper meaning, connection, and a sense of belonging that modern life just doesn't seem to offer. In this video, we explore why — through the lens of animism, the documentary Kato: Dreams of the Dark Earth, and the surprising wisdom of the Munduruku people of the Amazon.You'll learn:What animism actually is (and why it's not what you think)Why even people living on ancestral land feel disconnected — and what that means for the rest of usHow the Western habit of naming and categorizing everything is cutting you off from real relationshipA simple "unnaming" practice you can start today to begin feeling more alive and connectedWhy trauma work is non-negotiable on the spiritual path — and how to know if it applies to youWhether you're exploring spirituality for the first time, recovering from religious trauma, feeling burned out by hustle culture, or simply sensing that there's more to life than what you've been handed — this video is for you.#animism #whatisanimism #animismexplained #spiritualawakening #feelingdisconnected #somethingismissing #indigenousspirituality #Munduruku #Katodocumentary #KatoDreamsoftheDarkEarth #traumaandspirituality #spiritualhealing #naturespirituality #earth-basedspirituality #UrsulaLeGuin #SheUnnamesThem #animistpractice Want to go deeper? Join me here:https://www.patreon.com/cw/PanSocietyAnimismLaura Giles is an animist licensed clinical social worker who specializes in healing trauma. She founded Pan Society to make animism accessible to modern people. She delights in helping people to find their own spiritual path and awaken their innate spiritual wisdom.For more information about Laura Giles, see her websites at https://linktr.ee/lauragilesBumper credits: Music from Pond5. Videos from Pixabay and Pexels.

    22 min

  6. May 28

    : The Animated Universe: Spirits, Souls, and the Web of All Life

    What if everything around you — the river, the wind, the stone under your feet — was alive? Not metaphorically. Actually alive, with its own intentions, memory, and place in the world?That's the premise at the heart of animism, one of humanity's oldest and most widespread spiritual frameworks. In this episode, we break down animist cosmology from the ground up: the three-world structure of Upper, Middle, and Lower realms; the nature of the human soul and the danger of soul loss; the beings that populate the Otherworld — from ancestors and psychopomps to chthonic earth spirits and the unquiet dead; the role of the shaman as a diplomat between worlds; and the strange, sideways communities — fairies, the Fair Folk, the Hidden People — who share the Middle World with us just out of sight.We also tackle the big conceptual questions: how does animism handle gods, demons, and elemental spirits? What is soul loss, and why does it look so much like modern trauma? And what does reciprocity actually mean when you live inside a web of relations that includes every rock, river, and ancestor you've ever had?Whether you're approaching this from folklore, indigenous studies, shamanism, nature spirituality, or pure curiosity — this episode maps the full terrain.Topics covered: animist cosmology, the three worlds, soul and soul loss, the Otherworld, ancestors, shamanism, spirits of place, animal powers, the Fair Folk and fairy folklore, gods vs powerful persons in animism, dangerous spirits, elemental forces, and reciprocity as the ethical core of animist belief.Chapters00:00 Introduction to Animism02:44 The Foundation of Animism05:00 The Structure of the Cosmos07:21 The Concept of Soul in Animism09:44 The Other World and Its Inhabitants12:17 The Role of the Healer13:47 The Middle World and Its Beings17:03 Understanding Gods and Spirits in Animism18:52 Living in Balance with the CosmosWant to go deeper? Join me here:https://www.patreon.com/cw/PanSocietyAnimism#AnimistCosmology #SoulLoss #SpiritOfPlace #Otherworld #FairFolk #Sidhe #AncestorSpirit #ChthionicSpirits #ShamanicJourney #NatureSpirits #SacredNature #WebOfLife #ReciprocityWithNature #LivingUniverse #ThreeWorldsLaura Giles is an animist licensed clinical social worker who specializes in healing trauma. She founded Pan Society to make animism accessible to modern people. She delights in helping people to find their own spiritual path and awaken their innate spiritual wisdom.For more information about Laura Giles, see her websites at https://linktr.ee/lauragilesBumper credits: Music from Pond5. Videos from Pixabay and Pexels.

    23 min

  7. May 14

    The Moon Landing Changed His Family's Faith — Now He's Returning to His Animist Roots | Nick Hartanto

    Nick Hartanto, award-winning filmmaker and director of Daly City, opens up about the deeply personal story behind his short film — exploring what happens when a family chooses assimilation over cultural identity. Learn how his grandmother's conversion to Christianity after witnessing the moon landing reshaped his Indonesian family's connection to their animist roots, and how that loss of heritage became the driving force behind his filmmaking.In this interview, Nick shares how immigration, faith, and the search for belonging have shaped both his life and his art — and why he's now returning to the animist traditions his family left behind.Whether you're interested in independent film, cultural identity, the immigrant experience, or Southeast Asian storytelling, this conversation will stay with you.Contact Nick Hartanto at https://nickhartanto.com#IndependentFilm #ImmigrantExperience #CulturalIdentity #NickHartanto #DalyCity #Animism #IndonesianAmerican #Filmmaker #ShortFilm #Diaspora #SoutheastAsian #HeritageAndIdentity #AwardWinningFilm #Assimilation #StorytellingWant to go deeper? Join me here:https://www.patreon.com/cw/PanSocietyAnimismLaura Giles is an animist licensed clinical social worker who specializes in healing trauma. She founded Pan Society to make animism accessible to modern people. She delights in helping people to find their own spiritual path and awaken their innate spiritual wisdom.For more information about Laura Giles, see her websites at https://linktr.ee/lauragilesBumper credits: Music from Pond5. Videos from Pixabay and Pexels.

    52 min

  8. May 14

    What the Dead Still Need: Animist Wisdom for Memorial Day and the Healing of Warrior Souls

    What if the way America treats its war dead is making things worse — for the living and the dead?Every year, Memorial Day comes and goes. Flags. Speeches. Sales. And a quiet, persistent feeling that we haven't actually done the thing. That we've gestured at something sacred without touching it.This video asks a different question: what do animist traditions around the world — from West Africa to Japan, from Indigenous North America to ancient Greece — actually do for those who died in war? And what can America learn from them?We explore:→ Why America outsources death and what that costs us→ The difference between cultures that don't speak the names of the dead as ceremony — and American silence, which is just avoidance→ What animism actually is (and why it's not what you think)→ West African ancestor traditions and the war dead who died far from home→ Indigenous North American warrior return ceremonies — and why we call the same wound PTSD→ Japanese Shinto, goryō, and the annual return of the dead at Obon→ Ancient Greek and Roman obligations to the fallen→ Día de los Muertos and loving the dead into the present→ The animist consensus: what virtually every human culture has understood about violent death→ America's spiritual gap — and what it's costing our veterans, our families, and our land→ What you can actually do this Memorial DayThis isn't about politics. It isn't about religion. It's about something older than both — the universal human obligation to tend to those who died in our name.The war dead are still waiting.#MemorialDay #AnimistWisdom #HonorTheFallen #VeteranHealing #MoralInjury #GriefAndRitual #AncestorVeneration #SoulWound #WarDead #AnimismChapters00:00 The Insufficiency of Memorial Day Observances02:41 Cultural Perspectives on Death and Grief05:12 The Role of Ceremony in Honoring the Dead08:10 Indigenous Traditions and the Warrior's Return11:05 Lessons from Ancient Cultures on Mourning13:43 The Spiritual Emergency of War and Grief16:25 Practical Steps for Honoring the Dead19:35 Reconnecting with the Living and the LandWant to go deeper? Join me here:https://www.patreon.com/cw/PanSocietyAnimismLaura Giles is an animist licensed clinical social worker who specializes in healing trauma. She founded Pan Society to make animism accessible to modern people. She delights in helping people to find their own spiritual path and awaken their innate spiritual wisdom.For more information about Laura Giles, see her websites at https://linktr.ee/lauragilesBumper credits: Music from Pond5. Videos from Pixabay and Pexels.

    32 min
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4.6
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New to animism? Want to explore the animist lifestyle in the modern world? Come with us. We were born into this and can show you the ropes about rituals, Spirit, ancestors, holy days, and so much more!

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