Sense of Soul - Spiritual Freedom

Episode Date: May 12, 2023

Today on Sense of Soul podcast, I have author Lynne Renoir. She was born into a fundamentalist Christian family where the Bible was the central focus. She was not allowed to make mistakes or to challenge her father’s opinions. Such behavior, in his view, was the work of Satan. As God’s representative in the family, her father believed it was his duty to belt the devil out of his daughter, and he did so regularly and severely. When the beatings continued into her twenties, Lynne finally broke free. Convinced she was a failure as a believer, she left home, and for several decades she endeavored to live by the tenets of the faith in which she had been raised. Then when she was fifty, Lynne had an amazing experience of communication with beings in the spirit world. Under their guidance she completed a Master’s degree in Psychology and a PhD in Philosophy. She then investigated quantum theory and mysticism, coming to the conclusion that everything in the universe is one. This led her to question the idea of an external, all-powerful being who sits in judgment on his creatures. For Lynne, the experience of realizing the oneness of all reality has been life transforming. In sharing her fascinating journey from religious indoctrination to spiritual freedom, she reveals a way to those who are seeking to find their own pathway to liberation. You can find a sample of her book and more here at her website. https://www.lynnerenoir.com Learn more about Shanna and Sense of Soul at www.mysenseofsoul.com  Go can find all of our new Sense of Soul Network of Lightworkers at our afiliates page at https://www.mysenseofsoul.com/sense-of-soul-affiliates-page Join our Sense of Soul Patreon!! Our community of seekers and lightworkers who get exclusive discounts, live events like SOS Sacred Circles, ad free episodes and more. You can also listen to Shanna’s new mini series, about the Goddess Sophia! Sign up today and help support our podcast. https://www.patreon.com/senseofsoul Just in! Sense of Soul Podcast is among other great top 45 Spiritual Podcast on the web! https://blog.feedspot.com/spiritual_awakening_podcasts/  

Hello, my soul-seeking friends. It's Shanna. Thank you so much for listening to Sense of Soul podcast. Enlightening conversations with like-minded souls from around the world, sharing their journey of finding their light within, turning pain into purpose, and awakening to their true sense of soul. If you like what you hear, show me some love and rate, like, and subscribe. And consider becoming a Sense of Soul Patreon member, where you will get ad-free episodes, monthly circles, and much more. Now go grab your coffee, open your mind, heart, and soul. It's time to awaken. Hey listeners, did you know that Sense of Soul just recently was selected by Feedspot as one of the top 45 spiritual podcasts on the web? What an honor, and I wouldn't have a podcast

without you. So thank you so much for listening. In today's episode, we have author Lynn Renoir. She has a master's degree in psychology and a PhD in philosophy. She's joining us to tell us about her life's transformation in her new book and memoir, Leaving Faith, Finding Meaning, A Preacher's Daughter's Search for God. Thanks so much for being with us, Lynn. Hello, Shannon. How are you? I'm fine, thank you. How are you? I am great. And so good morning to you. Is that right? That's right. Yes, it's eight o'clock in the morning. Sydney, Australia. Oh, okay. I thought you were in Australia. You know, your book, I think, is something that has been hitting me lately, because I don't know if you've heard of the term religion trauma syndrome. No, I haven't heard of it.

When you leave the church, or when you leave a faith, all the things that come with that, there's the dogma and the judging and maybe, you know, whatever, it causes trauma. Yes, it certainly does. And I don't think it's talked about a lot. People are a bit ashamed to tell our people. Yeah. So how did you come to write this book? Well, I tried to be a very good Christian for the first 50 years of my life. I did everything you were

supposed to do. I attended church and Sunday school. I prayed every day. I read the Bible every day. But the Bible says that if you totally embrace the Christian faith, your life will be transformed. And I'm sure you know that Paul has a list of what he calls fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering. Now, at the age of 50, I had none of those qualities. And I thought, well, what's wrong with me? If I had given everything to the faith as I had tried to do for half a century and it wasn't working, then I thought, well, is what I have believed completely wrong?

And I couldn't make sense of that because other people who had the same beliefs as I had, a lot of them were exhibiting these wonderful qualities that Simone talks about. So I was in a complete dilemma. Was I doing something wrong? But I couldn't think of anything that I was doing that was wrong. I was a very good woman, as they say. But then something happened to me when I was 50.

I lost a set of gifts and when I couldn't find them, I had a sort of a breakdown. For days, all I could do was to wander around the house, looking in every room. I could not work out what could have happened to those kids. So in desperation, I did something I would never have done before. I went to see a psychic. Now, the psychic told me quite correctly that I would not find the kids.

But he said, there's a woman on the other side who wants to communicate with you. He said, her first name is Edith. Her second name starts with either a C or a K. So I said, would that be Edith Cavill? She was the great English nurse in the First World War who was shot by the Germans. And he said, yes, that's the name I've been given. So Edith said to me, you own a pendant, which she described accurately.

She said, when you get home, I want you to hold that pendant and ask me a question. If the answer is yes, it will move horizontally. If the answer is no, it will move vertically. Now, I am a sceptic by disposition. I thought there is no way in the world this is going to work. But when I got home, I closed all the doors and the windows so there'd be no breeze, and I held that pendant rigid.

I asked it a question, and I could not believe it. When the thing actually moved. I thought, wow. Now, that was the first time I started questioning whether my beliefs could be right. Because I thought, well, if there is a God and he hasn't done anything to connect with me, how come this woman who's been dead for years, how come she can connect with me? So that was the start of a long relationship with Edith. I would ask her hundreds of questions and each time the pendant would move either horizontally or vertically. And did you feel shame at all? Did you feel like, ooh, I'm doing maybe something wrong? Well, by that stage, I was becoming so disillusioned

with the Christian faith or my inability to make the faith work that at that stage, I was desperate. I would have tried anything. I couldn't work out why I was such a failure as a Christian. Tell me about your family and how you grew up. Well, my family belonged to a branch of the Protestant church, which was fundamentalist. My father was a preacher, and he believed that every single word in the Bible had been dictated by God. And he was particularly attracted to the words of Solomon,

that he must not spare the rod in disciplining his child. So from a very young age, my father went out into the bush, he broke up a branch and he made a cane. And I was beaten with that cane right throughout my teenage years until I eventually left home at the age of 23. I left home then because I thought, well, if I don't leave home now, he's going to beat me until the day I die. And many of the things in the Old Testament are disturbing. Yes.

I mean, genocide and there's a lot of things in the Bible that when I read them now, I'm'm like wait a minute where'd this come from i never knew this was in here because they weren't taught to me i started to read the beginning of the bible and i got past the first few chapters and i'm like wait wait wait what adam's daughters they slept with angels they slept? I must have missed that in Sunday school. And actually, reading it now, I find wisdom within it, but I just receive it totally different. There is a lot of wisdom in the Bible.

However, it's kind of been used and abused. Oh, yes. I think that there are a lot of people whose lives are transformed when they embrace the Christian faith and this is why it was such a puzzle to me why my life was not transformed and yet other people's were. Did you ever make peace with your father? Well, I never challenged my father about his treatment of me because he wouldn't have taken any notice of it. He would have thought that that was Satan speaking through me. So there was no point in even discussing it with me.

Yeah. Yeah. Did you have siblings as well yes i had three younger sisters god thank god you didn't have any sons yes i think my father was desperate to have a son he wanted me to be a boy and my parents were so convinced that I was going to be a boy that my mother embroidered a blue R for Rodney on my clothes. So when I was born a girl, they were absolutely shattered. My father had been convinced by God that he would produce sons because in the Bible, as I'm sure you know,

it is only sons who are a sign of blessing from god so my father when he produced a daughter what on earth have i done have you read the book or saw the movie the red tent no i haven't it's about dina jacob's daughter oh it's so good it tells how the women would all have to go into this red tent when they would be having their menstrual period but in this red tent they had the sisterhood that was very powerful they had their own little traditions and rituals it was beautiful but it also brought awareness that women have been suppressed for so long and many of this suppression comes from I believe the stories of the Bible or how they have been taught. Oh yes both in the Old Testament and the New Testament I think Paul had a very low

opinion of women. You know they they had to cover their hair. They had to be in subjection to their husbands. They weren't to speak. Paul had a real problem with women, I think. I think he must have. Is it Pope Gregory who he sainted Mary Magdalene, but in the same he called her a sinful woman, which today they have said, no, that was not her. That was not Mary the Magdalene. In fact, you know, it seems like Mary was one of his most faithful apostles.

This is why he returned and showed himself to her. I mean, it was obvious. Yes. Oh, yes. Jesus had a very different attitude towards women from any other male person in the Bible, it seems to me. And he talked about her. Every single one of them talked about her, right? So she must have been very, very special. You know, he showed that he loved his mother. So there is that. And then it seems like all the other women in the old testament of course we start off with eve making the big mistake

from the beginning to the very end and of course christians have always blamed eve you know she was the one in sin. Poor Adam, he just went along with it. Oh, right. Because that's what men usually do, right? They don't take the reign or lead in any way. Yeah. Yeah, it is unfortunate.

But I think that now we are rising in many ways. Yes, indeed. I think gone are the days where there's so much shame or just in being I mean even talking about stuff like periods and and about sex I don't even think my mom did with me I was left to figure out what the heck do I do have you ever heard of the Gnostic Gospels? Yes, the Gnostic Gospels. I think they're absolutely amazing, particularly the way they talk about Mary Magdalene. I agree. I've been studying them for the past few years. I have an entire podcast on the Epistisophia. I was introduced to a Jesus I had never known.

Another one, you know, I'm always like, boy, even in the Gnostic Gospels, you know, Peter still had issue with the fact that Mary, you know, was important. She was, you know, she was given special knowledge. Peter was annoyed. He said to Jesus, you love Mary more than you love us. Mary Magdalene's book is so powerful for women. Have you read the book of Mary? No, I haven't. Well, it's interesting the way the Christian church has portrayed Jesus as being highly judgmental of human sinfulness. But it seems in the Gnostic Gospels,

he says that there is a light within each one of us. So Jesus is not the judge the way the Christian church portrays him. Jesus is the light that enables us to experience that light within ourselves. Yeah. He reminded me of like a Zen master or like a Buddhist teacher in the way that he taught in allegorical stories. Yes. Yeah. I actually had wrote something the other day.

I wrote it because I don't know. You know, sometimes I don't know if you find yourself, you know, just writing for no reason. No, I haven't. I wish I could. I'll share it with you. I was almost angry, it says. Jesus didn't hang out with the royals. He hung out with the misfits. He taught them wisdom, not to be educated, but to those who had ears to hear, eyes to see. He didn't discriminate, segregate. He didn't measure the man or woman by their title or material wealth.

Everything he taught, we have failed to learn to live. I'm not sure how much more clearly he had to lay it out and even died for. The main thing that was taken from his word is the fear of God. That part seemed to have stuck. Believe in the word or be punished. Well, you all should be punished and not for not believing in Jesus, but for not being more like Jesus. That's wonderful. That's great. And I needed to write it out. And I think that writing is a form of letting go.

Oh, yes, definitely. How did you feel after you wrote your book? Oh, a sense of relief, I think. I wanted to share my experience with other people, particularly people who've been raised in Christian families where they were treated cruelly. And I wanted people to know that it is possible to get out of that situation and become a totally different person. Yeah, because there's a lot of shame, guilt, feeling like I'm not good enough, I'm not worthy? Well, the Christian church emphasizes that.

I mean, each time you go to mass or to church, you have to think about all the terrible things you have done to offend God, to offend other people. Then you've got to crave for God's forgiveness. And this happens all the time. I mean, I've been to church and tried to work out, now what have I done wrong this week? And quite often I couldn't think of anything I had done wrong. Yeah. What are you going to confess to?

Christianity may not be the path for them, even if they have been raised as Christians and have committed their lives to the faith. If it doesn't work, they should try something else. Now, whether what they try is another religion or a philosophy, say like Buddhism, or whether it's just belief in nature itself, in the universe. See, I believe that we are all an integral part of the universe, that we are all part of each other.

It's a question of going deep within our being to find that place of connectedness, to connect with the universe, to connect with other people. So that sense of connectedness may be the result of embracing the Christian faith. For those people for whom Christianity does not work, there are so many other things that they can try. And they don't have to go to a church either sometimes you know for the longest time when I was feeling like I wasn't really so sure about my beliefs anymore

you know and the things it was more the man-made stuff I mean I, I didn't go to church anymore, but I still prayed. You know what I mean? At home, I still kind of like had my own faith here. And I do understand the importance of community, which is one of the reasons why I started Sense of Soul podcast, because you can find yourself alone in this. Did you find yourself kind of alienated? I haven't felt alienated the way you're describing because I communicate with my spirit guides. Now, they're my best friends. Ever since I started talking to Edith Cavill,

she has referred me to various other beings on the other side and I talk to them all the time. I ask them about anything and everything and I feel that they are my best friends that I don't have any strong need for close relationships with other people. Now I am an introvert by nature. That's probably one of the reasons why I don't need the company of other people, the way perhaps most people do. But I think if I didn't have my spirit guides, I'd be absolutely desperate. I really would be lonely. Now when I was studying, I did a master's degree in psychology and And my guides told me that they wanted me to do

a PhD in philosophy. And I said, there is no way in the world that any university will accept me, because the professor will say, well, what background do you have in philosophy? And I would have had to say to the professor, I've never been to a philosophy lecture in my life but my guide said no you must apply to do a PhD in philosophy and you will be accepted. Now I applied to all the universities in Sydney and they knocked me back because you know when they asked me what background I had in philosophy and I I had to say, look, I'm sorry, I haven't been to a philosophy lecture because my master's degree is in psychology. I said, oh, look, no, we can't accept you. You've got to have either a bachelor's degree in philosophy

or a master's degree with honours in philosophy before we can accept you. So I thought, I wonder if my guides have got it wrong. Then I saw a book written about the person I was interested in writing about, and this man was the Professor of Philosophy in Tasmania, in Hobart. So I rang him and I said Jeff I would like to do a PhD on the philosopher I'm interested in who is Martin Heidegger. Now this professor had written a book on Martin Heidegger. Now he forgot to ask me what my background was in philosophy. And I thought, this is wonderful.

So I didn't tell him. I'd never been to a philosophy lecture in my life. I said, look, I think Martin Heide was wrong because of A.B. Siddique. He said, oh, you'll be right. Just send in your application. So I sent in my application and I was accepted. And I did a PhD in philosophy on the work of Martin Heidegger now because I had never been to a philosophy lecture in my life

I was totally dependent on my spirit guides to tell me what all these concepts were about. Now, after I'd been working with Edith, she referred me to somebody else. And when she gave me the name of this being that she was referring me to, I couldn't believe it. And I communicate by going through the letters of the alphabet. So I said, all right, Edith, you'll have to dictate the name of this V. So the first letter was A, then it was R, then it was I, then it was this, then it was T, O, T, L, E. And I said, Aristotle, I said, Edith, you must be out of your mind. Why would a wonderful Greek philosopher want to talk to a non-entity like me? Anyway, I was so convinced that I had got the message wrong

that I went to see another psychic. I didn't tell her anything about myself. And in the middle of the reading, she she said I see a group of ancient Greek philosophers discussing your work so then I knew that I had got the message right so one day I sat with my pendant and I thought I've got to find out if this message is right. So I held the pendant rigid and I said, am I speaking to Aristotle? And the pendulum swung horizontally. So Aristotle guided me right through doing my PhD in philosophy. Wow.

You know, I've been very called to Plato over the past, like, six months. I've read the Republic, and he, too, wrote a whole chapter that was a lot on wisdom, calling wisdom she, Sophia. Of course, philosophy is the love of wisdom. They say philosophy is the queen of the sciences. And I think you're right. Yeah, I would absolutely agree. So, I mean, one of my favorites is Carl Jung.

He's around every single corner I have gone through throughout my entire spiritual journey. Oh, he was brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Yeah. You know who else I found to be very interesting, who I ran into? And I don't know if you're familiar with her, but it's Helena Bartrovna Blavatsky. Oh, yes. Madame Blavatsky, who founded the Theosophical society yeah i mean what a woman

you know for her time and she too worked on the pistis sophia which i found was incredible this is way before they found it in the nagamani i, I can't imagine a woman doing all the things that she did for her time. A book was recently published that she had written that they had found just have the lands of the God is so good. And the very beginning, I knew I was led because it was dedicated to Sophia. And I was like, oh my gosh. Hey listeners, did you know that Sense of Soul has a network of lightworkers affiliates program? Now you get to work with one of our inspiring guests. And I'd like to introduce you to one of our affiliates. Hey listeners, this is Jennifer

from the Soul Experience and host of the podcast, The Soul Traveler. I'm here to tell you about the most profound method of inner work that somebody can do while on a spiritual path. It's called quantum healing hypnosis. In a single session, you will revisit your past lives. Your subconscious will come forward to scan your body looking for blocked emotions and health concerns. And then your higher self will answer the most important life questions you have. Your session is audio recorded so you can play back all of the advice from your higher self.

And you know you can trust the advice because it's coming from that part of you that is connected to source. So if you're ready to take the next step on your spiritual journey, then visit me online at thesoulexperiences.com and be sure to mention that Shanna from Sense of Soul referred to you. You can also go to mysenseofsoul.com and in the menu, look for the Network of Lightworkers.

Now back to our amazing guest. So I like how you said that you have a system that you use with the alphabet. How did you come to learn about the system that you use with the alphabet. How did you come to learn about the alphabet and the communication with your guides? Trying to think. I cannot even remember how I started using the alphabet because that was many years ago. Some people hear, you know, some people sense or have a knowing. I'm very clairvoyant. And when I do work with my clients, I see them on a healing journey in a very sacred space. How do you receive from your guides? Well, they talk to me through my hands or through my right hand. I originally, as I mentioned, I was using the pendant

and then one day, I was still talking to Edith at that stage, and one day I asked her a question and the pendant would not move. So by asking a whole lot of questions, I eventually worked out that on the other side they wanted to talk to me through my hand movements so then I tried and lo and behold it worked so if the answer is yes my fingers will move downwards if the answer is no my thumb will move across my right hand okay and it's so much easier using the hand than using a pendant because i can ask the question while i'm driving in the car or walking along the road and i don't think people would notice that my hand is moving or my thumb is moving. Unless you're giving some guy next to you a thumbs up.

Yes, so I've got a very busy right hand. So it's more in your right hand. Well, occasionally, if I've got a glass of water in my right hand and I ask them a question, they will then use my left hand. But if my right hand is still functioning, they'll use my right hand. And this was all self-taught, how you and your guides work this out to communicate. Yes. It's very convenient.

I remember at the beginning of my journey when I was meditating a lot. And I was doing this because I was so in grief from losing my dad. And I was so stressed because I was so in grief from losing my dad. And I was so stressed. I had four kids, you know, young mom, my gosh, I was so busy. And I was meditating, I had someone tell me that, oh, that's dangerous, which is so ridiculous. You know, Jesus meditated. For the first time in my life, I was learning how to trust myself. And it's a process because at first you might think, wait, am I crazy? And especially when it's so against everything that you've ever been taught or known.

Yes. Well, occasionally they get it wrong. And the interesting thing is that when they give me information that is incorrect, it's so that I will take a certain course of action that I would not otherwise have taken. But by taking that particular course of action, I learn a tremendously valuable lesson. So there's always a purpose if they get it wrong gosh she may get this wrong but she'll learn another thing during that time I thought to myself you know there sure was a lot of people talking to God in the Bible I mean it's a whole big book full of hundreds of stories of people talking to God. Did God just stop talking to us? You know, I mean, like you think about all of the times that

archangels were showing up for people, like did archangels just stop showing up for humanity? I don't think it's really much different than what you and I do than what many of them did in the Bible. You're probably right. Did you ever think that you would be being led in your life by these angels? Never. Not until the day I lost my keys and went to the psychic and was brought into contact with Eden. I mean, up until then, that would have been the last thing in the world I would have imagined. Yeah. That's so neat.

So did you ever find your keys? No. The psychic was correct. He said, you will not find those keys. I believe that the universe deliberately caused those keys to just disappear because if that had not happened, I would still have been a fundamentalist Christian. Losing those keys or having those keys disappear,

it transformed my whole life. There was no other way the keys could have disappeared because I had placed them in a specific spot. An hour or two later, I came back and they were not there. So there was no other way they could have disappeared other than the universe caused them to just dematerialize. We had someone on our podcast a long time ago. He was a paranormal investigator and he said that a woman had called that a jot, just one of those things, but it would happen, you know, they wouldn't have any explanation for it. Sometimes things went missing for no real reason how did your sisters take your transformation or your friends oh I didn't tell anybody anything about it they would

have thought I was mad yeah so they still don't know no I haven't told them. Oh, my goodness. Do they know that you've written a book? I haven't even told them that I've written a book. They would reject everything that I said. Okay. They still have traditional beliefs. And they'd be worried about my soul if they thought I'd written a book like that. Really? And so you said that

when you were about 50 years old. So were your parents still around when you had discovered this? Yes, they were. Although I was in Sydney, and they were still living in Brisbane, which is up north. But I mean, there's no way i would ever tell my parents they would have thought that i was definitely on the way to hell yeah they thought that i was either crazy or evil your religion should bring light into your life that's right right. They use fear, the fear of being punished by God, finishing up in hell. I mean, they use all sorts of tactics to sort of keep you coming to church each week.

Yeah, take all your money. Oh, yes. Yeah. But, you know, there's always that uncomfortable place before transformation, before, you know, the butterfly gets her wings. I'm hoping. There's been a lot of major things happening, a big shift in the world right now, big, big shift. There once was a time where we just believed what we were told, and that was faith, right? You you just believe but now I believe in

my experiences and I think that's kind of like what your book is about too oh yes yes it is yeah but what does faith mean to you well it certainly doesn't mean trust in God because I very much doubt if there is a personal God. That was something that was, well, it came to me in the writing that I did. But I do believe that it is important for people who follow the Christian faith to believe that there is a personal God because that is the path

that they chose. And if they had chosen any other path, their lives would not have been transformed. So I believe that we choose an incarnation before we actually come into this world and we choose an incarnation that will give our lives meaning. So for some people, they need to have an incarnation where they believe in a personal God. Now, you asked me about faith.

Now, because I don't believe in a personal God, I don't have faith in what this personal God may be. But I have faith in what I call the universe, because I believe that the universe has a plan for each one of us. And if we trust in the goodness of the universe, then our lives will be transformed. So you could probably call that faith. I have faith in the universe, faith that the universe is doing everything that I need to have done for me, if that makes sense. Yeah, it does. You know, I just feel like, you know, we were always taught to look outside of ourselves too like you need forgiveness outside of you you need love outside of you the faith is outside of you

and and I think that that's been such a wrong concept when everything well actually in the gospel seems very clear that it's all inside of you. You know, the spark within, the kingdom within. Like when I finally found something that felt so right, it was within me. I felt home. And it was the forgiveness for myself, right? I had to forgive me to feel forgiven. I had to be loved, to feel loved. You know, I had to have faith in myself to understand faith.

I mean, it just, it was all within me. And I agree with you. I feel that there's something higher than I. I don't know what you want to call it, but I think it divinely guides us through signs and synchronicities and dreams and guides and all of these things helping us to evolve in this life, in each life. That's what I believe, but that's just my truth. And I think that that's the most important thing I'm like oh you want to know what the answers are to the universe go find them and find them for yourself and that will

be your truth and that will be your answer yeah that's what you did yes yes indeed that's awesome can you tell our listeners what the name of your book is and where they can get it? Yes, they can get it through Amazon, and it's called Leaving Faith, Finding Meaning, A Preacher's Daughter's Search for God. And they can have a look at my website, which is lynrenwa.com, and they'll see that I've written three things all together. One is a book called God Interrogating

then there's my memoir Meeting Faith Finding Meaning and also I've included on the website my master's thesis which was on the subject of the abuse of men by their female partners. Now, with all the emphasis today on the abuse of women by men, the fact that men can be

abused by women has tended to sort of go under the radar. But years ago as i say i did this subject for my master's thesis people can see that on my website as well yeah well thank you so very much for joining me i hope that you have a beautiful rest of your day my day's ending your day's beginning well thank you for having me shanna it's been lovely to talk to you you too thank you for having me, Shanna. It's been lovely to talk to you. You too. Thank you. You're welcome. Have a nice day.

Thanks for listening to Sense of Soul Podcast. And thanks to our special guests for joining me. If you want more of Sense of Soul, check out my website at www.mysenseofsoul.com where you can work with me one-on-one or help support sense of soul podcast by donating to my coffee fund thanks for listening