Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
MEMBERS ONLY: See the full 90-minute discussion here:
integrallife.com/return-to-the-roots-tantra-mormonism-and-the-mystic-heart-behind-all-things
Many young adults are rediscovering traditional religion. After decades of religious decline in the West, recent studies show a quiet reversal, at least within certain groups: church attendance among 18–24-year-olds in the UK has increased by 50% in the last six years (Guardian, 2025), and in the U.S., Gen Z affiliation with Christianity rose from 45% to 51% between 2023 and 2024 (Vox, 2025). Why do so many young people seem to be returning to the traditions of their childhood?
In many ways, this is a natural response to what John Vervaeke calls the “meaning crisis” — a deep need for rooted meaning, structure, and belonging, amid the wider failures of modernity and postmodernity to solve the many epistemological crises they’ve inflicted upon our world. Young people were born into this epistemic meltdown, it is the water they have been swimming in their entire lives, so it’s no surprise they would choose to return to a prior source of meaning, stability, and moral clarity.
So how can we return to the traditions with open minds and hearts, without succumbing to the baggage of absolutistic thinking, anti-intellectualism, regressive worldviews, and group-centric “us vs. them” mentality that so often accompanies the traditional (Amber) stage of psychological and cultural development?
In this extraordinary episode of Evolving Spirit, Kimberley Theresa Lafferty welcomes Thomas McConkie — author, teacher, and founder of Lower Lights School of Wisdom — for a deeply personal and spiritually expansive conversation about reclaiming the roots of our traditions while enacting them in profoundly new ways.
Thomas shares the arc of his own journey — from a devout Latter-day Saint upbringing, to decades immersed in Zen, Sufi, and contemplative Christian practices, to a surprising return to his Mormon lineage with eyes newly attuned to its esoteric and evolutionary dimensions. His story reflects a common spiritual circuit: from the exoteric beliefs and dogmas of our childhood tradition, to an exploration of exotic practices and lineages, to the shared esoteric heart at the core of all major spiritual traditions, to a profound “coming home” to the tradition we were born into, its mystical depths now revealed and available to us in a wholly new way..
This episode offers essential guidance for those navigating a similar path. It shows how one can remain within a religious tradition, while engaging it through a post-traditional, post-secular, post-postmodern lens. In doing so, Thomas models a somewhat different kind of religious affiliation — one that avoids the regressive trappings of conformity, absolutism, or anti-rational dogmas, while reigniting the living soul of the lineage itself.
In short, Thomas and Kimberley are pointing to a trans-rational return to traditions that are often entangled with pre-rational beliefs and mythic narratives.
This is precisely where Integral Spirituality becomes such a powerful framework for these younger generations. It provides a common language and shared grammar that make conversations like these possible — conversations that invite us to fully commit to a particular tradition or lineage, while still remaining open to the wisdoms, practices, and spiritual technologies of other spiritual traditions. This integral framework helps to reveal the hidden scaffolding behind all spiritual lineages, as well as the shared mystical heart that is beating at their very center, allowing us to push our roots deeper into the soil of our chosen tradition while also feeling how those roots intertwine, nourish, and connect with the roots of every other lineage.
“You know, our roots are touching—I feel my tree roots touching your tree roots, Thomas. Underneath the ground, we're playing footsie. We're playing footsie with our tree roots.” —Kimberley Lafferty
This approach offers a deeper and wider frame for genuine interfaith exchange, such as the unexpected resonance between tantric philosophy and Mormon cosmology — two traditions that, on the surface, appear worlds apart, yet both pointing to a shared vision of embodied divinization, sacred partnership, and human evolution as a divine process. This is the kind of subtle but powerful interfaith intimacy made possible by an integral view of spirituality. Beneath the surface forms of doctrine, ritual, and mythology, we begin to recognize the same sacred realities expressed through different languages and lineages. And when we speak from that place, our roots know each other — even when our doctrines do not.
Whether you're returning to the faith of your childhood, seeking a path that honors both roots and wings, or longing for a practice that can hold the fullness of your life and your world, this episode opens a doorway into a sacred life that is both ancient, timeless, and ever-emerging.
MEMBERS ONLY: See the full 90-minute discussion here:
integrallife.com/return-to-the-roots-tantra-mormonism-and-the-mystic-heart-behind-all-things
Many young adults are rediscovering traditional religion. After decades of religious decline in the West, recent studies show a quiet reversal, at least within certain groups: church attendance among 18–24-year-olds in the UK has increased by 50% in the last six years (Guardian, 2025), and in the U.S., Gen Z affiliation with Christianity rose from 45% to 51% between 2023 and 2024 (Vox, 2025). Why do so many young people seem to be returning to the traditions of their childhood?
In many ways, this is a natural response to what John Vervaeke calls the “meaning crisis” — a deep need for rooted meaning, structure, and belonging, amid the wider failures of modernity and postmodernity to solve the many epistemological crises they’ve inflicted upon our world. Young people were born into this epistemic meltdown, it is the water they have been swimming in their entire lives, so it’s no surprise they would choose to return to a prior source of meaning, stability, and moral clarity.
So how can we return to the traditions with open minds and hearts, without succumbing to the baggage of absolutistic thinking, anti-intellectualism, regressive worldviews, and group-centric “us vs. them” mentality that so often accompanies the traditional (Amber) stage of psychological and cultural development?
In this extraordinary episode of Evolving Spirit, Kimberley Theresa Lafferty welcomes Thomas McConkie — author, teacher, and founder of Lower Lights School of Wisdom — for a deeply personal and spiritually expansive conversation about reclaiming the roots of our traditions while enacting them in profoundly new ways.
Thomas shares the arc of his own journey — from a devout Latter-day Saint upbringing, to decades immersed in Zen, Sufi, and contemplative Christian practices, to a surprising return to his Mormon lineage with eyes newly attuned to its esoteric and evolutionary dimensions. His story reflects a common spiritual circuit: from the exoteric beliefs and dogmas of our childhood tradition, to an exploration of exotic practices and lineages, to the shared esoteric heart at the core of all major spiritual traditions, to a profound “coming home” to the tradition we were born into, its mystical depths now revealed and available to us in a wholly new way..
This episode offers essential guidance for those navigating a similar path. It shows how one can remain within a religious tradition, while engaging it through a post-traditional, post-secular, post-postmodern lens. In doing so, Thomas models a somewhat different kind of religious affiliation — one that avoids the regressive trappings of conformity, absolutism, or anti-rational dogmas, while reigniting the living soul of the lineage itself.
In short, Thomas and Kimberley are pointing to a trans-rational return to traditions that are often entangled with pre-rational beliefs and mythic narratives.
This is precisely where Integral Spirituality becomes such a powerful framework for these younger generations. It provides a common language and shared grammar that make conversations like these possible — conversations that invite us to fully commit to a particular tradition or lineage, while still remaining open to the wisdoms, practices, and spiritual technologies of other spiritual traditions. This integral framework helps to reveal the hidden scaffolding behind all spiritual lineages, as well as the shared mystical heart that is beating at their very center, allowing us to push our roots deeper into the soil of our chosen tradition while also feeling how those roots intertwine, nourish, and connect with the roots of every other lineage.
“You know, our roots are touching—I feel my tree roots touching your tree roots, Thomas. Underneath the ground, we're playing footsie. We're playing footsie with our tree roots.” —Kimberley Lafferty
This approach offers a deeper and wider frame for genuine interfaith exchange, such as the unexpected resonance between tantric philosophy and Mormon cosmology — two traditions that, on the surface, appear worlds apart, yet both pointing to a shared vision of embodied divinization, sacred partnership, and human evolution as a divine process. This is the kind of subtle but powerful interfaith intimacy made possible by an integral view of spirituality. Beneath the surface forms of doctrine, ritual, and mythology, we begin to recognize the same sacred realities expressed through different languages and lineages. And when we speak from that place, our roots know each other — even when our doctrines do not.
Whether you're returning to the faith of your childhood, seeking a path that honors both roots and wings, or longing for a practice that can hold the fullness of your life and your world, this episode opens a doorway into a sacred life that is both ancient, timeless, and ever-emerging.
