WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.520 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. I have to admit, 00:00:02.640 --> 00:00:04.339 when I first looked at the subject for today, 00:00:04.500 --> 00:00:07.320 I had a very specific image in my head. You walk 00:00:07.320 --> 00:00:09.339 into an old church, maybe it's dimly lit, there's 00:00:09.339 --> 00:00:11.820 that smell of incense, you know, and you see 00:00:11.820 --> 00:00:14.439 a statue of a nun. She's looking up at the ceiling, 00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:21.339 hands clasped, looking very... peaceful. Passive, 00:00:21.339 --> 00:00:23.719 even. The standard itinography. The saint on 00:00:23.719 --> 00:00:26.079 a prayer card aesthetic. Exactly. And usually 00:00:26.079 --> 00:00:29.199 when we cover historical religious figures, the 00:00:29.199 --> 00:00:31.879 story follows a pretty standard script. They 00:00:31.879 --> 00:00:34.460 were born holy, they were nice to everyone, they 00:00:34.460 --> 00:00:36.219 prayed a lot, and then they died. Right. A very 00:00:36.219 --> 00:00:38.859 clean, sanitized version of a life. But then 00:00:38.859 --> 00:00:40.679 I started digging into the stack of notes and 00:00:40.679 --> 00:00:43.299 research you sent over for Teresa of Avila, and 00:00:43.299 --> 00:00:45.399 I realized that the statue is... I don't want 00:00:45.399 --> 00:00:47.200 to say a lie, but it's definitely false advertising. 00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:49.979 It is a massive oversimplification. I mean, if 00:00:49.979 --> 00:00:51.899 you actually look at the historical record, Teresa 00:00:51.899 --> 00:00:55.119 of Avila was anything but passive. We are talking 00:00:55.119 --> 00:00:58.159 about a woman who was complex, rebellious, often 00:00:58.159 --> 00:01:01.520 difficult, and just incredibly physically tough. 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:03.939 I mean, just looking at the deep dives mission 00:01:03.939 --> 00:01:06.579 we have here today, we're talking about a woman 00:01:06.579 --> 00:01:12.049 who founded 17 convents. 17. Which is basically 00:01:12.049 --> 00:01:15.349 acting as a CEO of a massive startup expansion 00:01:15.349 --> 00:01:19.329 in 16th century Spain. Right. And she faced down 00:01:19.329 --> 00:01:21.730 the Spanish Inquisition, which is not something 00:01:21.730 --> 00:01:24.349 people usually survived. No, not at all. She 00:01:24.349 --> 00:01:27.390 was a mystic who claimed to levitate. even though 00:01:27.390 --> 00:01:29.650 she hated it. And she wrote books that are still 00:01:29.650 --> 00:01:32.189 used today by psychiatrists. And that's the key. 00:01:32.290 --> 00:01:34.549 She isn't just a religious figure. She's a psychological 00:01:34.549 --> 00:01:37.489 one. She's the first female doctor of the church, 00:01:37.629 --> 00:01:39.950 a title she shares with, you know, heavyweights 00:01:39.950 --> 00:01:42.549 like Augustine and Aquinas. But her approach 00:01:42.549 --> 00:01:45.170 was radically different. How so? She was mapping 00:01:45.170 --> 00:01:48.129 the human mind, the interior world. And we have 00:01:48.129 --> 00:01:50.030 a ton of source material to get through to understand 00:01:50.030 --> 00:01:52.829 her. We've got her autobiography, La Vida. Which 00:01:52.829 --> 00:01:55.310 is an amazing document. So honest. We've got 00:01:55.310 --> 00:01:57.569 her guidebooks like the interior castle. We've 00:01:57.569 --> 00:02:00.170 got historical records of her canonization. And 00:02:00.170 --> 00:02:02.489 we have some truly bizarre accounts of what happened 00:02:02.489 --> 00:02:04.890 to her body after she died. We will definitely 00:02:04.890 --> 00:02:07.629 get to the body. The post -mortem history of 00:02:07.629 --> 00:02:10.409 Teresa is a genre all unto itself. The zombie 00:02:10.409 --> 00:02:12.550 apocalypse section, as I've mentally labeled 00:02:12.550 --> 00:02:15.090 it. That's not inaccurate, actually. But before 00:02:15.090 --> 00:02:16.909 we get there, we need to understand the human 00:02:16.909 --> 00:02:20.490 being. Why does a 16th century Spanish nun... 00:02:20.759 --> 00:02:23.060 matter to someone listening to this deep dive 00:02:23.060 --> 00:02:26.400 right now? Because she provides a roadmap for 00:02:26.400 --> 00:02:29.280 the interior life. I mean, whether you are religious 00:02:29.280 --> 00:02:31.860 or not, Teresa was dealing with the noise of 00:02:31.860 --> 00:02:34.460 the world, distraction, anxiety, societal pressure. 00:02:34.719 --> 00:02:36.560 That was familiar. And she found a way to build 00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:39.219 a fortress inside her own mind. She influenced 00:02:39.219 --> 00:02:41.439 Rene Descartes. She influenced modern psychology. 00:02:42.060 --> 00:02:44.219 She figured out how to find silence in a world 00:02:44.219 --> 00:02:46.060 that wouldn't shut up. So let's start at the 00:02:46.060 --> 00:02:49.879 beginning. Part one, the unlikely saint. Because 00:02:49.879 --> 00:02:51.879 she was not born with a halo. Not even close. 00:02:52.039 --> 00:02:55.080 She was born in 1515 in Avila. And right off 00:02:55.080 --> 00:02:57.680 the bat, there is a secret in her family tree 00:02:57.680 --> 00:03:01.180 that basically recontextualizes her entire existence. 00:03:01.580 --> 00:03:03.580 This is crucial. If you missed this, you missed 00:03:03.580 --> 00:03:05.860 Teresa. She was born Teresa Sanchez de Cepeda 00:03:05.860 --> 00:03:09.060 Davilae Ahumada, a long, noble -sounding name. 00:03:09.180 --> 00:03:12.560 Her father, Alonzo, was a wealthy wool merchant 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:15.199 who had bought a knighthood. He was living the 00:03:15.199 --> 00:03:18.419 life of a respected Catholic nobleman. But this 00:03:18.419 --> 00:03:20.740 was a facade. Because underneath the title, the 00:03:20.740 --> 00:03:23.960 family was Converso. Correct. Her paternal grandfather, 00:03:24.379 --> 00:03:27.979 Juan Sanchez de Salido, was a Jew. In late 15th 00:03:27.979 --> 00:03:32.319 century Spain, the pressure to convert was immense, 00:03:32.740 --> 00:03:35.780 to put it mildly. Convert or leave. Or worse. 00:03:35.819 --> 00:03:37.979 Or worse. So Juan converted to Christianity, 00:03:38.080 --> 00:03:41.759 becoming a Converso. But in 1485, the Inquisition 00:03:41.759 --> 00:03:44.879 caught him. What was the charge? Judaizing. They 00:03:44.879 --> 00:03:47.180 accused him of secretly returning to Jewish practices, 00:03:47.599 --> 00:03:50.080 maybe keeping kosher, observing the Sabbath in 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:51.719 private. Things he'd grown up with his whole 00:03:51.719 --> 00:03:54.500 life. Exactly. And in 1485, that wasn't just 00:03:54.500 --> 00:03:56.639 a social faux pas, that was a capital offense. 00:03:56.919 --> 00:03:58.580 So what happened to him? Was he... He wasn't 00:03:58.580 --> 00:04:00.520 burned, thankfully for the family, but he was 00:04:00.520 --> 00:04:03.439 subjected to the ato da fe. It means act of faith, 00:04:03.599 --> 00:04:06.159 but it was really a public shaming ritual, a 00:04:06.159 --> 00:04:08.479 form of psychological torture. I've read about 00:04:08.479 --> 00:04:11.640 these. They were huge public spectacles. Huge. 00:04:11.640 --> 00:04:14.080 Juan and his family, and this includes Teresa's 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:16.560 father, Alonzo, who was just a child at the time, 00:04:16.600 --> 00:04:19.019 they were forced to walk in a procession through 00:04:19.019 --> 00:04:21.699 the streets of Toledo for seven consecutive Fridays. 00:04:21.939 --> 00:04:24.839 Seven weeks. And they had to wear the San Benito. 00:04:24.959 --> 00:04:28.459 It was this ugly yellow tunic, and it was painted 00:04:28.459 --> 00:04:31.360 with crosses and flames. It was designed to be 00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:33.800 as humiliating as possible. It screamed to everyone 00:04:33.800 --> 00:04:37.680 who saw you, I am a heretic. I am unclean. And 00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:39.459 the consequences didn't stop when you took the 00:04:39.459 --> 00:04:42.220 shirt off. No, not at all. Once you were marked, 00:04:42.360 --> 00:04:44.759 you were legally barred from holding public office, 00:04:44.980 --> 00:04:47.660 joining military orders, becoming a priest or 00:04:47.660 --> 00:04:50.339 even wearing silk or jewelry. You were a second 00:04:50.339 --> 00:04:52.500 class citizen for life. Your whole family was 00:04:52.500 --> 00:04:55.620 tainted. So her grandfather is publicly shamed. 00:04:55.680 --> 00:04:58.620 Her father, Alonzo, experiences this unbelievable 00:04:58.620 --> 00:05:01.160 trauma as a kid. And his response is to run as 00:05:01.160 --> 00:05:03.339 far away from that identity as he possibly can. 00:05:03.540 --> 00:05:06.519 He moves the family. He moves the family to Avila. 00:05:06.660 --> 00:05:09.259 He gets rich in the wool trade. And then he does 00:05:09.259 --> 00:05:12.139 something very clever. He buys a patente hidalia, 00:05:12.459 --> 00:05:15.620 a patent of nobility, effectively paying the 00:05:15.620 --> 00:05:18.199 crown to say, yes, you are an old Christian. 00:05:18.360 --> 00:05:21.040 Your blood is pure. He bought a new identity. 00:05:21.279 --> 00:05:24.160 He erased the Jewish stain on the family name 00:05:24.160 --> 00:05:27.180 or tried to. So Teresa grows up in this household 00:05:27.180 --> 00:05:30.040 that is technically noble. Technically pious, 00:05:30.040 --> 00:05:33.459 but underneath the surface, there is this massive 00:05:33.459 --> 00:05:36.819 vibrating anxiety. It's the anxiety of the imposter. 00:05:36.959 --> 00:05:39.160 They had to be more Catholic than the Pope, you 00:05:39.160 --> 00:05:42.100 know, because any slip up, any deviation from 00:05:42.100 --> 00:05:44.579 strict orthodoxy could bring the inquisitors 00:05:44.579 --> 00:05:46.740 knocking again. And you can see that in her writings 00:05:46.740 --> 00:05:49.019 later on. Oh, absolutely. She writes later about 00:05:49.019 --> 00:05:51.680 her scrupulosity, this obsessive fear that she 00:05:51.680 --> 00:05:53.910 was sinning, that she wasn't good enough. That 00:05:53.910 --> 00:05:55.689 didn't come from nowhere. It came from the generational 00:05:55.689 --> 00:05:57.949 trauma of being a Murano family. But despite 00:05:57.949 --> 00:06:00.889 all that heavy context, when she was a kid, she 00:06:00.889 --> 00:06:03.310 was kind of a firecracker. She really was. I 00:06:03.310 --> 00:06:04.889 love the story about her running away at age 00:06:04.889 --> 00:06:07.189 seven. It's a classic. It tells you everything 00:06:07.189 --> 00:06:10.529 you need to know about her personality. At seven 00:06:10.529 --> 00:06:13.149 years old, she and her older brother Rodrigo 00:06:13.149 --> 00:06:15.470 were reading the lives of the saints. And they 00:06:15.470 --> 00:06:17.410 were just fascinated by the martyrs' people who 00:06:17.410 --> 00:06:19.850 died for their faith and went straight to heaven. 00:06:20.089 --> 00:06:22.129 And Teresa, being efficiency -minded, thought, 00:06:22.189 --> 00:06:26.029 why wait? Exactly. She did the math. She realized 00:06:26.029 --> 00:06:29.430 that life is short and eternity is long. So if 00:06:29.430 --> 00:06:31.810 you want the maximum payout heaven for the minimum 00:06:31.810 --> 00:06:35.160 investment. A few minutes of pain martyrdom is 00:06:35.160 --> 00:06:37.519 the logical choice. It's basically a loyalty 00:06:37.519 --> 00:06:40.519 rewards program hack for the soul. It is. It's 00:06:40.519 --> 00:06:43.240 spiritual arbitrage. So she convinces Rodrigo 00:06:43.240 --> 00:06:45.540 to pack a bag, probably with some dried fruit 00:06:45.540 --> 00:06:47.939 and bread, and they run away from home. Where 00:06:47.939 --> 00:06:49.680 were they even going? They head out the gates 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:51.860 of Avila, intending to walk to the land of the 00:06:51.860 --> 00:06:54.899 Moors, so North Africa, where they hoped to be 00:06:54.899 --> 00:06:57.600 beheaded for the faith. Come on, Rodrigo, let's 00:06:57.600 --> 00:07:00.279 go get decapitated. Yeah. That is a serious level 00:07:00.279 --> 00:07:02.060 of commitment for a seven -year -old. It shows 00:07:02.060 --> 00:07:04.120 her absolute nature. She didn't do things by 00:07:04.120 --> 00:07:06.860 halves. She wanted forever and ever, as she used 00:07:06.860 --> 00:07:09.339 to chant. So they didn't get very far. No, of 00:07:09.339 --> 00:07:11.439 course not. They were caught by their uncle just 00:07:11.439 --> 00:07:13.560 outside the town walls and marched right back 00:07:13.560 --> 00:07:16.060 home. Can you imagine the father's reaction? 00:07:16.920 --> 00:07:19.279 I bought a knighthood to keep us safe, and now 00:07:19.279 --> 00:07:21.040 my kids are trying to spark an international 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:24.000 incident. He was likely terrified, but as she 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:27.540 got older, that intense religious zeal sort of, 00:07:27.540 --> 00:07:30.740 it faded away. She entered her teenage years, 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:33.579 and she pivoted hard. She entered her mean girl 00:07:33.579 --> 00:07:36.720 era, or maybe her fashionista era. A bit of both, 00:07:36.839 --> 00:07:39.639 maybe. The sources say she became obsessed with 00:07:39.639 --> 00:07:42.500 her appearance. And this was after a major personal 00:07:42.500 --> 00:07:45.879 tragedy. Yes. Her mother, Beatriz, died when 00:07:45.879 --> 00:07:48.850 Teresa was 14. And it was a devastating loss 00:07:48.850 --> 00:07:51.589 for her. Teresa coped by diving into the material 00:07:51.589 --> 00:07:54.670 world. She loved perfumes. She loved jewelry. 00:07:54.930 --> 00:07:57.769 She loved modifying her clothes to make them 00:07:57.769 --> 00:07:59.709 tighter and more flattering, which was pretty 00:07:59.709 --> 00:08:02.089 scandalous for a respectable young lady. So she 00:08:02.089 --> 00:08:04.689 was rebelling. Big time. She admits in her autobiography 00:08:04.689 --> 00:08:07.189 that she was incredibly vain. And she was a reader. 00:08:07.850 --> 00:08:10.829 But not the Bible. No, not at all. She was addicted 00:08:10.829 --> 00:08:14.170 to romance novels. Oh, yeah. Tales of chivalry. 00:08:14.850 --> 00:08:17.870 Knights, damsels in distress, courtly love. These 00:08:17.870 --> 00:08:20.449 were the best sellers of the 16th century. Her 00:08:20.449 --> 00:08:23.509 father hated them. He thought they were trashy 00:08:23.509 --> 00:08:25.370 and would give her ideas. Who, of course, she 00:08:25.370 --> 00:08:27.089 loved them. She would hide them under her bed. 00:08:27.370 --> 00:08:29.410 She said later that she couldn't be happy unless 00:08:29.410 --> 00:08:31.509 she had a new book to read. She sounds like a 00:08:31.509 --> 00:08:34.129 modern teenager. Don't talk to me. I'm reading. 00:08:34.370 --> 00:08:37.970 Totally. She was charming. She was popular. She 00:08:37.970 --> 00:08:40.649 had suitors. So how on earth does she end up 00:08:40.649 --> 00:08:42.950 in a convent? Because based on her teenage years, 00:08:43.029 --> 00:08:44.769 that seems like the absolute last place you'd 00:08:44.769 --> 00:08:46.370 want to go. It really does. It doesn't track. 00:08:46.509 --> 00:08:50.289 It was. She explicitly wrote, I had the greatest 00:08:50.289 --> 00:08:53.029 possible aversion to being a nun. She did not 00:08:53.029 --> 00:08:55.230 want to do it. But she was looking at her options. 00:08:55.490 --> 00:08:58.289 And for a woman in the 1500s, the options were 00:08:58.289 --> 00:09:00.009 pretty binary, weren't they? Marriage or the 00:09:00.009 --> 00:09:02.649 convent. That was it. And marriage to Teresa 00:09:02.649 --> 00:09:05.110 looked like a trap. Why a trap? Well, look at 00:09:05.110 --> 00:09:07.610 her own mother. She had died young, completely 00:09:07.610 --> 00:09:10.490 exhausted by childbirth. Marriage meant total 00:09:10.490 --> 00:09:13.190 submission to a husband. It meant endless pregnancies. 00:09:13.190 --> 00:09:15.049 It meant losing your autonomy, your identity. 00:09:15.309 --> 00:09:19.159 So the convent was a strategic move. A way out. 00:09:19.320 --> 00:09:21.460 It was a risk assessment, a very cold blooded 00:09:21.460 --> 00:09:23.559 one. She was terrified of hell. Again, you see 00:09:23.559 --> 00:09:26.059 that background anxiety. And she knew herself. 00:09:26.120 --> 00:09:28.360 She knew she loved the world too much. The parties, 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:31.379 the clothes, the attention. So she felt that 00:09:31.379 --> 00:09:33.700 if she stayed in the secular world. She would 00:09:33.700 --> 00:09:37.000 inevitably sin and go to hell. So she chose the 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:40.080 convent as a safe house. It wasn't about love 00:09:40.080 --> 00:09:42.759 for God initially. It was about fear for her 00:09:42.759 --> 00:09:45.320 soul and I think a deep desire for a room of 00:09:45.320 --> 00:09:48.059 her own, a life of the mind, independence. So 00:09:48.059 --> 00:09:52.340 in 1535, at age 20, she runs away again. Second 00:09:52.340 --> 00:09:54.519 time's the charm. She snuck out of the house 00:09:54.519 --> 00:09:56.120 early in the morning before anyone was awake 00:09:56.120 --> 00:09:58.279 and went straight to the convent of the incarnation 00:09:58.279 --> 00:10:01.279 in Avila. Her father was furious, but what could 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:03.360 he do? Eventually he had to accept it. But this 00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:05.000 isn't where she lives happily ever after. This 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:06.919 is where the story takes a really dark turn. 00:10:07.039 --> 00:10:10.080 Part two. The physical and the mystical. Yes. 00:10:10.259 --> 00:10:12.980 Because almost immediately after becoming a nun, 00:10:13.120 --> 00:10:16.120 her body just completely shuts down on her. It 00:10:16.120 --> 00:10:18.759 was a catastrophic collapse. And to this day, 00:10:18.759 --> 00:10:21.299 we still don't know exactly what it was. Medical 00:10:21.299 --> 00:10:23.980 historians have proposed everything from brucellosis 00:10:23.980 --> 00:10:28.419 from unpasteurized milk to malaria or maybe a 00:10:28.419 --> 00:10:31.120 severe autoimmune disorder. But the symptoms 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:33.740 were terrifying. Break it down for us. What was 00:10:33.740 --> 00:10:36.519 she dealing with on a daily basis? Constant high 00:10:36.519 --> 00:10:39.779 fevers. Fainting spells just passing out without 00:10:39.779 --> 00:10:43.379 warning. And severe heart pains. She said it 00:10:43.379 --> 00:10:45.820 felt like sharp teeth were tearing at her heart. 00:10:45.980 --> 00:10:48.480 That's a vivid description. And then the worst 00:10:48.480 --> 00:10:51.919 of it, she fell into a coma. A coma so deep they 00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:54.000 actually thought she was gone. They did. She 00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:56.779 was unconscious for four days. The nuns at the 00:10:56.779 --> 00:10:59.759 convent dug a grave for her. they dug her grave 00:10:59.759 --> 00:11:01.559 while she was still alive they were sure she 00:11:01.559 --> 00:11:04.200 was dead or about to die they performed the last 00:11:04.200 --> 00:11:06.879 rites they even put wax on her eyelids to keep 00:11:06.879 --> 00:11:08.720 them closed because her eyes were stuck open 00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:11.539 that is a nightmare image Waking up and finding 00:11:11.539 --> 00:11:13.759 out everyone was ready to bury you. She did wake 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:15.779 up, but the ordeal wasn't over. Not by a long 00:11:15.779 --> 00:11:18.820 shot. She was paralyzed. Almost completely. For 00:11:18.820 --> 00:11:20.840 three years, she couldn't walk. She describes 00:11:20.840 --> 00:11:23.779 being curled up in a ball, her muscles atrophied 00:11:23.779 --> 00:11:26.399 in constant pain. She had to be moved on sheets 00:11:26.399 --> 00:11:29.120 by the other nuns. I think we have to pause on 00:11:29.120 --> 00:11:31.279 this because it's so easy to just skip over that. 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:35.259 Three years of paralysis in your early 20s. That 00:11:35.259 --> 00:11:37.559 does something to a person's mind. It breaks 00:11:37.559 --> 00:11:41.549 you or it remakes you. Teresa, this was the crucible. 00:11:41.590 --> 00:11:43.830 It stripped away all her vanity. You can't care 00:11:43.830 --> 00:11:45.529 about fashion when you can't move your legs. 00:11:45.730 --> 00:11:47.470 All the worldly things she was worried about 00:11:47.470 --> 00:11:49.950 just became irrelevant. Completely. It forced 00:11:49.950 --> 00:11:52.629 her inward. She had nowhere else to go but inside 00:11:52.629 --> 00:11:56.289 her own head. So do you think this physical suffering 00:11:56.289 --> 00:11:58.990 is what triggered the mystical experiences? Is 00:11:58.990 --> 00:12:01.809 there a direct link? There is a very strong correlation. 00:12:01.929 --> 00:12:04.970 In almost all mystical traditions, extreme suffering, 00:12:05.210 --> 00:12:08.460 fasting, or isolation acts as a gateway. It breaks 00:12:08.460 --> 00:12:11.259 the hold of the normal world. The brain starts 00:12:11.259 --> 00:12:13.620 to operate differently. This is when she started 00:12:13.620 --> 00:12:17.059 experiencing her devotions of ecstasy. And this 00:12:17.059 --> 00:12:19.139 leads us to the big one, the vision that everyone 00:12:19.139 --> 00:12:22.480 knows even if they don't know her name, the transverberation. 00:12:22.620 --> 00:12:25.360 The piercing of the heart. This happened a bit 00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:28.659 later, around 1559, but it stems from this new 00:12:28.659 --> 00:12:30.840 openness to the supernatural that was forged 00:12:30.840 --> 00:12:32.779 in her illness. Let's look at the source text 00:12:32.779 --> 00:12:35.460 because her own description of it is just. It's 00:12:35.460 --> 00:12:38.480 wild. She describes seeing an angel. And not 00:12:38.480 --> 00:12:41.419 a big, scary biblical angel, but a small, beautiful 00:12:41.419 --> 00:12:44.000 one, a seraph. Right. And he's holding a long 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:46.720 golden spear with a tip of fire. She writes, 00:12:46.879 --> 00:12:49.580 He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times 00:12:49.580 --> 00:12:52.279 into my heart and to pierce my very entrails. 00:12:52.519 --> 00:12:55.000 When he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out 00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:57.820 also and to leave me all on fire with a great 00:12:57.820 --> 00:13:00.500 love of God. It's incredibly visceral. It's not 00:13:00.500 --> 00:13:03.259 a gentle, passive vision. It's violent. And then 00:13:03.259 --> 00:13:04.720 she says this, which is the part that always 00:13:04.720 --> 00:13:07.679 stops me. The pain was so great that it made 00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:10.559 me moan. And yet so surpassing was the sweetness 00:13:10.559 --> 00:13:13.100 of this excessive pain that I could not wish 00:13:13.100 --> 00:13:15.500 to be rid of it. Sweetness of excessive pain. 00:13:15.720 --> 00:13:18.399 That paradox is the core of her mysticism. It's 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:20.500 an experience that obliterates the line between 00:13:20.500 --> 00:13:23.100 the body and the soul. It's agony and ecstasy 00:13:23.100 --> 00:13:25.980 in the same moment. Now, we have to address the 00:13:25.980 --> 00:13:28.019 elephant in the room, or I guess the statue in 00:13:28.019 --> 00:13:31.039 the room. Bernini's famous sculpture of this 00:13:31.039 --> 00:13:34.240 moment in Rome. Ah, yes. The Ecstasy of Saint 00:13:34.240 --> 00:13:37.440 Teresa. It is a masterpiece of Baroque art. Absolutely 00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:40.899 stunning. But if you look at it, Teresa is swooning. 00:13:41.240 --> 00:13:43.879 Her mouth is open. Her eyes are rolled back. 00:13:43.899 --> 00:13:47.600 Her limbs are limp. It looks, well, it looks 00:13:47.600 --> 00:13:49.299 orgasmic. It does. There's no getting around 00:13:49.299 --> 00:13:51.120 it. And people have been pointing that out for 00:13:51.120 --> 00:13:53.419 centuries. So what's the interpretation? Was 00:13:53.419 --> 00:13:56.139 she describing a spiritual sublimation of sexual 00:13:56.139 --> 00:13:58.860 energy? Freud would certainly say so. And it's 00:13:58.860 --> 00:14:01.779 possible the language of mysticism often uses 00:14:01.779 --> 00:14:03.639 the language of lovers because that's the most 00:14:03.639 --> 00:14:05.679 intense human connection we have to compare it 00:14:05.679 --> 00:14:08.899 to. But modern science offers another lens. The 00:14:08.899 --> 00:14:12.259 neurological lens. Yes. Doctors and neurologists 00:14:12.259 --> 00:14:14.240 who have studied her diaries, which are incredibly 00:14:14.240 --> 00:14:16.279 detailed regarding her symptoms, almost like 00:14:16.279 --> 00:14:18.879 a medical chart, they've suggested she might 00:14:18.879 --> 00:14:20.860 have had temporal lobe epilepsy. This is the 00:14:20.860 --> 00:14:23.950 Dostoevsky connection, right? Exactly. Peter 00:14:23.950 --> 00:14:26.429 Dostoevsky also had epilepsy, and he described 00:14:26.429 --> 00:14:28.950 his seizures as beginning with a moment of eternal 00:14:28.950 --> 00:14:32.309 harmony, a flash of absolute clarity and joy 00:14:32.309 --> 00:14:35.049 right before the darkness hit. And Teresa's descriptions 00:14:35.049 --> 00:14:38.210 match that. They track very closely. The auditory 00:14:38.210 --> 00:14:40.809 hallucinations, the visions of light, the feeling 00:14:40.809 --> 00:14:43.409 of a presence, the loss of muscle control, it 00:14:43.409 --> 00:14:45.909 all lines up with what are known as ecstatic 00:14:45.909 --> 00:14:48.669 seizures. Does that diminish the experience for 00:14:48.669 --> 00:14:51.230 you if we say, oh, it was just a misfiring in 00:14:51.230 --> 00:14:53.500 the temporal lobe? think so. I think it depends 00:14:53.500 --> 00:14:56.059 on your worldview. If you're a materialist, you 00:14:56.059 --> 00:14:58.259 say it's just a misfire. If you're a believer, 00:14:58.419 --> 00:15:00.419 you might say that the brain is a receiver and 00:15:00.419 --> 00:15:02.940 epilepsy just tunes the dial to a frequency that 00:15:02.940 --> 00:15:05.940 most of us can't hear. The biology doesn't negate 00:15:05.940 --> 00:15:08.320 the meaning she found in it. It definitely helps 00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:10.480 explain the levitation, though, because that's 00:15:10.480 --> 00:15:12.159 another side effect she dealt with. And I love 00:15:12.159 --> 00:15:14.139 that she hated it. It's the best part. It's my 00:15:14.139 --> 00:15:17.259 favorite detail about her. In the lives of most 00:15:17.259 --> 00:15:19.720 saints, miracles are like badges of honor. Look 00:15:19.720 --> 00:15:22.600 at me. I'm flying. Teresa found it mortifying, 00:15:22.759 --> 00:15:25.000 utterly humiliating. So she's in the middle of 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:26.960 deep prayer, maybe in the choir with the other 00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:29.419 nuns, and suddenly she starts floating off the 00:15:29.419 --> 00:15:31.679 ground. And she would literally shout at the 00:15:31.679 --> 00:15:34.000 other nuns, hold me down. She would have them 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:36.139 come and sit on her. She would grab onto the 00:15:36.139 --> 00:15:38.639 grating of the choir for dear life. That's amazing. 00:15:38.980 --> 00:15:40.639 She was terrified that people would think she 00:15:40.639 --> 00:15:43.860 was a fraud or, even worse, a show -off. She 00:15:43.860 --> 00:15:47.440 writes about it with such annoyance. Lord, please 00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:49.240 stop making me float. I'm trying to run a business 00:15:49.240 --> 00:15:52.470 here. Precisely. She prayed for God to stop giving 00:15:52.470 --> 00:15:54.529 her these public favors because they were bad 00:15:54.529 --> 00:15:57.710 for her reputation. She wanted to be taken seriously 00:15:57.710 --> 00:16:00.350 as a reformer, not seen as some kind of circus 00:16:00.350 --> 00:16:03.210 act. And she needed to be taken seriously because 00:16:03.210 --> 00:16:06.409 she was about to take on the entire church establishment. 00:16:07.730 --> 00:16:12.269 This brings us to part three, the reformer, or 00:16:12.269 --> 00:16:16.080 as you put it, the CEO of Carmel. This is where 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:18.159 we see the other side of Teresa. The mystic is 00:16:18.159 --> 00:16:20.360 fascinating, but the administrator is formidable. 00:16:20.700 --> 00:16:22.379 So she's recovered from her illness, she's having 00:16:22.379 --> 00:16:24.279 these visions, and she looks around her convent, 00:16:24.279 --> 00:16:26.919 the convent of the incarnation. And she doesn't 00:16:26.919 --> 00:16:29.159 like what she sees. She realizes it's broken. 00:16:29.419 --> 00:16:31.460 The whole system is broken. What was wrong with 00:16:31.460 --> 00:16:33.360 it? From the outside, it probably looked fine. 00:16:33.659 --> 00:16:35.600 It was too comfortable. It was essentially a 00:16:35.600 --> 00:16:37.759 well -appointed boarding house for the daughters 00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:41.899 of the nobility. There were 150 nuns, but the 00:16:41.899 --> 00:16:44.320 wealthy ones, they had their own suites of rooms. 00:16:44.440 --> 00:16:46.519 They brought their own maids with them. Wait, 00:16:46.580 --> 00:16:49.899 nuns had maids? Yes. If your family was rich, 00:16:50.019 --> 00:16:52.840 you lived a rich life inside the convent walls. 00:16:53.159 --> 00:16:56.179 They wore jewelry under their habits. They had 00:16:56.179 --> 00:16:59.740 lap dogs. And the worst part for Teresa was the 00:16:59.740 --> 00:17:03.100 parlor. The locutoria? The social scene. It was 00:17:03.100 --> 00:17:06.339 a revolving door, noblemen, merchants, gossips 00:17:06.339 --> 00:17:08.420 from town. They would all come to the convent 00:17:08.420 --> 00:17:11.079 parlor to chat with the nuns, eat sweets, flirt, 00:17:11.180 --> 00:17:14.259 and talk business. It was a social club. Not 00:17:14.259 --> 00:17:16.839 exactly a place for quiet contemplation. Not 00:17:16.839 --> 00:17:19.660 at all. Teresa realized that in that environment, 00:17:19.880 --> 00:17:22.619 the interior castle, the silence she needed to 00:17:22.619 --> 00:17:24.819 find God was impossible to build. There were 00:17:24.819 --> 00:17:27.539 too many distractions. So she decides to go rogue. 00:17:27.720 --> 00:17:30.420 She decides to found a new convent, a reboot. 00:17:30.970 --> 00:17:34.089 St. Joseph's or San Jose. And her vision was 00:17:34.089 --> 00:17:37.589 radical. Back to basics. She wanted to return 00:17:37.589 --> 00:17:39.730 to the primitive rule of Carmel from the 12th 00:17:39.730 --> 00:17:41.950 century. This is where we get the term discalced. 00:17:42.130 --> 00:17:46.049 Yes. Calced means shod or wearing shoes. Discalced 00:17:46.049 --> 00:17:48.890 means shoeless. It was a branding move. It was 00:17:48.890 --> 00:17:51.230 a statement. What was this statement? That they 00:17:51.230 --> 00:17:53.829 were embracing poverty. Her nuns would wear simple 00:17:53.829 --> 00:17:57.269 hemp sandals or go barefoot. It symbolized humility. 00:17:58.119 --> 00:18:01.980 No maids, no titles, no private suites, just 00:18:01.980 --> 00:18:05.000 a small community of 13 women living in silence 00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:08.059 and equality. And I assume the other 150 nuns 00:18:08.059 --> 00:18:10.240 at the Hotel Incarnation were thrilled about 00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:13.339 this new, more rigorous model. Oh, they were 00:18:13.339 --> 00:18:15.660 furious, absolutely livid. Nothing makes people 00:18:15.660 --> 00:18:17.900 angrier than someone else raising the moral bar. 00:18:18.019 --> 00:18:19.700 They felt judged. The townspeople were angry, 00:18:19.799 --> 00:18:21.660 too, because a convent that relies on begging 00:18:21.660 --> 00:18:24.599 is a drain on the local economy. So she had opposition 00:18:24.599 --> 00:18:26.619 from all sides. They tried to shut her down. 00:18:30.740 --> 00:18:33.480 And the church leadership. They were no better. 00:18:33.700 --> 00:18:36.700 The papal nuncio, the pope's own representative 00:18:36.700 --> 00:18:40.059 in Spain, called her a fantastic insult. Oh, 00:18:40.099 --> 00:18:43.160 what? He called her a restless gadabout woman. 00:18:43.460 --> 00:18:46.980 A gadabout. It implies she's just wandering around 00:18:46.980 --> 00:18:49.339 causing trouble instead of staying in her cell 00:18:49.339 --> 00:18:52.059 where she belongs. It was a deeply gendered slur. 00:18:52.240 --> 00:18:56.519 Women were supposed to be... enclosed, seen and 00:18:56.519 --> 00:19:00.359 not heard. But Teresa ignored him. She was 47 00:19:00.359 --> 00:19:02.859 years old, which was considered elderly at the 00:19:02.859 --> 00:19:05.099 time, and she started a revolution. She became 00:19:05.099 --> 00:19:07.359 a road warrior. She did. This is the part that 00:19:07.359 --> 00:19:09.680 blows my mind. She didn't just build one convent. 00:19:09.720 --> 00:19:13.319 She built 17 of them. 17 in 15 years. In 15 years. 00:19:14.089 --> 00:19:16.529 She crisscrossed Spain. And you have to remember, 00:19:16.670 --> 00:19:18.829 travel in the 16th century wasn't hopping on 00:19:18.829 --> 00:19:21.029 a train. It was sitting in an ox cart with no 00:19:21.029 --> 00:19:23.789 suspension on terrible roads. For weeks at a 00:19:23.789 --> 00:19:26.670 time. Weeks. It was freezing winters on the Castilian 00:19:26.670 --> 00:19:29.789 Plateau and scorching summers in Andalusia. She 00:19:29.789 --> 00:19:32.130 slept in roadside inns that were flea infested. 00:19:32.309 --> 00:19:34.349 She writes about dealing with drunken drivers. 00:19:34.750 --> 00:19:37.130 She's doing all this while managing the finances, 00:19:37.390 --> 00:19:40.410 hiring contractors, negotiating real estate deals, 00:19:40.569 --> 00:19:43.329 and dealing with lawyers. She was a brilliant... 00:19:43.369 --> 00:19:45.710 She wrote thousands of letters. We still have 00:19:45.710 --> 00:19:48.569 many of them. She knew how to charm wealthy donors. 00:19:48.750 --> 00:19:51.369 She knew how to manipulate bishops. She famously 00:19:51.369 --> 00:19:56.829 said, Was it me? She refused to separate the 00:19:56.829 --> 00:20:00.089 spiritual from the logistical. For her, finding 00:20:00.089 --> 00:20:03.130 the money to fix a leaky roof was just as holy 00:20:03.130 --> 00:20:06.670 as prayer. It was all God's work. She also recruited 00:20:06.670 --> 00:20:09.069 some help. yeah we have to mention her partner 00:20:09.069 --> 00:20:11.809 in crime saint john of the cross juan de la cruz 00:20:11.809 --> 00:20:14.170 a fascinating figure he was much younger than 00:20:14.170 --> 00:20:16.609 her very slight of build she used to joke that 00:20:16.609 --> 00:20:18.769 he was half a friar but he was an intellectual 00:20:18.769 --> 00:20:22.029 and spiritual giant a poet and she convinced 00:20:22.029 --> 00:20:24.640 him to join her cause she did She recruited him 00:20:24.640 --> 00:20:26.740 to help her reform the men's side of the Carmelite 00:20:26.740 --> 00:20:29.160 order, and the backlash against him was even 00:20:29.160 --> 00:20:32.420 worse than what she faced. It was violent. The 00:20:32.420 --> 00:20:34.640 cast of friars, the ones who liked their comfortable 00:20:34.640 --> 00:20:37.299 shoes and soft beds, they literally kidnapped 00:20:37.299 --> 00:20:40.400 John. Kidnapped a monk. They ambushed him, took 00:20:40.400 --> 00:20:42.759 him to their priory in Toledo, and imprisoned 00:20:42.759 --> 00:20:46.240 him in a tiny closet. Essentially a cupboard. 00:20:46.720 --> 00:20:48.900 You're kidding. It was so small he couldn't stand 00:20:48.900 --> 00:20:51.759 up or lie down. It had been a latrine, so it 00:20:51.759 --> 00:20:54.099 had no window, just a small hole in the ceiling. 00:20:54.220 --> 00:20:57.059 They kept him there for nine months. That's torture. 00:20:57.420 --> 00:21:01.079 It was. They took him out regularly to the refractory, 00:21:01.099 --> 00:21:02.839 the dining hall, to whip him in front of the 00:21:02.839 --> 00:21:05.680 community, to humiliate him. That's just brutal. 00:21:05.940 --> 00:21:07.700 It was a war. They were trying to break him. 00:21:07.940 --> 00:21:11.220 But in that darkness, in that closet. He composed 00:21:11.220 --> 00:21:13.599 some of the most beautiful poetry in the Spanish 00:21:13.599 --> 00:21:16.559 language, the spiritual canticle. How did he 00:21:16.559 --> 00:21:19.019 get out? He eventually escaped. He unscrewed 00:21:19.019 --> 00:21:21.400 the hinges of his door with his bare hands and 00:21:21.400 --> 00:21:23.720 climbed down a rope he'd made out of his bedsheets. 00:21:23.839 --> 00:21:26.119 That is an action movie sequence. It really is. 00:21:26.220 --> 00:21:28.680 And through all this, Teresa is fighting her 00:21:28.680 --> 00:21:30.799 own legal battles to keep her convents open. 00:21:30.980 --> 00:21:33.220 She's being investigated by the Inquisition again. 00:21:33.539 --> 00:21:36.359 They confiscated her autobiography, La Vida, 00:21:36.500 --> 00:21:39.160 to check it for heresy. She was literally writing 00:21:39.160 --> 00:21:41.579 for her life. And that writing is what brings 00:21:41.579 --> 00:21:44.539 us to part four, the cartographer of the soul. 00:21:44.900 --> 00:21:47.720 Because despite all the chaos, the travel, the 00:21:47.720 --> 00:21:50.160 politics, she managed to produce some of the 00:21:50.160 --> 00:21:52.779 most important texts in history. The interior 00:21:52.779 --> 00:21:55.960 castle is her masterpiece, no question. But to 00:21:55.960 --> 00:21:57.980 understand it, I think we should start with her 00:21:57.980 --> 00:22:01.210 earlier metaphor from La Vida. The garden. I 00:22:01.210 --> 00:22:03.569 found this so helpful. She's trying to explain 00:22:03.569 --> 00:22:05.769 something as abstract as prayer, but prayer is 00:22:05.769 --> 00:22:08.829 such a vague word. So she compares the soul to 00:22:08.829 --> 00:22:11.269 a garden that needs water. Right. It's a very 00:22:11.269 --> 00:22:14.250 practical analogy. The soil is your soul. The 00:22:14.250 --> 00:22:16.529 plants are the virtues you're trying to grow, 00:22:16.710 --> 00:22:19.549 but they need water grace to grow. And she says 00:22:19.549 --> 00:22:21.970 there are four ways to water this garden. Okay. 00:22:22.049 --> 00:22:24.819 What's stage one? Stage one, drawing water from 00:22:24.819 --> 00:22:27.140 a well. This is the beginner stage. It's hard 00:22:27.140 --> 00:22:29.339 manual labor. You have to lower the bucket, pull 00:22:29.339 --> 00:22:31.539 it up, carry it to the plants, one bucket at 00:22:31.539 --> 00:22:34.079 a time. So this represents what exactly? This 00:22:34.079 --> 00:22:37.019 represents mental prayer. It requires effort. 00:22:37.259 --> 00:22:40.019 You have to sit down, silence your phone or in 00:22:40.019 --> 00:22:42.940 her day, ignore the gossips in the parlor, and 00:22:42.940 --> 00:22:45.720 actively focus your mind on God. It's tiring. 00:22:45.960 --> 00:22:48.619 Your mind wanders. You get distracted. Most people 00:22:48.619 --> 00:22:51.579 stay here. Okay, so what's stage two? The water 00:22:51.579 --> 00:22:54.859 wheel. A windlass or a noria. Now you have a 00:22:54.859 --> 00:22:57.240 machine helping you. It's easier. You turn a 00:22:57.240 --> 00:22:59.759 crank and more water comes up with less effort. 00:23:00.480 --> 00:23:03.039 This is the prayer of quiet. The prayer of quiet. 00:23:03.299 --> 00:23:05.680 Your will starts to surrender. You aren't fighting 00:23:05.680 --> 00:23:08.279 as hard to focus anymore. You start to feel a 00:23:08.279 --> 00:23:10.839 little bit of peace, a quiet joy. God is starting 00:23:10.839 --> 00:23:14.099 to help. And stage three. A stream or a river. 00:23:14.339 --> 00:23:15.980 Now you aren't doing the work at all. You've 00:23:15.980 --> 00:23:17.500 diverted a stream to flow right through your 00:23:17.500 --> 00:23:19.900 garden. The ground is soaked. This is the prayer 00:23:19.900 --> 00:23:22.170 of union. So what's happening in your mind at 00:23:22.170 --> 00:23:24.910 this point? Your intellect, your memory, your 00:23:24.910 --> 00:23:27.250 reason, they all sort of go offline. You are 00:23:27.250 --> 00:23:29.750 just being with God. She says the memory might 00:23:29.750 --> 00:23:31.930 still buzz around like a gnat, but the core of 00:23:31.930 --> 00:23:36.049 you is at rest. It's blissful. And finally, stage 00:23:36.049 --> 00:23:39.609 four. Rain, the best way to water a garden. You 00:23:39.609 --> 00:23:42.450 do absolutely nothing. The clouds open up and 00:23:42.450 --> 00:23:45.519 God does all the work. This is ecstasy or rapture. 00:23:45.579 --> 00:23:47.859 Total surrender. Total. The senses shut down. 00:23:48.019 --> 00:23:50.039 This is where the transverberation happens, where 00:23:50.039 --> 00:23:52.880 the levitation happens. You are completely passive 00:23:52.880 --> 00:23:55.559 in the hands of God. It's such a clear progression 00:23:55.559 --> 00:23:59.920 from effort to surrender. And she expands on 00:23:59.920 --> 00:24:03.099 this spatial idea in the interior castle. Massively. 00:24:03.099 --> 00:24:06.900 She wrote the interior castle in 1577, just five 00:24:06.900 --> 00:24:09.700 years before she died, under obedience to her 00:24:09.700 --> 00:24:12.710 confessor. She had a vision of the soul as a 00:24:12.710 --> 00:24:15.789 crystal globe or a single perfect diamond in 00:24:15.789 --> 00:24:18.519 the shape of a castle. And inside this castle, 00:24:18.660 --> 00:24:20.839 there are seven mansions or dwelling places. 00:24:21.039 --> 00:24:23.119 And the goal is to get to the center. Yes. The 00:24:23.119 --> 00:24:25.920 king god lives in the very center, in the seventh 00:24:25.920 --> 00:24:28.980 mansion. The journey is always inward. So what 00:24:28.980 --> 00:24:30.740 are the early mansions like? The first three 00:24:30.740 --> 00:24:32.599 mansions are about cleaning up your act. It's 00:24:32.599 --> 00:24:34.279 the purgative way. You're trying to get rid of 00:24:34.279 --> 00:24:36.220 your attachments to sin. You're practicing humility. 00:24:36.380 --> 00:24:38.200 You're praying regularly, being a good person. 00:24:38.420 --> 00:24:39.940 You're still in the courtyard of the castle, 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:42.660 basically. Okay, but then something shifts. Something 00:24:42.660 --> 00:24:44.779 big shifts when you get to the fourth mansion. 00:24:44.920 --> 00:24:47.319 That's the transition point. That's where the 00:24:47.319 --> 00:24:49.319 supernatural takes over from your own effort. 00:24:49.519 --> 00:24:52.380 The prayer of quiet from the garden analogy happens 00:24:52.380 --> 00:24:54.759 here. God starts giving you gifts you didn't 00:24:54.759 --> 00:24:57.140 earn. And the later mansions, five, six, and 00:24:57.140 --> 00:25:00.480 seven. That's the unitive way, full union. Mansion 00:25:00.480 --> 00:25:03.079 five is a deeper union. Mansion six she calls 00:25:03.079 --> 00:25:06.079 spiritual betrothal, like an engagement. It's 00:25:06.079 --> 00:25:08.359 full of ecstasies and raptures, but also intense 00:25:08.359 --> 00:25:11.720 suffering, the sweet pain. You're torn between 00:25:11.720 --> 00:25:14.000 a desire for God and the afflictions of the world. 00:25:14.140 --> 00:25:16.380 And the seventh mansion, that's the end game. 00:25:16.670 --> 00:25:18.930 That is spiritual marriage. And what's fascinating 00:25:18.930 --> 00:25:21.269 is that the fireworks stop. In the sixth mansion, 00:25:21.410 --> 00:25:23.349 you have the levitations, the visions, the drama. 00:25:23.650 --> 00:25:26.750 But in the seventh, it's just peace. A permanent, 00:25:26.849 --> 00:25:30.450 quiet, serene union. The struggle is over. You 00:25:30.450 --> 00:25:33.089 live with God now. Now, you sent me a note about 00:25:33.089 --> 00:25:35.289 a theory that links this book to the foundation 00:25:35.289 --> 00:25:38.329 of modern philosophy. And this is a bit of a 00:25:38.329 --> 00:25:40.490 bombshell. It is a real paradigm shift. This 00:25:40.490 --> 00:25:42.569 is the work of Professor Christian Mercer at 00:25:42.569 --> 00:25:45.309 Columbia University. And she asked a very simple 00:25:45.309 --> 00:25:46.990 question. We all know Rene Descartes, right? 00:25:47.069 --> 00:25:51.049 I think, therefore, I am the father of rationalism. 00:25:51.319 --> 00:25:53.759 The guy who decided that the only thing we can 00:25:53.759 --> 00:25:56.519 be absolutely sure of is the existence of our 00:25:56.519 --> 00:25:59.359 own mind. Right. He's usually presented as the 00:25:59.359 --> 00:26:01.440 guy who broke away from religious superstition 00:26:01.440 --> 00:26:04.099 to start secular philosophy. Exactly. But Mercer 00:26:04.099 --> 00:26:07.160 asks, where did he get the idea to retreat into 00:26:07.160 --> 00:26:09.940 the mind to find truth in the first place? It 00:26:09.940 --> 00:26:12.000 had to come from somewhere. And the answer is 00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:14.759 Teresa. The evidence is compelling. Descartes 00:26:14.759 --> 00:26:17.539 was educated by Jesuits in France at La Flèche. 00:26:17.720 --> 00:26:20.759 This was in the early 1600s. Teresa had just 00:26:20.759 --> 00:26:24.319 been canonized in 1622. Her books were international 00:26:24.319 --> 00:26:26.720 bestsellers, especially in France. Everyone was 00:26:26.720 --> 00:26:28.440 reading them. So the intellectual atmosphere 00:26:28.440 --> 00:26:31.220 was just saturated with her ideas. Saturated. 00:26:31.319 --> 00:26:33.359 Yeah. And Musser points out the parallels in 00:26:33.359 --> 00:26:35.859 their work. Teresa says the soul is an interior 00:26:35.859 --> 00:26:38.680 castle. Descartes treats the mind as a fortress 00:26:38.680 --> 00:26:41.900 against... doubt. Okay. Teresa talks about reptiles 00:26:41.900 --> 00:26:45.059 and vermin distracting thoughts, trying to stop 00:26:45.059 --> 00:26:47.420 you from entering the castle. Descartes talks 00:26:47.420 --> 00:26:49.839 about a malicious evil demon trying to deceive 00:26:49.839 --> 00:26:52.180 him at every turn. The methodology is similar 00:26:52.180 --> 00:26:54.720 too. It's almost identical. Teresa builds her 00:26:54.720 --> 00:26:57.880 theology on radical introspection. Descartes 00:26:57.880 --> 00:27:00.000 builds his philosophy on radical introspection. 00:27:00.319 --> 00:27:04.000 So I think Therefore I Am might actually be a 00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:07.519 secularized remix of Teresa's I Pray Therefore 00:27:07.519 --> 00:27:10.900 I Am. It strongly suggests that one of the great 00:27:10.900 --> 00:27:13.380 pillars of Western male philosophy was actually 00:27:13.380 --> 00:27:16.440 lifted, consciously or not, from a Spanish female 00:27:16.440 --> 00:27:20.359 mystic. He basically took the map she drew, erased 00:27:20.359 --> 00:27:23.440 the god labels, and called it rationalism. That 00:27:23.440 --> 00:27:26.720 is a mic drop moment for the 16th century. It 00:27:26.720 --> 00:27:28.799 completely changes how we view her intellectual 00:27:28.799 --> 00:27:31.180 weight. She wasn't just feeling things. She was 00:27:31.180 --> 00:27:33.660 analyzing the structure of consciousness. Precisely. 00:27:33.660 --> 00:27:35.859 She was a phenomenologist centuries before the 00:27:35.859 --> 00:27:38.170 term existed. Okay, we have covered... The life, 00:27:38.230 --> 00:27:40.410 the reform, and the writing. Now we have to cover 00:27:40.410 --> 00:27:44.089 the end. Part five, death, time travel, and dismemberment. 00:27:44.210 --> 00:27:47.049 I warned you it gets macabre. You did. First, 00:27:47.150 --> 00:27:50.289 the time travel. Teresa died in 1582, but she 00:27:50.289 --> 00:27:52.289 died on a very specific glitch -in -the -matrix 00:27:52.289 --> 00:27:54.289 type of night. She did. It's a great piece of 00:27:54.289 --> 00:27:56.390 trivia. She was in Alba de Tormes, very sick. 00:27:56.609 --> 00:27:59.369 She died late in the night on October 4th, 1582. 00:28:00.029 --> 00:28:02.930 Well, that exact night was the moment Spain and 00:28:02.930 --> 00:28:04.769 the whole Catholic world switched from the Julian 00:28:04.769 --> 00:28:07.309 calendar to the Gregorian calendar. Because the 00:28:07.309 --> 00:28:09.269 old calendar was drifting out of sync with the 00:28:09.269 --> 00:28:12.250 seasons? Right. The solstices were off. Easter 00:28:12.250 --> 00:28:15.289 was on the wrong date. To fix it, Pope Gregory 00:28:15.289 --> 00:28:18.069 III ordered that 10 days be deleted from the 00:28:18.069 --> 00:28:21.309 calendar. So the day after Thursday, October 00:28:21.309 --> 00:28:24.069 4th, was not Friday, October 5th. It was Friday, 00:28:24.150 --> 00:28:26.589 October 15th. So she died on the 4th and was 00:28:26.589 --> 00:28:28.809 buried on the 15th, but it was literally the 00:28:28.809 --> 00:28:31.309 next morning. She effectively skipped 10 days 00:28:31.309 --> 00:28:33.130 of history. That's why her least day is October 00:28:33.130 --> 00:28:35.589 15th, not the 5th. But she doesn't stay buried. 00:28:35.769 --> 00:28:38.049 This is where the zombie apocalypse vibe kicks 00:28:38.049 --> 00:28:40.769 in. Nine months later, they open the coffin. 00:28:40.890 --> 00:28:43.900 Why? There was a dispute over where she should 00:28:43.900 --> 00:28:46.039 be buried. Avila wanted her back, so they got 00:28:46.039 --> 00:28:48.440 permission to move the body. When they opened 00:28:48.440 --> 00:28:50.680 her coffin, they found that the clothes had rotted, 00:28:50.779 --> 00:28:53.819 the wood had rotted, but her body was perfectly 00:28:53.819 --> 00:28:56.900 intact. Incorrupt. The classic sign of a saint. 00:28:57.059 --> 00:28:59.140 It was flexible. It looked like she was sleeping. 00:28:59.420 --> 00:29:02.079 And they reported it smelled of flowers and earth, 00:29:02.220 --> 00:29:05.500 the so -called odor of sanctity. Now, a normal 00:29:05.500 --> 00:29:07.960 reaction would be, wow, a miracle. Let's close 00:29:07.960 --> 00:29:10.099 the lid and let her rest in peace. But that's 00:29:10.099 --> 00:29:12.450 not what happened. No. That is not what happened. 00:29:12.490 --> 00:29:15.849 In the 16th century, relics were power. Relics 00:29:15.849 --> 00:29:18.009 were spiritual and economic capital. If you had 00:29:18.009 --> 00:29:20.450 a piece of a saint, you had a direct line to 00:29:20.450 --> 00:29:23.109 God and you had a major tourist attraction. So 00:29:23.109 --> 00:29:26.299 the church and her own order. started to dismember 00:29:26.299 --> 00:29:28.640 her. They carved her up like a Thanksgiving turkey. 00:29:28.940 --> 00:29:32.460 It's grim. I have the list here and it is disturbing. 00:29:32.799 --> 00:29:35.440 It's a literal body of evidence scattered across 00:29:35.440 --> 00:29:38.299 Europe. Her right foot and part of her upper 00:29:38.299 --> 00:29:41.259 jaw are in Rome. Her left hand is in a convent 00:29:41.259 --> 00:29:44.380 in Lisbon, Portugal. Her other left hand. But 00:29:44.380 --> 00:29:46.740 she had two left hands. The hand from the arm 00:29:46.740 --> 00:29:49.279 that was removed. That hand is in Ronda, Spain. 00:29:49.640 --> 00:29:52.359 The Ronda hand has a very specific dark history. 00:29:52.720 --> 00:29:55.099 It does. Francisco Franco, the fascist dictator 00:29:55.099 --> 00:29:57.440 of Spain, got a hold of that relic. He became 00:29:57.440 --> 00:29:58.940 obsessed with it. What do you mean obsessed? 00:29:59.240 --> 00:30:02.200 He kept it by his bedside for decades. He even 00:30:02.200 --> 00:30:04.299 traveled with it. He slept with the reliquary 00:30:04.299 --> 00:30:07.099 on his nightstand until the day he died in 1975. 00:30:07.880 --> 00:30:10.920 The irony is suffocating. You have a woman who 00:30:10.920 --> 00:30:13.640 was the granddaughter of a persecuted Jew, a 00:30:13.640 --> 00:30:15.480 woman who fought the establishment her whole 00:30:15.480 --> 00:30:17.940 life, and she ends up being the lucky charm for 00:30:17.940 --> 00:30:20.539 a nationalist dictator. Franco saw her as the 00:30:20.539 --> 00:30:24.789 symbol of the old Spain. pure, Catholic, rigid, 00:30:24.990 --> 00:30:28.690 authoritarian, he projected his own values onto 00:30:28.690 --> 00:30:31.089 her. It's a classic example of how historical 00:30:31.089 --> 00:30:33.470 figures get hijacked for political purposes. 00:30:33.769 --> 00:30:36.079 And we can't forget the finger. This is a story 00:30:36.079 --> 00:30:38.319 that sounds like a pirate movie. Father Geronimo 00:30:38.319 --> 00:30:41.599 Gracian, he was her close friend, her spiritual 00:30:41.599 --> 00:30:44.279 director, her confessor. He was there when they 00:30:44.279 --> 00:30:47.180 were distributing the relic. And he decided he 00:30:47.180 --> 00:30:49.339 wanted a keepsake. So he took her little finger. 00:30:49.380 --> 00:30:51.519 He just took it. He cut it off. He kept it in 00:30:51.519 --> 00:30:54.240 a small vial around his neck. Years later, he 00:30:54.240 --> 00:30:56.480 was traveling the Mediterranean. And his ship 00:30:56.480 --> 00:30:58.880 was captured by Barbary Corsair's pirates from 00:30:58.880 --> 00:31:01.759 North Africa. He was taken to Tunis to be sold 00:31:01.759 --> 00:31:04.079 into slavery. And he didn't have cash for ransom. 00:31:04.380 --> 00:31:06.900 He didn't, but he had the finger and the valuable 00:31:06.900 --> 00:31:09.819 reliquary it was in. He used it to buy his freedom, 00:31:09.940 --> 00:31:12.380 or at least it was part of the transaction. He 00:31:12.380 --> 00:31:15.019 traded a saint's digit for his life. That finger 00:31:15.019 --> 00:31:16.839 has seen more of the world than most people. 00:31:16.960 --> 00:31:19.579 It eventually made its way back to Europe. But 00:31:19.579 --> 00:31:21.660 it just shows you the desperation. People wanted 00:31:21.660 --> 00:31:23.839 to physically touch the holy because they felt 00:31:23.839 --> 00:31:26.279 so far from it. And this isn't just ancient history. 00:31:27.049 --> 00:31:30.390 In August 2024, just a couple of years ago from 00:31:30.390 --> 00:31:32.890 our perspective, they opened the coffin again 00:31:32.890 --> 00:31:35.609 in Alba de Tormes. They did what's called a canonical 00:31:35.609 --> 00:31:38.450 recognition. They brought in doctors and scientists 00:31:38.450 --> 00:31:41.430 to examine the remains. And the postulator general 00:31:41.430 --> 00:31:43.549 for the cause of saints announced that the body 00:31:43.549 --> 00:31:46.529 is in the exact same condition as it was in 1914, 00:31:46.769 --> 00:31:48.369 which was the last time it was photographed. 00:31:48.630 --> 00:31:51.369 Still incorrupt. Still incorrupt. Her heart is 00:31:51.369 --> 00:31:54.609 still there in a glass jar, and devotees claim 00:31:54.609 --> 00:31:57.210 you can still see the scar from the angel's spear. 00:31:57.789 --> 00:32:00.150 It's the ultimate paradox, isn't it? This is 00:32:00.150 --> 00:32:02.130 a woman who spent her whole life trying to detach 00:32:02.130 --> 00:32:04.230 from the body, teaching that the body is just 00:32:04.230 --> 00:32:08.210 a shell for the soul. And now, 400 years later, 00:32:08.410 --> 00:32:11.309 we are obsessed with her shell. She wanted to 00:32:11.309 --> 00:32:13.950 disappear into the interior castle, and we dragged 00:32:13.950 --> 00:32:16.049 her out and scattered her across the map. She 00:32:16.049 --> 00:32:19.009 wanted silence, and she became a global celebrity. 00:32:19.470 --> 00:32:22.869 So, bringing it all home, we've looked at the 00:32:22.869 --> 00:32:26.799 rebel, the invalid, the CEO, and the relic. What 00:32:26.799 --> 00:32:30.000 is the legacy? Well, officially, she was canonized 00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.799 in 1622. In 1970, she was named a Doctor of the 00:32:34.799 --> 00:32:37.819 Church by Pope Paul VI, the first woman ever 00:32:37.819 --> 00:32:40.200 to receive the title. That means her teaching 00:32:40.200 --> 00:32:42.380 is considered essential for the whole church. 00:32:42.680 --> 00:32:45.099 And she's the patron saint of a few things. She's 00:32:45.099 --> 00:32:47.720 the co -patron saint of Spain, along with Santiago. 00:32:48.019 --> 00:32:50.240 She's the patron of headache sufferers, which 00:32:50.240 --> 00:32:52.759 makes total sense given her life. And chess players. 00:32:53.130 --> 00:32:55.329 I love this detail. Yes, that's my favorite little 00:32:55.329 --> 00:32:57.589 detail. In The Way of Perfection, she uses a 00:32:57.589 --> 00:33:00.170 chess analogy. She talks about how in prayer 00:33:00.170 --> 00:33:03.210 you have to be clever to checkmate the king god 00:33:03.210 --> 00:33:05.890 using the piece of humility. And the Inquisition 00:33:05.890 --> 00:33:07.490 didn't like that. No, they thought it was too 00:33:07.490 --> 00:33:10.210 worldly. Chess was seen as a gambling game, slightly 00:33:10.210 --> 00:33:12.309 vice -adjacent. They wanted her to take it out. 00:33:12.349 --> 00:33:15.150 She refused. She argued that you have to use 00:33:15.150 --> 00:33:17.730 language people understand. She was a pragmatist 00:33:17.730 --> 00:33:20.009 to the end. So what's the deep dive takeaway? 00:33:20.519 --> 00:33:22.680 If we strip away the miracles and the pirate 00:33:22.680 --> 00:33:25.700 stories and the incorrupt body, what does Teresa 00:33:25.700 --> 00:33:28.400 of Avila say to us today? I think it comes back 00:33:28.400 --> 00:33:31.559 to the interior castle. Teresa lived in a time 00:33:31.559 --> 00:33:35.059 of incredible chaos. Wars of religion, the Inquisition, 00:33:35.059 --> 00:33:39.519 plague, social upheaval. It wasn't a calm, peaceful 00:33:39.519 --> 00:33:42.720 era. But she argued that you can build a space 00:33:42.720 --> 00:33:45.660 inside yourself that is untouchable. A fortress 00:33:45.660 --> 00:33:49.079 of silence. Exactly. She teaches that you are 00:33:49.079 --> 00:33:51.799 not your circumstances. You are not your illness. 00:33:51.900 --> 00:33:54.259 You are not your family history. You are not 00:33:54.259 --> 00:33:57.299 your social status. There is a diamond in the 00:33:57.299 --> 00:33:59.420 center of you where you can go to be safe and 00:33:59.420 --> 00:34:02.460 whole. And that feels incredibly relevant. We 00:34:02.460 --> 00:34:04.759 don't have the Inquisition, but we have the attention 00:34:04.759 --> 00:34:08.099 economy. We have a world that is constantly banging 00:34:08.099 --> 00:34:10.280 on the door of our minds trying to get in. We've 00:34:10.280 --> 00:34:12.719 let the drawbridge down. We broadcast our interior 00:34:12.719 --> 00:34:15.280 thoughts on social media. We invite the reptiles, 00:34:15.360 --> 00:34:17.800 the noise, the anger, the distraction right into 00:34:17.800 --> 00:34:19.780 the castle. So the challenge she leaves us with 00:34:19.780 --> 00:34:22.340 is, can you pull up the drawbridge? Do you even 00:34:22.340 --> 00:34:24.440 know where the key is anymore? It's a question 00:34:24.440 --> 00:34:27.820 worth asking. In a world of noise, silence might 00:34:27.820 --> 00:34:30.440 be the ultimate act of rebellion. I think I'm 00:34:30.440 --> 00:34:32.039 going to go turn my phone off for a bit. Not 00:34:32.039 --> 00:34:34.159 a bad idea. Thanks for diving deep with us on 00:34:34.159 --> 00:34:36.579 Teresa Vavla. It's been a wild ride. It's been 00:34:36.579 --> 00:34:37.860 a pleasure. See you next time.