Jim Sherblom

Are you a transcendentalist? How does an American transcendentalist live in the 21st century? Over a six-decade journey I matured from a naïve small-town Baptist youth to a spiritual mystic living transcendentally in Concord, Massachusetts. Now as a Concord transcendentalist author I offer books, retreats and workshops that help others to find their unique Way.

You were born to be a humble and joyful child of GodPart memoir, part philosophical history, and part manual for living, Spiritual Audacity will guide you from black and white to color, from formless to form, from dark to light, and from curious to enlightened.

I learned to say YES when spiritual adventure is offered.
As a venture capitalist and early investor in biomedicine, I sought to bring positive change to the world. But at the height of my career, I felt an inner calling to become a student of divine mystery. My second memoir, Spiritual Pilgrim describes that pilgrimage of spirit.

Awakening Journeys of a Twenty-First Century Trancendentalist

by jimsherblom

Paddling Musketaquid

by jimsherblom

Approaching Concord’s wildness from the south or west is best done paddling on the rivers. The Algonquin indigenous people called this ancient river system Musketaquid. It is a land defined by its sandy esker ridges, left from the melting of the last ice age, and its plentiful waters. My house is a half mile from egg rock, on a street that ends at the Assabet river. I often paddle my kayak as a form of transcendental meditation there. Once I’m on the river, with only bird sounds to distract me, my heart rate slows, and I paddle gently with the current. As we circumnavigate rocky shoals and fallen limbs, the edge of Barrett’s Mill Farm, the final destination of the British troops on April 19, 1775 appears on the river’s northern shore. I am already drifting between Concord’s two revolutions, the eighteenth century civic fight for freedom and the nineteenth century transcendentalist reimagining of the role of reason and our senses in spirituality. This tranquil final mile of the Assabet River is mentioned often...

Walking Walden Transcendentally

by jimsherblom

A lecture for the Thoreau Society 2018 Annual Gathering by Rev. Dr. Jim Sherblom adapted from his soon to be released book (September 2018) SPIRITUAL PILGRIM: Awakening Journeys of a Twenty-First century Transcendentalist. What is a transcendentalist? Ralph Waldo Emerson in his 1842 lecture describing The Transcendentalist said: “As thinkers, [humankind] has been divided into two sects, Materialists and Idealists; the first class beginning to think from the data of the senses, the second class perceive the senses are not final, and say, the senses give us representations of things, but what are the things themselves they cannot tell.” The actual data of our senses represents just a small part of our experiences in life. So, how do we experience the underlying reality beyond what our senses perceive? What transcends our senses? Whether you approach Concord from the north, east, south or west, all directions pivot around this place. Walking, driving, cycling or paddling in Concord as a transcendentalist can be a journey across space and time. If you come on foot from the...

A Twenty-First Century Transcendentalist

by jimsherblom

A transcendentalist seeks to transcend the normal experience of life. With a sense of ultimate reality, the infinitude of our soul is made real through transcendent experiences. In Concord, nature’s wildness is usually where that happens, but this transcending of ordinary life can occur in all times and all places. The indigenous people who lived here for millennia also seemed to have a transcendental consciousness. So how do we seek, and how do we find, this transcendental consciousness? In his lecture “The Transcendentalist” Emerson said, “what is popularly called Transcendentalism among us, is Idealism. Idealism as it appears in 1842. As thinkers, [human]kind has been divided into two sects, Materialists and Idealists: the first class beginning to think from the data of the senses, the second class perceive that the senses are not final, but what are the things themselves, they cannot tell.” So how do we transcend materialism to become mindful idealists? What is the consciousness we seek? For Emerson spiritual idealism was simply part of the perennial philosophy, honored in all places...

Phebe Bliss Emerson Ripley

by jimsherblom

Why do we still not hear the stories of our women ancestors, or ancestors of color, as we do our White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) male ancestors? Their stories should be told. Concord’s sixth minister, Daniel Bliss (1739 – 1764), was its last Calvinist, Loyalist, and Puritan minister. The times were rapidly changing. Bliss was, like Jonathon Edwards and George Whitefield, a product of the American Great Awakening. He preached hellfire and damnation to his often-frightened congregation. The previous minister, John Whiting (1712 – 1737) was far more liberal, but had apparently been fired for public drunkenness, so he offered alternative worship services at the Black Horse Tavern. His oldest daughter, Phebe Bliss, lived through Concord’s greatest time of transformations. Born in 1741, she grew up in a British colonial town, loyal to God, King and Country. She was only 23 when her father died young (age 49) leaving she and her mother and two younger sisters scrambling to make ends meet. Concord turned to William Emerson, age 22 and a direct descendent of Concord’s...