“Now I like sitting down, listening, and talking. I don’t need to go to ‘the thing’ anymore. I’m losing interest because the hype around a seemingly important cultural social event is usually plastic. Our celebrity heroes are actually just normal people, holding surface-level conversations, dealing with their own human-life-obstacles and blockages. That kind of hype is empty. Ultimately, we have two choices: We’re either sharing with other people in an authentic way that reminds them of their own inner light, or to quote Terrence McKenna, we’re “dithering while Rome burns”. We’re all going to die. Initiate a genuine connection with as many people as you can while breath is going through the lungs.” — Bob Peck, from Original Sin is a Lie
Once upon a time (the 1990s) in the Texas Hill Country, two disparate events happened at around the same time. I like to imagine them occurring simultaneously.
Event 1: At a remote brothel turned rock-star getaway owned by the front man of the industrial rock band Ministry, Timothy Leary is among a group of roughly a dozen celebrants. He is in Texas doing a fundraiser for an Austin literary magazine called io. One of io’s editors, a college student named Leah, is also joining the celebrants for a weekend of sound and fury signifying absolutely nothing.
Event 2: Nearby but very much elsewhere, a nine-year-old boy named Bob is attending Vacation Bible School (VBS). An older woman approaches him and asks, “Do you want to go to heaven?” Before he’s able to reply, she continues, “If you do, you must accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Just say these words and you’re guaranteed to get into heaven.” But even little Bob realizes that “earning something so important merely by mouthing magic words seemed illogical.”
Decades later, in 2024, the young editor Leah’s life intersects with little VBS Bob’s again, in the form of a book called Original Sin is a Lie. This is that story.
A Certain Kinship
Let’s start by getting this out of the way: I have an awful lot in common with Bob Peck, and it makes me feel great sisterly affection for him. I’ll return to that momentarily.
I want to acknowledge, as well, that I discovered this author and his book on social media. I’m not sure where on social media, you know how that goes. But I kept seeing this cheerful young mustachioed man with a trucker cap on my scroll, and I always liked what he had to say.
“Okay, @originalsinisalie,” I thought. “I’ll give you a follow.” But in my head, I read it like “Original Sini Salie”. As if his name was “Sini Salie” and he was the first of his name (thus ‘Original’).
Soon I learned that, like me, “Sini Salie” was a graduate of the University of Texas. Also like me, he was a native Austinite. It’s not until you live in Austin that you discover how rare native Austinites are — so there was another kinship.
Too, we’re both spiritual questers who started early on our path with Christianity, then discovered Hinduism and other mystical traditions that came to paint our spiritual understanding and practice more broadly than traditional monotheism. We are also both Ram Dass mega fans.
I liked this fellow, this Sini Salie, and was happy to learn he’d written a book called Original Sin is a Lie. And how clever, the way he worked his name into the title!
Oh.
So it turns out his name is Bob Peck, not “Sini Salie” and, once again I’m reminded of my autism, of my tendency to misinterpret superficial things while focusing intently on the profound.
Original Sin is a Lie
Peck’s thesis is pretty simple, and it’s stated right there in the title.
Honestly, I didn’t think that the statement “original sin is a lie” was in any way controversial. I mean, I suppose didn’t really think that, but I just don’t encounter people who believe that “original sin” is a thing. I’m not sure if that makes me part of the audience for whom Peck wrote this book.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed Original Sin is a Lie thoroughly.
When I was back at the University of Texas, writing for the Daily Texan newspaper, my editor often complained that I never wrote bad reviews. It made perfect sense to me.
“Why would I waste my time finishing a book I don’t like then writing about it?” I always answered.
What follows is a brief overview of a book that, I’m not gonna lie, I loved.
On that note, here’s the flow of the book.
Overview
Part 1: Debunking Fearful Institutions
Consists of three chapters: 1. Christianity Misinterpreted Christ, 2. His True, Radical Teaching of Love, and 3. Who is He? Who Am I?
In this first section, we come to know Bob through a few anecdotes about his youth, but the bulk of Part 1 is a look at Christianity and how it has strayed from the message of Christ using source texts.
Part 2: The Perennial Philosophy: it’s All True
Consists of four chapters: 4. Many Paths Up the Mountain, 5. Parallels Among the Central Religious Figures, 6. The Inclusive East, and 7. Ancient Religions and New Sciences.
As much as I appreciated Bob’s learned commentary on mistranslations of the Bible, this is where I started to truly engage with the material. It’s in Part 2 that we learn about Richard, Bob’s family friend who happens to be an Apache Medicine Man. Richard makes appearances throughout the book, just hanging out and being a cool, mystical guy. Bob puts his degree in Religions to work here, discussing various Eastern paths and their mystic branches — along the way humbly acknowledging that he’s a learner, too, and this is simply what he’s learned.
Part 3: Awareness is the Foundation
Consists of three chapters: 8. Demystifying Mysticism 9. The Present Has Everything 10. Noticing is the First Step.
Part 3 is, as the kids say, fire. Here, Bob digs deep into mysticism across traditions, and we come to see him walking the walk personally. In a passage called “Proving My Spiritual-ness,” Bob recounts a struggle with his ego and I identified big time. He writes, “My ‘spiritual egotism’ was and still is unnerving. It’s something I’m continually working on.” He adds “…My ego wants to exclude this story from the book because it’s so found out.” It’s this sort of vulnerability that makes Bob such a good and true storyteller (though I wish he’d offer more compassion to himself).
Part 4: The Compassionate Heart
Consists of four chapters: 11. Turning Them Into Us, 12. Jesus Despised Greed 13. Self-Love is Not Ego, 14. Maharajji
Bob discusses self-love, our beloved Baba Ram Dass, and Maharajii (Ram Dass’s guru) in this section. among other things.
Part 5: We Are Not the Body: We Are Spirit
Consists of three chapters. 15: What Happens To Us Is For Us 16: Psychedelia: A Glimpse but Impossible to Stay Up 17. Transcending What the World Offers
Part 5 looks at psychedelia, at the nature of “reality”, and going home to Source.
Part 6: The Love of Our Creator is Inescapable
Consists of three chapters 18. Piercing the Illusory Veil 19. Hell Is a State of Mind 20. Our True Nature is Love
We come full circle here, in a way, returning to Christ and the few references to hell within his words. Being a mystic himself, and a man of truth, Bob knows that the way out (of this mess) is in (to ourselves).
My Thoughts on the Book
The author weaves brief vignettes of his life through the book to illustrate points he’s making — there’s the aforementioned little Bob at VBS (vacation bible school, for those of you who didn’t enjoy that particular rite of passage), already getting the feeling that something was off about the philosophy he was being taught there (ditto, little Bob. I was there for the crafts); Bob at college (my alma mater), starstruck by the intellect of his professors (been there, Bob. I’m so grateful for my UT education); Bob the husband and father, doing the work of both householder and mystic (the householder path wasn’t for me, but I am the Mystic Autistic, so we share that, as well).
Though Texas is not a friendly place for me and I’ve not been back there in 20 years, I know many of the places about which Bob writes, adding yet another layer of familiarity to the book. I’ve spent happy hours at the Hindu temple, Barsana Dham, that he mentions. And in the context of Ram Dass (my favorite spiritual teacher), Bob discusses Timothy Leary.
And so we’re back where we started — with two very different people who shared early physical proximity in Texas and who are now specks on the same frequency, sharing vibes on the internet, and trying to make the world a little better.
Bob Peck and the Mystic Autistic have come far on our journeys, and I’m happy that our paths have intersected here, in these words you’re reading.
If you’re interested in mysticism, spirituality, and living a meaningful life, I whole-heartedly recommend Bob Peck’s Original Sin is a Lie.
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