After my first book came out I hit a wall, feeling churned up inside. What was going on? I turned inward to find out, crossing right over the sharp line that the Western world draws between matter and spirit. I began to talk in spirit with an animal helper: a bear. Some thoughts on the limits that the matter-spirit split imposes on Western thinking, and how most Indigenous traditions regard reality as one unified whole, matter and spirit flowing together through every being and part of Earth. How talking with a bear in spirit nudged me toward larger definitions of myself and of the world. With assists today from Rumi and Vine Deloria Jr.