Don't hold anything too tightly. Just wish for it, want it, let it come from the

intention of real truth for you, and then let it go. For me our soul is like it's

unbound, it's limitless, but we will use words to limit ourselves. When people

stop believing that somebody's got your back or Superman's coming we turn to

ourselves and that's where you become empowered. Courageous participation attracts

positive things. I'm Gwyneth Paltrow. This is the Goop podcast, bringing together

thought leaders, culture changers, creatives, founders and CEOs, scientists,

doctors, healers and seekers, here to start conversations because simply asking

questions and listening has the power to change the way we see the world.

Today is no exception. I'll let Elise fill you in on her extraordinary guest.

All right, over to Elise. I'm very excited for today's episode with one of the

foremost religious scholars of our time, Elaine Pagels. Elaine is a best-selling

author of a number of beautiful books and the Harrington Spear Pain Professor of

Religion at Princeton University. Today we talk about her journey to religion,

how she joined the Evangelical movement when she was 14 and then swiftly left.

We talk about how her relationship with Christianity and her faith has shifted with time.

She became famous in the 70s for her book The Nostoc Gospels, which is an exploration of the

Gospels discovered in the Nag Hammadi. Scrolls from the earliest days of Christianity, which were

discovered in the Egyptian desert in 1945, a massive, massive, archaeological find. These Gospels

were buried by monks because they were deemed heretical when the canon, i.e. the New Testament,

was formed in the 4th century. These Gospels present a very different perspective on Christ and his

teachings and an idea of what a more expanded understanding of Christianity might have brought to

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