Parallel Play
The Spiritual Underground is the cultural and creative strand of this work — the place for people whose faith, attention, and practice live a little outside the standard rooms.
It is built around two ideas that arrived slowly and deliberately, in conversation, over years of trying to find language for a way of being with God that didn’t require performance, certainty, or fluency in inherited forms.
You do not join this. You recognise yourself in it.
“Low-demand faith is the recognition that faith can be practised outside ritual, standardised religious practices, and cultural norms. It is the understanding that our relationship with the Divine is often alive in the ordinary moments of our lives, not only within formal acts of worship.”
Spiritual Parallel Play is a practice that grew out of a decade of community arts work, applied to the practitioner’s own relationship with God — contemplation of the Divine outside ritual and ceremony, following intuition, longing, and direct guidance rather than inherited forms alone.
Inspiring the Sufi: A Neurodivergent Practice in Parallel Play is the named, public example of this work — fifty Names of Allah, each paired with a song from somewhere in the world, each held alongside a written reflection. One practice, fully documented, freely available to wander.
If you work in faith, the arts, or culture — and any of this meets something you are already trying to make room for — I am open to expressions of interest. Programming, residencies, collaborations, conversation. No pitch deck, no form. A short, plain note is enough.
For quieter contact — reflections, occasional letters, news about the book — join the list on Substack.