#27: Buddhism and a Brighter Vision of the Future with Emma Varvaloucas

I’m joined by Sanya Manzoor, a spiritual emergence coach and lead steward for the Church of Interbeing, Berlin, a grassroots initiative of community gatherings devoted to reconnection through ritual and holistic enquiry. Sanya supports clients in their mental, emotional, and spiritual healing. She also offers sound journeys, communal ceremonies, talks, meditation practices, and rituals, all to expand the capacity for depth, devotion, and revelation. In this dialogue Sanya shares her experience of ego death, the grief of lost identity, the painful conditioning of cultural worldviews, and the value of faith and surrender. We look at the challenges and gifts of spiritual emergency, from fears of insanity, confusion and disorientation, to the rewards of self-connection, re-enchantment, and an inclusive way of relating to others, and the world. Just a reminder before we jump into the conversation to please like, rate, subscribe and share to help more people access the podcast. Enjoy! Resources Sanya's Instagram

Marjorie Woollacott is an Emeritus Professor of Human Physiology and member of the Institute of Neuroscience at the University of Oregon. She is Research Director for the International Association of Near-Death Studies (IANDS) and President of the Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences (AAPS). Marjorie has published more than 200 scientific articles and written or co-edited eight books. Our conversation centres around her paper, co-authored with scholar Ben Williams, Conceptual Cognition and Awakening: Insights From Non-dual S ́Aivism and Neuroscience. In this lucid synthesis, the pair explore the neural correlations between language, the sense of self, and expanded states of awareness — and how that relates to 10th century Kashmir philosopher Utpaladeva’s Stanzas on the Recognition of Shiva. Marjorie shares how the brain’s filtering system limits awareness, citing fascinating studies from near death experiences, meditation, and psychedelic research. Other topics include Extra-Sensory Perception and quantum entanglement, free will, and how brain activity supports a post-material worldview, where consciousness, not matter, is primary. Just a reminder before we jump into the conversation to please like, rate, subscribe and share to help more people access the podcast. Enjoy! Resources Marjorie’s website. Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences

I’m joined by Nick Kettles, who returns to the show having previously discussed the Stages of the Spiritual Journey. Nick is also my co-creator for the YouTube series, Archetypes of Awakening. He is a Master Certified Coach and healer with 25 years experience in the human potential movement. He has pursued a meditation practice in the Advaita Vedanta tradition for over 20 years and has worked as a meditation teacher for the last 10 years. I’ve known Nick for some time and I’ve been fortunate to witness his natural gift as a guide. This conversation explores Nick’s coaching model, Threshold of the Soul, which draws from Nick’s wealth of wisdom, including coaching, depth psychology, and spirituality. What are thresholds? How do we embrace our core wounds? What role do rituals and rites of passage play in our becoming? How does the labyrinth symbolize the true self and the chakra system? We cover the full spectrum of personal development, from the mythological to the cognitive, from immersion in introspection to the power of meaningful action, from the root to the crown, and everything between. Just a reminder before we jump into the conversation to please like, rate, subscribe and share to help more people access the podcast. Enjoy! Resources: Thresholds of the Soul Coaching Nick's website

This episode features my presentation for the International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis (ISPS-US) annual conference in October, 2023. The original title was Metanoia: How Psychosis and Paranoia Ignited My Spiritual Awakening. I completely rewrote the talk a few days before, following a lightning bolt of creative energy that surfaced a structure I’d not previously made conscious. I called this the Psychotics Twofold Call to Adventure. It’s my attempt to contextualize and integrate experiences of paranoia and psychosis across a 12 year period. I suggest the twofold path of cultivating awareness and creating coherence, to re-relate to psychological content, and to understand the language of the soul. Metanoia means spiritual conversion, or the change of mind and heart. I suggest that psychosis, as a process of metanoia, has the potential to be a pathway to what R.D Laing calls “true sanity,” whereby the ego is “in service to the divine and no longer its betrayer.” The stages cover the unconscious tsunami and collapse into chaos, answering the inward call and the ego’s surrender, finding the inner sanctum, the world as meditation, divine emergence, initiation, and individuation, before closing with a note on how this relates to humanity’s current crises.  And just a reminder before we jump into the conversation to please like, rate, subscribe and share to help more people access the podcast. Enjoy!

I’m joined by one of the world’s leading experts in the field of forgiveness research, Everett Worthington. Everett is a Commonwealth Professor Emeritus working from the Department of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University, and a licensed clinical psychologist. He has published over 38 books and over 440 articles and scholarly chapters, mostly on forgiveness, humility, positive psychology, marriage, family, and religion and spirituality. He has also developed the REACH Forgiveness model, which is supported by more than 25 randomized trials. Everett generously gives away free self-help workbooks on practices including forgiveness, humility, and patience, which are linked in the show notes. Our conversation explores the overlap of spiritual and scientific approaches to forgiveness, dealing with injustice, overcoming grudges, ruminations and emotional unforgiveness, empathy and cognitive biases, self-forgiveness, discerning genuine forgiveness from self-deceit, plus a Everett’s moving account of applying the wisdom of forgiveness following his mother’s murder. And just a reminder before we jump into the conversation to please like, rate, subscribe and share to help more people access the podcast. Enjoy! Resources Website: https://www.evworthington-forgiveness.com/ Free Workbooks: https://www.evworthington-forgiveness.com/diy-workbooks

I’m joined by Nikunja, a musician and yoga teacher who bridges the creative arts with ancient philosophy. Following a path of devotion — known as Bhakti yoga — Nikunja teaches the embodiment of the Bhagavad Gita as a way of life. Nikunja has reimagined chapters from the Gita as part of a project to illuminate yoga’s sacred nature, which extends far beyond physical postures. In exploring the Gita’s ancient wisdom, we discuss the divine intellect, reading sacred scripture as a spiritual practice, the art of listening, the nuances of yoga philosophy across traditions, single-pointed devotion as a pathway to union with God, the nature of the soul and the supreme self, the overlooked value of the teacher / student dynamic, and much more. In September, Nikunja will be performing at the Bhakti Fest in California. She will be sharing music on the main stage and conducting a workshop. Discounted tickets for the festival can be found at https://www.bhaktifest.com/tickets by entering the code NIKUNJA. And just a reminder before we jump into the conversation to please like, rate, subscribe and share to help more people access the podcast. Enjoy! Nikunja's Resources: Website: https://www.nikunjartistry.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikunja YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC44NFKxo4399zT6byAVOZkA Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/11SfT4EjJa4ObpX8nZJQ7M?si=_Sp4fdglQ4qKGf82Fvv9QA

Ellen Emmet returns to the show. Ellen is a psychotherapist and facilitator of Authentic Movement. Our first conversation in episode 29, Nonduality and the Shadow, covered psychological aspects of the awakening. This time we focus on Ellen’s teaching of the Awakening Body and yoga meditations in the tradition of nonduality and Kashmir Shaivism. This is an exploration of our true nature at the level of tactility and feeling. We discuss gentle practices to relax the somatic sensation of separation and re-enliven the senses, the undefinable nature of tantra, how listening to sensation differs from hedonism and sensory indulgence, embodying vs. intellectualizing, method vs. devotional practice, the pros and cons of self-trust, valuing intuition, embracing not knowing, plus much more. And just a reminder before we jump into the conversation to please like, rate, subscribe and share to help more people access the podcast. Enjoy! Resources Ellen Emmet’s website: https://www.ellenemmet.com/ Ellen’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theawakeningbody/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ellenemmet

This episode will answer the ultimate question to life, the universe and everything. Or maybe not quite everything, but I couldn’t miss the only chance to reference the number 42 from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. That being said, Jane Clapp does answer many questions I had about the inner universe. Jane is a distinguished Jungian analyst who formed Jungian somatics from over 20 years of clinical experience. Exploring the interplay of body and psyche, she specializes in developmental and complex trauma through a mythological and embodied lens.  Our conversation includes somatic symptoms as symbols from the unconscious, developing ego strength, misconceptions about ‘shadow work,’ how skilled guidance can highlight blind spots, dreams as compensating for psychic imbalances, individual and cultural complexes, the tension of opposites and the transcendent function, and the risk, reward and necessity of differentiating from group mentality on the journey of growth. And just a reminder before we jump into the conversation to please like, rate, subscribe and share to help more people access the podcast. Enjoy! Resources: Jane’s website: https://www.janeclapp.com/ Jane’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jungiansomatics/

Har-Prakash Khalsa started as a student of Zen meditation in 1984 and went on to become a certified Kundalini Yoga instructor and teacher of Mindfulness meditation in the systematic style of Shinzen Young (whom Har-Prakash has studied intensively with since 1999). He has written Cultivating the Jewel of Mindfulness, a comprehensive practitioner curriculum, offers private online mindfulness coaching, and supervises solo retreatants at his off-grid farm near Owen Sound, Ontario. Our conversation covers the spectrum from suffering to enlightenment, from core wounds to Buddha nature, in an approach that will resonate with seasoned practitioners and those looking to relate better to themselves and others. Topics include the value of introspection, the scale of meaning, cultivating wholesome states, embracing the full human experience, and the key markers of balanced awakening. Resources Har-Prakash’s website. Shinzen Young’s Expand Contract YouTube channel.

I’m joined by Judith Blackstone. Judith has 35 years experience as a psychotherapist and teacher of the realization process, a direct path for realizing fundamental consciousness, as well as the application of nondual realization for psychological, relational and physical healing. She currently has seven books in publication, including her latest, The Fullness of the Ground: A Guide to Embodied Spiritual Awakening. Judith explains the importance of inhabiting the body and developing a strong connection to the core, to integrate the fullness of the self, cultivate wholeness, and connect deeply to life, rather than dissociate or numb through misguided attempts at transcendence. We discuss the value of modalities such as talking therapy, somatic work, and meditation, the risks of catharsis, maintaining boundaries as consciousness expands, as well as subtle distinctions between non-dual awareness and energetic dimensions. Resources The Realization Process website. Judith's writing and media.