Episodes
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Emelie has been working fulltime since 1995 with empathic communication with other species, non-hierarchal riding and handling of horses, alternative treatments such as acupuncture, homeopathy and herbal medicine. She has published three books on these subjects. She runs a school with mainly horses and other species for empathic interbeing. This school is a farm that is a sanctuary for around 170 animals of different species - not to mention plants and surrounding nature.
Books:
All the King's Horses - if you wish to purchase a copy, email Emelie.
Zander och Tiden (Swedish)
Website: friendsofmio.com
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group
Transcript of this interview
Interview recorded March 5, 2023
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast. -
Fr. Seán ÓLaoire was born in Ireland and earned a B.Sc. degree (major in Mathematics) from the National University of Ireland. Ordained a catholic priest in 1972, he spent 14 years working in Kenya. He is multi-lingual and has an M.A. and Ph.D. in Transpersonal Psychology; he is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist in private practice. He is co-founder and the Spiritual Director of a non-denominational community called “Companions on the Journey” based in Palo Alto. He is the author of five books and co-author of a sixth:
“Ukweli ni Nini?” (What is truth?) – written and published in Swahili in 1983
“Spirits in Spacesuits - A Manual for Everyday Mystics”- published in 2003
“Souls on Safari” - published in 2006 - Translated into German in 2007
“A Sensible God” – published in 2008
“Why? What Your Life Is Telling You about Who You Are and Why You’re Here” - published in 2013 (with Matthew McKay, PhD and Ralph Metzner, PhD) - Translated into Korean in 2015
“Setting God Free: Moving Beyond the Caricature We’ve Created in Our Own Image” - published in 2021
Transcript of this interview
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group
Interview recorded February 25, 2023
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast. -
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There have always been three deep interests that have informed my life; and those are art, spirituality, and psychotherapy which all tend to reflect each other. I have been an artist since my childhood, had spiritual experiences since I was 6, and my interest in psychology began at twelve when I started reading psychology books.
There were some experiences during my childhood which indicated an opening for spiritual awareness. The first was when I was walking to school, when I was 6, and I realized that I was in this body. The second happened many times when several light beings would sit on my bed and talk to me, before I went to sleep. Their energy was very distinct. I could feel the weight of them on my bed.
My spiritual journey actively began when I was 19 and began doing TM. After TM I had a few other spiritual teachers and many spiritual openings, or awakenings, throughout my life. The last most significant experience, which was several years ago, was when I was taking a walk and I heard a voice inside of me say “it’s time”. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I thought it might become clear by connecting with the group of light beings. When I did, an energy began to flow through me. I soon got another message that this was not just for me, it was to share with others. This led me to gather a few people together to meditate, and with whom to share this energy. I had no idea if anyone else would feel the flow of energy, but they did. My meetings with people have evolved into a sharing of wisdom and energy that flows from this spaciousness, which is the Boundless.
The importance of this sharing is that it helps all of us shift into the consciousness of the One, or Infinite, or Boundless. This is a small step away from knowing that we are the Boundless. As we move through the world as the Boundless, there is a ripple effect. Sharing this shift in frequency facilitates, an expansion in human consciousness; where more people know that we are all One. Through an energetic transmission, people are guided to take their next step on their spiritual journey.
I have been a psychotherapist for about 40 years, during this time I have been trained and/or certified in several modalities including: Transpersonal Hypnotherapy through the Michael Newton Institute, Hypnotherapy through the Ericksonian School.
I am the founder of the Enneagram School of Awakening, which is accredited by The International Enneagram Association.
I call what I do Transpersonal Psychotherapy because I help people work through personal limiting patterns, as well as guiding them to open to their true nature, which is beyond the personal.
I have written two books Boundless - Experiential description of stepping into the boundless, and my journey to the Boundless; and From the Heart of Boundless – discussions and teachings about obstacles and issues that might get in the way of connecting to the Boundless.
Websites:
Boundless
Art
The Enneagram School
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group
Transcript of this interview
Interview recorded February 4, 2023.
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast. -
Born in London, Dr. Churchill's interest in psycho-spiritual development, Integral theory, Contemplative studies, Western Esotericism, and Mahayana Buddhism began in his adolescence,. During this time, John received the esoteric Planetary Dharma transmissions that would in time unfold as his contribution to a planetary fourth turning teaching.
Dr. Churchill spent 15 years training and teaching “Great Seal” meditation in an Indo-Tibetan Mahayana lineage under the mentorship of the late senior Western teacher, translator, respected author, and clinical psychologist Dr. Daniel P. Brown.
He is also a founding member of the Integral Institute led by esteemed Transpersonal/Integral philosopher, Ken Wilber.
John has received advanced training in: attachment therapy, hypnosis, positive psychology for peak performance, and the “Pointing Out” style of Mahamudra meditation.
For the last 25 years, John has developed a a Fourth Turning Planetary Dharma practice which includes the somatically based contemplative practice path; Embodying the Open Ground, that integrates psychodynamic healing, adult development and meditation.
John holds a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from William James College, and is a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Married to his partner, Nicole since 2000, they are Co-Founders of Samadhi Integral, and Co-Directors of Karuna Mandala.
Book: Becoming Buddha: Buddhist Contemplative Psychology in a Western Context
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group
Transcript of this interview
Interview recorded January 29, 2023.
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast. -
Debra Martin is a World-Renowned Intuitive Healer and an International Research Lab Certified Medium with the Windbridge Research Center. Debra is a Spiritual Coach, Survivor of three near death experiences, cancer and an author of six books. Her most recent: "Proof of Miracles” & "Doctors, Faith & Courage”.
Debra had her third near death experience on 1-21-12 where she had an out of body experience and conversation with God. From this experience her mediumship abilities heightened, and she was given the gift to heal.
Debra has developed a healing technique which is not being done anywhere else in the world. In 2013, the Logos Church ordained her as a healing minister due to the healing miracles they were witnessing.
She is a motivational speaker and has been on many radio networks.
Website: goldenmiracles.com
Instagram: @ https://www.Instagram.com/debra.martin11
Facebook: @ https://www.Facebook.com/debra.martin.3557
YouTube channel: @ https://www.youtube.com/goldenmiracles1
Army4Love Gatherings: Zoom on the 1st Tuesday of every month Free. 3:00 p.m. MST: https://goldenmiracles.com/engage/
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.
Transcript of this interview
Interview recorded January 8, 2022.
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast. -
Anthony Peake is the author of 12 books. He has lectured across the UK and Europe and has also given talks in New York and Melbourne, Australia. He has appeared on national television in Germany and France and has been interviewed on numerous BBC local radio stations and nationally on BBC Radio Five Live.
Here are the themes of four of Anthony's books most relevant to what we discuss in this interview.
Is There Life After Death: The Extraordinary Science of What Happens When We Die (2006) Do you occasionally have that strange feeling known as déjà vu? Do you sometimes feel that you know what is going to happen next? Do you ever have a strong feeling that actions you are about to take are the right (or wrong) thing to do? All these perceptions may be everyday clues to your immortality. This book proposes that personal death is a scientific impossibility. Using the latest findings of neurology, quantum physics, and consciousness studies, Anthony suggests that we never die. This book will help you understand the reason for your life and how you can make it better next time.
The Daemon: A Guide To Your Extraordinary Secret Self (2008) Appearing in Greek mythology, the Daemon is broadly understood as a guiding spirit which exists as one half of your split self. Anthony proposes that people consist of not one but two separate consciousnesses - everyday consciousness and that of The Daemon, a higher being that seems to possess knowledge of future events. Drawing upon phenomena such as déjà vu and near-death experiences, he explores the ways that our Daemon breaks through into our consciousness and can subconsciously impact upon our decisions. This book draws upon neurology, metaphysics and theology. It also follows the stories of famous figures, including Byron, Geothe, Jean Cocteau, and many others who have "felt a force outside themselves".
The Hidden Universe: An Investigation Into Non-Human Intelligences (2019) From aliens or ghosts to the djinn, electric-voice phenomenon, and UFO abductions, this book is the most comprehensive and enlightening survey ever made of encounters with the "others" - intelligent, self-motivated beings that are clearly not human in their origins. In addition to fully detailing the history of these encounters, the book attempts a bold explanation (never before undertaken) of the true nature of these beings. The book will explore the increasingly frequent entheogen encounters facilitated by substances such as dimethyltryptamine, ayahuasca, 5-Meo-DMT, and LSD, as well as the beings encountered by individuals suffering from Alzheimer's-related Charles Bonnet Syndrome, young children's non-corporeal companions, and the seemingly independent beings met during lucid dreaming and near-death and out-of-body experiences. This model proposes that consciousness, far from being simply an accident of evolution, is the actual root source of the material universe. It suggests that at its most basic level everything that is seemingly physical is rendered into existence by consciousness.
Cheating The Ferryman: The Revolutionary Science of Life After Death (2022) Is there life after death? This age-old question has plagued humankind from the moment we became self-aware, but do we now have enough evidence to answer it? This book reveals an extraordinary model of life after death—one that brings together ideas from ancient philosophy, neuroscience, quantum physics, and consciousness studies and manages to explain a number of seemingly mysterious experiences such as precognition, déjà vu, synchronicity, near-death experiences, and out-of-body experiences. It is called Cheating the Ferryman. This book is a much-awaited follow-up to Is There Life After Death, which introduced his revolutionary model. Since then, he has amassed more evidence, using new studies by world-leading researchers, theories from the likes of Stephen Hawking, Carl Jung, and Hugh Everette, together with testimonies of NDEs and precogni... -
I was interviewed by Angelo Dilullo, who has been on BatGap.
Angelo's:
BatGap interview
YouTube Channel
Points discussed:
My spiritual history. The TM program
The importance of integration and stabilization on the spiritual path.
The value of spiritual development in unfolding our full potential.
About Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi)
The masculine and feminine aspects of spirituality.
Compassion, kindness, generosity, and such qualities as expressions of holistic spiritual development.
The Association for Spiritual Integrity and the importance of ethics on the spiritual path.
What is the best spiritual practice?
Are there any detrimental practices? (Psychedelics? Neo-Advaita?) Harmful teachers?
The qualifications for being a spiritual teacher and the importance of discerning between qualified and unqualified teachers. The importance of humility and genuineness in teachers.
We all have different roles to play. Awakened people aren’t necessarily teachers and don’t necessarily use spiritual terminology.
The relevance of channeling, mediumship, etc. to spirituality. Different dimensions of reality.
“God” as an unbounded self-interacting ocean of consciousness. We are characters with some improvisational latitude in the Divine Play. The playwright has our best interest in mind.
Staying aligned with the Divine “stream”. Trusting your instincts.
Global problems are symptomatic of the quality of collective consciousness which is trending toward awakening, perhaps as a response to the dire nature of these problems.
The cumulative nature of spiritual practice.
Recommended books.
The importance of where you put your attention.
The complimentary relationship between knowledge and experience.
The importance of taking the first step on the spiritual path, and one thing will lead to the next.
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group
Transcript of this interview
Interview recorded December 20, 2022
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast. -
Jude Currivan, Ph.D., is a cosmologist, futurist, planetary healer, author, member of the Evolutionary Leaders Circle, and previously one of the most senior business women in the UK. She has a master’s degree in physics from Oxford University specializing in quantum physics and cosmology and a doctorate in archaeology from the University of Reading researching ancient cosmologies. She has travelled extensively, worked with wisdom keepers from many traditions and is a life-long researcher into the nature of reality and consciousness. She is the author of seven books, most recently The Cosmic Hologram (2017), and The Story of Gaia: The Big Breath and the Evolutionary Journey of Our Conscious Planet (2022) and is co-founder of WholeWorld-View.
Websites:
wholeworld-view.org
judecurrivan.com
Earlier books:
CosMos: A Co-creator's Guide to the Whole World
The 13th Step: A Global Journey in Search of Our Cosmic Destiny
The 8th Chakra: What It Is and How It Can Transform Your Life
The Wave : A Life Changing Journey into the Heart and Mind of the Cosmos
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group
First BatGap interview with Jude
Interview recorded December 10, 2022
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast. -
Robin was born and raised in the US with a very religious and schizophrenic mother as well as a violent and atheist father. At 14, Robin started volunteering with various non-profits organizations and traveling the world, two lifelong passions which led her to work with dozens of NGOs and travel nearly 100 countries. After spending several years in the US Air Force, Robin was kicked out for being lesbian which led to her new life as an activist. At 24, she started Kranti, an NGO that empowers survivors of trafficking and daughters of sex workers from Mumbai's red-light areas, where she lived and worked for a decade. In 2020, Robin moved to a mud hut at 13K feet in the Himalayas without any water, electricity or toilet. For over a year, she wasn't online, didn't read any book and didn't speak with anyone. In July 2021, she started working part time from the mountains and became a certified BatGap addict. She returned to civilization in August, 2022 and will return to the mountains (temporarily) in January, 2023!
Kranti: kranti-india.org
Donating to Kranti:
savethechild.org Tax exempt for US donors.)
Milaap: Help the Survivors of Trafficking (India-based, doesn't deduct fee. Not tax exempt for US donors.)
Donating to Happy Feet Home (hospice for terminally ill children)
Contact Robin
PDF with more info about Robin, her upcoming book, and Kranti
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.
Transcript of this interview
Interview recorded November 20, 2022
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.
Empowering girls in red-light areas for social good | Robin Chaurasiya, India | Global Teacher Prize
Robin's hut at 13,000 feet in the mountains of Nepal:
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Neil Douglas-Klotz is an internationally known scholar in the fields connecting religious studies (comparative Semitic hermeneutics) and psychology as well as a poet and musician. He is the author of Prayers of the Cosmos, Desert Wisdom, The Hidden Gospel, and The Genesis Meditations as well as coauthor of The Tent of Abraham with Sr. Joan Chittister and Rabbi Arthur Waskow. He is the past chair of the Mysticism Group of the American Academy of Religion and is active in various international colloquia and conferences dedicated to peace and spirituality.
Website: abwoon.org
Amazon Author's Page, listing all of his books
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group
Transcript of this interview
Interview recorded November 5, 2022
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast. -
Anastasia is a Reiki Master Teacher, Meditation Coach, Intuitive Life Coach, Corrective Exercise Specialist, Fitness Nutrition Specialist, and a self-proclaimed recovering Zumba Instructor that has turned her lifelong pursuit of holistic wellness into a thriving holistic wellness practice, offering services online, and at her wellness studio located outside of Chicago.
After dozens of profound spiritual experiences and a life-changing NDE in 2019, Anastasia holds a fundamental understanding that unconditional love is our natural state of being. With a powerful combination of consciousness, awareness, and intention, Anastasia has worked with hundreds of clients to create access to a transformational force that aids in letting go of mental, emotional, and/or physical pain, in turn creating lasting inner harmony. She is an ambassador of living a fully integrated, balanced, and intuitive life.
Website: thehealingheart.com
TikTok: @theheartshines
YouTube Channel
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.
Transcript of this interview
Interview recorded October 24, 2022
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast. -
Mark Anthony, JD Psychic Explorer/ Psychic Lawyer, world renowned psychic medium, Oxford educated attorney, near-death experience researcher, paranormal expert and legal analyst appears internationally on TV and radio and headlines at conferences and expos.
This Psychic Explorer may be found lecturing at an Ivy League University about Quantum Physics one day, and the next off to mystical locations in remote corners of the world to explore Ancient Ruins and Supernatural Phenomena.
Mark is a featured columnist for Best Holistic Life Magazine, and author of three bestselling books. His latest, The Afterlife Frequency is a riveting story driven exploration taking you around the globe, from the cosmic to the subatomic, into the human soul itself. The Afterlife Frequency has been endorsed by the world’s top Survival of Consciousness scientists and designated by PrettyProgressive.com as one of the top books about faith in God. It’s been submitted for a Pulitzer Prize.
Other books:
Evidence of Eternity: Communicating with Spirits for Proof of the Afterlife
Never Letting Go: Heal Grief with Help from the Other Side
Website: AfterlifeFrequency.com
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.
Transcript of this interview
Interview recorded October 15, 2022
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast. -
Ann has been practising yoga and meditation for nearly 20 years and has since completed her Masters in the Traditions of Yoga and Meditation from SOAS University with ongoing Sanskrit training. Ann was inspired from an early age by her father’s anecdotal experiences with Kuṇḍalinī and his involvement in experiments with Zen priest and transpersonal scientist, Dr Motoyama. Her own experiences have pointed her towards a phenomenological investigation of the parallels between spontaneous Kuṇḍalinī awakenings and Buddhist paths to enlightenment. Her previous research focuses on the phenomenology of Buddhist and Yogic experiences through practice.
Ann is currently researching spontaneous Kuṇḍalinī arousals and how these experiences map onto the path of realisation within Indian Buddhist and Yogic traditions as well as cutting-edge consciousness theory. Her mission is to gain a deeper understanding of the psychological processes that can arise from spontaneous transpersonal experiences or deep meditation practice and how we can safely support others walking this path towards greater wholeness.
Website: annmathie.com
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.
Transcript of this interview
Interview recorded October 8, 2022
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast. -
Dr. Mario Beauregard, PhD., is a neuroscientist currently affiliated with the Department of Psychology, University of Arizona. He has received a bachelor degree in psychology and a doctorate degree in neuroscience from the University of Montreal. He also underwent postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Texas Medical School (Houston) and the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), McGill University.
Dr. Beauregard is the author of more than 100 publications in neuroscience, psychology, and psychiatry. He was the first neuroscientist to use functional neuroimaging to investigate the neural underpinnings of voluntary control in relation to emotion. Because of his research into the neuroscience of consciousness, he was selected (2000) by the World Media Net to be one of the “One Hundred Pioneers of the 21st Century.” In addition, his groundbreaking research on the neurobiology of spiritual experiences (including near-death experiences) has received international media coverage. In 2008, he was invited to participate in a symposium held at the United Nations. In 2013, he participated in a dialogue with the Dalai Lama in regard to the new science of mind.
Dr. Beauregard has appeared over several radio programs in the U.S.A., Canada, and Europe, Asia, and Australia. His research has been featured on TV (Discovery Channel) and in many newspapers and magazines, including Nature, Science, The New Scientist, Scientific American Mind, and The Economist. He has received a number of distinctions, including the Joel F. Lubar Award (International Society for Neuronal Regulation, USA) and the Spectrum Award (The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, USA).
Being also an author, Dr. Beauregard has published The Spiritual Brain (Harper Collins, 2007) and Brain Wars (Harper Collins, 2012). In these books, he demonstrates that mind and consciousness are much more than the activity of nerve cells in our brains. He also shows that spirituality is a central feature of human beings that cannot be reduced to physical processes.
Beauregard actively contributes to the articulation of the new postmaterialist scientific paradigm. Co-author of the Manifesto for a Postmaterialist Science, which has been signed by several hundreds of scientists, he is also one of the founders of The Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences (AAPS).
Movie: Expanding Reality
Books:
Expanding Reality: The Emergence of Postmaterialist Science
The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist's Case for the Existence of the Soul
Brain Wars: The Scientific Battle Over the Existence of the Mind and the Proof that Will Change the Way We Live Our Lives
Expanding Science
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.
Transcript of this interview
Interview recorded October 1, 2022
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast. -
Isira is an awakened spiritual teacher who has been initiated in advanced spiritual practices and rites across a number of traditions including Australian Aboriginal, Yogic Indian, African Shamanism and Tibetan Buddhist. When she was a young adult, Tibetan Lamas, recognized her as an important incarnation and travelled to Adelaide, Australia to bring her to the Himalayas to be ordained by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Isira is also honored as an Australian Indigenous elder and wisdom keeper.
The heart of Isira’s teaching is Holistic Awakening. While the predominant western model of awakening focuses on individual consciousness, Isira’s holistic approach has us awaken to the sacred in all of life. It is an awakening that is integrated, embodied, and grounded, rather than siloed, conceptual, and abstract.
Isira believes that, even among those on a committed spiritual path, there is still a deep sense of “something missing.” The human spirit is hungering to be nurtured by the sacred. We know this because we're living in a world that is fractured and conflicted more than ever. And people are reporting a sense of fear, alienation, depression, anxiety, and chronic illness in epidemic numbers.
Inspired by the wisdom of indigenous cultures, Isira teaches that we must awaken to what she calls the “Four Sacred Pillars of Life.” While one of these four pillars is the Self or Spirit, they go beyond the Self to include our interconnected relationship with three other essential dimensions of life—the second is nature or earth, the third is kinship or others, and the fourth is the cosmos or universe. While conventional thinking assumes that our spiritual connection must start with Self or Spirit, instead, Isira teaches that for awakening to be holistic, it is essential that we start with our connection to earth or nature.
Through holistic awakening, we move out of the mind into a lived experience in which the sacred is restored to each moment of our day-to-day life.
As we integrate our awakening, a natural byproduct is that we relate in a deeper, more meaningful way—respecting, honouring and loving all of life. Simply, we live sacredly.
Books:
Awakening You: Embodying Peace, Love and Freedom on Earth (enter code ISIRA010 to access eBook for no charge)
Buddha on the Dance Floor
Website: isira.com
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.
First BatGap interview with Isira
Transcript of this interview.
Interview recorded September 25, 2022
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast. -
Brian Thomas Swimme did his doctoral work in gravitational dynamics in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Oregon. From the publication of The Universe Is a Green Dragon to the Emmy Award–winning PBS documentary Journey of the Universe, Swimme has articulated the cosmology of a creative universe, one in which human intelligence plays an essential role.
For three decades as a professor in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, he taught evolutionary cosmology to graduate students in the humanities. Currently he is director of the Third Story of the Universe at Human Energy, a nonprofit public benefit organization.
A detailed description of his books and media works can be found at storyoftheuniverse.org.
About the documentary, Journey of the Universe.
Human Energy presents Story of the Noosphere
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.
Transcript of this interview
Interview recorded September 18, 2022
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast. -
Emilio Diez Barroso perfected the art of appearing very successful. He manages two family offices a venture investment firm, sits on the board of over a dozen companies etc... but up until recently, he was always trying to get somewhere other than where he was—seeking recognition, achievement, love, success, and finally, the ultimate carrot: enlightenment.
In his pursuit of enlightenment, he was forced to face what all the seeking had been trying to avoid: his own sense of unworthiness. Defeated at the game of becoming and humbled by the realization of his true nature, he is now dedicated to alleviating suffering in the world.
Emilio is a father to three incredible teachers and resides in Los Angeles.
Book: The Mystery of You: Freedom is Closer Than You Think (All proceeds from the book go to contentment.org.)
Website: emiliosbook.com
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.
Transcript of this interview
Interview recorded September 10, 2022
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast. -
Dr. Anneloes Smitsman (Ph.D., LLM), is a futurist, evolutionary systems scientist, coach, healer, and award-winning bestselling author. She is the Founder and CEO of EARTHwise Centre. Her programs, practices, and strategies are sought after around the world for actualizing our future human potential, and catalyzing the next steps in human consciousness and systemic design for thrivability. She was awarded the Visioneers Lifetime Achievement Award in May 2022, and was crowned overall African winner in the category "Human Development" of the 2022 Africa’s Most Respected CEOs Awards. She is the co-author of the award-winning Future Humans Trilogy with Dr. Jean Houston, and a member of the Evolutionary Leaders Circle.
Website: earthwisecentre.org
Other books:
The New Paradigm in Politics
Love Letters from Mother Earth: The Promise of a New Beginning
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.
Transcript of this interview
Interview recorded September 5, 2022.
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast. -
Alaya first experienced brief glimpses leading to a spontaneous awakening in 1997. This left her with a burning fire for truth and a determination to find a release from her suffering. She was drawn to satsang and to the feet of her beloved Neelam: a teacher of the Ramana Maharshi lineage. From that very first meeting there arose a profound recognition of unconditional love but also a strong sense of separation and resistance. However, Alaya instinctively knew that penetrating the resistance was exactly what was needed to penetrate the suffering. With Neelam’s unconditional love this separation fell away shortly after the birth of Alaya’s first child in 2001.
With a new husband and baby, Alaya moved to Asheville. She found in her daily experience of being a householder and working mother, that there was much abiding awareness/living in present Reality. But the non-abiding dream state kept arising which created an even deeper desire to investigate what was still appearing as separation. She realized that what was needed was already in the life she was leading and that every moment was a gift and opportunity to return to the natural awakened Self. “My husband, my children, my job, everything is my teacher, and true love is laying down whatever pulls on you, turning back to this life with an open heart and open palms.” With the realization that ordinary everyday life was sacred and that each moment was the Beloved pointing us home, she continued to question and inquire into her ideas, perspectives, and feelings until the veil of separation finally fell away. “With tenderness and openness, conditioning can unmanifest - leaving what naturally remains, as stillness, presence and love.” As people began to ask her to teach, Grace appeared as the non-dual teacher Adyashanti and with his support and friendship she began to give satsang in 2011. “Grace is like gravity, it will continue to pull you within for the truth of who you are isn’t found in doing. It is found in the silence – in stillness.”
Website: alayasatsang.org
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.
Transcript of this interview
Interview recorded August 27, 2022
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast. -
After years of radical liberation in my own absence eventually became another kind of prison, I found freedom from "Enlightenment" in the freedom to live a richly human bittersweet life, in a new way, the way of transimmanence, in which the spiritual and the material are unified, and everything including suffering is a sacred expression of the divine.
Discovering how many other people have been harmed by modern adaptations of liberation via self-negation teachings, I've become a Spiritual Emergence Coach, and run peer support groups for people experiencing spiritual crisis, especially related to Neo-Advaita.
Website: thegloriousbothand.com
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YouTube Channel
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.
Transcript of this interview
Interview recorded August 21, 2022
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast. - Show more
