Podcasts about Huston Smith

Do you believe your life is following a predetermined path that limits who you are, what you can earn and how you live your life, yet you want more?Jason Pickard, a former hedge fund manager and Paul's best friend in the world, describes the kind of mindset you will need to connect to the far greater whole in order to achieve the life of your dreams, earn the money you need to make it a reality and recognize why mastery is the key building block for doing just that this week on Spirit Gym.Learn more about Jason and his work on his website. Follow him on social media via Instagram.For Spirit Gym listeners: Check out Jason's website to download his free 8 Keys to Greater Wealth and Well-Being process. Save $500 on his Abundance Archetype course by mentioning Paul Chek in the How Did You Hear About Us box.Timestamps6:57 What is the greater whole?21:17 “Separating wealth from spirit is just a belief in a false idol.”29:28 Simple reasons why the 4 Doctors are so relevant for the corporate world.46:37 People struggle with I'll be happy when…54:38 Mastery is the key building block and our birthright.1:04:31 Have you experienced a eureka moment lately?1:21:11 The one common denominator for mastery.1:29:05 “Every time you live life in the pursuit of mastery, you are becoming a very bright light in the darkness.”1:38:01 Experiencing and understanding your body symptoms can make you a better investor.1:50:59 Awareness is our greatest asset.2:01:35 Practical spirituality.2:11:15 Is unconscious programming getting in the way of you living and loving life?2:23:55 “In a lot of ways, the answer we're looking for is us.”2:32:40 You are the ultimate intangible.ResourcesThe work of Huston Smith, Thomas Hanna, William C.C. Chen and PlotinusPaul's Living 4D podcast on Lucifer, Christ and AhrimanManjushriFind more resources for this episode on our website.We may earn commissions from qualifying purchases using affiliate links. Music Credit: Meet Your Heroes (444Hz) by Brave as BearsAll Rights Reserved MusicFit Records 2024Thanks to our awesome sponsors:PaleovalleyBIOptimizers US and BIOptimizers UK PAUL10Organifi CHEK20Wild PasturesKorrectCHEK Institute/Scientific Core Conditioning We may earn commissions from qualifying purchases using affiliate links.

Robert Forte is a scholar of the history and psychology of religion, with a special focus on the ancient and modern use—and misuse—of psychedelic plants and drugs. He has studied and collaborated with many of the most seminal figures who first brought these substances to public consciousness since the 1940s, including Albert Hofmann, Gordon Wasson, Timothy Leary, Alexander Shulgin, Stanislav Grof, and others.His first book, Entheogens and the Future of Religion, was praised by Huston Smith as “the best single inquiry into the religious significance of psychedelics.” His second book, Outside Looking In: Appreciations, Castigations, Reminiscences of Timothy Leary, offers an intimate look at this controversial figure. In 1998, he republished an updated edition of The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries by Gordon Wasson, Albert Hofmann, and Carl Ruck—a seminal text that initiated the inquiry into the role of entheogens in Western religion and philosophy.Over the years, Forte has manufactured MDMA before it was scheduled, conducted research into its clinical effects, and performed fieldwork in Peru studying the impact of ayahuasca on cancer patients. He has also maintained an underground practice utilizing various medicines for psychotherapy and spiritual exploration.Around 20 years ago, his interests shifted toward the sociology of psychedelic experience, where he has developed a somewhat controversial perspective on how these substances entered modern consciousness. He argues that the history of psychedelics, much like the history of religion, contains both the best and worst of humanity. Without acknowledging and integrating its shadow aspects, he warns, we risk becoming victims of them.Episode Highlights▶ How early psychedelic experiences profoundly influenced individual perspectives.▶  How the 1980s saw a resurgence in psychedelic research following prior suppression.▶  MDMA's shift from therapeutic tool to illegal substance exemplifies drug policy complexities.▶  Government drug policies and how they often prioritize control over public health.▶  The psychedelic narratives that are often entangled with conspiracy theories and misinformation.▶  How psychedelics offer potential for consciousness expansion, but require careful integration to avoid pitfalls like spiritual bypassing.▶  The Controlled Substances Act and how it's rationality is widely questioned.▶  How despite illegality, MDMA's popularity grew, reflecting societal interest.▶  The societal impact of psychedelics is multifaceted, demanding ethical consideration.▶  Why meaningful change requires applying psychedelic insights to daily life, beyond mere experience.Robert Forte's Links & Resources▶ Website: alteredstatesofamerica.net▶ Substack: alteredstatesofamerica.substack.com▶ Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/robert.forte.79  Download Beth's free trainings here: Clarity to Clients: Start & Grow a Transformational Coaching, Healing, Spiritual, or Psychedelic Business: https://bethaweinstein.com/grow-your-spiritual-businessIntegrating Psychedelics & Sacred Medicines Into Business: https://bethaweinstein.com/psychedelics-in-business▶ Beth's Coaching & Guidance: https://bethaweinstein.com/coaching ▶ Beth's Offerings & Courses: https://bethaweinstein.com/services▶ Instagram: @bethaweinstein ▶ FB: / bethw.nyc + bethweinsteinbiz ▶ Join the free Psychedelics & Purpose Community: / psychedelicsandsacredmedicines

What can we do on a spiritual level to change the trajectory of our world to a much more loving place?Paul compares notes with Sean O'Laoire about the anatomy of the self and how that works with the tiny laptops in our heads this week on Spirit Gym.Learn more about Sean and his work at his Spirits in Spacesuits website where you can learn more about his What in God's Name is Christ Consciousness? retreat on March 23-26, 2025. Follow him on social media via Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.Paul will also be hosting an exclusive Q&A session with Sean exclusively for Spirit Gym listeners at a future date so sign up for your Spirit Gym podcast membership today!Timestamps2:39 The Huston Smith quote that inspired a change in Paul's perspective.7:42 “Life is a dream that the ego is having…”13:38 An astral level of reality.24:14 Sean's definition of Christ consciousness.38:33 Sparks of the divine.47:10 The axis of complexification.57:36 Panentheism versus pantheism.1:07:59 We are always outgrowing our models.1:17:42 Paul shares a profound spiritual experience after completing his 2025 mandala.1:24:55 Sean's interpretation of Paul's spiritual experience.1:30:57 “Hallucination is a term we tend to use when we don't understand what the f*** is happening.”1:39:31 Stanislav Grof's Basic Perinatal Matrices.ResourcesSetting God Free: Moving Beyond the Caricature We've Created in Our Own Image by Sean O'Laoire Sean reveals the truth of Jesus on the Aubrey Marcus podcastSean discusses Christ consciousness on the Kyle Kingsbury podcastFind more resources for this episode on our website.Music Credit: Meet Your Heroes (444Hz) by Brave as BearsAll Rights Reserved MusicFit Records 2024We may earn commissions from qualifying purchases using affiliate links.Thanks to our awesome sponsors:PaleovalleyBiOptimizers US and BiOptimizers UK PAUL10Organifi CHEK20Wild PasturesWe may earn commissions from qualifying purchases using affiliate links.

In this episode, Matt speaks with Richard Tarnas about his book Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New Worldview. Richard Theodore Tarnas is a cultural historian and astrologer known for his books The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas That Have Shaped Our World View and Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View. Tarnas is professor of philosophy and psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and is the founding director of its graduate program in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness. In 1968 Tarnas entered Harvard, graduating with an A.B. cum laude in 1972. He received his Ph.D. from Saybrook Institute in 1976 with a thesis on psychedelic therapy. In 1974 Tarnas went to Esalen in California to study psychotherapy with Stanislav Grof. From 1974 to 1984 he lived and worked at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, teaching and studying with Grof, Joseph Campbell, Gregory Bateson, Huston Smith, Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, and James Hillman. He also served as Esalen's director of programs and education. Get the book: https://a.co/d/4gJFNxS warmachinepodcast.org Music for this episode: Lamentium, Monasterium Imperi Nomad's Theme, Matt Baker

Les Religions du Monde, écrit par Huston Smith, est le classique incontournable pour découvrir les éléments essentiels et les enseignements des principales religions mondiales Huston propose des descriptions empathiques des différentes traditions, en expliquant leur fonctionnement "de l'intérieur", ce qui constitue une raison majeure pour laquelle ce précieux classique s'est vendu à plus de deux millions d'exemplaires depuis sa première parution en 1958. Dans cet épisode nous nous focalisons sur les traditions orientales, notamment l'hindouisme, le bouddhisme et le confucianisme.

In this episode we speak with Master Chungliang Al Huang—a tai chi master, writer, philosopher, dancer, and generational teacher. Originally from Shanghai, China, Master Huang moved to the United States to study architecture and cultural anthropology, and later DanceIn the 1960s, Master Huang forged a significant collaboration with philosopher Alan Watts, which led him to Esalen. There, he became a beloved teacher and formed meaningful connections with thought leaders such as Huston Smith, Gregory Bateson, and Joseph Campbell. He and Joe taught together at Esalen until Joe's death in 1987.Master Huang is an author of many books including the classic Embrace Tiger, Return to Mountain. His contributions include pioneering modern dance in the Republic of China and sharing the stage with luminaries like the Dalai Lama and Jane Goodall. He has been an assembly member and presenter at The Council for the Parliament of the World's Religions and has been a keynote speaker for the YPO (Young Presidents' Organization) and WPO (World Presidents' Organization) and at major global gatherings in China, India, Switzerland, Germany, South America, South Africa, and Bali. In 1988 he was featured in the inaugural segment of the PBS series, A World of Ideas, moderated by Bill Moyers.Joseph Campbell famously remarked, “Chungliang Al Huang's Tai Ji dancing is ‘mythic images' incarnate. He has found a new way to explain ‘the hero's journey' to help others follow their bliss through the experience of tai ji practice in his work through the Living Tao Foundation.”In this conversation, we discuss his life, his relationship with Alan Watts, and his friendship with Joseph Campbell. For learn more about Chungliang visit :https://livingtao.org For more information on the MythMaker Podcast Network and Joseph Campbell, visit JCF.org. To subscribe to our weekly MythBlasts go to jcf.org/subscribeThe Podcast With A Thousand Faces is hosted by Tyler Lapkin and is a production of the Joseph Campbell Foundation. It is produced by Tyler Lapkin. Executive producer, John Bucher. Audio mixing and editing by Charles Mallett.All music exclusively provided by APM Music (apmmusic.com)

Dana Sawyer is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and World Religions at the Maine College of Art & Design. The author of biographies of two prominent 20th Century thinkers, Aldous Huxley (2002) and Huston Smith (2017), his primary expertise is in Hinduism and Buddhism. For more than twenty years Dana's work has focused on comparative mysticism, theories of the “perennial philosophy,” and the value of psychedelic experience in the study of mysticism. His most recent books are an analysis of the Transcendental Meditation Movement for Cambridge University Press (2023), and The Perennial Philosophy Reloaded, published by Monkfish in July, 2024. Our conversation focused on that last book, whose subject, Perennialism, is vital for understanding spirituality in today's complex, pluralistic landscape.  www.danasawyer.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"1950. aastate keskel tehtud telesarja „Religions of Man“ avasaates arutleb Huston Smith selle üle, kuidas vaatavad pooletuhande aasta pärast 20. sajandile tagasi tuleviku ajaloolased. „Kas nad kirjutavad sellest, et 20. sajandil avastasid teadlased aatomi saladused, või hoopis suurest kommunistlikust eksperimendist?“ küsib ta retooriliselt ja annab siis mõlemale küsimusele eitava vastuse. „20. sajandis on midagi, mis jätab varju nii aatompommi kui ka kommunismi,“ jätkab ta. „Minu arvates seisneb meie sajandi kõige tähtsam iseärasus selles, et siin kohtusid ida ja lääs esimest korda nagu võrdne võrdsega,“ pakub Huston Smith välja oma arusaama möödunud sajandi ainulaadsusest," kirjutasin ma Tähenduse teejuhtide 31. numbris [1] ilmunud intervjuus "Ida ja lääs" [2] Scientific and Medical Networki [3] David Lorimeriga.Täna räägime ida ja lääne erinevast arusaamadest teadvusest. Stuudios on Alar Krautman [5] ja Ingvar Villido [6].Peatse kuulmseni!———————————————H.[1] https://teejuhid.postimees.ee/7778479...[2] https://teejuhid.postimees.ee/7778376...[3] https://scientificandmedical.net[4] • David Lorimer: "Keegi oli seinale kra... [5] https://www.youtube.com/live/J9qx1JMv...[6] https://ingvarvillido.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

James Fadiman courtesy of Scott Kline Entheo*Anarcho*Animism / Endogenous Indigenuity Caroline is wildly enthused to welcome James Fadiman, PhD Who writes: “The work most worth doing for me has been helping myself and others remember how interwoven we are with the rest of the natural world. Only when we act out a dark fantasy of separation do we harm the very world in which we are enmeshed. Once awakened, exploitation of others, the destruction of any eco- system and that ultimate obscenity – war – all become as impossible to support as it would be to take a hammer and chisel (and) cut off one's own fingers. My different forms of self-expression: work, writing, photography are parts of who I have been and am. Psychedelic experiences have been the foundation stones of my worldview, as crucial now as when I had my first experience. If it is true, as one tradition suggests, that “God is as close to you as your jugular vein,” knowing that personally should be beneficial.” https://www.jamesfadiman.com/ connects to https://microdosingpsychedelics.com/ Support The Visionary Activist Show on Patreon for weekly Chart & Themes ($4/month) and more… *Woof*Woof*Wanna*Play?!?*   KPFA in Fund Drive The Psychedelic Exoporer's Guide = (for a pledge to KPFA of $100) Called “America's wisest and most respected authority on psychedelics and their use,” James Fadiman has been involved with psychedelic research since the 1960s. The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide addresses the immediate and long-term effects of psychedelic use for spiritual (high dose), therapeutic (moderate dose), and problem-solving (low dose) purposes. Fadiman outlines the best practices for safe, sacred entheogenic voyages learned through his more than 40 years of experience–from the benefits of having a sensitive guide during a session (and how to be one) to the importance of the setting and pre-session intention. James Fadiman reviews the newest as well as the neglected research into the psychotherapeutic value of visionary drug use for increased personal awareness and a host of serious medical conditions, including his recent study of the reasons for and results of psychedelic use among hundreds of students and professionals. He reveals new uses for LSD and other psychedelics, including extremely low doses for improved cognitive functioning and emotional balance. Cautioning that psychedelics are not for everyone, he dispels the myths and misperceptions about psychedelics circulating in textbooks and clinics as well as on the internet. Exploring the life-changing experiences of Ram Dass, Timothy Leary, Aldous Huxley, and Huston Smith as well as Francis Crick and Steve Jobs, James Fadiman shows how psychedelics, used wisely, can lead not only to healing but also to scientific breakthroughs and spiritual epiphanies. The post The Visionary Activist Show – Entheo*Anarcho*Animism appeared first on KPFA.

Part 2 of Episode 150! Yay!! And now for something completely different. This episode is a bit of a departure from our regular show. We invite Alex Criddle and Cody Noconi, researchers into the psychedelic origins of Mormonism, to respond to the recent debate on the Mormon Book Reviews channel between ourselves and Mormon apologist, Brian Hales. Brian attempts to provide the apologetic response to the theory that Joseph Smith utilized psychedelics (entheogens) in the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in order to facilitate visionary experiences for the early Saints. Disinformation requires much greater effort than simply stating information so we do our best to debunk his debunking (rebunk the theory?). This one is a long haul so we split it into 2 episodes to make it a little more digestible.   Show notes: Video version: https://youtu.be/3l0L1EHtQOo Support our research and outreach: https://www.patreon.com/SeerStonedProductions Original here: Psychedelics & Early Mormonism Theory Brian Hales Responds on Mormon Book Reviews https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE7J0y_cPpg   Further information: “The Higher Powers of Man” - Frederick M. Smith was a prophet of the RLDS Mormons and paternal grandson of the founder Joseph Smith. In 1918 Frederick published this Ph.D. dissertation breaking down altered states of consciousness from an early psychologist's perspective, specifically, religious states of ‘ecstacy' as he called it. A lengthy chapter devoted to peyote is particularly worth reading. “The Higher Powers: Fred M - Smith and the Peyote Ceremonies” - Shelby Barnes' 1995 paper highlighting the curious psychedelic interests of Frederick M. Smith. While Barnes does not make any direct connections to Joseph Smith and psychedelics, Barnes does note that Frederick's interests were an attempt to find the reliable keys to visionary revelation that his grandfather Joseph had demonstrated. “Restoration and the Sacred Mushroom”  - Dr. Robert Beckstead's seminal research paper presented at the August 2007 Sunstone Symposium. Beckstead's paper was the first to propose the possibility that Joseph Smith used psychedelics to facilitate visionary experiences. “A 1920's Harvard Psychedelic Circle with a Mormon Connection: Peyote Use amongst the Harvard Aesthetes” Alan Piper's 2016 paper highlighting Frederick M. Smith's interest in psychedelics, and how as a standing Mormon prophet Fred was funding a 1920s group of Harvard students with peyote. “Revelation Through Hallucination: A discourse on the Joseph Smith-entheogen theory” - Bryce Blankenagel and Cody Noconi's 2017 follow-up paper further explores the hypothesis originally put forward by Dr. Robert Beckstead a decade earlier. “The Entheogenic Origins of Mormonism: A Working Hypothesis” - Dr. Robert Beckstead, Bryce Blankenagel, Cody Noconi, and Michael Winkelman's paper published in the Journal of Psychedelic Studies in June 2019. This was the first paper on the subject published in an academic journal. “Visions, Mushrooms, Fungi, Cacti, and Toads: Joseph Smith's Reported Use of Entheogens” Brian Hales' 2020 response paper to the one published in the Journal of Psychedelic Studies. As a believing Mormon engaged in academic apologetics, Hales details what he perceives to be holes in the proposed hypothesis. “The Psychedelic History of Mormonism, Magic, and Drugs” - Cody Noconi's book published in 2021. “Psychedelics as a Means of Revelation in Early and Contemporary Mormonism (Part 1)” Alex Criddle's 2023 paper that was originally presented at the Forms of Psychedelic Life conference at UC Berkeley (April 14-15, 2023). “Psychedelics as a Means of Revelation in Early and Contemporary Mormonism (Part 2)” A continuation of Alex Criddle's 2023 paper. “A Real Spiritual High: In Defense of Psychedelic Mysticism” An enlightening philosophical essay from Alex Criddle. Bibliography and further reading: The Varieties of Religious Experience, by William James The Higher Powers of Man, by Frederick M. Smith The Magus, by Francis Barrett  A Key to Physic, and the Occult Sciences, by Ebenezer Sibly Hearts Made Glad: The Charges of Intemperance Against Joseph Smith the Mormon Prophet, by Lamar Peterson The Seven Sisters of Sleep, by Mordecai Cubitt Cooke The Encylopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications, by Christian Rátsch Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers, by Richard Evans Shultes, Albert Hoffman, and Christian Rátsch The Dictionary of Sacred and Magical Plants, by Christian Rátsch Witchcraft Medicine: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices, and Forbidden Plants, by Claudia Muller-Ebeling, Christian Rátsch, and Wolf-Dieter Storl Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible, by Chris Bennett and Neil McQueen Liber 420: Cannabis, Magickal Herbs and the Occult, by Chris Bennett Cannabis: Lost Sacrament of the Ancient World, by Chris Bennett Plants of the Devil, by Corinne Boyer The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name, by Brian C. Muraresku Veneficium: Magic Witchcraft, and the Poison Path, by Daniel A. Schulke Thirteen Pathways of Occult Herbalism, by Daniel A. Schulke The Botany and Chemistry of Hallucinogens, by Richard Evans Shultes and Albert Hoffman Where the Gods Reign: Plants and Peoples of the Colombian Amazon, by Richard Evans Shultes Vine of the Soul: Medicine Men, Their Plants and Rituals in the Colombian Amazonia, by Richard Evans Shultes and Robert F. Raffauf Ethnobotany: Evolution of a Discipline, Richard Evans Shultes and Siri von Reis Persephone's Quest: Entheogens and the Origins of Religion, by Jonathan Ott, R. Gordon Wasson, Stella Kramrisch, and Carl A. P. Ruck Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic Drugs, Their Plant Sources and History, by Jonathan Ott Plant Intoxicants: a Classic Text on the Use of Mind-Altering Plants, by Ernst Bibra and Jonathan Ott Age of Entheogens & the Angels' Dictionary, by Jonathan Ott Drugs of the Dreaming: Oneirogens: Salvia Divinorum and Other Dream-Enhancing Plants, by Jonathan Ott, Gianluca Toro, and Benjamin Thomas The Road to Eleusis, by R. Gordon Wasson, Albert Hofmann, Carl A. P. Ruck, Huston Smith Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences, by William A. Richards Entheogens, Myth, and Human Consciousness, by Carl A.P. Ruck and Mark Alwin Hoffman Mushrooms, Myth and Mithras: The Drug Cult that Civilized Europe, by Carl A.P. Ruck, Mark Alwin Hoffman and Jose Alfredo Gonzalez Celdran Sacred Mushrooms of the Goddess: Secrets of Eleusis, by Carl A.P. Ruck The Apples of Apollo: Pagan and Christian Mysteries of the Eucharist, by Carl A.P. Ruck, Clark Heinrich, and Blaise Daniel Staples Psychedelic Mystery Traditions: Sacred Plants, Magical Practices, Ecstatic States, by Thomas Hatsis The Witches' Ointment: The Secret History of Psychedelic Magic, by Thomas Hatsis Alchemically Stoned: The Psychedelic Secret of Freemasonry, by PD Newman Angels in Vermillion: The Philosophers' Stone: From Dee to DMT, by PD Newman Theurgy: Theory and Practice: The Mysteries of the Ascent to the Divine, by PD Newman The Psychedelic History of Mormonism, Magic, and Drugs, by Cody Noconi Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy, by Clark Heinrich Psychedelic Medicine, by Richard Miller Mushroom Medicine: The Healing Power of Psilocybin & Sacred Entheogen History, by Brian Jackson The Religious Experience: It's Production and Interpretation., by Timothy Leary Cleansing the Doors of Perception: The Religious Significance of Entheogenic Plants and Chemicals, by Huston Smith The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide, by James Fadiman Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World: An Identification Guide, by Paul Stamets Soma: divine mushroom of immortality, by Robert Gordon Wasson The Philosophy of Natural Magic, by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa Dwellers on the Threshold; Or Magic and Magicians, with Some Illustrations of Human Error and Imposture, by John Maxwell The History of Magic, by Eliphas Levi Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and Its Kindred Sciences, by Albert Mackey The German Sectarians of Pennsylvania, by Julius F. Sachse God on Psychedelics: Tripping Across the Rubble of Old-Time Religion, by Don Lattin The Peyote Effect: From the Inquisition to the War on Drugs, byAlexander Dawson The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead, by Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzne, and Richard Alpert Entheogens and the Future of Religion, by Robert Forte How To Change Your Mind, by Michael Pollan The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America by Don Lattin Psychedelic Drugs Reconsidered, by James B. Bakalar and Lester Grinspoon The Peyote Cult, by Weston LaBarre DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences, by Rick Stassman A Hallucinogenic Tea Laced With Controversy, by Marlene Dobkin de Rios and Roger Rumrrill Occurrence and Use of Hallucinogenic Mushrooms Containing Psilocybin Alkaloids, by Jakob Kristinsson and Jørn Gry Psychedelics Encyclopedia, by Peter G Stafford Neuropsychedelia: The Revival of Hallucinogen Research Since the Decade of the Brain, by Nicolas Langlitz Stairways To Heaven: Drugs In American Religious History, by Robert W. Fuller Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic, by Mike Jay DMT and the Soul of Prophecy: A New Science of Spiritual Revelation in the Hebrew Bible, by Rick Strassman Liquid Light: Ayahuasca Spirituality and the Santo Daime Tradition, by G. William Barnar Distilled Spirits: Getting High, Then Sober, with a Famous Writer, a Forgotten Philosopher, and a Hopeless Drunk, by Don Lattin The Mystery of Manna: The Psychedelic Sacrament of the Bible, by Dan Merkur Psychedelic Sacrament: Manna, Meditation and Mystical Experience, by Dan Merkur LSD and the Divine Scientist: The Final Thoughts and Reflections of Albert Hofmann, by Albert Hoffman The Doors of Perception, by Aldous Huxley Changing Our Minds: Psychedelic Sacraments and the New Psychotherapy, by Don Lattin LSD: Doorway to the Numinous: The Groundbreaking Psychedelic Research into Realms of the Human Unconscious, by Stanislav Grof LSD and the Mind of the Universe by Christopher Bache Plant Teachers: Ayahuasca, Tobacco, and the Pursuit of Knowledge by Jeremy Narby and Rafael Chanchari Pizuri Visionary Vine: Psychedelic Healing in the Peruvian Amazon by Marlene Dobkin de Rios The Antipodes of the Mind by Benny Shannon Ancient Psychedelic Substances by Scott Fitzpatrick Psychoactive Sacramentals: Essays on Entheogens and Religion by Stan Grof, Huston Smith, and Albert Hofmann  The Shaman and Ayahuasca: Journeys to Sacred Realms by Don Jose Campos The Religion of Ayahuasca: The Teachings of the Church of Santo Daime by Alex Polari de Alverga  Email: glassboxpodcast@gmail.com  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GlassBoxPod  Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/glassboxpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/GlassBoxPod  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glassboxpodcast/  Merch store: https://www.redbubble.com/people/exmoapparel/shop Or find the merch store by clicking on “Store” here: https://glassboxpodcast.com/index.html One time Paypal donation: bryceblankenagel@gmail.com   

Part 1 of Episode 150! Yay!! And now for something completely different. This episode is a bit of a departure from our regular show. We invite Alex Criddle and Cody Noconi, researchers into the psychedelic origins of Mormonism, to respond to the recent debate on the Mormon Book Reviews channel between ourselves and Mormon apologist, Brian Hales. Brian attempts to provide the apologetic response to the theory that Joseph Smith utilized psychedelics (entheogens) in the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in order to facilitate visionary experiences for the early Saints. Disinformation requires much greater effort than simply stating information so we do our best to debunk his debunking (rebunk the theory?). This one is a long haul so we split it into 2 episodes to make it a little more digestible.   Show notes: Video version: https://youtu.be/3l0L1EHtQOo Support our research and outreach: https://www.patreon.com/SeerStonedProductions Original here: Psychedelics & Early Mormonism Theory Brian Hales Responds on Mormon Book Reviews https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE7J0y_cPpg Further information: “The Higher Powers of Man” - Frederick M. Smith was a prophet of the RLDS Mormons and paternal grandson of the founder Joseph Smith. In 1918 Frederick published this Ph.D. dissertation breaking down altered states of consciousness from an early psychologist's perspective, specifically, religious states of ‘ecstacy' as he called it. A lengthy chapter devoted to peyote is particularly worth reading. “The Higher Powers: Fred M - Smith and the Peyote Ceremonies” - Shelby Barnes' 1995 paper highlighting the curious psychedelic interests of Frederick M. Smith. While Barnes does not make any direct connections to Joseph Smith and psychedelics, Barnes does note that Frederick's interests were an attempt to find the reliable keys to visionary revelation that his grandfather Joseph had demonstrated. “Restoration and the Sacred Mushroom”  - Dr. Robert Beckstead's seminal research paper presented at the August 2007 Sunstone Symposium. Beckstead's paper was the first to propose the possibility that Joseph Smith used psychedelics to facilitate visionary experiences. “A 1920's Harvard Psychedelic Circle with a Mormon Connection: Peyote Use amongst the Harvard Aesthetes” Alan Piper's 2016 paper highlighting Frederick M. Smith's interest in psychedelics, and how as a standing Mormon prophet Fred was funding a 1920s group of Harvard students with peyote. “Revelation Through Hallucination: A discourse on the Joseph Smith-entheogen theory” - Bryce Blankenagel and Cody Noconi's 2017 follow-up paper further explores the hypothesis originally put forward by Dr. Robert Beckstead a decade earlier. “The Entheogenic Origins of Mormonism: A Working Hypothesis” - Dr. Robert Beckstead, Bryce Blankenagel, Cody Noconi, and Michael Winkelman's paper published in the Journal of Psychedelic Studies in June 2019. This was the first paper on the subject published in an academic journal. “Visions, Mushrooms, Fungi, Cacti, and Toads: Joseph Smith's Reported Use of Entheogens” Brian Hales' 2020 response paper to the one published in the Journal of Psychedelic Studies. As a believing Mormon engaged in academic apologetics, Hales details what he perceives to be holes in the proposed hypothesis. “The Psychedelic History of Mormonism, Magic, and Drugs” - Cody Noconi's book published in 2021. “Psychedelics as a Means of Revelation in Early and Contemporary Mormonism (Part 1)” Alex Criddle's 2023 paper that was originally presented at the Forms of Psychedelic Life conference at UC Berkeley (April 14-15, 2023). “Psychedelics as a Means of Revelation in Early and Contemporary Mormonism (Part 2)” A continuation of Alex Criddle's 2023 paper. “A Real Spiritual High: In Defense of Psychedelic Mysticism” An enlightening philosophical essay from Alex Criddle. Bibliography and further reading: The Varieties of Religious Experience, by William James The Higher Powers of Man, by Frederick M. Smith The Magus, by Francis Barrett  A Key to Physic, and the Occult Sciences, by Ebenezer Sibly Hearts Made Glad: The Charges of Intemperance Against Joseph Smith the Mormon Prophet, by Lamar Peterson The Seven Sisters of Sleep, by Mordecai Cubitt Cooke The Encylopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications, by Christian Rátsch Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers, by Richard Evans Shultes, Albert Hoffman, and Christian Rátsch The Dictionary of Sacred and Magical Plants, by Christian Rátsch Witchcraft Medicine: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices, and Forbidden Plants, by Claudia Muller-Ebeling, Christian Rátsch, and Wolf-Dieter Storl Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible, by Chris Bennett and Neil McQueen Liber 420: Cannabis, Magickal Herbs and the Occult, by Chris Bennett Cannabis: Lost Sacrament of the Ancient World, by Chris Bennett Plants of the Devil, by Corinne Boyer The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name, by Brian C. Muraresku Veneficium: Magic Witchcraft, and the Poison Path, by Daniel A. Schulke Thirteen Pathways of Occult Herbalism, by Daniel A. Schulke The Botany and Chemistry of Hallucinogens, by Richard Evans Shultes and Albert Hoffman Where the Gods Reign: Plants and Peoples of the Colombian Amazon, by Richard Evans Shultes Vine of the Soul: Medicine Men, Their Plants and Rituals in the Colombian Amazonia, by Richard Evans Shultes and Robert F. Raffauf Ethnobotany: Evolution of a Discipline, Richard Evans Shultes and Siri von Reis Persephone's Quest: Entheogens and the Origins of Religion, by Jonathan Ott, R. Gordon Wasson, Stella Kramrisch, and Carl A. P. Ruck Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic Drugs, Their Plant Sources and History, by Jonathan Ott Plant Intoxicants: a Classic Text on the Use of Mind-Altering Plants, by Ernst Bibra and Jonathan Ott Age of Entheogens & the Angels' Dictionary, by Jonathan Ott Drugs of the Dreaming: Oneirogens: Salvia Divinorum and Other Dream-Enhancing Plants, by Jonathan Ott, Gianluca Toro, and Benjamin Thomas The Road to Eleusis, by R. Gordon Wasson, Albert Hofmann, Carl A. P. Ruck, Huston Smith Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences, by William A. Richards Entheogens, Myth, and Human Consciousness, by Carl A.P. Ruck and Mark Alwin Hoffman Mushrooms, Myth and Mithras: The Drug Cult that Civilized Europe, by Carl A.P. Ruck, Mark Alwin Hoffman and Jose Alfredo Gonzalez Celdran Sacred Mushrooms of the Goddess: Secrets of Eleusis, by Carl A.P. Ruck The Apples of Apollo: Pagan and Christian Mysteries of the Eucharist, by Carl A.P. Ruck, Clark Heinrich, and Blaise Daniel Staples Psychedelic Mystery Traditions: Sacred Plants, Magical Practices, Ecstatic States, by Thomas Hatsis The Witches' Ointment: The Secret History of Psychedelic Magic, by Thomas Hatsis Alchemically Stoned: The Psychedelic Secret of Freemasonry, by PD Newman Angels in Vermillion: The Philosophers' Stone: From Dee to DMT, by PD Newman Theurgy: Theory and Practice: The Mysteries of the Ascent to the Divine, by PD Newman The Psychedelic History of Mormonism, Magic, and Drugs, by Cody Noconi Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy, by Clark Heinrich Psychedelic Medicine, by Richard Miller Mushroom Medicine: The Healing Power of Psilocybin & Sacred Entheogen History, by Brian Jackson The Religious Experience: It's Production and Interpretation., by Timothy Leary Cleansing the Doors of Perception: The Religious Significance of Entheogenic Plants and Chemicals, by Huston Smith The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide, by James Fadiman Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World: An Identification Guide, by Paul Stamets Soma: divine mushroom of immortality, by Robert Gordon Wasson The Philosophy of Natural Magic, by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa Dwellers on the Threshold; Or Magic and Magicians, with Some Illustrations of Human Error and Imposture, by John Maxwell The History of Magic, by Eliphas Levi Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and Its Kindred Sciences, by Albert Mackey The German Sectarians of Pennsylvania, by Julius F. Sachse God on Psychedelics: Tripping Across the Rubble of Old-Time Religion, by Don Lattin The Peyote Effect: From the Inquisition to the War on Drugs, byAlexander Dawson The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead, by Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzne, and Richard Alpert Entheogens and the Future of Religion, by Robert Forte How To Change Your Mind, by Michael Pollan The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America by Don Lattin Psychedelic Drugs Reconsidered, by James B. Bakalar and Lester Grinspoon The Peyote Cult, by Weston LaBarre DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences, by Rick Stassman A Hallucinogenic Tea Laced With Controversy, by Marlene Dobkin de Rios and Roger Rumrrill Occurrence and Use of Hallucinogenic Mushrooms Containing Psilocybin Alkaloids, by Jakob Kristinsson and Jørn Gry Psychedelics Encyclopedia, by Peter G Stafford Neuropsychedelia: The Revival of Hallucinogen Research Since the Decade of the Brain, by Nicolas Langlitz Stairways To Heaven: Drugs In American Religious History, by Robert W. Fuller Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic, by Mike Jay DMT and the Soul of Prophecy: A New Science of Spiritual Revelation in the Hebrew Bible, by Rick Strassman Liquid Light: Ayahuasca Spirituality and the Santo Daime Tradition, by G. William Barnar Distilled Spirits: Getting High, Then Sober, with a Famous Writer, a Forgotten Philosopher, and a Hopeless Drunk, by Don Lattin The Mystery of Manna: The Psychedelic Sacrament of the Bible, by Dan Merkur Psychedelic Sacrament: Manna, Meditation and Mystical Experience, by Dan Merkur LSD and the Divine Scientist: The Final Thoughts and Reflections of Albert Hofmann, by Albert Hoffman The Doors of Perception, by Aldous Huxley Changing Our Minds: Psychedelic Sacraments and the New Psychotherapy, by Don Lattin LSD: Doorway to the Numinous: The Groundbreaking Psychedelic Research into Realms of the Human Unconscious, by Stanislav Grof LSD and the Mind of the Universe by Christopher Bache Plant Teachers: Ayahuasca, Tobacco, and the Pursuit of Knowledge by Jeremy Narby and Rafael Chanchari Pizuri Visionary Vine: Psychedelic Healing in the Peruvian Amazon by Marlene Dobkin de Rios The Antipodes of the Mind by Benny Shannon Ancient Psychedelic Substances by Scott Fitzpatrick Psychoactive Sacramentals: Essays on Entheogens and Religion by Stan Grof, Huston Smith, and Albert Hofmann  The Shaman and Ayahuasca: Journeys to Sacred Realms by Don Jose Campos The Religion of Ayahuasca: The Teachings of the Church of Santo Daime by Alex Polari de Alverga Email: glassboxpodcast@gmail.com  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GlassBoxPod  Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/glassboxpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/GlassBoxPod  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glassboxpodcast/  Merch store: https://www.redbubble.com/people/exmoapparel/shop Or find the merch store by clicking on “Store” here: https://glassboxpodcast.com/index.html One time Paypal donation: bryceblankenagel@gmail.com   

Paul warned us on his most recent Living 4D solocast at the start of 2024 about the tests to come this year. So, how do you prepare for inevitable conflicts with a positive attitude and compassion?Sean O'Laoire returns to the podcast to share his expert guidance that will show you how to develop your spirit muscle in this Living 4D conversation. Learn more about Sean and his work at his Spirits in Spacesuits website where you can learn more about his March 17-20, 2024 retreat, Taking a Breather Between Incarnations. Follow him on social media via Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. TimestampsMost people don't understand what a complex really is. (3:42)Three kinds of gods. (14:38)“Increased intelligence doesn't necessarily correlate with increased spirituality.” (29:54)If you're serious about following a spiritual journey, Sean recommends doing these three things. (38:37)Develop your personal cosmology based on answering these four questions. (45:07)“The glowing embers are the mystical core in our identity as bite-sized pieces of God…” (1:00:35)The Lightworker's Manifesto. (1:10:06)The four levels of compassion. (1:17:07)Developing a spirit muscle. (1:35:12)The notion of receptors and transmitters. (1:50:29)ResourcesSetting God Free: Moving Beyond the Caricature We've Created in Our Own Image by Sean O'LaoireSean's latest appearance on the Kyle Kingsbury PodcastPaul's Living 4D conversation with Mark Wolynn and Wayland MyersThe work of Huston Smith, John Stewart Bell, Tom Brady and Alain AspectCargo cultNonviolent Communication: The Basics As I Know and Use Them by Wayland MyersSean's appearance on Gaia's Open Minds via YouTubeThanks to our awesome sponsors:PaleovalleyBiOptimizers US and BiOptimizers UK PAUL10Organifi CHEK20CHEK Academy Open HouseWild PasturesWe may earn commissions from qualifying purchases using affiliate links.

Scripture ReferencedDaniel 2:47; Genesis 1-3; Acts 17; Psalm 19; Romans 1-2; Matthew 5:45What the Bible teaches about Human SalvationNot Every from Every - The Bible does not teach that every person from every nation will be rescued from sin, death, and hell. Not all from Some - Nor does God favor any group of people in that all from only some nations will be saved. Some from Every - The Scriptures are clear that there will be some from every people, tribe, and language in the Kingdom of heaven (Revelation 7:9-12). In a unique way, Jesus' message was as open as can be imagined, yet only some respond. His open call is clear:The Call of JesusAll who are weary and heavy burdened...come to Jesus (Matthew 11:25-30)All who are thirsty...drink (Revelation 22:17)All who are in darkness...he is light (Matthew 4:12-17; 2 Corinthians 4:1-6)All who are hungry...come eat and be satisfied (John 6:35-40)The Deity of Jesus the ChristHe claimed to forgive sin, only what God could do (Mark 2:1-12)He claimed to be the divine "Son of Man" (Daniel 7:13, 14; Mark 13:24-27)He claimed to exist before Abraham was born as the "I AM" - the unique name of God in the Old Testament (John 8:48-59)He claimed that he was "one" with the Father (John 10)He claimed that if you saw him, you saw the Father (John 14)He was called "King of Kings and Lord of Lords" superseding the grandeur and authority of all earthly kings and rulers (Philippians 2:9-11; 1 Timothy 6:11-16; Revelation 9:11-16)Books ReferencedHuston Smith and Huston Smith, The World's Religions : Our Great Wisdom Traditions (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991, 378.Jean Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1997), I, xi, 8.John Hick, Dennis L. Okholm, and Timothy R. Phillips, More Than One Way? : Four Views on Salvation in a Pluralistic World (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Pub. House, 1995), 47-51.The Blind Men and the Elephant is a very old Indian folk tale. John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887) wrote a poem based on the story which you can read at John Godfrey Saxe, WordInfo, accessed 1/30/2018, 2018. http://www.wordinfo.info/Blind-Men-and-Elephant-crop.htmlJames W. Sire, Naming the Elephant : Worldview as a Concept, Second edition. ed. (Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP Academic, an imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2015)Robert M. Bowman and J. Ed Komoszewski, Putting Jesus in His Place : The Case for the Deity of Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2007)

Malcolm Clemens Young Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, CA 2D87 Christmas Eve (Proper 1) 7:30 p.m. Eucharist Sunday 24 December 2023 Isaiah 9:2-7 Psalm 96:1-4, 11-13 Titus 2:11-14 Luke 2:1-20   “Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people” (Lk. 2)   “We stand with one hand on the door looking into another world, / That is this world.” The farmer poet Wendell Berry (1934-) wrote these words about Christmas in a poem called “Remembering that It Happened Once.” [1] Here's the whole poem.   “Remembering that it happened once, / We cannot turn away the thought, / As we go out, cold, to our barns / Toward the long night's end, that we / Ourselves are living in the world / It happened in when it first happened, / That we ourselves, opening a stall / (A latch thrown open countless times / Before), might find them breathing there, /”   “Foreknown: the Child bedded in straw, / The mother kneeling over Him, / The husband standing in belief / He scarcely can believe, in light / That lights them from no source we see, / An April morning's light, the air / Around them joyful as a choir. / We stand with one hand on the door, / Looking into another world / That is this world, the pale daylight / Coming just as before, our chores / To do, the cattle all awake, / Our own white frozen breath hanging / In front of us; and we are here / As we have never been before, / Sighted as not before, our place / Holy, although we knew it not.” [2]   On Christmas Eve we stand between worlds. And for a moment, if we pay attention, we see our place as holy. We do not always experience our life this way. We inhabit a confusing world full of terror and distraction. These days wars in the Middle East, Ukraine and Africa cast a long shadow over the human family. Every year we become even more aware that our indifference is endangering the planet itself.   Other forms of sadness threaten to overcome us. Perhaps you have been lying awake at night because you have a child who is in serious trouble. Or perhaps, you have suddenly found yourself alone in the world to face the storms of life without someone to lean on. Or perhaps some kind of addiction holds you in its grip, or you are looking back to brighter years that you know are gone forever and will never come back. [3]   To the shepherds, to all of us tonight the angel announces a sign. A young woman is having a baby called Emmanuel which means God with us. This is the message: we are not alone or abandoned. The sign shows that joy is at the heart of being alive. Because of this baby, the world is being turned upside down. Violence is not at the center of reality, love is. [4]   Seeing the world like this may sound easy, but there is a catch. In order to experience this joy we have to be satisfied with living in a mystery. This does not mean that we have to believe what is unbelievable, that we have to give up critical thinking, or that we are not allowed to have doubts. It's just that the infinite will not fit into our finite minds. And so our existence is made strange by the kind of creatures we are. We long for the infinite but can never really control or comprehend it.   In the way that a mother gives birth to her child, we become who we are by giving ourselves away. For me this is what makes being a parent such a transcendent experience. Taking care of our children, walking in the oak woodlands, reading stories at sunset after a warm bath, all this made joy an even more central part of my life. Joy is that experience of being called into existence as a kind of creature who is different than God and yet who has a share in the mystery of God. We are made for this delight. [5]   Our friend and Dean Emeritus Alan Jones used to remind us that in Christianity the, “things of God can be handled and held.” In fact, “[T]he things of God can be kissed and caressed.” He talks about how strange it is that Christ enters into history in order to offer us the gift of peace. And that for this reason the true Christ can never assume the shape of violence. The baby and her child are a sign of three great truths. First, the world is a gift. Second the nature of the gift is communion (for all people and the world). Third, this true communion celebrates diversity and difference. Let me say only a little more about each of these. [6]   1. The Gift. Ninety-nine years ago this week the astronomer Edwin Hubble announced the discovery of the first galaxy outside our own Milky Way. By 2019 we believed that there were 200 billion galaxies. Now after the New Horizon space probe we think there are 2 trillion galaxies. [7] This is the world we inhabit. This is the generosity of God.   One of my favorite Christmas moments happened years ago, after everyone went home from the midnight service. I turned off the lights and closed up my old church. In the cold, alone on that holy night with the stars, with trillions of worlds stretching across the heavens, I felt God with me, overwhelmed by the miracle that we exist. All of this beauty, everything that is good, is a gift from God. [8]   And this is the peculiarity and the scandal of our faith. It is not chiefly about big ideas or philosophical principles but a God who is particular. At Christmas we celebrate and take delight in the God who can be touched, who can be held as a baby. [9] At the Christmas pageant this morning we asked children what they wanted to pray for. A boy said, “For the fighting to stop.” Loud applause followed. A girl announced that she wanted her neutered cat to have kittens. Another prayed that a particular candidate would not be elected as president (also to enthusiastic applause). But the most beautiful thing of all was Sinclair our baby Jesus sitting on her father's lap giving us such joy.   2. Communion. I've been reading Jill Lepore's book These Truths, a one volume history of America. American history always fascinated me but there is so much that I missed. [10] She writes about the Emancipation Proclamation that freed enslaved Americans and what it felt like for them. “In South Carolina the proclamation was read out to the First South Carolina Volunteer Infantry, a regiment of former slaves. At its final lines, the soldiers began to sing, quietly at first, and then louder: My country ‘tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing!”   She goes on, “American slavery had lasted for centuries. It had stolen the lives of millions and crushed the lives of millions more... It had poisoned a people and a nation. It had turned hearts to stone… The American odyssey had barely begun. From cabins and fields they left. Freed men and women didn't always head north.”   “They often went south or west, traveling hundreds of miles by foot, on horseback, by stage and by train, searching. They were husbands in search of wives, wives in search of children, mothers and fathers looking for children, children looking for parents, chasing word and rumors about where their loved ones had been sold, sale after sale, across the country. Some of their wanderings lasted years. They sought their own union, a union of their beloved.” This year at Christmas as I'm imagining the joy of those reunions, I'm reminded how we are made for communion.   3. Diversity. Finally let me say a short word about diversity. The two largest religious denominations in America do not permit women to be ordained as leaders of churches. This week Pope Francis gave permission for Roman Catholic priests to give same sex couples blessings in private. He said that these should not in any way look like marriage ceremonies. [11] In our church we have women, trans, gay and lesbian people serving at every level of ordained ministry. We believe that God is present when same sex couples get married here in church. I have experienced such a deep sense of joy at their ordinations and weddings. I wish every person could see it.   We are all different from each other. But this is not a problem. We should not feel threatened by this. We are not competing. There is not one of us that has gotten it all right. Our diversity is part of God's gift to us. We are one human family.   What happens when we do not receive the world, communion with each other and diversity as a gift? The theologian Martin Luther (1483-1546) says that we become incurvatus se, that is curved in on ourself. We refuse to be fully alive. We are cut off from each other and the very sources of what should be our greatest happiness. We become distanced from our true self. This is a kind of hell that we all experience in varying degrees. In this condition we become walled off from joy.   But tonight is holy. It is time to make peace with the mystery and come back home. For many years the famous religion scholar Huston Smith was a member of my grandfather's congregation in Massachusetts. He said that churches waiting for Christmas are like a child with her face pressed against the window on a cold winter night. Then she runs through the household saying, “Daddy's home. Daddy's home.”   Tonight we share this joy in our Christmas carols and in stories whose meaning can never be exhausted. The world is not made of atoms but of stories. Our stories are imperfect ways of expressing an unsayable encounter with the infinite God. Tonight we are here as we never have been before. There is joy at the very heart of being alive. As a mother gives birth to her child let us become who we are by giving our self away. Because in these 2 trillion galaxies, the things of God can be kissed and caressed. The world is a gift. The nature of that gift is communion. True communion celebrates diversity and difference. We stand with one hand on the door looking into another world…”

durée : 00:06:38 - Tendez l'oreille du samedi 18 novembre 2023 - par : Christophe Dilys - Un matin de 1964, le docteur en religion Huston Smith a été réveillé par les moines de Gyuto et ce son a provoqué en lui un je-ne-sais quoi de mystique qu'il a voulu partager avec le monde. Ainsi, en 1967, il a rendu public ces enregistrements qui ont étonné le monde entier par leurs polyphonies.

1950. aastate keskel tehtud telesarja „[Religions of Man](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL30RAv-0lkxFgnNXl9bqkhAZozMa117me)“ avasaates arutleb USA religiooniloolane [Huston Smith](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhpEK-_b7mfHEK37VetNoujsqq9wp0Jny) selle üle, kuidas vaatavad pooletuhande aasta pärast 20. sajandile tagasi tuleviku ajaloolased. „Kas nad kirjutavad sellest, et 20. sajandil avastasid teadlased aatomi saladused, või hoopis suurest kommunistlikust eksperimendist?“ küsib ta retooriliselt ja annab siis mõlemale küsimusele eitava vastuse. „20. sajandis on midagi, mis jätab varju nii aatompommi kui ka kommunismi,“ jätkab ta. „Minu arvates seisneb meie sajandi kõige tähtsam iseärasus selles, et siin kohtusid [ida ja lääs](https://teejuhid.postimees.ee/7778376/intervjuu-hardo-pajula-intervjuu-david-lorimeriga-ida-ja-laas) esimest korda nagu võrdne võrdsega,“ pakub Huston Smith välja oma arusaama möödunud sajandi ainulaadsusest. 13. oktoobril Tartus [Laur Järve](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBQmB1egcC4&t=1s) ja [Teet Toomega](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ub2VuzH5Ds&t=1s) india mütoloogiast, religioonist ja filosoofiast – nii palju kui neid üksteisest eristada saab – lähtus vähemalt osaliselt sellest Huston Smithi mõttekäigust. Saate pealkiri pärineb Aldous Huxley intervjuust "S[peaking Personally II](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPZ1jnlFDXg&t=720s)": "Vaatame kasvõi neid vapustavaid sümboleid, mis on loodud Indias. Meil ei ole tantsivale Šivale laiahaardelisuselt ligilähedastki sümbolit." Head uudistamist! H.

1950. aastate keskel tehtud telesarja „Religions of Man“ [1] avasaates arutleb USA religiooniloolane Huston Smith [2] selle üle, kuidas vaatavad pooletuhande aasta pärast 20. sajandile tagasi tuleviku ajaloolased. „Kas nad kirjutavad sellest, et 20. sajandil avastasid teadlased aatomi saladused, või hoopis suurest kommunistlikust eksperimendist?“ küsib ta retooriliselt ja annab siis mõlemale küsimusele eitava vastuse. „20. sajandis on midagi, mis jätab varju nii aatompommi kui ka kommunismi,“ jätkab ta. „Minu arvates seisneb meie sajandi kõige tähtsam iseärasus selles, et siin kohtusid ida ja lääs [3] esimest korda nagu võrdne võrdsega,“ pakub Huston Smith välja oma arusaama möödunud sajandi ainulaadsusest.13. oktoobril Tartus Laur Järve [4] ja Teet Toomega [5] india mütoloogiast, religioonist ja filosoofiast – nii palju kui neid üksteisest eristada saab – lähtus vähemalt osaliselt sellest Huston Smithi mõttekäigust. Saate pealkiri pärineb Aldous Huxley intervjuust "Speaking Personally II" [6]: "Vaatame kasvõi neid vapustavaid sümboleid, mis on loodud Indias. Meil ei ole tantsivale Šivale laiahaardelisuselt ligilähedastki sümbolit."Head uudistamist!H.———————————[1] • The World's Religions by Huston Smith... [2] • Huston Smith [3] https://teejuhid.postimees.ee/7778376...[4] • 119. Laur Järv ja Urmas Nagel, "Vaiku... [5] • 58. Märt Läänemets ja Teet Toome, "Vi... [6] • Aldous Huxley - Speaking Personally I... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How did psychedelics become part of the American lexicon in the 1960s, and what has changed since then?Explore the true history and the people behind the Psychedelic era with scholar, historian and researcher Robert Forte in this very revealing Living 4D conversation.Learn more about Robert on his website, Substack and on social media via Facebook.TimestampsRobert's first encounter with psychedelics in fifth grade via Life Magazine in 1966. (6:01)Little known psychologist Frank X. Barron was the man who later turned on Timothy Leary. (12:01)At the origin of the major world religions and nearly all traditional Shamanic practices, you will find a sacred plant. (20:37)Why so many religious people reject psychedelics. (23:38)The MK-Ultra program. (37:09)Timothy Leary and Ram Dass/Dr. Richard Alpert: Facts versus fiction. (44:10)“What do you call someone who's not a conspiracy theorist?” (1:01:32)Why would the CIA popularize magic mushrooms in the 1950s? (1:15:08)Are today's medical “experts” truly trained to work with patients using psychedelics? (1:28:07)Robert's ayahuasca vision for enlightenment and a bleak future. (1:38:38)Is Paul too young to retire? (1:49:21)Huston Smith on psychedelics and the differences between religious experiences and a religious life. (1:54:57)The Greek origin of the word mystery. (2:01:11)Why don't more people realize that all of us are connected to each other? (2:25:40)“I knew Terence McKenna before he was Terence McKenna.” (2:34:27)The origins of MDMA (ecstasy). (2:50:52)“Psychedelics attract dissidents.” (3:03:14)ResourcesTimothy Leary: Outside Looking In edited by Robert ForteEntheogens and the Future of Religion edited by Robert ForteFind more resources for this episode on our website.Thanks to our awesome sponsors:PaleovalleyBiOptimizers US and BiOptimizers UK PAUL10Organifi CHEK20CHEK Institute/CHEK Academy Open HouseWild PasturesNedPique LifeWe may earn commissions from qualifying purchases using affiliate links.

“The goal of spiritual life is not altered states, but altered traits.” ― Huston Smith

Don Lattin, author of, The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America, takes us on a fascinating journey through the 1950s drug counterculture. Don has uncovered the explosive, true soap opera that lead to Leary and Dass being fired from Harvard University. He teaches us all about it, then shares some of his personal experiences with psychedelics.

Don Lattin, a former journalist, is author of Jesus Freaks: A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge; Following Our Bliss: How the Spiritual Ideals of the Sixties Shape Our Lives Today; The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in … Continue reading "Entheogens and God with Don Lattin"

"Ma olen kuulnud ka seda, et kui te tahate elevandi välja juhatada ükskõik kui ohtlikust kohast, näiteks põlevas küünist, ei liigu ta enne sammukestki, kui on ta veendunud, et väljapääsutee teda kannab. Alles siis, kui ta on täiesti kindel, et rada on usaldusväärne, teeb ta oma esimese sammu. Kui tal sellist kindlust ei teki, siis ta jääb paigale ja hukub leekides, aga ebakindlale rajale ta ometi ei astu. Meiega on lugu samamoodi. Kui meil on väikegi kahtlus, et see eluviis, mida meile pakutakse on rumal, õõnes ega vii kuhugi, ei võta me seda omaks," räägib USA religiooniloolane Huston Smith klipis "[Muutus hakkab pihta õigest seltskonnast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNCSyOGXjgA&t=2s)". Täna on meil plaanis rääkida Jan Uuspõllu ja Mait Vaiguga elevantide taltsutamise sõlmprobleemidest. Samale teemale olid pühendatud Tähenduse teejuhtide [13](https://teejuhid.postimees.ee/7367493/hardo-pajula-nahtamatu-maailm). ja [25. number](https://teejuhid.postimees.ee/7651070/juhtkiri-hardo-pajula-tohus-depressioon), vt ka "[Kass tulisel plekk-katusel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzogcorjLOI&t=1s)". Peatse kohtumiseni! H.

"Ma olen kuulnud ka seda, et kui te tahate elevandi välja juhatada ükskõik kui ohtlikust kohast, näiteks põlevas küünist, ei liigu ta enne sammukestki, kui on ta veendunud, et väljapääsutee teda kannab. Alles siis, kui ta on täiesti kindel, et rada on usaldusväärne, teeb ta oma esimese sammu. Kui tal sellist kindlust ei teki, siis ta jääb paigale ja hukub leekides, aga ebakindlale rajale ta ometi ei astu. Meiega on lugu samamoodi. Kui meil on väikegi kahtlus, et see eluviis, mida meile pakutakse on rumal, õõnes ega vii kuhugi, ei võta me seda omaks," räägib USA religiooniloolane Huston Smith klipis "Muutus hakkab pihta õigest seltskonnast" [1]. Täna on meil plaanis rääkida Jan Uuspõllu ja Mait Vaiguga elevantide taltsutamise sõlmprobleemidest. Samale teemale olid pühendatud Tähenduse teejuhtide 13. [2] ja 25. number [3], vt ka "Kass tulisel plekk-katusel" [4].Peatse kohtumiseni!H.—————————————————[1] • Huston Smith: "Mu... [2] https://teejuhid.postimees.ee/7367493...[3] https://teejuhid.postimees.ee/7651070...[4] • Cat on a Hot Tin ... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After achieving amazing things as a hedge fund manager, then using that same deep focus to become healthy on the inside and outside with Paul's guidance, what's next for Jason Pickard?Jason returns to Living 4D to share his newest venture, the Abundance Archetype Method course that melds what he learned from Wall Street and the great masters of the heart and soul. Follow Jason on social media via Instagram. For Living 4D listeners: Check out Jason's website to download his free 8 Keys to Greater Wealth program. Save $500 on his new course, The Abundance Archetype Method, by mentioning Paul's name to answer this question: How did you hear about The Abundance Archetype? TimestampsAbundance defined. (5:17)Jason's real gift to the world. (25:00)The best investment you can make. (30:57)What is your competitive edge? (45:27)How would you approach today knowing it was your last one on Earth? (51:39)The art of sailing versus rowing. (1:10:35)The double signal. (1:19:00)“My body is my greatest investment tool.” (1:25:33)An overview of Jason's new course. (1:42:48)An unspoken physical/mental health crisis on Wall Street. (1:52:01)Is combat yoga an oxymoron? (2:06:56)“This is the synthesis of everything I've done in my life.” (2:18:04)An update on Paul's upcoming Spirit Gym. (2:34:45)ResourcesThe work of Huston Smith, Earl Nightingale and William JamesI Sued the School System on YouTubeThomas Hanna's red light reflexPaul's Living 4D conversation with the late James CarseSetting God Free: Moving Beyond the Caricature We've Created in Our Own Image by Sean O'LaoireMan's Search for Meaning by Viktor FranklFlow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiShaping a Personal Myth to Live By by John Yungblut Find more resources for this episode on our website.Thanks to our awesome sponsors: CHEK Academy/IMS 1 Prerequisites Paleovalley chek15 BiOptimizers PAUL10 Cymbiotika L4D15 Organifi CHEK20We may earn commissions from qualifying purchases using affiliate links.

Interested in exploring new religions far removed from Christianity but don't know where to begin? Join Paul on a deep dive into Sufism with Mehrdad Noorani, an experienced instructor of Heart Meditation and the Alchemy of Inner Silence whose life mission is bridging the gaps between science and spirituality in this meditative Living 4D conversation. Learn more about Merhdad and his work at his Heart Meditation website including his article on Conscience and Consciousness. Consider joining Mehrdad's FREE six-month Journey to Inner Peace and Wellbeing class that meets once a month. TimestampsSufism: A path of substantial evolution of the mind, body and soul. (6:14)A balanced evolution. (9:55)Can you take psychedelics and practice Sufism? (13:36)“If you think you want to be a Sufi master, you will never become one.” (26:07)Characteristics of good, sincere teachers. (35:51)A short history of Sufism. (41:10)Women must re-emerge to restore the balance in our world. (55:16)The Sermon. (1:02:15)Heart: The House of God. (1:13:35)Ego. (1:20:57)A matter of time, not place. (1:37:25)Essence. (1:43:32)Listen to your heartbeat in silence and drumming. (1:59:09)Be an objective observer. (2:14:55)Heartbeats. (2:19:55)All tastes the same. (2:36:39)“Sufis and regular people face the same storms, but Sufis should learn from them.” (2:43:02) ResourcesMystic Iran: The Unseen WorldThe Man of Light in Iranian Sufism by Henry CorbinThe Pearl of Sufism and The Teachings of a Sufi Master by Seyed Mostafa AzmayeshThe work of Huston Smith, Plotinus and Toshihiko IzutsuPaul's Living 4D conversations with Rachel Epstein and Paul LevyThe Man With the Inexplicable Life by OshoThe dafNasreddinFind more resources for this episode on our website.Thanks to our awesome sponsors: CHEK Institute/PT3.0 Paleovalley chek15 BiOptimizers PAUL10 Cymbiotika L4D15 Organifi CHEK20We may earn commissions from qualifying purchases using affiliate links.

“[N]ow we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit that is from God” (2 Cor. 2:1). Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, CA 2D9  5 Epiphany (Year A) 11:00 a.m.  Sunday 5 February 2023                                       Isaiah 58:1-9a Psalm 112:1-9 2 Corinthians 2:1-12 Matthew 5:13-20    You are the salt of the earth. At 6:00 p.m., at the height of the century's worst winter storm, I put on waterproof biking pants and a jacket to go walking in the darkness. Rain poured down in sheets. In the Presidio forest, along the ridge, 60 knot gusts of wind tore through the Monterey Cypress and Eucalyptus trees. It sounded like a deafening freight train. As debris landed all around I felt nagging fear but also awe in the face of such power and beauty, in the presence of God. I could see no sign of another living soul except for a single light far offshore in thirty foot swells outside the Golden Gate. This week I gradually began to understand the news. Our seminary, the Church Divinity School of the Pacific will be closing its classrooms for in person learning and most likely selling their property (which lies across the street from the University of California, Berkeley).[i] The university motto Fiat Lux, means “let there be light.” And today I want to begin by expressing what a great light our seminary has been for me during my whole adult life. I remember going to Thursday evening community eucharists there during the ferocious El Nino storms of my first year in college. As an eighteen year old I loved the Episcopal Church. Berkeley with its four Episcopal churches, two break-away churches, a university chaplaincy, a kind of Anglican newspaper (called the New Oxford Review) and seminary seemed like heaven to me. I have fond memories of studying in the Graduate Theological Library from the time it first opened. My college chaplain Peter Haynes had us meet in the seminary parking lot to drive together for my first retreat at the Bishop's Ranch. The people in this setting profoundly shaped my faith as a guide to a compassionate, generous, beautiful, uniting, and thoughtful way of being. This faith opened me to the experiences of people of different backgrounds, even of different religions and of no religion. This faith also grounded me in traditions that connect us to our deepest humanity. Before long I was kneeling on the warm red carpet at St. Clement's Church in Berkeley and getting ordained as a priest. Soon after that I began participating in monthly Faculty Clergy lunches. John Kater first introduced the idea of online learning to us a year after the invention of the world wide web. For twenty years I participated in Pacific Coast Theological Society meetings at the seminary with Owen Thomas, Patricia Codron, Huston Smith, Herman Waetjen.[ii] I cherish my clergy colleagues who were educated there and their teachers. I can see in my mind's eye the busy brick refectory at lunchtime with students and teachers from across the country engaged in friendly talk on a fall day as the liquid amber tree leaves outside the windows burst into an impossibly beautiful redness. You may be getting a sense for the heartbreak I feel about our seminary, that with others I am mourning its loss. This brings us to one of Jesus' most important lessons about how to live, known in the Gospel of Matthew as the Sermon on the Mount. Let me briefly talk about the central elements of Jesus' teaching and then introduce a psychologist and two theologians who give us further insights into its meaning. Today we hear the second part of the Sermon on the Mount. It begins with Jesus saying “blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers” (Mt. 5). Jesus does not say that one thing leads to the other as if we should somehow try to be poor in spirit in order that we might be blessed. No, Jesus speaks to US. We are the people who mourn, the humble ones frustrated by injustice, longing for goodness and mercy. Indeed Jesus says to us this morning, “YOU are the salt of the earth… YOU are the light of the world.” The Greek word “you” is plural. It involves all of us. It is imperative to notice that Jesus is not asking us to change who we are. We are already what we need to be. We do not have to become something entirely new. We just need to learn how to magnify the goodness we already possess. For this metaphor Jesus chooses things that in small quantities have a massive effect. A tiny bit of salt brings out the flavor of a large meal. You are that salt, enriching the banquet for everyone. A single candle flame can be seen from 1.6 miles away. It takes half an hour to walk the distance to that tiny light that might guide someone home. So again Jesus is not saying that this is a cause and effect relationship, that by doing something good you become blessed. This is not a matter of punishment or reward. You already are blessed, so make the most of it! In an often cited passage Marianne Williamson writes, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be?” “You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”[iii] In 2009 I attended a training in Marshall Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communications. It changed my life.[iv] Rosenberg asserts that we all have a kind of light or energy or life that animates us. We have needs that we often do not understand for food, safety and love. Instead of trying to compel others, to force them to do we want, we should instead learn to state our need and then ask them for help. We do this knowing that all human beings have a deep longing to be of service to others. This all begins with seeing that light in other people. And this requires that we learn to quiet the critical voice that judges others and ourselves (Rosenberg calls the jackal). He recommends that instead of using judgment words (like “you are always late”) or presuming that we know what another person is thinking, we should learn the gift of the question. We need to learn how to simply ask what another person needs. Instead of an inner life in which we criticize ourselves we need to ask ourselves what we need. Today at the Forum I talked with my favorite teacher Margaret Miles about her newest book on how the third century theologian St. Augustine of Hippo (345-430 CE) changed in his old age. Quite often we quote his words when we invite everyone to the communion table saying, “Be what you see. Receive what you are.”[v] This is almost a riddle with the answer – the body of Christ. It reminds us that we are God's children. We are salt and light, even when we may not feel very close to God. Augustine talks about the difficulty of believing in miracles and what our bodies will be like in the resurrection. He says that these ideas matter only as much as they influence how we live now. In his prayer addressed to God he says that we are not only, “instructed so as to see you… but also so as to grow strong enough to hold you, and the one who cannot see you for the distance, may yet walk along the road by which he will arrive and see you and hold you…” To us he says, ”Walk without fear, run, but stay on the road… do not stand still, do not turn back, do not get sidetracked… Any who find that they may have gone astray must return to the road and walk on it, and any who find they are on the road must go on walking until they arrive.”[vi] One of my favorite writers of our generation is the gay English Roman Catholic theologian James Allison. The Stanford University professor René Girard (1923-2015) deeply influenced him. Girard taught that all human societies have what he calls the scapegoat mechanism. We covet, that is we want what other people have, this leads to instabilities and social tensions. These in turn are resolved by punishing or banishing an individual or group. We fix our social problems by blaming others. According to Allison and Girard, Jesus overturns the scapegoat mechanism and makes possible the realm of God in which all people are loved. In my clergy group I heard the following story about James Alison. For many years he lived in Brazil. But not long after moving to Spain, a Brazilian bishop began a long and ultimately successful process of removing Alison from the priesthood. This was heartbreaking new for Alison. Then one day he received a phone call. The voice on the other end of the line told him that it was Francis, Pope Francis. Alison felt sure that it had to be a friend playing a trick on him until a number of questions fully established that this was the actual pope and that he was giving him the “power of the keys” and effectively reinstating him as a priest.[vii] As a gay man Alison was himself scapegoated but his light shines too brightly to be diminished. He does not hide. I give thanks for Augustine's reminder to stay on the road to God even when our father seems so far off. I give thanks for Marshall Rosenberg's reminder that our critical inner voice makes it hard to see the light in others. Above all, I am so grateful for the compassionate, generous and thoughtful light of the people associated with our seminary. They contributed to the faith that has guided me to this day. That night a few weeks ago out in the storm. I encountered God. Looking at that lonely light on the ocean reminded me of one of the kids named William Hoyt who came to my ordination at St. Clement's Church in Berkeley. His dad was a nuclear physicist and his mom a partner in a prestigious law firm. William grew up to be the captain of a tugboat. I wondered if he was out there in the storm, if it was his light that was going to guide someone home that night. In the deafening freight train storm that surrounds us your light shines in this way also. Give the gift of the question. Do not turn back. Be what you see, receive who you are. You are the salt of the earth. [i] “CDSP Announces Shift to Fully Hybrid Education Model.” CDSP 31 January 2023. https://cdsp.edu/2023/01/cdsp-announces-shift-to-fully-hybrid-education-model/ [ii] I first met Norman Gottwald, Bob Russell, Ted Peters, Durwood Foster, Philip Clayton, Mark Graves, Darren Erisman, Sharon Burch, Scott MacDougall and dozens of other friends at Pacific Coast Theological Society. [iii] Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/928-our-deepest-fear-is-not-that-we-are-inadequate-our [iv] Ursula, “Nonviolent Communications Workshop,” Christ Episcopal Church, Los Altos,  29 April 2009. Notebook page 134. See also Marshall Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communications: Create Your Life, Your Relationships, Your World in Harmony with Your Values. Audiobook. https://sfpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S93C2415756 [v] St. Augustine. “If you are Christ's body and members, it is your mystery that is placed on the table of the Lord, it is your mystery that you receive… Be what you see and receive what you are.” Catholic Digest. https://www.catholicdigest.com/from-the-magazine/quiet-moment/st-augustine-if-you-are-christs-body-and-members-it-is-your-mystery/ Mary Carter Greene's translation: "Behold what you are. Become what you receive.” [vi] From Margaret Ruth Miles, Beautiful Bodies (Forthcoming). Augustine, Confessions 7:21 and En ps. 31, tr. Maria Boulding, Essential Expositions of the Psalms (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2015) 319-20. [vii] I heard this story on different occasions from Donald Schell and Pat Kiefert. Some clarifying elements might be found in James Alison's Wikipedia article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Alison

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION“She had studied the universe all her life, but had overlooked its clearest message: For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.”~Carl Sagan (1934-1996), famed astronomer, in his 1985 novel Contact “The mark of Christian discipleship is love—love of the kind that Jesus exercised toward his followers, love visible enough that men will recognize it as belonging to those people who follow Jesus.”~Thabiti M. Anyabwile, pastor and author, in What Is a Healthy Church Member? “The people who heard Jesus' disciples proclaiming the Good News were as impressed by what they saw as by what they heard. They saw lives that had been transformed—men and women who were ordinary in every way except for the fact that they seemed to have found the secret of living. They evinced a tranquility, simplicity, and cheerfulness that their hearers had nowhere else encountered…. “The only power that can effect transformations of the order we have described is love…. “God's love is precisely what the first Christians did feel. They had experienced Jesus' love and had become convinced that Jesus was God incarnate. Once that love reached them, it could not be stopped. Melting the barriers of fear, guilt, and self-centeredness, it poured through them like a torrential stream and heightened the love they had hitherto felt for others to the point where the difference in degree became a difference in kind. A new quality, Christian love, was born. Conventional love is evoked by lovable qualities in the beloved, but the love people encountered from Christ embraced sinners and outcasts, Samaritans and enemies. It gave, not prudentially in order to receive, but because giving was its nature.”~Huston Smith (1919-2016), world religions scholar who taught at MIT and SyracuseSERMON PASSAGEJohn 17:20-26 (ESV)1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

A study of Islam according to Huston Smith's “The World's Religions.”

A study of Taoism according to Huston Smith's “The World's Religions.”

Banyen Books & Sound joins Phil Cousineau for a conversation about his newly updated bestselling classic The Art of Pilgrimage: The Seeker's Guide to Making Travel Sacred. Phil Cousineau is an award-winning writer and filmmaker, teacher and editor, lecturer, storyteller and TV host. With more than thirty-five books translated into more than ten languages and 15 scriptwriting credits to his name, Cousineau has also appeared alongside mentors Joseph Campbell and Huston Smith. He is co-writer and host of Global Spirit and has also appeared on CNN, The Discovery Channel, NFL Films, and more. He has been interviewed for stories in Time, Newsweek, and The New York Times . Currently, Cousineau lives with his family in North Beach in San Francisco, California. Learn more about his work at https://www.philcousineau.net.

A study of Buddhism according to Huston Smith's “The World's Religions.”

A study of Buddhism according to Huston Smith's “The World's Religions.”

A study of Hinduism according to Huston Smith's “The World's Religions.”

Marty Solomon and Brent Billings are joined by special guest Steve Park, founder of Little Lights Urban Ministries in Washington, DC. He teaches race literacy for Christians, provides after-school and summer programs, adult and employment programs, Christian mentoring and Bible studies, and so much more.Little LightsThe Road Less Traveled by M. Scott PeckThe World's Religions by Huston SmithRace: The Power of an Illusion — PBSRace Literacy 101 ClassLittle Lights on YouTubeLittle Lights on FacebookLittle Lights on InstagramLittle Lights on LinkedInLittle Lights on Twitter Special Guest: Steve Park.

Returning guest Matt Cardin is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose focus on numinous horror place him in the literary lineage as Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood. His new book, What the Daemon Said, collects two decades' worth of meditations on literature, cinema, mysticism, philosophy, and the weird. He joins Phil and JF to talk about a range of topics including dark enlightenment, the idea that fear and trembling are the only sensible reactions to direct exposure to cosmic truth. Header image: detail of cover design for What the Daemon Said, by Dan Sauer Design. Listen to volume 1 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1) and volume 2 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2) of the Weird Studies soundtrack by Pierre-Yves Martel (https://www.pymartel.com) Support us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies) Find us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp) Get the new T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau (https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s)! Get your Weird Studies merchandise (https://www.redbubble.com/people/Weird-Studies/shop?asc=u) (t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop (https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies) REREFENCES Matt Cardin's website (https://mattcardin.com) Matt Cardin, What the Daemon Said: Essays on Horror, Fiction, Film and Philosophy (https://www.hippocampuspress.com/other-authors/nonfiction/what-the-daemon-said-by-matt-cardin?zenid=eb4sec67t2m8frhke9kamt2qd6) Matt Cardin, Dark Awakenings (https://mattcardin.com/fiction/dark-awakenings/) Weird Studies ep. 124 (https://www.weirdstudies.com/124): Dark Night Radio of the Soul, with Duncan Barford Theodore Roszak (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Roszak_(scholar)), American scholar M. C. Richards, Centering (https://www.amazon.com/Centering-M-C-Richards/dp/B000M18R20) Frierich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/52263/52263-h/52263-h.htm) Huston Smith (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huston_Smithhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huston_Smith), American religious scholar Martin Buber, [I and Thou](https://archive.org/stream/IAndThou572/BuberMartin-i-and-thoudjvu.txt) John Lee Hancock (dir.), The Rookie (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265662/) (2002) Eckart Tolle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eckhart_Tolle), German spiritual teacher Richard Wagner, Parsifal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsifal) Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (https://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Canopy-Elements-Sociological-Religion-ebook/dp/B004X3789G) Alan Watts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Watts), English writer and teacher Richard Rose, After the Absolute: The Inner Teachings of Richard Rose (https://www.amazon.com/After-Absolute-Inner-Teachings-Richard-ebook/dp/B07PMN1GFRhttps://www.amazon.com/After-Absolute-Inner-Teachings-Richard-ebook/dp/B07PMN1GFR) Special Guest: Matt Cardin.

Episode one hundred and forty-eight of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Light My Fire" by the Doors, the history of cool jazz, and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "My Friend Jack" by the Smoke. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources As usual, I've put together a Mixcloud mix containing all the music excerpted in this episode and the shorter spoken-word tracks. Information on Dick Bock, World Pacific, and Ravi Shankar came from Indian Sun: The Life and Music of Ravi Shankar by Oliver Craske. Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, and Robby Krieger have all released autobiographies. Densmore's is out of print, but I referred to Manzarek's and Krieger's here. Of the two Krieger's is vastly more reliable. I also used Mick Wall's book on the Doors and Stephen Davis' biography of Jim Morrison. Information about Elektra Records came from Follow the Music by Jac Holzman and Gavan Daws, which is available as a free PDF download on Elektra's website. Biographical information on Maharishi Mahesh Yogi comes from this book, written by one of his followers. The Doors' complete studio albums can be bought as MP3s for £14. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript There are two big problems that arise for anyone trying to get an accurate picture of history, and which have certainly arisen for me during the course of this podcast -- things which make sources unreliable enough that you feel you have to caveat everything you say on a subject. One of those is hagiography, and the converse desire to tear heroes down. No matter what one wants to say on, say, the subjects of Jesus or Mohammed or Joseph Smith, the only sources we have for their lives are written either by people who want to present them as unblemished paragons of virtue, or by people who want to destroy that portrayal -- we know that any source is written by someone with a bias, and it might be a bias we agree with, but it's still a bias. The other, related, problem, is deliberate disinformation. This comes up especially for people dealing with military history -- during conflicts, governments obviously don't want their opponents to know when their attacks have caused damage, or to know what their own plans are, and after a war has concluded the belligerent parties want to cover up their own mistakes and war crimes. We're sadly seeing that at the moment in the situation in Ukraine -- depending on one's media diet, one could get radically different ideas of what is actually going on in that terrible conflict. But it happens all the time, in all wars, and on all sides. Take the Vietnam War. While the US was involved on the side of the South Vietnamese government from the start of that conflict, it was in a very minor way, mostly just providing supplies and training. Most historians look at the real start of US involvement in that war as having been in August 1964. President Johnson had been wanting, since assuming the Presidency in November 1963 after the death of John F Kennedy, to get further into the war, but had needed an excuse to do so. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident provided him with that excuse. On August the second, a fleet of US warships entered into what the North Vietnamese considered their territorial waters -- they used a different distance from shore to mark their territorial waters than most other countries used, and one which wasn't generally accepted, but which they considered important. Because of this, some North Vietnamese ships started following the American ones. The American ships, who thought they weren't doing anything wrong, set off what they considered to be warning shots, and the North Vietnamese ships fired back, which to the American ships was considered them attacking. Some fire was exchanged, but not much happened. Two days later, the American ships believed they were getting attacked again, and spent several hours firing at what they believed were North Vietnamese submarines. It was later revealed that this was just the American sonar systems playing up, and that they were almost certainly firing at nothing at all, and some even suspected that at the time -- President Johnson apparently told other people in confidence that in his opinion they'd been firing at stray dolphins. But that second "attack", however flimsy the evidence, was enough that Johnson could tell Congress and the nation that an American fleet had been attacked by the North Vietnamese, and use that as justification to get Congress to authorise him sending huge numbers of troops to Vietnam, and getting America thoroughly embroiled in a war that would cost innumerable lives and billions of dollars for what turned out to be no benefit at all to anyone. The commander of the US fleet involved in the Gulf of Tonkin operation was then-Captain, later Rear Admiral, Steve Morrison: [Excerpt: The Doors, "The End"] We've talked a bit in this podcast previously about the development of jazz in the forties, fifties, and early sixties -- there was a lot of back and forth influence in those days between jazz, blues, R&B, country, and rock and roll, far more than one might imagine looking at the popular histories of these genres, and so we've looked at swing, bebop, and modal jazz before now. But one style of music we haven't touched on is the type that was arguably the most popular and influential style of jazz in the fifties, even though we've mentioned several of the people involved in it. We've never yet had a proper look at Cool Jazz. Cool Jazz, as its name suggests, is a style of music that was more laid back than the more frenetic bebop or hard-edged modal jazz. It was a style that sounded sophisticated, that sounded relaxed, that prized melody and melodic invention over super-fast technical wizardry, and that produced much of what we now think of when we think of "jazz" as a popular style of music. The records of Dave Brubeck, for example, arguably the most popular fifties jazz musician, are very much in the "cool jazz" mode: [Excerpt: The Dave Brubeck Quartet, "Take Five"] And we have mentioned on several occasions the Modern Jazz Quartet, who were cited as influences by everyone from Ray Charles to the Kinks to the Modern Folk Quartet: [Excerpt: The Modern Jazz Quartet, "Regret?"] We have also occasionally mentioned people like Mose Allison, who occasionally worked in the Cool Jazz mode. But we've never really looked at it as a unified thing. Cool Jazz, like several of the other developments in jazz we've looked at, owes its existence to the work of the trumpeter Miles Davis, who was one of the early greats of bop and who later pioneered modal jazz. In 1948, in between his bop and modal periods, Davis put together a short-lived nine-piece group, the Miles Davis Nonette, who performed together for a couple of weeks in late 1948, and who recorded three sessions in 1949 and 1950, but who otherwise didn't perform much. Each of those sessions had a slightly different lineup, but key people involved in the recordings were Davis himself, arranger Gil Evans, piano player John Lewis, who would later go on to become the leader of the Modern Jazz Quartet, and baritone sax player Gerry Mulligan. Mulligan and Evans, and the group's alto player Lee Konitz, had all been working for the big band Claude Thornhill and his Orchestra, a band which along with the conventional swing instruments also had a French horn player and a tuba player, and which had recorded soft, mellow, relaxing music: [Excerpt: Claude Thornhill and his Orchestra, "To Each His Own"] The Davis Nonette also included French horn and tuba, and was explicitly modelled on Thornhill's style, but in a stripped-down version. They used the style of playing that Thornhill preferred, with no vibrato, and with his emphasis on unison playing, with different instruments doubling each other playing the melody, rather than call-and response riffing: [Excerpt: The Miles Davis Nonette, "Venus De Milo"] Those recordings were released as singles in 1949 and 1950, and were later reissued in 1957 as an album titled "Birth of the Cool", by which point Cool Jazz had become an established style, though Davis himself had long since moved on in other musical directions. After the Birth of the Cool sessions, Gerry Mulligan had recorded an album as a bandleader himself, and then had moved to the West Coast, where he'd started writing arrangements for Stan Kenton, one of the more progressive big band leaders of the period: [Excerpt: Stan Kenton, "Young Blood"] While working for Kenton, Mulligan had started playing dates at a club called the Haig, where the headliner was the vibraphone player Red Norvo. While Norvo had started out as a big-band musician, playing with people like Benny Goodman, he had recently started working in a trio, with just a guitarist, initially Tal Farlowe, and bass player, initially Charles Mingus: [Excerpt: Red Norvo, "This Can't Be Love"] By 1952 Mingus had left Norvo's group, but they were still using the trio format, and that meant there was no piano at the venue, which meant that Mulligan had to form a band that didn't rely on the chordal structures that a piano would provide -- the idea of a group with a rhythm section that *didn't* have a piano was quite an innovation in jazz at this time, and freeing themselves from that standard instrument ended up opening up extra possibilities. His group consisted of himself on saxophone, Chet Baker on trumpet, Bob Whitlock on bass and Chico Hamilton on drums. They made music in much the same loose, casual, style as the recordings Mulligan had made with Davis, but in a much smaller group with the emphasis being on the interplay between Mulligan and Baker. And this group were the first group to record on a new label, Pacific Jazz, founded by Dick Bock. Bock had served in the Navy during World War II, and had come back from the South Pacific with two tastes -- a taste for hashish, and for music that was outside the conventional American pop mould. Bock *loved* the Mulligan Quartet, and in partnership with his friend Roy Harte, a notable jazz drummer, he raised three hundred and fifty dollars to record the first album by Mulligan's new group: [Excerpt: Gerry Mulligan Quartet, "Aren't You Glad You're You?"] Pacific Jazz, the label Bock and Harte founded, soon became *the* dominant label for Cool Jazz, which also became known as the West Coast Sound.  The early releases on the label were almost entirely by the Mulligan Quartet, released either under Mulligan's name, as by Chet Baker, or as "Lee Konitz and the Gerry Mulligan Quartet" when Mulligan's old bandmate Konitz joined them. These records became big hits, at least in the world of jazz. But both Mulligan and Baker were heroin addicts, and in 1953 Mulligan got arrested and spent six months in prison. And while he was there, Chet Baker made some recordings in his own right and became a bona fide star. Not only was Baker a great jazz trumpet player, he was also very good looking, and it turned out he could sing too. The Mulligan group had made the song "My Funny Valentine" one of the highlights of its live shows, with Baker taking a trumpet solo: [Excerpt: Gerry Mulligan Quartet, "My Funny Valentine"] But when Baker recorded a vocal version, for his album Chet Baker Sings, it made Baker famous: [Excerpt: Chet Baker, "My Funny Valentine"] When Mulligan got out of prison, he wanted to rehire Baker, but Baker was now topping the popularity polls in all the jazz magazines, and was the biggest breakout jazz star of the early fifties. But Mulligan formed a new group, and this just meant that Pacific Jazz had *two* of the biggest acts in jazz on its books now, rather than just one. But while Bock loved jazz, he was also fascinated by other kinds of music, and while he was in New York at the beginning of 1956 he was invited by his friend George Avakian, a producer who had worked with Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, and others, to come and see a performance by an Indian musician he was working with. Avakian was just about to produce Ravi Shankar's first American album, The Sounds of India, for Columbia Records. But Columbia didn't think that there was much of a market for Shankar's music -- they were putting it out as a speciality release rather than something that would appeal to the general public -- and so they were happy for Bock to sign Shankar to his own label. Bock renamed the company World Pacific, to signify that it was now going to be putting out music from all over the world, not just jazz, though he kept the Pacific Jazz label for its jazz releases, and he produced Shankar's next album,  India's Master Musician: [Excerpt: Ravi Shankar, "Raga Charu Keshi"] Most of Shankar's recordings for the next decade would be produced by Bock, and Bock would also try to find ways to combine Shankar's music with jazz, though Shankar tried to keep a distinction between the two. But for example on Shankar's next album for World Pacific, Improvisations and Theme from Pather Panchali, he was joined by a group of West Coast jazz musicians including Bud Shank (who we'll hear about again in a future episode) on flute: [Excerpt: Ravi Shankar, "Improvisation on the Theme From Pather Panchali"] But World Pacific weren't just putting out music. They also put out spoken-word records. Some of those were things that would appeal to their jazz audience, like the comedy of Lord Buckley: [Excerpt: Lord Buckley, "Willy the Shake"] But they also put out spoken-word albums that appealed to Bock's interest in spirituality and philosophy, like an album by Gerald Heard. Heard had previously written the liner notes for Chet Baker Sings!, but as well as being a jazz fan Heard was very connected in the world of the arts -- he was a very close friend with Aldous Huxley -- and was also interested in various forms of non-Western spirituality. He practiced yoga, and was also fascinated by Buddhism, Vedanta, and Taoism: [Excerpt: Gerald Heard, "Paraphrased from the Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu"] We've come across Heard before, in passing, in the episode on "Tomorrow Never Knows", when Ralph Mentzner said of his experiments with Timothy Leary and Ram Dass "At the suggestion of Aldous Huxley and Gerald Heard we began using the Bardo Thödol ( Tibetan Book of the Dead) as a guide to psychedelic sessions" -- Heard was friends with both Huxley and Humphrey Osmond, and in fact had been invited by them to take part in the mescaline trip that Huxley wrote about in his book The Doors of Perception, the book that popularised psychedelic drug use, though Heard was unable to attend at that time. Heard was a huge influence on the early psychedelic movement -- though he always advised Leary and his associates not to be so public with their advocacy, and just to keep it to a small enlightened circle rather than risk the wrath of the establishment -- and he's cited by almost everyone in Leary's circle as having been the person who, more than anything else, inspired them to investigate both psychedelic drugs and mysticism. He's the person who connected Bill W. of Alcoholics Anonymous with Osmond and got him advocating LSD use. It was Heard's books that made Huston Smith, the great scholar of comparative religions and associate of Leary, interested in mysticism and religions outside his own Christianity, and Heard was one of the people who gave Leary advice during his early experiments. So it's not surprising that Bock also became interested in Leary's ideas before they became mainstream. Indeed, in 1964 he got Shankar to do the music for a short film based on The Psychedelic Experience, which Shankar did as a favour for his friend even though Shankar didn't approve of drug use. The film won an award in 1965, but quickly disappeared from circulation as its ideas were too controversial: [Excerpt: The Psychedelic Experience (film)] And Heard introduced Bock to other ideas around philosophy and non-Western religions. In particular, Bock became an advocate for a little-known Hindu mystic who had visited the US in 1959 teaching a new style of meditation which he called Transcendental Meditation. A lot is unclear about the early life of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, even his birth name -- both "Maharishi" and "Yogi" are honorifics rather than names as such, though he later took on both as part of his official name, and in this and future episodes I'll refer to him as "the Maharishi". What we do know is that he was born in India, and had attained a degree in physics before going off to study with Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, a teacher of the Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism. Now, I am not a Hindu, and only have a passing knowledge of Hindu theology and traditions, and from what I can gather getting a proper understanding requires a level of cultural understanding I don't have, and in particular a knowledge of the Sanskrit language, so my deepest apologies for any mangling I do of these beliefs in trying to talk about them as they pertain to mid-sixties psychedelic rock. I hope my ignorance is forgivable, and seen as what it is rather than malice. But the teachings of this school as I understand them seem to centre around an idea of non-separation -- that God is in all things, and is all things, and that there is no separation between different things, and that you merely have to gain a deep realisation of this. The Maharishi later encapsulated this in the phrase "I am that, thou art that, all this is that", which much later the Beach Boys, several of whom were followers of the Maharishi, would turn into a song: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "All This is That"] The other phrase they're singing there, "Jai Guru Dev" is also a phrase from the Maharishi, and refers to his teacher Brahmananda Saraswati -- it means "all hail the divine teacher" or "glory to the heavenly one", and "guru dev" or "guru deva" was the name the Maharishi would use for Saraswati after his death, as the Maharishi believed that Saraswati was an actual incarnation of God. It's that phrase that John Lennon is singing in "Across the Universe" as well, another song later inspired by the Maharishi's teachings: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Across the Universe"] The Maharishi became, by his own account, Saraswati's closest disciple, advisor, and right-hand man, and was privy to his innermost thoughts. However, on Saraswati's death the leadership of the monastery he led became deeply contested, with two different rivals to the position, and the Maharishi was neither -- the rules of the monastery said that only people born into the Brahmin caste could reach the highest positions in the monastery's structure, and the Maharishi was not a Brahmin. So instead of remaining in the monastery, the Maharishi went out into the world to teach a new form of meditation which he claimed he had learned from Guru Dev, a technique which became known as transcendental meditation. The Maharishi would, for the rest of his life, always claim that the system he taught was Guru Dev's teaching for the world, not his own, though the other people who had been at the monastery with him said different things about what Saraswati had taught -- but of course it's perfectly possible for a spiritual leader to have had multiple ideas and given different people different tasks. The crucial thing about the Maharishi's teaching, the way it differed from everything else in the history of Hindu monasticism (as best I understand this) is that all previous teachers of meditation had taught that to get the benefit of the techniques one had to be a renunciate -- you should go off and become a monk and give up all worldly pleasures and devote your life to prayer and meditation. Traditionally, Hinduism has taught that there are four stages of life -- the student, the householder or married person with a family, the retired person, and the Sanyasi, or renunciate, but that you could skip straight from being a student to being a Sanyasi and spend your life as a monk. The Maharishi, though, said: "Obviously enough there are two ways of life: the way of the Sanyasi and the way of life of a householder. One is quite opposed to the other. A Sanyasi renounces everything of the world, whereas a householder needs and accumulates everything. The one realises, through renunciation and detachment, while the other goes through all attachments and accumulation of all that is needed for physical life." What the Maharishi taught was that there are some people who achieve the greatest state of happiness by giving up all the pleasures of the senses, eating the plainest possible food, having no sexual, familial, or romantic connections with anyone else, and having no possessions, while there are other people who achieve the greatest state of happiness by being really rich and having a lot of nice stuff and loads of friends and generally enjoying the pleasures of the flesh -- and that just as there are types of meditation that can help the first group reach enlightenment, there are also types of meditation that will fit into the latter kind of lifestyle, and will help those people reach oneness with God but without having to give up their cars and houses and money. And indeed, he taught that by following his teachings you could get *more* of those worldly pleasures. All you had to do, according to his teaching, was to sit still for fifteen to twenty minutes, twice a day, and concentrate on a single Sanskrit word or phrase, a mantra, which you would be given after going through a short course of teaching. There was nothing else to it, and you would eventually reach the same levels of enlightenment as the ascetics who spent seventy years living in a cave and eating only rice -- and you'd end up richer, too. The appeal of this particular school is, of course, immediately apparent, and Bock became a big advocate of the Maharishi, and put out three albums of his lectures: [Excerpt: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, "Deep Meditation"] Bock even met his second wife at one of the Maharishi's lectures, in 1961. In the early sixties, World Pacific got bought up by Liberty Records, the label for which Jan and Dean and others recorded, but Bock remained in charge of the label, and expanded it, adding another subsidiary, Aura Records, to put out rock and roll singles. Aura was much less successful than the other World Pacific labels. The first record the label put out was a girl-group record, "Shooby Dooby", by the Lewis Sisters, two jazz-singing white schoolteachers from Michigan who would later go on to have a brief career at Motown: [Excerpt: The Lewis Sisters, "Shooby Dooby"] The most successful act that Aura ever had was Sonny Knight, an R&B singer who had had a top twenty hit in 1956 with "Confidential", a song he'd recorded on Specialty Records with Bumps Blackwell, and which had been written by Dorinda Morgan: [Excerpt: Sonny Knight, "Confidential"] But Knight's biggest hit on Aura, "If You Want This Love", only made number seventy-one on the pop charts: [Excerpt: Sonny Knight, "If You Want This Love"] Knight would later go on to write a novel, The Day the Music Died, which Greil Marcus described as "the bitterest book ever written about how rock'n'roll came to be and what it turned into". Marcus said it was about "how a rich version of American black culture is transformed into a horrible, enormously profitable white parody of itself: as white labels sign black artists only to ensure their oblivion and keep those blacks they can't control penned up in the ghetto of the black charts; as white America, faced with something good, responds with a poison that will ultimately ruin even honest men". Given that Knight was the artist who did the *best* out of Aura Records, that says a great deal about the label. But one of the bands that Aura signed, who did absolutely nothing on the charts, was a group called Rick and the Ravens, led by a singer called Screamin' Ray Daniels. They were an LA club band who played a mixture of the surf music which the audiences wanted and covers of blues songs which Daniels preferred to sing. They put out two singles on Aura, "Henrietta": [Excerpt: Rick and the Ravens, "Henrietta"] and "Soul Train": [Excerpt: Rick and the Ravens, "Soul Train"] Ray Daniels was a stage name -- his birth name was Ray Manzarek, and he would later return to that name -- and the core of the band was Ray on vocals and his brothers Rick on guitar and Jim on harmonica. Manzarek thought of himself as a pretty decent singer, but they were just a bar band, and music wasn't really his ideal career.  Manzarek had been sent to college by his solidly lower-middle-class Chicago family in the hope that he would become a lawyer, but after getting a degree in economics and a brief stint in the army, which he'd signed up for to avoid getting drafted in the same way people like Dean Torrence did, he'd gone off to UCLA to study film, with the intention of becoming a filmmaker. His family had followed him to California, and he'd joined his brothers' band as a way of making a little extra money on the side, rather than as a way to become a serious musician. Manzarek liked the blues songs they performed, and wasn't particularly keen on the surf music, but thought it was OK. What he really liked, though, was jazz -- he was a particular fan of McCoy Tyner, the pianist on all the great John Coltrane records: [Excerpt: John Coltrane, "My Favorite Things"] Manzarek was a piano player himself, though he didn't play much with the Ravens, and he wanted more than anything to be able to play like Tyner, and so when Rick and the Ravens got signed to Aura Records, he of course became friendly with Dick Bock, who had produced so many great jazz records and worked with so many of the greats of the genre. But Manzarek was also having some problems in his life. He'd started taking LSD, which was still legal, and been fascinated by its effects, but worried that he couldn't control them -- he couldn't tell whether he was going to have a good trip or a bad one. He was wondering if there was a way he could have the same kind of revelatory mystical experience but in a more controlled manner. When he mentioned this to Bock, Bock told him that the best method he knew for doing that was transcendental meditation. Bock gave him a copy of one of the Maharishi's albums, and told him to go to a lecture on transcendental meditation, run by the head of the Maharishi's west-coast organisation, as by this point the Maharishi's organisation, known as Spiritual Regeneration, had an international infrastructure, though it was still nowhere near as big as it would soon become. At the lecture, Manzarek got talking to one of the other audience members, a younger man named John Densmore. Densmore had come to the lecture with his friend Robby Krieger, and both had come for the same reason that Manzarek had -- they'd been having bad trips and so had become a little disillusioned with acid. Krieger had been the one who'd heard about transcendental meditation, while he was studying the sitar and sarod at UCLA -- though Krieger would later always say that his real major had been in "not joining the Army". UCLA had one of the few courses in Indian music available in the US at the time, as thanks in part to Bock California had become the centre of American interest in music from India -- so much so that in 1967 Ravi Shankar would open up a branch of his own Kinnara Music School there. (And you can get an idea of how difficult it is to separate fact from fiction when researching this episode that one of the biographies I've used for the Doors says that Krieger heard about the Maharishi while studying at the Kinnara school. As the only branch of the Kinnara school that was open at this point was in Mumbai, it's safe to say that unless Krieger had a *really* long commute he wasn't studying there at this point.) Densmore and Manzarek got talking, and they found that they shared a lot of the same tastes in jazz -- just as Manzarek was a fan of McCoy Tyner, so Densmore was a fan of Elvin Jones, the drummer on those Coltrane records, and they both loved the interplay of the two musicians: [Excerpt: John Coltrane, "My Favorite Things"] Manzarek was starting to play a bit more keyboards with the Ravens, and he was also getting annoyed with the Ravens' drummer, who had started missing rehearsals -- he'd turn up only for the shows themselves. He thought it might be an idea to get Densmore to join the group, and Densmore agreed to come along for a rehearsal. That initial rehearsal Densmore attended had Manzarek and his brothers, and may have had a bass player named Patricia Hansen, who was playing with the group from time to time around this point, though she was mostly playing with a different bar band, Patty and the Esquires. But as well as the normal group members, there was someone else there, a friend of Manzarek's from film school named Jim Morrison. Morrison was someone who, by Manzarek's later accounts, had been very close to Manzarek at university, and who Manzarek had regarded as a genius, with a vast knowledge of beat poetry and European art film, but who had been regarded by most of the other students and the lecturers as being a disruptive influence. Morrison had been a fat, asthmatic, introverted kid -- he'd had health problems as a child, including a bout of rheumatic fever which might have weakened his heart, and he'd also been prone to playing the kind of "practical jokes" which can often be a cover for deeper problems. For example, as a child he was apparently fond of playing dead -- lying in the corridors at school and being completely unresponsive for long periods no matter what anyone did to move him, then suddenly getting up and laughing at anyone who had been concerned and telling them it was a joke. Given how frequently Morrison would actually pass out in later life, often after having taken some substance or other, at least one biographer has suggested that he might have had undiagnosed epilepsy (or epilepsy that was diagnosed but which he chose to keep a secret) and have been having absence seizures and covering for them with the jokes. Robby Krieger also says in his own autobiography that he used to have the same doctor as Morrison, and the doctor once made an offhand comment about Morrison having severe health problems, "as if it was common knowledge". His health difficulties, his weight, his introversion, and the experience of moving home constantly as a kid because of his father's career in the Navy, had combined to give him a different attitude to most of his fellow students, and in particular a feeling of rootlessness -- he never owned or even rented his own home in later years, just moving in with friends or girlfriends -- and a lack of sense of his own identity, which would often lead to him making up lies about his life and acting as if he believed them. In particular, he would usually claim to friends that his parents were dead, or that he had no contact with them, even though his family have always said he was in at least semi-regular contact. At university, Morrison had been a big fan of Rick and the Ravens, and had gone to see them perform regularly, but would always disrupt the shows -- he was, by all accounts, a lovely person when sober but an aggressive boor when drunk -- by shouting out for them to play "Louie Louie", a song they didn't include in their sets. Eventually one of Ray's brothers had called his bluff and said they'd play the song, but only if Morrison got up on stage and sang it. He had -- the first time he'd ever performed live -- and had surprised everyone by being quite a good singer. After graduation, Morrison and Manzarek had gone their separate ways, with Morrison saying he was moving to New York. But a few weeks later they'd encountered each other on the beach -- Morrison had decided to stay in LA, and had been staying with a friend, mostly sleeping on the friend's rooftop. He'd been taking so much LSD he'd forgotten to eat for weeks at a time, and had lost a great deal of weight, and Manzarek properly realised for the first time that his friend was actually good-looking. Morrison also told Manzarek that he'd been writing songs -- this was summer 1965, and the Byrds' version of "Mr. Tambourine Man", Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone", and the Stones' "Satisfaction" had all shown him that there was potential for pop songs to have more interesting lyrical content than "Louie Louie". Manzarek asked him to sing some of the songs he'd been writing, and as Manzarek later put it "he began to sing, not in the booze voice he used at the Turkey Joint, but in a Chet Baker voice". The first song Morrison sang for Ray Manzarek was one of the songs that Rick and the Ravens would rehearse that first time with John Densmore, "Moonlight Drive": [Excerpt: Rick and the Ravens, "Moonlight Drive"] Manzarek invited Morrison to move in with him and his girlfriend. Manzarek seems to have thought of himself as a mentor, a father figure, for Morrison, though whether that's how Morrison thought of him is impossible to say. Manzarek, who had a habit of choosing the myth over the truth, would later claim that he had immediately decided that he and Morrison were going to be a duo and find a whole new set of musicians, but all the evidence points to him just inviting Morrison to join the Ravens as the singer Certainly the first recordings this group made, a series of demos, were under Rick and the Ravens' name, and paid for by Aura Records. They're all of songs written by Morrison, and seem to be sung by Morrison and Manzarek in close harmony throughout. But the demos did not impress the head of Liberty Records, which now owned Aura, and who saw no commercial potential in them, even in one that later became a number one hit when rerecorded a couple of years later: [Excerpt: Rick and the Ravens, "Hello I Love You"] Although to be fair, that song is clearly the work of a beginning songwriter, as Morrison has just taken the riff to "All Day and All of the Night" by the Kinks, and stuck new words to it: [Excerpt: The Kinks, "All Day and All of the Night"] But it seems to have been the lack of success of these demos that convinced Manzarek's brothers and Patricia Hansen to quit the band. According to Manzarek, his brothers were not interested in what they saw as Morrison's pretensions towards poetry, and didn't think this person who seemed shy and introverted in rehearsals but who they otherwise knew as a loud annoying drunk in the audience would make a good frontman. So Rick and the Ravens were down to just Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, and John Densmore, but they continued shopping their demos around, and after being turned down by almost everyone they were signed by Columbia Records, specifically by Billy James, who they liked because he'd written the liner notes to a Byrds album, comparing them to Coltrane, and Manzarek liked the idea of working with an A&R man who knew Coltrane's work, though he wasn't impressed by the Byrds themselves, later writing "The Byrds were country, they didn't have any black in them at all. They couldn't play jazz. Hell, they probably didn't even know anything about jazz. They were folk-rock, for cri-sake. Country music. For whites only." (Ray Manzarek was white). They didn't get an advance from Columbia, but they did get free equipment -- Columbia had just bought Vox, who made amplifiers and musical instruments, and Manzarek in particular was very pleased to have a Vox organ, the same kind that the Animals and the Dave Clark Five used. But they needed a guitarist and a bass player. Manzarek claimed in his autobiography that he was thinking along the lines of a four-piece group even before he met Densmore, and that his thoughts had been "Someone has to be Thumper and someone has to be Les Paul/Chuck Berry by way of Charlie Christian. The guitar player will be a rocker who knows jazz. And the drummer will be a jazzer who can rock. These were my prerequisites. This is what I had to have to make the music I heard in my head." But whatever Manzarek was thinking, there were only two people who auditioned for the role of the guitar player in this new version of the band, both of them friends of Densmore, and in fact two people who had been best friends since high school -- Bill Wolff and Robby Krieger. Wolff and Krieger had both gone to private boarding school -- they had both originally gone to normal state schools, but their parents had independently decided they were bad influences on each other and sent them away to boarding school to get away from each other, but accidentally sent them to the same school -- and had also learned guitar together. They had both loved a record of flamenco guitar called Dos Flamencos by Jaime Grifo and Nino Marvino: [Excerpt: Jaime Grifo and Nino Marvino, "Caracolés"] And they'd decided they were going to become the new Dos Flamencos. They'd also regularly sneaked out of school to go and see a jug band called Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, a band which featured Bob Weir, who was also at their school, along with Jerry Garcia and Pigpen McKernan. Krieger was also a big fan of folk and blues music, especially bluesy folk-revivalists like Spider John Koerner, and was a massive fan of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Krieger and Densmore had known each other before Krieger had been transferred to boarding school, and had met back up at university, where they would hang out together and go to see Charles Mingus, Wes Montgomery, and other jazz musicians. At this time Krieger had still been a folk and blues purist, but then he went to see Chuck Berry live, mostly because Skip James and Big Mama Thornton were also on the bill, and he had a Damascene conversion -- the next day he went to a music shop and traded in his acoustic for a red Gibson, as close to the one Chuck Berry played as he could find. Wolff, Densmore, Krieger, and piano player Grant Johnson had formed a band called the Psychedelic Rangers, and when the Ravens were looking for a new guitarist, it was natural that they tried the two guitarists from Densmore's other band. Krieger had the advantage over Wolff for two reasons -- one of which was actually partly Wolff's doing. To quote Krieger's autobiography: "A critic once said I had 'the worst hair in rock 'n' roll'. It stung pretty bad, but I can't say they were wrong. I always battled with my naturally frizzy, kinky, Jewfro, so one day my friend Bill Wolff and I experimented with Ultra Sheen, a hair relaxer marketed mainly to Black consumers. The results were remarkable. Wolff, as we all called him, said 'You're starting to look like that jerk Bryan MacLean'". According to Krieger, his new hairdo made him better looking than Wolff, at least until the straightener wore off, and this was one of the two things that made the group choose him over Wolff, who was a better technical player. The other was that Krieger played with a bottleneck, which astonished the other members. If you're unfamiliar with bottleneck playing, it's a common technique in the blues. You tune your guitar to an open chord, and then use a resonant tube -- these days usually a specially-made metal slide that goes on your finger, but for older blues musicians often an actual neck of a bottle, broken off and filed down -- to slide across the strings. Slide guitar is one of the most important styles in blues, especially electric blues, and you can hear it in the playing of greats like Elmore James: [Excerpt: Elmore James, "Dust My Broom"] But while the members of the group all claimed to be blues fans -- Manzarek talks in his autobiography about going to see Muddy Waters in a club in the South Side of Chicago where he and his friends were the only white faces in the audience -- none of them had any idea what bottleneck playing was, and Manzarek was worried when Krieger pulled it out that he was going to use it as a weapon, that being the only association he had with bottle necks. But once Krieger played with it, they were all convinced he had to be their guitarist, and Morrison said he wanted that sound on everything. Krieger joining seems to have changed the dynamic of the band enormously. Both Morrison and Densmore would independently refer to Krieger as their best friend in the band -- Manzarek said that having a best friend was a childish idea and he didn't have one. But where before this had been Manzarek's band with Morrison as the singer, it quickly became a band centred around the creative collaboration between Krieger and Morrison. Krieger seems to have been too likeable for Manzarek to dislike him, and indeed seems to have been the peacemaker in the band on many occasions, but Manzarek soon grew to resent Densmore, seemingly as the closeness he had felt to Morrison started to diminish, especially after Morrison moved out of Manzarek's house, apparently because Manzarek was starting to remind him of his father. The group soon changed their name from the Ravens to one inspired by Morrison's reading. Aldous Huxley's book on psychedelic drugs had been titled The Doors of Perception, and that title had in turn come from a quote from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by the great mystic poet and artist William Blake, who had written "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern" (Incidentally, in one of those weird coincidences that I like to note when they come up, Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell had also inspired the book The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis, about the divorce of heaven and hell, and both Lewis and Huxley died on the same date, the twenty-second of November 1963, the same day John F. Kennedy died). Morrison decided that he wanted to rename the group The Doors, although none of the other group members were particularly keen on the idea -- Krieger said that he thought they should name the group Perception instead. Initially the group rehearsed only songs written by Morrison, along with a few cover versions. They worked up a version of Willie Dixon's "Back Door Man", originally recorded by Howlin' Wolf: [Excerpt: Howlin' Wolf, "Back Door Man"] And a version of "Alabama Song", a song written by Bertholt Brecht and Kurt Weill, from the opera The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, with English language lyrics by  Elisabeth Hauptmann. That song had originally been recorded by Lotte Lenya, and it was her version that the group based their version on, at the suggestion of Manzarek's girlfriend: [Excerpt: Lotte Lenya, "Alabama Song"] Though it's likely given their tastes in jazz that they were also aware of a recent recording of the song by Eric Dolphy and John Lewis: [Excerpt: Eric Dolphy and John Lewis, "Alabama Song"] But Morrison started to get a little dissatisfied with the fact that he was writing all the group's original material at this point, and he started to put pressure on the others to bring in songs. One of the first things they had agreed was that all band members would get equal credit and shares of the songwriting, so that nobody would have an incentive to push their own mediocre song at the expense of someone else's great one, but Morrison did want the others to start pulling their weight. As it would turn out, for the most part Manzarek and Densmore wouldn't bring in many song ideas, but Krieger would, and the first one he brought in would be the song that would make them into stars. The song Krieger brought in was one he called "Light My Fire", and at this point it only had one verse and a chorus. According to Manzarek, Densmore made fun of the song when it was initially brought in, saying "we're not a folk-rock band" and suggesting that Krieger might try selling it to the Mamas and the Papas, but the other band members liked it -- but it's important to remember here that Manzarek and Densmore had huge grudges against each other for most of their lives, and that Manzarek is not generally known as an entirely reliable narrator. Now, I'm going to talk a lot about the influences that have been acknowledged for this song, but before I do there's one that I haven't seen mentioned much but which seems to me to be very likely to have at least been a subconscious influence -- "She's Not There" by the Zombies: [Excerpt: The Zombies, "She's Not There"] Now, there are several similarities to note about the Zombies record. First, like the Doors, the Zombies were a keyboard-driven band. Second, there's the dynamics of the songs -- both have soft, slightly jazzy verses and then a more straight-ahead rock chorus. And finally there's the verse chord sequence. The verse for "She's Not There" goes from Am to D repeatedly: [demonstrates] While the verse for "Light My Fire" goes from Am to F sharp minor -- and for those who don't know, the notes in a D chord are D, F sharp, and A, while the notes in an F sharp minor chord are F sharp, A, and C sharp -- they're very similar chords. So "She's Not There" is: [demonstrates] While "Light My Fire" is: [demonstrates] At least, that's what Manzarek plays. According to Krieger, he played an Asus2 chord rather than an A minor chord, but Manzarek heard it as an A minor and played that instead. Now again, I've not seen anyone acknowledge "She's Not There" as an influence, but given the other influences that they do acknowledge, and the music that was generally in the air at the time, it would not surprise me even the smallest amount if it was. But either way, what Krieger brought in was a simple verse and chorus: [Excerpt: The Doors, "Light My Fire"] Incidentally, I've been talking about the song as having A minor chords, but you'll actually hear the song in two different keys during this episode, even though it's the same performance throughout, and sometimes it might not sound right to people familiar with a particular version of the record. The band played the song with the verse starting with A minor, and that's how the mono single mix was released, and I'll be using excerpts of that in general. But when the stereo version of the album was released, which had a longer instrumental break, the track was mastered about a semitone too slow, and that's what I'll be excerpting when talking about the solos -- and apparently that speed discrepancy has been fixed in more recent remasterings of the album than the one I'm using. So if you know the song and bits of what I play sound odd to you, that's why. Krieger didn't have a second verse, and so writing the second verse's lyrics was the next challenge. There was apparently some disagreement within the band about the lyrics that Morrison came up with, with their references to funeral pyres, but Morrison won the day, insisting that the song needed some darkness to go with the light of the first verse. Both verses would get repeated at the end of the song, in reverse order, rather than anyone writing a third or fourth verse. Morrison also changed the last line of the chorus -- in Krieger's original version, he'd sung "Come on baby, light my fire" three times, but Morrison changed the last line to "try to set the night on fire", which Krieger thought was a definite improvement. They then came up with an extended instrumental section for the band members to solo in. This was inspired by John Coltrane, though I have seen different people make different claims as to which particular Coltrane record it was inspired by. Many sources, including Krieger, say it was based on Coltrane's famous version of "My Favorite Things": [Excerpt: John Coltrane, "My Favorite Things"] But Manzarek in his autobiography says it was inspired by Ole, the track that Coltrane recorded with Eric Dolphy: [Excerpt: John Coltrane, "Ole"] Both are of course similar musical ideas, and either could have inspired the “Light My Fire” instrumental section, though none of the Doors are anything like as good or inventive on their instruments as Coltrane's group (and of course "Light My Fire" is in four-four rather than three-four): [Excerpt: The Doors, "Light My Fire"] So they had a basic verse-chorus song with a long instrumental jam session in the middle. Now comes the bit that there's some dispute over.  Both Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger agree that Manzarek came up with the melody used in the intro, but differ wildly over who came up with the chord sequence for it and when, and how it was put into the song. According to Manzarek, he came up with the whole thing as an intro for the song at that first rehearsal of it, and instructed the other band members what to do. According to Krieger, though, the story is rather different, and the evidence seems to be weighted in Krieger's favour. In early live performances of the song, they started the song with the Am-F sharp minor shifts that were used in the verse itself, and continued doing this even after the song was recorded: [Excerpt: The Doors, "Light My Fire (live at the Matrix)"] But they needed a way to get back out of the solo section and into the third verse. To do this, Krieger came up with a sequence that starts with a change from G to D, then from D to F, before going into a circle of fifths -- not the ascending circle of fifths in songs like "Hey Joe", but a descending one, the same sequence as in "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" or "I Will Survive", ending on an A flat: [demonstrates] To get from the A flat to the A minor or Asus2 chord on which the verse starts, he simply then shifted up a semitone from A flat to A major for two bars: [demonstrates] Over the top of that chord sequence that Krieger had come up with, Manzarek put a melody line which was inspired by one of Bach's two-part inventions. The one that's commonly cited is Invention No. 8 in F Major, BWV 779: [Excerpt: Glenn Gould, "Invention No. 8 in F Major, BWV 779"] Though I don't believe Manzarek has ever stated directly which piece he was inspired by other than that it was one of the two-part inventions, and to be honest none of them sound very much like what he plays to my ears, and I think more than anything he was just going for a generalised baroque style rather than anything more specific. And there are certainly stylistic things in there that are suggestive of the baroque -- the stepwise movement, the sort of skipping triplets, and so on: [Excerpt: The Doors, "Light My Fire"] But that was just to get out of the solo section and back into the verses. It was only when they finally took the song into the studio that Paul Rothchild, the producer who we will talk about more later, came up with the idea of giving the song more structure by both starting and ending with that sequence, and formalised it so that rather than just general noodling it was an integral part of the song. They now had at least one song that they thought had the potential to be a big hit. The problem was that they had not as yet played any gigs, and nor did they have a record deal, or a bass player. The lack of a record deal may sound surprising, but they were dropped by Columbia before ever recording for them. There are several different stories as to why. One biography I've read says that after they were signed, none of the label's staff producers wanted to work with them and so they were dropped -- though that goes against some of the other things I've read, which say that Terry Melcher was interested in producing them. Other sources say that Morrison went in for a meeting with some of the company executives while on acid, came out very pleased with himself at how well he'd talked to them because he'd been able to control their minds with his telepathic powers, and they were dropped shortly afterwards. And others say that they were dropped as part of a larger set of cutbacks the company was making, and that while Billy James fought to keep them at Columbia, he lost the fight. Either way, they were stuck without a deal, and without any proper gigs, though they started picking up the odd private party here and there -- Krieger's father was a wealthy aerospace engineer who did some work for Howard Hughes among others, and he got his son's group booked to play a set of jazz standards at a corporate event for Hughes, and they got a few more gigs of that nature, though the Hughes gig didn't exactly go well -- Manzarek was on acid, Krieger and Morrison were on speed, and the bass player they brought in for the gig managed to break two strings, something that would require an almost superhuman effort. That bass player didn't last long, and nor did the next -- they tried several, but found that the addition of a bass player made them sound less interesting, more like the Animals or the Rolling Stones than a group with their own character. But they needed something to hold down the low part, and it couldn't be Manzarek on the organ, as the Vox organ had a muddy sound when he tried to play too many notes at once. But that problem solved itself when they played one of their earliest gigs. There, Manzarek found that another band, who were regulars at the club, had left their Fender keyboard bass there, clipped to the top of the piano. Manzarek tried playing that, and found he could play basslines on that with his left hand and the main parts with his right hand. Krieger got his father to buy one for the group -- though Manzarek was upset that they bought the wrong colour -- and they were now able to perform without a bass player. Not only that, but it gave the group a distinctive sound quite unlike all the other bands. Manzarek couldn't play busy bass lines while also playing lead lines with his right hand, and so he ended up going for simple lines without a great deal of movement, which added to the hypnotic feel of the group's music – though on records they would often be supplemented by a session bass player to give them a fuller sound. While the group were still trying to get a record deal, they were also looking for regular gigs, and eventually they found one. The Sunset Strip was *the* place to be, and they wanted desperately to play one of the popular venues there like the Whisky A-Go-Go, but those venues only employed bands who already had record deals. They did, though, manage to get a residency at a tiny, unpopular, club on the strip called The London Fog, and they played there, often to only a handful of people, while slowly building in confidence as performers. At first, Morrison was so shy that Manzarek had to sing harmony with him throughout the sets, acting as joint frontman. Krieger later said "It's rarely talked about, but Ray was a natural born showman, and his knack for stirring drama would serve the Doors' legacy well in later years" But Morrison soon gained enough confidence to sing by himself. But they weren't bringing in any customers, and the London Fog told them that they were soon going to be dropped -- and the club itself shut not long after. But luckily for the group, just before the end of their booking, the booker for the Whisky A-Go-Go, Ronnie Haran walked in with a genuine pop star, Peter Asher, who as half of Peter & Gordon had had a hit with "A World Without Love", written by his sister's boyfriend, Paul McCartney: [Excerpt: Peter and Gordon, "A World Without Love"] Haran was impressed with the group, and they were impressed that she had brought in a real celebrity. She offered them a residency at the club, not as the headlining act -- that would always be a group that had records out -- but as the consistent support act for whichever big act they had booked. The group agreed -- after Morrison first tried to play it cool and told Haran they would have to consider it, to the consternation of his bandmates. They were thrilled, though, to discover that one of the first acts they supported at the Whisky would be Them, Van Morrison's group -- one of the cover versions they had been playing had been Them's "Gloria": [Excerpt: Them, "Gloria"] They supported Them for two weeks at the Whisky, and Jim Morrison watched Van Morrison intently. The two men had very similar personalities according to the other members of the Doors, and Morrison picked up a lot of his performing style from watching Van on stage every night. The last night Them played the venue, Morrison joined them on stage for an extended version of “Gloria” which everyone involved remembered as the highlight of their time there. Every major band on the LA scene played residencies at the Whisky, and over the summer of 1966 the Doors were the support act for the Mothers of Invention, the Byrds, the Turtles, the Buffalo Springfield, and Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. This was a time when the Sunset Strip was the centre of Californian musical life, before that centre moved to San Francisco, and the Doors were right at the heart of it. Though it wasn't all great -- this was also the period when there were a series of riots around Sunset Strip, as immortalised in the American International Pictures film Riot on Sunset Strip, and its theme song, by the Standells: [Excerpt: The Standells, "Riot on Sunset Strip"] We'll look at those riots in more detail in a future episode, so I'll leave discussing them for now, but I just wanted to make sure they got mentioned. That Standells song, incidentally, was co-written by John Fleck, who under his old name of John Fleckenstein we saw last episode as the original bass player for Love. And it was Love who ensured that the Doors finally got the record deal they needed. The deal came at a perfect time for the Doors -- just like when they'd been picked up by the Whisky A Go-Go just as they were about to lose their job at the London Fog, so they got signed to a record deal just as they were about to lose their job at the Whisky. They lost that job because of a new song that Krieger and Morrison had written. "The End" had started out as Krieger's attempt at writing a raga in the style of Ravi Shankar, and he had brought it in to one of his increasingly frequent writing sessions with Morrison, where the two of them would work out songs without the rest of the band, and Morrison had added lyrics to it. Lyrics that were partly inspired by his own fraught relationship with his parents, and partly by Oedipus Rex: [Excerpt: The Doors, "The End"] And in the live performance, Morrison had finished that phrase with the appropriate four-letter Oedipal payoff, much to the dismay of the owners of the Whisky A Go Go, who had told the group they would no longer be performing there. But three days before that, the group had signed a deal with Elektra Records. Elektra had for a long time been a folk specialist label, but they had recently branched out into other music, first with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, a favourite of Robby Krieger's, and then with their first real rock signing, Love. And Love were playing a residency at the Whisky A Go Go, and Arthur Lee had encouraged Jac Holzman, the label's owner, to come and check out their support band, who he thought were definitely worth signing. The first time Holzman saw them he was unimpressed -- they sounded to him just like a bunch of other white blues bands -- but he trusted Arthur Lee's judgement and came back a couple more times. The third time, they performed their version of "Alabama Song", and everything clicked into place for Holzman. He immediately signed the group to a three-album deal with an option to extend it to seven. The group were thrilled -- Elektra wasn't a major label like Columbia, but they were a label that nurtured artists and wouldn't just toss them aside. They were even happier when soon after they signed to Elektra, the label signed up a new head of West Coast A&R -- Billy James, the man who had signed them to Columbia, and who they knew would be in their corner. Jac Holzman also had the perfect producer for the group, though he needed a little persuading. Paul Rothchild had made his name as the producer for the first couple of albums by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band: [Excerpt: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, "Mary Mary"] They were Robby Krieger's favourite group, so it made sense to have Rothchild on that level. And while Rothchild had mostly worked in New York, he was in LA that summer, working on the debut album by another Elektra signing, Tim Buckley. The musicians on Buckley's album were almost all part of the same LA scene that the Doors were part of -- other than Buckley's normal guitarist Lee Underwood there was keyboard player Van Dyke Parks, bass player Jim Fielder, who had had a brief stint in the Mothers of Invention and was about to join Buffalo Springfield, and drummer Billy Mundi, who was about to join the Mothers of Invention. And Buckley himself sang in a crooning voice extremely similar to that of Morrison, though Buckley had a much larger range: [Excerpt: Tim Buckley, "Aren't You the Girl?"] There was one problem, though -- Rothchild didn't want to do it. He wasn't at all impressed with the band at first, and he wanted to sign a different band, managed by Albert Grossman, instead. But Holzman persuaded him because Rothchild owed him a favour -- Rothchild had just spent several months in prison after a drug bust, and while he was inside Holzman had given his wife a job so she would have an income, and Holzman also did all the paperwork with Rothchild's parole officer to allow him to leave the state. So with great reluctance Rothchild took the job, though he soon came to appreciate the group's music. He didn't appreciate their second session though. The first day, they'd tried recording a version of "The End", but it hadn't worked, so on the second night they tried recording it again, but this time Morrison was on acid and behaving rather oddly. The final version of "The End" had to be cut together from two takes, and the reason is that at the point we heard earlier: [Excerpt: The Doors, "The End"] Morrison was whirling around, thrashing about, and knocked over a TV that the engineer, Bruce Botnick, had brought into the studio so he could watch the baseball game -- which Manzarek later exaggerated to Morrison throwing the TV through the plate glass window between the studio and the control room. According to everyone else, Morrison just knocked it over and they picked it up after the take finished and it still worked fine. But Morrison had taken a *lot* of acid, and on the way home after the session he became convinced that he had a psychic knowledge that the studio was on fire. He got his girlfriend to turn the car back around, drove back to the studio, climbed over the fence, saw the glowing red lightbulbs in the studio, became convinced that they were fires, and sprayed the entire place with the fire extinguisher, before leaving convinced he had saved the band's equipment -- and leaving telltale evidence as his boot got stuck in the fence on the way out and he just left it there. But despite that little hiccup, the sessions generally went well, and the group and label were pleased with the results. The first single released from the album, "Break on Through", didn't make the Hot One Hundred: [Excerpt: The Doors, "Break on Through"] But when the album came out in January 1967, Elektra put all its resources behind the album, and it started to get a bit of airplay as a result. In particular, one DJ on the new FM radio started playing "Light My Fire" -- at this time, FM had only just started, and while AM radio stuck to three-minute singles for the most part, FM stations would play a wider variety of music. Some of the AM DJs started telling Elektra that they would play the record, too, if it was the length of a normal single, and so Rothchild and Botnick went into the studio and edited the track down to half its previous seven-and-a-half-minute length. When the group were called in to hear the edit, they were initially quite excited to hear what kind of clever editing microsurgery had been done to bring the song down to the required length, but they were horrified when Rothchild actually played it for them. As far as the group were concerned, the heart of the song was the extended instrumental improvisation that took up the middle section: [Excerpt: The Doors, "Light My Fire"] On the album version, that lasted over three minutes. Rothchild and Botnick cut that section down to just this: [Excerpt: The Doors, "Light My Fire (single edit)"] The group were mortified -- what had been done to their song? That wasn't the sound of people trying to be McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones, it was just... a pop song.  Rothchild explained that that was the point -- to get the song played on AM radio and get the group a hit. He pointed out how the Beatles records never had an instrumental section that lasted more than eight bars, and the group eventually talked them

 I wanted to share my thoughts about spirituality today because this concept is so important in having good mental health, but it doesn't have to be connected to a religion. I never understood that for most of my life, so I wanted to help you see the difference, in my opinion.Rachel Held EvansHuston Smith

Summary:  In this episode, I invite you to explore and understand with me neuropsychiatrist Dr. Dan Siegel's Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) and what IPNB can show us about psychological health.  We review the triangle of well-being, the nature of secure attachments, and the basis for mental health from an IPNB perspective.  We examine the characteristics of a healthy mind and how it functions, and the two signs that reliable indicate all psychological symptoms and mental dysfunction.  We discuss the nine domains of integration, mindsight, and the healthy mind platter, and I share my exchange with Dr. Siegel about whether and how IPNB can be integrated with Catholicism.   Lead in:  Today I want to share with you an approach to understanding ourselves and guiding ourselves toward health that I am really excited about, that I think has great potential to help us in our human formation as Catholics. We are together in this great adventure, this podcast, Interior Integration for Catholics, we are journeying together, and I am honored to be able to spend this time with you.   I am Dr. Peter Malinoski, clinical psychologist and passionate Catholic and together, we are taking on the tough topics that matter to you.   We bring the best of psychology and human formation and harmonize it with the perennial truths of the Catholic Faith.    Interior Integration for Catholics is part of our broader outreach, Souls and Hearts bringing the best of psychology and human formation grounded in a Catholic understanding of the human person to you and the rest of the world through our website soulsandhearts.com  We are continuing our series on how the best of secular psychological approaches define mental health, psychological well-being.  We started with Episode 89 on Polyvagal Theory and covered Positive Psychology, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and Internal Family Systems in Episode 90.   Today's episode, number 92 is entitled "Understanding and Healing your Mind through IPNB"  and it's released on April 4, 2022.  We are going to unpack what IPNB is, what is says about our human condition and I will share with you an exchange I recently had with neuropsychiatrist Dr. Dan Siegel, who brought this whole integrative framework into being, about whether IPNB can be reconciled with Catholicism.   Stay with me for a really interesting deep dive into this fascinating way of understanding ourselves and others.   Interpersonal Neurobiology or IPNB Let's start by understanding what IPNB is.  Interpersonal neurobiology.   Breaking down the name interpersonal neurobiology Inter = between us, among us -- implies relationship.  Relational model.  Not just between you and me, but also between you and you -- inner relationships within you, inner relationships within me.   Personal -- very relational.   Inter-personal and intrapersonal IPNB is all about the way my deep inner experiences connect with your inner experiences  Neurobiology -- not just the field of neurobiology, but all the branches of scientifically studying how human development takes place and how we can promote well-being in our lives.  Neurobiology brings in all the embodied, physical dimension of our existence.  Our bodies, our brains, our whole nervous system and all of our embodied biology being, that what the neurobiology part refers to  Interpersonal neuro-biology or IPNB -- works to be a wholistic approach to the human person.   IPNB was developed in the 1990s by neuropsychiatrist Daniel J. Siegel who brought together more than 40 professionals, more than 40 experts from a wide range of scientific disciplines to discuss and demonstrate how the mind, brain, and relationships integrate to influence and change each other.   Questions that IPNB asks and addresses these questions, five questions standing out to me: What is the human mind?  How does the mind develop?  What does the human mind look like when it's doing really, really well, when it's functioning optimally?  How can we encourage, nurture and cultivate a healthy, strong mind?  How can we take what we've learned about the mind and find practical applications that make a real difference in our daily lives?  Guidance for how to live our lives Pointers for what may need to change in our thinking and behavior to help us live more fully.   Very practical -- not just academic ivory-tower, pie-in-the-sky speculation -- Daniel Siegel really wants IPNB to bring healing, growth and well-being to people.  I like that.  I'm into that.  What IPNB is Not Not a therapy.  Not a way of doing therapy.  Rather, a way of understanding that can inform different schools of therapy.  IPNB is not a discipline.  It's not a specific branch of knowledge.  Rather, IPNB is a framework that draws on all the different disciplines with a rigorous and structured approach to studying things – not just science – They all have a place in the framework. It's a consilient framework:  Consilience:  E. O. Wilson  Assessing the universal findings discovered and recognized as real or true across fields and disciplines The fields contributing to IPNB Anthropology  Art  Biology (developmental, evolution, genetics, zoology)  Chemistry  Cognitive Science  Computer Science  Contemplative Traditions  Developmental Psychopathology  Liberal Arts  Linguistics   Neuroscience Affective  Cognitive  Developmental  social   Mathematics  Medicine  Mental Health  Music  Physics  Poetry  Psychiatry   Psychology Cognitive  developmental  Volutionary  Experimental  of religion  Social  attachment theory  memory   Sociology  Systems Theory (chaos and complexity theory)   All of these disciplines, all of these fields of inquiriy contribute to IPNB findings   IPNB also seeks a common language for these disciplines to be able to share and discuss about these big topics: What is the human mind?  How does the mind develop?  How can we make a healthy, strong mind?  How can we take what we've learned about the mind and find practical applications that make a real difference in our daily lives.   Thus IPNB is a going for the big picture.   IPNB emphasizes a need for humility and openness in the work.   Definition:  Interpersonal neurobiology (IPNB): a consilient field that embraces all branches of science and now other disciplined ways of understanding reality, such as contemplative traditions and a liberal arts, as it seeks the common universal findings across independent ways of knowing in order to expand our understanding of the mind and well-being. p.506 The Human Mind If we want a strong ordered mind, it helps to know what the mind actually is.  If we want mental well-being, it's really valuable to slow down and ask the question -- what is the human mind.   A central question for IPNB is "what is the human mind." The mind is rarely defined -- you know how important definitions are to me.  And the mind is often discussed but rarely defined.   Insert quotes about the importance of definitions Insert quotes about the mind.   When the mind is defined, most often defined as the output of the brain.  Problem of Hippocrates:  Our mind comes only from our brain echoed by the famous psychologist William James in his highly influential 1890 book "Principles of Psychology"   The mind is essentially just the product of the brain.  The activity of the brain generates the activity of the mind.  So the mind's activity is solely the product of the brain's activity.  American neuropsychologist, neurobiologist and Nobel laureate Roger Sperry  -- Mental process cannot be reduced to brain mechanisms.  Even if they are dependent on them, it doesn't make them the same.   Although the mind may depend on the activity of brain cells, the firing of neurons in the brain, the mind is not the same the same thing as the firing of neurons.  The mind is not the brain, and it's not just the products of nervous system activity.  According to Daniel Siegel and IPNB, the mind is a term that at a minimum includes what we're familiar with when we think of mind.   mental activity that includes Consciousness  emotions  Mood  Thinking  information processing  problem-solving  decision making  Memory  Narrative  meaning-making  Intention  Belief  Hope  Attitudes  Assumptions  Desire  Longing  Dreams  Our subjective feeling of being alive.   all of these are mental activities which are beautiful, powerful descriptions of what people mean when they say mind.  The mind constructs its own experience of reality. Critical point:  the mind emanates from the interactions within the brain -- so there's the neurobiology -- the brain, the nervous system, the body -- but the mind is not just the product of neurobiology -- there's also the interpersonal aspect -- the mind also radiates from our internal relationships within ourselves and our relationships with other people.  There's the interpersonal part of interpersonal neurobiology. The mind encompasses both the embodied brain and our relationships.    Definition of Mind  from p. 507 The Developing Mind, 3rd Edition. :   The mind is a process that includes at least four fundamental aspects: (1) personal, subjective experience; (2) awareness; (3) information processing; and (4) a regulatory function that is an emergent, self-organizing, embodied, and relational process of the extended nervous system and relationships.  This facet of a core aspect of mind offers a working definition of "mind" as an embodied and relational process that regulates the flow of energy and information.  In this perspective, the brains activities an important part of mind, but mind is broader than the brain and bigger than the individual body. The mind is fully embodied and fully relational.   Let's break that down.  In IPNB, the mind is a process.  The mind is not so much a thing, as it is a process, the activity within us that regulates the flow of both energy and information through its neurocircuitry, which is then shared and regulated between people through engagement, connection, and communication. Facets of the Mind Personal, subjective Experience -- the felt texture of life  Awareness or consciousness   Information Processing -- and that information processing can be conscious or not The emergent, self-organizing, embodied and relational process that regulates the flow of energy and information – flow happens within (embodied) and between (relational).   If you don't understand all that in the first go-round, that's OK.  You don't need to understand it all, there's come complexity here.   The critical thing to remember about your mind for our purposes is that your mind can change your brain and be changed by your brain -- your mind can change your relationships and your mind can be changed by your relationships -- and your brain can also be changed by your relationships.     Our attachment relationships experiences shape the structures in the brain that correlate with key features of our inner and inter mind as we carry these neuroplastic changes forward in life – open to new growth and learning – as they continue to shape our internal world and our interpersonal lives across the lifespan. Secure, healthy relationships can heal your mind and your brain.  You can see this in the neuro-electrical firing xand neurochemical activity in the brain with neurotransmitters, and also in the anatomy of the brain. Raissa Miller in her 2016 Article titled Interpersonal Neurobiology: Applications for the Counseling Profession Finally, the mind can influence the brain and relationships. Consistent with characteristics of a complex system, the mind both emerges from and in turn influences the functioning of the brain and relationships. How one focuses attention affects neural structure and function. Furthermore, through processes not yet fully understood — perhaps through resonance circuitry or mirror neurons — the mental processes of one person can influence the mental processes of another person. The Triangle of Well-Being  -- Imagine a triangle with three vertices or corners.  One vertex is The Brain, a second vertex is the Mind, and the third vertex is Relationship.  So we have a triangle, and at the top, where the point is, we have relationship, and at another corner, we have brain and at the other corner we have mind.    The Mind -- we've been covering that: The Brain -- the embodied mechanism of energy and information flow  Definition:  Brain: here are viewed as the extended nervous system distributed throughout the entire body and intimately interwoven with the physiology of the body as a whole. It is the embodied neural mechanism that shapes the flow of energy and information. p. 502 Not just the grey matter inside our skull but our whole nervous system.    Justin Sonnenburg, Erica Sonnenburg on May 1, 2015 Scientific American Gut Feelings–the "Second Brain" in Our Gastrointestinal Systems .  The enteric nervous system is often referred to as our body's second brain. There are hundreds of million of neurons connecting the brain to the enteric nervous system, the part of the nervous system that is tasked with controlling the gastrointestinal system. This vast web of connections monitors the entire digestive tract from the esophagus to the anus. The enteric nervous system is so extensive that it can operate as an independent entity without input from our central nervous system, although they are in regular communication.   Energy and information flow is what the embodied brain is all about  Relationships -- the sharing of energy and information flow between people Energy and information flow between people  Energy and information are shared in relationships.   Integration – the differentiation and linkage of parts of a system – within the relationship is essential to understanding resonance, which is different from mirroring or giving up your individual needs and sense of differentiation  PART model of verbal and nonverbal relationships -- Presence, Attunement, Resonance, and Trust.   Presence:  Openness; awareness of present moment experience:   Presence is the portal to integration; an open, receptive awareness of the unfolding of moment-to-moment experience the opposite of presence is unintentional mind-wandering Attunement:  Focus of attention on the internal world of self or other Internal Attunement:  Focusing of attention on my internal world  Interpersonal Attunement:  Focusing of attention on the internal world of another  if a parent is attuned to the child's mind, much better outcome than if just reacting to the child's behavior.   Mirror neurons may be activated in attunement   Resonance:  Being shaped by another  Next step -- interpersonal attunement allows for two individuals to resonate with one another, A deeper sense of connection, of being with each other.   To feel felt by one another.   As the two are resonating, feeling felt by one another, joined in relationship they are still separate.  They are not fused, there is no loss of individual identity.  You are still you when you are in relationship with me, and I am still me.  This is really important, that the individual, differentiated nature of each person is not lost.  Two tuning forks, at the same frequency.   Trust:  A deep sense of openness and reliability States of safety vs. states of  threat  Trust creates a sense of receptivity  Social engagement system is turned on Integration allows us to differentiate streams of energy, freeing us from default-mode processing dominating our experience in the moment New ways of thinking, imagining, considering  Allows our faculty of imagination to develop.   Connection refers to a process of mutual resonance occurring between two individuals, leading to attunement and a sense of we  Ruptures are inevitable in relationships, and they can be thought of as opportunities for repair and the deepening of connection   Four critical concepts in IPNB:  Empathy, compassion, kindness and forgiveness  Empathy has many facets, including feeling the feelings of another, perspective-taking, and cognitive understanding Empathy: the capacity to make a map of another's mental state that includes at least the five functions of  emotional resonance perspective taking empathic understanding empathic joy, and  empathic concern.  For most individuals, empathy is a requirement for compassion. Integration enables empathic connection to be harnessed without losing differentiation and fusing with another's experience.  p.504   Compassion: The way in which we perceive the suffering of another, imagine how to help, and then take action to alleviate the suffering Compassion: the capacity to sense suffering, to imagine what might be done to reduce that suffering, and to take effective action for that purpose. Compassion can be directed towards one's inner experience – sometimes called "self-compassion" – as well as toward others in what is sometimes called "other-directed" compassion. These two directions in the flow of compassion can be called "inner compassion" and "inter compassion." p. 503   Kindness: Acting with no expectation of getting something in return; honoring and supporting one another's vulnerabilities -- sounds a lot like the Christian concept of charity; others may think of this as altruism  Forgiveness can be thought of as giving up all hope for a better past; acceptance of what was.   The brain, the mind, and relationships are all critical elements of the triangle of well-being.   Secure attachments  Siegel in "The Developing Mind," 3rd Ed.  p. 225:  Attachment at its core is based on parental sensitivity and responsivity to the child's signals, which allow for collaborative parents-child communication. Contingent communication gives rise to secure attachment and is characterized by a collaborative give-and-take of signals between the members of the pair. Contingent communication relies on the alignment of internal experiences, or states of mind, between the child and caregiver. This mutually sharing, mutually influencing set of interactions – this emotional attunement or mental state residents – is the essence of healthy, secure attachment.  Neural networks are activated and shaped by these relational experiences Our relational experiences reshape not only our minds but our brains.   The four Ss of building a secure attachment:  Feeling Seen, Safe, Soothed, and Secure Seen   I feel that my needs are being accurately perceived by the other My mind is seen beneath my behavior Safe I feel protected from harm, from danger  The other person is not a source of fear   Soothed I can be reliably comforted and calmed by the other in times of stress  Ruptures are readily repaired   Secure I am able to explore my environment  I can go back to the other as a safe base    What is the basis for health or mental well-being  -- the integration of the mind.   Daniel Siegel proposes that integration of the mind is the basis for health.   I made this argument way back in episode 15 of this podcast, long before I was all that familiar with IPNB.   Supported by more than 20 years of research now.  Raisa Miller helps us break this down.  Mental Well-Being Mental well-being, from an IPNB perspective, is defined in terms of integration.  Functionally distinct components within the complex mind system differentiate (i.e., specialize) Each component has a unique role in the system.    and then link with other components of the system to form a greater whole -- but you don't blend them.    The metaphor of a fruit salad versus a fruit smoothie is often used to illustrate integration.  Each ingredient in a fruit salad maintains its unique quality (differentiating)  while also combining (linking) to make a new, more complex dish (an “integrated” fruit salad). Optimal organization depends on linking differentiated parts of the system (integration) you do not have the differences among those parts disappear (not homogenization).  Coherence instead.  Integration is defined as the linkage of differentiated elements. The mind's process of linking differentiated parts (distinct modes of information processing) into a functional whole is postulated to be the fundamental mechanism of both. Without integration, chaos, rigidity, or both ensue. Integration is both a process and a structural dimension, and can be examined, for example, in the functional and anatomic studies of the nervous system. p. 506 Considerable evidence indicates that the mind is the self-organizing, emergent embodied relational process that utilizes the differentiation and linkage of aspects of the system the mind is in. When that goes well – health arises.  When it goes poorly, chaos or rigidity or both rise up.   When a system is not optimally self-organizing, it veers toward  Rigidity -- everything seems predictable  Dorsal vagal shutdown, the freezing and numbing out state like in dissociation we discussed this in Episode 89 on polyvagal theory  This leads to rigidity   Examples  Extreme example would be hysterical paralysis Another example --  a deep, major depression Chaos -- everything seems completely unpredictable  PTSD symptoms Flashbacks  Nightmares   Panic attacks   Or both -- e.g. bipolar disorder Depressive episode -- rigidity.   Manic episode -- chaos Daniel Siegel:  Every symptom of every disorder of the DSM-5 can be framed in terms of chaos or rigidity "Human suffering can be summed up in chaos and rigidity."   Health is found in the internal integration, where there is neither chaos nor rigidity.   When you improve self-organization within a system leading to harmony and integration, including the mind, you find five qualities.  Acronym FACES Optimal Self organization involves the integration of elements of the system leading to harmony described as a FACES flow  Individuals operating at greater levels of integration are more open to possibilities and flexible in response to their natural proclivities -- this is described as a FACES flow.   FACES flow your mind is: Flexible -- your mind can think outside the box, be innovative and come up with new and original ideas and solutions to problems, your mind can be imaginative, and creative.  Flexible  Adaptive -- your mind can adjust to new situations, change course as needed, roll with the punches and handle the various challenges and demands that life throws at you.   Coherent -- your mind stays clear, lucid, orderly inside, and you have the full use of your intellect and reason.  You can think logically and sensibly  Energized -- your mind is alert, active, dynamic, and animated, with stamina and vitality  Stable -- your mind is balanced, calm, steady and you have a sense of being solidly grounded and secure.   Nine domains of integration list them.   Consciousness – differentiating the knowing from the knowns of what we are aware of. Knowns and unknowns Awareness of the body, mental/emotional, relational, and outside world. Openness to things as they are    Bilateral – the differentiated functions of the left and right hemispheres.  Left hemisphere is logical and linear, very literal, verbal Right side is more creative, metaphoric, and symbolic, nonlinear, intuitive, nonverbal Vertical – linking the body's signals and the lower neural regions of the brainstem and limbic area to the higher cortical regions. Gut, heart, and lungs all have neural networks that seek to communicate with the brain. Too many people are disconnected from the awareness from our bodies.  Memory – linking the differentiated elements of implicit memory to the autobiographical and factual experience of explicit memory. Implicit and explicit memory integration.  When traumas become implicit memory, a schema, we are stuck in the past.  To integrate memory, we make implicit memories explicit and weave them into our narrative, the story of our lives in a coherent and meaningful way   Narrative – making sense of memory and experience such that one finds meaning in events that have occurred. State – respecting the differentiated states of mind that make up the wide array of clusters of memory, thought, behavior, and action that are the nature of our multi-layered selves. we are multiple selves sharing a body. Three parts: We need to learn to honor our states (intrastate), interstate, honor that we have different needs at the same time and we need to pay attention to that, and interpersonal states, maintaing my own states while in relation with others.    In IFS language, these states are somewhat analogous to parts.   Interpersonal – honoring one another's inner experience and linking in respectful communication. -- involves nurturing.  Not fusing, being separate but near, being with.    Temporal – the capacity to represent ‘time' or change in life and reflect on this ‘passage of time' (e.g. life versus death). Making maps of time. Connected to narrative - we seek certainty, but change is the only constant. We also become aware of our eventual death.  Identity – the sense of agency and coherence potentially associated with feelings of belonging. The identity of a bodily self expands beyond the boundary of the skin - we sense our interconnection time, place, and people. Integration of integration   Mindsight  Mindsight-the ability to see the internal world of self and others  p. 54 Mindsight is likely to be essential and healthy relationships of many kinds  Mindsight permits integrative communication in which individuals are honored for their differences and compassionate connections are cultivated that link one mind to another  Daniel Siegel proposes that interpersonal integration promotes the growth of integrative fibers in the brain. The neural circuits linking differentiating areas to one another are the regulatory and social circuits of the brain. 54   Three Components of Mindsight -- insight, empathy and integration.  Insight: Reflecting with awareness by focusing attention on the internal, subjective world of one's own interior mental experience, including feelings, thoughts, memories Empathy: Sensing the inner experience of another within one's own mind; forming a mental map of another; feeling felt by an empathic other is the foundation of a supportive relationship Integration: The differentiation or specialization, and, ultimately, linkage of systems including the brain and interpersonal relationships; without integration, chaos, rigidity, or both emerge, resulting in a state of mental dysfunction; with integration, harmony emerges with flexibility, adaptability, coherence, stability, and energy (a FACES flow) Mindsight:  the ability to see the internal world of self and others, not just to observe behavior. It is the way we not only sense but also shape energy and information flow within the triangle of mind, brain, and relationships and move that flow toward integration. Using mindsight, integration made visible is kindness and compassion. p.506 Integration made visible is kindness, compassion, and well-being How do we get there.  Lots of recommendations from IPNB.  Lots of models and acronym. Can check out Dr. Dan Siegel's website at https://drdansiegel.com/   Lots of resources there if IPNB resonates with you.  Books and courses and blogs and videos and all kinds of things, most of it free, and he's a very good speaker and teacher.  He's done a lot to help parents raise very young children, informed by the science of IPNB and to help parents and their adolescent children understand and connect with each other.   Wheel of awareness -- A reflective practice that integrates consciousness using the metaphor of a wheel in which the hub represents the knowing of being aware and the room contains the elements of the knowns, from the first five senses to mental activity such as emotions, thoughts, and memory. p.511 other resources  I'm going to focus on one resource today, one of many resources Healthy Mind Platter I'm going to focus on one particular element.  Healthy Mind Platter  In 2011, the USDA change from a food pyramid (nearly two decades) to a food plate.  Inspired David Rock and Daniel Siegel to design the "Healthy Mind Platter"   The Healthy Mind Platter has seven daily essential mental activities necessary for optimum mental health.  These seven daily activities make up the full set of “mental nutrients” that your brain and relationships need to function at their best.  By engaging every day in each of these servings, you promote integration in your life and enable your brain to coordinate and balance its activities. These essential mental activities strengthen your brain's internal connections and your connections with other people and the world around you. We're not suggesting specific amounts of time for this recipe for a healthy mind, as each individual is different, and our needs change over time too.  The point is to become aware of the full spectrum of essential mental activities, and as with essential nutrients, make sure that at least every day we are bringing the right ingredients into our mental diet, even if for just a bit of time.  List of the Health Mind Platter elements: Sleep Time  Physical Time  Downtime  Focused Time  Playtime  Time in  Connecting Time  (repeat)   Components of the Health Mind platter -- drawing from various sources by Dan Seigel and also a video by Marie Holowaychuk  Psychotherapy Networker article The Heathy Mind Platter May 2020  Sleep Time When we give the brain the rest it needs, we consolidate learning and recover from the experiences of the day.  This is important for lots of reasons, especially because sleep directly affects inflammation in the brain. It's also critical because when we get seven to nine hours of quality sleep, the toxins secreted by active neurons during our waking hours are cleaned up. Without enough sleep, we're likely to have increased brain inflammation and decreased ability to focus, remember, stabilize our mood, and even process calories  memory consolidation and processing, learning and task integration, emotional regulation and positivity, insight, creativity and problem-solving   Physical Time  When we move our bodies, aerobically if medically possible, we strengthen the brain in many ways. It's easy to become a couch potato when we're spending so much time in front of screens, so we need this time when we really focus on moving our body. Therapists can consider doing this in between sessions or even with clients. Helps to maintain brain health and plasticity increases learning and memory improves cognitive and executive functions enables us to focus in spite of distractions benefits of reducing stress, anxiety, and depression Downtime When we are non-focused, without any specific goal, and let our mind wander or simply relax, we help the brain recharge.  This is space to not do anything specific and just chill out. Our minds need this. As opposed to moments when we find ourselves unintentionally getting distracted, down time involves intentionally letting our minds wander. This might include watching a show or listening to music, drawing on a pad of paper, or simply playing with water in the sink as you do the dishes.  we let our mind simply wander or relax  downtime allows our brains to recharge permits integration of previous thoughts and experiences  we get a generation of new insights because it enables integration across the left and right hemispheres  struggle with a complex problem, but when you start feeling anxious or stressed or hit the wall, distract yourself from with from the problem by doing something completely unrelated  sudden insight often follows   Focus Time: When we closely focus on tasks in a goal-oriented way, we take on challenges that make deep connections in the brain.  This is time spent focusing on something external with discipline, like reading a book. Say to yourself, “For this half hour, I'm not going to be distracted by the news or anything else.” Research suggests that when we focus our attention like this, we release a number of substances, including BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), which enhance brain growth. When we have a singular focus of attention, we learn more, remember more, and enjoy the experience more.  Paying close attention to some project  you're not multitasking, instead you are focusing in a goal oriented way, thinking efficiently and effectively you're not getting distracted by all sorts of other things, phone and email alerts are off.   Really focusing attention on just one thing a time Can come with a feeling of success, of mastery because you were able to really accomplish something, to do something new.  Focus time gets the brain to secrete to chemicals to allow the neurons which are firing to strengthen their connections to one another. This helps your attention and concentration -- helps develop your prefrontal cortex and your sharpens and clarifies your mind.   Cal Newport's Book Deep Work taught me so much about this component of the healthy mind platter -- and others as well.  Highly recommended, with very practical tips that have helped me a lot in producing this podcast.    Playtime When we allow ourselves to be spontaneous or creative, playfully enjoying novel experiences, we help make new connections in the brain.  This doesn't refer to sports but to doing something that allows you to laugh and be spontaneous—without judgments or feeling that there's a right or wrong way to do it. The notion here is to engage in an activity, perhaps with others, in which the enjoyment and creative unfolding of the moment is the focus. Too often adults lose this sense of playfulness. To cope with this pandemic, we need to keep our humor and our vitality alive and well!  this can be thought of being playful of letting novelty failure experience that letting you be spontaneous often with a sense of humor and the light. Children do this naturally, adolescents less so, and in adulthood we get very serious so it's important to have playtime. Because when you allow the brain to make these new combinations and create a sense of safety and a willingness to expand which are used to doing to expand beyond the familiar. This is a playfulness actually keeps the brain young and keeps the connections in the brain growing. That's playtime.  Forget all about work and other commitments, and be social in an unstructured way flexible emotional responses to unexpected events.  Practicing spontaneous and novel motor and social skills, facilitates learning creativity and memory  stimulates dopamine release, which helps to establish new neuronal pathways in the brain  game night with friends or coworkers, going outside to build a snowman, adult coloring books   Time in When we quietly reflect internally, focusing on sensations, images, feelings and thoughts, we help to better integrate the brain.  This is time you may already spend engaged in a formal mindfulness practice, like yoga or meditation. Inward reflection can include the three pillars of focusing attention, opening awareness, and cultivating kind intention.  This is when we are able to quietly able to reflect internally  focusing on sensations, images, feelings, and thoughts in the present moment  focusing on acceptance of the process, rather than the content  balance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems  improved attention and more flexible Prospectives about life  better control emotions and stress  improving compassion and empathy towards our self and others   Connecting Time When we connect with other people, ideally in person, and when we take time to appreciate our connection to the natural world around us, we activate and reinforce the brain's relational circuitry  This is time you put into intentionally connecting with people, even if you can't be in their immediate physical presence. This relational time involves communicating not only with other people, but also with nature. Finding time to connect with people and the planet can help with the sense of isolation we may feel these days.  When we are able to connect with other people, ideally in person  taking time to appreciate our connections to the world around us  improves relational circuitry in the brain, and benefits the cardiovascular, endocrine, and immune systems  a buffering effect in on stress by helping us to have a positive outlook, form secure attachments, and have efficient restorative behaviors in times of stress  make time to connect with others, especially your spouse, your partner, family, and friends  plan outings, date nights, or activities into your weekly routine, to make sure that your personal connections are maintained   Review of components Sleep Time  Physical Time  Downtime  Focused Time  Playtime  Time in  Connecting Time   How to connect Interpersonal Neurobiology with Catholicism?  Harmonizing. I'm in a six-month intensive course with Dan Siegel, it is his Comprehensive Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) Course and as part of that course, we have Q&A sessions.  I was really interested in how open the IPNB model might be to Catholicism -- I wanted his thoughts on that.   Remember that IPNB draws from so many disciplines, and not just scientific ones, but any discipline with a rigorous approach to learning, including the liberal arts, poetry, and even contemplative traditions.  And I like Dan Siegel -- he is very approachable, open, receptive, and I have a deep sense that he has a big heart, a lot of concern for our human condition, a genuine compassion for his neighbor.  Not just an academic sense.    So I asked Dr. Siegel.  I sent him this question:   Q. How does the integrative, multidisciplinary framework of IPNB, which draws from the findings of so many fields, consider the wisdom (based on divine revelation) that revealed religions (i.e., Judaism, Christianity, Islam) claim to offer about human well-being to their followers – or is that way of “knowing” considered “unscientific” or “not rigorous” and therefore not invited into the IPNB framework? Re-read it  And he responded --  A: Thank you for the question, Peter. Initially, IPNB was created through the weaving of western-based academic disciplines from math and physics to biology and psychology to sociology and anthropology. It began with an effort to ask, what is the mind and how are mind and brain related to one another? As the notion of consilience later became clear, the approach broadened to include any disciplined way of understanding the nature of reality. For that reason, systematic “disciplined” ways of exploring reality, questioning what emerges, and then re-considering what is found in an attempt to build a broad framework for understanding includes the ancient wisdom traditions of Indigenous knowledge and contemplative insights. In meeting with religious leaders from the faiths you have mentioned, the plane-of-possibility view as the “generator of diversity” seems to fit with the deepest aspects of their teachings, part of what Aldous Huxley and Huston Smith might have referred to as perennial wisdom. I have also met with some teachers, not leaders, but local teachers, in various faiths who say their view is the only true view, and that to try to find a consilience across ways of knowing, from various religions and from science, is an assault on their unique and privileged “knowing of what the truth is.” In this case, that mental stance of absolute belief in the veracity of their perspective is not a part of a consilient mindset, and so it is difficult to see how, though their views would be welcomed to be examined, not just accepted because the individual believes them to be true, people with such a viewpoint would xcollaborate in looking for common ground. I hope this response makes sense. Reread the bolded part.  I thought his response was gracious and I appreciate Dan Siegel's directness and honesty.  I was not surprised by the content.  The way I interpret this is that there's not room in IPNB from Dan Siegel's point of view for one to be Catholic and participate in the search for common ground.  No revealed religion's tenets could be included because they are not open to being challenged, questioned and discarded if they don't seem to line up with the findings of the other disciplines.  That's one of his non-negotiable principles for IPNB.  So his consilient framework doesn't draw from all available knowledge.  So Dan Siegel and I disagree about epistemology -- how you know things.   For him, divine revelation is not a valid source of knowing that can inform IPNB.  For me, it divine revelation is not only essential, it's the starting point.  It's the reference point, like the North Star.  And that's likely to lead to disagreements between Dan Seigel and me about metaphysics.  But I don't ignore the valuable work of DNA discoverers James Watson and Francis Crick who described the beauty of the double helix structure of DNA--  I don't ignore their work or discount it  because both Watson and Crick displayed intense anti-Catholic bigotry.  So I'm certainly not going to ignore the really valuable work of Dan Siegel in IPNB -- let's draw the good from it. And I've not seen anything that condemns or criticizes Catholicism from Dan Siegel.  He's not Catholic, I don't expect him to embrace the Church's teaching.  Let's not be afraid of the work of IPNB and other secular approaches, let's conform it to what we already know to be true by faith.   So the upshot of all this is, for those that really want to ground human formation and psychology in a Catholic understanding of the human person, for us Catholics to not only be Catholic with a capital C, but also with a small c.  "catholic" meaning universal.  We find the good in all these secular approaches and harmonize it with our faith.  Not the other way around.  And there is no tension between authentic science and the Faith. CCC Paragraph 159:  "Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth." "Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God. The humble and persevering investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they are." That's what I am here to help you do.  To take the best of secular approaches to science, like IPNB and ground them in an authentic Catholic understanding of  the human person.  That's what I am all about, that is what this podcast Interior Integration for Catholics is all about that is what Souls and Hearts is all about. I accept the authority of the Catholic Church to teach definitively in the areas of faith and morals.  That's my starting point.  I hold those truths to be indeed true.  I am open to the possibility and the potential that I have for misunderstanding those truths.  I have misunderstood some of them before, and I may well be misunderstanding some of them now.  But one main reason for divine revelation is to show us those truths that we could never have figured out using the light of natural reason alone.  I really do believe that the reason our Lord came when he did in human history is because the Greeks had gotten about as far as natural reason would take them in philosophy and the Romans had gotten about as far as natural reason would take them in law.   So my mission, my calling is to bring you the best of psychological and human formation resources firmly rooted in a Catholic anthropology.   This is entirely consistent with the teaching of the Church as expressed in Vatican II, in paragraph 62 of The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World: "in pastoral care, sufficient you should be made, not only of theological principles, but also of the findings of secular sciences, especially psychology and sociology; in this way the faithful will be brought to a purer and more mature living of the faith"   Closing Really excited about next month's episode -- Episode 93, coming out on May 1, 2022, where I will be offering you three experiential exercises that integrate what we've been learning in episode 89 on polyvagal theory, episode 90 on Positive Psychology, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and Internal Family Systems and this current episode, 92 on Interpersonal Neurobiology -- all these secular approaches, I'm going to be drawing from them in these experiential exercises to really help you know yourself better, understand your needs, find where you may have internal disconnects, and also get some direction on what the next steps are.  So look for that on Monday, May 1, new episodes come out the first Monday of the month.   Weekly emails -- been doing a whole series on enemies, lots of surprising things on enemies.   Check out our Litanies of the Heart -- really excited to just have released these.  The last Episode 92 was all about the Litany of the Closed Heart, the Litany of the Fearful Heart and the Litany of the Wounded Heart.  So much great feedback.  Soulsandhearts.com/lit.   Conversation Hours You are a listener to this podcast, and in that sense, you are with me.  I am also with you!  Remember, can call me on my cell any Tuesday or Thursday from 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM Eastern Time for our regular conversation hours.  I've set that time aside for you.  317.567.9594.  (repeat) or email me at crisis@soulsandhearts.com.  If you really like this podcast, if you are finding it to be of great benefit to you -- consider the Resilient Catholics Community.  Waiting list is open for The Resilient Catholics Community at Soulsandhearts.com/rcc for our June 2022  So much information there and videos.  I want to invite you to the Resilient Catholics Community The Why of the RCC --  It's all about loving with your whole heart -- all of your being.  Getting over all the natural level issues that hold you back from tolerating being loved and from loving God and others.   Who  Who is the Resilient Catholics Community for? It's for you. If you really are into this podcast, if these ways of conceptualizing the human person and integration and human formation and resilience are appealing to you, then the Resilient Catholics community, the RCC may be for you.   I am looking for listeners who want to be with other like-minded Catholics on the journey, on this adventure of human formation with me.   Who deeply desire a personal, intimate relationship with God and with Mary, a real human, close connection  And who recognize they have some natural-level impediments to that deep relating  and  who are willing to make sacrifices in time, effort, money, humility and courage to grow in human formation and overcome natural-level impediments to being loved and to loving  What want to shore up their natural foundation for the spiritual life, because grace perfects nature.   Who want to become saints.   Who are willing to be pioneers at the cutting edge in this adventure of human formation.  Really at the tip of the spear, the first explorers of this human formation ground for laymen and laywomen.   First of all the RCC is My Tribe, my people, bringing together two groups into one First, faithful, orthodox, serious Catholics who are wounded and suffering and know it  And Second, who are psychologically minded (or at least want to be psychologically minded), who believe in the unconscious and who embrace the unity and multiplicity of the human person  And who want to see through the lens of a core self and parts.  Unity and multiplicity make sense.   Go to Soulsandhearts.com/rcc and register for the June wait list.  I'd like to journey with you.    Patron and Patroness

Dr. Mark Epstein is a hero of mine. He is a Buddhist psychiatrist and author who has been a voice of kindness and wisdom in our field for decades, and I've long looked to his work for inspiration and guidance. So it was an honor to speak with him for this episode of the Flourishing After Addiction podcast!Mark does not have a personal history of a “classic” addiction like a substance problem, but as he articulates so nicely in our interview: “from the Buddhist point of view, we're all addicted.” We talk about addiction to thinking, addiction to the self as the primary addiction, and how Mark worked with his own anxieties and insecurities—a path that led him to psychiatric training at Harvard, almost 50 years of meditation practice, and many influential books at the interface of Buddhism and psychotherapy. (There were so many fun surprises in this interview, such as Mark's training with George Vaillant at Harvard, a giant of psychiatric research and a non-alcoholic member of the board of trustees of Alcoholics Anonymous.) In particular, we focus on his fantastic new book, The Zen of Therapy: Uncovering a Hidden Kindness in Life. It's a lovely account of meditation practice, therapy, recovery, ease, and working with the self. Mark Epstein, M.D., is a psychiatrist in private practice in New York City and the author of a number of books about the interface of Buddhism and psychotherapy, including Advice Not Given, The Trauma of Everyday Life, Thoughts without a Thinker and Going to Pieces without Falling Apart. His newest book, out now, is The Zen of Therapy: Uncovering a Hidden Kindness in Life. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard University. For more, check out his website, and you can find him on Instagram and Twitter.In this episode:- Mark's most recent book: The Zen of Therapy (also discussed: Advice Not Given)- George Vaillant (a summary of his book, The Natural History of Alcoholism)- A fun book about Ram Dass and others at Harvard, The Harvard Psychedelic Club ("How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America")- Gestalt therapy- More on the Emmanuel Clinic - a repository of several articles on the early 20th century, pre-Freudian psychotherapy in the US that reported great success in working with alcoholism. (I like this article in particular)- Revenge bedtime procrastination Sign up for my newsletter and immediately receive my free guide to the many pathways to recovery, as well as regular updates on new interviews, material, and other writings.

On this episode of Conversations in Process, Jay is joined by Professor Jeffery D. Long to discuss the relationship between Hinduism and process thought, and also to hear Jeffery's own journey in faith and how he came to Hinduism as an American. Jeffery is a professor of religion and Asian studies at Elizabethtown College and a prolific writer who has published widely in the field of religions and philosophies of India. In his academic work, he endeavors to put Hindu philosophy and theology into conversation with process thought, showing the resonances between these two distinctive intellectual and spiritual traditions. In his most recent book, Hinduism in America: A Convergence of Worlds (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020), he explores how this Indian spirituality has taken root in this far away content, tackling difficult topics such as Orientalism, Hindu influence on the American consciousness, and political Hinduism in the United States. In this conversation, Jeffery talks at length about his own spiritual and religious background, dwelling on how the early loss of his father spurred questions to which he was unable to find answers in his inherited Catholic tradition, despite immense respect and appreciation for this religion. When he was eventually exposed to the Hindu tradition he was immediately struck by the profound consonance between the perspectives of these eastern scriptures and views he had come to on his own through independent spiritual exploration. This exposure eventually culminated in his conversion to Hinduism following a deep engagement with the sources of the tradition. Jeffery also discusses the relationship between Hinduism and process thought, particularly as it pertains to Alfred North Whitehead's metaphysical formulations, mentioning how Whiteheadian notions such as creativity have equivalents within a Hindu framework, and how certain theological language from the Hindu tradition lends itself to a process-relational perspective. In addition to these speculative theological topics, he explores questions of lived religion such as how Hindus are able to navigate pluralism and how one can find the Divine in “the muddiness of life” from a Hindu perspective. The conversation draws to a close with Jeffery sharing his perspective on Huston Smith's two visions of life after death in Hinduism: the individual as a drop of water returning to the ocean, or the play of life continuing on and retaining individuality. LINKS Hinduism in America: A Convergence of Worlds: https://bookshop.org/books/hinduism-in-america-a-convergence-of-worlds/9781474248457Jeffery Long's page on academia.edu: https://etown.academia.edu/JefferyLongConversations in Process: https://cobb.institute/conversations-in-process/The Cobb Institute: https://cobb.instituteOpen Horizons: https://www.openhorizons.org https://youtu.be/j75tY6HTGwc

Join host Piers Kaniuka and author scholar Dana Sawyer as they discuss the Perennial Philosophy. Recorded on August 11, 2021.Dana Sawyer is a Professor of Religion and Philosophy at the Maine College of Art, and for more than 20 years taught in the graduate program of the Bangor Theological Seminary. He is the author of two critically acclaimed spiritual biographies, of Aldous Huxley (2002) and Huston Smith (2014), and has written on a wide range of topics related to consciousness expansion, Tibetan Buddhism, Hindu mysticism, psychedelic experience, and alternative philosophies. Besides teaching at the academic level, Prof. Sawyer is a popular speaker on the lecture circuit, having taught workshops at the Esalen Institute, the Kripalu Institute, and other such centers of psychological, spiritual and philosophical inquiry. His work has appeared in Tricycle, the Buddhist Review, Parabola magazine, Yoga Journal and other such publications.You can learn more by visiting his website - https://www.dana-sawyer.comResistance Recovery (RR) is reimagining addiction, recovery, and community in the 21st century. Piers Kaniuka, MTS, MS has worked with thousands of addicts and alcoholics in his 25+ years in the field. Discover RR's new paradigm of addiction recovery by visiting http://resistancerecovery.com.Join the Resistance: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1236683136534727/ Visit the RR YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RESISTANCERECOVERYSign-up for Long Threads and get Resistance Recovery news: https://mailchi.mp/ddc8023bec67/welcometoresistancerecoverySupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/resistance-recovery/donations

In this week's Inbetweenisode, Laura (@lauramcneiceart) and Stefania (@stefaniaindelicato) sit down with award-winning journalist and best-selling author, Don Lattin (@lattindon) to discuss Ram Dass, biographies, psychedelics, spirituality and the parallels between the 1960/70s and today. Book Recommendations: Shopping for Faith: American Religion in the New Millennium by Richard Cimino and Don Lattin (1998) Following Our Bliss: How the Spiritual Ideals of the Sixties Shape Our Lives Today by Don Lattin (2003) Jesus Freaks: A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge by Don Lattin (2007) The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America by Don Lattin (2010) Distilled Spirits: Getting High, Then Sober, with a Famous Writer, a Forgotten Philosopher, and a Hopeless Drunk by Don Lattin (2012) Changing Our Minds: Psychedelic Sacraments and the New Psychotherapy by Don Lattin (2017) Running from Religion: What the actual lives of our ancestors teach us about "traditional family values" by Don Lattin  How to Change Your Mind What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollen The Acid Test by Tom Schroder Youtube Watch List: Psychedelic Pioneers with Don Lattin Don Lattin - Psychedelic Sacraments and the New Psychotherapy Don Lattin: The Harvard Psychedelic Club

In this episode, Laura tells the story of RICHARD ALPERT aka RAM DASS,  a spiritual teacher, author, and psychologist whose work and teachings continue to inspire people to study and adopt the practices of Eastern Philosophy into their lives, as it relates to self-awareness, meditation, and mindfulness.  Born: April 6, 1931, Boston, MA; Died: Dec. 22, 2019, Maui, HI.  Selected Resources: The Acid Test by Tom Shroder Ram Dass Bibliography / Book TimeLine Love, Serve, Remember Foundation Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) Center for Psychedelic & Consciousness Research - John Hopkins University Ram Dass, Going Home, Netflix 2018 Transcendental Meditation Episode Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Dass (2020.08.18)  Alpert, Dr. Richard. Be Here Now. San Cristobal, New Mexico, Lama Foundation, 1971.  Ram Dass, aka Richard Alpert, Psychedelic Pioneer and Spiritual Teacher, Author of "Be Here Now" Dies at Age 88 by Roger Friedman - 2019.12.23 2:25 am Ram Dass, Beloved Spiritual Teacher, Has Died by Joan Duncan Oliver -2019.12.22 Baba Ram Dass, Proponent of LSD Turned New Age Guru, Dies at 88  by Douglas Marin - 2020.12.23 The Strange Case of the Harvard Drug Scandal by Andrew T. Weil  - 1963.11.05 The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America by Dan Lattin - 2010.05.01  

REFLECTION QUOTES “The grace of God is love freely shown towards guilty sinners, contrary to their merit and indeed in defiance of their demerit. It is God showing goodness to persons who deserve only severity and had no reason to expect anything but severity…. [G]race means so little to some… because they do not share the beliefs about God and man which it presupposes.” “Grace is free in that it of self-originated, and of proceeding from One who was free not to be gracious.” ~J.I. Packer (1926-2020), English-born theologian “[I]f God were not angry at injustice…and did not make the final end to violence, God would not be worthy of our worship…. My thesis that the practice of nonviolence requires a belief in divine vengeance will be unpopular with many Christians, especially theologians in the West…. [But] I suggest imagining that you are delivering a lecture in a war zone (which is where a paper that underlies this chapter was originally delivered). Among your listeners are people whose…villages have been first plundered, then burned, and leveled to the ground, whose daughters and sisters have been raped, whose fathers and brothers have had their throats slit…. The topic of the lecture: a Christian attitude toward violence. The thesis: we should not retaliate since God is perfect noncoercive love. Soon you would discover that it takes the quiet of a suburban home for the birth of the thesis that human nonviolence corresponds to God's refusal to judge. In a scorched land, soaked in the blood of the innocent, it will invariably die. And as one watches it die, one will do well to reflect about many other pleasant captivities of the liberal mind.” ~Miroslav Volf, Croatian-born theologian, professor at Yale “The people who heard Jesus' disciples proclaiming the Good News were as impressed by what they saw [Christian love in action] as by what they heard…. Conventional love is evoked by lovable qualities in the beloved, but the love people encountered from Christ embraced sinners and outcasts, Samaritans and enemies. It gave, not prudentially in order to receive, but because giving was its nature.” ~Huston Smith (1919-2016), former chair of the Philosophy Department at MIT “The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.” ~Proverbs 11:25 (NLT) “We deserved death, wrath, and hell forever. Jesus took our liability…. Jesus drank our hell.” ~Conrad Mbewe, Zambian pastor

CONSCIOUSNESS - Is the "Real You" a special substance that is both nonphysical and immortal? Most people think "Certainly." Most scientists think "Certainly Not." What some theologians think may trouble you. Featuring J.P. Moreland, Nancey Murphy, Daniel Dennett, Peter van Inwagen, and Huston Smith.

MEANING - How can you know whether God really exists, if you do not know what God really is? Diverse religions have diverse views and surprise is in store. Featuring Richard Swinburne, Alvin Plantinga, Daniel Dennett, Seyyed Nasr, Varadaraja Raman, Huston Smith, and Michael Shermer.

Part 1 of a two-part program about the increasing use of consciousness-expanding substances, many of them illegal, for health and personal spiritual growth. People around the world are using these consciousness-expanding substances, also called psychedelics or hallucinogens, to treat conditions ranging from allergies and anxiety to alcoholism and addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder, and many other problems. Some people use these materials regularly in low doses to enhance their everyday life, or they may use them more occasionally in larger doses for a more profound experience. This is a topic that has gotten more attention these days, due in part to Michael Pollan's recent book entitled How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence, which includes accounts of his own personal experiments with LSD, psilocybin and DMT. I thought that now would be a good time to dig into my trove of recordings and play you some that I've made on the topic of psychedelic drugs over the years between 1976 when Timothy Leary came to speak at my college, and just a couple of weeks ago when I recorded an interview with a friend who was under the influence of LSD at the time. In this episode I'm going to start out by playing you part of a recording that I made in 1991 of a talk given by Terence McKenna at the California Institute for Integral Studies in San Francisco. Terence was a visionary explorer and writer, and a singularly engaging speaker. He wrote books like The Archaic Revival, Food of the Gods, and True Hallucinations, all of which I own and recommend. He also happened to have gone to high school with one of my best friends in San Francisco, so I'm lucky to have gotten to know Terry personally a little bit too, and I treasure a letter that he sent me a short while before he died. After Terence McKenna, we're going to hear from Rick Doblin, the President of an organization called MAPS (which stands for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies). Rick will talk about that organization's work to bring currently illegal psychedelic materials into the light of science so that they can be studied properly and used to help people. You'll hear Rick speaking to doctors, therapists, researchers and other members of MAPS at a MAPS conference in San Jose, CA in 2010, and then you'll hear Rick in conversation with me, at MAPS' former headquarters in Ben Lomond, CA, where I met him for the first time. In the next episode, episode 24, which is also available now, we'll continue this psychedelic journey and you'll hear my brief chat with psychologist Ralph Metzner, one of the early LSD research pioneers at Harvard University along with Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert (aka Ram Das), Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil. Ralph talked with me just before going onstage at the New Living Expo in San Francisco in 2012. After that I'm going to play you a short bit of a recording of Timothy Leary lecturing at my college, UC San Diego, in 1976 or 1977, talking about psychedelic drugs, pleasure, and human destiny. After that we'll hear Dr. Andrew Weil at that same MAPS conference in 2010, talking about how he cured some of his own allergies using LSD, and then we'll listen to a personal conversation I had with Dr. Weil around 2012, about the mind-body connection and how consciousness-expanding substances can play a role in optimizing that connection. Finally, I'll have a chat with a friend here in Tucson Arizona, who, as we talked, was under the influence of LSD. He tells about the subtle ways that it is influencing his perceptions and his engagement with his art-making. Please post your comments and reviews in https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-andys-treasure-trove-podcast/id1109564030?ls=1 (iTunes), or on andystreasuretrove.com.

REFLECTION QUOTES “The church… is not meant to call men and women out of the world into a safe religious enclave but to call them out in order to send them back as agents of God's kingship.” ~Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), British theologian and missionary “Christianity's success is to be found in its inclusiveness. More than any other of its [ancient] competitors it attracted all races and classes…. Christianity…gloried in its appeal to Jew and Gentile, Greek and Barbarian…the lowly and unlettered…[and] many of the learned…. Christianity, too, was for both sexes…. The Church welcomed both rich and poor…. No other [religion]…took in so many groups and strata of society.” ~Kenneth Scott Latourette (1884-1986), historian at Yale University “The people who heard Jesus' disciples proclaiming the Good News were as impressed by what they saw as by what they heard. They saw lives that had been transformed—men and women who were ordinary in every way except for the fact that they seemed to have found the secret of living. They evinced a tranquility, simplicity, and cheerfulness that their hearers had nowhere else encountered…. A new quality, Christian love, was born. Conventional love is evoked by lovable qualities in the beloved, but the love people encountered from Christ embraced sinners and outcasts, Samaritans and enemies. It gave, not prudentially in order to receive, but because giving was its nature.” ~Huston Smith (1919-2016), religious studies scholar and chair of the Philosophy Department at MIT “This is that mystery which is rich in divine grace unto sinners: wherein by a wonderful exchange, our sins are no longer ours but Christ's; and the righteousness of Christ is not Christ's but ours. He has emptied himself of his righteousness that he might clothe us in it, and fill us with it: and he has taken our evils upon himself that he might deliver us from them.” ~Martin Luther (1483-1546), German reformer “The operation of the Church is entirely set up for the sinner; which creates much misunderstanding among the smug.” ~Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964), American author SERMON PASSAGE Acts 15:1,6-12; Acts 16:1-13; Philippians 3:4b-9 (NASB) Acts 15 1 Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”… 6 The apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter. 7 After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; 9 and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. 10 Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.” 12 All the people kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. Acts 16 1 Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. And a disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek, 2 and he was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium. 3 Paul wanted this man to go with him; and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4 Now while they were passing through the cities, they were delivering the decrees which had been decided upon by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem, for them to observe. 5 So the churches were being strengthened in the faith, and were increasing in number daily. 6 They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; 7 and after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; 8 and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. 9 A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. 11 So putting out to sea from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis; 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony; and we were staying in this city for some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. Philippians 3 4 …If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. 7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.

REFLECTION QUOTES “The church… is not meant to call men and women out of the world into a safe religious enclave but to call them out in order to send them back as agents of God's kingship.” ~Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), British theologian and missionary “Christianity's success is to be found in its inclusiveness. More than any other of its [ancient] competitors it attracted all races and classes…. Christianity…gloried in its appeal to Jew and Gentile, Greek and Barbarian…the lowly and unlettered…[and] many of the learned…. Christianity, too, was for both sexes…. The Church welcomed both rich and poor…. No other [religion]…took in so many groups and strata of society.” ~Kenneth Scott Latourette (1884-1986), historian at Yale University “The people who heard Jesus' disciples proclaiming the Good News were as impressed by what they saw as by what they heard. They saw lives that had been transformed—men and women who were ordinary in every way except for the fact that they seemed to have found the secret of living. They evinced a tranquility, simplicity, and cheerfulness that their hearers had nowhere else encountered…. A new quality, Christian love, was born. Conventional love is evoked by lovable qualities in the beloved, but the love people encountered from Christ embraced sinners and outcasts, Samaritans and enemies. It gave, not prudentially in order to receive, but because giving was its nature.” ~Huston Smith (1919-2016), religious studies scholar and chair of the Philosophy Department at MIT “This is that mystery which is rich in divine grace unto sinners: wherein by a wonderful exchange, our sins are no longer ours but Christ's; and the righteousness of Christ is not Christ's but ours. He has emptied himself of his righteousness that he might clothe us in it, and fill us with it: and he has taken our evils upon himself that he might deliver us from them.” ~Martin Luther (1483-1546), German reformer “The operation of the Church is entirely set up for the sinner; which creates much misunderstanding among the smug.” ~Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964), American author SERMON PASSAGE Acts 15:1,6-12; Acts 16:1-13; Philippians 3:4b-9 (NASB) Acts 15 1 Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”… 6 The apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter. 7 After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; 9 and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. 10 Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.” 12 All the people kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. Acts 16 1 Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. And a disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek, 2 and he was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium. 3 Paul wanted this man to go with him; and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4 Now while they were passing through the cities, they were delivering the decrees which had been decided upon by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem, for them to observe. 5 So the churches were being strengthened in the faith, and were increasing in number daily. 6 They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; 7 and after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; 8 and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. 9 A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. 11 So putting out to sea from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis; 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony; and we were staying in this city for some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. Philippians 3 4 …If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. 7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.

REFLECTION QUOTES “We are perishing for lack of wonder, not for lack of wonders.” “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” ~G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), English writer and journalist “He Who sits upon the sublime and heavenly Throne, now lies in a manger. And He Who cannot be touched, Who is simple, without complexity, and incorporeal, now lies subject to the hands of men. He Who has broken the bonds of sinners, is now bound by an infant's bands.” ~Cyril of Alexandria (378-444), Patriarch of Alexandria “The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man—and the dogma is the drama.” ~Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957), English writer and essayist “In all my studies of other religions… I never found anything like…that incredible social inversion of Almighty God coming here and living with us and dying with us. And I was very drawn by that—profoundly drawn by it!” ~Anne Rice (1941-present), American author “Luke's history [in the Gospel according to Luke] is unsurpassed in regard to its trustworthiness.” “Luke is an historian [who] should be placed along with the very greatest.” ~Sir William Mitchell Ramsay (1851-1939), Scottish archaeologist “God's love is precisely what the first Christians did feel. They had experienced Jesus' love and had become convinced that Jesus was God incarnate. Once that love reached them, it could not be stopped.” ~Huston Smith, philosophy department chair at MIT (1958-1973) SERMON PASSAGE Luke 1:1-4 (NIV) 1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.