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Deep Practice. Peak Experience.
Profound Understanding. Powerful Contribution.

Deep Transformation dialogues with cutting-edge thinkers, contemplatives, and activists to explore the great questions of our time—and all time. Join us to explore how to live life to the fullest, to create and to contribute in a new era of unprecedented challenges and opportunities.

With Roger Walsh & John Dupuy

I have learned, and continue to learn, so much from these podcasts! I have listened to some of their guests such as, A.H. Almaas, Sean Esbjorn, and Ron Interpreter. Their podcasts interweave so many “disciplines” and subjects from integrative spirituality, psychology, philosophy, ancient traditions, the cosmos, and others. I’m gaining a much wider and deeper appreciation for the inter-relatedness of these areas of knowledge and practices.

I have often wondered what the term, “non-duality” really meant. After listening to their interviews and discussion with Sean Esbjorn, I finally understand the richer, broader context of its meaning.

Thank you for asking your guests insightful questions! I look forward to listening to each new podcast.

~ Sharron (sent through https://deeptransformation.io/contact/)

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Deep and intelligent

I love the thoughtfulness and depth this podcast offers. I am especially excited that you are doing some in-depth and ongoing interviews with AH Almaas! Roger and John are able to ask great questions that help reveal the incredible teachings Hameed has to offer. Thank you for enriching my life.

~ Bobchesters on Apple Podcasts (🇨🇦)

Thank you for bringing consistently thoughtful, provocative, and awakening guests to the show. The yin/yang dance (or mercurial/mars) of Roger and John's ways of processing information adds a beautiful layer of teachings to the programs.

~ Anonymous from buymeacoffee.com

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Deeply thoughtful, insightful and provocative.

Have been listening for the past year or so. So any good episodes. Hosts are gracious and allow guests lots of room while still being engaged enough for a lively conversation. Topics are broad and deep - obviously centering around spiritual topics, personal and spiritual growth, etc - but also extending into relevant adjacent areas (like the amazing conversation with Daniel Schmactenberger on the meta crisis and much much more). Also loved all the interviews with A H Almaas, Cory DeVos and Beena Sharma, among others.

HIGHLY recommended.

 ~ patrickwal on Apple Podcasts (🇺🇸)

This video or any video from Andrew are just direct, clear magnificent and soooo beneficial, they are one of my favorite, thank you for promoting and explaining such a profound practices.

~ @user-yo3mp8ek1t (on YouTube)

Praise for Andrew Holecek – The Remarkable Practice of Dream Yoga: How Lucid Dreaming Makes Sleep Endlessly Fascinating and Leads to Lucid Living (and Lucid Dying)

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Broad and Meaningful

What a wonderful podcast with interviews from a broad spectrum of people who have really plumbed the depths of human potential. The warmth and friendly nature of the hosts brings these topics down to earth. This is my new go to podcast to refresh and enliven my brain on the commute home. Thank you both so much!

~ Moniseur Qui on Apple Podcasts (🇺🇸)

Dear Roger and John, your decades of crystalizing lived Integral approaches shines so clearly! Your recent conversation with Brad Reynolds was such an elegant, pristine sweep of Wilber's work, delivered succinctly and comprehensively in a way that offers freshly available hand holds for deeper exploration of Wilber's extraordinary insights. I celebrate your big heartedness and the dignified commitment you both regularly demonstrate to honor the intricate beauties of varied perspectives, yet without avoiding or exaggerating the messy complexities of actual living. Big gratitude!

~ dragpa (sent through Facebook Messenger)

Praise for Brad Reynolds – Ken Wilber’s Map of Everything: A Guide to the Brilliance & Span of Wilber’s Work from Philosophy to Psychology, Spirituality and Science

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Worth It

Just finished the first episode. Excellent conversation that had good pace, light humor, deep thoughts, clear explanations and plenty of heart and humility. A really winning blend of all those qualities in a winning way. Very nourishing to not just hear a dry intellectual recitation of theory, but to have it expressed and lived in a full body manner during the delivery by all involved.

From the trailer, “Feeling over fed and undernourished? So are we. So we made this podcast.”

Mission accomplished. An excellent multi course home cooked meal worthy of our time. Dive in!

~ Studio Teacher Scott on Apple Podcasts (🇺🇸)

Praise for Jeff Salzman – Polarization, Being Woke, the Universal Agenda, Mindfulness Going Bad, and the Integral Vision

Above and beyond enjoying your coffee, I’d like you to be happy and well, free from affliction and at peace. I am experiencing an upswing now, that your fine podcast has contributed to. Since listening to it, I have gotten through a bit more than half of the Dhamapada. In addition, I am doing well with my endurance regimen, which has stabilized many symptoms of my spinal cord deficit for the time being. I bicycled to a nice spot by the Salt river in the Tonto National Forest to hear and learn birdsong melodies, which I’ll use for original classical guitar compositions and disseminating concepts of bird conservation/extinction and ecosystem services acquired from the Cornell University ornithology lab’s online program, while introducing the songs to general audiences who urgently need to be reached. I experienced the iridescence of twilight’s spectrum on my way back home.

~ Michael Weiss from buymeacoffee.com

Deep Transformation | Listen Notes

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LATEST PODCAST EPISODES

Setting the Compass of Your Heart: What Really Matters? with Jack Kornfield (Part 1)

By Heidi Mitchell | January 1, 2026

“The beautiful thing about the bodhisattva ideal is that it becomes your intention… it becomes the setting of the compass of your heart.”

Ep. 215 (Part 1 of 2) | The first of Deep Transformation’s What is Real Greatness Series, this conversation with world-renowned meditation teacher Jack Kornfield is filled with beautiful teachings touching into the sacred at the heart of our lives and the point of our whole spiritual journey: to remember and embody our innate capacity to awaken and experience the reality of our own innate dignity and nobility. Respecting ourselves at the deepest level is what transforms us and transforms society too, Jack explains. “Do you hold yourself with nobility and respect?” he asks. “Can you remember your own beauty and dignity? Can you see it in others?”
The topic of greatness—real greatness—is woven throughout the dialogue, as Jack recounts the seed events of his own spiritual journey and ruminates on Roger’s question, what is the sacred question at the center of your life? This is a question Jack often asks his own students, and we are inspired to ponder it for ourselves, along with, if you were to write your own bodhisattva vow, what would it be? Jack is a master at inspiring us to live our ideals, to broaden the possibilities of our lives, and to remember the miracle of our existence. A warmly personal, deeply profound discussion. Recorded October 2, 2025.

>> Read more and listen to the full episode

Finding Our True Home in the Absolute: Experiencing Intimacy with Everything, with A. H. Almaas

By Heidi Mitchell | December 25, 2025

“You don’t have to experience the absolute to know nonduality.”

Ep. 214 (Part 2 of 2) | Part 2 of the 16th dialogue of the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series takes us on a sweet journey farther into our exploration of the nature of the absolute. Hameed Ali discusses the paradox of the absolute, being both source and cessation of all things, the nonduality of emptiness and beingness, these being two sides of the same coin, and explains why many nondual teachings do not touch upon the absolute. He makes sense of the difficult-to-fathom concept of pure emptiness, explaining that the absolute’s nature is absence—in contrast with presence—and relates that Mystery is the essence of the absolute, the fundamental essence of the nature of reality. “We are never going to know where it’s at, what’s happening, what life is about,” he laughs. Our knowledge is but “small islands in the vast ocean of mystery we live in;” mystery cannot be eliminated.
In the absolute, the soul finds its final resting place, Hameed tells us. The absolute is our true home—the essence of the meaning of home. All humans are searching for their true home, Hameed says, and they search in many places. But here the search is over. Reflections of the absolute bring us closer to love, like when we are in love, Hameed continues. Being in love with an outer beloved brings us closer to the inner beloved and we see deeper. “The absolute is total intimacy, Hameed finishes. “In the absolute we are intimate with everything.” How do we express this in the world, in our ordinary lives? “It becomes very simple,” Hameed says. “The absolute is the essence of simplicity—so simple, even though there is a profundity…” Recorded October 9, 2025.

>> Read more and listen to the full episode

Into the Absolute: At One with the Radiant Source of All, with A. H. Almaas (Part 1)

By Heidi Mitchell | December 18, 2025

“The absolute itself is majesty, and the universe that emerges is beauty.”

Ep. 213 (Part 1 of 2) | The 16th dialogue of the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series is about the absolute, the source dimension of all manifestation, deeper than any other dimension, the vastness beyond vastness. In Part 1, Hameed gives a wonderful description of the majesty and the blackness of the absolute, and tells the story of when he first experienced being one with the absolute himself. When Roger Walsh asks him, what are the doorways to the absolute, Hameed talks about mystical poverty and also the way of the heart. “When the true beloved shines through the heart, it’s an amazing ecstasy… a mindblowing kind of beauty,” he says. He discusses the fear people often feel as they approach cessation of all perception, and the need for the basic trust we were born with (which often gets clobbered as we grow up) to proceed. What changes after an experience of the absolute? John Dupuy asks. If one abides in this realization, it cleanses the soul of all impurities, and our action embodies the virtues, Hameed answers.

In Part 2, which will be released December 25th, Hameed delves into the paradox of the absolute (the absolute is the elimination, the annihilation, the cessation of all things—and the source of all things), the nonduality of emptiness and awareness, and explains that mystery is the essence of the absolute: the absolute IS mystery, he says. There is laughter all around when Hameed says you can never completely “get” it, because there’s nothing there to get! Your mind disappears as you’re trying to get it. Towards the end, the conversation relaxes so deeply into the subject of the absolute, you can just about feel its presence. We become intimate with everything in the absolute, Hameed says. It is the soul’s final resting place, our true home, where the search ends. Recorded October 9, 2025.

>> Read more and listen to the full episode

Exposing Injustice & Suffering in Palestine & Around the World with Filmmakers Zaya & Maurizio Benazzo

By Heidi Mitchell | December 11, 2025

“Opening to the darkness and the pain is the gift of this time. We are all one; we cannot continue to separate ourselves into our comfortable silos.”

Ep. 212 (Part 2 of 2) | In Part 2 of the compelling conversation with SAND founders Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo, the discussion turns to the making of their 2021 documentary film about the tragic injustices inflicted upon Palestinians in the West Bank. Where Olive Trees Weep is a very beautiful, heartbreaking, and eye opening film we highly recommend to our listeners. “How do we stop the violence?” asks co-host John Dupuy. No one knows the answer, but “each of us can find a way to alleviate the suffering in Palestine now as we grapple with the question of how to stop the wounds that continue to bleed,” Zaya and Maurizio contend. “We can stand for justice, food, and human rights, recognize the dignity of Palestinians and fight for their freedom.”

Spiritual communities are mostly quiet on this issue, Zaya mentions. But “it’s not a political issue,” she says, “it’s a human issue—we are losing our humanity. If we believe in oneness, we need to face our discomfort and turn towards the pain, towards the suffering. Discomfort is the very essence of the issue on a psychological and archetypal level,” Zaya adds. Zaya and Maurizio are also working on a remarkable series of films called The Eternal Song, an ongoing project to bring forth teachings from Indigenous communities around the world. To date, they have released The Eternal Song, Mauri: The Vital Essence of All Beings, and most recently If an Owl Calls Your Name. Thank you, Zaya and Maurizio, for contributing your gifts in these stunning films, so poignant and important in these disconnected, turbulent times, and for sharing your extraordinary wisdom with our Deep Transformation listeners. Recorded October 16, 2025.

>> Read more and listen to the full episode

Where Science, Spirituality & Indigenous Wisdom Meet: The Remarkable Contributions of Filmmakers Zaya & Maurizio Benazzo

By Heidi Mitchell | December 4, 2025

“There is no spiritual work without trauma work.”

Ep. 211 (Part 1 of 2) | Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo are not only the founders of the longstanding and highly regarded Science & Nonduality Conference (SAND), but also brilliant filmmakers, producing stunning documentaries about the injustice and suffering occurring in Palestine and elsewhere, as well as films that feature the eternal wisdom of elders from Indigenous communities around the world. Zaya and Maurizio are clearly passionate about their work, and co-host Roger Walsh points out they do a beautiful job of intertwining the personal, professional, and spiritual into an offering that meets the needs of our time. As Maurizio says, “There is no spiritual work. Period. Everything is spiritual work! It’s life.”

In Part 1 of this episode, lively and inspired, Zaya and Maurizio share what they’ve learned about life, spirituality, trauma, healing, guidance, and the deep-time perspective of the Maori. They relate the trajectory of SAND’s evolution from featuring male-dominated nondual teachings to include an understanding of trauma, somatic healing, feminine, earth-oriented teachings, and Indigenous wisdom. “Healing never ends; it’s a lifelong journey—there’s no modern solution that will ‘fix’ you,” Zaya tells us. Also, “We are constantly being guided if we just listen.”

In Part 2, Zaya and Maurizio describe the making of their 2021 documentary about the tragic mistreatment of Palestinians in the West Bank, a beautiful, heartbreaking film called Where Olive Trees Weep. Also their film The Eternal Song, an ongoing project to bring forth Indigenous teachings, so valuable and timely for us now in our chaotic, disconnected world. This whole conversation is thought provoking, delightful, profound, paradigm shifting, and inspiring all at once. Recorded October 16, 2025.

>> Read more and listen to the full episode

The Force Behind Spiritual Evolution: Discovering the Source of Our Inner Fire

By Heidi Mitchell | November 27, 2025

“Be attentive to the inner calling. Inner pleasure far surpasses outer pleasure.”

Ep. 210 (Part 3 of 3) | In Part 3 of the 15th dialogue in the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali speaks about the evolutionary aspect of the creative dynamism of the universe. He explains there is an optimizing, transformative force that is responsible for one form changing to another, like a caterpillar to a butterfly. This developmental force is in alignment with Western concepts of evolution and progress, and applies to spiritual realization, too. There is also an optimizing force specific to the human soul, Hameed tells us, that fuels the hearts that burn with the desire for liberation. This is the force responsible for spiritual development. In Buddhism it is called bodhicitta, the desire for enlightenment.

Why do some people have a fierce desire to seek the truth, asks co-host Roger Walsh, but many do not? Hameed replies that most people are busy making a living, doing their best to get by. In this case the transformative force remains a potential but is not actualized. Seekers possessed by the flame of the search turn inward, asking, What is God? What is truth? What is reality? Scientists look at this externally, he says, but it is the inward turn that reveals the source of the inner fire, the logos, the word that speaks through our souls and through our hearts. Towards the end of the conversation, Hameed laughs at how upside down things are with us looking for answers everywhere but within and thinking the logos speaks through who we think we are, not realizing we ourselves actually are the logos. If we realize who we truly are, he says, the world itself becomes richer. Another infinitely inspiring talk with A. H. Almaas, filled with astonishing wisdom and loving humor. Recorded September 11, 2025.

>> Read more and listen to the full episode

Aligning with the Dynamism & Flow of the Cosmos with A. H. Almaas

By Heidi Mitchell | November 20, 2025

“For the divine all is harmony, but for us human beings, it looks like mayhem.”

Ep. 209 (Part 2 of 3) | In Part 2 of the 15th dialogue in the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali delves into the very creation of reality by the logos, the source of all life. Logos (an ancient Greek term) is often considered to mean “word,” but Hameed uses it in its deeper sense, where logos is not only the word but also the speaker—the living field of manifestation. The soul is very similar to the logos, Hameed adds, with the same sense of flow, dynamism, and creativity. Hameed points out that the universe could have been created haphazardly, but because it was created in an orderly fashion, it allows for our lives to be meaningful. And, he continues, it is the dimension of love implicit in the logos that brings a beautiful sense of harmony, love, and gratitude to the human soul.

What about all the disharmony in the world? co-host Roger Walsh asks. How can genocide happen in a world that is divinely harmonious? To help explain this, Hameed uses the human body as an example of two perspectives that co-exist: from the perspective of time, we die, he says, but from the perspective of the particle, all is perfect. Hameed also describes his personal experience of being aligned with the creative dynamism of the logos, creating himself and the world anew each moment, like the way frames in a movie are constantly being replaced. The more we live this, he says, the more we bring harmony to the world. Join us also for Part 3 of this deep and intriguing dive into the nature of reality, where Hameed continues to talk about creative dynamism and the logos, and explains how this pertains to our own individual spiritual evolution. Recorded September 11, 2025.

>> Read more and listen to the full episode

How Does Anything (Including Us) Change in a Nondual World? with A. H. Almaas

By Heidi Mitchell | November 13, 2025

“All of reality is part of one unified fabric, so what does it mean when a bird flies from one place to another?”

Ep. 208 (Part 1 of 3) | In Part 1 of the 15th dialogue in the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali enlightens us about the dynamic, creative force that generates our reality. “Dynamism is constant,” Hameed explains, “it never stops—it is constantly creating what we experience, what we perceive.” Hameed calls this nondual dimension of true nature—of our nature—creative dynamism. How do you explain change, he asks, if it’s not happening in time, and all of reality is one fabric, nondual? The dynamism Hameed speaks of, ongoing and total, has a radical implication: the entire universe is re-created, instant by instant. Not only the physical dimension, Hameed adds, but all dimensions—mental, emotional, and spiritual—are re-created anew.

As co-host Roger Walsh points out, Hameed’s teachings come from direct experience, and Hameed describes his own mind-blowing experience of the moment-by-moment re-creation of himself and the world in Part 2 of this dialogue. Nothing persists, he discovers, movement is not continual. In Part 1, Hameed also explores the subjects of free will, action, and choice as addressed from a nondual perspective, and the fact that we and our actions emerge from the totality of reality. As always, Hameed transmits his joy and exuberance at the mysterious and marvelous ways true nature expresses itself, and it is exciting to realize our own nature is as dynamic, creative, flowing and changing, as the universe. Recorded September 11, 2025.

>> Read more and listen to the full episode

(Part 2) Governor Jerry Brown on Life, Power, and the Future of Humanity

By Heidi Mitchell | November 6, 2025

“The future is unknown, so don’t conclude that all is dark – or that all is bright! It’s unknown, so as long as we’re breathing and functioning, we have a lot to do.”

In this extraordinary, compelling conversation, visionary, activist, and long-time politician, former Governor of California Jerry Brown gets right to the heart of the things that matter most. From truth seeking on an individual level (the importance of inquiring into the depths of our reality), to the challenge of our democracy (getting a consensus in a population that has no coherence), to the problem of leadership (now it’s all about winning, which works on the football field but not for international relations), the fear and greed that drive the arms race (we’re not talking about the arms issue, and to not talk about it is to be complicit), and the existential danger of nuclear war (as important as it is underreported), Jerry nails the essence of our most pressing issues. 

Jerry’s deep concern about the existential threats we face today, such as nuclear war and climate change, is matched by his enthusiasm for life and excitement over the fact that the future is unknowable. “We have to turn,” he says, “and everyone can contribute to amplifying the turn.” We discover some of the key formative events that shaped Jerry’s keenly discerning character, so evident throughout his career and still today in his eighties, and why co-host Roger Walsh describes him as a “force of nature.” This conversation is thoroughly enjoyable, inspirational, eye opening, and disturbing too. “We are on the brink, but no one wants to hear it,” Jerry says. “How do you speak the truth in a way it can be heard?” Recorded August 7, 2025.

>> Read more and listen to the full episode

Governor Jerry Brown on Life, Power, and the Future of Humanity (Part 1)

By Heidi Mitchell | October 30, 2025

“We should not sleep in the delusion that things are better than they are.”

Ep. 206 (Part 1 of 2) | In this extraordinary, compelling conversation, visionary, activist, and long-time politician, former Governor of California Jerry Brown gets right to the heart of the things that matter most. From truth seeking on an individual level (the importance of inquiring into the depths of our reality), to the challenge of our democracy (getting a consensus in a population that has no coherence), to the problem of leadership (now it’s all about winning, which works on the football field but not for international relations), the fear and greed that drive the arms race (we’re not talking about the arms issue, and to not talk about it is to be complicit), and the existential danger of nuclear war (as important as it is underreported), Jerry nails the essence of our most pressing issues.

Jerry’s deep concern about the existential threats we face today, such as nuclear war and climate change, is matched by his enthusiasm for life and excitement over the fact that the future is unknowable. “We have to turn,” he says, “and everyone can contribute to amplifying the turn.” We discover some of the key formative events that shaped Jerry’s keenly discerning character, so evident throughout his career and still today in his eighties, and why co-host Roger Walsh describes him as a “force of nature.” This conversation is thoroughly enjoyable, inspirational, eye opening, and disturbing too. “We are on the brink, but no one wants to hear it,” Jerry says. “How do you speak the truth in a way it can be heard?” Recorded August 7, 2025.

>> Read more and listen to the full episode
Photo of Roger Walsh
Photo of Roger Walsh

Roger Walsh, M.D., Ph.D. DHL

Roger’s day jobs include being a University of California professor (of psychiatry, philosophy, anthropology, and religious studies), as well as a writer and researcher whose work has received over 20 national and international awards. Roger is also a meditation student, teacher, and researcher, a Tibetan Buddhist lama, and was formerly a circus acrobat, a world record high diver, and a spectacularly unsuccessful standup comedian.

Photo of John Dupuy

John Dupuy, M.A.

Professional wilderness guide, award-winning author, CEO of iAwake Technologies, pioneer applying Integral Theory to the field of addiction & recovery, dedicated tennis player...In his other lives, John has been a singer/songwriter, military police investigator, cowboy, and psychedelic guide. John is passionate about the grit, grind, glory, and grace of daily Integral practice.

Photo of John Dupuy