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Posts by Heidi Mitchell
Transmuting Life’s Inevitable Pains: Embracing a Post-Tragic Perspective
“It’s not forgive and forget… It’s remember deeply. Become so intimate with what happened, feel every aspect of it, and let it be transformed by love.”
A deeply engaging conversation in which Alexander Love, adult development expert and coach, and author of the soon-to-be-published trilogy Evolutionary Gestures, introduces us to the post-tragic perspective, with all of its potential to nourish, ground, and open us to a world of possibilities. Alexander explains that post-tragic is not a developmental stage per se, but a dimension available to anyone willing to do the work. It’s part of a triad—pre-tragic innocence, tragic disillusionment, and post-tragic possibilities—encountered in every wisdom tradition, the hero’s journey, and every good story. Post-tragic is not about leaving the tragedy (trauma, pain, loss) behind, but about turning toward it and dropping into a dimension of being that can interface with it in a new way, from a place that isn’t divided or broken. It’s also about asking, what happens next, after the tragedy? How does the story proceed?
Shattering our certainty, a tragic event in our lives makes our world more diaphanous, Alexander continues, opening the way for us to lean further into the mystery. Here we encounter the vastness of possibility, the mystery being the first imagined wholeness, the seed of all potentiality, and we begin to see the sacred and the beauty in everything. Though the healing notion of facing our trauma and working through it is not new, Alexander’s pre-tragic, tragic, and post-tragic framework (deeply informed by his own experience) is compelling. With it, he has painted in the entire landscape around the core tragedy or trauma, giving us the full picture, the before and after, and connected us with a dimension of compassion and forgiveness that is liberating and full of promise. A wise, gentle, intense, warm, humble conversation. Recorded April 23, 2026.
Read MoreMany Truths, Many Teachings: Why Spiritual Paths Unveil Reality Differently
“Each path takes a human being deeper, vaster, bigger places… each particular logos can be seen as an expression of the optimizing force of the universe and logos.”
Ep. 240 | Co-host Roger Walsh found the novel concepts that A. H. Almaas presents in The Inner Journey Home’s Appendix G so intriguing, he asked Hameed for one last discussion to complete Deep Transformation’s systematic exploration of Hameed’s magnum opus. In Appendix G (and in this conversation), Hameed says that while there are many valid paths of awakening, different paths do not culminate in the same realization or experience. In other words, the Chinese proverb that says there are many ways to the top of the mountain, but the view is always the same is not accurate. Each spiritual teaching has its own logos, Hameed explains, its own “logic of experience and logic of practice that will naturally unfold the consciousness to open up to the secrets of reality and the depth of it, according to that particular logos.” This makes it possible for all different types of people, also from very different cultures, to “open to the perfection of reality in a way that liberates and makes sense to them.”
The logos of a spiritual teaching is not created by anyone, Hameed continues. This is reality practicing its intelligent, creative, and loving magic by manifesting through an individual or community to provide us with different ways of realizing true nature. When we find the right path, the teaching will “click,” Hameed says, and with time and practice, we may crack the code of the logos of our chosen path and fulfill our spiritual destiny. The conversation weaves in and out of the fascinating implications of Hameed’s teaching, clarifying why Eastern and Western spiritual teachings are so different, and what differentiates the logos of the Diamond Approach. In wrapping up, Roger and John acknowledge that their intensive study of The Inner Journey Home provided them with a transmission—and a transformation. Hameed agrees; by deeply contemplating this book, he says, we open ourselves to the transmission, to the understanding and experiencing of what is presented. Recorded July 16, 2026.
Read MoreFrom Lifespan to Joyspan: Embracing a Growth Mindset for Aging
“When we step into our power, we can revolutionize longevity.”
Renowned gerontologist and author Dr. Kerry Burnight is passionate about changing the way we think about aging. Growing older isn’t a bad thing, she emphasizes, let’s look at what gets better as we get older! Early in Dr. Kerry’s career, she marveled at how elderly people with the same degree of physical health could be absolutely miserable or happily engaged with life, and she dug into finding out why. Her research revealed four pillars of aging that together make all the difference in the quality of our well-being. Kerry urges us to adopt these practices as soon as we can, because just like with cardiovascular training, the earlier we start, the more benefit we accrue. In fact, the evidence is clear: research shows that people who have a “decline mindset” about aging die an average of seven years earlier than their counterparts with a “growth mindset.” It seems our beliefs about aging can easily become self-fulfilling prophecies.
Finding joy in the second half of life involves not only cultivating connection and growth among other things, but also, very importantly, countering our own internalized ageism. Dr. Kerry gives some telling examples of common derogatory thoughts we have about ourselves as we age, and shows us how we can turn this around and step into our power as older people. In a moving testament to the special beauty and authenticity of the elderly, Kerry expresses gratitude for her opportunities as a gerontologist to be infused with the presence of her patients, in all their humility and greater appreciation of friendships, nature, music, art—of life itself. A poignant, lovely, illuminating, and inspiring conversation with someone who lives her talk and is making a meaningful difference in a culture that has lost its way in its approach to aging and caring for elders. Recorded September 18, 2025.
Read MoreMeeting the Pain of the World: A Path to Collective Healing
“Unconscious information is destiny. Conscious information has a choice, has a future.”
In this brilliantly articulated and illuminating conversation, renowned international facilitator Thomas Hübl shares his deep understanding of the dynamics of collective trauma as well as practical wisdom about how we can heal the large, often inherited, wounds we carry. Thomas conveys the magnitude of problems created by shoving our collective wounds out of sight and mind, perhaps the worst consequence of which is when we do this, we are destined to repeat the same horrors over again. What we need, Thomas explains, is to develop an architecture that would provide a healing space to deal with our wounds (racism, genocide, and immigration, to name a few). Meeting our collective pain in this way would allow us to mature to a level of forgiveness where we could collaborate globally on urgent issues like AI and climate change. Without this healing, Thomas says, the energy that can forgive remains frozen in the wound.
The dialogue becomes profoundly hopeful as Thomas describes someone who has met their pain and healed themselves of individual and collective trauma. Listening is like receiving a transmission—for a moment we feel ourselves to be this person: integrated, authentic, vulnerable, fully attuned to our reality, at peace with both the beauty and the difficulties, free of false hopes and unrealistic dreams. If we could embrace the power of collective healing that Thomas has witnessed again and again in his work, and “melt the permafrost of our collective trauma,” we could step out of the never-ending cycle of violence, cruelty, and misunderstanding that will otherwise continue to haunt us. This conversation goes right to the heart of things: if we recognize our interrelatedness and find a way to practice interdependence, we can grow beyond our individual and collective pain into a tremendously more hopeful future. Recorded October 30, 2025.
Read MoreWhen Soul, World & God Became Separate: The Loss, the Paradox & the Promise of Integration
“The spiritual ground that science doesn’t deal with is needed to complete the story.”
Ep. 237 | In the 19th dialogue of the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, an exploration of the final chapter of The Inner Journey Home, Hameed Ali looks at the evolution of Western culture and how it happened that soul, world, and God became divided as the culture developed. Hameed explains this was a necessary evolutionary step, an inherent part of our development, and though we lost our spiritual footing in the process (with secularization came a “gaping emptiness, meaninglessness, a lack of true fulfillment”), the separation of science and Church freed science and later psychology to take off on their own trajectories, leading to great strides in our understanding of our physical world and psychological make-up. The secularization of society turned out to have plenty of benefits, including improving the physical and economic well-being of many.
But where does that leave us now, and what does the future hold? Will there be an integration of these disparate parts, where spiritual ground becomes a foundational piece of our next stage of evolution? Can the scientific perspective, with its precision and clarity of mind, be brought to bear on our inner life of spiritual inquiry as well as the outer nature of reality? In realizing that our soul needs life’s encounters to mature—meditation alone is not enough—will we find the lost “pearl beyond price” individually and possibly collectively or in small groups? Hameed concludes by telling us that the Diamond Approach is about redeeming the mind: integrating the diamond clarity of the intellect with spiritual depth. He shares his vision of fully realized scientists merging a spiritual perspective with precise and penetrating inquiry, and ends with the wish for all human beings to know: “People who are listening… it’s possible for you.” Recorded June 11, 2026.
Read MoreThe Call of the Cosmos: Aligning with Cosmic Evolution & Its Creative Impulse
“If you look at the universe through telescopes, you see stars and galaxies… However, if you engage in a relationship with the universe through, say, devotional or contemplative practices, you discover other qualities.”
Ep. 236 | In The Call of the Cosmos, cosmologist and astronomer Stephan Martin brings a new and revelatory perspective into play on Deep Transformation, sharing his profound knowledge of the evolving cosmos and its relationship with consciousness. To cover the immensity of the mystery we are involved in, Steve explains, we need to look at both the inner dimension—consciousness—and the outer mystery, the cosmos. Steve does a remarkable job of explaining the psychological, spiritual, and ethical implications of living in an evolving universe, and draws fascinating parallels between cosmic evolution and human evolution, and the manifestation of being and cosmos. Steve teaches that we can expand the concept of self from separate, small self to ecological self to planetary self, and beyond—to cosmic self.
Steve says the fundamental essence of the universe is creativity, and invites us to heed the call of the cosmos and align ourselves with cosmic creativity by expressing the whole through our individual modes of being. “What is the causal cosmic chain that leads to our allurement to do a certain thing?” he asks, adding, “13.8 billion years of cosmic evolution have led to this moment.” The universe is participatory, Steve has discovered, and we live in a relational reality. Put on your paradigm shifting hat for this lively, wise, and impassioned conversation. Your relationship with the cosmos will be illuminated for sure, and quite possibly entirely transformed. Steve is also a gifted author; you can explore more in his books Cosmic Conversations, This Playful Universe, Becoming the Change, and soon, Traveling in the Shadow of the Moon. Recorded August 21, 2025.
Read MoreExploring God, Soul & Reality: A. H. Almaas’ Mystical Theology
“When we experience the absolute, we see it as the truth of everything, the nature of everything—all are glimmerings of the absolute.”
Ep. 235 | In the 18th dialogue of the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali delves into the fascinating subject of how the physical world is related to the absolute. From a nondual perspective, reality includes the physical world, he explains; the world cannot be reduced to an illusion. Material reality is every bit as compelling as the spiritual perspective, he continues. How we perceive it depends on where we find our stance, what we are immersed in—in the formless or the world of form. Hameed recognizes and honors physical reality, while describing material objects as expressions, or glimmerings, of the ground of being—the physical and the ground of being inseparable, whether pure presence or pure emptiness.
And how does the relationship between creator and creation relate to the individual? Hameed presents his mystical theology: a triadic reality formed by God, the individual, and the physical world, where each maintains its own truth. Because the absolute is inherently not self-aware, it needs an individual to become aware of itself, he explains. We are its “knowing instruments.” Hameed’s mystical theology, establishing the relationship between the human being, the world, and God, or true nature, is both elevating and grounding, enlightening and somehow comforting. The essential puzzle pieces of reality fitted together, creating unity. From atoms and quarks to what happens after death and how all dimensions can possibly exist in exquisite harmony when there is so much disharmony in the world, this conversation is far ranging, stimulating, and punctuated with laughter, as Hameed, Roger, and John continue to explore The Inner Journey Home. Recorded May 14, 2026.
Read MoreWhen One Sex Loses, Everyone Loses: Warren Farrell on the Boy Crisis, Dad-Deprivation & Healing the Gender Divide
“We’re all in this together. We’re all in the same family boat.”
Ep. 234 | Renowned thought leader, speaker, and prolific author Warren Farrell has a passion for getting the truth out about issues that matter deeply—issues with enormous human consequences that might begin to heal if people better understood the forces driving these trends: the boy crisis, fatherlessness, the cultural tendency to vilify men, and the lack of healthy and effective communication between men and women. Warren has authored several data-driven bestselling books that go right to the heart of these matters, and in this conversation his expertise is clearly evident, right alongside his dedication to do everything he can to shift the evolution of the harmful idea that women are good but men are bad.
Warren has put himself on the line time and again to stand up for fatherless boys. He puts out a clarion call to couples to communicate with care, so that a father can be involved with the raising of a child, and in his books and workshops, Warren offers concrete steps to minimize children’s trauma, such as his four must-do’s after a divorce and the caring and sharing practices he teaches couples around accepting criticism without getting defensive. Immensely insightful, immensely practical, Warren points the way forward through a territory that has become murky, difficult, and hateful. Guaranteed, you will learn things about our contemporary culture you didn’t know before, and be inspired to do what you can to heal the disastrous divide between the sexes. Recorded September 25, 2025.
Read MoreBedazzled Mind, Boundless Heart: Living as the Love We Always Longed For
“We can be in the lap of the beloved and still enjoy life—loving everything from that place.”
Ep. 233 | In the last episode of the Path of Love Series with A. H. Almaas, Hameed explores the themes he introduced in the later chapters of his new book, The Inner Beloved. Hameed clarifies the role of mind on the path of heart (the mind is bedazzled and awed; the heart open), and details what happens when we reach the beloved, like “falling in love with everything” and experiencing the absolute as a “coming home” (even though there’s no one there!). We learn that, on the path of love, no matter what we do or don’t do, a heart-driven force beyond the mind is pulling us onward. Once we arrive, we realize the beloved has always been there—which is why our heart has been longing for the beloved all along.
Hameed explains that on the path of love, nonduality becomes intimacy—reality itself is pure intimacy, he says—and in fact, the nonbeingness of the beloved is the ultimate truth of reality. In a state of mystical poverty, we discover that all we are and have ever been has been borrowed from the beloved. The culmination of this Path of Love Series ends very beautifully, the love and intimacy of the beloved pervading Hameed’s words and the images he conjures for us. “The world is simply the luminosity of the beloved,” Hameed says. In listening to him, we share in some of the wonderful sense of coming home he experienced, a little of the radiant luminosity, too, and his own ongoing excitement over the ever unfolding mystery of the divine. Recorded April 9, 2026.
Read MoreZen for a World on Fire: How Zen Helps Us to Wake Up, Grow Up & Rise to the Challenges of Our Time
“There’s nothing like sitting with what is to prepare you to be with what is.”
In this potent and profound conversation, Zen teachers, Integral Facilitators, and conflict mediators, Diane Musho Hamilton and her student and co-author Gabriel Wilson, eloquently reveal the practical benefits of a life founded on contemplative practice. What they bring home so effectively—both in this conversation and in their new book, Waking Up and Growing Up—is how much we have to gain from an interface of traditional Zen and contemporary knowledge. “Buddhist practice is the most genius way to work with human suffering,” Diane says, and grounded in awareness of the fundamental oneness is where we want to be when engaging in social or political activism, or when facing any kind of conflict. “It’s the evolution of consciousness and the attendant set of skills to support that,” she continues. We can awaken to an awareness of our true nature, and then take up the gauntlet of growing up—“straight up maturation, straight-up ego development.”
In fact, what Gabe calls Diane’s “experiment” is nothing less than evolving the 2,500-year-old tradition of Zen, preserving and innovating, holding on to the wisdom, power, and grace of the tradition while bringing in the contributions of the West: psychology, shadow work, neuroscience, emotional development, and stage-appropriate interpersonal skills. Also, how to make sense of power dynamics, work with authority, and allow being pushed out of our comfort zone. A testament to Diane and Gabe’s own inner work, this groundbreaking conversation is inspiring and impactful, punctuated with deep, personal, experiential wisdom from both guests that speaks directly to how we can best wake up, grow up, and show up in this challenging world of ours. Recorded July 24, 2025.
Read MoreAt Our Essence, We Are Love: Becoming Intimate with Everything
“Regardless of what we think and feel, at our essence we are love.”
Ep. 231 (Part 2 of 2) | In Part 2 of Deep Transformation’s third dialogue in the Path of Love Series with A. H. Almaas, Hameed Ali relates what happens on the path of return, after we have experienced dissolving into the radiance of the absolute. In following the path of heart (as opposed to the path of mind), we discover that in addition to pure emptiness, the absolute has (in its beingness aspect) a quality of consciousness that is pure intimacy. “The beloved is intimate with all things in the universe: intimate with people, with the rocks, with the stars… because its nature pervades everything.” Upon returning to the world, we find the universe has become the radiance of the beloved and ordinary life becomes full of love. That said, we may experience a great fear of losing our awakened realization, Hameed adds, which can further stir up old woundings which still need to be faced.
Back in the world, as the embodied beloved, do you feel compassion for other people’s suffering? co-host John Dupuy wonders. The extent of the compassion is almost unimaginable, Hameed answers. There is vast empathy for all the suffering in the world, and especially for the deep suffering underlying it all that is caused by people not knowing their inner truth. It is by giving the beloved the opportunity to appear and know itself as we live our lives that we love and serve the inner beloved, Hameed continues. He explains that awareness is the beloved witnessing its creation, and that the emptiness aspect of the beloved, emphasized in Buddhism and on the path of mind, brings a searing clarity to our experience. A beautiful conversation, in which co-host Roger Walsh remarks that the presence of the inner beloved seems to be increasingly reflected in these dialogues as they unfold. Perhaps you will feel it too. Recorded January 29, 2026.
Read MoreDissolving into Bliss: The Ecstasy of Ego Death
“It is inherent to the human being… the movement to dissolve into bliss, into the beloved.”
The third dialogue in the Path of Love Series with A. H. Almaas opens with co-host Roger Walsh commenting that in reading Hameed’s most recent book, The Inner Beloved, he is struck by how different the Diamond Approach’s path of love is from those in other traditions. Hameed explains that, indeed, his path is different in that it addresses the sequence of events on the path of love systematically, using contemporary psychological language to describe the difficulties and barriers that arise, and further, that he includes not only obstacles that come up in the mind (concepts and beliefs), but emotional pain and woundings, abandonments and betrayals, which is something other traditions don’t often talk about. Why are our hearts not open? Because opening to such painful emotions is scary; our fear blocks us from opening to the vastness of divine love. The secret to moving forward on the path of love, Hameed says, is to love more intensely, more deeply. Love itself is the fuel that gets us through the obstacles to union with the inner beloved.
Hameed speaks of the “death wish” that happens along the path, referring to our desire to dissolve completely into the beloved. “The deep heart loves the prospect of melting away and being nothing, being annihilated, completely absorbed into the beloved,” he explains. The death wish is a common reference in other paths of love, too—the Buddha calls this annihilation of self “emptiness”—and interestingly, Freud recognized it as a universal human characteristic, calling it the nirvana principle. “A deep intuition resides in every human heart,” Hameed continues, “a need for unification with what we love.” This can be small things—chocolate ice cream, our cell phone—which are legitimate objects of love, but in the end, only the inner beloved calls. Once again, Hameed gifts us with an illuminating teaching about the path of love, our desire for nonbeing, the hidden essence of love, and the integration of all we have let go of that happens after we awaken—all coming directly from his own lived experience. Recorded January 29, 2026.
Read MoreThe Practice of Equanimity: Cultivating a Heart Big Enough to Hold Everything
“What aids in my equanimity more than anything else is self-forgiveness.”
In part 2 of our What is Real Greatness Series podcast with Margaret Cullen, author of Quiet Strength, Margaret continues to enlighten us about equanimity: its power, its wisdom, and its practice. She relates some of the history of equanimity—first considered a supreme virtue in Stoicism, then passed on to Sufism and Judaism—and explains that throughout time, equanimity (and humility) have always been an integral part of people who have made a true difference in the world. Margaret talks about how humor can break the spell of our trance (“when we lose equanimity, we get caught in a trance, believing in something that has us prisoner—humor breaks the spell”), and, in the spirit of “The Serenity Prayer” (“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference”), she encourages us to make peace with what we can realistically do and let the rest go.
While Part 1 of this dialogue focuses on the power of equanimity in relation to the big picture and what is going on now politically, in Part 2 Margaret looks at practicing equanimity in personal relationships and in our individual lives. She marvels at Thoreau’s equanimous approach to his own death, and shares that she has found forgiveness to be the most important equanimity tool in relationships. “We reclaim our wisdom when we say ‘I’m sorry,’” Margaret explains. Margaret’s deep and nuanced understanding of the power and practice of equanimity is inspiring and illuminating, and bringing this virtue to our attention as a pragmatic tool we can use is also incredibly timely, leaving us with a sense of hope and empowerment. Recorded January 14, 2026.
Read MoreThe Power & Wisdom of Equanimity: Getting Beyond Reactivity to Inner Calm & Clarity
“How do we care about this world that is in so much trouble without feeling overwhelmed? The answer is equanimity.”
Ep. 228 (Part 1 of 2) | In part 1 of our second What is Real Greatness Series podcast, Margaret Cullen, author of the newly published book Quiet Strength: Find Peace, Feel Alive, and Love Boundlessly Through the Power of Equanimity, explains there is far more power in the virtue of equanimity than we may have thought. Because equanimity is associated with non-reactivity, people often confuse it with a neutral sort of feeling, a dampener of emotions, when actually, equanimity allows us to expand our capacity to feel; it widens our tolerance and empowers us to be comfortable with change. “Equanimity is big enough to include our broken, despairing hearts,” Margaret says. “We can hold a vision of equanimity that is completely inclusive of the human experience.” Practicing equanimity allows us to deepen our love—for the world and for others—without becoming attached.
Margaret shares practical ways we can access equanimity—ways we can achieve conceptual clarity or a “wedge of spaciousness” when a moment has been hijacked by out-of-control emotions; how we can learn to turn directly and fully to what is arising in the moment; and how we can unhook from reactivity by not taking things too personally. “How can we respond heroically to the times we live in?” co-host John Dupuy asks. Margaret shares what she has learned teaching military units and special forces to cultivate equanimity—equanimity can save lives—and describes a compassion cultivation training program that has been established for police officers in California. Takeaways from this discussion may have important, powerful, timely effects on your life—and all of our lives; as John put it, “Never before have we had such a need for the medicine Margaret brings us.” Recorded January 14, 2026.
Read MoreThe Awe & Ecstasy of Surrendering to the Inner Beloved
“The beloved is the source of love and what loves everything.”
Ep. 227 (Part 2 of 2) | In Part 2 of Deep Transformation’s second Path of Love Series dialogue, A. H. Almaas explains that the inner beloved is at work in our hearts, pulling us irresistibly nearer as we venture forward on the path of love. The force comes and pulls us, he says, melts us and overwhelms us—sometimes with wounding and sometimes with ecstasy. Our great love for the inner beloved ultimately dissolves our attachments to other, smaller beloveds, which can be big things—family, friends, teachers—or little things: ice cream, cake, our favorite movie star. But our heart isn’t going to be happy until it meets the beloved face to face, Hameed assures us. Then, after emptying our heart, when we finally behold the inner beloved, love becomes the nature of the whole universe. Now our relationships are expressions of the inner beloved, and we find we love everything.
What makes the Diamond Approach’s path of love unique is that it uses love and inquiry combined to penetrate the obstacles that arise along the path. Thus, obstacles are not only burnt away through sheer devotion but also understood and recognized for what they are. Hameed also explains the difference between spiritual poverty of the soul and mystical poverty of the heart, between realization of the absolute via the path of mind versus the path of love, that nonduality is an outer expression of the inner beloved, and describes his own astonishing experience of “thunder and lightning in the heart” on this path. Towards the end of the conversation, Hameed reminds us that when we feel love, that is the beginning. Take the love itself rather than the object of the love, he says, and let it get bigger, let it get deeper, see where it takes you. Recorded January 8, 2026.
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