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Podcast Episodes
Robert Lawrence Kuhn (Part 2) – Exploring the Mysteries of Consciousness: Asking Life’s Big Questions
“It’s not that we have too many theories of consciousness, it’s that we have one too few.”
Ep. 182 (Part 2 of 2) | Robert Lawrence Kuhn, producer of the popular PBS series Closer to Truth, which explores consciousness, the mystery of existence, and related topics with an open-minded approach, recently authored a remarkable article: “A Landscape of Consciousness,” in which he surveyed over 200 theories about what consciousness is. Robert tells how he inhabited each theory for a few days while writing it up, and discovered that unlike with other fields of knowledge, a study of consciousness produces more theories the more we know, rather than narrowing the field down. He emphasizes we need to be expansive with our universe of understanding of what consciousness is, and realize that how we engage with the Big Questions of life depends upon our particular theory of consciousness.
Robert tells how the Big Questions, notably what is consciousness and why is there something rather than nothing, have called him all his life, leading him to create the Closer to Truth series, to explore these questions with the leading minds of our time. What Robert didn’t know to begin with, but marvels about now, is how the passion for delving into the most fundamental, existential questions we face as humans unifies people around the world, from every demographic, providing a unique and wonderful point of integration. This is a fascinating, warm, engaging conversation that draws us ever farther into an exploration of the mysteries of life, where we glimpse what lies at the core of humanity. Recorded April 17th, 2025.
Robert Lawrence Kuhn (Part 1) – Exploring the Mysteries of Consciousness: Asking Life’s Big Questions
“Consciousness is perhaps the single most unifying question that humanity can explore.”
Ep. 181 (Part 1 of 2) | Robert Lawrence Kuhn, producer of the popular PBS series Closer to Truth, which explores consciousness, the mystery of existence, and related topics with an open-minded approach, recently authored a remarkable article: “A Landscape of Consciousness,” in which he surveyed over 200 theories about what consciousness is. Robert tells how he inhabited each theory for a few days while writing it up, and discovered that unlike with other fields of knowledge, a study of consciousness produces more theories the more we know, rather than narrowing the field down. He emphasizes we need to be expansive with our universe of understanding of what consciousness is, and realize that how we engage with the Big Questions of life depends upon our particular theory of consciousness.
Robert tells how the Big Questions, notably what is consciousness and why is there something rather than nothing, have called him all his life, leading him to create the Closer to Truth series, to explore these questions with the leading minds of our time. What Robert didn’t know to begin with, but marvels about now, is how the passion for delving into the most fundamental, existential questions we face as humans unifies people around the world, from every demographic, providing a unique and wonderful point of integration. This is a fascinating, warm, engaging conversation that draws us ever farther into an exploration of the mysteries of life, where we glimpse what lies at the core of humanity. Recorded April 17th, 2025.
John Prendergast (Part 2) – Opening to Our Deepest Ground: Illuminating the Journey of Healing and Awakening
“We are on the wave of life waking up to itself through humanity.”
Ep. 180 (Part 2 of 2) | In this podcast, John Prendergast, spiritual teacher, depth psychotherapist (retired), and prolific author, eloquently lays out the territory we encounter on the spiritual path as we move towards opening to our deepest ground. John defines deepest ground as “ungraspable and unfathomable, something we can know intimately as a quality of awareness, unbounded and open.” “When we touch into this,” he continues, “we move from a place of love, peace and groundedness.” In working with students and clients over four decades, John says the presence or absence of ground has been the most important theme.
John has a gift for communicating exactly what is most useful for a spiritual practitioner to hear: taking an integral and nondual approach different from traditional psychotherapy, he invites us to evoke presence—welcome the experience, welcome the fear of annihilation—let go of ordinary knowledge and allow a translucent, transformative space to emerge around ordinary mind. Blending archetypal wisdom and guidance with spacious emptiness, John explains that opening to unbounded awareness supports the process of individuation and actualization; he also weaves in an intriguing version of the hero’s journey, where the hero emerges from the underground, not as a figure of accomplishment and victory, but as a simple, humble being, void of ego. The rich wisdom and gentle guidance offered here is invaluable, worthy of listening to many a time. Recorded November 7, 2024.
John Prendergast (Part 1) – Opening to Our Deepest Ground: Illuminating the Journey of Healing and Awakening
“Transcendence is a beautiful first step… but there’s a very important process of embodying awareness more and more deeply, in the physical body, in the subtle body.”
Ep. 179 (Part 1 of 2) | In this podcast, John Prendergast, spiritual teacher, depth psychotherapist (retired), and prolific author, eloquently lays out the territory we encounter on the spiritual path as we move towards opening to our deepest ground. John defines deepest ground as “ungraspable and unfathomable, something we can know intimately as a quality of awareness, unbounded and open.” “When we touch into this,” he continues, “we move from a place of love, peace and groundedness.” In working with students and clients over four decades, John says the presence or absence of ground has been the most important theme.
John has a gift for communicating exactly what is most useful for a spiritual practitioner to hear: taking an integral and nondual approach different from traditional psychotherapy, he invites us to evoke presence—welcome the experience, welcome the fear of annihilation—let go of ordinary knowledge and allow a translucent, transformative space to emerge around ordinary mind. Blending archetypal wisdom and guidance with spacious emptiness, John explains that opening to unbounded awareness supports the process of individuation and actualization; he also weaves in an intriguing version of the hero’s journey, where the hero emerges from the underground, not as a figure of accomplishment and victory, but as a simple, humble being, void of ego. The rich wisdom and gentle guidance offered here is invaluable, worthy of listening to many a time. Recorded November 7, 2024.
A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series (Dialogue 9, Part 2) -The Diamond Vehicle Revelations: True Nature’s Messages and Messengers of Wisdom
Ep. 178 (Part 2 of 2) | In the ninth dialogue of the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed gives a fascinating account of how four distinctly different wisdom teachings came to him in succession, directly from true nature, embodied in the form of diamonds. “In the beginning, I didn’t know…what the hell were these? Is it my imagination?” Hameed laughs. But then his colleagues and students experienced the diamondness too. Like angels of revelation, each diamond vehicle brings a different type of wisdom: the first diamond vehicle, Guidance, brings clarity and initiated the practice of inquiry; the second embodies the wisdom that pleasure is what we are, bringing an understanding of pleasure from a spiritual perspective; the third diamond vehicle holds the wisdom of how to conduct our lives from a place of truth, and the fourth the wisdom of true knowledge—knowing by being—the knowing that is needed for awakening.
Not only do we hear marvelous stories of how the diamond-shaped wisdom messengers appeared to Hameed, but he also imparts a wonderfully comprehensive yet succinct rendering of the teachings they brought, and the conversation flows from embodying wisdom to embodying pleasure, the inward turn, and why bliss must be combined with emptiness for enlightenment to occur. Also, how to live a life of truth with the inner compass provided by the third diamond teaching, the pitfalls of the ego’s tendency to accommodate others, how being is inseparable from knowing, and lots more. A very full, warm, rich conversation, filled also with humor, sparkle, and delight. Recorded January 30, 2025.
Roger Walsh’s New Edition of The World of Shamanism Available Now