Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Dr. Neil's Spiritual Awakening to Non-Duality

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This podcast opens with a description of the human stages of development or Growing Up, from caveman to enlightened sage. The hosts make the point that we can have an advanced state of consciousness at any stage, such as a heart opening in a tribal stage or a non-dual glimpse in a rational stage. We will then interpret that state experience through the lens of our stage – “Jesus loves me” or “We’re all connected in quantum reality.” For this reason, it’s essential to focus on our emotional, cognitive, and moral development, along with shadow awareness – Growing Up – because it’s invisibly shaping and interpreting our reality all along the way. But it is typically devalued in religious/mystical traditions as less important than spiritual development -- Waking Up. Dr. Neil describes his own experiences of Waking Up in earlier stages of development.

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Dr. Neil describes the Witness as pure consciousness, the background that always is in all states of awareness. In the conventional waking state, we are not aware of it because we are identified with our subjectivity or with an object. When the Witness emerges, we separate and become identified with the Self or pure consciousness – I Am That – and feel free inside from identification with body, mind, feelings. This sense of freedom from subject/object, attraction/aversion is a cue that we are in the Witness. When we move into non-duality, the Witness seems to disappear at first. But it’s always already there – and reappears as we move our attention between duality and non-duality in the world.

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“The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.”—the third Chinese patriarch of Zen.

Today Neil describes the role of preferences, likes and dislikes, love and hate after awakening. He addresses the question: How do we include the people or behaviors that we find unacceptable in the One? If we feel a great attraction or aversion to a politician, celebrity, or friend, do we need to do shadow-work post-awakening? He explains that these pairs of opposites, and their shadow material, are different in different stages of consciousness – and therefore require a different attention.

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Dr. Neil describes the higher emotions that arose before and after his awakening:

well-being in the physical and subtle bodies, nectar in the mouth, blissful equanimity, dynamic waves of ecstasy, and rapture or non-dual samadhi. He points out that these states are now available to him at will, with and without dualistic functioning in the world, as he works and speaks with people. The last state alone does not allow him to operate in duality.

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What is the location of an awakened consciousness that is beyond space/time? How do we situate ourselves in space when the dualities of local/nonlocal or near/far are dissolved? The mystical traditions teach that longing for union with the divine beloved or Source is inherent in the human soul. What happens when that distance disappears, union is attained –and, even more, we identify with that Source? Our cosmic location becomes “I am That which is Everything, Everywhere.” Or, as Dr Neil put it, “I’m free from being anywhere.”

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Dr. Neil describes an overview of his journey from psychic intuition to the Knower, to the Traveler beyond space/time, to the dissolution of subject/object and becoming One with the objects of perception near and far. At that point, he realizes that there is nowhere to go, Everything in his body. Then he experiences astral projection but not as the traveler; he becomes One with the astral body and plane. Then this expands to the mental, buddhic, and celestial planes. Then it expands to the galaxy, and he is That. His latest realization includes a golden orb whose beings are creating and dissolving the manifest world.

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Podcast listeners have posted some interesting questions to us: What is the difference between your Knower and the arrogance of a know-it-all? Is there an end point to the evolution of consciousness? Should we try to develop psychic abilities or siddhis (yogic powers), or will they inevitably unfold? How does advanced spiritual experience affect future lifetimes? What is your identity while living in nonduality? What happens to fun or pleasure for enlightened folks?

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"Form is emptiness; emptiness is form." This adage from the Heart Sutra describes non-dual reality in Buddhist terms: all form is basically empty, that is, neither permanent nor substantial. And emptiness, as the source and nature of form, is reality. Dr. Neil describes the stages of his direct experience of emptiness, from empty action, to empty speech, to empty mind, to empty self, to empty object, to empty cosmos. As he awakened to the formless self that underlies the forms of ego, he awoke to the emptiness of all forms—and the nonduality of self and world.

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Dr. Neil describes how, since his unity with everything has stabilized, the sensory perceptions of his astral, mental, and celestial bodies have clarified. Each of them works differently. With nondual awareness, he is in union with everything but can separate himself out to see through walls, communicate with deceased people and masters in higher planes, and explore the galaxy. He emphasizes that these are not siddhis, or yogic powers, but the natural result of his expanding awareness of Oneness with the subtle realms.

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Dr. Neil describes several states of consciousness beyond ego – pleasure, well-being, joy, ecstasy, and radiance. He explains that they exist as eternal frequencies and can be tuned into when the chakras and subtle bodies are prepared. They are beyond subject/object dualities, beyond doer/receiver, unlike ego states of pleasure or joy.

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Dr. Neil describes soul awareness as a stage that emerged for him after his awakening to non-duality. He recalls six past lives (one that includes Me), their common themes, and the purpose of his soul group. He suggests that the value of remembering past lives is to expand our identity from the local, immediate body/mind we inhabit today to the soul, which cycles through births and deaths as it evolves without end.

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Dr. Neil explores the development of a separate identity as a necessary step in evolution as part of the heroic ego’s journey. Then he describes current identity politics as an example of both progress and a hindrance to further development. If we get stuck in a local identity – race, ethnicity, gender, orientation, political tribe, age, religion, beliefs – the expansion of consciousness to our spiritual nature gets blocked. We will miss the freedom that comes from letting go of I, Me, Mine into an unbounded, infinite identification with Everything. The freedom of the shift from role to soul.

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Dr. Neil explores several ways to access the astral plane. He describes a recent experience in which his astral body became transparent and infinite, like his physical body, containing everything in the universe. This opened a deeper emotional connection to people on the astral plane and a more profound identification with deathlessness.

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Dr. Neil describes the conventional experience of time -- past, present, future -- as the ego’s time. But he suggests that this is a mental construct because he also experiences divine time, in which creation, maintenance, and destruction are ongoing in every moment, and soul time, which is more cyclic and has no beginning or end. Since he has consciously realized these three subjective experiences of time, he has changed the way he works with patients to focus less on the past and more on the present moment, because it’s all here now.

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Dr. Neil explores human evolution from caveman, to tribal, to individual, to heart-centered levels of consciousness. Each stage has its own moral/immoral behavior. For those few who awaken to non-duality, morality is not rooted in subject/object, but Dr. Neil suggests that they must maintain both dual and non-dual awareness to act morally. When the subject and/or object disappear, there is a risk of acting out immoral behavior unless morality has been grounded and internalized in earlier stages.

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Dr. Neil describes the role of physical, emotional, and mental separateness with me, his wife, as a foundation for the expansion of consciousness. He suggests that the divine manifests separate people and objects to experience itself in infinite ways. He explores the experience of emptiness as his essential nature and how it shapes his personal love, our love, and non-dual love without an object. The balance between separateness/independence and unity/Oneness is a tricky issue for every relationship. But, ultimately, we are all joined in the divine.

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Dr. Neil describes his personal journey of awakening from a past life to this rebirth, young age, teachers and guides, practices, and life circumstances. He emphasizes that his journey is not monastic; it’s a householder becoming a full human being and using what life offers as his spiritual curriculum.

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Who is healthy? Who is ill? As the individual human soul leaves the divine source and incarnates in a body/mind, it carries the influence of several kinds of karma: individual karma from lifetimes, group karma, and the collective karma of humanity (as we witnessed in the pandemic). It’s also influenced by genes, environment, and lifestyle choices. Dr. Neil explores the interconnections of health, longevity, and consciousness.

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What is attachment, and how does it evolve? Dr. Neil describes the nature of attachment when we identify as egos, as souls, and as Spirit or pure consciousness. Is non-attachment the goal of spiritual practice? He explores the experience of attachment while living in non-dual states and duality at the same time.

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Every great spiritual tradition teaches about sacred service. Dr. Neil points out that service is structured in consciousness. We can take action and serve others from an ego level, with attachment to the outcome and to our own needs, such as in transactional relationships. We can act and serve at a soul level, with deeper compassion and less attachment, but still within duality. And we can act or serve with a non-dual level of consciousness, in which subject and object disappear in unity and the divine flows through us.

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Dr. Neil describes his discovery of the nonduality of empty mind, empty body, empty cosmos, as he transcended three kinds of apparent duality: body-mind, self-other, and individual-cosmos. This episode is focused on the latter, as he perceives the planets in his body, the macrocosm in the microcosm—as above so below. And he calls the cosmos a giant empty body that enfolds an infinity of empty bodies, like our own, all arising and dissolving together.

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Demonstrating the Inquiry practice of the Diamond Approach, Dr. Neil moves into the present moment and articulates his experience as his consciousness expands from his local identity in the body outward to the solar system and the galaxy, as he perceives it, then unifies with it. His awareness moves from dualistic to non-dual realities as he inquires into the nature of the microcosm and the macrocosm and their intimate connection.

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Dr. Neil explores spirituality through the lifespan in the context of the new longevity. Is it important to build an ego before transcending an ego? Is it important to earn money, build relationships, and contribute to society before practicing meditation? What is the ideal age to begin a spiritual practice? What are the risks of starting too early and skipping developmental stages? What is the purpose of later life according to most spiritual traditions?

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Dr. Neil explores the nature of suffering as it is experienced in dualistic and non-dual levels of consciousness. He points to identification and attachment as two roots of physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering. And he describes his own experience while speaking during the podcast with a headache.

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Dr. Neil explores incorrect assumptions about awakening based on his lived experience, such as the belief that there is an ultimate state of consciousness, that the ego and shadow are eliminated, that physical health is required, that we can “get” enlightened, and that death interferes with our evolution.

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Dr. Neil describes the three stages he experienced as he evolved as a psychologist with his clients: Subject/object duality, in which he diagnoses and treats people; a reciprocal system or intersubjective field, in which the two are connected; and the non-dual field, in which the world soul is in the room. Each stage transcends and includes the earlier stages.

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Dr. Neil explores key questions: How can someone be awake in a high stage and still act out his or her personal shadow? Why is there an epidemic of gurus and priests acting out their shadows today? Why do we need to cultivate shadow awareness in the context of our spiritual lives? Because there is shadow material stored in the subtle body at each chakra, he goes through each one and describes the risk of eruption of shadow material at that stage.

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Dr. Neil explores the worlds beneath the root chakra: animal, plant, mineral, molecular, atomic and subatomic. Then he explores above the 6th chakra to the 7th and beyond, in which evolution moves from human to divine, from local non-duality to vast, cosmic non-duality.

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Dr. Neil details the personal experiences that shaped his evolution from infancy in the root chakra, tribal belonging in the second, budding individuality in the third, expanding identity with humanity in the fourth, further expansion to identify with the planet in the fifth, and the deepening of mystical experience in the sixth chakra. He explains that most of humanity remains gripped by tribalism in the second chakras and that this explains a lot of our current crises. It also sheds light on teachers who may have temporary experiences of higher states, then act out their shadows, because they remain identified with the second chakra.

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A few days after the US election, Dr. Neil explores the primary human levels of consciousness: alligator, tribal, individual, soul, and non-dual. He describes their traits and what it may mean for the tribal level to take power for the evolution of consciousness. He suggests that we can engage in activism with a broader and deeper awareness that we are all connected and that our activism does not stem from ego or personal attachment but is part of a larger flow of life. So, rather than spreading darkness by perpetuating more shadow projection, enemy-making, and right/wrong thinking, we can help to spread the light.

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Dr. Neil describes moving his attention between duality and non-duality during daily life as he looks at an object, speaks with someone, or feels something. This simultaneous bounded and unbounded awareness gives him access to blissful states and to subtle sources of knowing. He describes his initial awakening during a migraine and his current experiences of physical pain in the context of his vast awareness.

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Dr. Neil describes the evolution of human love through the stages (or chakras) of self/other in family love, romantic love, and spiritual devotion. He explores how it opens into non-dual love, where subject/object and space/time disappear into boundless love, a quality of the divine. And he describes his experience of our 30-year relationship as it evolved, for him, into non-dual love.

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Based on his direct experience, Dr. Neil explores life in the first plane beyond death, where some people travel after dropping their bodies. He describes several friends who recently died and their experiences of traveling through the bardos or planes beyond physical death, revealing common misunderstandings about the astral plane.

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Based on his direct experience, Dr. Neil describes his own journey through the stages of death (bardos). He also explores other peoples’ deaths, friends, parents, and his guru, as he follows them through the process of death and rebirth. Because his consciousness is everywhere at once—no near/far, no past/future – he lives here now and at the same time on the other side.

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Dr. Neil explores the expansion of his identity from an ego to the soul to the divine. His early, visual, local subject/object non-duality opened out into a vast non-dual reality that includes everything in the galaxy, beyond physical sight and beyond space/time. His current state: I am everything everywhere.

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Dr. Neil describes living as a soul, rather than an ego. He says that human beings are part of one soul, the human soul. And there are other soul groups, which is why we resonate with some people. The soul is always there; it’s never not there, even between lifetimes. It’s always becoming, or evolving, as distinct from the being or the unchanging nature of pure awareness or consciousness. He experiences both at all times and feels free of his desires or limitations because he is all of it at every moment. This is life as a soul.

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The start of a 3-part series: Dr. Neil explores the stages of his development from sensory awareness to tribal identity to a separate individual identity with an integrated ego. This then led to transcending his individuality and local sense of self to include more and more aspects of life. His identity kept transcending and including old forms, until he experienced local non-duality, the emptiness of both self and object, I and Thou. His path was not one of negation but of inclusion of greater and greater identities. Part 2: Living as a Soul. Part 3: Living as Spirit: I am everything.

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Dr. Neil distinguishes between sensory knowing and divine knowing or the inner Knower, the source of all knowledge. He discusses knowing with the subtle bodies and doing psychotherapy as a spiritual practice for this. He suggests that there is no part of life that's not directed toward waking up. It all fits together.

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A healer redirected Dr. Neil’s attention toward involution, coming into the body before transcending the body. He began to cultivate the lower chakras, which had been denied earlier. This healer taught Dr. Neil how to use a pendulum, which opened his 7th chakra. The “Knower” in him began to see directly into his patients’ bodies and psyches, and his therapy practice changed. His inner sight began to expand to his own body, through the walls, into the cosmos. And separation dissolved.

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Dr. Neil was first aware of being awake during a past lifetime in India. He recalls his physical birth, and then forgot his awakening to experience the human journey. He learned mystical practices early, but he grew sick and was told by a healer, his first teacher, that he was on the wrong path.

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What are your beliefs about awakening or enlightenment? How do you know if they are true? In this first episode, we will introduce one man's lived experience of non-duality, the reality that everything is consciousness or Buddha Nature or the same essence. So everything is connected to everything else -- 

Not Two -- Non-Dual.