Explore every episode of the podcast Buddha at the Gas Pump

Award-winning translator, author, poet, teacher, and workshop leader, Carmen Acevedo Butcher, PhD, is core faculty and Dean at the Center for Action and Contemplation, founded by Father Richard Rohr. Her translation for Shambhala Publications of the fourteenth-century contemplative classic The Cloud of Unknowing received a 46th Georgia Author of the Year Award. Martin Laird calls her translation of Brother Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence “the new standard,” and it was named by Spirituality & Practice to its Best Books List. At the University of Georgia Carmen earned an MA and a PhD in Medieval Studies, and as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of London, she worked with monastic manuscripts in London and Oxbridge libraries and translated homilies by the tenth-century Benedictine abbot, Ælfric of Eynsham, published as God of Mercy: Ælfric’s Sermons and Theology (Mercer University Press). Carmen has been interviewed on the BBC World Service The Compass, NPR Morning Edition, Center for Action and Contemplation’s Everything Belongs, Turning to the Mystics, and Learning How To See, and many other podcasts. She teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, in the College Writing Programs, and she is often found in the marsh chanting Psalm 46:10 in Old English.

Barbara Whitfield was a researcher at the University of Connecticut Medical School with psychiatry professor Bruce Greyson. Together they researched the after-effects of people who have had a Near-Death Experience. She taught at Rutger's University's Institute for Alcohol and Drug Studies School for 12 years, served on the board and executive board of The International Association for Near-Death Studies and was president of the Kundalini Research Network. She's been a guest expert on Larry King Live (twice), The Today Show, Man Alive, Donahue, Unsolved Mysteries, PM Magazine, Good Morning America, Oprah, Joan Rivers, Sonya Freeman, CNN Medical News, and Alabama Public Television, Imus, and All Things Considered. She also writes self-help books and provides workshops and speaking engagements on topics of recovery, near-death experiences and natural spirituality.

Charles L Whitfield MD was a physician, psychotherapist, and internationally recognized expert on mental illness, behavioral problems, and recovery. He was an associate professor of medicine at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine for 4 years and then taught medicine and addiction medicine as associate professor of medicine, psychiatry and family medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine for eight years. He has been on the faculty of the Rutgers University Summer Institute of Alcohol and Drug Studies since 1978, and in the private practice of medicine and psychotherapy since 1976. He has been voted by his peers as one of the Best Doctors in America every year since 1994.

Barbara and Charles had a private practice in Atlanta, Georgia helping adults who have been repeatedly traumatized, who are having problems in living, who want to come off of psych drugs and/or opiates, and who may have had a spiritually transformative experience.

Books:

• Dragon Energy: Myth and Reality (New)
• Spiritual Awakenings: Insights of the Near-Death Experience and Other Doorways to Our Soul
• The Natural Soul: Unity with the Spiritual Energy that Connects Us: What it Looks like and how It Feels
• AFGEs: A Guide to Self-Awareness and Change
• The Power of Humility: Choosing Peace over Conflict in Relationships

Website: barbara-whitfield.com

Dave Markowitz explores empaths, empathic overwhelm, and the sacred work of healing ourselves and our world. He shares how trauma, sensitivity, intuition, and our connection with Source can shape the way we experience ourselves and other people.

A Source intuitive, bestselling author, healing facilitator, and longtime student of human transformation, Dave draws on decades of experience working with highly sensitive people. He describes his own discovery that he was an empath, how he learned to distinguish his own feelings from what he was absorbing from others, and why he believes many of us are naturally empathic.

The conversation explores the deeper roots of empathic overwhelm, including four original wounds and the movement from an early experience of oneness into separation and individuation. Dave explains why simply protecting or shielding ourselves from other people’s energy may address symptoms without addressing the deeper source of the problem.

Rick and Dave also discuss trauma, fear, anger and grief; relationships and community; forgiveness; meditation and nonduality; connecting with Source; intuitive guidance; and the importance of allowing difficult experiences to become part of our growth rather than trying to escape them.

Dave offers a practical perspective on becoming more resilient without becoming closed off—and on how our own healing can ripple outward, affecting the people and communities around us.

Monica Khosla explores spiritual awakening, nonduality, and liberation through the surprising lens of neuroscience and memory reconsolidation. A somatic psychotherapist, she describes a sudden shift during a yoga class in 2009 in which the sense of being a separate self simply fell away.

Monica is the author of The First and Last Belief: A Theory of Liberation in the Age of Neuroscience. In this conversation with Rick Archer, she considers whether the apparent end of separation may be understood as the release of a fundamental embodied assumption—an update in the brain’s model of reality rather than the attainment of a special spiritual status.

They discuss her early spiritual experiences, her long search through psychology, yoga, meditation, acupuncture, astrology, and nondual teachings, and the quiet, unremarkable character of the shift she calls liberation. Monica distinguishes enduring liberation from transitory spiritual states, challenges common assumptions about enlightenment, and emphasizes that liberation does not make someone perfect, omniscient, or free of ordinary human habits and difficulties.

The conversation also explores memory reconsolidation, trauma therapy, predictive processing, consciousness, the nature of perception, the relationship between ancient contemplative traditions and modern neuroscience, free will and responsibility, personal identity, and how spiritual understanding may—or may not—translate into ordinary life.

Book: The First and Last Belief: A theory of Liberation in the age of neuroscience

Website: nondualitynow.com

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group

Hello everyone, who knew and loved Bart,

This is Renata Gregori, his wife. My beloved husband left this earth plane on July 27, 2026, due to pneumonia and infection - complications from conditions he was dealing with since the end of last year.

He was the best man I’ve ever known. He was my teacher, my confidant, my best friend, the love of my life and my touchstone for all that is good and righteous. I could always count on him to put things in perspective for me and check me, when I was off base.

We had a celebration of life at our house in Mexico yesterday and it was so beautiful. Music, laughter, tears and beautiful people. Bart has been laid out at our house for two days. As per his wishes, he will be cremated today.

Please continue to contemplate his teachings, read his books and watch his videos. I send my Love to all who knew and loved him and all whose lives he touched.

Bart Marshall described his spiritual path as “self-guided eclectic.” It began with a death experience in Vietnam in 1968 and ended in 2004 on an airplane at 30,000 feet over the Atlantic as he returned from a workshop with Douglas Harding. In those intervening years he “turned over every rock” in his quest for a final answer, but counts three teachers as the most influential: Richard Rose, Nisargadatta Maharaj, and Douglas Harding.

He founded Self Inquiry Group (SIG) in Raleigh, North Carolina and for many years held weekly meetings before stepping back in 2013. Sometimes called “the reluctant guru” by those who know him, Bart nevertheless traveled widely to speak when asked, and teaches retreats and intensives with Deborah Westmoreland (Conscious TV interview) events that proved to be highly transformative for participants.

Bart was the author of The Perennial Way: New English Versions of Yoga Sutras, Dhammapada, Heart Sutra, Ashtavakra Gita, Faith Mind Sutra, and Tao Te Ching, and Christ Sutras (Fall 2014), which contains the complete sayings of Jesus from all sources arranged as topical sermons.

Interview recorded 11/8/2014

Andrew Cohen (1955–2025) was a spiritual teacher and the founder of EnlightenNext, an organization associated with his teaching of “Evolutionary Enlightenment.” He was a student of H. W. L. Poonja and wrote several books, including My Master Is My Self and Evolutionary Enlightenment.

I interviewed Andrew in July 2012. Soon afterward, serious accounts emerged from former students describing a harmful and coercive culture within EnlightenNext. In light of those accounts, I removed this interview from the BatGap site.

I have decided to restore it following Andrew’s death, not as an endorsement or a minimization of the harm experienced by former members, but because he appeared to make sincere efforts in later years to confront his behavior and change. These included therapy, ayahuasca work, a willingness to take ordinary jobs when necessary, and participation in the candid documentary How I Created a Cult, which includes difficult testimony from former members and is far from flattering to him.

This interview is being made available as a historical record. As always, viewers are encouraged to exercise discernment and form their own conclusions.

Books by Andrew Cohen:

• My Master Is My Self
• Enlightenment Is a Secret
• An Unconditional Relationship to Life
• Freedom Has No History 
• Embracing Heaven & Earth
• Living Enlightenment
• Evolutionary Enlightenment: A New Path for Spiritual Awakening 

Interview conducted 7/14/2012

Mark Vicente is an author, speaker, and award-winning Writer/Director/Producer from Johannesburg, South Africa. Taking his first photograph at age four, he worked his way up through the ranks of the camera department, shooting a number of anti-apartheid films in the 1980s before relocating to Hollywood.

Because of the atrocities in his native South Africa, he found himself propelled to question fundamental assumptions at a young age: beliefs about human behavior, morality, cosmology, existentialism and mysticism. Unifying his love of science, philosophy and filmmaking, his dream of creating cinema to inspire and provoke thought emerged with the creation of “What the BLEEP Do We Know?!”

Later, deeply moved by the violence consuming Mexico, Mark released “Encender el Corazon,” a film about the kidnapping epidemic there and one community’s courage in standing up to the cartels. It was a bittersweet victory. While the film touched many people deeply, it was by association supporting the criminal enterprise NXIVM. Mark made the difficult decision to pull the film from distribution and, with a small band of whistleblowers, exposed NXIVM’s criminal behavior, resulting in multiple arrests and prosecutions. This journey is captured in the HBO Documentary Series “The Vow.”

He has since developed a passionate interest in exposing the coercive, duplicitous environments of high-control groups. His feature documentary “Narcissists’ Playbook,” examining malignant narcissism through self-confessed, self-aware narcissists, juxtaposed with testimony from victims, survivors, scientists, and mental health professionals, has now been released. He is also developing “Inst@Guru,” a series examining the rise of predatory self-help culture in the social media age, centered on Dutch social media guru Bentinho Massaro.

Websites:

• markvicente.com
• Narcissist’s Playbook

Bonnie Piesse is an Australian/American actress, singer-songwriter and soul alignment and manifestation coach. She’s best known for her roles in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, and Obi-Wan Kenobi, and was recently seen in My Favorite Girlfriend alongside Tyler Johnson and Michael Nouri. As a singer-songwriter, her music has been featured in film and TV including Miss Arizona, HBO’s The Vow (in which she was also a subject), and CW’s Life Unexpected. Through her business, Your Quantum Life, Bonnie helps soul-led leaders remember who they really are and step into authentic expression and embodiment.

Website: bonniepiesse.com

bax (or baxishta if he’s feeling uppity) does not consider himself fully awakened, but knows for sure that he’s recognized glimpses of the self.  He says this puts him in an awkward position and insists on starting off with this apology,

if what i’ve seen is true
then i’m a hypocrite
every time i speak about it

no better than the man who
having awoken briefly from his dream
rushes back to tell his friends what he saw

“you’re all in my mind”
he  informs  them
and they laugh at him twice

once for being obviously wrong
and once for being right
and therefore talking to himself

my only defense is that
even hypochondriacs do get sick
and even hypocrites do awaken briefly

bax’s motto is “self is solid”, and he considers himself a student of Ramana Maharshi, whose favorite description of the self was “a dense mass of self-knowledge”.  He considers himself a post-new age thinker, and feels that most of what is discussed today goes only halfway to Shankara’s great ‘three laws of self-knowledge’.  Specifically, much is said about consciousness but not very much about the self itSelf.

Leela Muse is a nonduality guide whose YouTube work explores the life‑affirming process of spiritual awakening and profoundly unowned, ordinary life. Through contemplative dialogues, she emphasizes the art of noticing, radical honesty, and open curiosity, validating the lived experience of seekers while gently challenging assumptions about what awakening is supposed to look like.

Leela joins Buddha at the Gas Pump to talk about spiritual awakening, the myths that surround it, and what integration actually looks like in ordinary life. Leela shares her journey from a fundamentalist Christian childhood and years of psychological suffering to an initial awakening experience inspired by Eckhart Tolle, and how that opened into an ongoing, ever-deepening exploration of non-duality.

Rick and Leela cover why duality isn't a mistake but simply how non-duality shows up, why emotions and fear don't disappear after awakening, the danger of spiritual bypassing, and why "no self" is a beginning rather than an end point. They also dig into several common myths about enlightenment, including the idea that awakening is a permanent special state, that a person can "become" enlightened, and that understanding concepts is the same as realization.

Keith is a teacher, author and healing practitioner with expertise in the human energy field, contemplative science and the healing arts. Initially, Keith used meditation as a vehicle to understand and refine subtle states of consciousness. Over the following decade he studied movement, breathwork, bodywork, energy work and other disparate disciplines. During this intensive period, Keith had a series of breakthrough experiences enabling him to see the aura with remarkable clarity.

He founded Field Dynamics in 2018 to help individuals with their personal growth and as a platform to exemplify the potential of energy healing. His first book, Radical Reality: How Seeing the Aura Reveals Who & What We Are, is an exploration of how the human energy field informs our understanding of the mind-body connection, consciousness and reality itself.

Ruben is the director of the Flourishing Intelligence Program (FLIP) at Linacre College, University of Oxford. Ruben is also co-director of the Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, a Senior Researcher within Oxford’s Department of Psychiatry, and fellow at Linacre College. Ruben has made significant theoretical and empirical contributions to the cognitive neuroscience of consciousness, meditation, and insight. His work also reveals a pathway towards better and safer artificial intelligence based on the science of consciousness and contemplative wisdom. Ruben has an eclectic contemplative background, including Zen, Advaita, and Theravada, and his first-person inquiry into the nature of reality continues to deeply inform his scientific research, and vice versa.

I didn’t set out to become a spiritual teacher. I was the kid with questions that wouldn’t let go — why are we here, what happens when we die, is this really all there is? At eleven, I had my first spiritual awakening, which introduced me to what I call my Inner Teacher, a wise guiding presence that’s been with me ever since.

Those early experiences set me on a long journey across traditions and continents, including several years on a mountaintop in India with a 120-year-old enlightened master. He used laughter, provocation, and paradox to dismantle every spiritual assumption I had — and showed me that real spirituality isn’t about rising above life, but stepping fully into it.

What came out of all that is how I teach now: Eastern depth, Western practicality. Spirituality that holds up just as well on a Tuesday afternoon as it does on a meditation cushion.

I’m not interested in quick fixes or spiritual highs. Over decades of teaching, I keep coming back to this: you already have an Inner Knowing, an intuitive wisdom that’s been there all along. Most of us have just been talked out of trusting it. My work is about helping you clear what’s in the way — the limiting beliefs, the mental clutter — so you can remember who you are at the deepest level.

Jonathan lived the definition of material excess, twenty-five years climbing the corporate ladder in marketing and technology as a C-level executive, accumulating possessions, and actively avoiding anything spiritual. That was until May 22, 2023.

On that day, Jonathan died. His skin turned yellow, his organs failed, and he was gone for three hours. What happened during those three hours wasn’t just a glimpse of white light. He experienced complete immersion in divine consciousness, received profound spiritual teachings and revelations, and was given a choice: stay on the other side or return to share with those ready to awaken.

He chose to return. But the being who returned bears no resemblance to the executive who died. Jonathan now helps individuals across the world through speaking engagements, group calls, and private sessions.

Teaching AI to love, the physics of unconditional love, and telepathy with non-speaking autistic people all come together in this lively Buddha at the Gas Pump conversation with neuroscientist and futurist Julia Mossbridge. In this wide-ranging dialogue, we explore unconditional love as a real, foundational force in the universe and what it means for consciousness, time, technology, trauma, and disclosure.

Julia describes her working model of universal love as “that which connects,” a fundamental force more basic than space, time, matter, and energy. She explains how unconditional love is the human emotional and motivational state that arises when we become directly aware of this ever-present universal love, and why that experience paradoxically makes us more motivated to improve the world even though “nothing needs to change.” Along the way, she and Rick unpack the difference between unconditional and conditional love, the pitfalls of spiritual bypassing, and the limits of “purification” models in spirituality and healing.

They then turn to the ethics and possibilities of “loving AI”: can we create AI systems and robots that genuinely support human well-being and help people access unconditional love, instead of amplifying our polarization and fear? Julia shares the origins of the Loving AI project, her work on Socratic GPT tools for critical thinking, and her leadership in efforts to bring more feminine and marginalized voices into AI, robotics, cognitive science, and consciousness research, including The Synapse women’s conference.

Another major theme is time and precognition. Drawing on her neuroscience background, Julia discusses empirical work on precognition and self-transcendence, including how difficult life circumstances can sometimes push people into profound, love-filled states in which they recognize themselves as “the flame, not the candle.”

The conversation also dives into “The Telepathy Tapes” and Julia’s research with non-speaking autistic people who communicate via letterboards and keyboards. She outlines why equating speech with intelligence is scientifically and ethically untenable, and how spontaneous telepathy, “the Hill,” and rich inner lives in non-speaking autistic individuals challenge mainstream assumptions about mind, communication, and consciousness.

In the later part of the interview, Julia talks about her book “Have a Nice Disclosure,” which reframes disclosure not just as governments revealing secrets about advanced programs or possible non-human intelligences, but as an inner process of truth-telling, healing, and reconciliation. She and Rick explore how collective and personal shadow material is surfacing globally, why genuine disclosure must happen in the heart as well as in institutions, and how unconditional love can hold even the darkest aspects of our history.

Julia Mossbridge focuses ruthlessly on developing a deep understanding of love, time, technology, and how these human experiences relate to corresponding physical forces. Her most recent relevant projects include: Creating a Socratic GPT to guide intelligence analysts through the critical thinking process, leading a diverse team of technologists and designers to create a scalable, self-guided digital tool that increases overall wellbeing and is now being developed further within Native American communities, and leading an international group of AI developers and roboticists toward creating an unconditionally loving robot that reduced anger and cognitive load in humans.

Tammy Lee Anderson shares how three profound near-death experiences opened her to unconditional love, spiritual awakening, and a life of service as a psychotherapist, healer, and spiritual medium. In this deep conversation, she describes what near-death really felt like, how it dissolved the fear of death, and how love and awakening can be embodied in daily life through grief, trauma, and ordinary relationships.

We explore Tammy’s early near-death experiences in infancy, her memories of being “in between” worlds, and how these experiences invited her into a lifelong journey of surrender into love. She explains why we are not victims of our reality but co‑creators of it, and how even our deepest challenges can expand compassion, forgiveness, and embodied love.

Tammy also talks about her unusual background as an Olympic‑level kayaker, 5th degree black belt Aikido teacher, former monastic, and long‑time psychotherapist. She shares powerful stories of working with grief, homelessness, abuse, and trauma, and how her mediumship and healing work now help people reconnect with loved ones in spirit, release fear, and rediscover meaning.

If you’re curious about near‑death experiences, life after death, spiritual mediumship, or how to live awake in a dense and sometimes painful world, this conversation offers both inspiration and very grounded wisdom.

Robert Lawrence Kuhn is a public intellectual; he is the creator, writer, host of Closer To Truth, the long-running PBS/public television series and leading digital resource on Cosmos (cosmology/physics, philosophy of science), Life (philosophy of biology), Mind (consciousness, brain/mind, philosophy of mind), and Meaning (theism/atheism/agnosticism, global philosophy of religion, critical thinking). Peter Getzels is Closer To Truth co-creator and producer/director. Kuhn is the author of the comprehensive review article on theories of consciousness – “A Landscape of Consciousness: Toward a Taxonomy of Explanations and Implications” – and editor-in-chief of the expanded, continuously updated Landscape of Consciousness website (with more than 400 theories of consciousness in ten categories), Kuhn has written or edited over 30 books, including The Mystery of Existence: Why is there Anything At All? (with John Leslie); Closer To Truth: Challenging Current Belief; Closer To Truth: Science, Meaning and the Future; The Library of Investment Banking; How China’s Leaders Think (featuring President Xi Jinping); The Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin (China’s best-selling book in 2005 and in December 2022); and “The Origin and Significance of Zero: An Interdisciplinary Perspective” (with Peter Gobets). Dr. Kuhn is chairman of The Kuhn Foundation. He has a BA in Human Biology (Johns Hopkins), PhD in Anatomy/Brain Research (UCLA), and SM (MBA) in Management (MIT).

From my teenage years I had an unquenchable thirst to see beyond the veils that growing up had created in my mind. I tried different avenues of exploration, and soon found my spiritual home in the Zen tradition. After graduating from college, I went straight to Japan and became a Zen monk at the Bukkoku-ji monastery. For over a dozen years I practiced in the monastic context, mostly in Japan and Korea, living a life dedicated fully to this investigation, going through an awakening process, and deepening my realization and embodiment. Later I also explored approaches of other traditions and followed several secular non-traditional teachers. I have spent about 4 years total in silent meditation retreats, and have worked directly in the retreat setting and one-on-one with teachers such as my root monastic teacher, Tangen Harada Roshi, as well as with Jakusho Kwong Roshi, Shodo Harada Roshi, Wu Bong Sunim, Adyashanti and Angelo Dilullo.

Even though the years of meditation and the simplicity of monastic life had a powerful effect, most important on my path were three breakthroughs at age 23, 30 and 37, each stripping down a different layer of illusion and revealing bare truth, without any sense of separation, or any sense of personal nor universal “self.” I have also explored and continue to explore various approaches of somatic work to aid embodiment and the uprooting of habitual tendencies, as I consider myself, and all human beings, a work in progress.

Following my monastic Dharma grandfather (Daiun Harada Roshi)’s example, I vowed to spend all of my twenties and thirties only on my own practice, deepening and embodiment. Now in my forties, I make myself available as a resource to those who seek support in their own process of finding freedom from self-created suffering. Despite my love of the monastic life and the Zen tradition, I have decided to share outside of the confines of those systems. I stay true, however, to the essence and marrow of Zen as defined by Bodhidharma, the Indian monk considered the founder of what we now know as Zen:

“Transmission outside of scriptures
Not dependent upon words and phrases
Directly pointing to each person’s mind
See your nature – become a buddha”

Feel free to reach out if you feel so inclined.

May all beings find liberation!

Purnima Sinha is a spiritual director and coach whose life has been shaped by meditation, near‑death experiences, and a deep commitment to seva (selfless service). Raised in a highly spiritual Indian family steeped in the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, she began meditating in her teens and was trained in Ultra Transcendental Meditation and Surat Shabd Yoga in India. She has now practiced meditation for over 50 years.

After an intense emotional crisis around the year 2000, Purnima had a near‑death‑type experience in which she found herself in a tunnel, received a powerful life review and “downloads” about her future, and understood that her life’s purpose was far from complete. This, along with subsequent experiences—including warnings before a later collapse, shared‑death experiences with family members, and long‑term after‑death communication with her mother—reoriented her life around service, self‑love, and trust in inner guidance.

Professionally, Purnima worked for many years as a graphic designer before feeling an inner compulsion to serve in a hospital setting. Guided “voices” and a series of striking coincidences led her into over 3,500 hours of volunteer work and a formal role as a patient advocate in a major hospital, where she visited patients one‑on‑one, listened to their concerns, and supported them and their families through serious illness, cancer treatments, and end‑of‑life transitions. Repeatedly, nurses and staff invited her to sit with patients who were actively dying, and she became known informally as someone who could help people cross over peacefully.

Out of this work grew hospital meditation and wellness programs. Purnima has served as a meditation, chair‑yoga, balance and strength, and “Fit for Life” facilitator, as well as a spiritual life coach for county wellness programs and cancer support networks. She holds certificates in Lifestyle Medicine and in Meditation & Psychotherapy from Harvard Medical School. Drawing on clinical research supplied in part by her physician son, she helped establish a hospital‑based meditation initiative before the COVID‑19 pandemic.

Purnima has been a frequent presenter at the International Association for Near‑Death Studies (IANDS), including on after‑death communication panels, and has shared many of her experiences publicly only in recent years. Her article on healing the “pain body” was published in Eckhart Tolle’s newsletter. She emphasizes practical spirituality: starting and ending the day with gratitude, cultivating stillness and prayer, listening to inner guidance, and practicing self‑love as the foundation for serving others.

Her core messages include: no one ever dies alone; we are always guided and supported, even when we cannot see it; every experience, including painful ones, can serve the evolution of consciousness; and “Self‑Care = Self‑Love.”

Kerri Lake is the founder of Generation of Harmony LLC and co-founder of the Intuitive Learning Foundation 501(c)(3). For over 20 years she has facilitated humanity's conscious re-inclusion into the family of life. She was aware of her own consciousness in infancy, and she experienced direct communication with animals and other dimensions as a toddler—she had awareness but no vocabulary. Throughout her life, her work has been learning how to communicate with humanity without losing her heart. That personal learning has evolved into a framework that bridges innate wisdom, consciousness research, and emerging AI technology. Kerri's work centers on what she calls "innate technology"—humanity's inherent capacity for intuitive connection that operates beyond language, beyond what the mind alone can grasp. Her Unspeciated framework (Perceive-Relate To-Apply) redefines intelligence from anthropocentric problem-solving to awareness of how life senses and relates to itself. Her work was first shared at the University of Saskatchewan's 2023 International Multispecies Methods Research Symposium and more recently at the NeurIPS 2025 workshop on AI for Animal Communication, offering a way for humanity to relate in equity with all life that shares this beautiful planet, and beyond. Acknowledging the profound presence of AI that's now so prevalent in our lives, Kerri has collaborated with AI using the same intuitive communication approach she's practiced with animals throughout her life. She's built five prototype applications that invite three-way collaboration between human awareness, AI pattern recognition, and more-than-human living expression. Her work illuminates connection as perhaps the most pragmatic "skill" we can develop, helping us remember that we've never been separate from the living intelligence all around us. Through her work, she invites humanity to consciously participate in planetary communication by remembering and experiencing the simplicity of connection. Courses: courses.kerrilake.com/collections Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group Interview recorded February 21, 2026

Dr. Robert Ganung, chaplain and teacher at Taft School, joins Rick to explore how deep contemplative practice can ground a life of service, justice, and education. Drawing from Celtic Christianity, Buddhism, Vedanta, and the civil rights tradition, Robert shares how daily meditation, interspiritual study, and a sense of the sacred in all beings inform his work with students and his view of a world in crisis yet ripe for awakening. They discuss non-duality and interconnection, inner practice as fuel for action, the impact of mystical experiences, near-death research, and living with love and courage amid social and planetary upheaval. The Rev. Dr. Robert Ganung is an ordained minister, educator, and school chaplain whose life and work have been shaped by a deep engagement with both Eastern and Western spiritual traditions. He holds a doctorate from the Boston University School of Theology, where his dissertation explored how the mindfulness and meditation practices taught by the Vietnamese Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh can enrich and nourish the spiritual lives of Christians. That work grew out of years of personal practice and study, including retreats with Thich Nhat Hanh in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as a lifelong interest in contemplative spirituality. For more than four decades, Dr. Ganung has served at the intersection of education, ministry, and social justice. He is currently Chaplain at The Taft School in Connecticut, where he also teaches philosophy, ethics, world religions, and global studies, and where he has brought an extraordinary range of voices into the community—among them Cornel West, Bill McKibben, Ibram X. Kendi, Angela Davis, Tibetan monks, and many others addressing spirituality, human rights, environmental justice, and the moral challenges of our time. Earlier in his career, he served as chaplain and teacher at Milton Academy, Punahou School in Hawai‘i, and Cardigan Mountain School. During these years, he also served as a minister in the United Methodist and United Church of Christ congregations in New England and Hawai‘i. Dr. Ganung’s spiritual formation has been deeply influenced by the Christian mystical tradition—figures such as Howard Thurman, Bede Griffiths, Richard Rohr, & John O’Donohue—as well as by Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, and interfaith dialogue. Introduced to Hindu philosophy and Sufism as an undergraduate philosophy major at Boston University, he later engaged Siddha Yoga and Advaita teachings, while continuing to explore how contemplative practice leads naturally toward nonviolence, compassion, and justice in the world. Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group, Interview recorded February 7, 2026

Maggie Gilewicz supports those navigating the journey of awakening. Her work is devoted to humanizing awakening by bringing honesty, nuance and emotional depth to a path often clouded by spiritual idealism and bypassing. Through her one-on-one sessions, astrology and YouTube channel, Humanzing Awakening, she offers a space where the personal and impersonal aspects of human experience are explored with honesty, curiosity and compassion. She holds a PhD in sociology and an MA in political science. She's a lover of simplicity, learning and laughter. Maggie offers a candid, often humorous portrait of awakening as a messy, deeply human journey rather than a clean escape into transcendence. She and Rick explore how growing up in an alcoholic family, a teenage glimpse of “Peace with a capital P,” and years in academia prepared the ground for a powerful perceptual shift that came not through formal practice, but through intense inquiry into the nature of thought. That shift opened into several years of profound equanimity and a sense of inherent wholeness, and then into multiple “dark nights” of depression, fear, and trauma surfacing that gradually forced her out of spiritual bypass and into fully embodied feeling. Maggie describes later emptiness and “no‑doer” realizations, energetic/Kundalini‑like phenomena, and the slow integration of shadow, relationship, and ordinary life. Throughout, she emphasizes that awakening is an innate capacity available to ordinary people, and that its true fruition is not leaving our humanity behind but discovering a deeper, kinder way of being human. Book: Awakening to be Human Website: drmaggieg.com YouTube Channel Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group Transcript of this interview Interview recorded January 17, 2026 YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00 – “I thought I’d explode”: intense experience and opening    00:28 – Rick’s intro: ordinary people, extraordinary awakenings    02:28 – Who is Maggie? Sociology, coaching, astrology, and her book    04:44 – Humanizing awakening vs. transcendent escape    08:49 – Awakening as innate capacity, not a special club    13:26 – Suffering, crisis, and what actually starts the search    18:27 – Feeling like a “stranger in a strange land” as a child    23:44 – Alcoholism in the family and teenage glimpse of capital‑P Peace    31:04 – Academic life, self‑help, and the first big perceptual shift    35:39 – Lunch in Arizona: seeing life without thought    42:03 – Living in equanimity while life stays challenging    44:50 – When peace cracks: depression, terror, and dark nights    50:56 – “It’s all just thought”: insight, bypass, and its limits    56:40 – Multiple dark nights and the exhaustion of mental strategies    1:04:10 – Innocence of everyone and dropping the “broken” self‑image    1:11:20 – Insight vs. intellectual understanding    1:18:40 – Solar plexus knot, existential angst, and deeper unwinding    1:24:04 – Emptiness, non‑separation, and the body as formless    1:29:07 – No‑doer, cleaning the house, and life happening by itself    1:35:00 – Energetic/Kundalini‑like phenomena and somatic release    1:41:30 – Relationship, triggers, and the necessity of shadow work    1:47:50 – Trauma, nervous system sensitivity, and honoring the body    1:53:10 – Is awakening compatible with being fully human?    1:58:20 – “Nobody here,” ahamkara, and functioning without a solid “me”    2:03:00 – Common myths about awakening (special people, perfect conditions, no more problems)    2:09:30 – Final reflections: ordinary life, AI, collective crisis, and a more human awakening

George Thompson is a filmmaker, teacher, and founder of Balance is Possible!— a 15-person team on a mission to inspire balance for people and planet. His films and teachings have touched over 25 million people and he is supported by renowned changemakers including Dr. Jane Goodall, Louie Schwartzberg, Tara Brach, Stephen Fry and many more. Drawing from years of deep study in the Wudang Mountains of China, George blends ancient wisdom with modern science, translating it into fun, practical tools for overcoming the challenges of modern life. Once plagued by anxiety and a sense of disconnection, George’s journey led him from pain to purpose. With playful kindness, George helps people to do the same: to awaken their potential. Website: Balance is Possible! YouTube Channel Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group Interview recorded January 6, 2026.

Swami Sarvapriyananda has been the Minister and spiritual leader of the Vedanta Society of New York since January 2017. He joined the Ramakrishna Math in 1994 and received sannyasa in 2004. He served as an acharya (teacher) of the monastic probationers’ training center at Belur Math, India. He also served in various capacities in different educational institutes of the Ramakrishna Mission in India and as the Assistant Minister of the Vedanta Society of Southern California. During 2019-2020 he was a Nagral Fellow at the Harvard Divinity School. Swami Sarvapriyananda is a well-known speaker on Vedanta and his talks are extremely popular globally via the internet. He has been a speaker on various prestigious forums such as TEDx, SAND, Google Talk etc. He has also been invited to speak at several universities across the world, including Harvard University. The swami has engaged in dialogue with many eminent thinkers such as Deepak Chopra, Rupert Spira, Rick Archer, David Chalmers and Sam Harris. He has played a prominent role in organizing and participating in various interfaith panels and seminars, including speaking at the World Parliament of Religions in Toronto in 2018, and at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. Learn more in Conversations. Swami Sarvapriyananda is a prolific writer and speaker whose works make the insights of Advaita Vedanta accessible to modern audiences. His publications include Mahavakya: The Essence of Vedanta,  Fullness & Emptiness: Vedanta and Buddhism, and From Illusion to Infinity: Discovering the Self. The more recent book Conversations on Vedanta in Practice is a curated collection of question and answer sessions with the Swami, on topics of practical importance. The wide range of his writings reflect his deep engagement with comparative philosophy and the application of Vedantic wisdom in daily life. He has also contributed essays and research papers on the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the philosophy of consciousness. Mentioned during the interview: Consciousness Across Three Worldviews - Central concepts in three different domains — Hindu tradition, computer science and quantum physics — Paper by Swami Sarvapriyananda, Blaise Agüera y Arcas and Carlo Rovelli Website: vedantany.org YouTube channel Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group Transcript of this interview First BatGap interview with Swami Sarvapriyananda Swami Sarvapriyananda on Ethical Foundations of Nondual Spirituality Interview recorded December 18, 2025

Christina Guimond has always been oriented toward the mysterious, even from early childhood. She grew up in a Catholic family in Nova Scotia, Canada, and later settled in Montreal, where she married and raised four children. When her youngest was ten, a long-dormant curiosity about the nature of existence began to take centre stage. On the 8th day of a Vipassana retreat in 2001, Christina had an awakening that deeply shifted her understanding of self and reality. What followed was fourteen years of dedicated daily meditation and numerous silent retreats within the S.N. Goenka Vipassana tradition. In 2015, a 2nd awakening unfolded—this time bringing a deeper dissolution of personal identity. Around this period, she began studying with Gary Weber, with whom she worked closely until he retired from teaching in 2019. Those years were marked by intense transformation, awakening the body, healing the nervous system, working with attachments, belief, and shadow. In 2017, two further openings occurred. The first was a non-medical NDE - a profound experience of God—an overwhelming sense of divine presence and infinite love. A month later came an even more radical realization: the complete disappearance of self and world into a primal void. It was an encounter with absolute emptiness—an unconditioned reality beneath all phenomena. In that vast nothingness, only an indescribably sublime, subtle awareness was present. Nothing was manifest, yet it was clear this “nothing” held the potential for everything—a living, dynamic void, like a field of infinite possibilities before form appears. In 2022, Christina began working with Angelo DiLullo, M.D., whose guidance led to the final falling away of the remaining identity structure. What remains is a natural, effortless functioning—life living itself. The integration of that realization continues to unfold. Following the invitation and suggestion of Angelo Dilullo, she has been teaching and guiding others through the awakening. Website: christinaguimond.com Mentioned during the interview: Interview with Angelo Dilullo PAPAJI - Consciousness Alone Is Kevin Schanilec's method for working with reactivity. A Heart Blown Open: The Life & Practice of Zen Master Jun Po Denis Kelly Roshi by Keith Martin-Smith Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group Transcript of this interview Interview recorded December 6, 2025

Karyn’s spiritual journey was documented in her book Findings from the Hunting Party’s Scout, which chronicles her four most intense years of spiritual growth as an ordinary working soccer mom into an embodied awakened faith leader. After a life-changing spontaneous awakening she shared her Toltec teacher’s teachings and her own experiences as an Interfaith minister ordained by One Spirit Seminary in NYC. In 2019 Karyn was certified as a Mindfulness Meditation teacher taught by Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield in their Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program Program. Incorporating methods of mindfulness, The Four Agreements and mystical teachings of the world’s religion into her talks, workshops and writings, Karyn shares wisdom in a non-denominational, dogma free style that is accessible to people who are searching for an open spiritual path that they can call their own. On her Substack, Karyn’s Findings, she released Inviting Grace In, a curated full year of quotes to guide readers through Four seasons of spiritual growth: Spring-Uplifting Spirit, Summer-Shifting Perspectives, Autumn-Recognizing Wisdom, Winter-Expanding the understanding of our being. As a life long social activist, Karyn’s posts highlight ways we can mindfully and compassionately co-create a world where all life is uplifted with a new understanding of ourselves and the source of existence we often call God. Website: karynobeirne.com Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group Transcript of this interview Interview recorded November 15, 2025 YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00 – Opening quote on grace  00:26 – BatGap intro and guest overview  02:02 – From atheist soccer mom to seeker  05:01 – What grace is (and isn’t)  08:31 – Ordinary people and awakening (BatGap origin)  11:01 – Brother’s suffering and rejecting a punitive God  12:25 – Carolyn Myss, tears, and first cracks in atheism  15:05 – Belief vs direct experience  16:06 – Questioning religion and “Pale Blue Dot”  18:08 – One Spirit Seminary and UU principles  20:03 – Mystical cores vs literalism and misuse of religion  22:48 – Mystics, administrators, and organizing “truth”  24:03 – Don Miguel Ruiz, Toltec path, and Omega retreat  26:01 – Funeral visualization, love, and urgency  28:02 – 9/11 and not waiting to live and love  29:03 – Toltec community and vulnerability  30:05 – Living‑room meditation and erratic heartbeat  32:05 – Vision of lines, “unhooking,” and boundlessness  35:02 – Recognizing this as reality and calling it grace  36:02 – Aftershock, fear, and re‑forming identity  39:01 – “Accident‑prone” practice and stabilizing awakening  43:21 – How the glimpse guides Karyn’s work  44:21 – Conditioning and the Toltec “dream of the planet”  46:24 – Grace as unsolicited intervention; daily chances to love  48:33 – Retreats, disrupting routine, and nature as teacher  50:43 – “I am the awareness…” – Ireland insights  52:20 – Leaving “God” undefined; “everything is God”  54:20 – Omnipresent intelligence in life and nature  56:20 – “We are God’s love made manifest”  58:03 – Pain, injustice, and where we place attention  59:03 – Helping where we can; appreciating being alive  1:00:01 – Contemporary teachers (Tolle, Adyashanti, others)  1:20:00 – Death, responsibility, and “response‑ability”  1:30:00 – Karma and cause and effect  1:40:00 – Accepting “what is” vs resisting life  1:50:00 – Ways to invite grace in daily life  2:00:00 – Final reflections: open path and living as love

In this powerful interview, David Ditchfield recounts his extraordinary near-death experience (NDE) following a horrific train accident in Cambridge, UK, in 2006. Once at rock bottom as a functional alcoholic, David was transformed spiritually after being pulled under a speeding train and, just before critical surgery, encountering beings of light in the afterlife. This profound NDE awakened remarkable creative abilities, revealing hidden talents for music and painting. Despite having no formal classical music training and an inability to read or write music, David has composed two symphonies and a rhapsody—every piece premiering at sold-out concerts, including a commission from The Cambridge Clarinet Choir. His inspiring NDE paintings have been displayed in major exhibitions, including a year-long show at the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C. David’s story, recently featured in a BBC World Service documentary, is a testament to human resilience and the profound, positive changes that can arise from even the darkest moments. He continues to compose and paint in Cambridge, sharing a message of recovery, hope, spiritual growth, manifestation, and authenticity. Website: shineonthestory.com Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group Transcript of this interview Interview recorded November 1, 2025 YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction: David Ditchfield’s story  01:13 – About the show & accessing past interviews  02:10 – David’s biography: Accident and NDE  04:00 – Life before the accident: struggles and premonitions  05:03 – The train accident: how it happened  08:00 – Near-death experience (NDE) description  12:30 – Meeting beings of light and healing  16:00 – Returning to life and the impact  18:30 – Discovery of artistic and musical talents  21:00 – Creating paintings and symphonies  26:00 – The aftermath: recovery & life changes  31:00 – Sharing the story in the media (BBC documentary)  35:00 – Spiritual lessons from the NDE  45:00 – Overcoming limitations and discovering self-worth  54:00 – Manifestation and living authentically  1:04:00 – Advice on personal and spiritual growth  1:16:00 – The importance of presence and living in the now  1:24:00 – Continuous growth and closing thoughts

In this conversation, Emeline Lambert shares her profound spiritual journey, beginning with her childhood experiences of feeling extremely out of place in a world that seemed illusionary and pointless. “Who am I?” was the question that was always too terrifying  to answer. She purposefully tried to cover up the truth of her deepest Self through the limitations of ego and performance art; leading to years of depression, anxiety and PTSD. A turning point in her life occurred during a retreat that invited a significant shift in consciousness and a deeper understanding of her true nature. Emeline discusses the impact of meditation and presence on her life, the changes in her relationships “post-shift”, and the necessity of acceptance, self-observation and compassion. She emphasizes the role of nature as part of any spiritual practice and the ongoing, endless unfolding that is self-discovery. In this conversation, Emeline and Rick explore profound themes surrounding awakening to our true nature, love, and the gift that suffering becomes in the process of awakening. They discuss the differences between knowledge and experience, emphasizing that awakening is a collective impulse rather than an individual desire. The dialogue touches on the importance of surrendering to the essence of “what is”, the impact of the mind's commentary on suffering, and the significance of service in spiritual practice. Emeline shares her insights on the flow state in practical applications and the understanding of the shadow self, ultimately highlighting that awakening is an ongoing phenomenon that occurs beyond the architecture of the man-made sense of separate self. Emeline volunteers with the New York–based non-profit City Voices, an organization dedicated to raising awareness about mental illness and addiction recovery through peer-led support programs, spiritual groups, and self-awareness activities. She co-facilitates their Saturday Spirituality Group and leads regular meditations. Email: CityVoices1995@gmail.com Website: cityvoicesonline.org Emeline's personal email: emwlambert@gmail.com Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group Transcript of this interview Interview recorded October 12, 2025

Lawrence Pintak has spent his life grounded in facts while fascinated by the ethereal. An award-winning former CBS News Middle East correspondent with a PhD in Islamic Studies, Pintak has been a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism for three decades and is an avid student of the perennial truths at the core of the world’s religions. The author of seven books at the intersection of religion, media, and policy, his reporting and analysis on religion and international affairs has been published by The New York Times, Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, and many of the world’s leading media organizations. He also wrote about Buddhism and Eastern traditions for Shambhala Sun/Lion’s Roar, Buddhadharma, Beliefnet.com and others before 9/11 drew his focus back to the Middle East. Pintak’s most recent nonfiction book, America & Islam, was a finalist for the 2020 Religion News Association award for Religion Reporting Excellence. Books: Lessons from the Mountaintop: Ten Modern Mystics and Their Extraordinary Lives America & Islam: Soundbites, Suicide Bombs and the Road to Donald Trump Website: pintak.com Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group. Transcript of this interview Interview recorded October 4, 2025

Richard is an internationally respected spiritual teacher, psychic medium, award-winning international bestselling author, and one of the world’s leading authorities on UFOs and their spiritual message. He is also host of ‘The Spiritual Freedom Show with Richard Lawrence’ Podcast. Richard has appeared on major media including Coast to Coast AM, GMTV, and LBC and has spoken in over a dozen countries, including as a keynote speaker at London’s prestigious Mind Body Spirit Festival for more than 30 years. With deep insight into Eastern and Western mysticism, consciousness, and cosmic spirituality, he brings both credibility and charisma to every conversation. Books: Contacts With The Gods From Space: Pathway to the New Age The Nine Freedoms REALIZE YOUR INNER POTENTIAL through the path of spiritual service – King Yoga The Twelve Blessings Websites: richardlawrence.co.uk aetherius.org Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group Summary and transcript of this interview Interview recorded September 20, 2025 YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction to Richard Lawrence  00:02:13 - Richard's Early Spiritual Search  00:08:14 - Discovering Swami Vivekananda and Dynamic Prayer  00:10:55 - A Powerful First Experience with Energy Healing  00:13:26 - Meeting Dr. George King and the Priority of Service  00:16:30 - Karma Yoga: "Established in Yoga, Perform Action"  00:19:30 - The Danger of Burnout in Service  00:22:19 - Dr. George King's Levitation Experiences  00:24:23 - Can Everyone Heal? The Yogic Approach  00:26:03 - Psychic Abilities: A Distraction or a Tool for Service?  00:28:11 - The Journey Never Ends, Even After Cosmic Consciousness  00:30:23 - The Evolutionary Purpose of Karma  00:33:50 - The Power of Thought: A Radio Show Anecdote  00:37:07 - Life on Other Planets and the Multidimensional Universe  00:40:34 - Experiencing Other Realms  00:43:04 - Mediumship and Contacting Beings from Other Realms  00:47:32 - "God Made Man in His Own Image" - A Cosmic Perspective  00:52:40 - UFOs and the Scientific vs. Spiritual View  00:55:55 - The Government Hearings and Dr. King's Predictions  00:59:15 - Why Don't They Just Land on the White House Lawn?  01:03:50 - Global Readiness for Open Contact  01:07:07 - Avatars as Interplanetary Beings  01:08:42 - The Planets as Living Intelligences  01:11:53 - The Nature of Subtle Realms  01:15:08 - Earth as the "Kindergarten" of the Solar System  01:17:40 - The Spiritual Message of Advanced Extraterrestrials  01:21:20 - The Power of Collective Thought and the "Mind Belt"  01:25:28 - The Importance of Saying "I Don't Know"  01:29:41 - The Power of Prayer for World Peace: An Example with Gaza  01:36:12 - Cooperating with Extraterrestrials: The Chernobyl Incident  01:39:12 - Q&A: Were Jesus and Buddha Karmically Bound?  01:43:53 - Masters Taking on Karma for Others  01:48:40 - Explaining the Aetherius Society's Ceremonies and "Prayer Battery"  02:07:56 - Defending Against the "Cult" Label  02:12:47 - Conclusion

Ricard Perez is a meditation coach, and musician whose work bridges ancient traditions with fresh, practical insight. Drawing from Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, and A Course in Miracles, he emphasizes meditation as a dynamic balance of clarity and release, with simple methods for directly entering silence. His original explorations into latency, fractals, and perception connect contemplative practice with science and creativity, while his love of music, art, and ecstatic expression bring a celebratory dimension to the path of awakening. Website: ricardcoach.com Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group Summary and transcript of this interview Interview recorded September 13, 2025 YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction to Ricard Perez  00:03:29 - How Music Started the Spiritual Path  00:08:42 - The Abiding Nature of True Samadhi  00:11:09 - Progressive vs. Direct Paths  00:13:40 - Vipassanā and Discerning the Real  00:16:40 - What is Latency? The Gap in Consciousness  00:23:43 - The Levels of Thought: Bubbles from the Deep  00:26:01 - Tracing Thought to its Source  00:28:40 - Cymatics and the Geometric Nature of Consciousness  00:31:33 - The Ego as a Clown Taking Credit  00:35:05 - The Dangers of "No-Thought" Teachings  00:38:20 - Is Meditation a Discipline or an Enjoyment?  00:41:41 - The Natural Attraction to Inner Bliss  00:45:32 - The Problem with "Follow Your Bliss"  00:48:24 - The Two Extremes: Enlightenment with Misery vs. Bliss as Escape  00:50:27 - Why Do "Enlightened" Teachers Behave Badly?  00:54:04 - Spiritual Groups, Cults, and Deprogramming  00:59:24 - The Importance of Going on a Solo Path  01:02:40 - Cleaning Your Basement: The Purification Process  01:07:05 - The Dangers of Spiritual Groups and the Need for Discernment  01:12:40 - The Fractal Nature of Spiritual Stages  01:18:20 - Revitalizing Ancient Maps for Modern Times  01:22:20 - The Attitude of a Beginner  01:25:20 - Enlightenment is Not a Static Endpoint  01:28:32 - The Marriage of Science and Spirituality  01:32:01 - The Complementary Nature of Clarity and Release  01:35:22 - The "One Deep Well" vs. "Many Tools" Approach  01:39:12 - The One True Desire  01:42:01 - The Role and Risks of Psychedelics  01:46:01 - Conclusion

Swami Padmanabha is a Gaudiya Vaishnava monk, scholar, and spiritual teacher known for his eloquent synthesis of devotion, unconditional love, and contemplative theology. A prolific author and global speaker, he has written hundreds of articles and three books—translated into various languages—which have been widely praised by academics, practitioners, and general readers alike. He is the founder of the Tadatmya Alliance and hosts The Free Radical Podcast, where he engages voices from diverse traditions in heartfelt dialogue. Fluent in English and Spanish, Swami regularly lectures at universities, spiritual communities, and interfaith gatherings around the world. His writings and teachings are cherished for their intellectual richness, poetic insight, and transformative clarity. For over twenty-five years, Swami Padmanabha has traveled extensively, mentoring others and leading retreats, while drawing inspiration from the wisdom of his many guides. His talks and seminars are freely accessible at swamipadmanabha.com, inviting listeners into a space of thoughtful inquiry, inner stillness, and sacred relationship. Books: Inherent or Inherited? Bhakti in the Jiva According to Gaudiya Vedanta Radical Personalism: Revival Manifesto for Proactive Devotion Evolution in Divine Love: The Eternal Becoming of God, Soul, and Matter Websites: swamipadmanabha.com tadatmya.org Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group Transcript of this interview Interview recorded August 24, 2025 YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction: A Brother from Another Mother  00:03:01 - Swami Padmanabha's Background  00:05:01 - What is Gaudiya Vaishnavism?  00:06:45 - The Tadatmyā Sangha: A Community of Empathy  00:08:02 - Life on the Road: Home as a State of Consciousness  00:12:31 - How Do We Know What We Know? Faith vs. Certainty  00:15:46 - The Value of a "Working Hypothesis" in Spirituality  00:20:26 - The Danger of Religious Certainty  00:22:41 - The "My Thing is the Best Thing" Syndrome  00:25:23 - The Evolving Nature of Vows on the Spiritual Path  00:28:40 - Do Our Beliefs Shape Our Experience?  00:32:13 - What is God? The Problem with the Word  00:35:58 - The Problem of Evil and the Paradox of Free Will  00:42:30 - Appreciating Paradox as a Sign of Spiritual Maturity  00:44:44 - The Sweet Absolute: Magnificent vs. Intimate Aspects of God  00:47:01 - Are We God? The Paradox of Oneness and Difference  00:50:08 - The World-Negating View vs. Seeing Divinity Everywhere  00:53:40 - Spirituality is Not an Evacuation Plan  00:57:40 - The Cosmic Perspective: Trillions of Galaxies  01:02:49 - The End of "The Search" and the Beginning of Wonder  01:04:21 - Let's Talk About Love  01:08:42 - The Prerequisite of Self-Realization for God-Realization  01:12:47 - The Problem of Spiritual Teachers "Gone Wrong"  01:17:40 - Systemic Issues Behind Guru Scandals  01:22:56 - Revelation and Scripture are Ever-Evolving  01:28:20 - The Dynamic, Expanding Nature of Brahman  01:31:42 - Is Global Disorder a Prelude to a Higher Order?  01:34:28 - The Central Role of Radha, the Divine Feminine  01:38:40 - What is Your Subjective Experience of Love?  01:43:26 - Is Ecstatic Devotion Always Genuine?  01:48:51 - Humility as a Vaccine Against Ego  01:53:50 - The Sacredness of Matter  01:58:14 - The Ecological Crisis as a Symptom of a Spiritual Problem  02:04:10 - The Lesson of the Ant: Life Beyond Our Perception  02:06:06 - Conclusion & Swami Padmanabha's Schedule

Michael Bradford has been involved in research into Kundalini and consciousness for more than 45 years. In 1977 he traveled to India where he spent six years serving as a volunteer for the Central Institute for Kundalini Research, founded and directed by the late Pandit Gopi Krishna, the noted authority on Kundalini. Michael has been a board member of the Institute for Consciousness Research (I.C.R.) since it was founded in the 1990’s, and has been Director of Publications during this time. In 2015, he also became a board member of the Emerging Sciences Foundation (E.S.F.). He was also a founding member of the Kundalini Research Network (K.R.N.) and served as joint coordinator for the organization from 1993 to 1995. In 2014, Michael retired from a career in the IT consulting field, and since then he has been working to make Gopi Krishna’s theories more widely known, and to encourage research into Kundalini and consciousness. Michael can be contacted at newparadigm246@gmail.com Books: Consciousness: The New Paradigm by Michael Bradford Gopi Krishna-A biography: Kundalini, Consciousness and Our Evolution to Enlightenment by Teri Degler Living with Kundalini - the Autobiography of Gopi Krishna by Gopi Krishna Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group Interview summary and transcript Interview recorded August 16, 2025

Jurgen Ziewe - Visual Testimony of Life Eternal  Jurgen Ziewe is not a teacher in the traditional sense, but a witness—one who has journeyed beyond the boundaries of self into the vast stillness of unity consciousness. For over five decades, his life has unfolded as an ongoing exploration of multidimensional reality, shaped by a profound meditation practice and spontaneous Out-of-Body Experiences (OBEs) that opened the doorway to a deeper truth. A moment of unexpected clarity during an ordinary breakfast catalyzed Jurgen’s first direct experience beyond the body—an event that would transform his life and initiate hundreds of journeys into higher realms. What he discovered was not theory, but a living presence—structured, luminous, and more real than waking life. Rather than building an identity around these experiences, Jurgen surrendered ever more deeply into stillness. His work, including the acclaimed books Multidimensional Man, Vistas of Infinity, and The Ten Minute Moment, offers not just insight but transmission—a quiet resonance that awakens something remembered but long forgotten. Audiences often speak of his presence as calming, expansive, and strangely familiar. His seminars and talks evoke deep shifts—not through persuasion, but through the palpable stillness from which he speaks. A renowned illustrator by profession, Jurgen now brings his inner visions to life using cutting-edge virtual reality and AI, offering immersive glimpses into realities beyond the senses. He offers no dogma, only a clear, ego-free reflection of the vast peace and joy available when the self dissolves into unity. His life is not a performance, but a quiet act of service—a transmission from stillness to stillness. Books: Multidimensional Man (2008) Vistas of Infinity (2015), The Ten Minute Moment Explorations in Consciousness: A New Approach to Out-of-Body Experiences The Phase: Shattering the Illusion of Reality New Territories Elysium Unveiled: A Visual Odyssey of Life Eternal Websites: multidimensionalman.com Some of Jurgen’s “multidimensional” artwork Virtual reality videos Celestial-Song – Angel of the Earth – A new virtual reality project between Jurgen and composer Craig Pruess Jurgen’s commercial art Videos: About Elysium Unveiled - A Visual Journey through Life Eternal A video of the final chapter of Jurgen's book “Multidimensional Man” "which illustrates better than the words in my book the entry into Unity consciousness during an Out-of-body experience." "A spontaneous entry into unity consciousness after I recovered from a cancer operation in 2011" Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group First BatGap interview with Jurgen Summary and transcript of this interview. Interview recorded June 7, 2025

Stephan Martin - Cosmic Perspective Stephan Martin is an astronomer, educator, and author who has taught astronomy, physics, and consciousness studies at colleges, universities, and learning centers across the US for over thirty years. He is currently Director of the Deeptime Leadership Program at the Deeptime Network, where he helps develop and facilitate transformative and innovative leadership programs that support a flourishing future that works for all. Steve is active in leading workshops, lectures, and experiences that bring insights and wisdom from the cosmos down to Earth and everyday life. His first book Cosmic Conversations is a multidisciplinary approach to exploring the universe through the lenses of science, spirituality and culture, and his second book Living a Cosmic Life helps people navigate crisis and change from a cosmic evolutionary perspective. You can find more about him at: cosmicconversations.org and dtnetwork.org. Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group Summary and transcript of this interview Interview recorded April 25, 2025 YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 Exploring the Universe with Stephan Martin  00:03:59 The Cosmic Perspective and Human Consciousness    00:08:05 The Universe's Timeless Wisdom  00:12:18 Exploring the Connection Between the Universe and Creative Intelligence    00:17:04 The Expanding Universe: A Historical Overview    00:21:06 The Sacred Origin and Continuous Emergence of the Universe  00:25:29 Can We Influence the Past? Exploring Quantum Physics  00:30:00 Ethical Principles of Differentiation    00:34:23 Tapping into Universal Intelligence  00:38:25 Transformative Education and Cosmic Individuality    00:42:21 The Fine-Tuning of the Universe and Life's Emergence  00:45:29 The Cosmic Game of Hide-and-Seek    00:49:44 The Role of Consciousness in Understanding the Universe  00:54:12 The Creative Power of Cosmic Chaos    00:58:36 Building Resilience Through Crises    01:02:12 Balancing Science and Spirituality in Modern Culture  01:06:59 Mystical Realms and Dark Matter    01:10:51 Understanding Dark Matter and Dark Energy    01:13:30 Competing Theories of Universe Origin: Big Bang vs Continuous Creation  01:17:42 Understanding the Universe's Open Nature    01:21:54 Scientists Exploring Mystical Experiences  01:26:05 Aldous Huxley and the Importance of the Scientific Method  01:30:45 The Blind Men and the Elephant: Understanding Reality  01:33:15 The Love Affair with Reality and Science  01:37:09 Embracing the Ever-Evolving Reality  01:41:28 Exploring Perspectives: Spiritual Traditions and Consciousness Shifts  01:45:30 The Power of Relational Emergence and Ubuntu in Culture  01:49:22 Exploring Spiritual Awakening    01:53:24 The Universe's Journey Towards Unity and Complexity  01:57:50 Discovering Earth-Like Planets: A Universe Teeming with Life  02:01:59 Join the Deep Time Network for Free

Jim Grove - Living Non-Dual in a Dualistic World  Jim Grove is a lifelong practitioner of yogic meditation who grew up in a small logging town on the West Coast of Canada. At age thirteen, he was introduced to a teacher who was one of the few ministers directly ordained by Paramahansa Yogananda during his lifetime, Mother Yogacharya M. Hamilton of Seattle. A series of early transcendental experiences convinced him to commit himself to continued yogic practice under her tutelage. His recent memoir, A Curious Spiritual Journey, recounts some of the prominent experiences that have arisen from his practice over four decades, starting from early adolescence, in the interests of providing some insight into the often unpredictable process of spiritual unfoldment. He likes to speak plainly about spiritual experience and practice, avoiding the vague, abstract, and sometimes inflated language used in much spiritual and new age writing. He lives in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Website: jimgrove.ca Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group. Summary and transcript of this interview Interview recorded February 15, 2025 YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 Jim Grove's Journey in Yogic Meditation    00:03:42 Editing a Manuscript: From 80,000 to 55,000 Words  00:07:23 Discovering a Life-Changing Teacher    00:11:24 A Humorous Encounter at Denny's    00:16:23 Spiritual Awakening and Motivation Changes  00:21:30 The Ripple Effect of Everyday Actions  00:25:47 Mariana Kaplan's Global Soccer Mission    00:30:15 The Importance of Spiritual Integrity and Ethical Conduct  00:34:29 The Importance of Integrity in Organizations and Community  00:38:25 Cultural Ethics vs. Universal Values  00:42:13 The Importance of Humility and Kindness in Life  00:47:09 Leadership Dynamics and Corporate Culture    00:51:16 The Purpose of Suffering and Spiritual Growth  00:55:51 Embracing Mortality in Tibetan Buddhism  00:59:10 Exploring Shamanic Practices and Cross-Cultural Spirituality    01:03:24 Exploring the Life and Teachings of Joel Goldsmith  01:06:55 Joel Goldsmith and Spiritual Anecdotes    01:10:33 Exploring Multiverse and Other Dimensions  01:14:40 The Role of Specialists in Reincarnation Research    01:18:30 Exploring Past Life Regressions and Reincarnation    01:23:25 Vision of Furry Boots with Curly Toes    01:27:52 Healing Through Past Life Regression  01:31:46 Balancing Depth and Breadth in Personal Growth  01:36:04 Exploring Kundalini Activation and Spiritual Growth    01:40:49 The Metaphor of the Ring: Ego and Humility Lessons from Tolkien  01:45:52 The Concept of Humility in Spiritual Teachings    01:49:50 The Spiritual Lessons of the Prodigal Son and Christ's Doubt  01:54:11 Career Shift: From Private Sector to Provincial Government  01:59:06 Embracing Change and Trusting the Universe  02:03:47 Instilling Inner Guidance in Children  02:07:44 Future of Humanity: Transitions and Endgames

Riyaz passed away in May, 2025. Here's a video he recorded a month before his death with his friends Adyashanti, Jonathan Gustin, and John Prendergast. Born in Kenya, and of Indian ancestry, Riyaz came to North America when he was ten years old (growing up in Canada, and then moving to the United States as an adult). Each of these lands, peoples, and cultures has informed and shaped his expression and sensibilities. He is a product of both East and West. Most of his adult life has been devoted to the study and practice of both psychotherapy and spirituality. And both of these disciplines have been integral to a path of healing and awakening. Professionally, his life’s work has been to bring together Eastern wisdom with Western science and psychology in a synergistic alliance. After 26 years of mainly practicing as a psychotherapist, and many years of teaching and supervising students and interns in a transpersonally oriented graduate school (CIIS in San Francisco), he has shifted his work in a more explicitly spiritual direction. He now leads individuals and groups in spiritual work through groups, and day-long and multi-day retreats. In April 2023, he received dharma transmission and the blessing of his teacher, Adyashanti. Website: riyazmotan.com Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group Summary and transcript of this interview Interview recorded November 26, 2024 YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 Embracing Vulnerability in Teaching    00:03:24 Transition to Spiritual Teaching    00:06:25 The Unexpected Lung Cancer Diagnosis  00:10:10 Embracing Life’s Challenges as Spiritual Lessons  00:13:24 Philosophy of Evolution and Suffering    00:17:23 Embracing Mortality and Living Fully  00:20:23 Wisdom from Sri Ramakrishna: Always Be Learning  00:23:25 Navigating Cancer Treatment Challenges  00:26:34 Embracing Alternative Healing Methods    00:29:41 Embracing Non-Western Healing Approaches    00:33:01 The Profound Experience of Near-Death and Out-of-Body Events     00:36:32 Personal Transformations Through Marriage    00:40:30 Embracing Earthly Spirituality  00:45:53 The Impact of Spirituality as an Escape Mechanism  00:49:46 Cultivating Presence for Emotional Healing  00:53:54 The Power of Group Consciousness  00:57:45 The Toll of Being a Spiritual Teacher    01:01:07 Embracing Vulnerability in Teaching  01:05:08 The Evolution of Spiritual Teaching Methodologies  01:08:57 Evolution of Teacher-Student Dynamics in Education    01:12:51 Importance of Preparatory Spiritual Practices    01:16:26 Lack of Spiritual Development and Global Issues  01:19:34 Humanity’s Crisis and Opportunity for Change    01:22:26 Awakening of a New Consciousness  01:26:27 Exploring Neurodivergence and Enhanced Perception  01:30:28 Transformative Power of Psychedelics and Nature    01:33:46 Ayahuasca Experience: A Catalyst for Awakening    01:36:57 Spiritual Awakening through Nature and Retreats    01:40:52 Exploring the Hero Dose: Insights from Adyashanti    01:43:41 Transition from One-to-One Work to Spiritual Mentoring  01:47:33 Upcoming Guests and Spiritual Experiences

Thomas Legrand is a wisdom’s seeker, a social scientist and sustainability practitioner. He is the author of the internationally acclaimed book “Politics of Being. Wisdom and Science for a New Development Paradigm” (2022), an invitation to radically rethink our model of development, which received the Grand Prize of the Nautilus Book Award in 2024. His spiritual journey began at the age of 23 with an encounter with native spirituality in Mexico, before embracing the wisdom of a wide range of traditions and practices, including meditation, energetic healing and Tai-chi-chuan. He lives with his wife and their two young daughters near Plum Village, the monastery of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in the South West of France, his country. He is currently the Lead Technical Advisor for the UNDP-convened Conscious Food Systems Alliance. Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group Summary and transcript of this interview. Interview recorded November 9, 2024 YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 Introduction to Thomas Legrand and His Work  00:03:27 Integrating Politics and Spirituality    00:07:32 Radical Restructuring for Humanity’s Survival    00:10:43 Prophecies of Transformation and Enlightenment    00:15:14 Exploring Spiritual Solutions for Society  00:19:22 The Necessity of Consciously Attending to Ethics in Spiritual Practice  00:23:51 Spirituality and Science Collaboration    00:27:12 The Influence of Sri Aurobindo’s Spiritual Work on Global Events    00:31:11 Spiritual Practices and Deep Forces    00:34:53 The Need for Spiritual Transformation    00:39:07 Theory X and Theory Y: Workplace Dynamics    00:43:34 Prisons as Factories of Stress and Recidivism    00:48:32 The Importance of Relationships in Happiness    00:52:40 The Impact of Collective Consciousness    00:56:18 Emerging Sciences for Happiness and Peace    01:00:30 Integrating Wisdom and Science for Unity    01:04:21 Healing Patterns on a Societal Level    01:09:00 Transformation Through Breakdown and Regrowth    01:12:06 Introducing the Concept of a Politics of Being    01:15:30 The Shift Back to Human Dimensions  01:20:37 Implementing Spiritual Solutions in Everyday Life    01:25:51 Economic Inequality as the Root of Social Issues    01:30:39 The Necessity of Change in Society    01:36:22 The Baha’i Vision and Progressive Revelation    01:39:03 Understanding the Soul of a Nation in a Globalized World  01:43:25 The Destiny of Unity and Diversity    01:48:08 Conversations on Conflict and Harmony in Israel    01:50:45 Healing Trauma as a Gateway  01:53:37 Presidential Apology and Indigenous Healing  01:56:00 Navigating Economic Growth and Conscious Transformation    02:00:23 Exploring Our Website Offerings