The MindThatEgo Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Welcome to episode 52 of the MindThatEgo Podcast. Jane Clapp returns to the show to explore depression in the context of the alchemical stages of psychological development or individuation. Jane is a distinguished Jungian analyst who formed Jungian somatics from over 20 years of clinical experience. Exploring the interplay of body and psyche, she specializes in developmental and complex trauma through a mythological and embodied lens. Our dialogue covers how developmental trauma blocks the psyche’s self-regulating function, anti-life energy and the collective shadow, the spiritual battle of becoming, self-deceit and identification with suffering, the need for support, anchoring into glimmers of hope, finding positive symbols in dreams and synchronicities, and prayer and surrender as powerful allies in humility, faith, and relationship to a higher power. And just a reminder before we jump into the conversation to please like, rate, subscribe and share to help more people access the podcast. Enjoy!

Resources:

Jane's Website.

Jane's Instagram.

Welcome to Episode 51 of the MindThatEgo Podcast.

I’m joined by Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri, Sufi mystic, visionary, and an enlightened master who views spirituality as a science and an art, vitally relevant to our times.

Religious scholars and Sufis were part of Shaykh’s formative experiences. His love and understanding of the universality of the Quranic message has imbued him with respect for other religions, spiritual paths and the ability to discern the common elements in our collective journey towards awakening.

Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri lectures and writes books and commentaries on the Holy Qur'an and related subjects, with particular emphasis on ethics, self-development and gnosis ('irfan).

We discuss misconceptions about Islam, insights from Sufism, the shared essence of all religions, acceptance as a spiritual practice, the power of silence in connecting to God, embracing and transcending the duality of heaven and hell, pleasure and pain, and why we must always respect our human nature, without being limited by it.

Resources

• Shaykh Fadhlalla's Website

This episode will answer the ultimate question to life, the universe and everything. Or maybe not quite everything, but I couldn’t miss the only chance to reference the number 42 from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

That being said, Jane Clapp does answer many questions I had about the inner universe. Jane is a distinguished Jungian analyst who formed Jungian somatics from over 20 years of clinical experience. Exploring the interplay of body and psyche, she specializes in developmental and complex trauma through a mythological and embodied lens. 

Our conversation includes somatic symptoms as symbols from the unconscious, developing ego strength, misconceptions about ‘shadow work,’ how skilled guidance can highlight blind spots, dreams as compensating for psychic imbalances, individual and cultural complexes, the tension of opposites and the transcendent function, and the risk, reward and necessity of differentiating from group mentality on the journey of growth.

And just a reminder before we jump into the conversation to please like, rate, subscribe and share to help more people access the podcast. Enjoy!

Resources:

Har-Prakash Khalsa started as a student of Zen meditation in 1984 and went on to become a certified Kundalini Yoga instructor and teacher of Mindfulness meditation in the systematic style of Shinzen Young (whom Har-Prakash has studied intensively with since 1999).

He has written Cultivating the Jewel of Mindfulness, a comprehensive practitioner curriculum, offers private online mindfulness coaching, and supervises solo retreatants at his off-grid farm near Owen Sound, Ontario.

Our conversation covers the spectrum from suffering to enlightenment, from core wounds to Buddha nature, in an approach that will resonate with seasoned practitioners and those looking to relate better to themselves and others. Topics include the value of introspection, the scale of meaning, cultivating wholesome states, embracing the full human experience, and the key markers of balanced awakening.

Resources

• Har-Prakash’s website.
• Shinzen Young’s Expand Contract YouTube channel.

I’m joined by Judith Blackstone. Judith has 35 years experience as a psychotherapist and teacher of the realization process, a direct path for realizing fundamental consciousness, as well as the application of nondual realization for psychological, relational and physical healing.

She currently has seven books in publication, including her latest, The Fullness of the Ground: A Guide to Embodied Spiritual Awakening.

Judith explains the importance of inhabiting the body and developing a strong connection to the core, to integrate the fullness of the self, cultivate wholeness, and connect deeply to life, rather than dissociate or numb through misguided attempts at transcendence.

We discuss the value of modalities such as talking therapy, somatic work, and meditation, the risks of catharsis, maintaining boundaries as consciousness expands, as well as subtle distinctions between non-dual awareness and energetic dimensions.

Resources

• The Realization Process website.
• Judith's writing and media.

I’m joined by Dr. Harald Atmanspacher, a theoretical physicist with more than three decades of experience in interdisciplinary research. He is known for his work on complex systems, the philosophy of science, mind-matter relations, consciousness, and quantum theory. Harald co-authored Dual-Aspect Monism and the Deep Structure of Meaning with Dean Rickles, which forms the basis of our conversation. We look at the differences in philosophical frameworks, including dualism, materialism, idealism, and how dual-aspect monism links to synchronicity, where events transcend the mind-matter boundary, connected through meaningful coincidence. I ask Harald how this model fits with non-dual approaches, such as Advaita Vedanta, and how practices such as meditation could open the door to dimensions beyond mind and matter, into what Carl Jung referred to as the psychoid.

Dr. Michele DeMarco, an award-winning writer and author of Holding Onto Air: The Art and Science of Building a Resilient Spirit. Michele is a trained therapist, clinical ethicist, and researcher. Her research includes moral injury, psychology, trauma, neuroscience, and somatic and creative art therapies, world wisdom and spirituality. She has taught Creative Nonfiction and Conflict Transformation at California Institute of Integral Studies. We focus on the subject of Michele’s series: How to Tend and Befriend Conflict.

If we accept conflict is natural and necessary, what transformation becomes possible? We explore the errors of conventional conflict resolution, how to connect to the body’s wisdom, detecting underlying issues, defense mechanisms, and the five conflict styles. We then go deeper into the nuances, such as accommodating other points of view without losing integrity, opening to feedback, and giving and receiving grace.

I found our conversation immensely invaluable and I’m sure, if you’re also human and struggle with other humans, you will too. Enjoy!

Resources and References:

• Michele’s website: https://micheledemarco.com/
• Psychology Today blog ‘Soul Console’: https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/soul-console
• Medium blog: https://michelejdemarco.medium.com/
• Book: Holding Onto Air: The Art and Science of Building a Resilience Spirit
• Conflict Styles Assessment Tool: https://www.usip.org/public-education-new/conflict-styles-assessment

Tori Franklin is an Olympic triple jumper, a public speaker, the author of You Anthem: Stories and Reflections of Celebration, and the founder of the non-profit Live Happi retreats, which empowers youth through travel, mental wellness, and movement.

In 2022, Tori became the first American woman to medal at the World Championships, winning bronze in the Triple Jump. Her success came a year after performing below her usual standard at the Tokyo Olympics. I was inspired by an article Tori wrote, describing how she turned her career around by trusting guidance from the universe, and taking a huge leap of faith by moving to Athens, Greece.

As you will hear, the spiritual athlete’s path to success isn’t conventional. Tori shares her path of resilience, overcoming setbacks, sacrifice, and the conviction required to make success a living reality. In less conventional terms, Tori explains how she manages subtle energetics to harmonize mind, body, and spirit, in order to perform at peak level from a space of playfulness and joy.

Resources and References:

• Tori’s Medium profile: https://medium.com/@torifranklin
• Tori’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/livehappii/
• You Anthem (Book): https://store.bookbaby.com/book/you-anthem
• Live Happii Retreats: https://livehappiiretreats.org/

Bethany Butzer is a Lecturer for the Alef Trust MSc programme in Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology and the Assistant Director of the Alef Trust PhD programme in Applied Transpersonal Psychology. She has an MA in clinical psychology and PhD in social psychology, spent two years as a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School, and was a Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of New York, in Prague, where she lives. 

Her research includes yoga and mindfulness for youth, transpersonal psychology, synchronicity, parapsychology, and the subject of today’s talk, ecopsychology. Our conversation gravitates around Bethany’s paradigm-challenging paper, Humans as Midwives for the Earth’s Dark Night of the Soul, a Transpersonal Ecopsychology Perspective.

The premise that global crises and destruction could be part of the Earth’s evolution toward harmony is provocative, and leads us to cover topics from animism, cosmic and planetary consciousness, the underlying symbolic and imaginal world, ecstatic re-enchantment with nature, the masculine-feminine re-balance, and much more.

Resources and References:

Bethany’s website: ⁠https://www.bethanybutzer.com⁠

Bethany’s Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/bethanybutzer/⁠

Arabella Thaïs is a writer, speaker, philosopher, and artist, studying for a PhD in cosmology and consciousness. Committed to the evolution of humanity, her work explores the intersection of poetry, mathematics, beauty, and time, which she teaches at her online school of consciousness, The Temple of Truth. She uses various aesthetic mediums – such as music, film, and experience design – in order to communicate ideas and propel human transformation.

Our conversation is thought-provoking, inspirational, and at times mind-blowing. We dance around existential topics, such as free will, and explore her theory of non-linear time, and its relationship to the cosmic mind and complex, higher dimensions of consciousness. Could it be that past, present, and future all exist in a single moment, that the Now contains all that ever was, and all that ever will be? Join us for this fun and thought-provoking philosophical journey.

Resources and References:

• Arabella’s website: https://www.arabellathais.com
• Depth Cosmology (article): https://www.kosmosjournal.org/kj_article/depth-cosmology-new-paradigm-physics/
• Remembering the Future: Wild Time and the Cosmic Imagination (Journal): https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/cejournal/vol19/iss19/8/
• Sacred Wisdom (podcast): https://www.arabellathais.com/podcast
• Kastrup's article on DID: https://www.bernardokastrup.com/2019/10/the-many-in-our-dreams.html