Buddha at the Gas Pump

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Batgap/posts/3919638538261917/ Also see https://batgap.com/jessica-nathanson/ After years of radical liberation in my own absence eventually became another kind of prison, I foundfreedom from "Enlightenment" in the freedom to live a richly human bittersweet life, in a new way, the way of transimmanence, in which the spiritual and the material are unified, and everything including suffering is a sacred expression of the divine. Discovering how many other people have been harmed by modern adaptations of liberation via self-negation teachings, I've become a Spiritual Emergence Coach, and run peer support groups for people experiencing spiritual crisis, especially related to Neo-Advaita. Website: https://www.thegloriousbothand.com/ Subscribe to monthly newsletter http://eepurl.com/h9IvVf

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Batgap/posts/3913538362205268 Also see https://batgap.com/matt-garrett/ Growing up, a burning desire to seek truth took hold. After years of searching, the need to see reality overtook the need to avoid suffering. Through the marriage of inquiry and surrender, realization unfolded in ways that could never have been imagined by my former self. After seeing through the illusion of separation, there is now a keen interest in exploring the mystery of reality and the human form. The stage of integrating this non-dual understanding into daily life is ongoing and beautiful, and something I return to daily. Not just to help myself, but to look for ways to alleviate suffering for anyone who is interested.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Batgap/posts/3907481049477666/ Also see https://batgap.com/jeffrey-mishlove/ New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, The PK Man, and Psi Development Systems. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in "Parapsychology" ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Batgap/posts/3896450377247400/ Also see https://batgap.com/bernard-carr/ Bernard Carr is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at Queen Mary University of London. As an undergraduate, he read mathematics at Cambridge University and for his Ph.D. he studied the first second of the Universe, working under Stephen Hawking. He was elected to a Fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1975, and in 1980 spent a year traveling around America as a Lindemann Fellow before taking up a Senior Research Fellowship at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge. In 1984 he was awarded the Adams Prize, one of the UK’s most prestigious mathematical awards. In 1985 he moved to Queen Mary and he became a Professor there in 1995. He has also held Visiting Professorships at various institutes in America, Canada, and Japan. His professional area of research is cosmology and astrophysics and includes such topics as the early universe, black holes, dark matter, and the anthropic principle. He is the author of around 300 papers and the books Universe or Multiverse? and Quantum Black Holes. He is also very interested in the role of consciousness as a fundamental rather than incidental feature of the Universe. In particular, he is developing a new psychophysical paradigm linking matter and mind which accommodates normal, paranormal, and mystical experiences. He also has a long-standing interest in the relationship between science and religion, especially Buddhism, having been the coholder of a grant from the Templeton Foundation for a project entitled “Fundamental Physics, Cosmology and the Problem of our Existence". He is President of The Scientific and Medical Network and a former President of the Society for Psychical Research.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Batgap/posts/3889890681236703/ Also see https://batgap.com/victoria-ukachukwu/ In 2014, I awakened to the realization that being aware is my true nature. The experience of just being aware without the identity of a person who is aware was at once exhilarating and disorienting. This simple but profound realization transformed my experience of life to one of effortless being. A wonderful result of this awakening is a lasting peace that transcends all experience. In this awakened sense of pure being, the physical body is experienced as an objective sense of being, and the mind is experienced as an objective sense of knowing. There is no longer the need for an individual identity as a person who ​is living life. There is only awareness and the experience of the objective sense of awareness in various forms of expressions. The illusion of a person being aware of objects dissolved and was replaced with a pervasive sense of joy and freedom. Before 2014, my life was based on the story of a woman named Victoria Ukachukwu who is a trained scientist with a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and is a divorced mother of two daughters. All of my experiences derived from this core identity. Over time, this identity became very limiting and questions about God and the nature of reality began to arise. Science offered no satisfactory answers nor did the Catholic religion in which I was raised. In 2010 I discovered the teachings of non-duality. In particular, the teachings of Mooji and Rupert Spira. In 2012, I went to my first ​retreat with Rupert Spira and came away with more questions. It was not until June 2014 when I went to a second retreat with Rupert Spira that all questions dissolved with the recognition of my true nature. Subsequently, in 2019, I discovered the timeless teaching of Joel Goldsmith which further reaffirmed and expanded my burgeoning understanding of spiritual principles that illuminate the nature of being. In his book, The Master Speaks, Joel Goldsmith reminds us that the Truth of being is eternal regardless of how many different ways it is presented. Consciousness is the creative principle of life. Consciousness is the eternal truth of being. In my experience, being aware or Awareness Itself is our true nature and our only purpose. It is Absolute.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Batgap/posts/3883654641860307/ Also see https://batgap.com/stephen-snyder/ Stephen Doetsu Snyder began meditating daily in 1976. he has practiced since in the Zen tradition as well as extensive practice in Theravada Buddhism. he is a lineage Zen teacher as well as a lineage Theravada teacher. He was also influenced by Diamond Heart teachings and practices. He combines the ancient Buddhist heart practices with awakening practices of the Zen tradition into a heartfelt journey of realization and embodiment.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Batgap/posts/3878101242415647/ Also see https://batgap.com/clare-goldsberry/ Clare Goldsberry has been a life-long student of religion and spiritual traditions. Having been reared Protestant Christian, her goal was to study for the ministry after completing her BA in Journalism at Arizona State University. However, a few semesters into those studies in a cooperative study program with Claremont School of Theology (Claremont, CA), she was called away into the study of Buddhism. For the past 27 years, she has been engaged in the practice of Buddhism, as well as the study of Hinduism, Gnosticism, Theosophy, philosophy (from the ancients to modern philosophers), and modern Christian religions. She has even added the study of Quantum physics to the mix after noticing that modern quantum ideas parallel those of Buddhism as the science of mind. She has always followed her inner voice, as it is that call that is the true call on her path. She teaches classes on all of those topics and tries to encourage people to follow their inner light/voice and not to be led astray. The questions are always more important than the answers, as she tells her students.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Batgap/posts/3871086046450500/ Also see https://batgap.com/penny-sartori/ Penny Sartori became interested in death and dying early in her nursing career after a connection she developed while caring for a dying patient in the ICU. That event motivated Penny to question what happens when we die and this led to Penny undertaking a long-term study to investigate the near-death experiences of patients in ICU. Penny worked as a nurse for 21 years and currently lectures at the nursing department of Swansea University.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Batgap/posts/3865625590329879/ Also see https://batgap.com/shambhavi-sarasvati/ Shambhavi is the spiritual director of Jaya Kula, a nonprofit organization offering opportunities to learn and practice in the traditions ofTrika Shaivismand the Dzogchen. She has also studied meditation with teachers in the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions. Her root Guru is Anandamayi Ma. Shambhavi emphasizes direct encounters with the wisdom of the heart through the more explicitly devotional teachings and practices of Trika Shaivism and Dzogchen. In addition to offering teachings in spiritual practice and view, Shambhavi is a trained jyotishi and diviner. At one time, Shambhavi taught at Northwestern University. She left academia in 2004 in order to devote herself to practice, writing, and teaching in her spiritual traditions.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Batgap/posts/3859138360978602/ Also see https://batgap.com/suresh-ramaswamy/ Suresh Ramaswamy is a transformational teacher and visionary entrepreneur passionate about igniting and catalyzing the transformation of humanity. He is the author of Just Be: Transform Your Life and Live as Infinity, the recipient of many awards, including the Nautilus book award and the International Soul-Bridge Body-Mind-Spirit award. With his background as an electrical engineer and technology executive, Suresh brings an inspired yet pragmatic approach to elevating consciousness on our planet. Held in high regard by people around the world, Suresh’s light-filled presence, and guidance awakens them to their innermost essence. YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/c/justBeWithSureshRamaswamy

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Batgap/posts/3853925068166598/ Also see https://batgap.com/duane-elgin-2/ Duane Elgin is an internationally recognized speaker, author, and social visionary. He has an MBA in business and an MA in economic history He has worked as a senior staff member of the Presidential Commission on the American Future, and a senior social scientist co-authoring numerous studies of the long-range future for clients such as the President’s Science Advisor; the National Science Foundation; and others. Duane has also co-founded three non-profit organizations working for media accountability and citizen empowerment. He received the Peace Prize of Japan, the Goi Award, in recognition of his contribution to a global “vision, consciousness, and lifestyle” that fosters a “more sustainable and spiritual culture.” Duane is the Co-director of the Choosing Earth Project.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Batgap/posts/3846438425581929/ Also see https://batgap.com/karen-v-johnson/ Karen V. Johnson is a graduate of Georgetown Law Center (J.D.), a former Fulbright Scholar in Afghanistan, and holds Masters Degrees in Public Health and Public and International Affairs (MPH, MPIA). Karen is a retired federal administrative law judge who practiced criminal and energy law for more than 30 years. She also is a former U.S. Army officer, Major, USAR (inactive). Karen was personally trained by Alberto Villoldo, and is faculty at the Four Winds Society and a Master Practitioner of Energy Medicine. She has trained extensively in the techniques of Illumination, Soul Retrieval, Extractions of Energies and Entities, Divination, and Death Rites. Living Grieving: Using Energy Medicine to Alchemize Grief and Loss is her first book.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Batgap/posts/3839795142912924/ Also see https://batgap.com/moshe-gersht/ Moshe Gersht is a sought out spiritual teacher in Jerusalem. A student of Torah, Kaballah, and Chasidus, he shares ancient mystical and philosophical wisdom in a way that is practical, relatable, and enjoyable. For nearly a decade Moshe toured the states as the singer and songwriter for a popular Los Angeles-based rock band. Only two years after signing a record deal, Moshe had a spiritual awakening that sent him journeying to Jerusalem. The next fourteen years were spent in the deep spiritual practice and in-depth study of Torah. Today, Moshe seamlessly connects and expresses these fundamental spiritual ideas with universal principles of psychology, spirituality, and self-development. He understands the true nature of the human mind and our collective struggles and has devoted his life to helping people align with their purpose, peace, and inner joy. In 2021 Moshe released his Wall Street Journal bestselling spiritual book titled It's All The Same To Me: A Torah Guide To Inner Peace and Love of Life, which Deepak Chopra has called "a contribution to the world's enlightenment."

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Batgap/posts/3833420406883731/ Also see https://batgap.com/sharon-hewitt-rawlette/ Sharon Hewitt Rawlette is a philosopher and writer who studies extraordinary experiences and what they have to tell us about consciousness and the deeper nature of the world we live in. She has a Ph.D. in philosophy from New York University and taught for two years at Brandeis University before leaving academia in 2010 for a career as an independent writer and researcher. Her foray into the realm of extraordinary experience began with synchronicities, and her first non-academic book was The Source and Significance of Coincidences, published in 2019. In 2020, she published a memoir about her personal spiritual journey—The Supreme Victory of the Heart—and then in November 2021, she was named a runner-up in the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies essay contest for her essay “Beyond Death,” on the best evidence for the survival of human consciousness after death. She has also contributed to a forthcoming collaborative volume on “deep weird” and a French collective work on the role of the Trickster in paranormal phenomena.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Batgap/posts/3827550604137378/ Also see https://batgap.com/anoop-kumar/ Anoop Kumar communicates a bold, new vision of healing and healthcare based in a more comprehensive understanding of whole human anatomy–a crucial step in the journey of healthcare transformation. He is the founder of Health Revolution (https://www.healthrevolution.org/), an emergency physician, public speaker, and author of Michelangelo's Medicine: How Redefining the Human Body Will Transform Health and Healthcare andIs This a Dream?: Reflections on the Awakening Mind, and a columnist for Emergency Medicine News. Integrating a deeper understanding of consciousness with our existing medical knowledge is foundational to Anoop's work. To further this, he developed the Three Minds framework–a trans-disciplinary approach that develops and integrates our knowledge of consciousness, mind, body, and the environment. He applies the Three Minds framework to identify unexamined tenets ripe for disruption and rehabilitation in healthcare. By training, Anoop is board-certified in emergency medicine and holds a master's degree in management with a focus in health leadership.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Batgap/posts/3821122604780178/ Also see https://batgap.com/pravrajika-divyanandaprana/ Pravrajika Divyanandaprana is a monastic member of Sri Sarada Math and is currently the Editor of the English journal Samvit published in New Delhi. She has been Principal of Nivedita Vidya Mandir School from 2014 to 2019. She specializes in Yoga-Vedanta. In addition to studying the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda literature, she has extensively studied the Yoga-Vedanta texts based on these twin philosophies which include the Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, Raja Yoga, Upanishads, and the Prakarana Granthas (auxiliary scriptures of Vedanta like Vedantasara, Vivekachudamani, etc.) along with their commentaries. A gold medallist and topper, Pravrajika Divyanandaprana has a unique combination of knowledge in the conventional sciences and traditional Yogic and Vedantic texts. Pravrajika Divyanandaprana has been lecturing all over India since 2010, including at the Indian Institute of Technology campuses in Madras, Delhi (she has spoken many times at Vivekananda Study Circle of IIT-Delhi), Kharagpur, Mumbai, and Kanpur; Indian Institute of Science Bangalore; Delhi University; Vivekananda International Centre; Ramakrishna Mission; Engineering and Medical Colleges in Mumbai, Pune, and Kolkata; and sometimes in schools. She offers courses on Yoga-Vedanta every semester at IIT Delhi. The courses are available on YouTube at IIT’s official channel: NRCVEE IIT Delhi. She has traveled to hold classes or deliver lectures in South Africa at Cape Town, Durban, Ladysmith, and Kwa Zulu Natal University among other places. Subsequently, she traveled to Ireland, Great Britain, UAE, and recently to Canada for talks, lectures, and scriptural discussions. She has spoken at Imperial College and Logan Hall, London University in 2013. In May 2018, she was in Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax, and Nova Scotia where she gave a number of talks on Self-Knowledge, exploring the Subjective Sciences, and finding the interface between Subjective-Objective Sciences. She has extensively traveled in the US and addressed Vedanta Societies of Iowa, Washington DC, and so on. Purdue University hosted her talk on Mind Management recently.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Batgap/posts/3809408152618290/ Also see https://batgap.com/shelly-tygielski/ Shelly Tygielski is the author of Sit Down to Rise Up and founder of the global grassroots mutual aid organization Pandemic of Love. Her work has been featured by over 100 media outlets, including CNN Heroes, The Tamron Hall Show, The Kelly Clarkson Show, CBS This Morning, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. A trauma-mindfulness teacher and a Garrison Institute Fellow, she has been called one of the “12 Powerful Women of the Mindfulness Movement” By Mindful.org and teaches self-care and resilience at organizations around the world. Visit her online at shellytygielski.com.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Batgap/permalink/3041986789360434/ Also see https://batgap.com/sebastian-blaksley-2/ Sebastián Blaksley is a native of Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 1968 he was born into a large traditional Catholic family. He attended the Colegio del Salvador, a Jesuit school of which the headmaster was Jorge Bergoglio, the current Pope Francis. Sebastian enjoyed sport in his youth, particularly Rugby football, a game that a number of his family have a long involvement with in Argentina. Although he wanted to be a monk as a young man, his family did not consider it acceptable, and the inner voice that he always followed let him know that: “You must be in the world, without being of the world.” He studied Business Administration in Buenos Aires and completed his postgraduate studies in the United States and Argentina. He also undertook further studies in England. He held several highly responsible positions in well-known international corporations, living and working in the USA, England, China, and Panama. He then founded his own corporate consulting firm in Argentina which he led for over 10 years. He has willingly given the company he owned to employees who wanted to continue the business. Sebastián has two daughters with his former wife. At the age of six, Sebastián was involved in a near-fatal accident during which he heard a voice, which later identified itself as Jesus. Ever since he has continued to hear that voice. Sebastián says: “Since I can remember, I have felt the call of Jesus and Mary to live abandoned to their will so that despite my various activities, I always put spiritual and religious reality at the center. I am devoted to my faith.” In 2013, he began to record messages from his mystical experiences. In 2016, he miraculously discovered the books comprising A Course of Love (“received” from Jesus by Mari Perron) and felt the call to devote himself to bringing the course to the Spanish-speaking world. More recently Sebastian receives, transcribes, and shares what the voice of Christ—the voice of love—mystically dictates to him. Most recently he has “received” an astonishing, and most beautiful and uplifting series of messages from Heaven resulting in the Choose Only Love series of seven books, the first of which was published in October, 2019. The seventh and final book was published in March 2022. Sebastian is living on a small island in the Tigre Delta waterways on the outskirts of Buenos Aires; overseeing the building of a retreat property called, at the suggestion of Mother Mary, the Refuge of Divine Love. People from around the world are warmly invited to spend time here in this tranquil and verdant haven covering some 23 secluded acres, to “live the books” in the company of Sebastian as a welcoming host. Sebastián is president of the nonprofit charity Fundación Amor Vivo, through which he shares A Course of Love, as well as the sublime channeled angelic messages which found their home in the Choose Only Love books and audios. The angels lovingly refer to him as “a pencil in the hands of God.”

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Batgap/posts/3797362233822882/ Also see https://batgap.com/angelo-dilullo/ At the age of 24, after years of intense internal suffering and an intuition that something about the way we interact with our thoughts causes a lot of unnecessary suffering, Angelo had a fundamental shift in the way he experiences reality. This was a pervasive transformation and was life-altering at every level. It suddenly became clear that thoughts, and the way they "paint" our experience of ourselves, time, and space, are essentially unreal, something like ghosts. What replaced this world of thought, struggle, and suffering, was boundless clarity and intimacy with all immediate textures of phenomena. It became clear that this is simply the natural state of things and that it is true for everyone, even if there is some distortion in experience caused by thoughts. It became exquisitely clear that suffering is unnecessary among humans and that any human being who has a genuine yearning to wake up to their true nature has the capacity to wake up to this boundless (non-separation) living truth. This led to the writing of the book, "Awake: It's Your Turn." The book is a combination of practical advice to help anyone who is on this pathless path, practice pointers and inquiry tips, and direct pointing (transmission) through language.