The MindThatEgo Podcast

Wouter Kusters is a Dutch philosopher and linguist. He is the author of five books, including the award-winning A Philosophy of Madness, which was translated to English in 2020.His writing details his experiences of psychosis through a philosophical lens, including stays in psychiatric institutions and solitary confinement. Wouter is co-organiser of the Too Mad to Be True Conference which takes place in-person in Ghent, Belgium, and online on the 14th and 15th May.Our discussion explores the overlap of madness and mysticism and the limits of language, concepts, and the rational mind to describe or comprehend this vast terrain, which Wouter describes as “the black hole in which thought loses itself.”---Details on the Too Mad to be True Conference: https://www.psychiatrieenfilosofie.nl/too-mad-to-be-true-iv

Claudia Barfoot is a psychotherapist, Ancestral Healing Practitioner, and founder of the Land of Possible, which merges western theories of the psyche with indigenous systems of knowledge to facilitate growth and healing.Claudia’s cross-cultural approach combines psychology, psychoanalysis, dreamwork, sacred plant medicines, and ancestral traditions. She is informed by perspectives from the Toltec and Maya peoples of Mexico, as well as the teachings of the Mamos and Sagas from la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. Her expansive wisdom provides an insightful perspective on dreams. We discuss: visitations from ancestors, emotional landscapes, the dream body, astral travel, visiting different realms,’ what colours represent, prophetic dreams, why certain traditions see dreams as shared experiences, how dreams prepare us for death, nightmares and encountering ‘dark beings,’ spiritual protection, dreams’ sacred communication, and much more.

I’m joined by Lisa Marchiano, an award-winning author and certified Jungian analyst with a private practice in Philadelphia.Lisa is the author of Motherhood: Facing and Finding Yourself and The Vital Spark: Reclaim Your Outlaw Energies and Find Your Feminine Fire. Her latest book, Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams, is written with Deborah Stewart and Joseph Lee, her fellow co-hosts of the popular depth psychology podcast, This Jungian Life.Our conversation focuses on making sense of dreams. Topics include: understanding imagery and symbols, unlocking meaning, working with setting, characters, and unfolding storylines, the dream ego’s perspective, “dreaming on” through active imagination, learning from emotions, encounters with the Self and the “God within,” dreams as life-changing religious experiences, and practical tips for dream recall.We join the conversation with Lisa and I discussing the application of the “keys” identified in Dreamwise…Lisa's Website.Dreamwise Book.This Jungian Life Podcast.

Episode 56 of the MindThatEgo Podcast features a panel discussion on synchronicity with Bernie Beitman, Joanna Bauer-Savage, and myself, which took place in early November in Berlin. To evoke meaningful coincidences, we asked the audience to contribute questions to a lucky dip. The resulting conversation is nuanced and diverse, including practical guidance and philosophical frameworks. We discuss the relationship between intuition and coincidence, feeling the pain of a loved one at a distance, the nature of the higher Self revealed in dreams and synchronicities, discerning when to follow signs and when to step back, magical thinking and confirmation bias vs. true synchronicity, and contemplations of the “higher order” of meaning. 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!

Welcome to episode 54 of the MindThatEgo Podcast. This episode features my presentation, Quantum Self-Compassion, for the Mystics and Scientists Conference in April 2024. The theme was Love, Forgiveness, and Compassion: Where Spirituality Meets Science. The first half of the talk introduces self-compassion as a thread across past, present, and future. I share common barriers to self-compassion, uncover misconceptions, and look at the damage of self-dis-compassion, which includes self-rejection, self-judgment, and self-criticism. I introduce the notion of the True Self as outside of time and the Source of compassion, love, forgiveness, and higher qualities we can extend toward the small self or Ego. To bring these insights to life, this is followed by a guided meditation, through which you will, hopefully, get an embodied sense of the nature of self-compassion. Just a reminder to please like, rate, subscribe and share to help more people access the podcast. Enjoy!

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.

To honour the milestone 50th episode, I’m joined by Richard Tarnas, a renowned historian and archetypal cosmologist. August 8th is the peak of the astrological event known as the Lion’s Gate Portal. The Sun (in Leo) aligns with Sirius, Orion’s Belt, and Earth. Simultaneously, Orion’s Belt aligns with the Pyramids of Giza. Ancient Egyptians revered Sirius, the “spiritual star,” and associated it with gods Osiris and Sopdet. Each year the rising of Sirius marked the flooding of the Nile. As author of The Passion of the Western Mind and Cosmos and Psyche, Richard is the ideal guest to mark the occasion. He is the founding director of the graduate program in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He teaches courses in the history of ideas, archetypal studies, depth psychology, and religious evolution. For ten years he lived and worked at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, studying with the likes of Stanislav Grof, Joseph Campbell, and James Hillman, later serving as Esalen’s director of programs and education. In re-enchanting the Western worldview, Richard traces the historical and cultural roots of the modern mind. Although much was gained, much was lost, including the ensoulment of the cosmos, and a sense of participation with higher forms of intelligence. Is civilisation experiencing a mythological fall from grace due to human hubris? Is global chaos a symbolic manifestation of humanity’s descent into the underworld? How can a new worldview support spiritual transformation, sense-making, and flourishing on a global scale? Before we begin, one more special announcement: Richard is one of a number of contributing authors, including myself, for the new volume by the Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences: The Playful Universe: Synchronicity and the Nature of Consciousness. The book is released late August, with an online symposium scheduled for the 26th or 27th September. Resources Richard’s Website. Article: Introduction to The Playful Universe: Synchronicity and the Nature of Consciousness. Article: Is The Modern Psyche Undergoing a Rite of Passage? Epilogue of Passion of the Western Mind.

Marjorie Woollacott is an Emeritus Professor of Human Physiology and member of the Institute of Neuroscience at the University of Oregon. She is Research Director for the International Association of Near-Death Studies (IANDS) and President of the Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences (AAPS). Marjorie has published more than 200 scientific articles and written or co-edited eight books. Our conversation centres around her paper, co-authored with scholar Ben Williams, Conceptual Cognition and Awakening: Insights From Non-dual S ́Aivism and Neuroscience. In this lucid synthesis, the pair explore the neural correlations between language, the sense of self, and expanded states of awareness — and how that relates to 10th century Kashmir philosopher Utpaladeva’s Stanzas on the Recognition of Shiva. Marjorie shares how the brain’s filtering system limits awareness, citing fascinating studies from near death experiences, meditation, and psychedelic research. Other topics include Extra-Sensory Perception and quantum entanglement, free will, and how brain activity supports a post-material worldview, where consciousness, not matter, is primary. 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 Marjorie’s website. Academy for the Advancement of Postmaterialist Sciences

This episode features my presentation for the International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis (ISPS-US) annual conference in October, 2023. The original title was Metanoia: How Psychosis and Paranoia Ignited My Spiritual Awakening. I completely rewrote the talk a few days before, following a lightning bolt of creative energy that surfaced a structure I’d not previously made conscious. I called this the Psychotics Twofold Call to Adventure. It’s my attempt to contextualize and integrate experiences of paranoia and psychosis across a 12 year period. I suggest the twofold path of cultivating awareness and creating coherence, to re-relate to psychological content, and to understand the language of the soul. Metanoia means spiritual conversion, or the change of mind and heart. I suggest that psychosis, as a process of metanoia, has the potential to be a pathway to what R.D Laing calls “true sanity,” whereby the ego is “in service to the divine and no longer its betrayer.” The stages cover the unconscious tsunami and collapse into chaos, answering the inward call and the ego’s surrender, finding the inner sanctum, the world as meditation, divine emergence, initiation, and individuation, before closing with a note on how this relates to humanity’s current crises. 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!

I’m joined by Nikunja, a musician and yoga teacher who bridges the creative arts with ancient philosophy. Following a path of devotion — known as Bhakti yoga — Nikunja teaches the embodiment of the Bhagavad Gita as a way of life. Nikunja has reimagined chapters from the Gita as part of a project to illuminate yoga’s sacred nature, which extends far beyond physical postures. In exploring the Gita’s ancient wisdom, we discuss the divine intellect, reading sacred scripture as a spiritual practice, the art of listening, the nuances of yoga philosophy across traditions, single-pointed devotion as a pathway to union with God, the nature of the soul and the supreme self, the overlooked value of the teacher / student dynamic, and much more. In September, Nikunja will be performing at the Bhakti Fest in California. She will be sharing music on the main stage and conducting a workshop. Discounted tickets for the festival can be found at https://www.bhaktifest.com/tickets by entering the code NIKUNJA. 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! Nikunja's Resources: Website: https://www.nikunjartistry.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikunja YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC44NFKxo4399zT6byAVOZkA Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/11SfT4EjJa4ObpX8nZJQ7M?si=_Sp4fdglQ4qKGf82Fvv9QA

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: Jane’s website: https://www.janeclapp.com/ Jane’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jungiansomatics/

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.

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