Awareness Explorers

In this episode we explore relationships as a path to awakening that reveals obstacles to love, and how MDMA can serve as a catalyst to open-heartedness.

The book we discussed in this episode is Ecstasy for Couples: How MDMA Therapy Can Create More Love and Less Conflict In Your Relationship

To learn more about Ecstasy for Couples, please visit: https://xtcforcouples.net/

For more information about the amygdala, which was mentioned in this episode: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/amygdala

Don't forget to subscribe for more ingenious ways to tap into the ever-present stillness and joy of our true nature.

To learn more about Awareness Explorers, and to listen to all of our podcast episodes, please visit: https://www.awarenessexplorers.com/

To Support Awareness Explorers, please consider clicking the "Donate" button on any AwarenessExplorers.com page, or becoming a Patreon supporter: https://www.patreon.com/awarenessexplorers NOTE: If you are a Patreon supporter and have not been receiving our bonus material, please check to make sure that the email address you have on Patreon is an active one.

To learn more about Jonathan Robinson and Brian Tom O'Connor, please visit https://findinghappiness.com/ and https://www.playawarenessgames.com/

You can listen to all of our episodes on this YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLThffcko0gAXyaArC4OyY0y84CZ8uSb_n

Enjoy, Jonathan and Brian

Photo by Enq 1998 on Unsplash

In this episode, we talk to Kate Alvo about Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) how they can release tension held in the body from stress and from traumas of the past, as well as how releasing stored tension naturally quiets the mind, offering a physical pathway to presence that can facilitate awakening.

• Includes a guided meditation to help listeners tune into their bodies and notice direct present-moment experience without judgement.

To learn more about Kate Alvo, please visit: https://katealvo.com/

The books we discussed in this episode: The Revolutionary Trauma Release Process: Transcend Your Toughest Times by David Berceli https://treglobal.org/recommended-reading/ Shaking Medicine: The Healing Power of Ecstatic Movement By Bradford Keeney https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Shaking-Medicine/Bradford-Keeney/9781594771491

Don't forget to subscribe for more ingenious ways to tap into the ever-present stillness and joy of our true nature.

To learn more about Awareness Explorers, and to listen to all of our podcast episodes, please visit: https://www.awarenessexplorers.com/

If you want to listen to the meditations alone, you can find all of our meditations excerpted either in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLThffcko0gAVvivvVVGNfQgJxbWB6dF6Z

Or on our Awareness Explorers website: https://www.awarenessexplorers.com/meditations

To Support Awareness Explorers, please consider clicking the "Donate" button on any AwarenessExplorers.com page, or becoming a Patreon supporter: https://www.patreon.com/awarenessexplorers NOTE: If you are a Patreon supporter and have not been receiving our bonus material, please check to make sure that the email address you have on Patreon is an active one.

To learn more about Jonathan Robinson and Brian Tom O'Connor, please visit https://findinghappiness.com/ and https://www.playawarenessgames.com/

You can listen to all of our episodes on this YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLThffcko0gAXyaArC4OyY0y84CZ8uSb_n

Enjoy, Jonathan and Brian

In this episode, we explore how technology is accelerating human transformation and consciousness, and we outline the five key areas that are driving this shift: psychedelics, nootropics, gadgets, new techniques, and AI coaching.

• Includes a guided meditation leading us to recall a specific, highly awakened or peaceful experience and how to amplify the feeling with deep breaths and visualization.

Don't forget to subscribe for more ingenious ways to tap into the ever-present stillness and joy of our true nature.

To learn more about Awareness Explorers, and to listen to all of our podcast episodes, please visit: https://www.awarenessexplorers.com/

If you want to listen to the meditations alone, you can find all of our meditations excerpted either in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLThffcko0gAVvivvVVGNfQgJxbWB6dF6Z

Or on our Awareness Explorers website: https://www.awarenessexplorers.com/meditations

To Support Awareness Explorers, please consider clicking the "Donate" button on any AwarenessExplorers.com page, or becoming a Patreon supporter: https://www.patreon.com/awarenessexplorers NOTE: If you are a Patreon supporter and have not been receiving our bonus material, please check to make sure that the email address you have on Patreon is an active one.

To learn more about Jonathan Robinson and Brian Tom O'Connor, please visit https://findinghappiness.com/ and https://www.playawarenessgames.com/

You can listen to all of our episodes on this YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLThffcko0gAXyaArC4OyY0y84CZ8uSb_n

Enjoy, Jonathan and Brian

Photo by Joshua Sortino on Unsplash

In this episode we talk to Amy Islip about her experiences with guided MDMA therapy, the profound spiritual awakening that ensued, and the resulting embodiment of spacious, open-hearted, love.

• Includes a guided meditation leading us first, to rest in what is, free from stories and plans, allowing our bodies to soften, dissolve, and expand, and then, leading us to draw that expansiveness back into our bodies, minds, and the roles we play in everyday life.

To learn more about Amy Islip, please visit: https://thinkbetter.com.au/

Don't forget to subscribe for more ingenious ways to tap into the ever-present stillness and joy of our true nature.

To learn more about Awareness Explorers, and to listen to all of our podcast episodes, please visit: https://www.awarenessexplorers.com/

If you want to listen to the meditations alone, you can find all of our meditations excerpted either in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLThffcko0gAVvivvVVGNfQgJxbWB6dF6Z

Or on our Awareness Explorers website: https://www.awarenessexplorers.com/meditations

To Support Awareness Explorers, please consider clicking the "Donate" button on any AwarenessExplorers.com page, or becoming a Patreon supporter: https://www.patreon.com/awarenessexplorers NOTE: If you are a Patreon supporter and have not been receiving our bonus material, please check to make sure that the email address you have on Patreon is an active one.

To learn more about Jonathan Robinson and Brian Tom O'Connor, please visit https://findinghappiness.com/ and https://www.playawarenessgames.com/

You can listen to all of our episodes on this YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLThffcko0gAXyaArC4OyY0y84CZ8uSb_n

Enjoy, Jonathan and Brian

In this episode, we respond to ChatGPT's summary of the top 15 recurring themes throughout the 200 episodes of Awareness Explorers to date, and elaborate on the ways they point to the realization of our true nature as infinite awareness.

• Includes a list of Brian's Key Principles of Awareness, which can serve as a guided meditation.

And here is a link to Pamela Wilson's "Cave of the Heart" meditation that we talked about in this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1ONEN_h__8

Don't forget to subscribe for more ingenious ways to tap into the ever-present stillness and joy of our true nature.

To learn more about Awareness Explorers, and to listen to all of our podcast episodes, please visit: https://www.awarenessexplorers.com/

If you want to listen to the meditations alone, you can find all of our meditations excerpted either in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLThffcko0gAVvivvVVGNfQgJxbWB6dF6Z

Or on our Awareness Explorers website: https://www.awarenessexplorers.com/meditations

To Support Awareness Explorers, please consider clicking the "Donate" button on any AwarenessExplorers.com page, or becoming a Patreon supporter: https://www.patreon.com/awarenessexplorers NOTE: If you are a Patreon supporter and have not been receiving our bonus material, please check to make sure that the email address you have on Patreon is an active one.

To learn more about Jonathan Robinson and Brian Tom O'Connor, please visit https://findinghappiness.com/ and https://www.playawarenessgames.com/

You can listen to all of our episodes on this YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLThffcko0gAXyaArC4OyY0y84CZ8uSb_n

Enjoy, Jonathan and Brian

Photo by Matt Paul Catalano on Unsplash

In this episode we discuss gurus and spiritual teachers and explore the potential benefits as well as the potential risks involved in following a guru.

• Includes a guided meditation leading us toward finding our inner guru and asking a deep personal question.

Don't forget to subscribe for more ingenious ways to tap into the ever-present stillness and joy of our true nature.

To learn more about Awareness Explorers, and to listen to all of our podcast episodes, please visit: https://www.awarenessexplorers.com/

If you want to listen to the meditations alone, you can find all of our meditations excerpted either in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLThffcko0gAVvivvVVGNfQgJxbWB6dF6Z

Or on our Awareness Explorers website: https://www.awarenessexplorers.com/meditations

To Support Awareness Explorers, please consider clicking the "Donate" button on any AwarenessExplorers.com page, or becoming a Patreon supporter: https://www.patreon.com/awarenessexplorers NOTE: If you are a Patreon supporter and have not been receiving our bonus material, please check to make sure that the email address you have on Patreon is an active one.

To learn more about Jonathan Robinson and Brian Tom O'Connor, please visit https://findinghappiness.com/ and https://www.playawarenessgames.com/

You can listen to all of our episodes on this YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLThffcko0gAXyaArC4OyY0y84CZ8uSb_n

Enjoy, Jonathan and Brian

Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash

In this episode we talk with Beth Miller, author of Awakening is Not for the Faint of Heart: Risk Everything for Love, about her profound shift in consciousness, the integration of therapy and spirituality, and insights from long COVID, which was ultimately a gift, providing deep healing and spiritual growth, and requiring intense presence, surrender, and trust in life.

To learn more about Beth Miller, please visit: BethMillerPhD.com https://www.bethMillerphd.com/

Or email her at [email protected]

Don't forget to subscribe for more ingenious ways to tap into the ever-present stillness and joy of our true nature.

NEWS:

Awareness Explorers has made the following top listener charts on Goodpods: # 6 in the Top 100 awakening All time chart # 8 in the Top 100 joy All time chart # 6 in the Top 100 awareness All time chart # 8 in the Top 100 consciousness All time chart # 47 in the Top 100 meditation All time chart

To learn more about Awareness Explorers, and to listen to all of our podcast episodes, please visit:

https://www.awarenessexplorers.com/

To Support Awareness Explorers, please consider clicking the "Donate" button on any AwarenessExplorers.com page, or becoming a Patreon supporter:

https://www.patreon.com/awarenessexplorers

NOTE: If you are a Patreon supporter and have not been receiving our bonus material, please check to make sure that the email address you have on Patreon is an active one.

To learn more about Jonathan Robinson and Brian Tom O'Connor, please visit

https://findinghappiness.com/

and

https://www.playawarenessgames.com/

You can listen to all of our episodes on this YouTube playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLThffcko0gAXyaArC4OyY0y84CZ8uSb_n

Enjoy, Jonathan and Brian

In this episode we talk to Michael McCord, president of San Francisco Zen Center, on bringing Zen practices into daily life and work, and how enlightenment is seen as an ongoing process of increasing awareness, not a fixed end state to achieve.

• Includes a guided meditation introducing the Zen practice of breath counting.

To learn more about Michael McCord, please visit these San Franciso Zen Center pages: https://www.sfzc.org/ https://blogs.sfzc.org/blog/2024/09/10/meet-sfzcs-new-president-michael-mccord/ https://www.sfzc.org/teachers/sozan-michael-mccord and on YouTube: @SFZenCenter Or email him at: [email protected]

The Zen manual discussed in this episode is the Tenzo Kyokun (Instructions for the Cook). This site has links to a few translations: https://www.themathesontrust.org/library/instructions-cook-tenzo-kyokun

Don't forget to subscribe for more ingenious ways to tap into the ever-present stillness and joy of our true nature.

NEWS:

Awareness Explorers has made the following top listener charts on Goodpods: # 6 in the Top 100 awakening All time chart # 8 in the Top 100 joy All time chart # 6 in the Top 100 awareness All time chart # 8 in the Top 100 consciousness All time chart # 47 in the Top 100 meditation All time chart

To learn more about Awareness Explorers, and to listen to all of our podcast episodes, please visit: https://www.awarenessexplorers.com/

If you want to listen to the meditations alone, you can find all of our meditations excerpted either in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLThffcko0gAVvivvVVGNfQgJxbWB6dF6Z

Or on our Awareness Explorers website: https://www.awarenessexplorers.com/meditations

To Support Awareness Explorers, please consider clicking the "Donate" button on any AwarenessExplorers.com page, or becoming a Patreon supporter: https://www.patreon.com/awarenessexplorers NOTE: If you are a Patreon supporter and have not been receiving our bonus material, please check to make sure that the email address you have on Patreon is an active one.

To learn more about Jonathan Robinson and Brian Tom O'Connor, please visit https://findinghappiness.com/ and https://www.playawarenessgames.com/

You can listen to all of our episodes on this YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLThffcko0gAXyaArC4OyY0y84CZ8uSb_n

Enjoy, Jonathan and Brian

In this episode we talk to Stephen Zerfas, co-founder of Jhourney, which offers retreats facilitating rapid access to jhana meditation states, described as positive feedback loops between attention and emotion, offering profound states of gratitude, peace and non-duality.

• Includes a guided meditation focusing on relaxing the body while turning our attention to positive concepts such as gratitude and wishing for the well-being of all others.

To learn more about Stephen Zerfas, please visit: https://www.jhourney.io/ and on X: @jhanatech https://x.com/jhanatech?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

The Oxford professor Stephen mentions in this episode is Shamil Chandaria. To learn more, please visit his YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@ShamilChandaria

And the books recommended in this episode: Right Concentration: A Practical Guide to the Jhānas, by Leigh Brasington The Path to Nibbāna. How Mindfulness of Loving-Kindness Progresses through the Tranquil Aware Jhānas to Awakening, by David C. Johnson

Don't forget to subscribe for more ingenious ways to tap into the ever-present stillness and joy of our true nature.

NEWS:

Awareness Explorers has made the following top listener charts on Goodpods: # 6 in the Top 100 awakening All time chart # 8 in the Top 100 joy All time chart # 6 in the Top 100 awareness All time chart # 8 in the Top 100 consciousness All time chart # 48 in the Top 100 meditation All time chart

To learn more about Awareness Explorers, and to listen to all of our podcast episodes, please visit: https://www.awarenessexplorers.com/

If you want to listen to the meditations alone, you can find all of our meditations excerpted either in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLThffcko0gAVvivvVVGNfQgJxbWB6dF6Z

Or on our Awareness Explorers website: https://www.awarenessexplorers.com/meditations

To Support Awareness Explorers, please consider clicking the "Donate" button on any AwarenessExplorers.com page, or becoming a Patreon supporter: https://www.patreon.com/awarenessexplorers NOTE: If you are a Patreon supporter and have not been receiving our bonus material, please check to make sure that the email address you have on Patreon is an active one.

To learn more about Jonathan Robinson and Brian Tom O'Connor, please visit https://findinghappiness.com/ and https://www.playawarenessgames.com/

You can listen to all of our episodes on this YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLThffcko0gAXyaArC4OyY0y84CZ8uSb_n

Enjoy, Jonathan and Brian

In this episode we discuss strategies for handling bad news as an awakening person, balancing awareness and action..

• Includes a guided meditation addressing the dichotomy between taking action and acceptance, and how to bring these two seeming opposites into a workable equilibrium.

Don't forget to subscribe for more ingenious ways to tap into the ever-present stillness and joy of our true nature.

NEWS:

Awareness Explorers has made the following top listener charts on Goodpods: # 6 in the Top 100 awakening All time chart # 8 in the Top 100 joy All time chart # 6 in the Top 100 awareness All time chart # 8 in the Top 100 consciousness All time chart # 47 in the Top 100 meditation All time chart

To learn more about Awareness Explorers, and to listen to all of our podcast episodes, please visit: https://www.awarenessexplorers.com/

If you want to listen to the meditations alone, you can find all of our meditations excerpted either in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLThffcko0gAVvivvVVGNfQgJxbWB6dF6Z

Or on our Awareness Explorers website: https://www.awarenessexplorers.com/meditations

To Support Awareness Explorers, please consider clicking the "Donate" button on any AwarenessExplorers.com page, or becoming a Patreon supporter: https://www.patreon.com/awarenessexplorers NOTE: If you are a Patreon supporter and have not been receiving our bonus material, please check to make sure that the email address you have on Patreon is an active one.

To learn more about Jonathan Robinson and Brian Tom O'Connor, please visit https://findinghappiness.com/ and https://www.playawarenessgames.com/

You can listen to all of our episodes on this YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLThffcko0gAXyaArC4OyY0y84CZ8uSb_n

Enjoy, Jonathan and Brian

Photo by Egor Vikhrev on Unsplash