Welcome back to Behind Greatness. Joan (a Catalan name, pronounced "shwan") is an Anthropologist currently living in San Sebastian, Spain. He also owns a travel company called Last Places. This endeavour was born from his love of exploring the last places on Earth and living with its inhabitants – places where no tourists exist. He adopted his grandmother's gaze on the world, living in life's mystical rhythms – following by what you feel rather than by just what you see. In service to this gaze, Joan has focused his life's energy to investigating and researching decaying traditions around the world. We talk about the Amazon, Cameroon, startlink-ification effects on tribal culture, fruit-cracking fish, thinking less v feeling more, dancing with wolves and churches, supermarkets and tracksuits.

We may have also discovered a new emotion.

Joan,

• Website & Travel company: https://lastplaces.com/en/autor/joan-riera-travel-guide/
• IG: @lastplacetravel
• YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4kN2qmf-Bh5BhUuT8rsOMw/featured
• Goonies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ2j4oWdQtU
• Dances with Wolves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc8NMbrW7mI

To give to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors

Welcome back to Behind Greatness. We had loads of fun in this conversation. Robert Wagonner joins us from his home in the Midwest. He is a veteran lucid dreamer, having taught himself how to do it in the '70s and never looked back. Robert elaborates on the lucid state as being an educational system. He discussed "buzzing" while having an out of body experience as a young boy, his brother's book and the Monroe Institute, flying through his neighborhood, house cats and mountain lions. We hear about the mysterious "N4" (144), the mentally mediated realm, following the creativity and the blue light. We explore the magic of goofiness, fear, becoming an electron, the search for inherent evil, Daoist societies, "going the distance" and the voluntary death experience. What a trip.

"Doubt is gravity".

Robert,

• Website + Books: https://www.lucidadvice.com/
• Other: https://www.lucid-dreaming-advice.com/about-robert
• Lucid Dreaming Foundation: https://www.luciddreamingfoundation.org/#1

[CORRECTION – The Monroe Institute initially helped Joe McMoneagle to control his OBEs]

Episodes mentioned:

• Joe McMoneagle, ep 198, 199, 200, 210, 215, 218 and Athena Laz, ep 100

To give to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors

We welcome back to the podcast our friend Kevin Knuth - of viking extraction ("Knud") … . Kevin is a Professor of Physics at the University at Albany. He is a former NASA research scientist designing artificial intelligence algorithms for astrophysical data analysis. His current research interests include the foundations of physics, quantum information, autonomous robotics, the search for and characterization of extrasolar planets, and unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP).

Put on your seatbelts: angel hair, engineer-animals and chemist-plants, "curiosity band-width", extra terrestrial gardeners, lizards and spoons, 1954 incident above a soccer field in Florence, studying refractory time, remote viewing in the family, UAPx, levitation, caterpillar silk from barbell-shaped ufos, believing and seeing, physics we haven't studied yet, what Kevin figured out finally and a donation to Kevin's university and endowment to help him and his team study it all.

Stickshifts and Safetybelts. https://youtu.be/qW9mZLnQ7Yc?si=-0od8M2LGZOLoLX3

Episodes mentioned: Kevin Day (ep 171), Stephan Schwartz (ep 155,156), Diana Pasulka (ep 142), Jeffrey Krypal (ep 118, 189)

Kevin,

UAP paper:

· The new science of Unidentified Aerospace-Undersea Phenomena (UAP): http://knuthlab.org/papers/knuth+etal---2025--new-science-UAP.pdf

· arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.06794

New Endowment Fund at University of Albany: https://www.albany.edu/news-center/news/2025-ualbany-receives-major-gift-advance-scientific-research-unidentified-aerial

A Tear in the Sky: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15120486/

UAPx: https://www.uapexpedition.org/about

1954 incident in Florence: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29342407

Welcome back to Behind Greatness. We speak with Lisa who joins us from her new abode in Emerald Isle. Lisa is the author of Words at the Threshold. Her book is a fascinating compendium of 7 years' research on (and collection of) people's last words. We are charmed by Lisa's casual and playful demeanour from the get-go. We learn about her research, her own deeply personal experiences with dying loved ones and the emotional wisdom of a particular fireman who helped save a moment. Lisa shared with us her ideas about the consensuality of language, humour in dying, the openness and curiosity of our former childhoods that help to book-end – and Herb. The conversation reaches new depths, touching upon Lisa's personal experience with a certain kind of evil that we started to cover in the previous episode with Alex … and what Lisa has found with the unravelling of speech.

My modality is broken. Wow.

Episodes mentioned: Dr. Bruce Greysen (ep 69) re NDE research, Rey Hernandez (ep 153, 154) re modalities, Alex Gomez-Marin (ep 224), Emmeline Villar (ep 173).

Lisa,

· Website: https://www.finalwordsproject.org/

· Book: Words at the Threshold: What We Say as We're Nearing Death - https://www.amazon.com/Words-Threshold-What-Nearing-Death/dp/1608684601/ref=sr_1_1?crid=NE8R7WK669EI&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.SxBuIw0YM55aV-Q6BRZ-wj2FO3qssGQ1A1Yvl6UOatrvjCLHQpYkH7DfMOBs5dPE-84vsFaW-S_NcOirrDCH-FgKwjipxojuqQqCy5nRMHs0IZ4IxCFKPqLkJXA4i_iJwpANASfHo13qLJajDT6rnXGFrEY0ROAkDxQNKpFOFn9AaAi9uIIZpkVesPn7D2qT.H1Js2OEmpHy7WdRBXncQaVY2u5vu9a8nDIagB6C4qWE&dib_tag=se&keywords=lisa+smartt&qid=1765497528&sprefix=lisa+smart%2Caps%2C172&sr=8-1

Book mentioned:

· Final Gifts: Understanding and Helping the Dying - Callaghan, Maggie; Kelley, Patricia: https://www.amazon.com/Final-Gifts-Understanding-Special-Awareness-ebook/dp/B005UDIC3E/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3TS5F8EG1IJ7E&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.dDmAgW1pouc6U81D-LheBQ.h_lFExdSCcnEuB631eybIfS44fI2ZHc8l8LOzLUwgHU&dib_tag=se&keywords=Final+Gifts%3A+Understanding+and+Helping+the+Dying+-+Callaghan%2C+Maggie%3B+Kelley%2C+Patricia&nsdOptOutParam=true&qid=1765497462&sprefix=final+gifts+understanding+and+helping+the+dying+-+callaghan%2C+maggie+kelley%2C+patricia%2Caps%2C109&sr=8-1

To give to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors

Welcome back! Today, we sit down for a great talk with Alex. He works as a physicist, a neuroscientist, an intellectual activist and an author – and he experiments, researches and explores the invisible things that are very real. We quickly slide into a "no time to lose" rhythm with Alex. For just reason. Alex is consumed with investigating impossible things that happen. As a scientist and a seeker he worries about the obstinacy of materialism and "isms" in general and the rigidity of academia as he sees it. We discuss navigating the two worlds of poo-poo and woo-woo, rigorous inquiry, consciousness, evil, ideas as an instrument and the significance of "smallness".

Love. Electrons. Ghosts.

Amy Adams (Arrival): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwPpwLy4UIU

Episodes/Guests mentioned in this episode:

• Jeffrey Kripal, Ep 188, 189
• Stephan Schwartz, ep 155, 156
• Antonia mills, ep 88
• Kevin Knuth, ep 216
• Rey Hernandez, ep 153, 154
• Paco Calvo, ep 212
• Rudy Schild, ep 179 186, 192, 195, 196
• Emmeline Villar, 173

Alex:

• Book: "La Ciencia Del Ultimo Umbral" - https://www.amazon.ca/ciencia-del-%C3%BAltimo-umbral-consciencia/dp/B0FGDJX4CZ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=KN9AQX9L9L18&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.o_AgO-3ny91DJ68bQnX2ro-uxGTYi3IWSCx-0eYIm6rGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.yW_z89jp4agttw0XUUqGnrj8DTKwwH8sa3ne8hKE1AU&dib_tag=se&keywords=alex+gomez+marin&qid=1764422705&sprefix=alex+gomez+marin%2Caps%2C92&sr=8-1
• Hidden war on Consciousness:

https://www.essentiafoundation.org/neuroscientist-speaks-out-on-the-hidden-war-on-consciousness/seeing/

https://www.essentiafoundation.org/neuroscientist-speaks-out-on-the-hidden-war-on-consciousness/seeing/

• With Rupert Sheldrake: https://www.sheldrake.org/videos/alex-gomez-marin'

To give to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors

Thanks for joining us at Behind Greatness. We sit down with Philip Carr-Gomm, who joins us from his home in the country in Sussex, England. Philip works, thinks and plays at the cross-section of psychology and spiritualism. He is an author and lecturer and works as a psychologist and psychotherapist. For decades he has rooted his spiritualism in Druidry and he is one of today's most public Druids. We discuss a ton: trees as our spiritual companions, "surrendering", dropping down a hole in New Zealand, lucid dreaming and the big self, pushing the gorilla down into the basement and another Druid - Winston Churchill.

Never quite finished with his exploration, Philip is always making progress.

Philip,

• Website: https://philipcarr-gomm.com/
• "Know Thyself": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_thyself

To give to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors

Thanks again for joining us. Today we chat with Cameron Scott who joins us from his native city of Johannesburg. Cameron is a professional photographer, a life-long wildlife lover and owner of Royal Ngala Safaris in South Africa. He charms us off the bat with his straight-talking recount of his first love: Africa's nature. We learn about the Big 5, running with gorillas, travelling hundreds of miles for a shrew, a camp-site scare with a lion, sleeping in trees and walking with bull elephants. We are treated to a story about Cam's life-altering moment with a lion hunting episode, the importance of not sweating the small stuff and the magic of watching people experience facing the majesty of wild animals for the first time.

All of this from the home of human kind.

Episodes mentioned: Ep: Bruno D'Amicis (ep63) , Julie Church (ep94), Elisabetta Tosoni (ep96), Julie church, David Salmoni (ep213), Dr. Rudy Schild and the Astronaut-Elephant Story (ep 186 & 217)

Cameron,

· Royal Ngala website: https://www.royalngala.com/, IG: @royalngala, FB:RoyalNgalaSafaris

· IG: @camscott_wild

· FB: @CamScottWild

To give to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors

Today we chat with Abby Lutz who joins us from her backyard in Colorado. Abby is a nurse, a death doula and a consciousness explorer. Abby is building her Death Dojo, a place where she explores death as a practice, a portal and a source of limitless possibility. We talk about fear and its enemy: exploration with wonder. Abby brings us through some experiences with patients crossing over, her own similar personal experience, carrying empathy in your toolbox, seeing death versus watching death, trees, the "loss-iness" of words, oppositional defiance disorder, space/seas/deserts, the Octopus and "preparing the others". A perfect chat amongst the trees.

Desserts and Death.

Episodes mentioned:

Max Catricala (ep 6, Antarctica), Meganne Christiane (ep 10, Antarctica), Natalie Sudman (ep 97, Antarctica), Dr. Jay Dahman MD (ep 62, trees), Paco Calvo (ep 212, plants), Jennifer Mather (ep139, the Octopus)

"A Horse with No Name":

- Dirtwire (Remake) - https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=P2VaXOZdsTo&si=Z73og0tZgCERJKw9

- America (Original): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xxh9Da_EJB4&list=RDXxh9Da_EJB4&start_radio=1

- History - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Horse_with_No_Name

To give to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors

Welcome back to Behind Greatness. We sit down with Dr. Ken Atchity at his home in California. Ken started his adult life on an academic stream and he eventually became what he personally dreaded: a tenured professor. But, shortly after his tenure-ship, he decided to breakup with his career and start anew. Already an author, Ken decided to write screenplays and produce films – not ever looking back for over 30 years. as been producing films since 1996. We talk about his thoughts on competition, creativity and what it hinges on, doing great work in isolation and how he turned around his accountant dad to seeing the freedom and beauty in insecurity. We talk staring at fire and mountains, dying by committee, the perfection of Dante's Divine Comedy, chopping wood – and the Rose Café.

Seeing the David before carving it.

Go back in time to see our early episodes with like-minded luminaries who embrace Ken's philosophy: Kenneth Oppal (ep 106), Mike Narducci (ep 24), Steve Litchman (ep 36), Matt Larochelle (ep 30) and Tim Kring (ep 52).

Ken,

• Websites:
• https://storymerchant.com/
• https://www.atchityproductions.com/about-us
• IG: @storymerchant

To give to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors

Ralph Blumenthal joins us today from his office in NYC. Ralph is a Distinguished Lecturer, an Award-Winning Reporter and Journalist for The New York Times from 1964 to 2009, and a writer on organized crime and cultural history. He also is known for co-authoring the now famous NY Times article in 2017 along with Leslie Kean and Helene Cooper that broke the door open on the secret AATIP program. He and Kean followed that up in 2023 with their breaking story on David Grusch and the details of a secret retrieval program and existence of non-human intelligence. Moreover, he is also the distinguished biographer of the late Harvard psychiatrist and author Dr. John Mack with his book "The Believer: Alien Encounters, Hard Science, and the Passion of John Mack."

Ralph has both writing and NYC at his core. Ralph straight-talks us through everything important to him: his curiosities, his artistic background, his Jewish heritage, mysteries that fascinate us, his wife's sensibilities- and the life, research and curiosities of John Mack. We talk unmovable beliefs, inquisitions and the big questions.

What is the bottom line?

People mentioned in this episode can be found here:

• Rudy Schild (re John Mack) – ep 179
• Leslie Kean – ep 112
• Guy Consolmagno – ep 133
• Danny Sheehan – ep 169

Ralph,

• Books: https://ralphblumenthal.com/books/
• Website: https://ralphblumenthal.com/bio/
• X: @ralphblu

To give to the Behind Greatness podcast, please visit here: https://behindgreatness.org. As a charity, tax receipts are issued to donors