Black Beryl

Today I sit down with Brendan Graham Dempsey, Director of Research at the Institute of Applied Metatheory, where he thinks about human meaning-making systems. It’s rare that I have someone on the pod who doesn’t specialize in Asian traditions, but I thought a conversation with Brendan might help crystalize some of the ideas we’ve been discussing so far this season. We talk about what kind of spirituality is possible after postmodernism, the advantages of an integrative worldview, and how to decide which perspective should win out over others when they’re in conflict. In our conversation, it is apparent that Brendan and I are coming at this from different directions, but ultimately we discover some common ground.

If you want to hear scholars and practitioners engaging in multidisciplinary conversations about Asian religious, medical, healing, and mystical traditions, then subscribe to Black Beryl wherever you get your podcasts.

If you would be willing to help support the pod so we can pay our bills, please look us up on Substack and become a member! Each month our guests share downloadable PDFs of articles, book chapters, and other materials in our members area. Check it out!

One last thing: we are planning an “Ask Me Anything” episode in the future, so reach out via Substack or my website, piercesalguero.com, and let me know your questions. Ok, on with the show!

Resources relevant to this episode:

* Discussion of Pierce’s publication in Metamodern Theory and Praxis: BBP episode 4.1

* Brendan’s main website: https://www.brendangrahamdempsey.com/

* Evolution of Meaning: https://evolutionofmeaning.com

* Ω (Omega): https://www.brendangrahamdempsey.com/omega

Subscribe on blackberyl.substack.com to unlock our members-only benefits, including the following:

* Chapter 1 from Brendan’s forthcoming book Evolution of Meaning (PDF, 142 pp.)

Today I sit down with Helena Choi Soholm, PhD. A Korean American who grew up in a Protestant family, in 2018, Dr Soholm was initiated into becoming both a transpersonal psychologist and a Korean shaman (or mudang). Our conversation focuses on her experience navigating the intersections of archetypal energies, trance states, and possession by ancestral spirits. Along the way, we talk about her initiation in Korea, the centrality of music in shamanic ceremonies, how Korean adoptees reestablish ancestral connection, and about the goal of integrating transcendent and immanent spirituality.

If you want to hear scholars and practitioners engaging in multidisciplinary conversations about Asian healing and mystical traditions, then subscribe to Black Beryl wherever you get your podcasts. Also check out our members area on Substack (blackberyl.substack.com), as each episode our guests share downloadable PDFs of articles, book chapters, and other materials for you.

One last thing: we are planning an “Ask Me Anything” episode coming up soon, so reach out via Substack or my website, piercesalguero.com, and let me know your questions. Ok, on with the show!

Resources relevant to this episode:

* Helena’s upcoming events

* Helena’s shamanic services

* My interview with Jeff Kriple (BBP 3.18)

* Intangible Asset No. 82

Subscribe on blackberyl.substack.com to unlock our members-only benefits, including the following:

* Helen Choi Soholm, Brief Guidelines for an Ancestor Honoring Ritual (PDF)

* Intangible Asset No. 82 (streaming video)

In this episode, I sit down with Dr Peter Wayne, Director of the Osher Center for Integrative Health at Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women’s Hospital. A prolific researcher of the science of body-mind practices, Peter is the author of The Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi (2013) and over 200 scientific papers. But he has also been a practitioner and instructor of taiji and qigong for over 45 years, and is the founder of the Tree of Life Tai Chi Center outside of Boston. Together we explore the intersection of science and practice, as well as the bridges he has been building for decades between them. Along the way, we discuss reconciling reductionism with systems thinking, Peter’s ecological way of speaking about the body, and whether or not one should mention qi in a scientific paper.

If you want to hear scholars and practitioners engaging in multidisciplinary conversations about Asian healing and mystical traditions, then subscribe to Black Beryl wherever you get your podcasts. Also check out our members area on Substack (blackberyl.substack.com), as each episode our guests share downloadable PDFs of articles, book chapters, and other materials for you.

One last thing: we are planning an “Ask Me Anything” episode coming up soon, so reach out via Substack or my website, piercesalguero.com, and let me know your questions. Ok, on with the show!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

* Osher Center for Integrative Health

* Ted Kaptchuck, The Web That Has No Weaver (2000)

Subscribe on blackberyl.substack.com to unlock our members-only benefits, including these PDFs of Peter’s publications:

* Wayne et al., “A Systems Biology Approach to Studying Tai Chi, Physiological Complexity and Healthy Aging” (2013)

* Wayne et al., “Can Tai Chi and Qigong Postures Shape Our Mood? Toward an Embodied Cognition Framework for Mind-Body Research” (2018)

* Wayne et al., “Integrative Medicine Is a Good Prescription

for Patients and Planet” (2019)

* Wayne et al., “The Science of Tai Chi and Qigong as Whole Person

Health” (2025)

In this episode, I sit down with my friend Linda C. Ceriello, a scholar of mysticism and popular culture from Kennesaw State University in Georgia. Linda is one of the foremost scholars of metamodernism, with particular focus on contemporary spirituality and mystical experiences. She talks with me about what this concept of metamodernism means, and how it can open up new kinds of more capacious thinking. I’m sure you will agree that a lot of what we’ve been doing on this podcast over the past 4 years — juxtaposing different perspectives, exposing our full selves, exploring the dark sides of spirituality, leaning into sincerity, etc. — has all embodied a metamodern sensibility. Anyway, I think she’s the perfect guest to talk with as we launch season 4, and I hope you’ll enjoy the show.

If you want to hear scholars and practitioners engaging in multidisciplinary conversations about Asian healing and mystical traditions, then subscribe to Black Beryl wherever you get your podcasts. Also check out our members area on Substack (blackberyl.substack.com), as each episode our guests share downloadable PDFs of articles, book chapters, and other materials for you.

One last thing: we are planning an “Ask Me Anything” episode coming up soon, so reach out via Substack or my website, piercesalguero.com, and let me know your questions. Ok, on with the show!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

* “What is Metamodern?” website

* “What is Metamodern? Conversations” on YouTube

* Bloomsbury Press series: Studies in Metamodernism, Theory and Criticism Across the Disciplines

* Vermeulen and van den Akker, “Notes on Metamodernism” (2010)

* Kersten, Polo, Wilbers, Glocal Metamodernisms: European Fiction After Postmodernism (2026)

* Disambiguation video

* Recorded lecture: “An Overview of the Academic Research on Metamodernism” (2021)

* Recorded panel: “A Bodhisattva Move: Popular Mysticism’s Influence on the Metamodern Turn?” (2023)

Subscribe on blackberyl.substack.com to unlock our members-only benefits, including these PDFs of Linda’s work:

* Metamodern Mysticisms (2018)

* “Toward a metamodern reading of Spiritual but Not Religious mysticisms” (2018)

* “The Metamodern Bend: Theorizations for Religious Studies” (2022)

Welcome to season 4 of the BBP!

We concluded the last episode with Jeff Kripal calling upon humanities scholars to break out of our conservative paradigms and to allow ourselves to “get weird.” So, let’s do it! This season, we are going all-in on the mystical, mysterious, profound, reality-bending, and impossible aspects of Asian religions, medicines, and spiritualities.

As usual, we’ll launch the season the tables turned, with Lan taking up the mic to interview Pierce. Together, we think about traditional, modern, and postmodern approaches to Asian medicine. Usually, these epistemologies are competing or people are trying to integrate them… but could there be another approach that celebrates all of them without needing to reconcile dissonance?

If you want to hear scholars and practitioners engaging in multidisciplinary conversations about Asian healing and mystical traditions, then subscribe to Black Beryl wherever you get your podcasts. Also look us up on Substack to see what our guests have shared with you. Enjoy the show!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

* Pierce Salguero, “A Metadisciplinary Approach to Asian Medicine (and Other

Epistemological Carnivals)” (2025)

* Pierce Salguero, “The Fractal of Humanities” (2021)

* Pierce Salguero, “A Pedagogy of the Soul” (2022)

* Pierce Salguero, “Let’s Put More Humanity into the Humanities” (2019)

* Pierce’s Human•ities Blog on Substack or on Medium

Subscribe on blackberyl.substack.com to unlock our members-only benefits, including:

* PDF of the introduction to Pierce’s new book: Meditation Sickness: A Sourcebook on the Dangers of Buddhist Practice, just published by University of Hawaii Press.

Today I sit down with Prof. Jeff Kripal, noted scholar of religion at Rice University, to talk about extraordinary, mysterious, and “impossible” experiences. This is a conversation I’ve been waiting a few years to have. Together we explore what you can or can’t talk about in the humanities — and what we risk when we break the rules. Along the way, we touch on paranormal phenomena, epistemological pluralism, conspiracy theories, Plato’s cave, and why no one dresses up as a humanities professor for Halloween. 

If you want to hear scholars and practitioners engaging in deep conversations about the dark side of Asian religions and medicines, then subscribe to Black Beryl wherever you get your podcasts. Also check out our members-only benefits on Substack.com to see what our guests have shared with you. Enjoy the show!

Resources related to this conversation:

• Jeff Kripal's website
• Archives of the Impossible & Conferences 
• Pierce Salguero, "Secret Lives of Buddhist Studies Scholars" (2024)
• Pierce Salguero, "The Fractal of Humanities" (2021)
• Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes, "On the need for metaphysics in psychedelic therapy and research" (2023)
• Jeff Kripal, The Flip (2020)
• Jeff Kripal, Secret Body (2019)
• Commonweal Podcast

Subscribe on blackberyl.substack.com to unlock our members-only benefits, including:

• PDF of the introduction of Jeff's book, How to Think Impossibly: About Souls, UFOs, Time, Belief, and Everything Else (2024)

I'm happy to share this rebroadcast of an interview I did with James Bae, the host of the "Buddhist Yoga" Youtube channel. In this deep-dive, we discuss my new book, Meditation Sickness, just out from University of Hawaii Press. This edited collection of translations by expert scholars lays out a range of Buddhist viewpoints about the potential side-effects of contemplative practice, and what happens when one crosses the line between expected challenges and true medical crises. Including ancient scriptures, writings by some of the most celebrated Buddhist meditation teachers of all time, as well as contemporary ethnographic reports from all over the Buddhist world, the book details the symptoms, causes, prevention, and treatment of "meditation sickness." Our conversation provides a detailed overview of the contents of the book, and illustrates why it is crucially important for Western meditators to be knowledgable about these phenomena. Enjoy! 

Resources mentioned in the episode:

• Pierce Salguero, Meditation Sickness: A Sourcebook of the Dangers of Buddhist Practice (2026). 
• Pierce Salguero, “Meditation Sickness” in Medieval Chinese Buddhism
  and the Contemporary West (2023).
• Pierce's previous appearances on Buddhist Yoga: Buddhist Medicine and Contemplative Pedagogy ; The Contemporary Landscape of Buddhist Healing
• Pierce's resource website: BuddhistMedicine.Net

Become a paid subscriber on blackberyl.substack.com to unlock our members-only benefits, including:

• PDF of the introduction to the 2026 book. 

Today I sit down with Sanjay Manchanda, who is an Adjunct Professor at California Institute of Human Science and also teaches at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Sanjay is an awakening facilitator, a practicing psychotherapist, and an inventor and technologist with a PhD in computer science. In this conversation, we talk about the importance of integration after awakening, psychedelics, shadow work, and a helmet that pulses infrared light into the brain to facilitate spiritual experiences. Along the way, we raise the important question of whether we will ever be able to create an enlightenment machine.

If you want to hear scholars and practitioners engaging in deep conversations about the dark side of Asian religions and medicines, then subscribe to Black Beryl wherever you get your podcasts. Also check out our members-only benefits on Substack.com to see what our guests have shared with you. Enjoy the show!

Resources related to this conversation:

• Sanjay's Neuromatrix Headset: https://neuromatrix.health/
• Ultrasound research by Jay Sanguinetti: https://www.jaysanguinetti.com/
• Arnold Mindell, Dreambody: The Body's Role in Healing the Self (1982).
• Les Fehmi, The Open-Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body (2008).
• YouTube videos: Awareness Explorers, Neuroscience of Meditation Summit
• For information about Sanjay's Monday morning group Multidimensional Fundamental Well-Being, personal coaching, and therapy sessions, contact [email protected]. 

Become a paid subscriber on blackberyl.substack.com to unlock our members-only benefits, including:

• $500 discount on the Neuromatrix Headset

Today I sit down with Dr. Tawni Tidwell, a biocultural anthropologist and Tibetan medicine doctor at the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Together we discuss how Tibetan medicine approaches the challenges that arise in the course of meditation. Along the way, we talk about reconnecting with indigenous knowledge, establishing a more intimate relationship with the body and the land, and the importance of social context in supporting spiritual practice.

If you want to hear scholars and practitioners engaging in deep conversations about the dark side of Asian religions and medicines, then subscribe to Black Beryl wherever you get your podcasts. Also check out our members-only benefits on Substack.com to see what our guests have shared with you. Enjoy the show!

Resources related to this conversation:

• Tawni Tidwell, “Life in Suspension with Death: Biocultural Ontologies, Perceptual Cues, and Biomarkers for Tibetan Tukdam Postmortem Meditative State” (2024)
• Tawni Tidwell et al, “Effect of Tibetan Herbal Formulas on Symptom Duration Among Ambulatory Patients with Native SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Retrospective Cohort Study” (2024)
• Tawni Tidwell, “Tibetan Medical Paradigms for the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: Understanding COVID-19, Microbiome Links, and Its Sowa Rigpa Nosology” (2021)
• New open access book! Crafting Potency: Sowa Rigpa Artisanship Across the Himalayas
• Tawni’s research profile at the Center for Healthy Minds
• Please note that Tawni is not taking new patients at this time, but she recommends the American Tibetan Medical Association

Become a paid subscriber on blackberyl.substack.com to unlock our members-only benefits, including downloading:

• Tawni Tidwell et al. “Chasing dön spirits in Tibetan medical encounters: Transcultural affordances and embodied psychiatry in Amdo, Qinghai” 2022.

Today I sit down with Marleen Thaler, a researcher at the University of Vienna and University of Graz. Together, we investigate the history of the transformation of Kundalini from a Hindu goddess resting at the base of the spine to her modern manifestation as a psychiatric syndrome. Along the way, we discuss the central importance of the Theosophical society, the anti-psychiatry movement of the 1970s, spiritual emergencies, and kundalini as a meeting point for religion and medicine.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Arthur Avalon, The Serpent Power: The Secrets of Tantric and Shaktic Yoga
• Gopi Krishna, Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man
• Lee Sennella, The Kundalini Experience: Psychosis or Transcendence
• Spiritual Emergence Network (USA | International)
• Marleen's publications: Academia.edu

Become a paid subscriber on blackberyl.substack.com to unlock our members-only benefits, including downloading:

• Full English translation of the Hathayoga Pradipika, which includes description of kundalini coiled at the base of the spine and structured practices to direct her energy toward enlightenment.