Richard is an internationally respected spiritual teacher, psychic medium, award-winning international bestselling author, and one of the world’s leading authorities on UFOs and their spiritual message. He is also host of ‘The Spiritual Freedom Show with Richard Lawrence’ Podcast. Richard has appeared on major media including Coast to Coast AM, GMTV, and LBC and has spoken in over a dozen countries, including as a keynote speaker at London’s prestigious Mind Body Spirit Festival for more than 30 years. With deep insight into Eastern and Western mysticism, consciousness, and cosmic spirituality, he brings both credibility and charisma to every conversation.

Books:

Contacts With The Gods From Space: Pathway to the New Age

The Nine Freedoms

REALIZE YOUR INNER POTENTIAL through the path of spiritual service – King Yoga

The Twelve Blessings

Websites:

richardlawrence.co.uk

aetherius.org

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group

Interview recorded September 20, 2025

Ricard Perez - Silence, Art, and Liberation

Ricard Perez is a meditation coach, and musician whose work bridges ancient traditions with fresh, practical insight. Drawing from Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, and A Course in Miracles, he emphasizes meditation as a dynamic balance of clarity and release, with simple methods for directly entering silence. His original explorations into latency, fractals, and perception connect contemplative practice with science and creativity, while his love of music, art, and ecstatic expression bring a celebratory dimension to the path of awakening.

Website: ricardcoach.com

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group

Interview recorded September 13, 2025

Swami Padmanabha is a Gaudiya Vaishnava monk, scholar, and spiritual teacher known for his eloquent synthesis of devotion, unconditional love, and contemplative theology. A prolific author and global speaker, he has written hundreds of articles and three books—translated into various languages—which have been widely praised by academics, practitioners, and general readers alike.

He is the founder of the Tadatmya Alliance and hosts The Free Radical Podcast, where he engages voices from diverse traditions in heartfelt dialogue. Fluent in English and Spanish, Swami regularly lectures at universities, spiritual communities, and interfaith gatherings around the world. His writings and teachings are cherished for their intellectual richness, poetic insight, and transformative clarity.

For over twenty-five years, Swami Padmanabha has traveled extensively, mentoring others and leading retreats, while drawing inspiration from the wisdom of his many guides. His talks and seminars are freely accessible at swamipadmanabha.com, inviting listeners into a space of thoughtful inquiry, inner stillness, and sacred relationship.

Books:

Inherent or Inherited? Bhakti in the Jiva According to Gaudiya Vedanta

Radical Personalism: Revival Manifesto for Proactive Devotion

Evolution in Divine Love: The Eternal Becoming of God, Soul, and Matter

Websites:

swamipadmanabha.com

tadatmya.org

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group

Interview recorded August 24, 2025

Michael Bradford has been involved in research into Kundalini and consciousness for more than 45 years. In 1977 he traveled to India where he spent six years serving as a volunteer for the Central Institute for Kundalini Research, founded and directed by the late Pandit Gopi Krishna, the noted authority on Kundalini.

Michael has been a board member of the Institute for Consciousness Research (I.C.R.) since it was founded in the 1990’s, and has been Director of Publications during this time. In 2015, he also became a board member of the Emerging Sciences Foundation (E.S.F.). He was also a founding member of the Kundalini Research Network (K.R.N.) and served as joint coordinator for the organization from 1993 to 1995.

In 2014, Michael retired from a career in the IT consulting field, and since then he has been working to make Gopi Krishna’s theories more widely known, and to encourage research into Kundalini and consciousness.

Michael can be contacted at [email protected]

Books:

Consciousness: The New Paradigm by Michael Bradford

Gopi Krishna-A biography: Kundalini, Consciousness and Our Evolution to Enlightenment by Teri Degler

Living with Kundalini - the Autobiography of Gopi Krishna by Gopi Krishna

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group

Interview recorded August 16, 2025

While expanding his education and eventually working at a number or companies as an HF engineer, Dan's first love was always spiritual exploration. In 2011, after a number of years of trial and error refining the process of self inquiry into deep self investigation, there came an undeniable recognition that he was not a separate self. Simply no one at all. There was only the selfless THIS, "aware existence". This became his permanent condition.

Soon after, (from a certain perspective), Dan left a successful corporate position and his old life, following an intuited impulse to be in a more free, natural and creative circumstance. He now lives with his wife Victoria in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina, loving nature, exploring various forms of artistic expression and guiding others to awakening.

Website: deepselfinvestigation.com

Book: Deep Self Investigation: A Modern Guide to Awakening

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group

Interview recorded July 19, 2025

Savita Veera - Healing the Intimate Divide



Savita is a spiritual teacher, mentor, embodiment facilitator and healer.

She experienced a profound shift in consciousness after great tragedy, followed by years of further spiritual openings, mystical experiences and her own deep healing.

She meets people with generosity, humour and grounded practicality. Providing a safe space for them to open to their own divine light and inner wisdom.

Website: savita.com.au

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group

Interview recorded July 6, 2025

Aedamar Kirrane - Mystical Awakening & Divine Love



Former barrister turned philosopher and writer, Aedamar Kirrane experienced a spontaneous mystical awakening that began in 2015 and continues to unfold. Unable to find any support or understanding within her own Christian tradition she embarked on a deep enquiry to understand the inner dynamics and telos of awakening. She came to believe in life as an original blessing rather than the doctrine of original sin that she thinks has destroyed our sense of ourselves as sacred beings.

Her spiritual autobiography is Light on Fire: Waking Up to Divine Love, published 2021. Through ongoing reflection and curiosity she has developed her own threefold mystical cosmology that understands creation in the pattern of exodus and return; that recognises all of life as sacred, described through the concept of panentheism; and that the purpose of human life is deification or the return to our divine state while still in human form.

All this is set within the context of the Great Awakening we are living through now, of which the human experience is a micro version. She has come to recognise that spontaneity is characteristic of the human experience of an evolutionary shift in consciousness. Aedamar's awakening is mediated through her mystical and spiritual writing and she recognises sacred writing as its own spiritual path that she calls The Via Scriptoria.

Aedamar's visions are published on aedamarkirrane.com. She blogs at The New Scriptorium.

Aedamar will be opening a wisdom school called "The Mystical Birth of the True Self" in September. It will be a nine month programme to support awakening to our inner divinity. If you would like to be notified when it is formally announced please visit her website to sign up for her newsletter or sign up here.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group

Summary and transcript of this interview

Interview recorded June 21, 2025

 

YouTube Video Chapters:

00:00:00 - Reentering the Womb of Christ

 00:03:40 - Life as a Lawyer, Wife, and Mother

 00:07:00 - Motherhood, Postnatal Depression, and a Spiritual Opening

 00:13:12 - A Glimpse of the Grail: The 2007 Vision

 00:22:07 - Finding a Framework in Philosophy

 00:28:23 - The Sacred Fire: A Spontaneous Kundalini Awakening

 00:41:03 - Losing the Self, Merging with Love

 00:46:44 - A Warning: The Dangers of a Reckless Teacher

 00:55:52 - Navigating the Question of Sanity

 01:02:30 - Humility as an Antidote to Spiritual Inflation

 01:09:03 - A Message of Love from the Christ

 01:14:24 - The Great Separation: A Broken World

 01:25:09 - The Great Awakening: A New Era is Being Born

 01:41:01 - The Return of the Feminine

 01:46:41 - Advice for the Seeker: What To Do With Longing

 01:53:52 - The Path to Unity Consciousness

 01:56:45 - The Invitation: Become Kindling in the Fire of Love

 02:00:25 - Closing Remarks

Jurgen Ziewe - Visual Testimony of Life Eternal



Jurgen Ziewe is not a teacher in the traditional sense, but a witness—one who has journeyed beyond the boundaries of self into the vast stillness of unity consciousness. For over five decades, his life has unfolded as an ongoing exploration of multidimensional reality, shaped by a profound meditation practice and spontaneous Out-of-Body Experiences (OBEs) that opened the doorway to a deeper truth.

A moment of unexpected clarity during an ordinary breakfast catalyzed Jurgen’s first direct experience beyond the body—an event that would transform his life and initiate hundreds of journeys into higher realms. What he discovered was not theory, but a living presence—structured, luminous, and more real than waking life.

Rather than building an identity around these experiences, Jurgen surrendered ever more deeply into stillness. His work, including the acclaimed books Multidimensional Man, Vistas of Infinity, and The Ten Minute Moment, offers not just insight but transmission—a quiet resonance that awakens something remembered but long forgotten.

Audiences often speak of his presence as calming, expansive, and strangely familiar. His seminars and talks evoke deep shifts—not through persuasion, but through the palpable stillness from which he speaks.

A renowned illustrator by profession, Jurgen now brings his inner visions to life using cutting-edge virtual reality and AI, offering immersive glimpses into realities beyond the senses.

He offers no dogma, only a clear, ego-free reflection of the vast peace and joy available when the self dissolves into unity. His life is not a performance, but a quiet act of service—a transmission from stillness to stillness.

Books:

Multidimensional Man (2008)

Vistas of Infinity (2015),

The Ten Minute Moment

Explorations in Consciousness: A New Approach to Out-of-Body Experiences

The Phase: Shattering the Illusion of Reality

New Territories

Elysium Unveiled: A Visual Odyssey of Life Eternal

Websites:

multidimensionalman.com

Some of Jurgen’s “multidimensional” artwork

Virtual reality videos

Celestial-Song – Angel of the Earth – A new virtual reality project between Jurgen and composer Craig Pruess

Jurgen’s commercial art

Videos:

About Elysium Unveiled - A Visual Journey through Life Eternal

A video of the final chapter of Jurgen's book “Multidimensional Man” "which illustrates better than the words in my book the entry into Unity consciousness during an Out-of-body experience."

"A spontaneous entry into unity consciousness after I recovered from a cancer operation in 2011"

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group

First BatGap interview with Jurgen

Summary and transcript of this interview.

Interview recorded June 7, 2025

Diarmuid O'Murchu - Theology Coming of Age

Diarmuid O'Murchu, a member of the Sacred Heart Missionary Order, and a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin Ireland, is a social psychologist whose early working life had been in social ministry, predominantly in London, UK. In more recent years he has worked as a workshop leader and group facilitator, conducting programmes on Adult Faith Development across several countries. He is a widely read author, with many of his books listed on this webpage. Now as a retired missionary, he lives in Dublin, Ireland.

Books:

When the Disciple Comes of Age: Christian Identity in the Twenty-first Century

Doing Theology in an Evolutionary Way

Divine Radiance in Human Evolution

Ecological Spirituality

Website: diarmuidomurchu.com

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group

Summary and transcript of this interview

Interview recorded May 17, 2025

 

YouTube Video Chapters:

00:00:00 The Paschal Journey: Crisis Leading to Awakening

 00:00:35 Introduction of Diarmuid O'Murchu: Theology Coming of Age

 00:02:19 Defining Theology: Rational vs. Revealed

 00:05:15 Re-examining Traditional Theology & The Role of Experience

 00:08:06 Narrative Theology and Spirit Connecting with Spirit

 00:09:08 Expanding Perspectives: Cosmic Reality and Human Evolution

 00:12:00 God's Story for Humanity: A 7-Million-Year Journey

 00:15:16 Paradigm Shift in Christian Theology: Reworking the Tradition

 00:18:41 Incarnation: Jesus as Affirmation, Confirmation, and Celebration

 00:21:07 The Exclusivity of Jesus and Other Religions

 00:25:08 Impact of Institutionalized Understandings (Anthropology & Theology)

 00:26:29 Tracing Issues to the Agricultural Revolution and Patriarchy

 00:30:26 Exponential Pace of Change and Adapting Worldviews

 00:34:49 Action Follows Thought: The Importance of Shifting Consciousness

 00:40:10 Transcendental Meditation and the Power of AI

 00:45:01 Ethical and Moral Values in Contemporary Spirituality

 00:48:38 God as the Great Birther: A Feminine, Embodied Divine

 00:55:00 Moving from "Soul" to "Spirit Energy"

 00:59:06 Einstein & Hans-Peter Dürer on Spirit and Matter

 01:02:44 Uniqueness vs. Superiority in Creation

 01:04:49 The Interconnectedness of All Beings

 01:08:27 "Companionship of Empowerment" vs. "Kingdom of God"

 01:15:07 Women in Early Christianity & The Shift to Hierarchy

 01:20:20 Interpreting Jesus's Miracles: Parables of Action

 01:28:45 Closing Thoughts and Diarmuid's Work

 01:29:00 Indigenous Wisdom: The Great Spirit and Connection to Land

 01:32:11 The Challenge of Engaging with Ancestral Wisdom

 01:36:08 Diarmuid's Books and Website

 01:37:09 Next Interview Preview: Jürgen Zeewey

 01:38:13 End



Julie Seido Nelson is a transmitted teacher (Sensei) in the Maezumi Roshi Zen lineage. Her home Zen community is the Greater Boston Zen Center, a sangha which has experienced three major upheavals due to teacher arrogance and abuses of power over the last several years. She is also a teacher at the Great Plains Zen Center in Monroe, Wisconsin, and has written for Buddhist audiences in Tricycle magazine and on her blog.

Having begun Zen practice in 2004, she has found it to be of immense value. She is deeply saddened when people, either in addition to or instead of realizing the benefits, suffer great harm.

When not reflecting writing about Zen, she sometimes writes and give talks based on her pre-retirement academic work as a feminist and ecological economist. She enjoys visiting her two children and two grandchildren and enjoying the New England outdoors.

Books:

Practicing Safe Zen: Navigating the Pitfalls on the Road to Liberation (Monkfish, 2025)

Amazon

Indie Pubs

Economics for Humans (University of Chicago Press, 2nd ed. 2018)

Website: julieanelson.com

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group

Summary and transcript of this interview

Interview recorded May 11, 2025

 

YouTube Video Chapters:

00:00:00 The Myth of Teachers as Exemplars in Education

 00:05:07 Measuring Spiritual Attainment and Its Challenges

 00:10:46 The Journey to Self-Realization: Insights from Soto Zen  

 00:14:29 Importance of Ethics in Spiritual Teaching  

 00:19:30 The Transformative Power of Momentary Cosmic Experiences

 00:24:23 Shadow Work and Spiritual Growth

 00:28:30 Legal Challenges in Zen Communities  

 00:32:31 Identifying and Avoiding Cult-Like Spiritual Groups

 00:37:38 The Challenges of Becoming a Zen Teacher

 00:41:51 Zen and the Importance of a Beginner's Mind  

 00:46:30 Trusting the Dharma vs. Human Advice  

 00:50:48 Embracing Buddha Nature Through Life's Storms  

 00:55:50 Examining Zen Precepts and Self-Awareness

 01:00:23 Navigating Zen Teachings and Moral Conduct

 01:05:06 The Misunderstanding of No-Self  

 01:09:12 The Impact of Long-Term Meditation on the Brain  

 01:14:22 Power Dynamics in Teaching and Spiritual Leadership  

 01:17:44 Navigating Teacher-Student Boundaries in Dharma Practice  

 01:21:06 Institutional Misconduct and In-Group Protection

 01:25:22 Understanding DARVO: Strategies of Manipulation  

 01:28:38 Recognizing and Avoiding Cult-like Behaviors in Groups

 01:32:04 Understanding Authority in Charismatic Groups and Zen

 01:36:13 Discernment in Supporting Charities  

 01:39:36 The Essence of Dharma Teaching Transmission

 01:44:16 Recognizing Genuine Spiritual Awakening

 01:48:28 Finding Inner Security Beyond External Influences  

 01:53:01 Financial Misuse in Spiritual Communities  

 01:57:21 Navigating the Path to Spiritual Development

 02:01:19 Pre-Order "Practicing Safe Zen"  

 02:03:38 Engaging with Greater Boston Zen Center Online