In this powerful interview, David Ditchfield recounts his extraordinary near-death experience (NDE) following a horrific train accident in Cambridge, UK, in 2006. Once at rock bottom as a functional alcoholic, David was transformed spiritually after being pulled under a speeding train and, just before critical surgery, encountering beings of light in the afterlife. This profound NDE awakened remarkable creative abilities, revealing hidden talents for music and painting. Despite having no formal classical music training and an inability to read or write music, David has composed two symphonies and a rhapsody—every piece premiering at sold-out concerts, including a commission from The Cambridge Clarinet Choir. His inspiring NDE paintings have been displayed in major exhibitions, including a year-long show at the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C. David’s story, recently featured in a BBC World Service documentary, is a testament to human resilience and the profound, positive changes that can arise from even the darkest moments. He continues to compose and paint in Cambridge, sharing a message of recovery, hope, spiritual growth, manifestation, and authenticity.

Website: shineonthestory.com

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group

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Interview recorded November 1, 2025

In this conversation, Emeline Lambert shares her profound spiritual journey, beginning with her childhood experiences of feeling extremely out of place in a world that seemed illusionary and pointless. “Who am I?” was the question that was always too terrifying  to answer. She purposefully tried to cover up the truth of her deepest Self through the limitations of ego and performance art; leading to years of depression, anxiety and PTSD. A turning point in her life occurred during a retreat that invited a significant shift in consciousness and a deeper understanding of her true nature. Emeline discusses the impact of meditation and presence on her life, the changes in her relationships “post-shift”, and the necessity of acceptance, self-observation and compassion. She emphasizes the role of nature as part of any spiritual practice and the ongoing, endless unfolding that is self-discovery. In this conversation, Emeline and Rick explore profound themes surrounding awakening to our true nature, love, and the gift that suffering becomes in the process of awakening. They discuss the differences between knowledge and experience, emphasizing that awakening is a collective impulse rather than an individual desire. The dialogue touches on the importance of surrendering to the essence of “what is”, the impact of the mind's commentary on suffering, and the significance of service in spiritual practice. Emeline shares her insights on the flow state in practical applications and the understanding of the shadow self, ultimately highlighting that awakening is an ongoing phenomenon that occurs beyond the architecture of the man-made sense of separate self.

Emeline volunteers with the New York–based non-profit City Voices, an organization dedicated to raising awareness about mental illness and addiction recovery through peer-led support programs, spiritual groups, and self-awareness activities. She co-facilitates their Saturday Spirituality Group and leads regular meditations.

Email: [email protected]

Website: cityvoicesonline.org

Emeline's personal email: [email protected]

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group

Interview recorded October 12, 2025

Lawrence Pintak has spent his life grounded in facts while fascinated by the ethereal. An award-winning former CBS News Middle East correspondent with a PhD in Islamic Studies, Pintak has been a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism for three decades and is an avid student of the perennial truths at the core of the world’s religions.

The author of seven books at the intersection of religion, media, and policy, his reporting and analysis on religion and international affairs has been published by The New York Times, Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, and many of the world’s leading media organizations. He also wrote about Buddhism and Eastern traditions for Shambhala Sun/Lion’s Roar, Buddhadharma, Beliefnet.com and others before 9/11 drew his focus back to the Middle East. Pintak’s most recent nonfiction book, America & Islam, was a finalist for the 2020 Religion News Association award for Religion Reporting Excellence.

Books:

Lessons from the Mountaintop: Ten Modern Mystics and Their Extraordinary Lives

America & Islam: Soundbites, Suicide Bombs and the Road to Donald Trump

Website: pintak.com

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Interview recorded October 4, 2025

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

Summary and transcript of this interview

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

Summary and transcript of this interview

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

Transcript of this interview

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 summary and transcript

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

Transcript of this interview

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