Chris Grosso The Indie Spiritualist

Sharing insights from decades of sitting with the dying, RamDev explores how to live and die with awareness and an open heart.

Pick up a copy of RamDev’s new book, How to Live So You Can Die Without Fear and check The Living Dying Project’s numerous, free support groups for grief, illness, and more. 

In this episode, Chris and RamDev have a conversation on:

• Ramdev’s extensive work with the dying 
• Learning to live while remembering our mortality 
• Open hearted joy that transcends suffering 
• Seeing the same patterns in different traditions 
• Leaning into what’s difficult rather than shying away from it
• Deepening our practice into the fabric of our being
• Ram Dass and returning to presence after we’ve veered off the path
• Grief and feeling separate from others, separate from the divine
• Recognizing the universality of grief and the many forms it arrives in

“With very few exceptions, the most beautiful Americans I’ve ever met are people who are almost dead because they’re more willing to be themselves. It’s not like ‘am I having a good hair day or not, or how much money do I have, how’s my body looking today or my personality.’” –RamDev

About RamDev:

RamDev Dale Borglum is the founder and Executive Director of The Living/Dying Project. He is a pioneer in the conscious dying movement and has worked directly with thousands of people with life-threatening illness and their families for over 30 years. In 1981, Dale founded the first residential facility for people who wished to die consciously in the United States, The Dying Center. He has taught and lectured extensively on the topics of spiritual support for those with life-threatening illness, on caregiving as a spiritual practice, and on healing at the edge, the edge of illness, of death, of loss, of crisis. Check out RamDev’s podcast, Healing at the Edge, on the Be Here Now Network.

“How deep is your practice? It’s not the books you’ve read, it’s not what you’ve got in your mind, it’s what’s really deep in your soul. It makes me think of when Ghandi was assassinated—he was saying ‘Ram Ram’. How can he say ‘Ram Ram’ if he was unexpectedly shot in the chest? Because he was saying it all the time. He wasn’t saying it because he was shot, he was saying it and he was shot.” –RamDev

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In this expansive discussion, integrative healing practitioner Dr. Robert Krause explores consciousness, philosophy, and saying ‘yes’ to life. 

Tune into Ep. 144 of the Indie Spiritualist Podcast for a conversation around mental health, psychedelic therapy, and integrative healing with Chris, Dr. Krause, and psychiatric nurse practitioner Vicki Marnin.

In this episode, Chris and Robert have a conversation on:

• Tantra vs. Buddhism and unique views of pleasure and suffering
• Acceptance and commitment to the experience of all things
• How to sit with pleasure without grasping
• Saying ‘yes’ to life with arms wide open
• The power of breathwork 
• Consciousness, philosophy, and the material world 
• Reconciling with our own mortality in order to live a fuller life

About Dr. Robert Krause:

Robert Krause DNP APRN-BC is the Director of Clinical Services & Co-Founder of Centered, a unique mental health center for integrative healing. Dr. Krause pursues his work through various schools of philosophy, psychotherapy and pharmacology, as well as meditation, yoga, tantra, sex therapy and psychedelic therapy. Dr. Krause holds a BA in Philosophy from WCSU, a certificate in Nursing and a Master of Science degree from the Yale School of Nursing, and a doctoral degree in nursing practice from Quinnipiac University. His doctoral research work was focused on using a program of yoga and meditation to decrease incidents of aggression in an inpatient psychiatric unit. He also holds certifications in Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery from Harvard University, and certificates in both Psychedelic Assisted Therapy and Research and Sex Therapy from the California Institute for Integral Studies.

Robert has been a faculty member of the Yale School of Nursing and the Yale School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry. At Western Connecticut State University and Quinnipiac University he has lectured in their philosophy programs; and at the Graduate Institute, he has lectured in Holistic Health and also in the Consciousness Studies Department.

“Knowing that it’s perfectly safe to die can also let us know that it’s also perfectly safe to live. One of the practices in tantra is in order to know what your yeses are, you first have to be able to say no. In the same way, when you’re able to reconcile yourself to your mortality, then, you’re in a place to say yes to life.” –Dr. Robert Krause

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Holistic healer Erik Harris explores the benefits of natural medicine and how it can support healing across mind, body, and spirit.

This time on The Indie Spiritualist podcast, Chris and Erik chat about:

• Perspectives from both alternative and Western medicine 
• Erik’s first experience with energy work and alternative healing
• Overcoming emotional and physical pain 
• Inspiration from A Course in Miracles 
• Healing in mind, body, and spirit 
• Getting to the root cause of what is causing us pain
• Chris’s own journey with neurodivergence 
• Honoring the part of us that questions things
• The relativity of being ‘better’ 
• Connecting to plants, trees, and mushrooms

About Erik Harris:

Erik is a holistic healer dedicated to helping people with chronic pain and illness uncover the root causes of imbalance and create sustainable paths toward wellness. His own healing journey through spinal injuries, digestive issues, and Lyme disease led him to explore natural medicine, herbalism, Chinese medicine, energy healing, and other holistic modalities. He completed a five-year apprenticeship with Dr. Ming Wu and graduated from the Connecticut Institute of Herbal Studies in Chinese Herbology. With over 10 years of experience, Erik is a certified Qi Gong Instructor, Chinese Herbalist, Tui Na Therapist, Medicinal Aromatherapist, Auriculo-therapist, Reiki Therapist, and Tong Ren Therapist. He integrates these practices with his background in psychology to support the connection between body, mind, and spirit. Erik’s mission is to empower others with practical tools and personalized holistic approaches that help them take an active role in their own healing and wellness. Learn more about Erik and book an appointment with him HERE. You can also check him out on Instagram.  

“Listen to people when they tell you what’s going on. There are all sorts of mystery illnesses and chronic conditions. Chronic conditions are at an all-time high. You would be surprised how many people you know are dealing with something. Give them a little grace and try to support them. If you haven’t had it, you don’t understand, but try to listen, try to be there.” –Erik Harris

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John Snyder, pioneer of guitar pedals and founder of Electronic Audio Experiments, explores the intersection of engineering, creativity, and the endless pursuit of great sound.

This week on The Indie Spiritualist, Chris and John discuss:

• John’s journey as a musician, creating guitar pedals and altering sound
• What it was like finishing a PhD in an electrical engineering program during the coronavirus pandemic
• How Electronic Audio Experiments took off
• Blurring the lines between art and science
• Guitar gear as an extension of the instrument itself 
• Navigating creative burnout and the gap between efforts and outcomes
• How neurodivergent traits can be valuable in the creative industry and beyond

About John Snyder:

John Snyder is a long-time guitarist with a PhD in electrical engineering. John combined these passions and became the owner and head designer at Electronic Audio Experiments (EAE). EAE  is an exploration in sound and texture via electronics. EAE focuses primarily on stompboxes for electric guitar and bass, with occasional ventures into amplification and synthesis. Check out this article from Boston University on John and his work.

“It’s very edifying to do something like this that is really blurring the art that I want to make with the science background that I have. There’s so much subjectivity to it that it feels like an art project rather than an engineering project much of the time.” –John Snyder

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Atheist spiritual director Britt Hartley explores climbing out of the void and building a life that is worth experiencing rather than focusing on what comes next. 

This week on The Indie Spiritualist, Chris and Britt explore: 

• Deconstructing truth claims and focusing on momentary experience
• How Sufism reopened Britt to spirituality 
• The brain’s struggle to make choices without a direction or faith
• Existential bravery and challenging the religions we inherited 
• The beauty of living in deep honesty
• Living a life that is worth living, even if nothing comes after we are gone
• America’s movement from theological religion to political religion
• Not claiming an “ism” and putting all options on the table 
• Imagination and overapplying agency outside of ourselves 
• Looking into the connection between Autism and Nihilism 

“I would rather suffer and see than accept some story and never question it and live and die according to some story that I inherited.”–Britt Hartley

About Britt Hartley:

Britt Hartley is an Atheist spiritual director and secular spirituality content creator. She holds a masters degree in theology and considers herself a nihilism survivor and Sufi mystic. She is also a published author, religious deconstruction coach, and program director for Spiritual Direction Training. Check out her book No Nonsense Spirituality and keep up with her on Instagram.

“Mysticism, what still allowed that to take root in me even with all my skepticism, is mysticism is the focus on the experience of what people have called God without having to put specific language around it or a box around it or put it into a manual. That has been really helpful for me to focus on experience as a place you can build even in the void, even in existential crisis. The one thing we can know is that there is something to be experienced.” –Britt Hartley

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Exploring the vital role of boundaries, Dr. Lissa Rankin calls on the medical and wellness fields to confront power imbalances and deepen their understanding of trauma.

Check out Dr. Rankin’s numerous books on trauma, medicine, healing, and more HERE

This week on The Indie Spiritualist, Chris and Lissa explore 

• Moral injury and Lissa’s transition out of the medical world
• What the medical world misunderstands about trauma
• Cult-type dynamics within the wellness community 
• Naive compassion and recognizing that sometimes we are responsible for our own harm
• Waking up to spiritual bypassing and developing a trauma-informed awareness
• How medical training forces you to dehumanize in order to detach and perform in surgeries etc.
• Going through a reckoning of power imbalance 
• Internal Family Systems as a wonderful healing modality for trauma
• Standing up for ourselves and asking for what we need

About Lissa Rankin, MD:

Lissa Rankin, MD, is an OB/GYN physician, author of 7 books, founder of the Whole Health Medicine Institute and the non-profit Heal At Last, and an encaustic artist who researches radical remission, trauma-informed medicine, and spiritual healing. She teaches memoir writing for therapeutic purposes, in addition to being an educator of Internal Family Systems (IFS). Her TEDx talks have been viewed over 6 million times, and she starred in two National Public Television specials. Lissa is currently co-writing her eighth book with Harvard psychiatrist Jeffrey Rediger, MD, MDiv about the link between relational trauma and medical illness, focusing on how healthy boundaries and Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy can help reverse diseases related to nervous system dysregulation caused by traumatizing relationships. Lissa lives with her partner Jeff Rediger and her housemate April Sweazy in the Bay Area, now that her daughter has flown the nest. She thrives on daily hikes in nature, dancing with her Bay Area dance community, singing, writing, DJ’ing music whenever she can, and healthy gourmet cooking. Check out Lissa’s website HERE.

“I was using my naive compassion to enable and tolerate some of the most narcissistic people on the planet without good boundaries and consequences to that behavior. It was shattering to realize that I was responsible for my own harm, I was continuing to keep the door wide open. I was a porous, boundaryless, gap. That was part of the ecstatic part, it was ‘it’s all one, we’re all connected.’ I wasn’t seeing the boundarylessness of that and the boundary wounding that came from my boundaryless mother.” –Lissa Rankin, MD

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Blending together the clinical and the beautiful, Dr. Robert Krause and Vicki Marnin discuss mental health, psychedelic therapy, and integrative healing.

Check out Centered, a pioneering mental health center offering affordable, multidisciplinary care designed to empower individuals on their path to healing. From traditional therapy to advanced psychiatric care and ketamine-assisted therapy, they provide a full spectrum of services to meet diverse needs.  

This time on The Indie Spiritualist, Chris, Robert, and Vicki discuss:

• Bringing together different healing perspectives rather than being strictly clinical 
• Considering what it means to be centered 
• Ketamine as a therapeutic modality and how treatment changed Chris’s life
• Considering set & setting in mental health spaces
• Thinking of ketamine-assisted therapy as a gradual tool for change (not a cure-all or quick fix)
• The psychological benefit of creating sharp contrast between everyday life and the psychedelic experience 
• Surrendering into ego dissolution for emotional healing
• Holistic care, trauma-work, and setting boundaries

About Dr. Robert Krause:

Robert Krause DNP APRN-BC is the Director of Clinical Services & Co-Founder of Centered, a unique mental health center for integrative healing. Dr. Krause pursues his work through various schools of philosophy, psychotherapy and pharmacology, as well as meditation, yoga, tantra, sex therapy and psychedelic therapy. Dr. Krause holds a BA in Philosophy from WCSU, a certificate in Nursing and a Master of Science degree from the Yale School of Nursing, and a doctoral degree in nursing practice from Quinnipiac University. His doctoral research work was focused on using a program of yoga and meditation to decrease incidents of aggression in an inpatient psychiatric unit. He also holds certifications in Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery from Harvard University, and certificates in both Psychedelic Assisted Therapy and Research and Sex Therapy from the California Institute for Integral Studies.

Robert has been a faculty member of the Yale School of Nursing and the Yale School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry. At Western Connecticut State University and Quinnipiac University he has lectured in their philosophy programs; and at the Graduate Institute, he has lectured in Holistic Health and also in the Consciousness Studies Department. 

“When I started studying psychedelic therapy about ten years ago, one of the things that was really front and center was the importance of set and setting. The setting for psychiatric work should be as important, but the setting for psychedelic work is very important because if we’re going to give people medicine that’s going to really open them up, in order to do that, they have to feel like they’re in a safe environment.” –Robert Krause

About Vicki Marnin:

Vicki Marnin, RN, CNM, APRN-BC, is a board certified psychiatric nurse practitioner.  She has been assisting with ketamine assisted therapies for the past two years at Centered. Vicki has developed her skills for holding space for journeys in her practice as a midwife for the past 27 Years. Her path has turned toward helping people with personal growth, and mental health concerns. 

“The day before your ketamine session, I want you to clean up your space so that when you come home it’s beautiful for you. I want you to make some food so you don’t have to struggle. You’re greeting this new, vulnerable, potential self. Put some flowers in your room, make sure your sheets are clean. I want it to signify a beginning that people may hold onto as a sign post, as a commitment to themselves.” –Vicki Marnin

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Author, speaker, and harm reduction advocate Ryan Hampton discusses the importance of addressing the social needs of individuals struggling with addiction.

Learn more about Ryan’s perspective on the overdose epidemic in America through his 2024 book, Fentanyl Nation.

This time on The Indie Spiritualist, Chris and Ryan chat about:

• The state of the world and the ongoing opioid and overdose epidemic 
• Harm reduction and how recovery has changed throughout the generations
• The peer support model and the critical role of community in addiction recovery
• Promoting harm reduction initiatives as a life-saving alternative to punitive approaches
• Psychedelic therapy and integration sessions 
• Balancing clinical addiction treatment with addressing social determinants like poverty and homelessness
• Short-term solutions to addiction versus long-term sustainable strategies for recovery
• Tackling the root causes of addiction instead of focusing solely on substance use
• Releasing the identities we cling to pre-recovery
• Freedom of thought and freedom of choice

About Ryan Hampton:

Ryan Hampton is a national addiction recovery advocate, author, media commentator, and person in long-term recovery. He has worked with multiple non-profits nationwide to end overdose and served in leadership capacities for various community organizing initiatives. Hampton is in recovery from a decade of active opioid use and is a leading voice in America's rising recovery movement. He is the author of Unsettled, American Fix, and Fentanyl Nation. Ryan lives in Nevada with his husband, Sean, and their two boxer dogs. Connect with Ryan through his website and check out his work with Mobilize Recovery.

“The act of reducing harm in any fashion should never be under political assault...I believe in bodily autonomy. If somebody is consciously making those decisions, then let's help them make better decisions so they are not harming other people and themselves, or reducing harm to themselves. We can support harm reduction, or, we can support death.” –Ryan Hampton

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Environmental activist Robin Greenfield explores why separation is the biggest threat to humanity and how to become a servant to all.

Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.

Check out Robin’s newest book, Food Freedom, and learn more about sustainable living

In this episode, Chris and Robin have a vulnerable conversation about:

• Living a life of sustainability and protecting the earth
• The illusion of separation as a core threat to humanity 
• Healing our relationship with ourselves and others 
• Truth as Robin’s ultimate inspiration and considering what the world could look like if we were all transparent 
• The need for healing, taking responsibility, and righting any previous wrongs 
• Celebrating progress in all forms, from small steps to major breakthroughs
• Non-violent communication and practicing from both the heart and mind
• Being born into chaos, giving ourselves grace, and learning along the way

“My objective since the beginning of my awakening has been to bring my life into alignment—to live my beliefs to the deepest level that I can: simply living on this earth in a way that doesn’t destroy the very home that we have, plants, animals, my fellow humanity.” –Robin Greenfield 

About Robin Greenfield:

Robin Greenfield is a truth seeker, activist, social reformer, author, and servant to Earth, humanity, and our plant and animal relatives. Robin Greenfield lives simply and sustainably to be the change he wishes to see in the world and in active resistance to destructive and exploitative systems. His life is an experiment with truth and integrity. He is dedicated to liberation and basic rights for all. Check out Robin’s website to learn more about his many projects. You can also pick up one of Robin’s numerous books HERE.

“If we don’t have wholeness and completeness within, we’re going to create a shattered society around us.” –Robin Greenfield 

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• Joel’s profound experience of losing his brother to a drunk driving accident
• Living each moment with the inner knowing that it could be our last
• Joel’s guitar pedal and gear company, Chase Bliss
• Following your bliss and seeing doors open in front of you
• Mixing together analog technology with digital control in the guitar industry
• Parallels between the process of creating guitar pedals and the process of music creation
• Working through introversion and finding comfort in community
• Holding onto a positive outlook for the future

Joel Korte is the founder of Chase Bliss, one of the most creative, cutting-edge guitar gear companies. As a builder and innovator, Joel Korte is changing the way musicians shape sound from deep textured effects to the intersection of analog and digital creativity.

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