Crossing the Boundary - with Alan Levin

This is my third recorded conversation with Palestinian activist, author and teacher, Sami Awad. Sami’s recent book, Sacred Awakening - Reclaiming Christ Consciousness, has drawn widespread international attention. In the book and his short video offerings, Sami challenges the traditional Christian view of the teachings of Jesus, and as well challenges the dominant modes of movements for social change. He suggests that the life choices and teachings of Jesus were aimed at awakening us to a higher consciousness – free from our conditioned patterns of fear and domination – and towards solidarity with the oppressed. The ultimate challenge Jesus gives us, according to Sami, is “Love your enemy.” 

In our conversation, Sami gives a clear-eyed description of that challenge. He tells us what is taking place on the ground in the West Bank where he lives. There, he and his friends and family experience daily violent incursions into Palestinian villages by Jewish Israelis who destroy homes and farms and commit deadly attacks on the people. All this takes place while the Israeli soldiers watch and often support the settler terrorists. I am always moved to ask myself, “What would I do if I were subjected to that?” And, “What would the world be doing if these were Jewish people being subjected to that?”

In spite of it all, Palestinians, both Christian and Muslim, carry on with their lives and celebrations with determined resilience. Meanwhile, Sami’s organization, Nonviolence International, is one of several groups composed of Internationals, Jewish Israelis, and Palestinians that offer non-violent witnessing and documenting of the situation. The hope is that bringing awareness of the violence to the attention of the world will bring it to an end. But the depressing fact so far is that the violence keeps escalating.

Sami was born in the U.S., so being an American citizen, unlike other Palestinians, he is able to travel out of Palestine, . On his recent speaking tour of the U.S., his return was delayed when all flights were cancelled due to the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran. He managed to take the opportunity to join the flotilla of boats bringing supplies to Cuba, which is under siege by the U.S.. He talks about his sense of solidarity with the Cuban people who have a long supportive relationship with the Palestinian cause. The Cubans have also demonstrated their resilience under the gun of a military super-power, that has also put them under siege.

In our conversation we range back and forth between the spiritual and political, weaving a path in which they are not separate, but part of the same way of living a full life as a human being. Sami took a moment to share his upcoming book that will focus on the issues of masculinity and what it means to be a man in the world today – an issue he feels is at the heart of the causes of the problems in the world. 

For more information about Sami and his work, please check out the links below. 

October: The Sacred awakening Pilgrimage - https://www.holyland360.tours/scacred-awakening-retreat

Not just where Jesus walked—but how he lived.

A contemplative pilgrimage exploring the Beatitudes as a living path of compassion, humility, and spiritual awakening. 

June: Sami will be speaking at the “Resistance Studies Conference” at Univ of Mass in Amherst June 18-21.

Sami’s website - https://sami-awad.com/

My second conversation with Sami Awad, Palestinian non-violent activist and author of "Sacred Awakening - Reclaiming Christ Consciousness."

In this talk we delve more deeply into Sami's personal spiritual journey and his view of Jesus' core teachings. Sami emphasizes the teachings that come from the Beatitudes and Sermon on the Mount as pointing the way towards inner transformation and awakening, as well as a way to live and act in response to the suffering and injustice in the world. 

We also get an update on the conditions in the West Bank which continue to deteriorate under the onslaught of Israeli settler violence with complicity of the Israeli military. I ask Sami how he maintains his adherence to Jesus' teachings in the midst of the violent aggression.

Those interested in supporting his work and other groups providing assistance can find helpful information at https://sami-awad.com/

Sami Awad is a Palestinian activist committed to nonviolence, healing and transformation. His path weaves personal and collective healing, the wisdom of ancient teachings, commitment to awakening consciousness and living life through radical love. 

Sami serves as Co-Director of Nonviolence International and is based in Bethlehem, Palestine where he has been a leading advocate of nonviolent resistance to occupation and an inspirational leader for building a shared future of Palestinians and Israelis based on equality and human rights. 

His recently published book, The Sacred Awakening - Reclaiming Christ Consciousness, shares his own story of "leaving Christianity to find Jesus." You can learn more about hims at Nonviolence International, https://www.nonviolenceinternational.net/ and his website,https://sami-awad.com/about-2/.

John Seed is an Australian environmentalist and director of the Rainforest Information Centre, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the Earth's remaining rainforests in partnership with the indigenous people and local communities who depend on them.. He is also a prominent figure in the deep ecology movement and co-creator, with Joanna Macy, of the Council of All Beings, and other re-earthing processes.

I highly recommend his Book, Thinking Like a Mountain, published in 1988, which is now available online. You can download a free pdf copy from his website https://www.rainforestinformationcentre.org/john_seed_articles_essays which contains other writings and talks by John. It will take you deeper into the experiential awareness of our inter-connectedness with nature.

In our conversation, John shares the influences of his parents and the shifts in consciousness that brought him to his deep ecological awareness. Starting with lsd and the counter-culture, he found himself in a direct engagement with the voice of the forest that took him onto his path of partnership with Mother Earth in saving the rainforests and more.

“The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth,”

–African proverb

Sia Henry is an attorney, a racial justice activist, and abolitionist who has spent a decade engaging in criminal legal system reform work. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Duke University. She is also an advocate for bringing the healing potential of psychedelics to communities of color.

Sia serves on the Board of Directors for Mount Tamalpais College (formerly the Prison University Project) at San Quentin State Prison. That is the country’s first, tuition-free and independently accredited college situated inside a prison. She also founded the Hood Exchange to introduce formerly incarcerated Black individuals to international travel throughout the African diaspora.
In addition, Sia currently works with MAPS (the Multi-disciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) with the goal of ensuring Black, indigenous, and other communities of color have meaningful access to transformative healing opportunities.

My recent conversation with Dr. David Ragland, writer, scholar and activist, couldn't be more timely in the midst of the current relentless roll-back, under the Trump Administration, of policies and programs that were aimed at racial healing. David is a co-founder, along with Congresswoman Cori Bush, of the Truth Telling Project, where he serves as director for Culture, Organizing and Reparations. He is a passionate advocate for the healing of America through programs that expose and acknowledge the history and present experiences of racism, promote reparations for the injustices, and educate so as there will be no repeat of the abuses.

David was moved to create the Truth Telling Project after the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, where he witnessed the exclusion of the voices of the victims from public discourse. Yet, while far from a fan of Trump, David sees the problems we face in America as bi-partisan and present throughout the history of our country, with police abuse and mass incarceration being essentially an extension of slavery.

I think most people are very naive about the idea of reparations, seeing it merely as giving money to Black Americans who are the descendants of slaves. David sheds light for us around reparations as a multi-dimensional, educational, healing and spiritual initiative, as well as having grounded economic aspects.

In our conversation, David talks about the influence of his family on his own development. His father was a sharecropper who had to escape from Tennessee under the threat of forced labor. His mother’s lineage includes ancestors from Cameroon who had a warrior tradition that resisted colonization. He describes his mother as a continuing inspiration, among other things having maintained a garden in Missouri that supplied food for her own family and other folks in the community . Now, in addition to his work with the Truth Telling Project, David is a founder and member of a the Kibilio community in Massachusetts, a Queer, Black-Led Intentional community focused on healing, reparations and regenerative farming.

I hope you get as much from hearing David as I did in my conversation with him. If you find it of value, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and check out some of the other podcasts. And please take some time to explore the Truth Telling Project and David’s work through the links below.

Watch our conversation on YouTube: 

https://youtu.be/daHgj8h7c88

The Truth Telling Project: https://thetruthtellingproject.org/

Kibilio (Refuge) Community and Farm: https://kibilio.org

www.It was my pleasure to have a conversation with my friend, Khalil Bendib: artist, sculptor, author, political cartoonist and radio host.

Khalil and I met as participants in a dialogue group in Berkeley that included, Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians and I learned to deeply respect his candor, sense of humor and intelligent take on the nuanced reality in which we live.

Khalil Bendib is an Algerian, born in Paris during the Algerian Revolution. In our conversation he shared his feeling that he carries the trauma of the Algerian people from his time in the womb forward. He describes his parents’ escape from almost certain execution by the French forces as the first imprint of his understanding and empathy for all oppressed people.

For more information about Khalil’s work, see
Links:

Political cartoons: keybey.com

Sculpture and other art work. http://studiobendib.com/inside.html

Voices of the Middle East & North Africa radio show: https://kpfa.org/program/voices-of-the-middle-east-and-north-africa/

I had the great pleasure to speak with my friend, Tomás, and discuss some of the wide range of issues he's been involved with. Tom is one of the most real people I know. He shares about his extraordinary life experiences, his stumbles and awakenings, with humility, candor and humor, and opens to a deep channel of wisdom for us all.

In our conversation, he shares what he has learned from his work with the dying, his journeys on deep vision quests in nature, and what carefully guided psychedelic experiences offer for transforming individuals and our culture. Having apprenticed for eleven years with Huichol shaman and studied with numerous indigenous elders, he shares his thoughts on the issue of cultural appropriation and the importance of reciprocity. Finally, I asked Tomás to offer his thoughts on dealing with the machinations of our current President and his minions.

Tom is a true pioneer: he builds bridges between cultures, integrates ancient wisdom traditions with modern psychology and science, and brings forward how shamanic and nature-based principles can help us address the challenges of our times and return to sacred living. He has served as a transpersonal psychologist, ceremonial elder, rite of passage and vision-fast leader, sacred storyteller, musician, and author.  Tom completed an eleven-year apprenticeship with Huichol shamans in Mexico and has written extensively about Huichol shamanism, cosmology and the use of peyote as a sacrament in their religious practice.

Please check out and pre-order his new book: Psychedelic Shaman: The Wisdom Warrior's Guide to Transformation

Other ways to experience his teachings:

Shamanic Sundays - Live on YouTube every Sunday at 10:00 am PT

Live Love Now - Monthly Zoom gathering every first Wednesday at 5:00 pm PT

A New Vision of Living - Online Course

His website:  www.drtompinkson.com

Tom was also featured in my book Crossing the Boundary - Stories of Jewish Leaders of Other Spiritual Paths.

It was my great pleasure to have a conversation with Dr. Jim Fadiman. Jim is a delightful gentleman, an elder wiseman with a great sense of humor. Here’s a very concise bit of information about his life:

Jim Fadiman has been at the forefront of the exploration of consciousness since he was introduced to psychedelics by his former Harvard undergraduate advisor, Richard Alpert (aka, Ram Dass) in 1961. He went on to introduce a good number of folks to LSD and psilocybin, some who became counter-culture heroes in the Sixties, such as Stewart Brand who later developed the iconic Whole Earth Catalog.

While he grew up in a Jewish-atheist family, his psychedelic experiences turned him towards a spiritual path. Along the way he studied with Idris Shah, a Sufi mystic, and co-authored the book Essential Sufism with Robert Frager. Jim was an early pioneer in establishing transpersonal psychology, considered the fourth branch of psychology, directly integrating psychology with spirituality. He was the president of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology and along with Frager, founded the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Menlo Park (now known as Sofia University).

In the pre-prohibition days, Jim was one of the researchers working with psychedelics to enhance creativity, solve problems, and develop higher awareness of self and the world. Those programs were halted by the war on drugs in 1966. During that time, he bridged the more academic and research study of psychedelics while maintaining relationships with the counter-culture. He was a friend of Ken Kesey and wrote about the hippie scene in The Other Side of Haight- a Novel.

In our conversation, Jim shares about his early family life as well as his trajectory through many projects and activities until the present. Of his present focus, he might say that the universe has a sense of humor. After all his involvement with deep spiritual, transformative work with moderate to high dose psychedelics, he is now the most well known spokesperson for microdosing, the use of tiny, sub-perceptible doses of psychedelics to enhance people’s functioning in profoundly varied ways.

When I asked him if he was comfortable with being called “the father of microdosing,” he said he preferred the term “modern microdosing.” That’s because his research has led him to recognize that indigenous people have used micro-levels of various plant medicines for thousands of years. This surprised me as these are the substances which many of us know to be used only in larger doses and exclusively in sacred ceremonies. 

It would be an understatement to say he has become enthusiastic about the potentials of microdosing. Along with colleagues, he has set up a citizen science reporting network from which he receives thousands of accounts from people who are microdosing. He speaks of athletes improving their performance, students doing better on tests, people being lifted from chronic intractable depression, sleeping better, dropping additive patterns, even very unexplainable resolving of long-term medical conditions.

Now in his 86th year, he remains active and has been instrumental in the establishment of the “microdosing institute” which educates and offers counseling or coaching for people seeking the benefits of microdosing. A wealth of information, including several videos of Jim speaking are fea

This is a conversation that I truly wish would get wide attention because what is brought out here is so important for people, especially Americans, to know. The U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan lasted over 20 years, cost over 2500 American lives and likely 100, 000 Afghans. Thousands more on both sides suffered injuries, lost limbs and now suffer from PTSD. It cost American taxpayers over one trillion dollars. It’s important to hear from an Afghan woman the story of Afghanistan, before, during and after this war. What it has meant for women and all the people of this war-torn nation.

Fahima Gaheez, the director of Afghan Women’s Fund, grew up in Afghanistan and from an early age was involved with the women’s rights movement in that country. A chemist by training, she chose to become involved with educational programs for women. She has has been actively involved in consciousness-raising and fundraising for many years. She has addressed the United Nations, has traveled widely to speak at conferences at universities and religious organizations, and has appeared on many national and international television and radio stations.

Since 2002 Fahima has visited Afghanistan to open new schools for girls and literacy classes for women, create income-generating projects for widows to help them become self-sufficient, distribute warm clothing and school supplies to refugees and guide numerous other humanitarian and educational projects like digging wells for clean drinking water and irrigation, building schools and clinics, giving goats and chickens to the widows and helping with their health issues by building clinics and providing medical supplies.

In my conversation with her she tells her personal story of growing up in Afghanistan, working for women’s rights, and what life was like for the Afghan people before even the Russian military occupation. She describes in vivid detail the role of the U.S. government in promoting the fanatic Islamist, Mujahadeen which became the Taliban and the consequences on the ground of the U.S. military campaign and their abrupt withdrawal.

See more at http://www.crossingtheboundary.org/courageous-afghan-woman-fahima-gaheez/

Afghan Women's Fund information and to donate: https://www.afghanwomensfund.org/