Nikos Patedakis, PhD, PCD is your friendly neighborhood soul doctor and soil doctor. Nikos comes on the podcast to discuss philosophy and psychology, data, insanity, wisdom traditions and psychedelics, metabolizing our experiences, empathy versus compassion, the self, spiritual chocolate cake versus spiritual broccoli, and dangerous wisdom. 

Nikos is a consulting philosopher who works with individuals and groups in support of the mutual healing of ourselves, our culture, and the world we share. He helps people apply the greatest untapped resource we have (the wisdom traditions of the world) in order to think in genuinely new ways, and to fulfill our fuller potentials. He also teaches and consults on ecoliteracy, teaching, learning, leading, and performance.

In this episode, you'll hear us mention a few terms which may be unfamiliar to you. Here is a brief description:

cPTSD:

Many traumatic events (e.g., car accidents, natural disasters, etc.) are of time-limited duration. In some cases, people experience chronic trauma that continues or repeats for months or years at a time. This may lead to the development of complex PTSD (cPTSD). 

In addition to PTSD symptoms (a persistent sense of threat, e.g. hypervigilance and being easily startled; avoiding reminders of the traumas; and re-experiencing or reliving the traumas), people with cPTSD may also experience interpersonal problems, negative self-concept, fragmented identity, interpersonal sensitivity, affect dysregulation, and self-destructive or reckless/risk taking behaviors. In addition to the symptoms above, survivors of prolonged child abuse have an increased risk of both self-injury and repeated victimization, for example relationships with abusive people, sexual harassment, and rape. 

The Eleusinian Mysteries:

The Eleusinian mysteries held an incredibly important role in ancient Greek culture, and they involved a secret initiation rite for which people prepared many months, perhaps as long as a year and a half. As a surprisingly well-kept secret, we have limited evidence for what happened in this and similar initiation rites, but it may have involved the use of holotropic medicines and an experience of death that allowed initiates to verify that the soul transcends the body and will continue in some way after biological death.

Links:

Nikos' Website: www.dangerouswisdom.org

Free teachings related to compassion: https://dangerouswisdom.org/resources-2

A course based on Nikos' book about wisdom-based learning:

https://courses.haumea.ie/courses/what-will-we-become

Nikos highly recommends Extraordinary Knowing, by Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer. Find a contemplation of the book here: https://dangerouswisdom.org/dw-podcast/this-changes-everything

studies we mention in the episode:

Differential Effects of Ethical Education, Physical Hatha Yoga, and Mantra Meditation on Well-Being and Stress in Healthy Participants

Classic Psychedelic Use and Mechanisms of Mental Health: Exploring the Mediating Roles of Spirituality and Emotion Processing on Symptoms of Anxiety, Depressed Mood, and Disordered Eating in a Community Sample

A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind