Christopher Bache is a professor emeritus of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Youngstown State University, where he taught for 33 years. He is also adjunct faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies and an Emeritus Fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. Trained at Notre Dame, Cambridge, and Brown, Bache spent seven years earning a PhD — a process that turned him into a hardcore agnostic. He then began a 20-year self-experiment taking high-dose LSD using protocols developed by psychedelic pioneer Stanislav Grof.

For two decades, Chris lived a double life — a professor in public, and in private, a man conducting 73 high-dose LSD sessions in search of insight into consciousness and reality. He kept the work hidden from his university for most of that time, even while teaching courses on Eastern religion, mysticism, and consciousness. He is the author of several books including "Dark Night, Early Dawn," "The Living Classroom," and "LSD and the Mind of the Universe" — the book in which he finally told the full story of his psychedelic explorations.

In this conversation, we explore whether psychedelics hold genuine spiritual and philosophical insights not otherwise accessible through meditation or contemplative practice, the three ways of consciously using psychedelics — personal healing, spiritual awakening, and cosmological exploration — and how Vajrayana practice shaped Chris's psychedelic work.

We get into whether psychedelic experiences build systematically over recurring sessions, the trouble with integrating short-acting psychedelics like 5-MeO-DMT, psychedelic work in groups vs individually, Chris's method for capturing insights from his sessions, and his leading thoughts on reincarnation and the living classroom of collective intelligence.

We also explore the varieties of psychedelic experiences from falling asleep to meeting cosmic beings, how to better integrate peak states and psychedelic experiences into everyday life, and what it means to lose meaning, find meaning, and remember God.

🔗 LINKS & RESOURCES 🔗

• Chris's personal site
•  LSD and the Mind of the Universe — Chris Bache
•  Lifecycles — Chris Bache
•  Dark Night, Early Dawn — Chris Bache
•  The Living Classroom — Chris Bache
•  Essay: Therapeutic vs Spiritual vs Cosmological use of Psychedelics — Chris Bache
•  Journey of Souls — Michael Newton
•  Destiny of Souls — Michael Newton
•  Choosing Earth — Duane Elgin
•  Robert Monroe
•  Alex Grey
•  Vajrayana
•  Ordinary Mystics — Matt Zemon
•  Anthony De Mello
•  Doors of Perception — Aldous Huxley
•  Alan Watts
•  Chögyam Trungpa
•  Holotropic Breathwork
•  Stanislav Grof
•  James Hollis

🕰️ TIMESTAMPS 🕰️

0:00 - Introduction
5:06 - Do psychedelics hold spiritual and philosophical insights not accessible through meditation or contemplative practice?
6:52 - Three ways of consciously using psychedelics — personal healing, spiritual awakening and cosmological exploration
10:42 - Can we truly separate awakening from metaphysics?
13:08 - How Vajrayana practice impacted Chris's psychedelic explorations
17:48 - How Chris's Diamond Luminosity experience differs from Rigpa
21:20 - Frequency of use, diminishing returns, and do psychedelic experiences systematically build on each other?
27:40 - Are psychedelic experiences just distortions of consciousness that take us away from wisdom?
43:45 - 5-MeO-DMT and the trouble with integrating short-acting psychedelics
50:05 - Psychedelic work in groups vs individually
52:01 - Chris's method for capturing insights from his psychedelic sessions
53:48 - Can you journey without a sitter?
57:31 - Chris's leading thoughts on reincarnation
1:01:40 - The Living Classroom and collective intelligence
1:04:55 - Varieties of psychedelic experiences — from falling asleep to meeting cosmic beings
1:16:49 - How to better integrate peak states and psychedelic experiences
1:21:40 - Losing meaning, finding meaning and remembering God
1:28:09 - Being misunderstood and a final message

*Subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch the video versions of the Elevating Consciousness Podcast 

*Subscribe to the Insighter Substack to get in-depth articles on the theory and practice of human transformation through a post-conventional

Andrew Louis Venezia is a meditation and Circling teacher, coach, and writer based in Amsterdam, whose work presents Circling and related practices as a path of Tantric awakening and integration. After experiencing a life-changing encounter with Awakened Interbeing during a retreat for his Master's degree cohort, Andrew embarked on a three-year research project exploring the intersection of relational practice and awakening. It was during this period that he discovered Circling.

He has since dedicated his life to weaving Circling together with the classical Tantric paths of Vajrayana Buddhism and Nondual Shaiva Tantra, as well as modern, embodied approaches to psychological wellbeing. With more than a decade of teaching and deep engagement with many approaches to growth, healing, development, and awakening, Andrew has come to see this as the most integrative path available — one that meets the head, the heart, and the body at once, and allows for a seamless, nondual expression of form and formlessness, self and other, awakening and embodied life.

He recently released "What It's Like to Be You" — a book that unpacks Circling through the lens of Tantric awakening, available for free on his website.

In this conversation, we explore Andrew's early mystical experiences and how meditation helped him integrate them, the relationship between psychedelics and meditation, what Circling is and why we practice it, and the Tantric view of transformation — and why Andrew believes it is the most skillful approach for the world we are walking into.

We also get into mistaking states for realization, taking awakening off the cushion, authenticity and paradox, Awakened Interbeing, and how Circling and meditation complement each other, whether Circling can reach a wider audience and contribute to meaningful societal change, and how Circling can help us have better political conversations.

A rich and wide-ranging conversation at the intersection of meditation, Circling, psychedelics, and Tantric awakening — for anyone ready to go beyond solo practice into something more relational, embodied, and comprehensive. 

🔗 LINKS & RESOURCES 🔗

• Andrew's personal site
•  Get Andrew's book "What It's Like to Be You" — free
•  What is Circling? — Artem Zen
•  Beyond Spiritual Idealization with Delson Armstrong
•  Uptrusting social network

🕰️ TIMESTAMPS 🕰️

0:00 - Introduction
3:11 - Early experiences of awakening, meditation, psychedelics, studying integral, and discovering We Space practice and interbeing
14:45 - Navigating spiritual experiences as a child
21:54 - Mistaking states for realization
27:44 - Integrating spiritual experiences through meditation
35:08 - Psychedelics vs meditation
47:11 - Being an integrationist and taking realization off the cushion
52:32 - What is Circling and why do we practice it?
1:01:38 - Authenticity, paradox and construction
1:06:05 - Navigating resistance to Circling
1:07:45 - Awakened interbeing — integrating Circling and meditation
1:16:28 - A moment to recollect and recalibrate
1:18:10 - What is a Tantric view and why Circling is a Tantric practice
1:25:50 - Is Circling a fringe practice or does it have potential to become mainstream?
1:34:52 - The challenge and promise of Circling
1:39:10 - Towards an integral world and how Circling can help us have better political conversations
1:43:02 - Integrating truth and love through Circling
1:47:43 - Final thoughts

*Subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch the video versions of the Elevating Consciousness Podcast 

*Subscribe to the Insighter Substack to get in-depth articles on the theory and practice of human transformation through a post-conventional

Lydia Becker is a therapist, instructor, and midwife with over three decades of experience in Skan-Reichian bodywork. Rooted in the tradition of Wilhelm Reich, her work uses breathwork and bodywork to release emotional and physical tension held in the body — supporting people in softening long-held patterns, breathing more fully, and rediscovering their natural aliveness.

In 1988, she became a licensed midwife — and it was through her midwifery work that Lydia experienced the power of breath and the importance of softening the social persona during birth, which led her to deepen her study of breath and body-oriented therapy. In 1993, she began a three-year training in Skan — a form of somatic psychotherapy rooted in Wilhelm Reich's work — receiving her certification to teach in 1999. She has since been offering individual sessions and leading workshops and retreats throughout the country.

In this episode, we explore Wilhelm Reich's revolutionary approach to therapy and healing, the theory of armoring, and how unconscious layers of trauma, tension, and stress become stored in the body, and what makes Skan body-psychotherapy uniquely powerful as a somatic healing modality.

We get into the relationship between sexuality, life force, and neuroticism, the relational aspect of healing, how to breathe when engaging with Reichian breathwork, what the mechanism behind de-armoring actually is, and why we often have to move through anger and grief before we can reach genuine forgiveness — including a live Reichian breathwork session Lydia guides us through.

A profound conversation for anyone drawn to somatic healing, breathwork, and the body as a pathway to psychological and spiritual liberation.

🔗 LINKS & RESOURCES 🔗

• Lydia's personal site
•  What is Skan?
•  Wilhelm Reich
•  Sigmund Freud

🕰️ TIMESTAMPS 🕰️

0:00 - Intro
 2:10 - Artem's experience with Lydia's work
 5:09 - Working in midwifery, going through a crisis, and getting into Reichian breathwork
 13:30 - Unconscious layers of trauma, tension, and stress stored in the body
 15:18 - Wilhelm Reich's approach to therapy and healing
 23:19 - Theory of armoring, character structures, the core, and directionality
 31:07 - Sexuality, life force, neuroticism, and going beyond the story
 35:13 - How Skan body-psychotherapy is unique
 37:10 - The relational aspect of healing
 44:53 - How to breathe when engaging with Reichian breathwork
 47:10 - Lydia guides us through a live Reichian breathwork session
 1:03:06 - Reflecting on the experience
 1:05:06 - What is the mechanism behind de-armoring?
 1:13:40 - The liberating impact of long-term Reichian work
 1:19:49 - The role of emotions in Skan and what an in-person session looks like
 1:26:02 - We often have to feel anger and grief before we get to forgiveness
 1:28:00 - The structure of a Skan Reichian breathwork group retreat
 1:32:17 - Opportunities to train in Skan

*Subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch the video versions of the Elevating Consciousness Podcast 

*Subscribe to the Insighter Substack to get in-depth articles on the theory and practice of human transformation through a post-conventional

Ken Wilber is a philosopher, author, and the creator of Integral theory. 
He is considered by many as one of the most influential thinkers of our time, whose writings have been translated into over twenty languages and have profoundly impacted domains as varied as business and medicine, psychology and ethics, politics and religion, art and education, and sexuality to personal relationships.

His AQAL (All Quadrants, All Lines) framework attempts to map human reality across four quadrants, multiple stages of development, lines of intelligence, states of consciousness, and personality types — offering what he calls a cosmic address: a way of locating where one is situated across multiple dimensions of existence simultaneously.

In 2000, he founded the Integral Institute, a think-tank dedicated to exploring pressing issues of science and society, with outreach through communities such as the Integral Education Network, Integral Training, and the Integral Spiritual Center. In 2007, Ken co-founded Integral Life, a hub dedicated to sharing the integral vision with a worldwide audience and catalyzing the growing integral movement.

He has authored more than twenty books, from dense scholarly works to popular introductions and personal memoirs, including Finding Radical Wholeness, A Brief History of Everything, Grace and Grit, Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, Boomeritis, and The Religion of Tomorrow.

In this episode, Ken Wilber shares how an early spiritual awakening launched a lifelong mission to map the full spectrum of human experience. We explore the crucial difference between states and stages of development, the role of the 1970s, psychedelics, and the Esalen Institute in shaping the human potential movement, and the thinkers and traditions that most deeply influenced his work.

Ken reflects on how he was able to remain so extraordinarily productive while navigating a chronic health condition, and shares which of his many books he considers his favorite. He also opens up about the profound impact of losing his wife Treya to cancer — how that grief shaped some of his most important writing, and what his relationship to love and partnership looked like in the years that followed.

We also discuss how a conversation between Jordan Peterson and Richard Dawkins inspired Ken's next book, and what that project is attempting to do.
We close by looking toward the future — AI and existential risk, whether Ken would upload his mind to a computer, transcending postmodern culture, his thoughts on Metamodernism, and why he believes Integral consciousness isn't just possible but inevitable.

🔗[Links & Resources]🔗

• Ken Wilber’s personal site
• Finding Radical Wholeness by Ken Wilber 
• Integral Life
• Grace & Grit by Ken Wilber
• Sex, Ecology & Spirituality by Ken Wilber
• Integral Life Practice by Ken Wilber
• Trump and a Post-truth world by Ken Wilber
• Susanne Cook-Greuter on the Elevating Consciousness podcast
• Timothy Leary
• Ram Dass
• Howard Gardner
• Sigmund Freud
• Carl Jung
• Fritz Perls
• Esalen Institute
• Michael Murphy
• Jane Loevinger
• Eido Roshi
• Jean Gebser
• Sri Aurobindo
• Robert Kegan
• Arthur Koestler & Holon philosophy
• D.T. Suzuki
• Lankavatara Sutra
• Don't Die (Bryan Johnson documentary)

🕰️[Time Stamps]🕰️

0:00 - Introduction 
3:12 - My summary of Ken’s work (The 4 quadrants, States Vs Stages) 
6:47 - Everyone is partially right
9:11 - Ken’s initial spiritual awakening 
10:11 - Delineating states of awakening from developmental stages (Waking up & Growing up)
14:54 - Discovering multiple intelligences and taking psychedelics (Opening up)
23:55 - Freud, Jung, Fritz Pearl, the impact of Esalen Institute, and shadow work (Cleaning up)
37:54 - Jane Loevinger and taking multiple perspectives (Showing up)
41:06 - The AQAL map, holons, and putting it all together into Integral theory 
47:11 - Ken’s work being translated into 35 languages and used in various disciplines 
50:20 - Ken’s favorite book that he has written 
52:50 -The impact of losing his wife Treya to cancer and love after her death 
56:10 - How Ken’s next book was inspired by Jordan Peterson’s conversation with Richard Dawkins 
59:44 - The Grace & Grit movie 
1:01:11 - The need for different types of truths 
1:04:32 - Finding a zen master, working with koans, and the evolution of Ken’s meditation practice 
1:14:16 - Being born cerebrotonic and excelling in school
1:19:17 - How Ken was able to be so productive while navigating a chronic health condition 
1:28:23 - Thoughts on longevity, Bryan Johnson, and the Don’t Die philosophy 
1:32:40 - AI, existential risk, and would Ken upload himself to a computer? 
1:36:36 - Transcending the post-modern mean green meme and the future of integral 
1:43:52 - Who are the torch carriers of Integral?
1:46:52 - Ken’s thoughts on Metamodernism 
1:49:38 - Integral is a view/stage that belongs to no one 
1:51:04 - Integral consciousness is inevitable 
1:53:05 - What is at the leading edge of Ken’s thinking?

*Subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch the video versions of the Elevating Consciousness Podcast 

*Subscribe to the Insighter Substack to get in-depth articles on the theory and practice of human transformation through a post-conventional

Sylvie Barbier & Rufus Pollock are the co-founders of Life Itself – a collective of pragmatic utopians committed to practical action for a radically wiser, weller world.

Sylvie is a French-Taiwanese ritual artist whose work synthesises Eastern and Western philosophies and aesthetics. Her performance art pieces are contemporary rituals, where the audience is invited to take an active and interactive role.

Rufus is an entrepreneur, activist, author, and long-term Zen practitioner who has founded several successful for-profit and nonprofit initiatives. His 2018 book Open Revolution is about making a radically freer and fairer information age, and has been translated into multiple languages.

Rufus and Sylvie's lives come together both as a couple and through the work they are doing with Life Itself, which includes creating practice hubs and developmental spaces, driving research on the meta-crisis and pathways towards a Second Renaissance, and building partnerships across disciplines by connecting thinkers, artists, communities, and organisations exploring post-conventional ways of life.

In this conversation, we explore how Sylvie and Rufus's inner work paths converged and led them to co-found the Life Itself collective. We get into the real difficulty and vulnerability of walking a post-conventional path and why shadow work remains criminally underrated. We dig into Game A vs Game B, two fundamentally different ways of seeing reality (Wisdom vs Power), and how framing the meta-crisis through the lens of symptoms, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment might be our clearest map yet for navigating it. We also explore which seeds of culture we're choosing to nourish, what actually makes people change their minds, and the surprising role art may play in collective transformation.

🔗[Links & Resources]🔗

• Life Itself collective
• Life Itself YouTube channel
• Sylvie Barbier's personal site
• Follow Sylvie on Substack
• Rufus Pollock's personal site
• Follow Rufus on Substack
• Second Renaissance

🕰️[Time Stamps]🕰️

0:00 - Introduction 
3:04 - How Sylvie and Rufus’s journeys came together
11:12 - Founding the Life Itself collective and the Second Renaissance movement 
17:07 - Running transformational practice hubs 
21:18 - The need for continuity and rootedness
25:18 - The difficulty and vulnerability of the post-conventional path 
36:26 - Shadow work is still underrated, and a modernist in rehab 
41:05 - Game A vs Game B
46:16 - What a Roman Watching Christians Die in the Colosseum can teach us
49:15 - The idea behind the Over the Mountains podcast 
52:44 - Which seeds are we deciding to nourish? / Creating Pockets of Culture 
57:40 - Two ways of seeing reality (Wisdom vs Power) 
1:09:10 - The need for holistic development
1:17:52 - Creating more good faith dialogue and what makes people change their minds
1:24:40 - Framing Meta-crisis conversations through symptoms, diagnosis, prognosis, & treatment
1:34:16 - Art’s role in collective transformation

*Subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch the video versions of the Elevating Consciousness Podcast 

*Subscribe to the Insighter Substack to get in-depth articles on the theory and practice of human transformation through a post-conventional

Stephen Zerfas is the CEO and Co-founder of Jhourney — a tech startup scaling transformative meditation through a data-driven lens, guiding complete beginners into deeply absorbed meditation states known as the Jhanas, in less than a week.  

Stephen discovered the first three jhanas through his own practice and, upon learning of their profound history, made it his mission to bring them to as many people as possible. He has since trained with leading jhana teachers, including Leigh Brasington and Delson Armstrong.

Thus far, Jhourney has served over 1,300 alumni with a 60-70% success rate in helping participants access the jhanas on weeklong retreats.

Before founding Jhourney, Stephen worked as a software engineer at Lyft and a management consultant at Bridgespan, a Bain affiliate. A University of Notre Dame graduate, he lives in the Bay Area with his wife and daughter. 

The following conversation was recorded live during Limicon - a digital conference for people in the liminal, game b, and metamodern adjacent spaces. 

In it, we speak about what the Jhanas are, how Stephen discovered them through self-experimentation, and why he decided to found a tech-company that teaches them. Later, Stephen guides us through a towards Jhana meditation, and we close with a group discussion on whether morality is — or must be — part of such a meditation practice.

🔗[Links & Resources]🔗

• Jhourney's website
• Subscribe to Stephen on Substack
• 90 second video capturing the intensity of the jhanas from people recorded on retreat
• A Jhourney retreat reflection
• Meditation safety podcast
• How to cry on cue
• The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa

🕰️[Time Stamps]🕰️

0:00 - Introduction 
2:49 - The contemplative corner of the liminal web 
6:12 - How Stephen discovered the Jhanas on his own 
12:22 - The guesswork problem of meditation and starting Jhourney 
17:23 - What are the Jhanas?
20:26 - Are these universally discovered states?
22:44 - What do the Jhanas feel like?
24:15 - Super well-being and taking the technology of meditation seriously 
27:07 - Main barriers to accessing the Jhanas
34:50 - Orienting to the meditation: Reflect like a scientist, play like a child 
38:10 - Towards Jhana guided meditation 
1:18:19 - What role does morality play in meditation?
1:28:09 - The biggest concerns of Jhana meditation practice 

*Subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch the video versions of the Elevating Consciousness Podcast 

*Subscribe to the Insighter Substack to get in-depth articles on the theory and practice of human transformation through a post-conventional

Daniel Garner is a writer, philosopher, and one-half of O.G. Rose – the philosophical and literary voice he shares with his wife, Michelle Garner. 

Their work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize as well as the Uno Press lab prize and has been featured in literary publications such as The Iowa Review, The William and Mary Review, and Broken Pencil. 

Daniel has been involved in the writing of over a dozen books, including The Conflict of Mind, The Map is Indestructible, the Belonging Again series, and a creative fiction work, Under the Wing.

When not writing or thinking on the deepest questions of our times, he manages the Mead Lake Lodge wedding venue, teaches piano using visuals from the DLG Pattern Method, and raises four children.

The following conversation was recorded live during Limicon - a digital conference for people in the liminal, game b, and metamodern adjacent spaces. 

In it, we explore how belonging can be created beyond conformity or isolationism in a pluralistic and hyper-fragmented world — and what it asks of us across different scales, from the local to the national to the global. We highlight the importance of lack and negativity, forces so often overlooked in spiritual spaces; examine weak versus costly perennialism and the limits of any single system, model, or medium; and sit with the difference between talking about belonging and living it.

🔗[Links & Resources]🔗

• O.G. Rose’s personal site
• Subscribe to O.G. Rose’s Substack
• Watch O.G. Rose’s YouTube channel
• Belonging Again: An Explanation by O.G. Rose
• Belonging Again: An Address by O.G. Rose
• Triumph of the Therapeutic by Phillip Rieff

🕰️[Time Stamps]🕰️
0:00 - Intro
2:45 - The central problem of belonging 
12:27 - Regressive forms of Belonging 
16:37 - How belonging differs on a local, national, and global level
21:15 - Cheap Vs Costly Perennialism and evolving structures 
30:18 - Negativity, lack, and radical difference
37:29 - The limits of any one system, model, or medium
41:51 - Hegel's absolute knower, the Deleuzian individual, the Nietzschean child, and the debate between Freud and Jung 
46:10 - The irony of not belonging in a conversation about belonging and the importance of intelligibility 
57:24 - The social coordination mechanism 
1:03:01 - Somewheres and anywheres
1:06:41 - Democratizing media 
 1:11:41 - Racism as the problem of givens and releases 
1:20:06 - Nature as a pathway to diversity and belonging 
1:25:18 - The pros and cons of digital history 
1:30:11 - The difference between talking about belonging and living it 
1:35:37 - Finding belonging in different mediums and structures 
1:41:45 - Daniel’s insights from running Eunoia, an in-person gathering space
1:49:03 - We are all doomed without adequate social coordination 

*Subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch the video versions of the Elevating Consciousness Podcast 

*Subscribe to the Insighter Substack to get in-depth articles on the theory and practice of human transformation through a post-conventional

Richard Flyer is a community weaver and entrepreneur who has devoted his life to exploring how spirituality, local relationships, and practical action can renew communities, building eco-system networks from the ground up.

Deeply influenced by Sarvodaya Shramadana’s grassroots mobilization of 15,000 Sri Lankan villages, Richard champions bottom-up regeneration rooted in local relationships, spiritual practice, and everyday service.

His work spans founding Vecinos Unidos in San Diego, leading the San Diego Food Bank, supporting syntropic agroforestry in Hawaii, building symbiotic networks (Living Local Economy, Food Systems, Arts and Culture, and Neighbor Networks) in Reno and launching the Symbiotic Culture Lab to activate 50,000 micro-bioregional community networks by 2033. 

From early mystical experiences of a “Luminous Web” of interconnection to research with pilot whales and years immersed in nature, Richard’s life has been a living experiment in bringing the transcendent into the immanent—“bringing Heaven to Earth”— through practical, face-to-face community building grounded in love, service, and shared responsibility.

He is the Author of Birthing the Symbiotic Age: An Ancient Blueprint To Unite Humanity which draws from five decades of hands-on experiments across cultures, faith traditions, and organizational contexts to help communities move from separation toward connection.

In this episode, we speak about Richard’s early spiritual experiences and how they impacted his community building efforts, we also explore how to navigate the polarities of individual and collective, healing the culture of separation, the difference between values and virtues, driving change bottom up, re-sacralizing reality and unpack what Richard calls – The ancient blueprint – the practical applications of transcendent principles needed to birth a symbiotic culture. 

🔗[Links & resources] 🔗

• Richard’s site & Substack
• Birthing a Symbiotic Age by Richard Flyer 
• Dr. Ari
• Small Is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher
• A Secular Age by Charles Taylor

🕰️[Time stamps] 🕰️

0:00 - Introduction 
3:53 - Richard’s vision of a symbiotic culture 
8:14 - Do we need spiritual experiences to expand our circle of care?
20:00 - Integrating spirituality into community building 
31:16 - The influence of Dr.Ari and the Sarvodaya movement 
35:39 - Becoming a Spiritual Gangster: Diffusing violence through loving awareness
46:01 - Healing the culture of separation 
58:43 - The worldview that devalues value and disconnects us from the transcendent 
1:05:03 - Virtues and the objective sacred 
1:10:00 - Navigating inclusivity & exclusivity in community and culture building 
1:16:55 - The difference between values & virtues and connecting to foundational community needs  
1:24:49 - Truth and love are inseparable and beyond our political beliefs 
1:32:50 - Syncretism, perennialism and what brought Richard to Christianity 
1:49:04 - How do we include atheists and materialists in this conversation?
1:58:02 - Artem reflects on how Richard’s work is impacting him 

*Subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch the video versions of the Elevating Consciousness Podcast 

*Subscribe to the Insighter Substack to get in-depth articles on the theory and practice of human transformation through a post-conventional

Daljeet Peterson is an astrologer, Human Design analyst, and author exploring how ancient and modern systems of meaning can guide us through times of transformation. 

His work bridges astrology, Human Design, and the Gene Keys as complementary maps of consciousness—tools for aligning with one’s deeper purpose and participating more consciously in the collective evolution of our species. A former television editor turned cosmic cartographer, Daljeet brings a storyteller’s sensibility to the study of archetypes, weaving together myth, history, and contemporary culture. 

He’s the author of Collective Souls: Generations, Astrology, and the Future of America, which explores how generational astrology reveals the hidden cycles shaping our nation’s destiny—and the emerging potentials of a new Aquarian era. You can find his writings and upcoming offerings on his Substack called Mutable Fire.

In this episode, we explore how astrology was discovered, its foundational principles, common misconceptions, and how to distinguish good astrology from bad astrology. We also touch on Human Design, & the Gene Keys, and how they tie into Astrology. Finally, Daljeet shares some of the main ideas from his new Book Collective Souls, advocating for intergenerational communication and understanding of time that is chronological and astrological.

🔗[Links & resources] 🔗

• Daljeet’s site
• Subscribe to Daljeet’s Substack
• Collective Souls by Daljeet Peterson
• Daljeet’s Astrology 101: Blueprint of the Soul series
• Cosmos & Psyche by Richard Tarnas

🕰️[Time stamps] 🕰️

0:00 - Introduction 
4:38 - Daljeet’s journey into astrology
8:22 - How astrology was discovered 
16:27 - Is astrology a religion?
21:55 - Common misconceptions of astrology 
26:06 - How to distinguish good astrology from bad astrology 
28:58 - The foundational principles of astrology
39:52 - What is the mechanism behind planetary effects?
45:00 - The limits of falsifiability, science, and left-brain ways of knowing 
51:22 - Unpacking Human Design & Gene Keys 
1:01:56 - Holding modalities with curiosity and humility 
1:06:27 - Collective Souls: Generations, Astrology, and the Future of America
1:13:00 - The unique gifts & challenges of the four generations (Baby boomers, Gen X, Millennials & Gen Z) 
1:20:51 - Calls to action for the four generations

*Subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch the video versions of the Elevating Consciousness Podcast 

*Subscribe to the Insighter Substack to get in-depth articles on the theory and practice of human transformation through a post-conventional lens

Natureza Gabriel is an ancestral neuroscience pioneer, the developer of Autonomics, and the founder of Hearth Science—an organization & community offering tools, trainings, and practices that help people cultivate nervous system fluency and deepen their experience of well-being.

At the heart of his work is Autonomics: an animist cartography of living autonomic physiology. This framework has been shaped by over three decades of collaboration with more than one hundred mentors and advisors across 25 healing traditions and 24 cultures, many indigenous. It is considered one of the first accurate maps of the living Autonomic Nervous System in modernity. 

His Autonomics trainings have been sought out by the United Nations, a division of NATO, global social and ecological movements, and elite firms in executive coaching and leadership development.

He is the author of many books, including Restorative Practices of Well-Being, Finding Home in Your Nervous System, Autonomic Triage, and The Neurobiology of Connection.

In this episode, we speak about the origins of Gabriel’s autonomic model and how it diverged from Polyvagal Theory, the 13 autonomic states, what entails a healthy nervous system, the limits of HRV and the future of diagnostics, practices to rebalance the nervous system, the limitations of modernity, and pathways towards civilizational wellness.

🔗[Links & resources] 🔗

• Gabriel’s personal site 
• Gabriel’s autonomic trainings
• Gabriel’s clinic
• Restorative practices portal
• The Neurobiology of Connection by Natureza Gabriel
• Ground: How Modernity Disconnected from the Earth, Why it Matters & How to Fix It by Natureza
• Finding Home in Your Nervous System by Natureza Gabriel
• Awakening Human Connection by Natureza Gabriel
  
  

🕰️[Time stamps] 🕰️

0:00 - Introduction 
3:52 -  The origins of autonomics (bridging neuroscience and autonomic physiology) 
7:53 - Stephen Porges, polyvagal theory and moving beyond a two-system autonomics 
21:44 - The 13 Autonomic States 
31:31 - Neuroception, Neurology & Neurochemistry 
34:55 - What is a healthy autonomic nervous system?
42:39 - The limits of HRV and the future of autonomic diagnostics 
49:17 - The importance of restorative practices 
52:00 - How to rebalance a hyper-activated nervous system 
1:01:09 - How to rebalance a shut-down nervous system 
1:05:47 - The importance of community in healing and processing grief 
1:11:45 - The limitations of modernity 
1:14:55 - Ground: How modernity disconnected us from the Earth 
1:24:10 - The challenges of running a company in a culture of domination 
1:33:52 - How do we bridge power & wisdom? (Becoming a mycelium network)
1:45:10-  The disconnection that underlies the techno-optimist worldview
1:48:33 - Pathways towards civilizational wellness

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