Sebastián Blaksley is a native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, born into a large traditional Catholic family in 1968.

He attended the Colegio del Salvador, a Jesuit school of which the headmaster was Jorge Bergoglio, the current Pope Francis. Sebastian enjoyed sport in his youth, particularly Rugby football.

At the age of six, Sebastián was involved in a near-fatal accident during which he heard a voice, which later identified itself as Jesus.

More recently Sebastian receives, transcribes, and shares what the voice of Christ—the voice of love—mystically dictates to him. 

Most recently he has “received” an astonishing, and most beautiful and uplifting series of messages from Heaven resulting in the Choose Only Love series of seven books, the first of which was published in October, 2019. To the present date, five of the seven books have been published with the final two books due for release throughout 2021.

 To some he is described as “a pencil in the hand of God.”

https://www.chooseonlylove.org

https://www.fundacionamorvivo.org/

https://www.chooseonlylove.org/about-the-books/books/

https://www.chooseonlylove.org/about-sebastian/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Choose-Only-Love-Echoes-Holiness/dp/1584696680

Help us Keep Tom going – please donate a few bucks/quid/sheckels here at Paypal: [email protected]

See us every Friday at zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88215498348

Zoom ID 882 1549 348 password Tom

Our website is at www.HTWTW.com

Join our Facebook Page ‘Here’s Tom with the weather’ at https://www.facebook.com/groups/314088509589654

To see past episodes, join the ‘Here’s Tom with the Weather’ Youtube Channel here: https://youtube.com/channel/UCdW7K07ZZUPZZ-t0s7XmURQ

Neale Donald Walsch has written 39 books on contemporary spirituality and its practical application in everyday life. With an early interest in religion and a deeply felt connection to spirituality, Neale spent the majority of his early adult years thriving professionally, yet searching for greater meaning in life. He has said that this yearning let to a series of deeply personal spiritual encounters which he experienced as direct exchanges with the Divine. A series of books titled Conversations with God emerged from those moments, and has been translated into 37 languages. Seven books in the series reached the New York Times bestseller list, Conversations with God-Book 1 remaining there for over two-and-a-half years. 

His latest book is The God Solution, published in December, 2020, which invites humanity to embrace a new global ethic based on a refined and clarified definition of God. The book proposes that there is a single statement of spiritual truth upon which all the world’s religions could agree, and which would birth a shift of spiritual paradigms around the globe of such magnitude that it would produce peace and happiness on our planet at last. 

Help us Keep Tom going – please donate a few bucks/quid/sheckels here at Paypal: [email protected]

See us every Friday at zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88215498348

Zoom ID 882 1549 348 password Tom

Join our Facebook Page ‘Here’s Tom with the weather’ at https://www.facebook.com/groups/314088509589654

To see past episodes, join the ‘Here’s Tom with the Weather’ Youtube Channel here: https://youtube.com/channel/UCdW7K07ZZUPZZ-t0s7XmURQ

Today it’s a special episode as we host a great debate between 2 wise old Buddhists - on the merits of AA and alternative recovery programmes, what works? What doesn’t? Whats hokum?  Where does Buddhism and the 12 steps fit in with all this? Let’s find out…

Our guests: Vince C and Kevin G….

In the blue corner:

Vince C 

Having drunk alcoholically from the age of 14 until 39, Vince Cullen sat in his kitchen and poured a glass of lager. He made a promise to himself that this would be his last drink… ever. That was 24-years ago. Since then, he has been associated with Wat Tham-kra-bok, the famous detox monastery in Thailand and Buddhist-oriented drug and alcohol recovery. Vince founded and has facilitated Fifth Precept Sangha meditation-for-awakening Sit-and-Share meetings in England, Scotland, Ireland, India, Nepal, Thailand and the USA as part of his ongoing teaching of Hungry Ghost Retreats. He is a charter member of the Buddhist Recovery Network and keynote speaker at Buddhist Recovery Summits.

Now in the red corner - Kevin!

Kevin Griffin is a Buddhist teacher and author of several books, including One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps, and his latest Buddhism & the Twelve Steps DAILY REFLECTIONS. 

A longtime Buddhist practitioner and 12 Step participant, he is a leader in the mindful recovery movement and one of the founders of the Buddhist Recovery Network. 

Kevin is a husband, father and musician. His album “Laughing Buddha” is a collection of rock and world beat tunes with Buddhist themes. 

Kevin website www.kevingriffn.net

Vince website https://5th-precept.org/

Today on Here's Tom with the Weather podcast we're going to speak to...Jeffrey Cosker

Having had revelatory and mystical experiences as a result of total devotion to a 12 step program and then to A Course in Miracles, Jeffrey’s faith is grounded deep. His experiences in life, lightheartedness, and total commitment to Awakening allow people from all different backgrounds to experience a safety to open up with him. With a deep passion for mind training, strong focus, and determination to see things differently, Jeffrey demonstrates the transformation that happens when you turn your life over to a higher purpose.

After spending four years in a devoted spiritual community, Jeffrey heard the guidance to start a prison ministry. He has recently started a non-profit in the state of Nevada with a purpose focused on the denial of guilt in all forms. He continues to share the message of forgiveness with prisoners all throughout the United States.

He has been practicing the 12 steps for 7 years.

 Help us Keep Tom going – please donate a few bucks/quid/sheckels here at Paypal: [email protected]

 See us every Friday at zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88215498348

 Zoom ID 882 1549 348 password Tom

Join our Facebook Page ‘Here’s Tom with the weather’ at https://www.facebook.com/groups/314088509589654

To see past episodes, join the ‘Here’s Tom with the Weather’ Youtube Channel here: https://youtube.com/channel/UCdW7K07ZZUPZZ-t0s7XmURQ

Today we speak to...Marya Hornbacher

Marya Hornbacher is an award-winning essayist, journalist, novelist, poet, and the New York Times bestselling author of five books. She is the recipient of the Annie Dillard Award for Nonfiction, a Logan Nonfiction Fellowship, the White Award for Magazine Journalism, the ASCAP Award for Music Journalism, the Fountain House Humanitarian Award, and other distinctions. Her writing has appeared in publications including the New York Times, Boston Globe, Smithsonian Magazine, Crazyhorse, AGNI, Gulf Coast, The Normal School, Fourth Genre, DIAGRAM, Arts & Letters, and many others. She’s currently at work on her sixth and seventh books, a work of long-form journalism and a collection of essays. She teaches nonfiction, fiction, and poetry in the Master of Fine Arts in Writing program at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. 

She has been sober for 21 years.

Special mention of Marya’s first book, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia written in 1998, when she was twenty-three. What started as a crazy idea suggested by a writer friend became the classic book that has been published in sixteen languages and is taught in universities all over the world.

Quote about her book Waiting: 

In Waiting, Hornbacher uses the story of her own journey beginning with her recovery from alcoholism to offer a fresh approach to cultivating a spiritual life. Relinquishing the concept of a universal “Spirit” that exists outside of us, Hornbacher gives us the framework to explore the human spirit in each of us—the very thing that sends us searching, that connects us with one another, the thing that “comes knocking at the door of our emotionally and intellectually closed lives and asks to be let in.”

When we let it in and only when we do, she says, we begin to be integrated people. And we begin to walk a spiritual path. And there are many points along the way where we stop, or we fumble, or we get tangled up or turned around. Those are the places where we wait.

Waiting, you’ll discover, can become a kind of spiritual practice in itself, requiring patience, acceptance, and stillness. Sometimes we do it because we know we need to, though we may not know why. In short, we do it on faith.

= 

Marya’s website : http://www.maryahornbacher.com/

Help us Keep Tom going – please donate a few bucks/quid/sheckels here at Paypal: [email protected]

See us every Friday at zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88215498348

Zoom ID 882 1549 348 password Tom

Join our Facebook Page ‘Here’s Tom with the weather’ at https://www.facebook.com/groups/314088509589654

To see past episodes, join the ‘Here’s Tom with the Weather’ Youtube Channel here: https://youtube.com/channel/UCdW7K07ZZUPZZ-t0s7XmURQ

Today we speak to...Jack Grisham 

Jack Grisham (born July 22, 1961). He is the vocalist for the punk rock band T.S.O.L. (True Sounds of Liberty), which emerged from the late 1970s Los Angeles hardcore punk rock scene, Which is described as being Punk hardcore. punk anarcho-punk deathrock and horror punk.

We’re not talking about Abba!

An agnostic libertarian, Grisham challenges some of the "cult" like practices in today's groups and encourages you to think for yourself, live without fear, and tap the resource of power that resides within us all. 

Jack an author, a front-man, an actor, and a "two-bit" carny hypnotist. As a vocalist for T.S.O.L., and the Joykiller, he's released close to twenty full-length records and toured all over the world. Jack has been blamed for enlightening, and corrupting the moldable minds of our youth for years—he has also been credited for influencing many of the top bands of today. 

As an author he's released three books, all to mostly favorable reviews—no one says Jack is a horrible writer, it's just that he brings the horrible to life with such skill that at times you practically need to be sedated to read his prose. 

'An American Demon', 'Untamed' and 'Code Blue a Love Story' have all burned their ways into the scary netherworld of the human psyche. As an actor, Jack plays himself, a lovable con-man that you can't help to root for—'Suburbia', 'Let It Rock', 'Punks Not Dead', 'American Hardcore', 'Rage', 'Urban Struggle' and 'The Other F-Word' have all been graced with his almost-as-large-as-life screen presence. Grisham has been clean and semi-serene since 1989. He gives motivational talks all over the USA

You can be sure that whatever Jack is involved in it is sure to challenge the senses and inflame the boundaries of what is decent and tame. 

 Help us Keep Tom going – please donate a few bucks/quid/sheckels here at Paypal: [email protected]

 See us every Friday at zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88215498348

 Zoom ID 882 1549 348 password Tom

Rabbi Rami Shapiro is an award–winning author of over thirty-six books on religion and spirituality. He received ordination from the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion and holds a PH.D. in religion from Union Graduate School. A rabbinic chaplain with the USAF for 3 years, a congregational rabbi for 20, and a professor of religious studies for 10, Rabbi Rami currently co-directs the One River Foundation (www.oneriverfoundation.org). Rami is also a Contributing Editor at Spirituality and Health magazine where he writes the Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler 

He also hosts the magazine’s bi-weekly podcast, Essential Conversations with Rabbi Rami (www.spiritualityhealth.com). 

He has been in  12 step recovery for 15 years and his two books on 12 step recovery are 

‘Recovery, the sacred art’ – and 

‘Surrendered, Shattering the Illusion of Control and Falling into Grace with Twelve-Step Spirituality!’

Help us Keep Tom going – please donate a few bucks/quid/sheckels here at Paypal: [email protected]

 See us every Friday at zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88215498348

 Zoom ID 882 1549 348 password Tom

A musical extravaganza, celebrating a year anniversary of the Shivering Denizens Group, started during lockdown 2020.

Today we're going to speak to...Donal O’c.

 Donal O Connell was born in 1941 …and he describes his birth as thus: 

“I was born behind a veil,  I slid into this world as the sun rose while a black cat walked by the bed as my mother held tightly on to a relic of St Teresa".

She described Donal’s birth as being a painless one, but he soon made up for that in the years thereafter.

He attended Trinity College but student nurses, slow horses, Guiness and late-night boogies led him away to trips around the world seeking highs and lows, and spiritual fulfilment across the world.

He is sober 30 years, is a published author of poetry and supporter of Munster Rugby Club.

He himself played in the position of Hooker. 

We investigate the plethora of Higher powers that populate the vast universe of 12 step Recovery - where alcoholics riff out on step 3 and step 11... as prescribed by the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous who encourage us to find some kind of higher power – as long as it's not us...

We speak to people with all manner of higher powers - from those who are atheists, sufis, agnostics, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Followers of Islam, Hermetics, Paganists, NON-DUALITY...we leave no stone unturned...its our aim to promote understanding and open-mindedness so that alcoholics and addicts can find a higher power of their own - to stay sober and carry the message.

We promote tolerance and empathy for folks who have different spiritual practices than us. It's all about Live and Let Live. 

Please remember that this is not an AA meeting... it's just some people's version of the truth – whatever that may be.

Sometimes we talk to seekers, to gurus and to people not necessarily in recovery.

Today we're going to speak to...Steve Ford.

Steve Ford has been sober 25 years, and works as a therapist. After three and a half years working the 12 step programme he had a complete awakening. Since then Steve gives talks on the non-dual nature of consciousness and reality. He also explores the deeper meaning, and understanding of continual 12 step work. He is the author of the best-selling book Walking awake.

Welcome to another zoom meeting and podcast of 'Here's Tom with the Weather'...where we investigate the plethora of Higher powers that populate the vast universe of 12 step Recovery - where alcoholics riff out on step 3 and step 11... as prescribed by the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous who encourage us to find some kind of higher power – as long as it's not us...

We speak to people with all manner of higher powers - from those who are atheists, sufis, agnostics, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Followers of Islam, Hermetics, Paganists, NON-DUALITY...we leave no stone unturned...its our aim to promote understanding and open-mindedness so that alcoholics and addicts can find a higher power of their own - to stay sober and carry the message.

We promote tolerance and empathy for folks who have different spiritual practices than us. It's all about Live and Let Live. 

Please remember that this is not an AA meeting... it's just some people's version of the truth – whatever that may be.

Sometimes we talk to seekers, to gurus and to people not necessarily in recovery ...