I was recently interviewed by Mark V Wiley for his ‘Transformations Podcast' with a particular focus on ritual, religion, meditation, martial arts, my teenage apprenticeship to a Christian mystic, and more.

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Mark's Shownotes:

Our discussion touched a wide variety of subjects from Steve early childhood entering karate, being an altar boy and the comparative rituals of both, early fiction writing, and introduction to a Celtic mystic; crossing thresholds, energy work, altered states and meditation; ways to manage pain, merge with it and let it go; Movement Koan Method and migraine relief.

0:14 The Guru Viking - not just a guy on a boat

4:38 Non-ordinary lifestyle, aesthetic and embodied nature of karate

7:45 Profound Altar boy ritual experience, shared ideology but private faith, personal contemplative space

11:45 Story: Wado-Ryu karate

12:17 crossing thresholds: martial art and religious space and ritual

16:56 The young contemplative, TV sound meditation and thought problems

19:02 Observation of martial arts with and without ritual, Arrogance

21:30 Skatipat, no-mind, how thought brings you out of the altered state, meditative practices

23:48 The untangling of pain from emotion and psychological reactivity and physically bracing against it

27:21 Heroic "strong determination' sitting of Shinzen Young, working through pain in meditation

38:50 Ann array of techniques, ego, meditating with others on their terms, not being bound by dogma

41:22 More thoughts on Catholicism, the Bible, and door-knocking sects

44:00 Novel, Celtic mystic writing group, learn by doing and observing, listening to God and the still, small voice within, seeing with God's eyes

51:28 Mentoring, learning by osmosis and proximity, apprenticeship, The Paris Review

54:44 Scotitsh fencing team, weight training, if strong appear weak, deception/perception

1:01:29 Movement Koan Method, what to do after a spiritual epiphany, body movement riddles, muscular activation and somatic reference points, investigation and inquiry over imposition of answer

1:10:41 Somatic emphasis on the concept "there is only here and now, don’t fight just feel and be" with it.

1:14:22 Zhan Zhuang qigong, water seeks its level, muscles, migraines, why we hold pain

1:15:34 Holding tension to withstand migraine and headache. Parallel to sitting meditation pain. Why we hold onto pain, persistent pain, mind/body pain, phantom pain, referred pain.

1:19:34 Dr. Wiley's Migraine cure - Headache's Relieved (book), Natural Solutions to Pain and Inflammation (book)

1:25:27 Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) Framework of excess, stagnation, deficiencies

1:27:35 Extending the sweet spot in wellness

1:29:33 Deliberate exposure to weak causing, homeopathy, resources for pain relief

1:34:18 ending comments

More on Steve James and The Guru Viking Podcast found here: https://www.guruviking.com/

Transformations Podcast brought to you by: www.TambuliMedia.com

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To watch more of Mark's episodes, click here: https://www.youtube.com/@markvwiley