The Creativity and Consciousness Podcast with Jake Kobrin

In this week’s episode of The Creativity and Consciousness Podcast with Jake Kobrin, Jake explores the life, work, and legacy of Aleister Crowley, the infamous occultist who shaped modern esotericism. Jake shares his personal journey into Crowley’s teachings, diving into Crowley’s magical practices, rebellious life, and controversial philosophy, Thelema.

Jake offers insights into Crowley’s complex persona—both a visionary in occultism and a figure surrounded by scandal. He highlights Crowley’s profound influence on spiritual exploration, touching on his involvement with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, his development of sex magick, and his integration of Eastern practices like yoga into Western magick.

Throughout the episode, Jake reflects on Crowley’s contributions to human potential while acknowledging the ethical challenges in his life. The discussion invites listeners to critically engage with Crowley’s teachings and explore the deeper questions of will, power, and spiritual growth.

In this episode of The Creativity and Consciousness Podcast titled "God is the Dreamer," I wanted to explore the Hermetic concept that life is a dream where we are both the dream and the dreamer, existing in the great mind of God. We explore how our subconscious minds shape our reality, often ensnaring us in trances and narratives we may not have consciously chosen. By becoming lucid within this "dreaming," we can awaken from these patterns and actively reshape our lives with limitless possibilities.

We discuss practices like lucid dreaming, meditation, and sigil magick as powerful tools to tap into the subconscious mind. These methods empower us to change deeply ingrained beliefs, allowing us to become co-creators of our experience rather than passive participants. The episode also emphasizes the importance of embracing our unique perspectives and acting with love and empathy, recognizing our interconnectedness within this collective dream.

For a deeper dive into these transformative concepts, don't forget to preorder my upcoming book, which further explores the journey toward lucidity and personal empowerment. Also, check out my YouTube workshop on Sigil Magick to learn practical methods for accessing and conditioning the subconscious mind. All of the music featured in this episode was created using Udio AI.

In this episode of The Creativity and Consciousness Podcast with Jake Kobrin, you’ll listen in on a completely unscripted and spontaneous conversation between myself and my partner, Lux Lucis, recorded with nothing more than my iPhone. As Lux recovers in bed from a recent motorcycle accident, we dive into a raw and intimate discussion about staying creative and productive while navigating limitations. Lux shares her concerns about maintaining focus, avoiding depression, and staying well during her recovery, while I explore my own challenges in adapting to work without access to my computer and professional equipment. Together, we reflect on how constraints can foster creativity and how to maintain balance between wellness and productivity. We reference Erick Godsey’s Navigating The Shimmer course, The Artist’s Way, and Art and Fear, offering a candid exploration of navigating life, creativity, and recovery in the face of unplanned constraints. 

I dug through the archives and found this old essay I wrote many years ago about Lucid Dreaming, and thought I'd share it on the podcast for all of you to listen to, as I realized I haven't shared any new podcasts in a while.

Lucid dreaming represents a powerful state of consciousness where the dreamer becomes aware they are dreaming and can sometimes influence the unfolding dream narrative. This capability opens doors to extraordinary dimensions, serving as an inspiration for artists and as a tool for personal and spiritual exploration. It echoes the limitless possibilities seen in stories like The Matrix, where reality is malleable and deeply interconnected with our perceptions and beliefs.

Lucid dreaming allows us to tap into our subconscious in ways that can directly benefit our waking lives. It’s been shown that this altered state can enhance creativity, problem-solving, and emotional processing, giving us tools to better navigate challenges we face in our day-to-day lives. For instance, Dr. Stephen LaBerge, a pioneer in lucid dream research, has demonstrated how athletes, artists, and musicians can practice skills in their dreams to improve performance when awake. His research suggests that the brain cannot distinguish between the actions taken in dreams and those in reality, meaning you can enhance your abilities while you sleep. This means that the actions taken in a lucid dream, for example practicing an instrument, affect the brain the same way as if you were practicing the instrument while awake. (citation) His book, Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, co-written with Howard Rheingold, provides a comprehensive guide to understanding and harnessing the power of lucid dreams.

I hope you'll enjoy this podcast!

“Cybernetic Conjurations: The Nexus of Magic and Machine Intelligence” This piece goes into the history of magic, introducing key figures such as Aleister Crowley and John Dee – both famous for their mystical practices about our contemporary development of AI. It delves into how the ancient ideas of summoning and servitors correlate with contemporary digital creations, stating that it is a never-ending thread of human intention to shape reality. The article also discusses the ethical considerations and philosophical issues raised by AI’s exponential rise, making parallels with ancient magicians’ goals. It invites readers to ponder the place of AI in our lives and its potential for either elevating or undermining them.

The podcast is back in action! And #74 is with my friend Yuval, who is an erotic intelligence coach. We recorded this live conversation in person in Ubud, Bali and talked about sex, spirituality, tantra vs neotantra, the ideas of masculine and feminine and if these identities are helpful or necessary, ejaculation, putting things up your butt, and erotic intelligence. It was an epic conversation and I hope you enjoy it! More can be found from Yuval at https://yuvalman.com/ and on social media, all of the links which can be found on his website. 

Thanks to Eugene Lopin for allowing me to share this important conversation with visionary artist Android Jones and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman about the implications of the emerging AI technologies such as Dall-E and MidJourney. This talk was facilitated at the PlayAlchemist camp at Burning Man in 2022 and was moderated by Satya Kamdar. Eugene Lopin, Kris Kaczor, and Thierry Brouard filmed and recorded this talk. And I edited it. 

Android began by speaking about the implications of the emerging AI technologies, such as Dall-E and MidJourney, on the creative arts industry and the grief that it was causing artists as these technologies were becoming more ubiquitous in the art world. Sam responded by discussing the potential for these technologies to bring about universal income, equality, and efficiency. He emphasized the need to harness the power of these technologies responsibly. The conversation then shifted to a discussion of the ethical and moral implications of this rapidly evolving technology and how to ensure that the technology is used in a responsible manner. They both agreed that the technology should be used to create a more equitable and diverse world, and that the technology should not be used to create an artificial intelligence that is beyond the control of humans. The conversation ended with both Android and Sam emphasizing the need for further research and development into these technologies and the need for strong regulation and oversight to ensure that these technologies are used responsibly.

This is a recording of a live podcast panel discussion that was held in front of an audience about Art and Magick recorded at the Bali Art Magick Retreat on December 19th, 2022. This was the first retreat organized by Jake and held in Tabanan in Bali and was the impetus for the formation of The Temple of the Eternal Muse. It is a conversation between visionary artist Jake Kobrin, musician and sound priestess Kristen Kreatress, musician and legendary prog metal guitarist Paul Masvidal, and somatic therapist and creativity coach Marina Kurikhina. It marks the first official episode of the TOTEM podcast. I hope you enjoy, and happy New Years! 

Some of the volume levels are inconsistent, and I appreciate your patience in listening to this imperfectly edited podcast. 

This is a live podcast recorded in December in Bali in front of an audience during the first Temple of the Eternal Muse retreat in 2022. Carl Abrahamsson presented a talk about Sex Magick, Art, Occulture, Sigilization, and Thee Temple of Psychick Youth (TOPY.) Carl is a scholar, filmmaker, occultist, artist, musician, and "magical anthropologist." He was one of the organizers of TOPY SCAN.

On his website, Carl says "I write fiction, and also material about the arts & entertainment, esoteric history, occulture, as well as artist portraits for the international market. I also lecture on all of the mentioned subjects at art schools, universities, events, symposia and conferences. I also work with filmmaking, in publishing, photography and music."

More about Carl can be found here: https://www.carlabrahamsson.com/
His patreon with his wife Vanessa can be found here: https://www.patreon.com/vanessa23carl 

Sharing some of my thoughts on AI Art Technology and how it conflicts with being an artist in life. Here's a link to that original Android Jones podcast that I mentioned, titled Art is Dead, Long Live Art: https://thirdeyedrops.com/art-is-dead-long-live-art-with-android-jones-mind-meld-323/android323-2/