"Faith is the substance of things hope for and evidence of things not seen." -the Bible.

What if Faith and Fear have the same formula?

It is February 2025. We have seen a fury of unjust, inhumane, and confusing executive orders geared to oppress, marginalize, disenfranchise, and harm people across communities in America and also with global implications. 

What is evident, this is a strategy. And the most effective tool they have is fear. If fear and faith have the same formula, what happens when people by the millions are believing the same thing? 

Please take what serves you, leave what doesn't. Do so with the same Compassion and Love it was given.

You can follow Carmen on all social media platforms @revcarmendplayer

"An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times. I think that is true of painters, sculptors, poets, musicians. As far as I'm concerned, it's their choice, but I CHOOSE to reflect the times and situations in which I find myself. That, to me, is my duty. And at this crucial time in our lives, when everything is so desperate, when everyday is a matter of survival, I don't think you can help but be involved. Young people, black and white, know this. That's why they're so involved in politics. We will shape and mold this country or it will not be molded and shaped at all anymore. So I don't think you have a choice. How can you be an artist and NOT reflect the times? That to me is the definition of an artist." Nina Simone

I kick it with my dear friend Rahaman “Kil” Kilpatrick to discuss the role of music and the shift of human consciousness. Here is a little bit about Kil:

In 1984, when Rahaman “Kil” Kilpatrick was 10 years old, he saw Run DMC performing “Rock Box” on American Bandstand & he knew he wanted to be part of the hip hop culture. While other kids were asking their parents for toys for Christmas, Kil begged his parents to buy him two turntables so he could be a DJ. 

 In 1992 Kil began attending Morgan State University & saw an article in Vibe magazine that Bobbito wrote highlighting the dopest hip hop radio shows. When he saw Morgan’s show Strictly Hip Hop 88.9 was namedhe knew he had to become part of that show! For the next 7 years from 1994-2001 Kil hosted Strictly Hip Hop which is currently the longest running hip hop radio show on the east coast.

 After graduating from Morgan State, Kil dedicated his life to helping teens in Washington DC by running numerous teen centers throughout the city. He’s gone on to become a music producer who has produced by groups such as MOP, Maffew Ragazino, RJ Payne and Pete Rock’s 1startist signed his record label Amxxr. He also hosts by a weekly hip hop podcast Apt. 5B.

Please take what serves you, leave what doesn't. Do so with the same Compassion and Love it was given.

You can follow Carmen on all social media platforms @revcarmendplayer

Our next guest on the H.Y.P.E. Conversations series is Chad Eric Smith. Shares with us his rich insights of the power of the imagination to forge the world after the struggle. Here is a little more information about Chad.
"Chad Eric Smith is a visionary force within the arts, entertainment, and nonprofit realms. As Senior Director of Communications and Brand Management at Mural Arts Philadelphia—America's preeminent public art program—he spearheads transformative communications, innovative marketing, and dynamic public engagement strategies. As the creative mind behind the film production company MisterDuke Productions, Smith's groundbreaking films have earned critical acclaim on platforms like Amazon Prime and kweliTV, securing his spot as Washington, DC's Filmmaker of the Month, bestowed by the Office of Cable Television, Film, Music, and Entertainment. Not only an award-winning actor with a knack for embodying diverse personas, Smith is also captivating as a musician, crafting tunes that articulate the essence of emotion with melodic depth and funky vibrance."

Please take what serves you, leave what doesn't. Do so with the same Compassion and Love it was given.

You can follow Carmen on all social media platforms @revcarmendplayer

******Content Warning: ****

This serves as a content warning.  The topic of death will be discussed. Please take the precaution and care needed for yourself or sensitive listeners.

H.Y.P.E. Conversations opens with a powerful conversation with Shandell P. Richards. She is a beacon of LIGHT with a story for us all. Shandell shares with us her walk with grief after a life altering event and how she transformed the experience into her invitation to MANIFEST the life of her faith, convictions, and imagination. This rich conversation with Shandell is full of BLESSons for those who have been newly initiated into the walk with grief, and those familiar for years.

RESOURCES
Lifeline.org
https://988lifeline.org/

55 Mental Health Resources for People of Color

https://www.onlinemswprograms.com/resources/mental-health-resources-racial-ethnic-groups/

Please take what serves you, leave what doesn't. Do so with the same Compassion and Love it was given.

You can follow Carmen on all social media platforms @revcarmendplayer

****Content Warning****
This episode contains mentioning of death, the death of children and genocide. Please take the necessary precautions to ensure you are taking care of yourself and sensitive listeners.

We are facing an intense experience in this timeline. By the publication of this podcast, we would have witnessed over 100 days of genocide, specifically in Gaza, while simultaneously witnessing ethnic cleansing and genocide in other places on the globe including Sudan and The Congo. It is not hard to become overwhelmed, hyper-fixated, even transfixed by the images and information we encounter. We may even experience deep guilt for the privilege we hold. As a result we may become isolated, lessen our light, decrease the moments of celebrating life. However, it is vital we continue to give ourselves and each other opportunities to live life fully, to laugh, to live, to share , to love, to hope. It is imperative because the work we have to shift this human experience will require a lifetime commitment. What we pour into our lives and ourselves will be the fuel.
In this episode Rev. Carmen d. Player invites us to reach for each other in community care and to allow ourselves to live fully. Because when we take care of ourselves and each other, the bitterness of sorrow is more bearable, the joy we share is magnified and multiplied.

Resources: If you or someone you know need help, please consider these resources.
Lifeline.org

https://988lifeline.org/

55 Mental Health Resources for People of Color

https://www.onlinemswprograms.com/resources/mental-health-resources-racial-ethnic-groups/

Please take what serves you, leave what doesn't. Do so with the same Compassion and Love it was given.

You can follow Carmen on all social media platforms @revcarmendplayer

 An Offering of Cosmic H.Y.P.E. 

Have Your Perspective Elevated 

 In this lifetime, in this timeline all of us are the collective witness of ethnic cleansing in the form of genocide in multiple places in the world, simultaneously. This is not the first time in human history that such atrocities have transpired. Generation after generation we see have seen and many have first person experience, of what seems to be a deep and wide-spread disregard for humanity. 

Why does this continue to occur? Why are humans continually engaging in violence against each other to the point of desiring the elimination of entire linages? 

 In this episode, Carmen shares a critical invitation from Spirit to anyone who feels the call and opened to accept its requirements. The invitation is save the soul of humanity. The salvation of the soul of humanity requires each of us to examine how we are contributing to nourishing and supporting the soul of humanity, as well as our contribution to its decline.  The invitation is ours to take, along with the inevitable fruit of our choices. 

#kosmichype #GODISINTHEMIRROR #wholyandholy #queerandwhole #queerandholy #Spiritisthriving #youareworthy #youareholy 

Please take what serves you, leave what doesn't. Do so with the same Compassion and Love it was given.

You can follow Carmen on all social media platforms @revcarmendplayer

An Offering of Kosmic H.Y.P.E.
Have Your Perspective Elevated

Grief, the Inevitable Companion. Very few of us if any can walk through this life and not experience loss at some level.  Relationships change and end. Careers end. Loved ones pass on or transition.  All of us, if we find connection to anyone, any thing, any idea will at some point experience loss and grief. Grief, the Inevitable Companion.

Understanding this is the case, we are extended an invitation to allow pain and gratitude to sit at the same table and have a conversation.  In our grief, there are offerings and BLESSons to take with the love we carry for those in our hearts.

In this episode, Carmen shares some of their BLESSons with their walk with grief.

Please take what serves you, leave what doesn't. Do so with the same Compassion and Love it was given.

You can follow Carmen on all social media platforms @revcarmendplayer

An Offering of Cosmic H.Y.P.E.

Have Your Perspective Elevated

You know love by its fruit. We are facing a time in our lives when we are witness to state sponsored genocide.  We are facing a crisis with climate change and in America we face the insidious repercussions of centuries of white body supremacy. It’s not hard to see why so many of us are experiencing a deep overwhelm. 

Spirit gives us the question to consider, “What is mine to do?” When we look at our internal world and the one we live in we can always answer this question with be love. 

#kosmichype #GODISINTHEMIRROR #wholyandholy #queerandwhole #queerandholy #Spiritisthriving 

Please take what serves you, leave what doesn't. Do so with the same Compassion and Love it was given.

You can follow Carmen on all social media platforms @revcarmendplayer

An Offerring of Kosmic H.Y.P.E.

Have Your Perspective Elevated

We are whole, vibrant, complete and Divine beings. We are of the highest consciousness of LOVE and LIGHT. Our consciousness and lenses are calibrated to Spirit. And we are healing beliefs of separation. 

All of this is true. Let's keep it funky, LIFE IS LIFE-ING. We experience transitions and challenges in life. These can be received as invitation from Spirit to examine our beliefs about ourselves, each other and our world. these experiences invites us to surrender what no longer serves us.  While the way is of LOVE and LIGHT, LIGHTwork is not light work. It can be lonely, painful, dark even. 

Carmen shares the invitations of Spirit to be share the BLESSon of being authentic while navigating experiences of life. From a place of knowing the power and effectiveness of LOVE to connect and heal, Carmen invites us to give ourselves permission to be authentic, to reach for each other and to extend  compassion and love to ourselves and each other as we walk through life. 

YOU ARE WHOLE.

YOU ARE WORTHY.

YOU ARE LOVED.

YOU ARE LOVE.

#kosmichype #GODISINTHEMIRROR #wholyandholy#youareworthy#youareholy#youarewhole#queerandwhole #queerandholy #Spiritisthriving 

Please take what serves you, leave what doesn't. Do so with the same Compassion and Love it was given.

You can follow Carmen on all social media platforms @revcarmendplayer

What happens when we allow ourselves to use our imagination to give our permission to experience life more fully, without cost or consequence?

When we give ourselves the imagination space to turn to wonder, we give ourselves the opportunity to be receptive to solutions, guidance, and a taste of what we are able to make material in this realm.  

The power of imagination is not used to subdue our sense and connection to the realty of today, but allows us to be receptive to creative solutions, to experiment with what is possible and to calibrate ourselves to what is life affirming, grounded in Truth.  When we look to those who have shifted human consciousness we often edify these folks as visionaries. They engaged in a deep faith rooted imagination. They answered and will answer their soul commission to bring the vision material.

In episode 5 of The Kosmic H.Y.P.E. Podcast Rev. Carmen d. Player invites us to return to our place of wonder, expansion, infinite solutions and possibilities, our imagination. 

Please take what serves you, leave what doesn't. Do so with the same Compassion and Love it was given.

You can follow Carmen on all social media platforms @revcarmendplayer