Today we’re joined by Rima Dib, a good friend of Tasha and Jeff’s who also happens to be an expert in unconscious bias and anti-oppression education. Rima teaches workshops about difference – race, age, gender, sexual preference, ability – to people around the planet. She makes it fun. Is this possible? Yes, it turns out. We laughed our asses off. In Rima’s words, “If it gets too heavy, we’re gonna want to put it down. By keeping it light, we can carry it longer.”

Fun doesn’t necessarily mean comfortable. Her acting and word association practices are very revealing. We go with our first flash or gesture, before we have time to edit our responses for popular consumption. Gulp. Thus Jeff squirms in his seat as various juvenile biases are uncovered. Fortunately, we also learn how our unconscious biases are NOT the same as our chosen values. So there's a lot of healthy normalization here. For Rima, everyone has biases; healing and change begin by bringing them into our awareness.

Our conversation is very lively! We explore everything from “cancel culture” to Mr Clean to educating your kids about bias and dealing with racist babies. This is good medicine my friends. Thank you Rima, we love you.

The first practice of identifying our embodied biases begins at 10:50 and ends at 19:25. The second practice, where we visit “the attic of our imaginations,” begins at 32:53 and ends at 37:56.

Links
• Rima Dib’s "Harmony at Work" website: https://harmonyatwork.ca/team/rima/
• The Harvard Implicit Bias Test: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html

Meet Shinzen Young, a long-time instructor of mindfulness, author of The Science of Enlightenment, and now co-director of the “Science Enhanced Mindful Awareness” or “SEMA” Lab at the University of Arizona. Shinzen is Jeff’s OG meditation teacher. He is both a scholar of comparative mysticism, and a highly creative designer of strange and beautiful (and practical) meditation techniques.

In this episode, instead of trying to banish thoughts, we drop into a "global unfixated state," and allow creative images and words and associations to spontaneously unfold. Both Shinzen’s exposition and his guided practice are quite precise – so much so that Tasha kind of bristles against them, which makes for a lively discussion afterwards. But if you’re patient, and able to trust what Shinzen is pointing to, it can lead to genuine insight. Thinking can shift from something rigid and constrained, to something more free-flowing and intuitive and even wise.

This matters. For Shinzen, the best of humanity comes through via our creativity and intuition. In his words, we can train ourselves to “let nature take over.” Shinzen himself demonstrates this at the end, when he comes apart during an emotional discussion of Japanese Noh theater. Much good stuff on the “deep mind,” subconscious processing, and the better angels of our nature.

So: here we go … like “seaweed in a tide poodle”!

Links:

• Shinzen’s website: https://www.shinzen.org/
• His YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/expandcontract
• His original “Science of Enlightenment” audio series from the 90s. In Jeff’s opinion, this series – NOT his more recent book of the same title – is one of the smartest things ever created on the subject of meditation.
• Shinzen’s “Unified Mindfulness” training program: https://unifiedmindfulness.com/
• His “Science Enhanced Mindful Awareness” Sema Lab at the University of Arizona: https://semalab.arizona.edu/

Today we hang out with the incomparable Tatianna Morales – aka @tatiannatarot – a Brooklyn-born spiritualist, priestess, and Tarot diviner! Together, we plunge into the imagination, learning how the age-old tradition of reading Tarot cards can give us insight into our personalities and our life situations. 

It turns out we’re meeting Tatianna at the very moment her own relationship to Tarot is changing. And not only hers: there’s a revolution happening out in the culture – artists and enthusiasts are creating their own tarot decks, imagining new archetypes to better reflect the realities of 21st century life. As we discuss, this is one way that culture and consciousness change and evolve.

So how do we give listeners their own personal Tarot reading? Tatianna starts by asking listeners to think of a question or theme they want to explore. Then all of us – Jeff and Tasha too – choose a number between one and three. Tatianna pulls a card for each number and does a reading for each. Listen closely to the reading for the number you choose! All the readings are fascinating, as examples of how Tarot works and the kinds of dynamics they help us explore.

Much goodness here and a wonderful animated discussion afterwards. Enjoy!

Practice begins at 8:52 with Tatianna’s readings from 10:30-19:36; Jeff and Tasha get a personal reading from 20:17 – 32:38, and finally our general discussion begins at 32:38.

 

Links:
- Tatianna’s website: https://www.tatiannatarot.com
- Tatianna’s instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tatiannatarot/ 

Today’s episode: Peter Russell. Peter started out as a theoretical physicist, a student of Stephen Hawking’s, until sometime in the early 70s he made his way to India and had his brain blown open. He became one of the West’s early proponents of meditation, and in the 80s wrote several seminal books on consciousness and technology. He’s had a big influence on the culture of meditation in general and on Jeff in particular – Jeff tells the story of meeting Peter in San Francisco back in 2008 and afterwards getting “let go” tattooed on his forearm.

Appropriate then, that Peter’s new book is called Letting Go of Nothing. What does “letting go” actually mean, and why do so many meditation teachers go on about it? We explore this in real-time, as Peter guides us in a wonderfully simple and accessible “effortless meditation” practice. Afterwards, very relaxed, we lazily discuss whether all this effortlessness is really just cheating and won’t actually get us anywhere. “Thinking you need to get somewhere is exactly the problem!” says Peter, or something like that. And on we go, a deep dive into the ordinary perfection that is already right here. This is good medicine.

Peter’s 12 minute effortless meditation practice begins at 7:55 and ends at 19:58.

Apologies for the rustles and muffles – sound improves after the first ten minutes.

Links:

• Peter’s Website
• Peter's Book: Letting Go of Nothing 
• Peter's Youtube Channel

Meet psychotherapist and Feldenkrais teacher Donna Ray. In this episode, she makes us move! Ok, more like she makes us sit in chairs and roll our eyes and turn our heads a bit and suddenly everything feels better. Welcome to the subtle art of micro-movement. Donna shows us how small physical adjustments in the way we hold ourselves can change both our experience and our body’s overall functioning. She’s a true adept – Donna has been teaching this method for over 40 years, ever since Moshe Feldenkrais first brought his system to North America.

Like much of what we explore at CEP, the radical nature of Feldenkrais is hard to capture in words. Not a problem – your body doesn’t need words, it learns for itself by doing, and, in the doing, awareness expands. This is about repatterning the nervous system so that all parts can function in a more vital and free and integrated way. Ultimately it’s an exploration of pleasure as the basis for how to live inside our bodies. Thus we end our conversation with a few PG remarks on Tantric sex, and call it a day. 

Donna’s 16 minute Feldenkrais practice begins at 9:02 and ends at 25:20.

Links:

• Donna’s website: http://donnaray.com
• The main resource for Feldenkrais: https://feldenkrais.com/

Today we’re joined by the UK-based Valerie Mason-John, also known as  Vimalasara, a leader in the field of mindfulness for addiction and trauma.

This episode is about the ways we get disconnected from our bodies and our lives, and the role self-compassion can play in bringing us home. We explore this in the context of our addictions – even addictions we don’t realize are addictions, like, in Vimalasara’s words, “stinking thinking” and technology. And we explore it in the context of contemporary challenges like coronavirus, and the institutional racism and violence directed to Black bodies.

For Vimalasara, the medicine is self-compassion – delivered with fierceness and strength. She guides us into a 16-minute meditation she calls the “five basic needs of the heart.” And then at the end of our time together, she guides a sobering inquiry into what she calls the “five questions of the shaman.” One of them – “when did you stop dancing?” – kind of drops a bomb into your brain!

To go straight to the “five basic needs of the heart” practice, it begins at 3:35 and ends at 19:33.

Links
• Valerie’s website, where you can also find all our resources on recovery and addiction https://www.valeriemason-john.com

Today we’re joined by Dr Baron Short, an Interventional Psychiatrist at the Medical University of South Carolina, and co-founder of Zendo, an electronic device that purports to enhance both the experience and the long-term benefits of meditation.

How might a direct current of electricity to the brain affect our meditation? This is not a hypothetical question. All three of us – two hosts and one guide – wire up, select the highest possible setting, and ride out the hum. Tasha and Baron go to Bliss-land. Jeff goes... somewhere else!

Baron’s guidance is lovely and supportive and useful for everyone  – you do not need electronic pads to get something out of this meditation. In fact, his 14-minute practice is a kind of guided tour of meditative landmarks many of us experience, from “the body drop” to the “stickiness of thoughts” and more.

After the practice, we get into an animated discussion about the pros and cons of technologically-enhanced meditation. Do we need it? Why or why not? Have we always been enhanced, and what might a more enhanced evolutionary future look like? Much ensues from the Zendo tingle!

To go straight to Baron’s 14-minute guided meditation, it begins at 14:00 and ends at 28:00.

Links

• Zendo website: ​​https://zendomeditation.com
• Dr Short’s clinician page at the Medical University of South Carolina: https://providers.muschealth.org/sc/mount-pleasant/edward-baron-short-md-mscr

Today we’re joined by Stanford psychiatry professor Dr. David Spiegel, an expert in the clinical use of hypnosis. David is co-author, along with his late father Herbert Spiegel, of Trance and Treatment, a classic work on hypnosis published by the American Psychiatric Association. And therein lies a story … almost 20 years ago, Jeff interviewed David’s 92-year old father Herbert Spiegel. Not just interviewed – Dr Spiegel managed to hypnotize Jeff, demonstrating to him first-hand the strange persuasive power of this mind-body intervention.

Now listeners can get their own taste. David’s first practice is a guided hypnosis session – essentially, he tries to hypnotize you. Then, depending on your suggestibility, he offers a specific therapeutic strategy for working with anxiety. David’s second short guided practice is an exploration of our innate hypnotic capacity. Hilarity ensues, as Jeff and Tasha observe their own dissociated arms tingle and float.

Our conversation explores the nature and neurobiology of hypnosis, how it is different from meditation, and the under-appreciated potential of hypnosis to help with all kinds of health conditions, from addiction to chronic pain to anxiety. As David says, “all hypnosis is self-hypnosis.” This is a safe, internally-directed healing modality that ultimately does not depend on experts, or medication, or anything except a willingness to open yourself to experience.

The first 10-minute hypnosis session begins at 8:05 and finishes at 17:51. The second eye-roll / arm floating test begins at 25:05 and finishes at 31:00.

To use the Eye Roll Test to figure out your own innate hypnotic capacity, check out this illustration from Jeff’s book, The Head Trip.

Links

• David’s Self-Hypnosis App, “Reveri”: https://www.reveri.com 
• His Stanford Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences webpage: https://profiles.stanford.edu/david-spiegel
• David's clinician page: https://stanfordhealthcare.org/doctors/s/david-spiegel.html
• David and his father Herbert Spiegel's classic book: Trance and Treatment: Clinical Uses of Hypnosis: www.appi.org/Products/Psychotherapy/Trance-and-Treatment-Second-Edition
• The Eye Roll Test: https://jeffwarren.org/everythingelse/illustrations/the-spiegel-eye-roll/

Today we’re joined by Jeff’s good friend Therese Jornlin, teacher of meditation, yoga, and qi gong. Much happens in this episode! Therese re-introduces us to our breath as both medicine and guide. We learn how the specific way each of us breathes reflects our particular mental patterns and habits. The breath can show us where we’re stuck, and it can show us how to find a way through. 

This is really an exploration of the wisdom of cycles: the inhale and the exhale, the up and the down, even life and death. We learn how Therese helped Jeff manage his bipolar symptoms, and how an appreciation for nature’s cycles can help all of us better manage life’s highs and lows.

There are actually two practices in today’s episode, one long and one short. Therese’s primary 17 minute practice begins at 6:03 and ends at 23:37. Her shorter two minute “whisper breath” practice begins at 47:11 and ends at 49:27.

Links:
• Therese’s website
• Therese's TED Talk: Reclaiming the Wisdom of Female Intelligence
• Therese's courses

If you live in the US or Canada, you may have noticed a movement to acknowledge local indigenous groups who've historically lived in a particular territory. For example, Tasha and I live in Toronto, Ontario, which is also where our nonprofit meditation community group –  The Consciousness Explorers Club or "CEC" – operates. These days, at the beginning of every CEC retreats and meditation sits, even our virtual events, we say some version of "The CEC operates on the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit, and is covered by Treaty 13." We say this as a way to situate us in an actual physical place. And we say it because we support the movement of truth, justice and reconciliation for Indigenous peoples in this country. It's been too long in coming.

In today's episode, we explore the inner practice of territory and ancestor acknowledgement. 

Our guide, Warren Hooley, comes from a mixed indigenous and western background. He lives in the Syilx (Okanagan) Territory in Penticton, British Columbia, where he runs workshops on Facilitation, Indigenous Allyship, and Compassionate Communication. He also teaches at the Consciousness Explorers Club. Warren has really wrestled with this question of why territory acknowledgment matters, and how to engage with it in a way that is real and meaningful for the practitioner. 

His beautiful guided practice is really a ceremony, complete with drum and singing. It has three parts: an acknowledgment of local indigenous groups, an exploration of our own ancestral roots, and finally connecting in a personal way with our own local landscape.

Warren’s 21-minute practice starts at 7:00 and ends at 28:00.

Links:
• Warren’s bio: http://cecmeditate.com/faculty/warren-hooley/