712. Melinda Edwards

Melinda Edwards, MD is a mother, writer and physician in Charleston, South Carolina, providing psychiatric care for underserved adults. She attended the Medical University of South Carolina and completed her residency in psychiatry at Stanford Medical Center. She has studied complementary and alternative medicine with Andrew Weil, MD, researched the effects of MDMA on PTSD with Michael Mithoefer, MD, and is a columnist for Autism Parenting Magazine. Dr. Edwards is the author of PSYCHE & SPIRIT: How a Psychiatrist Found Divinity Through Her Lifelong Search for Truth and Her Daughter’s Autism.

As a child of medical missionaries, Melinda grew up in a Mayan Indian village in Guatemala, Central America. Early in life she experienced an inner pull to a deeper truth. Her journey has taken her through various spiritual practices including meditation retreats, guidance from spiritual teachers, travel to India, and living in spiritual communities. Her quest led to the ongoing discovery of the sacred in all.

Inspired by her journey with her daughter Saachi, Dr. Edwards founded the 501c3 nonprofit organization Living Darshan to foster a deeper understanding of autism in the world.

Website: melindaedwardsmd.com

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group

Summary and transcript of this interview

Interview recorded July 20, 2024

YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump
  • 00:03:26 – An Evolutionary Journey
  • 00:07:57 – The Fear of Going to Hell
  • 00:11:58 – Tiptoeing Through Sleeping Elephants
  • 00:16:32 – Levels of Spiritual Evolution
  • 00:20:56 – The Spiral into Anorexia
  • 00:25:46 – The Importance of Compassion and Being Heard
  • 00:30:10 – Love as a Virus and the Hazards of Idealizing Spiritual Teachers
  • 00:34:39 – Red Flags in Spiritual Teachers and Communities
  • 00:39:21 – The Dangers of a Spiritualized Ego
  • 00:43:34 – The Danger of Unqualified Advice in the Spiritual Community
  • 00:47:37 – Exploiting Students’ Finances
  • 00:51:29 – The Role of Students in Spiritual Teaching
  • 00:55:29 – Correlation between Teaching in Medicine and Spirituality
  • 00:59:39 – Spiritual Teachers and Holistic Development
  • 01:03:34 – The Realization of Nothingness
  • 01:07:09 – The Nature of Realization and Integration
  • 01:10:15 – The Dissolution of the Project of “Me”
  • 01:13:53 – Micro adjustments and thriving
  • 01:18:13 – Medications and Spiritual Awakening
  • 01:21:51 – Support and Caution in Meditation Retreats
  • 01:25:50 – The Impact of Spiritual Practices on Brain Chemistry
  • 01:29:41 – Taking Medication for ADD and Kundalini Awakening
  • 01:33:16 – Online Sessions and the Law
  • 01:38:05 – The Porousness of Energy and Information
  • 01:42:40 – The Increase of Neurodiverse Beings in the Population
  • 01:47:44 – Different Realms and Dimensions
  • 01:51:22 – Supporting Autistic Children in Their Purpose
  • 01:55:29 – Navigating Kundalini Energy
  • 01:59:32 – The Power of a Mother’s Love
  • 02:02:41 – Stay tuned for upcoming content

711. John Audette

John R. Audette is the author of “Loved by the Light: True Stories of Divine Intervention and Providence”. He earned a Master of Science degree from Virginia Tech. A native of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, his professional career spans over three decades of senior executive positions in hospital and hospice administration and physician practice management, as well as the performing arts and public broadcasting.

He contributed several scholarly chapters to various books by other authors about spiritually transformative experiences and non-local consciousness including works by Dr. Ervin Laszlo. He is also gratefully acknowledged in many other books on these subjects by various well-known authors whom he assisted dating back to 1974. His first work of fiction, a novel trilogy, will be published in 2025.

John is the primary founder of the International Association for Near-Death Studies, Inc., (IANDS.org), with co-founders Raymond Moody, MD; Bruce Greyson, MD; Michael Sabom, MD; and Kenneth Ring, PhD. John now serves as CEO of Eternea, (eternea.org), which he co-founded with Eben Alexander, MD and Edgar Mitchell, Sc.D. He is also an honorably discharged veteran with over six years of voluntary service (both active and inactive duty) in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam era.

Website: AffirmingGod.com

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group

Summary and transcript of this interview

Interview recorded July 7, 2024

YouTube Video Chapters:

710. Viivi Jokela

Viivi Jokela facilitates awakening in people who are inclined in that way. She had a spontaneous, deep awakening to true nature in 2022, followed by a strange and at times intense acclimation, which she refers to as no self realization or simply the natural state.

Viivi communicates a direct approach to realization, grounded on experiential insight on the aspects of awakening. She invites you to inquire into and recognize the awe-striking immediate, inherently awake radiance of your own being and of all being.

Website: sensingradiance.com

In this interview, Viivi Jokela shares her journey of spiritual awakening and self-realization. She discusses her early life, her struggles with suffering and alienation, and her eventual deep awakening to her true nature in 2022. She describes the intense acclimation process she went through, which she refers to as no self-realization or the natural state. Viivi also talks about her experiences with a yoga school that turned out to be a cult, her powerful Kundalini awakening, and the subsequent purification process. Throughout the interview, she emphasizes the importance of understanding the nature of experience and the difference between direct experience and mental interpretation.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group

Summary and transcript of this interview

Interview recorded June 29, 2024

YouTube Video Chapters:

  •  00:00:00 – Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump
  •  00:03:37 – Early Suffering and Alienation
  •  00:07:22 – Finding Yoga in the Hospital
  •  00:10:22 – The Powerful Kundalini Awakening
  •  00:13:16 – The Journey of Purification
  •  00:16:27 – Challenges after Kundalini Awakening
  •  00:19:46 – Recommendation for Kundalini awakening practitioners
  •  00:23:23 – Finding the Right Meditation Practice
  •  00:26:55 – Defining Enlightenment and Liberation
  •  00:30:16 – The Experience of Self
  •  00:33:57 – Multi-Dimensionality of Life
  •  00:37:16 – The Personal and Impersonal within a Larger Wholeness
  •  00:40:18 – The Dance of Relative and Absolute
  •  00:43:30 – Holding Multiple Perspectives Amid Conflicting Views
  •  00:46:24 – Appreciating Different Perspectives
  •  00:49:52 – Understanding the “I got it, I lost it” syndrome
  •  00:53:22 – Extracting Instructions for Awakening
  •  00:56:35 – The Beginner’s Mind and Approaching with Curiosity
  •  01:00:16 – Different Types of Meditation
  •  01:03:58 – The Collapse of Fundamental Structures of Reality
  •  01:07:38 – The Teacher and the Experience of Death
  •  01:11:20 – Moments of Transcendence and Nothingness
  •  01:14:34 – The Reality of the Deep Homecoming and Healing Through Realization
  •  01:18:22 – The Disappearance of God
  •  01:21:34 – Kundalini: The Most Powerful Energy
  •  01:24:54 – The Relationship between Trauma and Relational Healing
  •  01:28:34 – Dismissive Attitudes and Lack of Empathy
  •  01:31:58 – The Contradictory Nature of the Experience
  •  01:34:44 – The Importance of Having a Broad Perspective
  •  01:38:40 – Exploring Aggression and Self-Respect
  •  01:42:37 – Closing Remarks and Next Interview Preview