669. Neil Douglas-Klotz

Neil Douglas-Klotz is an internationally known scholar in the fields connecting religious studies (comparative Semitic hermeneutics) and psychology as well as a poet and musician. He is the author of Prayers of the Cosmos, Desert Wisdom, The Hidden Gospel, and The Genesis Meditations as well as coauthor of The Tent of Abraham with Sr. Joan Chittister and Rabbi Arthur Waskow. He is the past chair of the Mysticism Group of the American Academy of Religion and is active in various international colloquia and conferences dedicated to peace and spirituality.

Website: abwoon.org

Amazon Author’s Page, listing all of his books

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group

Transcript of this interview

Interview recorded November 5, 2022

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.


YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction to Neil Douglas-Klotz
  • 00:03:29 Neil’s background
  • 00:04:40 – A Childhood of Alternative Beliefs
  • 00:09:22 – How I Made Major Life Decisions
  • 00:12:20 Aramaic, Sanskrit, Sound and Meaning
  • 00:13:42 – The Connection Between Language and Objects
  • 00:15:54 Chanting, mantra and the evolution of consciousness
  • 00:17:47 – Human Consciousness and Modern Life
  • 00:20:34. Changing the cultural paradigm of materialism
  • 00:21:52 – Separation from Family Conditioning
  • 00:22:09 Yeshua’s healings and the culture of his time.
  • 00:24:14 Did Jesus exist?
  • 00:26:29 – The Transmission History of the Gospels
  • 00:26:55 How and when were Jesus’ words first written down?
  • 00:30:22 – The Origins of Aramaic and Greek in Jesus’s Vicinity
  • 00:31:11 Aramaic and Greek at Jesus’ tme.
  • 00:33:04 Hundreds of early gospels.
  • 00:34:50 – The Origins of Christian Creeds
  • 00:35:49 Modern Christian religion and politics.
  • 00:37:03 Neil’s new book Revelations of the Aramaic Jesus: his method and texts
  • 00:39:04 – The Translation of Scriptures
  • 00:39:10 The King James Version of the Bible
  • 00:40:27 “What would Jesus do?”
  • 00:43:29 – The Connection to the Source of the Self
  • 00:44:10 Evolution of Neil’s work
  • 00:45:07 “I am the way, the truth and the life….”
  • 00:47:50 – The Meaning of “Hayye”
  • 00:50:15 Jesus’ miracles and healings, and early human consciousness.
  • 00:52:13 – Healing through Connection to the Unseen
  • 00:54:15 The important Aramaic words usually translated “good” and “evil”
  • 00:56:50 – Ripening in the Breath
  • 00:59:50 Jesus and prayer, with and without words
  • 01:00:45 – Entraining with the Teacher’s Consciousness
  • 01:03:01 Worst mistranlation that empowers colonialism and ecocide.
  • 01:04:49 – The Injustices of the World
  • 01:06:56“Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven…”
  • 01:08:57 – The Interconnection of Inner and Outer Life
  • 01:09:09 The “sin against the Holy Ghost.”
  • 01:12:06 The Aramaic “lord’s prayer” in brief
  • 01:14:37 – Hollowing oneself for resonance with the cosmos
  • 01:18:57 – The Aramaic Prayer of Dedication
  • 01:20:39 Conversion, “saving the soul” or the soul saving you
  • 01:23:18 – The history of Christianity and religion’s impact
  • 01:23:40 Snake handling?
  • 01:25:28 “I and my father are one.”
  • 01:27:25 – The Living Togetherness with the Creating Source
  • 01:29:38 “omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent?
  • 01:30:45 “only begotten son”
  • 01:31:36 – Jesus, the Cross, and Trust
  • 01:35:05 “Did Jesus die on the cross?”
  • 01:35:40 – The Possibility of Jesus’ Survival on the Cross
  • 01:37:53 Seeing angels or beings from other faiths
  • 01:39:04 Jung’s “Christian yoga”
  • 01:39:44 – Awakening and Healing with Neil Douglas-Klotz
  • 01:40:56 “original sin”
  • 01:43:46 “judge not lest you be judged”
  • 01:43:57 – Finding Your Path in Life
  • 01:45:51 What is mine to do?
  • 01:47:47 Jesus suffering
  • 01:48:12 – The concept of pain and suffering in Christianity
  • 01:50:32 “let him who is without sin cast the first stone”
  • 01:52:02 – Tangled Relationships and Casting Stones
  • 01:54:19 the “house divided against itself”
  • 01:56:11 – Representatives of Anything Worthwhile
  • 01:57:36 “you shall know them by their fruits”
  • 01:57:56 non-dual existence
  • 02:00:32 – The Concept of Hell in Ancient Semitic Mysticism
  • 02:00:38 The ancient Semitic afterlife
  • 02:02:28 Reincarnation in the Bible?
  • 02:04:54 – The Power of Chants and Music
  • 02:05:40 The source of Neil’s Aramaic chants
  • 02:07:36 Chanting Abwoon d’bashmaya
  • 02:10:34 – The Power of Transformation

657. Jeffrey Mishlove

New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, The PK Man, and Psi Development Systems. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “Parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death.

 

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group

Transcript of this interview

Interview recorded August 6, 2022.

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.


YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction and Background of Jeffrey Mishlove
  • 00:04:35 – A Dream of Uncle Harry’s Death
  • 00:08:58 – The Paranormal Capabilities of the Human Mind
  • 00:12:49 – Followed a Dream to Pursue My Interests
  • 00:17:00 – Consciousness and the Universe
  • 00:20:51 – The Significance of Parapsychology and Consciousness
  • 00:24:42 – Society with Fundamental Consciousness Understanding
  • 00:28:49 – Believing in the Power of Manifestation
  • 00:32:57 – White Crows and Psychical Research
  • 00:37:16 – The criticism of research with Mrs. Piper and the Dark Age of scientism
  • 00:41:31 – The Rise of the Spiritual but Not Religious Movement
  • 00:45:28 – Potential Capabilities of Humans and Moral Development
  • 00:49:28 – The Cosmic Game of Life and Suffering
  • 00:53:38 – Levels of Creation and the Unknown Mysteries of the Universe
  • 00:58:05 – The Reality of Macro Psychokinetic Phenomena
  • 01:02:12 – Interface between Dreams and the Bardo Planes
  • 01:06:22 – Similarities between mystical and near-death experiences
  • 01:10:49 – The Bardo Planes and Higher Dimensions
  • 01:14:28 – Living Agent Psi and the Afterlife
  • 01:18:20 – The Fisher Hoffman Process and the Dictated Therapy
  • 01:22:10 – Pre-birth Communication
  • 01:26:20 – Electronic communication with the deceased
  • 01:30:18 – Difficulty in Identifying Authentic Psychic Occurrences
  • 01:35:03 – A Game of Chess with a Deceased Chess Master
  • 01:39:16 – Physical Mediumship and Materialization
  • 01:43:20 – Houdini’s Attempt to Expose Marjorie the Medium
  • 01:47:45 – The Reality of the Witnessed Experience
  • 01:51:38 – Remembering Dean Brown
  • 01:55:45 – The Fate of the Human Species
  • 02:01:46 – The Possibility of Past Lives
  • 02:02:38 – Closing Remarks

646. Sharon Hewitt Rawlette

Sharon Hewitt RawletteSharon Hewitt Rawlette is a philosopher and writer who studies extraordinary experiences and what they have to tell us about consciousness and the deeper nature of the world we live in. She has a Ph.D. in philosophy from New York University and taught for two years at Brandeis University before leaving academia in 2010 for a career as an independent writer and researcher. Her foray into the realm of extraordinary experience began with synchronicities, and her first non-academic book was The Source and Significance of Coincidences, published in 2019. In 2020, she published a memoir about her personal spiritual journey—The Supreme Victory of the Heart—and then in November 2021, she was named a runner-up in the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies essay contest for her essay “Beyond Death,” on the best evidence for the survival of human consciousness after death. She has also contributed to a forthcoming collaborative volume on “deep weird” and a French collective work on the role of the Trickster in paranormal phenomena.

Another book, (forward by Thomas Nagel): The Feeling of Value: Moral Realism Grounded in Phenomenal Consciousness

Website: sharonrawlette.com

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview

Interview recorded May 14, 2022

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump
  • 00:04:40 – A Difficult Transition out of Religion
  • 00:09:18 – A Serendipitous Encounter in Brittany
  • 00:13:37 – Stories of Synchronicity
  • 00:17:06 – A Mysterious Phone Call
  • 00:21:00 – The Invisible Network of Consciousness
  • 00:25:28 – The Intelligence and Gravity Connection
  • 00:29:47 – The Evolution of Inhabitants of a Planet
  • 00:34:06 – The Emergence of Consciousness and the Illusion of a Continuous Physical World
  • 00:38:26 – The Mechanics of Observation and Consciousness
  • 00:42:24 – The Paradoxes of the Universe
  • 00:46:48 – Welcoming Anomalies and Going Beyond the Party Line
  • 00:50:51 – The Impact of Specialization on Progress and Perspective
  • 00:55:26 – The Intrinsic Value of Consciousness
  • 01:00:17 – Ethical Boundaries and Unity of Consciousness
  • 01:04:25 – Consciousness and the Holographic Nature of the Universe
  • 01:08:27 – The Universe as a Playpen
  • 01:12:33 – The Importance of Looking in the Mirror to Prevent Accidents
  • 01:15:57 – Guardian Angels and Divine Interventions
  • 01:20:11 – Higher Levels of Consciousness and Celestial Beings
  • 01:24:13 – Imaginative capacities and renewal
  • 01:28:35 – Overcoming Fear and Promoting Flourishing Consciousness
  • 01:32:45 – The Power of Making Unpopular Decisions
  • 01:36:42 – Between Consciousness and the Body
  • 01:40:51 – Memories of Previous Lives and Afterlife Communications
  • 01:45:10 – The Soul’s Entry into the Body
  • 01:49:03 – Memories of Past Lives and Reincarnation
  • 01:53:13 – The Value of Positive Consciousness and the Cycle of Life
  • 01:57:17 – The Ethics of Abortion and the Soul
  • 02:01:41 – The Possibility of Life after Death
  • 02:05:20 – Organizing Content on batgap.com