460. James O’Dea

Posted on July 1, 2018 by Rick Archer

James O’Dea is the award winning author of The Conscious Activist, Cultivating Peace, Soul Awakening Practice and other works.

James is a former President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Washington office director of Amnesty International, and CEO of the Seva Foundation.

He has taught peacebuilding to over a thousand students in 30 countries. He has also conducted frontline social healing dialogues around the world.

He is a founding member of The Evolutionary Leaders group and on the Advisory Board of The Peace Alliance, Kosmos Journal and the Laszlo New Paradigm Institute.

Website: jamesodea.com

Books:

‘James O’Dea is a modern day prophet who has journeyed further than anyone I know in the ways of peace’ — Lynne Twist www.pachamama.org

‘James O’Dea is indubitably one of the most evolved souls on the planet’ — Ervin Laszlo author of over 40 books on cosmology, consciousness and new science.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Interview recorded June 30, 2018

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

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449. Terry Patten

Posted on April 9, 2018 by Rick Archer

Terry Patten is a philosopher, teacher, activist, consultant, social entrepreneur, and author. Over the last fifteen years he has devoted his efforts to the evolution of consciousness by facing, examining, and healing our global crisis through the marriage of spirit and activism. He co-wrote the book “Integral Life Practice” with Ken Wilber and a core team at the Integral Institute. As a teacher and consultant, he has worked on four continents, led a team at the HeartMath Institute that developed their first heart rate variability monitor, and is the founder of the “Beyond Awakening” teleseminar series. As a community builder, he founded Bay Area Integral. As a social entrepreneur, he founded Tools For Exploration, a consciousness technologies company, and currently, he’s involved in restorative redwood forestry and fossil-fuel alternatives. His new book “A New Republic of the Heart: An Ethos for Revolutionaries–A Guide to Inner Work for Holistic Change” was released by North Atlantic Books on March 6th, 2018. Terry is also co-author of Integral Life Practice: A 21st-Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening.

Website: terrypatten.com

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Interview recorded April 7, 2018

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

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441. Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati

Posted on February 14, 2018 by Rick Archer

Sadhviji was raised in an American family in Hollywood, California and graduated from Stanford University. She was completing her Ph.D. when she left America in 1996 to come and live permanently at Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh, India. She has been living there for the last twenty-one years, engaged in spiritual practice and dedicated service.She was officially initiated into the order of Sanyas (monastic renunciation) in the year 2000, by her Guru, His Holiness Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji.

Sadhviji is a renowned speaker who gives keynote addresses at large forums, on a wide variety of topics ranging from conscious business to science and spirituality to sustainable development to the keys of happiness and peace in life to all aspects of yoga. She has also been a featured speaker at the United Nations, Parliament of World Religions and many international conferences and summits. Her talks blend the knowledge and logic of the West with the insights, spirituality and wisdom of the East, and she is renowned as a spiritual bridge between the two cultures.

She has also received numerous national and international awards and recognition.

At Parmarth Niketan, Rishikesh, where Sadhviji lives most of the year, she gives daily spiritual discourses and satsang, teaches meditation, provides counseling and oversees myriad charitable and humanitarian projects and activities.
Sadhviji is:

Secretary-General of the Global Interfaith WASH Alliance, an international interfaithorganization dedicated to bringing clean water, sanitation & hygiene to the children of theworld.
President of Divine Shakti Foundation, a foundation dedicated to bringing education and empowerment to women and children which runs free schools, vocational training programs and empowerment programs.
Director of the annual world-famous International Yoga Festival at Parmarth which has been covered in Time Magazine, CNN, New York Times, Le Monde and other prestigious publications.

Sadhviji has a Ph.D in Psychology and was the Managing Editor for the monumental project of the 11-volume Encyclopedia of Hinduism.

Websites:

Sadhviji.org (personal site)
Sadhviji’s TED talk
@SadhviBhagawatiSaraswati (Sadhviji’s Facebook page with announcements of events, videos, etc.)
@ParmarthNiketan (Parmarth’s Facebook page where they stream Sadhviji’s satsangs live daily when she is in town.)
Youtube channel with all of the videos of Sadhviji’s lectures (and also a lot of other good stuff…)
Twitter: @SadhviBhagawati

Book: Vegetarianism: For Our Bodies, Our Minds, Our Souls & Our Planet

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Interview recorded February 6, 2018.

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

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428. Kittisaro and Thanissara

Posted on November 26, 2017 by Rick Archer

Kittisaro and Thanissara have been married since 1992. They spent 7 years as guiding teachers of the Buddhist Retreat Centre KwaZulu S. Africa and then went on to found Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat on the border of Lesotho and South Africa. They co-founded several HIV/Aids Outreach Programs and currently support Kuluingile Project, a home for children left vulnerable due to HIV/Aids run by Sister Abegail Ntleko, award winner of the Dalai Lama Unsung Hero Award. They lead retreats in S.Africa, UK, U.S.A and Israel and regularly host one to three-month retreats at Dharmagiri. They currently reside in Sebastopol, CA.

Kittisaro is from Tennessee, USA. He graduated from Princeton as a Rhodes Scholar. He ordained with Ajahn Chah in 1976 in the Thai Forest Tradition. He was a monk for 15 years and helped found several monasteries in the UK. His practice has also been informed by the Chinese school of Master Hua since 1980. Kittisaro completed two one year silent self retreats and is co-author of ‘Listening to the Heart.’ He has taught extensively since the 1980’s and is a core teacher at Insight Meditation Society, MA, founding teacher of Chattanooga Insight, TN and affiliated teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, CA.

Thanissara is from an Anglo-Irish family in London. She started Buddhist practice in the Burmese school in 1975. She spent 12 years as a Buddhist nun in the Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah where she was a founding member of Chithurst Monastery and Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in the UK. Thanissara has an MA in Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy Practice from the UK. She has taught extensively since the late 1980’s, is the author of several books, including two poetry books. Her latest is Time to Stand Up: An Engaged Buddhist Manifesto for Our Earth.

Books:

Website: dharmagiri.org

Discussion of this video in the Batgap Community Facebook Group.

Interview recorded Oct. 28, 2017.

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

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396. Jacqueline Maria Longstaff

Posted on April 17, 2017 by Rick Archer

Jacqueline Maria Longstaff began having peak experiences at an early age. She held her first spiritual service – for kids – at age 7. She had a huge heart opening at age 19, but not knowing where to go with this, became a Catholic for a few years and taught in Africa. However, soon she was drawn towards the teachings of the East. The need for religion of any kind dropped after an awakening at the Osho ashram in 1979. 1980 saw the beginning of some powerful connections with inter-dimensional beings as preparation for her future work.

She was officially an Osho sannyasin for almost 4 years, but her real guru was Swami Devadas, one of Osho’s earliest disciples.

She began guiding others in 1979 and has held courses, retreats and satsangs in many countries. She has been a speaker at conferences in several countries throughout the last 25 years.

In 2003 she began creating an Ashram near the sacred hill Arunachala in South India.

For 7 years she produced and hosted 2-hour radio programs for Radio Lotus in Copenhagen.

She has held three fifteen-month Cosmic Airport training courses – mainly in Scandinavia – training people to assist with conscious birthing, dying, transformation and transcendence.

Her education includes a teaching degree, astrological and esoteric studies, astro- psychology and spiritual psychology studies, and much more.

Website: cosmicairport.com

Books:

Interview recorded 4/15/2017

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