525. Vicki Woodyard

Posted on November 25, 2019 by Rick Archer

Vicki Woodyard is a spiritual writer living in Atlanta, Georgia. Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, she graduated from The University of Memphis, magna cum laude, with a B.S. in English and Psychology. She is a meditator, a webmaster and has a lifelong interest in the spiritual path. Her late husband, Bob, died of multiple myeloma in 2004 and they lost their only daughter to cancer when she was seven.

This equips Vicki to write about her path in an honest and humble way, opening the reader’s own heart to what is worth living for. The light of her path is tinged with humor as she lays down the bottom line and invites you to consider what YOU are living for. Awakening is but a dream until you sink into the heart. When you are caught in the dream, it just means you have temporarily forgotten. Vicki’s writing, as Elsa Joy Bailey says, “serves as a bookmark to help you find your place again. The website is a way into what is. Vicki’s writing catches one off-guard, waking people up to their mortality and infinite being at the same time…”

She is the author of:

Paperbacks:
- LIFE WITH A HOLE IN IT: That’s How the Light Gets In – The Wisdom of an Awakened Heart
- BIGGER THAN THE SKY: A Radical Awakening
eBooks – All of Vicki’s books are available in eBook form on her website:

You can find out more about Vicki at her website or friend her on Facebook.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview

Interview recorded November 16, 2019.

YouTube Video Chapters:

00:00:00 – Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump with Vicki Woodward
00:05:26 – Suffering and Spiritual Awakening
00:11:04 – My Introduction to His Teachings
00:15:03 – The Short-Term vs. Long-Term Perspective
00:18:45 – The Bus Stop and Digging Deep Wells
00:22:38 – Finding Balance Between Extremes
00:25:56 – Capturing Wisdom in Short Sutras
00:29:35 – Gathering Energy
00:32:59 – The Journey to Wholeness and Simplicity
00:36:28 – True Resting and Putting to Rest
00:39:35 – The Gentleman Teacher
00:42:47 – Cracking Open the Ego and Humility
00:46:15 – Dreams and Destiny
00:49:43 – Meeting the Hawaiian Guru
00:52:59 – Synchronicities with John Ramsey
00:55:47 – Synchronicities and Spiritual Coherence
00:59:05 – The Experience of Self
01:02:18 – Finding Humor in Tragic Times
01:05:49 – Being Conscious in Daily Tasks
01:09:28 – Suffering and Consciousness
01:13:16 – Overcoming Agoraphobia and Social Anxiety
01:16:47 – A “What Me Worry” Approach
01:19:48 – Manifesting Grace through Leaps of Faith
01:23:09 – The Grace of Christmas Dinner
01:26:53 – The Phoenix Rises from the Ashes
01:30:35 – The Intensity of Spiritual Practice
01:34:26 – The Power of Consciousness and Grace
01:37:42 – The Journey of an Ordinary Spiritually Awakening Person
01:41:27 – Finding Wholeness in Life
01:44:56 – The Art of Going Deep
01:47:39 – Closing Remarks

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508. Beth Miller

Posted on July 5, 2019 by Rick Archer

My deepest devotion, throughout my life has been to the discovery and embodiment of our truest nature. I studied organized and mystical religions, I traveled to many countries in our world, getting a taste of different cultures and people, I lived a conventional suburban life as a wife and mother, I lived in chronic confusion, and I studied psychology, all with the gnawing question of ‘what is all this really about?’ tugging at my sleeve.

I was born in Brooklyn New York, into a world where appearances were everything, but I tended an inner world that I kept to myself. When I look back on how I was “companioned” throughout my childhood by my inner world that was full of comfort and promise I marvel at the wisdom and strength of this stream of consciousness.

After raising my two sons, I went to graduate school to study psychology and find professional legitimacy, and to focus on my interior. I had, for a long time, known I needed to heal from childhood trauma and I also felt a calling to help others. But, like so many of us, I had looked to the external world for this elusive happiness and healing I felt was missing.

After completing my degree, I built a satisfyingly delicious career – with the same gnawing question in my heart – how do I reconcile pain and confusion with a life-long intuited knowing of a greater consciousness or awareness? In addition to a private practice of psychotherapy, I taught at California Institute of Integral Studies and the University of California at San Francisco. I was the therapist for a pilot study at Stanford and led workshops and presentations for cultivating resilience. (My first book is The Woman’s Book of Resilience – twelve qualities to cultivate).

I began to follow and study spiritual teachers: Adyashanti, David Hawkins, Mooji and Jan Frazier. After decades of devoted searching, I was guided by Jan Frazier and experienced a profound shift in consciousness at the age of 70. (Poster child for it never being too late) This realization allowed the inner and the outer world to melt into each other. After decades of healing and opening to larger and larger states of consciousness, the search ended. This shift set my course, in a humbling and wondrous way, to deeper and further understanding, to embodying and, most importantly, living what had been revealed.

In the sweet presence of now, I am along for the ride of intimate contact with whatever life has in store from moment to moment and day to day. In my bones, I understand what it means to be intimate with 10,000 things.

Website: bethmillerphd.com

Book: Waking Up on the Couch

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview.

Interview recorded June 29, 2019

YouTube Video Chapters:

00:00:00 – Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump
00:05:24 – Childhood in the Atmosphere of War and Powerlessness
00:11:17 – The Dream of Unbounded Presence
00:15:05 – Dreams as Messages from God
00:19:25 – The First and Biggest Disillusionment
00:24:15 – The Metaphor of the Movie
00:27:47 – Becoming Radically Honest with Ourselves
00:33:40 – The Play of God
00:38:29 – The Wisdom in Life’s Buffeting
00:42:11 – The Transformative Power of Psychotherapy
00:47:18 – Becoming a Better Human Being
00:51:59 – A Familiar Presence
00:56:52 – The Contagiousness of Intimacy and Awakening
01:00:06 – Losing Sense of Boundaries
01:04:29 – The Love That Showed Up
01:08:53 – The Shift on the Last Day of the Retreat
01:11:59 – The Value of Presence in Integration
01:15:29 – Awakening and the Body
01:19:36 – The Power of Pure Consciousness
01:23:16 – Trusting Life and Comprehending Something
01:26:59 – Being Grounded in Being
01:31:28 – The Importance of Facing and Feeling Human Pain
01:35:20 – Becoming Transparent and Clear with Ourselves
01:40:16 – A Shift in Perspective
01:43:51 – A Deepening Sense of Being Gone
01:47:50 – The Depth of Being in Direct Contact
01:52:10 – Understanding Awareness and Self-Referral
01:56:17 – The Realization and the Pinch Me Moment
01:59:42 – The Hope for Societal Shift
02:02:05 – The Pleasure of Interviewing
02:04:07 – Conclusion and Next Interview Announcement

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481. David Buckland, 2nd Interview

Posted on December 15, 2018 by Rick Archer

David grew up on the SW coast of Canada. He began witnessing full time during a 6-month retreat in the mid-’70s then the lights came on and celestial perception began. It soon became clear that Self was awake within but had not woken up to Itself through this form yet. Self co-existed with an identified ego. Subtle perception continued to unfold in a myriad of ways.

With a more outward stroke into career, marriage, and family, inner
development continued but took a back seat to life’s responsibilities.

Then in 2005, much of the old life fell away and spirituality moved back to the foreground. After some feedback and darshan with Lorne Hoff, Self, at last, woke up to Itself here. Probably because of the long witnessing, this was quickly followed by a series of profound shifts in Being. (see my first BatGap interview) And then transcending Being into Brahman. In 2011, David was awarded a graduate degree in Vedic Science.

In this interview, we had an extended preamble to touch on the earlier shifts, then we discussed the ParaBrahman shift, pure Divinity, and how embodied Divinity is waking up laws of nature. This process will help raise the presence of Divinity in consciousness.

In the second part of the interview, we touched on the book Our Natural Potential describing the 7 stages of enlightenment, then explored some related topics.

For over a decade, David has been blogging on a wide range of subjects related to unfolding enlightenment. Under the nickname Davidya, he has posted close to 2,000 articles. During the Science and Nonduality Conference in 2017, David gave a talk on the stages described in this interview.

Website: davidya.ca

Book: Our Natural Potential: Beyond Personal Development, The Stages of Enlightenment (Rick Archer wrote the Foreword.)

Other BatGap shows with David: