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:

First BatGap interview.
Panel at Sofia U. Part 1 | Part 2
Panel Discussion: “Sudden or Gradual: Two Paths to Realization?”

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Interview recorded October 25, 2018.

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

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480. Sean Webb

Posted on December 9, 2018 by Rick Archer

As the author of a book that was used to influence millions of voters in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election through social media disinformation campaigns (without his knowledge), Sean Webb probably knows the human mind as well as anyone can. From his work in logically modeling human emotions for the world of Artificial Emotional Intelligence, to his real-world practice as an author, speaker, and guide to helping individuals supercharge their minds and lives with the knowledge of how their mind works, Sean pushes the bleeding edge of mind sciences to the next level.

The interesting part; Sean credits his knowledge to a conscious awakening he had 20 years ago which unfolded how the mind, the universe, and consciousness works both within and outside the human body. And science is proving him right.

Over the last 20 years, Sean has become one of the world’s leading experts in how the human mind works, particularly in the area of human emotions, the driving force and motivation of all human actions globally. His work is used by universities and engineering firms to teach emotional intelligence, the foundations of artificial emotional intelligence and his discoveries have proved so effective, that his work is currently being turned into programs to address addiction management and the mitigation of PTSD after early amazing successes within those applications.

As an alumnus of Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technologies Development Center, Sean has spent years solving complex systems problems for cutting edge technology and supercomputing companies. His latest complex system solve is associated with the mind; how to model mind processes, how to manipulate mind output, and how to use those disciplines to our collective human advantage. His heart lies in this last portion of the project; teaching individuals about our minds so as to understand the thought processes that steal our happiness and block our ability to enjoy life. He loves sharing the practical neuroscience of how to hack the mind to generate happiness from within without any strings attached, and without changing any of life’s external conditions. He has indeed discovered a new door into the deep mind manipulation, where only practiced meditation and psychedelics have been able to take us before.

“And the simple fact is that I pulled it all out of the void,” Sean tells us.

Sean has spoken at Science of Consciousness, Science and Nonduality, UNC, UGA, ASU, Emory, Georgia Tech, for numerous multinational corporations, and at NASA. Check out Sean’s work at MindHackingHappiness.com.

Sean and his wife are licensed foster parents and are active in numerous children’s and animal charities.

Books:

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Interview recorded October 25, 2018.

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

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479. Rick Archer SAND Conference Q&A and Interview by Shakti Caterina Maggi

Posted on December 3, 2018 by Rick Archer

This video contains my Question and Answer session at the 2018 Science and Nonduality conference. and also an interview of me by Shakti Caterina Maggi, an Italian spiritual teacher who used to be a journalist. My SAND Q&A includes the following points:

How BatGap started.
Which guests have been the most interesting, provocative, intriguing, brilliant, mysterious, surprising, etc.?
What insights have I gained? How has this process influenced my spiritual path? What do I experience while I’m interviewing people? What do I foresee for BatGap in the next few years?
How to deal with family and friends who don’t understand your awakening or interest in spirituality?
A consideration of sudden vs. gradual awakenings.
How do I regard the urgency of humanity’s need to take a spiritual/cultural leap in response to the dire predicament facing us?
The joy and challenge of speaking with people from such a broad range of spiritual backgrounds.
Why science and spirituality need and can benefit one another.
The importance of understanding consciousness to be the fundamental to the universe rather than merely a product of brain functioning.

Shakti’s interview includes the following points:

In which direction are we as consciousness moving? How might the growing awakening of consciousness help humanity avert disaster?
Embodied spirituality vs. avoidance of life through transcendence. Consciousness is relevant to every field of human endeavor.
Consciousness is fundamental to matter.
Finding the foundation of our being and dealing with individual planetary problems from that foundation.
Ethical standards for spiritual teachers.
- When is one ready to become a spiritual teacher? The potential consequences of entering the profession prematurely.
- The guru is a function of consciousness which can work through imperfect bodies and personalities.
- The importance of teachers and students having the humility to acknowledge that we’re all works in progress.
- Culturing discernment and discrimination.
- Having the freedom to ask anything in a teacher/student relationship in order to dispel doubts.
- Is it possible to establish absolute guidelines on appropriate teacher behavior?
The quality of awakening will vary according to one’s constitution.
Awakening enhances individual differences while establishing our fundamental unity.
Sticking with one teacher vs. working with many.
The importance of sincerity. The principle of “the highest first”.

Recorded October 27th and 28th, 2018, in San Jose, California.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

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

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478. Sandra Ingerman

Posted on November 28, 2018 by Rick Archer

Sandra Ingerman, MA, is an award winning author of twelve books, including Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self, Medicine for the Earth: How to Transform Personal and Environmental Toxins, Walking in Light: The Everyday Empowerment of a Shamanic Life(CD or eBook version), and The Book of Ceremony: Shamanic Wisdom for Invoking the Sacred into Everyday Life. She is the presenter of eight audio programs produced by Sounds True, and she is the creator of the Transmutation App. Sandra is a world renowned teacher of shamanism and has been teaching for more than 30 years. She has taught workshops internationally on shamanic journeying, healing, and reversing environmental pollution using spiritual methods. Sandra is recognized for bridging ancient cross-cultural healing methods into our modern culture addressing the needs of our times.

Sandra is known for gathering the global spiritual community together to perform powerful transformative ceremonies as well as inspires us to stand strong in unity so we do our own spiritual and social activism work while keeping a vision of hope and being a light in the world.

She is passionate about helping people to reconnect with nature. Since the 1980’s thousands of people have healed from past and present traumas through the classic cross cultural shamanic healing method Sandra teaches called Soul Retrieval.

She is a licensed marriage and family therapist and professional mental health counselor. She is also a board-certified expert on traumatic stress. Sandra was chosen as one of the Top 10 Spiritual Leaders of 2013 by Spirituality and Health Magazine.

Sandra has two new books released in 2018. The Hidden Worlds was co-written with Katherine Wood and is a novel written for young adults to help them navigate the changing world. And The Book of Ceremony: Shamanic Wisdom for Invoking the Sacred into Everyday Life was written for a shamanic and general audience on how to bring the sacred into daily life by performing shamanic ceremonies designed for our times and the challenges we are facing.

Websites:

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

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477. Rupert Sheldrake

Posted on November 21, 2018 by Rick Archer

Rupert Sheldrake, PhD is a biologist and author of more than 85 scientific papers and 12 books, including Science Set Free and Science and Spiritual Practices. He was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge University, a Frank Know Fellow at Harvard, and a Research Fellow of the Royal Society. From 2005-2010 the Director of the Perrott-Warrick Project for research on unexplained human and animal abilities, funded by Trinity College, Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Petaluma, California, and of Schumacher College in Devon, England. His web site is sheldrake.org.

Some of Rupert’s books:

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Interview recorded November 20, 2018.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download