I was hesitant to put this up because there's more than enough of me on this site, but a few kind friends encouraged me to, so here it is. I gave this talk at the Open Circle Center in Berkeley, California on October 24, 2016. Other talks by or interviews of Rick on BatGap: SAND 2019 - Knowledge/Reality is Different in Different States of Consciousness 2018 SAND Conference Q&A and Interview by Shakti Caterina Maggi SAND 2017: "The Ethics of Enlightenment" Talk at SAND 2015 Interviewed by Fax...
Dec 27, 2016•1 hr 29 min•Season 7Ep. 379
Lawrence Edwards, PhD has practiced and taught meditation for over 50 years. He is the Founder and Director of Anam Cara Meditation, dedicated to making meditative practices from a variety of traditions freely available to all. Lawrence has offered thousands of free meditation programs at universities, hospitals, churches, meditation centers, yoga centers, hospice groups, prisons and more. Dr. Edwards works with people interested in spiritual growth, dream work and Kundalini processes. He served...
Dec 20, 20160
Regina Dawn Akers has been sharing spiritual teachings, organizing retreats and leading pilgrimages to holy sites in Israel and India since 2005. She’s published two books: “Holy Spirit's Interpretation of the New Testament: A Course in Understanding and Acceptance” (NTI) and “The Teachings of Inner Ramana”. Her third book “Thoughts of Awakening: 365 Thoughts for Daily Contemplation” is provided as a free e-book. Each of these books came to Regina from within through her willingness to be their ...
Dec 16, 2016•2 hr 3 min•Season 7Ep. 377
Vera Helleman is an inspiring and well-established speaker, popular in The Netherlands and Belgium. After being a psychotherapist for a while, Vera awoke into oneness and was gifted with the full understanding of the functioning of the human mind, the essence of who we are, and the role which we play in creation. Seeing from an energetic, non-dual perspective, she lovingly confronts people with their misconceptions about who they truly are and how this reality functions. Married, a mother of fou...
Dec 12, 2016•2 hr 12 min•Season 7Ep. 376
Shinzen Young is an American mindfulness teacher and neuroscience research consultant. His systematic approach to categorizing, adapting, and teaching meditation has resulted in collaborations with Harvard Medical School, Carnegie-Mellon University, and the University of Vermont in the burgeoning field of contemplative neuroscience. Shinzen’s interest in Asia began at the age of 14 when he decided to attend a Japanese ethnic school in his native city of Los Angeles. After majoring in Asian langu...
Dec 08, 2016•2 hr 36 min•Season 7Ep. 375
Jim Tolles is a spiritual teacher who helps people to grow, heal, and embrace their spiritual paths. Jim had a spiritual awakening in August 2007 and has been through an inner roller coaster ride of healing and spiritual growth, dropping away issues as he has moved more deeply into peace and love. The greatest of the shifts came in the 4th, 5th, and 6th years after awakening and truly consumed his life during those times. The intensity of the energy has since subsided into a more relaxed inner f...
Dec 03, 2016•1 hr 31 min•Season 7Ep. 374
Adyashanti and Francis Bennett in a public dialog about the parallels and differences between Jesus and the Buddha, as two complementary yet very different models of awakening. Where the Buddha emphasized inner peace and the transcendence of samsara, Christ emphasized embodying divine humanity in the midst of samsara, embracing the human condition in order to serve those who are lost in ignorance. Adya came to a deeper appreciation of Jesus by way of his study of Zen, while Francis ─ a former Tr...
Nov 29, 2016•2 hr 1 min•Season 7Ep. 373
Harri’s descriptions soar from the mundane to the sublime and explain the intimate details, understanding, and experience of the awakened state in an entirely fresh way. He shows us how this life of ours can be naturally transformed into the delightful liveliness of expanded consciousness even within the activity of daily life. Harri has worked as a fine artist/designer, a businessman, and a meditation teacher for his whole life. Throughout these very busy years, his experiences of refined state...
Nov 25, 2016•2 hr 18 min
Join Susanne Marie and Adyashanti in an exploration of an often misunderstood subject. Beyond the traditional landing places that mind creates (commonly discussed in non-dual circles), lies an indescribable landscape of living as pure, direct experiencing. Prior to this opening, the habitual subjective filter creates a veil of separation of which one is not even aware. This is true even within expanded, unified states of consciousness. Once this filter falls away, life is experienced directly, a...
Nov 15, 20160
Thomas Beck, Ph.D. has helped people for 25 years to integrate transformational experience—a radical restructuring of the psyche on a higher level of functioning. As a result of his own neurophysiological restructuring, his meditation practice & interactions with an otherworldly being ("Cosmic Mother"), Thomas is now helping people heal from a wide range of physical illnesses. He believes we all have the ability to heal, and to spiritually awaken through the unconditional love of the Almight...
Nov 07, 2016•2 hr 1 min•Season 7Ep. 370
Michael A. Rodriguez is a spiritual teacher who works with people in meetings, retreats, and private sessions on a full-time basis in the United States and abroad. He holds four academic degrees, including a master's degree in comparative religion from Harvard and a Ph.D. in English literature from Florida State University; taught at the university level for well over a decade; and has lived long-term in two monasteries. Drawing always from his direct experience, Michael illuminates the undivide...
Nov 03, 2016•1 hr 39 min•Season 7Ep. 369
Ted Zeff, Ph.D was the author of The Highly Sensitive Person's Survival Guide, The The Highly Sensitive Person's Companion, The Strong, Sensitive Boy, and The Power of Sensitivity. Elaine Aron, Ph.D., author of The Highly Sensitive Person, has written the forwards to his books about sensitive people. Dr. Zeff’s books have sold more than 75,000 copies and have been translated into 8 languages. He has more than 25 years’ experience counseling sensitive children and adults. Dr. Zeff has also writte...
Nov 01, 2016•1 hr 10 min•Season 7Ep. 368
Ted Zeff (Dayalu) met Amma, the "hugging saint" from India, in 1988 and has lived in her ashram in California for 20 years and her ashram in Chicago for one year. Dayalu has written three books about Amma: "Searching for God Part I" in 1996, "Searching for God Part II" in 2002 and "Amma: Inspiring Experiences with the Divine Mother" in 2016. Dayalu has a Ph.D. in integral counseling and psychotherapy from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and has studied ayurveda and ...
Oct 31, 2016•1 hr 15 min•Season 7Ep. 367
David Spangler has been a teacher of spiritual potentials since 1964. From 1970 to 1973 he was co-director of the Findhorn Foundation Community. He is a Fellow of the Lindisfarne Association. He is a co-founder of the Lorian Association, a spiritual educational foundation, and a director of the Lorian Center for Incarnational Spirituality. His work involves enabling individuals to embody the innate spirituality of their incarnations. He is the author of over 30 books, including Journey Into Fire...
Oct 27, 2016•2 hr 13 min•Season 7Ep. 366
Whilst growing up James had a deep sense that something about life didn’t add up. Unsure about what exactly that something was he tried to ‘fit in’ and graduated in Maths from Oxford University. It didn’t work. He then began seeking a resolution to a lingering sense of unfulfillment by writing songs, singing and playing in bands, then as an actor, then as a school teacher, but that didn’t work either. On recognising that no matter what his outer circumstances were the feeling of longing and diss...
Oct 18, 2016•2 hr 8 min•Season 7Ep. 365
Sri M - spiritual guide, social reformer, and educationist – was born into a Muslim family on November 6, 1949, in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. His transformational journey, from a young boy to a living yogi, is a fascinating story symbolized by single-minded discipline and dedication. Entranced by mystical stories of Sufi saints and a brief encounter with a numinous Swami at a relatively young age, he was not only drawn to the ‘truth’ but also the compelling landscape of the snow-clad Himalayas....
Oct 13, 20160
Sheerly by Divine Grace, in 1971 Timothy woke up to nondual Reality, the Divine Reality or Self that is doing everything and being everybody. He has gratefully served ever since then as a simple “spiritual friend” (kalyana mitra) and since the 1980s as a satsang leader, counselor, healer, and author of over one hundred essays, as well as the book Women of Power & Grace: Nine Astonishing, Inspiring Luminaries of Our Time and forthcoming books (The Liberating Zen Sourcebook, the enormous 2-vol...
Sep 12, 2016•2 hr 12 min•Season 7Ep. 361
David passed away from a malignant brain tumor on April 18, 2024. David Newman was an author, inspirational teacher, world-renowned devotional singer, songwriter and recording artist. He traveled extensively sharing his music, and teachings on the path of love as a vehicle for spiritual awakening. David was also the creator of the The Stay Strong Project and the founder of Yoga On Main. He has been featured on NPR, and in The Washington Post and Yoga Journal among many others. David, also known ...
Sep 04, 2016•2 hr 3 min•Season 7Ep. 360
From an early age I recall a natural inquisitiveness towards the nature and mechanics of all sorts of things. I was constantly observing and theorizing. Fortunately, throughout life, the denser and more persistent forms of suffering were not something I was particularly familiar with. Life unfolded quite smoothly on an inner and outer level. Although there was already a strong spiritual bent, it wasn't until my late twenties that life introduced the notion of enlightenment and the underlying non...
Aug 26, 2016•2 hr 15 min•Season 7Ep. 359
Anette Carlström is an internationally recognized speaker, author and teacher in development in consciousness living in Helsingborg, Sweden. Her focus and specialty is guiding the individual and in groups toward finding your inner compass to discover your full potential and true nature. Anette also has a strong presence in chanting Sacred Mantras, offering mantra concerts as well as having recorded several CD's carrying the transmission of Divine Grace through the Oneness Blessing, easily access...
Aug 15, 2016•2 hr 5 min•Season 7Ep. 358
Adam Chacksfield is a nondual spiritual teacher whose retreats and private sessions are known for their transformative power and love-saturated depth. He devotedly serves the alive field of awareness as it unfolds, reveals, and liberates, rather than any fixed philosophy. Adam first turned toward spirituality and meditation after a series of profound psychedelic-assisted openings led him to experience the truth that lies beyond all philosophies. At age 33 he left his career as a university profe...
Aug 08, 20160
My childhood world was one of abuse, repression, and terror. This is what I believed the world was about. Until, from the depths of my despair, I began searching for a new way. My conscious spiritual journey began when I was called as a young adult, determined to find new life and freedom from this limited world, to a higher quest for the Truth of myself. I studied many forms of spiritual practice, including Buddhism, Native American, Judaism, and others, and soon became aware that the Source of...
Aug 01, 2016•1 hr 31 min•Season 7Ep. 356
I had my first conscious spiritual awakening aged 18. Everything was seen to be one, the sense of personal self fell away and I had a deep sense that I truly was not the limited being that I commonly took myself to be. This experience was short-lived and further fueled my seeking. I wanted to try to re-experience it. I think because this experience happened in the context of reading a book, I subsequently developed a voracious appetite for reading spiritual texts. I read books on everything such...
Jul 25, 2016•2 hr 7 min•Season 7Ep. 355
Richard C. Miller, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist, author, researcher, yogic scholar, and spiritual teacher who, for the past 46 years has devoted his life to integrating western psychology and neuroscience with the ancient nondual wisdom teachings of Yoga, Tantra, Advaita, Taoism, and Buddhism. Richard is the founding president of the Integrative Restoration Institute, co-founder of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, founding editor of the peer-reviewed International Journal o...
Jul 18, 2016•2 hr 28 min•Season 7Ep. 354
“The spiritual journey does not consist in gaining what a person does not have, but in dissipation of ignorance concerning himself and life, and the growth of understanding which begins with spiritual awakening. To find God is to come to one’s own self.” - Avatar Meher Baba. No longer the person with its conditioning and history, here now there is only this and the overall feeling is “I don’t mind.” No fear, no push, a great emptiness that is also a rich and all-pervading fullness. Here there is...
Jul 14, 2016•1 hr 38 min•Season 7Ep. 353
David Godman has lived in India since 1976, mostly in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu. He spent his time there studying and practicing the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi. His anthology of Ramana Maharshi’s teachings, Be As You Are, is probably the most widely read book on Sri Ramana’s teachings. During his fourteen-year stay at Ramanasramam (1978-92), he managed the ashram’s library, cataloged its archives, and recorded the stories and experiences of devotees who had had direct contact with Sri Ram...
Jun 28, 2016•2 hr 24 min
Jurgen Ziewe has been following a strict regime of meditation since 1969. In 1973, after a six-month stint of intensive meditation for up to five hours a day, he decided to abandon the practice completely, being disappointed with the lack of progress and some negative side effects. Then one day out of the blue, at breakfast, he spontaneously experienced a total dissociation from his body and entered a state of what he described as one of absolute clarity. After this he continued his meditation p...
Jun 17, 2016•2 hr 10 min•Season 7Ep. 350
Bernardo Kastrup has a Ph.D. in computer engineering with specializations in artificial intelligence and reconfigurable computing. He has worked as a scientist in some of the world's foremost research laboratories, including the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the Philips Research Laboratories (where the "Casimir Effect" of Quantum Field Theory was discovered). Bernardo has authored many scientific papers and philosophy books. His three most recent books are: More Than Alle...
Jun 09, 2016•2 hr•Season 7Ep. 349
Sruti is a spiritual teacher and feminist advocate. She writes about her experience with an uncommon and painful illness called Interstitial Cystitis. This ongoing and chronic condition challenged her to stay present with daily pain and to look further inward for answers. In an extreme moment of pain, in which consciousness began to fade, Sruti experienced the erasure of all that clouds over the earliest source of vision. She asks the question: with whose vision are we seeing when the lights are...
May 30, 2016•2 hr 8 min•Season 7Ep. 348
Geneviève De Coux was born in 1947 in Namur, Belgium during her parents’ holidays. The family lived in the Belgian Congo. Geneviève and her brother enjoyed an idyllic childhood until 1960, the year of the Congo’s independence. The family emigrated to Belgium. Their paradise was lost. Geneviève found herself in Brussels, this radical change of scenery stoked the fire of her ontological search and she found refuge in art. In 1968 during her second year at the university while studying her philosop...
May 23, 2016•1 hr 42 min•Season 7Ep. 347
