Ever wondered what happens when we stop trying to explain away the mysterious and start truly listening to the extraordinary? Join us for a mind-expanding conversation with Dr. Jeffrey J. Kripal, a pioneering scholar who's not afraid to explore the weird, wonderful, and unexplainable.

Jeffrey J. Kripal holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University, where he served as the Associate Dean of the School of Humanities (2019-2023), chaired the Department of Religion for eight years, and also helped create the GEM Program, a doctoral concentration in the study of Gnosticism, Esotericism, and Mysticism that is the largest program of its kind in the world. He presently helps direct the Center for Theory and Research at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, where he served as Chair of the Board from 2015 to 2020.

Jeff is the author or co-author of thirteen books, nine of which are with The University of Chicago Press. He has also served as the Editor in Chief of the Macmillan Handbook Series on Religion (ten volumes, 2015-2016). He specializes in the study of extreme religious states and the re-visioning of a New Comparativism, particularly as both involve putting “the impossible” back on the academic table again. He is presently working on a three-volume study of paranormal currents in the history of religions and the sciences for The University of Chicago Press, collectively entitled The Super Story.

In this Episode, We Cover:

• Personal Background and Early Experiences
• The Role of Suffering and Religious Narratives
• The Concept of Superhuman Experiences and Erotic Experience
• The Importance of Experiences as Entry Points
• The Varying Degrees of Mystical Experiences
• The Role of Trauma and Suffering in Accessing the Extraordinary
• The Challenge of Integrating Extraordinary Experiences of the Impossible
• The Role of Imagination in Mediating Extraordinary Experiences
• The Sacred is Not Necessarily Good
• How to Think Impossibly: Get Weird
• The Importance of Visual and Symbolic Representations
• The Human Potential Movement at Esalen
• The X-Men and Evolutionary Potential
• The Importance of Reading and Storytelling

Helpful links:

• Dr. Jeffrey Kripal - J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University
• How to Think Impossibly: About Souls, UFOs, Time, Belief, and Everything Else
• The Superhumanities: Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New Realities

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In a world where loneliness has become an epidemic and healthcare often feels impersonal, Dr. Elizabeth "Liz" Markle offers a revolutionary approach: prescribing community as medicine.

Dr. Elizabeth Markle, a licensed psychologist and co-founder of Open Source Wellness, challenges traditional healthcare approaches by introducing a revolutionary "Community As Medicine" model. She explores how social connection, movement, nutrition, and stress reduction can heal more than pharmaceuticals. Through Open Source Wellness, Liz has developed innovative group programs that prescribe community support, demonstrating significant improvements in participants' physical and mental health. Join us as she shares with us how community can be the most powerful medicine.

In this episode, we cover:

• Benefits of Community-based peer support for Health
• The Concept of a Behavioral Pharmacy
• Shortcomings of the Healthcare System
• Training and Implementation of Community as Medicine
• Partnership with low-income Health clinics, YMCAs, and other Organizations to deliver the Community as Medicine Model
• Choice of Individual Coaching
• Formation of Groups and Group Accountability
• Helping people who are suffering from loneliness
• Creation of Open Source Wellness and collecting outcomes data
• Need for Structural changes to support Social Connection and Well-being in Modern Society
• Challenges and Future Directions
• Forming Lifelong Connections and Support Networks that Created Sustainable Structures
• How to join as a coach

Helpful links:

• Elizabeth Markle, Ph.D. Co-Founder, Executive Director of Open Souce Wellness a nonprofit devoted to equitable health and wellbeing. To donate, visit this LINK
• Full Service Health Coaching
• Food as Medicine Program Support
• Are you interested in being a Health Coach? Apply here
• Connect with Liz @dr.eliz.markle on Instagram and on LinkedIN
• David Whyte’s Poem - Everything is waiting for you
• Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American by David Putnam
• The Holomovement
• Living Tantra - A 6-week immersive journey into sacred embodiment, pleasure, presence, and energetic intimacy (virtual Course)

Christine Marie Mason

+1-415-471-7010

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Marianne Williamson is a luminous voice in spiritual thought, conscious politics, and transformative healing. For more than four decades, she’s been a leader in spiritually progressive circles. She’s the author of 16 books, four of which have been #1 New York Times best sellers. A quote from the mega-bestseller A Return to Love, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure…” is considered an anthem for a contemporary generation of seekers.

Williamson founded Project Angel Food, a non-profit organization that has delivered more than 19 million meals to ill and dying homebound patients in the Los Angeles area since 1989. She has also worked throughout her career on poverty, anti-hunger and racial reconciliation issues. In 2004, she co-founded The Peace Alliance and supported the creation of a U.S. Department of Peace. She’s run for president twice, to add the voice of love into the political conversation. Her most recent book is The Mystic Jesus, and she has an upcoming course that we are excited about, Tye Magnificent Crone.

In this deeply personal episode, we cover:

• The Evolution of Love in Action
• What’s Changed in the Structural Economics of America
• How Clergy and Spiritual Counselors Are Increasingly Playing Cleanup on Broken Systems
• The Hippies Were Right
• The Inseparability of Personal Awareness and Structural Change
• On Turning 70
• Grandmothering
• Intergenerational Conversations
• The Magnificent Crone
• Mothering the World: All the Children, The Planet as Home
• The More Compassionate and Just Society.
• The Importance of Community and Connection
• Activating the Inner Sisterhood

Helpful links:

• Marianne Williamson - For updates, follow her on IG @mariannewilliamson
• NEW Course by Marianne: The Magnificent Crone: Spiritual Emergence for Women: in Our 50s, 60s, 70s & Beyond
• NEW book by Marianne: The Mystic Jesus: The Mind of Love
• A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles”
• Subscribe: MarianneWilliamson.Substack.com
• 24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week
• Diana Athill
• Episode 61: Creating Forever: Life Lessons from Beatrix Ost
• Valerie Von Sobel

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