Integral Being

What happens when the spiritual path stops being about comfort and begins demanding truth? In this Integral Being conversation, Sufi teacher Shaykh Burhanuddin Herrmann explores the movement from identification with the mind toward the heart—and why genuine spiritual transformation requires truth, responsibility, self-observation, and lived practice. "Truth is the earth of love. Truth is the found...

What does it actually mean to ask, "Who am I?" Michael James joins Mark Wiley for a conversation on Ramana Maharshi and the practice of self-investigation. Rather than treating "Who am I?" as a philosophical question requiring an intellectual answer, Michael explains Ramana's teaching as a radical change in the direction of attention—from the objects of experience toward the one who is experiencin...

What happens when extraordinary spiritual experiences stop being the destination? In this Integral Being conversation, psychologist, spiritual mentor, and author Aliya B. Haeri reflects on a lifelong search that moved through psychic research, extraordinary phenomena, psychology, and eventually into the contemplative path of Sufism. Aliya recounts working around figures such as Yuri Geller and Dr....

Practice, Embodiment, Spontaneity, and the Taoist Path What happens after decades of practice when the need to attain something begins to fall away? In this episode of Integral Being , Mark V. Wiley speaks with Taoist author, artist, and martial practitioner Deng Ming-Dao about what more than fifty years of Taoist cultivation, martial arts, and meditation have taught him about the nature of practi...

How Masonic tools become instruments for self-examination, awareness, and lived transformation Freemasonry is often approached through its history, rituals, degrees, symbolism, and secrecy. But what if its traditional tools were intended to do something more—to become practical instruments for working upon ourselves? In this episode of Integral Being , Mark V. Wiley speaks with Brian Mattocks, aut...

What if medicine were the last step in health rather than the first? In Part Two of my conversation with Guru Yogi Shivan, we move from Kalaripayattu into the healing traditions of Ayurveda and Siddha medicine and explore a very different understanding of what it means to care for the human body. Shivan describes Pancha Bela, a fivefold approach to health built around food, movement and conscious...

Can authentic spiritual transformation happen without a living tradition? In this episode of Integral Being , Mark Wiley speaks with Shaykh Peter Huseyin Cunz, a Swiss Sufi teacher of the Mevlevi Order—the spiritual tradition inspired by the teachings of Jalaluddin Rumi. Together, they explore why authentic traditions continue to matter in a modern culture that often favors individual spirituality...

What makes authentic Taiji Qigong Shibashi different from simply learning a sequence of movements? In this episode of Integral Being , Mark Wiley speaks with Fabrice Piché , a medical qigong practitioner and one of the few Western students to receive private instruction from Professor Lin Housheng , the creator of Taiji Qigong Shibashi. Their conversation explores the deeper purpose of qigong—not...

Light is usually understood as something outside us—something that illuminates the world so we can see it. But seeing is not passive. Light enters into a living relationship with perception, attention, the nervous system, and action. In this Inner Life Talk, Mark V. Wiley explores what happens when we stop thinking of light merely as something we observe and begin noticing how we participate in it...

What is authentic Kundalini awakening? According to Swami Kripananda, it is not something to pursue but something that unfolds naturally through years of disciplined practice. In this episode of Integral Being , Mark V. Wiley speaks with Swami Kripananda about addiction, recovery, Kundalini, yoga philosophy, breath, silence, nervous system development, and the gradual transformation that authentic...

What does it actually mean to become an internal practitioner? In this episode of Integral Being, Mark Wiley sits down with René Navarro, a lifelong practitioner of Taoist internal cultivation, traditional Chinese medicine, meditation, and the internal martial arts. Rather than treating these as separate disciplines, Navarro reveals how they form a single path of embodied transformation. The conve...

Why do we possess more information than any generation in history, yet still struggle to live wisely? In this Integral Being conversation, cognitive scientist and philosopher John Vervaeke explores why genuine transformation cannot be achieved through knowledge alone. Drawing from cognitive science, philosophy, contemplative traditions, meditation, Tai Chi, and embodied practice, he explains how m...

What if the true purpose of Tai Chi has little to do with choreography? In this episode of Integral Being, Mark Wiley speaks with longtime Tai Chi practitioner, experimental physicist, and author Dr. Robert Chuckrow about the deeper principles hidden beneath the external form. Drawing on more than five decades of practice, Chuckrow explores the relationship between relaxation, breathing, sensitivi...

What does it actually mean for a human being to change? Most spiritual seekers begin with self-improvement—trying to become calmer, wiser, or more fulfilled. But Dr. Ravi Ravindra argues that authentic spiritual practice aims at something far deeper: transformation. In this Integral Being conversation, Ravi Ravindra explores attention, consciousness, self-study, embodiment, and the mystery of awak...

Most meditation and breathing methods teach us to control the breath—to slow it, deepen it, or shape it into an ideal pattern. But what if that effort is actually creating the tension we hope to eliminate? In this episode of Inner Life Talks , Mark V. Wiley explores why genuine regulation cannot be imposed from the outside. The moment we attempt to manage the breath, subtle effort enters the syste...

In this Integral Being conversation, Will Johnson and Mark V. Wiley explore meditation as an embodied process of awakening through breath, sensation, posture, movement, and perception. Topics include: breathing through the whole body somatic meditation upright balancing and gravity Ida Rolf and structural integration movement in meditation visual field practices Tai Chi and Zen sky gazing and expa...

What does embodiment actually mean? The word is used constantly in meditation, movement, psychology, and wellness, yet it often remains vague or misunderstood. In this episode of Inner Life Talks , Mark V. Wiley explains embodiment as something far deeper than body awareness or mindfulness. Drawing from decades of study in martial arts, qigong, contemplative practice, and the Inner Life framework,...

In this episode of Integral Being, Mark Wiley speaks with Aikido and Tai Chi instructor Bob Noah about the deeper transformative potential of internal martial arts practice. Drawing from nearly six decades of Aikido and over fifty years of Tai Chi training, Bob explores the relationship between awareness and embodiment, nervous system regulation, energetic development, pressure training, inner alc...

Most practice begins with imitation. Genuine practice begins when imitation gives way to perception. In this Inner Life Talk, Mark Wiley explores how sustained practice transforms the body from something we control into something that teaches us. Discover why: • Practice begins with imitation but matures into perception • The body becomes a source of continuous feedback • Embodiment is different f...

What does Orthodox Christianity teach about the inner life? In this conversation, Fr. Jonathan Ivanoff explores the ancient Christian path of transformation through watchfulness, repentance, prayer, forgiveness, and spiritual discipline. Rather than presenting faith as a collection of beliefs, he describes Orthodoxy as a lived way of life rooted in embodied practice and continuous participation. T...

In this Integral Being conversation, renowned Taoist teacher, author, and translator Stuart Alve Olson reflects on a lifetime devoted to Taoism, Tai Chi, Qigong, meditation, and spiritual cultivation. A longtime student of Master T.T. Liang and disciple of Venerable Master Hsuan Hua, Stuart became one of the most influential voices bringing Taoist wisdom and internal arts traditions to Western aud...

What happens when spirituality is approached not as inherited belief, but as lived experience? In this conversation, poet, artist, and scholar Kythe Heller joins Integral Being host Mark V. Wiley to explore poetry, mysticism, transformation, and the search for direct encounter with the sacred. Drawing from her work in contemplative arts, scholarship, and the Sufi tradition of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, Ky...

What if suffering arises not from life itself, but from our identification with the personality? In this episode of Integral Being, Mark V. Wiley speaks with psychologist and meditation teacher David Parrish about awareness, conditioning, meditation, self-realization, and the challenge of integrating awakening into everyday life. Drawing on decades of experience as a psychologist, prison administr...

What if healing begins not with technique, but with perception? In this episode of Integral Being, Mark V. Wiley sits down with acupuncturist, teacher, and scholar Felix De Haas to explore the deeper dimensions of Chinese medicine, Daoist cultivation, meditation, and the practitioner's state of awareness. Drawing from more than four decades of clinical experience and study, Felix discusses the dif...

In this episode of Integral Being, Mark Wiley speaks with Father Francis Tiso — Catholic priest, theologian, and author of Rainbow Body and Resurrection — about one of the most provocative questions in contemplative spirituality: What if resurrection was not merely symbolic, but transformative in a literal sense? Drawing from Christian mysticism, Tibetan Buddhist accounts of the rainbow body, eyew...