The Mystical Positivist

Podcast: This week on the show, we present a pre-recorded conversation with Sessei Meg Levie , head priest of Stone Creek Zen Center in Graton, CA. She assumed this role in April 2022, succeeding Dojin Emerson and Korin Pokorny, who had served in the role since 2014. Sessei serves with Founding Teacher Jisho Warner to offer the Dharma through talks, classes, individual practice discussion and othe...

Podcast: This week on the show, we present a pre-recorded conversation with John Friedlander , author of Recentering SETH: Teachings from a Multidimensional Entity on Living Gracefully and Skillfully in a World You Create But Do Not Control . The Seth books, channeled by the late Jane Roberts in the 1970s, galvanized a whole generation of spiritual explorers. The entity known as Seth turned famili...

Podcast: This week on the show, we present a pre-recorded conversation with Rawn Clark , author of A Bardon Companion: A Practical Companion for the Student of Franz Bardon's System of Hermetic Initiation . The Franz Bardon series of books on Magical Arts, Initiation into Hermetics (IIH), The Practice of Magical Evocation (PME), and The Key to the True Qabalah (KTQ), are considered by many as the...

Podcast: This week on the show, we present a pre-recorded conversation with Terje Tonne , author of the newly published book, Rodney Collin: a man who wished to do something with his life , from Karnak Press. Rodney Collin, a key figure in the history of esoteric thought and the Fourth Way tradition, is best known for his seminal works, The Theory of Celestial Influence , and The Theory of Eternal...

Podcast: This week on the show we feature a recording of a live video stream with OM C. Parkin kicking off his new online series, Meeting with Teachers – Navigating the Wisdom Path . In this first installment, the Mystical Positivist hosts converse with OM about his book, The Birth of the Lion , as well as many profound aspects of his teachings on inner stillness. OM C. Parkin is a renowned Europe...

Podcast : This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Theresa Dintino , co-author of the newly published ebook, The Oscan Oracle: from the Ancient Janarra of the Moon . In this wide ranging and remarkable conversation, we discuss her latest book, the nature of lineage, Dagara Stick Divination as a way to connect people to their true lineages, cultural appropriation and ways t...

Podcast: This week on the show, we present a pre-recorded conversation with Robin Bloor about his latest book, Gurdjieff & Kundabuffer – Food for the Moon . Bloor writes: “The idea that mankind is ‘food for the moon’ seems, when you first encounter the idea, to be ridiculous. Nevertheless, it may well be so… To understand this theory, one needs on the one hand, to examine it from a scientific...

Podcast : This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Ken McLeod , Buddhist teacher and author of the newly released book, The Magic of Vajrayana . In today’s conversation, we explore four ways of working in spiritual practice sometimes characterized by the archetypal forms of the King, the Warrior, the Magician, and the Lover. We discuss how these ways, Compassion, Will, Ins...

Podcast : This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Ken McLeod , author of the newly released book, The Magic of Vajrayana . The Magic of Vajrayana weaves original translations of instructions, insightful commentary and context about key practices, and authentic personal experiences into a powerful transmission of this vibrant tradition of mystical practice. One of the more...

Podcast: This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Jason Shulman , author of the 6-book series, Practical Guides to Enlightenment, Awakening, and Healing . Jason is an American spiritual teacher whose original work springs from his Judaic and Buddhist background. He is the founder of A Society of Souls: The School for Nondual Healing and Awakening , based in the United Stat...

Podcast: This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Bernardo Kastrup , philosopher and author of many books and essays including, The Idea of the World: A Multidisciplinary Argument for the Mental Nature of Reality and More Than Allegory: On Religious Myth, Truth, and Belief . Bernardo Kastrup is the executive director of Essentia Foundation. His work has been leading the mo...

Podcast: This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Carol Squire , Sufi Dervish, Fourth Way teacher, Transactional Analysis (TA) facilitator, Sound healer, Reiki Master, Leader, Woman, Mother and a student just like all of us. Carol Squire is also the co-founder of the International Akhaldans 4th Way School begun with Akash Dharmaraj in India. Together, they have co-created...

Podcast: This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with William D. Glenn about his latest book, I Came Here Seeking a Person: A Vital Story of Grace; One Gay Man's Spiritual Journey , published by Paulist Press. William D. Glenn , a psychotherapist and spiritual director, is a longtime leader in the LGBTQ+ community. Influenced by Thomas Merton, Carl Jung, the Society of Jesus a...

Podcast: This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Henry Schoenfield , ordained minister, spiritual director, and ICF certified professional coach, about the arc of his spiritual journey, the tension between an inner calling and the outer form that calling may take, and the challenges of inspiring modern American Christian congregations in the possibilities of deep contempl...

Podcast: This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Mary Angelon Young about her recent book, The Art of Contemplation , published in 2021 by HOHM Press. In this compassionate and resourceful book, Angelon gently guides the reader into a larger awareness, reminding us of simple ways to stay grounded in the present moment and connect with what is real in an increasingly unrea...

Podcast: This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Bruce Miller about his latest book, Uplift: How to Harness the Hidden Engine of Continuous Renewal , published this year by Miller eMedia. After studying filmmaking and screenwriting at UCLA, Bruce Miller has spent his career as a brand strategist, media producer, writer, and marketing partner in an Atlanta brand developmen...

Podcast: This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Neil Douglas-Klotz about his latest book, Revelations of the Aramaic Jesus – The Hidden Teachings on Life and Death , published by Hampton Roads. Neil Douglas-Klotz, Ph. D. is a renowned writer in the fields of Middle Eastern spirituality and the translation and interpretation of the ancient Semitic languages of Hebrew, Ara...

Podcast: This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with OM C. Parkin about his upcoming October West Coast US visit and his recent book, Intelligence of Awakening - Navigating the Wisdom Path , published by Gateways Books & Tapes . OM C. Parkin is a renowned European wisdom teacher and the founder of the mystery school, Enneallionce , and Gut Saunstorf , a modern monastery....

Podcast : This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with returning guest Ken McLeod . Among the topics explored in this conversation are the engagement in spiritual practice with beings and deities, how to negotiate when entering into the ontology of a spiritual system, how to pray, the valuation implicit in focused attention, and the release of control in the deepening of a spi...

Podcast: This week on The Mystical Positivist , hosts Stuart Goodnick and Rob Schmidt feature a podcast they recorded on July 9th, 2022, for the Western Baul Podcast Series entitled Fourth Way Magic: How Hermetic and Indigenous Traditions Interface with the Gurdjieff Work . The podcast description is as follows: The Fourth Way is a Western spiritual tradition founded by George Gurdjieff, a mystic...

Podcast : This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with returning guest, Zen teacher, Brad Warner , about his latest book, THE OTHER SIDE OF NOTHING: The Zen Ethics of Time, Space, and Being , published this year by New World Library. In the West, Zen Buddhism has a reputation for paradoxes that defy logic. In particular, the Buddhist concept of nonduality — the realization tha...

Podcast : This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Dean Sluyter , author of The Dharma Bum’s Guide to Western Literature , published this year by New World Library. Some of us were lucky enough to have one passionate, funny, inspiring English teacher who helped us fall in love with books. Add a lifetime of teaching Dharma — authentic, traditional approaches to meditation a...

Podcast : This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Roger Jackson , author of Rebirth: A Guide to Mind, Karma, and Cosmos in the Buddhist World , published this year by Shambhala. This first-ever guide to ideas and practices surrounding rebirth in Buddhism covers the historical context for the Buddha’s teachings on the topic, explains what Buddhists believe is actually rebo...

Podcast : This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Dr. Asa Hershoff about his development of what he calls the 5-Element Energy Healing and Elemental Psychology system. This system posits a three-self model of the human being (Spirit, Essence, and Persona) in which the Essence has five modes of being corresponding to the five traditional elements (Ruler, Creator, Lover, Wa...

Podcast : This week on the show we feature a pre-recorded conversation with returning guest Ken McLeod in which we continue our ongoing discussion about the degree to which a transactional mode of being permeates our lives, relationships, and spiritual practice. We explore goals in relationship, the transactional as the currency of the Horizontal Realm, what a non-transaction way of living might b...