Ben Johnson

A Pilgrim’s Progress

Health EN ↓ 100 episodes

I'm Ben Johnson, Warzone Kid. That's my shorthand for those of us whose childhoods were more like warzones and less like nurseries. I'm a child sex abuse survivor, and as an adult I live with Complex PTSD, Borderline Personality Disorder, I'm a recovering addict, bulimic, and binge eater. This podcast is about my own quest to live my life, to learn and become what I am. I'm a Pilgrim on the Trail to the Western Lnds, the place of peace and wholeness.  We've got a long way to go, Pilgrim. Let's walk a few miles together.  Daylight's burnin'!

Author

Ben Johnson

Category

Health

Podcast website

hoanthropos.podbean.com

Latest episode

Jun 12, 2026

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Episodes

“Experts” in healing, part one 21.03.2026
Taking yourself off the torture rack! 19.03.2026

The most exquisite pleasure is being taken down off the torture rack.

What does it mean to be an “expert” in healing? 19.03.2026

https://www.hiddenwatercircle.org/ what could it possibly mean to be a “expert” healing? It’s got to mean that you have skills and experience at doing the thing. Not learning about the thing, not doing experiments concerning the thing, but simply doing the thing. 

Forgiving a Honey Badger 15.03.2026
Zen: No Belief about Beliefs 15.03.2026
High Priests in a religion of one, part two 15.03.2026
High Priests in a religion of one, part one 15.03.2026
From healing to harm, from suffering to happiness, from death to life 13.03.2026
How “Should” you feel? However you DO feel. 11.03.2026
Pois Boiton? How do we live? 04.03.2026

Pois Boiton? How do we live our lives? That’s the one true question for all of us pilgrims on the trail to the western lands?

Compare and Despair! 02.03.2026
The Child of the Tiger is Born with Stripes 02.03.2026
Grandpa Abram and the dug well: birth of the titan 17.02.2026

Here’s a true story from my family. This story was legend to me. The child of the tiger is born with stripes.

Intergenerational Trauma: who made the first vampire? 17.02.2026

Vampires have to sleep in the soil of their homeland. This got me thinking about the ways harm in all its flavors can be passed down across the generations, evolving as it goes.

Vampires: 2b1ask1 17.02.2026

I love me some vampire lore. They’re my favorite supernatural critter, full of psychological insight. In this little story I go through Nosferatu, Let Me In, and True Blood.

What’s the edge of your healing? 11.02.2026

https://www.hiddenwatercircle.org/ Hidden Water facilitates healing circles by and for those affe red by child sex abuse. I’m just a volunteer circle keeper! I don’t speak for the organization, but i’ve found the model for the path toward healing from harm very helpful. We find ourselves lost in a sea of suffering - that’s the coping phase. After that we wash up on the Isle of Facing, when we’re a...

The Black Hole of Narcissism 10.02.2026

If you’re the one looking in the reflecting pool, you’ve got to dive into the reality of who you are. The way to the depths lies through the surface. If you care about someone caught ip in their own reflection, stay on the safe side of the event horizon or you’ll be sucked in. Save yourself! You’re Echo in the story. The most you can do is call their name and hope they look away from the pool. Onl...

Borderline: It’s a Trap! 10.02.2026

Living with borderline, it ain’t easy. It feels like the whole world set traps for me…and then I realized I was setting the trap myself, and it’s people who care about me that get caught.

Escaping Narcissism: the wood between the worlds, part two 05.02.2026

The core of narcissism is that you get your sense of identity almost exclusively from what you can get other people to believe about you. Narcissist came to his end because he wouldn’t stop looking at his own reflection in the pool. He was afraid to do anything to disturb that smooth mirror. The way to the depths of who you really are is through the surface of that reflection.

Escaping Narcissism: the wood between the worlds, part three 05.02.2026

The core of narcissism is that you get your sense of identity almost exclusively from what you can get other people to believe about you. Narcissist came to his end because he wouldn’t stop looking at his own reflection in the pool. He was afraid to do anything to disturb that smooth mirror. The way to the depths of who you really are is through the surface of that reflection.

Escaping Narcissism: The wood between the worlds, part one 05.02.2026

The core of narcissism is that you get your sense of identity almost exclusively from what you can get other people to believe about you. Narcissist came to his end because he wouldn’t stop looking at his own reflection in the pool. He was afraid to do anything to disturb that smooth mirror. The way to the depths of who you really are is through the surface of that reflection.

The Fiery Wigwam, part two 04.02.2026

Burning away the dross of pain and suffering? Turning lead into gold? However you likw to think about it, it’s life!

The Fiery Wigwam, part one 04.02.2026

Burning away the dross of pain and suffering? Turning lead into gold? However you likw to think about it, it’s life!

A conversation with Elizabeth Clements, founder of Hidden Water 29.01.2026

I hope you enjoy this conversation with Elizabeth Clements, founder of Hidden Water. It’s an organization that facilitate healing circles by and for those affected by child sex abuse. You can register at the Hidden Water website: https://www.hiddenwatercircle.org/ Elizabeth’s book, “Healing Together” is at https://www.elizabethclemants.com/store/p/healing-together-a-family-guide-to-recovering-from...

Sappho’s Stones, part three 27.01.2026

Sappho was a Greek poet from the island of Lesbos, the original lesbian! She wrote “if you are squeamish, don’t turn over rocks”. She meant that if you turn over rocks, you’re gonna see creepy, crawling bugs under there, and things that you might not want to see. Well, we have stones in our minds, parts of us that we don’t want to see. My experience as a Warzone kid is that if I don’t turn over th...

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