Dr. Neil's Spiritual Awakening to Non-Duality

Send us Fan Mail “The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.”—the third Chinese patriarch of Zen. Today Neil describes the role of preferences, likes and dislikes, love and hate after awakening. He addresses the question: How do we include the people or behaviors that we find unacceptable in the One? If we feel a great attraction or aversion to a politician, celebrity, or fr...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Neil describes the higher emotions that arose before and after his awakening: well-being in the physical and subtle bodies, nectar in the mouth, blissful equanimity, dynamic waves of ecstasy, and rapture or non-dual samadhi. He points out that these states are now available to him at will, with and without dualistic functioning in the world, as he works and speaks with people....

Send us Fan Mail What is the location of an awakened consciousness that is beyond space/time? How do we situate ourselves in space when the dualities of local/nonlocal or near/far are dissolved? The mystical traditions teach that longing for union with the divine beloved or Source is inherent in the human soul. What happens when that distance disappears, union is attained –and, even more, we ident...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Neil describes an overview of his journey from psychic intuition to the Knower, to the Traveler beyond space/time, to the dissolution of subject/object and becoming One with the objects of perception near and far. At that point, he realizes that there is nowhere to go, Everything in his body. Then he experiences astral projection but not as the traveler; he becomes One with th...

Send us Fan Mail Podcast listeners have posted some interesting questions to us: What is the difference between your Knower and the arrogance of a know-it-all? Is there an end point to the evolution of consciousness? Should we try to develop psychic abilities or siddhis (yogic powers), or will they inevitably unfold? How does advanced spiritual experience affect future lifetimes? What is your iden...

Send us Fan Mail "Form is emptiness; emptiness is form." This adage from the Heart Sutra describes non-dual reality in Buddhist terms: all form is basically empty, that is, neither permanent nor substantial. And emptiness, as the source and nature of form, is reality. Dr. Neil describes the stages of his direct experience of emptiness, from empty action, to empty speech, to empty mind, t...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Neil describes how, since his unity with everything has stabilized, the sensory perceptions of his astral, mental, and celestial bodies have clarified. Each of them works differently. With nondual awareness, he is in union with everything but can separate himself out to see through walls, communicate with deceased people and masters in higher planes, and explore the galaxy. He...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Neil describes several states of consciousness beyond ego – pleasure, well-being, joy, ecstasy, and radiance. He explains that they exist as eternal frequencies and can be tuned into when the chakras and subtle bodies are prepared. They are beyond subject/object dualities, beyond doer/receiver, unlike ego states of pleasure or joy.

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Neil describes soul awareness as a stage that emerged for him after his awakening to non-duality. He recalls six past lives (one that includes Me), their common themes, and the purpose of his soul group. He suggests that the value of remembering past lives is to expand our identity from the local, immediate body/mind we inhabit today to the soul, which cycles through births an...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Neil explores the development of a separate identity as a necessary step in evolution as part of the heroic ego’s journey. Then he describes current identity politics as an example of both progress and a hindrance to further development. If we get stuck in a local identity – race, ethnicity, gender, orientation, political tribe, age, religion, beliefs – the expansion of consci...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Neil explores several ways to access the astral plane. He describes a recent experience in which his astral body became transparent and infinite, like his physical body, containing everything in the universe. This opened a deeper emotional connection to people on the astral plane and a more profound identification with deathlessness.

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Neil describes the conventional experience of time -- past, present, future -- as the ego’s time. But he suggests that this is a mental construct because he also experiences divine time, in which creation, maintenance, and destruction are ongoing in every moment, and soul time, which is more cyclic and has no beginning or end. Since he has consciously realized these three subj...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Neil explores human evolution from caveman, to tribal, to individual, to heart-centered levels of consciousness. Each stage has its own moral/immoral behavior. For those few who awaken to non-duality, morality is not rooted in subject/object, but Dr. Neil suggests that they must maintain both dual and non-dual awareness to act morally. When the subject and/or object disappear,...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Neil describes the role of physical, emotional, and mental separateness with me, his wife, as a foundation for the expansion of consciousness. He suggests that the divine manifests separate people and objects to experience itself in infinite ways. He explores the experience of emptiness as his essential nature and how it shapes his personal love, our love, and non-dual love wi...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Neil describes his personal journey of awakening from a past life to this rebirth, young age, teachers and guides, practices, and life circumstances. He emphasizes that his journey is not monastic; it’s a householder becoming a full human being and using what life offers as his spiritual curriculum.

Send us Fan Mail Who is healthy? Who is ill? As the individual human soul leaves the divine source and incarnates in a body/mind, it carries the influence of several kinds of karma: individual karma from lifetimes, group karma, and the collective karma of humanity (as we witnessed in the pandemic). It’s also influenced by genes, environment, and lifestyle choices. Dr. Neil explores the interconnec...

Send us Fan Mail What is attachment, and how does it evolve? Dr. Neil describes the nature of attachment when we identify as egos, as souls, and as Spirit or pure consciousness. Is non-attachment the goal of spiritual practice? He explores the experience of attachment while living in non-dual states and duality at the same time.

Send us Fan Mail Every great spiritual tradition teaches about sacred service. Dr. Neil points out that service is structured in consciousness. We can take action and serve others from an ego level, with attachment to the outcome and to our own needs, such as in transactional relationships. We can act and serve at a soul level, with deeper compassion and less attachment, but still within duality....

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Neil describes his discovery of the nonduality of empty mind, empty body, empty cosmos, as he transcended three kinds of apparent duality: body-mind, self-other, and individual-cosmos. This episode is focused on the latter, as he perceives the planets in his body, the macrocosm in the microcosm—as above so below. And he calls the cosmos a giant empty body that enfolds an infin...

Send us Fan Mail Demonstrating the Inquiry practice of the Diamond Approach, Dr. Neil moves into the present moment and articulates his experience as his consciousness expands from his local identity in the body outward to the solar system and the galaxy, as he perceives it, then unifies with it. His awareness moves from dualistic to non-dual realities as he inquires into the nature of the microco...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Neil explores spirituality through the lifespan in the context of the new longevity. Is it important to build an ego before transcending an ego? Is it important to earn money, build relationships, and contribute to society before practicing meditation? What is the ideal age to begin a spiritual practice? What are the risks of starting too early and skipping developmental stage...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Neil explores the nature of suffering as it is experienced in dualistic and non-dual levels of consciousness. He points to identification and attachment as two roots of physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering. And he describes his own experience while speaking during the podcast with a headache.

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Neil explores incorrect assumptions about awakening based on his lived experience, such as the belief that there is an ultimate state of consciousness, that the ego and shadow are eliminated, that physical health is required, that we can “get” enlightened, and that death interferes with our evolution.

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Neil describes the three stages he experienced as he evolved as a psychologist with his clients: Subject/object duality, in which he diagnoses and treats people; a reciprocal system or intersubjective field, in which the two are connected; and the non-dual field, in which the world soul is in the room. Each stage transcends and includes the earlier stages.

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Neil explores key questions: How can someone be awake in a high stage and still act out his or her personal shadow? Why is there an epidemic of gurus and priests acting out their shadows today? Why do we need to cultivate shadow awareness in the context of our spiritual lives? Because there is shadow material stored in the subtle body at each chakra, he goes through each one a...