The Great Updraft

99% of people, 99% of the time, dream every night and have no idea that they’re dreaming. We believe our dreams as they are happening. We think they're real. Let’s talk about lucid dreaming, what it means, what you can do in lucid dreams, and how to use them to understand yourself. This is another installment in my little series on dreams, so make sure to check out the previous episodes so you’re...

Unfortunately, we’ve been brainwashed into thinking that dreams are nothing but random neural firings, and most people never develop the capacity to decode them and exploit them to understand their own hidden inner pain and their own unrealised potential. Our dreams are a portal into the deepest layers of our psychology and identity. No exaggeration: they enable you to map out your subconscious mi...

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DeepPsychologyDreams are not random. They’re not a result of random neural firings. They don’t happen to you. They’re created by you and are a reflection of your hidden, subconscious, unexpressed desires and emotions and personality traits. Of course, most of the time we’re not consciously creating our dreams, but when you pay more attention, and learn to start luc...

The idea that we must silence our thoughts in meditation is the biggest myth that exists. And it’s not just a myth: it prevents you from serious engagement with meditation, it has you reinforcing all your old mental habits, and it’s extremely demotivating and discouraging. You will not progress with meditation if you believe this. If you believe this, you’re not going to become proficient at medit...

Deep Psychology on Patreon Let’s talk about how to deal with envious people. I’ve been the target of envy for most of the life. Yet until I informed myself about this emotion, I had always been puzzled by the seemingly unprovoked hostility that friends and family showed towards me. Now, I’m able to recognise envy, deflect it before it uncontrollably inflames, and take preventative action. Know tha...

Let’s talk about the signs of envy, particularly in those most likely to feel it: friends, family and peers. It’s trickier to detect than most emotions. It’s not direct. There are indirect signs that a person feels envious towards you, both in the moment and as a broader trend. Your ability able to decode the signs of envy might save you years of suffering, futile attempts to repair broken relatio...

It’s my humble opinion that in meditation, as in any other pursuit, progress is guaranteed so long as you have the right method and are persistent with it. Unfortunately, many people who come to me to learn meditation report not making progress with it, even people who’ve been meditating for a long time. So let’s look at the most important points for progressing with your meditation practice.

I wanted to clear up the topic of personality masking vs social masking vs autistic masking vs common masking because it seems there’s a lot of confusion out there about this. The main take away from this episode is that we all mask. We mask in a relatively innocent social way (I call this social masking) and in a more permanent way (personality masking). It doesn’t matter if you’re autistic or no...

Today we’re going to talk about how to reintegrate your repressed anger. In the last episode we spoke about what repressed anger is and how to spot it. Go check out that episode, then come back here to learn how to reintegrate it. I’ve tried four methods and each of them has proved useful and helped me taste the joy and fullness that comes from reintegrating this emotion.

What are the top 3 symptoms of repressed anger? Knowing these will help you uncover your own repressed anger and begin to heal it. Anger is one of the most commonly suppressed emotions. It's not socially acceptable to express it, and from an early age we're taught to suppress it. This has nefarious effects on your wellbeing and behaviour, and can even lead to depression. Article with two extra sym...

If you dislike your life and feel that there is a well of untapped potential in you, a life calling might be just what you need. As I said in my last episode, having an overarching vision then making money from it is one of the keys to being fulfilled. This isn’t an airy-fairy, idealistic talk about how life would be wonderful if we could all live our passions. It’s not an escape so that you can f...

I share my five keys to being happy – the five components of my life that make me feel alive and that my life is worth living. If you feel bored, unfulfilled or lacking verve, you might like to cultivate one or more of these areas. Two Bonus Keys: https://deep-psychology.com/purposeful-life/

Today I’m going to talk about the deepest spiritual experience I ever had, which was the first time I took acid, and which forever destroyed my scientific dogmas about God. I’m going to share my insights into what God really is, from a non-biblical, non-dogmatic, mystical, embodied, directly apprehended perspective.

Today I share the story of my 2nd acid trip, how it helped me unearth and reintegrate an enormous personal shadow, and the insights I gained into our repressed side. If you’re not sure what the shadow is, I talk about it in my latest article called the symptoms of repressed anger. And let me tell you, REALLY seeing the shadow turned my inside out, for the better, and I can never go back to my prev...

Yes, the title is right: I’m committing to doing a meditation streak, doing not 10, not 30, not 60, not 100, but 1000 consecutive days of meditation. When I shared this with my meditation students, I think they thought I was a bit crazy. And it does seem a bit crazy. I’ve never met anyone who has done such a long daily streak. I’m sure there are many people, but I’ve never met anyone who’s done an...

Let’s talk about manifesting, debunk the BS behind it, and talk about how to really make your dreams come true. I kinda cringe when I hear people talking about manifesting. When they do, I get the impression they’re either trying to sell me something, or have never really achieved anything in their life. BUT behind the strange, woo-woo, pseudoscientific explanations, there is a very real, observab...

Today, we talk about personality masks. Often our most salient character traits are a facade erected to conceal who we really are behind it. Learn to accurately judge and interpret people, stop taking things personally, create emotional distance, and get ultra-useful intel on yourself and others.

Let’s talk about the spiritual ego and how to dismantle it. Rather than viewing the spiritual ego as a single kind of personality, I see it as a phenomenon that shows up as different characters, as subpersonalities, as mini-egos that hijack Truth to serve their own ends, thus distorting pure spiritual wisdom. I’ve come across six types in my time, and here are my quirky names for them: the Theoris...

Today we talk about six ways that modern society screws you up, and my six solutions to these issues. On the surface these might seem quite simple, but in combination they aspects are deadly and slowly rot away our ability to be happy and lead fulfilling lives. These tentacles reach down into all aspects of our psychology, our habits, and our view of what life is all about.

We have an extraordinary amount of luxury available to us, luxury that our parents and grandparents’ generation couldn’t imagine. And it’s all available very quickly and for very little money. You might think this makes you happy, but it actually slowly ruins your life. You’re being manipulated and exploited by media and marketeers, and it’s making you miserable. Learn how stimulation and comfort...

Today we talk about spiritual abuse: how to see the warning signs in teachers, why it happens, and how to lead a healthy spiritual life. This is based on my personal experiences as a teacher, meeting other teachers, and my 10-year meditation journey.

I explore persistence, failure and success, with no script. I open up and share the challenges I've faced this week, month and year so far. I hope you take away some lessons on success, failure and persistence.

Let’s discuss and practice choiceless awareness, a particular meditation state in which we give up control of our attention. This is also a meditation practice in its own right, and we’ll look at a couple of varieties of it. Skip to 11:30 for the guided meditation! I often see choiceless awareness talked about as a philosophy or doctrine. But to me it’s much more immediate than that. It’s a first-...

Let’s talk about walking meditation, how to practice it, why we practice it, and the obstacles involved. If you do meditation for some time, you’ll naturally begin to bring it into everyday life, and walking meditation is a powerful way to systematise this process. In my local classes I teach it from day one to accompany our sitting work. My students discover that it’s possible to meditate wheneve...

Limiting beliefs are disempowering views you have about yourself. You tend to strongly hold on to them, and they persistently prevent you from changing. Holding one is like being hypnotised by yourself, by your own mind. They trip you up, paralyse you, stop you in your tracks, and you don't even realise it. Today we talk about the 5 most common limiting beliefs and how they’re destroying your life...