The Mystical Positivist

Podcast: This week on The Mystical Positivist , we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Michael Nagler , founder of The Metta Center for Nonviolence in 1982, and author of The Third Harmony: Nonviolence and the New Story of Human Nature . The Metta Center provides educational resources on the safe and effective use of nonviolence, with the recognition that it’s not about putting the right pers...

Podcast: This week on The Mystical Positivist , we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Amir Freimann , author of Spiritual Transmission: Paradoxes and Dilemmas on the Spiritual Path and a doctoral researcher on Living Transcendence: A Phenomenological Study of Spiritual Masters . Amir returns to continue our conversation from May about Living Transcendence and the nature of Spiritual Surrende...

Podcast: This week on The Mystical Positivist , we present a pre-recorded conversation with Sufi practitioner and strategic consultant, Richard Webb . In this conversation we discuss challenge of rising above the cloud of malaise that can so seductively hold our attention, the utilization of breath and the energetic system of the body to support us in this challenge, and how the human biological m...

Podcast : This week we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Hokai Diego Sobol and Tibetan Buddhist teacher Ken McLeod . In this penetrating discussion, we explore the nature of Vajrayana Buddhist practice and its antecedents in the Tantric tradition, the primacy of the teacher-student relationship and the intimacy of spiritual transmission, as well as the body as the foundation for the awakeni...

Podcast : This week we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Richard Whittaker about the nature of Aesthetic Thought, the connection of Numinous in artistic expression, and the exquisite sensitivity of the human instrument when unmediated by conceptual association. Richard Whittaker is the co-founder, with Rue Harrison, of the non-profit "Society for theReCognition of Art" and founding editor i...

Podcast : This week we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Hokai Diego Sobol in which we discuss the function of spiritual teaching and how this function is impacted when the primary means of communication is an electronic format such as Zoom. Among other topics we also discuss the nature of the Vertical Dimension and how access to this domain corresponds with the alignment both physically an...

Podcast: This week on The Mystical Positivist , we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Amir Freimann , author of Spiritual Transmission: Paradoxes and Dilemmas on the Spiritual Path and a doctoral researcher on Living Transcendence: A Phenomenological Study of Spiritual Masters . In this wide-ranging discussion we explore the nature of the yearning for the mystical and of the spiritual path....

Podcast: This week on The Mystical Positivist , we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Zoketsu Norman Fischer and Ken McLeod exploring key questions in contemporary Buddhist Dharma, Western spiritual practice in general, and the potential for transformation in multiple directions inherent in the modern crises of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Climate Change. Among the topics considered are how sen...

Podcast: This week on The Mystical Positivist , we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Zoketsu Norman Fischer about his 2019 book The World Could Be Otherwise: Imagination and the Bodhisattva Path . More prescient than Fischer could have known when he wrote it, the book offers an imaginative approach to spiritual practice in difficult times, through the Buddhist teaching of the six pāramitās...

Podcast: This week on The Mystical Positivist , we speak by telephone with Sam Webster, PhD, M.Div., Mage . Sam hails from the Bay Area and has taught magick publicly since 1984. He graduated from Starr King School for the Ministry at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley in 1993 and earned his doctorate at the University of Bristol, UK, studying Pagan history under Prof. Ronald Hutton. His t...

Podcast: This week on The Mystical Positivist , we speak by telephone with Red Hawk about his latest book from HOHM Press called, The Way of the Wise Woman – Poems by Red Hawk . Red Hawk was the Hodder Fellow at Princeton University (1992-93) and currently a tenured professor of English at U. of Arkansas, Monticello. He is the author of 10 previous books. His book Self Observation has been publish...

Podcast: This week on The Mystical Positivist , we feature a pre-recorded conversation with two of our favorite guests, Ken McLeod and Jim Wilson . Speaking from our respective bunkers of the California Shelter-In-Place order, we will touch upon the relevance of spiritual practice in an age of social distancing, as well as the possibility and freedom inherent in moving discourse beyond mere critiq...

Podcast: This week on The Mystical Positivist , we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Diana Rowan , author of The Bright Way – Five Steps to Freeing the Creative Within , published this year by New World Library. Diana Rowan is a Creative Alchemist and founder of the Bright Way Guild, a virtual learning environment dedicated to transforming and inspiring a global community of creatives. The...

Podcast: This week on The Mystical Positivist , we feature a pre-recorded conversation with Rory Miller , author of Living in the Deep Brain – Connecting with Your Intuition . Rory Miller is a seventeen-year veteran of a metropolitan correctional system. He spent seventeen years, including ten as a sergeant, with the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office in Portland Oregon. His assignments included Bo...

Podcast: This week on The Mystical Positivist , we feature a conversation pre-recorded on February 28th, 2020 with Rupert Spira . From an early age Rupert Spira was deeply interested in the nature of reality. At the age of seventeen he learnt to meditate, and began studying and practicing the teachings of the classical Advaita Vedanta tradition under the guidance of Dr. Francis Roles and Shantanan...

Podcast: This week on The Mystical Positivist we speak in the studio with our good friend Christine Skarda , an ordained Tibetan Buddhist nun, a philosopher and scientific theorist whose professional career has spanned the fields of philosophy, neurophysiology, and cognitive science. She has both drawn on and contributed to the insights of these fields in her quest to understand the nature of perc...

Podcast: This week on The Mystical Positivist , hosts Stuart Goodnick and Rob Schmidt feature a recording of a talk that they gave at Many Rivers Books & Tea on Thursday February 20th, along with some additional remarks recorded in the studio after the talk. Entitled “Defusing the Human Comfort-Seeking Missile”, the pre-talk publicity described it this way: "What provides comfort to the afflic...

Podcast: This week on The Mystical Positivist , Rob and I present a conversation pre-recorded on February 2, 2020, with Stephen Aronson , Fourth Way group leader, writer, and retired psychologist. Steve received a Ph. D. in clinical psychology from the University of Connecticut in 1970. He taught as assistant professor of psychology in the early 70’s at Arizona State and Alfred University. In 1982...

Podcast: This week on the show we converse in the studio with Ken McLeod , founder and director of UnfetteredMind.org, a website offering resources on practical Buddhism. Ken trained in the Tibetan Buddha-dharma, translated for his teacher Kalu Rinpoche, and has written books that translate and comment on Tibetan texts. His books include A Trackless Path , Reflections on Silver River , An Arrow to...

Podcast: This week on the show, Rob and I speak by telephone with Roger R. Jackson , the John W. Nason Professor Emeritus of Asian Studies and Religion at Carleton College in Minnesota, where he taught the religions of South Asia and Tibet. He has published many articles on the philosophy, ritual, meditative practices, and poetry of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, and has written or co-edited several...

Podcast: This week on the show on the show, we speak by telephone with J. Brent Bill , a Quaker minister, retreat leader, writing coach, and photographer. He’s written more than twenty books including Holy Silence: The Gift of Quaker Spirituality , Mind the Light: Learning To See With Spiritual Eyes , Life Lessons from a Bad Quaker: A Humble Stumble Toward Simplicity and Grace , and Finding God in...

Podcast: This week on the show on the show we present a pre-recorded conversation with Brad Warner about his latest book, Letters to a Dead Friend About Zen . Brad Warner is the founder and head teacher of Angel City Zen Center and Dogen Sangha Los Angeles . He is the author of the popular Hardcore Zen blog as well as several other books on Zen Buddhism including, Hardcore Zen - Punk Rock, Monster...

Podcast: This week on The Mystical Positivist , hosts Stuart Goodnick and Rob Schmidt feature a recording of a talk that they gave at Many Rivers Books & Tea on Thursday December 12th, along with some additional remarks recorded in the studio after the talk. Entitled “Pimples on the Butt of the Absolute: Awareness and Awarenessing”, the pre-talk publicity described it this way: “In the contemp...

Podcast: This week on the show we present a conversation pre-recorded on December 7th, 2019 with Rick Lewis , author of Confident Under Pressure – The Hidden Advantages of Stress . Rick Lewis is a motivational speaker, thought leader, author, comedian, and entertainer par excellence who delivers a world-class presentation for meetings and events of all kinds. In the world of meetings where attende...

Podcast: This week on the show we present a conversation pre-recorded on November 29th, 2019 with OM C. Parkin . OM C. Parkin studied psychology, but dropped out of university studies after three years, because it gave him no real insight into human nature. In parallel, he worked intensely on the spiritual traditions of Sufism and the Enneagram as a mirror of the cosmos, especially the human psych...