The Leading Edge

Dan Lawrence is a former futures trader turned Jungian analyst and writer. This is the remarkable story of his silent childhood, precognitive dreams, work in high-security psychiatric units and a near-death experience in a Malaysian ICU. He did a pretty mind-blowing lecture about dreams for Leading Edge’s Accelerating Wisdom series. He’s someone who let his curiosity guide him from a very young age, and it took him through a traditionally successful path into a world filled with mystery and intuition. Obviously he would never say this, but listening to him speak, particularly towards the end of his story, I was really struck by the fact that this is what a successfully integrated life looks like.

Adam M. Curry is an inventor and tech entrepreneur in San Francisco. He thinks the idea that consciousness and reality may be interconnected is really cool. He was fascinated enough by the idea to organize the Collective Consciousness app project. Technology advances by trying something new, and he’s very excited to explore the horizons of “consciousness technology.”He was the recipient of the MIT Ceres Connection Prize at age 17 for an invention that converted electro-gravitational phenomena into signals that can help forecast seismic events, such as earthquakes. Adam has been featured in the Discovery Channel’s Through The Wormhole with Morgan Freeman, and is on the board of the Society for Scientific Exploration. He has worked at the Princeton’s PEAR Lab and Psyleron.

Bill Plotkin, Ph.D., is a depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and agent of cultural evolution. As the founder of the Animas Valley Institute he has spent nearly 45 years guiding thousands of women and men through nature-based initiatory passages.Plotkin describes an essential developmental process that is missing from modern culture. Beyond merely diagnosis, he also provides a map and mechanism to reincorporate greater meaning into our lives. Our conversation is an introduction to his work

Leading Edge member Allison Paradise holds degrees in neuroscience from Brown and Harvard. Based in Los Angeles, she’s the founder of The Epicenter. They work with children aged 7-22 on the cultivation and recovery of their intuitive capabilities. She’s a dear friend, and one of the most remarkable people I’ve ever met, something I think comes across in our conversation.

Dr. Christopher Bache is Professor Emeritus in the department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Youngstown State University, adjunct faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), Emeritus Fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), and on the Advisory Council of Grof Legacy Training. Dr. Bache is perhaps best known for his remarkable 2019 book LSD and the Mind of the Universe. It relates his insights and experiences from 73 therapeutically-structured, massive-dose LSD sessions over the 20 years from 1979-1999. Upon revisiting the book for this interview I was struck by how remarkable it is. I am not aware of anyone else who underwent such a sustained exploration of the outer limits of consciousness, especially one who returned able to lucidly articulate exactly what they experienced. Bache also maintained a high-level teaching career throughout his sessions. While he admits his adventure was perhaps foolhardy, and he strongly dissuades anyone else from attempting it, his commitment to travel to the very edges of human experience offers an unparalleled vision of our present reality and maybe even our collective future. For our conversation I was joined by my friend Devin Martin, an experienced transformational and psychedelic coach

One of my spiritual mentors has called Tara Springett his favorite teacher for anyone seeking a path to higher consciousness. He also describes her book Stairway to Heaven as life-changing. I recently interviewed Tara, along with Leading Edge’s Chief Mystical Officer Jeff Williams. Our conversation is also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Tim Freke is the author of thirty-five books on hermeticism, mysticism, consciousness and spirituality. Freke has spent the last ten years developing his new “Unividual” worldview, and he has released it as a free “podbook” online called “Why Your Life Really Matters.” This interview is an introduction to his ideas.

According to decades of studies, and basic common sense, wisdom is one of life’s most desirable attributes. Wisdom means knowing exactly what to do, and when. Perhaps the single most surprising concept that has emerged from the last few years of my studies of wisdom has been the importance of “subtle power.” For example, acting with a precise sense of your energetic relationship with the world appears to be critical to living a flourishing life. Our nervous system, our internal energy grid, is essential to detecting and holding this subtle power. And yet the West pays scarcely any attention to deliberately upgrading it. My guest Andrew Markell has discovered through three decades of direct practice and teaching that Yiquan, a Chinese fighting and healing art that traveled through Tibet and was later refined by master Wang Xiangzhai, provides a systematic method for developing this capacity. You can listen to our interview on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

I interviewed Peter Merry, Author, Co-founder of Ubiquity University and Wyrd Technologies and and expert in Spiral Dynamics. He gave us a relatively quick guide to developmental frameworks and then a deeper discussion of where we are now, as well as what a new kind of leadership might look like.

One of the most impactful ideas I've ever explored is the idea that there's an intelligent evolutionary force guiding us into wholeness, integration and complexity. Whether you call it the holotropic attractor, syntropy or the Tao, I believe personally harmonizing with this force can bring profound flourishing. So I am always looking to deepen and enhance my understanding of practical ways of doing so.My latest guest Emily Lane is a delightful Irish entrepreneur who successfully climbed the corporate ladder and burned out twice before she finally got the message that it was time for a change. As she set out on a round the world trip in search of new horizons she had an unexpected detour when she effectively died during a rafting trip to Ecuador. The out-of-body experience that followed untethered her from a "matter-bound," personality-based perspective and led to a gradual series of deeper awakenings over the next twenty years. She now helps leaders and executives find effective means of harmonizing with what she calls "Evolutionary Intelligence."

The theme of my last couple of pieces has been sacred sites, sound, vibration and the divine feminine. My synchronicity-filled trip to Portugal led me to the work of historian and author Freddy Silva.His research explores the alternative history of ancient civilizations and sacred technologies for the evolution of human consciousness. What he claims to have found goes right across the woo spectrum, and threatens to upend my understanding of our collective past.

This is a standalone part 2 of my conversation with founder and coach Brian Whetten. In this conversation we explored a new kind of leadership. It’s a growth path that remains fully within your control, even in chaotic times, and brings the greatest benefit to both yourself and those around you.

My conversation last year with founder and coach Brian Whetten was one of the more insightful discussions I've had. This was reflected in both the feedback and the number of listeners we drew.Brian and I sat down for two more in-depth conversations. The first explores how to make money with integrity as a coach. The second is a broader discussion of what “authentic leadership” looks like.Why is Brian worth listening to on these topics? He got a Berkeley PhD in computer science, was a successful Silicon Valley founder, and burned out twice, all by thirty. His own acute trauma then led him into six years of full-time training, coaching, counseling and a master's in spiritual psychology. In the 20 years since, he’s become one of the most senior executive coaches in the country and he makes an extremely comfortable living doing so. His engineer's brain is also able to illustrate profound concepts in simple terms I can understand.

The Greek-Armenian Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff (1866–1949) was an influential mystic, philosopher and spiritual teacher. He spent much of his life traveling the world synthesizing the key teachings of the great mystery schools.A central aspect of Gurdjieff’s teachings are known as “The Fourth Way.” It’s also the handle of the visionary mystical meme master The 4th Way , himself an expert in Gurdjieff’s work. He was gracious enough to spend some time telling me the story of Gurdjieff’s discoveries and where he thinks leading edge science is increasingly confirming them.

The Law of One material is a series of 106 conversations between Jim McCarty, Don Elkins, a professor of physics and UFO investigator, and “Ra,” speaking through Carla Rueckert. Ra states that it/they are a “sixth-density social memory complex” that formed on Venus about 2.6 billion years ago. Ra says that they are “humble messengers of the Law of One” and that they previously tried to spread this message in Egypt with mixed results. Jim is the only surviving member of the trio. The correct default response is obviously skepticism, but I invite you to suspend judgement until you’ve read the material and listened to Jim’s message. I recently read all 1,200 pages of the material, as did my fellow Leading Edge member Jeff Williams. Jeff and I interviewed Jim for The Leading Edge.

Virtually every spiritual or mystical tradition emphasizes that love is the most potent force in the Universe. So it’s curious that any mention of love is noticeably absent from all of our most powerful industries, as well as from science itself. I spoke to Dr. Julia Mossbridge, an expert on the science of love and time, and her collaborator Dr. Eric Smith, Executive Director of The Institute for Love and Time (TILT). We discussed the power of Unconditional Love, precognition and their new app Time Machine.

Philip Shepherd is an author, teacher on the topic of embodiment I’ve been following his work for many years. And have always thought of him as a spiritual successor to Iain McGilchrist. In this conversation he takes us through a powerful short meditation and explains his new project, The Embodied Present Project (TEPP). He’s written one of my favourite books (Radical Wholeness), one of my favourite articles (Why you are not living in the Present) and also given one of my favourite written interviews (The World’s Hidden Harmony).

Dr. Jeff Tarrant is a licensed psychologist and board certified in neurofeedback. He is the Director of the NeuroMeditation Institute and author of the book, Meditation Interventions to Rewire the Brain. Dr. Mona Sobhani is an author, cognitive neuroscientist and an expert in the emerging science of “spiritual” phenomena. In this conversation we discuss Dr. Tarrant's personal response to his powerful experiences in the filming of The Telepathy Tapes podcast phenomenon. We also discuss his general work on neurofeedback and psychic abilities.

Ky Dickens is a documentarian and the creator of the podcast phenomenon The Telepathy Tapes. She sat down with the Leading Edge's Dr Sobhani, a neuroscientist and author on the topic of psi phenomena.

New Year’s seems like a good time to explore meditation practices in a way that’s accessible to novices and experts alike. Daniel Ingram is a doctor, a meditator, a writer and author of “Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: an Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book” Dave Nadig is a good friend, his professional background is in ETFs and market structure and he's an experienced meditator.

Glab a pen and piece of paper and join intuition coach Isik Tlabar (https://www.isiktlabar.com/) for a brief future-focused meditation.

Nadja Taranczewski is a coach and psychologist that specialises in money. She is the author of the book Conscious You: Become the hero of your own story. Our conversation flips the concept of money to reveal its true power in evolving our consciousness.

Brian Whetten is an ex-Silicon Valley founder turned coach. What interested me is that he’s dedicated his engineer’s mind to a systematic study of what works in the spiritual and self-help world. Our conversation was highly conceptual, but also unbelievably dense with insights.

Brian Whetten is an ex-Silicon Valley founder turned coach. What interested me is that he’s dedicated his engineer’s mind to a systematic study of what works in the spiritual and self-help world. Our conversation was highly conceptual, but also unbelievably dense with insights. As a result, we decided to split the conversation up into two parts. Part 1 will discuss the diagnosis of the problem. Part 2 will explicitly discuss tools and strategies to avoid the major pitfalls.

Brian Whetten is an ex-Silicon Valley founder turned coach. What interested me is that he’s dedicated his engineer’s mind to a systematic study of what works in the spiritual and self-help world. Our conversation was highly conceptual, but also unbelievably dense with insights. As a result, we decided to split the conversation up into two parts. Part 1 will discuss the diagnosis of the problem. Part 2 will explicitly discuss tools and strategies to avoid the major pitfalls.

A remarkable conversation with "teacher of presence" Roshni Daya

Dr. Mona Sobhani is an author, cognitive neuroscientist and an expert in the emerging science of “spiritual” phenomena. A core theme of this series is the importance of updating your stale perceptions of the world. Over the last two years, nobody has helped challenge my own preconceptions more than Dr. Mona Sobhani, and her book Proof of Spiritual Phenomena.

Dan Larence is an exceptionally experienced consultant psychotherapist and depth psychological researcher. His expertise is in Jungian analysis, syncronicity and dream analysis. Dan isn’t just the most qualified mental health professional I’ve ever met, he’s also facinating because he started life as a currency trader. He now applies those pattern-recognition skills to the analysis of dreams. He recorded a spectacular lecture specifically for this series “The Wisdom of Dreams: A Jungian Oriental Approach.”

Allison Paradise is a neuroscientist and founder of The Epicenter. She is an expert in consciousness and relationships, specifically the role of intuition in raising mentally healthy children.

Dr. Ervin Laszlo is a philosopher and systems scientist. He’s the author, co-author or editor of 106 different books and he’s written over 400 articles and research papers. Among many other awards he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 and 2005. Now 92 and stil as passionate as ever, Dr. Laszlo describes how mainstream science is dangerously flawed. Our primary topic of discussion is attractors; which has the potential to be the Copernican moment for Western culture. Laszlo has pioneered the scientific acceptance of the “holotropic attractor.”1 In his latest (free) book Our Sacred Mission he describes this as “a force that orients interactions in the universe towards the formation of complex and coherent systems.” In our short 25 minute conversation Dr. Laszlo described why it’s of urgent societal importance and massive personal benefit for us to align with this force.

Psychotherapist, author, mythologist and close associate of the legendary Joseph Campbell, Dr. Stephen Larsen shared his understanding of the secrets revealed by human myth.

Together with Le Ciel Foundation, Lucy Martens co-directed and produced the documentary The Twelve. In November 2017, twelve highly spiritual Elders from wisdom traditions around the globe agreed to gather at the U.N. in New York. The documentary follows their journey as well as articulating the overlaps in their spiritual worldviews. The focus of her new documentary, EarthElders is the prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor.

Mindahi Bastida is a spiritual leader and holder of 2 doctorates. He’s a caretaker of the philosophy and traditions of the Otomi-Toltec peoples, as well as a consultant with UNESCO around Sacred Sites and Biocultural issues and for other UN programs. In this podcast he talks about the Eagle and the Condor prophecy as well as the 5 mandates he's working on to urgently restore balance to the world.

Mindahi Bastida is a caretaker of the philosophy and traditions of the Otomi-Toltec peoples, as well as a consultant with UNESCO around Sacred Sites and Biocultural issues and for other UN programs. In this interview he talks about the Eagle and the Condor prophecy as well as the 5 mandates he's working on to urgently restore balance to the world. Together with Le Ciel Foundation, Lucy Martens co-directed and produced the documentary The Twelve. In November 2017, twelve highly spiritual Elders from wisdom traditions around the globe agreed to gather at the U.N. in New York. The documentary follows their journey as well as articulating the overlaps in their spiritual worldviews. The focus of her new documentary, EarthElders, is the prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor.

Based in New York, Devin is one of the world’s best transitional coaches. His expertise is helping high-performing individuals with big decisions and life transitions.

Ulisse Di Corpo, PhD and his wife wife Antonella Vannini have spent years developing the groundbreaking theory of syntropy. It presents a practical and positive theory of attractors that has nonetheless been roundly suppressed and ignored by the Western scientific establishment. Please enjoy this moving interview. http://www.sintropia.it/syntropy.htm

River’s an expert in somatic and embodiment practices. He uses learning from Jungian Psychology, Esoteric Buddhism, and Body-Mind Integration to help people get out of their head and back into their lifes. He’s also one of the freshest voices online right now.

The episode’s expert is neuroscientist and curiosity expert Anne Laure Le Cunff. She has written some great pieces about the specifics of structuring experiments to facilitate curiosity.

Our first episode explores the practical acquisition of expertise. I haven’t encountered anyone better than Cedric Chin on this topic. Both wisdom and expertise mean knowing what’s most important at any single moment in time, even in hyper complex and dynamic environments. In the real world, this looks like "expert intuition." Cedric’s work, especially around Cognitive Flexibility Theory (CFT), has been instrumental in showing how you acquire expert intuition, therefore it also provides deep insights into how to become wise. I would define Cedric’s entire genre as asking: “sounds clever on paper, does it work in practice?” CFT has worked repeatedly in his own life, and he’s successfully tested it on more than a hundred of his readers. Cedric has generously produced a new presentation specifically on this topic for the launch of The Leading Edge.