Buddha At The Gas Pump

Dorothy Walters, Ph.D., spent most of her early professional life as a professor of English literature in various Midwestern universities. She helped to found one of the first women’s studies programs in this country and served as the director of this program for many years. After an extended residence in San Francisco, she now lives and writes in Colorado, where she has a close relationship with the mountains as well as various streams and canyons. She underwent major Kundalini awakening in 1981 (a phenomenon totally unfamiliar to her as well as to most of her contemporaries at the time); since then she has devoted her life to researching and writing about this subject and to witnessing the unfolding of this process within herself as well as assisting others on a similar path through writing and other means. As someone who made her extensive journey without the direction of any external leader or guru, church, or established order, she is a strong believer in the “guru within,” the inner guide rather than t

Sri Shyamji was born and raised in India. At age 12, he met his spiritual teacher in the Himalayas and spent several years under his guidance. The Guru initiated Shyamji into the Saivite tradition of Tantra—imparting a rare oral tradition of sacred sounds (naada yoga), breath (svara yoga), and spiritual wisdom. The grace of the guru (guru krippa) and the spiritual practices he imparted (sadhana) are the basis for Sri Shyamji’s extraordinary intuition and unique chanting of sounds and mantra. For millennia this tradition was passed down from generation to generation through an oral tradition which preserved its purity. It is a rare opportunity to learn the science of sound from a true master. Website: chakrainstitute.com Book: Microchakras: InnerTuning for Psychological Well-being Email: admin@chakrainstitute.com Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group. Transcript of this interview. Interview recorded August 13, 2019 Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

Over his lifetime Tom has dived deeply into inner work while simultaneously living a householder life. Through an ongoing revelation of living in the moment, he integrates the insights of the most sophisticated western-developed psychologies with the ongoing unitive consciousness with which he has been blessed since the year 2000. Tom uses these skills and this wisdom to guide those dedicated and willing to go courageously inward, often finding and releasing blocks to spiritual awakening which originated in earliest, often pre-verbal, childhood. After being asked to teach, Tom has been sharing this work for over 19 years. His sessions give attendees a taste of what he exudes, a patient tender Love that is our true interconnected nature. His focus on connection to the immediacy of felt sensation enables potent transformations to readily manifest. His work and presence is an acknowledgment that our beautiful imperfect human condition is completely embraced by the wide openness of Life itself, even when the mos

Brian Longhurst has been aware of the reality of the spirit realms since childhood. Born in England, he moved to Canada as a young man, where he began what was to become an enduring, personal relationship with Jesus, who manifested in glory to him when Brian was 22. Jesus told him he had come to lead him back to God. From then, his encounters with the living Jesus began in earnest, a decades-long - still ongoing - journey of spiritual awakening. After marrying, Brian returned to live in England. He now resides in Gloucestershire with his wife, Theresa. Books: Seek ye First the Kingdom: One man's journey with the living Jesus Finding the Kingdom Within: Awakening to Eternity Entering the Kingdom Within: The Return to Reality Living FROM the Kingdom Within: Remembering Our One Identity Sharing the Kingdom Within: Ascending the Hill of the Lord Website: honest2goodness.org.uk Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group. Transcript of this interview. Interview recorded Jul

Shaykh Burhanuddin Herrmann is a contemporary mystic of the ancient Sufi tradition, called to the path at a tender age. He went through the classic dervish training, which involved an intense daily practice of meditation and prayers under the direct guidance of the Master, accepting his instructions for inner and outer life (including raising a family), extreme solitary spiritual retreats, pilgrimages, and regular challenging tests in daily life. He received direct transmission of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order, one of the most ancient and authoritative of the forty existing Sufi Orders, known variously through the ages as the ‘School of the Masters of Wisdom’, the ‘Way of the Scientists of the Soul’, and the ‘Path of Love’. When Shaykh Burhanuddin was 18 years old, he invited to his hometown in Germany the Grand Master and world guide of the Naqshbandi order, Maulana Shaykh Nazim al Haqqani ar Rabbani, may his secret be sanctified. When he saw him the first time he fainted in the middle of the street. Meeting

Born in Sheffield, England, Georgi has led a life of charm, intoxication, collision and perpetual re-awakening. Having experienced her parent’s divorce and later her father’s death to alcoholism, Georgi was a born seeker for a stable home that was somehow prior to the broken home that she knew.  As a teenager, she attended evening classes at the School of Philosophy in Belgium, that offered a ‘sanitized’ version of Vedanta. While it gave a lot, the experience became oppressive, and when she left to Oxford University, she instead delved into Jungian psychology and the application of psychoanalytic and feminist literary theory. When she was 20, Georgi arrived in Jerusalem, in search of a midway point between the mysticism of the east and the decay of the west. She experienced a part of the earth that is charged with bliss. Yet it was also a country where it seemed that nobody belonged. In this, she found a sense of belonging (in the field of not belonging). Georgi’s life in Israel would include a compulsion f

My deepest devotion, throughout my life has been to the discovery and embodiment of our truest nature. I studied organized and mystical religions, I traveled to many countries in our world, getting a taste of different cultures and people, I lived a conventional suburban life as a wife and mother, I lived in chronic confusion, and I studied psychology, all with the gnawing question of ‘what is all this really about?’ tugging at my sleeve. I was born in Brooklyn New York, into a world where appearances were everything, but I tended an inner world that I kept to myself. When I look back on how I was “companioned” throughout my childhood by my inner world that was full of comfort and promise I marvel at the wisdom and strength of this stream of consciousness. After raising my two sons, I went to graduate school to study psychology and find professional legitimacy, and to focus on my interior. I had, for a long time, known I needed to heal from childhood trauma and I also felt a calling to help others. But, li

Some of the opinions expressed on certain topics in this interview do not reflect BatGap’s point of view.  While this may be true of any of our interviews, we wanted to make a special point of it here since the opinions were stated rather emphatically. Hans Wilhelm has created over 70 short YouTube videos in which he explores and visually explains the dynamic of the universal laws. This ‘back of a napkin’ approach has been so appealing that his YouTube channel has more than 100,000 subscribers.  Hans says, “My mission is to offer these videos to inspire viewers to question and explore spirituality and their own relationship to the universe.” He is the author and illustrator of over 200 books for all ages – including some together with Byron Katie. His books have sold over 40 million copies and are translated into 30 languages. Websites: LIFEexplained.com YouTube Channel hanswilhelm.com Facebook Books: Tiger-Tiger, Is It True?: Four Questions to Make You Smile Again The Four Questions: For He

After graduating in French from the University of Exeter and working for several years in conventional jobs in London, Leah found herself deeply unhappy; struggling with feelings of depression, anxiety, disordered eating, an intense feeling of being a ‘wrong’ human being, and desperation to ‘find her purpose’. In 2012, she embarked on a journey of self-discovery, but even after several years of personal and spiritual growth, she found herself in all the same cycles. In 2016, through grace, good luck, and some wonderful people, Leah experienced her first true spiritual awakening, seeing through the illusion of the separate self and knowing herself clearly as the one Love that we all are. For the very first time, she knew true peace, happiness, and freedom. Most importantly, the feeling of being a ‘wrong’ human being left her completely. Since that time, her journey has been one of ongoing learning, integration, and unfolding. Leah works with clients one-on-one and runs online and in-person classes and work

J. Jaye Gold has been assisting people in their search for inner meaning for 35 years. He is currently living in the Sierra foothills of Northern California where he works with several dozen seekers of truth. Over the years he has deliberately resisted the trend to become a “traveling guru” with thousands of followers, in favor of preserving an element that he considers precious – that of maintaining opportunities for developing a meaningful teacher/student relationship. He is available to anyone who seeks his guidance, and asks for no payment in return. Websites: justingold.net The Center for Cultural and Naturalist Studies, Inc. Books: Justin Time: Autobiographical Stories from an American Spiritual Master Another Heart in His Hand: A Spiritual Anomaly Highway of Diamonds: An International Travel Adventure The Roca Group: A Tale of Financial Espionage Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group. Transcript of this interview Interview recorded June 1, 2019 Video a

Kate Gustin, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist practicing in the San Francisco Bay Area. She received her education from Princeton University and the University of California, Berkeley; and has worked in a variety of settings over the past twenty-five years as a mental health practitioner: outpatient psychiatry, community mental health clinics, VA Hospital, college counseling services, and currently in private practice. Gustin integrates the science of positive psychology into her psychotherapy, teaching, and consultation, and leads classes and trainings for students, patients, and health care professionals. Book: The No-Self Help Book: Forty Reasons to Get Over Your Self and Find Peace of Mind Websites: kategustin.net no-selfhelp.com Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group. Transcript of this interview. Interview recorded May 25, 2019 Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast. YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pum

Kylea Taylor, M.S., LMFT, found two gaps in ethics education in the early 1990s while simultaneously studying to be a Marriage and Family Therapist and working as a senior trainer at the Grof Transpersonal Training where she assisted Stanislav Grof in training practitioners of Holotropic Breathwork®. Kylea observed that working with clients in non-ordinary states of consciousness requires different ethical awarenesses. She drew upon the tenets of several of the great religions to create InnerEthics™, a model for ethical self-reflection. The model clarifies the unique ethical territory of understanding and working skillfully with people who are experiencing profound and extra-ordinary states of consciousness and also provides a scaffolding for recognizing our semi-conscious, inner motivations as practitioners, teachers, and caregivers in order to avoid client and student harm and increase client and student benefit. Her book, The Ethics of Caring: Finding Right Relationship With Clients for Profound, Transform

Michael Pollan is the author of eight books, including: How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, Food Rules: An Eater's Manual, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, and The Botany of Desire, all of which were New York Times bestsellers. A longtime contributor to the New York Times Magazine, he also teaches writing at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley where he is the John S. and James L. Knight Professor of Science Journalism. In 2010, Time magazine named him one of the one hundred most influential people in the world. Website Christopher M. Bache is professor emeritus in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Youngstown State University where he taught for 33 years. He is also adjunct faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies and a Fellow at the

Daniel is the creator of the award-winning film "Inner Worlds Outer Worlds" as well as the ongoing "Samadhi" series. He is also the founder of the Awaken The World initiative whose purpose is to bring the ancient teachings of Samadhi back to the world for free (in as many languages as possible) Daniel's approach combines self-inquiry with traditional forms meditation so that participants have the opportunity to simultaneously realize their transcendent nature, and to purify themselves of conditioned patterns. The pathless path is to realize an ever-deepening development process within the self-structure, and to simultaneously realize what is always already beyond the self-structure. Samadhi is when the world that is constantly changing merges or unites with the changeless. Website: awakentheworld.com YouTube Channel Inner Worlds Outer Worlds - Part 1 - Akasha Inner Worlds Outer Worlds - Part 2 - The Spiral Inner Worlds Outer Worlds - Part 3 - The Serpant and the Lotus Inner Worlds Outer Worlds -

Dani Antman is an internationally known energy healer and interfaith minister in Santa Barbara, CA. She has been at the forefront of energy medicine and healing since 1992 when she graduated from the Barbara Brennan School of Healing. Dani is a graduate of The School for Nondual Healing and Awakening, where she taught for over nine years. She has led workshops at the Esalen Institute, La Casa de Maria, and The Lionheart Institute for Transpersonal Energy Healing. She is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and helps people recover from the effects of trauma and PTSD. She has received spiritual direction and assistance for over 17 years from Patanjali Kundalini Yoga Care (see BatGap interview with Joan Shivarpita Harrigan). Through this consistent guidance, she completed a challenging Kundalini process related to her Jewish past. She is dedicated to guiding others on their spiritual path. Silvia Eberl is the new lineage holder of Patanjali Kundalini Yoga Care, as designated by Swami Chandrasekharanand. She i

Giovanni Dienstmann is a spiritual practitioner and teacher, and the creator of Live and Dare, one of the top five most visited meditation blogs on the planet. As an author, meditation coach and speaker, Giovanni helps people overcome anxiety and stress to live a more calm and centered life, through spiritually-inspired personal development work. Since the age of 14, spirituality has been the center of his life. In his journey, he practiced over 9,000 hours of meditation, tried 70 different techniques, and nearly became a monk twice. His spiritual thirst and eclectic approach led him to be formally initiated into the traditions of Zen Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, Raja Yoga, and Mantra Yoga—by the masters Moriyama Roshi, Lakshamana Swami, Shivarudra Balayogi, and Nikhileshwarananda (respectively). In February 2010 he experienced a powerful awakening in the presence of Mooji in South India, and that has been a point of no return in his path. Giovanni is the author of the best-selling book Practical Meditation:

In the spring of 2011, I was cleaning a stove and quite suddenly the knob I was holding became the rag became my hand became the space became the stove as all lines between things between moments and between myself and the world dissolved. It was like the scales had fallen off my eyes! I had heard of no self but had never heard there were no things! There was an intense psychological and physical relaxation, and I was amazed that my body didn't crumble to the floor! It was obvious that there was no one doing life, and that life wasn't happening to a me. It was the end of a lifetime propelled by hope and fear and need of a never arising next. It was as if time died. It was as if I had died, yet it was obvious that I had never existed, yet here I was! This knowing feeling of seamlessness has not left for almost eight years.  It is always obvious... it kisses me awake in the morning and holds me as I drift off to sleep.... life is overwhelmingly beautiful and wondrous always, like edgeless liquid love.... no m

Rev. Peter Panagore, M.Div (Yale) has had two near-death experiences, the first while ice climbing in 1980 and the second in 2015 due to a heart attack. He recounts these in his book Heaven Is Beautiful: How Dying Taught Me That Death Is Just the Beginning, an Audible Best Seller available globally in nine editions. His best-selling second book, Two Minutes for God: Quick Fixes for the Spirit, is a collection of original inspirational devotional stories, many of which he told for 15 years on a daily TV show reaching 30 million viewers annually in Maine and New Hampshire. Previously, he served as a United Church of Christ minister and pastor in Maine and Connecticut. He published 150 sermons and many prayers in Homiletics, a leading clergy journal. He now runs a global spiritual counseling service for "closet mystics" and travels nationally as a public and inspirational speaker and teacher. He has been practicing Zazen/Centering Prayer and Kundalini/KriyaYoga for forty years. Website: peterpanagore.love Disc

Anna Breytenbach is a South African-based professional animal communicator who has received advanced training through the Assisi International Animal Institute in California, USA. She’s been practicing for 18 years in South Africa, Europe and the USA with both domestic and wild animals. Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, she holds a degree in Psychology, Economics and Marketing from the University of Cape Town. Trained in tracking and mentoring at the Wilderness Awareness School (USA), she also mentors children and adults in nature awareness based on the ways of the Native American and San Bushmen peoples. Anna is a qualified and experienced master training facilitator, focusing on bringing forth participants’ skills through coaching and mentoring in a practical manner. She consults exclusively with wildlife and offers workshops around southern Africa, occasionally touring Australia, Europe and the USA. Her work includes working with wild dolphins and whales, leading animal communication safaris, i

Damien Echols is an artist and New York Times bestselling author of "Life After Death". In 2018, he published his first book on ceremonial magick: "High Magick: A Guide to the Spiritual Practices That Saved My Life on Death Row". He has been a practitioner of ceremonial Magick for over 20 years and leads classes on Magick across the country. He spent over 18 years on death row in Arkansas for a crime he didn't commit before gaining his freedom in 2011. Upon release, he, along with Peter Jackson produced the documentary film "West Of Memphis" which chronicled his legal battle. During his time in prison, he was ordained into the Rinzai Zen tradition of Japanese Buddhism. He lives in New York with his wife and three cats. Other offerings: Audio CD of "High Magick: A Guide to the Spiritual Practices That Saved My Life on Death Row" Angels and Archangels Royal Science of Angels Life After Death Yours for Eternity: A Love Story on Death Row Almost Home Damien's site: damienechols.com Discussion of t