Saturday, December 28, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #139 - 28DEC13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Sr. Greta Ronningen, a professed member of the Community of Divine Love, an Episcopal monastery in the Benedictine tradition located in San Gabriel, Ca. Greta is a chaplain working with both adult men and women, and young girls incarcerated in Los Angeles County jails. Greta holds a Master’s Degree from Claremont School of Theology in Spiritual Formation. She lectures and leads retreats inspired by her Master’s thesis - Becoming Beguines: Living Love both Mystically and Apostolically.

    Sr. Greta began her spiritual journey in the eastern traditions. In the 70’s she was exposed to a wide variety of paths through the Ojai Foundation, then directed by Dr. (Roshi) Joan Halifax. She traveled to Nepal and had the occasion to take refuge with His Holiness Dudgem Rinpoche. In the mid 80’s she married a second-generation yoga master from South Africa. His lineage, ISHTA yoga, combined Hatha, Tantra and Ayurvedic practices. They created Yoga Works in Santa Monica, California and later Yoga Zone in New York. Greta has been immersed in yoga for 35 years and continues to teach hatha with an emphasis on breathing practices. In 2000 she found herself seeking God in a Christian context. Drawn to the monastic life of prayer and simplicity she became an Episcopal monastic in 2010 and co-founded the Community of Divine Love in San Gabriel, Ca. She has just completed her Master in Arts in Spiritual Formation through the Claremont School of Theology. Greta is a chaplain to the incarcerated serving both adults at Twin Towers, the largest jail in the world, and young girls at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey.
More information about Sr. Gretta Ronningen's work and interests can be found at:

Saturday, December 21, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #138 - 21DEC13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Dean Radin. Dean Radin, PhD, is Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing. His original career track as a concert violinist shifted into science after earning a BSEE degree in electrical engineering, magna cum laude and with honors in physics, from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and then an MS in electrical engineering and a PhD in psychology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. For a decade he worked on advanced telecommunications R&D at AT&T Bell Laboratories and GTE Laboratories.

    For over two decades he has been engaged in consciousness research. Before joining the research staff at IONS in 2001, he held appointments at Princeton University, University of Edinburgh, University of Nevada, and several Silicon Valley think-tanks, including Interval Research Corporation and SRI International, where he worked on a classified program investigating psychic phenomena for the US government.

    He is author or coauthor of over 200 technical and popular articles, a dozen book chapters, and several books including the bestselling The Conscious Universe (HarperOne, 1997) and Entangled Minds (Simon & Schuster, 2006). His latest book is Supernormal – Science, Yoga, and the Evidence for Extraordinary Psychic Abilities, published this year by Deepok Chopra Books. His most recent paper published in the Journal Explore is, Metaphysics of the Tea Ceremony: A Randomized Trial Investigating the Roles of Intention and Belief on Mood while Drinking Tea.
More information about Dean Radin's work and interests can be found at:

Saturday, December 14, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #137 - 14DEC13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • First Hour: A conversation with author and psychotherapist Dave Richo. David Richo, Ph.D., M.F.T., is a psychotherapist, teacher, workshop leader, and writer, who works in Santa Barbara and San Francisco California. He combines Jungian, poetic, and mythic perspectives in his work with the intention of integrating the psychological and the spiritual. His books and workshops include attention to Buddhist practices.

    He is the best-selling author of more than a dozen volumes, including How to Be an Adult, How to Be an Adult in Relationships, How to Be an Adult in Faith and Spirituality, and The Five Things You Cannot Change and the Happiness We Find By Embracing Them. His most recent book is, How to Be an Adult in Love - Letting Love in Safely and Showing it Recklessly, published this year by Shambhala Publications.

    In this conversation, we focus on one of Dave's 2007 books, Mary Within Us - A Jungian contemplation of Her Titles and Powers, and how the Jungian archetype of the feminine aspect of God as personified by Mary is shown to be built into the design of every human psyche.

  • Second Hour: Mystical Positivist co-hosts Stuart Goodnick and Robert Schmidt elaborate on the themes raised in the first part of the show ranging from the meaning of Mary to the nature of our multi-dimensional existence and the scales of our individuality and deeper unity.
More information about Dave Richo's work and interests can be found at:

Saturday, December 7, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #136 - 07DEC13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Blake D. Bauer, author of the new book, You Were Not Born To Suffer: Love Yourself Back to Inner Peace, Health, Happiness, and Fulfillment. Blake is an internationally recognized spiritual teacher and energetic healer. His pioneering work centers on cultivating conscious awareness and unconditional self-love in the present moment as the keys to healing yourself, fulfilling your life’s purpose, and realizing your greatest potential both personally and professionally.

    Blake has searched for freedom from his own psychological, emotional, and physical suffering for years while at the same time supporting a large number of people internationally to do the same. His personal and professional experiences have culminated in a deep understanding of the processes of overall healing and spiritual awakening.

    After studying with spiritual teachers, healers, and masters from all over the world, Blake now practices and teaches various forms of meditation, qi gong, qi gong energy medicine, and dao yin (a health and longevity yoga). Blake has also formally studied traditional Chinese medicine, five-element Chinese medicine, nutritional medicine, herbal healing, psychology (both Eastern and Western schools of thought), past life regression therapy-hypnosis, and various other forms of traditional healing and alternative medicine.

    Through private consultations, writing, and teaching, Blake has devoted his life to helping others find lasting inner peace, vital health, happiness, fulfillment, and true love in their lives. Between the United States and Australia, his work and teachings have successfully guided thousands of people toward greater psychological, emotional, physical, financial, and spiritual freedom.
More information about Blake Bauer's work and interests can be found at:

Saturday, November 30, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #135 - 30NOV13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Max Strom, author of A Life Worth Breathing: A Yoga Master’s Handbook of Strength, Grace, and Healing, and his latest book which carries the wonderful title There Is No App for Happiness: How to Avoid a Near-Life Experience. Teacher, speaker, and author, Max Strom is known for inspiring and impacting the lives of his students and readers and has become a new voice of personal transformation worldwide. Due to an ever-increasing demand for his teachings, Max travels extensively, teaching and lecturing on personal transformation, spirituality, and yoga. His system guides us to live the daily experience of a meaningful life. Max has taught tens of thousands of students and trained several hundred teachers across the globe.

    Max Strom has been the keynote speaker at numerous conferences and forums. Among his 2011 and 2012 speaking appearances were two TEDx events, and a keynote speech on ethics in business at a Fortune 500 management conference. His articles and interviews have appeared in The Huffington Post, The New York Times, Utne Reader, Whole Living, Yoga Journal, That's Beijing, and other printed, online media, and radio around the globe. He was director/founder of the top-rated yoga center in Los Angeles, Sacred Movement Yoga.
More information about Max Strom's work and interests can be found at:

Saturday, November 23, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #134 - 23NOV13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Beth Winegarner. Beth is a Sonoma County native and San Francisco author with a new book coming out in December called The Columbine Effect: How five teen pastimes got caught in the crossfire and why teens are taking them back. Columbine High School shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold weren’t goth kids who played more Doom than their classmates. But after news outlets reported they were, teen goths and gamers felt the backlash for years. As police and journalists have rushed to explain other unthinkable massacres, heavy metal music, paganism, Satanism, occult practices and role-playing games have unfairly gotten caught in the crossfire.

    Adolescents’ brains may still be developing, but they recognize the rich benefits of pastimes adults have deemed dangerous. The Columbine Effect is filled with teens’ stories of self-discovery and healing – and the research to back them up. It reveals how we arrived at such gross misunderstandings of common but controversial interests. The Columbine Effect is the book that will make us stop blaming teen violence on the wrong things – and help us understand how Slayer, Satanism and Grand Theft Auto can be a healthy part of growing up.
More information about Beth Winegarner's work and interests can be found at:

Saturday, October 19, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #133 - 19OCT13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Carl Jones. Carl Jones, aka Awo Fabukola, is a spiritual teacher in the Cleveland area who combines a 40 year deep immersion in the Gurdjieff work with a dedicated practice as a priest and elder in the West African IFA spiritual tradition. In 1993 he was initiated into the IFA tradition and is a Baba-a-láwo or Priest of IFA. Carl is the author of A Notebook on the Fourth Way: The Work of Man #5 and he leads a regular group called Friends of the Blameworthy in Cleveland, Ohio. Carl represents a rare combination of the very Western oriented Fourth Way tradition with an African mystical and divinatory tradition.
Carl Jones can be contacted at at:
  • Carl Jone's phone number: 216-870-4838

Saturday, October 12, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #132 - 12OCT13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Jacqueline Kramer, author of Buddha Mom-the Path of Mindful Mothering and director of the Hearth Foundation. She has been studying and practicing Theravadin Buddhism for over 30 years, has been a Religious Science Practitioner, as well as a student of Zen koans, and of the world’s Wisdom traditions. Her root teacher was Annagarika Dhamma Dinna who taught in the Sri Lankan tradition. She also studied with the Venerable Ananda Maitreya, Achan Sobin Namto, the Venerable Punnaji Mahathera, Ayya Khema and John Tarrant.

    In 2007 Jacqueline received the Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award for her work teaching Buddhism to mothers around the world. Jacqueline is past VP of Alliance for Bhikkhunis and her work is published in various Buddhist journals such as Turning Wheel and Present. Jacqueline has also created online lay Buddhist practice classes which she offers, as in the Buddhist tradition, at no cost. She is a mother, grandmother, daughter, sister and friend.

    The Hearth Foundation, established in 2006, is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the spiritual growth and well-being of parents through study, practice and community building activities. While the core philosophy is Buddhist, Hearth draws on all Wisdom traditions to further positive parenting experience through everyday practice. It supports the creation of a kinder, more mindful world by supporting spiritual practice within the home. Hearth offers online lay Buddhist practice classes and other classes designed to support the spiritual life and well-being of families. Hearth also offers other resources for families, such as a monthly newsletter, a place to connect with other like-minded families and suggested resources for spiritual parenting.

More information about Jacqueline Kramer's work and interests can be found at:

Saturday, September 28, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #131 - 28SEP13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Mariana Caplan, PhD, MFT. Mariana Caplan is a licensed psychotherapist, professor of yogic and transpersonal psychologies, and the author of seven books in the fields of psychology and spirituality, including, The Guru Question: The Perils and Awards of Choosing a Spiritual Teacher, Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discernment on the Spiritual Path, which won five national awards for best spiritual book of 2010, and the seminal Halfway Up the Mountain: the Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment. She has spent 20 years researching cutting edge and controversial topics in Western Spirituality, and dialoguing with the great spiritual teachers, scholars, and luminaries of our time. She is a leading spiritual psychologist, using somatic approaches to psychotherapy to support spiritual practitioners and teachers with the process of healing trauma and moving towards psycho-spiritual integration, and working with the complex discernments that arise in the context of spiritual practice and in spiritual communities.

    She is an adjunct professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies where she creates and teaches innovative public and academic programs. She has degrees cultural anthropology, counseling psychology, and contemporary spirituality, and is a teacher, lifelong practitioner, and lover of yoga philosophy and asana.

More information about Mariana Caplan's work and interests can be found at:

Saturday, September 21, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #130 - 21SEP13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Tashi Dhargyal, and Tashi’s friend and supporter Richard Ruge. Tashi has trained and painted for over 15 years. From 2006-2010, he was the artist-in-residence at the Ganden Monastery in Dharamsala. He is both a master thangka painter and craftsman — painting and decorating statues both for the Monastery and private customers.

    In the summer of 2012, he personally presented his work to HH the 14th Dalai Lama, who commended his skill and talent, and requested that Tashi continue to paint, and teach. Tashi has traveled throughout India to work in monasteries to restore and decorate statues and has been integral in the Tibetan art community. He studied under the late Ven. Sangye Yeshi, whom His Holiness the Dalai Lama personally invited to reactivate the long and rich tradition of thangka painting in Dharamsala by opening a school at the Tibetan Library of Works and Archives. When this first school was shut, due to restructuring of the Library buildings, Tashi worked with his teacher to start the Institute of Tibetan Thangka Art. Through his initiative, the ITTA was started, and staffed with the best teachers.

    Tashi has shown his works along with his ITTA contemporaries at the Tibet House in New Delhi, at the Museum at His Holiness’ the Dalai Lama’s temple in Dharamsala, and at the Tibet House in New York. His thangka were featured art on TLC’s series New York Ink, at the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, at the Tubac Center for the Arts (where it received Honorable Mention in a juried group exhibition), as well as at Invisible NYC Gallery in New York’s Lower East Side.

    Tashi’s thangka have been auctioned by Christie’s to benefit the Tibet House; he has also donated works and lessons to benefit the Tibetan Aid Project and the Tibet Fund, who showcased his work in their PSA on the Jumbotron in New York’s Times Square. He has taught classes at the Tibet House, the Newark Museum, as well as to private groups and has completed murals for Jivamukti Yoga in New York. His works have been commissioned by the likes of Jet Li as presents for HH the Dalai Lama.

    Richard Ruge is a friend and supporter of Tashi Dhargyal and the Tibetan Art Gallery and Studio in Sebastopol. Richard’s other passions include Disaster Preparedness for Vulnerable Populations, and the ROSE initiative, whose vision is to awaken an international cultural shift from dependency on others to individual, communal, and planetary self-sufficiency in the event of disasters.

More information about Tashi Dhargyal's work and interests can be found at:

Saturday, September 14, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #129 - 14SEP13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Rahima Baldwin Dancy. Rahima is internationally known as a midwife, Waldorf early childhood educator, and founder of Informed Family Life. She is the author of You Are Your Child's First Teacher, now in its third printing, which provides new ways for parents to see and understand their children and provide fertile ground for parents’ own creativity and confidence in making the most of those magical years from birth to age six. She herself has raised four children.

    Rahima has also worked closely with the development of the LifeWays approach for nurturing families and inspiring childcare, both as a founding board member and directing Rainbow Bridge LifeWays Program for 1-5 year olds in Boulder, CO from 2008-2012.

    Rahima and her husband, Agaf Dancy, are retired now and based in Boulder, Colorado, where they enjoy backpacking and online work.

More information about Rahima Baldwin Dancy's work and interests can be found at:

Saturday, September 7, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #128 - 07SEP13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Anthony Blake. Anthony Blake has a background in physics, philosophy, and Fourth Way practice. He studied with the systems thinker and mystic John Bennett as well as with the physicist David Bohm and other innovators and pioneers. He has followed the principle of integration without rejection, proposed by Bennett, and focuses on how to make this possible in real life. Co-founder of The DuVersity, of which he is Director of Studies, Anthony facilitates seminars and lectures on new methods. The extraordinary range of his interests is reflected in the many subjects he has written about, including the Enneagram symbol of Gurdjieff, the meaning of time, intelligence and higher intelligence, dialogue, globalization, systematics, etc. His books include A Gymnasium of Beliefs in Higher Intelligence (2010), The Supreme Art of Dialogue - structures of meaning, and The Intelligent Enneagram (1996).

More information about Anthony Blake's work and interests can be found at:

Saturday, August 31, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #127 - 31AUG13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Lalitha Thomas, author of the spiritual manual Waking To Ordinary Life, and director of Kripa Mandir Ashram in British Columbia, Canada. Lalitha has been a disciple of Western Baul master Lee Lozowick for more than thirty years. Her work stands out with a fierce clarity that both transcends gender and yet remains powerfully rooted in femininity. Lalitha has extensive training as a master herbalist and healer, and is the author of several respected books in the field, including 10 Essential Herbs and 10 Essential Foods.

More information about Lalitha Thomas' work and interests can be found at:

Saturday, August 24, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #126 - 24AUG13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Dr. Michael Changaris, a clinical psychologist and a Zen practitioner with a specialty in the biological bases of behavior, stress physiology, and the neuro-anatomy of PTSD. He completed his post-doctoral fellowship with the child, family and adolescent intensive outpatient program with Kaiser Permanente. He continues to deepen his own practice through his work and his relationships with family. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the Festival of Conscious Parenting, which is one of the ways that Rob and I have come to know and appreciate his quick intelligence, his copious energy, and his generosity of spirit.

More information about Dr. Changaris's work and interests can be found at:

Saturday, August 3, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #125 - 03AUG13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Swami Khecaranatha, a teacher and leader of a community of spiritual practitioners at Sacred Space Yoga Sanctuary. He is a disciple of the revered Swami Rudrananda, in a lineage of Kashmir Shaivite spiritual practice. In addition to teaching, Swami Khecaranatha also serves as director of Rudramandir, a center for spirituality and teaching, which is operated by Sacred Space. Also known as “Nathaji”, he has been teaching Kundalini Maha Yoga since 1972. With a mastery etched from four decades of inner practice and selfless service, he is an authentic adept of Tantric Shaivism and an initiated carrier in the Shaktipat Lineage of Bhagavan Nityananda and Swami Rudrananda (Rudi). Swami Khecaranatha’s books include Depth Over Time, Kundalini Maha Yoga: A Path of Transformation, Merging With the Divine, and One Day at a Time.

More information about Nathaji's work and interests can be found at:

Saturday, July 20, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #124 - 20JUL13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • A show hosted by Nicholas Egan, Ph.D. Nicholas is the Founder of the Advaya Institute, a center for the practice of authentic spirituality in daily life. He is authorized to teach in the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, and his main teachers are Anam Thubten Rinpoche and Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche. Nicholas has been practicing meditation for more than 18 years and leads tours to Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Asia. He is known for his accessibility as a teacher and a warm and engaging teaching style.

More information about Nick Egan's work and interests can be found at:

Saturday, July 6, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #123 - 06JUL13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Francis Geddes, D.Min., a United Church of Christ parish minister, and author of Contemplative Healing: The Congregation as Healing Community. Dr. Geddes has taught hundreds of people over the last 35 years to engage more directly in healing. He is a United Church of Christ parish minister and a graduate of Yale Divinity School; he also did doctoral work at San Francisco Theological Seminary. Dr. Geddes and his wife live in Santa Rosa, Calif.

    In his book Contemplative Healing, Dr. Geddes maintains that Jesus introduced healing into the Judaism of his day, and for the Church's first three hundred years, healing was an important spiritual practice. He describes healing prayer's importance and recommends congregations renew this ancient Christian practice.

    Dr. Geddes presents an overview of Christian healing for the church and beyond. It addresses society's need for loving connection with one another and the source of our being within a broad Christian context. Contemplative Healing demonstrates the following essential points:

    • Everyone can be a healer
    • Science and healing need not be at odds
    • Jesus introduced healing as a transforming spiritual practice
    • Healing is grounded in love

    Contemplative Healing communicates how the loving spirit of God and Christ function in a community by alleviating pain and bringing wholeness. While many books on healing describe one-on-one healing, Contemplative Healing also describes how the congregation can become a healing community that supports and practices healing in various forms.
Dr. Francis Geddes can be reached at: Francis.Geddes @ Standfordalumni.org

Saturday, June 22, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #122 - 22JUN13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Jill Nephew, founder and creator of LifeConstellation.com, an online tool for self exploration. She has been building software since 1997 and practicing self-observation based meditation since 1988.

    Jill Nephew spent 25 years devoted to a meditation practice to move past the more machine-like qualities of her interactions with the world. Well, in classic form, the universe got the last laugh and Jill found her life calling in exploring the spiritual side of (gasp!), software. In late 2009 Jill quit her job to invent Life Constellation, a software tool to help people explore, articulate and share their life wisdom. She was delightfully surprised when her early testers reported interacting with the software to be profoundly transformative. This opened Jill's eyes to the immense potential for people to self heal and for software to facilitate and even amplify this process.

    In this discussion we explore questions such as, how do technological interventions differ from human interventions? What unique powers might technology bring to the healing process? What could facilitated self-healing teach us about the effective use of others in healing? And how can we incorporate traditional, rare and resource-intensive healing technologies into modern, highly available, affordable and scalable technologies?
More information about Jill Nephew's work can be found at:

Saturday, June 15, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #121 - 15JUN13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Erik Davis, author, award-winning journalist, independent scholar, and lecturer based in San Francisco. He is the author, most recently, of Nomad Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica, and The Visionary State: A Journey through California’s Spiritual Landscape, with photographs by Michael Rauner. He also wrote Led Zeppelin IV and TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information, the latter a cult classic of visionary media studies that has been translated into five languages. His essays on art, music, techno-culture, and contemporary spirituality have appeared in over a dozen books, including AfterBurn: Reflections on Burning Man, Zig Zag Zen, The Disinformation Book of Lies, 010101: Art in Technological Times (SFMOMA), and Prefiguring Cyberculture. Davis has contributed articles and essays to a variety of publications, including Bookforum, Slate, ArtForum, Salon, Blender, The LA Weekly, and The Village Voice. For many years he was a contributing writer at Wired, and he wrote “The Analog Life” for Arthur.

    A vital speaker, Davis has given talks at universities, media art conferences, and festivals around the world. He has taught workshops and seminars at the UC Berkeley, UC Davis, the California Institute of Integral Studies, the New York Open Center, and Esalen. He was one of the original minds behind Planetwork, an organization devoted to cross-fertilizaing information technology and global ecology. He has been interviewed by CNN and the BBC, and wrote the libretto for and performed in “How to Survive the Apocalypse,” a Burning Man-inspired rock opera, and occasionally plays guitar in front of microphones.
More information about Erik Davis' work can be found at:

Saturday, June 8, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #120 - 08JUN13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Travis Wernet, Projective Dreamworker, professional musician, and practicing Sound Healer. Travis received his certification from the head of the Marin Institue for Projective Dreams, world-renowned Author and Dream Worker Jeremy Taylor. Travis leads on-going groups in the North Bay in California in both Occidental and Sebastopol and also provides individual sessions via Skype and in person. He is also a Professional Musician with 3 studio albums released to date and is a practicing Sound Healer. He uses the Didjeridu, Tibetan Bowls, Native American Flutes and Percussion Instruments as a compliment to Dream Work as well as in a stand-alone offering of pure Sound Healing.

    For over 15 years Travis has facilitated dream work groups and sessions exploring the possible meaning of personal and collective dream narratives. This work is rich and expansive and draws inspiration from both Jungian and Archetypal Psychology, and seeks to engage groups and individuals in a curious, whole-hearted quest for wholeness. Working with dreams allows for a unique recognition of personal authority around the deep meaning and experience of our lives.

    Venues in which Travis has led Dream Work exploration and Sound Healing include Community Mental Health, Private Group Meetings, Sacred Travel in Egypt 2010, 2011, 2012 and Festival Workshops here in the U.S.

    Travis has an extensive background in the helping professions and spent several years working in various social rehabilitation settings, including Crisis and Transitional levels of care working as an On-line Staff Counselor and also in Administration. During this time he received extensive training around Trauma & Recovery as well as Substance Abuse Recovery and a working knowledge of diverse Mental Health issues and treatment.
More information about Travis Wernet's work can be found at:

Saturday, June 1, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #119 - 01JUN13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Dharma Bodhi, Spiritual Director of DHARMA INC International. Dharma Bodhi was born in Chicago in 1962 and became deeply involved in spirituality, religion and philosophy at an early age. At seven, he began the practice of Hatha Yoga and at twelve took up a lifelong commitment to meditation and martial arts. After extensive undergraduate study in biochemistry and psychology, and clinical experience in Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, Dharma Bodhi went on to graduate with a clinical doctorate degree in chiropractic in 1986. In 1987 he met a disciple of the great master of Tantrik Yoga, Paramahamsa Satyananda Sarasvati. Later that year, Dharma recognized Satyananda to be his Root-Guru. Formal initiation followed in 1987. This marked the beginning of a very intimate mystical relationship with his guru that resulted in Dharma letting go of his chiropractic practice and contact with family and friends, in order to undertake a one and a half year practice retreat.

    In 1997, his guru’s successor, Paramahamsa Niranjanananda Sarasvati, gave him the mandate to move back to the United States to form a new sect of classical Tantrik Yoga for Westerners to preserve the lineage teachings and practices which had become debased and commercialized in the West. In January of 2001, Dharma established a center for Tantrik studies in Berkeley, California, and then, in 2002, he created a community center in Berkeley called Yoga Mandala.

    After fulfilling the seven-year mandate given by his Guru to bring the classical Tantrik teachings to the United States, Dharma Bodhi moved with his family to the mountains of northern Thailand to establish Kailash Akhara in 2007. This 60-acre tropical oasis, residential community, artist colony and training center is dedicated to the study, practice and preservation of non-dual cultural arts and religion, especially those of Sakta/Saiva Tantra and Yungdrung Bon Dzogchen meditation and yoga. Dharma and his wife Ajama live with their children and a community of students at Kailash Akhara and, currently, he serves as the Spiritual Director of DHARMA INC International.
More information about Dharma Bodhi's work can be found at:

Saturday, May 18, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #118 - 18MAY13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream
This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Rick Lewis, self-proclaimed Professional Misbehaver - an entertainer, speaker, author, and the founder of Break a Rule Presentations and Trainings. Thirty-five years of interacting with thousands of people from diverse backgrounds and industries led Rick to discover the hidden cultural threads that define the way people pursue fulfillment and success in their lives. Rick shares these ideas through a presentation titled 7 Rules You Were Born to Break, which uses comedy and theater to playfully expose where organizations and individuals get stuck when pursuing a vision. His performances and his book by the same name skillfully reveal the unspoken cultural rules that block personal and professional growth and demonstrate a joyful and profitable alternative.

    We originally interviewed Rick on The Mystical Positivist on March 19, 2011, so it is our great pleasure to welcome him back to the show!
More information about Rick Lewis' work and interests can be found at:

Saturday, May 11, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #117 - 11MAY13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • Host Dr. Robert Schmidt interviews Stuart Goodnick, the Mystical Positivist. Stuart has been a practitioner of Tayu Meditation since 1985 and a Tayu Meditation instructor since 1993. He holds degrees in Physics from Caltech and UCSC, and has been an engineering manager in the electronics and software security industries since 1989. Stuart has also been a student of the shakuhachi (Japanese Bamboo flute) under Master Masayuki Koga since 1996. In recent years Stuart has been applying the principles of spiritual practice and transformation in daily life as a senior executive in both Silicon Valley start-ups and global industrial manufacturers. He co-founded Many Rivers Books & Tea with Robert Schmidt and Jim Wilson in Sebastopol in 2002. A frequent writer and speaker on spiritual topics, Stuart maintains that rationality is no way the antithesis of deep mystical experience, but is in fact a necessary ally. He is currently working on a compilation of some of his essays and transcriptions of talks to be released early in 2014.
More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:

Saturday, May 4, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #116 - 04MAY13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • Hosts Stuart Goodnick and Dr. Robert Schmidt look back at, and reflect upon recent Mystical Positivist shows. Their discussion is an opportunity to compare and contrast themes and ideas that have arisen during interviews conducted over the last seven months and more. In the shear breadth of the rich discussions that they had with a variety of guests from many differing spiritual backgrounds, Stuart and Rob have been exposed to new ideas, novel practices, and unfamiliar ways of thinking about spiritual practices, and the place of spiritual practice in human life. In one sense, this discussion is an opportunity to reflect upon the broad state of spiritual practice in 21st century America.

    Stuart Goodnick and Rob Schmidt helped found and run Many Rivers Books & Tea in Sebastopol, CA. The store is a project of Tayu Meditation Center, where both Stuart and Rob were trained in the fiery alchemy of transformation over decades by Tayu founder Robert Daniel Ennis.
More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:

Saturday, April 27, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #115 - 27APR13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Gus diZerega, Ph.D. Gus diZerega is a Third Degree Elder in Gardnerian Wicca. He studied closely with Timothy White who later founded Shaman’s Drum magazine, and also studied Brazilian Umbanda for six years under Antonio Costa e Silva.

    Dr. diZerega has published widely on the social sciences in the academic press as well as on spirituality. His second book Pagans and Christians: The Personal Spiritual Experience won the Best Nonfiction of 2001 award from The Coalition of Visionary Resources. His third, co-authored with Philip Johnson, is Beyond the Burning Times: A Pagan and a Christian in Dialogue. His art frequently appeared in Shaman’s Drum, and the ecological journals Wild Earth, and The Trumpeter. He blogs and writes for many online publications on wicca, environmental issues, and politics.

    DiZerega combines a formal academic training in Political Science with decades of work in Wicca and shamanic healing.
More information about Gus diZerega's work can be found at:

Saturday, April 20, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #114 - 20APR13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Rev. Dr. John Mabry. John R. Mabry is a pastor, teacher, musician and writer. He holds a master’s degree in Creation Spirituality from Holy Names College and a doctorate in Philosophy and Religion from the California Institute of Integral Studies. John has served as editor for Creation Spirituality magazine and Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction, and as managing editor for the Episcopal Diocese of California's Pacific Church News.

    John currently serves as pastor of Grace North Church in Berkeley, Calif., an Anglican-rite Congregational parish. John is the Director of the Interfaith Spiritual Direction Certificate Program at the Chaplaincy Institute for Arts and Interfaith Ministry, where he also teaches world religions and interfaith theology.

    John is the author of numerous books on spirituality and spiritual guidance, including Growing Into God: A Beginner’s Guide to Christian Mysticism, Faith Styles: Ways People Believe, Noticing the Divine: An Introduction to Interfaith Spiritual Guidance and The Way of Thomas: Nine Insights for Enlightened Living from the Secret Sayings of Jesus.

    He also writes fiction, poetry, and music. John lives in Oakland, Calif.
More information about Rev. Dr. John Mabry's work can be found at:

Saturday, April 13, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #113 - 13APR13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Dr. Robert Schmidt, spiritual director of Tayu Meditation Center. Rob Schmidt met and began intensive, 24-hour study with Tayu Meditation Center founder Robert Daniel Ennis in 1977. After five remarkable training years, he received ordination as a minister of Tayu, and co-taught with his teacher until Mr. Ennis’ death in 1998. His work with Mr. Ennis included co-writing and publishing a book entitled God Is Gay: An Evolutionary Spiritual Work. Rob succeeded Mr. Ennis as Tayu spiritual director, a post he still holds, in collaboration with yours truly. With Stuart Goodnick and Jim Wilson he co-founded Many Rivers Books & Tea in Sebastopol in Sebastopol, CA, in 2002.

    Currently he’s collaborating with practitioners of many spiritual traditions to create
    The Festival of Conscious Parenting, a community event scheduled for 2014 in Santa Rosa, CA. Along the way, Rob completed a Ph.D. in anthropological archaeology at UC Berkeley, where he was co-editor with his grad student colleague Barbara Voss of the award-winning Archaeologies of Sexuality, the first academic edited volume to examine the phenomenon of sexuality as a object of knowledge in archaeological contexts.
More information about Tayu Meditation Center can be found at:

Saturday, April 6, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #112 - 06APR13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Lodro Rinzler, a practitioner and teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage. He began meditating as a child and sat retreats as a teenager, even going as far as attending a silent month-long retreat during which he shaved his head and took monastic robes and vows.

    When he left for college he received two heirlooms from his parents: from his father, a mala which he had used to recite mantras; from his mother, her father’s flask. He utilized both greatly in the four years ahead. During that time Lodro became a Vajrayana student of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. He also established Buddhist House, an eighteen person dorm at Wesleyan University which hosts a large meditation room. He began teaching meditation at that time.

    After leaving college he was recruited to the position of the Executive Director of the Boston Shambhala Center. He began leading numerous workshops at meditation centers and college campuses throughout the United States. Lodro served as the Head of Development for Shambhala internationally before founding his own non-profit, an authentic leadership training and job placement organization.

    His column, What Would Sid Do, appears regularly on The Huffington Post and The Interdependence Project and his writing has appeared in Shape Magazine, Real Simple Magazine, The Shambhala Sun, Buddhadharma, and The Good Men Project. He is the author of two books: The Buddha Walks into a Bar and Walk Like a Buddha. Lodro writes from his apartment in New York City, which he shares with his dog Tillie and his cat, Justin Bieber.
More information about Lodro Rinzler's work can be found at:

Saturday, March 30, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #111 - 30MAR13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Russell Delman. Russell began his study of body/mind perspectives and human potential in 1969 as a student of psychology. His lifelong commitment to awareness and freedom began consciously at this time along with his practice of Zen meditation. Through workshops at The Esalen Institute (1971), living at the Gestalt Institute of Canada (1972), travels in the jungles of South America (1973), being trained as a yoga teacher (1974) and studying Gestalt therapy with Dr Robert Hall (1975-1978), he deepened his self-knowledge. His training and deep personal relationship with Moshe Feldenkrais began in 1975, during the first professional training program offered in the U.S. In 1984, Russell became one of the first people in the world authorized to lead Feldenkrais® Professional training programs. Since that time he has taught in more than 40 of these programs internationally and directed or designed 10. Russell has helped in the training of more than 2500 Feldenkrais teachers. In addition, he maintains a private practice at his home in northern California and teaches public workshops throughout the world.

    Along with his wife Linda, also a Feldenkrais trainer, he created the Feldenkrais-India Project that brought the method to India for the first time. Through work at Mother Teresa's Missions, particularly in Calcutta, the Delmans taught the "Sisters of Charity" to work with brain-injured children. During this time they were blessed and influenced by numerous private meetings with Mother Teresa.

    In addition to all the above, perhaps the strongest influences on Russell's life are his more than 30 years of relationship with Linda and the journey of fathering his daughter, Lily. The formation of “The Embodied Life™ School” and “The Mentorship Program” is the fruition of a life-long trajectory.
More information about Russell Delman's work can be found at:

Saturday, March 23, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #110 - 23MAR13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Dale Borglum. Founder and Executive Director of The Living/Dying Project, Dale is a pioneer in the conscious dying movement and has worked directly with thousands of people with life-threatening illness and their families for over 30 years. In 1981, Dale founded the first residential facility for people who wished to die consciously in the United States, The Dying Center. He has taught and lectured extensively on the topics of spiritual support for those with life-threatening illness, on caregiving as a spiritual practice, and on healing at the edge, the edge of illness, of death, of loss, of crisis.

    Dale has a BS from UC Berkeley and a PhD from Stanford University. He is the co-author of Journey of Awakening: A Meditator’s Guidebook and has taught meditation for the past 35 years, after studying practices of devotion, meditation, and contemplative prayer with many of the greatest masters of the last century, including Neem Karoli Baba, Suzuki Roshi, Ananda Mayee Ma, Kalu Rinpoche, the 16th Karmapa, Dilgo Khyentse, Mahasi Sayadaw, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Trungpa Rinpoche, Goenka, Dudjom Rinpoche and HH the Dalai Lama. Dale has taught with Ram Dass, Stephen Levine, Joan Halifax, Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Rev. Wayne Muller, and many others. His life’s work and passion has been and continues to be the healing of our individual and collective relationship with death and also using our mortality as an inspiration for spiritual awakening.
More information about Dale Borglum's work can be found at:

Saturday, March 9, 2013

The Mystical Positivist - Radio Show #109 - 09MAR13

The Mystical Positivist is now a weekly radio show on KOWS-LP 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. Listen live on Saturday evenings from 4:00 - 6:00pm, PST, via the web at KOWS Live Stream.

This week's podcast features:
  • A conversation with Sky Nelson (with co-host Dr. Nicholas Egan). Sky Nelson is a singer-songwriter, physicist and speaker with a unique vision. He teaches people about the physics of synchronicity, encouraging people to worry less, trust more, and keep our awareness open to the opportunities that are in constant motion around us. He provides a scientific model for understanding synchronicity that can lead to a new level of problem resolution. The model focuses upon an idea called “selfless confidence”, which is relevant if you are working in business, problem-solving in politics, or relating to family, as well as accomplishing your own personal goals.

    Sky speaks at Sunday services and afternoon workshops for Centers for Spiritual Living and Unity Centers around the country, as well as scientific conferences and business meetings. His peer reviewed articles have appeared in the Journal for Scientific Exploration, and The Conference Proceedings for American Association for the Advancement of Sciences. He has presented his work investigating quantum theory, special relativity and synchronicity at the Society for Scientific Exploration Annual Meeting (2010, 2012), Towards a Science of Consciousness (2010, 2012), SAND (2010, 2011, 2012) and the AAAS (2011). Sky’s popular writings have been published in Science of Mind Magazine and New Thought Magazine. Sky received a nomination in 2012 for the coveted "Positive Music Award" for his song Live in Love. His album of original music “The World Ocean” and his brand-new eBook Coincidence: The Physics of Unexpected Opportunities are available for sale, and he is launching a one-of-a-kind 6 session online eClass with the same title beginning in March 2013.
More information about Sky Nelson's work can be found at: