Portals of Perception

This Epochal Moment, Event Part 2: Renewal

122 - This Epochal Moment, Part 1: Breakdown

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 08:00:00 +0000

Is it really a contradiction to think of the global chaos unfolding us around as both an overdue day of reckoning, and possibly the most hopeful, optimistic time we’ve seen in this century? Can humanity still retain the capacity for renewal and rebirth in such a time of intense doubt and fear about the future?

It seems like the perfect contemplation for a group of international Portals friends who recently gathered with Aviv Shahar to share their intuitions about this moment in the onsetting new epoch. Their intention and direction are to begin imagining a path forward, a new blueprint, through the upheaval to a new possibility for resurrection and rejuvenation.

The collective intelligence reveals clarity and confidence, and the humility of realizing we swim in a great unknown among emerging patterns of new universal possibility.

Among their insights and sentiments:

We call this an epochal moment because humanity is fast approaching a pivot point that can define future possibility, but requires an active individual and collective response.
If humanity does not choose wisely, we can cause irreversible harm. Never has so much depended on the few of us alive today to guarantee future generations have a future.
Just when we need it the most, the global collaboration required to solve global issues is becoming harder to find in this time of a quickening epochal transition.
The coming decade is a critical reckoning time, as upgrade and renewal begin with each of us, and how we express the values and sentiments of the emerging universal human.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“For some of us, this is what we're here, what we bargained, what we contracted. If you believe that you come here to life with a sacred contract, then that is what you showed up here for; that is to say, with all the know-how and the spiritual and personal capacities to play at this time and be a constructive, creative contributor to the journey of humanity through these times of change.” (Aviv)

“What it practically means is that all systems, at all levels, are experiencing and will experience phase shift. We shouldn't be surprised by anything in the coming years and decades. Because the system is going through such a tectonic shift, the entire biological system, and the energetic system that accompanies and works with and through the biological system and this planet, the entire connected system, is going through a massive shift, which is why we are experiencing these changes that we are seeing.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

This Epochal Moment, Event Part 1: Breakdown

121 - Conscience: A Threefold Soul Guidance

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Do we think of our conscience only as a feeling of guilt when our behavior or attitudes seem somehow out of line with our inner sense of moral right and wrong? What if we imagine the conscience as something much deeper and more powerful? An active process that allows access to our natural finer values — sometimes called the ‘better angels of our nature’?

An international gathering of Portals friends join Aviv Shahar in this conversation to explore the nature and function of conscience. As we discover, unraveling the mystery and meaning of the conscience also takes us deeper into the nature of the soul and its mission to guide and uplift our earthly journey.

(This conversation is part two of a special event that also focused on the “Portals Into the Soul” series; part one is included below.)

In Portals Into The Soul – Chapter 2, conscience is described as a self-arising moral presence — part of the soul’s awakened power and purpose. We’re invited to hear, sense and feel the multiple dimensions of the conscience, rather than only consider definitions and notions in our head.

Among their insights and sentiments:

Conscience is a form of guidance that we experience as a self-aligning angelic presence within — an actuality we feel as an impulse that evaluates, regulates, nudges and directs.
When we attune to the ‘permanent-line’ values of the universe, we sense the universe is a learning system, and learns best through our conscious witnessing experience.
We can transcend personal development work to consider soul work for humanity, where we metabolize, disarm and recast the collective memory, a form of ‘world work’.
We can engage with the conscience esoterically as a function — a cosmic, planetary process — that brings us to know the elemental building blocks of life.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“The soul carries a throughout remembrance of the purpose you came to this life with, including the unique and particular qualities and capacities, configuration, the gifts, the genius that you are wired to manifest, regardless as to whether you're fully aware of that or not. That calling, that memory, that you came into this life with, that you are here to serve in a particular way, is the conscience of that second impulse.” (Aviv)

“There is something about this universe, it is a learning system. It wants to continue to learn. Now we may be wired also in the first and the second impulse into learning for different reasons. But when we are attuned to the permanent line values of the universe, one of the dimensions we will exhibit will be that sense of the universe is a learning system. It wants to learn, and it can learn, and it learns best through our conscious witnessing experience.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Conscience – A Threefold Soul Guidance

120 - The Trinitarian Principle - Current Openings #23

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar, David Price Francis) — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 09:00:00 +0000

We have been taught to exteriorize knowledge and truth to such an extent we have come to a breaking point, evident in the large-scale destruction we are facing today. Yet what is the alternative? How do we begin to access a new kind of knowledge based on our innate inner human technology?

Building on earlier explorations, this episode of the Current Openings series with Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis delves into the trinitarian principle as a fundament that offers permanent value, connection and integrity. It opens up how the third principle is a core creational logic that underpins all life and why it offers a crucial inroad into the natural pursuit of truth and knowledge.

On a human level, this principle calls for moving beyond duality to a third perspective that integrates, transcends, and reconciles polarities—examining not just process and results, but connecting to a deeper, life-affirming purpose behind our actions.

Key insights include:

The trinitarian universe and Creational Logic
Five dimensions of the natural pursuit of truth and knowledge
How intuition and consciousness link to the trinitarian principle
Cause, process, and results through the trinitarian lens
Examples of people embodying this principle
Cause as a foundational premise The human is an electrical being and processor of energy signals that runs on five levels of energy; food, liquid, gas, light, and impressions.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“We are leading into an exploration where instead of looking at the universe as a predictable, mechanical thing, a predictable machine, it is rather a universe that is self-organizing, self-arising, self-evolving, inside of which we humans are co-arising participants. And that is the central propulsion of the search for creational logic in the esoteric quest to connect with core processes and relationships.” (Aviv)

“We are making our entry through the side door into the inquiry of the true form of this creative, divine force which we are proposing is trinitarian by nature. Because the fact that we can observe all these different expressions, and different phenomenologies, through which we see that the triangle principle is a revelation about the very nature of the universe, and creation, and God.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

The Trinitarian Principle - Current Openings #23

119 - The Revelation of Knowledge - Current Openings #22

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar, David Price Francis) — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 09:00:00 +0000

How do we acquire, assimilate and verify knowledge?

Exploring an inquiry as old as the human capacity to search for truth, which is re-enlivened in our times with the many challenges facing the human family globally, Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis invite us into a journey of discovery, tracing fascinating new pathways toward integrated understanding.

They begin with the awareness that scientific inquiry has opened a world of astonishing can-do possibilities, while also training us to exteriorize knowledge, giving rise to a widening separation between the interior and exterior dimensions of life.

In response, the conversation seeks to invite a new kind of integration. It opens with the idea of conscience, then moves from exoteric to mesoteric and esoteric perspectives, exploring questions such as: What is the purpose of human life? Could the universe be purposeful? And what would it mean to shift from the knowledge of things and concepts to the knowledge of processes and relationships?

They ask: How can esoteric knowledge or Creational Logic be sourced? What can the natural world, from daffodils to bears, from orchids to our own digestive systems, teach us about the innate authentication and verification built into life itself?

Proposing that the pursuit of truth and knowledge involves natural validation and verification inherent in the structure of life, the conversation weaves an exciting range of inquiries, offering a space where science, spirituality, and philosophy can come together to co-create a greater whole that liberates and nurtures the flourishing of life.

Additional insights explored include:

In the ancient world, science, spirituality, and philosophy formed an integrated whole in the search for truth and knowledge.
While the scientific project enabled extraordinary achievements in the modern world, it also contributed to the fragmentation of these three streams and the widening divide between interior and exterior knowledge.
The significance of this moment in human evolution, as we step into the unknown—and how to validate the cathedral of inquiry now opening before us.
What does it mean to live a purposeful life inside a purposeful universe, and how does such a stance offer an esoteric invitation into a pathway of discovery?
How close observation of the natural worlds and life – from the relationship of the mama bear to her cubs, to the intricate workings of our own digestive systems -- demonstrates that authentication is accomplished through integrated, multi-pathway validation.
How the global challenges facing humanity demand a broader, more inclusive way of validating truth and knowledge.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“So we are proposing here that the pursuit of truth and knowledge involve the natural validation and verification inherent in life. That's basically the surge here to reintegrate life, in its fuller sense, to the inquiry of knowledge and truth. And, in the bigger scheme of things, it recognizes that it is about bringing together science, spirituality and philosophy to sustain their distinctions while creating a greater whole that liberates and nurtures the flourishing of life.” (Aviv)

“If it's a completely random universe, why does it need to do anything? Why doesn't it just stay in bed? Why does it need to develop life forms? What's the urge by which life wants to develop, and evolve, and move forward? Where does that urge come from? Because it clearly exists, because the evidence of it is right there. So there's an urge underlying all of organic life to, in some way, be functional and be moving forward and developing. So what is that urge? Where does it come from? And how come it's there?” (David)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

The Revelation of Knowledge – Current Openings #22

118 - Pathways to Universal Life - Universalis #15

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Kyriaki Nikandrou, Aviv Shahar, Karen Heney) — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Imagine a process that can bypass our dominant, loves-to-be-in-control brain and open a subtle energetic pathway to help us sense and feel the many dimensions of the Universalis human. A deeper contemplative process of feelings and intuition, not fixed mental boundaries.

In the newest Universalis Project conversation, Aviv Shahar, Karen Heney and Kyriaki Nikandrou explore the potential of a guided meditative process in expanding access to our universal nature. They demonstrate several pathways in an abiding circle meditation, a process that focuses the creative energy generated in the shared ecology of a group contemplation.

The circle meditation is a healing journey of inner discovery that invites us to metabolize and release pain and trauma. It builds inner conductivity and activates latent capacities and sense organs that enable deeper registrations of our universalis possibility. Other insights from Aviv, Karen and Kyriaki include:

By abiding with inquiries in collective circle meditations, we unlock different processes, shifting from mental references to a whole person melting, merging, and harmonizing of different feelings and inner states.
We are not one thing; we are multiple lives within; a soul, spirit and many other capacities. A struggle emerges as this orchestra faces the demands of an exterior world while forever harmonizing the interior life.
Meditative abiding engenders greater awareness of the subtle bodies of somatic and mental processes. Each organ has its energetic body; together they constitute a configuration of presences.
We shrink and separate ourselves by all sorts of modern conventions, but spiritual traditions and texts invite us to realize we are the crown jewel of the universal process here on this planet.
The nature of universal love is that we are never alone, even when we feel lonely. The spiritual source of this love is forever around us with healing and possibility.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“The Universalis human will also not arise through some techno-utopian version of ourselves. We are not likely to find the Universalis human arising in silicon, or in sophisticated computer chips. My conviction, my belief, is that the birthing of a new human possibility, the suggestion is that the Universalis permission, the Universalis possibility, the Universalis activation, occurs inside us and in between us.” (Aviv)

“Wherever you will find a group of people who are interested in how we humans are evolving, both to solve the existential problems that the meta-crisis brought to us, and even more so to do so by unlocking our latent potential, the way we go about cultivating our interior inquiries and contemplations, individually and collectively, we are leaning into these possibilities, which is, how can we be part - a co-creative, co-participative part - of the rise of a universal human?” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

The Universalis Project #15: Pathways to Universal Life

117 - Decoding the Current of the Epoch - Universalis #14

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Kyriaki Nikandrou, Aviv Shahar, Karen Heney) — Fri, 2 Jan 2026 09:00:00 +0000

If an incoming wave of universal change is influencing human behavior and global culture, as many have said, how do we see it? Where is it appearing? Can we really decode the flow and patterns of evolution as they emerge almost real-time in many of the core domains of human life and endeavor?

In the newest chapter of the The Universalis Project, Aviv Shahar and Portals friends Karen Heney and Kyriaki Nikandrou explore possible evidence of an unfolding new epoch in the breakthroughs and revelations that are transforming many areas of the modern world.

As they discover, creating space for something new, even the flow of emerging new universal possibility, happens when a person or circumstance come to the edge of their experience and knowledge, and resist the pull of history and prevailing available wisdom. They push through.

The breakthroughs that can transform humanity occur in many fields of life and expression, often driven by a compelling need for change. These transformations happen in science, technology, health and healing, leadership, and organizational dynamics. Resisting, transcending and going beyond the past are at the heart of attuning ourselves to the living flow of evolution and the future.

Among the many insights and points of inspiration in the Universalis conversation:

Pushing the envelope: Great scientists and inventors don’t evolve in a void; they push the envelope of discovery on behalf of a universe that seeks to become more intelligent and conscious through its human partners.
Natural leadership: Indigo and Violet impulses support a transition from rigid, mechanical systems to organic, emergent ways that attune to natural rhythms of life, such as in distributed and feminine leadership.
Beyond royalty: There is a bigger idea in how human beings can manage themselves, other than the genealogy of a royal line — processes and protocols in the Blue system that facilitate democracies.
Making mistakes: Pioneers see a need and are not satisfied with the prevailing paradigm; they don't stop themselves in the search for something new, and don't mind making mistakes.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“We're proposing that Acropolis work is prodding and poking and exploring into and beyond the edge for new connections, for new permissions, for new communion possibilities. And that when we do so, we seek to activate the human temple, the template of human life. Because every time we expand the horizon to new permissions, we are opening the broader template of human possibility, it's like we discover that the human mansion had another room that we never stepped into.” (Aviv)

“This begins again in asserting the more than human realms I'm choosing to describe here, the idea that human life is not flying solo in the universe. We are forever accompanied by the luminescent realms of possibility, and the luminescent realms of possibility, and the ascending and transcending spirals of development between other things, contain all the human endeavor throughout history and more.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

The Universalis Project #14: Decoding the Current of the Epoch

116 - The Wholeness of Parts - What is Healing? #4

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar, Alexander Love) — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 09:00:00 +0000

In the Western world we usually identify ourselves as singular entities. Yet, we find ourselves in conflict with ourselves and with other people. We often get triggered, without even knowing why. How can we navigate the complex human interiority as well as our interactions with others? How can we reduce suffering and make our choices form a place of wholeness?

In this illuminating conversation, Aviv Shahar and Portals friend Alexander Love explore the transformative practice of "parts work" as a pathway to inner healing and greater personal and communal harmony. Guided by Alexander, an insightful healer, acupuncturist and life coach, we navigate the intricate landscape of the inner self, learning to recognize and integrate the diverse parts that comprise our being. Alexander articulates a holistic approach inspired by Eastern wisdom, particularly Chinese medicine, viewing each individual as an inner ecology, where every "part" holds unique perspectives, intentions, and functions.

Parts work invites us to move beyond seeing ourselves as singular beings and acknowledge the rich inner multiplicity. By gently engaging these diverse inner voices, we begin a profound healing and developmental journey toward inner harmony, emotional resilience, and deeper connection.

Ultimately, this practice not only helps resolve internal conflicts but cultivates an embodied wholeness that transforms our interactions and relationships with the external world, fostering enlightened intention and compassionate living.

Other insights and ponders:

The inner ecology perspective: recognizing the self as composed of interdependent, dynamic parts rather than isolated components.
We are always becoming with our world. Modernity has created a sense of separation to observe the world objectively. In fact, I am part of the world and what’s going on outside is also going on inside.
No matter how much a part of the self feels separated and disconnected, it’s still a part of the whole.
The first million-dollar question is: How do I feel towards this part? If it is wholeness, the answer will be automatically, I’m curious, I’m loving, I’m interested, I’m compassionate.
We don’t start with fragmentation and then by the end of the session we are hoping for wholeness. We flip that around, when possible, we are starting with wholeness. Wholeness begets wholeness.
Transforming protective parts by uncovering their deeper, authentic qualities, shifting from harmful behaviors to supportive functions.
In the Portals Into the Soul writing, we develop the Inner Conclave work, visualizing an inner ecology where parts or different voices come into conversation with each other. We can apply this practice to do therapy work, developmental work, and connective communion, where the parts of the self-surrender to become the conduit for the creative act of the universe.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“There are all of these different traditions that are pointing to the same thing, that wholeness is intrinsic within all of the parts, even if they're feeling closed off from it. And so part of what we can do is to support that wholeness to come out, and then this creates deeper trust in the system, because the parts, they often don't feel successful when they're trying these strategies that are kind of warped or causing harm. And yet, they're committed to helping, but they don't know another way. By doing this and finding the deeper, enlightened intention underneath, and helping the parts experience that, they start to experience a much deeper sense of trust, that there's a deeper wholeness in the system which they are a part of.” (Alexander)

“Our human potentials seem to be so beautiful, and our ability to interact with chaos and uncertainty and darkness, our potential to be able to do that well is huge. It's vast. For me, the deeper invitation here is that we are deeply unbroken. We are deeply equipped to be able to face anything and lean into it, and find the beauty in it, and find the creativity in how dark times are invoking the evolution of things that are beyond what we can imagine, and that this is something we can do.” (Alexander)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

What is Healing? #4 – The Wholeness of Parts

115 - The Transfiguration Archetype

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar, Brendan Graham Dempsey) — Fri, 5 Dec 2025 09:00:00 +0000

If we’re seeking a feeling of illumination or deeper connection to the universal and divine, what clues and meaning can we find in perhaps the best-known story of transformation in western history — the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ? Does it reveal an esoteric path to active engagement with evolution and expanding consciousness? Or is it a powerful metaphor for an innate human species capacity to grow and develop?

In this conversation, Aviv Shahar and metamodern thought leader Brendan Graham Dempsey continue their lively dialogue on the many faces of Jesus Christ, the central pillar of Christianity. Building on their previous conversation, they focus on mystical and metamodern appreciations of the mystery of the Transfiguration.

The exploration goes beyond historical accounts to seek the significance of such a transformation to our own pursuit of meaning, connection, purpose and expanded awareness. How do each of us experience our own moments of sacred empowerment and profound, life-changing insight and inspiration?
The conversation expands our understanding of this unique time, into the evolutionary possibility to experience and express our true universal nature. Aviv and Brendan’s many insights include:
The story of Christ’s transfiguration is a key moment of storytelling in the broader narrative that we see unfolding in human cultural evolution towards a shift in higher consciousness.
We have entered a unique time where the species is reaching for something beyond Homo Solaris — the Universalis human, where we can again embrace plurality.
We are not human beings seeking a spiritual experience, but spirit beings becoming human to develop, mature and become vessels for continual evolution to occur through us as co-creators.
The first consideration in an esoteric contemplation is that a prophecy, or any learning, is actualized not when it occurs, but when it has been witnessed and validated.
If the spiritual discourse is not amenable to the same kinds of justification dynamics as science or other discourse, it is insulated from critique, and breaks down into ‘you feel it or you don’t’.
Focusing only on exterior sources of knowledge, and giving credence to the microscope and telescope, can disenfranchise the ‘interior scope’ and natural inner sense organs.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“We are not actually flying here on our own. This is not just a biological experience. That we are, in fact, not human beings seeking a spiritual experience, we are, in fact, spirit beings coming into the human experience to gain development and maturation such that we become vessels for continual evolution to occur through us as we are co-participants and co-creators of this evolution.” (Aviv)

“How do we make this journey? And we went back and forth in finding, carving, a way to enable a space that perhaps is not defined by the gravitational logic that we process every day, and at the same time that is not going to abandon certain frameworks and certain ways of thinking and being that will afford us freedom and safety and collaboration and, ultimately, possibilities to solve big problems on the global stage.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

The Transfiguration Archetype

114 - The Conductivity Mystery - Current Openings #21

peterbarry173@gmail.com (David Price Francis, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 09:00:00 +0000

A new epoch is dawning as the old one ebbs, much like the tide, placing us in ever more conductive times. Have you noticed that old systems and ways no longer hold, offering little energetic nourishment? As energetic beings, we find ourselves desperately searching for the “new”, from leadership models to inner fulfillment, each are under intense scrutiny. On the surface, we observe rapid change, confusion, dysfunction, conflict, and instability — but these are byproducts of rising conductivity. There is a restlessness, evidenced by so many people on the move, seeking purpose and questioning from whence authority comes. Clearly, both human and planetary systems and patterns are in flux.

Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis go on a magical mystery exploration of these increasingly conductive times. By differentiating three levels of knowledge and perception; from the exoteric to the mesoteric, then shifting gears into the esoteric level, they move from peripheral views to core reasons, understandings and causes for these events.

Central to this is the electrical, spiritual human as a conductor of energy, both from within and without. We are our own energy worlds, designed to receive signals from the greater energy worlds; an organic, flowering radar dish for universal signals for planetary upgrade and evolution. As humans we can choose to bring finer energies into ourselves, but more importantly are our reasons why. Are we here for the planet, or is the planet here for us… or is this unique human race and planet an integrated, co-creative enterprise on behalf of something higher?

Significant points:

The human is an electrical being and processor of energy signals that runs on five levels of energy; food, liquid, gas, light, and impressions. The moment we stop, we call that death.
There is a natural relationship between the human as a conductor of energies; the subtle energy worlds within and around the body (aura), and the invisible energy worlds, including planetary, lunar, solar and universal sources.
The mystery of increasing conductivity; what are conductivities? Why are they increasing? What is the evidence? Where are they increasing from? How are we humans called to respond?
Understanding the three level of knowledge; exoteric, mesoteric, esoteric, that give elevating perspectives; for example, from information, to knowledge, to transformation, all ‘formations’ at different levels.
Appreciating the reversal that occurs from a mesoteric perspective to an esoteric perspective, it’s a reversal octave or polarity shift, that takes you to the core or cause of anything; e.g. from "Mastery" to "Mystery".
The epochal, octave shift calls for higher frequencies to be received and processed by humans and the planet, for planetary and universal upgrade, which we call evolution.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“It's almost as though you would ask so, what's the purpose of life in the universe? The purpose of life in the universe is to birth even more capable life, all the way to conscious life. What we recognize with human life, which is the capacity of a life to become initially conscious, and then a life that is conscious of its consciousness, and then a life that is conscious of the very nature of consciousness - so, in some way, it begins to offer back the learning feedback loop to the universe about its own very nature.” (Aviv)

“We assume that the planet's here for us, rather than we're actually part of a universal process that involves the planet we live on, and the sun, and the universe - and we're part of it. We're not somehow separated out from it. And that to me is a big part of the conductivity, because when a person feels they're isolated, they feel disconnected. Disconnected is a word that says blocking the current, because if you're disconnected you've no longer got the current flowing through you. So if we think of ourselves as an independent human species that's managed to conquer the planet, well, we're really disconnecting ourselves from the universe.” (David)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

The Conductivity Mystery - Current Openings #21

113 - Resilience and the Crisis of Belief

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Jeff Vander Clute, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 7 Nov 2025 09:00:00 +0000

One of the most powerful tools of personal transformation is also one of the most accessible: it’s the story we tell ourselves about who we are and the future we imagine. It’s a story we can update and recalibrate every day — no permission beyond ourselves required to create and recreate the person we want to be and the way forward.

In this conversation, we continue the Epoch Journey series as Aviv Shahar and longtime Portals friend Jeff Vander Clute explore the process of self-authoring appraisal. How do we identify the blockages, possible pain and trauma, and limiting beliefs that hold us back from the vast field of larger potential that is our natural birthright?

As we update and realign our values and mental maps of meaning, we liberate greater versatility and range, and foster new pathways into our deeper universal nature. Appraising who we are today and the influences shaping our lives does not deny or bypass real challenges we may face. It allows us to melt and heal many types of inner scar tissue and discover our natural resilience.

Among Aviv and Jeff’s other insights and discoveries:

What external persuasions do we allow inside ourselves? A modern vulnerability is openness to impressions that foster self-doubt.
If we deny the point of pain, or suppress unresolved trauma or unmet essential needs, then already we are in a distorted view, bypassing what the case actually is.
We explore in the self-authoring appraisal process a way in which we let life itself lead us within the various domains of our growth, development and engagement.
With enhanced resiliency available to humanity, the big question for the species is, are we going to make it? Do we have enough resiliency to shift from Homo sapiens sapiens to becoming Universalis?
The self-authoring appraisal is a technology we can apply to almost any aspect of our lives, much like carefully attending to a garden, instead of running on autopilot and habit.
We can receive guidance by connecting with our inner resources, or inner conclave. If we ask a question, and then clearly see our situation, we’re already beyond it.
In a post-guru, epochal transition, we all lead; we need each other. Through shared discovery and co-creating, we provoke ourselves and create a greater ecology for the divine.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“Life is open, life is an open system — the universe is actually an open system. So how do we live? How do we dance with life in an open system? It seems that you are pioneering certain understandings and modalities for how to dance with life, in openness. And in the openness each of us can show up fully, and very resiliently, and creatively. Openness is liberation, and inquiry grounds us in our own nature, which then allows us to continue to express and flower.” (Jeff)

“Just capturing two words from what you said that are so central to this appraisal process, and to being generatively creative in telling the story of your life anew every day. Waking up in the morning and saying, 'No, I was who I was yesterday, and today I'm telling the story again in a new way.' You are your own creator. You wake up in the morning and you have permission to rewrite your story today. That is, in what you said, that stopped me.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Resilience and the Crisis of Belief

112 - The Epoch Mystery - Current Openings #20

peterbarry173@gmail.com (David Price Francis, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 08:00:00 +0000

A powerful way to envision our entry into this new phase of evolution and epochal shift is as a fusion process — a merging of the physical realm with a new universal potency that unlocks immense possibilities and profound renewal. Imagine it as an energetic Cambrian release for humanity and the planet. We dive deeper into the mysteries of the epochal shift underway in the latest chapter of the “Current Openings” series with Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis.

To better understand what we mean by an epoch, Aviv and David begin with a closer look at the energetic nature of the human and the cosmos. Modern thinking often confines reality to the limits of our biophysical form. However, we recognize an energetic dimension residing within and between all layers of organic, physical existence. Humans can sense and attune to these spiritual or energetic frequencies through finer faculties naturally embedded in our design. The energetic or unseen natures of the human and the planet evolve over time, which can be traced in the evolution of culture throughout history. This perspective reveals epochs as intelligent, purposeful programs of growth and refinement — forward-looking pathways guiding us toward a universal future.

Other insights and ponders:

The new epoch calls for capacities beyond intellect — faculties essential for deeper integration of human life within the universe.
Epochal changes do not arrive all at once. The energetic permission of the past holds initially but breaks down swiftly, giving rise dramatically to the new.
By metabolizing new impressions, we activate new capacities and perceptions — a profound act of renewal; an evolutionary process creating something new on the inside.
Rather than rejecting the past, we harvest its best elements and respectfully leave behind the rest. We carry forward a tested, validated value system.
There is confusion, chaos, and suffering when we’re not able to connect with new energetic and spiritual fuel available for healing and development elevation.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“An epoch is an evolutionary program, a program afforded by the universe and the planet, where humanity can go through specific and necessary development. The idea that the evolutionary process is just a random trial and error makes no sense; it's too brilliantly constructed. And there is clearly an ascending refinement and complexifying vector of life wanting to support higher levels, higher capacities, higher sophistication, higher consciousness.” (Aviv)

“This realization that in learning there is renewal. Because what it actually means is that we metabolize new impressions, and those new impressions activate in us new capacities and perceptions. And that, in that itself, is a profound act of renewal. And that therefore, as the epoch shifts and a new energy permission is afforded to human experience and to humanity at large, we are to truly expect that everything around us will continue to change in an intensified manner.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Current Openings #20 – The Epoch Mystery

111 - The Five Stories of the Epoch

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Jeff Vander Clute, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Let us imagine that one of the most powerful ways to create space and be open to an incoming wave of evolutionary progress — the future — is to consciously heal and absolve the past, with all of its trauma and scar tissue. Not just our personal past, but imagining in ourselves the flow of history through the current epoch. It’s not just possible, but some would say a vital process in a time of great change and new possibility.

In this conversation, Aviv Shahar and Portals friend Jeff Vander Clute take a deep look into the epoch’s seven stages and the corresponding potencies of the energy spectrum, Red through Violet. It’s a way of attuning to the flow and energetic nature of history, and to what Aviv and Jeff believe is a step-function leap underway to a new wave of evolution.

Jeff is a consultant and author of three recent books, including Beyond Every Teaching, a collection of transformative spiritual transmissions.

In today’s exploration, we focus on the main stories or perspectives of the epoch, especially the very real human capacity to revisit, rewrite and clean in ourselves painful and traumatic aspects of history. It’s a process of energetic dialysis powered by the spectrum frequency of Yellow, which we can also trace in the epoch to the emergence of the axial religions.

Other amazing insights from Aviv and Jeff’s conversation include:

Universal culture: For the first time, there is a truly global civilization, with shared communication and commerce platforms — a core premise in the story of the shift from planetary to universal culture and civilization.
Power of Yellow: Yellow dialysis enables self-forgiveness and transformation — a life reboot. The Yellow frequency promotes inner rewiring and deeper integration.
Great alchemy: As we transcend and reach the source, the point where it all comes together, great alchemy is possible: polarities and multiplicities are seen in their root nature as unified; a new human species can emerge.
Liberating essence: The axial religions that emerged around an energetic source became in some paths an institutional bureaucracy. Yellow dialysis liberates the essence into new currency and updating.
Universal economy: The universe loves economy; if knowledge was codified earlier in the epoch, why waste it? Distill its essence, release what is no longer needed, and further the evolutionary story.
New sense organs: Activating Yellow brings online new human sense organs and communication apparatus; it encourages shared values and meaning, and connects with higher sources of inspiration.
Beyond the head: The Enlightenment and scientific revolution are based on the head or intellect-driven knowledge. We can experience knowledge differently through the vibrant, invisible blessing realms.
Living history: The feelings and traditions of ancient cultures are alive in energetic form. We can attune to those sentiments and passions to sense and wonder about the grandeur of their appearance.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“And so we build into this the recognition that the epoch is not a concept, it's not a mental structure, rather it is a living process. It's arising inside us. It's arising in between us. It arises all around us, and it is something we can live into, inside and in between us, in our conversations and discoveries, which is the premise to come together in small pods or in a larger network, to metabolize, to ease, to decode these ideas as they unfold.” (Aviv)

“I've had an interesting esoteric experience in which I actually changed the past and suddenly the map of where I was going in life changed, instantaneously. It's as if the past is actually quite malleable. So when we're rewriting the past here, I would say that it's powerful beyond the words that we use to tell these stories, there's something going on energetically, and archetypally, within the collective.” (Jeff)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

The Five Stories of the Epoch

110 - The 7-Fold Epoch Progression - The Universalis Project #13

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Karen Heney, Kyriaki Nikandrou, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 08:00:00 +0000

For many, last year made it impossible to ignore the scale of global change — what we see as global instability is only one dimension of a larger meta-crisis. Portals has been following the signs of this broader evolutionary cycle, which is reshaping our planet and humanity. With the epoch insight and perspective, we can trace the emergence and patterns of this epochal movement across every area of life, from grand global systems to everyday human endeavors.

In the latest conversation from the The Universalis Project, Aviv Shahar is joined by Karen Heney and Kyriaki Nikandrou to explore the flow of history and evolution through a “7-fold epoch.” This special lens examines the nature of each epochal impulse and its influence on culture, as well as on human growth and development. The epoch framework is not a new meta-theory about life or evolution; instead, it reflects an observable quality within all natural processes. We can see 7-fold patterns in the natural world — including flora, fauna, and human behavior.

For instance, the world’s major religions arose during the Yellow phase of planetary evolution, while the drive to resolve conflict, balance pressures, and collaborate in scalable systems reflects a Blue impulse.

Other insights from this exploration include:

The nature of Red: This planet, in its cosmology in the galaxy, and its function as the cradle for evolving conscious life, discovers the unique emergence of a new epoch and conscious life in the frequency and nature of Red.
Indigo theater: Social media and the internet represent a fantastic Indigo theater of merging and transference.
Violet phase-shift: In the larger purpose of the epoch, a great endeavor or civilization ends in Violet as part of a phase-change to the next evolutionary leap, sometimes with a violent dimension.
Living History: The living experience of history — the energy — has not been destroyed; those memories, feelings, and sentiments are encapsulated in time; as we become attuned, we feel the living nature of their experience.
Capacity for destruction: The unfolding story of the evolution of life includes the capacity to destroy it. We help metabolize lower influences by expanding consciousness and unlocking higher human capabilities.
• Indigo-Violet Acceleration: A core premise of the epoch study is that it’s a continuing revelation inside the context of a rolling event — the Indigo-Violet acceleration, as witnessed through the meta-crisis and other profound planetary change.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“So the story of the evolution of life is accompanied by the story of the development of the capacity to destroy life. And the reason we feel so compelled to bring the consciousness of this story into being is that there is an awareness that when we bring consciousness to this story, we may intensify and unlock capacities for humanity to do both the healing and liberation work, at all the levels, the level of the individual, the level of the group, and the level of the tribe and the nation.” (Aviv)

“Every human that's born on the planet, it's designed in such a way that every life can have a spiritual journey, can have a connective, purposeful life. And we're all born into this unfolding epoch. First of all, we need to be aware of it, which is the wonder of these recordings and this journey. Because if we become aware of it, and we opt in to being consciously mindful of these different progressions, then we're saying that we can co-join evolution and a human update.” (Karen)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

The Universalis Project #13: The 7-fold Epoch Progression

109 - Spiritualize the Universe - 20 Core Premises: Current Openings #19

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar, David Price Francis) — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Our adventure exploring the deeper nature of human life forever seeks to find new bridges — the special connecting insights and nuggets of wisdom that remind us why this journey of discovery is so critical to our personal and collective futures. What is the premise that inspires us to unlock the promise of the human capacity to engage with and shape this emerging new wave of evolution?

To help build these bridges of connection, this conversation brings together Aviv Shahar and longtime Portals friend David Price Francis for the 19th episode of their remarkable series “Current Openings.”

Even though these are the early days (comparatively) of the emergence of what we call the universal human, Homo Universalis, Aviv and David remind us we can be intentionally present in multiple spaces in the universe today, here and now. We have the capacity and permission of the human design to renew and reconfigure our finer energetic inner lives any time.

One bridge into the unknown then might be the awareness of our energetic nature and possibility to actively engage with the flow of an evolving cosmos.

Other connecting ideas and scaffolding include:

We spiritualize the universe and the world through our refinement — the connection, the embodiment and ensoulment, that enable the universe to birth its higher possibilities through us.
Within our carnal form, we're an electromagnetic spirit-soul being; the dimension of energies we process is vast. We can refine, a permission that no other organic life has.
We create a space for each other to walk into possibilities that we wouldn't be able to access on our own. That's the other dimension: the universe of energetic potential we create for our collective future.
Within the amazing promise and premise of being human is perhaps the greatest gift of all: freedom to decide how to use our life. We can choose to spiritualize our future.
Only humans have been given permission to get it wrong; to mess things up. The rest of organic life follows its program; flora and fauna do what they do, naturally, at 100%.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“When a person has that spiritualized process they walk into the forest, and the trees and the animals, and the flowers they welcome the human. But if the human is full of anger and resentment and the mortgage and what's wrong, and checking their digital media and seeing what's on Twitter whilst they're walking through the forest, well, everything retreats from them because they're on a lower vibration frequency. So we have that amazing promise, but we're not told this is how you have to use it.” (David)

“Everything that exists in organic life is processing universal energies, in some fashion, whether lunar energy, solar energy, energy from different planets, it's being processed and received by planet Earth. So I think of the planet in that sense as this amazing crucible of receiving different energies, and she needs form to receive an energy. So whether it be a squirrel, whether it be a cat, whether it be a tree, a bird, everything is processing energetics and delivering that energy into the energy field of the planet.” (David)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Current Openings #19: Spiritualize the Universe – 20 Core Premises

108 - The Shared Intentions of Life - Evolving Together #6

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Well, Aviv Shahar, Nigel Geeves) — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Can we imagine that the simple act of coming together — the “togetherings” of ourselves with our inner lives, our friends, our communities — unlocks the intelligence that enables the “we” to become an integral part of our future and of the evolution of life? What if life itself is intentionally nudging humans together toward a greater discovery of its own nature and possibility?

Longtime Portals friends Nigel Geeves and Well join Aviv Shahar for the latest exploration in Evolving Together, a series of conversations uncovering the creative potential unlocked when human beings come together in shared purpose or mission.

If two people can face their differences and build the trust required to unlock greater mutual possibilities, can we “scale” that insight to the larger community and culture? Can it help bridge and neutralize the often toxic polarities that divide so many segments of humanity?

Aviv, Nigel and Well explore different kinds of gatherings where the fundamental impulse for people to be together creates an ecology in which something bigger, often profound, can join and transform the dynamic (even a Led Zeppelin concert). As they discover, when people come together to consciously give life itself a better future, it fosters a deeper engagement with evolution than was previously possible.

Other togethering insights include:

Being together, we sense the three core impulses of life: to continue; to be made new and regenerate; to evolve and upgrade to a new, better, improved version of the human species.
The real struggle for any life is to elevate in ourselves, which means bringing closer together our own positive and negative, to both squeeze ourselves higher, and invite higher qualities.
Evolution begins from the idea of giving back for what life gives us. We are creative beings with something to offer from ourselves that is new and different to what previously existed.
We may come together around a shared intention outside of ourselves, such as to reach a common goal, or internally, with a mutual intention to create new possibility for each person.
We grow through difficulties we face if we can actually get through them, where the support we offer each other is a powerful opportunity, especially if we're able to be honest and direct.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“If you think about it, life itself started somewhere, and the whole journey of the evolution of life has added value to the creation that it emerged at. Life has become more intricate, more interesting, more capable, more responsive in all sorts of different ways as the journey of evolution has gone on. For me, the whole journey of that is a journey of things coming together to offer a better response in all sorts of ways, and we're a shining example of that in the human form.” (Well)

“So I'm experiencing three core natures in the language you're offering to the shared intention of life. Intention one is to continue. This universe doesn't want to ever stop. But there is an intention two and three, because it doesn't want to continue in an inert way. It wants, intention two, to be vital, be fresh, make a new start. And then there is a third intention, which is it wants to continue to get better, to improve, to evolve its nature - these three core impulses of life.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Evolving Together #6: The Shared Intentions of Life

107 - Expressions of Religious Living

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 08:00:00 +0000

What does it mean to live religiously? How do the premises and ways of living religiously evolve to embrace and embody new evolutionary possibility?

How do people register and express perhaps the most intimate feelings a human can experience — the sensing of real connection with universal and divine sources of life?

Portals brought together an international group of friends to hear firsthand how their experience and embodiment of the impulse to live religiously may be evolving. Many moving and profound insights emerge in their conversation with Aviv Shahar, including:

The religious impulse is a deep longing inside that seeks the highest point of communion we can find; it emanates not from religion, but from a spiritual presence that lives inside the temple of ourselves.
We no longer need to build cathedrals of stone but seek the cathedral within.
Every person is different; instead of structured religion, we come together in a shared sentiment as individuals with their own power and self-responsibility that allows freedom to do whatever we need to do.
We are both human, both man and woman are created in the image of God, which says God has a female side. Whatever comes into the future of religion, it must start from that reality.
We have these visions of how to lead a religious life: convent, ashram, mountain top. We're now talking about coming back inside us, the journey to where we are in our life.
We bring with us our religious traditions, the ceremonies and rituals, because they are touchstones to connect us with what we're doing and why, and what gives us meaning.
Religion can appear through a human being who has value for the planet; there's more intelligence and wisdom that the Great Mother, the great church, offers in abundance.
A vital role in religious practices is to learn, educate, facilitate and allow the human to be moved and fashioned by dormant systems that will provide needed new intelligence.
We’re looking for the religion of what works; being prodded to search for something else, something better, is maybe how we make ourselves fit for the different needs of the times we live in.
I want to be part of a religion that can go anywhere from your heart; when the world can’t offer stability or love, the universe can; the stars have never failed to make me feel part of something reliable.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“It's not the religion that is important, it is the religious impulse that gives rise to something very fundamental in human life. And the story that we are seeking is the story of the drama of the relationship between the Source and human beings. And it seems to me that the religious impulse, which is a deep place in humans of longing, and belonging, and being part of, is based upon the fact that we are not complete, and therefore we seek completion with something which is outside of ourselves - which keeps us searching and looking for communion.”(Avshalom)

“A human lifespan is pretty short, so I've always had this feeling that I was born into something that's ongoing before me, and it's ongoing beyond me. So, what have I been born into? And can I become a part of what that is? And perhaps, as a next step, can I contribute to whatever that ongoing process is? So, to me, that's the beginning of a religious journey. I think so much of what we're talking about is that it's coming back inside us, where we are in our life, bringing us in closer contact with this whole universe that we're a part of.” (Peter)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Expressions of Religious Living

106 - Religion and the Esoteric

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Brendan Graham Dempsey, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 1 Aug 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Is it possible to appreciate the life of Jesus Christ in a real way that embraces the universal message and mystery, but also finds harmony with a fundamental approach to logic and reason? Can an esoteric perception of the divine find a home inside metamodern spirituality?

We continue exploring an evolving perception of God and the many faces of Jesus Christ, the central pillar of Christianity, in the newest conversation with Aviv Shahar and Brendan Graham Dempsey. Brendan is a metamodern leader who combines a personal experience with Christianity and a pioneering exploration of metamodern thinking and philosophy.

In a lively exchange, Brendan and Aviv explore different appreciations of the transformative power that spiritual seekers feel in the many facets of Jesus Christ. Could the religious influence that changed the course of human history have naturally emerged as part of a complex, evolving human species? Or can the esoteric pursuit of a deeper truth reveal the divine nature of Christ’s appearance?

Many enlivening insights emerge, including:

The best defense of spirituality is rigorous, critical thinking; integrating nuanced, sophisticated perspectives with an openness to deep esoteric experiences.
Some religious traditions can be seen as privileging the irrational: just have faith, and quote a lot of scripture when people ask uncomfortable questions.
When you come back from a peak experience, it’s essential to engage in what we describe as a rational or debrief process to help separate the real from the unreal.
Experience is a valid source of evidence; we can look to it without necessarily bringing down the skeptical, critical, prefrontal-cortex analysis and do science on it.
We talk about the soul not as another dogma or form of teaching, but as a guidance to discover a path in ourselves where we can travel to the edge of what we know.
There is a moment where you feel you can emerge to a unique combination that is not just the thrill of your mind quivering with new ideas, but is more than the biochemistry of your brain.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I think we can reclaim languages of 'soul' and 'spirit' to refer very much to what they kind of used to refer to, but now be more clear about kind of what those things really are, in a sense, and it isn't to say that we fully understand them, either. Because there is this realm of the unknown and the mystery that we should lean into, and again, a lot of that is about the sacred for me. The more we learn, and the more that gets disclosed from that mystery and continues to fill in that causal account of reality is precisely the learning process that connects us deeper to the world, and, I would say, the divine.” (Brendan)

“Believe me, I would love nothing more than to really deeply feel in my heart that I am an eternal being that reincarnated here out of a long journey of continuous cycles of birth and rebirth as I develop, and that I am engaged in a kind of multi-lifelong process of learning, spiritual development and growth, so that I can ultimately be more united with the divine on the other side of this existence. And that this whole cosmic situation that we're a part of is part of a divine design and plan that's basically leading in that direction.” (Brendan)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Religion and the Esoteric

105 - The Open-Heart Conversation: Current Openings #18

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar, David Price Francis) — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 08:00:00 +0000

What is the message we would bring back to our families and friends if we survived a near-death experience? It’s the kind of event that could change our lives in a big way. What would we most want the people closest to us to realize from our close encounter with the veil?

Such close encounters reveal profound insights and perceptions that can change a life’s direction, or bring new understanding about the human’s larger universal purpose and potential.

Being brought back “online” from an unexpected near-departure also highlights a view of human life as the integration of many different systems in a unified, harmonious whole — physical, mental, and spiritual. An illness or other struggle can be seen as a form of dis-integration, while weaving to reintegrate the parts back together, physical and energetic, enables a larger healing. It brings a clearer vision of the river of life flowing seamlessly within a stream of universal possibility.

Longtime Portals friend David Price Francis recently survived a very close call: a scheduled heart surgery did not go as planned. In the latest chapter of the Current Openings series, he talks with Aviv Shahar about the perceptions and meaning the experience unlocked, and the message he’d like us to contemplate. Among their insights:

That's how I think of human beings: we're not finished, we're not completed. We're here to learn, to grow, to develop. We're in an embryonic state, which is why planet Earth is so messy.
Make the most of life while we're here; pay attention, try to understand how the universe works. Partly why we're here is to read God's signature in the world around us.
We can’t have the evolutionary stream without being in the river of life; we need to love both. Not trying to be in the realm of consciousness and leaving behind regular life.
Instructing and talking to our soul is part of wellbeing and healing. We talk with our intention, our consciousness; we speak to our brain, our body, our soul about what’s happening in our life.
We might see life in the universe and on Earth as random. Yet the distance from the sun to Earth is exact. In life there is often an exactness to a fraction of a degree. What does this mean for how we live?

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“We don't want to go to Nirvana, we want Nirvana to come to us - whilst we're doing the washing up - like that idea of chop wood, carry water, that one is actually engaged in the river of life, but one has, at the same time, a higher consciousness and a higher awareness that's active. So both things are happening at once. It's very easy though to get carried along in the river of life and lose consciousness within it; we become automated, we become auto responsive.” (David)

“Pay attention to the river of life, the codings, the understandings, you could say the signature of creation, it's all there. And so we don't take our consciousness and seek to separate it and go into some other domain and become blank. It's actually more like, everything is interesting, everything is worth looking at and exploring and trying to understand it. What are the actual laws by which this place works? And what are the connections through which it works? And we've been given this chance to research God through the river of life, because that tells us something about the design of creation.” (David)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

The Open-Heart Conversation: Current Openings #18

104 - The Goddess Arising

Fri, 4 Jul 2025 08:00:00 +0000

What would the divine feminine or Goddess nature want to ask or expect of a man today? If you were a man representing the divine masculine, and had the chance, what would you want to ask or say to a woman at this moment? Can we even imagine ourselves and each other as different expressions of a divine source, more than merely a personality?

These were among the inquiries that helped inspire a profound exploration of the divine feminine and the Goddess archetype at this Fall’s Metamodern Spirituality Lab. To learn more, Portals brought together Aviv Shahar and Lab organizers and metamodern leaders Layman Pascal and Brendan Graham Dempsey, along with participants Mariah Rose McKay and Antonia Louise.

This is the newest conversation in the Portals series exploring metamodern spirituality.

A central theme for this special collaboration of women and men was exploring the role of the Goddess, the feminine, in metamodern spirituality: an embrace, rather than historical denial, of the feminine presence at the heart of the human’s universal nature. The Lab itself was a space where gatherings and rituals supported a freer expression of the divine feminine and masculine influences in both women and men.

The openness allowed for the emergence of many facets of the Goddess nature: maternal, warrior, healing, wisdom. For many participants it produced a trust and chance for intimacy that in turn generated a deep sense of healing and release of ancient tensions between the genders.

Other Lab insights include:

It’s the importance of community; we cannot do this alone. It’s the practical elements, but also the deep and intimate bonds we form, and the healing power of deep relationships.
There is the long-wave dimension and nature of this work: we need to include the generational transmission; a project of the next 100 years.
When the god and goddess are prepared to embrace each other, inside each of us, a birthing process occurs; those two configurations merge into a third nature that liberates a new future.
We don't know the ripple effects of how our hearts and consciousness can affect the world when we change our relationship to the goddess.
This quality of intimacy and way of being with each other, where people are held in a place where they can begin a sentence without knowing how they will end it, takes time to build.
We honor the broad spectrum of ways women show up from a “masculine” stance, and men from a “feminine” stance; these are potent and helpful ways of looking at the world and ourselves.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“From the point of view of people who are interested in growth and development and depth and a transformation of civilization, a goddess who's also capable of growth and change and depth, and who could enter into more nuanced or richer relations with human beings, and in the masculine/feminine exchange, is something we would like to be able to facilitate through our thinking, and speaking, and hearts, and relationships.” (Layman)

“This is a favorite topic of mine, polarity in masculine and feminine dynamics, and there is something really valuable about having these distinctions and having a spectrum between those poles, but being able to create a magnetism, being able to create something that pulls together and also something that repels, not necessarily in a bad way, just in a separation, individuation way. We are separate, and we can be as one. I feel like there is a lot of healing that we are doing collectively; how do we embody those in the most healthy and conscious way?” (Antonia)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

103 - The Two Struggles - The Universalis Project #11

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Karen Heney, Kyriaki Nikandrou, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 08:00:00 +0000

As we find our way each day through the often intense and personal struggles facing us and humanity, imagine that we can build our strength and resilience by exercising the right muscles; not just physical, but our emotional, mental and spiritual “muscles.”

In the newest chapter of the Homo Universalis series, Aviv Shahar, with Karen Heney and Kyriaki Nikandrou, explores how the “muscles” metaphor is not such a stretch as we face and learn to embrace the two big struggles in any developing life: the known and the unknown.

The known struggles are those we see and feel all around us, from personal, to family or community, to the global cultural, economic and ecological upheavals that affect the planet and each of us individually. Our struggle with the unknown includes trying to imagine and create a new future when so much of the present is uncertain and changing. Can we picture in our mind the person we want to become?

As Aviv, Karen and Kyriaki discuss, the activation of our Universalis nature, or universal human, brings online new capacities, perceptions and creativity to help us flex the right muscles that can balance and harmonize the many struggles we may face. Among their insights:

• The Universalis inquiry can help humanity at large to pivot from a barbarous operating system of “kill before you get killed” to a way of collaborating based in valiance, chivalry and virtue.

• As we enter new domains of possibility, what used to activate and energize us don’t carry the same impact; we feel different sources of energy, new capacities and parts of ourselves.

• If the human has a universal nature, and universal expansion is accelerating, are we also accelerating into the future, into the unknown, and who we are becoming today?

• To be available in new patterns and new ways, we need to relax the groove, the old patterns held at tension habitually. We make space for new processes, new energy sources, and new configurations.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“As we gradually see the corruption and dysfunctionality of various systems, the parallel is within our inner lives: any psychologies and patternings that don't have the sustaining energies of the now and the currencies that are ongoing into the future, equally are being weakened. And sometimes they will melt, sometimes they will fight, but there is this inner knowing that what may have worked before, well, maybe it's not going to be the enabling system for tomorrow.” (Karen)

“When we enter new domains of possibility there is a point whereby we look back and we say, hmm, I realize that what used to activate me very much, and energize me, no longer carries the same impact. I am now energized by different sources of energy, and I am activated in whole new different parts of myself. Sometimes you will even describe new sensitivity, new capacity, new expression, new art.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

The Two Struggles - The Universalis Project #11

102 - Evolution, Consciousness, and the New Truth

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Steve McIntosh, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 6 Jun 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Where is our global culture today? How did we get here? What steps might we need to take now to shape a future that could become a saving grace for humanity? It feels special to find a clear, cohesive and compelling picture, one that encompasses the insights that help us make sense and meaning out of the tumultuous times we live in and answer these questions.

We dive deep into a new, emerging worldview in this conversation with Steve McIntosh, a leading developmental philosopher focusing on the evolution of consciousness and culture. Steve is the author of Developmental Politics, The Presence of the Infinite, Evolution’s Purpose and Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution. He is co-founder of the Institute for Cultural Evolution.

With Steve’s help we trace the major forces that shaped human history and culture, from the Renaissance and Enlightenment, through the fuller development of the Modern era, to Postmodern culture, and into today’s search for a new truth. We view the past with a new understanding that these are not fixed periods of history, but a form of living consciousness that evolves inside us.

As the first Enlightenment opened up our understanding of the external universe, the new worldview that has been emerging promises to illuminate the interior universe of consciousness and connection. We actively contribute to the evolutionary process when we bring to life the universal values of truth, beauty and goodness.

Many more enlivening insights and profound understandings emerge in the conversation.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“The sense that we know deep in our bones that a better way is possible, that has an influence on our consciousness, and it's what drives cultural evolution. It's not just this quest for the good life, it's also the quest to know what's true, and the quest to make our circumstances more beautiful. More beautiful architecture, more beautiful homes, more beautiful bodies. Those are all ways that we're lured to make things better. And so understanding that as an attractive force, or a kind of gravity, on consciousness, that the evolutionary impulse that our sense is responding to - that begins to illuminate what it is that we're trying to define and understand better.” (Steve)

“The greatest human purpose, at least while we're in this world, is to contribute to the evolution of the noosphere because, by doing so, we're contributing to the purpose of the larger universe as a whole. And so just being able to land that truth can really help people appreciate how science and spirituality are pointing to the same thing, properly interpreted, that I think can go a long way toward helping to plant the seeds for this next emergent worldview.” (Steve)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Evolution, Consciousness, and the New Truth with Steve McIntosh

101 - God: An Evolving Revelation

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Brendan Graham Dempsey, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 23 May 2025 08:00:00 +0000

How can a forward-looking, evolution-inclined spirituality, not tied to dogma or history, offer us a sense of meaning and purpose in a time of cultural upheaval powered by AI? Can a metamodern spiritual path also include a new perspective and appreciation of Christianity and the many faces, or dimensions, of Jesus Christ?

In the newest conversation in the Portals series exploring metamodern spirituality, Aviv Shahar welcomes back metamodern leader Brendan Graham Dempsey. Brendan is a unique voice who combines a deep personal experience with Christianity and a pioneering study and exploration of metamodern thinking and philosophy.

Together, he and Aviv trace the amazing evolution of the human notion and idea of God, from ancient cultures through the Enlightenment and into today. There are new insights into the appearance of Jesus and the rising importance of the individual, which explodes in the modern era with its elevation of self-actualization. (You can also see the discussion about Jesus excerpted below.)

The conversation does not just look back, but also forward; in a learning, growing universe, what’s next? What’s on the horizon with our concept of God? Is there a metamodern integration of perceptions that can activate a more powerful inner conductivity and capacity for universal connection?

Other ponders and insights include:

The cutting edge of spiritual and Christian thought might be to include mystery school ideas without abandoning modern and postmodern reality, while pushing beyond scientific dogma.
We are co-participating with the divine to unfold in new directions; to build on what we've already done and continue the dreams we’ve set up; to live the arc of this emergence; to move forward, not back.
How do we know? Which faculty of knowing are we talking about when we talk about knowing? New sense organs? Can we integrate conceptual and head ways of knowing with other sources of knowledge?
The Christ archetype is how we find the Christ in us; to show up in a Christ-like fashion; a profound universal engagement. These are the depths a metamodern Christianity should explore.
We can’t put the genie back in the bottle, or try to reengage an older operating system. The challenge is harvesting the best of the ancient system, and hospicing what needs to be left behind.
We’re talking about a metamodern move to address what can be described as a Tower of Babel of perspectives: confusion and chaos that give rise to polarization politics, and everything breaking down.

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“This gave a new way of looking at all this, in terms of development, that as we go through learning our conceptions of God change. And that really kind of hit home, because as I studied very deeply a lot of the developmental literature, the psychological literature, people who had looked at what they call like stages of faith or religious judgment, and there was a clear way in which the learning process that we go through as people impacts the conceptions that we have of the divine, and the meaning of life, and value, and all these things.” (Brendan)

“My entryway into this was through a breakdown of meaning, to go all the way back to my own existential crisis, was the occasion by which I felt the need to find a new way of being in the world. Talking about these things might sound like concepts following concepts, but this is ultimately a lived experience. This is the story of humanity, but it's the story of humans. And so human beings are moving through the world, and we're experiencing the social and collective consequences of all living together with each other through time, figuring out things together, and changing the world around us as a consequence.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

God: An Evolving Revelation with Brendan Graham Dempsey

100 - Current Openings #17 – Burning Questions

peterbarry173@gmail.com (David Price Francis, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 9 May 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Imagine being able to connect with a level of potency, passion and energy that could help reveal even deeper intelligence and meaning to our most compelling “burning questions” — the inquiries and mysteries that drive and inspire us to search for answers.

In several ways the potency of an inquiry is generated in how we think about and ask the question. For example, asking “why” attunes our mind to the energetic dimension or core of a question; it can link us to the powerful fuel of our emotions: e-motion, or energy in motion and flow.

Does the question form up when we reach the leading edge of our experience — just beyond the limits of our knowledge or comfort zone? The leading edge is the place where we prod and sense our way into the unknown and can find the revelation of the “new” answer trying to find us.

Why does any of this matter? As we have discovered in Portals, a potent inquiry or contemplation can activate and energize the far-reaching faculties that enable connection with our universal nature and possibility.

We delve deeper into the meaning and mystery of profound “burning questions” and the art of the inquiry in this special conversation with Aviv Shahar and Portals collaborator David Price Francis. Aviv and David invited several Portals friends to bring their own burning questions and together look for new insights, including:

There’s a different way of living a life — not protecting who or what we have discovered, the titles and identity. But unlocking the mystery of who we are becoming, and its powerful energy and inspiration.
As we move on, we leave behind what brought us to this point, with respect, honor and gratitude, but we don't copy them. The universe moves on, too. It’s the twin dynamics of mastery of the past and the mystery of the future.
Maybe we should imagine not just our carbon footprint, but our cosmic footprint — the ripple from our life into our communities, the planet and universe, and embrace responsibility for that.
Evolution is not over; it isn’t based on a signal from the past. We can see evidence in established world religions: there isn’t a reduce, reuse, recycle system.
The progress of artificial intelligence and technology is the external evolution of form; the key to humanity’s future is the ongoing evolution of the organic forms of the planet and the human.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“Building on this, where you talk about 'what do you want?', which to me is one of the entry points into the inquiry of purpose, I would say that leading oneself in a chaotic world one wants to be grounded and anchored in some guiding principle and guiding purpose that is central and centering for a person's life. You first need to actually ask, well, how do you find that sense of purpose, that sense of mission?” (Aviv)

“There is a core impulse in human life, or in life at large. It's the impulse of life expressing itself in human life, which is the impulse of freedom and liberation. Life wants to express itself and come to its fuller possibility and expression, and be free. And you see that that is arising in each and every one of us, we want to discover what is our natural talent? What can we do? How do we live into the fullest freedom of our potential?” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Current Openings #17 – Burning Questions

099 - Portals Into the Soul, Chapter 4: A Growing Space for the Soul

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 15:43:21 +0000

In the third installment we described two ways to apply Einstein’s admonition when he observed that we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. The first practice involved placing the problem you are working to solve inside an even bigger problem. The second practice involved the cultivation of a symphonic loom of expanded considerations.

The realization latent in this admonishment from Uncle Albert is that we cannot expect to stumble on new perceptions with the same toolset we used to fashion the map of meaning that generated the problems we now confront.

Moreover, the faculties and “organs” of seeing, intuiting, and believing used when we generated our worldview are likely insufficient in our search for new ways of perceiving with which to be able to solve the problems we face.

In this and in the following installments we are embarking on the search for ways to unlock new perceptions, connections, and intuitions. We seek the activation of sense organs that naturally court and grow the spaces available for the soul to liberate. We will develop this pathway one step at a time and invite you to engage and play with the practices we demonstrate.

This work is part of the continuing Portalsdiscovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“We don’t seek to empty the mind by releasing identification with passing thoughts as a way of calming the survival wiring in the brain. Instead, this work into the Soul invites you to free the mind to its connective communion capacity, where it brings to the Soul potent energies to nourish its two higher natures.” (Aviv)

“As we develop these conversation pathways into the soul, naturally we confront several challenges. A key challenge is finding the courage to drop the lies we have been told about what a human is. There is a catch. How do you let go of misleading lies you have been programmed to believe in, without having new or elevated or clearer perspectives that can replace those convictions and beliefs?” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Portals Into the Soul, Chapter 4: A Growing Space for the Soul

098 - The Universalis Project #10 - Why the World is Breaking Down

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Karen Heney, Kyriaki Nikandrou, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Even if we’re familiar with the themes of evolutionary change and upgrade that run through Portals, what’s happening in the world today seems startling: the operating system that enables modern life as we know it appears to be crashing.

The key questions now: Is this an irreversible slide into self-elimination? Does evolution ever offer a chance for reboot and renewal? If so, how would we spot new universal intelligence nudging its way into humanity?

Our understanding of the “operating system” comes out of the Portalsexploration of the progression of human and planetary history as part of the current epoch, or larger universal cycle of change and upgrade. What we call the “Blue” phase of the epoch (which corresponds to the seven colors of the spectrum) brought to humanity the energy and intelligence for collaboration and working together.

It was the power of cooperation that allowed the building of cities, political and economic systems, and the civility that enables the orderly and peaceful flow of everyday life in all its many nuances. The multiple crises of ecology and culture that are transforming the planet today suggest the modern Blue system is no longer sufficient in the face of an Indigo and Violet intensification. We see the evidence in the eruption of wars, environmental destruction and political chaos.

How did we get here? What happens next? As we discover in the latest Homo Universalis conversation, even with a failing operating system, the evolutionary process offers the opportunity for renewal and regeneration. Aviv Shahar, Karen Heney and Kyriaki Nikandrou share their ideas and insights.

This conversation is part of the continuing Portalsdiscovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“Could this be one of the ways we are already being naturalized and acclimatized to the actuality of universal life? Where you can be together with others and there is a chain reaction, running revelatory process; some will then put it to music, some will put it to art, some will put it to writing, some will put it to the causes they serve. Okay, is this a way to think about universal life: you are engaged in an ongoing revelation, a running revelation, rather than one singular revelation for a life?” (Aviv)

“That is the inquiry we are now facing, what is the operating system that needs to emerge? I don't know that we have the solution or the answer here. But you're beginning to articulate some of the principles that are likely to be critical in the new operating system. The principle you just described is, it has to have the capacity to integrate and bridge all interests.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

The Universalis Project #10 - Why the World is Breaking Down

097 - Normalizing the Extraordinary: In the Metamodern God Lab

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Brendan Graham Dempsey, Layman Pascal, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 08:00:00 +0000

A laboratory is where we’d expect to find a safe space of discovery and purpose; an environment that supports experimenting with diverse ideas and mysteries in the search for truth. Add in an atmosphere of mutual trust and acceptance, and now we’ve created an ecology that invites something even deeper — a God lab.

Imagine a God lab as an intensified spiritual retreat, a gathering of like-minded and like-souled individuals seeking new understanding and experience with the divine. In this conversation, we are invited to appreciate a metamodern God lab as a community, created through the shared exploration of the sacred by people who each represent a unique expression of universal possibility.

In a metamodern God lab, every person is recognized and accepted as they experiment with creating and evolving their own vision, practices and art; an ecology where people find the inner balance that allows them to embody more fully at the spiritual leading edge of themselves.

We get to explore in this conversation the nature and possibilities of emergent metamodern spirituality with two metamodern leaders, Layman Pascal and Brendan Graham Dempsey. (This is the latest in a series of conversations sensing deeper into metamodern spirituality.) Layman and Brendan discuss with Aviv Shahar the recently completed Metamodern God Lab at the Sky Meadow retreat in Vermont.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I think what I'm seeing, what I'm taking away from this weekend, is the sheer importance of setting up these kinds of hive-like fields for the bees to go to and from. And if you get a few new ones each time it starts to spread. And ideally, we would have dozens or hundreds of things like this around the world to be a generator of the leading edge of the culture. As much as we need all these different subsets, what we fundamentally need is the right kind of a scene that's just a constant generator of all the different tentacles of the leading edge.” (Layman)

“I think there’s something deeply important about having a place where we come together and gather, and connect, and feel this vibe and these energies with each other, and sort of remember our connections with each other and to what we’re doing, and the sorts of aims and goals that we have, and the shared vision and the friendship, the relational connections. And being able to continue to deepen; increasing deepening into the relational field of it all is something that I find deeply renewing, and it’s kind of like returning to that well of relationship with this incredible community.” (Brendan)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Normalizing the Extraordinary: In the Metamodern God Lab with Layman Pascal and Brendan Graham Dempsey

096 - Current Openings #16: The Octave Leap Mystery

peterbarry173@gmail.com (David Price Francis, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 08:00:00 +0000

How many of us remember having what some people call a “chrysalis” moment? An octave leap, with mind-opening perceptions, in real time. A powerful flow of energy, a quickening, triggered by a connection or breakthrough that can happen anywhere, at any time, and transform us and the circumstance we’re in.

The chrysalis we probably know as the middle stage of the three-step transformation of the caterpillar into a butterfly. It’s a beautiful example of growth and change that happens in stages, or gradations, and is often generally described as a change in octaves, or levels. An octave change can be a long journey of refinement, or it can feel like a quantum leap, in an instant.

Why an octave in the first place? What is the benefit of an ordered transition or progression from one state to another? For example, from the physical and dense to the energetic and spiritual? The universe likes octaves; it’s the engineering that facilitates change and innovation; a natural technology that enables the safe entry and movement through successively higher energetic states.

How does it work? Can we really “leap” from a lower octave to a higher one? We turn for insights to Aviv Shahar and collaborator David Price Francis. Their conversation is the latest in the “Current Openings” series.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“There can't be an octave leap without new energy coming in from somewhere. So even when we see water boiling, there has to be the application of heat from somewhere to cause the molecules to get excited, and then it changes state. So when I think of now a quantum leap, or a change of octave, there's going to be a new energy incoming, a quickening as you say, a new energy incoming from somewhere to cause that to happen.” (David)

“Teaching number one in there, which is we have to do whatever it is we're doing in the fullest possible way because, in actuality, the release of the portal from one octave to the next, that threshold, is reached for by the full realization of the octave we are in. And teaching number two you offered, there has to be resistance built in. If you actually try to bypass or skip the steps without growing by resistance, you may visit a higher octave, but you will not have the infrastructure to hold it in a sustainable way.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Current Openings #16: The Octave Leap Mystery

095 - The Universalis Project #9 - Deepening in Evolutionary Mysteries

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Karen Heney, Kyriaki Nikandrou, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 09:00:00 +0000

If we’re already diving deep into the core mysteries of the human experience — such as how to partner with a new wave of evolution and engage with the universe — how do we push even further on the edge of discovery? Can we go even deeper into the mysteries? What’s the real benefit?

A curious feature of engaging with the natural human impulse to grow and refine is that as we develop, we begin to activate amazing innate capacities for connecting to intelligence and influence that are universal in origin and source. This, in turn, enables even deeper diving and connection to the mysteries of life and our evolving future. We explore the activation of the universal human in the Portalsseries the Homo Universalis Project.

By deepening in our intention and pursuit of meaning in a chaotic time, we build stability and a stronger foundation, expand inner space, and birth new sensitivities and capacities. In doing so, we become an antidote for a superficial world consumed by multiple global crises. We discover more about the nature of the inner space in The Ghost and the Inner Conclave and The Guru Trap and the Golden Shadow conversations with Jeff Vander Clute.

We also deepen to become available for an even bigger mission, bigger task, in our service to the new pulse of evolutionary possibility washing over humanity and the planet. Not a bad reason to dive in and deepen in the cosmic mysteries unfolding all around us. But how do we deepen?

We explore more deeply the why’s and how’s of deepening in the newest chapter of the Homo Universalis conversations (recorded in September 2023) with Aviv Shahar, Karen Heney, and Kyriaki Nikandrou.

Among their perceptions:

We deepen through the art of abiding, of staying and being with; deciding to not be captured by the impatience and velocity of this postmodern time; to be immersed with what we are exploring.
Homo Universalis is the liberation of latent capacities and sensitivities in the human, a process of release rather than acquiring something from the outside; the universe is liberated in us.
We’re not merely trading words and concepts. There is a potent, energetic dimension we describe as a form of psycho-spiritual activation, almost like psycho-spiritual open heart surgery.
To be self-authoring opens up a whole world of stories, narration and characters; humans have a wonderful ability to bring things together, join things, separate things; to create poems and art with a quality of refinement.
A self-arising life is an intentional conscious application to further something you've chosen; to bring the self into it with creative generation — bringing something to life that might never have exist.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“That's a good reason to do deepening work, because unless you offer more of the depth of who you are and what you can bring to the table, unless you do that, unless you offer that facility, you will only be able to realize your purpose and what you love to the degree of the depth that you make available.” (Aviv)

“A deepening process is moving away from the linear shortcut that we are so much wired to in this post-modern age. Somebody asks a question and you try to answer it in the shortest possible way. Well, that's a skill one needs to have as well, for example, in the business world, but our endeavor is more to access the latent capacities such that we indeed give rise to the multiplicity that we can be.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

The Universalis Project #9 - Deepening in Evolutionary Mysteries

094 - Evolving Together #4 - The Human Radio Set

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Nigel Geeves, Well, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 14 Feb 2025 09:00:00 +0000

It may be time to finally change channels, or — if we really want better reception and perception — to trade in that old analogue transmitter and receiver for the best, state-of-the-art technology in the universe.

We are referring, by analogy, to the most advanced radio set ever created: the human mind and network of finer, higher faculties — capable of tuning into any frequency, from humanmade, to planetary, to the deepest reaches of the cosmos. Its potential is vast and vital to our ongoing evolution and future.

Much of our precious daily life is likely spent inside a narrow band of energy, often worrying about relationships, career or cultural and ecological crises. With awareness and training, it’s possible to tune sensitive inner technology to transmit and receive on universal frequencies natural to the human design. It’s activating a higher human operating system.

It’s also a development journey enhanced and quickened by our companions and communities. Mutual respect and trust can help heal pain and trauma, as we become the signal that enables the emergence of new possibility in one another, evolving together.

We explore the realms of mutual transformation and the amazing human radio set in the latest of our Portalsseries Evolving Together, with Aviv Shahar and longtime Portalsfriends Nigel Geeves and Well.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“One of the things I do in my development work with myself is I talk to myself. Why would you talk to yourself? We live in a time where people often seek to find a new feeling and a new experience as the first move they make. In my journey, I've discovered that actually you want to introduce a new frame of mind, a new way of thinking, and that then enables you to heal, transmogrify, metabolize, sublimate, and actually access new feelings and new experience.” (Aviv)

“I think what you're talking about here is beginning to open up the profound realization that yes, we are universal beings. And, therefore, it's possible for us to develop a higher operating system, which literally operates at universal level as we live upon the planet. And via that higher operating system we can do something about the conditioning that's happened to the soul.” (Well)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Evolving Together #4 - The Human Radio Set

093 - Portals Into the Soul, Chapter 3: Symphonic Seven-fold Soul Work

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Peter Barry) — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 09:00:00 +0000

In chapter 2 we described the nature of separation events and the compensatory act of the soul — the ghost. Before developing ways to recover the sense of connection and explore pathways to reengage and liberate the greater potential of the soul, this chapter begins to reflect on a whole loom of considerations, including the experience of showing up in a human model, which is governed by a seven-fold process.

This is the first in a series of installments that will be seeking to place this soul odyssey inside the context of this moment in the unfolding epoch transition. It will open the way to prod the soul’s interface with the full orchestra of inner lives of a human, including in a later installment the brain and the mind.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“Do you ever wonder, is it possible humanity has lost contact with the natural terrain of what being human is and the meaning of life? Is it possible humanity has lost touch with reality and is now at a place where we cannot begin to recognize who we are? Is it possible our search for knowledge and for solutions to our problems has, for a couple of centuries, started from a displaced place?” (Aviv)

“There are moments and situations where we act with increasing integrity, vitality, and alignment to our values and what matters to us, and moments when we act with lesser intactness and lose wholesome sense of clarity. These are the natural ebbs and flows of soul orchestration. When we respond and act with integrity, we produce an inner glow, accompanying soul settlement and well-being” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Portals Into the Soul, Chapter 3: Symphonic Seven-fold Soul Work

092 - Inner Conclave Consciousness

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Jeff Vander Clute, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 09:00:00 +0000

How can we access greater intelligence, wisdom, and power to face the often-scary challenges of these times?

In the Inner Conclave Consciousness, Aviv Shahar and Jeff Vander Clute develop further the three process octaves they began to explore in part one of this conversation.

Why is this exploration so relevant now?.

Portals is chronicling what we describe as the unfolding crash of the operating system underlying much of the modern era. It doesn’t make our journey any easier; whenever we step into a new space of development and learning we cross the frontiers of resistance — all levels: physical, mental, emotional.

The Inner Conclave is a process to disarm resistance. It offers ways to help liberate the perception and awareness that add meaning and understanding in times of change. We can each work into this modality on our own and also in small pods, where we help each other activate the multiplicity of voices inside.

In this conversation Aviv and Jeff explore the vast, inexhaustible and versatile resource of the Inner Conclave and its second and third octaves of process, and dive deeper into the exploration of the Epoch Journey.

Among their insights:

As disruptions from the crashing modern-era operating system continue, we will need a new galaxy of institutions, businesses and ways of going on in a large, global connected world.
We're literally attuning ourselves to processes and realms that are universal, that existed before us and will exist after us. They express themselves through us and begin to impart new knowledge.
It’s a conductive ecology where thought, vision, intuition, and listening to the voices within, the Inner Conclave, will birth in energetic form what life itself wants to express inside us.
Our exploration of the Inner Conclave and connection with the causing realms recognizes that we are not the first; this has been a passionate quest of people from the beginning of time.
Making conscious the development, transformation, healing and self-actualization is working inwardly; we can bring a similar roadmap to community where we champion the highest good.
The Inner Conclave is seeking our inquiry through different voices: patience, care and strength; psychologist, midwife or her-storian. A technology that gives birth to the multiplicity of who we are on the inside.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“There's a question around to what extent do the diseases that manifest in the body, mind, world come about because we weren't listening? So if we can identify the true focusing need, and stay focused, and listen to the signals of the body, the signals of the world, well, that's a capacity - and probably a pretty useful one.” (Jeff)

“The invitation was, well, if you really want to explore these spaces go on a pilgrimage to your inner cave, because the universe is in you. The blessing and the causing realms are in you to the degree that you enable yourself and allow yourself to access these realms. Will you skate to your own deeply-held beliefs and gently put them down? So you don't look at the world, and you don't even look at yourself, through your deeply-held beliefs, but you look at the beliefs and discover what they allow and support and where have they held you back, perhaps?” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Inner Conclave Consciousness

091 - Activating the Inner Conclave

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Jeff Vander Clute, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 3 Jan 2025 09:00:00 +0000

A glance at the headlines today often brings a deep sense of sadness about the escalating violence in many parts of the world, along with an urgent inner inquiry: what can one person do to promote peace, both within themselves and the global community?

Several Portals conversations and, most recently, the first chapters of Portals Into the Soul, offered the insight that every human is born with natural qualities and higher connections that form a powerful inner source of intelligence and capabilities. This Inner Conclave of our many inner lives is a ready resource to assist in any dimension of our planetary experience. Even, and maybe especially, in the quest for peace.

The Inner Conclave is not just an exercise in visualization. It is the energetic content and consciousness that can illuminate and transform our lives. The Conclave’s three levels, or octaves, of process include releasing and healing, learning and developing, and higher communion.

Engaging with the Inner Conclave can update and rewire our internal operating system and expand its capacity to welcome new qualities and natures, including deep well-being and peace. Imagine that we are integrated with every other human through our higher universal nature. Imagine then that creating our own inner peace can heal and transform the energetic networks and communities that connect us all.

Let’s take a deeper look at the amazing capabilities of the Inner Conclave in this newest conversation between Aviv Shahar and Jeff Vander Clute. Jeff is a consultant and author of three recent books, including Beyond Every Teaching, a collection of transformative spiritual transmissions.

Among their insights:

There is an intelligence guiding the Inner Conclave — in each of us, and in humanity, which is in some sense an Inner Conclave for the super organism that is Homo Universalis, the universal human.
Any point where we think we finally figured out who we are, and become fixated, we've just arrested the next discovery about who we are becoming, which also has space and opportunity in the Inner Conclave.
We all have experienced embarrassment. Those spaces could contain the content that can unlock our creativity. Could years-old embarrassment be a misunderstanding we never had the circumstance to dissolve?
The gift we offer each other is that we are the space makers and the midwives of each other’s growth and possibility. Being with others will amplify and augment for us our own space.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“The first point was, hey, can we relax in the way we approach this? Can we relax into the discovery of the Inner Conclave? You don't need to change yourself, you don't need to think you ought to be somebody else. Actually, it's an invitation to integrate a part of you that you often leave out. So it is not about trying to get it right. It is really about discovering who you, who we, are becoming.” (Aviv)

“And as we seek to inhabit and liberate and unlock the domain of healing, the domain of art, the domain of leadership, the different teacher-guides that we may choose to cultivate, can we do so in an embodied way? Can I feel how they live in different parts of my system? Physically, energetically, and in my space?” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Activating the Inner Conclave

090 - Current Openings #15: The Four Development Zones

peterbarry173@gmail.com (David Price Francis, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 09:00:00 +0000

It may be easy to see the wisdom of Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, who noted back in the 6th century BC, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." When the journey of a lifetime is measured not in distance, but in sensing and connecting with a universal source of purpose and potency, what is that single first step?

We’ve explored throughout Current Openings the many facets and dimensions of the human development quest and challenge. From personal — transforming me — to the collective of together evolving ourselves through our relationships and communities, which in turn uplifts and transforms our world and humanity. All guided by the search for truth in a time of evolutionary change and new possibilities.

So, the first step? We know from our Portalsjourney that the human is the only species on the planet with freedom of choice — the power to focus the full energy and creativity inherent in the human design in pursuit of an intention. Make a decision, and it starts to build the potency of one person being able to say, “I choose to do this.”

We learn a lot more about the zones of human development in the new episode, #15, of Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet, with Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis. Among their insights:

Many amazing ponders and mysteries to explore. Which we do in this latest Homo Universalis conversation with Aviv Shahar and Portals friends Karen Heney and Kyriaki Nikandrou.

Among their ideas and insights:

Each one of us impacts the world by our actions, thoughts, and feelings, and the impacts can be greater or lesser depending upon how wholesome, or integrated, we are as individuals.
The higher impulse is where we get to not just develop ourselves, but also get something else to help us develop us, an extra kind of larger power to tether, orchestrate, and sculpt who we are.
Why do we keep recreating over and over the same painful inner stories or narratives, when an opportunity is available to redeem and absolve that pattern?
Much of therapy is directed toward functioning within the bar of “normal” — being able to be a functioning member of society, and have a satisfactory life. However, normal is a pretty low bar.
We can be partners in passion, which is exchanging energy, or become partners in purpose, and even higher to partners in evolution, where we look to help each other’s spiritual journey.
Collective development depends upon the level of personal development which is actually present. They're interconnected; you can't look at one without the other.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“Human life is purposeful. And then, within the greater purpose of life, we each get a chance to first of all work on alleviating pain and suffering. And, secondly, work on optimizing wellbeing and creating positive results in anything we do. And then we may choose to work on the higher impulse, in Zone One, which I'm proposing as a starter place is to liberate my essence, to liberate my higher creational nature.” (Aviv)

“One of the really interesting features of personal development, people tend to think of themselves as singular, like, ‘What do I want to do?’ Well, if their ‘I’ is based in their emotion on Tuesday, then they may want to go into a retreat, and they may want to try and make contact, as you said, with the divine. But then on Thursday a different part of their system, their mental system, may be in charge, and it's going, ‘Oh, my Lord, we're a bit short on cash.’ And then an hour later, a different part of their system is in charge, and it's saying, ‘What's for dinner?’ We're not singular - unless we do a great deal of deliberate work to become whole.” (David)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Current Openings #15: The Four Development Zones

089 - Universalis #8 - Partnering with the Universe

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Kyriaki Nikandrou, Aviv Shahar, Karen Heney) — Fri, 6 Dec 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Our long and revealing journey of discovery with homo universalis, the universal human, has taken us to what feels like a new beginning, but now as partners; a partnership that will transform both of us in the ongoing adventure of an unfolding new epoch and new future.

This partnership with the cosmos actually begins inside of us, with ourselves. We are becoming more intentional partners with the many inner lives of connections, capacities and expansive intelligence natural to every human. We know from previous Universalis conversations that new sense organs and deeper awareness of our universal nature also are firing and coming online.

Imagining a connected exchange with the universe as a partnership makes it easier to also think about our inner partners as an integrated, enhanced platform of new possibility. Which brings us to the conundrum we always face in wanting to integrate, consolidate and make our own these emerging new capacities.

How do we internally welcome newly arising intelligence and awareness in a way that promotes their ongoing liberation instead of fixing or arresting our emerging universal nature? It’s really up to us. Are we ready to embrace the responsibility (and opportunity) to be self-authoring, self-electing, and self-configuring as we integrate with our universal partners?

Many amazing ponders and mysteries to explore. Which we do in this latest Homo Universalis conversation with Aviv Shahar and Portals friends Karen Heney and Kyriaki Nikandrou.

Among their ideas and insights:

The universalis human is a way we are imagining and contemplating human life to be the place, the theater, through which the universe liberates itself to its greater potential.
The telescope, microscope, and the computing power of the modern world enhance our lives. What about re-integrating a human interior technology? Universalis activation needs the inner wirings and latent formations.
It's not theoretical: how do we integrate new intelligence to close the distance from perception to embodied living and expression manifestation; to become the vessel of the core essence of the new knowledge?
The universalis human answers an imperative of the universe for a process of renewal and regeneration. If you take it away, the universe as a living being will quickly come to an end.
We’re liberating a new kind of multi-faceted partnering with the universe — a breakthrough collaboration enabled by shared trust, shared imperative, and shared purpose.
Some people think the process of reasoning is going back into the head, the intellectual. But originating reasoning seeks to connect with why something is arising in the first place.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“All of us humans are now invited into an evolving ecology of a new epoch, in which we get to reconfigure ourselves. And the self-electing, self-configuring, self-authoring responsibility is actually to step up to that dialogue, that conversation, because no one else can do it for ourselves. We are all children seeking to grow and mature into that kind of relationship with the universe to become adults in that sense of self-responsibility.” (Aviv)

“The Universalis human project is to do with coming into some kind of partnering with yourself and with the universe you are emerging in. It's a new way of being, it's a new way of partnering on the inside with the universe at large, inside of which we are looking to liberate a whole new set of latent technologies within the human system, and codify those, and translate them, and build the topographical landscape such that we can liberate even more so all that becomes available for us - and that the next 1000 years is about unlocking that greater potential.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Universalis #8 - Partnering with the Universe

088 - The Teacher's Journey with Sarah McCrum

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Sarah McCrum, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 09:00:00 +0000

The journey of a spiritual teacher can help illuminate the joy, pain, revelations and profound awakenings that often accompany someone on the path to discover the larger meaning of life and the universe.

This conversation brings us an intimate look into one such life of spiritual learning and leading, as Aviv Shahar is joined by author, educator, innovator and business owner Sarah McCrum. It also inaugurates a new Portals series that will explore the unique developmental journey of spiritual teachers and leaders from a variety of disciplines.

Sarah’s path of searching and teaching stretches from the high — experiencing the “source code” or creational origins of the well of being, or wellbeing — to the awareness of the energy of money as being an integral part of our wellbeing and spiritual purpose.

Sarah reflects on the many lessons and insights from her years of studying directly with spiritual teachers from several disciplines and communities — the deep healing, revelations, and challenges inherent in the student-teacher relationship. Her experience reflects aspects of the Portals exploration into the Teacher’s Journey.

The story continues as Sarah describes the feeling of freedom, of being both an individual, and connected to the divine nature that emanates from the core of the universe. Other insights from their conversation include:

The deepest terror had been to question things held to be true in the spiritual community. The curiosity and willingness to question and find answers for yourself is the journey of becoming a teacher.
What’s important in the archetype of this story is the contracting from total surrender and openness to the teacher. It’s almost necessary in individuation — finding your own voice, your own path.
A teacher can become dependent on being validated or needing the magnification of people around the work; it becomes the instrument of transmission. Without it, the teacher can’t access their own connection.
There is an enormous craving in people to bypass and get to the instant solution, the instant illumination. Yet there is something about the human divinity that is very high and should not be compromised.
To teach safely means to develop the systems and inner formation that can handle the antithetical nature that accompanies this work. Otherwise, you're not useful to yourself or others in a sustainable way.

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“And what actually happened was that I heard or felt or sensed the words the well of being, and that well of being appeared to me to be in creation. Those were the words that came to me, and that was something I was very interested in exploring already - what is creation? And the well of being then becomes an experience which is a very deep, very fundamental inner experience of well being, which actually started, for me, a way of changing perhaps my own origin story about life.” (Sarah)

“And I then experienced what I now know to be the light. And it was an experience, first of all, of total protection, absolute protection, absolute stillness that was not contrasted with any movement, but sits inside all movement. So it was an experience of the absolute within all non-absolute. And I saw that it was in everything. It doesn't matter how dark a situation is, the light is in there. And that became very important.” (Sarah)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

The Teacher's Journey with Sarah McCrum

087 - Current Openings #14: What Does it Mean to Develop?

peterbarry173@gmail.com (David Price Francis, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 8 Nov 2024 08:48:02 +0000

It was a Portals cliffhanger: We were in midflight, in midair, final destination unseen, at the end of the last Current Openings as we journeyed into the deeper space of development and what it means for us and the universe. The conversation then paused, to pick up later.

No need to worry. Our flight now resumes, as we aim even deeper into the core dimensions of what it means to be a true caregiver for ourselves, the planet, the cosmos, and future generations yet to come. The dimensions of care and love that determine our future with the choices and decisions we make every day.

A good place to start might be to notice the word “care” can be found in caregiver and character. What sort of character builds the inner platform that offers a good home to the new evolutionary energy now finding its way into humanity and the planet? How do our values, principles and morals enable us to connect with the source of what powers us on the inside, in whatever we are aiming to do?

As our “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet” flight continues, Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis explore further into the five core dimensions of what it means to develop.

Among their perceptions:

Peak experiences are wonderful both individually and communally. But the trueness of one's development and character are more clearly defined by the point below which we never go.
When we develop character, we again move a little more into the interior. We don’t disappear on the inside; the best way to develop character is in service of the larger ecology we are joined to.
Hiding in an esoteric development might render yourself ineffective — you are essentially escaping engagement with your fellow humans. We live in the exoteric world and are able to create moments and spaces of esoteric depth.
Where are today’s equivalent of the knights and ladies of King Arthur’s court? They are showing up all over the planet, endeavoring to make the higher choices of living in the face of confusion and chaos.
Self-determination is key to becoming the person you want to be and to take a hand in your own development, to stand out with the virtues and values you decided.
To live a virtuous life that is congruent with chosen values is to work softly, not just hard, to not go below the standards we set for ourselves, to embrace the idea of character development.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I'm proposing, developing skills was developing what you can do. Developing inside a role in a domain was about developing what you serve. When you develop your character, you are again moving a little bit more inside, in the interior, and it's not that you disappear in the interior because often the best way to develop character is actually to be in service of the larger ecology you are serving. And so I'm proposing that character in this is developing what you are, or developing what you're becoming, or both.” (Aviv)

“So often people think about the development journey, and they will go to describe their peak experience. Oh, I've experienced a non-dual illumination. I've experienced an ecstatic state. Okay, that's wonderful. The peak experiences are wonderful, both at an individual level and at a communal level. The trueness of one's development, and one's character, is more clearly defined by the point below which we never go.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Current Openings #14: What Does it Mean to Develop?

086 - Journeying to Source

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Grace Boda, Jeff Vander Clute, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 08:00:00 +0000

It remains one of the most powerful and personal callings for someone on a quest for transformation and inspiration: the pilgrimage — a journey to what are believed to be sources of connection to the sacred or divine, the holy places.

Many of the best-known religious pilgrimages involve a million or more believers or devotees, such as the Hajj, or sacred Hindu celebrations in India. A pilgrimage can be required by religious law, or begin with a singular calling, an inner urge, felt by the pilgrim for closer communion with the divine, however the spiritual or universal source is named or described.

Why do people all over the planet from nearly every tradition take up these sometimes arduous adventures of spiritual devotion? What do they hope for?

In this conversation we hear from two longtime Portals friends who recently completed what some people might call the pilgrimage of a lifetime, to the source high in the Himalayas of the sacred Ganges River, in Hindu belief the home of the Goddess Ganga. Jeff Vander Clute, consultant and author, and Grace Boda, teacher, consultant and executive coach, share with Aviv Shahar the feelings and power of their pilgrimage to this divine source.

Among their insights:

Pilgrimage is an opportunity to be individually transformed, and to plug into a universal power and give back into the collective — a seemingly nonlinear impact on the field, this planet and the people who inhabit her.
It was a total life reboot; a reorientation from rigorously mining truth in every circumstance, to expressing love grounded in truth.
It’s reaching an edge physically, out of one's comfort zone, and needing to access other energy, other capacity, with the mental experience of dropping the structures and formations that block higher communion.
When we Source, we open to the inspiration, and it brings a kind of knowing of right action — what the moment calls for. We can respond accordingly, and roles emerge; if a Sherpa is needed, we’re suddenly a Sherpa.
If there is shadow anywhere, there is shadow in me; if there is woundedness, there's woundedness in me. We co-participate in the field of healing. None of us is above the work required.
If there is a Second Coming, it is all of us. This time, the upwelling impulse of enlightenment is collective — a collective presence and awakeness — which fills us from a source beyond any personal identity.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“And I realized that I was having a total life reboot. And, with the benefit of a little bit of hindsight, I can say that the nature of the reboot was a reorientation from mining truth, like rigorously mining truth, in every circumstance: what is true, what is true, what is true, what is true? What is real, and what is not? That had been my inquiry for many years. Subsequent to going all the way to the source, and having this embodied experience, the inquiry changed to expressing love.” (Jeff)

“Perhaps because this group was ultra coherent, we were somehow able to become a conscious microcosm of the whole, of let's say the species, and even the whole Gaian system, and offer ourselves in service to the transformation of the entirety and the healing of the human family. So we're going to the source, and we're going to the roots, and we're able to be correspondingly empowered in our service and devotion to the transformation of humanity at this time.” (Jeff)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

085 - The Time Between Worlds with Layman Pascal

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Layman Pascal, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 08:00:00 +0000

How do we reckon with a reckoning? We can look around at the many crises engulfing the planet and think that, yes, humanity is facing its day of reckoning, a time of consequences for many forms of unsustainable behavior throughout the modern era. The “twilight of the gods,” or unraveling of our inherited values and reality described in mythology and literature.

Can we find a path forward from reckoning to renewal? In a post-guru era, the search for new intelligence and insight doesn’t rely on any single external authority. We are inspired by gifted teachers, shamans, and enlightened companions, but this also is a time of distributed leadership.

Each one of us has the natural capacity to connect with a universal source of knowledge and creativity — homo universalis. Each one of us carries a piece of the puzzle that together form a clear image of a collective new future. Doesn’t it make sense to then together reckon new ways of creating community that liberate the best each has to offer?

We are fortunate to again have a gifted guide as we navigate our way through this shape-shifting new reality. This is the third conversation between Aviv Shahar and Layman Pascal, a leader in Integral thinking and teaching, and a prominent voice on the Integral Stage YouTube channel and podcast.

Among their insights:

We’re entrenched on this planet in patterns that are not accessing the spirit. We're not collectively mobilizing to solve the metacrisis. We need a new source of meaning and energy to mobilize outside our embedded patterns.
Merging and harmonizing different realms of experience produces an “extra,” greater than the sum of the parts. The extra is a pragmatic way to think about what spirituality and religion point toward.
We have to reckon with the fact the very instruments through which we are trying to solve our problems are generating another set of problems that are gaining on us very quickly.
We can't trust anything socially; we’re peripherally aware that we're not experiencing the same reality; the structure has been removed — a deeply uncanny and unsettling place to be; the time between worlds.
Our sense of a shared consensus reality has been undermined. Any voice, image, or reference material can be generated by machine tools; what could give us the sense of proof has been taken away from us.
We need to practice the emotional quality of trust individually, collectively and as a culture. There are many objective reasons to not trust our embedded systems, but we have a personal responsibility to be capable of trust.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“So I think the emotional quality of trust is something that we need to practice more individually, collectively, and as a culture. When we look at the broader sociopolitical situation in the world there are many objective reasons to not trust the systems that we are embedded in. But we also have a personal responsibility to become capable of trust, because it's not just a response to what's out there, it's also kind of a faithful act that we make in ourselves.” (Layman)

“We're just shifting to a new system, so that we have to develop new responses collectively for figuring out how to be together, how to be in reality. And, in order to do that, we have to be able to sample lots of different kinds of perspectives and different kinds of reality tunnels. But not only sample them and acknowledge the plurality, not only go into the post-modern kind of consciousness, we have to be able to bring them back together in a way that is coherent and empowering. So that's the shift beyond the post-modern into the meta-modern sensibility.” (Layman)

“There is a body of work that’s been emerging over the last few years inside the Portals project, which we call the epoch transition, or the epoch journey, where we tell the story of the epoch through sevenfold natures, or through the rainbow. But these colors mean something other than what they mean in the traditional integrative framework, or spiral dynamics, or any other they’re talking about. They are describing recurring potencies in nature that are emergent throughout the epoch.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

The Time Between Worlds with Layman Pascal

084 - Current Openings #13 – How Can We Help the Future?

peterbarry173@gmail.com (David Price Francis, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 08:00:00 +0000

How would we even consider paying back the universe — returning the favor — for the most amazing gift of being alive? In a simple appreciation, every breath, every heartbeat, demonstrates a greater permission, an ongoing love and care for the human species. Isn’t it reasonable to wonder how we might reciprocate?

Fortunately, there are many clues and directions in Current Openings that explore the true nature and innate possibility of being human. Much of the discovery has broadened our understanding of a larger purpose in the cosmos and what it means to actually develop.

We’ve learned, for example, that by design we generate and process energy at many levels, frequencies and qualities. We can choose to create and transmit into our lives and the world generosity, care, kindness and peace — qualities that enrich and uplift life itself — instead of being pulled into ever-more-toxic political and cultural polarities.

The activation of Homo Universalis, a greater universal possibility, means each of us can choose to become a conduit, a safe harbor, for new evolutionary potential nudging its way into humanity and the planet. We help ourselves (and each other) by helping the future help us. Not a bad first cosmic “thank you.”

As we continue the series “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet,”Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis further explore the human impulse to reciprocate the cosmic love that keeps our hearts ticking.

Among their appreciations:

When we talk about dimensions of care and love, the invitation is to become caretakers to ourselves, the planet, and humanity at large in the way we simply make our choices every day.
A perspective about the future is to have a degree of humility that goes with humanity. We didn't make the universe; we're co-respondents to new energy appearing, becoming people of the future.
We can develop ourselves to become a conduit for a bright future, the portal for all that life can be as the universe continues to release its potential through planetary and human affairs.
Humans are contagious: what we think and feel, and the energies we bring into ourselves and transmit, are contagious. If we're inspired in ourselves, other people can also become inspired.
Generosity is the inner core of the human. It comes from being stable and strong in yourself; knowing who you are and why you’re here; that the universe wants you to be here, and to realize we are of kind; we're kin.

This conversation is part of the continuing Portalsdiscovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on theEventspage. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“This is looking at the inner core design of the human and having a human perspective on how we can help humanity. And, at the core of that, to me, sits this idea of generosity, which comes from being stable in oneself and strong in oneself, from the personal perspective, having a good sense of who one is and why one is here, that the universe wants us to be here, and to realize that we are of kind, or even a stronger expression, we are kin. We're of kin to the rest of the human race.” (David)

“So when we bring the cosmic perspective and we ask, how can you help the universe? The position we take, the invitation we make is, well, you develop yourself. By actually developing yourself you are helping the universe, you're helping humanity, you're helping the planet, you're helping yourself - by developing yourself, period. However, I'm offering the specificity of develop yourself as an agent of evolution, and develop yourself as an agent of the evolution of the universe in human and planetary affairs.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Current Openings #13 – How Can We Help the Future

083 - Portals Into the Soul, Chapter 2 - The Ghost

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 08:00:00 +0000

In chapter one we introduced the story of the soul showing up as part of a new life on the natural as was meant to be line. It is programmed with a threefold brief to orchestrate and guide the human to a) stay alive, b) learn, adapt, and improve opportunities, and c) discover and realize your higher purpose. The soul nudges you to bring to life and express the cosmology of your natural higher qualities.

In chapter two we ask why and how we get separated from the natural as was meant to be line, and what happens to the soul when we do. How does the soul fixate on and try to compensate for the separation? We will also address the postmodern self-construction criticism of what we describe by the natural as was meant to be response of the soul. We put individuals to work in things that do not serve life, and they hate their work. The people who were meant to move life forward are being hijacked by the systems, and we create the crisis we have today.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“You are a unique configuration: completely unique fingerprint like no other human; a unique, colorful intricate iris pattern of ridges and folds, and a unique cosmology of competencies, qualities, and essences. All of which means you represent a unique discovery lab for life. Life gets to discover and experience a once-in-the-universe algorithmic configuration through you. This is an extraordinary fact, a sacred fact.” (Aviv)

“Every person has a spiritual journey, whether they believe in the actuality of the spirit or not. You cannot be a human and not have a spiritual journey. A human is a spirit being entering a planetary experience in the human model. It is accompanied by a soul whose job is to be a companioning liaison that helps navigate and orchestrate the human to realize the spirit’s purpose through development and evolution.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Portals Into the Soul, Chapter 2 - The Ghost

082 - 8 Patterns of Transformation with Jose Leal

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Jose Leal, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 08:00:00 +0000

What if the underlying natural intelligence and energy that help influence and shape nearly every aspect of our lives were actually identifiable patterns hiding in plain sight — visible in every domain of life to anyone with the eyes (perception) to see?

Underlying patterns that together point to a unified universal operating system or source code that is guiding the growth and evolution of our own life, humanity and the planet…and all the ways we connect and interact. Identifying the patterns can open greater possibility of living and working in harmony with, not contrary to, the rhythms of nature and life.

Making space and time for the dynamic flow of life itself can transform a society and culture — all that we do, in the workplace, legal system, relationships and communities. How so?

We explore the guiding influence of usually unseen patterns and cycles in this conversation between Aviv Shahar and Jose Leal, a founding member of Society 2045, a gathering of visionaries imagining a future that supports and liberates the best of humanity. They first looked into their evolutionary crystal ball in the Portals conversation Imagine 2045.

Among their current insights:

We put individuals to work in things that do not serve life, and they hate their work. The people who were meant to move life forward are being hijacked by the systems, and we create the crisis we have today.
We are in many ways thriving, and in many ways killing ourselves. The lack of recognition of the patterns of life is removing our energy from being in the flow of what life needs.
The new cycle and new patterns arising are an opportunity to build new organizations that will displace part of the current system and operate more closely to the living patterns.
Helping people become aware of the arising patterns is a psycho-activating catalyst that unlocks the energy, and facilitates the shift from the static and arresting to the fluid and integrated.
We can see each persons’ unique configuration in their fingerprint, in their eyes. It's a sacred fact that we show up here as a unique representation of life; it's not just a random thing.
A career is not just a projection or destination. I have certain capacities for certain things; if I lean into that, I'm dancing with purpose, to engage in the way that best serves life.
We are inter-dependent, as individuals, as life itself. It changes our understanding of what we're doing to and for each other. It fractures the idea of independence; any one individual cannot exist independent of the rest of nature.

This conversation is part of the continuing Portalsdiscovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on theEventspage. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“There is implicit in these realizations some reframing of belief systems, such as what is it we believe the case to be about decay about dying? Do we believe it’s the end of everything? Or do we believe it is simply how the system reboots or regenerates or rejuvenates itself? And that leads us to the third pattern which you decoded as from transactions to relationships, or from impersonality of transactions to depth of relationships. There is an importance here of the word depth, say something about the significance of that depth and relationships in this pattern.” (Aviv)

“Nature and its complexity is still happening, we are nature. And those patterns, be it in our organizations or in our agreements, or in the way we do finance or the way we do collaboration, all of those things actually operate at some level, at the nature level, in those rhythms. That is life and nature’s complexity. And we’re butting against those two every day. And so recognizing that, when we look at, say for example, something that we would call a strategy for a period of time and saying, let’s look at where we want to go, but adapt to the flow, the nonlinear flow of where, of how we’re going to get there. And recognizing that that’s a fluid thing that we do, not a linear story that we can tell and be beholden to the story, no matter what the reality is, in the moment.” (Jose)

“Recognizing that we are interdependent as individuals, as life itself, changes our understanding of what it is that we're doing to and for each other. And the pattern that emerged that life seeks to serve life, not as an option, not as a choice, but as the very process of life is to serve life.” (Jose)

“The very existence of AI is a pattern of life. AI as a tool, that humans have been building tools for millennia, will alter our landscape like every other tool has altered the landscape. And I think that looking at these patterns lets us understand that we're not here to dictate what happens and doesn't happen. We're here to figure out how to go with the flow of life, rather than contradict the flow of life.” (Jose)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

8 Patterns of Transformation with Jose Leal

081 - What is Healing? #3 - Opening to Healing

Fri, 16 Aug 2024 08:00:00 +0000

How do we sidestep a familiar and unhelpful pattern of thought or behavior in that moment when trauma or pain begins to assert itself and trigger a response? Can we in the triggering moment find a uniquely creative and new response that helps illuminate and loosen the trauma’s grip?

Learning to pause before reacting to a triggering feeling or memory might be one of the most important moments in the healing process. Deciding how we will respond, if at all, engages a larger awareness or consciousness that lifts our perspective above the immediate, often polarized, circumstance. In this view of healing, consciousness is the medicine.

In this moment we can remember there is no separation: we are naturally integrated with larger universal patterns of regenerative energy and intelligence. Which means as we heal, the universe heals, and we co-create a new future.

We explore further into the realms of light and shadow and healing with a group of Portals friends who bring an amazing depth and breadth of experience as practitioners, authors, and teachers. In this new addition to the What is Healing? series, Aviv Shahar is joined by Lonny Jarrett, AlexanderLove, Randine Anderson Lewis, and Lorie EveDechar.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I think when we talk about healing, it's really a concept very much applied to the bottom, which is that I cut myself shaving. And it takes two weeks for the wound to heal, or I broke my leg and it takes six months for it to heal. And the notion of healing in that regard in the physical realm and in the gross dimension of being is that something's going to get back to like it was, and it's going to be out of the way, and it won't be an inconvenience, and it will be resolved. And just over the course of my life, healing has really changed to evolution and the soul’s view of just a very deep time process.” (Lonny)

“I love that distinction around healing, often being whether we're thinking about it consciously or unconsciously, as a returning back to something sort of like, oh, well, I had a big trauma in my life. And so, if I heal, then I'll be the person I was before the trauma. And it brings up for me how often, in the West, we think of ourselves as nouns, we think of ourselves as like these fixed things that kind of get broken, and then we have to patch back together. Whereas, in the East, there's a lot of invitation to explore ourselves more like a verb. And when we do that, it invites this notion that every moment is receiving the previous moments, and then creating something new.” (Alexander)

“Where does healing come from? I'm really struck with this sense of our vastness, that we are multidimensional beings - it's not just the manifestation of the materiality here. I know from my own experience that what opens me up to that is my own brokenness, my own flaws, the ways that I can't seem to access the healing that I want. So all I can do is surrender and say, I need help.” (Randine)

“The second a person says, okay, I'm going to do it, or I'm not going to do it, and I'm putting my stake in the ground and the karmic line ends now, then instantly all the forces that support the evolution of their soul toward the true, the good, the beautiful, toward this wholesome step, line up. And every force inside that wants to maintain the status quo and has no sincerity at all in engaging with healing also becomes perfectly clear - and then we really have something we can work with. And that shifts the whole orientation from healing to evolution.” (Alexander)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

What is Healing #3 - Opening to Healing

080 - The Guru Trap and the Golden Shadow

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Peter Barry) — Fri, 2 Aug 2024 08:00:00 +0000

The teacher-student dynamic has been central for the unfolding story of humanity. Although universities began to emerge in Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries, the modern education system only developed during the Industrial Revolution, in part for adults to be able to go to work in factories. Modern education focused on exterior knowledge of the physical world and was shaped by scientific orientation. It also included learning and development of skills. These were mostly physical and mental skills that would facilitate participation in the workforce and employability.

What was largely left out of modern education was the interior and the character development journey. Modern education had no capacity to address this need. It was left for the priest, rabbi, lama, and the guru-teacher. The therapist was added later.

Anyone aspiring to deeper self-insight and understanding and the pursuit of perennial wisdom, both in the East and the West, needed to find the teacher and often the community where the quest for truth and self-knowledge could be supported.

Recent decades brought new realizations about the dynamic between a searching student and their spiritual teacher. In this conversation between Aviv Shahar and longtime Portals friend Jeff Vander Clute, author of Beyond Every Teaching, they trace the teacher’s journey, the identification trap for both teacher and student, and the golden shadow phenomenon. They also are reflecting on the kinds of ethical evolutionary communities that are arising now to address these challenges.

These ponders come at a critical time. We’ve explored on Portals the post-guru quest and the search for truth as new creative capacities come online with the activation of Homo Universalis, the universal human. We can integrate with the new incoming evolutionary impulse as self-authored and self-responsible — our own pathfinders with the help of others around us.

Among their insights:

If the teacher identifies with the students’ love and admiration, or with their criticism, they begin to be more attuned to their students rather than the original purpose or the ineffable source.
A pathology of communities that decide to do away with teachers is to bounce to the other side of the polarity and not adopt any form of internal structure.
We are in the post-guru phase and the resolution of the story is that the collective — the mutualized ecology and distributed body of people that we are — can become the teaching agency.
This is about us as human beings learning to handle power safely before we can become universalized, where the power levels intensify; we go through many tests in our life and experience.
For as long as we are in the flesh, we will have unfinished business that needs tending to, whatever the degree of enlightenment, even of a teacher. Nobody is exonerated.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“And I would say a great way to realize the confirmation, not just the knowing, which could be abstract, to imbibe life and the experiences that life brings through interactions with students through interactions with anyone on the street. And to bring oneself into contact with the world is perhaps the most powerful way, not only to be confirmed in what one knows, you can think of the world as the playground for one’s spirituality, and more than that, the testing ground, but also to go deeper. And not only be in the cave from time to time, but to become the cave. So there’s no longer a need to go off to the cave. That happens when the inner and the outer are reconciled, unified, and ultimately seamlessly integrated.” (Jeff)

“It’s well said and I’m seeing the value of the dysfunction in bringing attention and awareness to the higher potential for the teaching and for the teacher. And, as you said, if we start with the goal of empowering, enabling everyone to have their own source connection, source realization, it does flow more smoothly. And if there’s dissonance, that’s a great indication that maybe we could be, maybe it’s time, maybe doing more of that, maybe it wasn’t time before. So the dissonance is valuable.” (Jeff)

“The trap is there already, it's always ever present, and unless we continually work with it we are captured by the ghostly behaviors, the ghostly patterns, of this trap. For as long as we are in the flesh, even when we feel that we have worked through all our disowned content, there will always be more patterns that with greater power, and with greater intensity, and with greater illumination will come to the surface.” (Aviv)

“Now what I'm describing here, in some way, is a central feature of the human experience, even in the child-parent relationship. We each, as children, we had the first moment when we said, well, my father, my mother - hopefully a little later than earlier - and there was, okay, they are human beings, too. They're flawed in their way, they have their weaknesses. And many of us experienced it very early in childhood, for some of us it came later. So there is a disillusionment crisis the student now experiences in relation to the teacher.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

The Guru Trap and the Golden Shadow

079 - The Ghost and the Inner Conclave

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Jeff Vander Clute, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 08:00:00 +0000

It’s good to remember that whatever the emotional, mental, or life pain or trauma we face — whatever the shadow or ghost — we can at any time assemble the most powerful team of advisors, healers, teachers, and friends available to help us. It can be anyone, close by or at distance; a quality, such as courage or kindness. Whatever we think we need.

They all come together in what we call The Inner Conclave, a multi-dimensional interior gathering of the many lives and resources accessible within us. If we face the trauma caused by abuse or loss, for example, we can imagine in our Conclave a person or quality that represents love, or trust, or wisdom.

It’s not merely a mental picture, but the energetic value and consciousness that work together to illuminate and in time transform the shadow or ghost, the pain and anguish. Where do our ghosts come from? Imagine an inner intelligence we call a soul that seeks always to keep us safe, and reconnect us to the natural love and wonder in us at birth.

We discover much more about the ghost and shadow, and the healing possibility of The Inner Conclave practice, in this conversation with Aviv Shahar and longtime Portalsfriend Jeff Vander Clute. Jeff is a consultant and author of three recent books, including Beyond Every Teaching, a collection of transformative spiritual transmissions.

Among their insights:

It’s a step-by-step process, potentially a navigable journey, to engage one's soul and come into the right relationship, a wholeness, with oneself. Miraculously, the world then begins to reflect our wholeness.
The Inner Conclave contemplation enables a larger space and capacity, not to bypass or suppress the pain, but to illuminate and metabolize the ache and anguish.
Suddenly, what used to be very big is no longer so large, as all the capacities and qualities we imagine and summon come online and take part in the inner conflict.
We can bring mental healing to a whole lineage — a tribe, a nation — as part of humanity tapping into a universally-inclined shared experience accessed together in The Inner Conclave.
Releasing ourself from the arresting limitation of polarities is to allow the natural multiplicity of voices, qualities, and essences that we are to impart their intelligence and revelation.
Whatever the inner script, we each have a shadow or ghost pattern enacted with us because of our formative painful experience. Can it reveal a high truth or voice? How can we disarm it safely?

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“These are two novel objectives. What I simply meant by the transparency offered was that, in this case, we are journeying with a global community of some 150 people where the emphasis is that it’s not a teaching or learning situation as a first principle, although the profound revelatory dimension, learning dimension, developmental dimension, and healing dimension all accompany nature and features, the primary impulse is this evolutionary frame of mind.” (Aviv)

“I’m appreciating the genius of life in always bringing situations that challenge our core programming so that we can become conscious of our essential qualities and nature.On the one hand, well, this is just what I’m kind of thinking in this moment; we can contest it perhaps later. But I’m seeing that as long as collective human consciousness and there is a collective mind, if you will, that we participate in and are fixated on and have a deep belief in separation from the Divine, let’s say, then separation will continue to show up in every domain - in some ways to get our attention. I’m seeing that as we shift collectively into homo universalis, that operating system or way of learning and evolving need not continue.” (Jeff)

“One way the ghost compensatory act will express itself in this situation is the person will develop a whole set of behaviors to try to protect from any dimension that will take away from harmony. So, in fact, they're not living in harmony, they're actually defending against anything that will take away from them the sense of harmony, but they are more in the ghostly experience of having been distanced and separated from harmony.” (Aviv)

“The stories that we tell ourselves, which so often are unconscious, or maybe at best semi-conscious, the scripts that are cycling round and round, which have their purpose to protect us from pain or to continue to remind us, perhaps, of a state that we feel has been lost. So you're providing a step by step path to go down a layer, down another layer, down another layer, access the agency, access the power of our own soul, frankly, to maybe burn away what is no longer serving, burn away the shadow.” (Jeff)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

The Ghost and the Inner Conclave

078 - Evolving Together #3 - Choosing Our Families

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar, Nigel Geeves, Well) — Fri, 5 Jul 2024 08:00:00 +0000

How often do we feel the people closest to us emotionally or energetically — though not related by blood or marriage — are actually our real family? We all know the saying “You can’t choose your family,” usually meant humorously when a relative does something we find embarrassing. What if we can choose our family, in all the ways that have consequence, meaning and value for our lives?

We’re not referring to bloodline or DNA. It’s the special relationships — family formed from the bonds, exchange, and shared space of new possibility created when people come together in mutual purpose and vision. How does it happen? It begins with the very real connections among all humans.

We are singular and individual, but also born with minds, systems, and highly sensitive faculties that can naturally tune into and connect with the frequencies of our fellow humans. Not only link with one another, but exchange and transfer. Which means my learning and inspiration can become your learning and inspiration; a real shared consciousness.

It gets bigger. The same inner technology that connects us with each other also integrates with much larger universal systems and intelligence, allowing the flow of evolutionary energy to feel its way into humanity. Evolving together, us and the universe. Quite a family.

This conversation continues our discovery of family and growing together begun in earlier dialogues among Aviv Shahar and Portals friends Nigel Geeves and Well. Among their ponderings and insights:

In the economics of the universe, rather than competing with and destroying each other, we can actually benefit each other; we access in each other the power of the work we’ve done in our unique configurations.
People think we get into the universe by going out there. But the codes of the universe are in us, or we wouldn't be able to see it. It’s like a tuning fork — we access the universe by going deep within ourselves.
Could it be that we are each products of a universal transcendence? In getting together, we're like new chemicals combining into new reactions to create a new, surrogate universe beyond the one that formed us.
The gift of human life and consciousness is that we’re the portal through which the universe is able to birth a new possibility; we humans become the midwifery agency of universal evolution.
My inner systems are way more intelligent than me. They are designed to tune into others; in that connection, I find a different part of my own life. It's like new lives get born in each meeting with another person.
While we're here, we have permission to create relationships. The way our body works can give guidance on how to proceed; atoms, molecules, and cells integrate and work together to support our lives.
Two people can meet and something else becomes possible that wasn't pre-planned. Life itself takes a huge leap forward because different lives meet, integrate, and build things together; at higher levels, it's even more extraordinary.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“You could say that each of us has three levels, three fundamental levels. And the first one is, you could describe it as your physical life, your planetary life that you're born into, that grows upon you. And in that, in the beginning, you're very helpless. And in the hands of others clearly, because you need support.” (Nigel)

“And one of the problems with a materialistic perspective is that we can only consider the paradigm that begins with dust from atoms and goes up, rather than contemplate what has been the contemplation of people who quest and inquire into the universe, before science, and had their way of knowing and appreciating the universe before we stumbled upon the beautiful, logical roadmap of science.” (Aviv)

“Whenever I meet another person, it allows me to be conscious of a different part of myself. I'm discovering that my systems are way more intelligent than me because they're trying to tune themselves all the time to whatever I'm facing. If I meet somebody from a foreign country, I notice my voice box is struggling to match their tone, their accent and, in that, find a different part in my own life. So it's a bit like new lives get born in each by the meeting with others. In meeting others, there's a development opportunity.” (Well)

“The uniqueness, the specialness, of each of us as a life, as an individual is something to do with what we came into this world with - however you define that. But when we meet each other, we're actually coming into contact with something else that is different to us. And in the best case of two things that are different meeting, something else becomes possible that wasn't preconceived, wasn't pre-planned, wasn't pre-given, and life itself therefore takes a huge leap forward by the fact that lives can meet, and integrate, and build things together.” (Nigel)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Evolving Together #3 - Choosing Our Families

077 - Current Openings #12 - Why Develop Yourself?

peterbarry173@gmail.com (David Price Francis, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 08:00:00 +0000

We might want to stop and consider if a slightly different approach could help us unlock the core question this conversation is posing: Why develop yourself? Wouldn’t it be more accurate to wonder that since we will develop, one way or another, why not choose with intention and awareness what will fill our lives and help shape our future?

The human is designed to develop. We know from earlier Current Openings, such as The Addiction Trap, that the open-ended potential of the brain and mind can be programmed by high-intensity, repetitive impressions and activity. Toxic or healthy; healing or harming: the choice is ours. There is no inner void.

We can consciously direct our natural creative potential to the process of converting physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual energy into real impacts and results in our inner and outer worlds. Actually shaping our personal and planetary ecology, and the new universal possibility now emerging.

The more finely we develop, the greater our inner conductivity and effectiveness in the life we choose. Maybe a beginning answer to our core question.

Of course, there are many paths and possibilities to discover. In the latest edition of the Portals series “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet”, Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis explore why human development shouldn’t be left to chance.

Among their observations:

It comes down to what we process: how we think, use our emotion, use our life, and apply ourselves. Why develop? At one level we help humanity, at the same time helping the planet and the cosmos.
Could we partner with the planet to facilitate the mutual development and evolution of this sacred ecology we call Earth? What about an even broader perspective, where we think about the human as a universal being?
Development is the incantation of tomorrow, and how that future reveals itself, through our living process. To develop is to emancipate the universal possibility that can transform our lives.
What’s coming into focus is that development expands our perspective from the personal to the human, to the planetary, to the cosmic, to the future. We are evolving who we see ourselves to be.
A curious part of development is surrender. We can't just say to the universe “take me as I am.” What's our surrender value? What have we assembled in ourselves that has helped the universe move on to a viable future?

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I think, to help support something that you said, which is about the love of the universe, and how to look at that in a way that to me is infallible, and that is that we can see the love of the universe in what the universe supports. And if we bring that to planetary level - it’s easier to see in our own planet because this is the where we are, this is our home planet - that the planet supports actively the forms of organic life that exist on the planet right now. And a really interesting feature, the science tells us that about 93 to 97% of what has been on the planet, the different species of organic life, are already extinct.” (David)

“I would, again, make another approach in respect of what is the planetary perspective? What does the planet want from the human? What planetary purpose does a human fulfill? It’s easy to see with a daffodil, with a cat, with a squirrel, with a dog - they’re processing a particular energy. The planet draws that energy from that part of organic life. And the way I view it is, that’s how the planet feeds from universal energy, even by the direct process of sunlight, being beamed through the organic life processing the sunlight, and then producing material which goes into the planet. And she even materially grows her soil. This will be the planetary program functioning at, you could say, an unconscious level.” (David)

“We are designed to develop, so why not take a hand and develop what you would choose to develop, from a personal perspective, rather than what everything else would turn you out to be if you don't take a hand in the matter? In other words, everybody is developing, but are they choosing the way of that development, or are they going to turn out to be the way that life turns them out to be?” (David)

“Someone says, well, what's your purpose? The answer might be, well, I'm here to help raise the level of vibration of the human race by connecting to higher cosmic energy as much as I can. And I'm developing myself as far as I can to be able to do that. Oh, by the way, I'm doing this, this, and this job to cover the economics because I'm not paid for being a Cosmic Agency right now.” (David)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Current Openings #12 - Why Develop Yourself?

076 - Portals Into the Soul, Chapter 1: The Soul - A Threefold Orchestration

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 7 Jun 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Building on the context offered in thePreamble, this is the first in a series of Portals Into the Soul chapters we are publishing in a draft form. This work was seeded by the conversation The Ghost and The Inner Conclaveand, as the preamble narrates, by four decades of intense inquiry.

Portals into the Soul will reflect on the core story of life from the perspective of the soul. It will:

Describe the threefold configuration of the soul
Codify the psychology the soul develops as a byproduct of one’s experience expressed in the compensatory act we call the ghost
Explore soul pathways into the brain and the mind
Sketch The Inner Conclave process and its three levels of application in healing, development and connecting communion
Reflect on the ensoulment process and the birthing of a higher soul
Describe this epochal transition moment as a context for our voyage to rediscover the soul

Let us begin this trace by appreciating what the soul is, what it does, and its threefold nature.

The Threefold Configuration of the Soul

We each appear in a standard human model, if we are all healthy: two arms, two legs, two eyes, two lungs, one liver, one heart, and a soul. That is the standard human model, the same for all. Within that shared design we each have a unique threefold soul configuration.

We describe the soul with a specific understanding, quite different to the general and often confusing use of the word. Okay, so what does the soul do?

The soul functions as an intelligence loom that mediates, negotiates, regulates, and navigates the planetary experience in the human model. Imagine the human is given a soul as a liaison, a companion for life, because humans are spirit beings, showing up here inside a carnal form in the Earthly ecology.

If a spirit showed up in a body without a companioning soul, the spirit and body wouldn’t know how to communicate with each other. The soul reads the cues of the spirit and is wired and programmed to offer translation to the body and back to the spirit; to orchestrate the human Earthly model and guide it through the planetary obstacle course.

The soul as an intelligence loom runs a three-layered orchestration system. The foundational orchestration layer keeps you alive. The second orchestration process guides your continual learning. The third orchestrating impulse intelligently prods you to discover and actualize your universal purpose.

Let’s reflect on these a little more.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“The soul functions as an intelligence loom that mediates, negotiates, regulates, and navigates the planetary experience in the human model. Imagine the human is given a soul as a liaison, a companion for life, because humans are spirit beings, showing up here inside a carnal form in the Earthly ecology.” (Aviv)

“Learning is inherent and automatic in the cellular feedback loop, where every cell communicates and updates all the other cells around it about changes it experiences. The immune system itself is an adaptive learning and memory program, a novel evolutionary product that is soul powered.” (Aviv)

“The other major benefit on this path is that it squeezed me time and again into the unknown, where no maps were available. I have had to work by discovering the map on the move. Stepping into a functional role and facilitating, leading, and coaching others into an unknown terrain helped to syphon and catalyze connective flow, revelation, and fortitude, inspired by inquiries I have been pursuing my entire adult life.” (Aviv)

“When we draw closer to our soul’s nature, discover how we are meant to serve the situations we encounter, and connect to our calling, the spirit glistens and glows through the unique soul cosmology of qualities and natures. It may appear with a whimsical sense of humor; with others the soul glows with immense courage and the capacity to respond at the point of need and do what must be done. With another it is an inventive and innovative genius, or the intelligence of deep listening, care and healing support.” (Aviv)

“The first soul directive is a standard issuance working to keep you alive. The seconddirective compels you to learn, adapt, and improve by using your unique capabilities and can-do talent. The third directive seeks to unlock your unique configuration as it guides and even haunts you to discover your greater potential in life.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Portals Into the Soul, Chapter 1: The Soul - A Threefold Orchestration

075 - Portals Into the Soul - Preamble

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 24 May 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Greetings, friend,

Aviv is writing with exciting updates about Portals Into the Soul.

On Christmas Eve, Sunday, December 24, I finally found space to sit down with notes Kyriaki Nikandrou of the Portals team created out of The Ghost and the Inner Conclave conversation with Jeff Vander Clute. We recorded that conversation after a four-day Epoch Journey event in September and it was published in December 2023.

Once a space was created, what transpired on Christmas Eve took my breath away. I will get to what began to open below and describe the Portals Into the Soul work that started to emerge.

I said above “finally” because the last four months of 2023 brought immense intensity and struggle. With committed work and then with the war erupting on October 7, and new commitments that emerged, I experienced the ferocity of a roller-coaster moving at warp speed, which felt like a couple of years squeezed into just a few weeks.

These developments were tracking what we describe in the Epoch Journey as the violet upsurge. I believe the violet increase will accompany us for the coming decade or more. It will continue to be characterized by seemingly out-of-this-world events that will leave little of the late 20th century world order standing. It will also bring profound breakthroughs and opportunities. Both processes are integral to the violet phase-shift.

In the seven-fold Epoch progression, each of the color fractals, including violet, are not “good” nor “bad”. They each represent certain natures of potential and are therefore accompanied by historic and cultural phenomena. Violet represents a catalyst function for transformations that arise at the end of an epoch.

The shift can be experienced both “below” and “above” the line. “Below the line” violet is expressed through, for example, breakdowns that seem to trace regressive patterns to earlier evolutionary stages, such as with the rise of despotic leaders and the escalation of barbarous wars we thought were left in the past.

“Above the line” violet appears with, for example, scientific and social innovation and development breakthroughs. As we wrote more than three years ago, emergence and emergency, breakthroughs and breakdowns, may show up at the same time, in the same place. In the coming year, we will offer more about the Epoch transition story as it unfolds.

What took my breath away on Christmas Eve was a new open vista that started to emerge. For many years I have trained myself to pay attention when something new is coming through in my contemplative process. When the nudge of a new connective and creative current arrives, my practice is to make space to allow me to become fully immersed in the significance and flow of what is arising.

Letting inspired discovery be my guide has made all the difference. My journey has not been academically fashioned. Instead, it arose in the trenches of life, in the merging integration of helping senior executives and leadership teams in one part; in another part, journeying through an esoteric initiation by immersing in the big questions of life, meaning, purpose, spirituality, and our latent and prospective evolution. All in the face of civilizational crises and imminent disintegration of the world as we have known it.

Helping senior leaders in some of the most admired companies in the world kept me grounded and sharply alert to what is happening in culture, technology, geopolitics, and more. There also has been a humbling aspect in this. I would often be in the room with extremely bright people who are the best in the world in what they do; who know about their domain more than I will ever grasp. I’ve had to find novel ways of creating differentiating, even game-changing, value to them. Where could I find and source this kind of knowhow?

It was found in the other part of my journey, which centered on an inquiry endeavor to align with perennial truths — the natural laws that shape the universe.

It is a journey that forever connects me to the deepest sense of the sacred and fills me with awe about the mysteries of life, and the incredible valiance and vulnerability in being human. This path brought me to experience immeasurable kindness and the generosity found in friendship and the mutuality of purpose.

The other promise of this adventure was that by orienting and aligning with first principles as an embodied endeavor, rather than a concept, over time it will enable me to parachute into almost any situation, connect with its core dynamics and the people involved, make meaning, and generate pathfinding possibilities. If there is a secret in this, it is that all the domains of life share a set of universal principles at core. The price of admission was to go through the experience, to be vulnerably exposed without having guarantees as to what it was going to catalyze in my formation.

The core impulse of this path has therefore not been theoretical. Instead, it focused on helping teams in the business world, and groups and communities in the spiritual pilgrimage and personal growth and development space, to produce results. For many, these are conflicting spaces. For me, I have lived for decades inside the crucible of this convergence.

The merging integration of these different worlds unlocked gifts I did not even anticipate. They tested me time and again to find and formulate modalities and journey choreographies to help people get from point A to point B. The context and the scenery of what A and B represented changed from one situation to another, but the common thread was that I just could not produce these results with fancy theories or models. Instead, I have had to test on myself first everything I was leading others into. I have had to become the living embodiment and the energetic plasma required to ease others into the journey.

I have found myself in testing situations that brought me to the edge, exposed blind spots and capacity outages, and caused development I would never be able to cause in myself on my own. I figured this was one way to do the development of a dozen lifetimes in one tour of duty. I do not recommend this approach; it is not for the faint of heart. In the Air Force I learned that a landing you can walk away from is a good landing; near misses, humbling moments, and at times extreme stress, exhaustion, and loneliness were simply accompanying elements of this journey.

The other major benefit on this path is that it squeezed me time and again into the unknown, where no maps were available. I have had to work by discovering the map on the move. Stepping into a functional role and facilitating, leading, and coaching others into an unknown terrain helped to syphon and catalyze connective flow, revelation, and fortitude, inspired by inquiries I have been pursuing my entire adult life.

On that evening of Christmas Eve, I suddenly relaxed after weeks of intensity and stress. In that space, I experienced a blessed grace. Then, glimpses of Portals Into the Soul started to come together. Chapter 1: The Soul – A Threefold Orchestration, which will be published here on February 23, came through with intensity and flow. A high-level outline for the next chapter followed quickly. Still, there was a tinge of hesitancy. Was I crazy enough to embark on formulating and writing a whole new appreciation of the soul: what it does, how it works, and why this was now an essential revelation to integrate as the Epoch transition is culminating?

Two issues arise when you attempt to approach the subject of the soul and the spirit. The first is the confusion problem. The second is the credibility challenge. The confusion arises in that there are many different usages and applications of the word soul. This is exacerbated even more by the hyper-subjective postmodern mood and discourse, where everyone seems to be entitled to their own definition of what a soul is.

Postmodern thinking may be a gift opening the way for emergent novelty, but it is also a curse, since it breeds confusion and places everything in the equating soup of personal opinion and theory. Google, ChatGPT, and Wikipedia all offer something as bland as the soul is the spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal. Well, okay; how is that helpful?

Perhaps they will be updating their definitions as we publish the Portals Into the Soul installments, but even then, the confusion problem is not likely to be solved. The confusing muddle is coupled with the credibility challenge, which is driven by reductionist materialist science that says show me the soul, please, in a way that can be reproduced in a repeatable test. If you can’t, the soul doesn’t exist. Before proceeding, therefore, I needed to answer one more question: Where will I find the temerity, where will I gather the chutzpah, to tackle these problems?

If I were going to write Portals Into the Soul to recast what the soul is, what it does, and why you should bother to pay attention, and publish the draft as monthly installments through 2024, I needed to address the chutzpah challenge and the confusion and credibility issues head-on.

The Portalsproject has proven time and again it is wiser than me. The agreement with the team at the outset was that we will let the project develop us and guide us with its own teleology. As luck or divine intervention would have it, a week before Christmas Eve, we published an end-of-the-year message with the writing An End of an Era & a Post-Guru World. In it we described the three traditional jobs of a guru and reflected on the individuation project, which we suggested is now leading us from planetary Sapiens human to the rise of universal human. This is where we are changing and updating our relationship with power and authority, with each other, and with life itself.

The message then reflected on the significance of communal endeavors, where we support each other as we discover our own agentic self-authoring and self-regulating freedom and responsibility.

I have always been suspicious and partly afraid of the guru archetype and model. For a start, there is much that has gone wrong in the guru-student relationships. Second, my intuition for decades has been that our next evolution cannot and will not emerge through solo all-knowing figures. That in fact the breakthroughs we need will emerge by Evolving Together.

I now needed to confront a potential shadow element in this. I asked directly, am I holding back from more fully and freely stepping into the authenticity of the revelatory discovery I feel called to share, so to not be perceived in the historic slot of guru-teacher?

Even though there was a tinge of this worry, having just declared we’ve entered the end of the guru era, I felt absolved and liberated. The Post-Guru World message was not suggesting the time of journey guides and teachers is over. In fact, we need more facilitators, mediators, spiritual sherpas, and midwives of revelatory discovery, truth, healing, beauty, and wisdom. These now often emerge in pods, teams, and communal gatherings, where a mutuality of purpose facilitates healing, development, and evolution; where we liberate each other to our greater and higher capacities, and where multifaceted and distributed leadership increasingly is on the rise.

This has been my experience of the Portals project. There is a growing team here and it is the shared inquiry, mutual respect, and love of the project that fuel the creativity. Much of the new discovery work is siphoned through this mutualized agentic process and the greater learning organism we are becoming. On Christmas Eve, I realized I did not decide to write about the soul. The Portals project decided it for me, and I acquiesced and surrendered.

What Portals Into the Soul will bring to life is not an invention of a new “theory” or “model.” The traces formulated here will offer actual pathways you can travel and test for yourself. Please do not take anything I write as a given before you validate these actualities in your own experience.

My own discovery laboratory has been inspired by and is sourced in the deep universal truth of what the case for human life is, in the best ways I have been able to contact these great mysteries through more than four decades of intense development inquiry.

The language formulation used in these Portals Into the Soul can be appreciated through a process like painting, where the painter comes back again and again to the same regions of the picture, to add new layers upon the earlier layers, so the picture gains depth, distinction, and significance.

We approach this work as an on the move discovery process, and are serializing these chapters digitally in draft form as they emerge. The intention is to clarify, refine, and update the writings as the perception itself becomes clearer.

For years, my advisory brief for groups I am working with has offered the following awareness about language. Because our objective is not theorizing but rather facilitating actual experiential discovery, connected development experiences, and elevation states and perceptions, language is an essential tool. At the same time, it is always an after-the-fact best approximation we can get to in the moment.

Whatever we say and write is a) not claiming to be the actual case, but is the nearest description of the case we are able to get to at this time, and b) best viewed as an approximation draft until such time as we are ready to produce a better, more finely tuned, updated draft. In that sense, the project is forever a collective mutualized refinement endeavor.

To help me stay inside the connective current emerging with this endeavor, it is prudent to also declare what Portals Into the Soul will not attempt to do. I am not writing these installments to try to impress or woo you into anything. I am not seeking followers or students; I am financially secure and free.

In the face of increasing global turmoil, I feel compelled to offer discoveries that provide nourishment and fortitude, and to be in conversation with you and with a growing network of friends about the soulful future we yearn to co-create.

As indicated above, I am not seeking to create a new meta-theory of the soul in a way that integrates all that has been said or written about the soul in the East and the West, and/or by wonderful authors of the last 150 years.

This will not be a comparative study about different notions of the soul. That inquiry has its place and importance and is best led by others who are better qualified for such a study. Attempting here a comparative approach would be counterproductive for our endeavor. It would become an exercise of reconciling frames of reference and maps of meaning and predominantly engage the referencing brain. Which is an incredibly useful machinery we have learned to emphasize with the rise of the intellect over the last 400 years and the innovation wonders it brought to us.

The great fascination and love of the brain to reference, name, categorize, and compare, and thereby acquire a sense of control, also created part of the problem humanity now face. It largely abandoned and disenfranchised other forms of knowing and appreciating.

I will address this more concretely in chapter two, where we will reflect on the astrophysicist view of the world and wonder if it has a place for the soul. My aim is to invite you to relax the dominance of the referencing brain and the reductionist materialist logic most of us raised in the 20th and now the 21st century have been indoctrinated into.

Come along for a discovery odyssey, in which you explore for yourself these portals into the soul and the experiential discovery pathways offered to contact directly the sacred actuality of being human.

I hope there is interest in creating and joining a rare opportunity of embarking on this year-long journey with other like-minded friends who are interested to decode and metabolize this new revelatory work as it emerges. Imagine making this part of your 2024 voyage by participating in a Portals Into the Soul exploration pod.

We are happy to facilitate these soul-inquiry pods coming together. Just let us know hereyou are interested to join a pod and we will connect you with others.

I am always indebted to incredible mentors and journey friends who offered me guidance and inspiration. I am utterly blessed by many friends, especially the Portals team and the Epoch Journey network who fortify me with courage, kindness, and inspiration as we search and inquire into the evolutionary process underway.

What became the Portalsproject started in my mind a few weeks after Talia, my granddaughter, was born. I imagined her asking me on her 21st birthday, saba (grandpa in Hebrew), what have you done since I was born to make this world a little better and brighter for me.

As I write this on December 28, 2023, she has had her fourth birthday a couple of months ago, and she now has a younger brother Ari who is nine months young. The entire Portals project is for me a long love letter to them, their contemporaries, and future generations to follow them.

We will put the chapters out for free as they emerge with this dedication and love for their future. I am personally funding the Portalsproject, which is made possible also through the generous volunteering and labor of love of the Portals team.

Your support makes a difference and we would love to have you as a Portals memberso you can get access to members-only content and events, including the groundbreaking work of the Universalis Project. If you appreciate Portals, one great way to express your support and help me is to share Portalswith your friends. You are welcome to forward this news about Portals Into the Soul to your network.

I look forward to seeing you at one of our upcoming events.

With care,

Aviv

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“In the seven-fold Epoch progression, each of the color fractals, including violet, are not ‘good’ nor ‘bad’. They each represent certain natures of potential and are therefore accompanied by historic and cultural phenomena. Violet represents a catalyst function for transformations that arise at the end of an epoch. The shift can be experienced both ‘below’ and ‘above’ the line. ‘Below the line’ violet is expressed through, for example, breakdowns that seem to trace regressive patterns to earlier evolutionary stages, such as with the rise of despotic leaders and the escalation of barbarous wars we thought were left in the past.” (Aviv)

“My journey has not been academically fashioned. Instead, it arose in the trenches of life, in the merging integration of helping senior executives and leadership teams in one part; in another part, journeying through an esoteric initiation by immersing in the big questions of life, meaning, purpose, spirituality, and our latent and prospective evolution. (Aviv)

“What Portals Into the Soul will bring to life is not an invention of a new ‘theory’ or ‘model’. The traces formulated here will offer actual pathways you can travel and test for yourself. Please do not take anything I write as a given before you validate these actualities in your own experience.” (Aviv)

“In the face of increasing global turmoil, I feel compelled to offer discoveries that provide nourishment and fortitude, and to be in conversation with you about the soulful future we yearn to co-create.

“Come along for a discovery odyssey, in which you explore for yourself these portals into the soul and the experiential discovery pathways offered to contact directly the sacred actuality of being human.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Portals Into the Soul - Preamble

074 - What is Healing? #2 - A New Togethering

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar, Veronica Olalla Love, Alexander Love) — Fri, 10 May 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Sometimes it takes courage to heal. It’s usually easy to see, feel, and know the pain and trauma from our own lives, our communities, and the cultural upheavals upending many parts of our world. Being able to perceive and register hurt or isolation and loneliness doesn’t necessarily make the path to healing and wholeness any more visible, or smooth.

How do we find and feel the inner strength to take the first step? One of the paths to healing and transformation begins in the special ecology or space that is created between people who share respect and value for what each life represents. It can be a simple conversation that brings a feeling of safety and trust — a special warmth that begins to melt whatever may be blocking us from connecting with who we really are and can be.

A real mutuality not only dissolves the barriers between us, but also enables a shared support and elevation that can reveal the path to deeper emotional and mental healing. In the process, reconnecting us to a natural inner courage and resiliency that carries us forward.

In this conversation, we explore further into the healing possibility enabled by a real human mutuality. Aviv Shahar is joined again by Alexander Love, acupuncturist, life coach, and cranial-sacral therapist, who took part in this conversation on approaches to healing. They are joined this time by Veronica Olalla Love, ontological coaching professional and CEO of the Newfield Network.

Among their insights:

We are not alone, even though we sense despair and loneliness at times. We can reactivate our connection with all dimensions of life, which modern technology can cause to recede and seem far away.
We come together and learn both as an individual and a collective. In these curated spaces we invite a depth, safety, and love that don’t just reveal personal pain, but show what is possible to do together.
The unshakable commitment we’re describing is not a mental or emotional muscle; it's a cellular reorientation of the living being that we are. It's a radical anchoring of the heart.
The new human discovery emerging is the profound value in what is described as listening priests, the people that create the ecology and enable others to unfold the revelation they couldn’t access in themselves before.
What's required for a collective to be strong enough to hold shadows and darkness in a way that won’t wobble or shake the space, so the darkness can arise and be safely explored?
Seeing the different worlds we create in a group journey can help us deeply anchor, in our body, in our cells, what is actually possible; the level of trust people can have with each other is exquisite and profound.
When you no longer shun, suppress, or pull outside of yourself the parts you dislike in favor of the parts you like, it becomes a fuller integration of the inner family; you are more relaxed and more yourself.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“One of the things that I see is so beautiful is that unfolding of somebody’s greatness, the big fullness of who someone can be, and also being able to articulate the areas in which we challenge our repeated cycles that we fall into, or to be able to give voice and articulation of that wholeness of life and to be able to speak to it in the space that can be present, with compassion and with care.” (Veronica)

“It takes a lot of courage and something else to be able to allow these things to rush in and inform us in the waking, in the light of the waking day. And that something else is some kind of presence, some kind of unbroken radiance or dimension of being that allows us to know, beyond conceptual knowing, that it’s okay to feel, that it’s okay to explore little by little is probably what I might suggest little by little, opening our hearts to allow in just a little bit more of the whole and that includes the access to ecstasy, and it also includes the horrors. And all that it requires is a nervous system that’s able to have some degree of regulation as these things stream in, because if we’re honest, they are quite intense in all their faces.” (Alexander)

“The essential element I’m experiencing in both of you and what you’re describing, is a particular kind of courage. Because there is an invitation you’re making to become more spacious, to unravel or bring to life what has been frozen and potentially grow the filaments of possibility beyond that. (Aviv)

“The new, or the novel, or breaking patterns can seem dangerous. So there's a sense of, is this actually dangerous? And if so, how? Or is it simply a signal that this is actually new and I'm in the unknown? My sense is that these times require us to be quite a bit in the unknown. And so as we cultivate our capacity to be in the liminal space or in the uncertainty, the ambiguity, the nebulous zones, that is a huge learning. (Veronica)

“As we do this process together there can be a recognition that not only am I doing an individual learning, but we're doing a collective learning, and that there's something that we are together that's growing up as a result of these curated spaces - that invites depth, that invites safety, that invites love. And so it doesn't only reveal my personal pain, my personal yearning - that's important - but it also creates an environment where who we are as people, what is possible for us to do together, just that is a beacon of light, a beacon of hope.” (Alexander)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

What is Healing? #2 - A New Togethering

073 - Evolving Together #2 - What Holds Us Back?

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Nigel Geeves, Well, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Be honest: When we see a friend or colleague achieve a personal breakthrough — barrier overcome; milestone reached; the best of themselves coming forward — do we fully feel the value and joy of their success? Not even a tinge of jealousy, or wish that it had been us instead?

What if we embrace a very different view of each other’s accomplishments and potential? When we acknowledge and appreciate the struggles and progress in someone else, we actually create space in ourselves for the same success. We grow in ourselves by watching others grow; we liberate a greater possibility that is only accessible when we come together as “we,” beyond the ego of “me.”

What’s holding us back? Many of the outcomes of modern life: separation, fear, and trauma, which create an emotional and mental scar tissue that prevents us from trusting and accepting each other. Our natural human sensitivity is numbed, inhibiting the fountain of warmth, kindness, and generosity that is our birthright.

Fortunately, we also have higher faculties and systems, still connected to our natural intelligence and creativity, that enable growth, development, and integration with an emerging new evolutionary potential.

We explore the barriers preventing a greater human mutuality, and the seeds of our healing and integration, in part two of the conversation Evolving Together, with Aviv Shahar and two Portals' friends and life-long spiritual seekers, Nigel Geeves and Well. In part one, the three opened the question, Why evolve together?

Among their insights:

To evolve together we want to be fearless, which doesn’t mean having no fear. It means we're able to move forward and discover that the feeling of bravery on the inside is more powerful.
In our human development journey, what seemed intractable and frozen by time and trauma can melt away in the presence of a mutuality that is prepared to support life rather than arrest it.
The grip of what is holding us back is made stronger by fear. When we develop above fear in ourselves it no longer has credence or power and control over us.
Everything humans do is powered by energy, which creates a form of collective memory. It’s like a loose operating system influencing human behavior, unless we develop above our history and co-create our future.
The key is in our acceptance of another life and giving a space for the sharing of both of us. It’s acceptance of life to life, rather than the historic pattern of how I can win.
When you no longer shun, suppress, or pull outside of yourself the parts you dislike in favor of the parts you like, it becomes a fuller integration of the inner family; you are more relaxed and more yourself.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“But the larger evolutionary strategy is that there is a better chance for survival, in most species in the flora life, in the fauna life, and for us humans, this was going to be more secure and guaranteed if we worked together.” (Aviv)

“There's an imagery that comes to mind, and it's one of my fascinations. If you take a mirror, you can look in that mirror and get a reflection of yourself, but it's a singular reflection. We can look at another mirror and do the same, but if you put those mirrors next to each other and put your head in between them, you get a million reflections, and a human is a much better reflector of another human than any physical mirror.” (Nigel)

“What it actually means is that we've been very successful in doubling down on sensitivity so that we don't feel or pick up on the vast majority of what is going on because it's too difficult to handle. So this is the beginning of a diagnostic process that really begins to open up those sensitivities again deliberately. So we begin to grow our awareness rather than retreating into a non-feeling state.” (Well)

“Emotionally, as one grows and grows with others, and learns that it's possible to be safe with others, it is possible for the scar tissue in a life to begin to heal and melt. And the great benefit of that is that people become able to connect again, because trauma stops you connecting and causes isolation. And when people discover the great joy of being able to connect again, it's such a liberation that they tend to want to take that up and hold it as a valued thing.” (Well)

“It just reminds me that shadows are always bigger than the thing itself. And, like you say, fear seems to be a shadow that when you actually face it, it's nowhere near as big as you thought it was. And the curious thing in that is that, how we think about something conditions how we feel about it. So it's vital that we review our views and psychologies, otherwise our feeling life just won't have a chance.” (Nigel)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Evolving Together #2 - What Holds Us Back?

072 - Current Openings #11 - The Application Conundrum

peterbarry173@gmail.com (David Price Francis, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Where can the human Big Bang be found? It is: You become what you apply yourself to. It’s not just a different angle on the familiar phrase of becoming what we think about; it goes much deeper.

Application happens when we bring intention and purpose to focus our energy, knowledge and passion to achieve what we most value in life; to turn learning into action; to transform our physical, earthly reality and shape our universal future as it shapes us.

Great. But how? Applying ourselves with intention to transform our lives means unifying the action of our head, heart and hands in a self-chosen direction. In other words, we need to know what we want. It’s the first step in creating an ecology where higher intelligence and connections can find us and help our development.

In deciding how and where to begin, help is already available. This conversation marks the start of a new series in the Portals feature “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet.” Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis are leading into “The Human Development Challenge,” which builds upon the many insights, knowledge and practices in the first ten Current Openings.

The Challenge will take us deeper into the esoteric knowledge at the heart of our universal nature and possibility, such as with the conundrum of applying our learning in a way that supports our evolutionary journey.

Among the insights:

The harvesting principle says anything the universe learns or new capacity it develops can be downloaded to everyone: the universe runs an open-source operating system.
The development challenge is inviting us to opt-in, to self-elect, to recognize that for us learning is exquisitely awesome. We define ourselves by what we learn.
Einstein focused 95% of his attention on a problem to discover the solution. Here we’re not aiming for a single solution, but to create an ecology where multiple answers can find us.
If we focus on learning alone without applying the knowledge, we never quite live the full potential and truth, which is what brings higher intelligence and connection.
We can actually choose to learn, which is an amazing human specialty. Nothing else on Earth can decide to study something beyond its basic programming.
The cycle of life is from potential to actualization; from intention to realization; from learning to application. What is learning? Without application, it's an incomplete journey.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“So the harvesting principle is this idea that anything that the universe learns, anything the universe develops as a know-how, becomes downloadable anywhere in the universe - because the universe runs an open-source operating system. In fact, it demonstrates that any capacity that got switched on is shared throughout the universe. It's a generous and compassionate universe. It means that for the universe, what's economic and effective is one and the same with what's generous and compassionate.” (Aviv)

“The cycle of life is from potential to actualization, from intent to realization, from learning to application. What is learning without application? It's an incomplete journey. Learning is how life inseminates possibilities. It's the invitation for us humans to engage with this idea that we are alive here; we've been given the gift of life to enter the application theater.” (Aviv)

“Well, I think that all human structures are based in their origination on the laws of the universe. So, as you said about the universe, it has definite laws, definite preset codes, and ways of being that we didn't make ourselves.” (David)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Current Openings #11 - The Application Conundrum

071 - A Conversation with Layman Pascal, Part 2 - Pursuing Integral Wisdom

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Layman Pasca, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 29 Mar 2024 09:07:23 +0000

We’re living in a time where increasingly we see what’s happening in the world around us and have to wonder how, or even if, we can find deep truth in the age of the “deep fake”. Artificial intelligence can distort or manipulate many forms of data and information we take in through our physical senses. Sights, sounds and “facts” on a page can all be faked. How then do we with confidence make sense and meaning in a life when even what we see with our own eyes may not be true?

There are clues in the name itself: “artificial” intelligence. What about natural intelligence? We know from Portals conversations that the human is designed with the capability to connect with larger, universal sources of intelligence, creativity and inspiration, beyond the reach of even the most powerful AI.

It’s a deep truth explored throughout history by spiritual teachers, shamans and wise men and women attuned to the finer, energetic, subtle realms as a living reality. Sources of profound revelation and learning that can transform lives and communities, and reconnect the human to its natural birthright.

In this conversation we are once again fortunate to have as our guide Layman Pascal, a leader in integral thinking and teaching, and a prominent voice on the Integral Stage YouTube channel and podcast. He joins Aviv Shahar for part two of their conversation, begun with Protecting the Sacred.

Among their ponders:

AI is going to touch everyone and every type of reality, with inevitable distressing effects, including a reduction of cognitive capacities, and an increasing distrust in all information sources.
How do we bring the spiritual and sociological closer together? Integrate a life of deep spiritual practice, freed from dogmatic interpretations, with an emerging cultural and community experience?
How do we balance the notion of God with our current notion of reality? Or of creating healthier existing religious structures versus cultivating new emergent religion-like experiences?
A big-picture model of deep history shouldn’t accept mainstream neo-liberal media or academic consensus as reality, but be open to surprises and anomalies that could reverse consensus going forward.
We don't want to be naive utopians, but also not nihilistic, pessimistic, or to give up. Let's invest our imagination, heart, and actions in trying to figure out what a better world actually looks like.
Just because someone can enter or produce a state — an unusual chemical, energetic, or psychological condition — doesn't mean they have an established stage of development.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I think up to that point, what I'm mostly thinking about is something vaguely like enlightenment. Right? So that I'm undertaking experiences very deliberately, because I want to transform my consciousness.” (Layman)

“One of the most prominent ways that people have sort of subtle experiences in the modern world is with entities that they feel are extraterrestrial, right? And the work of Jacques Vallee in the 1970s did a lot of under laboring to support the idea that in a previous time period, you might have interpreted these as elves or angels or something like that.” (Layman)

“A lot of these communities are centered around meta models, by which we mean attempts to do transdisciplinary philosophical integrations that take many different models and many different disciplines and many different types of perspective taking into account coherently.” (Layman)

“There's a phrase I used in that series which was 'to naturalize the sacred and to sacralize the natural'. And I think this goes along with trying to bring the rational and the intuitive together. So you want to say, we embrace a natural science universe, not a reductive natural science universe, but an expanded natural science universe, and at the same time, it's only relevant to us if it can produce the cultural meaning and the individual transformation that's necessary for a human life.” (Layman)

“Is it better for you to treat something like a person or not? You can't objectively have perfect knowledge of whether you're dealing with something that's sentient or not. But is it actually better for you to respect everything you're dealing with as if it was another sentient being? And that makes a lot of spiritual and emotional sense. Or is that the gateway to a path of delusion where we lose important distinctions, and we end up over attributing capacity and depth to things that don't have them and lead our society further down a pathway of simulation and meaninglessness?” (Layman)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

A Conversation with Layman Pascal Part 2 - Pursuing Integral Wisdom

070 - A Conversation with Layman Pascal Part 1 - Protecting the Sacred

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Layman Pascal, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 09:18:14 +0000

At a time when cultural and existential crises threaten the wellbeing of our global community, shouldn’t the search for wisdom and a more enlightened path forward embrace all sources of insight and new intelligence? Twenty-first century technology, side by side with ancient and sacred traditions? The intuitive, and the scientific?

There is growing awareness that real transformation, personal and collective, needs a fuller integration of many approaches, including the ancient shamanic, and more mystical or contemplative spiritual practices and personal development. Right alongside the speed and computational power of artificial intelligence.

So how do we get even deeper tethered in the natural human capacities that help create the space and receive the impulses of new evolutionary energy feeling its way into humanity, and integrate newly emerging technologies and sources of knowledge? How do we facilitate this integration in a meta-modern global landscape that is constantly evolving? In this special Portals conversation, Aviv Shahar is joined by Layman Pascal, a leader in integral thinking and teaching, and a prominent voice on the Integral Stage YouTube channel and podcast.

Among their considerations:

There is an enormous appetite among people to create rituals, to create beauty, to come together in the kinds of events that tell our subconscious we're part of a community that's worth fighting for, worth working together for.
There's no way to change the world without including people we don't like. There needs to be an anti-fragile attitude of how to make use of the people we feel are problematic, not just the people we think are pure.
The risks of a YouTube channel and podcast are that we begin to believe that talking heads and words are a sufficient pathway to an enlightened future. What about embodiment work, community, purpose and friendship?
If you can fall in love with the unique spirit of special people — thinkers, writers, saints — that you feel have depth and brilliance, then you can see the same in versions of yourself.
Other sources of intelligence, such as the subconscious, collective consciousness and AI, are where we're likely to see breakthroughs that our conscious minds are not going to figure out.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I think more fundamentally, it's the exploration of and refinement of our capacity to consecrate things. And different groups of people in different styles might do that consecration in different ways. For some people, it's the evolutionary process. For some people, it's a magical hill, or an image or historical events. And we need to be thinking very broadly about how different people perform this in different cultural contexts and through different languages.” (Layman)

“Culturally, I'm looking at an overlapping series of communities or networks where they aren't all exemplary cases, but where you get a higher concentration of people who exhibit these competencies. And I would throw into that competencies list humor, and also the willingness to go into what seemed like negative aspects, right, the ability to explore our shadow.” (Layman)

“I'm a little bit biased by my own temperaments. But it seems to me there are a lot of people asking how do we break out of the personal and collective discussion circles and play in a wider skill set? Right, the people who are in high level metacognitive construct aware integrally informed mindsets have a tendency to feel like they've included different forms of intelligence, but not practice those different forms of intelligence.” (Layman)

“I think we constantly are at risk of having the most dynamic aspects of cultural and individual transformation subtly replaced and sabotaged by things that sound good and look good, that the superficial mechanisms of our culture, our media, our economy, the gossipy part of our own minds, our allegiances, our symbolism, all this sort of social architecture has the tendency to enter and replace the sacred.” (Layman)

“I think there's a problem in getting different aspects of these networks linked up to each other. The people who are interested in ecology don't necessarily know what the crypto people are doing, who don't necessarily know what the psycho spiritual people are doing. They all in general recognize the same problem and want to work on it, but they don't understand each other's areas well enough to take action on them and generate projects on that basis. And so leaders need to be able to see and cause people to challenge the limiting boundaries that have traditionally surrounded change communities.” (Layman)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

A Conversation with Layman Pascal Part 1 - Protecting the Sacred

069 - Rebel Wisdom and the Trauma Myth

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Alexander Beiner, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 1 Mar 2024 09:08:22 +0000

Many news platforms today still at times refer to the struggles of life in 2023 as residual pandemic trauma — directly influenced by the painful events beginning in 2020. Is it really fair and accurate to connect today’s behavior and attitudes to a three-year-old ‘trauma’?

There’s no doubt the pandemic caused pain and suffering, and trauma, for millions of people directly affected. But as everyday life finds a post-pandemic new normal, is it helpful to our personal and collective healing and rebalance to see ourselves as traumatized? Or has trauma become a convenient rationale and strategy to avoid fully facing unsettling aspects of our changing reality?

The pandemic is one example of how trauma can become what some people describe as a culture and identity — a myth we hold onto to explain and excuse our behavior, where every struggle is attributed to trauma. We explore the nature and outcomes of this all-encompassing focus on trauma in this Portals conversation between Aviv Shahar and Alexander Beiner, author, podcaster, and co-founder of Rebel Wisdom, a highly regarded platform for new ideas in this time of change.

Alexander traces his journey to Rebel Wisdom and reflects on the extraordinary phenomenon of its rapid growth as a global community. The conversation then takes a deeper look at the trauma myth.

Among their insights:

The distinction between a healthy, constructive self-introspection, and one that is narcissistic and destructive, is important because they sound similar but have very different outcomes.
There's something healthy about starting with a baseline that life involves suffering, rather than a modern Western consumerist notion of life as the pursuit of happiness.
Cognitive flexibility builds on the understanding of brain plasticity; you can create new synaptic connections and circuitries through learning — exposing yourself to new experiences.
We reframe resilience from bouncing back to bouncing forward; not reestablishing the old balance.
If the story we tell ourselves is that we're inherently fragile, the culture we create prevents the innovation and risk taking needed to come through the mental crisis we're facing.
It's a time of great overlapping crises; in Greek crisis means decision point — we must make huge decisions about who we are and the kind of society we want to create.
The universe now needs more of the human coming online, not in buildings and churches made of stone, but on the inside, which means turning on the interior lights.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“As well as for me personally, a lot of the countercultural, psychedelic, countercultural visionary kind of thinking that I was used to, which really gave a message that we can change systems, it is possible. And it's a question of overcoming what was known as the prosaic fallacy, which is this idea that we simply can't imagine a different way of doing things, that doesn't mean that a different way of doing things isn't possible. So that was a big influence as well.” (Alexander)

“So it was actually quite a long process I went on and the instigating factor of me wanting to write something about it, or actually originally make a film about it, was a piece I read by Parul Sehgal, who's a literary critic, it was in the New Yorker. And her piece is called ‘The Case Against the Trauma Plot’. And I thought, uh, huh, interesting. What she's arguing is effectively that a lot of writers of modern stories are using trauma to explain their characters.” (Alexander)

“So I gathered a circle of friends, psychologists, practitioners, and we spent two years working on the project of resilience and the five key ideas we qualified. And then it became a tool that I've been using for the last 15 years now, with all the teams I've worked with.” (Alexander)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

068 - Introducing Portals Into the Soul

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Patrick, Kyriaki, Peter, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 10:00:08 +0000

Portals Into the Soul invites us to realize the soul wants us to be fulfilled — to live a life as closely aligned as possible to the greater connections, intelligence and qualities that are the human’s universal birthright.

Through a contemplative inquiry process, we can open a living conversation with the soul and its many facets and capabilities. It’s letting the unconscious lead the way as we build a bridge to a bridge (the soul itself.)

Other dimensions of engaging with the soul are explored in The Ghost and the Inner Conclave.

Aviv Shahar and several members of the Portals team get together in this conversation to offer their reflections and experience of the Portals Into the Soul Preamble and the first chapter, which will be published here next month.

Among their appreciations:

Discovering the soul’s nature and mission involves trust — in our instincts and self-leadership, and in the knowledge the soul is part of the fuller truth of being human.
Portals Into the Soul is an inquiry quest, not the shortest path or something like packaged convenience food. We’re unlocking a connective human capacity.
It is courting the intelligence of the soul; creating a conductive ecology where the soul can transfer new knowledge and revelation.
What happens when trauma or other real-life experiences cause our attunement with the soul to feel marginalized, reduced or compressed? How does the soul react?
Science can’t accept the idea of emergence; it wants to define and name things, down to the molecule. “Emergence” means we don’t know what’s really going on, which is of course the case.

If you’d like to participate more actively with like-minded people to decode and metabolize this new revelatory work as it emerges, we can facilitate soul-inquiry pods and discussions coming together. Let us know here if you are interested to join a pod and we will connect you with others

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I think that for a lot of people, especially in the West, if you were raised in any kind of a religion, I had a very religious upbringing. You always heard about the soul. But it was this sort of mysterious point of theology, we have this immortal soul, it was never more than that never went beyond that other than it's something that is there.” (Patrick)

“You're just knowingly or unknowingly plugging into the very thing I'm working on right now. And I don't want to talk about it too much because it's still in a forming phase. But I will say that there is a whole conversation we ought to come back to in the future to do around emergence. It's a word that traditional scientists hate.” (Aviv)

“I want to say how exciting this prospect is, and how important it is to emphasize on the value of shedding light into these territories of the soul, without having to go to Tibet or to India and meet a yogi or do 30 years of psychoanalysis to solve an issue. And I think the element of all of us co-creating this content and discovering it in a playful way and with a lot of practices that are accessible.” (Kyriaki )

“I always wondered, what is the soul? Where does it come from? Where does it go? Do we live inside it, or does it live inside us? And, if it has a voice, how to listen to this voice and how to connect with this voice? If we are disconnected from our soul, how does that impact our well being, our health, our fulfillment? So I think all these questions about the soul are very important questions.” (Kyriaki)

“If we think of ourselves as spiritual beings first, rather than planetary beings, the idea that the soul is this kind of local guide for us. And in so many of the Portals conversations about human development, human possibility, we see that the natural laws and the physical systems are all supporting us. They have a mission, whether we understand what that mission is or not, in helping us fulfill our lives. So I think the soul is a critical piece of that.” (Peter)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Portals Into the Soul – Preamble

Introducing Portals Into the Soul

067 - Evolving Together

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Nigel Geeves, Well, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 2 Feb 2024 10:38:50 +0000

Is there a unique human or universal possibility in “we” that simply is not available to even the most finely developed “me”? When two human beings meet in purpose — really meet, not just be in close proximity — can they unlock in each other a greater growth and evolutionary potential than either one can even perceive on their own?

We can see in world history the obvious survival and evolutionary benefit to living collectively in families, tribes, communities and cities; safety at many levels in numbers. We also see where survival and "safety" can fuel fierce competition and rivalry over resources, ideology and culture. Will fear always override every higher human impulse that would naturally bring people together?

Fortunately, no. We can find stories all across the planet of miraculous healing and transformation that take place when people cultivate with each other an ecology that’s open and trusting, creating a new sense of what is possible as we evolve mutually and collectively. What else could be holding us back?

In this conversation, Aviv Shahar is joined by two Portals friends and life-long spiritual seekers, Nigel Geeves and Well. Through their own journeys they explore and reveal what becomes possible when humans seek to evolve together.

Among their insights:

Have consideration, have compassion, have patience, and take into account what another life is feeling and what is going through them is an enormous evolutionary leap.
Humans have a capacity to transcend the animalistic reactive nature that is part of our DNA and our historic formation, and we access it through our choice.
We’re discovering a new we; a communal ritual space where a conductive healing presence can unlock and release so much of the trauma built by earlier conditioning.
It begins with a willingness to not possess life, not possess each other, not possess ourselves; to be more open to life as a flow, and flow through your experiences and meet others on the way.
We're each born into a family by bloodline, and we also can choose to create a new family; it’s possible for us humans to find that special love early in life or later in life.
There is in our instincts the ancestral DNA that wants to activate some personal protective measure because we've learned to be so afraid of each other.
Postmodernity said let’s break away from everything the traditional patriarchal structure created and liberate the individual. It was a necessary phase to reclaiming the interior dimension of life.
The people I spend time with on the outside come to live inside me in a way, as well; I carry those companions and it increases my stability, like guide ropes on a tent.
When you meet another person there is a way the meeting reveals a part of you that you didn't know was there. Openness, intimacy or trust can be developed so we truly carry the potential of each other.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I realized psychology is really important and, in the West, we've got this psychology that we are individual and when we come together it's like putting blocks together. But when I traveled to Africa, I came across this word Ubuntu which means something I don't think we've got a literal translation but it's something like “I am because we are,” and in the deep feeling of myself, it feels like that, we do have a deep connection that all comes from the same source. But we are separate among all beings.” (Nigel)

“One thing that's come up is how I think about meeting others because, firstly, we meet on the outside, and there's validity in that in the way that our senses look outward. So often, another person will see more about me than I see about myself. So in reflection, there is great assistance possible. But one thing I'm currently discovering and have discovered over the last few years is that those that I spend time with and meeting on the outside, they come to live in me as well.” (Nigel)

“If you look at the two words, react, which clearly says doing something again that's been done before and is mostly an automatic process, and response, which is very different and tends to have some element of consideration inside it. Now if you look at the defense systems by their very nature, they are designed to preempt attacks, and they need to work fast and actually block attacks, preferably before they happen. So they're both very much in reaction. As we've already identified, there is so much in us that is set up that way. But mostly, we go on an automatic process of defending even when we don’t need to, rather than actually considering, responding, and going deeper. (Well)

“I had a very potent experience early in my journey where I kind of met a signal that switched me on to the whole idea of being a part of evolution and playing a part in evolution consciously, and so that turned on in me, and I was very grateful for that. I've been looking around the world and thinking, ‘Where do I fit in this place?’ And I hadn't really found where I fit in. But I felt I fit in by playing a part in that bigger process. So that was important at the beginning of a journey I've been making ever since.” (Well)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

The Evolving Together Series

066 - Current Openings #10: The Einstein Brief

peterbarry173@gmail.com (David Price Francis, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 09:40:40 +0000

We haven’t followed Albert Einstein’s ratio exactly here on Portals, but there is great wisdom in his insight that if given an hour to solve a problem, he’d spend 55 minutes focusing on the problem, and five minutes thinking about solutions. It’s one of the perceptions helping us uncover practical solutions to the puzzle and pain of the human predicament.

In the latest addition of the series “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet”, we distill the new intelligence, power and potential discovered as we face the challenges of living a purposeful life in a time of chaos and crises. Earlier Current Openings applied Einstein’s advice and clearly defined the dilemmas: the addiction trap; the knowledge and emotion problems; the brain/body conundrum.

In this conversation, Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis review the profound insights that are opening pathways to the true nature and potential of the human mind and emotions. We also see the healing available when we live a life in natural balance and harmony with the planet and universe.

What we’ve discovered along the way includes:

Esoteric knowledge isn’t a secret to keep hidden, but potential to be activated, brought online vs. online. The key is the initiatory process that activates the energetic and spiritual domains.
In challenging times, the best-case scenario is to engage with multiple paths concurrently; find the tethering moment of surrender and uplift through different paths at different times.
The communal journey has its lights and shadows, agonies and ecstasies; it’s where we can find a distributed collective intelligence and discovery.
Another path is a mission-based endeavor and practical application with a purpose that will lead our development, rather than us trying to develop ourselves.
Key to the addiction trap is understanding synaptic or circuitry locking — repetitive thoughts creating strong synaptic connections that form grooves in our brain we keep repeating.
We understand the universe as a living system that wants to both preserve itself and conserve energy, and evolve to become more capable, connected, and intelligent.
We engage with the leading edge of consciousness through the lens of choosing which program and habits will we power; we avoid the erroneous choices that can hijack our system.

This conversation builds upon concepts and insights explored throughout the Current Openings series. It is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“So I think starting with the predicament — if we don't realize there is a predicament — we don't get to the starting gate. So if we're in our lives and we just think, ‘ Well, this is the way that life is, and I need to be in harmony with the world culture the way it goes on, ’ that's as far as it goes. Then we're staying with the exoteric, which is staying within the fact that I've got my established religion that I was born into.” (David)

“So if we spend our life, our brain life, playing Mutant Ninja Three or some other video game dynamic that is very separated from the universe, the idea of the meta-universe, the human-made universe -- and then that would be bringing in something that is alien to our systems or actually setting us up for contradiction and various kinds of anxiety -- more medications get sold to handle that -- and we're dealing with a disconnect between our brain and our body in that sense. So probably most of the so-called chronic diseases are a great part of what causes the disconnect between these two parts, I think.” (David)

“Collecting our experiences is like gathering potatoes. So we gather and gather and gather potatoes in our life. But then, if we're going to actually then create something out of those potatoes we need to have the ability to distill from the potatoes the spirit of what's at the essence - when we can take them and bring them through a refining process. Because according to our development, it's not just our experience that creates who we are, it's what we make of that experience. And I think that's fundamental to what we're getting to in The Human Predicament.” (David)

“So to me, the energy, the connection, is made when we get the right kinds of understanding and have a pursuit of purpose. We can make an energy connection that actually causes that kind of coolness and trilling, and we feel it in our whole system. That is going to be sort of a big part of the human proposition: how we can raise the level of vibration not only mentally but in every other aspect.” (David)

“What we essentially said was that, number one, the universe is a living system. And this living system, when we say it's alive it means it is a place full of energy, and it has two drivers. One, the first, it wants to preserve itself, to preserve and conserve energy, and then it wants to allocate the preserved and conserved energy to evolve and become more sophisticated, more capable, more connected, more intelligent.” (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

065 - The Next Renaissance, Part 2 - Seeding Cultural Change

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Sylvie Barbier, Rufus Pollock, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 5 Jan 2024 08:53:34 +0000

What if we paraphrase a popular saying about the devil* and think “The greatest trick the modern world ever pulled was getting humanity to believe there aren’t any options”?

As cultural and ecological crises deepen around the world, there are visionaries taking steps to demonstrate that, yes, we have options in how we choose to live and the future we imagine for ourselves and the planet.

This emerging and powerful sense of new possibility is transforming, among many other endeavors, how we think about and create a sense of community — the ways we work, live and engage with one another and our environment. Intentional neighborhoods, “metamodern monasteries”, and virtually connected global networks are all part of an expanding vision for a collective human experience.

Of course, no one is saying it’s going to be an easy transformation. For example, a cultural undercurrent we all share in our collective imagination is for a superhero to come and save the day; always an individual, never a group of people talking through their differences

We talk through many visions and ideas for a new approach to community in the second part of our conversation among Aviv Shahar and Sylvie Barbier, French-Taiwanese artist, entrepreneur and educator, and Rufus Pollock, entrepreneur, researcher and technologist. Among their many projects and passions, Sylvie and Rufus co-founded Life Itself, dedicated to wiser living and social transformation. Part 1 explored the emerging, new second Renaissance.

From their conversation:

We're serving the discovery of our individual purpose and calling, and at the same time, becoming a serv ice agency of evolution itself. Can we wrap our mind and heart around not living just for ourselves?
A practice hub is having a space for the modern individual to rediscover in sometimes awkward reengineering how to be together again, at a pace that doesn’ t create trauma about the collective.
What mix of ingredients — business plus location plus practices — will be scalable to create a transformative region in the next few decades, a place in the world where the future is being pioneered?
I see a lot of mov ement coming from fear and panic. Being in service today is to not give in to fear, but slow down and discern what’s going on inside and outside. Let the work, work on you.Something bigger than us wants to reconnect with humanity while we seek to reconnec t with it. We’re birthing new sense organs and ways of being — connecting with the ineffable that is rediscovering its beloved humanity through our endeavor.
People are skeptical; there's a sense that things won’t work out. One of the killers of this age i s cynicism; it’s an extinguisher of hope.
“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” Attributed to Charles Baudelaire, and quoted in the film “The Usual Suspects”

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“So some of the practice hubs is that, is like having a space for the modern animal to rediscover, in this awkward reengineering, how to be together again - and do it at a pace that we can process it, that we can integrate it - versus just having a rupture, and another breakdown, and another trauma about the collective.” (Sylvie)

“If you go and study their life, in my view, about a month or six months later some people there is something that shifts, but it's a very small minority. We do a month workshop and we have conflict, they have fights with other people in the community. And we're like, that's the best thing. They may not like that as much, but that's when the growth happened. If you can go through conflict, if you can transform that, if you can start seeing your own shadow. And believe me, Sylvie and I have seen a lot of it shatter living community, all the things that you haven't dealt with in yourself, or the ways that you're this way or that way, or reactive or, you know, dominating or whatever else there is about you. I mean, you keep being shown that.” (Rufus)

“In my personal journey, a whole part of growing up was to deal with the sense of disappointment because I thought that life was supposed to happen a certain way - from the media and the narrative I was given. And I think in reclaiming a different narrative, which is saying there is difficulty, and there is light and liberation and solace when you embrace the difficulty on the other side. Life is not about trying to not have problems or not have difficulties, but most of the depiction of what people tell you is all they're trying to do is get rid of problems.” (Sylvie)

“People are coming, what we're interested particularly in was what we call sustained ontological development, fancy term, but what I mean is the other thing we're interested in is what is the growth people need to go through and want to go through and how does it sustain? One of the things that intrigued us was, I've gone on a retreat, you know, you come back after a week, it's like, Oh my God, I've seen it, I need to change my life. And then three weeks later, you're back doing zero meditation, whatever. How do people sustain it? (Rufus)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

064 - The Next Renaissance Part 1: The Art of Metamorphosis

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Sylvie Barbier, Rufus Pollock, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 09:00:00 +0000

What would it take for us to see the ecological and cultural crises sweeping the planet as possible harbingers of a higher transformation and metamorphosis, a second global Renaissance? Big economic and political change can be traumatic, for individuals and communities. What if the global upheavals shaking our modern way of life actually are part of a natural cycle in evolution, a necessary correction in aiding the appearance of updated human potential?

Considering the possibility of a new global Renaissance could also mean revisiting and questioning some of the pillars of modernity that have marked social and cultural progress. Can the individual, the “I” - centric, embrace a new form of community and shared human experience? What about a religion of the future, centered on inner development rather than dogma, to bring people together with a knowing that we’re part of something bigger than ourselves?

A personal and collective metamorphosis could revive the sacred nature of art, which throughout history has been an expression of humanity and a shared experience of a universal impulse.

We explore the many questions and perceptions about a possible new global Renaissance in the first part of a Portals conversation among Aviv Shahar and Sylvie Barbier, French - Taiwanese artist, entrepreneur and educator, and Rufus Pollock, entrepreneur, researcher and technologist. Among their many projects and passions, Sylvie and Rufus co-founded Life Itself, dedicated to wiser living and social transformation.

Among their insights:

Religion is important because we won’t move beyond current crises through the lens of secular modernity where the ego is God; I think, therefore I am, and it’s all about my wants.
We can integrate the questioning that came with modernity, but questioning in the service of truth. If we question just for the sake of questioning, it becomes a destructive force.
We’re still discovering what the new emergence may look like, when it will appear, and its various expressions; yet we cannot not respond to that summoning upon our life.
Belief is not faith. You can believe in anything, in the illusion and trap of your own mind. Faith is based on direct experience of something beyond you, of yourself as a human being.
Ultimately you need something much bigger than yourself to transcend the problem of individuality and “me, me, me” that modernity gave us.
A great learning from post - modernity is to integrate multiple perspectives; they’re a component of a greater pict ure, which is seeking of the truth.
We are children of modernity, and I know the future is much bigger than me and demands me to grow. For the future to have a chance, a real shot, I need to go beyond myself.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“Second renaissance, I think, is to put a name onto what we're collectively experiencing, which is the death of modernity, and the birth of something to come, which we don't know yet. And that moment of death and birth is the second renaissance, like the first Renaissance, the first Renaissance appeared after great moment of difficulty of hardship with the Black Death, where many people died. And they could not say that they were going through the Renaissance.” (Rufus)

“I remember asking a Zen teacher once, when do people change, I asked him, he said when they have to. So the point was that people normally needed quite serious crisis of some kind of fortunate personal life before they take on deep change. And similarly, as a civilization, the sad thing is, I think that we're going to have to confront a very significant crisis to really change.” (Rufus)

“But art and religion are sacred, right? You can't touch them. But why can't we touch them? Because we're trying to say there's something of the essence that is untouchable, that is eternal. But somehow along the line, what becomes untouchable might be the words, rather than the essence, and or the cultural frame in which that religion was born.” (Sylvie)

“People have a lot of maybe even collective trauma about the word religion. And it's important to heal that word. In using it I want to reconquer this word ‘religion’, which is to relink ourselves to each other and to something greater than ourselves. And I think art plays a huge part in that, because art is to express our humanity, what makes us human. We can so easily forget what makes us human. So I think it's essential to reconnect.” (Sylvie)

“The dance is sometimes in describing all this stuff, it can seem really like wonderful, but a bit magical. It's like, you know, we need to go from "I" to "we". Sure! Yeah, and one big question is like, how do they connect? How do they dance between those, how do you actually dwell in those? That's a really rich question which even Buddha, you know even some of the great traditions don't really have a sense of like, how do you organize society? It's a very relative question, you know, what does it actually look like? You know, what does production look like? Buddha very wisely didn't talk about this.” (Rufus)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

063 - The Development Edge #1 - The Art of Being Together

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Turquoise, Tucker Walsh, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 8 Dec 2023 08:27:57 +0000

With so much interest in creating a new type of collective living experience, it’s reasonable to wonder why the “we” space is seen to be so important in supporting the next big leap in evolution. What can’t the individual alone — me, just being me — accomplish?

There is a deepening awareness that a new future, a transforming universal possibility, is revealing itself both through individuals and a collective experience: new configurations of people living, working, and creating together. Small and intimate; networks; experimental.

The “me” is a fundamental step in personal development. Becoming a catalyst for a larger universal possibility isn’t just a solo act; it needs the power of collective intelligence and integrated capacity. Plus, the natural fulfillment of humans connecting and being together.

“Collective” also may not be the best word to describe people coming together in a mutual purpose and vision that respects and allows the individual to be a “me,” inside a much more potent connected creative potential.

To help us explore the many faces and possibilities of communal endeavors, Aviv Shahar is joined by Portals friend, author, consultant and Emmy Award-winning documentary film director Tucker Walsh, and musician Turquoise.

Among their insights:

In a very simple, practical way, it’s about being the change we want to see in the world; to show up in the way we want others to mirror; bringing the awareness that from a certain perspective everything in life is relational.
An ecology of practice, whatever method, can offer increased capacity — the intentional wielding of the soma of the spirit, mind, body, soul, and great chain of being.
We see the reintegration of the blessing realms — pursued since ancient times — now available in an open-source form for anyone who makes themselves available. Portals is an opportunity to decode, narrate, experience, and play together.
When we are down, confused, and depressed, it’s not that evolution stopped caring; it possibly reflects the accelerated and potentized nature of what’s emerging.
The rise of the intellect, the dawn of the modernity project, and the myth of separation, are still a predominantly active actuality in the DNA of our minds

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I call it sometimes a mystery seed. You don't know what's in the seed, but if you kind of wait and look and nourish it and grow, oh, look, it's going to be this thing, and then it turns into a flower, and then maybe the flower was a butterfly, and then, or, you know, it kind of moves and shifts and transforms. As long as you kind of oscillate on the edge there and kind of float on the edge as much as possible and get good and flow as a group, you can kind of move it forward, but be in relation to what you're adding to it or what we're adding to it.” (Turquoise)

“Well, to stage us with the polarity that you introduced and build on this for a minute because yes, there is a way to not be part of the evolutionary process. A good provocation is a good reframe, and at the same time, in the imagery that you offered earlier, there are those people who gathered at the gathering, those people who stayed at home and did not show up for the gathering, and then there were those people who stayed in the gathering in some other periphery, and they were those who stepped into the hot tub experience.” (Aviv)

“I think the risk of overly creating a menu, anything like this is how you make this recipe, is that it then becomes a fixed thing, and what I'm more interested in is, I guess, having an infinite number of recipes and then being like, well, how can we crisscross combine the recipes and not necessarily or entirely as a predetermined set course like you would when you go to a restaurant, but a sense of, like, what if the people that came to your restaurant sat down with them and you had a conversation and you said, Hey, how are you right now? How are you showing up? What was your day like today? What's your experience with food?” (Tucker)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

062 - What is Healing?

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Lonny Jarrett, Alexander Love, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 24 Nov 2023 09:00:00 +0000

Imagine a process of healing that is powerful enough to restore wellbeing and transform a life, a family, a community with just a one-degree shift in perception or attention; a state of health and wholeness not defined by medicine or ecology, culture or location.

In a time of cultural and environmental upheaval, the natural and regenerative paths to relief of anxiety, pain, and a sense of separation offer us deeper awareness of the true nature of healing — physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. A healthy and balanced mind and body can be the natural outcome of a life rooted in the understanding that wholeness and healing are a human birthright, inherent in our design and purpose. The transforming perception of our natural integration and potential can be the journey of a lifetime, or it can happen in a single moment.

In this conversation, Aviv Shahar is joined by two practitioners with extensive experience in the process of restoration, wholeness, and healing: Lonny Jarrett, author, scholar, and teacher of East Asian medicine who has practiced acupuncture and herbology for more than 40 years, and Alexander Love, an acupuncturist, life coach, and cranial - sacral therapist, who brings a unique integration of modalities.

Lonny and Alexander discuss their understanding and life-long experience with the healing process, including personal stories of trauma and regeneration.

Among their insights:

The main medicine the world needs now is to transcend ego and recognize our dependent arising, our intimate relationship with each other, and the biosphere in all things.
We are trained from the youngest age to take everything personally, to know ourselves as separate individuals, in denial of the subtle spiritual dimensions of experience.
We have a choice. It doesn't start with waiting for the other person; it starts with me. Maybe I get a little curious instead of self-righteous. Healing is an act of inquiry; it’s being present.
How do we unfold the past in a way that is vibrant, awake, and full so the virtues and wisdom within those experiences of pain can inform our life today and become fertile ground?
Each person is a portal into the one conscious. When we make a choice for the truth, even in the face of our own conditioning, it's the cosmos evolving.
It’s an emergent process where everything frozen in time is released into the currency of this moment now; as if working with one person is working with the entire system, and potentially the whole world.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“So honestly, I can remember the moment when I was about three or four years old and my mother read me Bambi, and Bambi’s mother gets shot by a hunter, and I burst into tears, and she said when you grow up you can be a veterinarian, and I said, what's that? And they said, a doctor who takes care of sick animals, and righ t then and there I knew that I was going to go into medicine, and of course the medicine I eventually went into was not veterinary medicine, but I knew my whole life that that's what I was here for and that's what I was going to be doing.” (Lonny)

“In a way, history isn't a burden, and it isn't a hauntology or a ghost that sort of grips us from beyond the grave. But it's been brought into the present as the cultivation of virtue from having faced fragment, and fragments realized its own nature as wholeness.” (Alexander)

“So we can have gross levels of illness, and we need to take responsibility for the dimensions of them that we can, so getting enough sleep, hydrating, eating the best food we can, exercising, this sort of thing, but when it comes to the subtle and the very subtle dimensions, I would define illness as a misappropriation of attention. A conditioned identification with finite and materialistic dimensions of the self that perpetuate the illusion of separation and, from the perspective of wholeness, separation as pain.” (Lonny)

“So for me, the starting point is a recognition that the past, the present, and the yet-to-be-fully-formed future are all right here, right now, the last 14 billion years, with all of their glory and all of their suffering. It's right here, right now. Not theoretically or philosophically, but it's unfolding at this moment. Some of it is these hidden pockets of history that we don't see. Some of it is visible, like the fact that I am able to speak in a language that took 1000s and 1000s of years to develop, and it's still a visible expression of something that has come previously.” (Alexander)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

061 - A Conversation with Dr. Keith Witt, Part 2: How to Love and Evolve

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Dr. Keith Witt, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 07:59:45 +0000

Just how important are relationships, really, to our health and happiness? What about to our sense of emotional and spiritual growth and fulfillment? We can trace the influence of intimacy on human development through evolution all the way back to the Big Bang. Humans are social in a way unlike anything else in the universe.

The complexity, beauty and possibility of the many forms of human relationships have been a lifelong passion and pursuit of Dr. Keith Witt, pioneering integral psychotherapist, author and teacher. We met Dr. Keith in the first part of his conversation with Aviv Shahar, on the hero’s journey from “Trauma to Transcendence”.

In part two of their conversation, Dr. Keith traces his own healing journey through early trauma, and the influence of the martial arts in his embrace of the complementary natures of the warrior and the healer. He reveals the inspiration behind his teaching and writing, and the experiences that helped form his core understanding that “everything is relationships”.

Along the way, Dr. Keith also has deepened awareness of many dimensions of the human’s higher, universal nature and the ongoing evolution of consciousness.

Among his insights, professional and personal:

If we feel shame, return to the core value and either follow it, discard it, or modify and grow it to better fit what we believe is beautiful, good and true in the present moment. This is how moral systems grow.
Research shows that having a secure primary relationship — taking care of your friendship and your love affair, resolving issues with each other — leads to the happiest, healthiest humans and families.
In revealing the power of belief, research shows that the form of treatment isn’t as crucial as the therapist or practitioner doing something they believe in; clients or patients get healthier.
Is there a spiritual impulse in teaching or therapy? To the extent you understand the secrets of the universe, and don't share them, you suffer. It’s distressing not to share what we believe to be effective.
Attunement is the organizing principle; it’s being aware with acceptance and caring intent, first of ourselves — our breath, sensations, emotion, thoughts, judgment and desire.
Fields exist outside of us that send flashes of insight through dreams and ideas. We access them when we surrender ourselves to service and to the beautiful, good and true.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“And weirdly, having a deep understanding of people's interiors makes you a better martial artist. Martial artists are very peaceful. It would require an awful lot to have me do violence to another person. So they're complementary systems.” (Dr. Keith Witt)

“I enjoy teaching, and when I taught, people really enjoyed hearing about it, which was very gratifying. Some of it was just ego. But most of it wasn't. Most of it was that to the extent you understand the secrets of the universe and don't share them, you suffer. I was distressed about not sharing this stuff.” (Dr. Keith Witt)

“If you reverse engineer our success with each other it tracks with the best social research that's been done on this which is by John Gottman and his group up in Seattle. It's pretty straightforward. You know a couple who cherish each other and are grateful for each other tend to do great. If they cherish each other and are grateful for each other and they put attention into their friendship and their love affair, intention into their friendship and their love affair, and then their ability to resolve and to heal injuries - they do great. They are the masters of intimacy, and they describe themselves as happy and they're happier and they're healthier.” (Dr. Keith Witt)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

060 - A Conversation with Dr. Keith Witt, Part 1: Trauma to Transcendence

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Dr. Keith Witt, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 07:37:10 +0000

Is it a big stretch to think of struggling with trauma as part of a hero’s journey? Or is it integral for the hero’s transformation? How do we metabolize feeling weak or diminished by fear, anxiety and pain from traumatic events that at times can seem beyond our ability to cope?

What if we understood that even the willingness to face a trauma will stimulate the parts of the brain responsible for resilience and, over time, build strength and courage? Advances in neuroscience have shed light on some of the brain’s hidden functions in times of pain and trauma, and the resulting influences on our responses and behavior.

Moving through the phases of healing trauma is what builds the road to our eventual transformation. We apply emerging new wisdom and strength to reconcile and reshape our experiences with trauma, and perhaps inspire others on their own healing odyssey. A real hero’s journey.

Unraveling the nature of trauma and its healing is the focus of this conversation between Aviv Shahar and Dr. Keith Witt, an internationally known integral psychotherapist, teacher and author of 15 books. Keith has conducted over 70,000 therapy sessions, written hundreds of blog posts, and appeared on numerous podcasts, including his own, The Shrink and The Pundit, and Witt & Wisdom.

Among their insights:

Conventional wisdom has been we’re all born equal and then the environment shapes us. Research has proved that to be entirely and dramatically wrong.
Trauma is a natural part of the experience of life; it’s completely integral to the development journey. There are ways to work with trauma to facilitate our growth.
A human being accessing their inherent “superpowers” to love and grow will get better, become more loving, and grow on whatever line they’re investing in. That’s the gift of consciousness.
Once you lie to yourself, you do violence to yourself; you lie to somebody else, you do violence to another person. That’s not real compassion; it’s a defensive state masquerading as compassion.
The essence of trauma learning has been being a victim and not having power. The essence of resilience is having agency, and living as if the rest of humanity are your companions, not your enemies.
The culture is self-organizing away from comprehensive communication and towards confrontation. But conversation produces progress and solves problems.
I am hopeful about humanity because all across the world people are dialed in, not just to spirituality, but also science, and to vast networks of incredible help and resources. It’s a great time to be alive.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“Anybody who does psychotherapy works with trauma, and there's been wonderful systems generated in the last 30 years for treating trauma, normalizing it, studying it, and so on. There's been a lot of neurobiology research, and I study a lot. It's one of the pleasures of my life to study systems, and I practice a lot of therapy, and I realized that the field didn't realize that trauma work proceeds through four stages. People intuitively understood it. If you talk to anybody in the field, say, Bessel van der Kolk or Francine Shapiro, some of those people if you teased it out, they would basically end up talking about these four stages, and I felt like an integral understanding of those four stages was important for psychotherapists because the principles are different in different stages.” (Dr. Keith Witt)

“So, when you are practicing awareness with acceptance and caring intent for your interior experience, you're activating circuits in your frontal cortex, particularly your right frontal cortex, that are self-regulatory circuits. If you do that daily for a month, stem cells will divide into daughter cells and become integrative neurons that hardwire self-regulatory circuits from the front of the cerebral cortex back to the amygdala and hippocampus. So, all contemplative work creates the neural territory to be able to self-regulate. That's an important central feature of many systems.” (Dr. Keith Witt)

“Dialed in means I feel comfortable in my life; I feel in charge of doing what I need to do; I feel confident and competent; I feel like my life works for me and I work for my life. My relationships are working for me, and so on. It's just that I'm in harmony with my life dialed in, integral mindfulness.” (Dr. Keith Witt)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

059 - In Search of Wholeness

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Jenn Reilly, Forrest Wilson, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 07:09:02 +0000

Isn’t it curious the only species on the planet that appears concerned about or pursues the notion of “wholeness” is the human? Other highly intelligent and social animals — such as dolphins and elephants — show no evidence of feeling an inner fragmentation, separation from purpose, or impulse to connect with a source of higher intelligence.

The comparison might be a bit humorous, but it’s a uniquely human feeling to have somehow become separated from the regenerative and creative forces that should naturally flow through and connect us with each other, the planet, and cosmos. Defining wholeness is a challenge: integrating mind and body? The physical and spiritual? The personal and the universal? Or is it found in being joined to something greater?

Why is a feeling of separation so common? Perhaps it’s the accumulated pain and trauma, personal and collective; technology in many forms replacing human faculties and intimacy; an education system that churns out interchangeable parts for vast economic engines, instead of naturally aware and aligned human beings.

In this conversation, we explore these inquiries and more. Aviv Shahar is joined by two next-gen leaders pioneering practical tools and assistance for creating less fragmented lives. Jenn Reilly founded Raising Wholeness, a new paradigm for parenting in wholeness, and Forrest Wilson, co-founder of Light in Action, an “incubator for consciousness” supporting projects and passion on the journey of wholeness.

Among their insights:

Permission was unlocked in the scientific revolution to separate and favor the exterior objective measure over interior forms of knowing. We need to reintegrate and become whole in ourselves.
We’re being initiated to give birth to the more universal potential of human life, which says all that happened until now was childhood and youth; we’re just reaching adulthood in the universe.
In these practical endeavors is the communal and network effect of more people and communities connecting and plugging and playing in the spaces of wholeness.
Education is creating ecosystems for happy, healthy and fulfilled human beings to thrive, to cultivate their curiosities, to pursue their passions, creating a more beautiful life.
By evolving and developing yourself, you become the best role model for your child.
There is something new in the universe birthing itself through us, needing to emerge through the struggle of this time, through contradiction, through being triggered with your child.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“There's the pieces of just how we're showing up and then there's also I feel the implications of how we were conditioned and raised in our culture, our society, and even in our home unit and the ways that we are born whole, born into this beautiful being, and in the ways that we've been fragmented through trauma, through just seeking attention, seeking acceptance and we cut off parts of ourselves and there are so many different layers to how that's happening in our consciousness.” (Jenn)

“So if you look at conventional reality, if anyone is familiar with startup incubators, what we did was, my business partners and I created an incubator for people who are pursuing the path to wholeness, who are on the journey to wholeness and in that journey to wholeness they have a project, a purpose project, a passion project, and a way that supports themselves financially. That is cohesiveness in the being and becoming a more whole journey.” (Forrest)

“The moment we realize our sapiens - ness, we step through into homo universalis. But I wonder personally if that doesn't necessarily, since we are interconnected and nothing is separate in the whole, that does not necessarily cause an upshift for all other species on the planet in the universe, and so what I wonder is that when you speak about the oak tree, when you speak about the other animals in the world, we're the only organism that orients this way.” (Aviv)

“I guess just one thing that's still alive in me is that there is something around what Forrest was saying that developmental lens and understanding exactly... Because there's the piece of how we are supporting different developmental stages and that awareness, having that knowledge in your pocket as a parent is so relieving. It is so relieving to know that the three-year-old is still building the neural pathways to hold multiple emotions at the same time.” (Jenn)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

058 - Current Openings #9 - The Emotion Problem

peterbarry173@gmail.com (David Price Francis, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 08:27:12 +0000

The popular concept of emotional intelligence only begins to scratch the surface of understanding the true nature and power of the human emotion.

Emotions can uplift and heal and transform a life or relationship. They can also inflict and become self-destructive; lead us to either our salvation or downfall. Some people believe the emotion plays a central role in human evolution. Why is an energy so powerful and personal often so unpredictable and seemingly hard to manage?

A clue is in the word: “emotion” comes from a Latin derivative meaning “energy in motion”. Emotion isn’t static; it creates energetic pathways connecting people with themselves, with one another, with their communities, and the universe. The real emotion problem is not emotion itself; it’s how we use the most powerful energy naturally generated by our human design.

In this new episode of “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet”, Aviv Sha har and David Price Francis delve deeper into the nature, mystery, and larger potential of human emotions. The conversation adds a new chapter to the unfolding story of the human predicament.

Among their insights:

A species guarantees its continuance more through tribal arrangements than just individual DNA. It’s the logic of why human emotions are a self - preservation technology.
The emotion that evolved in humans engenders the capacity to care, share, and bond — the qualities that nudge and lead us to collaborate and work together.
There are dimensions in the universe that need higher human sensitivity and resonance. It’s logical the universe would support the emergence of compassionate life that's more like itself than not.
Summoning the emotion is engaging the most powerful energy we have access to. It can be overwhelming if not used wisely. The balance is found in living in harmony with the emotion.
We're not victims of our emotions; we can elevate our understanding and use the emotions as objects of purpose inside the theater of our experience.
Emotional energy can be very potent healing; seeking with our minds to harness the heart-centered energy and move together to a particular purpose, like healing another person.

This conversation builds on concepts and insights first explored in The Energy Problem. It is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“One way I look at human beings is as having three major channels or pipes for energy. There are three major expressions: energy in, energy out, and we're always in process. So those are the three things I look at in us: we have mental energy; we have emotional energy, whatever that is, and we're going to get into it; and we have physical energy, which is inside the physical energy.” (David)

“It's so when there's an empathy flow, there's very much that connection between the two people between whom the energy is flowing, and there's a very interesting difference there between the person whose energy primarily flows about themselves for themselves, which is more where we get these expressions like narcissistic c rage or narcissistic display, and so they're still emotions, but the emotions stay inside that person's field and are held for them, and this is where you get the person who's able to act emotionally.” (David)

“So a compass is something that goes 360 degrees. So it's almost like you take the compass and you have your center point, and you can draw a circle, and the idea of real compassion is that it doesn't just go to a person who's your friend, or it doesn't go to a particular cause. But to release suffering in the world, it takes a 360-degree approach, like the sun shining on everybody at once. So that, to me, is very much the seat of that devotional practice, and we're both wearing what appears to be what looks like regulation blue.” (David)

“So you can take your emotional fuel and burn it up very rapidly with a bout of hot anger, you can be in the car, and someone comes past you, and you start yelling, and you go into road rage. But then, is that the best use of that fuel? And I think that's a kind of wisdom about the person, so I have the right to it. Well, yes, you do. You have the right to eat coal. You have the right to do many things. With that permission, you can go for it. But just have that pause. Is it really the best thing to do for your life? Or is there a better way to use it?” (David)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

057 - Current Openings #8 - The Energy Problem

peterbarry173@gmail.com (David Price Francis, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 09:02:27 +0000

Many of us are getting robbed every day, whether we know it or not. We just may be robbing ourselves, too, without fully understanding the consequences of our behavior. It could be through ignorance, lack of attention, or bad decisions. Whatever the cause, we’re getting robbed of the very energy that enables good health, inspiration, and possibility of higher connection, all to the detriment of our physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing.

What do we mean? Throughout Portals we explore the energetic nature of human life: our physical systems, mind and body balance, creativity, and natural connections to higher intelligence and expanding awareness, all depend on different levels and natures of energy.

Every feeling, idea, and thinking pattern carries energetic potential; we are continually generating or consuming energy from internal and external sources. But what quality of energy? Nourishing or depleting, toxic or regenerative, we can choose.

In the latest chapter of the Portals series “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet”, Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis guide us through a deeper look at our energetic nature and the five basic fuels we use to generate energy. They explore the various energy ‘robbers’ that can leave us susceptible to imbalance and ill health.

We live between two worlds: the visible and matter; and the invisible and energy. We need to understand both, and the purpose or direction in which we travel in both worlds.
These core self-insights — how to manage our energy, our cycles, our emotions — ought to be part of the knowledge of a life, but are usually left out of education.
As the size of the energy problem and challenge grows, new energy potentials and energy sources are coming online to help us re-naturalize to planetary and universal frequencies.
The invitation is to reground in our natural system; to become more aware of how we consume each of the five basic types of energy and become more intelligent about the value of sleep.
It’s the predicament of being addicted to the easy fast solution, easy fast food, easy fast energy sources.
We develop our willpower by growing our will not power — what we say ‘no’ to. It expands what we can say ‘yes’ to, and uses our energies in a more purposeful way.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“My understanding of the word ‘ education ’ in its origin is that it comes from the Latin word "educare," which apparently means to lead out from inside. ” ( David )

“Well, I think beginning today because it's always beginning in the now, what do we call a human with no energy? But I thought of a dead body. That's what a human is — without any energy whatsoever — and even then, there's a process of decomposition that causes certain kinds of energies to leave. So we compose and we decompose as human beings, right? But for a human being with no energy input, you can say the closest thing to it is a coma. But when you go beyond that stage, we move into the process we call death. So death is the departure of the energies that keep us alive. ” (David)

“If somebody drinks polluted liquid over a period of time, they're going to disrupt their system through the liquid food. If someone starves themselves of oxygen, or if you've taken yourself too far away from a source of full spectrum lighting, that's where in the northern climates now they have special light boxes to emit full spectrum lighting that they found brings greater harmony and benefit to the human system. So we can cause that erosion and fragmentation through environmental reasons. ” (David)

“So I think of the idea of the ‘ Sun Salutation ’ in yoga; it's not a posture, although it is as well, but it's the idea of going out into the sun, being in the sunshine, and getting nutrients from the sun. So this would be structuring our lives for maximal nutrition at four levels, and then in the fifth level, it will be being aware of what we're introducing ourselves to. So something about our eyes - it's very interesting.” (David)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

056 - How Purpose Evolves

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Holly Woods, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 1 Sep 2023 07:41:14 +0000

What is the power of a motivating purpose in one’s life?

What happens when our chosen purpose seems to run out? What do we do when the expected fulfillment at the high point of a career or other life quest feels empty, less thrilling, than anticipated? How do you recalibrate when the change you worked so hard to catalyze has a timeline that doesn’t match our expectations?

For example, consider what we call the corporate refugees, executives who ticked all the right boxes, made the money, but still find something missing; or veteran change makers and leaders, who might wonder if their driving energy has been used up or burned out. How can any one of us, at any stage in our lives, discover a sense of renewal that propels us forward in harmony with an evolving world and universe?

In this conversation, Aviv Shahar explores the many levels and expressions of human purpose with Holly Woods, author, consultant, transformation leader and founder of the Emergence Institute. Holly works directly with people from all paths and levels of accomplishment to discover and re-enliven their purpose and passion. She generously uses her own journey of success and shadow to illuminate a life of self-discovery and change.

Among their insights:

Living ‘on purpose’ is to look squarely at your greatest sorrows and joys, find the connection between them over time, and see they are flip sides of the same coin. Neither is right or wrong; both illuminate who you really are.
Many leaders in the transformational arena spend their lives looking, unconsciously, for the next inspiration but are afraid to move out of their existing structures.
Enlightenment isn’t a destination. We are in an epochal shift with an evolving story; we are forever pushing the void, the frontier, in an on-the-move realization.
A form of burnout is doing something in a similar way consistently over time; when the world shifts and it no longer works, we don't know how to adapt.
Veteran changemakers will struggle in a transition as their world shifts: they've gained perspective, but their capacity hasn't expanded; another version of themselves wants to emerge.
Next-gen leaders can grow impatient with the pace of change, and the impatience can be externalized as righteousness. It’s also the impatience of a person with themselves.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“It's the belief that has haunted us: that we are individuals making our way through work and effort, and that sort of linear cause-and-effect mechanistic version of life separates us from the whole and limits our ability to work with on behalf of and in receipt of the energy that's available to us.” (Holly)

“Very important point, and the fulfillment that comes earlier in life when in earlier stages of human development is more concrete, more real-world material world items, and then we move into more intellectual social expectations, and then at some point as we're developing as humans, we gain capacity to see beyond those things, and it becomes more about the internal fulfillment. So earlier fulfillment is usually related being externally oriented, with their family culture, community, corporate, and peer group expectations about what success looks like, and generally, we think of being fulfilled when I've achieved those expectations, so it is a very different kind of fulfillment, and when we wake up to what's inside of us, our internal milieu, we say, ‘ Oh, there's something I'm missing; I'm maybe happy sometimes, but I don't have joy. I don't have a life force; it's missing from me, ’ and when people wake up, they really have a deep desire and longing for that, and I can speak more about what the longing actually is, but it's really at a later stage of development.” (Holly)

“Sometimes they have successful businesses, sometimes not, and sometimes they come to me after they've been struggling for a long time. But not always; sometimes they're in the middle of their business and it's going well, and they scaled, and they're like, "Oh, I have all these things going, but it doesn't mean anything to me anymore.” They're kind of a mix of the other two categories. They often have figured out how to be successful in the material world.” (Holly )

“I used to tell my clients, ‘ We're going to do these things, we're going to discover your purpose, we're going to do shadow work, and then it's going to be like magic. ’ I didn't even know how to explain it. I don't know what happens, but it just does, and it is magic. It shows up a lot, and now I understand it more fully. So, synchronicity is a huge part of my work, and I now understand it, and it really is alignment, which means that discovery through the shadow work helps resolve become clearer and more free of those limitations and constrictions, and then taking small steps into the world to invite in opportunities and, boom, it shows up. It still feels like magic. But I now understand fully how to create that opportunity for my clients. So, it is synchronistic for the vast majority of my clients. We get to a place, and there's usually a session where something happens there, like all kinds of awareness has happened, and then people in other places start showing up.” (Holly)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

055 - Insurrection of Belief

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Robbie Bach, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 12:37:06 +0000

We’re about to get a close-up look at how a creative and successful business leader is using his remarkable experience and passion to transform the civic and business landscape. It’s the latest chapter in an accomplished life dedicated to creating positive change in diverse communities. In his 22-year career at Microsoft, Robbie Bach led the creation and development of Xbox, the highly popular and successful video gaming system, in addition to other critical creative and leadership roles. In 2015 he published his first book, Xbox Revisited: A Game Plan for Corporate and Civic Renewal, and in 2021 he published his first novel, The Wilkes Insurrection. Robbie continues his leadership as consultant, catalyst, and speaker to civic, corporate, and university communities. In this conversation with Aviv Shahar, Robbie describes his current endeavors as “civic engineering,” the work we do every day to improve and transform our communities. He traces his personal journey from corporate leader to bridge builder — bringing together polarized political leaders in Washington, D.C., by creating new opportunities for working together. Robbie has an insider’s perspective on the role of technology and media in culture and communities, and is open about the religious faith that helps shape his worldview. Robbi e shares with Aviv some of his insights and advice, including:

The American experiment is about the middle — the bell curve. When the bell curve gets torn apart by extremes and polarities, we’ve got a problem.
My generation has to take accountability for allowing this cynicism to seep into our society through lack of strong leadership. We are handing the next generation a world in a not very good situation.
I look to people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, and say it's going to be your world. If the environment is going to be fixed and we can still keep the lights on, you have to figure out how to do that.
Grace is recognizing what's going on around us, what's happening to us, and knowing there have been purpose and achievement along the way; then being grateful for the good and the bad that have shaped our lives.
If you're dealing with anxiety, find a way to talk about it and turn it into something productive; find a friend, a counselor, a coach, a spouse, whoever it is; don't be shy about asking for help.
The ability to overcome is one of the most important character traits people can develop.
Tragedy is a place where we learn and grow; it's where we triumph. It's where we figure ourselves out. It's where we say, Who am I? What am I doing?
Take the long road, have a plan, and then know it’s going to change and be excited about it. You might have to zag a bit to be successful or get started, but that's okay.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“The other thing that I think has changed is the whole context of media. I'll say, in particular, social media, but broadcast media has fallen into the same trap, where all of our leaders feel like they're on 24/7. And the problem with that a) God knows who wants to live that life, that's a separate problem. But the bigger problem with that is, if you're on 24/7, in that world, you're constantly trying to make political points. And the fact is, when you got most of these people away from the cameras and away from the keyboard, they're actually pretty reasonable people.” (Robbie)

“When I talk at universities, I do a lot of guest lecturing. And usually, that's business strategy, leadership, the things that you know, come from my Microsoft and Xbox experience. But I always at the end, talked about three things. I talked about faith, I talked about perseverance. And I talked about serendipity.” (Robbie)

“In a dialogue, we're one of the characters here of the words, we must all overcome our fear. We must proclaim the true meaning of Islam. We must make people understand that Islam means peace. And she says, I may not practice all aspects of Islam, but it forms the fabric of my principles and beliefs. It shapes who I am and how I care for others. Islam is a faith-based in modesty, forgiveness, tolerance, and morality. So when I read this, in this paragraph, you obviously you've had to find the sense of empathy and embrace of otherness.” (Robbie)

“ You know, in the middle of summer, there's not a lot of change going on. Things are sort of green, the weather sort of is what it is, and you're sort of waiting for something to happen in winter. Look, something new is going to come from this. The question is, do we see the opportunity to shape it or not? If we just let it happen, what will come may not be to our like, if we see it as an opportunity, we can shape it and turn it into something that is to our liking. That is wonderful. And that gives us the ability for that next generation that I was talking about to have a really fruitful and intentional adventure.” (Robbie)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

054 - A Community of Leaders

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Abigail Lynam, Geoff Fitch, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 4 Aug 2023 11:48:30 +0000

In many Portals conversations we explore the nature of the emerging new universal possibility not as a separate and distant change, but as a living reality — an uplifting evolutionary impulse that can transform lives, communities and our planetary ecology.

Especially in a time of political and environmental upheaval, how do we discover and more fully engage with the real potential of personal and collective transformation? What is the nature of leadership in a transformational journey of people and communities whose vision is to co-create a positive, sustainable future for humanity and the planet?

In this conversation we get a deeper look at the kind of leadership that can facilitate emerging universal change and transformation. Aviv Shahar is joined by Geoff Fitch and Abigail Lynam, from Pacific Integral and Generating Transformative Change (GTC) North America. Jeff and Abigail recount their personal journeys of change and growth, and many years of leading the transformational experience of groups and individuals on three continents.

Among their insights and learnings:

My greatest fear became my greatest opening.
If we don't do anything, we don’t make mistakes. So the idea is to create more and better mistakes; new mistakes, rather than repeating the old ones.
Humanity is in the midst of a profound period of change; the opportunity of our time requires us to embrace universal human values, ethical action, and engage our evolutionary potential.
Unless we find a better way to engage generational resources, wisdom, and collaboration, our chances of meeting som e of the difficult challenges are dramatically reduced.
It’s how individuals can show up in the development of the collective; we can bring our greatest potential and fullest selves to hold a space of leadership for when it's our time.
What makes this poss ible is we all have gifts and blind spots; we're all on our own evolutionary journey. We're whole and beautiful as we are – and we’re ready.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“There have been dozens of people involved in developing and facilitating the program over the years and we are a community of practice. So we've been in the heat of it. It's not us coming from a place of, oh, we figured it out and now we're going to lay it out for you. We are in the practice ourselves and have been since the very beginning and in deep collected process.” (Geoff)

“The thing I wanted to add to what you're speaking to Geo ff is one of the ways to hold the work is to say it's about being in relationship with ourselves, who we are and who we're becoming in relationship with one another.” (Abigail)

“So one of the projections that we have about later stages of development is that there's somehow more mature, more whole, more complete. But one of my little tricks for counteracting that idealization, they're also more immature, you know, in a way, the most mature stage that we have is baby. It's like you, when you're born, you already know, you're an expert baby, you have it completely nailed, right. As you progress, you learn and grow.” (Abigail)

“If you're accessing later stages of consciousness at an earlier age, sometimes that can mean that there are other aspects of the self that aren't as fully robust. And so how to support this sort of widening or growing out into the spaces that the self already has access to, how to stabilize, and how to integrate and work with the parts of ourselves that are less mature, is one of the challenges that we've witnessed.” (Abigail)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

A Community Of Leaders GTC

Pacific Integral

053 - The Mind of the Universe

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Christopher M. Bache, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 07:49:43 +0000

In many Portals conversations we explore the nature and meaning of what some people describe as expanded or greater consciousness — experiencing directly higher levels of intelligence and creativity than are ordinarily accessible through physical senses; connecting and communing with the universal source of cosmic or divine inspiration and purpose.

The paths through history to expanded awareness or deeper levels of spiritual awakening are almost as varied as humans themselves: meditation and spiritual practices; physical ecstasy; hypnosis, and mind-altering substances found in nature or the laboratory.

In this conversation, we follow the unique journey of awakening and transformation of Professor Christopher M. Bache, who explored the nature of consciousness through the clinical use of LSD in a 20-year study. Chris chronicles his experiences, perceptions, and thoughts about the future of humanity in his book LSD and The Mind of the Universe: Diamonds from Heaven. Chris currently is professor emeritus in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Youngstown State University.

Chris and Aviv Shahar take a deeper look at the premise of an intelligent and purposeful universe that actually seeks communion with the human species, and the moment of peril now facing humanity and the planet.

Among their insights:

Our entire species and the development of this planet, in this solar system, in this galaxy, are all part of an exquisite purposeful systematic unfolding of this creative intelligence.
The universe wants altered human consciousness to permeate all levels of physical reality so it can experience us in a richer, higher fidelity, higher quality, kind of way.
There are no victims here, only saints and volunteers who have chosen to participate in the historic transformation of this time. Every person here deserves our respect.
Spiritual visionaries of different lineages come to the same conclusion: evolution is speeding up, and humanity is at a pivot point of instability; we grow up, or probably go extinct.
We have entered a phase of collective awakening; we may be able to go through an accelerated journey in one lifetime if we engage and participate in the evolutionary process.
We generate energy by making choices, and the universe responds to the energy. In complex and subtle ways, we are always creating our own experiences.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“What I found is that by dissolving into the deeper levels of my own mind, I opened beyond my own personal existence into the mind of the universe itself, and in that process repeated over and over again through many years.” (Chris)

“How you use that amplified consciousness, how you care for it, how you protect it, how you isolate it, how you internalize it, how you meditate with it, and how you engage your mind during those hours of hypersensitivity is what determines the quality of the perception that emerges from that dialogue.” (Chris)

“I want to be careful, and I want to remind us that a finite mind does as best it can to give cognitive structure to transcendent experiences. So what I’m about to describe is, in terms of justice, a splitting of the Divine Principle into two halves: a male half that stays outside of time and space in a transcendent position, and a female half that begins the process of manifesting time and space in the entire physical cosmos.” (Chris)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

The Mind of the Universe Diamonds From Heaven

ChrisBache

052 - Current Openings #7: The Knowledge Problem

peterbarry173@gmail.com (David Price Francis, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 7 Jul 2023 08:42:43 +0000

Most of us would probably agree that our brains and minds are restless: continually consuming (unless we’re asleep) vast amounts of data and information from limitless sources, sometimes of dubious quality, a behavior that is often the direct result of how we programmed ourselves to think. They usually run on automatic pilot, craving a high-calorie diet of constant stimulation.

We know our body and physical systems will suffer from a diet too rich in the wrong kinds of calories and energy. So too our brain, mind, and higher faculties can’t function near their natural capacity and ability on a diet of ‘junk food’ — knowledge with potent energetic content that can supercharge the brain, but leave the rest of our systems deprived of real mental and spiritual nourishment.

Our freedom of choice as human beings means we are free to fill our minds with toxic and self-destructive patterns and programs, or the knowledge and awareness that feed our natural intelligence and connections to greater universal possibilities. But how do we improve our mental diet?

In the latest chapter of the Portals series “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet”, Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis explore the seven types of natural knowledge that nourish our mental activity and support change and personal growth. Among their insights:

Unless we are able to source knowledge within ourselves, we are not going to be very good at loving and caring and being compassionate with other people.
Only humans have a knowledge problem. Squirrels don't. Cats don’t say “What's going to happen when I die?” Everything else in the planetary program is full and complete.
There are addictions to foods that are bad for us physically, and similarly to ‘foods’ bad for our mental diet, like when we get addicted to provocative headlines created to actually hijack our brains.
Many may say that you cannot think of anything original, so why try? That’s an abdication of the capacity to live into the fullness of our humaneness as a source of new discovery.
We have privileged the telescope and microscope over and above the ‘energy scopes’ of ourselves and our natural technology, sometimes with detrimental results.
You can’t find character-forming knowledge in any app online. How is a young person to realize this unless they are guided to discover their passion and build a character?

This conversation builds on concepts and insights first explored in The Human Predicament and Planetary Program and The Addiction Trap. It is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also, visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“So the planetary program is an operating system that converts energy through a plethora of living forms, like the tree, squirrel and humans. And, within that, what we said was that the universal feature that enables that evolutionary capacity that we call program m ability that appears up and down the evolutionary track, then what it does is it really enables all that we see and that the brilliance of this universal innovation is how once a solution is developed, it becomes open source, that coded program is available for all forms of life.” (David)

“If you want to be a person that is ready to discover flow, it means you will have to find what in you is stable and firm, like a rock and lead, that supports the power that wants to be in flow. You need to integrate these polarities if you want to be in flow. You need to be in another part of yourself, very firm. So that’s the provocation we are making, that so much of what we stuff in our heads is truly dead knowledge. Because it is dead knowledge, it is deadening to our natural faculties rather than alive knowledge.” (David)

“So there's that massive difference between the integration that experience brings and then purely mental knowledge, and I think a good example is that real experiential knowledge can be accessed and we can even have a complete life experience of it if it reappears in our presence. Like when a person has gone down for the third time, their life flashes in front of their eyes. What they Googled is probably not flashing in front of their eyes. The act of Googling something that will be there, but the actual mental reference is not hardwired in. So we get this ephemeral, we think we've experienced something, but really, we haven't, and that is a big loss.” (David)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

051 - The New Intentional Communities

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Tucker Walsh, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 23 Jun 2023 08:08:48 +0000

* This conversation was recorded just a few weeks before the conversation The Emergence of Belonging took place. In several profound ways inquiries framed here are answered in the discoveries of The Emergence of Belonging.

It shouldn’t be surprising that with the cultural changes born of the pandemic, and the ecological crisis of climate change, there is a new passion for, simply put, finding new ways to live — creating ecologies that will support the kind of life we imagine is possible.

It isn’t easy; as intentional communities create their visions, they face familiar challenges: building a shared living space that respects an individual’s passion and growth, while harmoniously supporting mutual values and mission. Surviving practically and financially, when the motivating energy isn’t about making money.

Easy, no. But there is renewed interest — perhaps an emerging global movement — in imagining new blueprints for collective living in this time of cultural and ecological upheaval. Current events poin t to the motivation: forced isolation during the pandemic; environmental catastrophe from the extraction and depletion of natural and human resources, and a deep intuition that we are due for and can bring about a constructive reset for humanity.

What could new models for collaborative living look like? In this conversation, Aviv Shahar joins author, consultant and Emmy Award-winning documentary film director Tucker Walsh for a closer look at the rise of new intentional communities. Tucker’s life - long interest in group and collective living has taken him to communities around the planet.

Among their observations and insights:

You will face the obstacles, challenges, and fault lines; the first being in the paradigm of the modern world where the question is, how will this project support itself?
We are able to converge and cohere at the high idealistic aspect of what we imagine, but the breakdown occurs in the "middle spaces" of where we live our lives.
These are people that on a deeply intimate level you know their shadow, their light, their stories, their traumas. This also creates a sense of safety.
Could there be a community celebrating the miracle of life and living together in away that is ecologically and interpersonally sound? Something like an intentional village?
How do we move past the interpersonal conflict? How can we show up and be of service as sovereign individuals that also recognize all of life is a relational process?
A voice deep within my being is hungry to fall in love and fully serve and give mylife to something larger than myself. One way that can manifest is through community.
Can we engage in a deliberative co-evolving endeavor that will include our desires today and our children’s desires? Unless we do, we won’t unlock our fullest and highest potential.

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“So imagine waking up and hearing animals outside. You just wake up to nature. You have just direct immediate access to nature in a landscape that is not just a plot of land that you kind of clear cut and built your house next to, but you're actually living embedded in the actual nature, and there's a regenerative mindset that says, "This piece of land is my home and I want to leave it better than how I found it."” (Tucker)

“There's a constant awareness and dialogue around trauma, around healing, around shadow work, around awakening. I just sense there are other ways of orienting in a shared collective with people who still feel that healing is an essential part of their daily lives and still feel that doing the work, so to speak, is a part of the work of life, but are here maybe to operate more from a place of service, more from a place of celebration, more from a place of actually healing the external systems and the larger society and the larger structures that are in need of service as well in addition to our ego structure in our psychological health. ” (Tucker)

“The fact that we're alive in this moment even as we're dying is even more of a reason to celebrate, and there's a shift in consciousness that's happening around the existential crisis that's coming — I'm certainly not applying this as the only narrative or as a narrative that would work for everyone.” (Tucker)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

The New Intentional Communities

Tucker Walsh Linktree

050 - The Ring of Valiance

Sat, 10 Jun 2023 05:42:40 +0000

It’s the kind of word we don’t see or hear much anymore: valiant. And its siblings valor, fortitude, gallant, and heroic. Or sayings such as “They had the courage of their convictions.” They almost sound quaint and a bit old - fashioned, like chivalry. Is th e nature of valiance even a relevant consideration in a digital age?

Yes, absolutely. It’s actually easy to find people who believe that valiance, bravery, and determination are core values and virtues in a character formation that would lie at the heart o f a regenerative life. Valiance is part of the natural strength and resilience found in the t rue inner nature of all humans.

In the face of global environmental and cultural crises, where people can live in fear for their fundamental safety and survival, v aliance is the living defiance, a connection to our higher self that allows healing and recovery. Consider a ring of valiance: a global network of people with shared value for a natural character of courage and fortitude, and the platform of possibility it would offer to a better future.

In this conversation, several longtime Portals friends join Aviv Shahar for a bold exploration of the nature and place of valiance in this time of personal and collective transformation. Among their sentiments and perceptions:

Valiance is the buoyancy of spirit that reclaims the power of choice. It helps resist the persuasions of history. Like using a smartphone, we can choose which applications we run.
Imagine a huge ring of valiance spanning countries, races, and languages. These qualities are contagious from one person to another; you can inspire another human being to change.
Practices that engender valiance include self-love and self-compassion, and basic gratitude to live in a world where we wake up every morning with the gift of consciousness and choice.
Institutions that society has developed foster alienation, erecting larger and thicker walls because we don't trust each other. A ring of valiance enables us to feel safe and be our natural self with others.
Valiance can help reset the basic biological response to better immunity by resisting compulsions that cause certain behavior. Valiance is a rejuvenation to the inner system.
The privilege of human life is that it can, in the consciousness of its history, elevate its response before it’s needed. But it must be in place and ready; thinking is slower than reacting.
Personal choice is a key thread; we can choose to be whatever or whoever we want; what we want to stand for, support, or donate our time to.
Logotherapy is the idea that at any point in time you may view yourself through the eyes of anyone you choose. It could be a deity, or someone else, like a parent or a child.
It’s the place where we may experience some of the finest sentiments and feelings of communion. If I say to myself "What is this place?" valiance is right there at the foundation.
It’s seeing friendship and companionship as priestly functions; it's in our human divinity to serve each other.
One of the things we're most afraid of is the unknown, and our future is always unknown. If we can get over our fear, the future becomes an open refining possibility.

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I'm watching the current trends in the world, and I see that humans are not good. They do not behave well towards other humans. We have wars, we have mass shootings, we have all kinds of exploitation, and it's becoming obvious to me, however, at the same time, that the world cannot survive on its current trajectory of greed and exploitation, and people are starting to know this.” (Marianne)

“In this world, strength is seen as a physical or external commodity. But I see that strength comes from what works through your life. Well, it is respect, trust, and without connection and usage of these things, we will fall apart as a society.” (Nigel)

“I feel that we need to somehow move away from the way the world is governing itself at the moment into something that is more based on the natural purposes of life. This is a deep inquiry, clearly. But it ’s almost like we need to press the reset button. You can press the reset button on a piece of equipment to sometimes take it back to it s factory setting. It's almost like we need to find the reset button that takes the human back to its factory setting.” (Well)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

049 - Could Armageddon Be an Inner - geddon?

Fri, 26 May 2023 07:15:32 +0000

We no longer need Hollywood to create ever-bigger fictional disasters to scare us into believing our world just may be on the threshold of Armageddon or other apocalyptic scenarios that threaten the future of humanity and the planet. Real-time, real-world environmental collapse, war, and cultural chaos are brought into our awareness on any media platform we may use.

Do the true origins and causing forces of the dramatic and powerful struggles we see around the globe really lie in the physical world, where they manifest and shape our communities and cultures? Or is the outer world, even the chaos and destruction, a physical reflection of the perceptions and sense of self that form our deeper collective inner life?

In other words, is it more accurate to think of Armageddon as an inner-geddon, the real location of the prophesized final battle between darkness and light, the past and the future? In many narratives this “end of days” also brings the realization that as one world culminates, another emerges, with the long-awaited evolutionary next step for humanity.

To help us explore such a deep and profound mystery, we brought together a group of Portals friends, some of whom have been with us in previous conversations — all accomplished teachers, writers, thinkers and doers. Among their ponders and perceptions:

One challenge facing humanity is acceleration: everything is speeding up, accelerating and breaking down at the same time
You may think you need 30 years to heal or develop through a trauma. No. What used to take 30 years can now happen in three months, three weeks, three hours, or three seconds
We weren’t brought up in ways that showed us how to process difficult emotions. But it's actually a natural thing for humans to process emotions, including trauma
- People talk about the US as an experiment in democracy; in some ways, this whole planet is a big experiment in evolution. What will happen to us as a species?
We've lived in a laissez-faire culture that says anything goes if you find your tribe. I don't think that's the way of the uni verse: it has criteria and supports the things that support it
What brings differences together is a spiritual connection; it's the purpose of life. What is the purpose of us being here as a species? What is the purpose of the unfolding universe?

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“So this inner journey is very important because, for some people, it's prescriptive. It's assigned base is tradition, belief, it's codified, maybe as another way to say it, and for others, it's kind of a blank verse that is navigated almost in a mystical sense, and there isn't a right or wrong, we all find our own way. But I firmly believe that if we can have more of this inner, more of this communion come into the agency of the world, we can affect important change.” (Tim)

“Everything is speeding up, accelerating and breaking down at the same time. I'm sure each one can see what's going on in many systems; education, government, family structures, and the question is where is the human looking to see the guidance? For where do we grow the moral order? It's like forcing you to look inside, and the question is where to look inside, and here I want to take this notion of unity and union via a story that happened here.” (Rivka)

“I think the inner work is for us to pull back all the projections we make on other people and own our full participation in the human ego. Every single one of us is human, and so all of humanity lives in all of us. So, that it isn't a different class of people who are wrong and bad, it's something that we're trying to reconcile and purify in our humanity altogether, and when we do that, then we automatically clear the interjection, the ways that we've taken on the guilt for participating in all that’s human.” (Grace)

“There used to be a mantra in the world of conflict resolution and the world of mediation, that they're not really ready yet. They haven't experienced enough pain, and the real question is, how much pain as a species do we have to experience before people on a mass level finally go, "geez, this is not working. I can't handle this anymore,” and so, that's the edge of explora tion.” (Stewart)

“The real apocalypse of the human race will not come from a tsunami or from, I don't know, a plague or a meteorite, but the real apocalypse is actually the inner, that’s the inner-geddon. Because if something is very strong from the inside, if the infrastructure that is made of values and standards and principles and beliefs, then if this is solid and stable, it can withstand anything.” (Dana)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Could Armagedon be an Inner-Geddon

048 - How to Be a Friend

Fri, 12 May 2023 08:44:48 +0000

Isn’t it interesting that arguably the most connected, in touch and in tune generations ever, Gen Z and millennials — generally people born after 1980 — also report in some surveys feeling lonelier, with fewer close friends, than their older siblings or parents?

Even in the digita l age of nonstop texts, tweets and saturation social media, technology alone won’t kindle the warmth and depth of real human - to - human bonds. How then in our personal and collective journeys do we sustain the relationships often at the core of our wellbeing and emotional health — our friendships?

Portals brought together a group of our international friends to explore their experience of friendship and its role in the happiness, health, and transformation of a life. They find companionship, acceptance, trust and love, yet also challenge, strength and the desire for us to be our best.

The friends’ conversation with Aviv Shahar reveals the inspiration and transformative power of friendship:

True friendship is found not in holding each other back, but in setting each other free.
Friendship comes through a look to caress, to swell up the beautiful things that I see around me and in another person; friendship can heal, soften, inspire and make things lighter and happier.
Friendship is that immortal recognition and knowledge that I've witnessed you, and you have witnessed me; in that mutual recognition we have something shared that leads beyond time.
Friends are there whether we’re with them or not; it’s a pact of reciprocal maintenance that allows something to build between people that's greater than either one alone.
Friendship gathers something together, puts communities together, builds villages, builds camaraderie. It puts people together in a way that magnifies and makes them stronger.

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I remember having a friend a long time ago, and we used to develop a handshake together. And now it’s a special handshake. We put our hands up, twist, jab, and I hadn't seen that person for about 19 years, and as soon as I saw him, guess what? We went together, and we did our special handshake. It hadn’t died.” (Robbie)

“So there's something magic about ol d friends I think and if you have an old friend that you can reconnect with that is a treasure. That is an absolute treasure. That being said there is a saying, isn't there? Make new friends and keep the old, for the new are silver and the old are gold. So new friends as well.” (Hanna)

“One feature, one thing that sort of pops up in me when we talk about the essence of friendship... It makes me think of ginger. You know how you can find like an old knob of ginger and you're just about to throw it away and you're like "Hold on, let me just peel back and almost always at the core of it, it's fresh, full of its lifeforce, zest, and freshness,” so there's something about friendship that is like that's ever fresh with quite an energy to also refresh whoever in ingests it.” (Aud)

“When I was young I was shown a demonstration of electricity and magnetism by way of a piece of paper with some iron filings and a magnet underneath, and when the person moved the magnet, the iron filings did a little dance, and that's always stayed with me that image because friendships like that, it's like a magnet and the more you do it, the stronger it gets and it makes people do the most extraordinary things.” (Robin)

“I think everybody that's ever experienced some of what friendship has to offer can recognize it as a sacred space. A plasma of possibility and opening to realms that we only dream of, and I have a very strong sense that, at the moment, we only experience these intimate moments with special people that we call friends.”(Daniel)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

047 - Dancing in the Flow

Fri, 28 Apr 2023 07:54:52 +0000

It’s familiar to hear athletes and artists talking about “being in the zone” during moments of peak performance — that feeling of total focus and attention that allows access to one’s best and often a sense of greater awareness and capability. It’s sometimes described as a feeling of somehow reaching beyond what we thought were our limits.

What’s remarkable in being “in the flow,” as it is also known, is a natural state of enhanced awareness, connection, and capacity that is always nearby, available to anyone as a source of new intelligence, creativity, and energy for all aspects of our lives and journey. We can also learn to better recognize the mental and energetic barriers that may be preventing a more frequent experience of true flow.

In this conversation, Aviv Shahar is joined by three Portals friends — Dan Leahy, Catherine Johnson, and Leticia Nieto — who practice, facilitate, and increase awareness of the flow state in their personal and professional lives as educators, counselors, and therapists.

Although difficult to explain or define in words, our flow friends explore ways to move closer to flow by warming up to the readiness of our bodies, minds, and ecology; by playing, role play or psychodrama; by stimulating our natural spontaneity. Their experience and perception of flow includes:

- We can facilitate the release and liberation of whatever got arrested in historic or entrenched or limiting patterns through different approaches to creative work.

- There were moments where the student’s eyes lit up; it was like something showed up that wasn't in the model or the curriculum content. They were just present in some learning kind of way.

- Play is what facilitates access; being stilted just makes it take longer. But flow is available all the time; it's not something we have to seek.

- There is a novelty factor that emerges in the moment; we are experiencing an innovation, a new synaptic connection in the brain, part of the conductive release that occurs in the process.

- The work is not to get rid of the problem or unnecessarily fully dismantle supremacy, but to lean into the rounder patterns of reclamation and resistance that have always been there.

- In role playing we invite people to play a different script than the one they have in the moment in which they feel stilted, and flow is becoming more available.

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I think probably the most dramatic experience of that is that I know if I am paddling whitewater, you must find the path of least resistance and you must relax, even in the most frightening of moments. If you can relax, you can get through it, and that stays with me today.” (Catherine)

“So I'm thinking about, for example, working with playback theater, which is one of the things that I do, when it’s time to get ready for performance, different actors need different things. Some people need to go for a quiet walk, and some people need to meditate. Some people need to do vocal exercises. Different people may need different things, but they know what they need to be able to get up on a stage.” (Leticia)

“Like for me, the words are a parallel process. I find myself really curious about how what's going on externally is also going on in my body, in my heart and soul. Is there some way we can see the complementarity or the intertwine, the weave in the moment? And then what's that like for us? I sort of ponder that. What shows up? What am I curious about? What might that open doors to, other reflections or other things we might play with? So that's what I have in terms of a response to the question.” (Dan)

“We're throwing words like noodles on the wall and making meaning of something that's hard to language, but it can certainly be put the way you put it. I tend to think about flow as the ultimate fundamental truth. Flow, the pulse, the movement, the unified field of oneness is always there whether we are aware of it or not, and so when we surrender into it or tap into it or rest in it, then it allows us, or we have the possibility for being filled with that, or having that move through us in a way that is more tasty.” (Leticia)

“I think of flow as being sacred, and who am I to try and speak for flow? So I'm wrestling with that. What does come to mind is the metaphor that's most working for me these last few years, which is the transition from caterpillar to cocoon to butterfly, particularly when the caterpillar is in the cocoon and is melting down, literally, and that in that process imaginal cells begin to emerge, which have the information of what's called for next. And at the process is one of the imaginal cells clumping. So I’m imaging that flow is saying, ‘clump, dammit.’” (Dan)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

046 - Current Openings #6: The Human Predicament and the Planetary Program

peterbarry173@gmail.com (David Price Francis, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 14 Apr 2023 08:00:00 +0000

We know from recent conversations the path out of the addiction trap and other unhealthy habitual patterns leads to a life of better balance between the head and the heart, and closer natural alignment with the ways, energies and rhythms of the planet. But it’s really just a start; the jo urney can go much deeper.

Imagine a two - way conscious living exchange between the human being and the planet for the continual enhancement and benefit of both. It’s part of what we could describe as the planet’s operating system or program. The human (alon g with other organic life) is an integral player in a process and consciousness that are sometimes called reciprocal maintenance.

A simple example is a tree. The roots pull in nourishment from the soil, while the leaves and photosynthesis absorb and conver t cosmic energy from the sun into other types of nourishment that support the tree’s continued growth. The tree in turn cleans and balances the ecosystem in which it lives, to the benefit of organic life.

For the human, aligning to the natural speeds, cycl es, and energies of the planet allows us to better sense our own finer inner systems and technology that, by design, connect to universal systems and intelligence, which we flow in mutual exchange with our host, the planet.

Fortunately, we get more insight and understanding of this amazing process in this conversation between Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis, the latest in the series “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet.”

When one life form takes over an ecology and breaks the equilibrium that allows for reciprocity, we have an ecosystem that is heading to collapse.
Technology is the gift that keeps on giving, but it's also the thief that keeps on robbing. It’s the agony and the ecstasy.
The human ability to choose and superimpose life-affirming programs onto destructive programs may be the offramp technology to avoid a self-eliminating trajectory.
It’s mostly positive-thinking people who are doing damage on our planet right now. Positive thinking isn't enough; what are you positive thinking about?
What is the precious currency of life in the universe? It’s energy; we need energy to move things and facilitate change. We can say the universe is energy and energy is the universe.
The brain, becoming programmed to run on toxic processes, shows how the same program that enables life is also what enables us to develop harmful habits and addictions.

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I realized something the other day, when I was out for a walk and there were cars coming by. And it dawned on me: I'm telling myself that I love the trees, and I'm looking at the trees. And then I realized in my life, in terms of the actual programming by what's visible, I have seen more cars than trees. So, although I might tell myself trees are the priority in my life, the reality of what I've seen and witnessed is that cars are much more populous in their numbers than trees.” (David)

“Personally, I see astronomy and astrology as a mutual science. It's simply the physical and the energetic. So, when I go out to get a suntan that's astrology because I'm experiencing the energy of the sun. When I look out and I see the moon drawing the oceans, well, that's astronomy and astrology because you can see the effect of the moon pulling the ocean, it's amazing. That magnet is so powerful it pulls the entire Atlantic and Pacific Ocean toward itself. It also affects us when we get to the human. So, the tree is working with a planetary energy, and that planetary energy creates a program to receive other cosmic energies, including the energy from the sun.” (David)

“Just like in organic life, the programs are already running. And then it seems that there's this leading edge of creation, and you're exemplifying right there, in which creation is trying to unders tand and talk about itself, and work out how it does things. And that makes me think about the human side of things. The human program by which we have got this two-stage program where we're on the one hand fully responsive, our body is fully responsive to the planetary program.” (David)

“If we were like squirrels, cats, dogs, birds, trees, we would not have a predicament, we would simply be part of the planet's organic life. And we wouldn't have the extra ingredient of conscious choice. So what I'm getting at is we have a planetary program. And then our human predicament is, we can also run our own programs. So that's our extra ability, that's our super ability, that's our specialness.” (David)

“A key feature and it's exactly what you say a key feature is that esoteric knowledge what makes it esoteric knowledge is that it's not intellectual, it's connected to energy vibration. So when someone is able to get closer to the truth of their experience, like in that moment, he experienced the truth, very facing truth. And it came through with an energy that caused him, it was literally a life changing moment. And certain truths connect to these energies that can suddenly send a surge.” (David)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Current Openings Series

David Price Francis Energy Worlds

045 - Current Openings #5: The Addiction Trap

peterbarry173@gmail.com (David Price Francis, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 08:00:00 +0000

It’s hard to watch the news without also seeing and feeling the pain of toxic and self-destructive behavior influencing so many lives, such as widening and lethal addictions and extremely polarizing ideas and actions.

Addiction is a persistent and intense urge to use or do something that brings unhealthy negative consequences. Why do so many people struggle with addictive behavior? Why does humanity seem to be going collectively mad? What are the reasons for the extreme toxicity and polarization?

This predicament and its root cause in the brain/body conundrum were introduced in our last edition of the series “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet.” In our new Current Openings, hosts Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis delve deeper into the mystery of the human brain and mind - and the pathways of transformation.

As the conversation begins to reveal, the human brain is open-ended potential, capable of creating new circuitries and connections. It craves constant stimulation, the more the better, often to the detriment of our overall well being. Addiction to drugs and extreme behavior, as examples, can become familiar outcomes of brain dominance.

Aviv and David trace the steps that began this conundrum, from thinking that true knowledge could best be sourced outside of self, to shutting down the intuition and natural human connection to universal intelligence and inspiration. They also highlight the steps back to a balanced, regenerative life, including:

We have that second life in us which can select; we can use our human superpower, as I think of it, which is the ability to make conscious choice. We can actually intervene.
Any deliberate journey must begin with appreciating the truth of where you are. Like being shown a map a big marker that says, ‘You are here’. Otherwise a map is useless.
As our thoughts change, we actually make new pathways in our brain. We change our mind and we change our brain. We change the energetics, and that can change the pathways.
The brain always seeks to find the higher octane energetic quality, especially when it is separated from the feedback loop of a well-balanced, well-orchestrated human life.
Mindfulness is an attempt to get the brain back to be part of the body; although it is effective, it is not necessarily the smartest or the wisest way.
The definition of insanity is doing more and more of what is not good for you, which is also the definition of addiction.

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I love looking at the etymology of words because they give us a trace through time. And pathology says to me, what's the study of the path that we take? Because the path is something you walk along; what's the path of the human race? What’s the path of the individual? And it always gives rise to a pathology, because for every clockwise movement, there's always a counterclockwise movement. And they know this even in the study of pharmaceuticals.” (David)

“We've now lived centuries in a system with the brain orientation and its desire for more and more and more exciting food, exciting energy, exciting stimulation, leading the way. And we now see this as normal.” (Aviv)

“You can't clear toxic energy with toxic energy. So, it needs something cleaner and clearer. The word sanity is very interesting. I saw this once in New York, that a big truck went by and it said Sanitation Department. I thought, well, that's really interesting because what keeps us sane - and sane is the word sanitation - which has to do with cleaning. And with nutrition, we get the idea of eating foods, which we can assimilate good energy from.” ( David )

“So our brain can actually be, I suppose, you could say angelic to our body. We're processing really high frequency, high level, high energy signals and raining that into our body. Then you've got mindfulness, human proposition stuff, but to me that's a mind that's full of a higher frequency. And that is a higher form of meditation. Mind emptiness is just stopping the toxic flow. So that we can also say the energy of the heart. That's where people say, I want to be heart-centered. Energy of the heart can come up into the mind.” (David)

“So if we create an empty space, and don't actually then set about making new connections, most likely what happens is what was already there, comes back in. The person can actually bring in stuff that was lower than what was already there. But the purpose of that initial interim step, as you called it, is then to be able to take something and create a higher connection. That's where we get the traditions of such things as mantras, and call overs, and prayers to make a hierarchy action of some kind.” (David)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Current Openings Live Event

Current Openings Series

David Price Francis Energy Worlds

The Addiction Trap

044 - Current Openings #4: The Brain/Body Conundrum

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar, David Price Francis) — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 09:49:05 +0000

Perhaps the most serious predicament facing the human race may be easy to spot by its toxic and destructive effects on our life and the planet, but why is its core cause so hard to see?

It’s a critical puzzle to ponder, which means it’s also an excellent topic for our special series “Current Openings — What the W orld Doesn’t Quite Get Yet.” This collaboration with David Price Francis, author, spiritual teacher, and co-founder of Energy Worlds, explores what’s appearing in the flow of newly emerging intelligence and evoluti onary possibility.

The predicament: environmental and cultural crises that seriously threaten life on this planet; a level of disharmony, discord, and disconnect that would have been hard to imagine even a few years ago.

In this conversation, David and Avi v Shahar explore the predicament’s origins in what is known as the brain/body conundrum. Our brain, a marvel of engineering and power, continually seeks stimulation and excitement, often in the extreme. And often to the detriment of our bodies, which by de sign are naturally tuned to the regenerative rhythms and energies of the planet.

Imagine the predicament when human lives governed by the brain’s drive for constant stimulation — rather than the body’s natural connection to planetary regeneration — are mul tiplied on a global scale.

But... there is a promise in the predicament, and a way out of the conundrum, as David and Aviv reveal. Among their insights:

There is a way out of our predicament because we have the superpower of conscious choice
There's nothing wrong with our brain; our brain is not to blame. It's the programs that have gotten into it
The myth of the Selfish Gene, which is a fallacy, because we are wired to survive individually through collective survival. We were sold on the theology of self-interest, which is not true
How did we get to a situation where the most profitable industry on the planet is weapons of war, the second is drugs, and only the third is food?

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“Well, the human race is in a predicament. There's a lot to add up about that and then to come alongside it, as we discussed in our bridging conversat ion with the human proposition, because if we only stay with the predicament, then we are caught up in a kind of potentially circling argument.” ( David )

“If we don't bring humility, we're going to have a rude awakening because the picture of life and livi ng is a shape-shifting , dynamic, evolving story, and we're likely to wake up tomorrow morning surprised, unless we bring humility. But if we refuse to be confident in stepping forward to engage with life fully, we may already be frozen and petrified by the challenges of living. So there is that ambidextrous dance of being true and authentic to the challenge the way we embrace it and at the same time being light about it.” ( David )

“So I think of that in terms of the human’s predicament now is how governed we are by precedent and what has been, looking to the future and how not to be entirely governed by past precedents.” ( David )

“So, even if we look at our brain, part of our brain is in harmony because it's automatically working with our systems. But then we have our, I like to call it, "voluntary brain" that is busily doing other things.” ( David )

“It all takes the time that it takes according to the planet's laws, and there are actual planetary laws that govern behavior here, and part of being in harmony is knowing about timing and things, so we might want to have an instant result. But any farmer can say... any person who works with the land can say, “No, it doesn't work that way,” and it's the same with working with our brain and working with our body. If we've had years of having certain programs put in place, we can't expect to just change the programming overnight. We need to then say, "Oh, this is like a serious, lighthearted but serious endeavor, and that means multiple applications.” It's not just a one-off.” ( David )

RESOURCES MENTIONED

https://portalsofperception.org/portals/current-openings-series/

043 - Current Openings #3: The Promissory Grace

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar, David Price Francis) — Fri, 3 Mar 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the third conversation in a Portals series that is taking on a life of its own and leading us to deeper, more profound and sometimes surprising insights than we could have expected.

“Current Openings — What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet” is a new collaboration with David Price Francis, author, spiritual teacher and co - founder of Energy Worlds . David joins Aviv Shahar to explore what’s appearing in the “current,” or flow, of new intelligence and evolutionary possibility emerging across humanity and the planet.

The ease and depth of Aviv and David’s first conversations have the nature of what is sometimes called a promissory grace — an extra measure of energy, inspiration and strength that boost the beginning of a purposeful endeavor. The grace, which some might see as beginners’ luck or a higher blessing, carries the promise of ongoing enhancement in facing whatever challenges may arise on the journey.

In Current Openings we explore ways to reconnect and re - naturalize to the higher intell igence, capabilities and creative power that should naturally flow through human life. It’s relying less on digital technology for solutions to a world in multiple crises, and looking instead to activate our natural inner technology and capacity for true h ealing, growth and transformation.

A few of David and Aviv’s insights and ponders:

The mystical is not truly about the escape from life but the embrace of the invisible potential of life; not escaping to fantasy but escaping to reality.
An esoteric dimensi on is the bride and groom on their wedding night who receive promissory grace and permission to be rewired in the presence of the new union.
Moving beyond the promissory grace means beginning to play with a greater grace of being joined to a greater purpose.
There's enough new silicon technology in the world; we’re focused on activating the internal carbon technology given to us as a promissory grace by creation.
People today are largely occupied not by creating their future, but by multiple programs running in the background, most of which concern survival in a modern world.
We're bombarded with how other people want us to think and believe. Part of the joy of working with natural laws is that they're not created by a human.
We're not looking to give soluti ons, but to actually get all the way inside the real predicament facing humanity and have the solutions appear, connected to universal energies.
Someone may say to me, well, do you think there may be aliens living on planet Earth? I've heard myself say, "Well, yes, and we're the aliens."

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“We're not doing a short hop from point A to point B; we're actually doing a long - haul flight, and we're looking at this as a longer term not only for projects, but we're actually looking at it as a real journey to get to the esoteric truth of things.” ( David )

“So, when it comes to just a brief comp arison with the rest of organic life, all other parts of organic life know fully what they are, and they fulfill their, I call it, their universal template.” ( David )

“Your identity isn't based on one particular polarity or the other. You're able to use them like the right and left hand, and this is part of an ongoing development. I think of a kind of a being - human skill set.” ( David )

“The internal abilities that we have, which we see flashes of in dynamics to do with surveillance, can do amazing memory feats or amazing mathematical feats. This is all part of the capability of our brains. If one person can do it, the potential is there. So, there are incredible abilities. The last unexplored continent is ourselves.” ( David )

“So, we’re in the process of helping ourselves and then helping others come closer to a current opening into the truth of our human situation. That's our endeavor, and the reality of that is to be discovered over the course of the current openings. But that's our endeavor.” ( David )

RESOURCES MENTIONED

https://portalsofperception.org/portals/current-openings-series/

042 - Current Openings #2: The Natural Laws

peterbarry173@gmail.com (David Price Francis, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 07:56:37 +0000

Welcome to the second conversation in the new Portals series “Current Openings — What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet.” It’s a different approach to exploring what’s appearing in the “current,” or flow, of new intelligence and evolutionary possibility washing across humanity and the planet.

David Price Francis, author, spiritual teacher and co - founder of Energy Worlds , joins Aviv Shahar in the Current series, this time for a new perspective on natural laws — the universal principles and forces at play in every level o f life on this planet and throughout the cosmos. Natural laws are the invisible infrastructure and core energies that support and influence all human activity and future possibility.

Consider duality: the law of opposites. Positive and negative; inhale and exhale; the planet’s two poles. How do we embody the balance but also rise above it? Move forward while also escaping the pull of polarity. It’s the same with all the laws: finding the harmony and consciousness that will liberate more of our innate capacity.

With awareness of natural laws and their connection to universal processes, we are able to accelerate our personal development and become conscious contributors in the unfolding future of humanity and the planet.

This wide - ranging conversation unveils new insights about living in harmony with the natural laws and their effect on human capacity for refinement and personal growth, including:

We want to align with the natural laws to become conscious in our life and get better results in whatever space we operate in
"Trinity consciousness" is the smart person who is neither red nor blue, conservative nor liberal, but moves from being bipolar to the third vector and works with both
The ability to turn our back on something is a powerful part of life and dev elopment. The exhaustion of our negation capacity is a trigger for mental disorders
There’s a natural law that governs how the planet receives and expresses universal energy through a seven - fold system; just look at a rainbow
Being conscious of the natural laws that govern our life enables us to participate in pulling the levers of our development rather than being played by the laws
Every domain in life has an essence core that is surrounded by many layers and enclosures we must first penetrate to be admit ted to the core
Being in harmony with the natural laws enables the esoteric musician to create music that can heal the pain of people in grief or inspire spiritual uplift
The alchemists were expressing a system of universal laws with what they called the a ngels: earth, water, air, and fire, and the fifth, essence
Humans have something special, like a superpower — the depth of the power we can access inside ourselves. The world might hypnotize the conscious brain, but our unconscious connects to the natural laws, which are universal in origin

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcom ing special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I think with the esoteric comes another unders tanding, which is that we can only develop as human beings in accordance and in alignment with the workings of natural laws and principles. ” ( David )

“So, humans have a certain perimeter within which we can gather and within which we can operate. If we choose to try and fly on our own using our own kind of equipment, unlike birds, we're not able. Now, we're clever. We have use of a very advanced brain, more so than anything else on the planet, I believe, and that therefore means that we can manipulate the laws. We can operate inside the laws to create machinery to then enable ourselves to operate within those laws.” ( David )

“For every creation, there's a reaction; for every positive action, there's a reaction coming the other way. So, right now, if we look at, say, the realm of politics, we can see the same natural law, universal law, playing out mostly unconsciously. And this to me is the big feature, which is that human development works by becoming increasingly conscious of these laws and therefore being able to use them towards the development and growth purpose.” ( David )

“So, being able to position oneself inside understanding that law of human life that we have the power of positive and negative, we could say we have the ability to accept things with one hand and deny them with the other.” ( David )

“Yes, so in relationships there are definite laws by which relationships work. It seems to be like this random, do I love him or her? Do I not? Are we soulmates? Are we twin flames? You get it, all this stuff. And I tell folks, psychology usually governs astrology these days for multiple reasons I won't go into too much. But it's the wish at the end of the story instead of, they lived happily ever after. It should be, “...and then the work really started.” (David)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

https://portalsofperception.org/portals/current-openings-series/

041 - All Things Connected

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Dr. Julie Krull, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 3 Feb 2023 08:11:12 +0000

One of the most clear and compelling voices across the wide landscape of personal and collective transformation is Dr. Julie Krull , author, mentor, and radio host whose “superpowers” of consciousness and creativity bring new insight to the journey of wholeness and healing.

Julie hosts the weekly radio program and podcast The Dr. Julie Show: All Things Connected. Her book Fractured Grace: How to Create Beauty, Peace, and Healing for Yourself and the World challenges an outdated worldview that has long fostered a sense of separation and fear among people and comm unities.

Julie’s passionate belief in connected consciousness embraces the core understanding that we are not separate from the creative intelligence that designed the universe. The imperative is to embody this conscious integration and co - create a future where humanity and the planet are both enhanced in a mutual destiny.

In part one of a two - part conversation with Aviv Shahar, Julie reflects on the insights and new learnings that have emerged from radio show dialogues with thought leaders and other remark able guests from around the world, including:

Healing means to make whole again, but we're not going back to something. We literally are healing and transforming forward to something new
Science is showing us we're part of this universe; I’m going to say divinely creative — it brings science and spirituality back together. It's whole and unitive and can’t be separated
Every branch of science — cosmology, evolution, biology, consciousness studies, developmental psychology — converge and show how this false belief in separation created the world as we know it, and it’s literally breaking down
We have this unified field of consciousness, and life emerges and materializes from this new understanding of information at the center of the universe
Imagine our definition of wholeness isn't mind, body, spirit anymore; it’s understanding we are nested within whole living systems, within a whole living system
We can trace the effects of five waves of transformation over the last 60 years, from New Age tribalism to intentional communities, the internet, and the new integration of the 2020s
We can see science and evolutionary biology, the environment, and spirituality rising and merging against a backdrop of the metamodern movement and the liminal web
We need to think bigger than we've ever thought before
What would it be like to live so fully in a flow state that the Unified Field of Consciousness is our default, our preferred and normal, playground? This is the invitation
As I create greater coherence, and we create coherence together, we enter the miracle zone where what we can imagine is only the beginning, because we can't even imagine everything that's coming

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcom ing special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I think that the most important piece is that we do now have science, every branch of science. And looking at cosmology, evolution biology, con sciousness studies, developmental psychology, it's like all of them converge with the same story from all the different disciplines now and really showing how this false belief of separation created the world as we know it that's literally breaking down.” (Dr. Julie)

“There's an imperative that we understand our wholeness in relation to a greater whole. So that if the whole planet isn't healthy, I can't be healthy, and so my health depends on living for the good of the whole.” (Dr. Julie)

“I say the sky's not the limit anymore, the cosmos is the limit. When we begin saying what is possible, literally we need to think bigger than we've ever thought before, and so much of where we're at on the planet is about creating greater coherence among communities and holding, and I'm saying holding, you’re right, we don't have to hold it anymore, but as I create greater coherence and we create coherence together, we enter that miracle zone so much more frequently and stay there.” (Dr. Julie)

“I have a coaster over thre. There's this leap and the net will appear to leap and this step will appear, and now it's like okay, the steps are appearing for me and there's that embodied remembering, which is very different than before.” (Dr. Julie)

“Energetically we know emotions feel different. We know what an angry tear feels like. We know what the tear of awe and beauty feels like, and we know what that sob of grief feels like, and so I love imagining that with our waters on the planet and how we can heal one another fr om that understanding and that wisdom of the waters being encoded like this, it's an amazing thing to ponder.” (Dr. Julie)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

040 - Can You Be Authentic?

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Jason Digges, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 09:20:14 +0000

At times it may seem the more troubling features of our collective cultural experience — polarization, conflict, isolation — appear so intractable they are now to be expected as almost normalized behaviors of modern community life. They’re not.

Each one of us has the natural intelligence and creativity to transcend polarities with a greater perspective, transform the energy of conflict into resolution, and live an authentic life true to our self - chosen path, beliefs and values. At any time we can make a conscious decision that can alter our life, relationships and community.

Fortunately, we also have tools and insights available to help explore the practice of what is known as authentic relating and creating deeper human connections. In this conversation, Aviv Shahar is joined by Jason Digges , artist, philosopher, teacher and author of Conflict = Energy. Jason is a global leader of the authentic relating movement.

Aviv and Jason take a closer look at its origins and central ideas, and the many revealing stories in Jason’s personal and professional journeys. Among their insights:

Our empowerment comes from our ability to see the context that we're in and make a conscious decision: Do I want to do this? Do I want to play this game?

When we come together and there is friction, we bump up against one another ― there's so much to learn. We need authe nticity and courage to lean into it.

The foundation of authentic relating is taking multiple perspectives. We have a polarity of dignity, or my voice matters, and humility — listening to others. If either goes offline, we end up in posture or collapse.

The se are simply tools you can use in every situation — to help you get in touch with yourself and create a space with others. That's why it's called authentic relating.

The first person you need to become authentic with is yourself, or there isn't really any thing else.

Capitalism is killing us; we don’t need to abolish capitalism as an economic system, but stop capitalizing on people; stop looking at people as commodities.

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcom ing special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“You know, our interiors and the human potential movement were so interesting, and then, you know, psychedelics were outlawed, and there was this big swing back to the right in America in the 80s, and a much more conservative atmosphere.” (Jason)

“The way I think of leadership is, I have a friend who does Equine Assisted Therapy on horses. Their energetic and emotional systems are so interesting because their hearts are five times bigger than ours. If you take your fist and like your heart is about this big, well their heart is five times as big as that and then the energetic field is actually that big and that strong and so horses are so energetically sensitive and if y ou have a talented equine therapist they can bring you into the paddy with, you know, this fenced in grassy area with a group of horses and they can point out these different dynamics and they can actually show you your own consciousness and your own energ y happening out there in their fields because they're so energetically sensitive.” (Jason)

“There were 3000 groups happening in America that were all relational groups. They were all groups based on developing your authenticity and relational practice, li ke working it out together. Because when we come together and there is friction and we bump up against one another, there's so much to learn and what we need is authenticity and courage to lean into it, and then you know that relationship or the relational field of a group can teach us so much about how we're making meaning and doing developmental work, like, is there a higher way to make meaning? Right? So, relational practice really can accelerate development. It accelerates our emotional and social devel opment.” (Jason)

“I believe that the foundation of authentically relating to you is taking multiple perspectives and polarity. So we have a polarity that we call dignity and humility, and dignity is my voice matters, and humility is the ability to listen to another person, and if either one of these things goes offline, we end up in posture or collapse.” (Jason)

“You know that saying thank you and nice job is called politeness. It's called being cordial. It's actually not really investing in the relationship. They call it the relational capital between us, right? Saying thank you and nice job is like putting pennies in the piggy bank; it doesn't actually do much. But if you can notice a unique quality that this person is bringing to the community and acknowledge them for it, and even one step better, acknowledge them in front of the other people and now all of a sudden, what I'm doing is I'm taking this warmth in heart energy and I'm just spreading it around and I'm acknowledging you in a way that feels specific and unique.” (Jason)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

039 - Current Openings: What the World Doesn't Quite Get Yet

peterbarry173@gmail.com (David Price Francis, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 6 Jan 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the first conversation in a new Portals series: “Current Openings — What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet.” David Price Francis, author, spiritual teacher and co - founder of Energy Worlds, joins Aviv Shahar for this adventure. In the case of the title, “current” refers to the flow of energy that is part of the new evolutionary potential was hing through humanity and the planet.

In this overture to what is to come, Aviv and David explore the intelligence and universal awareness appearing in this time of profound change - guided by the wisdom and perceptions of three Portals friends: the ‘teric’ sisters — esoteric, mesoteric and exoteric.

The sisters have much to show us as we journey away from an external exoteric worldview grounded in a shifting and chaotic landscape. It’s where personal or collective change can even be viewed as a sign of consp iracy among unseen, unfriendly forces trying to shape our lives. While the elder esoteric sister gently points the way to a larger truth of the innate human connection to the highest levels of universal understanding, and potential for real transformation.

Given the sometimes scary state of world affairs, how can we accelerate the perceptual journey from an unstable external reality to an inner knowing of limitless possibility and wellbeing?

Among the questions and perceptions the world doesn’t quite get yet:
Any larger truth must be evidence - based in how the universe actually works — the logos or logic or natural laws pervading and animating the universe
With the psychological, does a person want to be more psycho or logical? Psyche is aligned to our personal bias, but logical is connecting to the original universal logos
We need to understand the role that energetics play in human behavior, human psychology.
When two people come together, we literally pass ions backwards and forwards
There is increasing evidence to support the journey toward the esoteric greater truth, which is a key difference between real esoteric core understanding and conspiratorial thinking
As we get closer to the core, it actually gets simpler; no complex mathematical formulas as we head toward the esoteric
The reason people sometimes are prone to explore conspiracies is because of feeling disenfranchised, or overwhelmed, or confused, or simply feeling their life is not in their control
The moment a person asks the question ‘why?’ is pote ntially the beginning of engaging the esoteric life
We're conduits or portals through which new perceptions pass, which means we don't flavor them; it’s being transparent for real

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcom ing special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“Typically, in relation to that the journey towards that esoteric core sister is the journey toward greater truth, as I see it, it totally fits with that idea of what is the truth of human existence? And something that goes with that, from my own experience, is there's increasing evidence to support it. To me, that's a big difference between real esoteric core matters and conspiratorial thinking.” (David)

“Right so, I'd go with the name Portals of Perception on that one, which is that let's take the fact of us talking right now and both of us, this is something a person does have control of. It's like a person may feel disenfranchised, unempowered, and yet they can use their eyes to see. They can use their ears to hear. They can move their arms. They can move their legs mostly with a few exceptions. But we are in control of everything the universe gave us to be in control of. So, that's first principles, and I think of esoteric as first principles. It's like, why are our eyes placed as the highest holes in our heads? It's amazing.” (David)

“People identifying with certain modalities, whatever they may be, and then claiming themselves to be a master of this or master of that, or I'm a trained avatar, I'm a trained I won't get into each name, not to be offensive, but people build identities upon certain practices. So, they'll say, well, I'll just give one actual example, ‘I'm a Reiki Master.’ Well, just taking the word, what does Reiki mean, it means universal energy. Well, I've been at this forty years, and I would not claim to be a master of universal energy. It's a kind of an outrageous claim to make. And the person will say, well, it's just a brand. Well, the meaning is universal energy.” (David)

“I love the word transparent. When you break it into two parts, it's a trans parent. So, a good parent gives the child roots and wings and gives them good grounding and the ability to fly, but they are their own person. They're not brought into the orbit of the parents, and the parents are saying, ‘This is what you're going to be’ because the child has its own spiritual authenticity and power. So, transparent to me means new understanding comes in and we're able to then give the best translation we can of what's in that portal, which will never be 100%, but it will be our best attempt to do that.” (David)

“So, the more we get to the esoteric, the less mass, which is very often also why there's less mass of people, but the closer to a more potentized energy.” (David)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

038 - The Future of Education

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Karol Wilczynska, Orla Kelleher, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 08:00:00 +0000

It’s remarkable in a digital age where the world is light years ahead of life in the 18th century that a fundamental cultural institution hasn’t changed its core mission substantially since the Industrial Revolution.

What we know as public education, from pre - school to college, has helpe d elevate life and the collective standard of living in astounding ways over the past 200 years. Its guiding vision has remained virtually unchanged: prepare human beings to, essentially, get a job and earn a living; to become living generators in the powe rful engines that keep the world’s economies humming.

But as the world grapples with environmental and social crises, is it time for public education to again elevate the common good by refocusing its mission and raising its sights to see human possibility as more than just economic assets? Imagine a ‘school’ where a learning ecosystem helps liberate natural intelligence and capacity for creative, regenerative, and sustainable life. A whole - person, whole - planet educational experience that supports the purpo ses of life and living.

In this Portals conversation, global educators Karol Wilczynska and Orla Kelleher share their vision for the future of education, along with practical steps to help transform the school learning experience into a regenerative force for humanity. Among their ideas and perceptions:

Reframing education also reframes the global economy; it describes a transition out of an extractive and into a paying - forward economy.
It's moving beyond the cognitive into learning outcomes focused around the social - emotional; basically, can you feel it? Sense it? What's your position about it?
Instead of making things that sell products, people learn to develop systems that help communities. Their way of thinking completely changes; they are able to talk t hrough big ideas, and what we call wicked problems.
Education can become the key driver in transformation, not the unseen enforcer of industrial status quo.
Schools are adding curriculum on sustainability as a fundamental mindset and framework for economic growth.
The educational model itself is disconnected from the natural worlds, feeling, intuition, and virtues, and therefore separated from natural principles that would enable a sustainable future.
Modern education has created silos where business is see n only in the context of business, not in the consequences of their operations on humanity and the planet.
Teachers need to be authentic, focused on personal growth, with an ability to be on the edge of what is emerging in the educational process.
We’re de scribing an inquiry - based, purpose - inspired, developmentally - driven education.

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcom ing special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“What has happened is that there are hubs around the world in which people can at any time walk in and develop whatever skills or whatever knowledge that they require because they have chosen to go there, because they know that it is free for them to attend.” (Karol)

“When people realize that they can start to choose the qualities that they have as leaders, that they can build an inner compass, that they can start to set their principles, something that will keep them to account. What gives me joy is when that begins to happen and then the growth I see, and it's not just the growth in them, it's the growth that happens in their team. When they share with me how the team is transforming, how there's this new life, this new energy, it causes a renewal.” (Orla)

“Because typically the purpose of education and up until today it's begun to shift because of the global crises, but the purpose of education since it became mainstream, which is the time of the Industrial Revolution, is to get a job, to be an effective eco nomic unit.” (Orla)

“So, when they start learning individual topics as they choose to go into these different areas of education, they soon realize that their tutors are telling them, you need to be observant. You need to take note of what is happening ar ound you. You need to write this down. You need to take account of everything that you're thinking of. And how are you going to then embed that into what you’re doing?” (Karol)

“I remember a workshop that I was involved with that was bringing in design leaders from around New Zealand, and there was this big workshop that was, Can you find a way to describe what you love to do? That was the first question, which kind of like floore d all the students, who were all third - year students, and they were going," We don't understand what you're asking us," which was quite funny in itself, and then the next one was, "What do you want to do that will not cause harm?" That was the second quest ion, and it was interesting that love and cause no harm were the most important aspects that were discussed.” (Karol)

“How can we come up to new ways of governing that we know is going to preserve the environmental health and wellbeing of those countries? And how do we take into account the various different dynamics in terms of justice, in terms of fairness, in terms of the various different exigencies and crises? And those young leaders are being tasked to look at new ways and the central premise of, let ’s say, where they get rewarded, is if they can find new ways of governing that will be a step forward.” (Orla)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

https://academics.aut.ac.nz/karol.wilczynska

037 - A Metamodern Solarpunk Regenerative Vision

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Joe Lightfoot, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 9 Dec 2022 08:02:16 +0000

At Portals we're seeing more and more that emerging and potentially world - changing ideas and perceptions are arising at points all over the planet. In this conversation we speak with Joe Lightfoot , a creative and dynamic thinker, writer ( A Collective Blooming ) and podcaster who is opening new pathways toward creating communities and grass roots engagement that he believes can radically transform our inner and outer worlds.

Joe describes the Liminal Web, an emerging digital ecosystem that includes the people, platforms and communities pioneering visions that seek deep systems change. In this he traces the impulse for "radical belonging" among millennials seekin g to give rise to new pods and meta - tribes as an alternative to the isolation and loneliness felt in the absence of community in the postmodern, technological age.

Joe re - imagines the big systems – economics, agriculture, politics – that would be par t of a truly regenerative planetary culture. A transition not based in the destruction of the modern world, but rather prepared to harvest the best to nourish an evolutionary process.

There also is a shift in Joe’s thinking to the inner journey of transfor mation required before a person might be able to engage fully with larger world and systems changes. Join Aviv Shahar and Joe Lightfoot in this expansive and fascinating exploration.

For information about upcoming special events visit our events page.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“Suffering can be a really amazing teacher and guide because you just don’t get to give up. I just had to keep going deeper and deeper for years.” (Joe)

“So what comes after postmo dernism is a fascinating question. And one idea is metamodernism where we kind of integrate the wisdom of modernism and postmodernism, and we oscillate and move between the two to synthesize that.” (Joe)

“I think we need to be compassionate and understand ing and students of history and sociology to make sense of how we ended up where we are now. And this idea of loving the system while you deconstruct it I think is really potent and really powerful because, if you can understand the drivers and the forces that have led us where we are, you can make better sense of how to change that.” (Joe)

“What I’m seeing is that the outer work really is dependent on how much of the inner work we’ve done.” (Joe)

“I boil it down to this: Until we can create the right vib es together, I don’t think we’re go ing to be able to create any kind of future that we’re imagining.” (Joe)

“We need to have fun while we’re doing what we’re doing or it’s not going to last, and it’s not going to be worth doing.” (Joe)

“I’ve been completely drunk on the highs of connection, and love, and togetherness. And I’ve watched these contexts heal us in ways that I wouldn’t have thought possible. And it allows us to get to the heart of our inner stories, and ease up, and let go of a lot of the weight that we’re holding. That, for me, is a pathway forward.” (Joe)

“Trust the process. There seems to be these inherent and beautiful natural unfoldings to our journey that, if you listen to the inner voice that’s directing you towards wh at you’re passionate about, and you just keep moving towards that, naturally over time you will gather the experiences that will lead you on the path you need to go down. And it’s a slightly unsatisfying answer because it’s what a lot of the old sages say. But if you just let go, the path emerges before you. And all you need to do is follow your bliss.” (Joe)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

https://www.joelightfoot.org/

https://www.joelightfoot.org/acollectiveblooming

036 - The Co-Creative Power of Life

Fri, 25 Nov 2022 08:02:24 +0000

This is a special Portals conversation with a diverse group of practitioners and leaders who bring their insights into consciousness, and their skills in creating transformative change, to top executives, teams and communities around the world.

We’ve asked Anne Stadler, Grace Boda, Kate Sutherland, Royce Holladay, Jeff Vander Clute and Karin Jironet to share their sense of what is emerging and most alive at the moment in their work with a wide variety of individuals and groups. How do they facilitate a personal or collective journey to evolve and transform consciousness? What is the role and power of a community in creating and supporting real transformation? How are each one of us in any moment co - creating our own and humanity’ s future?

In this wide - ranging exchange we gain new insights into the power of silence and reflection; how to bring our presence to soften boundaries and open the heart; how to live with resilience, and how to make ourselves a conduit for the essential cr eative force of life to move through us with integrity and purpose.

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“It's not about being present, it's being presence. There's something that helps soften boundaries and really opens up the heart to the ground of being in exactly this moment, and that's characterized by silence. Silence is definitely a way there. And I’m endeavoring to being presence, less emphasis on doing and lists and more letting my intuition guide everything - moment by moment - how I move through the day and how sort of to really embrace not planning, strategizing, but being presence.” - Kate Sutherland

“The first thing that comes to me, because you reference joy, the way that I find the most joy in co - creation is in really sensing the co - creation I experienced with life itself, w here when there is an inquiry or something in front of me, a client's challenge or my own, or whatever, if my awareness is wide open and ready to receive and all the beautiful synchronicities, the little ones are even called quantum flirts, or the ways that just spontaneously something is handed to me or somebody says something, and it sort of bursts that little illusion of I'm an individual person all alone trying to solve this problem.” - Grace Boda

“I think of transformation as the shifti ng of patterns in the human system. So, I shift my patterns; I transform my patterns on a daily basis. I'm recovering from two knee replacements this spring and summer, and so, each day , I'm doing a little more exercise, a little more exercise, a little mo re exercise, and it's shifting the patterns of the pain I feel, it’s shifting the patterns of how much I limp or don't limp, it's shifting the pattern of energy.” - Royce Holladay

“What I see is the phrase “ simple rules, ” which I love. And simplicity is k ey. In my recent observing , and experiencing , and transformation, and being able to identify the essence and place attention on the essence, so much falls away that otherwise would be cluttering and obstructive of energy.” - Jeff Vander Clute

“Well, I think it's palpable. I feel it. I absolutely feel it, in the group and in myself , and the thing that I hear, see, and love, are the vibrations. It isn't necessarily the words you hear, you hear the vibrations . And that's the essence of compassion to be hea rd, seen, and loved, and you get it, you just get it.” - Ann Stadler

“It needs different inclinations and capacities, people that are into activism and spiritual activism, and people that are more in the introspective and people that are in the field in a variety of leadership capacities. All of those are needed. Nobody's going to organize it in one unified place.” - Aviv Shahar

RESOURCES MENTIONED

https://katersutherland.com/

https://graceboda.com/

https://www.hsdinstitute.org/

https://jeffvanderclute.com/

http://www.emergecollab.com/

https://portalsofperception.org/

035 - The Healing Journey: A Neurobiological Shamanic Psychotherapy

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Kim Barta, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 09:00:08 +0000

Modern psychotherapy is finally catching up to the shaman. It’s been a long time coming.

The pursuit of mental health and a deeper understanding of the mysterious workings of the human mind can be traced back thousands of years, through cultures around the world. A new approach to treating trauma and mental health issues is finding success by combining the knowledge of modern neuroscience and therapy, with the insights and practices of Indigenous teachers and shamans.

Kim Barta is an internationally known psychotherapist, coach, spiritual guide, and speaker. His groundbreaking techniques in healing serious trauma are based on years of research and experience with treating mental health issues in a variety of cultures and communities. His approach is grounded in the science of neurobiology and memory to help illuminate and heal the "shadows" – the unconscious mental and emotional blockages that prevent our growth and happiness.

By combining the power of symbolism to access the unconscious, as known and demonstrated by indigenous shamans, Kim has seen successful treatment outcomes in far less time than traditional psychotherapies.

In this conversation, Kim considers other mysteries and revelations on the journey to mental wellbeing

034 - Imagine 2045

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Jose Leal, Kim Wright, Stewart Levine, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 08:04:42 +0000

If we let our imagination run free, what kind of a future do we see 25 years from now? What does the world look like? Does humanity fulfill the aspirations and dreams that inspire the current generation of searchers and activists striving to create a brighter future?

There is a growing network of visionaries active today that is pooling their deep passion and expansive experience with a range of social movements to have that same look into the future. Society 2045 is bringing together the intelligence and inspiration to imagine a compelling future vision and the regenerative pathways that can turn powerful ideas into real transformation.

The premise is simple: the planet has reached a tipping point in time where all things we can imagine about the future are possible. Instead of surrendering to the dystopian future vision often offered by science fiction, why not create the kind of positive future we would want for humanity? Join Aviv Shahar as he welcomes Jose Leal, Kim Wright, and Stewart Levine, members of Society 2045, as they delve deep into today’s topic: Imagine 2045.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:38 – Aviv welcomes with Jose Leal, Kim Wright, and Stewart Levine, to expound on today’s topic: Imagine 2045 and to share the passion that brings them to the exploration of the future

09:48 – Jose, Kim and Stewart discuss the inspiration behind Society 2045

18:19 – Togetherness, a radical idea

24:41 – The freedom to be authentically you

31:08 – Jose, Kim and Stewart share how they are integrating their own thinking and awareness to community and the freedom of individuality

39:47 – Imagining a bowl of spaghetti

45:06 – What a new legal system in 2045 would look like

54:44 – What Jose, Kim and Stewart are learning about courage and what they’ve taken away from being part of Society 2045

1:04:10 – Surrendering to what wants to happen

1:00: – Jose, Kim, and Stewart each provide one final practice and Aviv leaves us with final thoughts and insights on appreciation

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“Here’s a paraphrase from David, ‘Always be in conversation with things that are not you. Let the fear of that darkness allow you to live knowing anything that does not bring you alive is too small for you, and you have made it too small.’” (09:08) (Stewart)

“I think it’s the convergence that is most radical in my opinion. There are different ideas and new ideas that I hadn’t heard before, none of which I feel are all that radical. They’re consistent, but different. It’s the consistency and the similarity of people’s visions. They’re always about community, togetherness and breaking down barriers.” (18:39) (Jose)

“And if we are interconnected and interdependent, then how do we remain in balance with nature, humanity, all of that? We celebrate that. And if we’re doing that, how do we actually have conversations so that we can bring that, because a lot of the rules and structures are meant to keep us separate in the current paradigm. And if we’re no longer separate, how do we celebrate the differences and that individuality and authenticity of each person and still live together and take care of the planet?” (24:47) (Kim)

“I think the way that I frame what you’ve just said, Aviv, is human needs drive our behavior with one another. And, the force that we produce in society, the force that we create to compel people to do things, to compel certain structures, to compel the type of organizations that we have, it’s a breakdown of force as soon as our ability to wield our needs grows.” (35:19) (Stewart)

“Putting the relationships at the core and the success of the relationships as our goal and not what some third party twenty years from now is gonna look back and say should have happened. It’s more about our choice making and our authenticity.” (46:10) (Kim)

“I think, for me, the evolution from being myopic about the things that I’m working on to whatever the term is in being able to describe the opposite, is I’ve been growing to see a bigger picture of the emergence of things. And that, what I’ve been working on - the emerging things that I’ve been working on - are happening for the same reasons that other people are doing it .” (1:00:10) (Jose)

“I don’t want to be the guru. I want to be the congregator of the ideas around law.” (1:08:18) (Kim)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have:

Books Mentioned:

033 - The Way We Flow

Fri, 7 Oct 2022 09:00:18 +0000

It’s tempting to wonder if humanity is really evolving, or devolving. Why does it appear that the expressions of higher intelligence and consciousness among individuals don’t as easily or often emerge in collective or community spaces? Humans seem to do better with the “me” space than the “we” space.

Perhaps creating a space where new intelligence and capacity can emerge and transform a collective endeavor – while stimulating the best of the individual – needs a new understanding and insight. In this conversation, leaders of We-Flow describe a unique approach to the “we” space that brings together personal development, collective practices, and conscious business.

We-Flow works with companies to transform business cultures into creative ecologies where employees feel free to express the natural inner brilliance in themselves and each other. Join Aviv Shahar as he welcomes Stéphane Segatori, Gertraud Wegst, and Diego Garcia Schober to engage in a rich discussion on today’s topic: The Way We Flow.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:37 – Aviv welcomes Stéphane Segatori, Gertraud Wegst, and Diego Garcia Schober, leaders of We-Flow, to expound on today’s topic: The Way We Flow

13:53 – The problem that We-Flow set out to solve

23:34 – Overcoming a culture that attempts to suppress natural emotions

35:27 – Gertraud expounds on the concept of ‘micro-agreements’

44:07 – Visceral listening

46:22 – What this new-age work environment means to Stéphane, Gertraud, and Diego

50:15 – Stéphane, Gertraud, and Diego each provide one final practice and Aviv leaves us with final thoughts and insights on appreciation

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“What really impacted me was meditation, especially the simplest technical forms of meditation, like mindfulness and body scan. They opened a new world for me and they met some needs that I didn’t know I had.” (12:56) (Stéphane)

“So it was inside of me something that didn’t come together. So I was practicing it, but also not applying it in my professional life. There’s some research that two-thirds of leaders do something like yoga, but they would never take it into the business. So that is coming together so, like I said in the beginning, I’m doing something so that all of me can be here. So I have a meditation technique that I’ve been doing for twenty-two years now.” (20:05) (Gertraud)

“One thing that came about very quickly as we sat together and let things emerge is that human relationships - the human component, the interpersonal space - has a very powerful role in creating human experiences, both productive and transformative human experiences.” (23:47) (Stéphane)

“What if we allow each other to follow what is emerging for us in this moment, our spontaneous needs and actions, both in our external and internal worlds.” (32:07) (Diego)

“When appreciations are not shared, people tend to make assumptions about what other people think about them. And, when there are those assumptions, it is integral to clarify all those misunderstandings.” (39:56) (Stéphane)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

032 - Homo Universalis Activates

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Jeff Vander Clute, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 08:22:49 +0000

Throughout this Portals adventure, we have explored in many ways how to create the inner and outer space that would allow the next phase of universal and human evolution – the future – to appear. It’s time to embrace the bold proposition that evolution has moved forward, and is still doing so, and the future has arrived. Homo sapiens, welcome Homo Universalis, the whole person.

The evidence of individual and collective transformation is turning up in many places around the world. Homo Universalis is not meant to be characterized by physical changes but by changed lives and communities; the liberation of remarkable new intelligence, new capabilities, the elevation of thinking and behavior, and healing at many levels.

Part of the human species updating represented by Homo Universalis is that each one of us can take steps to activate the new elevation and consciousness in ourselves. This conversation takes a deeper look at some of those steps. Join Aviv Shahar and Jeff Vander Clute for Homo Universalis Activates.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:51 – Aviv welcomes back to the show, Jeff Vander Clute, to engage in a rich discussion on today’s topic: Homo Universalis Activates

14:46 – Aviv reflects on creating ecologies where people discover knowledge and release their inner intelligence and brilliance for themselves

22:10 – The building of resilience, endurance, and mental toughness for growth opportunities

29:03 – Explaining the concept of Homo Universalis and Shadow Work

37:59 – The cleansing, sublimation, self-absolvement and forgiveness work

41:32 – The continual updating of our own personal sense-making maps

46:35 – Self-authoring, alignment & inquiry-based perception seeking

55:27 – Why pursue shadow work?

1:01:27 – Aviv provides some personal examples of how he’s practiced shadow work in the past

1:09:32 – Healing power

1:14:31 – Closing thoughts and insights from Aviv and Jeff

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“There is always a consideration in me of how do you no longer do teaching in the old way of teaching, which is the transference of knowledge, but really create an ecology and an experience where individuals and groups can come into the ecology and that experience such that the knowledge, the discovery, the insight is self-arising.” (14:50) (Aviv)

“I never completely resolve the pattern if it’s in the world, but it’s not present anymore personally; it’s present transpersonal. And so now, because I’ve done the work, life says, ‘Fantastic, here’s somebody who knows what to do so let’s give him now a dump truck full from the USA’s energy field’ as an example. So, I get to do it again for the collective but with tools and with resources. And so my sense is that this could be world work. And we could each potentially do world work.” (20:29) (Jeff)

“So, there’s a great wisdom in life when immaturity is actually an asset for rapid growth. And then with wisdom I’ve become more discerning.” (25:47) (Jeff)

“Let’s just be aware and let’s name the other fields such that the great fascination with shadow work does not become an end to itself but is rather recognized and appreciated and embraced inside a bigger context, which is this idea of human development in the evolutionary context from the homo sapiens or the sapien sapiens into the homo universalis.” (34:59) (Aviv)

“Regarding alignment practices, as I experience alignment it is about aligning with life - the flow of life, the direction and movement of life. And that’s a capacity that can be built over time - the capacity to sense in subtle ways how life is moving and then flow with life. And what I have found is life will then show me where there is shadow work, where there are opportunities to cleanse, or forgive, or release blockages, or improve my energy management. I’ll be the first one to say right now that I’m a work in progress.” (52:07) (Jeff)

“What you’re offering, through these investigations, is a clear understanding of some of the ways that we can participate. And as we participate consciously in the flow of life and the unfolding of these empowered, nonlinear solutions, they have more power because they have our power.” (1:17:58) (Jeff)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

031 - Falling Upwards: A Healing Journey

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Tucker Walsh, Aviv Shahar) — Sat, 10 Sep 2022 01:36:26 +0000

We’re talking today with Tucker Walsh, an Emmy Award-winning documentary director and photojournalist who has collaborated with many of the world’s leading thinkers and doers and most iconic brands. As Tucker reached the highest levels of career and personal success, he felt what he describes as an underlying sense of "there's something wrong with me." The happiness and satisfaction he expected with fulfilling his life’s ambitions were missing.

Tucker then embarked on a journey of discovery, still ongoing, that led him to the profound realization that even in the darkest of times, he is, and always has been, exactly where he needs to be in a life-long journey of growth and expanding awareness. Tucker describes the practices and beliefs that give him the faith and trust to face any risks and fears with a deep sense of inner guidance and wellbeing in his still unfolding life of transformation. Join Aviv Shahar with Tucker Walsh for Falling Upwards.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:36 – Aviv welcomes award-winning documentary director and photojournalist, Tucker Walsh, who joins the show to share his insights on ‘Falling Upwards’

07:53 – Time is fleeting, an illusion, and a beautiful thing

11:15 – The sentiment and inquiry that is alive in Tucker currently

21:17 – Tucker’s healing journey

29:23 – Tucker provides his thoughts on the concept of ‘Falling Upwards’

35:00 – The most painful and beautiful point of Tucker’s journey

38:34 – Advice Tucker would give to others going through what he went through

49:29 – A seeker of love, spirit and God Where Tucker is in this journey of integration and giving birth to these sentiments and inquiries

57:58 – The practice of showing up fully

1:02:05 – Balancing the appreciation and stigma of privilege

1:05:03 – Tucker expounds on what he calls ‘the apprenticeship portion’ of his journey

1:18:18 – The power of community

1:22:49 – Closing thoughts and insights from Aviv and Tucker

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“There’s a constant grieving process that’s happening with me and a constant joy and ecstasy that’s happening at the same time. And I think holding both of those simultaneously and trying to navigate my way through those strong emotions and strong cosmic forces, so to speak, is one of the ways I stay present.” (10:49) (Tucker)

“Perfection doesn’t mean that it’s lacking anything bad. ‘Perfection’ with a capital ‘P,’ includes the bad and the horrible and the evil because that creates good.” (18:35) (Tucker)

“The pain of recognizing that I don’t actually love myself and that I don’t actually know how to love myself created so much compassion that, in that moment, I finally learned the first baby step as to how to love myself. And so, it took the most painful thing to create the most beautiful thing.” (35:41) (Tucker)

“I realized that’s not helping anybody. Me being in a place of privilege and then not even appreciating and enjoying the privilege is actually worse than having the privilege of realizing how lucky I am.” (1:03:20) (Tucker)

“If we can create a world where diversity is not just about your race, or your skin color, or what you practice, but diversity is about celebrating the fact that spirit and love is showing up in everything at all times, to me that’s what’s maybe a little utopian and radical.” (1:10:36) (Tucker)

“I’m not any wiser than I was a couple of years ago. Who I was a couple of years ago was exactly as wise as I needed to be for that moment in time. I was home at my dad’s house recently for a couple of days and I pulled out an old journal from three years ago. I read the entire journal and I was just weeping tears because everything that I had longed for and was feeling into and wishing for in that journal has all come true. It’s all manifested, it’s all happened. And, that wisdom that I had at that time was exactly what I needed to get me to where I am right now. And the wisdom I have right now is exactly what I need to get me to where I’m going.” (1:23:35) (Tucker)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Nature and the Human Soul

030 - Entering the Higher

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Jerry Pike, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 06:00:00 +0000

For almost as long as Homo Sapiens have been on the planet, humans have sensed and tried to commune with a mysterious presence registered as ‘something higher’ – a power, energy, or intelligence bigger than ourselves. For early humans, it might simply have been fear of the power of nature; over time it evolved into a profound spiritual or religious quest to connect with a universal, divine source of life and change.

Part of the heightened spirituality and new consciousness emerging in the past few years is the awareness that ‘something higher’ is not ‘out there’; it’s in here. The human mind, heart and spirit can transcend what previously might have been thought of as an inescapable duality of higher vs lower, of carnal vs spiritual. Join longtime Portals contributor, Jerry Pike, and Aviv Shahar as they explore the inspiration, insights and practices that propel them along the journey to the ‘something higher’ in Entering the Higher.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:41 – Aviv Shahar speaks to the deep crisis of the spirit that Humanity is experiencing

04:10 – Aviv welcomes longtime Portal contributor Jerry Pike, who joins the show to share his decades of experience and his endeavors in the space of ‘Entering the Higher’

16:18 – Framing ‘The Higher’

21:07 – Why it is critical to attend to the higher potential of life

28:32 – Jerry defines his belief of the Spiritual Arising

31:21 – The search for truth and the connection between Science and Spirituality

42:55 – Jerry expounds on the focusing practice of sentiments and feelings of higher states

48:18 – Closing thoughts and insights from Aviv and Jerry

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“Humanity is concurrently experiencing a deep crisis of the spirit. And, the many crisis points that are underway, together they form what we describe as the ‘complexity wall’ that creates the metacrisis. And these directly emanate out from and/or are byproducts of this sense of a deeper crisis of the spirit - that is to mean humans being separated from the natural sources that were meant to be part of everything we do in our relational and communal spaces.” (03:06) (Aviv)

“Religion is a bit of a classic for saying, ‘There’s a them and us. And we are lonely and something above us is high and we need to smarten up if we are to be acceptable to it.’ But, I think just a quick run on the notion of ‘higher’ compared to ‘low’ and what it tends to mean. You see it all over the place in businesses where you get the person who deals with sales inquiries and then you get the person who is ‘higher up,’ who is the Managing Director. Higher is all around us, and in us, and we have higher things in ourselves as well as lower things.” (09:51) (Jerry)

“This idea of ‘The Higher,’ in history, has always been external to people. I think we’re entering a phase, this spiritual changeover, where instead of looking outside of ourselves for the enhancement that we seek, the change is that the enhancement is primarily available within.” (14:54) (Jerry)

“Although this is not particularly talked about in the spiritual community, I feel obviously that it’s there. We should be pursuing the truth and we should be pursuing reality, because I don’t think that spirituality is just a ‘nice to have.’ I think spirituality is the greater truth of what’s going on with the human race.” (28:49) (Jerry)

“Beliefs are just a stepping stone and we should be constantly assessing them to see if they’re driving us towards a reality. So with the spiritual affair, I feel we're starting to realize there's levels beyond the physical that are more fascinating. And these are things like feelings, emotions, the instinct, the intuition, the ability to perceive consciousness itself...These are the things that move us and get us up in the morning and make us want to understand more.” (30:34) (Jerry)

“I would say, for example, that one of the greatest faculties we have to explore the ‘higher’ department is actually our feelings. It almost works better than our thoughts. Both are needed, but feelings are almost like unspoken intelligence.” (45:43) (Jerry)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

029 - Searing Moments and Their Transformational Power

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Jeff Vander Clute, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 12 Aug 2022 08:03:47 +0000

In this conversation, we take a deeper look at the experience of ‘Searing Moments,’ the profoundly meaningful moments, positive or perhaps traumatic and painful, that may be influencing our behaviors and attitudes, and how we engage with life.

Even with Searing Moments from early in life, we can decide and choose how we think about and write the experience into ourselves. We call it ‘the Practice of Searing Moments,’ continually unfolding their meaning to a point where we rewrite and update their significance. Join Aviv Shahar as he and Jeff Vander Clute explore today’s topic, Searing Moments and Their Transformational Power.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:08 – Aviv Shahar welcomes Jeff Vander Clute, who joins the show to provide his insights and experience with Searing Moments and Their Transformational Power

07:38 – Defining the term, ‘Searing Moments’

16:12 – Aviv provides specific examples of Searing Moments from his life

33:06 – Jeff speaks to the re-authoring process that is alive in his own life

38:10 – The transformational power of Searing Moments

45:00 – Emergent practices that are vital to Jeff’s evolution, including: Awareness, Making Space, Embracing and Re-authoring

52:59 – A stream of potential and two realization points of human history

1:05:01 – Closing thoughts and insights from Aviv and Jeff, including Jeff’s thoughts on the ‘healed and transformed world’

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I’m seeing that the people I work with and know and relate with are seemingly slipping across this threshold into Heaven on Earth. Many people are experiencing this profound peace and settling into true nature and the present moment without worry for the future or carrying the past into the present moment.” (03:48) (Jeff)

“I can think of a few [Searing Moments] in my life. I imagine those who are listening may be reflecting on key instances of a transformative nature, be they painful or inspirational. I think what I’m drawn to is the updating or rewriting. It’s the reinterpretation that becomes available with perspective, and hindsight, and additional life experience in service to unfolding the universal potential of human life. That’s a major theme for me right now and for many others as well.” (15:22) (Jeff)

“I now know there is a capacity in me to transfer to others the courage and the bravery to overcome frightening messages and scary moments; to melt, to thaw these experiences because what happens is scary moments tend to freeze us in time. The idea of a Searing Moment is to release that potential. And, once you release the potential, you actually unpack and unlock a tremendous healing permission in your own process, in your own experience.” (20:37) (Aviv)

“The human has a capacity to bring to life any feeling, any sentiment, any energy, any presence you can imagine in the entire universe inside your space - inside your energy field. You have that complete freedom.” (26:52) (Aviv)

“I was thinking back to the passing of my father and mother. I realized this morning that, yes, liberation was involved in both cases. It cleared the way for me to be me. It abruptly encouraged me to let go of the stories and the baggage that I had been carrying. I feel a great truth in the generosity of my parents in leaving the world so that I could flower. I am fairly certain it would not be possible for me to be now if the family energies had stayed in place the way they were.” (34:40) (Jeff)

“There’s one quality that I can share from my own experience of Heaven on Earth, which is that there’s no emotional charge around anything. And I include the happy and the sad. There’s joy. There’s lots of joy. In fact, yesterday I got really clear that the infinite energy supply that I am connected to is this ocean of bliss rising. It’s a bliss, but it’s not a fleeting happiness.” (43:36)(Jeff)

“A huge amount of energy that has gone into creating defensive structures - psychological ego- defenses, but also collective defenses at the level of nations - that energy doesn’t have to be spent that way.” (1:03:34) (Jeff)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

028 - Co-Creating Humanity's Future: Foray Three

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Forrest Wilson, Ari Levari, Ofer Dotan, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 08:03:12 +0000

In the most recent Portals Virtual Event, Co-Creating Humanity’s Future: Foray Three, a group of visionaries and searchers shared a profound new insight, that the natural inspiration and intelligence innate in all humans, our inner genius, is switched on, energized, accessible, and ready to play an active role in creating the way forward. The genius genie is out of the bottle.

During this event, through contemplation and active dialogue, these visionary travelers uncover insights and new understandings about the unfolding next phase of evolution. These events are available on video at portalsofperception.org, which will give you the full sense of energy and excitement captured when a group of young and old gather together to discuss what is possible. Join Aviv as he invites Diego Garcia Schober, Stéphane Segatori, Ofer Dotan, Ari Levari, Forrest Wilson, Enrique Spacca, Lisa Marcus and more to explore Foray Three of Co-Creating Humanity’s Future.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:26 – Aviv Shahar welcomes the panel of guests, leads them in an exercise to create space, and walks them through the cadence and flow of today’s exploration

10:02 – Ari, Ofer, Diego, Forrest, Enrique, Stéphane, and Lisa share what comes alive in them when they think about the idea of making space for a brighter and wiser future to find us right here and now

18:11 – The latent genius in all of us

25:06 – Aviv weaves a contemplative story to unleash imagination and frame five themes about co-creating humanity’s future

44:02 – How each generation experiences new permissions

51:24 – Conscious evolution

57:47 – Closing thoughts and insights, especially from the feminine universe

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“Sometimes that brighter, wiser future doesn’t always feel that accessible. And that’s totally okay. I think that just in the crazy, chaotic lives we live it can be very easy to let that slip away And just the realization that, at any given moment, you may not have access to everything you want to have access to, but you can take small steps.” (12:13) (Ari)

“One of the things I thought about was expectations. Because when the word ‘genius’ shows up, you already think about the best geniuses the world has ever seen as our measure for genius. However, we should with the very basic simple things. Being a human is basically being a genius. The fact that a child at two or three years old learns to speak is an act of genius.” (24:06) (Avshalom)

“What begins to come online is this sense that was available for the renowned philosophers even in the ancient world, but is now becoming available and activated for many more is that sense of the search for objective perception and fourth person perspective. By which we mean, ‘I see you. You see me. I see the way you see me. You see the way I see you. And we see each other seeing the way we each see each other. And then we step outside of that to see how we all look at something in the middle.’ That activation, that permission, that broader capacity is coming online.” (34:21) (Ari)

“When we talk about co-creating humanity’s future, we are forever called to do two things at once. We are called to do the work of healing, and liberating, and absolving all the trauma that the human story has accumulated. And we’re called to do the evolutionary work that unlocks the new emerging potential.” (39:43) (Aviv)

“There was also an interesting insight about the new generations and children becoming more mature and charismatic and tasked with a function to offer a service in the world and maybe to share wisdom that is much beyond their age.” (46:01) (Kyriaki)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

027 - Co-Creating Humanity's Future: Foray Two

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar, Forrest Wilson, Ofer Dotan, Ari Levari) — Fri, 15 Jul 2022 08:15:30 +0000

Co-Creating Humanity’s Future is a big idea and a big premise. Yet, simply by being alive, we are, in a sense, creating the future. This series of Portals’ Virtual Events was an invitation to be conscious, deliberate and purposeful in co-creating the future we want to see for humanity and the planet. In this conversation, we hear a diverse group of multi-generational voices and perspectives, stepping into the face of discovery. What cannot be captured on the podcast is the many faces, and expressions, and joy, and excitement captured in the videos on the website, portalsofperception.org. Join us for Part Two of Co-Creating Humanity’s Future.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:15 – Aviv Shahar reflects on the past year and a half to bridge previous discussions to today’s topic, Co-Creating Humanity’s Future, Part Two

11:06 – The mission and purpose behind Portals of Perception

17:08 – Ari, Ofer and Forrest discuss creating a space of discovery, building deep trust and surrendering to the improv dance of life

27:47 – Aviv offers an inquiry on imagination and creativity

34:23 – Practices and qualities that enable co-creation

42:20 – A short story and poem

46:27 – Aviv poses a final inquiry on ‘unlearning’ to Ari, Ofer and Forrest

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“What we are proposing is that we are each, simply by being alive, are already co-creating humanity’s future. We’re simply making an invitation to be conscious and deliberate about the fact that we are co-creating humanity’s future and, therefore, giving ourselves permission to be more intentional and purposeful about it.” (09:15) (Aviv)

“I think, for me to engage in such conversations, it starts with my location. So there is much more neutrality and tuning into listening and noticing. From this noticing, recently what came up was a feeling of concern that, ‘Hey, this is not right.’ I look around me and I see how I feel and something is not as it’s meant to be. So there is a significant clarity involved. Clarity that is directed towards action.” (18:01) (Ofer)

“For a beautiful, collaborative future to emerge, you really need to trust those you are engaging with.” (21:14) (Ari)

“More and more recently I have been becoming profoundly aware of the linguistic mind’s inability to comprehend reality. And letting go of the need to understand what the heck is going on and surrendering into the larger improv dance of life.” (26:07) (Forrest)

“The biggest thing I’d offer, in my observation of life, is that the greater unlock is about becoming attractive for something else - call it a domain of intelligence - to imagine and create its possibility through your work.” (31:09) (Aviv)

“Who knows what tomorrow brings? Will the stars shine, and will the birds sing? Can we be new and fresh again or will we be lost in history and pain? The future unsets. We feel it so. So, let’s be fresh so it can grow. Our dreams of tomorrow are in the seeds of today. Will we be bright, or will it be gray? The life we’ve been given is such a gift. So, find the knack to make the shift. Not a future darkened by cloud, but one we can build, of which we can be proud. So, now’s the time to rearrange, for us to make a necessary change. So come on now, let’s send God a letter. Help us make the future better.” (43:43)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

026 - Co-Creating Humanity's Future: Foray One

Fri, 1 Jul 2022 08:01:01 +0000

We are proposing that, from the beginning of time, when humans first realized that they were humans, we started to imagine the future. And right from the get-go, we discovered that we can plan, anticipate, respond to needs, and do whatever we can do to make the next hour, the next day, a little better. And so, Portals of Perception set out to create a series of events called ‘Co- Creating Humanity’s Future. And so, today we want to introduce a certain question, which is, ‘What holds us back from imagining and creating the future?’ Join Aviv Shahar as he welcomes Ofer Dotan, Ari Levari, Forrest Wilson, and Fionn Wright to engage in Foray One of Co-Creating Humanity’s Future.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:37 – Aviv Shahar welcomes Ofer Dotan, Ari Levari, Forrest Wilson and Fionn Wright to engage in Foray One of Co-Creating Humanity’s Future

10:58 – What holds us back from imagining and creating the future?

15:37 – Aviv invites listeners to engage in a practice with him and poses an inquiry to his panel of guests

21:05 – Forrest Wilson and Ofer Dotan reflect on what creating humanity’s future means to them

28:34 – Four qualities that are crucial to imagine a new future

30:44 – Ari Levari explains The Paradox Mindset and poses reflection questions to the group

37:41 – Fionn Wright guides us through an explorative experience to discover how impactful we are

47:07 – The panel imagines what the future could hold for all of us

57:31 – Final reflections and celebrating the collective presence of this special group of guests

1:02:44 – Aviv provides final reflections on a deeper inquiry and thanks Ofer, Ari, Forrest and Fionn for joining him on today’s exploration

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“And so that recognition that we actually have the power to imagine and think about today and think through today into tomorrow and beyond is so central to who we are as humans and is really part of the essence of our humanness - that sense that we can anticipate tomorrow.” (10:07) (Aviv)

“For me personally, I would really want to see in the future these four qualities. One is hope. The second is defiance. The third one is belief. And the fourth is patience. We live in a world where these things are hopefully for free, but you’ve got to want them. You can’t buy patience. But I can invite patience to live in me if I can give it space inside.” (28:49) (Ofer)

“So what is The Paradox Mindset? I’d say it begins with noticing this discomfort and desire for certainty, but then not letting your mind jump to an immediate solution. And it’s finding a sense of curiosity and openness within that uncertainty.” (33:30) (Ari)

“Ours is one perceptual lens of many species that we share this planet with. And to notice how, over time, as humans grew and evolved and flourished, the impact that we had on this planet, the impact we are having on this planet. And to notice how each and every one of us contributes in some small way to some form of impact both on our natural world and as humanity as a whole.” (40:09) (Fionn)

“Once we begin to dialogue about the future, we imagine possibilities and experience an influx of energy, excitement, and empowerment that’s radical.” (47:24) (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

025 - Leading from the Unconscious

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar, Jeff Vander Clute) — Fri, 17 Jun 2022 08:02:32 +0000

In this episode, we look at the changes that are underway all around the world and examine the idea that these problems require our higher capabilities and talents. If we are to solve very complex problems, we will need to make nonlinear exponential leaps. And to make nonlinear exponential leaps, we will need to individually and collectively engage the unconscious. It is there where the answers, and the solutions, and the innovations for individual, collective, and global problems are latent. Join Aviv Shahar and Jeff Vander Clute for Leading from the Unconscious.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:36 – Aviv Shahar welcomes Jeff Vander Clute to explore the core inquiry of Leading from the Unconscious

04:51 – Perception Shutdown Syndrome explained

10:23 – The importance of going deep to appreciate the anatomy of an inquiry

14:06 – The Five Natures

32:47 – Differentiating between an absent unconscious and a presence-full unconscious

42:34 – Jeff provides his thoughts on using your conscious awareness to facilitate your unconscious

46:03 – The concepts of the superconscious and the mental bungee jump

56:37 – Aviv provides final reflections on a deeper inquiry and thanks Jeff for joining him on today’s exploration

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“You bring us into a deep, specific, and I want to say rigorous inquiry. So there is great clarity as well. When we have one specific example where we’ve gone deep and then we look at the parallel developments that are co-arising, we can appreciate the commonality and the distinctions much more vividly than if we stayed at the surface level.” (12:21) (Jeff)

“There is always the prospect of becoming a collective agency, where the inquiry, and the wisdom and intelligence we're seeking will reveal its multifaceted nature through different voices. One person will offer the theological insight, and another will offer the phenomenology of their experience, and a third person will offer the melodic, and a fourth person will offer the poetry, and a fifth person will draw this into a picture.” (19:42) (Aviv)

“So, these were the five natures that I observed. We are in a rolling event where we come together with profound shared sentiments to discover that we can become a collective agency where we’re being activated at this time. And as part of the activation, we are allowed to recognize and appreciate a sense of different levels and gradients of capacity and capability.” (29:15) (Aviv)

“Having a visual such as this makes the decision clear. It illuminates that there’s a choice. Now, granted we’re talking about unconscious dynamics. But we can consciously choose to work with our being in ways that transform and transmute that which is below the line.” (43:03) (Jeff)

“The deeper inquiry about leading from the unconscious is the recognition that the change that we described - the rolling event that is underway, the kind of crises we are now seeing on the world stage - they require our higher capabilities and talents. If we are to solve very complex problems, we will need to make nonlinear exponential leaps.” (57:38) (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

024 - The Poetry of Transformation

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Libby Wagner, Holly Thomas, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 3 Jun 2022 08:20:26 +0000

There is an ambidextrous quality in the capacity to both be in the here and now and embrace that which is emerging at the edge of our awareness. To be grounded at the moment in what is real is itself a portal into the realms of potential. Our job while we are alive is to translate that potential into action. It can be through new permissions in art and poetry, new discoveries in science, and new frontiers in every other field you choose to explore.

For people who are curious, who have a sense of wonder, who want understanding or expression, or some way to connect. We are all coming online for life, to be awakened and transformed and revealed. Every person is a live portal and it is energy that sometimes turns up as poetry. Join Aviv Shahar as he welcomes Libby Wagner and Holly Thomas to dissect today’s topic, The Poetry of Transformation.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:07 – Aviv Shahar welcomes Libby Wagner and Holly Thomas to explore the core inquiry of The Poetry of Transformation and share where they each access poetry in their lives

15:32 – Holly and Libby express their beliefs on longing and wonder within the arts and science

21:51 – Creativity and neutrality

27:53 – The capacity to remain in the here and now

30:40 – Aviv poses an intriguing construct to Libby and Holly

42:18 – The hydraulic lift of poetry

50:55 – Three octaves of transformation

1:09:10 – Aviv provides final reflections and thanks Libby and Holly for joining him on today’s exploration

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“To be truly human means I am experiencing this world as a physical being. But also there’s this mind and this other realm on the edge of transformation that you’re talking about that I think we’re constantly trying to make connections.” (10:02) (Libby)

“Life is poignant. And, if you have the ability to slow down enough to let yourself feel that - in some people it gives rise to music, acts of kindness, dance, some kind of expression of that which is one of the mysteries of being human. And poetry is one of those attempts to embrace that poignancy and do something with it.” (13:59) (Holly)

“[For creativity] I need quiet time. I need time outdoors. More than anything else for me, I feel like I just need to remember more about what I am and what we are as people.” (26:11) (Holly)

“Scientists are motivated by a passion to discover something. Poets are motivated by a passion to try and capture, express, or release something. Every artist is motivated by some kind of passion. As are children. As is any living life form.” (41:09) (Libby)

“In natural processes and in ourselves, transformation is emergent when different octaves, different realms, different levels of process seem to be able to find each other in one space in a unifying crucible that allows that process to be revealed.” (52:06) (Aviv)

“One thing that was really important to me as an artist was there is a difference, I think, between the space where you are actually creating and revisiting and refining and then when you decide it leaves you, then it’s not yours anymore.” (58:59) (Libby)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Libby Wagner’s Website

Holly Thomas’ Website

023 - A New World Emerging

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Forrest Wilson, Aviv Shahar) — Mon, 23 May 2022 02:26:08 +0000

This conversation with Forrest Wilson follows a propelling inspiration for the Portals endeavor, which is to encourage the next generation of leaders, people who intuit the deeper change underway and are endeavoring to step into the transformation arena. We explore here ideas for shaping experiences and ecologies where people of diverse backgrounds can collaborate in ways that heal and give birth to real transformation.

Along the way we discover aspects of the new operating system that's emerging across the frontiers of science, the arts, business, health and wellbeing, and almost every field of human expression. We are indeed experiencing a new world that's trying to emerge through us as individuals and communities, where perhaps the cause and the calling of this time is to be engaged in this co-creative process. Join Aviv Shahar with Forrest Wilson for A New World Emerging.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

04:16 – Aviv Shahar welcomes Forrest Wilson to explore the core inquiry that has inspired his journey of healing

08:07 – Forrest opens up about the loss of his father and how it inspired him to pursue a life and career of service

12:30 – Aviv and Forrest share their thoughts on the new world that is emerging

17:42 – Forrest analyzes the breaking down of old systems and stories

23:01 – What comes alive in Forrest when he becomes resourced by his true essence

35:59 – Why putting in work can be playful and fun

44:34 – The dawning of a new epoch

50:03 – Bringing a new world into being and manifesting manifestation

1:06:38 – Connecting and resourcing across generations

1:13:44 – The power of community

1:18:48 – Aviv and Forrest take the audience on a very special after-show conversation

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“A propelling inspiration for the Portals endeavor is we seek to encourage the next generation of leaders, people who intuit that deeper change underway and are endeavoring to step into the transformation arena and lead. There are next generation leaders emerging in all the core domains of life: education, health and wellbeing, science and policy, diplomacy, art, and business and entrepreneurship.” (03:20) (Aviv)

“It seems to me like what’s next for the United States is we’re gonna sit down and we’re gonna start to talk to each other. Hopefully this is what’s gonna happen is we’re gonna sit down and a lot of the polarized voices in our culture and our collective are gonna sit down.” (13:35) (Forrest)

“If we are encouraged, as human beings, to cultivate our curiosities, then we’re going to be lifelong learners.” (19:35) (Forrest)

“One thing that just comes up for me is one of the emerging probabilities I have is that there’s gonna be these geocentric epicenters of doing the healing work. Healing hostels, transformational cafes, ecovillages, retreat centers, places where people can go physically and be in community that is organized specifically around what we’re talking about.” (33:45) (Forrest)

“The future ultimately is a concept that we’re thinking about right now. And so, we are manifesting manifestation. We are, in this moment from this quality of presence, bringing a new world into being.” (52:37) (Forrest)

“Find communities where the leaders of the communities are playing the game with you and not claiming to be above it all.” (1:14:45) (Forrest)

“We’re all in this together. We’re all a part of this evolutionary game. We are manifesting manifestation, and everyone is a part of it whether we’re aware of it or not.” (1:26:11) (Forrest)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

022 - Toward A Life Well Lived

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Tim Coats, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 6 May 2022 08:01:16 +0000

In this special Portals conversation, Aviv Shahar speaks with Tim Coats, a former corporate executive who is focusing his unique background and journey on exploring and sharing new pathways into the art of increasing joy, meaning and belonging in our daily life. Tim Coats is the author of the blog, Towards a Life Well-Lived. In this dialogue with Aviv Shahar, Tim reflects on his time since leaving the business world and the importance of deeper connections with life – with people, with nature, and with how he thinks and feels about spirit.

Tim traces the evolution of his sense of self-awareness where he learned to see the business world as not only a theater of achieving career goals, but also a laboratory of self-discovery, achieving high levels of success while preserving an inner dialogue about the deeper meaning of it all. Join Aviv and Tim as they explore today’s topic, Toward A Life Well Lived.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:50 – Aviv Shahar welcomes Tim Coats to explore an inquiry centered on organizing your life around the art of increasing joy, meaning and belonging in daily living

03:41 – What fills Tim with energy and joy

04:46 – A closet philosopher and mystic flying under the cover of a corporate executive

07:51 – Bringing philosophical tendencies to corporate America

10:48 – The power of ‘We’ and the inquiry that Tim initially set out to answer when he launched his blog

15:28 – Defining ‘A Life Well Lived’ and the two broad categories of people

17:56 – The journey of finding meaning

21:43 – Three of Tim’s contemplative practices

25:55 – The Four Principles: Balance, Awareness, Practice and Wisdom

31:32 – Tim speaks to the idea of belonging and the Five Energies of Life

38:04 – Being accepted for your own authentic self

42:12 – Be the best, look both ways, help others succeed

52:59 – The peace that proceeds challenge

58:22 – The critical phase in every development journey

1:07:33 – The God Test

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I found that what’s most important in life is connection and how we connect with life, because, after all, life isn’t about us; we’re about life.” (04:17) (Tim)

“I think of a mystic as someone who pursues union with life. And that’s what I have always pursued.” (05:34) (Tim)

“I think one of the most amazing words in the English language is ‘we.’ ‘We’ consists of myself and another person, but there’s a third entity involved in a ‘we.’ It’s the relationship.” (10:55) (Tim)

“My purpose for the balance of my life is to enjoy a meaningful life. And meaning, to me, involves connection because without connection we lose meaning. So, if one can both be connected and grow those connections and also experience joy that transcends circumstance, that’s a pretty strong shout.” (15:53) (Tim)

“The question about where we fit in is a question that ultimately asks ‘Where do we connect?’ And, I think that to a very large degree, awareness is taken for granted. And yet, if we want to wax philosophical about it, the only way we can know the world is through this facility of awareness.” (18:37) (Tim)

“When you force yourself to slow down, to be present, and to look at light, all of a sudden one discovers that everything is interconnected and maybe I’m interconnected as well.” (24:02) (Tim)

“Balance is critically important. And, it includes the body, mind, and spirit. The thing that frustrates me, and it’s a difficult thing to approach, is that when you invoke the word ‘spirit,’ people immediately think of religion. If someone connects to spirit through religion, that’s wonderful, but that’s not what I’m talking about. When I speak to spirit, I’m speaking to that in- betweeness that’s between you and a friend, you and a lover, you and nature, you and your God. It’s in-betweeness. And so, when we’re balancing spirit, what we’re saying is, ‘This isn’t all about me. It’s about us.” (27:03) (Tim)

“Wisdom is insight with respect to connections.” (31:09) (Tim)

“Helping others succeed is simply a short way of saying, ‘Be focused on empowerment.’ If you can empower all the members of your team to be as good as or better than yourself, just think of what can happen.” (52:24) (Tim)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

021 - Leadership as an Agency of Assistance and Easement

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 05:44:00 +0000

In this exchange we are exploring the wide arena of leadership and reaching out to sense its emergent nature in our lives at this time. We sense that leadership is not something out there, but rather it is right here in how we choose to live every day in the various circumstances and roles we operate in. We are not inviting you to a certain method or methodology of leadership, but rather into the bigger inquiry of how we can each, individually and collectively, lead a life of meaning and purpose, a life of learning and development, and growth. Join Aviv Shahar as he welcomes Theodora Papanastasatou, Perry Martin, Jane Goodman, and Liz Halter to share in this conversation on Leadership as an Agency of Assistance and Easement.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:11 – Aviv Shahar welcomes Theodora Papanastasatou, Perry Martin, Jane Goodman, and Liz Halter as they explore what comes alive in them when they hear the phrase, Leadership as an Agency of Assistance and Easement

13:17 – Leadership as a bearer of joy and life

15:13 – The panel shares how they’ve experienced leadership in today’s age

27:50 – Other observations on leadership, self-leadership and competition

37:29 – Collaboration vs. Competition

40:36 – Best practices for discovering the emergent version of yourself

50:19 – Aviv provides one final piece of inspiration about your own talent, potential and natural brilliance

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“Each human is unique. Our fingerprints are unique; the iris in our eyes is unique; therefore, each one is allowed and should be permitted to find their uniqueness to be able to locate, understand, learn, know who they are, and what they can offer from themselves that is completely their own. It is a contribution to the whole of their community, their country, and their time. I think this is a part of the quest of many young people today who are meeting to ask, "Who am I, and what can I do?" Not because someone tells me to, but because it's my human right to explore it in my own way.” (06:33) (Theodora)

“If you want to be a leader, you have to practice it in small ways, often, for it to live with you.” (09:35) (Perry)

“Leadership as an Agency of Assistance and Easement excites me because that makes those roles and those tasks actually enjoyable. Otherwise, if that’s not what it’s about, it becomes just a task or a job, which takes the joy out of it.” (14:18) (Liz)

“The word ‘Leadership’ is interesting because it says, ‘Lead Ship,’ like the Lead Ship in a flotilla. And the Lead Ship gets to be the Lead Ship, or Lead Captain, because he’s got a good compass, he knows the way and he knows where the trouble is.” (22:17) (Perry)

“This engine of learning you’re speaking of has so much to do with self-leadership as well, because if I don’t practice it with myself, it’s not going to be effective with others because they won’t feel the truth of it. Each day, before going to bed, then again when waking up, ask yourself, ‘What went well, what was optimal, what was suboptimal, where can corrections be made?’” (31:55) (Jane)

“Competition is good,. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s the words that suggest, ‘come’ and ‘petition.’ Petition to be better.” (39:01) (Theodora)

“A successful life doesn’t come without preparation.” (46:42) (Perry)

“We’re trying to invite you to the discovery of your own self-leadership in a world that is going through change, where you, and your talent, and your potential, and your natural brilliance are important. And especially when you find your unique way to contribute to the circumstance you’re in. Let that, perhaps, be the take home value and inspiration from our exploration today.” (52:01) (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

020 - Art as an Evolving Conversation

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar, Aud Wilken, Rita Lampen) — Fri, 8 Apr 2022 08:00:00 +0000

We are starting this conversation about art by entering through a side door and exploring the idea of art as a conversation, an evolving conversation. What comes to mind is that there must be several parties involved to have a conversation. Who or what is "art" talking to? What is passing between us? It’s thinking of art as a space where it becomes possible to inspire, to make contact, to create a new connection, to find a new kind of intimacy with life. Join Aviv Shahar as he talks with Aud Wilken and Rita Lampen, two life-long artists, about their love of art, the source of their inspiration, and what is possible through a deeper awareness and appreciation of the true nature of living art.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:19 – Aviv Shahar welcomes life-long artists, Aud Wilken and Rita Lampen, who join the show to reflect on what comes alive in them when they hear the phrase, Art as an Evolving Conversation

10:27 – Art as an exploration and a space for connecting with the intimacy of life

15:46 – Art as a liberating force

23:09 – The process of keeping one’s creative pipes clean

27:00 – Aud and Rita speak to the concept of surprising yourself through creativity

35:44 – Aviv expounds on two schools of thought about art

43:46 – Aviv shares a unique story about Al Pacino/What is the essence and motivating presence that comes through art

46:09 – Aud and Rita speak to that moment of connecting with art

50:33 – The reverberating impact that live art can have

55:40 – Escaping success

59:33 – Aviv, Aud, and Rita provide final reflections

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“It is an absolute gift, and I think I've always felt great freedom inside of art, and the less I separate them from each other, the more access I feel that I have in myself, to myself, and through myself to other things.” (04:46) (Aud)

“Conversations where you walk and talk, in my experience, are always the most fertile because you’re staying fluid. You’re leaving something behind. You’re leaving a path behind just as the conversation unfolds.” (24:14) (Rita)

“I think this whole aspect of being able to surprise one’s self and look at the page of whatever came out and go, ‘That’s curious. What is that?’ I think that affords a moment of space right there.” (30:42) (Aud)

“Artists can lodge different vitamins in different places where, when we come later on in time and really manage to get in tune with what is locked in there, it becomes alive in the moment. We allow it to look into the now and the now to look into it. So it’s this multi-dimensional access. What an art.” (47:02) (Aud)

“Live art can happen on the stage night after night when the artists are not there saying their lines or singing their songs. They’re actually connecting to what caused, in the first place, that play or that song. And sometimes, on rare occasions, that becomes so inspiring and it develops a life of its own outside of the artist themselves all the way to perhaps become a co-creative piece of art that can emerge with people outside and away from the original instance to now become a communion of many.” (53:26) (Aviv)

“What comes alive in me is also the responsibility of each of us as humans to honor what knocks on our door or what we feel moved by. And to not so quickly measure it against the standards of someone or something else but instead have alive, ongoing inquiries about what is this, what is it for and how can I best serve this?.” (1:06:00) (Aud)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

019 - We Live Inside a Story We Create

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Yair Assulin, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 25 Mar 2022 06:54:34 +0000

This is a special conversation with award-winning Israeli author Yair Assulin, we begin to take a deeper look at a major shift underway in humanity and consciousness, which Assulin describes as living in the subjective story we tell ourselves about our reality and the world around us. Big changes and upheavals happening across the globe suggest the story we’re telling ourselves is no longer the right story and doesn’t reflect reality. It’s time for a new story. Join Aviv Shahar and Yair Assulin as they engage in a rich discussion on today’s topic, We Live Inside a Story We Create.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

01:54 – Aviv Shahar welcomes author and columnist, Yair Assulin, to reflect on today’s conversation, We Live Inside a Story We Create

04:29 – Yair expounds on his belief that the world needs another “flood”

07:51 – Telling the high-level story of humanity

10:27 – The Age of Politics

13:46 – The Century of the ‘How’ and the Century of the ‘What’

17:07 – Three steps we must take in order to survive and grow

22:15 – The impact of technological advances on the connected story of humanity and core observations from Yair

32:10 – The diminishing role of the Nation State

35:32 – New crafts that Yair has

37:34 – Central characters that are emerging in the new story of humanity

39:48 – Yair reflects on seminal moments in his story

45:30 – What inspired Yair to write his first novel, The Drive

51:19 – The rise of China and the inevitable collision with the West

53:21 – How Yair responds to comments made on social media

57:47 – Yair shares his thoughts on the spiritual realm

1:02:09 – The one Biblical figure that Yair identifies with the most

1:03:23 – What Yair hopes to be writing about five and ten years from now

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“My project is to understand society’s, companies’ and an individual’s consciousness. I’m curious about consciousness, the idea of consciousness. I think this is what makes us human beings, the concept of living inside a subjective story. This is what I’m trying to understand, and this is my project in many fields: in my novels, in my columns, when I teach. It’s all part of my journey to understand the way that consciousness works.” (03:45) (Yair)

“We have to understand that something fundamental is changing, that something fundamental is no longer relevant. The story that we tell to ourselves about our reality is not the right story anymore. We have to create a new story.” (06:20) (Yair)

“What’s happening in the world is not important. What is important in stories is the meaning that we give to what is happening. And I think this is something that we must remember when we’re trying to understand what’s going on now. It’s not about the world, it’s about the way we see the world.” (24:01) (Yair)

“I think that today we’ve really redefined these fundamental ideas of space and time. This is the way human beings understand the world, through space and time. And we see that the idea of space is fundamentally changing. And the idea of time is also changing, not the days or the years or the minutes, but the tempo of time, the way time moves, the way we sense time, it’s all changing.” (39:05) (Yair)

“I think that the fundamental distinction between China and the liberal order is always the question of freedom.” (51:42) (Yair)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

018 - The Art of Cognizant and Mindful Living

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 01:21:41 +0000

The art of mindful living – being fully present in our minds, hearts and consciousness at any moment – just may be more vital, and more challenging, in a time of rapid and unprecedented change. Yet, how do we build and protect a safe inner space for the new and creative to appear in the face of daily avalanche of digital, family, and cultural impressions all clamoring for our immediate attention. This conversation will explore the practices, behaviors, and perceptions that can support an endeavor to lead a life of intention and purpose, well-being and regeneration in a time of global and universal change. Join Aviv Shahar and his panel of esteemed guests as they explore The Art of Cognizant and Mindful Living.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:11 – Aviv Shahar welcomes an esteemed panel of guests to reflect on today’s conversation, The Art of Cognizant and Mindful Living

05:18 – Boaz Bar Ilan and Jeremy Stuart share core practices they implement in their daily lives

10:06 – Lisa Marcus speaks to the power of checking in with one’s self and truly listening to ourselves

12:43 – Perry Martin provides an example of how technology has led to him looking inward

15:28 – Karen Heney and Kyriaki Nikandrou speak to the constant of change

23:17 – Marianne Ashcroft shares one of her best practices for being mindful and grateful

24:55 – Building ceremonies and rituals in our everyday lives

29:58 – Why we should stop asking young people what they want to be

31:20 – The panel continues to propose practices that have impacted their lives, including grounding yourself in your strength

38:17 – Avshalom and Miriam speak to curiosity and the concept of conscious evolution

46:48 – The inherent pain of human life and the power of human will

52:06 – Peter provides final thoughts on The Art of Cognizant and Mindful Living

54:19 – Aviv summarizes the three themes of today’s exploration

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“And so, I’ve found that by repetitively taking myself back to that space, I think things will appear. It’s like being a gardener of one’s self, because you can go into a place in nature or you can go into a garden and clear the weeds or the grass and you know that you’re gonna come back a few weeks later and something is going to be there.” (08:05) (Jeremy)

“I want to look at an example of some technology that’s transformed our lives and how it can be taken in several different ways. Cell phone service, your instant ability to gain knowledge and to find things, to be in connectivity with people all around the world all the time. But I’ve found that there’s a great drawback in that. And I’ve found myself having to look inside myself and see what it is that Perry does not want to let go of that’s good like a certain kind of manners, patience, taking the time to listen to somebody.” (12:47) (Perry)

“I think change is absolutely integral to everything, human life and how things work. So, that leads to the question, ‘Shouldn’t we find out how things work?’” (15:37) (Karen)

“One of the ways in which I like to be mindful on a daily basis - and I make the space to do this - is to just take stock and be thankful and have some gratitude for everything that I am and can do.” (23:33) (Marianne)

“When we ground ourselves in our strength - in what we do well or in what we care about very much - when we engage with those elements in our lives, we join the regenerative ray, the part of the universe that is regenerative. And when we are regenerative in ourselves, we’re able to bring more of it to our environment.” (37:52) (Aviv)

“You can’t leave somebody behind. You have to address the different parts because if you leave a part of yourself behind, it’s not gonna be good later. We need to progress the whole of ourselves. And sometimes it helps just to talk.” (48:33) (Aud)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

017 - The Human as a Weaver of Part to Part, Part 2

Thu, 10 Mar 2022 07:00:00 +0000

You are about to enter one of the most nonlinear conversational experiences you've ever entered. In this conversation, we are seeking to discover that intangible property and nature of human life that is the naturally arising capacity to weave part to part and unlock new possibilities. And you will find, as you stay with us through this conversation, that we go to all sorts of places: the past, the distant past, and the future, the interior human realm, the brain, and the mind, and the exterior of the world at large. Join Aviv Shahar and a global group of "weavers," as they continue their discussion on Part 2 of The Human as a Weaver of Part to Part.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:08 – Aviv Shahar continues his conversation with this illustrious group of “weavers” who share their thoughts and insights on The Human as a Weaver of Part to Part

06:34 – Dr. Alan reflects on the interconnectedness that exists between people

13:37 – Theodora speaks to the connection between humans and nature and the importance of striving for not just tolerance, but co-existence

18:16 – Robin reads a poem he recently wrote

19:10 – Dina expounds on the importance of not chasing perfection

25:08 – Imagining a better tomorrow

29:11 – Aviv invites this panel of weavers to provide their final thoughts on this discussion

40:38 – Why our human capacity to weave and make connections is truly unique

45:46 – Aviv shares his final perspective on our capacity to weave

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“Listening - the act itself, the capacity to listen with presence, to create a space, to skate to the edge of the conversation, like riding a wave, you’re not where you were a few seconds ago, but you are right there with the wave of the conversation - that listening capacity, by itself, is a weaving with the here and now.” (06:02) (Aviv)

“One of the things that I strongly encourage is to always be asking questions. One of the things I’ve learned is that you can’t put into someone’s head a thought, experience, or knowledge. What you can do is create the opportunity for them to construct for themselves a reality.” (07:28) (Dr. Alan)

“I was thinking about our relationship also with the animals and the trees, and how maybe that interconnection has been disrupted. But that is of course another story. So, to come into more practical experience, I would say that there is a whole journey to be traveled between tolerance - because tolerance means that issues are not really dealt with, you’re just tolerating another person - to going to really active co-existence.” (16:32) (Kyriaki)

“Many musicians want to be perfect. And there must be some difference between being excellent and being perfect. Being excellent is weaving things together and finding your best. Being perfect is something that makes you freeze and brittle on the inside.” (21:19) (Dina)

“What you can weave is as unique as the fingerprint that you have, which is unlike any other fingerprint. If you follow that line of thought, what it means is that the music that you can play is a weave of music that perhaps can only come through you.” (41:18) (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

016 - The Human as a Weaver of Part to Part, Part 1

Fri, 4 Mar 2022 06:10:56 +0000

You are about to enter one of the most nonlinear conversational experiences you've ever entered. In this conversation, we are seeking to discover that intangible property and nature of human life that is the naturally arising capacity to weave part to part and unlock new possibilities. And you will find, as you stay with us through this conversation, that we go to all sorts of places: the past, the distant past, and the future, the interior human realm, the brain, and the mind, and the exterior of the world at large. Join Aviv Shahar and a global group of "weavers," as they bring together the hidden threads and themes behind new possibilities emerging across all aspects of human experience.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:24 – Aviv Shahar welcomes the global group of “weavers” who share their thoughts and insights on this topic

04:15 – Theodora Papanastasatou, Dr. Alan Litchfield, and Elizabeth Lyell share their experience and insights on today’s topic, The Human as a Weaver of Part to Part

17:49 – Robin Charlton and Kyriaki Nikandrou speak to what comes alive in them when they think about The Human as a Weaver of Part to Part

27:12 – The passion of Van Gogh

31:14 – Dina Richardson continues this nonlinear conversation by sharing her experience as a composer

34:25 – Aviv poses a fascinating inquiry to the panel of guests about the feeling of weaving

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“Humans are apparently the only beings on this planet that can try to understand and ask why, and how come? Where is it coming from? What does it mean? And how does it bring me to my next discovery, or understanding, or recognition?” (06:18) (Theodora)

“And if we think about this question of a human as a weaver from part to part and a connector of possibilities, we also need to consider that humans, by their nature, have a collective sense about them. And, if we look at the way that technology has evolved over time, much of human technology has been related to communal resource sharing and accumulation of things that they need to survive, which have triggered changes in environmental social development and so on.” (14:00) (Dr. Alan)

“So, looking back at history, there’s also a weave that comes from the past into our future and into the very lives we live today.” (21:16) (Robin)

“I was thinking of all the different pathways of learning because we know that we don’t just have academic learning. We also have emotional learning and kinesthetic learning and solitary learning. There are all these different pathways like auditory and visual.” (26:44) (Kyriaki)

“Every genre of music has borrowed from another genre. And there’s been a long line of handing down music as a legacy to the next generation for them to do with what they will because of what’s moving through them.” (31:41) (Dina)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

015 - Thriving Now with Jeff Vander Clute

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Jeff Vander Clute, Aviv Shahar) — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 08:00:00 +0000

No matter what may be happening in the world, it is always a time of opportunity. Old ways are ending. New possibilities are appearing. And what can emerge in these times we are in seems, in a sense, infinite. In this far-reaching conversation, Aviv invites Jeff Vander Clute to reflect on where we’ve been, where we are, how we can ask the right questions, and how we can thrive as we unfold, consciously, into the next chapter. Join us for Thriving Now with Jeff Vander Clute.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:13 – Jeff Vander Clute joins the show to share keys for thriving in the new pattern he’s observed

14:07 – Aviv presents Five Threads to express a unique experience he had at a recent weekend workshop

27:57 – The two different energy centers of love

34:06 – The importance of self-alignment practices

48:43 – Enlightened living and Aviv’s personal transformation

1:04:35 – Aviv speaks to the history and influence of religion

1:16:44 – Different evolutionary cycles

1:20:26 – Aviv ends with one final thought-provoking inquiry

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“We can let go of the idea of the starving artist, we can let go of the ideas that you can't be spiritual and prosperous. This really is a new time. And I would say that the new economy that's also emerging, and we can't see it fully yet - although if you look at the grassroots, you see it more clearly - is an economy of many to many connections. Is an economy that is distributed, decentralized, radically inclusive.” (06:37) (Jeff)

“So in the business world, I would encourage people that ‘How’ leads you to tactic, ‘What’ leads you to strategy, and ‘Why’ leads you to purpose.” (37:24) (Aviv)

“I wanted to cede, maybe for future conversation, the word infinitization because I’ve noticed that what’s happening is, pretty much wherever I look and am having conversations with other people who are looking closely and inquiring deeply into the real nature of things, what we thought was finite is infinite. So money is actually infinite curiously enough because our economies are based on the notion of scarcity, either real or artificially imposed. So, when we look at the twenty-one ways we are trained to take big things and make them small, I think in terms of all the ways in which we try to take the infinite, all, and turn it into something bite-sized and somehow separate so that we can analyze and distinguish one thing from another as if they’re two things.” (50:30) (Jeff)

“When we look at the headlines we might think the world is going to hell in a handbasket, but maybe we’re just entering into the next cycle. But the beginning of the cycle is a cycle - or a sub cycle - of conflict and working it out, hopefully with much less tumultuousness and violence compared to the past.” (1:17:38) (Jeff)

“If the new emerging operating system is to be true, it will have to include all of it. If it cannot include all of it, it simply is a flawed operating system. How do we include all of it and remain safe for ourselves and for each other and give permission for an ecosystem that is not just sustainable, but is regenerative and will bring to light the new possibilities of tomorrow?” (1:20:26) (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

014 - Sensemaking for Life and Career, Part 2

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Ariel Levari, Aviv Shahar) — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 05:45:55 +0000

In Part Two of this conversation, we look at what’s emerging and changing in our experience of the workplace and career. How can we make sense of and reframe this experience in a way that allows us to let go of rigid structures and free our creativity to look more for the emergent possibilities within a given problem or challenge? It may just turn out that our ability to be in flow and with the way things are changing has a lot to do with the inner frameworks we rely on to navigate our world. Join Aviv Shahar and Ariel Levari as they explore the struggles of the new workplace in an evolving world, with an eye to finding joy in the processes and challenges therein, in Part Two of Sensemaking for Life and Career.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:16 – Aviv and Ariel continue to share their thoughts on today’s topic: Sensemaking for Life and Career, Part Two

04:09 – How do you apply framing skills to control conversations with superiors

07:15 – Aviv expounds on the several powers you have over yourself

17:23 – Revisiting the Three-Story House framework

24:28 – The purpose of developing rituals and best practices for connecting with yourself

33:47 – Closing thoughts from Ariel

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“You need to define the conversation space that you want to develop. If you don’t define what it is you want them to offer you feedback on, they will find something else and take the conversation to whatever appears, for them, as the first opportunity to enter the conversation.” (05:34) (Aviv)

“I’m proposing that you need to develop the hydraulics to, inside the workday, build yourself the capacity to work up and down the floors, go down to the ground floor, come back to the second floor, and climb to the third floor.” (21:29) (Aviv)

“Sometimes, the best way to connect to yourself is to connect to things outside of yourself. Anything that helps you ascend beyond the confines of your own body, I think, is one of the surest ways to start actually connecting to yourself.” (26:21) (Ariel)

“It seems to me that there’s different ways to access that third floor. There’s a way of really being super self-reflective, meditating a lot, creating a conscious path of growth for yourself. There’s also people who exist in this world who have never thought a moment about personal development but who go out into the world and help the world become more alive.” (28:39) (Ariel)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

013 - Sensemaking for Life and Career, Part 1

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Ariel Levari, Aviv Shahar) — Fri, 4 Feb 2022 01:17:12 +0000

In this conversation, we take a closer look at what’s emerging and what’s changing in our experience of a familiar environment – the workplace, or career – however those may be defined in a world still responding to a global pandemic. What quickly arises is the idea that we don’t want to be locked into just the academic or theoretical approach to things, but rather be able to respond in real time to the needs of the moment. And it may just turn out that our ability to be in flow and with the way things are changing has a lot to do with the inner frameworks we rely on to navigate our world. Join us as Aviv Shahar and Ariel Levari explore the struggles of the new workplace in an evolving world, with an eye to finding joy in the processes and challenges therein in Part One of Sensemaking for Life and Career.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:10 – Ariel Levari joins the show to share his background in organizational psychology and his thoughts on today’s fascinating topic: Sensemaking for Life and Career, Part One

10:02 – Ariel expounds on the difference between the free-flow process of framing and the structured process of framing

13:29 – Aviv breaks down the Universal Operating System and the Mental Bungee Jump

22:01 – The Intention-Action Gap explained

24:55 – Specific steps for developing an inspired agenda for yourself as an individual

29:12 – The importance of finding a support circle of friends, mentors, and colleagues

32:49 – The Solo Hero Myth and balancing the individual and the collective

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I think having a couple of key theories, a couple of mental models in your back pocket does a whole lot to build up your self-efficacy and your confidence when you’re going into a professional setting.” (08:27) (Ariel)

“In terms of actually engaging in the process of framing, or of sensemaking, within the corporate world, it's much less me applying specific theories - that I learned previously - to current challenges, and much more about catalyzing an inner state that allows me to respond to challenges as they arise and do so in an adaptive way.” (09:33) (Ariel)

“[Flow state processing] is more of a sense of looseness and a sense of freedom and joy that you can tap into. And there’s lots of ways that you can get to that state. But, once you’re in that state, the process of framing becomes totally different. You’re not trying to box in ideas with things you learned from long ago. You’re more looking for what the emerging possibilities might be within a given problem or challenge.” (11:54) (Ariel)

“The key insight here, you can lead from the unconscious when you consciously see the unconscious diligently and with discipline.” (19:30) (Aviv)

“You also have to be aware of how likely it is that you are going to go into a new environment and have that environment change you, in the sense that it isn’t the company’s goal at the end of the day for you to be a self-realized and self-actualized person. So, there’s a lot of forces that, if you’re not careful, can make you forget about that second vector of growth.” (24:06) (Ariel)

“It feels like I’ve been asleep a bit this last year and I’m waking up to that fact right now.” (31:59) (Ariel)

“We can no longer afford to shift from one polarity to the other given the amount of existential risk and exponential power that exists in this world. So, what you’re saying of having the individual and the collective both existing at the same time in balance, it’s critical right now.” (36:28) (Ariel)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

012 - The Evolution of Artificial Intelligence

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 07:00:00 +0000

The central propulsion of Portals of Perception is an inquiry about how we humans evolve with our consciousness and perception, and where and how the future emerges. In this conversation, we are seeking to understand and appreciate how the nature of human experience and perception interrelates with technology. In other words, how our natural human capabilities and cognition correspond with and shape and then are influenced by the technologies we build and how these cross-pollinate and influence each other. Some researchers see in the advance of technology unlimited potential; others see a danger in its expanding influence.

Join Aviv Shahar and Dr. Alan Litchfield and Wai (Albert) Yeap, two global researchers on the leading edge of technology development, as they explore the evolution of artificial intelligence and its implications for the evolution of humanity.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:26 – Albert Yeap and Dr. Alan Litchfield join the show to discuss today’s fascinating topic: The Evolution of Artificial Intelligence

07:58 – The relationship between humans and technology

10:36 – Albert breaks down the origin story of computability and the birth of Artificial Intelligence

18:06 – Dr. Alan provides his thoughts on the evolution of technology in society

23:14 – An inflection point in technology

31:34 – The repercussions of replicating humanity in machines

39:30 – Dr. Alan and Albert dissect unintentional consequences of A.I.

48:51 – The mystery of learning

1:02:53 – Relativity

1:13:19 – Aviv poses three overarching inquiries pertaining to Artificial Intelligence

1:17:16 – Dr. Alan and Albert leave the conversation with one final thought

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“People consider that technology is something which is separate from the person themselves. My view on this is that, actually, technology is a representation of our current state of mind. Technology has often followed what we have been doing or considering, and you see this as an example in the lead up to the Industrial Revolution. What we are now seeing is that technology has become a trigger for change, personally and socially.” (08:17) (Dr. Alan)

“The notion of computability really led us to understand what can be computed and what cannot be computed by computers. And incredibly curious minds of those days, especially Alan Turing, had discovered that notion of computability and asked the questions, ‘Could a machine be intelligent? And can we test that machine to be intelligent?’ From then on, the birth of the notion of A.I. emerged without us knowing.” (10:57) (Albert)

“We had an existence there where people constructed objects and artifacts according to input often that was socially mediated. So, you would have, for example, an artisan who was taught to be a carpenter by their father, or a weaver or whatever it may be. The function doesn’t matter. What matters here is that they came from a long line of previous artisans and they grew into a cultural construct that was built around that identity.” (20:35) (Dr. Alan)

“So, we have this problem where we don’t know how to make the shift in technology yet so that it better reflects the contents and intent of people collectively and individually. And that’s where we are now.” (22:47) (Dr. Alan)

“The trouble is this. Did we intend to create this thing? No, we didn’t intend. But we keep creating these things, which means that these machines will be more and more powerful and they will, I believe, one day take over the world.” (37:13) (Albert)

“In order for you to create a new cultural landscape, you have to dismember what already exists. In order for people to shift themselves out of a culture and into a new one, you have to break what already exists.” (1:09:01) (Dr. Alan)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

011 - The Human as Spiritual Resource

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Ron Lingard, Aviv Shahar) — Mon, 17 Jan 2022 23:39:00 +0000

There is a deep emergent need in humans to access more and to understand more in terms of the spiritual dimensions of life. In this conversation, we explore the nature of what drives us and we look at some of the obstacles that we face when we seek to access the realms of originality and to access original experience, which is central to the story of human life. Join Aviv Shahar as he and Ron Lingard engage in a rich discussion of The Human as Spiritual Resource.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

01:53 – The Human as Spiritual Resource

06:55 – Ron shares a brief story from his childhood

10:17 – Is it possible to capture original perceptions and experiences?

13:49 – The objective actuality of the spiritual realm as an emergent phenomenon of human life

21:36 – The concept of expansion and contraction

25:19 – Aviv presents a compelling argument against a Biblical assertion

34:15 – Aviv and Ron expound on the concept of agency

39:42 – The Octopus Teacher

42:19 – How Ron places expansion and contraction within the lens of human experience

50:40 – Ron leaves the conversation with one final thought

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“So, when I say spiritual resource, what I mean by that is access to what the universe is actually trying to call out from human beings, to find its next steps, somehow, because we are at that forefront, somehow, of forging portals, forging new perception and new vision, about futures.” (09:15) (Ron)

“I think it’s not so much being able to describe it externally so much as it’s what is being called out of people now. There is a basic humanity I believe that lives within ordinary people. It’s the very fact that things are coming up to a point where the way forward is almost forcing this inner resource to actually come to the surface.” (18:00) (Ron)

“A very important aspect of ‘thinking new’ is bringing language more into the open and making it more connected and more meaningful in a way.” (24:53) (Ron)

“If you think about the Self in its other context, then it really needs to be the idea of self-realization as a process of discovery as we meet different languages to express what we are and contacting something that is not a personal property in that way. So, it’s tapping into something else that is actually being realized through human life.” (38:58) (Ron)

“The important thing that was catching me about the idea of contraction and expansion was the idea of seed. If you think of the way that floral life expands and then contracts, the one constant is the fact that the seed continues in that expansion and contraction. And what the seed represents is what’s needed for the next generation.” (43:38) (Ron)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

010 - Essence Music: The Emergence of a Collective Agency

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar, Edward Dowrick, Paul Stone) — Sun, 2 Jan 2022 23:39:00 +0000

Almost everyone can remember being moved by music. Feeling joy, inspiration, or even healing brought my listening and engaging in music. Different stories and perceptions are in place that could prove the ability of music to move or inspire a listener and that it doesn’t just come from a technical skill or a particular setting, it’s what’s inside the artist and the music itself. Join Aviv Shahar as he welcomes the musicians, Ed Dowrick and Paul Stone, to unravel the mysteries of Essence Music through their own experience and inspiration.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

07:20 – Aviv introduces today’s topic, Essence Music: The Emergence of a Collective Agency

08:07 – Paul talks about the interesting challenges on music languages

12:14 – Paul shares about the weakness of his left hand

17:10 – Aviv recaps what Paul has just said and shares his thoughts as well

24:01 – Ed speaks about his thoughts on Essence Music

33:39 – Ed opens up on something he heard from Hans Zimmer

39:05 – Paul shares his realizations on being in the audience in the previous years

48:54 – Ed shares his thoughts on the language and grammar of emergence

55:10 – Paul talks about museums and why he thinks it’s gives exhaustion

1:00:51 – Ed shares about great things music can give more than just physical healing

1:09:08 – Aviv thanks Ed and Paul for joining him

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“But I discovered that my left hand is very weak or was very weak. So, it’s been on a long program of strengthening and reconditioning. Not ‘cause I want to play good, it’s more in terms of so that it can be more versatile in what it can offer into any session or live piece of music”. (12:16) (Paul)

“Many times, I would think that you can play the same piece of music, like for example, when you hear one rendition of Mozart from one orchestra on one day, and you hear it a month later, and it’s the same music but it doesn’t move you. Or di doesn’t move the audience.” (24:01) (Ed)

“In a way, people assume, I think in not just in music, that because a person has chosen to play an instrument, that all of a sudden there’s a bond between another person who has chosen to play an instrument. And it’s not the place to start. And I think again the world makes this mistake in many areas outside of music.” (33:14) (Ed)

“I stopped letting myself off the hook of being in the audience and thinking as the member of the audience, I had no effect on the musicians, the conductor and the song.” (39:05) (Paul)

“All of a sudden, out of the blue, this lady broke through. And something beautiful came through her voice and through her music. She was playing a harp. And it was brilliant!” (50:42) (Ed)

“But to be able to find the music that would say, not just to healing at a physical level, but music that would transmit say, for example, huge stream mental healing, or you could share the feeling somehow in a collective sense” (1:00:51) (Ed)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

009 - Inquiries into Humanity’s Future, Part 2

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 11:01:23 +0000

In Part Two of this episode, the invitation is let’s be daring, in the sense of being prepared to challenge almost any assumptions we have. Because often when we frame inquiries, we already have some working assumptions. So here, what we’re proposing is a simple practice because what we want to do is approach the territory of inquiring into humanity's future whilst we also offer practical briefs, and practical tools, and practices that people can pick up and use. Join Aviv Shahar as he, Kyriaki Nikandrou, Avshalom Zack and Peter Barry continue with Part Two of Inquiries into Humanity’s Future.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

01:55 – The Economic Stop-Situation

08:23 – Kyriaki addresses the challenges of dealing with economic turbulence

18:57 – Peter speaks to the need to change the purpose of the economic system before changing the actual system

22:41 – The critical role of ethics

27:39 – Kyriaki explores the concept of The Wise King

36:04 – What comes to mind when you hear ‘experiential knowledge?’

45:42 – Other thoughts on the substrates of knowledge

52:29 – The threat of misinformation and false knowledge

56:36 – The Gender Issue

1:05:52 – Peter speaks to the relationship between energy and matter

1:10:47 – Kyriaki shares her thoughts on nurturing communication

1:13:40 – Aviv leaves the conversation with one final thought

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“A phrase that I’ve used for years is that, ‘There are no solutions that are not spiritual solutions.’ What I mean by that is what is the greater premise behind what we’re doing? What are the reasons why we’re doing this?” (19:23) (Peter)

“Any sphere of human activity that we will approach or look at is, in one way or another, infected with a lot of diseases. And if we want to find a new operating system to replace a failing one, then we can’t ignore the ethical and spiritual dimensions.” (22:59) (Avshalom)

“Knowledge is not experience to start with. So, experience is higher than knowledge and real life is what is needed to gain real experience.” (38:16) (Avshalom)

“The majority of the education system has been oriented to make the young proficient to succeed in the economical requirements of that life. Well, what if the entire paradigm is changing and you need to have new kinds of skills? To create a sustainable future for humanity education will have to change as well.” (45:01) (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

008 - Inquiries into Humanity’s Future, Part 1

Thu, 9 Dec 2021 10:36:13 +0000

What we have tried to demonstrate here is the idea that if you're going to approach an inquiry, if you're going to approach a domain - if you're going to approach anything - a good mindset is not to assume that we may be able to climb Everest just from anywhere. We'd need to get to basecamp, we need to make sure we have with us the right provisions, we need to make sure that we’re fit.

In other words, we need to engage in a whole preparatory work to create the scaffolding to embark on a journey. And we are still using the conversation today to substantiate that point, which is that you need to make the journey before you can make the journey. Join Aviv Shahar as he welcomes Kyriaki Nikandrou, Avshalom Zack and Peter Barry to dive deep into these rich inquiries.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:06 – Aviv introduces today’s topic, Inquiries into Humanity’s Future, Part One

02:38 – Kyriaki opens this rich discussion by sharing her thoughts on inspiration and encouragement

06:56 – Avshalom introduces the inquiry he brings to the table today

10:42 – The Three Premises

20:17 – Permanent Line Inquiry

25:02 – Kyriaki stresses the importance of challenging dogmas

28:27 – Aviv proposes a simple practice

40:13 – Peter expounds on the process of finding your question

43:11 – The living issue of Permanent Line Inquiry

49:13 – Aviv provides a quick recap and introduces a second practice

52:25 – Aviv teases the twelve challenges he will address in future episodes exploring this topic furthe

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“A true inquiry is not a destination. A true inquiry is a journey.” (09:15) (Aviv)

“One of the biggest questions is: what kind of changes are necessary to get a different result? It is quite a common understanding in the world these days that you cannot really change the world before you change the humans that live in this world – and behave in this world, and cause things to happen in this world – and start to do it in a different way. It would provide a totally different result.” (14:59) (Avshalom)

“If you can find those important questions to your life that you will see them arising in the way you’ve gone on and the places you’ve been and the things you’ve done. Then there’s the confirmation of that by the reality you’ve experienced. So, you’ve brought from a great depth of yourself to a level of consciousness, something that really can be brought forward every day.” (41:25) (Peter)

“All the great men have gone and now it’s your turn. It’s a personal responsibility and the capability of each human to be part of the change and be an active part of the change.” (44:15) (Avshalom)

“Information or knowledge might seem unimportant but gets important and might be the exact key and the exact answer to your inquiry once you touch upon this core need.” (47:55) (Kyriaki)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

007 - Polarity Management Moves

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar, Kyriaki Nikandrou, Liz Halter) — Thu, 2 Dec 2021 07:00:00 +0000

The core invitation we're making here is to recognize that each of us is one whole, integrated life. And that one whole integrated life is made of and is encompassing, and encompassed by, a universe of tremendous multiplicity within and without. And what we have explored here are the different moves you can make to release, to unleash, to unlock, to free up, to integrate and to transcend as we become a more fully embodied human life. Join Aviv Shahar as he welcomes Kyriaki Nikandrou and Liz Halter to engage in this rich examination of Polarity Management Moves.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:04 – Aviv introduces today’s topic, Polarity Management Moves

03:26 – Aviv introduces today’s guests and poses the inquiry, ‘What comes alive in you when we bring the focus to Polarities?’

10:25 – Aviv names some of the moves of polarity management that we operate in every day

16:06 – Kyriaki talks about the ‘Go with the Flow’ move and the ‘Disarming’ move

25:21 – Aviv highlights the ‘Integration’ move

36:58 – Separation between professional and personal life

40:48 – Project Aristotle

45:40 – Aviv recaps today’s episode and thanks Kyriaki and Liz for sharing in this rich discussion on polarities

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“If we don’t actually work to identify and move beyond, then we spend a large part of our life with a lack of consciousness and being stuck in a kind of reactivity of actually something else running the show and we’re unaware of it.” (04:50) (Liz)

“There is an art to compromise and to not being locked in the either/or, but to find other options and other percentages that lead to solutions, that lead to agreements or co-creating, and that allow movement. Otherwise we are stuck, we are polarized, and a lot of disputes and quarrels ensue that really deplete us and we misspend our energy and happiness.” (09:49) (Kyriaki)

“A complaint is the misdirected energy of an unmet need.” (21:38) (Aviv)

“The importance between balance and movement which is, in a way, another move because when we stop to move, we are bound to fall on one side or the other. Let’s say when we’re cycling or walking on a narrow bar or when we want to stay very immovable, we need to move a small part of our body, like the guards outside the palace.” (38:57) (Kyriaki)

“We possibly touched on a dozen different moves, some we instantiated with examples and some we only touched on briefly. And the core invitation we’re making here is recognizing that you are one, whole integrated life. And that one whole, integrated life is encompassing and encompassed by a universe of tremendous multiplicity within and without.” (45:55) (Aviv)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

006 - The Human as a Fountain of Encouragement and Hope

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 15:17:14 +0000

The focus of our conversation today is that the human is a fountain of encouragement and hope. We want to sense into, and reflect on, the qualities of hope and encouragement, to explore what they are and how those properties, those qualities, those essences - how they influence our lives.

The essence of this conversation you're about to listen to and to discover is a weave of experiences from teachers, parents, and people who were touched and who touched others in moments where all that was needed was a little bit of help, with encouragement and hope, and how central these qualities are in our lives. Join Aviv as he and his guests dive deeper into this exploration.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

01:51 – Aviv introduces today’s topic, The Human as a Fountain of Encouragement and Hope

05:07 – Aviv introduces today’s panel of guests and poses the inquiry, ‘What comes alive in you when you hear the phrase ‘The Human as a Fountain of Encouragement and Hope’?’

08:21 – Perry speaks to what encouragement means to him

11:43 – Miriam shares her thoughts on encouragement

14:12 – The importance of self-encouragement

14:51 – Lisa discusses the concept of stepping into our futures with hope

17:25 – Karen speaks to the elusiveness of encouragement

23:22 – Why hope is such a critical component to the human spirit/experience

33:01 – The panel continues to share examples of the power and significance of encouragement in their own lives

37:30 – George speaks to encouragement as an influx of energy

41:56 – Encouragement and creativity

45:28 – Why encouragement and hope are the antidote to the world’s woes

46:58 – Turning stumbling blocks into steppingstones

55:22 – Daring to try

59:26 – The role teachers play as encouragers

1:08:19 – Best practices for encouragement

1:32:16 – George shares a quick story about his daughter

1:34:21 – Aviv thanks the panel of guests for sharing in this rich discussion on encouragement and hope

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I feel [encouragement] is an instinct. I feel it’s a natural desire for one human being to give of itself to another human being the benefit of its life. And it’s a very powerful thing.” (06:38) (Trevor)

“Hope is a choice. Hope is something that, in the area of encouragement and specifically self-encouragement, something that I find really important. How to teach myself and how to teach children how to encourage themselves is important because being dependent on encouragement from an outside source can be really dangerous.” (12:37) (Miriam)

“There is no future without hope. We can’t step into our tomorrows. Hope is what leads us into our tomorrows.” (15:11) (Lisa)

“A very powerful encouragement of other people, particularly children, is the encouragement that will enable them to find their own voice, their own awareness of their own choices, and their own ability to cause that self-encouragement. And it is such a call. You try to think about where encouragement comes from. It’s quite elusive because it’s almost a very internal part of the human mind but at the same time it’s very neutral and hard to pin down.” (17:39) (Karen)

“Hope is something we need, particularly today in the face of the world’s situation. Definitely it’s something to be, not manufactured, but kept alive in the light of the history of people who have had hope despite the worst of circumstances.” (26:16) (Trevor)

“I have to mention the word forgiveness because forgiveness is a big part of hope. As it’s been said, forgiveness begins in one’s self so this is all tied up into hope and encouragement. And the most important thing I think anyone can do for anyone is to believe in them, to believe in their life, to believe in the value of that life and encourage that life to fulfill its possibility and promise.” (36:01) (Lisa)

“People want to be seen. And today we live in a world where people are not seen and they’re passed by. It doesn’t have to be a long relationship. It can be just a passing by, a look, a touch, a comment, that can give so much to someone else.” (51:49) (Lisa)

“We can liberate the world by the sharing of the passion that we have for life.” (1:07:04) (Trevor)

“I think encouragement for dreaming big or expanding one’s mind out to what could be possible is a wonderful gift, particularly with young people, that we can offer to another life.” (1:12:30) (Lisa)

“One practice I employ is saying, ‘thank you,’ manners, taking the time to have a rich interaction between people that I meet and not to speed through things.” (1:25:12) (Perry)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

005 - The Role of Touch

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar, Jessica Wapner) — Sat, 13 Nov 2021 06:14:36 +0000

There was, perhaps, a time when the only tool of healing was the human hand. And, to this very day, whenever we have an unfamiliar feeling in our body, the first thing we do is touch the area it is arising from and perform our simple, initial, diagnosis. Today, however, we hear advertising touting the touchless world we live in. How did we get here? And, is this where we want to be, or is there a better way?

In this conversation, Aviv Shahar speaks with Jessica Wapner, who traces the arc of touch as a healing modality through the centuries, and how it has gradually been removed from our ever more standardized methods of healthcare. And then she gives us a peek into where we might go next. Join Aviv, as he dives deeper into this exploration.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:13 – Aviv introduces today’s guest, Jessica Wapner, who provides her thoughts on this inquiry exploration into The Role of Touch

04:31 – Wall Disease, explained

07:16 – The role of touch in healing and medicine

14:20 – The healing power of touch in the Bible

17:33 – The King’s Touch

23:09 – The rise of the Scientific Method

27:46 – The surge of advancements in medical science

31:16 – How touch impacts us as humans

37:23 – The introduction of ‘Wellness’

50:36 – What the future holds for touch

57:06 – Final points from Aviv and Jessica

1:00:30 – Aviv thanks Jessica for joining in this discussion today

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“Wall Disease is multi-dimensional and expresses itself in different ways such as the feeling of being oppressed. When you see a wall near you every day, there’s a sense of – as one person I spoke with put it to me – ‘your life is being stopped here.’” (04:40)

“It seems that, from what I can piece together, there are references to touch coming from all over the world to do with the healing power of touch and what the hands are capable of doing.” (11:30)

“It’s almost a hard mindset to imagine that I can say that I’m sick. It’s up to me to say that there’s something wrong? I don’t need you, doctor, to confirm that. And that switches with the progression towards more and more technology where the doctor becomes the authority. And that’s what interested me in ‘The King’s Touch.’ There is this kind of thing through history where there is a person who has the capability to offer healing and I put myself in your hands.” (29:58)

“Doctors don’t call themselves healers, which is really interesting and weird if you stop and think about it. I never say, ‘I’m going to the healer today.’ But why wouldn’t I say that? Of course I want the doctor to heal me.” (36:56)

“So in the 1960s, the World Health Organization put out a statement about wellness that was more than not being sick – that wellness is about ‘Is your life progressing from one day to the next?’” (39:26)

“There’s an opening now for medicine and healing to stitch themselves back up together and for this rift to not be so dire.” (56:01)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

The Philadelphia Chromosome

Jessica’s Books:

Wall Disease

004 - A Study of Balance

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar, Ofer Dotan) — Thu, 4 Nov 2021 08:00:00 +0000

We live in a world of rapid change. And to engage with the many challenges this unique time can bring may leave us struggling with what it means to have a balanced life - a life of clarity and purpose of what is truly important. But what is a balanced life? A key perception is that life is a journey of coming into and going out of balance. Resisting the pressure to continually define ourselves and preserving an inner space in which we can grow, change and evolve is itself a pretty radical idea and important in this study. Join Aviv Shahar and Ofer Dotan for A Study of Balance.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:11 – Aviv introduces today’s topic, A Study of Balance, and welcomes Ofer Dotan to engage in this rich discussion

09:11 – Life’s journey of going in and out of balance

14:24 – The concept of balance in movement and how we define ourselves

19:32 – Balancing the Five Energy Centers

25:58 – Three Levels of Resilience

33:59 – Getting clarity on your space and defying inconsistent narratives

38:06 – The importance of ‘Tuning’ yourself

48:20 – What it means to see and treat another person justly

52:30 – Ofer describes her purpose

54:56 – What it means to treat yourself justly

56:06 – Aviv proposes the concept of ‘Three Lives’

1:04:58 – Naming and disarming Friction

1:13:53 – Faking it until you make it

1:24:07 – The Universal Life and being compassionate with yourself

1:31:51 – Final words from Aviv and Ofer

1:34:14 – Aviv thanks Ofer for joining in this discussion today

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“For me, balance comes when I set the terms, when I am engaging with the world through my own center and not through the structures that are being imposed on me.” (08:31)

“We live in a society that pushes us all the time to be very critical towards ourselves and not so accepting, which has its positives because it maybe pushes us to grow in some respects. But it also has many negatives because we’re constantly under pressure to fit some narratives that maybe we’re uncomfortable with.” (32:42)

“I think for me love is treating another person justly. And what does that mean? I have this sense that it’s kind of rare that we’re doing that with one another. And it has to do with wanting to understand and not seeing others through your own eyes but trying to at least appreciate them through their own experience of this life.” (48:31)

“I think there is not one all-encompassing purpose. I feel that my purpose, and my set of skills that support me in believing that, has to do with facilitation - facilitation for people to be who they are, to have space like I’m trying to claim my own space. I’ve been told I’m pretty good at giving this space to others.” (52:37)

“Real forgiveness, for me, has to do with fairness and justice. I don’t like the everyday use of the words ‘forgiveness’ and ‘compassion’ because I feel like sometimes they are lacking.” (1:28:21)

“From my experience, I am still searching what it means for me to be compassionate towards myself without using it as a way to absolve myself from doing the work that I need to be doing.” (1:30:48)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

003 - Chivalry in a Postmodern World

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 12:55:32 +0000

The propelling impulse of Portals of Perception is the sense that we are entering or have entered a meaningful and important evolutionary upgrade process. That actually we all have a part to play in this process in that we can contribute by way of leading, healing, discovering in a variety of different roles and functions. There is also the element of looking to discover what of the past is still true and is a necessary bridge to whatever may unfold in the next evolutionary upgrade that is developing in front of our eyes. So there is a function in honoring and harvesting the best of what was as a bridging work for tomorrow.

Today’s conversation is about the idea of chivalry. What was chivalry at its core? How is this core separate from the romantic legends that developed about it later? Why did people, throughout the ages, feel drawn and attracted to chivalrous ideas values and virtues? Are these just old, outdated ideas or do they have some validity in this postmodern, cynical, postmodern world? Join Aviv, as he dives deeper into this fascinating inquiry.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:03 – Aviv introduces today’s topic, Chivalry in a Postmodern World

14:13 – The distinction between being a woman and being a lady

17:54 – Developing personal character

23:52 – Energy is energy

30:23 – A double standard in chivalry between genders and searching for equality

43:23 – Chivalry, honor, and making purposeful choices

50:17 – The true meaning of fairness, loyalty and courage

58:32 – The importance of being of service

1:03:51 – Recognizing chivalry

1:10:18 – What chivalry looks like today

1:20:22 – Final points from Aviv and the panel

1:26:56 – Aviv thanks the panel for joining in this discussion today

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“I think respect and decent behavior is hardwired in humans and the opposite has to be learned. Disrespect is something that you learn.” (12:16)

“Being a female, you’re born a female and grow into a woman. But being a lady is something that you can choose to be, or not.” (14:54)

“Somehow the whole idea of ‘character’ feels very natural and feels very important. It also feels very dignified the idea that there would be certain qualities or traits that you could recognize a person by.” (18:23)

“I want to be an expression of the art of living as a female. And I want to learn what it means to give space to the art of living as a man.” (42:28)

“The key avenue into chivalry, for me, is through the aspect of honor. I’ve always been drawn to honor and being honorable.” (43:30)

“We can’t be loyal to the values of chivalry from the 16th Century. We need to take the enzyme of those values and fertilize the new values which will adapt to the future.” (51:53)

“Life is a process of change from the moment you are born to the moment you die.” (1:19:17)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

002 - Discover the Human Orchestra with Rita Lampen, Patrick Summers, Kyriaki Nikandrou, Bernie Doyle, Aud Wilken, Don Giuliano and Mona Martin

Fri, 15 Oct 2021 07:19:57 +0000

We see it among a group of people all the time: one person is shy while another person loves to be the center of attention. One person is intellectual while another person is more emotional. We see the nerdy, geeky types and we see the athletically proficient. But what we don’t always acknowledge is that we have all of these characters within us and, depending on many factors of our life thus far, some of them get more outplayed than others. So the artist, the caregiver, the friend, the parent, these are all part of the collective instrumentation of the human life and it’s possibilities. Join Aviv Shahar as he invites a panel of guests to explore this 4 - part series on the idea of discovering the human orchestra and the significance that we are not just one thing, but many things in one.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

02:16 – Aviv and introduces today’s panel of guests, Rita Lampen, Patrick Summers, Kyriaki Nikandrou, Bernie Doyle, Aud Wilken, Don Giuliano and Mona Martin

15:49 – Why the human spirit is not a solo instrument, but rather a full orchestra and why that is important

29:19 – The Double Whammy of the Human Orchestra

35:35 – The multifaceted nature of the Human Orchestra

47:28 – Other thoughts on the inroads being made around this concept of the Human Orchestra

1:01:02 – The music, the silence and being of service

1:19:38 – Aviv thanks the panel for joining the show

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“How does an orchestra play together? They have a conductor. So I started thinki ng, ‘What or who is conducting this orchestra of Patrick?’ At any given moment is there a conductor? Is there something or someone trying to bring order to all these different parts of me so that they can actually be coherent and make some kind of coherent noise.” (07:25) (Patrick)

“I think in the discovery process a human being really just needs to look at the different reactions that they have. You go through life and you have a reaction to something you see or you think a certain thing or you feel a certain way. And every single one of those pieces is something else, a part of you that has a response to the world around you.” (17:57) (Mona)

“Partly what I am searching for in this initial inquiry is the idea that when you begin to encompass and embrace the kind of thinking that you each offer from a different angle, you are each offering a pathway to transcend the myopic view of ‘I am one thing.’” (34:25) (Aviv)

“I’ve found life continuously presents a multiplicity of offers for me to choose. But it’s just this type of stirring conversation now that the empowering part of it is that you do not need to be stuck in what the world has turned you o ut to be.” (46:02)

“It’s a journey from choosing what you love to loving what you do.” (1:10:55)

RESOURCES MENTIONED

001 - The Power of Community with Jane Goodman

peterbarry173@gmail.com (Aviv Shahar, Jane Goodman) — Thu, 7 Oct 2021 09:00:00 +0000

Humans have been building communities since the dawn of time. Yet, their importance to an individual’s life, to the family’s life and to the neighborhood’s life may never be more critical than today, while their actual place in our daily world may never have been so fractured. Join Aviv as he and guest Jane Goodman share in an exploration of the power of community. Aviv and Jane seek to answer questions such as: What is community? What purpose does it serve? And what enables communities to thrive? Jane shares her unique experience building a rural community and the lessons she’s learned about herself and leadership through her trials and tribulations.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

01:45 – Aviv introduces today’s guest, Jane Goodman who joins the show to share her insights on today’s topic, The Power of Community

06:41 – Greater understandings through community

12:35 – Choosing to build unique communities and letting go of differences

22:19 – The secret to a thriving community

23:11 – Lessons Jane has learned throughout her journey

31:01 – Overcoming challenges in building a community

41:31 – The consensus approach

46:37 – Two practices that Jane values above all others

47:49 – What Jane has learned about herself through her experience living in many different communities

52:34 – Leadership does not mean recognition

53:46 – Action communities

58:41 – Personal development for the sake of serving a greater purpose

1:08:37 – The importance of not talking behind people’s back

1:10:59 – Final words of wisdom from Jane

1:18:59 – Aviv thanks Jane for joining the show

TWEETABLE QUOTES

“Each of the experiences opened doors to greater understandings – greater understandings about human beings, greater understandings of organizations.” (09:34)

“Just as your life is a journey – never ending until your last breath – so is a community. And you can say that for twenty years this community has been on its journey, almost eighteen years being on the land. And so many different things have been learned.” (23:44)

“Whatever you need to get to where you’re going is different from what you need once you’re there.” (28:45)

“Another thing you were saying which can be a pitfall – and this is where we always help one another – it’s easy to think you know what’s better for someone else than they do.” (45:18)

“There’s Action Communities. There’s communities that have an external mission, an internal mission. When I say an ‘Action Community,’ I mean they have a message to get across.” (56:17)

“It’s not personal development for development’s sake. It’s because I want to serve a greater purpose as a life.” (1:04:10)

RESOURCES MENTIONED