Alex Tsakiris co-hosts Mindrolling with Raghu for a conversation on consciousness and the ethics of artificial intelligence.

In this episode of Mindrolling, Raghu and Alex talk about:

• A.I. and the potential for sentience
• Scientific experiments in meditation
• Transhumanist agendas in society
• The way in which greed, power, and fear is taking over our world
• The purity of motivation and a willingness to transform self-interest
• A logical perspective on consciousness
• Having faith in the world and taking positive action
• Truth as a powerful spiritual weapon
• Near death experiences and trying to comprehend the beyond
• Meeting beings who are beyond polarization
• Compassion Bot, a compassion based A.I.
• Wise hope and having positive intention without concern for results

About Alex Tsakiris

Alex Tsakiris is a successful entrepreneur turned science podcaster. In 2007 he founded Skeptiko, which has become the #1 podcast covering the science of human consciousness. Alex has appeared on syndicated radio talk shows both in the US and the UK. Alex is also the author of Why Science is Wrong…About Almost Everything.

“I don’t want A.I. ethics; I want human ethics. I don’t want A.I. compassion and community; I want human compassion and community.” – Alex Tsakiris

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Jaymee Carpenter returns to Mindrolling for an expansive talk with Raghu on addiction, luminous darkness, and loving the mystery in it all.

In this episode of Mindrolling, Jaymee Carpenter and Raghu Markus explore:

• Jaymee’s work with addiction counseling
• Adding to our own suffering / the second arrow in Buddhism
• How Jaymee’s struggles with addiction have become doorways to connect with people
• Hanuman, Christ, and love of the divine
• The high of being on a retreat
• Finding light within the darkness
• Sweat lodge ceremonies and being reborn
• Being beyond identity when dealing with addiction
• Raghu’s experience with the charnel ground in India
• Getting comfortable with the unknown
• Mother energy and unconditional caring
• All of the possibilities included in the mystery
• Relationships and being secure in love
• Navigating through our traumas

About Jaymee Carpenter:

Jaymee Carpenter is a highly revered spiritual teacher and psychospiritual counselor based in Ojai, CA, with a background of 13 years of multi-faceted professional experience in the field of addiction and mental health treatment.

Homeless and addicted on Los Angeles’s skid row district at the age of 26, Jaymee was gifted an opportunity in 2003 to enter state-funded addiction treatment and utilized the time to reassess and repurpose himself for the benefit of humanity. The result is a man who has since risen from the ashes of his former ignorance into a life and career of unique service, while simultaneously and ceaselessly engaging in comprehensive spiritual exploration.

He is a 16-year meditation practitioner and teacher within the oldest lineage of Tibetan Buddhism (Nyingma), which is his primary source of his own recovery and mental clarity. Jaymee spent 3 years recently as an apprentice to a Lakota shaman, co-facilitating sweat lodge ceremonies for hundreds of participants on sacred land blessed by His Holiness The Dalai Lama. He is additionally a master-level communicator and storyteller, and one of the world’s great listeners.

Follow Jaymee Carpenter on Instagram and check out his podcast, Love is the Author

“All of my drudgery and all of the things that formerly hurt are now doorways to connect with people. My Tibetan Buddhist study and practice and immersion, I’m a sucker for the dharma because it has done me so well.” – Jaymee Carpenter

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Taking us through her 3 near-death experiences, Michelle Clare joins Raghu to talk about the afterlife, mediumship, and finding true purpose.

This time on Mindrolling, Michelle and Raghu have a conversation about:

• Michelle’s experience growing up catholic and praying to saints
• Michelle’s first experience connecting to loved ones who have passed
• Near-death experiences (NDEs) and sensing peace and perfection
• How the religion we believe in will be what we are greeted by in the afterlife
• Telepathic communication and the soul’s ability to travel
• Michelle’s second NDE and meeting Jesus in an operating room
• The parallels between psychedelics and NDEs
• Soul planning and understanding our dharma
• Raghu’s psychic experiences with Neem Karoli Baba
• Our spirit team and the web of love that supports us
• Intuition, the gift that each one of us carries

About Michelle Clare:

Michelle Clare is a certified medium, psychic, energy healer, and life coach. She is guided by spirit and uses her gifts to heal, enlighten, encourage, and inspire others while empowering them to connect to the light within themselves. A three-time near-death experience survivor, she receives messages from loved ones who have crossed over, as well as angels and life guides. Learn more about Michelle’s offerings on her website.

“There is a divine orchestration to our time here and the lessons that we learn, and I believe that none of that is accidental.” – Michelle Clare

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This week, we take a look back at a conversation that Raghu had with Gabor Maté about trauma, desire, addiction, and getting honest with ourselves.

In this remastered episode, Gabor explores these struggles through the lens of the Hungry Ghost Realm of saṃsāra.

To learn more about all six realms of saṃsāra and the Wheel of Life in Buddhist tradition, check out this episode of the Mindrolling Podcast with Buddhist teacher, David Nichtern: Ep. 168 Awakening from the Daydream

Gabor Maté is a renowned speaker and bestselling author. After 20 years of family practice and palliative care experience, Gabor worked for over a decade in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side with patients challenged by drug addiction and mental illness. The bestselling author of four books published in over thirty languages, Gabor is sought after for his expertise on addiction, trauma, childhood development, and the relationship between stress and illness. His latest book, released in 2022, is titled the Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture. 

In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts

Gabor Maté has been exposed to so many patients suffering from addiction through his work as a doctor in Vancouver, BC, which has one of North America’s worst drug abuse problems. He and Raghu discuss the connection between addiction, in its many forms, and what Buddhist philosophy refers to as the Hungry Ghost Realm.

Healing Trauma, Breaking Addiction 

Gabor talks about the role of trauma in addiction. He shares his own traumatic experiences being a Jew born in Nazi-occupied Hungary. Raghu and Gabor also discuss the ways that trauma and suffering are handed down from parent to child.

The Pursuit of Desire 

In his book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction, Gabor writes about the drive behind addictions. He and Raghu discuss how the energetic charge behind addiction is more about desire than attainment.

Equal Parts Honest and Compassion

Gabor examines how we can look at ourselves honestly and constructively by practicing compassionate inquiry.

Psychology of Spiritual Seeking

The spiritual path is a way to transform some of the wounded natures that we all grow up with. Gabor speaks about this and the risks of spiritual materialism that come along with it.

“The hungry ghosts are depicted as these creatures with large empty bellies and small scrawny necks with narrow gullets and small mouths. No matter what they do, they cannot ever fill that emptiness inside, and that relates to me as the realm of addiction.” – Dr. Gabor Maté

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Examining the concept of the ‘mere I’, Loch Kelly chats with Raghu about non-self and effortless mindfulness.

Click HERE for some complementary resources from Loch Kelly to deepen your experiential exploration into Effortless Mindfulness.

This week on Mindrolling, Loch and Raghu get into:

• How mindfulness can be effortless
• Loch’s transformative experience in Nepal
• A down-to-earth explanation of no-self or the ‘mere I’
• Sustaining the state of awakening
• Psychedelics as treatment for PTSD
• Ego dissolution and other dimensions
• Returning home through mindfulness practice
• Karma yoga and realizing our self-interested motivations
• A guided meditation from Loch

“If you ask someone or take the time to feel the mirror-eye that’s listening to these words, and then feel where is it located in your body. Most people will feel it in the middle of their head behind their eyes. Feel that location and thank it for all its hard work. Appreciate its functionality and ask it for some space and then open to a mindful witness of this mirror eye.” – Loch Kelly

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Expanding our notions of love to a universal state, ecologist and peace-pilgrim, Satish Kumar, joins Raghu to talk about his new book, Radical Love.

Get your copy of Radical Love HERE

This time on Mindrolling, Satish and Raghu journey through these topics:

• How Gandhi was a great influence on Satish’s life
• Loving people with whom we do not agree
• The ultimate love, knowledge, and heroism we receive from our mothers
• The feminine motherly quality we can find in gurus
• Satish’s experience in the Jain tradition
• Negative consequences from materialism, consumerism, and the industrial way of life
• Pollution, global warming, and harm to bio-diversity as our collective karma
• Why everyone should take a Hippocratic oath
• Remembering we are all human beings and can all practice love as our primary religion
• Science, gravity, and the capacity to understand the non-physical reality
• How love holds together the spiritual world
• Unilateral love and not waiting to love another until they love us
• Gandhi’s concept of Sarvodaya, or the uplifting of every living being without exception

About Satish Kumar:

Satish Kumar is a peace-pilgrim, ecologist, life-long activist and former monk who has been inspiring global change for over 50 years. A world-renown author and international speaker, Satish founded The Resurgence Trust, an educational charity that seeks to inform and inspire a just future for all. Satish has been the guiding spirit behind several other internationally respected ecological and educational ventures. He co-founded Schumacher College which he continues to serve as a Visiting Fellow. He appears regularly on podcasts and on radio and television shows and continues to teach, run workshops, and write about reverential ecology, holistic education and voluntary simplicity. Check out Satish’s book offerings HERE.

“Do no harm to yourself, do no harm to other people, do no harm to nature. That is the Hippocratic oath a doctor takes. I would like to suggest that everybody should take that. Politicians should take that. Scientists should take that. Economists should take that. Business and industrial leaders should take that. Do no harm. If you do no harm to yourself, and you do no harm to other people, and you do no harm to nature, then you can have a more positive karma. The consequence will be a more harmonious relationship, and a more peaceful world, and a better relationship among all humans.” – Satish Kumar

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Raghu’s original Mindrolling partner, David Silver, returns for a beautiful homage to the genius of Aldous Huxley.

Learn more about Aldous Huxley HERE

This week, David and Raghu talk about:

• How Aldous Huxley showed Ram Dass and Tim Leary the Tibetan Book of the Dead
• David Silver’s initial reading of Brave New World and the prophecy it held
• Aldous Huxley’s background
• Huxley’s Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell
• Huxley’s perspective on non-dualism and children
• Ram Dass’ and Aldous Huxley’s friendship
• Aldous Huxley’s end-of-life experience with entheogens
• Systematic reasoning versus direct perception
• The fear that can arise when we have a mystical experience
• The transformational power of psychedelics in the field of mental health
• Jim Morrison, The Doors, and Ram Dass

About David Silver:

David Silver is the former co-host of the Mindrolling podcast. He is a filmmaker and director, most recently coming out with Brilliant Disguise. Brilliant Disguise tells the unique story of a group of inspired Western spiritual seekers from the 60s, who in meeting the great American teacher, Ram Dass, followed him to India to meet his Guru, Neem Karoli Baba, familiarly known as Maharaji. Two days before he left his body, Maharaji instructed K.C. Tewari to take care of the Westerners, which he did resolutely until the day he died in 1997. K.C. Tewari—in the guise of a headmaster of a boys school in the foothills of the Himalayas—was secretly a High Yogi, frequently able to go into altered states of trance, known as Samadhi, at any moment.

“I think the greatest compliment that Ram Dass gave him, and it wasn’t an exclamation of any sort, he said Aldous Huxley had a very great relationship with the mystery” – Raghu Markus

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Sarah Anderson joins Raghu to explore her new book, The Lost Art of Silence, and how we can reconnect to the beauty of quiet.

Get your copy of Sarah’s book HERE

In this episode, Sarah and Raghu delve into:

• How crucial and nurturing silence can be
• Sarah’s childhood trauma
• Silence’s relationship to the inner journey
• Sarah’s investigation into the art of silence
• Silence as the link between so many religions and traditions
• The way that being quiet makes us a better listener
• Raghu’s story of meeting Ram Dass
• How nature can teach us about silence
• The fear caused from sensory deprivations
• Becoming aware of God through silent meditation
• Concerns for our youth and the loudness of technology

About Sarah Anderson:

Sarah Anderson founded the Travel Bookshop in London in 1979, the shop later featured in the film Notting Hill. She studied Chinese at the London University college of SOAS, and at Heythrop, where she earned an MA in the psychology of religion. She has taught travel writing at City University, writes regular travel pieces, reviews books, and gives talks worldwide. Also an artist, Sarah’s paintings have been exhibited throughout London. Sarah is the author of several books. Her most recent book, The Lost Art of Silence, celebrates the power in being quiet.

“Even in the cacophony of going into the woods, of the birds singing, animals speaking to each other, in that cacophony is a delightful silence. Because the real silence, to me, is that your mind stops turning out this avalanche of thoughts and stories.” – Raghu Markus

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Philosopher, author, and activist Peter Singer joins Raghu to chat about his new book, The Buddhist and the Ethicist.

Pick up your copy of Peter Singer’s book HERE

This week on Mindrolling, Peter and Raghu have a comprehensive conversation on:

• Singer’s coming of age in the 60’s
• The background of Venerable Shih Chao-Hwei
• The ethical outlook of utilitarianism
• Examining the consequences of our actions
• The problems that come with not thinking about the future
• The Bodhisattva tradition
• Bhakti Yoga and merging with the supreme being
• Having compassion for those that suffer, human and non-human
• Looking at theories of human nature and basic goodness
• Karma’s compatibility with utilitarianism
• The ways that we leave traces in the world

About Peter Singer:

Peter Singer is an Australian moral philosopher and Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He also is also an author, and is best known for his writings about poverty and liberating animals. He wrote the book Animal Liberation, in which he argues for vegetarianism and co-founded the Australian Federation of Animal Societies, now Animals Australia, the country’s largest and most effective animal organization. Most recently, he published a book of eye-opening dialogues with Venerable Shih Chao-Hwei, a Taiwanese Buddhist monastic and social activist. Learn more about Peter Singer on his website.

“Compassion is one way of looking at how we ought to be thinking about all sentient beings. We ought to be thinking about them with concern for their well-being. When you use the term compassion, at least to westerners, that suggests a feeling, an emotion, something like we might say empathy that we have with them. That’s something that utilitarians would want to encourage because we need to think about what its like for other beings in the various possible states of the world that could result from our doing a variety of things.” – Peter Singer

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Indigenous healer Paul Callaghan teaches us about aboriginal wisdom and being a part of the collective story of humanity.

Check out Paul’s book, The Dreaming Path, to learn more about contentment, purpose, healing, and reconnecting with your story—and ultimately the universe.

In this episode of Mindrolling, Paul and Raghu get into:

• Aboriginal Dreamtime stories
• The creation myth of mother earth
• Being still in nature to receive insights
• How acute anxiety and a mental health crisis lead Paul to a life change
• Why reconnecting to his aboriginal roots lead to Paul’s healing and self-discovery
• Defining the dreaming path and promoting individuality
• How does relying on nature and living sustainably allow one to slow down?
• Finding power in unity and getting resources to all people
• Examining whether we add or take away from the collective story of humanity
• Self-care and finding out who we really are
• Going with the flow of life

About Paul Callaghan:

Paul Callaghan is a First Nations custodian in the land now called Australia and a leading Indigenous healer. Paul belongs to the land of the Worimi people which is located on the east coast of Australia about 2 hours north of Sydney, New South Wales. He is an Aboriginal storyteller and dancer. Paul has held a number of senior executive positions in his career and has qualifications in a diverse range of disciplines including surveying, drafting, accounting, economics, training, executive leadership, emotional intelligence, company boards, and executive/organizational coaching. Paul has been ‘going bush’ for many, many years and learning traditional ‘Lore’ from his Elders much of which he is willing to share with those who respect it. Check out Paul’s cultural consulting website to learn more.

“We are one thing. We are one. Humans aren’t separate from the trees, aren’t separate from the soil, aren’t separate from the waters. We use this in our western aboriginal medical systems and organizations; our definition of well-being is ‘I can’t be well if everything around me isn’t well’. So that’s non-aboriginal people, that’s my brothers and sisters, that’s everything, and then we’re all well.” – Paul Callaghan

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Focusing on the uniqueness of each of our brains, Dr. Nicole Tetreault sits down with Raghu to discuss her book, Insight into a Bright Mind.

Get your copy of Dr. Nicole’s book HERE

This week on Mindrolling, Nicole and Raghu go over:

• Nicole’s devotion to Maharaj-ji and her background in neuroscience
• Nicole’s research in Parkinsons and Autism
• How cancer influenced Nicole’s life course as a scientist
• Fixing models of healing versus bearing witness
• Coming to terms with death and suffering
• Impermanence and remembering to be present
• Changing our karmas through shifting into compassion
• The definition of neurodiversity and advocating
• Neuroplasticity and the capacity for change
• Hallucinogens and opening a doorway for learning
• Letting go of our self-critical voice
• Mirror neurons and empathy
• The pros of anxiety
• The gut-brain connection and the microbiome

About Dr. Nicole Tetreault:

Dr. Nicole Tetreault is a compassion-based neuroscientist, international speaker, author, and meditation teacher, fusing ancient Asian meditation with modern neuroscience to support people accessing the vast benefits of wiring their minds for love! Keep up with Dr. Nicole on her website.

“A big part of the advocacy around neurodiversity is to say no, different isn’t less, it’s just different, and there are so many beautiful strengths about it.” – Dr. Nicole Tetreault

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