Bridging science and spirit, Stephanie Karzon Abrams chats with Raghu about integrating psychedelics and soul into the medical community.

This time on Mindrolling, Raghu and Stephanie delve into: 

• Out-of-body experiences through music
• Addressing identity changes after Traumatic Brain Injuries
• Utilizing plants to promote better health
• Reconnecting to ourselves through psychedelic therapies
• Trauma from displacement and immigration
• Bridging science and spirit by integrating holistic views into medicine
• The mental health impact of physical health issues
• Getting the medical world to want to heal the mind and soul as well as the physical
• The ways that psychedelic experiences can change us
• The importance of having a guide through psychedelic experiences
• Sitting with discomfort and being open to the lessons
• How music expands our minds and creates a space for connection

About Stephanie Karzon Abrams:

Stephanie Karzon Abrams, a neuropharmacologist with a Masters of Science in Clinical Pharmacology, is the founding advisor of Beyond The Bench consultancy. The firm provides science, research, operations, and strategy solutions to organizations and clinics in the natural product, plant medicine, and psychedelic sectors. A recognized leader in shaping the future of integrative and innovative healthcare, Stephanie Karzon Abrams champions the exploration of novel therapeutic approaches. Her interests extend beyond neurology, encompassing plant medicines, women’s health, and the potential of music to enhance healing. Check out Stephanie’s music label, Public Secret.

“Anybody who has any kind of health challenge will have their mental health affected. There is an impact. Just treating that illness or symptom is not enough; you need to heal the mind. You need to heal the soul. They’re all interconnected. There’s no reason why medical science, especially when we talk about psychedelics, can’t address all of that. For me, that’s the ultimate goal, if I can use research as a tool to achieve this then I’ve succeeded.” – Stephanie Karzon Abrams

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Written in the key of grief and the melody of praise, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer sits down with Raghu to discuss her newest poetry book, The Unfolding.

Enjoy your own copy of The Unfolding to read Rosemerry’s heart-opening poems! Purchase the book HERE

This week, tune into Rosemerry and Raghu’s conversation on: 

• The loss of Rosemerry’s son and father
• Living through seasons of extreme grief
• Understanding the gift of a poem
• Oppositional feelings experienced at the same time (pain + joy, etc.)
• Recognizing how desperately we need eachother
• The Grand Quilt, The Medicine of Surrender, and more poems written and read by Rosemerry
• Brave prayers and the things that open us / help us grow
• Inspiration from Gregory Orr and Leonard Cohen
• How grief strips us naked and makes us vulnerable
• Raghu sends us off with a beautiful Kabir poem from the book Painting from the Palette of Love

About Rossemerry Trommer:

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer is an American poet associated with Colorado. She was Poet Laureate of San Miguel County, Colorado from 2006–2010, and was named Poet Laureate of Colorado’s Western Slope by the Telluride Institute from 2015–2017. Most recently, Rosemerry published The Unfolding, a book of poetry exploring grief. Rosemerry was featured on TEDxTalks to discuss the art of changing metaphors and created an album of poetry called Dark Praise with Steve Law. Check out Rosemerry’s website, Wordwoman, and her daily poetry blog, A Hundred Falling Veils. You can also join Rosemerry in an immersive daily experience of poetry and reflection on the Ritual app.

“So many people reached out to help me… they’d say, ‘What can we do?’ And I’d just say, ‘Open me. Help me stay open. Please, help me stay open.’” – Rosemerry Trommer

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Daniele Bolelli contrasts the beauty of community and selfless leadership in Native culture with the epidemic of loneliness in America.

In this episode, Daniele and Raghu roll through: 

• Native American history and lessons
• Daniele’s first exposure to Native culture through his journalist mother
• How the Sundance ceremony shifted Daniele’s entire world
• The purpose of Sundance ceremony and praying for the welfare of all living beings
• The beauty and power of community we can see in Native American culture
• Loneliness in America as an epidemic
• Discussing a few of the great Native American chiefs, like Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull
• Thinking collectively for the well-being of an entire village
• Why a functioning community or tribe is essential for collective ideologies to work
• The Native American myth of the Wendigo as a metaphor for insatiable craving

Grab the book Daniele suggests, Black Elk Speaks, for more Native American wisdom and stories.

About Daniele Bolelli:

Daniele Bolelli is an Italian writer, philosopher, and professor of comparative religion. Currently living in Los Angeles, Danielle Bolelli is also a martial artist and podcaster. Learn more about Danielle Bolelli and his published works as well as his suggested reading list on Daniellebolelli.com.

Be sure to subscribe to Danielle’s podcast, History on Fire.

“Loneliness is one of those epidemics that is killing us on a mental health level. When you see functioning communities, it’s a beautiful thing because that sense of relation that exists with this group of people that are not just your nuclear family but extend beyond that.” – Daniele Bolelli

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Sharing inspiration from the monk Thomas Merton, James Finley explains what he has learned about God, healing, and mystical paths.

Grab James Finley’s Memoir, The Healing Path, HERE

This week, James and Raghu have a deep conversation about: 

• How James discovered a connection to God through Thomas Merton
• James’ time living in the Abbey of Gethsemani immediately after high school
• The resonance that happens between awakened people
• The secret, safe place that God can commune with us
• Never forgetting what we learn from dark times
• Having empathy for others through our own suffering
• Seeing children as our mentors
• Becoming an act of acceptance for the unexplainable mystery
• The healing stories in the gospels

About James Finley:

James Finley is an author, clinical psychologist, and spiritual director. He is one of the core faculty members of the Center for Action and Contemplation (with Richard Rohr) and is host of the CAC podcast “Turning to the Mystics.” A former novice under Thomas Merton at the Abbey of Gethsemani, he is the author of the classic book Merton’s Palace of Nowhere: A Search for God through Awareness of the True Self. A leading figure in the integration of psychology and spiritual direction, he has led workshops and retreats around the country.

“Often, when the terror is overtaking us, it isn’t until later that we reflect on it. We realize it isn’t that it wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t just terrible. That precisely because it got so dark I was able to see a light shining in the darkness that had come in looking for me, or it was there all along and I didn’t know it.”– James Finley

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Turning to Celtic wisdom, author and teacher John Philip Newell chats with Raghu about reconnecting to our home, Mother Earth.

Pick up your copy of John’s new book, The Great Search: Turning to Earth and Soul in the Quest for Healing and Home, HERE.

This week, John and Raghu get into: 

• John’s upbringing and being drawn to the natural world
• The Celtic lineage and having awareness for the sacredness of nature
• Knowing that wisdom resides deep within us, not outside of us
• Seeing the universe as an expression of the divine
• What we can learn from native traditions
• A radical new beginning through humility and relation to earth and one another
• Addressing the divine in one another and in every life form
• Breaking cycles of war and repetition
• The contributions of Carl Jung on the collective and individual unconscious
• Merging Eastern and Western traditions

Check out The Marriage of East and West to learn more about the topics John and Raghu reference

About John Philip Newell:

John Philip Newell is a Celtic teacher and author of spirituality who calls the modern world to reawaken to the sacredness of Earth and every human being. In 2016 he began the Earth & Soul initiative and teaches regularly in the United States and Canada as well as leading international pilgrimage weeks on Iona in the Western Isles of Scotland. His PhD is from the University of Edinburgh and he has authored over fifteen books, including his award-winning publication, Sacred Earth Sacred Soul, which was the 2022 Gold Winner of the Nautilus Book Award for Spirituality and Religious Thought of the West. His new book, also with HarperOne (and published in the UK by Wild Goose), is The Great Search (August 2024), in which he looks at the great spiritual yearnings of humanity today in the context of the decline of religion as we have known it.

Join senior meditation teachers David Nichtern and Rebecca D’Onofrio for a free online discussion on the path of developing one's own meditation practice and supporting others who wish to explore this transformative path. 

Register for free today: The Journey of Becoming a Meditation Teacher | Sep. 19th @ 6:00pm ET

“For me, it was the introduction to Celtic wisdom that awakened me to knowing that wisdom is deep within us and the divine is at the very heart of our beings. We don’t have to somehow invoke or implore a distance presence.” – John Philip Newell

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Connecting the inner world and the outer world, physicist Federico Faggin reveals his work studying the physics of spirituality.

Follow this link to order your copy of Federico's book: Irreducible: Consciousness, Life, Computers and Human Nature

This episode of Mindrolling with Federico and Raghu includes these topics: 

• Federico's life growing up in Italy
• Neuroscience and studying consciousness
• How physical feelings come from electrical processes in the brain
• Connecting spirituality and physics
• Considering if a computer could be programmed for consciousness
• Faggin's experience recognizing the inner love that comes out of us
• How quantum physics proves the interconnection within the universe
• Federico's perspective on freewill and determinism in our lives
• Going beyond what science has done
• The limited freedom we have while incarnated
• Predicting our behavior and how our consciousness is watching all
• Grace and the unpredictability of free will
• The divine mystery and why it will never be resolved

About Federico Faggin:

Federico Faggin is an Italian-American physicist, engineer, inventor and entrepreneur. He is best known for designing the first commercial microprocessor, the Intel 4004. He led the 4004 project and the design group during the first five years of Intel's microprocessor effort. Federico Faggin is one of the greatest luminaries of high technology alive today; his work underlies the modern world's entire information technology. His new book, Irreducible: Consciousness, Life, Computers and Human Nature, was just published in May of 2024.

“I eventually ended up deciding that I was going to spend the rest of my life studying consciousness and trying to connect spirituality and physics. In other worlds, connect the other inner world of experience and meaning with the outer world of symbols and matter in space and time.” – Federico Faggin

Join senior meditation teachers David Nichtern and Rebecca D’Onofrio for a free online discussion on the path of developing one's own meditation practice and supporting others who wish to explore this transformative path. 

Register for free today: The Journey of Becoming a Meditation Teacher | Sep. 19th @ 6:00pm ET

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Focusing on curiosity, patience, and self-compassion, Cortland Dahl joins Raghu to go over his new book, A Meditator's Guide to Buddhism.

This week, Cortland and Raghu discuss: 

• The mystical practice of making aspirations
• Tuning into ourselves and trusting ourselves
• Learning through our relationships
• Recognizing that the next Buddha is the sangha
• Nurturing sparks of inspiration through practice
• How meeting teachers helps us realize our own inner depth
• Why curiosity can move us along the spiritual path
• Patience, creating space, and being vs. doing
• Self-compassion in a world of chaos and uncertainty
• Discomfort as a zone of growth
• Expanding our motivations for doing our practice
• Seeing the awakened nature in everyone and everything

Pick up a copy of A Meditator's Guide to Buddhism HERE

About Cortland Dahl:

Cortland Dahl is a Buddhist scholar and translator, author, meditation teacher, and a collaborator on various scientific studies. After receiving a Master’s Degree in Buddhist Studies, he lived for eight years in India and Nepal, where he spent long periods in solitary retreat in the Himalayan foothills and taught courses on Buddhism, meditation, and Tibetan language at Kathmandu University’s Center for Buddhist Studies and at the Tergar Institute, which he co-founded in 2007. He went on to study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was mentored by the renowned neuroscientist Dr. Richard Davidson and received a Ph.D. in Mind, Brain, and Contemplative Science, the first ever degree of its kind awarded by the university. Cortland's current work focuses on studying the psychological and neural mechanisms of different families of meditation practice. He is also the creator of the Healthy Minds program, a well-being training program that integrates insights from scientific research with a comprehensive path of contemplative training. Keep up with Cortland HERE or check out his books HERE.

“We have no clue of this depth and richness that is inside of us. How we stumble through life completely oblivious to these amazing qualities of mind and somehow we just haven’t learned to see it. Then, you meet a teacher and it gets cracked open a little bit and you start getting a glimpse just by being in their orbit.” – Cortland Dahl

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This week's Mindrolling is a collection of some of the best moments from Raghu’s interviews with mindfulness and metta experts Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg.

In this special episode:

• Clip 1 (Ep. 65): Raghu and Joseph explore the foundations of mindfulness, the influence of habits, and how everything hinges on the tip of motivation.
• Clip 2 (Ep. 44): Raghu and Sharon discuss metta practice and practical ways to connect with others through loving-kindness.
• Clip 3 (Ep. 224): Raghu and Joseph delve into the realities of mindfulness and how the craving for becoming can hijack our meditation practice.
• Clip 4 (Ep. 225): Raghu and Sharon touch on the Eightfold Path, the balance of equanimity and effort, and the universal truth of starting over.
• Clip 5 (Ep. 457): Joseph leads a meditation on awareness, beautifully punctuated with a haiku poem.

“And we can suffuse the whole field of mindfulness with the feeling of loving-kindness. Friendliness towards our own experience and well-wishing for all others. May all beings be at peace.” – Joseph Goldstein

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David Silver and Raghu sit down for a conversation about maintaining equanimity in the face of multiple humanitarian and ecological crises around the world.

Join comedian Duncan Trussell and Buddhist teacher David Nichtern on September 3rd for a free online talk: Imposter Syndrom & Teaching Meditation

This week, David and Raghu discuss: 

• The divided state of our country
• Dealing with negative emotions like depression and loneliness
• Adjusting our internal behavior in order to help others and ourselves
• Looking to spiritual practitioners for answers and guidance
• The current political landscape of our world
• The necessity of having both wisdom and compassion
• Remaining equanimous in the face of global crises
• Being aware of spiritual materialism
• Why a sitting meditation practice is integral for self-understanding
• Overcoming the afflictions and distortions of the mind
• Sending loving kindness to all corners of our hearts
• Transforming ourselves to make the world a better place

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 Maharaj-ji. Two days before he left his body, Maharaj-ji instructed K.C. Tewari to take care of the Westerners, which he did resolutely until the day he died in 1997. Silver’s #1 charting MGM/UA/Warners film, “The Compleat Beatles” is the critically acclaimed biopic movie about history’s most famous band. The term ‘rockumentary’ was first applied to this two-hour movie. Rolling Stone recently described the film as a “masterwork.” Silver’s Warner Brothers’ feature film, “No Nukes” also started the whole trend of music/activism feature documentaries.

“We are overwhelmed in so many different ways. This, everybody, is the first thing to do. Many people will say ‘I find it difficult. My mind wanders. I can’t really meditate.’ It’s called practice. You start with 3 minutes, you go to 5, 10, 15, 20. You do it because this overwhelm is absolutely untenable for us without some practice.” – Raghu Markus

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Using modern tools to support inner transformation, ServiceSpace founder Nipun Mehta offers innovative solutions for turning artificial intelligence into collective heart intelligence.

Learn more about ServiceSpace’s unique model of organizing small acts of service at servicespace.org.

In this episode, Nipun and Raghu chat about: 

• Nipun’s upbringing and finding the infinity behind each moment
• Living a life of service
• Using artificial intelligence for inner transformation and the emergence of compassion
• Fear of AI versus it’s potential positive uses
• Collective heart Intelligence versus today’s artificial intelligence
• Taking care of others as others take care of you
• Nipun and his wife’s pilgrimage through India
• Looking at what we can do to offer kindness to the world
• Being sustainable through being related
• The physical and emotional rewards of being generous
• Shifting from transaction into relationship

About Nipun Mehta:

Nipun Mehta is the founder of ServiceSpace (formerly CharityFocus), an incubator of projects that works at the intersection of volunteerism, technology, and the gift economy. What started as an experiment with four friends in Silicon Valley has now grown to a global ecosystem of over 400,000 members that has delivered millions of dollars in service for free. Mehta has received many awards, including the Jefferson Award for Public Service, the President’s Volunteer Service Award, and Wavy Gravy’s Humanitarian award. He serves on the advisory boards of the Seva Foundation, the Dalai Lama Foundation, and the Greater Good Science Center. Check out some of Nipun’s TedTalks HERE and HERE.

“Can we bring in this vision, this intention, this possibility? Can our modern tools support our inner transformation, which then can out of a heart of service flow out into the world through a very different design pattern?” – Nipun Mehta

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Discussing her new book, Ordinary Mysticism, Mirabai Starr breaks free from religious institutions and shares heart-opening mystical wisdom.

Mirabai’s upcoming book, Ordinary Mysticism: Your Life as Sacred Ground, will be released in September 2024. Preorder your copy HERE!

This time on Mindrolling, Mirabai and Raghu converse about: 

• How beginner’s mind and humility help us cope with the world
• Our capacity to feel the pain of the world as our superpower
• The dark night of the soul and Saint John of the Cross
• Mirabai’s loss of her daughter and the transformational power of suffering
• The broken, open heart and expanding our heart to contain grief and reality
• Being with ‘what is’ – as an act of devotion and love
• Religious ‘polyamory’ and intimate encounters with numerous spiritual traditions
• Mirabai’s baptism and dedication to peace in the Middle East
• Why mystical experiences do not need to happen in the container of religion

About Mirabai Starr:

Mirabai Starr is an award-winning author of creative non-fiction and contemporary translations of sacred literature. She taught Philosophy and World Religions at the University of New Mexico-Taos for 20 years and now teaches and speaks internationally on contemplative practice and inter-spiritual dialogue. A certified bereavement counselor, Mirabai helps mourners harness the transformational power of loss. Check out her many books and learn more at MirabaiStarr.com.

“Often, organized institutionalized religious spaces and belief systems (this is my belief) can be an obstacle, an impediment to an actual mystical experience, if by mystical experience we mean an experience of intimacy with the sacred as love.” – Mirabai Starr

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