About this episode
I was born 11-11-69 into a nonpracticing Jewish family where the subject of spirituality never came up. So when I discovered an intense spiritual yearning within myself at the age of nineteen, I was completely on my own. After graduating from Towson University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and Philosophy in 1994, I had become an avid practitioner of meditation and contemplation of the nature of Reality. As a solitary practitioner, I found my path to be an oscillation of understanding the Nondual view of Dzogchen and experiencing nonordinary events that expanded my understanding of the classic out-of-body experience, astral realm, and the Bardos. The first book of the Trilogy titled "Reality Explained" centers on the peak period of my spiritual journey just after returning home from a weeklong meditation retreat at the world-renowned ‘Monroe Institute’. I had been home less than a week after attending one of their advanced programs when without warning I began to have profound Visions while living out my day-to-day life. I could be taking a walk with my wife and daughter or going about my daily routine at work when I would find myself spontaneously thrust into a vastly more expansive perspective that placed my entire world in a wholly new context. These Visions were progressive in nature as they clearly and pointedly demonstrated the Grand Design of Reality. Some of these Visions were existentially devastating and some were downright terrifying, as they exposed the true nature of the ‘self’. Others were so blissful that they could only be tolerated for brief moments. Ultimately, they coalesced to reveal a model of Reality that is as elegant in its simplicity as it is mind-blowing in its implications. In the first book, I outline a play-by-play account of how four of these Visions shaped a new understanding regarding the true architecture of Reality and how this understanding resolves one of our greatest philosophical paradoxes, the relationship between mind and matter or God and the world. Given the universal nature of these experiences, you will be able to verify each truth for yourself. I wrote this book to demystify the subject of Spiritual Awakening. There are already many excellent books on this subject otherwise known as ‘Nondual Wisdom’ however, what I found to be missing was a book that chronicles the day to day, month to month, and year to year unfolding of the Self in detail. This book is a very personal account of an incredibly impersonal process broken down step by step and presented almost in slow motion. The reader is invited on a journey that chronicles each step along the path to Spiritual Awakening. The details of the climactic experience itself and the final understanding that results from undergoing such a radical and permanent shift in perspective is where I intend to lead you. It is also my hope that this book will serve to demonstrate how the experience of Spiritual Awakening is not something mythical or a fable belonging to some other time or place but an actual shift in perspective that is available right here and now to anyone that is curious enough to explore the true nature of ‘being’. I speak to you from the point of view that we are all sharing the human experience and when we explore the depths of our minds we find the same treasure awaits us all. The fact that I am a husband and a father with a full-time career stands as proof that you don’t have to choose between worldly life and Spiritual Awakening. Books (Reality Explained Trilogy: Enlightenment: Behind the Scenes Being, While Knowing That You Are Not: Surrendering to the sadness and madness of life A Triunistic Model of Reality: What It Is, Does and Emerges As Jed McKenna & The Suicide Letters: Our time together prior to the Invisible Guru Website: thisawarespace.com Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group. Summary and Transcript of this interview. Interview recorded March 20, 2022 YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction to Buddha at the Gas Pump conversation 00:04:32 - The Ordinariness of Experience 00:09:07 - Awareness and Encompassing 00:13:13 - The Balance of Lucidity and Dreaming 00:17:10 - The Illusory Nature of the Waking State 00:21:07 - Questioning the Nature of Existence 00:24:50 - Exploring the Mind and Tools: Monroe Institute, Hemi-sync, OBEs, Salvia, Lucid Dreaming 00:28:48 - Tibetan Buddhism and the Monroe Institute 00:32:36 - Experiencing the True Self 00:36:44 - The Nature of Oneness and Individuation 00:40:16 - Understanding Transactional Reality 00:44:01 - The Inseparability of Awareness and Space 00:48:17 - The Triune of Awareness: The Emergence of a Third Thing 00:52:43 - The Rainbow and the Oneness 00:56:38 - Longing for God and the Void Behind 01:00:51 - The Void and the Stickman 01:04:51 - Recognizing the Mind in Death and the Bardos 01:08:45 - The Concept of Awakening 01:12:27 - The Bodhisattva Vow and Sharing Enlightenment 01:15:59 - The Cycle of Desires and Fulfillment 01:19:49 - The Power of Desire 01:23:42 - Ruling the World or Training Our Minds 01:27:14 - The Ripple Effect of Desires 01:31:11 - Experiencing Everything at Once 01:35:11 - The Void and Potential Energy 01:39:27 - The Realness of Dzogchen and Buddhism 01:43:26 - The Essence and Awakening 01:47:19 - The Turmoil of Enlightenment and the Process of Purification 01:51:29 - The Liberation of Recognition 01:55:50 - The Importance of Seeing the Truth 01:59:33 - Appreciation for Rick