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730. Julie Nelson
Julie Seido Nelson is a transmitted teacher (Sensei) in the Maezumi Roshi Zen lineage. Her home Zen community is the Greater Boston Zen Center, a sangha which has experienced three major upheavals due to teacher arrogance and abuses of power over the last several years. She is also a teacher at the Great Plains Zen Center in Monroe, Wisconsin, and has written for Buddhist audiences in Tricycle magazine and on her blog. Having begun Zen practice in 2004, she has found it to be of immense value. She is deeply saddened when people, either in addition to or instead of realizing the benefits, suffer great harm. When not reflecting writing about Zen, she sometimes writes and give talks based on her pre-retirement academic work as a feminist and ecological economist. She enjoys visiting her two children and two grandchildren and enjoying the New England outdoors. Books: Practicing Safe Zen: Navigating the Pitfalls on the Road to Liberation (Monkfish, 2025) Amazon Indie Pubs Economics for Humans (University of Chicago Press, 2nd ed. 2018) Website: julieanelson.com Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group Interview recorded May 11, 2025
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729. Stephan Martin
Stephan Martin is an astronomer, educator, and author who has taught astronomy, physics, and consciousness studies at colleges, universities, and learning centers across the US for over thirty years. He is currently Director of the Deeptime Leadership Program at the Deeptime Network, where he helps develop and facilitate transformative and innovative leadership programs that support a flourishing future that works for all. Steve is active in leading workshops, lectures, and experiences that bring insights and wisdom from the cosmos down to Earth and everyday life. His first book Cosmic Conversations is a multidisciplinary approach to exploring the universe through the lenses of science, spirituality and culture, and his second book Living a Cosmic Life helps people navigate crisis and change from a cosmic evolutionary perspective. You can find more about him at: cosmicconversations.org and dtnetwork.org. Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group Interview recorded April 25, 2025
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728. Mary Shutan
Mary Mueller Shutan is a spiritual healer, teacher, and author. She is the author of The Spiritual Awakening Guide: Kundalini, Psychic Abilities, and the Conditioned Layers of Reality Managing Psychic Abilities: A Real World Guide for the Highly Sensitive Person Shadow Work for the Soul: Seeing Beauty in the Dark The Body Deva: Working with the Spiritual Consciousness of the Body Working with Kundalini: An Experiential Guide to the Process of Awakening The Shamanic Workbook series, and The Complete Cord Course: Working with Cords through Energy Work and Shamanic Healing She combines her extensive education with her personal meditative practices and direct revelation of the spirit world. She has been serving her community as a spiritual healer and teacher since 2004. Website: maryshutan.com Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group Full interview, edited for readability Interview recorded April 5, 2025
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727. Diane Hennacy Powell
Diane Hennacy Powell, M.D. is the chief scientist involved in The Telepathy Tapes, a podcast about non-speaking autistic children who are extraordinarily telepathic. "In a world that often dismisses the extraordinary as mere fantasy, The Telepathy Tapes dares to explore the profound abilities of non-speakers with autism—individuals who have long been misunderstood and underestimated. These silent communicators possess gifts that defy conventional understanding, from telepathy to otherworldly perceptions, challenging the limits of what we believe to be real. For years, their parents and teachers have quietly witnessed these remarkable abilities, knowing that the time to share their truth would eventually come. But now, as the evidence mounts, the time has come to reveal what has been hidden in plain sight. This groundbreaking series challenges everything we think we know about communication and the human mind, inviting viewers to step into a reality where the impossible is not only possible but happening every day. Through emotional stories and undeniable evidence, The Telepathy Tapes offers a fresh perspective on the profound connections that exist beyond words. Traveling with neuroscientist Dr. Diane Hennacy Powell, witnessing mind-boggling telepathy tests and forging deeply intimate relationships with families around the globe, host Ky Dickens invites you to contemplate the world through the eyes of those who speak without words. Prepare to be captivated, challenged, and ultimately transformed as the series shines a light on the untold capabilities of those who have been underestimated for far too long." Dr. Powell is a Johns Hopkins-trained psychiatrist, therapist, neuroscientist, and public speaker. She develops multidisciplinary theories towards understanding psychological anomalies, such as savant skills and verified accounts of spacetime navigation. Her current research focuses on controlled testing of autistic savants and children reported to be telepathic and/or precognitive by their caregivers. Dr. Powell has been on the faculty at Harvard Medical School, a member of a think tank on human consciousness at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, and Director of Research for the John E. Mack Institute. Her investigation into the neurocorrelates of ESP is discussed in her 2008 book The ESP Enigma: The Scientific Case for Psychic Phenomena, and in Seriously Strange: Thinking Anew about Psychical Experiences. Dr. Powell is also an expert on PTSD and created the psychiatry program for Survivors of Torture, International in San Diego, California. She was the principal author of IONS The 2007 Shift Report: Evidence of a World Transforming and a contributing author to Beyond Forgiveness: Reflections on Atonement, the 2014 Campus Book of the Year at Indiana University. She is also a participant in the #NeverAlone movement for suicide prevention launched by Deepak Chopra. Website: drdianehennacy.com Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group. First BatGap interview with Dr. Powell Summary and transcript of this interview Interview recorded March 23, 2025 YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 Fascinating Anecdote of Precognition  00:03:15 The Rise of the Telepathy Tapes Podcast  00:05:48 Impact of Telepathy Tapes on Community  00:08:39 Telepathy and Consciousness in Pre-Verbal Babies  00:12:29 Psychic Communication in Babies and Autistic Children  00:16:12 Non-Verbal Communication in Animals  00:19:28 Unique Traffic Culture in Iran  00:22:49 Exploring Telepathy among Children  00:25:35 The Phenomenon of Psychic Fields in Lucid Dreaming  00:28:15 Elon Musk's Patent on Telepathy and Its Implications  00:31:36 Paradigm Shifts and Materialism  00:35:31 The Role of Consciousness in Physics and Reality Co-Creation  00:38:40 Remote Viewing and Military Research  00:42:25 Social Benefits of the Hill
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726. Dr. Neil Schuitevoerder
Dr. Neil Schuitevoerder, a clinical and organizational psychologist, has been doing spiritual practices for 50 years. He's no longer interested in his ego's story, so here's the story of his soul's evolution: He had early instruction in how to use a pendulum, which led to the opening of his intuitive knowing, which has continued to expand into higher stages. His intense meditation practices in his 20s led to illness, and he was guided to return to a householder life as husband and father. He continued practices in mystical Judaism, then turned to Vedanta, kundalini, and other Hindu practices. With a kundalini master, and with the Diamond Approach technique of Inquiry, he opened the higher chakras and began to experience states of unity and nonduality, first with a near object, such as a tree, then with a far object, such as the galaxy. Slowly, the dualities of self/other, near/far, past/future, dissolved, and his knowing expanded to include the distant past, his past lives, his rebirth in this lifetime, and his ability to travel in subtle bodies to the subtle planes, including conversing with the deceased. His mind emptied out, then his body became empty, containing the whole galaxy, a nondual body. Then his astral body emptied out, and he no longer "traveled" but was united with the subtle mental and causal planes, all within him. The state of bliss is always accessible. The local identity of Neil remains when he functions in the world, as he lives in dual and nondual levels of awareness simultaneously. Neil's has a podcast with his wife, Connie Zweig, about his ongoing awakening and what it's like to live in the world in advanced levels of consciousness -- Dr. Neil's Spiritual Awakening to Nonduality. It posts on Apple, Spotify, and all platforms. Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group. Summary and transcript of this interview Interview recorded March 15, 2025 YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 Different Levels of Perception  00:02:35 Soul's Evolution and Spiritual Practices  00:06:23 Journey of Consciousness and Skepticism  00:10:27 Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences  00:13:59 Exploring Consciousness and Cosmic Manifestation  00:17:19 Extraordinary Abilities in Blind Individuals  00:21:08 Understanding Freedom and Non-Attachment  00:25:32 The Importance of Moral Development in Spiritual Growth  00:30:46 Exploring Multidimensional Consciousness  00:34:03 Exploring the Buddhic Plane and Astral Projection  00:38:55 Understanding Subtle Body Layers and Incarnation Process  00:42:07 Exploring Reincarnation and Astral Realms  00:46:36 Exploring the Universe and Spiritual Liberation  00:51:36 The Nature of True Governance according to Lao Tzu  00:54:01 The Role of Ego in Daily Life  00:57:52 Understanding the Reduction of Thoughts and Ego  01:02:11 Understanding A.H. Almas's Protocol  01:06:05 Telepathic Abilities and Humanity's Shift  01:11:09 The Coexistence of Creation and Destruction Forces  01:15:21 The Cosmic Perspective: Our Place in the Universe  01:19:38 Energy Healing and Silent Therapy  01:23:35 Do Microbes Have Souls and Their Evolutionary Journey  01:27:50 Chakras and the Evolution of Consciousness  01:31:00 Understanding Chakras and Energy Centers  01:34:55 Exploring Spiritual Evolution and Incarnation  01:38:52 Understanding Shadow Material and Spiritual Bypassing  01:43:09 The Importance of Spiritual Community and Marriage  01:47:18 Embracing Pain Through Meditation  01:51:31 Exploring the Connection Between Consciousness and the Body-Heart  01:55:45 Exploring the Concept of the Vajra Body  01:58:30 Upcoming Interview with Diane Hennessey Powell on Telepathy Tapes
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