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CHITHEADS with Jacob Kyle (Embodied Philosophy) — Religion & Spirituality
CHITHEADS with Jacob Kyle (Embodied Philosophy)

Chitheads is a smorgasbord of contemplative education. Each episode is like a mini masterclass, exploring the diverse landscapes of spiritual practice, philosophy, and the transformative power of embodied knowledge. Each episode is crafted with the curious and open heart in mind, aiming to illuminate the path of self-inquiry and empowerment for yoga teachers, scholar-practitioners, meditators and other spiritual seekers and contemplative folks from around the world. From the profound teachings of Yoga and Buddhism to the sometimes complex theories of contemplative psychology and the vibrant tapestry of indigenous wisdom, our guests share insights that awaken, challenge, and inspire. With every episode, we dive into discussions that matter, exploring questions that guide us closer to our true selves and to a deeper understanding of the world around us. Our mission is to create a space where wisdom (and not fame, power, or money) is the center of gravity and what we are most concerned about cultivating in this lifetime. Join us on Chitheads as we explore the liminal spaces of consciousness, embrace the complexities of the human experience without dogma or self-righteousness, and discover the beauty again and again of the interconnectedness of all things. Subscribe to Chitheads on YouTube and your favorite podcast platform, and please consider leaving us a positive review on one iTunes, or your favorite podcast player. Come dive into these in-depth conversations that illuminate our path of contemplative discovery. If you’ve felt like you’re the only one full of chit – full of consciousness or awareness ˀ– welcome home. This community of listeners, seekers, and scholar-practitioners is for you.

Latest Episodes:

Sally Kempton, Judith Blackstone, Rae Johnson, Scott Lyons and Tara Judelle on Somatics and Spirituality (#96) Jul 23, 2019

Show notes

This episode of the CHITHEADS podcast is from a previous panel discussion hosted by Embodied Philosophy on the intersection of somatics and spirituality. Featuring esteemed teachers Sally Kempton, Judith Blackstone, Rae Johnson, Scott Lyons and Tara Judelle. DR. SCOTT LYONS Dr. Scott Lyons is dedicated to teaching embodiment as a way of exploring human development, healing and transformation. Scott is the co-creator of Embodied Flow™, a Clinical Psychologist, and Mind-Body Medicine practitioner. Additionally, Scott is a Certified Body-Mind Centering® Teacher, Cranio-Sacral Therapist, Visceral Manipulation Therapist, Infant Developmental Movement Educator, Movement Therapist, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, Clinical Hypnotherapist, Mindfulness-based Executive Coach, and Focusing Practitioner. TARA JUDELLE Tara Judelle is a world renowned yoga facilitator moved by bringing humans into their innate sense of freedom and purpose. After 30 years experimenting in all forms of movement, Tara co-created the School of Embodied Flow™ in 2014 to bring her current passions into a modern movement of Yoga. From a background in literature, film writing, directing and dance, Tara brings students on a journey of discovery of their numinous self through laughter, meditation, embodiment, movement & inquiry. DR. RAE JOHNSON Rae Johnson, PhD, RSMT is a scholar, activist and registered somatic movement therapist who currently chairs the Somatic Studies specialization in the Department of Psychology doctoral program at Pacifica Graduate Institute. The author of several books – including Elemental Movement, Knowing in our Bones, and Embodied Social Justice – Rae teaches and trains internationally on embodied micro-aggressions, somatic research methods, and the poetic body. DR. JUDITH BLACKSTONE Judith Blackstone, PhD, is an innovative spiritual teacher and a licensed psychotherapist in New York with forty years of clinical experience. She developed the Realization Process, a method of embodied psychological and relational healing and nondual spiritual awakening. She is the author of Belonging Here, The Enlightenment Process, The Intimate Life, The Empathic Ground and Trauma and the Unbound Body. An audio series of the Realization Process is available from Sounds True. SALLY KEMPTON Sally Kempton is a widely respected teacher of meditation and spiritual wisdom known to help students work with meditative experience as a framework for practical life-change. A former swami in a Vedic tradition, she has spent over four decades delving deeply into meditation and self-inquiry. Spirituality and Healthmagazine call her work “the meditation books your heart wants you to read.” She is on the faculty at Esalen and Kripalu, teaches meditation on Yogaglo & leads international retreats.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nevine Michaan on Yoga as Practical Mysticism (#95) Jul 09, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, we discuss:

How the world and yoga are open sourced.
Vocabulary and framework of Daoist vs Indian yoga.
The yoga technique doesn’t matter. What matters is that it is well done, that you have the skills and get it all into integrity (mind, body, breath).
Useful metaphors and maps to define, understand and explore the territory of our bodies.
Mystical practices, such as yoga, are practical and pragmatic.
Participate in the awe. Speak the language of the spirit, play with math; the universal language that transcends the cultural. Music is math. Yoga is music.
Visit https://www.katonahyoga.com/about for the resources referenced in this podcast.

Nevine Michaan, Founder and creator of Katonah Yoga possesses a gift for teaching the physical and esoteric aspects of yoga. Many consider her a philosopher, a poet; a seer. Her teaching methods are articulated intelligently with meaning and metaphor. Nevine's practical approach entwines the body, the breath and the imagination. Her unique dialogue and insight are matched by her extraordinary ability to convey and communicate her keen acumen. Michaan, born in Egypt in 1954, moved to New York at the age of three. In her early 20’s while studying history and comparative religion at Vassar College she discovered meditation. Nevine understood that there is a function(s), a formality and a fit to the universe and that yoga is a tool, a technique–a practice with repetition which gives us the opportunity to participate in life intelligently and joyfully. Nevine started a daily practice in NYC with renowned yoga instructor Allan Bateman, in the 1970s. She became fully immersed in what would become her life’s work(s). She began teaching Yoga in 1980 and founded the Katonah Yoga Center in Katonah, New York in 1986. Nevine continues to teach in her studio in Bedford Hills, NY and to inspire those both near and far, of all ages and backgrounds.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David Regelin on Teaching & Yoga Nonsense (#94) Jun 17, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, we discuss:

How David found yoga, his evolution as a teacher, and the teachers who have influenced him.
His current view on his 2012 interview in New York magazine: David Regelin's Unorthodox Style of Yoga
Yoga skepticism
Yoga as a human science
A few principles from his Geometry of Yoga
The 200-hour yoga teacher training model

David Regelin is a traveling yoga teacher based in New York City. Sought after for his workshops and teacher's intensives, his unique talent for simple yet precise articulation of form and technique, echo in the bodies and minds of his students. As a young teacher, David was at the forefront of what became a popular trend of choreographed vinyasa classes to the sound of live music. He created the "Multi-Intenso" experience, a class that garnered a cult following in New York City. "Multi-Intenso" is a technique based, athletic and dynamic style of yoga centered around handstands. Over time, David's reflective nature and incessant personal investigation into the potential transformative powers that a yoga practice can give, has led him to a more comprehensive approach to how physical form relates to psychological and emotional states. Inclined toward the mystical and timeless, greatly influenced by intensive study with Nevine Michaan, David's practice and teaching have evolved into a more refined adaptation of how an asana (postural) practice can instigate profound mind-body awareness.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Oneika Mays on Privilege and Incarceration (#93) Jun 04, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, we discuss:

Yoga as activism in the context of freedom and agency
How her contemplative practices have shifted her relationship to racism and how anger isn’t the only way to create change
The many tracks of activism and how can we work together
What a practice looks like in the context of a correctional facility or rehab facility
Impact of meditation and yoga and how they can address the unique challenges that folks who are incarcerated experience
Privilege and reparations around race, indigenous peoples, homophobia, sexism and poverty
Our relationship with social media – are you “meditating” on Facebook?

People referenced in the podcast are: Erika Hart, Rachel Cargle, Adrienne Maree Brown and Susan Barataki Oneika Mays (LMT, E-RYT) transitioned to yoga and meditation from a career in corporate retail over 10 years ago. Oneika used that experience to support social justice non-profits and teach meditation and yoga inside jails. As Training Director at Liberation Prison Yoga she co-facilitated trainings with teachers and practitioners interested in serving incarcerated populations. As Director of Operations onf Transformation Yoga Project she supported a team that has served over 10k people and leads yoga teacher trainings inside prisons. Today, Oneika is the Mindfulness Coach at Rikers Island and facilitates workshops around cultivating resilience and compassion through meditation and other mindfulness practices. At Rikers she works one-on-one with incarcerated folks. She believes that meditation and mindfulness practices can forge a path to freedom and build resilience. Oneika is passionate about supporting teachers and leaders who bring peace and healing to QBIPOC and folks impacted by the incarceration and its aftermath.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jill Purce on the Healing Voice (#92) Apr 16, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, we discuss:

Symbol of spirals and the journey of the soul
How forms come into being
Morphic resonance and how working with sound relates to Rupert Sheldrake's theory
Western culture's loss of relationship to sound and the effects of externalizing sound as entertainment
The human body as a wind instrument
Reclaiming our voices through the use of the voice as a meditative tool
Hear a sample of Jill’s overtone chanting - a magical, meditative technique
Untangling the web of ancestral fields to heal families and ancestors

Jill Purce is recognized internationally as the pioneer of both the sound & the ancestral healing movements. In the1970’s she introduced the teaching of overtone chanting throughout the world & the spiritual potential of the voice for healing & meditation. In the early ‘70’s she lived & worked with German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen exploring the spiritual dimension of music. She learned overtone chanting in the Himalayas with the chant master of the Gyutö Tibetan Monastery. Jill practiced Dzogchen since 1978 with, Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche. In the last 40 years she pioneered her workshops, Healing Voice & Healing the Family and Ancestors, the latter a unique combination of Family constellations, chant & ceremony. Author of The Mystic Spiral: Journey of the Soul. Her recordings include Overtone Chanting Meditations and The Healing Voice. She lives in London with her husband, Rupert Sheldrake and their two sons, musician Cosmo and ecologist Merlin. www.healingvoice.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Julie Brown Yau on Rage and Trauma (#91) Mar 19, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, we discuss:

Whole body / whole brain approaches to addressing trauma through the body, mind, intellect, imagination and spiritual practice
Trauma that happens to us when essential needs are not being met (what we don’t receive, what doesn’t happen to us)
Inter-generational trauma from gene expression, between mother and father, birthing process and developmental stages
The role of anger and rage in the process of healing
Spiritual practices and addressing trauma
Her book The Body Awareness Workbook for Trauma, coming August 2019.

Julie Brown Yau, PhD, has a 30-year background in psychological, somatic and spiritual traditions providing her with a unique depth of knowledge and direct experience. Julie’s unified approach for addressing developmental and complex trauma, includes the latest neuroscientific & psychosomatic findings, depth psychology, & Eastern wisdom. Julie is an author, speaker, and has a private practice in Laguna Beach CA. She has a passion for resolving trauma, reducing stress and suffering while cultivating compassion. Julie supports those on a spiritual path to embody realizations and assists those going through spiritual emergence to create a fully embodied and rich emotional life. Julie assists individuals and groups gain healing from ongoing repercussions of trauma and adversity, while enhancing psychospiritual growth and the expansion of consciousness. More info at http://juliebrownyau.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rupert Sheldrake on Materialist Assumptions (#90) Feb 19, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, we discuss:

Obstacles to the science of spiritual practice - limitations of a materialist view
Engagement with the Indian tradition and how it helped him return to Christianity
Intention of a pilgrimage and how it differs from being a tourist
The interplay of form and energy and the common ground with a Trinitarian view
Human genome project - what we know and don't know (e.g. shape, form, instincts)
The brain as a mediator and not the cause
His book Science and Spiritual Practicesand how science helps validate seven practices on which all religions are built and spiritual practices in a secular world

Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, is a biologist and author of more than eighty-five technical papers and eight books, including Science and Spiritual Prcatices, and the co-author of six books. He was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge University, a Research Fellow of the Royal Society, and a Frank Know Fellow at Harvard. He worked in India as Principal Plant Physiologist at the International Crops Research Institute ICRISAT, and also lived for two years in the Benedictine ashram of Fr Bede Griffiths in Tamil Nadu. From 2005-2010, he was Director of the Perrott-Warrick Project for the study of unexplained human and animal abilities, funded from Trinity College, Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and of Schumacher College in Devon, England. He lives in London and is married to Jill Purce, with whom he has two sons. His web site is www.sheldrake.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John Greer on Perennial Philosophy (#89) Feb 12, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, we discuss:

Role of his travels and his perennial philosophy
Using metaphors to make sense of non-duality (e.g. “hole in the cheese”)
Position of the status of education in this country from the perspective of his perennial position (occupational oriented vs. wholeness as a person, process of individuation as children)
Exile and Return
Verifiability
Wonder and the extraordinary beauty of life

John Greer has spent nearly twenty years inquiring deeply into sacred texts and teachings of the world's traditions, spurred by his own spiritual search. He is a dedicated practitioner of meditation and has taught insight meditation for over a decade. John Greer holds a Ph.D. in education from Pennsylvania State University, and in three decades as a professor at the University of Memphis published numerous articles, co-authored several books on education and special education and was a recipient of the university's highest award for distinguished teaching. He also served for two years in Nepal with the Peace Corps and has traveled extensively on six continents. He lives with his wife in Memphis. To learn more about John Greer and his work, visit www.SeeingKnowingBeing.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David "Davidya" Buckland on Stages of Consciousness (#88) Jan 12, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, we discuss:

His continual journey of awakening
7 stages of consciousness
Awakening inside and outside of a tradition
Chasing experience
“Feeling value” and its role in the process of awakening
Personal and impersonal - changing focus
Ethics and awakening - three folds of the ego
Rising of the consciousness in our modern world

David Buckland is a former IT consultant who lives on Vancouver Island in the temperate rain forest of SW Canada. He began his spiritual journey in the mid-70's. On a long retreat soon after, he began witnessing full time and refined perception clicked on with a bang. He has now been meditating and exploring consciousness for more than 40 years. Soon after awakening in 2007, he began writing online under the nickname "Davidya." The name and related blog (Davidya.ca) soon took on a life of its own. In 2011, he earned an MA in Vedic Science, studying Vedic literature, Sanskrit, and world religions. He has observed and spoken with many people having shifts in consciousness and has been working to synthesize historical understanding with modern experience.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Judith Blackstone on the Realization Process (#87) Jan 08, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, we discuss:

Embodied nonduality – Judith’s definition of embodiment and nonduality
Fundamental features of the Realization Process and the 2 main exercises (inhabiting the whole body and tuning into the subtle vertical channel)
Her new book Trauma and the Unbound Body
Realization Process techniques that contribute to trauma work
Importance of inhabiting the body and the space of consciousness before releasing trauma

Judith Blackstone, PhD, developed the Realization Process, a method of embodied psychological and relational healing and nondual spiritual awakening. She is the author of Trauma and the Unbound Body, Belonging Here, The Enlightenment Process, The Intimate Life, and The Empathic Ground. An audio series of the Realization Process is available from Sounds True. For information on Judith's teaching schedule, visit www.realizationprocess.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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