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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:

Kenneth Rose on the Brain, Mystical Experience & Religious Studies (#86) Jan 01, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, we discuss:

Commonality between mystical experiences
Expressing difference vs. unity and our ability to communicate with each other; difference doesn’t exist without sameness
New essentialism - what are the general ideas that allow us to speak from our various silos and communicate with each other
Practitioner hat and the scholar hat (fetishization of the particular)
Mysticism and neuroscience
Spiritual basis of life expresses itself in multiple registers - physical, psychological, and metaphysical levels
Meditation as the fundamental tool to discover these realms and experience

Kenneth Rose, Ph.D., is Senior Research Fellow at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California, and emeritus professor of philosophy and religion at Christopher Newport University in Virginia. He teaches and publishes in the areas of comparative religion, comparative mysticism, religious pluralism, and the philosophy of meditation. He developed and lead the online course “Wisdom from World Religions,” which is supported by a Templeton World Charity Foundation grant (archived at https://radianceofawareness.com/course/). His degrees include an M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School and an M.A. and Ph.D. in the Study of Religion from Harvard University. At Harvard, he was a Fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions. His books include Yoga, Meditation, and Mysticism: Contemplative Universals and Meditative Landmarks and Pluralism: The Future of Religion. Influenced as much by the Bhagavad Gītā as by Thomas Merton and the Buddha, Prof. Rose has engaged in a lifelong quest to understand and practice spirituality in light of the sublime mystical texts and practices in the world’s wisdom traditions. More information is available at amazon.com/author/kennethroseSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rae Johnson on Embodying Social Justice (#85) Dec 23, 2018

Show notes

“Unless we transform the wounds of oppression in our own bodies and then by extension into our own embodied relationships with others...no amount of macro-sociological institutional legislative change will last because we keep producing the inequities at the grass roots levels.” In this episode, we discuss:

Personal experience always emerges out of socio-economic context
Importance of joining the personal with the professional
Moving past oppressors vs. oppressed and finding a common ground about our pain
Somatic literacy and illiteracy, cultivating somatic intelligence
Not all yoga is somatic – feeling yourself from the inside out

Rae Johnson, PhD, RSMT is a scholar/activist and registered somatic movement therapist who chairs the Somatic Studies in Depth 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 activism, somatic research methods, and the poetic body.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David Loy on Nonduality (#84) Dec 12, 2018

Show notes

In this episode, we discuss:

Ecodharma
Being grounded through a spiritual practice as an activist
5 types of non-duality
Interpreting history from a place of “lack”
Placeholders we use in our culture to represent the sacred
Importance of internal and external practices to manifest sustainable social change

David R. Loy is a professor of Buddhist and comparative philosophy, and a teacher in the Sanbo Zen tradition of Japanese Buddhism. His books include Nonduality: a study in comparative philosophy [originally published by Yale University Press]; Lack and Transcendence: the problem of death and life in psychotherapy, existentialism and buddhism [a second edition just released by Wisdom Publications] and Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis (forthcoming in January 2019). He is especially concerned about social and ecological issues. In addition to offering academic lectures, workshops and meditation retreats, he is one of the founders of the new Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center, near Boulder, Colorado. In June 2014, David received an honorary degree from Carleton College, his alma mater, during its 2014 Commencement. In April 2016 David returned his honorary degree, to protest the decision of the Board of Trustees not to divest from fossil fuel investments. To learn more about David’s books, his teachings, and his ecodharma retreat center, visit www.davidloy.org and rockymountainecodharmaretreatcenter.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nikki Myers on Yoga for Recovery (#83) Dec 10, 2018

Show notes

An accomplished speaker, teacher and practitioner, Nikki Myers is an MBA,
C-IAYT Yoga Therapist, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, Addictions
Recovery Specialist, and Certified Health Coach. Born from her personal
struggle with addiction, Nikki is the founder of Y12SR, The Yoga of 12-Step
Recovery. Based in its theme ‘the issues live in the tissues’, Y12SR is a
relapse prevention program that weaves the art & science of yoga with the
practical tools of 12-step programs. Y12SR meetings are now available
throughout the world and the curriculum is rapidly becoming a feature of
addiction recovery treatment centers. Nikki’s work has been featured in the
New York Times, Black Enterprise, The Huffington Post, Origin Magazine, and
CBSnews.com. She is honored to be a co-founder of the annual Yoga,
Meditation and Recovery Conferences at Esalen Institute and Kripalu Center.
Nikki was named as a Yoga Journal Game Changer in 2015 and honored as a
recipient of the esteemed NUVO Cultural Visionary Award in 2014.
web: www.y12sr.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David Bullard on Sex, Trauma and Intimacy (#82) Dec 03, 2018

Show notes

David Bullard, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, has been practicing individual psychotherapy and couples therapy in San Francisco for over 30 years. He is Clinical Professor of Medicine and Clinical Professor of Medical Psychology (Psychiatry) at the University of California, San Francisco, where he was affiliated with the Human Sexuality Program and the Behavioral Medicine Unit, hosted international symposia on sexuality and medical conditions, and taught courses to medical students, nurses, interns, residents, faculty, therapists and other health care providers. He currently consults with the Symptom Management Service (which provides outpatient palliative care) at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and is a member of the Professional Advisory Group, Spiritual Care Services, Clinical Pastoral Education Program at UCSF. David is a guest teacher at San Francisco Zen Center's City Center and Green Gulch. David’s practice and teaching have been supported and deepened by exploring Bhutan with Dr. Robert Thurman; by advanced training in the trauma therapy, Somatic Experiencing®, in Brazil with Dr. Peter Levine; and by enjoying time in the west of Ireland with David Whyte and others in celebration of the poetry of the human soul.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bo Forbes on Diseases of Disembodiment (#81) Nov 27, 2018

Show notes

Bo Forbes is a clinical psychologist, embodiment guide, urban contemplative, and research collaborator in the science of well-being. Her paradigm-bending work explores the body as an essential part of transformation and the inextricable links between individual and collective well-being. Bo’s work is interdisciplinary, and integrates emerging research in science, psychology, somatics, and contemplative practice with decades of experience on the front lines of somatic education. Since the 1990’s, her experience in the field of trauma and social epigenetics has included inpatient and outpatient psychiatric settings, private practice, organizational consulting, somatic therapy, and scholarship. She has a unique perspective on embodiment: she works intimately with the body in relation to trauma, and has also experienced, written about, and spoken publicly about sexual assault and harassment. Her mother was a prisoner of war in World War II who between the ages of 7 and 12 was forced to march through Kenya, Uganda, and Siberia. And until the age of two, she lived with her parents on a Seneca reservation in New York before its destruction by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; her master’s thesis focused on the bodily rituals of indigenous cultures. Bo co-teaches a course at Tufts University with colleague Kris Manjapra that focuses on colonialism, social justice, and the body. She is the founder of Embodied Awareness, an online education company, and teaches workshops and trainings internationally. She recently presented her work on interoception, connective tissue, and emotional health at the Fascia Research Congress in Berlin. She has written scholarly and lay articles for numerous leading magazines, and is the author of Yoga for Emotional Balance: Simple Practices to Help Relieve Anxiety and Depression and Her newest book on the science and practice of embodiment, is slated for publication in early 2020.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Philipp Maas on the Pātañjala Yogaśāstra (#80) Nov 12, 2018

Show notes

In this episode, Philipp and Jacob discuss his research on classical Indian literature and the historiography of yoga. You will learn about:

The role of British colonization and yoga history
The Patanjali Yoga Shastra (Yoga Sutra) authorship and its connection to other texts
The attempts to translate the text
The difference between the original authorial intention and our contemporary relationship to it
The relationship of the modern asana practice and the Yoga Shas

Philipp André Maas is currently a research associate at the Institute for Indology and Central Asian Studies, University of Leipzig and was previously an assistant professor at the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria. He received his M.A. (1997) and Dr. phil. (2004) degrees from the University of Bonn, Germany, where he studied Indology, Comparative Religious Studies, Tibetology and Philosophy. His first book (originally his PhD thesis) is the first critical edition of the first chapter (Samādhipāda) of the Pātañjala Yogaśāstra, i.e. the Yoga Sūtra of Patañjalitogether with the commentary called Yoga Bhāṣya. He published, inter alia, on classical Yoga philosophy and meditation as well as on the textual tradition of the Pātañjala Yogaśāstra. For the last couple of years, he worked in several research projects directed by Prof. Karin Preisendanz (at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and at the University of Vienna, Austria) that aim at a critical edition of the third book (entitled Vimānasthāna) of the oldest classical text corpus of Āyurveda, the Carakasaṃhitā. Since 2009 he is a member of the “Historical Sourcebooks on Classical Indian Thought” project, convened by Prof. Sheldon Pollock, to which he contributes with a monograph on the development of Yoga-related ideas in pre-modern South Asian intellectual history.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pranada Comtois on Culturing Wise-Love (#79) Nov 03, 2018

Show notes

In this episode, Pranada and Jacob discuss Bhakti philosophy and theology. You will learn:

The connection of Vedanta teachings with Bhakti teachings.
What is Wise Love (Bhakti Vedanta) and the difference between the love with others? The relationships with others as a vehicle to fully express highest love with each other and as a practice for our individual relationship with the Supreme.
The acknowledgment of the small self and the creation of a dynamic, magical, spiritual, irrevocable and strong connection with source.
How the yoga system provides tools to control the mind and go beyond the mind to transcend the platform of self.
The difference between faith and belief.
The important distinction between the divine feminine and the feminine divine.
Pranada’s work on gender inequality and education, the absence of gender in the concept of soul, and everyone’s equal access to the full spiritual realm, practices, and services regardless of gender.
The harmonization and oneness of the head and the heart and how to transcend and become our full potential as spiritual beings.

Pranada Comtois is a devoted pilgrim, teacher, and award-winning author of Wise-Love: Bhakti and the Search for the Soul of Consciousness. Her writing sheds light on bhakti’s wisdom school of heartfulness with a focus on how to culture wise-love in our lives and relationships so we can experience the inherent, unbounded joy of the self. “Mindfulness and meditation alone can never satisfy the self. Joy comes from an awakened heart, not from a controlled or stilled mind.” At sixteen she met her teacher A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami and began her lifelong study and practice of bhakti. The wisdom of her teaching grows from living for twenty years as a contemplative in bhakti ashrams, and another twenty years raising a family and running two multi-million dollar businesses. Pranada is an activist in women’s spiritual empowerment. She has always been deeply affected when witnessing the de-humanizing of women. She was the first to speak up for gender harmony in the modern bhakti tradition and successfully organized global steps against gender injustice. Her writing has appeared in Integral Yoga, Rebelle Society, Elephant Journal, Tattooed Buddha, Urban Howl, and the books Journey of the Heart, Bhakti Blossoms, and GODDESS: When She Rules. She is a featured speaker in the film Women of Bhakti.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amy Matthews on Embodied Learning & Developmental Anatomy (#78) Oct 01, 2018

Show notes

Amy Matthews, CMA, IDME, BMC Teacher, RSMT/RSME has been teaching movement since 1994. She is a Certified Laban Movement Analyst, a Body-Mind Centering® Teacher, an Infant Developmental Movement Educator, and a movement therapist and yoga teacher. Amy leads the Embodied Developmental Movement and Yoga and the Embodied Anatomy and Yoga BMC℠ programs in the United States. She co-taught with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen in Berkeley, CA for five years and was on the faculty of the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies for ten years. She has taught embodied anatomy and movement workshops for programs in New York, Philadelphia, Berkeley, and Nebraska, and internationally in Canada, Switzerland, Ireland, England, Israel, Slovakia and Japan. Amy co-authored with Leslie Kaminoff the best-selling book Yoga Anatomy, and together Amy and Leslie teach The Breathing Project's Advanced Studies courses. Amy also works privately as a movement therapist and yoga teacher, integrating Laban Movement Analysis, Bartenieff Fundamentals, yoga, Body-Mind Centering® and Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF). Amy is certified as a yoga teacher by Yoga Union and Heart of Yoga, and as a Motherhand Shiatsu practitioner. She is registered with ISMETA as a Somatic Movement Therapist and Educator, with IAYT (International Association of Yoga Therapists) and with Yoga Alliance as an E-500 RYT (Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher). Amy has studied with a range of inspiring teachers: dissection workshops with Gil Hedley, neuro-muscular reeducation with Irene Dowd, Body-Mind Centering with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, full-contact karate with Michelle Gay, and yoga with Alison West, Mark Whitwell, Genny Kapular and Kevin Gardiner.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mauro Zappaterra on the Cerebrospinal Fluid (#77) Aug 28, 2018

Show notes

Mauro Zappaterra graduated from Harvard Medical School with an MD and PhD and now specializes in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation with a particular focus on regenerative medicine, neuro-rehabilitation, neuroplasticity, musculoskeletal medicine, and pain. He completed his PhD doing work with neuronal stem cells and the effects of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in brain development and in the adult. He is published in numerous scientific articles on the CSF and his work was chosen as the cover image for the prestigious Neuron Journal. He is also featured in the New England Journal of Medicine in teaching medical students about living with life threatening diseases and in Psychology Today on an article titled “Joy: The art of loving life.” Dr. Zappaterra was nominated by his peers and staff to be Chief Resident at the UCLA / VA Greater Los Angeles Residency Program in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and won the Outstanding Senior Resident Award. He will be working as Director of Regenerative Medicine and Clinical Research, incorporating prolotherapy, platelet rich plasma (PRP), and stem cell therapy into patient care for a multitude of musculoskeletal ailments to help create an optimum healing and regenerative environment. He combines his training in rehabilitation medicine, research, nutrition, and various complementary and alternative medicine modalities such as polarity therapy, Reiki and Craniosacral therapy to work holistically with individuals to optimize their potential and improve their quality of life.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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