Basecamp for Men E114: Leaning Into the Mystery

E114: Leaning Into the Mystery

with Special Guest Sophie McLean

 

E114 Introduction

As you can probably tell by now, I am attracted to people who are leaning into the mystery. I think that the mystics I have on are some of my best guests. This list includes among others Paul Dunion (who is coming back on next episode), Anne Baring, Champ Parinya, Chris Pallis, Sally Kempton, Howard Ferguson, Janell Hartman, Lisa Rezac, Ben Tobias as well as my guest today.

I like to be in dialogue with mystically-inclined people. I find their depth of seeing to be reassuring to my own path. And by taking the long-view, mystics always seem to be optimists. Indeed, most mystics can barely contain their excitement for the awakening that unfolding. I find this characteristic to be very attractive. What a time to be alive!

The old, corrupt systems seem to be in full collapse. Are you sensing it? The political, media, and financial narratives are in near free-fall as humanity continues to awaken.What sort of structures and systems will we create in its place? As we better understand consciousness and how it molds perceptual reality, how will we partner with one another to envision and manifest what we are able to see for ourselves. This is the excitement of our times.

I can see bad news as much as the next person. However I am not building the future with any of these depressing tidbits. I am choosing a higher road for this task with more elevated material and I hope you can see the wisdom in this. We are here to help one another see the faint trail that will take us higher. Everyone is finding their way right now.

I met my guest today more than a decade ago. But her influence in my life has been substantial. I count her among my many important teachers. Someone who walked the talk long before I was able to. Her commitment to humanity is something I hold as a model for how to better live and serve the greater good. Let’s go chat with her about what is going on.

Sophie McLean Bio

My guest today is wisdom teacher Sophie McLean. Sophie has spent decades leading transformational seminars to over 80,000 people around the world. People of all ethnicities, ages, religious and social backgrounds. Her seminar topics span both the human and metaphysical dimensions and touch on such topics as: deconstructing the ego, consciousness, the nature of fear, relationships, the dynamics of the feminine and the masculine, and how to make a difference in the world.

Here is my interview with Sophie McLean.

E114 Final Thoughts

I love what Sophie said about keeping a Beginner’s Mind. To be in a space of “not knowing” is a powerful place to be standing right now. Beginners mind along with a steady commitment to the spiritual path and to our tribe, goes a long ways to bringing you along in this Great Awakening.

To participate in one of Sophie’s excellent courses or find out more about her work, go to www.sophiemclean.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Basecamp for Men E111: You Have to Show the People

E111: You Have to Show the People with Special Guest Richard Citizen Journalist

We are in a most interesting, surreal moment in history, aren’t we? Never before have so many of us seen the obvious lies and deceit of the MSM. People are turning away in droves, looking for truth and how to make sense of this through new avenues and channels such as Telegram and Project Veritas.

I respect where you are right now my listeners, wherever you at at. I remember how difficult my own awakening has been at times, especially at the beginning. You feel like Neo from the Matrix, throwing up as one Morpheus or another lays down another truth bomb meant to help you see. We all wanted a cushy, fun adventure in life. Turns out we made a choice to incarnate here during the apex of a system-wide takedown and meltdown.

I wonder how long before the public realizes we are at war with the CCP and that this war involves our 2020 election and the weaponized, gain of function Covid-19 virus? It can’t be long now. A few more weeks? A few more months? It’s coming. You can see it barreling down the tracks.

The conventional military stand-off in Taiwan seems to be just tip of the iceberg. A natural extension of the hidden cyber and information war that has been raging for years. The fact that it is bubbling up into conventional warfare tells us that it is coming to a head (literally) and will be hard to ignore.

The mainstream media continues to use a mushroom farmers technique on WE THE PEOPLE: Keep us in the dark and feed us shit. But people are waking up. I can sense it. Are you gently red-pilling your friends and family? At least the ones with an open enough mind to look at alternative data sets and a different meta-view as to what is unfolding?

We will be tracking this closely now. What is happening in the world and what is happening in consciousness are a mirror image. As we dissolve illusory boundaries between us, so the world will show its foundational unity to us. The lies that the media so obviously pushes at us don’t match the frequency or vibration of who we are becoming. We have the high ground. Frequency-wise, intention-wise. We will all be arriving together at a place that is new and strangely familiar.

Before we get to our interview, I would like to read you a quote by the great Mark Twain who says “In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.”

Keep up the good work my friend. I honor your courage and open-mindedness. Let’s go talk to another courageous man, Richard Potcner.

Richard Potcner Bio-

My guest today is a citizen journalist and Patriot with one of the most watched channels on Telegram. Richard Potcner, aka Richard Citizen Journalist as he is known on Telegram. He criss-crosses the United States with videos that often show the incongruences and deception of the MSM. Here is my interview with Richard Potcner.

E111 Final Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed my interview with Richard Potcner. I encourage everyone to make their way to Telegram. It is, for now, the hub of WE THE PEOPLE. Telegram does not censor the citizen journalists and writers that are posting there, so you will certainly read and hear truth bombs that MSM is not going to show you. I am seeing more and more curious liberals making their way there and that makes sense to me. It is hard to get a clear picture without this piece, I would think.

The Devolution series by Patel Patriot is a must read for every American. There are 11 or 12 parts to Devolution now plus a couple of Addendum‘s. Devolution will help you understand what is unfolding, no matter your political orientation. You can find Devolution on Patel Patriot’s TG channel or on Substack at patelpatriot.subtstack.com.

 

 

Basecamp for Men E94: The Path of Initiation-Part 2

E94: The Path of Initiation with Special Guest Joe Grube

 

E94 Introduction

This week I wanted to do a continuation of the theme we set in E86 The Path of Initiation but with a different guest. I believe that initiations mark our Soul’s journey. And that these initiations will come throughout our lives and can come in unusual ways. Sometimes we don‘t even realize that we were in an initiatory phase until the years ripen us and we look back. Through this initiatory lens, we can see how life was bringing us forth through mythic dimensions. Teaching us all the way.

Like so many young people, both my guest and I experienced the initiatory intensity of psychedelics on many occasions.  It is not something I talk about very often but as it was a clear initiation with a “before” and “after” Tony. So I thought I would take a look at it today.

There is something expansive and transcendent in this path. But it is fraught with danger, as spiritual teachers have often stated. Psychedelics are strong. Sometime REALLY strong. And they can take their toll on your nervous system and your mind. I would not recommend them to everyone.

Yet for the intrepid explorer, psychedelics have proven to open the doors of perception to a more cosmic dimension. Furthermore, what is seen, felt, and understood under the influence of psychedelics will often last a lifetime. In other words, you don’t need to take them over and over again. Although some people certainly do.

To bookend this edgier initiation, I thought I would include some wisdom from another initiation that my guest and I share: fatherhood. Here is another initiation that some men take and some don’t. It is a terrifying thing, becoming a father. You might not hear men say how scared they are as they await the arrival of their child but I can certainly attest to it.

I can usually tell if a man is a father just by how he carries himself. There is something intangible in a man’s aura or body language that indicates that he has children. It is something in the man’s soul. Perhaps it‘s that he has participated in his lineage in an active way and seems to carry something from his ancestors and future generations with him. Or perhaps it’s just because he has skin in the game, literally.

It might seem like strange bedfellows for an episode. Psychedelics and fatherhood. Let’s see if we can make a little sense of these powerful initiations.

Joe Grube Bio-

My guest today is my friend Joe Grube. Joe is an attorney, a husband and father, and a man known for his love of life, his great sense of humor, and for bringing a lightness and ease to his conversations and interractions with others. Here is my interview with Joe Grube.

E94 Final Thoughts-

I hope you enjoyed my interview with Joe Grube. Joe and I both recommend Ram Das’s Be Here Now, which is considered a classic in psychedelic and mystical literature. Whether or not you ever explore the psychedelic path, Be Here Nowcarries incredible wisdom and Light. It has the distinction being one of the first books that brought the teachings and wisdom of the east to the minds of  us westerners.

Basecamp for Men E92: Bridging the Left and the Right

E92: Bridging the Left and the Right with Special Guest Chris Beatie

 

E92 Introduction

One of the most crippling things about 2020 and 2021 has been the stark division amongst WE THE PEOPLE. The narrative in any MSM outlet is clearly designed to create separation instead of unity.

Mask wearers vs. unmasked. Vaccinated vs. unvaccinated. Biden supporters vs. Trump supporters. BLM vs. back the blue.There is a sub-conscious tendency to demonize the other side. I have spoken and written about this on several occasions. We have to find a path that integrates all aspects of WE THE PEOPLE.

The left and right both have their own unique conditioning and part of that conditioning is to put the other side in a sort “aren‘t they stupid” sort of thing. As someone who was a liberal for 30 years, I know the conditioning of the left quite well. I am a product of it. However as the radical left advanced on my tried and true traditional liberal foundation, I found myself looking for less constraints for my ideas and my truth.

Between identity politics that focused on dividing us along racial and sexual identities, a stifling conformity that would not allow me to question the mainstream narrative without being cancelled, I naturally started to drift to the right, in search of others who were curious and questioning about what the hell was going on.

I don’t know about you but I don’t like it when I hold harsh judgments of whoever is in the other group. Thoughts like “they are stupid” or “they are crazy, insane”or  “how can they be so in the dark, ignorant, etc. etc.”don’t let me express my natural love of our mutual humanity.

It is true I have interesting new friends in the Patriot community. But I also have tons of loved ones on the left. I see them working to figure things out. It’s not easy, I know that.

These are challenging times to navigate. On a personal level, I am working on my compassion. To not be so quick to condemn my brothers and sisters who are at a different stage or even a different path up the mountain.

For those that I travelled far and long with on the left. I haven‘t abandoned any of you. Not in any permanent sense. We are all mystic travellers finding our way. If our paths were deeply connected in the past, my sense is we will see each other again on common ground. There may be much to learn by travelling separate roads right now.

In this episode, I thought you would enjoy hearing two friends with quite different political orientations take a run at a few of the issues that seem to be so deeply dividing us. I hope you enjoy it.

Chris Beatie Bio-

Chris Beatie has been a computer engineer for the last 25 years.  Finding that the stress and rigors of 12+ hour work days was taking a toll on his health,  Chris decided to apply his engineering skills to improve his life, becoming a biohacker of sorts.  Books, podcasts, doctors, medications, eastern medicine, Chris has explored and experimented far and wide!  His personal mission passion is to help others find their most enlightened, capable, healthy and happy version of themselves.

E92 Final Thoughts-

I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Chris Beatie. Here are two men who are on different sides of some of these contentious wedge issues but have not lost their affinity, respect, or love for one another. I hope it helps you navigate the conversations and interactions that you are having.

I thought it was interesting that, even though we made opposite choices on the vaccine issue, there is mutual respect for one another. We both expressed concern for the other. He is hoping I don‘t get Covid and die and I am hoping he has no long-term effects from an experimental vaccine. Both of us have made informed choices and we both wish the best for one another. I don’t need him to do what I am doing and vice versa.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Chris. He’s smart, lives from the heart, and makes good choices for himself and his family. I know that he also has positive regard for my character and my decision making process.

If you liked the interview, go check out an earlier one I did with Chris in on EP #41 titled Conversations with Men. In that episode, Chris and I talk about men’s health, testosterone replacement,  men’s personal development and some other interesting topics.

Basecamp for Men E90: Body and Soul

E90: Body and Soul with Special Guest Beth Pettengill Riley

 

E90 Introduction

As a former athlete, I have always been appreciative of my body. I have long intuited that the body could be a portal into something vast and mysterious.  This ran counter to the old lower masculine, Cartesian way of looking at the body as simply a machine. A separate object set aside from one’s mental, emotional, and spiritual lives. The body, in this way of looking at things, is not sacred. It is just a thing.

While it is true that the body is a temporary vessel for our Soul and Spirit, to diminish the body or disregard it leaves us dry and up in our heads. How many men are smart but lack the juicy presence of being embodied? How might men continue our evolution with a proper reverence for earth, bodies, the sensuous, and the feminine?

I think we will need to build it like a muscle. Something that has atrophied but not left us. Presence and embodiment seem to be waiting for our collective discovery. Men are starting to find what we have left behind.

I have said this before on a number of episodes. We aren‘t going to be able to think our way along the faint trail of the Hero’s Journey. If we could think our way through it, we would have done that already. For aren’t we all really good at thinking about it all. No. We will need to navigate it with our hearts and our FELT sense. It is here that the body suddenly arrives as an obvious ally in our quest.

There are ways of discovering this aspect of yourself. Somatic movement is a growing field that carries much wisdom and gifts for our tribe. As my guest today so elegantly expresses, the body’s wisdom can be the path that takes you all the way to the top of the mountain.

Beth Pettengill Riley Bio

Beth Pettengill Riley is a global leader in Somatic movement education and therapy with over 40 years of experience facilitating workshops in Continuum, Yoga & Meditation. She is the author of the book A Moving Inquiry: The Art of Personal Practice and maintains a private practice in the Santa Cruz area teaching classes and workshops and assisting individuals in finding greater freedom of movement. Here is my interview with Beth Pettengill Riley.

E90 Final Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Beth. To find her online classes or her great book A Moving Inquiry, which was created to help you create your own somatic movement practice, go to Beth’s website at www.themovingwell.com

To find out more about Somatic Movement, go to the hub of all things Somatic Movement at www.ismeta.orgIsmeta has a directory of practitioners in your area and a list of approved trainings in case you are looking to be trained in this exceptional work.