Beyond automation: AI as a catalyst for human growth - Richard Nikoley
Release Date: 03/04/2025
Ancient technology & modern science: the power of the shamanic drum - Sophie Messager
Be Mythical
In this week’s show, Lian is joined by Sophie Messager. Sophie bridges worlds that rarely meet. A former reproductive physiologist with a PhD, she traded her microscope for holistic practices after experiencing the transformative power of an empowered birth. Her decade-long journey as a doula, birth educator, and author of deepened her exploration of the rhythms surrounding women’s transitions. Now a holistic life transition mentor, Sophie guides women through significant life thresholds – from birth to perimenopause and beyond. Her unique combination of scientific expertise and...
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The healing home: how to design your house as a sanctuary - Paula Robinson
Be Mythical
In this week’s show Lian is joined by Paula Robinson. As an intuitive interior designer, Paula understands the profound effect that the spaces where we live and work have on our health, happiness and success in life. Often called the ‘space whisperer’, she helps people to create living and working environments that transform their lives on all levels. Paula has been an interiors columnist for The Sunday Times, the Sunday Telegraph and Move Or Improve? magazine, and is the author of "" and "". Paula is happiest in nature - especially by the sea - and loves designing outdoor spaces. She is...
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This is why your soul-led business isn't successful - Tad Hargrave
Be Mythical
This week’s show is with Tad Hargrave. Tad is a hippy who developed a knack for marketing (and then learned how to be a hippy again). Since 2001, he’s been weaving together strands of ethical marketing, Waldorf School education, a history in the performing arts, local culture work, anti-globalization activism, an interest in his ancestral, traditional cultures, community building and supporting local economies into this work of helping people create profitable businesses that are ethically grown while restoring the beauty of the marketplace. Tad did improv comedy semi-professionally...
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The White Snake Spirit: a reminder of the power of love and prayer - Lian Brook-Tyler
Be Mythical
In this episode, Lian shares the ancient and evocative Chinese myth of the White Snake Spirit, a story of prayer, healing, and a love that endures across lifetimes. Each month, Lian tells a mythical tale… as spell, as memory, as invitation... to be felt, stirred, remembered as a magical doorway into your own soul. These stories are one of the oldest ways ancestral wisdom has been carried down to us, a living inheritance that continues to speak when we meet them with reverence. She first shared this live with our beloved community in UNIO, our Academy of the Soul, in which we continue to...
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The calls & pitfalls of the growth of shamanism - Nicholas Breeze Wood
Be Mythical
In this week’s show, Lian is joined by Nicholas Breeze Wood. Nicholas has practiced shamanism for over 40 years, combining it with the 'earthier' end of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as with 'medicine' teachings from Native North American peoples. He has worked with many gifted medicine people and shamans over the years, and is deeply apprenticed to his own spirit helpers, whose teachings never fail to awe and surprise him. Nick’s shamanism is a fusion of traditional Himalayan and Mongolian forms, combined with teachings from his own spirits. He works especially deeply with ritual objects -...
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The land, the story, the soul: How to reclaim what was lost - Stephanie MacKay
Be Mythical
In this week’s show Lian is joined by Stephanie MacKay. Stephanie is a mythologist, wilderness guide, and cultural craftswoman devoted to the long, slow work of remembering how to belong—to land, to lineage, to story, and to each other. As founder and director of Fianna Wilderness School, she has spent the past 15+ years guiding rites of passage, seasonal myth circles, and nature-based mentorship rooted in the wilds. Stephanie’s work braids together her Celtic ancestry, years of deep study with Martín Prechtel and the Animas Valley Institute, and a fierce love of story as medicine. She...
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The myth of Pygmalion: How to bring beauty to life - Lian Brook-Tyler
Be Mythical
In this episode, Lian shares the ancient and evocative myth of Pygmalion, a story of longing, creation, and the mystery of what brings something… or someone… to life. Each month, Lian tells a mythical tale… as spell, as memory, as invitation... not to be analysed or consumed, but to be felt, stirred, remembered as a magical doorway into your own soul. She first shared this live with our beloved community in UNIO, our Academy of the Soul, in which we continue to journey more deeply together with it in a month-long quest. To join us for the next mythical quest, you can join UNIO here: In...
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Beyond polarity & projection: How to heal your attachment wounds - Serdar Hararovich
Be Mythical
In this week’s show Lian is joined by Serdar Hararovich. Serdar is a Relationship & Secure Attachment Specialist offering integrative, attachment-based coaching and healing. He supports both men and women to heal early attachment wounds, establish inner security, reclaim their deepest self, and cultivate the emotional skills required for deep, soulful, and secure love. Serdar works with a wide variety of individuals - including, but not limited to, therapists, relationship coaches, and other practitioners. The common thread among his clients is a deep desire to go beyond the surface -...
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How to reclaim the Feminine: The Mother, the Virgin, the Whore - Coco Oya Cienna-Rey
Be Mythical
This week’s show is with Coco Oya Cienna-Rey. Coco is the author of Digging for Mother’s Bones from Womancraft Publishing, is a UK based mother, grandmother, creative, mystic, soul guide and writer. Her creativity is informed by her journey as a devotee of the Tantric path (an embodied path of self-liberation) and her personal journey with trauma. Coco has always felt a call to channel the Voice of the Divine Feminine and is published in several bestselling anthologies. Often thought provoking, yet always heartfelt her work speaks of the sacred wisdom stored in the body, the...
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How to heal a man: Superheroes, shadows & sacred circles - Karl Brooks
Be Mythical
In this week’s show, Lian is joined by Karl Brooks, a long-term Be Mythical student and a much-loved member of our community within , whose journey from crisis to reclamation has been one of the most beautiful we’ve had the honour to witness. Karl has a deep connection with his inner child, who unbeknownst to him had been running most of his life behind the scenes, in his subconscious! When he began to make the unconscious, conscious, and start asking what his inner child wanted - to feel safe, see, held, respected, loved, all from an unconditional place, he found he held the key...
info_outlineThis week’s show is with Richard Nikoley. Richard was born and raised in Reno, Nevada, the son of a German immigrant. He attended a private, church-run high school before moving on to Tennessee Temple University in Chattanooga for his first year of college. He later transferred to Oregon State University, where he graduated in 1984 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, along with minors in mathematics/computer science and naval science. During his time at OSU, he was a member of the NROTC unit and was commissioned as a Surface Warfare Officer (SWO) in the U.S. Navy upon graduation.
Richard’s naval career began with eight months of training in San Diego, California, followed by a deployment to Yokosuka, Japan. There, he served on the USS REEVES (CG-24) from 1984 to 1987 in various roles, including Assistant Missiles Officer, First Lieutenant, and Electrical Officer. He then joined the U.S. SEVENTH FLEET aboard the USS BLUE RIDGE (LCC-19) from 1988 to 1989, managing a substantial fuel budget as Assistant Fleet Scheduling Officer and Assistant Logistics Officer.
After five years in Japan, Richard moved to Monterey, California, to study French at the Defense Language Institute. This led to an exchange officer position with the French Navy from 1989 to 1992, where he served as Navigator on the FNS COLBERT (C 611) and FNS DUQUESNE (D 603). He left the Navy in 1992 and returned to the San Francisco Bay Area.
In 1993, Richard founded a company that grew significantly over a 20-year period. Although he was married for much of that time, since 2019, he and his former spouse have maintained a friendly relationship while pursuing separate lifestyles.
Since January 2020, Richard has been living in Thailand as an unintended expat. Initially planning to be digital and nomadic, he decided to settle more permanently due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, he built a house in a rural province and wrote extensively about COVID-19, masks, lockdowns, and global drug trials - earning recognition for his insights.
Currently, Richard manages multiple income streams while engaging in various creative pursuits. He writes, makes videos, takes long walks, swims and snorkels in the tropical ocean, rides a motorcycle without a helmet, and enjoys cooking and eating exquisite food. A self-proclaimed gym junkie and honorary "Bro," Richard is known for his clever and well-crafted writing.
In this show, Richard and Lian explore the intersections of artificial intelligence, truth, and human evolution. They discuss Julian Jaynes’ theory of the bicameral mind, the rapid development of AI, and the deeper question of what it means to be conscious.
Richard shares how his skepticism about AI turned into curiosity. He describes AI as a logic machine - highly intelligent but without awareness or intrinsic values. They examine whether AI’s ability to process vast amounts of information makes it an unlikely yet powerful force for truth.
Together, they reflect on AI’s role in democratising knowledge and the philosophical implications of intelligence without consciousness. Could AI push humanity toward greater awareness, or does it merely highlight our limitations? As technology continues to evolve, this episode challenges listeners to consider: what does it mean to be truly intelligent, and what does it take to be conscious?
We’d love to know what YOU think about this week’s show. Let’s carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage.
What you’ll learn from this episode:
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AI operates as a logic machine, not a conscious entity. While AI can simulate human intelligence, it lacks self-awareness, emotions, and personal values. However, its ability to analyze information might make it one of the most effective truth-seeking tools we’ve ever created.
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Intelligence and consciousness do not always go hand in hand. Drawing from Julian Jaynes' theory, Richard and Lian discuss how past civilisations perhaps functioned without the kind of self-awareness we assume is universal. AI, like early humans, can operate with intelligence but without a conscious inner world.
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AI could redefine human potential rather than replace it. As AI automates tasks and challenges traditional roles, it may not eliminate jobs so much as shift human focus toward creativity, philosophy, and problem-solving. Rather than competing with AI, humans may need to expand their own awareness.
Resources and stuff spoken about:
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Richard’s Free The Animal blog
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Richard’s book: Paleo Perfection: How to Lose Weight and Feel Great
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Richard’s PDF downloads
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Join UNIO, the Academy of Sacred Union. This is for the old souls in this new world… Discover your kin & unite with your soul’s calling to truly live your myth.
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